A microformat is semantic mark up that is added to an (X)HTML document to give meaning to particular data on the page. In most cases, this mark up is in the form of common class names. This gives other applications the ability to classify information that already exists on the page.

Just what kind of data can be marked up with microformats?

Currently, microformats can be used for:

• contact information (think vCards)
• events (think Google calendar, iCalendar, etc.)
• Atom feeds
• reviews (product, movie, music, etc.)
• resumes
• discouraging posted spam
• tagging
• lists
• social relationships

In the works are microformats for citations and currency among others. Imagine how online shopping could be affected if you could use the power of microformats to compare prices real time.

For most business-oriented websites, the two to focus on would be contact information and events, which would allow your tech-savvy site users to add that information to their address books and calendars without copy/paste acrobatics.

Now let’s ground this in some reality.

This is currently a fringe technology and not widely supported—yet. It’s as RSS was a few years ago. The early adopters had to find and install RSS aggregators. As it became more mainstream, browsers like Firefox and Safari began to support it, and eventually with the release of Internet Explorer 7, everyone could subscribe to RSS feeds within a click or two.

Microformats are in that early stage. For you to be able to access microformats right now, you’ll need to be proactive and find the tools to use. If you use Firefox (and you should for many reasons), and want a peek into the future you can download the Operator extension for it.

Firefox already has plans for microformat integration in Firefox 3, and you can be sure that Microsoft will follow. Once that happens, microformats will become mainstream and people will get frustrated when they are not supported, forcing them to copy and paste the information they want.

Basic Signatures

Make it easy for people to find you, put your contact info in every single response.  Every standard email program has a signature field you can fill out.  Use it.

You should put your signature in the initial sending and every reply.  Keep it simple, with your name, business, phone, website, and perhaps your fax/email.  Nothing fancy is needed, but putting it in every reply makes it super easy for someone to contact you once they get your email.

Disclaimers

I know as lawyers, we love to disclaim.  However, is something like this really needed?

CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This e-mail transmission (and/or the attachments accompanying it) may contain confidential information belonging to the sender which is protected by the attorney-client privilege. The information is intended only for the use of the intended recipient. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying, distribution or the taking of any action in reliance on the contents of this information is strictly prohibited. Any unauthorized interception of this transmission is illegal. If you have received this transmission in error, please promptly notify the sender by reply e-mail, and then destroy all copies of the transmission.

IRS CIRCULAR 230 NOTICE:  To ensure compliance with recently enacted U.S. Treasury Department regulations, we hereby advise you that, unless otherwise expressly stated, any and all tax advice contained in this communication has neither been written nor intended by the sender or this firm for the use of any taxpayer for the purpose of evading or avoiding tax penalties that may be imposed pursuant to U.S. law.  Furthermore, unless otherwise expressly indicated, the use of any tax advice contained in this communication has neither been written nor intended by the sender or this firm for the purpose of promoting, marketing, or recommending a partnership or other entity, investment plan or arrangement to any taxpayer, and such taxpayer should seek advice on the taxpayer’s particular circumstances from an independent tax advisor.

Seriously, WTF? I know that the IRS dipped its ugly head into the email arena last year when it published the Circular 230 and tax lawyers now have to put that into their emails.  Of course, didn’t anyone complain at that time?  Did no lawyer or IT person speak up and say this is ridiculous?

Since we have a lot of lawyers as clients, I see there signatures on a daily basis.  It surprises me that a lot of firms use that (or some slight variation) as their email signature.  This is a waste of resources and waste of time for several reaons.

First, has anyone ever really read the full disclaimer?  I venture to guess that perhaps a law clerk or junior associate who wrote this initially read it, and perhaps the partner who approved it, but no one else has.  No client, no opposing counsel, nor anyone else has ever read the disclaimers. So why use them if no one will read them?  Does it really protect the firm?  I am pretty sure that the disclaimer will not protect anyone in a court of law.  Can you just imagine this scene:

“Sorry your honor, I did not mean to send this confidential email to the ATLA listserve.  Can you please protect my client’s confidential business secret.  I did have this two paragraph disclaimer at the bottom of the email.  Everyone should have known by that to not forward the email on to their friends.”

Ridiculous.

