The Vodori.com Blog

Evaluate your success with the Pre_Scribed webinar series

Christine Mortensen — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 06:00:00 GMT

Every day, thousands of online marketers embark on an ambitious journey to promote their wares, sell their “widgets,” and engage prospective and current customers. Amid all this competition, how can you stand out and achieve your goals?

Realizing that we can’t answer that question in a singular blog post, a year ago we decided to give marketers the tools and guidance necessary to start the journey. So we launched Pre_Scribed, a six-part webinar series geared towards the specific needs of the healthcare industry.

If you’ve followed our series, you know that so far we’ve taken you through five major steps every healthcare marketer must take when kicking off new digital marketing initiatives. Whether you're creating a targeted online ad campaign, social media marketing strategy, global product launch, or anything in between, there are many considerations to keep in mind before even getting started.

The first 5 steps to a digital marketing launch

A quick recap of the topics we've covered so far—check them out if you need to catch up:

That leaves us with the last and most crucial piece of this complex puzzle: measuring the outcome. There's truth in the old cliché that you don’t know where you’re going unless you know where you’ve been. As such, the last portion of our six-part webinar series focuses on gauging results, analyzing ROI, enhancing your program, and planning for continued content creation.

Our hour-long presentation covered many recommendations for evaluating and optimizing your initiatives, and we encourage you to listen for yourself.

Pre_Scribed Step 6—Evaluate Your Success:

Aligning your analytics to each stage of the traditional marketing funnel
Understanding site metrics
Reaching actionable insights
Aligning conversion criteria with marketing objectives
Formulating ROI
Mapping out your channels (look across the whole continuum)
Honing goals and tools for Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Promoting digital strategy globally (syndication)
Extending your program into other channels
Reviewing the campaign process with the team
Applying lessons learned to future campaigns

A whirl of an evening–WhirlyBall that is

Meghan Palmer — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 06:00:00 GMT

“During our weekly company meeting, the skies parted, leaving the sun with no choice but to shine its mighty rays over our windowless conference room. This prompted Scott to ask me if I would be willing to plan a Whirlyball event. As social coordinator and bumper car aficionado, I happily obliged.” —Conrad Akier

And thus the first Vodori WhirlyBall outing was born. For the uninitiated, WhirlyBall is a “sport” that mixes lacrosse with basketball with zipping around in bumper cars.

What was the reason for this company outing you ask? Well, nothing says teamwork better than slamming into your coworkers in a barely-controllable, most-likely-combustible motorized vehicle, of course. As Greg Lyon would so profoundly summate through laughter afterwards, “My back hurts.”

While no major injuries occurred beyond mild soreness, the evening provided the team a chance to come together and revel in topics other than the best way to solve dependency injection issues. Instead, we focused on the camaraderie we share as Vodorians, cheered each other on, and shared many, many laughs.

The event also gave us a great chance to meet our new office manager, Peter Winter who immediately made quite an impact, “Several of my new coworkers introduced themselves mid-collision. I guess it was like a kiddie version of a gang initiation—if you can make it through the beating, you’re a member.”

While Peter’s experience was unique, we take the time we spend outside of the office just as seriously as we do inside the office. We firmly believe that forging great relationships after-hours translate to happy, productive teams within the workplace.

Needless to say, everyone had a good time—as evidenced in the photos captured by Conrad below:

13 tips for keeping your resume out of our recycling bin

Vodori Staff — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 06:00:00 GMT

As you may have heard, we're hiring. The ranks of Vodoriland have been growing steadily for a long time, giving us occasion to read a lot of resumes and conduct a lot of job interviews. And as you'd expect, we've learned quite a few things about what we like to see from a prospective candidate—and what we don't.

Whether you're a Vodori hopeful or trying to land a job at a company like ours, these tips should help your resume and cover letter earn more gold stars and raise fewer red flags.

1. Rid your resume and cover letter of any typos or grammatical mistakes. Often, it helps to have someone else look them over to be certain. Sure, you're not applying to be an English professor, but your attention to detail shows in your writing. That's something we require of everyone who works here.

2. Make sure your cover letter states which position you're applying for. Do you want to join us as a developer, an analyst, or an in-house juggler? If you force us to guess, you'd better show up for the interview ready to juggle.

3. Spell our name correctly. (It's right there at the top of this page, if that helps.) Also, while we're on the subject, spell your name correctly.

4. Do not use a cut-and-paste cover letter. Take the time to customize it for the job you want. Let us know how your skills align with the job posting in your cover letter.

5. And yes, you still need to include a cover letter (either in the body of your email or as an attachment). If you send us a resume without a cover letter, we assume you're sending your resume to any email address you can find—and we won't get the opportunity to learn as much about you as we'd like.

6. Including your name in the file name of any documents you attach sure makes it easier for us to keep things organized.

Don't let this be your resume's fate.

7. If you list a programming language or technology on your resume, be prepared to answer specific questions about it. We don't ask "Do you know C?" We ask "Using C, how do you implement TreeSort?"

8. Be judicious with the skills you claim on your resume. Most developers have a higher level of expertise at one language than the others that they list. Few people are experts at anything after three years of experience. We're very happy to teach people what they need to know on the job - and we'd rather have you present yourself as an eager student than a know-it-all.

9. In general, don't artificially pad your resume. It's often hard to know what to include in your resume, but its length should be commensurate with your experience level.

