Yesterday afternoon was spent writing copy for the new Airbag website. Bronwyn says it's the best place to start and she's pretty smart (Intelligence 18) so I'm taking her advice and typing words instead of pushing pixels. Starting with the low hanging fruit first, I assembled a complete list of clients, something I've never done before.
I went back in time (via Blinksale—that important and intuitive business application that makes it easy to say, "Hey client, we gots to get paid. Aight?") and composed a historical record of clients. When finished and printed the list was about as long as my forearm. That surprised but did not impress me, so I bumped up the font size to eleven and increased the leading, and increased the font size and leading again, one more time and then, well, uh, maybe three more times. Now our client list stands five feet tall (or about as high as our new project manager, who could have been a successful jockey if not for her love of project management, but all the same I wish she would come to work in something other than racing silks) and, in this impressive format I think it's going to be a fantastic replacement for the California DMV Eye Examination Chart.
Work continues on the new site at a slow and steady pace. It's been a challenge to find good creative time to work on this project rather than the ones that bring in the monies (That's not a complaint mind you. If you're in the creative services business then that's how the business works, if it's successful). A design treatment has been drafted but there's this one nagging problem that, for almost two years, I've been hard pressed to find a good solution. One that typing alone can't solve.
What in the hell do I do with the blog?
For anyone who hasn't been around for the last eight years, Airbag began life as a blog. Then one day, after the Rocket Scientist became successfully employed, I decided to try for myself this business ownership thing. At the time my council of peers all agreed that, given Airbag's popularity as a brand in the web design sphere, I would be an idiot to use anything else as the name for my new endeavor. Paying heed to their wisdom Airbag Industries LLC was incorporated in the state of California in the summer of 2005 but the website, the blog, remained fixed in place. Despite the lack of a good shingle, work continues to come in solely based off recommendation and/or reputation—so I haven't been too concerned to make any big changes to the website (see also: All Time Devoted To Client Work).
The blog has always just been there not making a whole lot of sense to most of our clients who aren't aware of this site's history. That hasn't been a problem or an issue until recently that confusion has been heard on occasion during our weekly status calls. Clients don't complain or suggest anything negative but they do utter things like "saw that, didn't understand...political...sarcasm...apples!" all of which is to say, "hey you have this blog on the homepage of your website that makes frank commentary on things entirely not related to the core of your business and we don't really understand why it's there." Sure there are plenty of posts that relate to the business of interactive design but it's those other kind of posts that keep feeling more and more out of place as Airbag grows.
And so here I am, working on this new business focused website wondering what to do with Airbag: Rigid Frame Commentary. No way in hell it's going away but the blog's current feature placement will become more of a problem if the range of subject matter is to remain intact. The easy answer, I suppose, would be to move the blog to another domain but Ryan, Ethan, and Russ feel strongly that the blog should not go away, that it's a part of the brand, part of the Airbag experience.
This quandary isn't make or break for Airbag, it's not like once something has been implemented it has to stay that way for the next five years (like the current design has), but this brand would most certainly not be what it is today without the readers and for that reason your feedback is requested.
Join the fray by reading through and commenting at the end.
Add a short paragraph explaining what the blog is about. If needed, explain this to your clients in person. Don't drop one of the more important aspects of your brand.
I expect most succesfull web design and development agencies to have a blog on their homepage 5 years from now.
Consider it a high-pass filter for clients who are going to discover that they don't like you sooner or later.
I'm not a designer, I'm not a client, I just like reading what you post. Doesn't matter to me where you put it as long as I can access it.
Why not just have a section of the new site called "Greg's Corner" or "The Soapbox" or something? Give it a more personal name than "Blog" so people understand that this is you as a person making posts, not the company itself.
Or maybe you do call it simply Blog and commit to having at least 70% of the posts be industry related.
I'm with Mr. van der Vossen and Mr. Miner. The blog was the brand before the business, and unless you're looking to overhaul the brand (I didn't get that vibe), keep the thing that started it all where it belongs.
I love Wieden & Kenedy London's blog site (http://wklondon.typepad.com/welcome_to_optimism/), and they've posted videos of one of their employees in a burlesque show. That only adds to their brand, and makes the company more personable, all good things.
Essentially, I think you'd completely change the Airbag Ind. brand if you stopped 'featuring' the blog aspect. Instead, continue showing the real people behind the work. It's what makes you Airbag, and what makes Airbag worth noticing.
JA
i think it's easy but wrong to say the blog is "entirely not related to the core of your business." what if the core business of Airbag were attitude and opinion, and everything else existed to support it?
Keep it status quo, don't change a thing, I'm now a reader (have been off and on for awhile) but more so of late. Just don't change what you have going.
“You're only given a little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it.” - Robin Williams
Keep on, keeping on.
Airbag not blogging is like Dylan going electric. JUDAS!!!
Also how else am I supposed to get Google search results if I can't make lame comments on your site?
Just make it /blog and make sure the feeds foward etc, natch. No shame in that.
The fact that the site/blog design has stayed the same for 5 years and is still one of the most stylish and relevant blog designs around, that is a huge selling point for your services, though.
I think the issue is Airbag the blog = Greg; Airbag the design group = more than Greg. I'm sure all the other Airbaggers are appropriately deferential, and Airbag the blog fans, but unless Greg has a serious case of lead singer disease I do think it's a question of how appropriate his personal (however entertaining or germane) opinion is for a site dedicated to a larger [business] entity. My vote would be kill it, or morph it into something that serves the business more aptly, or you're doing little to demonstrate first hand that you understand how to define and communicate a brand.
Keep it, but make it clear what it is for both those who come to it from a link thinking "oh, a blog" and from those coming from a link thinking "oh these people make websites". As Tom's comment, I think there's probably a confusion between Airbag designers and Airbag Greg, so if you're clarify, that needs to be part of it.
But definitely keep the blog. As someone else said, surely the work exists to keep the attitude and opinion in existence?
I've been a consistent reader for about 4 years. I love this blog. Sometimes I disagree with you, sometimes you turn me in the direction of great stuff, sometimes you don't post for a while, but regardless, Airbag Industries is the most solid blog with real personality that I've found. And I really just don't like blogs much, haha. Airbag transcends the crap. I want it to stay. If you need to change it, make it a porno site.
I'm with Mr. Arthur, but if you absolutely have to move it, or at least remove the "offensive" material from the front page of your site, throw it into the /blog folder, or, even better, throw it into the /blog folder and leave 1 post at a time on the main website, something industry-related.
As a former client, I can say that there was a point that my peers were confused by the site. I remember answering a question as to whether or not I had given them the right 'hotlink'!
After asking them to step out of the tardis, I just pointed them to the portfolio and we moved to top of your 'unpaid' client list.
Why not put the portfolio up front and expand the blog section to include posts from the other members of the team? Maybe they can contribute some business / design related posts and keep their personal sites focused on LOL CAT links?
Don't go changin'.
Great, now I have billy Joel stuck in my head.
Interesting dilemma.
If it were me I'd keep the blog 'as is' and shift the design agency to a similar brand, something along the lines of Airbag Studios, Airbag Corporation etc... In this way you retain the original brand but re-align it to better suit your agencies' needs.
The same counts for a company in the UK called 'Carphone Warehouse' that was setup a few years back when phones for cars were actually installed as one unit. Now they do 'everything but' car phone installation but are stuck with the name.
Tricky one to solve, look forward to seeing the outcome!
Why not move the blog back to the original airbag.ca domain (unless there's still a chance that those wacky Canadians might try to take their tld back again)? I still haven't gotten used to the "industries" url.
To me the different url would reinforce the personal/professional distinction more than just moving it to a /blog directory. Though it might be interesting to start a blog for the whole Airbag Industries crew, either through just combining everyone's feeds, or creating an entirely new entity.
I wouldn't want the blog or the personal opinion to go, and I agree with Wilson up there that it may act as a filter.
I'd love it if the whole Airbag team started to pipe in, if only because it might potentially mean more quality stuff from more quality folks.
All that said, even if these streams of information would diverge, I'd happily follow however many paths required.
Never try to define a purpose by adding complexities.
You have your audience and you have your clients. Surely, both have the capacity to figure it out.
Greg, you have about 4 or 5 conceptual choices when you break it all down. The correct answer is the one you as a web professional would advise your new client, Airbag Industries to do. I agree with Tom that the decision is an example of your professional judgement.
Don't forget one of the choices is a transitional site that gets you halfway to where you want to be to ease to move.
If you end up with the "professional site that has a blog" choice, I second (or third) the motion to involve all employees.
BTW, as a daily reader, I don't care what address the blog is at. I'd prefer the content to remain the same. I'm pretty sure all your readers know how to adjust their bookmarks.
Thanks to everyone for your responses so far, I appreciate your feedback so far.
> Consider it a high-pass filter for clients who are going to discover that they don't like you sooner or later.
That's actually happened in the past. A filter for bad clients is priceless and it's value is not lost on me.
> Why not just have a section of the new site called "Greg's Corner" or "The Soapbox" or something? Give it a more personal name than "Blog" so people understand that this is you as a person making posts, not the company itself.
This is the option I'm currently looking at. I've already got the perfect name picked out.
> I'd love it if the whole Airbag team started to pipe in, if only because it might potentially mean more quality stuff from more quality folks.
> Also how else am I supposed to get Google search results if I can't make lame comments on your site?
Let me send you a Paypal link...
> I think the issue is Airbag the blog = Greg; Airbag the design group = more than Greg.
Nailed it. I'd like to see something wherein everyone at Airbag has a chance to chime in within a certain sandbox of editorial guidelines/subjet matter (think: Coudal or k10k).
> Why not put the portfolio up front and expand the blog section to include posts from the other members of the team? Maybe they can contribute some business / design related posts and keep their personal sites focused on LOL CAT links?
This is also in the works. Fortunately everyone at Team Airbag knows English better than I do. Combine that with more LOL CAT links and it's a win win for everyone.
> Why not move the blog back to the original airbag.ca domain (unless there's still a chance that those wacky Canadians might try to take their tld back again)? I still haven't gotten used to the "industries" url.
Interesting option and one that I had not considered. I have better domains that would better suit a potential divorce.
Here's my two cents: Airbag is a communications firm, you happen to help clients communicate with their audience via the web, that's all. The blog fits the brand perfectly, and in fact supports the unique aspect of Airbag, the idea of Airbag not being your usual run of the mill firm. The blog demonstrates your ability to communicate with your own audience, and whaddaya know the folks at Airbag have interests and expertise outside of simply being 'web geeks'. I would say the blog has to be a key part of any new website. Don't do the typical 'big web firm site', that would be boring and it would dilute the Airbag brand.
I suppose there's an option of creating two sites, the firm site and the blog site. My own logic for splitting a client's web presence into two subsites is if the audience for each subsite is different enough that each audience wouldn't have much of a need to get the info in the other subsite. That division can happen demograhically, but also I've done it because of a geographic division in the audience.
I just don't see that here. I do think the blog is a key part of the Airbag brand. It says 'Look, a unique communications firm made up of real people with diverse interests and backgrounds'. The blog doesn't need to relate to your work all that much, but many of your posts do touch on various aspects of how humans communicate with each other, and that's close enough.
We are struggling with similar issues, but in a somewhat different direction. We're five years old, our site is about as sparse as can be (mainly due to the aforementioned "stuff that results in us getting money" keeping us too busy), and we'd like to change things up.
We've looked to sites like yours as successful experiments in letting your company and individual personalities mix. I look forward to seeing the results of your changes.
Easy. Just register airbagisseriousbusiness.com and direct all clients over there.
But in all seriouslyness, I'm with Wilson.
I've long come here for the personal face of you Greg. I think in keeping with the evolution of the site and the business you should keep the personal face forward, it's a good approach and it puts your roots first. Maybe the type of content could change and be less about just text posts and more about the visual minds at work! I'd really like to see that.
I agree with the sentiment to expand the current site and share the screen with your mates. And, sure, the portfolio could have more prominence, but it's also nice that it's not at the absolute fore, it's subtle.
Keep the blog, don't change any of the subject or content. If it hasn't hurt business yet, then I would fall back on the old say, "If it aint broke don't try to fix it!"
Make use of an east-coast-idium name like "The Long and Short of It" adjust your layout to show only the most recent post, and shift primary focus of the homepage to your client marketing. Shoot for a coudal-esque "page 2" and unleash the beast.
Keep it simple and take a lesson from the master. The Daily Report is for blogging while Happycog is for business. Two distinct sites.
Airbag is for blogging while xxxxxxxx.com is for business.
The Zeldman example is interesting, as it illustrates JZ's interest in promoting both Happy Cog the brand *and* Zeldman the brand. Again, this I think is the core issue. Airbag (the site/brand) so far = Greg, and it's perhaps useful to maintain a promotional tool for Greg the web personality (solo), which would be diluted in a new 'everyone posts' corporate blog. No one really knows Airbag the company outside of existing clients, and that's a small group that is easy to reach. I'd agree with Ray above. Two distinct sites -- otherwise you risk neither one being as well-focused as it should be. Turning this into the blog section of a design company portfolio site is going to lose the non-design readers -- arguably part of what makes the commenting community here a bit more interesting that the typical design fanboy blog.
With "airbag" as the inspiration and a careful play on words I'm sure you/we can come up with a complimentary domain name for the biz.
Check email in an hour or so. Gotta put the thinking cap on ; )
Ray & Tom Dolan - That was sort of my point in suggesting the airbag.ca / airbagindustries.com split. In my mind, Airbag = Greg, while Airbag Industries = a domain compromise that then became Greg's business. To me these two names can work together in a "we're related but not the same thing" kind of way.
"Keep it simple and take a lesson from the master. The Daily Report is for blogging while Happycog is for business. Two distinct sites."
Ah but it was Zeldman who made a good case for using Airbag to begin with. In the beginning this made sense but after three years the brand seems strong enough to divorce the two.
I've been reading Airbag (as well as Zeldman, Kottke, etc.) for years now and I've always liked the fact that the blog is up front, despite the fact that Airbag has evolved into your business.
As a web designer, I can see the quandary that you're in and from my own experience with this, I would say your best bet is to keep the blog, but make it a feature of the site and not on the homepage.
Perhaps keep the Longboard on the homepage, but put the blog on its own page, linked directly from the homepage. That way the blog still exists but you have your homepage more business-focused than before.
"Ah but it was Zeldman who made a good case for using Airbag to begin with. In the beginning this made sense but after three years the brand seems strong enough to divorce the two."
Aaaah think we're singing from the same song book. Divorce the two entirely!
Airbag is for blogging (leave it as-is. maybe a face lift, whatever...).
xyz_sugar_on_yer_bread.com is for business.
Why not put both together? A site and blog mix on the frontpage, and you can click to explore each section.
Depends what the visitor is looking for. Sounds like those who don't "get it" are expecting sterile, impersonal corporate drivel that permeates far too much of the web today. Your site lends a personal tough - that your business is actually owned by a person, and has people that work for it and read it's articles, not just corporate drones and they don't know how to handle that. Frankly if you changed it or got rid of it somehow you'de lose that unique flavour that actually made the site, and your business, what it is.