It’s been a while since I have been in rant mode but recently an experience has made me get fired up about something and that something is fundraising.

School has been in session about a month now and the fund raising sales are beginning to appear like moths to a light.  It’s an endless parade of awkwardness.  It’s the time of year where parents and children roam door to door and/or parents solicit, hassle, annoy, and guilt their coworkers in to buying, hoping to win that prize for most money raised, and most product sold or whatever. It becomes an endless competition.

And it’s not just schools hitting me up for sales, it’s the boy scouts, girl scouts, soccer teams, baseball teams, football teams, home coming blah blah blah.  I believe these are all good things to support and are important but what angers me the most is how money is raised.

The money is raised by sales of some product. I get it.  I understand that groups need money to operate and they don’t feel comfortable just asking for the money or being creative with their efforts.

Buy this useless coupon book with savings of over $2000 for the low price of $30. Buy this imported candy bar from China for $2. Purchase this special environmentally friendly light bulb so I can go on a field trip to Provo.  It just creates an awkward environment.  I can’t possible need or want 10 coupon books.  There are only so many candy bars I need or want or should eat.  It’s all too much.

The crux of my annoyance is the fact that I, the supporter, have no idea how much of the money I spend actually makes it to the organization that I am trying to support.  How much of that $2 candy bar goes to the school? How much goes to the company providing the candy bar?

If you Google “School Fundraisers” there are more than 8,600,000 sites related to school fund raising. There are hundreds if not thousands of businesses who are preying upon these groups.  If there wasn’t profit to be made these businesses wouldn’t exist.

I want to be clear… profit isn’t bad.  It’s ok for businesses to make profits.

I would prefer that 100% of my donation goes to the organizations that need money. I am comfortable for organizations to come to me directly and ask me for the money. I want to know that 100% of the money I spend goes to the organization I want to support.

If your group needs donations come and ask me. I will probably donate.  I don’t want to buy anything. I want to just give cash directly to the group.

Who was the group that came to my door and caused this rant?

The Boy Scouts of America.

Utah Boy Scouts fundraiser kicks off — with high-pressure tactics

Many professional Scouters earn 6-figure salaries across the U.S.

The other day I was doing my duty as a Utah citizen, I paid my ATV registration and tax online.  I have done this for years and its not a big deal.

After a while I received a this letter from the Utah State Tax Commission.

So let me get this straight… Your super secure, incredible convenient online registration process failed? Immediately nightmares of identity theft race through my head.

The next thought was who else didn’t pay the right amount and how much in Tax Funds are missing?

I calm down and proceed to call them to pay for the missing portion. I get to sit on hold for 10 minutes only to be told that “No You can’t pay online.” and “No you can’t pay over the phone.”

How do I pay for it?

“You may mail it in or visit one of our offices”

Utah has been complaining of budget shortfalls for years.  They promote online government here almost as much as Dancing with the Stars.

Here is my gripe… This is the second time that Utah’s Online Features have failed.  Jury Duty and WTF Technology

And Now I have to drive to the worst place on earth, the Utah DMV.  Oh and they aren’t open on Fridays, thank you Ex-Governor/Presidential Candidate Jon Huntsman Jr.  Utah Government Fail.

I go to the DMV and I wait in line and they say I only owe $22.  I show them my letter.  She has to call and verify that it is $35.  Ok then the register won’t process the check.  Another call to tech support.  It finally works.  Now we have to call again to get a receipt.  Finally we get it squared away and I get to go home.

With all the new website creation tools and software it appears that creating a website may seem simple, but the fact remains that creating a professional looking website takes experience. Regardless of the reason you are creating a website, a professional website design company has the inside knowledge and a wide variety of professional services that you and/or your business needs to make your website stand out among the millions of websites created every day. There are probably a hundred reasons why hiring a web design firm is important but here are just 10.

1. Credibility

Credibility is the most important factor in converting visitors of your website to customers or regular users.  A poorly designed website makes visitors to your site less likely to use, download or purchase your products. A professionally designed website gives your visitors to your site the impression that you are an established professional. Professionalism makes you more trustworthy.  Trust is important especially in a business environment.