10. If you're a designer, your resume should be designed by you (we can tell). The standard Microsoft Word templates are not acceptable. Also, your resume design should match your portfolio site design—think of yourself as a brand.

11. Also for designers: more important than your resume is your portfolio. Explain your role in creating or working on each piece, and relate the design considerations you made for each project you showcase. If we don't know how you contributed to the work you're showing then we can't accurately determine if your skills match the open position.

12. On the flip side, if you're not applying for a design job, resist the temptation to get too gimmicky with your resume. Naturally you want to stand out, but unorthodox formatting and random color schemes aren't the way to do it. We may take that as a sign that you don't trust your talent to stand out on its own.

13. Avoid expressions like "I believe I'm the perfect/ideal candidate." Everyone says that, and no one is. We aren't perfect and you might not be either. Explain why you'd be an excellent candidate in concrete terms. Humility is a very alluring quality.

Welcome to the age of social measurement

Christine Mortensen — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 06:00:00 GMT

Social media marketing has come a long way from the days of warm and fuzzy “gurus” urging you to “join the conversation.” If you run a business, you need to see results—not just social media hugs. Succeeding in the era of social media measurement means using social to 1) drive towards particular goals, and 2) track your progress.

Enter organizations such as the Web Analytics Association, which recently turned its eyes to social measurement for a panel discussion in Chicago. The line-up featured a great mix of client and agency side marketers, as well as an analytics vendor:

Blagica Bottigliero (@Blagica), Global Director of Social Media
at Motorola
Dan Hindin (@DanielHindin), Digital Analytics Supervisor at
Weber Shandwick
Marianne Llewellyn (@chicagoml), Director of Social Media
and Mobile Consulting for Adobe’s Omniture Business
Michelina Mantas (@mickeymantas) Global Director of Social Media Strategy at OMD
Scot Wheeler (@scotwheeler), Marketing Science Director at
Critical Mass

If you’ve ever attended a panel discussion, you know that the quality of such events varies greatly. I was more than pleased not only with this group but also with the audience; thought-provoking questions were immediately abundant.

First things first

Bottigliero kicked the group off with a basic yet often-ignored insight: In social media marketing, the first thing you must figure out is what you want to achieve. Only then can you pick which metrics to measure, and which tool(s) you'll need to execute the plan. Too often, marketers jump in not knowing some or all of those aspects. When they're asked if their social endeavors are working, they really have no idea—and then social doesn’t get the upper-level support it otherwise could have.

On a need-to-know basis

Bottigliero then advised client-side marketers to determine who within the organization needs to see what. Reports to your CEO shouldn't be swamped with the day-to-day data your social media team gathers. Instead, create a dashboard that leads with the most actionable, high-level insights.

Even if you are agency-side this is a good practice, and it's how we typically provide analysis: at-a-glance insights supported by in-depth data and recommendations. Since you never know who will ultimately read your reports once they're sent to the client, write them with multiple audiences in mind.

Small is the new big

Wheeler encouraged marketers to start with only two or three key performance indicators (KPI) and branch out from there. Along with the other panelists, he stressed the need to look beyond “likes” and “follows” when identifying these indicators. "Engagement" means something different for each brand, depending on the goals you set out and starting small allows you to best define your metrics.

For example, suppose your brand is aiming to increase awareness and actively drive users to your website. The primary metrics you may want to start with could be total page views and the time users spend on the site (TOS). If these increase over time you are likely driving more qualified leads to your site.

About that ROI question...

“What’s the ROI of social?” is a question often asked of marketers and community managers—and with good reason. Businesses need to know that the money they are spending is worthwhile.

Wheeler noted that trying to determine the ROI of social media before you’ve even started listening is a wasted effort. By definition, ROI depends on first making an investment and then gauging its financial return. If you haven't invested anything in social yet, you can’t be expected to determine what the return will be. Perhaps a better question to ask first is “What should I expect to get out of social media?”—because the answer may not be directly attributable to a dollar amount.

To that end, some controlled experimentation is definitely needed at the onset of a social campaign in order to determine more than just ROI. Questions you'll want to answer during this initial phase include:

Is your content resonating?
Is your audience more active in particular channels?
Do they respond more frequently at particular times of the day?

To find these and other relevant answers, we recommend creating a pilot program with a monitoring goal set to obtain benchmarks specific to your situation. You should expect to pilot for at least six months before accumulating enough reach to provide consistent and accurate data before making an attempt to determine exact ROI.

This topic is important and complex enough that this blog post can't do it justice, so I encourage you to peruse Wheeler's presentation, “The ROI of Social Media ROI.”

Giving credit where credit is due

Another topic from the evening that Marianne Llewellyn spoke quite passionately about was link attribution (this too really deserves its own post). When it comes to analytics, most tools operate under a “last touch” attribution model where only the last online activity a user performed gets the credit for bringing them to your site (if that’s what you're measuring).

The problem with this model is that I could search for an item that I’m looking for today and find your brand within organic search results, follow you via Twitter tomorrow, and two weeks from now see a display ad when I finally decide to click through to your site and make a purchase. With most tools (like Google analytics), only that last display ad will get the credit (those display ads—always brown-nosing!).

Instead, a “multi-touch” model would spread the attribution evenly across all of the marketing efforts in our example. You get more accurate data, and your SEO and social efforts get the credit they deserve.

