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Joy Gems Newsletter

The Final Edition Of The Joy Gems Newsletter

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By Bud Kraus
bud@joyofcode.com
Joy Of Code
Creator And Instructor

v6 i1
Originally Published: January 8, 2010

After over five years of writing twice-monthly tips and missives about and for web designers, I've decided to call it a day.

No, I'm not going out of business or moving to Mars. I'm still going to be teaching XHTML and CSS for my own online students as well as at Pratt and FIT in New York City. I'm also going to be spending more time advising small businesses on how to hire a web design/development studio that's best for them. (More about that in a minute.)

Joy Gems has to end for a number of reasons which include:

1. Fewer and fewer people read each issue.

I think the spam filters kept my email from reaching many in my audience. About six months ago I experienced a sudden decline in "opens" (as they say). Spam filtering seems to be the likely culprit.

2. The Newsletter did not provide an efficient way to engage in two-way communication.

A few months ago a friend said, "Bud, you should turn Joy Gems into a blog." This triggered a huge cascade of ideas that have put me on a different path.

3. Maybe I ran out of things to say.

I was always concerned I'd run out of things to say about web design for those new - and not so new - - to the craft. My putting JG to bed is not because of that but it is because I want to start conversations that will help small businesses find designers and developers for their projects.

Which leads me to what I will be working on this year and - if all goes well - for a long time to come.

I am in the very early stages of developing findyourwebdesigner.com. This site will be a marketplace for small businesses to meet and hire web designers and others to work on their projects. For business owners, it will be a resource to help - you guessed it - find a web designer that is best for their project. I will use all the technologies that- up until now, I haven’t used - to build and assist my audience: blogs, RSS feeds, tweets, comments, good SEO, podcasts, wikis, and the rest. I just want it to be the place for businesses to turn to find the talent they need for their work. Yes, I know there are others who do this but I haven't quite seen anyone do it the way I am thinking of doing it.

For web designers and developers, my site will be a place to promote their business to the most important people to them - the ones who hire them to do their work.

I have been advising businesses on how to find and hire web designers for some time. It was the reason I wrote at a end of last year Practical Advice On How To Find And Hire That Perfect Web Designer.

But no one should think that I'm ducking out of my love to provide the "goodness" approach to web design or my desire to train designers, programmers, writers, and business people to do the right thing. That's never going to go away.

So for now it is "adios" even though I know you will be hearing from me as I move forward with
findyourwebdesigner.com.