Archive for July, 2006

HTML emails….. hmm, not such a good idea.
I am not such a big fan of HTML emails, because I am assaulted by tens of such emails daily, most of them spam ones. And using Microsoft Outlook as email client, it ask me to download (or not) pictures from the server. This could be a bad idea sometimes, because harmful code could be be hidden in image files today (especially GIF files).

I was hired to make a newsletter module for one website and first I started to search how to make this.
The steps are below.

1. Create the HTML page for newsletter.
2. Take care to have the CSS and JS embedded in the HTML file and not outside the file.
3. Replace the relative location of image files with absolute location. E.g:
if you have:
[code lang=”xml”]
Coming Soon
[/code]
you must replace with:
[code lang=”xml”]
Coming Soon
[/code]
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Mihai gave me a today a very funny movie. Some IT guy was trying to cancel an AOL account, but the customer service guy constantly refused to just cancel the account and trying to find out more details, the reasons, etc. When the customer insisted that he is decided to cancel the account, the customer service guy asked to talk to his dad. But the client was….. THIRTY years old !!!!!

Here’s the movie:

You must come in Romania to see how the customer service people solve such a problem. With some exceptions (multinational companies) nobody tries to keep the customers. Their only thought is “there are still so many people in our country”. That’s the absolute opposite approach as the AOL.

Andrei
http://www.webxpert.ro

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Dupa principiul “cizmarul n-are cu ce se incalta”, lesne se poate observa site-ul http://www.webxpert.ro n-a fost updatat de aproximativ 2.5 ani. Acum ca s-a terminat si sesiunea, am discutat cu Ionut si am inceput redesignul site-ului, momentan cu aceeasi informatie.
Varianta actuala a fost incropita intr-o vacanta de Craciun in 2003 si nu ne-am gasit nici unul din noi timp sa schimbam, chiar daca eu mereu i-am reprosat niste aspecte:

  • Unicul meniu e cel in Flash, deci search engine-urile nu au cum sa treaca de prima pagina
  • DHTML care functioneaza ciudat in Firefox
  • aspectul business-card pe rezolutii mari.

Si sub aspectul proiectelor vor aparea cateva noi, dar doar o foarte mica parte din ce am facut noi in acesti ani, deoarece ambii lucram cu parteneri care au acelasi obiect de activitate, iar aceste proiecte vor aparea in portofoliul lor.

So… stay tunned for updates!

Andrei
http://www.webxpert.ro

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Honestly, when Mihai told me that we have to do a website for selling movie costumes replicas, I told him that it will be a waste of time and money.

I WAS WRONG !

MPM Costumes (http://www.mpmcostumes.com) seems to be a real success story:

  • 5700 unique visitors per month
  • costumes and accessories of almost £ 10000 sold in the first 2 months
  • number 10 in google search on “jedi costumes” and still raising.

Why this version is so successful ?:

  • first of all costumes are very qualitative and Martin (the owner) knows his business very well
  • neither me or Mihai refused any programming or design challenge, so there are many innovations there
  • it has payment callbacks in order to be informed when a secure payment (through PayPal or WorldPay) is made
  • very aesthetic gallery
  • the possibility to choose the measures depending on the product (for some products just color, for the others Neck Measurement or Wrist to Top of Shoulder) and save this options within the shopping cart.
  • very poweful control panel where any authorized user (even a non-technical one) can easily change/add/delete items.
  • *NEW: friendly URLs made with Apache’s rewrite directive.
  • Stopping here? No way! We wants to be number one in google search and wear everybody in his favorite movie costume and made many people happy.
    To understand what we have meaned, please visit the client gallery to see how many customers (I used to call them “freaks”, but now they are “customers”) agreed to share their photos in MPM costumes. P.S.: Andreea is the best!

    Andrei
    http://www.webxpert.ro

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