The takeaway from the evening

The event covered a wide range of topics, many of which this post alone cannot accommodate. But while social media is far from its more mature online brethren, it has become increasingly clear that social is not only here to stay, it is in fact measureable. Beyond that, it is an increasingly important tool in the savvy marketer's arsenal. Social marketing needs to be planned for, integrated with, and measured in conjunction with the rest of your online efforts.

Are you implementing a social media program? If so, we’d like to hear how you are measuring your results. Not sure where to start? Well, we’re here (and here and here) if you need us.

Our blog has become self-aware

Andrew Daglas — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 06:00:00 GMT

The Vodori blog has been off to a productive start in 2012—so much so that the blog itself has started chiming in with its own feedback, not all of which is entirely welcome.

That's the takeaway from January's word cloud (see below). Just like a few weeks ago, we turned to Wordle for a glimpse into our collective subconscious. After the cloud assembles the words most frequently used in recent blog posts, trained Vodori cryptographers* meticulously analyze the results in search of hidden messages.

*Okay, one guy who had a free half-hour on a Tuesday afternoon.

Apparently, the blog has learned to anticipate such scrutiny. Because this time, it dealt out a series of eerily didactic koans which, taken together, make for some awfully dubious web design advice.

"Never work sans blog." Talk about the ego on this thing!

1. "Many one getting optimization."

Or, in its more familiar Latin phrasing, "SEO pluribus Unum."

2. "Let good websites constantly design."

At first this sounds like a terrific principle. Until you realize it requires the websites themselves to become sentient and self-evolving, and as we all know, that way lies Skynet.

3. "Campaign without developers."

Maybe it's supposed to be a kind of Zen thing, but it seems a bit drastic. Our developers are savvy problem-solvers, and damn persistent to boot.

4. "Consider plan changes."

Straight out of the Magic 8-Ball School of profoundly vague counsel. Which changes? What plan? Wait, is this about our cell phone coverage?

5. "Seconds effort also bad."

Dude, cut us some slack. You didn't exactly provide a lot of clear guidance about those plan changes.

6. "Design working probably."

Sigh. At this point we'll take whatever half-hearted praise we can get.

What do you see in this month's word cloud? Any constructive criticism in there that we overlooked? Let us know in the comments.

Better Know A Vodorian: Erin Willingham

Erin Willingham — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 06:00:00 GMT

Part of an ongoing series to get acquainted with the citizens of Vodoriland. Collect them all!

Name: Erin Willingham
Title: Platform Engineer
Specialties: Linux system administration, security, breaking things.

So, what exactly do you do around here?

I am a Linux system admin, I manage the security on the servers, and I set up new users with laptops and other equipment.

Where do you get your inspiration?

From the stories and conversations with other people in the security industry. A lot of them come from a diverse range of backgrounds. Many of them are extremely smart and have a wide breadth of information.

What sites do you visit most often?

I watch Tech News Today pretty much everyday. I go to Darknet once in a while. Besides that, whatever websites I'm trying to use for research.

What do you do when you're not at work?

I play with my family. Bike riding, running. We go to the playground all the time, even when it's freezing out.

What would you choose as your "super power"?

Immortality. That'd be excellent.

What's your definition of a Vodorian?

Someone that's dedicated to their profession—and there's all different fields at Vodori—but who also enjoys the social atmosphere at our company.

What do like most about working at Vodori?

Along the same lines—most everyone is dedicated to what they do, yet they also socialize with everyone else.

Better Know Other Vodorians:

Conrad Akier, Consultant
Jeremy Arnold, Technology
Carrie Blood, Strategy Analyst
James Kearney, Program Manager
Jesse Krantzler, Technology
Christine Mortensen, Design/Strategy
Matt Young, Technology

Delete these 10 developer pet peeves from your work habits

Technology Team — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 06:00:00 GMT

Developers have a challenging enough job without bad habits getting in the way, but everyone winds up falling victim to a few. That's why it's valuable to take a step back every so often, examine your work patterns, and remedy the faults and blind spots you're bound to find. Here are some of the biggest pet peeves our programming team identified.

1. Wearing rose-colored blinders

Any system is susceptible to a wide range of internal and external errors. Yet many developers tend to write code that's structured to handle only successful scenarios gracefully. They fail to test for those times when user or system errors occur. When unsuccessful cases inevitably arise, large code revisions may be required to accommodate them.

2. Adhering dogmatically to patterns/conventions

Code conventions and styles are great guidelines for ensuring your code is readable and consistent across a codebase. But as with any other system, following them inflexibly can restrict your productivity. Falling too deeply into habits can lead developers to shoehorn certain patterns or conventions into situations where they don't belong. Remember, guidelines aren't ironclad rules—you need to apply your best judgment, too.

3. Missing the big picture

No system is an island—a code change in one portion can impact related components in ways you don't expect. The best way to stay on top of these ripple effects is to write solid unit tests.

Managing interdependencies can be accomplished through a technique called "separation of concerns," in which methods and classes are focused toward the concrete task at hand instead of trying to accomplish a wide range of business functions. Separating concerns allows for easier testing, and gives developers confidence that their changes won't trigger adverse side effects.

4. Over-engineering

Eager developers often try to solve problems that don't exist, or build systems to handle situations far outside the scope. While the impulse to solve a core problem in an elegant way is a good one, it needs to be tempered with a realistic grasp of further development opportunities and current resources. Limitations on a project's scope and responsibilities exist for a reason.

