Bread and coffee both have those authentic smells you just can’t fake.

For years I’ve been kneading my own dough and baking my own bread. And even though the time that I have available has been considerably reduced as I have gathered more contracts, I still make my own bread. And coffee.

Difference is that nowadays I wake up at 5 AM to the smell of fresh bread whereas it used to be that the kids walked in to that smell around 5 PM. The magic that causes it is a Black & Decker Bread Machine. I put in the ingredients, set the timer and at the right time my bread is ready.

It’s kneaded longer and I would say better than I would have done by hand. Yet in the bread Usenet newsgroup I read, alt.bread.recipes, you still happen upon discussion about how hand-kneaded is better than machine-kneaded. How home-made hand-made bread is better than home-made machine-bread.

The truth is of course far from it and has me produce bread in a shorter amount of production time — and at times where I normally wouldn’t be productive in the kitchen at all.

Home-made bread is pretty much like home-made PHP. What you’re looking for is the great taste, the authentic smell. The actual baking process, like the level of gluten involved in making bread, is not something you want to get into: you simply want the real bread.

Unlike with bread machines I don’t like any given PHP solution. “Frameworks” as their called. What I do like to do is look at them and take whatever piece of code I find cleverly constructed and use that in my own PHP-baking process.

The programming world is full of great coding material – to let that knowledge pass by in favor of “home spun” every time is a true disfavor to your clients.

Semper Fi

That living up to a code of conduct is not equal to being a “walk over me” goody-two shoes is nowhere proven better than in the US Marine Corps. “Always faithful” is their motto. It is known throughout the world, far beyond the borders of the USA.

One of the reasons that it has gained that fame is not because it is such a catchy phrase, “Semper Fidelis”, but the fact that for the most part, most US marines do not experience this as merely a code of conduct but a code of honor: a keen sense of ethical conduct; integrity; one’s word given as a guarantee of performance.

It is this strive towards excellence that sets these men and women apart.

Does your business set itself apart by its ethical conduct? Its guarantee of performance?

Trust me; all other politicians are liars

Negative promotion comes from undermining the conduct or abilities of your competitors. In the worst case by naming them explicitly.

The most profound examples of this type of profiling can be found in the political realm where candidates viciously attack each other through the medium of advertisement.

University research throughout the 1990’s has shown that negative races receive a significantly lower turnout. ¹

Do you want to play towards a larger or smaller market?

Research indicates younger and poorer voters are more receptive towards this type of advertisement. ²

Do you want to play towards a poorer or wealthier market?

Finally, research analysis suggests that people do remember the negative message (goal achieved) but bestow an equal level of negativity on the originator of the ad. ³

Do you want to be associated with a negative message?

Comparative Advertisement

Virtually any advertisement is implied comparative advertisement where your brand, product or service comes out best.

Real comparative advertisement explicitly compares these brands, products or services from an “objective” standpoint. It differs from negative advertisement in that there is no direct attack on the other person or business.

Comparative advertisement has proven to be superior in brand positioning. On a product or service level they mainly strengthen the existing brand and its known attributes. ⁴

Branding through conduct

The manner in which you uphold your business is so important that on an industry scale trade associations have setup codes of conduct in order to prevent tarnishing of the good name of either the industry or its trade association(s).

If you ask me, your business code of conduct should be a matter of honor, just as it is for the US Marine Corps. “Always faithful”.

This means that whether you have a Non-Disclosure Agreement or not, to never publicize identifiable information relating to your current or past clients. To not publicly slander the name of another person or company involved now or in the past with your clients. To hold true to the spirit of your agreement and not to the letter. To deliver on your word where reasonable and applicable.

If part of your personal and business branding is trust and honor you still may not succeed as a business. But it is virtually guaranteed that if it is not, you reduce your social and business network to almost zero. Every prospect will be like your first struggle to land a conversion, simply because you have nothing to show for, no-one to refer to.

Footnotes:

1. 1 : Going Negative: How Political Advertisements Shrink and Polarize the Electorate, by Stephen Ansolabehere and Shanto Iyengar, May 1996
2. 2 : Effectiveness of Negative Political Advertising, by Won Ho Chang, Jae-Jin Park, and Sung Wook Shim, December 1998
3. 3 : Positive and Negative Political Advertising: Effectiveness of Ads and Perceptions of Candidates, by Michael Basil, Caroline Schooler and Byron Reeves, 1991
4. 4 : Associative Positioning Strategies Through Comparative Advertising: Attribute Versus Overall Similarity Approaches, by Cornelia Droge and Rene Y. Darmon, November 1987

Incredulous as it seems, an astounding number of web developers or people otherwise engaged in web-centric business have either no web site or something that barely resembles a web site.

I had opted for the latter.

Programming

See, when you’re a web developer people expect you dish out a site (expectation #1) that says “wow, look at me dude — I’m happening!” (expectation #2) whereas in reality you’re busy meeting the expectations of your clients.

When you finally get to doing your own site, Friday night at 4:18 AM, writing the words “Hello World” seems like a good enough idea. Somewhere down the line you make some more time (“I won’t be long, honey!”), add a page or two about how good you are — and that’s basically it.

The Truth

As the X-Files put it; it’s out there.

Web designers have portfolio’s with cute little thumbnails. Pure SEO’s have logo’s of clients and their ranking to point to.

But as a web developer you have zills. Nada. Notti. If you’re worth your money your work is invisible. There is nothing to point to.

Take Notepad for example. Everyone running Windows has it on their computer. Virtually everyone has used it at one point or another. It’s extremely simple in what it does, but could you program it? Apart from the general idea, the vision, could you write the actual lines to make your computer perform these tasks?

Given that, did you at any moment in time think “wow, this programmer was really good” or “hmm, dunno what this guy was thinking but…”.

No.

Tired

I hate to present myself as someone I’m not. I’m not a corporate person. Would I handle things “The Right Way” I’m sure I could make a lot more money than I do now.

But I’m a programmer and the only corporate, the only business side in me is my golden rule to underpromise and overdeliver.

As such I spend long hours, I mean long, programming other people’s visions, projects and ideas. By the time I’m done I don’t feel like editing my site and making myself look a little bit more corporate, a little bit more professional, a little bit more desirable.

By that time I just want to tell it like it is.

That’s what a blog should be for, should be about.

This is my site.

Hat tip to Kim whose post about blogging instilled in me the desire to go this route