> Also, if I have a website that looks like apple.com (I'm confident I > could have made like it, since I've worked 10+ years as a graphic and > web designer and teacher) what do I communicate? Maybe that I've decided > to waste my time doing fancy graphics to convince you that I'm worth > your attention, or worse that I've a professional studio who does this > part for me. It's not the truth. ;) Well, I guess there are people out there who actually LIKE doing fancy graphics... you know, who get really passionate about it. As far as people on your level go agree, but frankly I don't think most people even think that far. A flash web site is UGLY to a coder, because he can 'see' the code under it and how useless it is and how it can't be read by screen readers and spits in the face of all the standards, etc. And simple web site can be pretty ugly to somebody who has some industrial product sitting next to the computer screen and compares. I think the secret is to find a way of doing both... Either oneself or through others. I know of ancient religious texts that have been written to be understandable and enjoyable on '300 different levels of consciousness'. In other words, everyone can understand and enjoy in his or her own way. I think this is also what distinguishes great literature. So how do we do this as for web sites? Well, this guy http://www.poweryoga.com puts it we all have these great Yoga Teachers in us that can come through when we quiet ourselves a little. I know I have an inner coder :) (I'm completely self-tought) and an inner musician, why not an inner web-site-design-marketing-delegator? I agree with simplicity though. I for myself would like to have a web site that is beautiful both on the code/standards compliance/simplicity level and also on the shiny glamour level... and about 500 other levels I'm not thinking of right now :) As far as truth goes... Well, the whole point of marketing is to allow other people to have their truths and interact with them there. It's PAINFUL. I know. But heck, we're here to be challenged :) So if you don't want to do your web site yourself, maybe if you think about it for a while something will turn up to make your site something that makes money... In the RIGHT way. I want MINE to be that way :) Carlo
