@Dayo

God bless you, Bro.
Really apreciate that.

Novice to Yoruba language here and I can't start rifling through 159 pages (of this thread) for a possible answer to my question.

Can someone provide me translations for the following words/phrases urgently:

English to Yoruba

[list]
[li]Travel[/li]
[li]"Come and See"[/li]
[li]Nature[/li]
[li]Welcome Home[/li]
[/list]

Make them as short as possible, please.
Thanks in advance.

OmniPotens,
That's a tough act to follow. Mine is a one-liner. .
But I wish everyone a happy and prosperous new year. I hope together we can work to raise the level of professionalism in the Nigerian industry.

God bless you all real good and more success to you. Now I'm off to my watchnight service.

Happy News Year, folks.

Wishing you all a successful year and here's hope we get to see more professional Nigerian web products in the coming year ahead.

Here's my wishes for the year ahead.

yawa-ti-de:

yeah pie1ct,

I think one way of being able to charge more for our services would be advertising. I have brought this up before on this forum and was basically laughed at. IMHO, if you advertise, you attract the big fish. The big fish will only go after "bait" that they assume can afford to put ads on the airwaves. In turn, you are able to charge such more money because after all, for one, you have to charge them for the ads you put out - transfer of cost. Of course, the only caveat is, when they start calling, you have the resources to handle all of them because they will come.

Yeah, when they start calling, you should have the resources to handle them. I agree packaging and presentation really does matter in this industry. But, if you are a small firm and you don't have an advertising budget, you should still be able to compete by networking and upselling. But one way or another, you've got to get yourself out there, make yourself or your firm visible to the "big fish".

yawa-ti-de:

Here are some other sites I dug up that are "sister" websites:
- www.pioneernewsonline.com and www.pioneerng.com

- www.akwaibomstategov.com and www.aksgonline.com

e pass na wa. na waiya

My brother, de tin fear man o. How clients can accept such a shoddy job is beyond me. What some Nigerian developers don't understand is that there is so much money to be made in Nigeria. I don't even know whether they really don't get it or they are only too eager to turn a profit, however small it may be. There is a huge market potential in Nigeria. The hotel sector seems untouched)and I mean untouched, the real estate sector is there among others. These are clients you can sell your services to, and in addition make money by selling them add-on services.

Few months back, I talked to a few major firms in the country about their [i]existing [/i]websites and they all agreed they needed improvements in specific areas. These guys were willing to pay as much as N200,000 monthly for a service which would have cost me less than half of that to provide. Then I was planning to move to Nigeria and I was scoping out the market. As things turned out, I couldn't make the move then (which I most definitely will), but it opened my eyes to the very real prospect of what is possible for a professional web application development firm at home.

People just want quick money and are only too eager to sacrifice long-term benefits for the short-term gains and the results are just frightfully appalling.

OmniPotens:

@pie1ect
One more thing here people should understand, from my own point of view is that, depending on the business environment you find yourself in, you should adopt their domain tld.

OmniPotens,
What you are suggesting is that clients should be required to use a TLD even if it is not in their business interest. I think they should be given the choice but they should choose what they want, because ultimately it is a business decision, afterall.

Check this out - Adgator uses a .co.za TLD and they say they are an African advertising network for bloggers.

For now, they may be successful but I don't reckon they'll go very far with that kind of domain name if a rival African firm (with a .com TLD or something more inclusive) opens its doors to African bloggers, because the perception is that they are trying to pass off their brand as a South African brand, rather than a global or continental brand. I think it is highly unlikely that Linkshare or clickbank would have been as successful as they are today if they had gone with a .us domain name, and that is why there is a .com.

Nigerian brands should by all means use a .ng TLD if you want to sell yourself as a Nigerian brand but where that is not the intention, by all means use a .com TLD.

