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What separates a great mobile web site from more of the same? It's a deep understanding of how mobile users interact with the web – what they're looking for, what makes life easy for them, and how to address their needs as quickly and painlessly as possible. Mobile design is more than just converting a web site for a smaller screen size – it also means revisiting all your site's pages and content to make them as relevant as possible for visitors on the go.

In today's article, I'll walk you through the best practices for choosing content and creating a design for a mobile site, and I'll hook you up with two great resources to get you started on a mobile design today.

Step 1: Deliver the info your mobile visitors need right now

The first question to answer as a mobile designer is what information on-the-go users will most need from your site – and in the case of many businesses, that means the address and contact information need to be at the forefront of your mobile design. While this information might be buried in small text in the footer or on a contact page on the desktop version of the site, it's often the primary reason a user would hit the site on their phone. If you're looking up a restaurant where you'll be meeting friends after work, you probably want the address, cross-streets, phone number or closest metro stop – not a fancy introductory slideshow or detailed PDF of the dinner menu.

Mobile users are looking for the basics, and the design should deliver that information with an understanding of the urgency of many mobile web site visits.

Since so much of the mobile web is centered around finding or contacting people and businesses, there are a few cool tricks built into the operating systems that a mobile-optimized site can take advantage of. Here are a few examples of powerful buttons or links to add to a mobile home page:

• Call Us – Clicking the button or link launches the phone app directly
• E-mail us – Launches the e-mail app directly
• Map It – Launches the maps app directly, with the address of the business pre-populated
• Make a Reservation – Launches the OpenTable app or web site for restaurant reservations
• Download a Coupon – Links to a PDF that the user can show on their phone to get a discount

You can even add buttons to send a text message or launch the iPhone App store, if those options make sense with your client's marketing plan. A home page that takes advantage of these items provides a much smoother experience for mobile users, and definitely makes a good impression on these tech-savvy visitors.

Step 2: Streamline your content for the mobile web

Now that we've got a functional home page that highlights the most valuable information, it's time to think about the approach for interior pages. On some sites, such as magazine or article-based sites, it may make sense to duplicate all the site's content in a mobile-friendly format. That way, if a friend e-mails me a link to an article and I view the e-mail on my phone, I'll be redirected to a mobile version of the article without having to jump to a new page or navigate to the same article from the home page. This is great for sites that have a lot of content and a lot of social link sharing.

For many small and medium business sites, though, it might not make sense to duplicate everything word-for-word on the mobile site. Instead, a trimmed-down site could include three or four interior pages that highlight the key talking points for the business, perhaps even with copy that is written with the shorter attention span and fast pace of a mobile user in mind. These pages can be written and designed with the goal of initiating an immediate phone call or e-mail from the potential customer, especially since we know they are literally a click away from calling for more information.

When a user visits a regular page's URL in a mobile browser, we can redirect them automatically to the mobile version of that page – and optimize that page's content for the mobile experience.

Every site will be different, but the key takeaway is this: for sites that are very content-heavy, make sure not to allow your users to get lost just because they're viewing the article on a mobile device. And for less frequently updated or content-rich sites, optimize your content and copy to provide for a quick mobile read, and then push the user to your desired “call to action,” whether that's a call, e-mail or in-person visit.

Step 3: Dig in to the technical details

Now that we understand the big design and organization concepts behind the creation of a mobile site, let's spend some time on the nitty-gritty of the technical side of things. The first and most obvious change you'll need to make in your design is the size – the mobile screen is much smaller than your desktop or laptop monitor. That means that rather than building sites that are up to 980 pixels wide, you're working with just 320 pixels (that's the narrowest dimension for an iPhone-optimized site). This will change a lot of your design techniques, but you can still maintain the same look and feel while providing an optimized mobile experience.

Remember to keep buttons and links large and easily touchable – just think about all the times you've accidentally pressed the wrong button or dialed the wrong number because your thumbs were just a little too big. Also keep in mind that “hover” states of items, such as links, will not be as easily accessed (if they can be seen at all) on mobile devices, and consider removing those from your designs. There are lots of fancy JavaScript tools that allow you to simulate iPhone screen transitions on your site (so the page neatly slides from right to left, for example), but for starters, build a simple, clear and stripped-down version of the design, and make sure the most important content is easily accessible for those of us with oversized thumbs.

