Oh Yea. Webmaster.

I was working on a blog for business the other day, and a co-worker asked, “Alana, who is the webmaster?”

He couldn’t see (or hear me) but I immediately started to crack up. Webmaster is one term that I haven’t heard in a long time- and a term that I have never used to refer to myself (although maybe I should?)

It’s funny to think of how certain terminologies used to be mainstream and how, given technology’s evolution, they become a lot less… cool.

Take “Webmaster.” Hey you, master of the web.. maybe 10 years ago a lot of people didn’t know how to use the web, but today a few of us might. Is anyone really a “webmaster” anymore? It sounds like something straight out of d&d.

Clickfire’s SEO blog agrees with me on this topic when he writes:

With the advent of 3G and smartphones, the webmaster is no longer the mysterious guy behind a desktop or in an air-conditioned datacenter pulling switches. He’s at the coffee shop.

Blog software is another factor. The fact that anyone can get a WordPress or Blogger weblog up and running in minutes with a really nice looking pre-made theme makes coding and maintenance less of an issue. Most bloggers probably don’t think of themselves as “webmasters.”

Personally, I don’t consider myself a webmaster. The only thing that holds me back is Google’s Webmaster tools. If google refers to them in that way, maybe it’s still cool/ok/semi-normal?

STILL– the term reminds me of the old school web 1.0 websites with the page counter at the bottom, a little animated gif with a spinning envelope that reads “e-mail the webmaster.”

creepy.

There’s nothing more frustrating than going to a site and noticing that it’s down. Especially if there’s a great sale at J.Crew / your favorite online retailer and you can’t access it. It’s just frustrating.

Instead of continuously hitting F5 (refresh) or trying to get into the site in a brute force kind of way, you can leverage a more convenient method of a new site – Ding! It’s up!

This site is a free service that alerts you via text (SMS), twitter or email when a website goes down or when it comes back up.

I think this could also be a great integration opportunity for sites that have “technical difficulties” often but want a way to notify visitors when they’re back up and running. It’s just a nice way to say “hey, we’re back, come back!”

According to StatBrain, the site gets ~3,500 hits a day… but it’s still pretty new.

Let’s face it. The Internet is a wonderful place to find one of a kind stuff, especially affordable art.

But to me, Etsy its just about as good as finding a vintage chanel bag that you can afford (ok maybe that’s a stretch but I know you’re getting the point.)

I came across the site while I was searching for a less expensive version of a poster I found online at Shabby Chic – A reprint of a vintage British wartime poster.  (lets just say one was $295 and the other $25).  I fell in love with it and even had to buy this pendant made out of a scrabble letter by a married couple in SoCal (also via Etsy). You can buy two and get one free

The artist behind the poster reprint has a great blog where she links to “affordable art” as well as a list of sites that sell recycled art.

You can find anything on this site- and it gives artists an easy-to-use outlet to sell some really creative and fun merchandise. And it’s not just limited to the USA… people all over the world sell through the online marketplace. The vision of the company is to “provide a better choice.” not bad, eh!

But most of all, it’s well done. Not surprising when you find out that investors include the founders of flikr and del.icio.us

For all you techies out there, check out this wall clock made out of a hard drive, or the other recycled Geeky items available via Etsy.

I feel more artsy already. haha.

Ok so this post isn’t about a technology…really, but moreso me just sharing something really cool that can help ya’ll out there.

I’m moving to Atlanta soon, and when I was online hunting for apartments, I realized that I was relying heavily on organic search results through Google. Basically, if you have a good web presence, thats how I found out about your apartment offering. This frustrated me. So, when I was visiting Atlanta, one of my friends told me to consider ProMove.

Promove is an Atlanta, GA based company that assists people like me (and you!) to find the best apartment at the best price. Not only do these people know where you SHOULD look, but they also know when you’re getting ripped off. My first question is probably the same as yours- how do these people get paid? They get paid only when you find a place to live- they get the referral payment (usually $300-500) when you sign your lease.

Since promove only works in Atlanta and Dallas, I was curious if other cities offer similar services. And they do!

• http://www.chicagoapartmentfinders.com/
  • This one is really cool, they will even drive you around Chicago to find you a place to live!!!
• http://www.aptselector.com/
• http://www.apartmenthunters.com/Default.aspx
• http://www.apartmentsavvy.com/