The Last Laugh Creative Philosophy
The quality of our work is determined by our values…
…fairness, flexibility, transparency
The Egalitarian Internet
I believe strongly in the potential of the Internet.
Computers and the World Wide Web are basically democratic technologies: affordable to most, with their intricacies learnable through self study. The barriers to entry are minimal. Moreover, the Open Source community continues to thrive based on the principles of sharing and cooperation.
All of this is good, in my opinion.
This means that anyone – for a fee – can build something that can be seen by billions of people. Now think how how long it would take you to print flyers and plaster them on the windshields of all those billions – a couple of weekends at least.
By now, this really isn’t news to anybody. Fortunately, the days of having to convince businesses of the necessity of a web presence are over. Unfortunately, just having a web presence and hoping for success are also over.
So the opportunity is there but please...
Diversify Your Marketing
Don’t put all of your marketing eggs in Google’s basket.
Network. Profusely.
Ask your current clients for referrals. Better yet, do such good work that they can’t wait to refer you.
Become active in your community. Giving back has a way of giving back.
A Trend Toward Simplicity
“Websites should be as simple as possible – and not one bit simpler.”
~ Albert Einstein
Okay, he might have been referring to something like Science rather than HTML, but you get the idea.
That’s the guiding principle at Last Laugh Creative: a site’s design and development must be in complete service to the client’s goals.
Make your point, clearly articulate the value and benefit to your site visitor (what problems do you solve, etc.), set up a logical call-to-action, and get out of the way.
Simple.
A Practice of Best Practices
Each project is different; each client is different. Yet within the process, whether it be discovery, design or implementation, there are a range of choices that should be considered.
Please note the plural: Best Practices
Best Practices don’t ensure success but they certainly tend to bring it a bit closer.
The Spirit of Collaboration
Yes, collaboration is all about working together to build a better web presence but it’s also about the spirit with which business owner and client approach one another.
If you treat your clients with fairness, flexibility and transparency then we should talk: because that’s precisely how I intend to treat you.
A Spirit of Experimentation
This website – LastLaughCreative.com – is my laboratory for all things Internet related. Yes, I always follow Best Practices (see above) but I almost always test a new concept, plugin, or marketing idea here first.
Do pop-up opt-in forms actually work?
Watch this space – I’m going to test and find out.
A Spirit of Sharing & Helping
One of the purposes of this website is to share resources that will help business owners, colleagues in analogous fields, even other web designers / Internet marketers.
I believe wholeheartedly in the Theory of Abundance – there is more than enough of everything – including potential clients – to go around so let’s help one another in whatever way we can.
What benefits one, benefits all.