One of the big drawbacks of iPhone development (and something that iPhone's competitors are racing to beat them on) is the fact that Flash is not supported in any way. Most designers and developers are moving away from Flash as a presentation tool, but it's still an important part of web video, audio and other media. If you want to include these types of media on the mobile site, you'll need to use an HTML 5 player. This will work with the most newer mobile browsers and provide your users with a streamlined experience so they're not running into Flash errors or getting pushed out to other applications to watch video. The process for setting up HTML 5 video is a bit different than Flash, but still something that we can easily integrate into a mobile site.

One last thing: Even though it's generally better for a user on a smartphone to see the mobile-optimized version of a site, there are exceptions to every rule. For that reason, it's good practice to include a “view full site” link at the bottom of your mobile site, allowing a user who wants or needs the content on the desktop version of the site to get there even after being redirected to the mobile site.

What about the iPad?

We've covered smartphones, but that brings up another question: what about the mobile phone's bigger cousin, the tablet (and, most commonly, the iPad)? In most cases, it's not necessary to display the mobile version of a site on the iPad – because the screen is larger, the regular version of the site will do just fine. What's more, many iPad users will be accessing your site with less urgency than phone users – they're just as likely to be sitting on their couch at home than trying to look up your address while flagging down a cab.

The exception is with sites that use a lot of advanced JavaScript – Gmail and many other Google applications are a good example. In these cases, the advanced scripts might crash or otherwise mess up the iPad or tablet's browser, so the development team has created a streamlined tablet version of the site. This is also a good place to consider any functionality that might require the “hover” effect – again, it won't be readily available on a tablet (or, if it is, it will be much less helpful in terms of the user experience). If you have big parts of your site that are hover-centric, it might be valuable to redesign those specifically for tablet users.

What's next?

If you've got a client who would benefit from a mobile version of their site, it's a great way to add value to a project and help your clients make life easier for their mobile customers. Attractive, easy-to-use mobile sites can be both a valuable addition to your client's marketing strategy and a way to build prestige and goodwill among tech-savvy and mobile customers. They're also easy and fun to design, develop and play with after they're online.

If you're looking for some design material, check out this great collection of mobile icon sets – it will get you designing with big fingers in mind in no time. And for even more inspiration, check out CSSiPhone, a site that compiles some of the best iPhone-optimized designs from around the web.

And, as always, if you have any questions on best practices on mobile design or development, don't hesitate to get in touch! I'm always available and ready to rock on your next great project.

Thanks for being a part of the Howard Development & Consulting community!

Social Marketing is notoriously difficult – but Facebook's new social plugins make engaging with visitors a breeze.

You've seen it all before: an enthusiastic client pours hours into a Facebook page without seeing tangible results. They get discouraged and stop updating, leaving their pages to become little more than ghost towns – not exactly the image they're hoping to convey to potential customers.

Designers, developers and marketers have longed for a way to better engage visitors on social networks – and not long ago, Facebook unveiled a solution.

The leading social network's new batch of plugins allow users to interact with Facebook friends on external web sites, making it easier for businesses to get their visitors involved in their social campaigns. Hundreds of thousands of companies have rolled these plugins out on their sites, with amazing results:

The Washington Post and ABC News saw 250+ percent increases in traffic from Facebook just a few months after adding their plugins.

And it's not just for big media companies – the plugins are a simple and valuable addition to any site, and a great way to help your client kick-start their social media campaigns.

In the next five minutes, I'll show you:

• How social plugins are dramatically boosting word-of-mouth traffic for all types of companies, from travel agencies to The Washington Post
• Why these plugins are different, and how they create genuine interaction between visitors and goodwill toward a brand
• How you can start integrating these techniques on your web site today

With these new social plugins, a Facebook presence that used to be a ghost town can become a bustling metropolis of mutual interests that spur status updates, wall posts and shared links about these newly Facebook-enabled brands. Here's how it all began:

Connecting with friends outside of Facebook

In the past, a company's interaction with Facebook users was confined to the Facebook.com site – you could create a page or an app, but all interaction with a brand was contained within that app. Lots of pages and apps gained popularity, but for each successful one there were thousands that went unnoticed by their target market.