Second, the disclaimers have a nasty habit of triggering spam filters.  I have seen it time and time again, where law firms call wondering why their email is not getting to their clients.  It’s because their clients are businesses and don’t want to be hit with spam.  Often, the language in the disclaimer is what triggers the spam filter to block the message.  Of course, perhaps it’s doing the client a service by blocking lawyer comments.

Finally, that message takes up 20 KB just on its own. I love it when I get an email from someone that says something short like “OK” and its followed by the large disclaimer.  Now 20 KB is really not a lot of disk space for a single email, but if you multiply that by all the lawyers sending emails in the world every day, and you start to add up to some bandwidth savings:

1 Million Lawyers X 50 emails per day X 20KB = 1,000,000,000 KB of info in just disclaimers.  That is 976,562 MB, or 953 GB per day of wasted space.  Nearly 1 TB of information per day is just being wasted.  Of course, this is the legal community, so waste of time / resources is not something new.

Anyways, if you must put the disclaimer in your email by law, then please do so.  However, keep your confidential disclaimers short and sweet.  Finally, make sure that your contact info at least proceeds all disclaimers.

The Shane McGee Foundation was formed by the McGee family, to honor their son, Shane, who died in a preventable automobile fuel-fed fire. This tragedy and subsequent Wrongful Death and Catastrophic Injury trial was chronicled in the media, including the television news show, 60 Minutes. While the accident was tragic and needless, it did ultimately result in visibility into this issue, as well as improving automotive design to prevent these types of fires. The Shane McGee Foundation was formed in the belief that losing one person to unsafe products is too high of a price to pay.

The Shane McGee Foundation is a 501(c)3 Private Operating Foundation incorporated in Florida. The Foundation is self-funded by the McGees with the sole purpose of educating consumers…educating them about the proper usage of safe consumer products; about dangerous products; and about news that affects all of us and our wellbeing.

One of the most common questions I am asked is how much does it cost for a web site?  I am asked this question at least three or four times daily.  The requests range from responding to formal RFP’s, to responding to emails contacts, to some odd phone calls in “What does it cost to put a page on the internets?”  Yes, I was asked “internets”, plural.  We even have various competitors call and try to get our information.

I am going to detail my answer by going over various pricing models and then our pricing model.  However, before we delve into the various pricing models, we must first separate the pricing model of template to custom design.

Template Designs
Template designs, or cookie-cutter designs, are pre-existing web sites.  You can find these templates pre-installed with various design programs and web hosts.  There are also design companies who have already created a standard design and sell it for a reduced rate.  There is even www.monstertemplates.com that has some pretty decent templates.

Template designs are a good choice if you have a limited budget.  Typically you can pick up a template design ranging from free to several hundred dollars.  You can then get the template modified by a web designer for some additional costs.  All in all, the cost of a template design rarely exceeds $1500 for a brochure style site.  Pretty good start for a new company on a budget.

Custom Design Pricing
If you want a unique image though, you will need to go custom.  Custom designs take time, because well…they are all custom.  Custom web designers pricing models range from flat rate, to hourly rate, to per page rate.

Note that every design company also has additional expenses such as hosting fees, content fees, optimization fees, pay per click fees, photo fees, content management fees, database design, and more.  However, this article mainly deals with web design fees.

Flat Rate (Project Rate)
Flat rate projects are pretty straight forward.  Designers will quote out $3000, $5000, or $30,000 to create a web site.   Typically design firms base their rates on their costs + the profit they want to make.  So if their cost is $2000 to create the site, they may charge $3000 to sell you a design.  The key here is that the web designer must know how long the site will take to design, what their costs are, and factor in enough time for any uncertainties.  The pros of this style of budgeting are that everyone knows how much the site is going to cost.  The cons is that design changes can create havoc in terms of budgeting.

Hourly Rate
The hourly rate model is the pay as you go model.  A lot of freelancers use this model for projects.  They quote out an estimate of 60 to 70 hours to produce a web site and then state that their hourly rate is $50 per hour.  Now you have a budget of $3000 to $3500 for the web site.  The pros of this model is that the designer gets paid for their time.  The cons is that the designer gets paid for their time.  Yes, it cuts both ways.  It is a fair pricing model if the designer is quick and good.  However, billing is always tricky under this model and people’s expectations of time come into play.

Page Rate
Page rate is simply charging a fee for every page created.  In this pricing model, each page is assigned a cost, such as $100, $150, or $200 per page.  Depending on how many pages your site needs, you will have your budget.  So if you site is a ten page site and each page costs $150, then your budget would be $1500.  If you have a 50 page site, then your cost would be $7500.  The pros of this model is that theoretically everyone knows how much the site will cost.  The cons is that there will be arguments over pages and what constitutes a page.  Also, large sites may end up costing more and on small sites designers may end up doing more work than the project generates.

PaperStreet Pricing & Reasoning
At PaperStreet we use the flat rate for most of our projects.  We base that flat rate on our hourly rate times the estimated number of hours for the project.  Wow, this is it?  Yup, this is the entire formula.  This is not really rocket science and the formula has worked for several years now.  We use this model because it simplifies our billing process and creates fewer hassles.

We do not charge by the hour because it always makes clients uncomfortable.  Somehow lawyers are still able to get away with charging by the hour, but they are just about the only professions, except for some illicit professions, that still do this.  If you a professional designer, or a professional in any industry, you should be able to provide an exact estimate on how long it will take you to do a project.  If you provide an hourly estimate on the design that includes specific deliverables, then in essence you are charging by a flat rate.  However, a lot of freelancers and even web companies still charge by the hour.  We find that the flat rate model appeals to more clients as they know exactly what they are paying for our designs.

We don’t charge by the page because it creates a variety of logistical and billing issues. One issue, what is a page?  Is it a MS Word page?  An html page?  A pop-up page?  A confirmation page?  It just becomes a mess explaining to the client that two sentences on this extra .html page just cost them $150.  We prefer simple over the complex.  Another issue is that we have never had a site launch based on the original page count.  Web designs are always in flux, so the pricing could change and you end up with billing disputes.  Finally, if you are offering a package of 5 pages or 10 pages, sometimes clients are forced into cramming content onto one page, when it really belongs on its own separate category.

In the past five years our pricing model has led to exactly one billing dispute, and that was on a logo project where a printer was using a 10 year old copy of Adobe PageMaker (long story).  Again, we prefer simple pricing over complex.  With our model of a flat rate project for any number of pages, our designs have free reign to put content where it belongs, and know that all the while they are getting a good deal with our flat rate.

Now there are some drawbacks to our pricing model, but they are mainly due to the nature of custom design.  With any custom design there is a high startup cost for the first page because you must design and then build that page.  The second page, if based on the same design, is easily created, just like you would create a new page in Microsoft Word.  However, to design a concept always takes a few days and a few more days to build. So there is always a design minimum of about thirty hours of work (15 for the design and 15 for the build).   Obviously, our pricing model does not work well for people who want four page design.  This is because they really could be getting a ten page design, twenty page design, or thirty page design for the same price.  Of course, I have yet to run into a business that really only wants a few pages.

So there is our pricing structure, feel free to use.  Simply multiple your hourly rate times the number of hours it will take to do the project.  We also recommend putting in some extra few hours, as every project has a few hassles to deal with. Be upfront in the pricing and everyone will be happier.

PaperStreet Web Design is looking forward to designing a new web site for Greyhound Ranch Adoptions, Inc.. The new web site’s goal is to create an easy to navigate and visually appealing experience that depicts the organization’s unique image.

About Greyhound Ranch Adoptions, Inc.
http://greyhoundranch.org/

Greyhound Ranch Adoptions, Inc. is a non-profit Greyhound adoption organization located in Central Florida. The fundamental mission of the Ranch is to provide shelter and medical care to Greyhounds who have retired from racing activities. Our mission is achieved by providing foster-care and rehabilitation programs for these beautiful canines as they transition from the life of a regimented trained athlete to a household pet. The Ranch is also dedicated to readying the Greyhounds for adoption by greyt parents into qualified homes, and educating the public regarding the history and development of the Greyhound breed.

About PaperStreet Web Design
http://www.paperstreet.com

PaperStreet creates new web sites and revitalizes aging ones. PaperStreet has been designing web sites for over four years now. Our company has produced over 150 custom web sites for lawyers, doctors, vets, and businesses.

