Instead of reitterating everything Mubbisher Ahmed says we’ll let him say it in his own words.

Throw on your parachute and take a step back. Famous last words right? Wrong, taking a step back is often a good thing. Sometimes we get so involved in trying to move forward we forget to look where we’ve been to see what we’ve actually done. In our effort to move forward we often don’t see the cliff we’re about to walk off of because we didn’t see the signs that were there from where we have been. Taking a step back gives chance to see if we are actually achieve the goals we’re so eagerly trying to meet while we’re moving forward.

DHD digital, in this case me D.E. Wiles, decided to take a step back to look at the blog. Between trying to get new contracts, feed my belly, get finished with two blogs on planning [one about planning in general and the other about THE PROJECT specifically], setting things up for the next stage in THE PROJECT, doing DHD digital daily business I almost forgot to find out what my audience was taking away from the blog. Please don’t push me off the cliff!!!!

What Do I Want?
By being so focused on moving forward DHD digital, me, wasn’t actually focusing on achieving the goals of the blog or for that matter THE PROJECT. This is a pretty common occurrence. Sure, we all want to move forward to what we perceive as meeting our goals; but, are we truly meeting our goals by moving forward or are we just moving forward?

Well not wanting to be guilty of this myself I took the step back. Since DHD digital’s philosophy is “Do It Free! Do It Cheap! Do It Smart!” I definitely wanted to make sure I was doing it smart. In this instance of doing it smart, I wanted to make sure that when people were visiting the blog that three things were happening: the visitor wants to read DHD digital’s blog, they left remembering something about it and of course that they come back.

Being Honest and Sharing Cookies
First thing I did was to take a good look at the blog itself. I went down a personal check list that I had come up with to represent DHD digital’s interests:

• Is the blog clean looking?
• Is the blog easy to read?
• Does the front page present bite size samples of the blogs?
• Are the headlines catchy?
• Does the blog look friendly?
• Is the blog informative?
• Are people remembering anything about the blog?
• Can people easily subscribe to the blog?
• Will people want to subscribe to it?
• Are all static information pages finished?
• Is the blog linked with other marketing material?
• Is the blog linked with other social networks?

The list was much larger; but, it contained questions that aren’t ready to be answered yet so I took the BIG list and narrowed it down to the most relevant questions to make sure I’m doing it smart at this stage of the game.

Now it’s time to do the really hard stuff, giving yourself an honest assessment! So let’s just start at the top of the list and work our way down.

Is the blog clean looking? – A big yes on that. I choose this particular WordPress blog template for two main reasons. The first being that on the back end of it, combined with the standard WordPress tools, there were plenty of options for customization. The second reason being that the architecture of the template forces me to keep things minimal.

Another reason I choose this template is part of the doing it smart and doing it free – WordPress has an engine that helps to drive traffic to the blog and I wanted to capitalize on that. This template design also fits into a future plan I have for THE PROJECT that involves integrating the blog into a content management system. There’s that planning thing again.

Is the blog easy to read? – From a layout perspective it is so that leaves the writing style. Initial response shows that it is; but, this is one of those things that we’ll just have to wait and see over time.

I decided on a more casual writing style because the DHD digital philosophy of “Do It Free! Do It Cheap! Do It Smart!” is usable across many projects, careers, life experiences and so forth. Since this philosophy is versatile in its use I obviously want to appeal to as many different types of audiences as I can. After all, even us techno types get glaze eyed when looking into the abyss that technical jargon can turn into. For the non-techno types it’s a sure turn off.

Does the front page present bite sized samples of the blog? – Yes, and it was easy to do. Going back to doing it smart and doing it free, I did some quick searches of the WordPress knowledge base, found out how to build my own summaries and BAM! [sorry Emerald - love your cooking!] there were my bite sized samples.

The reason I choose to go with bite sized pieces, instead of the whole blog showing up on the front page, is because I want my visitors to have the opportunity to, as quickly as possible, see a good selection of the most current blogs. For those who want to dig deeper I set up some tools in the side bar. I’ve set the main page to show six [6] of the most current blogs written while on the side bar there is a section that will show the last eight [8] blogs written as well as a section that lists the categories of all the blogs.

Are the headlines catchy? – I know this is a definite yes already as one of my readers has already made an amusing comment about it so my goal here is to keep them catchy.