The new plugins, revealed last year and rapidly gaining steam ever since, allow Facebook friends to interact on external web sites – removing the barrier of finding an app, figuring out how to use it and (at best) remembering to use it again.

Most importantly, visitors can see what their Facebook friends are doing on connected sites without even having to log in – creating huge opportunities for networking, sharing and cozying up to a brand.

When Facebook announced these features, they stirred up some privacy concerns, but as the Facebook account has become more ubiquitous and major brands have further embraced social networking as an integral part of their web sites, those concerns have faded and the value of the social plugins has shone through.

Let's take a look at examples of some of my favorites, starting with the Recommendations plugin that has made me an even bigger fan of my favorite sites.

Automatic social proof with "Recommendations"

The Recommendations box is an unassuming plugin that you'll find on newspapers, magazines and content-driven sites – and it's also one of the best pieces of social promotion ever to hit the web.

This plugin, pictured below in a screenshot from WashingtonPost.com, compiles a list of articles that your Facebook friends have recently “liked” or shared – encouraging you not only to check out the stories, but also to engage with your friends to discuss what they've read. On top of that, all the action inspires you to share your own favorite articles so you show up in your friends' feeds.

The Recommendations box on WashingtonPost.com,
showing my friends' latest activity on the site

The Recommendations plugin creates an incredibly strong feeling of social proof: if my friends get their news from The Post or their laughs from The Onion, it must be the right place for me too. Every item in the recommendations list is a testimonial for that site from a trusted friend. What marketer could wish for more?

The plugin turns every reader into a potential promoter, because those shares and “likes” are getting posted to their Facebook accounts, where hundreds of their friends will have a chance to see the article they enjoyed. As an article gets more popular in a circle of friends, it also gets more likely to appear on other people's feeds, creating a positive feedback loop that means more traffic and more engagement. The stats speak for themselves:

The Washington Post's traffic from Facebook increased 280% just a few months after installing the Recommendations plugin.

The Recommendations plugin creates the sense that you're not just on a web site, but also in a coffee shop where you can chat, interact and share with like-minded friends.

The influence of Facebook's social plugins expands far beyond content-driven, article-based sites. Let's take a look at how smaller sites can catch the new on-site social wave.

The tiny, powerful "Like" button

The Facebook social plugins aren't just for sites generating lots of new content every week – there are plenty of options for more-static sites to make their brands “stickier” with a Facebook connection. The simplest and most common is the “Like” button. It may be tiny, but it packs a real punch in terms of engagement with a brand.

The key benefit of the “Like” button is that it's an alternative to soliciting a newsletter or RSS subscription from a user. By clicking this button, a visitor subscribes to the company's Facebook page, allowing future publications to land on that user's Facebook news feed.

Clicking the "Like" button is a very casual action with very powerful results.

Let's look at some real world examples. While traveling in South America this year, I “liked” a few companies via the buttons on their sites. Here's how each kept me in the loop:

• Alerting me of promotions and deals: Buenos Aires Delivery popped up on my news feed to let me know that sushi deliveries were 20% off – and of course I jumped on the deal.
• Providing useful and enjoyable content: Vamos Spanish Academy posts weekly language-learning tips – and I always recommend them to friends since they are always top-of-mind. 
• Whetting my appetite for more: Gate 1 Travel posts promotions and pictures of their many destinations – and it always sucks me in to daydreaming about my next trip.

The “Like” button allows a brand to communicate with a user while they're in their comfort zone – casually checking the news feed, seeing what friends are up to, and now seeing what their favorite brands are up to as well. A single “like” can make a brand a permanent fixture in a visitor's social world.

