A professional sticks to what they know.

I was talking to someone today, and they definitely get this statement. I have talked to many others that do not understand this statement.

I have had people and companies that say that they want a website, and they have a digital camera and can provide the pictures. My response to them is generally "are these pictures taken by a professional?" Some of these people have a professional photographer in their family, and their answer is "yes" and if it is, great, we can make a professional looking website. Some of these people answer "no, but I have a digital camera" and to these people, I generally respond "no offense, but if you are not a professional photographer, I would suggest hiring one. There is no sense in having someone make a professional layout for your website and then putting in some pictures that you (as a non-professional) took. It will take away from the entire site. It will also look like you just went out and bought a template for your website and then plugged in your own snap shots." This is not to say that it will look bad, but it will be very apparent that you do not have a professional photographer taking the pictures for your professionally created website.

A true professional web developer sticks to developing websites. Some of these people are pretty good a photography, this is not a "jab" at those of you that do this, but, if you are really good at web design/development, there is a lot to keep up on just with that, and there is also a lot to keep up on with photography, I don't believe that any one person can keep up with both and do a super professional job with both of these.

Now if you are part of a company, and one person does the website development, and another does the photography, that's a different story! What I'm talking about is a "one person" company that does professional web development and professional photography. Although it's not impossible, it would be very difficult to be a professional at both.

So basically, if you stick to what you do best in your business, and sub contract the rest out, while you may not make as much money, this is going to have the very best results for your customers.

I know it sounds like I'm blasting some web designers/developers out there, but this is NOT the case. There are a few people out there that do a really professional job at both, but they are few and far between.

Web 2.0

Lately, I have seen a lot of hype over this Web 2.0, and honestly, I don't understand it. I compare Web 2.0 to a hot tub.

Long ago, someone got the idea of putting a motorthat would move the water around in a hot tub, to the point it was almost like getting a massage while you were in the tub.

The thing is, these motors have existed for longer than the hot tub, as well as hot tubs existed before without these motors to move the water around.

Web 2.0 is basically the same thing. Someone discovered a different way of making a website using the same tools that have existed for years, they just put it together differently. Don't get me wrong, nobody else thought of it, but now that someone has, it seems like everyone is talking about it.

Web 2.0 is a good thing as it will make your website more interactive with your visitors, but the bottom line is, you will still have to do all the work that you need to do with a regular website, there will just be more programming involved.

NMP is not against Web 2.0, we just don't understand all the hype behind it. It is a good step in the right direction towards making the web more interactive, but in the end, everything you need to create a Web 2.0 website is already out there. There isn't anything new about it except the way it is all put together.