2. Professionalism

Its your reputation online for the world. The professionalism a website design firm can offer you is invaluable. People often relate the quality of a person’s services with the quality of their website. If your website looks bad, visitors are more likely to go elsewhere for their services because they will have doubts about the level of professionalism your company can offer them. Having a web design firm create your website will make your website look more professional.

3. Site Security

Security is another important feature that a web design firm can offer you. A website design firm can ensure that your site is not only professional in appearance but secure for your visitors as well. Security is also important to protect your business.  You wouldn’t want a data breach to destroy your business.

4. Content Creation

Writing for the web requires an inside knowledge of the inner workings of search engines to compose effective text. A professional web design firm will have professional content writers to create content for your website that will not only be appealing to your visitors, but will also contribute to Search Engine success.

5. Web Design

The visual appeal of your website is also integral to your website’s success. Professional web design firms have designers who are trained for web design.  Creating aesthetically pleasing websites and the proper use of color theory are important to the success of any website. Creating that unique brand for your site is important. You want to be distinguished from your competitors.

6. Search Engine Optimisation

Getting ranked high in the search engines is an important key to success regardless of what type of website you are building. It is important to use the proper techniques that when employed properly, can increase your search engine ranking. Professional web design firms know how to properly optimize your websites for search engines.

7. Save Money

Time is money. Time efficiency is one of the most important reasons that you should use a web design firm to design your website. Often time is lost when you pursue building your own website. This time could be instead used better. Leave it to the experts. Hiring a web design firm means that your website is built both professionally and quickly, and it allows you the time you need to devote to other areas of your business.

8. Network of Professionals

Web design firms have a network of professionals within the industry, many more than the average person. This enables the web design firm to have more resources which can be used when they are creating your website. The web design firm can make sure that you and your business have the best hosts, servers and related services in the business. Web design firms have the ability to optimize your costs and give your site the best fit of what it needs from servers and hosting to many other customizable options.

9. Ease of Use

Professional web designers know how to create web pages that are both professional and easy to navigate. If your site looks good but it is complicated to use, you will lose visitors.

10.  Reliability

Reliability is very important. A Web design firm will carefully test all of the pages of any your website to ensure that the pages are stable and work as designed. They will make sure that your website is glitch free and fully functional before it goes live. A broken website irritates customers and prevents them from using your services.  It’s a business killer.

Brannon Carter is the President & CEO of Webnovate. Webnovate provides professional Internet Marketing, SEO and PPC Marketing Campaigns, Website Design, Copywriting, Custom Application Development, Graphic Design and IT Services. Please visit http://www.webnovate.com to learn more.

The closest I could get to my Dad singing it.

Merry Christmas

Zeitgeist is “the spirit of the times” or “the spirit of the age.” Zeitgeist is the general cultural, intellectual, ethical, spiritual, and/or political climate within a nation or even specific groups, along with the general ambience, morals, sociocultural direction, and mood associated with an era.  Source Wikipedia

Google Zeitgeist is a list of how the world searched based on the aggregation of billions of search queries people typed into Google this year, Zeitgeist captures the spirit of 2010. Google Zeitgeist is an interesting tool to see what people search on the internet.  I find it fascinating.

Here it is in video and music. Enjoy 2010 in under 3 minutes.

We have all seen the appalling colors of a bad PowerPoint presentation or a horribly colored website. Appealing visual media doesn’t just happen.  It is created by graphic designers. One of the hardest parts of creating a beautiful design is choosing the right colors for a project. Determining colors for a web project or even PowerPoint presentations is often difficult for the average non-graphic designer.  Because I am a pseudo-graphic designer (I know what looks good nor am I formally trained in graphic design), I use color tools to inspire my creations or to create matching color palettes for me.  I thought I would share some of my tools that I use and hopefully some of you can use these to create more visually stimulating content.

Color Scheme Designer

The Color Scheme Designer is a great tool for anyone trying to pick colors for a website especially non designers/non-artists.  It also works great to create awesome colorful PowerPoint Presentations.

The site gives you several different settings: mono chromatic for a one color multi tone site to a tetrad color scheme. It’s a fun tool just to find great colors.

The ultimate cool factor is it also creates color schemes that are good for color blind people.

Adobe Kuler

This is a site where you can create new color schemes; see what other color palettes people are using. You can pick them, rate them or be inspired by them and it integrates into Adobe Creative Suite 4 & 5.

ColorBlender

Another color picking tools It allows you to save your color schemes.  You can also down load it to Photoshop Color Table (.act), or illustrator Colors (.eps) or have it emailed to your in box.

Color Palette Generator

Enter the URL of an image to get a color palette that matches the image. This is useful for coming up with a website color palette that matches a key image a client wants to work with.

Color Match 5k

I have been using this tool for 8 years. It’s simple and it’s great.  Choose one color and it creates a color palette for you. Most of my website designs have used this tool.

So your Twitter account is failing.  You can’t seem to build up the numbers. Did you ever think it might be you? Below are 10 mistakes people make intentionally or unintentionally that make it so most Twitter users won’t follow you.

1. Every Tweet is a sales pitch.

I hate the constant self promotion. I currently follow 700+ people on twitter I don’t have time or want to read you sales pitch every day for something I am not interested in.  Provide the end reader with value other than sales.  The only exception to this is if it’s a deals type twitter account.

2. You follow 1000 people and only 5 follow you back or vice versa.

I label these type of people as spammers. They are trying to build up their followers the fast and ineffective way by using the shot gun approach.  This is not a way to build a following at least not a useful one.  Often times these types of accounts are automated.

3. You have very few or very inconsistent tweet patterns.

If you tweet only now and again, no one will follow you. You must not have anything to say. Apparently you signed up for an account to be “cool” or because someone suggested it as a marketing tool.

4. You list no location, no website, or no bio or any information about yourself.

Every twitter follower I get I check their accounts.  I check to see who they are and why I might be interested in them (product, advice, funny, newsworthy, inspiration for the blog.

5.Too Much Swearing.

The occasional swear word doesn’t offend me but if you have one in the majority of your tweets yeah no you aren’t for me and my guess is you probably aren’t for most people. Put your best foot forward.

6. Your profile features any variation of €œInternet expert€ or “make money online”.

I hate self proclaimed experts because talk is well… CHEAP!  Let your work prove you are an expert.

7. You do not engage/interact with your Twitter followers

I hate people that don’t respond to anything. No @usernamehere, no thanks, no retweets, no answer.  No Bueno.  Why are you using twitter if you aren’t joining in on the conversation?

8. Hashtag Spam

If you are constantly using the same Hashtags over and over. Its a sign to me that you are probably going to violate Rule 1 very soon.

9. Annoying automated Direct Message

I hate the poor executed or poorly worded direct message after following.  This will get the unfollow ASAP.

10. Dirty, Nasty, Inappropriate User Names or A user name that’s difficult to understand.

There are a large number of porn spammers on twitter who will auto-follow you . I also  hate users that have these cryptic names.  How the hell am I supposed to know who , what and why I should care.

In my opinion if you are trying to increase your Twitter influence you should avoid the above issues and focus on providing value to your potential followers.

My golden rules for Twitter:

Promote others 10x’s more than yourself

Provide Value in your Tweets

Engage Others in conversation.

Follow me on Twitter

Related: 10 Reasons I Won’t Be Following You on Twitter

Lebron James asks “What should I do?” in his latest Nike ad, and a group of Cleveland Cavaliers fans came up with some answers in a parody of the commercial that has gone viral.

Superstar athletes have become big time whiners. They complain about everything and when they aren’t complaining they are “creating their legacy.” These “stars” have become completely self-absorbed.

Last summer we had to suffer through LeBron James’ special on ESPN to find out his “Decision”, as if there was one. Who didn’t really think he was going to Miami?