The “Like” button and its many cousins (check out the Share, Like Box and Comments plugins for more) are fast and effective ways to add social engagement to a web site. If you're in the market for something even more powerful and have the means to do some additional development, you'll like what's next.

The fully integrated Facebook experience

Some of my favorite Facebook experiences don't take place on the Facebook site at all. Instead, they connect me with friends on external sites that I never would have considered part of my social network.

Exhibit A is TripAdvisor – a site that provides reviews of hotels and travel destinations. I've used the site for years, and one day a new social feature caught my eye: TripAdvisor knew that a Facebook friend had recently reviewed the same hotel I was researching! It gave me an opportunity not only to see (and chuckle at) his review, but also to reach out to him if I had questions or wanted to share my own experience.

Again, I got the feeling that TripAdvisor was cool (and trustworthy) because my friends are using it – and the fact that my friends use the same site adds even more value to the overall experience.

Surprise! My friend has already visited the same city, and
TripAdvisor shows me his review front-and-center.

TripAdvisor also takes it to the next level and allows me to use my Facebook account as my TripAdvisor account, eliminating the need for me to maintain a separate password for a relatively low-priority site and hooking me up with even more cool social features.

My favorite is the social travel map, which allows me to post places I've been and see all the places my friends have posted themselves. It endears me to the TripAdvisor brand and keeps me on the site for much longer than I'd otherwise stay.

My Facebook friends have logged their travels on TripAdvisor,
making for a fun and useful social travel map.

The same concept has been applied to thousands of other sites – for another example, check out Rotten Tomatoes, a movie review site that proudly connects me with 182 friends who have read reviews or opined on their favorite flicks. I even used my Facebook account to connect with a site called Push Ups Logger – and when I accomplish my 100-push-up challenge (four weeks left!), I'll be able to instantly post that to my Facebook wall.

You can connect just about any web site or content management system to Facebook in this way.

Wordpress and ExpressionEngine have add-ons that allow users to connect their web site accounts to their Facebook accounts, just like in the examples above. Throw a little more development into the mix, and the possibilities are nearly limitless.

How to get connected today

Among the host of options we've covered here, there's an excellent Facebook plugin for just about every client and every marketing goal.

How can you get started implementing these simple and powerful new plugins onto your clients' web sites? Head to the Facebook Social Plugins developer page, where you can generate code for all the plugins. In many cases, the copy-and-paste code will automatically recognize the URL of your site, allowing you to add a Recommendations box or "Like" button with very little customization or technical knowledge.

• Generate the "Like" button code
• Generate a "Recommendations" box

Social media has always been trendy – but with Facebook's new, powerful and easy-to-integrate plugins, it's simpler than ever to add genuine social networking value to your clients' sites.

Give it a shot today by adding a social plugin to your site with just a few clicks. And if you have any questions, let me know – I'm always glad to help!

I hope you've enjoyed this article, and I'd love to hear your questions and ideas. Get in touch by phone or e-mail any time. Enjoy your new social connections!

For most clients who need to accept payments online, a full-fledged e-commerce solution is overkill – and it adds a lot of new costs and potential security issues to your project. The good news: there are some great solutions for small and medium-size clients who need e-commerce that are reasonably priced and take the big security concerns off our hands.

In this 18-minute audio consulting session, I discuss the five solutions I use to help designers avoid the biggest pitfall of e-commerce: trying to build your own Amazon.com. I also addressed this question in my recent Designer Q&A Workshop -- check out the recap and audio, which also includes discussion of SEO and social marketing.

Summary: 

• PayPal (4 minutes): We recommend this for clients who need a safe and simple way to accept payments from their visitors, but who don't need a full-featured shopping cart. PayPal is a free and flexible solution that you can use to sell products, subscriptions, memberships and more. Like all these solutions, the actual credit card processing takes place on a third-party server, so we don't have to worry about security. The drawbacks: there can be a bit of a barrier to entry on the checkout pages, because PayPal encourages (or in some cases forces) your visitors to create an account.
• 1ShoppingCart and E-Junkie (9 minutes): These solutions take it a step further, allowing you to provide lots of products, recurring payments, affiliate programs and more through simple links to their hosted checkout pages. They take the security and administration of e-commerce off our hands, and are a popular choice for selling digital products like e-books and subscriptions, though they work for physical products too. They come with a small monthly fee attached, and you can hook them up to PayPal or your own credit card processing merchant account.
• Shopify and Volusion (13:15): These hosted shopping cart solutions are full-featured online stores, so they're a great choice for clients who really do need to replicate the features you'd find on a site like Amazon. They are the most robust of the options here, and they still save us from the security liabilities and costs of hosting our own e-commerce site.

