Loud Dog Links

April 5, 2010

• Case Studies in Freemium: Pandora, Dropbox, Evernote, Automattic and MailChimp
  Don’t spend money on marketing, do offer flexibility and data exporting to eliminate buyers’ regret, make sure to capitalize on and value goodwill, and only charge for things that are hard to do. That’s what some startups say is the key to success in the freemium business. But the biggest reason the five presenters this morning at the Freemium Summit in San Francisco — Pandora, Dropbox, Evernote, Automattic (see disclosure at the bottom) and MailChimp — are doing well is because they have great products that people want.
  by: Josh Orum | tags: bestPractices, business

January 11, 2010

• The Case Against Vertical Navigation - Smashing Magazine
  In fact, designers and architects are increasingly creating user experiences focused so strongly on content that navigation starts to become indistinguishable from content. This type of seamless experience is more effectively created when a horizontal navigation bar is used because horizontal navigation does not intrude on the content area and it’s still easily accessible visually and otherwise.
  by: Josh Orum | tags: bestPractices, design, usability, webdesign

December 3, 2009

• Google Analytics Launches Asynchronous Tracking
  Certainly a good thing for GA, but better that is sets an example for all third party javascript vendors out there.
  by: Matt DeClaire | tags: analytics, bestpractices, javascript

November 25, 2009

• Top 20+ MySQL Best Practices
  A great list of next level, practical best practices for databases.
  by: Matt DeClaire | tags: bestpractices, database

July 27, 2009

• MVC Obscures the Mechanics of the Web
  I also like the way this guys puts this.
  by: Matt DeClaire | tags: bestpractices, frameworks, programming
• The no-framework PHP MVC framework
  I like how this guy thinks.
  by: Matt DeClaire | tags: bestpractices, framework, php, programming

June 3, 2009

• Six Steps to Easier E-mail (ClickZ)
  Good list of best practices for e-mail marketing.
  by: Josh Orum | tags: bestPractices, emailMarketing

December 3, 2008

• Towards RESTful PHP - 5 Basic Tips (Kris Jordan)
  Interesting guide to RESTful PHP.
  by: Josh Orum | tags: bestPractices, development
• Flexible Fuel: Educating the Client on IA (A List Apart)
  Good overview of typical deliverables in a web project.
  by: Josh Orum | tags: bestPractices, designDocumentation, webDesign

November 5, 2008

• 10 Ways to Improve Usability When You Thought it Was Too Late
  Some quick ways to improve the usability of a web app without major restructuring.
  by: Josh Orum | tags: bestPractices, patterns, webDesign

August 6, 2008

• The 5 hidden costs of running a CMS
  We're often faced with the decision on how to handle content management. More often than I would have thought, we go without a CMS.
  by: Matt DeClaire | tags: bestPractices, cms