This is what makes this re-edited “Nike Rise” Commercial so special. It gives fans especially Cleveland fans a chance to retort LeBron’s crap.

LeBron’s famous Nike commercial edited up by local a Cleveland filmmaker Dan Wantz. Wants is giving Cavalier fans a chance to answer all those philosophical questions LeBron asks in the Nike commercial.

Lebron James “Rise” Commercial & Cleveland’s Response

NIKE BASKETBALL: LEBRON RISE

I have been thinking about his for a while.  I have been hiding from who I am. I don’t know how to say it so I am just going to do it. Its time to come out of the closet.

I like old country music.

There I said it. I am out.

I know this new revelation will bring shame and heartache to the family but its best I come out. I know now the embarrassment that I am. I know the denial I have been in, hiding behind rock music for years.

Any way with that off my chest here are some of my favorites.

Waylon Jennings – Are You Sure Hank Did It This Way?

This is version of The Highwaymen who included Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson. What a group of  country all stars. The song refers to Hank Williams. I love the blues licks included and Waylon’s voice.

Kris Kristofferson – Sunday Morning Coming Down

Johnny Cash may have made this song famous but its best sung by Kris Kristofferson. The story goes that Kris got a job sweeping floors at Columbia Studios (Cash and Bob Dylan recored there while Kris worked there)  in Nashville. He used to leave his songs laying around hoping someone would notice.

Kris Kristofferson – Me and Bobby McGee

Made famous by Janice Joplin, its still nice to hear Kristofferson sing it. The artist Pink has a nice version too.

Johnny Cash – The Man in Black

Buck Owens – Hello Trouble

This might be my unofficial theme song. I just love the lyrics and his guitar work.

Hank Williams – Move It On Over

This is another song with great lyrics.  I first heard this song at a Willie Nelson concert at Sundance. My favorite version is actually George Thorogood’s

I thought today I would blog about what my friends especially my California friends are all thinking. Eran moved to Utah and is now a member of a polygamist cult.  I mean why else would anyone move to Utah? Right?

I would like to dispel all the rumors. I am not a polygamist nor do I belong to a cult. I know how boring…

The truth is I have but 1 wife and no plans to ever add another. Unless of course I am offered millions of dollars to add another one for a reality TV show on TLC. I can be purchased for my 15 minutes of fame. I mean who wouldn’t sell out for show on TLC.   In all honesty, I can’t handle the wife I have, so I am certain I couldn’t handle more than one.

TLC has a new show called Sister Wives.  Its about a man with 4 wives.   The show happens to be about a family in the town I live in, Lehi, UT.  Their house is actually a few short blocks from mine. I find this ironic. I also find it ironic that the Attorney General of Utah says he will not prosecute them.  However I predict after a few more  days of  phone calls from angry constituents AG Mark Shurtleff might change his mind much like the Lehi Police have done.

Producers of Sister Wives apparently feared the Browns could come under legal scrutiny, so they contacted the Utah Attorney General’s Office months before airing the program.

“They called us and said, ‘Hey, are you going to shut us down?’” said Scott Troxel, spokesman for the attorney general.

Troxel said the Utah Attorney General’s Office doesn’t have the resources to go after polygamists unless it suspects crimes such as child abuse or child trafficking.

Apparently after a lot of calls the AG’s office might be getting on board.

HBO and TLC would like everyone to think that Utahans are all polygamists.  Well they aren’t. Polygamy and bigamy are against the law, even in Utah. Bigamy is a third-degree felony in Utah but is rarely investigated.

In 2001, one of Utah’s most high-profile polygamists, Tom Green, was convicted in Provo’s 4th District Court of bigamy and failure to pay child support. He also was later found guilty of child rape.

Prior to his convictions, Green and his family talked openly about their lifestyle on international and national TV programs, including The Jerry Springer Show, Dateline and Judge Judy. Prosecutors said they didn’t start investigating Green until seeing him on TV.