5. Under-documenting

Everyone here is guilty of this at some point, so it bears repeating: Including good comments in your code makes life easier all around. Clarity is the key here. For instance, a comment such as, "this will loop over person objects and call remove on each" is terribly unhelpful, because that's clear from looking at the code. Instead, write something additive like "we need to remove this person object because the user no longer belongs to X group when Y circumstance is met."

This doesn't just apply to team projects, either—if you're working solo, You Five Months From Now will appreciate the effort Present You puts in.

6. Developing extraneous features

Don't simply put your head down and charge into the programming. Establish the technical design first—without understanding the problem at hand, you'll never solve it.

7. Over-optimizing

Everyone wants to write performant code that's efficient and simple. Often they'll spend much of their initial development pass trying to optimize this function to within an inch of its life, or devising neat tricks to cut out cycles. But with modern hardware—both processors and memory—excessive optimization isn't worth the effort.

For instance, take a developer who's determined to move a code segment from taking 0.7 seconds to taking 0.5 seconds. If that effort eats up two days worth of working hours, the code segment would need to be run roughly 300,000 times to pay back the time investment. Furthermore, those extra 0.2 seconds are only worthwhile if 1) the segment is the biggest speed issue in your system, and 2) it's noticeable to the user—neither of which you'll know until deployment.

8. Resting on your laurels

They say the half-life of any developer's skill set is two years—which means every other year, half of what you know becomes obsolete. Devote a portion of your working hours to brushing up on the latest technologies, frameworks, approaches, etc. Read blog posts and trade publications, apply new concepts in your work, swap ideas with your peers, and embrace the fact that a developer's training is never complete.

9. Getting a bit too clever

Sometimes there's a fine line between "creative problem-solving" and "coming up with a crazy hack that nobody else understands." If your clever solution can never be replicated, improved, or repaired, was it really all that clever?

10. Reinventing the wheel

Sure, putting your own spin on simple processes can be fun. But it's awfully easy to get carried away without adding any real value. How many more approaches to "namespace patterns" in JavaScript does the world need?

What do you think?

Which bad habits should developers try to minimize? Which good ones should they adopt? Let us know in the comments.

6 fonts you should kick to the curb

Tori Reneker — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 06:00:00 GMT

You can argue that there are no bad typefaces, just bad choices. Each typeface has a personality, and selecting the wrong personality for your message can distort it entirely.

And yet, some typefaces probably should be buried and forgotten, either because they're overused, dull, or downright homely. The classic example of a font designers love to hate is Comic Sans. It was meant to be used for comic books, not the educational pamphlets in a dentist's office. Had it never been preinstalled on your computer, you'd probably see it a lot less.

While it's easy to pick on, Comic Sans is far from the only font that sets off aesthetic alarm bells. Here are a few other mainstays that have worn out their welcomes, along with some more refreshing alternatives for rendering your text.

Times New Roman

Always a default, and consequently, always unoriginal. It is easy to read, especially in long blocks of copy—but that's because it's designed for print, not for the web. If eye-catching design is your goal, you couldn't select a more antithetical font.

Consider instead: Droid Serif, Lora, Calluna.

Brush Script

It doesn't look like any handwriting in modern times, which pretty much defeats the purpose of a script font. And yet, along with Mistral, this remains a popular choice when looking for a casual script. That popularity is not shared by people who have to try and read it, however.

Consider instead: Wisdom Script. (Available at the Lost Type Co-op, a collaboration of font fans 100% funded by users.)

Impact

Not a terrible typeface, but plenty of stronger options exist. It's readable, but really too thin for its weight. Its ascenders and decscenders are short, making it more difficult to read. Plus, these days it's nearly impossible to shake Impact's association with LOLCats.

Consider instead: A bold-face version of Helvetica, League Gothic, or Franklin Gothic.

Copperplate

This font dates back to the early 1900s, originally created to mimic engraved letters on copperplate. It's wide and squarish, and best for short headlines since it's difficult to read in long blocks of content. Although it can make sense for stationery and invitations, it has no business in body copy.

Consider instead: Adelle, Arvo, Rockwell.

Courier

It's well made, but abused often. It's meant to mimic a typewriter, so the width and height of its letters translate poorly to an electronic screen. Fans of old-school design can find plenty of it on Mad Men or Downton Abbey—and leave the typefaces of the past back in the past.

Consider instead: Droid Sans Mono, Morse code.

Papyrus

Styled after Egyptian quill writing, an influence so clear and specific that the font fits with almost no design situation you're likely to encounter. That became doubly true after it was used as the signature font for Avatar, angering a lot of designers...who still paid to see the movie anyway.

Consider instead: Hieroglyphics, rewatching Firefly.

Finally, if you're looking for free fonts that aren't pre-installed on your computer, check out websites such as Font Squirrel, Dafont, or Google Web Fonts. You should be able to find a more appealing and original option for your project.

What do you think?

What typefaces do you think belong in the dustbin of design history? Will you defend Times New Roman with the zeal of a centurion? Let us know in the comments.

5 SEO mistakes you may be making right now

Greg Lyon — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 06:00:00 GMT

Although it's become one of the core elements of online marketing, many businesses still consider search engine optimization overly-complicated, unproductive, or merely a fad. But overcoming these concerns is just a matter of using SEO to your advantage. In our experience guiding clients through their online marketing decisions, we've encountered a few common misconceptions about SEO.

1. Believing it is too hard or too time-consuming

No matter how little time you may have, you can always perform bite-sized SEO activities which advance your overall strategy. For example, ask ten customers which keywords they most closely associate with your company or products. Or look up the top five most visited pages on your website and try to identify how the on-page elements (copy, titles, meta data, etc.) help or hurt that popularity. Apply what you learn to the rest of your pages. For those times when there really is no time, Vodori is here to help.

2. Treating it as a one-time deal

It's tempting to treat SEO activities like spring cleaning—carve out a block of time to optimize those on-page elements, and once that's done, forget about it for the rest of the year. However, as marketplaces change (i.e., constantly), so do the keywords that consumers use to describe them. If keyword search patterns evolve and you don't evolve right along with them, you're likely to lose traffic and sales.

We recommend conducting keyword or user research multiple times per year, to stay on top of changes in each industry. Furthermore, organic search engines like Google and Bing are constantly tweaking their search algorithms (almost daily, actually). Make sure you keep up with these changes, and understand how they can affect your SEO tactics. Most search engines outline significant updates on their blogs.

One step of SEO feeds into the next in an ongoing process.

3. Neglecting to measure and course-correct

Again, SEO is not a one-and-done tactic. Before implementing a campaign, consider how the knowledge you expect to gain will impel constructive changes for your business. As with any online marketing strategy, some actions will pay off and some won't.

In my opinion, the real key to success lies in developing a reporting-recommendation-change action plan once your campaign is in place. Track your results closely, identify what isn't working, adjust or eliminate those misfires, and then track the changes. Rinse and repeat. Using this framework, with analytics driving adaptation, has worked quite well for Vodori and several of our clients.

4. Failing to integrate within an overall marketing strategy

SEO is probably not the only tool you wield (and if it is, that's a mistake worthy of a whole different blog post). There's no hard and fast boundary separating it from tactics like location-based targeting, pay-per-click, social media, and PR. Determine how SEO fits in with your larger online promotions plan—where it complements other tools, and where it might conflict.

5. Looking for one "key" to getting it exactly right

A truly successful SEO campaign relies on several components, including well-executed customer and keyword research, on-page optimization, community involvement, and a link-building strategy (plus plenty more). Optimizing one of these may yield quick success in some markets, but for most, a winning long-term plan will touch on several different techniques.

In fact, if there is one "key" to achieving outstanding SEO, it lies in your human resources: the sharp, adaptable employee or employees who grasp all these techniques, and who can develop and execute a comprehensive plan.

5 copywriting tools that have nothing to do with copywriting

Andrew Daglas — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 06:00:00 GMT

So, your website is rocking a pristine design, and your search engine optimization has been fine-tuned to perfection (mostly). Now all you need is the scintillating content that'll convert visitors into customers and customers into advocates.

But cranking out crisp, engaging copy every day isn't easy (at least, not until SEO-generating algorithms gain sentience and take over the planet). Every content creator stumbles into a rut now and then.

Often, the trick to revivifying your writerly instincts is as simple as changing your perspective. Think of it like mental crop rotation—mixing up your creative nutrients to keep your brain matter fertile. Here are a few tools I use to stay sharp.

1. The visual arts

Give your left brain a breather, and tap your right brain in for a round. Decorate your workspace with stimulating sights. Take up doodling. Visit a museum's online collection (try The Art Institute of Chicago and the National Gallery of Art, for instance). Rather than one static wallpaper on your computer, use the slideshow feature to keep your favorite images in steady rotation.

Whether your taste runs towards landscapes, architecture, abstract expressionism, or...whatever the heck this is, indulging in non-verbal creativity can spark fresh and unexpected inspiration.

2. The musculoskeletal system

When the body is sedentary for too long, it's easy for the mind to follow—so get kinetic. Take a stroll around the block, squeeze a stress ball, or find an out-of-the-way corner of the office where you can play air guitar to "Achilles Last Stand" to your heart's content.

3. Entirely different writing

It's a given that you have to read plenty in order to be a good writer. Just as important as the volume of your reading, though, is the diversity. Cramming your cerebrum with nothing but marketing strategy and search engine optimization tips leads to stale, generic output.

A writer cannot live by business blogs alone. Um...except this one, of course.

Cultivate a diet of history, fantasy, feature journalism, literary fiction, poetry, humor—whatever happens to grab you. Absorbing various styles of writing hones your craft. And studying a broad range of human behavior sharpens your understanding of, and ability to connect with, different audiences.

4. Twitter

Many consider Twitter the arch-nemesis of productivity, but it's really more of a frenemy. Yes, it's a distraction—but don't underestimate the power of distraction for maneuvering around mental roadblocks. One of the great joys of Twitter is scanning your feed for jokes and insights about a dozen different topics at once, and then spinning your gears to add a joke or insight of your own. It's the epitome of large-scale brainstorming.

5. Free association

Just start writing down words. They don't have to be relevant, or even real. Mash two together at random, and then invent a definition for your shiny new portmanteau. Games like these let you nudge your conscious brain out of the way and see what tumbles through.

NTLMv2 authentication from Java: A developer's odyssey

Mike Sullivan — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 06:00:00 GMT

A project in the works here at Vodori involves making a set of SOAP web service calls to an external system. This is generally a pretty routine exercise: set up the correct client code from the WSDL, integrate some kind of delivery mechanism, and then make the calls. At least, it's routine when it isn't hitting one roadblock after another.

Getting started: Axis to Axis2 to Spring-WS

For our purposes, we started out using Apache Axis since it was a pre-existing piece of our platform. We used the existing WSDL2JAVA process to generate the client and connectivity code.

However, when we tried to actually connect to the system, we received a 401 response—our credentials were denied for failing an NTLM authentication. Digging around, I determined that the most likely culprit was a version mismatch between the NTLM support in Axis and the latest NTLMv2 support by the web service server.

We tried switching out to the newer Axis2 project, which boasted better NTLM support. Unfortunately, a change in the WSDL2JAVA process consolidated all of the code into a massive 11 MB, 226k-line Java source file. Including that file in our project ground IntelliJ to a halt, and it started throwing OutOfMemoryException errors whenever it would try to compile.

At this point, we switched to JAXB2's xjc jar to recreate the client files and Spring's Spring-WS package to handle the transport. This provided a simpler code setup and much greater visibility into how the calls were being made. Since we're living in 2012 and not 2006, we probably should have started here in the first place.

Programmer vs. programming, stage 1: The die is cast.

Third Fourth Eighth time's the charm

Being stubborn—and a geek—I decided to take a deeper look at the authentication messages. I logged out the actual NTLM handshake messages, ran them through a Base64Decoder, and analyzed the structure.

I found that part of the NTLMv2 handshake, our Type-3 message, was failing due to incorrect formatting. I chalked this up to the HTTPClient still not working correctly, so I went back to the Apache site and noticed this message in their NTLM guide:

"HttpClient as of version 4.1 supports NTLMv1 and NTLMv2 authentication protocols out of the box using a custom authentication engine. However, there are still known compatibility issues with newer Microsoft products as the default NTLM engine implementation is still relatively new."

Luckily, they include some sample code that uses the Samba team's JCIFS implementation as their NTLM engine. Pulling down that code, creating the relevant classes, and wiring it in was easier than I expected. With all of these components in place—JAXB2 2.X generated files, Spring-WS transport code, the Spring 2.1M1 files, HTTPComponents, and JCIFS—the web services connected successfully.

SEO DOA: 10 odd keywords that led people to our site

Andrew Daglas — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 06:00:00 GMT

Successful search engine optimization demands you keep close tabs on your site's organic search traffic—what keywords are people entering into search boxes before plopping down in your little corner of the Internet? By learning which topics and ideas your users find most relevant, you can make sure your site is winding up in front of the right eyeballs.

Google Analytics offers a handy way to access this data. Simply follow the menus from Traffic Sources -> Sources -> Search -> Organic, and presto: A report of the most popular keywords leading to your site.

Of course, you're always going to get some outliers.

Vodori Presents: The Bradley Cooper's Hair Memorial Google Fail Awards

A little over a year ago, Vodori served up a sampling of the oddest keyword searches that somehow led Internet dwellers to our homepage. We decided to take another look and see what fresh enigmas have cropped up in recent months. All of these are phrases which led some intrepid Googler to Vodori.com, quite possibly to their (and our) utter confusion.

DISCLAIMER: As our first experiment revealed, a lot of people find us thanks to this post, a prime example of why just peppering your pages with popular keywords does not an effective SEO strategy make. Therefore, this list excludes any combination of words relating to Bradley Cooper's hair...of which there were so, so many.

Damn you, you well-coiffed devil. We just can't stay mad at you.

Without further ado, Vodori presents the Top 10 Google fails of the month.

1. Sitemesh vs Tiles: This was a surprisingly rousing mixed martial arts match, despite the fighters' lackluster nicknames.

2. How to start from nothing: Were they hoping to live out a Horatio Alger success tale, or to create their own universe? Either way, we applaud the ambition.

3. Inside of a calculator: ...is a tiny elf with an abacus. True story.

4. Original color Gatorade: Good to see there are still some sports-drink purists out there.

5. Dutch Predator: It's got to be a challenge, stealthily prowling the jungles of The Netherlands while wearing those noisy wooden clogs.

It picked the wrong website to hunt.

6. Limb. We hope whoever entered this was interested in our handy-dandy UI-testing tool Phantom Limb. We hope they weren't just searching for spare limbs. We hope.

7. Pencil sketches of eyes: In Soviet Russia, art looks at you!

8. Vodorot: Our lesser-known French arm specializes in designing websites about existential philosophy.

9. Rapid reporter: We hear Clark Kent of the Daily Planet turns out a news story faster than a speeding...umm...well, something that moves really fast.

10. Selling peppers online: Close, but no cigar.

Design Basics: A guide to the golden ratio

Collin Green — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 06:00:00 GMT

Few design concepts blend the strengths of the left brain and the right brain quite as elegantly as the golden ratio. A formula that traces its roots to the Classical Era in both mathematics and the arts, today the golden ratio is still one of the most vital principles of cutting-edge Internet design.

So...what the heck is it?

Let's break it down: the golden ratio exists when the ratio of the sum of two quantities to the larger quantity is equal to the ratio of the larger quantity to the smaller one. This yields an irrational mathematical constant with a value of approximately 1.61803399.

A visual representation of the golden ratio formula.

Simple, right?

The ratio is closely related to the Fibonacci sequence—simply put, a series of numbers, starting with zero and one, in which every number equals the sum of the two numbers that precede it. Crank it out, and it looks something like this:

It goes on like that. You get the idea.

A handy visual representation of this sequence is known as the golden spiral:

The golden spiral, in all its geometrically-sound glory.

OK, Math Whiz: Why does it matter?

This sequence is reflected in countless natural and man-made objects. The golden ratio is expressed in many plants in the arrangement of branches to their stems. The architecture of structures as old as the Great Pyramid of Giza and the Parthenon can be analyzed with the ratio. Master works of art have drawn on the principle, from Salvador Dali's The Sacrament of the Last Supper to, according to some, Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.

Though no one is totally sure why, the golden ratio seems to exercise a powerful aesthetic pull on most people. That's why, intentionally or not, it recurs so often in almost every area of design.

The golden ratio, as applied to the creation of the Vodori logo.

I carry the idea of the golden ratio into web design to evoke a sense of familiarity—bringing common patterns from the physical world into the digital one. A design that draws on natural order resonates with viewers subconsciously.

The ratio can also serve as a canvas: I use it to help break down content and assets when I'm wireframing pages. It provides a versatile means of defining the relationships between objects, dictating the importance of each level of the site, and determining scale. Other aesthetics are then fine-tuned deeper into in the design process.

Finally, it's a valuable corrective for those times when my design hits a wall. When different approaches don't quite gel, and other options have been exhausted, that's when I blow the dust off this classic, reliable tool from my artistic roots. How can you go wrong with a device that has been so effective for centuries?

Responsive web design: How one size can fit all

Nathan Kurtyka — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 06:00:00 GMT

How many times have you tried to browse a website on your smartphone or tablet, only to find that the layout is a mess? Text too large or too small, graphics crowding out the copy, intrusive ads constantly sneaking under your thumb as you scroll. These all-too-common sites are relics of a time when a desktop or laptop computer was the primary (or only) means of engaging with the Internet.

That sort of web design is untenable. Today's surfers are used to shifting from one device to another without skipping a beat. If the websites they visit aren't able to shift among devices just as easily, they'll leave those websites behind.

Enter responsive web design.

Responsive web design is an approach to developing page layouts that ditches hard-coded values in favor of fluid, situational rules. These enable a website to automatically adapt its appearance to the size of the screen displaying it—preserving an attractive and readable user interface on desktops, smartphones, tablets, and wide screens alike. Jonathan Verrecchia offers a nice summary of responsive web design on his Initializer blog, complete with demo (resize the browser to try it out).

Fluid page design adjusts the layout as well as page elements
according to screen size.

The method also makes websites more inherently adaptable to the endless procession of new mobile devices coming down the pike. A responsive site doesn't need to bother with recognizing the make and model of the device it's being displayed on, and then adjusting accordingly (or failing to adjust, if that device isn't recognized).

Yet responsive design won't always be the right solution. In some cases, a mobile site needs to present content and functionality that's entirely different from its desktop counterpart, rather than simply finding a tidier way to display the same material. In those cases, it will make more sense to build each version as a separate site. For instance, a user visiting an airline's website may have vastly different needs if she's at home on a desktop browser than if she's on a mobile browser while waiting in the terminal.

What does all this mean for developers?

We need to reevaluate some old habits and adopt a few new ones. With each site we build, we should consider a responsive strategy right from the earliest planning stages. Does it make sense for our client and their users? Even if a mobile experience isn't necessary at the outset, might it become so in the future?

Vodori's own website is undergoing just such a transition. Our goal is to optimize our visitors' experiences, whether they're studying Phantom Limb at the office or brushing up on Design Trends while riding the bus.

What does this mean for clients?

This requires a bit more time, planning, and effort early on, since we'll be testing multiple UIs rather than one. Done properly, though, it will save time in the long run, by allowing us to make incremental tweaks to a UI rather than rebuild a new site from the ground up.

Website users are more flexible than ever, so website creators must be equally flexible. Developers at Vodori are constantly learning and adapting to keep pace. In part two of this post, we'll explore how our designers incorporate the responsive approach as well.

5 surprising secrets hidden in the Vodori blog

Andrew Daglas — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 06:00:00 GMT

I'm going to let you all in on a little secret: this blog has big things in store for it in 2012. Some of our plans are already underway. Some are still in the brainstorming process. A couple are so grand that we can't resist a booming, maniacal laugh after monologuing about them to our captured nemeses.

In order to best plan where you're headed, you need a solid understanding of where you've been. Thanks to the word cloud generation powers of Wordle, we're able to get a thorough (and awfully snazzy) overview of what Vodori blogged about most frequently in 2011.

The word cloud gathers the most commonly occurring words within the source text you provide (in this case, the Vodori blog). These words are then jumbled up and arrayed randomly yet stylishly. The more prevalent the word, the greater its prominence in the cloud.

Click the thumnbail below to see the full cloud.

click to enlarge

It's no surprise that people were at the forefront of our hive mind: Vodori is dedicated to cultivating close relationships with our clients, and to creating websites that people find engaging, enjoyable, and easy to use. And the fact that work kept popping up, well, that's what happens when you love what you do. (It helps when it's fueled so powerfully by music and coffee.)