Does the blog look friendly? – Honesty time here, unfortunately no. There’s a giant wall of text there just glaring at you daring you to read it. To eliminate this I’m going to add pictures at the start of each blog. This will give the front pages some flavor. Additionally, as I write more blogs I’ll start adding in more images, and maybe videos, through out the blog postings themselves.

The other option I had was to change the template design so that it looks “friendly”. Having already spent hours selecting the right WordPress blog template for my content and purposes the last thing I want to do is go back through and pick another template and have to restructure everything. Ok, so I did go back and take another look; but, there wasn’t anything that would do enough of what I wanted it to do at this time nor fit with future plans.

Is the blog informative? – I believe it is and if you’re reading this then you probably think so as well. While this is an immediate need it’s also one of those needs that is going to take time to find out if I’m meeting it and if I’m effectively demonstrating DHD digital’s “Do It Free! Do It Cheap! Do It Smart!” philosophy. So time will tell the true answer to this question.

Are people remembering anything about the blog? – I don’t have an answer to this. Of course I’d like to say yes; but, I simple don’t know. So how do I find out? Well as time goes on I’ll be talking to subscribers and reading what comments are left. The subscribers will tell me what they remembered and the comments that aren’t generic in nature will indicate that the person leaving the comment is sure to remember and talk about the blog.

Can people easily subscribe to the blog? –  Yes they can! Return visitors are very important not only to the blog but to DHD digital business as well. After all, how can we build trust if you don’t keep coming back?

I choose to place the subscription button and RSS feed at the very top of the side bar to ensure it’s one of the first things people see. I’m also considering adding it to the bottom of the page so that it’s one of the last things people will see.

Will people want to subscribe to it? - As there are already subscribers to the blog the answer is an obvious yes. This doesn’t mean that I can sit back, have picnic and watch the butterflies. What it does mean is that I, DHD digital, has to continue to enhance the value of the blog so that people will keep coming back and so that people will subscribe.

Are all static information pages finished? - No, I was so focused on moving head with THE PROJECT, getting out fresh blogs, daily business, business meetings, feeding my belly, petting the cat, breathing and pretty much anything else concerned with moving forward or day to day activities that I completely forgot to make time to do the static pages of the blog.

If I plan on meeting the above listed questions, and being able to meet future goals, then I have to make time to do these pages. Sure, they aren’t all that grand and may not even calculate into drawing people to the blog; but, they do calculate into keeping people here. And, the longer people keep coming back the more likely they are going to tell some one else about the blog. Then what happens when these new people get here and want to know more about the blog, THE PROJECT, DHD digital or what have you? They won’t be getting the value they should be getting and they won’t come back or tell anyone else about the blog.

Is the blog linked with other marketing material? - Yes and no. The blog, and other social network media, go out as links on emails. After the blog grows a bit more with content and I get some visible work done on THE PROJECT then we’ll actually start doing a marketing campaign. At this time we’ll add it to the business cards, internal marketing on the website, throw it out in some forums, and a few things you may not think about.

Is the blog linked with other social networks? – Yes, but not completely. The DHD digital tweet [http://twitter.com/dhddigital] is linked to the blog and the reverse is true for the twitter. I’m working on a business FaceBook page that will be added into the mix and considering reviewing other sources of social networking.

As you can see, taking a step back can be very helpful to you and keep you from stepping over the edge of that cliff you can’t see because you’re to focused on trying to move forward or being overwhelmed by day to day stuff. If you don’t believe me just take a read back through the above and you’ll be able to see where I mentioned future plans. If I don’t fix the stuff I’ve noted now then they will have a negative impact and in essence, I’ll be throwing myself over the cliff because I didn’t take a step back now and look at it. Since I forgot my parachute glad I took that step back now.

If you’re not a blogger or starting to see how things tie together or this is the first post of the DHD digital Do It Free! Do It Cheap! Do It Smart! blog you’ve read you’re probably asking…

And This Helps Me How?
Well step right up and I’ll tell you exactly how this helps you for the low low price of free! That’s right, we’re about to cover how to do it free and smart at the same time! Exciting isn’t it?

Sure, I’m using this blog and what needs to be done to it as an example of taking a step back to be able to move forward smartly; but, while it is a real thing, it is a metaphor…ok, a pretty big and long metaphor.

It doesn’t matter what you’re doing in life taking a step back helps. It can be business, personal, profitable – it doesn’t matter because taking a step back will give you the opportunity to evaluate what is going on before you take a step forward.

Ever said something you regretted later? Taking a mental step back could of prevented that argument from going on or hurting some one’s feeling or getting into some sort of trouble.