We have several accomplished web designers, programmers, and content writers on staff. Our combined talents produce compelling web sites that achieve results. More information on our services is below:

Web Design: PaperStreet has the ability to create a professional web site from scratch. PaperStreet can also redesign your existing web site for a more professional image.

Content Writing: Whether you need a few pages written, existing copy edited, or total content development, our staff writers and editors create compelling, clean copy.

Search Engine Optimization: Can you find your web site when you search on AOL, Yahoo! or Google? Top search rankings lead directly to more web traffic, which in turn leads to more clients. PaperStreet can assist in obtaining top rankings.

Internet Marketing & PPC Advertising: We can give your web site more exposure by creating Google and Overture pay-per-click and banner advertising campaigns.

Newsletters: This form of advertising is great for generating repeat traffic to your web site by providing immediate communication with clients.

Content Management: Need to add your breaking news to the web site? How about adding a new attorney or practice area? Our content management system gives you the ability to edit your own site at any time, from any where, instantly.

For more information please visit www.paperstreet.com.

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 About Palm Beach County ALA
http://pbcala.org/

The Association of Legal Administrators (ALA) is a global organization of more than 9,000 members, whose professional concern is the effective management of government, corporate and private agencies and departments devoted to the delivery of legal services. Our Palm Beach County Chapter is but one of nine ALA chapters in the state of Florida.

About PaperStreet Web Design
http://www.paperstreet.com
PaperStreet creates new web sites and revitalizes aging ones. PaperStreet has been designing web sites for over four years now. Our company has produced over 150 custom web sites for lawyers, doctors, vets, businesses and now auto manufacturers.

We have several accomplished web designers, programmers, and content writers on staff. Our combined talents produce compelling web sites that achieve results. More information on our services is below:

Web Design: PaperStreet has the ability to create a professional web site from scratch. PaperStreet can also redesign your existing web site for a more professional image.

Content Writing: Whether you need a few pages written, existing copy edited, or total content development, our staff writers and editors create compelling, clean copy.

Search Engine Optimization: Can you find your web site when you search on AOL, Yahoo! or Google? Top search rankings lead directly to more web traffic, which in turn leads to more clients. PaperStreet can assist in obtaining top rankings.

Internet Marketing & PPC Advertising: We can give your web site more exposure by creating Google and Overture pay-per-click and banner advertising campaigns.

Newsletters: This form of advertising is great for generating repeat traffic to your web site by providing immediate communication with clients.

Content Management: Need to add your breaking news to the web site? How about adding a new attorney or practice area? Our content management system gives you the ability to edit your own site at any time, from any where, instantly..

No Drugs No Prison - Just Opportunity
http://www.nodrugsnoprison.com

NDNPJO has just started with a new partnership with the Juvenile Justice Department, for our Teen Support group to have teens court ordered to our program and make the parents be held responsible for the actions of their children by participating in the program with their children.

1. Teen Support Group: ages 12 - 18 years
2. Teen Court Support
3. Teen Anger Management
4. Help with Job Placement
5. Drug & Gun Classes
6. Adult Support : Domestic Violence/Legal Forms & Information
7. Community Services Hours
8. Adult Court Support
9. Rehabilitation Program
10. Six months to two years and prison evaluation

This organization has serviced south St. Petersburg in our teen support after school program and is now servicing teens in our teen court support, working with Juvenile Justice and Juvenile court to also hold the parent responsible for their children actions by having them participate in the teen program. We are also in the adult court system to help rehabilitate inmates by referring them to treatment programs. We have just started our new prison evaluation program to find out why so many adults that go to prison from low-income areas are repeat offenders.

About PaperStreet Web Design
http://www.paperstreet.com

From time to time PaperStreet gives back to the community by donating web sites to organizations and groups in need. PaperStreet has created web sites for networking groups, bar associations, and other charity organizations.

If you are an organization that is in need of a new web site or a redesign of your site, give us a call. We cannot guarantee that we will take on your project, but we have a soft spot for web sites in need of assistance.

PaperStreet has been designing web sites for over four years now. Our company has produced over 100 custom web sites. We have several accomplished web designers, programmers, and content writers on staff. Our combined talents produce compelling web sites that achieve results.

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