If you look closely at the data, you'll see a sailboat. But if you look even more closely, a few patterns emerge that are, to say the least, unexpected:

1. "Senior year." True, we're a young company, but we had no idea we were all looking forward to graduation so much.

2. "Designer dance." We've seen this dance. Frequently. Usually without wanting to. Picture a cross between the Macarena and the Watusi. We suspect it will not take America by storm.

3. "Making beer." If it turns out that this whole Internet thing is just a fad, it appears we've got a future in craft brewing. Or maybe moonshine.

4. "Great beyond." Whoa. And to think, we nearly decided not to invest in that Ouija board.

5. "Vodorians monitor quality." Actually, that's not unexpected at all.

What hidden messages do you see in the cloud? Leave a comment and let us know!

Setting our sights on 2012 resolutions

Vodori Staff — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 06:00:00 GMT

Like most people, we here at Vodori spent New Year's Eve basking in quiet self-reflection (as far as we can remember). That gave many of us the chance to conjure the perfect New Year's resolution.

Here's a sample of the goals some of us have set for 2012, Mayan apocalypse be damned. Vodorians are all about rising to the challenge.

"Successfully launch Pepper 3 and grow Vodori's product offering." - Grant Gochnauer, Vice President

"Write more, type less." - Tori Reneker, Designer

"More cowbell." - Conrad Akier, Consultant & Senior Gymnast

"NOT work. Tropical Asia here I come!!" - David Wolverton, Vodorian Emeritus, Intrepid World Traveler

If you look closely, you can see David laughing at all us working stiffs.

"Power the Vodori blog with crisp, engaging content and fresh ideas. Or, failing that, with strained humor and hacky rollover-text jokes." - Andrew Daglas, Copywriter

"Drink more orange juice to stay healthy. Because it sucks when you have to take forced time-off as a result of microbes. As an aside, I don't like doctors. They call what they do 'practice.'" - Salvador Gaytan, Developer

"Learn to swim. " - Ryan Shirkman, Information Architect

"Learn how to program. " - Zernyu Chou, Senior Developer

"Run a half-marathon in less than two hours. Or get over my fear of swimming...but that's probably too ambitious." - Meghan Palmer, Financial Guru

"Bike 1,500 miles, not including commuting." - Jeremy Arnold, Technical Lead

"More triathlons, more personal records!" - Jesse Krantzler, Senior Developer

"Help at least three other people keep their own resolutions—looking forward to seeing you at 6 a.m. for bike rides! - James Kearney, Program Manager

By December, we'll be in peak physical condition. Or possibly dead.

"Declutter, declutter, declutter." - Mike Sullivan, Technical Architect

"Complete the One Hundred Day Challenge by exercising for at least 30 minutes every day for 100 days in a row...I'm only on day four. Oh, and add clutter to Mike's desk." - Christine Mortensen, Creative Web Producer

"Shake my hip-hop addiction. That shit cray." - David Stinnette, Art Director

"Think of a resolution for 2013." - Greg Lyon, Senior Associate

The Vodori.com Blog

Evaluate your success with the Pre_Scribed webinar series

The first 5 steps to a digital marketing launch

Pre_Scribed Step 6—Evaluate Your Success:

A whirl of an evening–WhirlyBall that is

13 tips for keeping your resume out of our recycling bin

Welcome to the age of social measurement

First things first

On a need-to-know basis

Small is the new big

About that ROI question...

Giving credit where credit is due

The takeaway from the evening

Our blog has become self-aware

1. "Many one getting optimization."

2. "Let good websites constantly design."

3. "Campaign without developers."

4. "Consider plan changes."

5. "Seconds effort also bad."

6. "Design working probably."

Better Know A Vodorian: Erin Willingham

So, what exactly do you do around here?

Where do you get your inspiration?

What sites do you visit most often?

What do you do when you're not at work?

What would you choose as your "super power"?

What's your definition of a Vodorian?

What do like most about working at Vodori?

Delete these 10 developer pet peeves from your work habits

1. Wearing rose-colored blinders

2. Adhering dogmatically to patterns/conventions

3. Missing the big picture

4. Over-engineering

5. Under-documenting

6. Developing extraneous features

7. Over-optimizing

8. Resting on your laurels

9. Getting a bit too clever

10. Reinventing the wheel

What do you think?

6 fonts you should kick to the curb

Times New Roman

Brush Script

Impact

Copperplate

Courier

Papyrus

What do you think?

5 SEO mistakes you may be making right now

1. Believing it is too hard or too time-consuming

2. Treating it as a one-time deal

3. Neglecting to measure and course-correct

4. Failing to integrate within an overall marketing strategy

5. Looking for one "key" to getting it exactly right

5 copywriting tools that have nothing to do with copywriting

1. The visual arts

2. The musculoskeletal system

3. Entirely different writing

4. Twitter

5. Free association

NTLMv2 authentication from Java: A developer's odyssey

Getting started: Axis to Axis2 to Spring-WS

More problems

Third Fourth Eighth time's the charm

SEO DOA: 10 odd keywords that led people to our site

Vodori Presents: The Bradley Cooper's Hair Memorial Google Fail Awards

Design Basics: A guide to the golden ratio

So...what the heck is it?

OK, Math Whiz: Why does it matter?

Responsive web design: How one size can fit all

Enter responsive web design.

What does all this mean for developers?

What does this mean for clients?

5 surprising secrets hidden in the Vodori blog

Setting our sights on 2012 resolutions