Last week we had a great Designer Q&A Workshop, where we talked about search engine optimization, e-commerce and social marketing, as well as some tips for building and expanding the business of graphic design firms and solo professionals. Thanks so much to Karl at Graphic Beans, Ziv at Vizualle, and the whole team at Orange Element for being a part of the call!

The full audio and recap is below. If you're interested in attending the next free teleseminar, sign up here and I'll let you know when we schedule the next call.

Search Engine Optimization (Start of MP3)

Question: How do I set a client's expectations for an SEO project?

• Search engine optimization isn't about a magic bullet or quick fix. It's one element of a strong marketing campaign, and when we do SEO, we work through a client's business model to find their most valuable customers and figure out the most cost-effective way to target them onilne.
• Remember: SEO isn't about "beating Google," it's about truly answering the questions that Google searchers are asking. That means building great content and positioning your content so it's easy to find.
• I divide SEO into three phases: development, analysis and outreach. The development phase is all about optimizing the code on your site -- making sure your pages are clean, clear and easily indexable, and making sure you have an XML site map and other tools in place so that Google can easily browse all your pages.
• In the analysis phase, we dig into the best keywords to target with your site. I recommend finding keywords that are popular, but not highly competitive -- you would avoid something general like "bookstores" or "restaurants", and instead go for something less competitive but still frequenty searched, such as "thai restaurants in dupont circle".
• The outreach phase is all about creating valuable content and sharing it on authoritative sites. Google measures value by how many sites link to you, and how valuable those sites are. So it makes sense to reach out to big sites (and create relevant, legitimate directory listings) to build your list of authoritative links.

Question: Should I worry about content management systems when it comes to SEO?

If you're working with ExpressionEngine, Wordpress or Drupal, there are plenty of offerings and lots of things you can do to ensure your site is optimized. Since the projects we work on generally don't rely purely on "themes", it's more about what your developer works best with and what makes the most sense for the other content requirements on your site. In my experience, a well-developed site on all of those platforms can be very SEO-friendly.

Question: What's a realistic time-frame in which my client will start seeing "results"?

If you just do a development project, you'll see that your site is more clearly and properly indexed the next time Google spiders it (within a few weeks). When you find some effective keywords and re-write key pages to optimize for those, you should start seeing some movement within a few months. The real traffic boost comes from the outreach phase, where you'll be simultaneously building authority from links on other web sites and getting direct traffic from those authority-building articles. The SEO results of that may take some time to kick in, but the traffic boost from links on high-value web sites will be immediate.

Question: Among my clients, who are the best prospects for an SEO campaign?

Everyone can benefit from a well-executed SEO project, but the types of clients who I think see the biggest value are those with a specific, high-value customer group. For example, if a graphic design firms knows that every major client they sign in a certain industry will generate $10,000 in revenue each year, it makes perfect business sense to spend money on an SEO campaign that could bring in 5 or 6 more clients like that in the next year. On the flip side, if you're not selling a product or service or your site isn't effectively turning your prospects into customers, you might want to step back and work on the business model before spending money on SEO.

E-Commerce (Starting at 34:40)

The biggest mistake in e-commerce development: trying to build your own Amazon.com. For most projects, the client doesn't need anything close to a full-fledged retail store. Building one unnecessarily -- and hosting it yourself -- introduces tons of unnecessary development costs and security liability for you and your client. Instead, try a third-party hosted solution like PayPal, 1ShoppingCart, E-Junkie, Volusion and Shopify. For all the details, check out my Designer's Guide to E-Commerce.