I think the decision to use a .ng domain name should be given to clients but not forced on them. The .com domain name does not mean your website is US-based. let's be very clear on that. It means it is a [b]COM[/b]mercial website (at least that was the original intention), and that is why it's so popular - it is a generic TLD. So the idea that Nigerians are not being proud of their country when they don't use the .ng domain name is flawed, in my opinion.
The reason why the .com TLD is perceived as American is simple - it was originally issued by some US agency and though maintenance of the TLD has transferred from organization to organization, it is still administered by an American agency or firm.

Not many US companies go with .us domains, as not all UK companies go with .co.uk. The problem with getting a country-code TLD is that you are perceived as not open for business to the rest of the world - you are only open for business to people in that country or region (as in the .eu domain names).

If I am a shoe designer based in Nigeria and I need a website, I go with .com TLD, because in all likelihood, I might grow to become an international brand in the future.

Now if I am a Nigerian e-commerce provider (like a Nigerian ebay, for instance) I should go with a .com.ng TLD, because this is my target audience and I don't intend to change that. However, I register .com and whatever else for security and to avoid legal battles later.

yawa-ti-de:

pie1ct,

Nice article.  The one thing that we as Nigerian developers should apply more than anything is the testing part.  How many times have you seen a website advertised here for review full of broken links, inconsistent layouts between browsers, forms that don't validate, etc? It seems once we hand over a site to a client and the client approves, we could care less, as long as the client didn't observe anything.

As professionals, we have a reputation to maintain.  I personally for instance could probably whip up a site in 2 or 3 days.  However, I hate finding errors or having people identify errors to me so I tell my clients that it takes me 2 weeks to do a site, granted it will take me a week or less. 

I believe in incremental testing, with 3 different browsers (IE6, IE7, FF) open at all times - I put up the header, I test.  I put up the navigation, I test.  And it goes on and on.  It is better to identify a problem as it occurs as opposed to putting up an entire site and trying to figure out the source.

Thanks Yawa. Professionalism is sadly lagging behind in the Nigerian web design industry. We can only improve it by discussing it constantly (as is done everywhere else) and it has to be a joint effort by [i]real [/i]professionals in the industry. This discussion also has to involve clients as well, as their lack of awareness is one of the main drivers of the low level of professionalism in the industry. When clients begin to demand professionalism, they'll get it but as long as they don't demand it. . .
 
Take Tinapa, calabar for instance. They've got two websites that I'm aware of. One is a picture, the other is . . a website. A website with almost all the wrong shades of color.  I'm sure the designer of the "website" will have collected hundreds of thousands for that site. Why not make it look professional? And why leave tinapa.com(the picture site) to go to waste, why not re-direct it to the main site or at least provide some information about the new site.
I guess the designer of both sites will tell you "the client is happy with what they got". I'm sure they are, they don't know it could be better. They don't know an organization like Tinapa should have booking facilities on their websites as their clients come from home and abroad.

I heard this quote somewhere "If you think hiring a professional is expensive, wait till you see the cost of hiring an amateur".

Professional Website Design - It's Easy When You Know How!

You know what you want, you can see it in your mind's eye. Now it's time to actually put your website design down on paper. But you're wondering where to start. How do you go about professional website design. To be honest it's not black magic and here are some easy steps to follow.

Read the rest of this entry

OmniPotens:

@pie1ect

Are saying that there is still nothing for us (web developers) to show? Just as you pointed out www.facebook.com for an example, does it mean people are looking at it just from the front end and not the back-end functionality involved?

There is something to show. But the question is who are you showing this stuff to? Are you trying to show your web-savvy client or colleague OR are you trying to show an everyday website user?

If you are going to show off anything, show it to people who will appreciate what they are seeing. Code is gibberish to the majority of web users and so it should be. People either respect what you do or they don't.
What we are really trying to get at is "how do we separate web designers from developers in the public's eye?"
I don't think that will be done anytime soon. Most people think websites are created by drag-and-drop, they are not aware there is a virtual brick and mortar element involved and they are entitled to think that way.

smartsoft:

see what you don't understand is,  an ordinary man out there will see a facebook and say " o boy i like this website ooo the designer try well well".

I think it's because they only interact with the front-end. If there were some kind of screen where they can see the files running around cyberspace trying to communicate with servers around the world, maybe they'd think differently but software development demands "layers of abstraction" and the layer the user interacts with (the interface) is what he comes to appreciate. To the everyday user of software, the interface is the software. As long as that interface allows him to accomplish tasks easily, then that's fine.

Bottom line, if you want to show your stuff then show it to people who'll appreciate it.

"How would you explain what you do to such a person?"

I think most people are becoming aware that there is a lot going on in the background than what meets the eye and they are beginning to show more respect for functionality. The thing is they don't realize that both ends, in most cases are not done by the same person, or people.

Why not just tell the person - "here's what I do, I make www.whatever.com work the way it does. Without my work, it would not really exist".

If you go trying to explain how the code works and tell them about what you've done so far that is so marvelous and expect people to sing for you, you won't be that successful. We've got to accept that designers are the "face" of the industry in much the same way architects (and not the developers themselves) are the people who get praised when a really grand building is unveiled.
You cannot change years of stereotype in a blink. Today, most people still equate a web designer to an artist who actually draws and paints his work him/herself. If these roles are going to be better explained to a lay-person, it may be important to do it in-context. So while it may be easy for the designer to say I [b]designed [/b]www.flashywebsite.com, it will pay the developer to say I [b]created [/b]www.web2.0website.com (one with real functionalities), not some aesthetic masterclass.
I bet you the creators of Facebook don't have to identify themselves as developers to anyone.

Until PHP, java and other web programming languages become a normal speaking langauge for everyone, you will not be able to show your code off to just anyone, because it simply will not impress anybody. They don't understand it as it's not in their language. People may look at you and say "wow, you must be one brilliant soul", but deep down they are really asking "what the hell is he showing me. What does he want me to do with this" except this is done within the present context (at the time).

Has this suddenly become a piracy joint where people now post all sort of software requests?

No offense meant, but if you cannot afford commercial software, why not look for some free ones you can download instead.

I know. . .I know. It's an old post, but I just stumbled on it.

I think this could have been a great discussion if the poster hadn't gone all "corporate" on us.

Anyways, I would really like to see a proper Nigerian Blog Aggregator.

Sturvs is Ok, but it seems you have to post to the site and then link that to your website. It doesn't really pull content automatically (correct me if I'm wrong).

If that's really the case, then we really do need something better. Something like amatomu.com - the South African blog aggregator.

I would also like to see a Nigerian website with a great user interface (one which doesn't look too boxy or table-ly). Just a wish.

This really goes both ways.

There are the odd number of designers out there who really only care about making a quick buck. However, you can not use that small number as a metric for measuring the reliability of designers.

If anything, the most unreliable people are clients. OMG, don't even get me started. I read [url=http://www.zeldman.com/2008/12/04/20-signs-you-don't-want-that-web-design-project/]this post[/url] on Zeldman last week, which made me laugh so hard, because all of it is sooo true.

The worst is when you've gone ahead to request a deposit from your client after apparently getting your requirements analysis and project plan in place. And then you don't hear from him again for weeks. He's always busy, or something. The one day you manage to get a hold of him, he tries to convey the importance of finishing his project like, yesterday. And then no-show for days.

The next time you manage to get in touch with him after another 2-3 weeks, he's now completely oblivious as to the original  purpose of setting up the website in the first place. He now talks in very vague terms, telling you "you are the expert, just do something that'll work" without remembering what "work" really entails for that particular site, and then you are back to square zero, and the worst is that this client has made a financial commitment to this project.

I know what you are thinking. . . .Yeah,  I'm talking from experience and it can be so frustrating. I actually had a client recently who thought he (one man and his 16 year old son, maybe) could sit down and type LIVE taxi information into his website for users. This was weeks after he assured me there was a source of Live Data from the local government transport office in Manchester.

I try to keep up with my clients and make things as easy for them as possible. I created a project portal  to which I grant every client temporary access so we don't have to meet every time and to cut out sending huge files via email. They can upload any type of files, make suggestions and do pretty much anything.
But there are those clients who are just not worth the time.

So when you talk about un-reliability of designers and developers, also take into account, there are also unreliable clients and while there is no standard for measuring unreliability yet, I think clients would rank lower on a reliability scale.

@Original post

Based on those websites you posted, I'd say 20-30,000 seems about right. But why settle for spare change when you could quadruple your value by spending 2-4 weeks upgrading your skills and adding new ones?

With a little bit more acquired knowledge, you could really set yourself apart.

@Yawa

I was playing around with a PHP quiz application yesterday and this crazy Idea entered my head. I ended creating something rather decent with <span>, <dd>, <dl> and <dt>.

I haven't seen anyone create a full site with UL/LI and I don't think it's workable. For a one column site, maybe but for a three column site, you need DIVs. You actually need to specify dimensions of the columns and those attributes don't apply to UL/LI tags, as far as I'm aware. The closest you can come is defining it's "type" which is not that helpful.

Thanks for bring that to my notice, yawa. Your comment has been added.

Thanks guys.
This article just in -

Who really owns a website?

I was having this debate with a few colleagues of mine recently about software ownership in a case where there is no contract between client and supplier (web designer). It may come as a surprise, but even today, too many web designers and web design clients prefer to skip this particularly thorny issue at the beginning of a project only to be forced to deal with it much later (and often in a not-so-friendly manner).

Read the rest of the entry

And please post your comments

pie, e b like say them take Joomla swear for you

I know, almost all my recent sites are joomla-based and I don't see any end in sight. I just love the simplicity and the fact it's highly scalable.

It is one thing to come up with what you have but a totally different thing to keep the folks coming back by keeping the content fresh.

This was one point which I had to really think about. Luckily, Joomla allows me (not unlike any other blogging software) to auto-publish and unpublish content items, so I can just load articles in batch at the beginning of each week, and let it do it's thing. Of course, I provide "oversight".

Thanks for the links and the article. I'll add them.

in favor of posts that actually make us think  and debate issues.

Yeah, my sentiment exactly.

Thanks again

Implementing CAPTCHA during registration should be neccesary. At least, that'll reduce the number of bot registrations. The implementing a maths puzzle for New topics - I think it may help reduce bot posts even more. Of course, they can also reply to existing posts.

This SPAM problem is one of the vices with forum software. Seun needs to do something about it, though.

@Yawa
Thanks. I already started the thread. You can comment away now.

My website of course, is the best Nigerian website

Seriously though, I think Nairaland has already got the title for best Nigerian website. In terms of design, it's really worrying that the only sites occuring to me right now, are the really bad ones.
_{I need to change my drink.}

Best - Of all the popular Nigerian websites, this seems to be the most consistent and functional one. So yeah, my vote goes to Nairaland.

Hi Guys,

I finally launched my web design blog and here's the address. www.webpromag.co.uk

Please check it out and let me know what y'all think.

I intend to update this thread with posts from the blog - I hope that is not illegal, Omnipotens.

Anyways, your feedback will be appreciated.

I was beginning to think I was the only one noticing it. It's such a turn-off when you are looking for a credible post to read/reply to, you have to sift through these extremely offensive titles. Seun should do something about this, isn't there like a way to implement CAPTCHA in SMF, or can't you deploy ASKIMET? I really don't think implement CAPTCHA for new topics will be that difficult.

Glad I got that off my chest.

Yawa. . How you dey?

I finally launched my web design blog yesterday - [WebPro. Please, check it out and tell me what you think - I'm starting a new thread which I will be updating.

Thanks.

@Topic

I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, very easy to follow.

Good work.

I think this will really change things. Website owners will have to sit up and work on optimizing their sites for relevance to search terms and the general google search user will be better served.

I'm impressed so far.

Anybody checked out the latest intro from google?

Go to google search and type in anything. The search results all come up with these option buttons, including comments .
Seems google are introducing interaction into search, users recommending search results to other users.

How much more can we accomplish with Web 2.0?