Ever buy something you regretted late? Instead of rushing and buying the latest greatest what-cha-ma-call-it or thingamagigger you might of gotten something better or cheaper if you had of taken that step back to look at what you were doing.

Ever been at a point in business where you were trying to figure out exactly how you got there or why you made that decision in the past? If you had of taken that step backwards back then you might not be in the situation you are in now.

True, no one can anticipate everything or even control every aspect of a given situation. What you can do is give yourself a moment, or two – or longer if need be, to make better decisions, plan better, react better, do it free, do it cheap and do it smart by taking that step backwards.

So go ahead, take that step backwards so you don’t walk off the cliff.

Quick List for Blogging Help – Doing It Free! Doing It Smart!

How to Build a Successful Blog

How to Build a Somewhat Successful Blog: 16 Lessons I Have Learned

How to Blog: Blogging Tips for Beginners

If some one comes up to you and says “I’m giving you this car for free.” you immediately will be suspicious and wonder what the strings are and or what’s wrong with it. If you find something cheap in the store you immediately ask yourself questions of if the lower cost is a sale to get you to by it, if there’s a quality issue, if there is a quality issue does the quality meet your needs and other questions of this type.

We make the above sorts of observations and decisions in our personal lives most likely on a daily basis. So why don’t we make these sorts of decisions in business? Simply put, most of use can’t see the forest for the trees or can’t see the trees for the forest.

People exist at different levels in an organization and, unfortunately, we tend to only see what is going on at that level so this is where our mind set is. This isn’t exactly a bad thing; but, it’s not a smart thing.

If you want to maximize the effectiveness of any project, endeavor, what have you, then you have to not only look at the forest [long term goals], the trees [immediate goals], the natural paths in the forest [the direction your company has been going without active decision making] as well as where you need to make paths [active informed decision making]. In short, you have to have a plan!

To do it smart you have to have a plan. To make a viable plan you have to be informed.

Going back to doing it free, you must utilize the resources available to you so that you can be informed. Armed with these resources you’ll have the information you’ll need to be able to decide if you can do it free or if must do it cheap. And of course doing it free when you can or doing it cheap , if you must, is doing it smart.

At DHD digital we use a process we call “organic planning.” Now this isn’t an industry standard and not likely to be found outside of DHD digital. If you have heard of it then chances are you’ve talked with a client, a friend of a client and or some one who has worked with DHD digital in the past. However, using organic planning, we have yet to find an instance where this method isn’t effective. In fact, this is what we will be using on THE PROJECT.

The high level basics of organic planning is to decide what is important and or what you’re trying to accomplish. We try to keep this at no more than five [5] points. Why? Because if you start looking at the forest you’re going to miss the trees. Next we branch off from those five [5] points with the following questions: why, where, how, when, what. Ya, pretty basic. Then we try to answer each one of those questions as it applies to the point. We also integrate adaptability; that’s where the organic comes in.

And, that’s pretty much it. Pretty simple right? Well just remember that often the simplest things can be the most complicated. Later DHD digital will get more detailed on the organic planning method and show you how we’re using it for THE PROJECT.

The above has been a vary broad taste of doing it smart. As THE PROJECT continues DHD digital will begin to narrow down how to do it smart. We’ll include tips and tricks, things to watch out for, planning techniques that will work across many needs and projects. DHD digital will show you how we’re doing it smart with THE PROJECT. Be sure to check back regularly!

Doing it cheap doesn’t mean not spending money. It means being knowledgeable enough to know if you should spend a penny or a dollar. There are times when you just have to spend money; no way around it. That doesn’t mean you have to spend unneeded money on whatever you’re paying for.

Going back to doing it free, almost every quality service provider will happily provide you with free information concerning their work. If it’s a product you’re looking for then the chances are good that there is something on the web about it. Doesn’t really matter what it is that you’ll be spending you’re money on, what does matter is the value perceived and the value received for the money you’re spending. You should always remember to comparison shop; even when you’re looking for a contractor or new employ to do a job you need done. In your personal life you wouldn’t go out and by a new car, television, computer, refrigerator are pretty much anything else that costs a lot of money without learning something about it. So why would you do it in your professional life?

Yes, all service providers, product sellers and similar types would like for you to make a quick choice so they can get your money in their bank accounts; but, don’t spend your money on something that doesn’t have the value you need. Even DHD digital would like for you to decide quickly and pick us; but, if we’re not the right choice for you then you shouldn’t pick us. Doesn’t matter if the company is related to one of your employees, one of your employees knows the company or what have you. If you don’t know anything about them don’t choose them. And, the only way you’ll learn anything about a company is by doing it smart and doing your research.

