Will your project follow the “Hype Cycle?”

TechCrunch published this really interesting graph yesterday that comes from Gartner. The graph details the life of a new technology. The initial excitement and buzz, the inevitable disappointment, then the slow build.

Does a similar cycle apply to new web projects? Perhaps we have to give the phases different names, but in a broad sense the trajectory applies, both internally and externally.

From an internal perspective, it’s very easy to get caught in your own hype about a new web site. This new blog is going to be the one that puts you on the map. This new wiki is going to revolutionize the way we do business. We all have visions of that instalanch (define: instant avalanch) making our site a household name on the first day.

But when it doesn’t come, we get discouraged, our interested drops, and sometimes we even abandon the project. But sticking with it pays dividends. Slowly, over time the site starts achieving some modest successes. After six months or even a year, perhaps the project begins to take on a life of its own.

The peak, the crash, the long-slog; this is the emotional rollercoaster we experience in web development.The key is keeping yourself grounded and understanding what you want. If you are just chasing the instalanch, then maybe you should give up on a project after three months. But if you believe in your concept and you are committed, you will see slow progress. And if your product is good and you are patient, you will be successful.

The curve applies from an external perspective as well. Often groups will do a great media launch for a site, get an initial burst of traffic, but then see their stats plummet back to earth because they had no plan for long term promotion. No matter how big your initial buzz is, you must have a long-term plan for driving traffic through search-engines, email marketing, and organic links. Without it, the traffic for a site simply can’t be sustained.

Theme Update: OnStage Theme for Actors v1.1.0

So, my OnStage theme has only been out for a couple weeks and already I’m releasing a new version. What gives? Well it occurred to me that a few tweeks were needed. For one, the blog had no side bar which (a) prevented users from browsing archives and (b) eliminated the natural search juice that a sidebar provides. Also, I noticed that some users were not using the proper sized pictures for their frontpage gallery. This resulted in the smaller pictures aligning left and making the whole site look a little off kilter. I’ve now centered the home gallery so that, no matter what size image is used, the images will look nice.

The new version can be downloaded here.

OnStage Theme for Actors

So I am finally ready to release “On Stage,” a theme designed specifically for actors. Aesthetically, I wanted a very simple, yet elegant design that would allow the actor’s headshots to take the focus. I owe Brian Gardner some credit for this theme because the code is based on his Photopress design. This is my first publically released theme, so be gentle. I’ve tried to cross-check this among all the relevant browsers, but haven’t exhaustively done so. Please report any compatibility issue below.

Download Theme | Demo Theme

The theme is free to download, but I am happy to set it up for you for $200. If you are interested, drop me an email at mike@mikevanwinkle.com or call 708.289.3136.

Installation

In order to achieve the functionality necessary for a top-notch actor website, it was necessary to incorporate several awesome, and freely available, plugins. Since I did not design these plugins I cannot provide support for them. Also, it would be a good idea to check for more recent versions of these plugins before installing this them. However, I have included all necessary plugins in the theme download. Beware, updated plugins may affect the functionality of the theme.

Step 1: Download the theme pack and unzip the file. The file contains two folders, the theme folder (”onstage”) and the plugins folder (”plugins”)

Step 2: Upload the theme folder to your themes directory (wp-content/themes/). Then upload the CONTENTS of the plugins folder to your plugins directory (note: do not upload the folder itself, only the contents).

Step 3: Activate theme by going to your Dashboard>Designs menu within the wordpress administration interface.

Step 4: Activate the included plugins by going to your Plugins menu within the wordpress administration interface. Activate the “NextGEN Gallery,” “NextGEN Gallery Widget,” “Contact Form,” and “Limit Posts” plugins.

Step 5: You should now see a “Gallery” tab on your Dashboard menu. Click this tab and then click “Add Gallery.” Name your new gallery “Frontpage” so that it will be clear which gallery controls the front page.

Step 6: Upload the images you want shown on the front page into this gallery. You should resize your images to 690 x 400 (width x height)

Step 7: Go to your widgets menu (Dashboard>Designs>Widgets). Make sure the menu in the right-hand column is set to “Sidebar 1.” Then drag and drop the NextGEN Gallery Widget from the left-hand column onto the right-hand column. Click “edit” on the widget bar. !Leave the gallery title blank! Select the “Frontpage” gallery from the drop down menu and set the dimensions to match those of the images you uploaded (690 x 400). Click save changes.

Usage

The steps above describe how to use the headshot gallery on the frontpage. The front page will also display the latest post from the “Featured” category.

If you would like to use the blog function, create a new page and under the option for “Page Template” select “Blog.”

One note on using the gallery. By default the NextGEN Gallery crops photos into uniform square thumbnails. This means profile shots turn out as cropped mid-riff photos. You will need to change the default thumbnail settings if you do not want the system to crop profile photos. You can do this by going to Gallery>Options>Thumbnails and unchecking the box that says “Ignore the aspect ratio, no portrait thumbnails.” Also on this options page, I recommend changing the max dimensions of the thumnails to 150 x 150

Optional: Included in the theme pack are plugins for a secure contact form and resume builder. These are optional. I recommend using the contact form plugin, but the resume plugin may not fit the requires of a typical performance resume and so therefore may not be advised.

Coming soon: “OnStage” a Worpress Theme for Actors

So I’ve been busy all day working on my first ever Wordpress Theme. At least the first one I’ve essentially designed from scratch. I’m calling it “OnStage” and it is specifically designed for use by actors. It isn’t ready for download yet because the setup instructions are going to be a little detailed. But you can preview the theme here. Feedback is definitely welcome.