HGTV Junky March 31, 2008
Posted by engjake in house plans.Tags: extreme homes, house plans
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I’m not the average guy. I don’t really like to sit and watch sports unless it’s the X-games or the Tour de france. I will if my family is, but i just don’t follow team sports like most guys do. Instead when I watch the tube it’s usually a programs on HGTV, FineLiving or whatever channel has programs about architecture, building or flipping homes. Since I used to design house plans and own a house plan publishing company.. the home industry has always been an interest of mine. One of my favorite programs which I rarely catch is called World’s Most Extreme Homes. This show features funky homes all over the world. Some are architectural masterpieces, others built from extreme materials. It’s fun to see the creativity some people have with their homes and kinda makes you want to do something a little different that the simple box with a roof that most of us live in.
off the shelf vs. custom code March 27, 2008
Posted by engjake in business, house plans.Tags: business, ecommerce, house plans
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For a small business the off the shelf software is usually the best option. Having started several online businesses I can tell you that even the most robust off the shelf systems may not have exactly what you want. We often end up having to do funky work arounds to get an off the shelf system to work. This is a little furstrating at times but most off the shelf systems are designed for a small business selling simple items like t-shirts or books. If you are selling items with multiple variables or attributes it gets a little more complicated.
As a result, our house plans business would not work with an off the shelf (pre-programmed) system. This is pretty frustrating because there are a lot ofecommerce packages out there that have some really cool features. But, for our house plans website we had to custom write the code so that the user would have an easier, more pleasant experience on our website. The upside is we have a much better user experience, the downside is we are lacking in some marketing and analytics tools that we would otherwise have. It is difficult to find a good quality ecommerce company that will customize the cart to suit your needs at an affordable price. We have searched high and low to find one and you either pay through the nose for a license to start with, the customization costs are rediculous, or both.
So whats the answer? We chose to write our own software so that it was easy to use, and we’re having to use other analytic tools or 3rd party services to get the statistics that we need. You have to decide which is more important to you. With some of my other businesses it made more sense to have all the marketing tools and work around the idiocirocies of the shopping cart, than to pay someone to custom write a website exactly how I wanted it.
news March 25, 2008
Posted by engjake in business, seo.add a comment
i haven’t written here for a while. It’s been a crazy few months with my daughter getting treatments for her leukemia. We’ve been back and forth to SLC more times than i would like.
I’ve also been scrambling to do some SEO for the various websites that i manage or help manage as the housing slump has taken it’s toll on our home building related businesses. This is a little frustrating, especially since i kind of have a life crisis with my daughter right now. However, such is life and we’re doing our best. Luckily, unlike some of our major competitors we have not had to layoff employees or make serious cutbacks because we run a tight ship. Being conservative does have it’s advantages regardless of what some people think.
I have recently set up a blog for my wife. She is an artist when and if she gets any spare time. She loves to decorate and design stuff, so hopefully that will be a nice outlet for her to expend some energy and thoughts. That blog for now is found at englandhouseplans.com/blog. Check it out when you get a chance.
the weekenders March 25, 2008
Posted by engjake in cancer/leukemia, family.add a comment
So the last couple of months our family has been torn apart. My wife, our daughter and son in SLC, me and our other two daughters at home. Our little girl of 7 years is battling cancer and just had abone marrow transplant. She has to be within just a few minutes of the hospital for a couple of months and since we live 2 hrs away…. we had to get an apartment in SLC.
This whole experience has really made me admire single moms. I have a really hard time home alone with just 2 girls running them to and from school and trying to take care of things at work too. It’s really tough. So anytime I see someone I know is a single parent I’m humbled, because i know how tough it is.
So we’ve been meeting up on the weekends to spend a few days together, then its back to our weekly routines. This week my wife had to take our son to the doctor so we switched places and she is going home. We are in a little 2 bedroom apartment with a kitchen that is smaller than our bedroom closet at home, but it is sooo much better than being in our tiny hospital room we spent weeks and weeks in. We also have some privacy now, which you have very little of in the hospital. A couple more months of this and we will hopefully be a family all week instead of just being together on the weekends.
