Tonight, I am sitting in a hotel in Branson, MO overlooking Branson Landing. As I am sitting here reading emails and looking over the latest blog post, posted by my brother and business partner Greg Smart, a funny thing happened. My children, are lying in the bed looking intently at the television screen watching a show on Cartoon Network. Now this is nothing new or unusual, but then I noticed something, the television had no sound. We had muted the television set about thirty minutes ago when the music was blaring in the courtyard and we watched the fountain show that is put on every hour.

I continue to watch their faces and wonder if they realize there is no sound. Do they know what is happening in the show? Do they not want to hear the voices?

Then it hits me, they don’t care. The words don’t matter. This is a realization that I know is true in many marketing areans, but is something that we need to revisit occasionally becasue I think it can lead to false assumptions. Many web design companies have taken the approach that if I WOW them, that is all that matters. Now I think asthetics matter, but I think good content development and simplistic design are much more important than we sometimes give credit.

This is evident in the evolution of Flash in website design. There are some amazing sites on the internet that really give you that WoW! affect when you first load the page, and sometimes a very slow load. You then try to find what you are looking for. Good Luck! You couldn’t find it, if it had a big red bulls eye. The problem is, everything is moving around so much, you couldn’t see the bulls eye. We could also bring up the fact, that these site generally do poorly in the search engines, do not follow web standards, or are completely inaccessible to dial-up customers.

Your probably saying to yourself, “But I thought you said, the words don’t matter”. I did. I also mentioned that it was my children watching the television. They are 3 and 5. It’s easy to capture their attention. Make something flashy and eye-catching and you’ve got them. This won’t work as they get older and neither will this type of web design.

Web standards is the direction we should all be looking to achieve and I believe at Pleth, this is something that we feel very strongly about.

Make a good looking site, but make it searchable, navigable, and accessible.

Until next time.

Social Networks:

I have taken on the challenge to Twitter by my business partner Cotton Rohrscheib. He constantly tells Greg and I that we must Twitter. Now for anybody who knows Greg and myself, this is almost comical. We just don’t get it. We constantly ask “Why?”, “What is it for?”, and “Who cares what I am doing?”

But anyways, I took the challenge. For those of you who aren’t that familar with Twitter, here is their definition.

“Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co-workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?”

Now, what does that mean in practical terms. Basically, using a variety of different methods, you tell the world what you are doing, thinking, or working on all day/night long. You decide when and what you type, but are limited to 140 characters in each post.

I have been Twittering for about 48 hours now and I do have to admit I still do not get it, but with that said it is somewhat addictive. As I sit at work, I have an app on my desktop call Twhirl that I can instantly type my thoughts. While I am out of the office, I can type messages into Google Talk on my Blackberry and they show up. And finally, as I was sitting in my recliner tonight, for some strange reason I had the urge to log into the system and type something. The information is meaning less, I think, but I still had the urge to do it. It has also evolked a blog post on my blog which has been dorment since inception.

Hopefully, I will continue to venture into this world of social networking that I know is the direction everything is headed and embrace these new ideas.

Until next time.

Social Networks:

Stephen Smart, Partner and Co-Founder of Pleth Networks, LLC, a Batesville, Arkansas based Web Development, Managed Hosting, and Premium Email Solutions Provider, announced today that his firm had been retained by Simply Home Lending, a Fayetteville, Arkansas based Lending Provider, to provide Pleth’s Premium Email Solution.

“We are pleased that Simply Home Lending has chosen us to be their email service provider and we look forward to a long partnership with them.” said Smart. “We have long felt that our Premium Email Solution is superior and more cost-effective than other solutions on the market. Business grade email solutions have finally come of age and a lot of businesses are learning it’s value as email continues to evolve into the top form of business communication today.”

The newly-launched Simply Home Lending – Plethware Login page was also unveiled today.

“One of the most convenient features of our premium email solution is that email can be accessed securely from any computer by Simply Home Lending’s associates and partners via our new ajax driven webmail interface,” added Smart. “On the login page there are extensive tools to assist our clients in setting up their Pleth Premium Email Account with popular desktop clients such as Outlook, Windows Mail, Outlook Express, Netscape Mail, Opera, Thunderbird, Entourage, Mac Mail, PowerMail, Mulberry, SeaMonkey and Eudora. Also, with the popularity of mobile devices in the workplace today we are also pleased to have setup guides for Blackberry, Windows Mobile, Palm VersaMail, ChatterEmail and SnapperMail as well. The ability to interact seamlessly with popular desktop and mobile email clients is just another reason why our premium email solutions have become so popular.”

“I couldnt be happier with the service I have received from Pleth,” said Stephen Green, co-owner of Simply Home Lending.

To learn more about Pleth Networks Premium Email Solutions, please visit their website: http://www.pleth.com/services=email_overview.htm

Social Networks:

Pleth Networks Partner Stephen Smart announced today that his firm had launched a newly redesigned website for Community Water System.Community Water System serves the water needs of north central Arkansas. Utilizing Greers Ferry Lake as its source water, the system began supplying water to approximately 1500 customers in Greers Ferry, Higden, Edgemont and Fairfield Bay in 1970. From those humble beginnings, Community Water System continued to grow and currently supplies water to approximately 6100 retail water users and 10 wholesale users located in portions of Van Buren, Cleburne, Faulkner and Stone Counties Arkansas. This represents a service area of greater than 200 square miles with a population served of approximately 65,000.

This new website features many new features including an interactive knowledgebase solution that allows visitors to the website to quickly locate answers to their questions as well as access important information such as consumer confidence reports. CWS customers can also pay their water bills online, request new service and cancel service.

“We hope that CWS consumers find the new website to be user-friendly and a valuable source of information,” said Smart.

Pleth Networks is an industry leading web and application development firm headquartered in Batesville, Arkansas. For additional information regarding Pleth Networks, please visit their website; www.pleth.com, or call: 1-888-276-0848.

Pleth Networks Partner Stephen Smart announced today that his firm had launched a newly redesigned website for Community Water System.

Social Networks: