In this Issue...
 INTRO |
The Perfect Storm
When we were all introduced to computers, and
eventually the Internet, we were all promised a
Jetson's lifestyle and all the extra time we could
handle. In the last decade that I have been in the
technology consulting and Internet business, I have
had a number of people say, "Cool, you must have a
lot of free time since you can do your work anytime,
anywhere." I have always responded with, "You would
think that would be the case. But, I often find
myself more tied to the work since it is always
there."
Well, this summer, I have finally seen the other
side of the coin and I'm thankful that I chose this
field early in my career. My wife's family faced
some unexpected health problems that resulted in us
making the decision to move family into our home for
full-time care. This, unfortunately, started a chain
of challenging events that I don't think we'll ever
forget. Over the last two months, I was lucky to
find a day that I was able to work a full eight
hours. Just
when I would get on a roll, something would happen
and I was off to pitch-in where I could.
At times I thought, "How am I ever going to
catch up when all of this finally slows down?" This only added
to the stress put upon our family, but I always
reminded myself that family comes first. "Stay
strong, and it will pass." PixelMill has always been
very family-oriented and focused on the personal
needs of those around us. Business swings have
sometimes made this a tough position, but we always
do our best (even when it didn't seem right at the
time) to put an individual's needs over the needs of
the company.
This is fortunate, because not only was I facing
challenges, but so was the rest of our management
team. It has just been one of "those" summers.
What I have found, though, is that I was wrong when
I said that I was "more tied to my work". Actually,
there is flexible time and it presents
itself when the time is right. Like "karma" or a
rainy-day savings account, the time invested on the
front-end will come back around when you need it the
most. I can't say that the time off didn't affect
our business and the timing of some projects,
including the newsletters, but I found that we're
not too bad off.
The benefit of computers and the Internet is that we
can effectively make time to save time in order to
use it down the road. I think the key is to work on
investing the up-front time (those late night, extra
hours) into projects and strategies that can sustain
themselves down the road. For example, at PixelMill
we have focused much of this "extra" time on store
automation and support. By doing so, we help
customers help themselves and it allows us to either
focus on new products and services, or take the time
saved for personal needs and family.
I recommend that each of you look at your business
or career for those opportunities where you can
invest in future "time." Don't ignore the personal
and financial responsibilities you may have now, but
know that at some point in time in the future you
may need to step away from business for things that
are more important. When you face those times,
remember the mantra we have used... Stay Strong!
This intro is probably much more than you had
expected, but hopefully it provides you with some
understanding that we're all not alone when it comes
to life struggles. Over the coming months, PixelMill
will be delivering a number of new product lines and
education opportunities. Most of these
will not only be focused on PixelMill providing
better products and solutions, but also at helping
all of you find ways to add to your business,
advance your career, and help create time investment
for future needs.
Tell us your story. I'd like to hear from you who
have found the 'time' benefit that we have all
looked for in this business. Tell us your story
about how the Internet has provided you the benefit
of 'time' to meet the needs of you and your family.
Please email me your story at jreckers@pixelmill.com.
by Jason Reckers, President
& CEO - PixelMill Inc.
 FEATURE |
eBay DevCon and eBay Live
Another trip to Vegas? I know everyone thinks
it's a great place, and it is... if you visit once
every couple of years. I have to admit, I do enjoy
it for a couple days each time I go. But, it
does get a little crazy after a while. Fortunately,
this trip included eBay Live and the completely
different type of craziness that comes with that
conference. You
want to see a group of people who really love what
they're doing... go to an eBay Live conference!
This was my third eBay conference, and it seems
to be getting better every year. I usually attend
the preceding Developer Conference, and then stay
for the eBay Live (Buyer & Seller) Conference. This
results in a full week of 'eBay'. Our primary goal
in attending has been to build our relationship with
PayPal (owned
by eBay), but has expanded to focus
on building
templates for ProStores
(an eBay Company), and will be further expanding to
include eBay Auction and eBay Stores templates.
We're seeing the strong convergence between eBay's three brands helping sellers effectively sell their products in a
multi-channel environment.
This article would be too long if I wrote about
the entire conference, so I'll simply touch on some
of the highlights and provide some recommendations
on specific products and solutions that may interest
you. Over the coming months we'll further dissect
the conference and provide more insight on how you
might benefit from this giant, eBay.
-
ProStores - One of the key highlights for
me was the chance to spend face-time with our
newest eBay partner. We have been working
closely with ProStores since March, but this was
the first chance we had to meet the other key
players. We received excellent feedback and
suggestions from the ProStores staff about our
release of
ProStores-ready Templates, and had a few
chances to speak to ProStores customers at their
booth.
Most encouraging was the number of people who
attended the ProStores sessions. There were a
number of positive comments made by new
ProStores users, which further solidified our
confidence in the ProStores solution. It's
clearly obvious that ProStores is the right
solution for customers new and old to ecommerce.
If you have been thinking about starting or
moving your ecommerce site, we highly recommend
learning more about this ecommerce solution.
Visit our ProStores landing page for more
about our ProStores templates.
-
PayPal - Like ProStores, it was nice to have
a chance to spend some more one-on-one time with
the PayPal staff. It's been a year since the
launch of their
Website Payments Pro solution and it's
becoming a huge addition to their already
successful
Standard payment products. Their also making
serious strides in the internationalization of
their solution. They expect to be operating in
over 20 different currencies by the end of the
year.
Now... we know there have been concerns about PayPal in the past, and there were a handful of
'open-mic' attendees who did not hold back in
voicing their complaints. BUT, they finished by
saying they really like the PayPal solution and
voice their complaints in order to help promote change.
As with any system, nothing is perfect, and
there will be issues with any company/solution
that goes through the rapid growth that PayPal
has. I encourage you to reconsider the PayPal
solution if you're in the market for a
transaction solution.
Over the coming months we'll be doing more
around the PayPal solution from adding more
support materials on using their solution, to
online training sessions, to soliciting a group
of PayPal experts to help implement a PayPal
solution for you. Watch our coming newsletters
and blog for more.
-
Skype - As expected, Skype (a new eBay
Company), who adds 2-3 new subscribers per
second, played a large roll at the conference.
This was especially true during the developer
portion, so be on the watch for some exciting Skype add-on products this year. Points of
interest:
-
SkypeOut, the feature that allows you
to call landlines (or cell phones) from Skype,
is free in the US and Canada through the end
of the year. I would suspect (only
speculation) that this will continue after
the end of the year also.
-
Skype Accessories - Check out the latest
in Skype compatible equipment. You'll be
surprised what you find.
-
Skypecasts - This is an interesting
feature that allows you to host a Skype call
for groups of up to 100 participants. I'll
give this a try and then report back in our
next newsletter.
-
eBay Express - This is a new store from eBay
that works more like a standard retail store.
Approved eBay merchants can list their products
on eBay Express in a Buy it Now format with one
integrated shopping cart. Rather than trying to
coordinate payment with individuals, this site
allows you to pay for multiple products with one
credit card in one checkout. I will be
interested to see how this plays out, but it's
worth a look.
There is an endless amount of information that
came out of the eBay Conference. I have only touched
on a very small percentage of them here, but we will
be integrating much of this knowledge in upcoming
products, articles, support materials, blogs, and
more.
by Jason Reckers, President
& CEO - PixelMill Inc.
 UPDATE | Expression Web Designer
A
recent article
about Microsoft's Expression family of products,
including Expression Interactive Designer,
Expression Graphic Designer, and Expression Web
Designer, created some concern about the expected
release date of Expression Web Designer. In the
article, they reference an announcement by Microsoft
that the Expression Suite is going to be pushed back
until next summer and likely 2008.
Fortunately, this announcement does not include
Expression Web Designer. Our sources at Microsoft
reassured us that Expression Web Designer is still
scheduled to be released before the end of the year.
Microsoft has not set a specific release date for
Expression Web Designer (or EWD as we like to call
it), but remains confident that the product is still on
schedule. From my experience with the products at Mix06 in
March, it's apparent that EWD is not strictly tied
to Expression Interactive Designer or Expression
Graphic Designer, which are more dependent on each
other. There are definitely elements that interact
between the three products, but EWD can really stand
on its own.
Based on this information, PixelMill will
continue to move forward with developing and providing education
and support information about EWD and
continue further development of templates for EWD.
One update we have already made to the site is
the addition of
product specifications that allow PixelMill
Product Developers to mark if a product is
compatible with Expression Web Designer. You will
start to see products marked as compatible with 'EWD'
and/or 'Expression-ready'. These represent that the
product has been tested to work with the current
beta version of Expression Web Designer. You'll also
see that many of these compatible products are also
marked as compatible with 'SD 2007' (SharePoint
Designer 2007) and/or 'SharePoint Designer-ready,'
so these products have also been tested to
work in the current beta version of SharePoint
Designer 2007.
We hope this clears up any concerns about the
expected release date of EWD. We are committed to
keeping you informed about future developments with
Expression Web Designer and SharePoint Designer
2007. Watch the newsletter and our blog for more.
by Jason Reckers, President
& CEO - PixelMill Inc.
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