@Vichel

Take life easy, man. You could hurt yourself with all that anger.
I think Amodu has done well so far, winning all his qualification matches and trying to establish his own philosophy. Every coach has a philosophy and Amodu's has worked up until now. I'm very sure we will qualify for the world cup.
let me ask you this - When we were playing 'attractive' football, we were losing wc qualification to the likes of Angola. So if we are now playing more cautiously and not losing as much, why would you want to revert back to something which hasn't worked in years?
We have this idea that because we've got so many attacking players in the team, we should be playing an attacking formation each game, but it doesn't work like that. The best coaches know this and they adapt their teams to meet the challenge at hand.
If this Nigerian team wins the nations Cup or whatever playing boring football, nobody will be crying. I agree there are more attack-minded coaches who may or may not get the Super Eagles playing nice football and winning, but we don't know that for sure. Amodu has done well so far, give the man a chance and cool down on the anger.

I like the concept, brilliant work but the implementation looks like it is lagging behind.
The site does not work properly in Firefox (which is my default browser). Maybe it's just me.

There's still some work to be done, but I daresay these guys have laid down the gauntlet, it's for others to take it up now.
There's so much that yet to be done with regards to IT in Nigeria, and it represents a major opprtunity for all Nigerian youths. There's so much success out there we can replicate in Nigeria.

You cannot create an auto-responder using HTML.
The easiest way to go about it would be to configure your email client (yahoo, gmail, hotmail, outlook or whatever you use) to auto-respond to an email which meets certain criteria which are defined by the incoming mail from your form.

That sounds like gibberish, I know. It does for me too.

The point is this

Create your HTML form for your site
Allow the form data to be sent to an email address
Set the email to have a particular criteria (address or title or content or specific key) which can be used to distinguish it from others coming into your inbox
Configure your email client to filter and respond to that email (anytime it comes in) when it comes in.
There you have it, your basic autoresponder.

I would go with a more sophistiated tool, like the one provided by your hosting provider.

Yeah xclusive, that haven site is funny. I doubt even old Nigerian websites were ever as bad as that.
Having said that, I will note here that Drudge has more than established his name online, he created a brand and no one can fault him on that.

I understand that the objectives of creating the site matters, but I think we have to agree that the layout of his website could be better. It's his choice to model his website as he sees fit, but anytime I visit the site, I get turned off - nothing seems to be in the right place.

As Yawa pointed out though, he's already made a massive fortune from that site alone. Apparently he makes an estimated $800 [b]grand [/b]a year, and I'm not counting election year earnings. So he's done good.
But as a model for other developers/bloggers, The Drudge report is far from being a model.

Hmm. . . Yawa, the points in this article are noted but it has to be said that we have moved into the 21st century. It's tricky replying to this thread but I'll give it a shot.
Matt set up the Drudge Report in 1994 and that was a time when this sort of site would have been seen as a major achievement. At the height of it's existence, The Drudge report was the go-to place when you needed breaking news. A few years later, The Drudge Retort came into play. And eleven years after, The Huffington Post came into existence.

The point is, both these sites have out-grown The Drudge Report. And about highlighting interesting news items, I think nobody currently does it better right now than The Huffington Post. The Post has more than double the amount of traffic The Report attracts and more than triple the revenue.

The reason why The Report seems to be losing in numbers is simple - Matt has decided against change (kind of' like the party he supports, but I digress). There is no interaction on the site (at least, non that is obvious) and I wonder what the average time spent on the site is, seeing as 98% of the links seem to show the way out.

It may still be early days, but I don't think Matt Drudge will be able to sustain his current  revenue levels for much longer, especially if another right-wing news site opens which offers more features, like the right-wing version of The Huffington Post. Of course, if that's the model he wants to adopt long-term, it's fine.

But the notion that this is a good model for website owners to consider, I think is flawed. Users want to interact and if they see the opportunity elsewhere they'll leave your link farm(which is what The Drudge Report is, really) and go where they can rant and rave and feel like they are a part of something.

I'm sure I'm not telling you something you don't already know, but this is just my point of view.