After seeing Panic’s status board, I couldn’t help myself.  This was such a fantastic idea that I had to create one for CWS headquarters.  I knew that we probably wouldn’t have enough data to do anything nearly as informative as Panic’s but I still had a handful of things that would make my life a ton easier to see on 1 window.  This resides on a 24″ Acer LCD above my dual monitor setup.

Using the amazing project management platform, 5PM, I was able to pull all sorts of information necessary to create our project management status board pieces.  I love seeing when my people add a new progress note or if the “Other CWS Tasks” list gets cut in half.  I know stuff is being accomplished.

CWS Status Board Items

• Tasks assigned to me (via 5PM)
• Tasks assigned to others (via 5pm)
• Progress bars for tasks

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So after reading a few articles on Google’s Website Optimizer tool I thought I would do a little test with the CWS site.  Basically the website optimizer allows users to run A/B or multi-variant tests.  I won’t go into A/B (split) testing or multi-variant tests but I thought I would try 3 variations on text in a call-to-action button to see which one generated the most click-throughs.

The set up process took about 30 minutes to create the new buttons, pages, and inserting the necessary javascript code.  You install 1 piece of javascript in the original  and then another piece in the variations.  The 3 variations are below.

And now the results after letting it run for a few weeks.

As you can see the 2 variations have both outperformed the original at this time.  This simple test shows how useful this free service can be.  It will prove invaluable …

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Some time over the last week Connected Web Solutions officially turned three years old.  In these 3 years we’ve seen

• Countless (re)designs and apps developed
• Our first official product, alumLINK
• Clients have come and gone (I guess you can’t keep them all)
• The business has changed locations twice
• Worked in Costa Rica for a month (see www.mymovableoffice.com)
• A company car
• Annually increasing revenue, profits, and expenses (I guess the last is inevitable)
• A larger team
• And loads more but these are all that come to mind right now…

These 3 years have been a great learning experience not just in terms of web design and development but also in business and life.  I wanted to take the opportunity to thank all the clients and people that have worked with us in these three years.  Let’s hope the next 3 are just as exciting and successful!

“Learning never exhausts the

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I am very proud to announce that we released our first official product on Monday this week.  alumLINK is an alumni networking and management app aimed at affinity groups.  I am in no way trying to compete with the big boys (Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, etc) but trying to provide a way for alumni from a specific group to network easily without all that social network “noise” you see with them.  I know you can create Facebook or LinkedIn groups but I feel like this is overkill for the niche I am trying to reach.  Each instance of alumLINK is secure to its own group or team (unless customized otherwise upon installation).

3 years ago when starting the company I saw the need for this kind of product.  We had no good way of communicating with all the soccer alumni that went through my school.  We always thought it would be …

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This isn’t so much a technical post but more about how important it is to set goals and the amazing payoff there is in achieving them.  For the first year or so running the business I was perfectly happy coasting through and picking up clients here and there and watching the revenue slowly increase.  I did no active new business development.  Pretty soon I realized that my numbers were kind of hovering and not really getting up to where I would need them to be to do this as a full time job.  After reading a ton of books and business blogs, it was apparent that I needed a business plan and to set some goals within it.  So in 2007 I decided to write down my business, and well as personal, goals in my business/life plan.  I didn’t go the route of the traditional business plan but created more …

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