Social Marketing (Starting at 48:35)

The key to effective Twitter and Facebook outreach for small businesses: use social media to keep in touch with your current customers. Everyone has a parade of social icons on their site these days, but in my experience, they're rarely an effective way to bring in new customers who have never encountered your brand. Instead, social networks are an awesome way to keep your current customers engaged. Offer coupons, make advance event announcements, and give people real value from keeping in touch with you through these social services. Check out my in-depth article on getting a return on your social marketing investment.

Boosting Your Business (Starting at 54:15)

A few months back, I mentioned The Wealthy Freelancer as an awesome resource for solo professionals and small business owners looking to hone their business and bring in new customers. In this month's Q&A session, I recommended Book Yourself Solid, an awesome book (with lots of offshoot products) on defining your service, marketing your business and delivering true value to your clients.

Thanks so much for checking out the Q&A Workshop! If you enjoyed it, attend the next session or send me some questions of your own. Thanks for being a part of the Howard Development & Consulting community!

If you've spent more than a month as a freelancer or entrepreneur, you know that cash flow makes and breaks the small business. For years, I wrangled with accounting software, spreadsheets and back-of-the-envelope calculations to give myself an idea of what my income would be a few months down the road. I was never truly satisfied with how I was forecasting my cash flow, and I even started writing my own web app to take care of the problem.

Then I found Pulse, a simple and awesome app that provides a flexible and easy-to-use way to track my income and expenses months into the future. Its interface is friendly and intuitive, and users of Basecamp, Harvest or any of the other similar Web 2.0 business apps will feel right at home. I use the free version, which gives me a month-by-month view of my expected income and expenses, and I'm able to make quick changes to projects and invoices and see how each affects my bottom line.

If you're still scrawling your next few project fees on scrap paper or struggling to keep your spreadsheets up to date, Pulse will be a huge upgrade. Seeing my real numbers several months in advance gives me a boost in confidence and motivates me to keep the new projects rolling in. Check out Pulse, and you'll see why it's my brand new cash-flow crystal ball.

I just spent the week blazing through The Wealthy Freelancer, and it has come out of nowhere to take a top spot on my entrepreneurship bookshelf. The book, written by three prosperous freelance copywriters and released to comparatively little fanfare earlier this month, takes a refreshingly constructive angle on working for yourself.

There's no hyperbole, no promise of waking up at noon and retiring at 25. It's not anti-corporate -- in fact, it embraces the fact that many freelancers' livelihoods depend on the corporate world. And where many books provide great advice and then suggest you "insert your million-dollar idea here," this book presents real, concrete ways to build a financially and personally rewarding business today.

Part of it is the fact that these guys are not Internet buffs. The world of Silicon Valley, whether you love it or reject it or just go to the parties, has affected all of us young web entrepreneurs in a potentially corrosive way. I've gotten incredible value and inspiration from books like Rework, The 4-Hour Work Week and I Will Teach You To Be Rich, but they also left me feeling bad that I have created a "real" job for myself -- even though it's one where I provide an awesome service to clients who appreciate my contribution, treat me with respect and pay me professional rates. That doesn't mesh with the typical Internet mindset, which is more about achieving escape velocity and dumping your clients to build your own empire.

Instead, the authors of The Wealthy Freelancer embrace the career of the successful, professional freelancer. They know you can be wealthy, happy and balanced -- and that it takes work to get there. One of my favorite tenets hits so hard for me because it's so obvious -- but so rarely acknowledged by web entrepreneurs:

"Hold in your mind the expectation that a certain level of success requires a certain amount of honest effort."

As weird as it may sound, that's the piece that is missing from the story of the pipe-dream Internet entrepreneur. It takes a genuine investment of your time, energy and creativity to build something of real value. It feels great to hear from seasoned pros who see running a client-based freelance business as a success in itself, rather than just a stepping stone to selling a product or cashing out.

Where others say "nice work, but you're only halfway there," this book says "you're awesome, and here are 12 ways to keep it up."

Whether you're a web developer, designer, writer or freelancer of any kind, The Wealthy Freelancer gets a big recommendation from me. It takes a great attitude and positive tone, and it delivers valuable advice on conquering the mental, social, financial and technical challenges of running your own firm. The site also includes three free chapters and a great blog, so check it out, and enjoy the rush of being an awesome entrepreneur!

P.S.: I read this book on the Kindle iPhone app, and, just like the Classics app, having a book in my pocket rocked my world.

I've recently worked with a number of my clients to pitch the ExpressionEngine content management system -- it's by far my favorite, and it has earned a great reputation that is spreading fast. One of my favorite things is its commercial, professional nature: like many products, putting it behind a small pay wall dramatically improves the quality of both the software and the development community that has grown around it.

The fact that EE is already a commercial product also opens the door for third-party developers to build high-quality add-ons -- and make some extra dough in the process, allowing them to offer better support and better software. Here's a list of my favorite commercial EE add-ons, which are the icing on the cake for the thousands of smaller open-source contributions that make the CMS great. There's a price tag on each, but they pay for themselves every time.

Structure

The Structure module allows you to build a simple, flexible site hierarchy, making it easy to share templates across multiple pages. It also makes the control panel editing process leaps and bounds easier for the client to understand: they just see a site map, click on the title of the page, and make any changes they desire. It's not perfect for every site or content type, but for a lot of sites, it makes content management a breeze.

Wygwam

Speaking of editing content, the Wygwam extension hooks EE users up with the best what-you-see-is-what-you-get editor I've encountered so far... and I do a lot of content editing. It integrates seamlessly with EE's upload directories, allows you to create as many different toolbar combos as you need, and works with FieldFrame Matrix, allowing you to create more complex custom fields and more flexible content.

User

For sites that need more complex user signup and management, the User module frees you to build custom templates for all your member-related forms. By default, a lot of these forms are stuck in the somewhat rigid default EE templates (in the 1.x versions, at least), so this really frees you up to build a member interface to your unique needs. Also check out Tag, Rating, Favorites and many more from the same developer, Solspace.

Playa

Perhaps the most sexily named of the EE add-ons, Playa adds some promiscuity to your ExpressionEngine content. Built by the same prolific developer as Wygwam and FF Matrix, it allows you to create robust relationships between your blogs and content types, complete with AJAX filters and search options to ensure that your clients can pinpoint just the right content on a larger site. Although I build a lot of sites that don't need this functionality, this plugin has been my salvation on more complex jobs.

There are tons more great add-ons out there, too. Check out the EE Forums and Devot-EE for a vast database of options -- or just Google "ExpressionEngine" + whatever you need to do. There's something out there for just about everything.

In other news, don't miss my first published extension, Control Panel Home Page Redirect. What are your favorite ExpressionEngine add-ons?

I just got back from the National Aquarium, where (among tons of other great attractions) I came face to face with some "creatures of the abyss" -- animals that exist in a frigid, sunless environment at the bottom of the ocean's deepest crevices.

At first glance, it seems like they shouldn't be able to exist: without sun, there's no life. Without light, how do they get around? With minimal food, how do they survive? But there's a great lesson to learn from the fact that these crazy, beautiful underwater critters thrive in the place where there should be no life at all: you can survive anywhere if you just change the rules.

As small business owners and entrepreneurs, we can do the same. If your start-up budget is low, skip the useless expenses like brand new computers and fancy business cards. If your cash flow can't support a big office and dozens of employees, scale down and save tons of money by working from home. If your high-maintenance clients are cramping your style, ditch them and focus on the ones that will make you happier and help you build a better lifestyle.

In doing so, you'll also learn something that all our friends in nature know well: you can't do everything, and you can't survive everywhere. Thriving in one environment means you'll have to eliminate some others -- which means building and perfecting your niche. In the same sense that a creature's adaptations to the ocean abyss make it unsuitable for life around a coral reef, my choice of a niche means I say no to a lot of projects that aren't up my alley. It also means that I excel in my chosen environment, and live a successful and happy lifestyle as a result.

How have you adapted your business to your environment and lifestyle -- and what rules would you like to change?