Starting to see how doing it free, doing it cheap and doing it smart all tie in together?

How you spend every single penny has always been important; but, there’s a difference between being important and smart. Whenever possible, and smart to do so, you should do as much of a given need as you possibly can. Obviously you can’t go out and start your own data center or marketing firm or whatever it is that your business needs, unless those are the businesses you are in; but, you can do the research on what you need so when you approach the data center or the marketing firm you can make informed decisions. You can get ideas jotted down or paper. You can approach the businesses that will be doing the work for you with as much knowledge and preplanning as you can possibly do. This type of effort will lower your cost and allow the business providing you with services and products to provide you with a better quality end result.

Make sure you know what you’re spending your money on and have a plan. With a plan you will know how to spend those pennies, or dollars, and if you really need to spend that three thousand [$3,000] dollars on SEO, five thousand [$5,000] dollars on new graphics design, [$2,000] on a new user interface or if you should combine it all and just spend the seven thousand [$7,000] dollars on redoing the website and save yourself three thousand [$3,000] dollars. With the right information, which you can get for free in most cases, you can do it cheap and do it smart.

Ten thousand [$10,000] is the approximate end amount a client of DHD digital’s ended up paying by not knowing what they were spending their money on. DHD digital came in at the end of the work because the client was dissatisfied with the previous service provider. One of our staff heard the CFO [Chief Financial Officer] complaining about the cost that their web presence overhaul was costing and started a conversation with the CFO about our “Do It Free! Do It Cheap! Do It Smart!” philosophy. We’re happy to say that DHD digital did business with them for many years afterward and we’re even happier to say that because the CFO shared our philosophy with the rest of the organization they started making significant increases in their profits because the did it free, they did it cheap and they did it smart.

Now you may be asking yourself how does DHD digital know that they could of saved three thousand [$3,000] dollars? Well during the conversation the CFO asked us what we would of charged to do their SEO, new graphics and new user interface all in one shot. We took the invoices from the other companies that had done the work for the organization and calculated the cost based on the work done. What we discovered was that there had been duplicated work. This isn’t saying the other companies tried anything sneaky; in fact, the duplicate work had to be done. If DHD digital had of done each section in separate installments we would of had to of duplicated the work.

If the above organization had of been aware of what was involved with the three above projects they could of save a good chunk of change by doing it smart; and thus, doing it cheap. You don’t have to know how to do something to be aware of what is involved.

The above has been a summarized bit of info on doing it cheap with a handy example tossed in. One blog simply isn’t enough to cover all the ways to do it cheap. Through out this blog we’ll show you how we’re doing it cheap with THE PROJECT. We’ll also share with you ways of doing it cheap that will cross over to other projects and needs. Be sure to check back in for more ways of doing it cheap.

There are a plethora, a magnitude, a cornucopia, a virtual [insert big words meaning a lot here] of open source scripts, modules, materials, and so forth, out there to help you along. Lot’s of communities are there to help the novice to the professional succeed in many aspects of their web existence.

Most of the open source communities are eager to help and only seek that you spread the knowledge they are sharing, seek permission to commercialize it and keep the true spirit of open source alive by sharing any non-commercial knowledge you have. [Like DHD digital is doing with this blog]

A professional friend in California once said to me, “The open source community is great. I love it and help out when I can; but, they don’t have everything.” You know what, he’s right. The open source community may not have exactly what you need or even anything close to it; but that is a good jumping off point. You may have to create whatever it is that you need or have some one create it for you; but, at least by exploring the open source community you’ll have some ideas of what you want or maybe what you don’t want. And, sometimes knowing what you don’t want is just as important as knowing what you want. Goes into the do it smart part of the DHD digital philosophy.

If you have to create it go to the library [ya, that antiquated thing with books in it that have paper in them and words printed on those pages - shudder - the horror!] and either use their reference section  or check out the books you need. Take good notes from the sections you need in the books and get to it. But, if you’re not skillful enough in an area you have a need for [everyone can't do everything - that's just reality and you should be cautious of anyone who says they can do everything] look for some one more knowledgeable than you in that area.

DHD digital has a “share network” where we trade bits of our knowledge for the knowledge of others, information brokering at its best. Not knowing something isn’t a bad thing. Not taking the opportunities to learn it when it’s free is. An informed client is really a blessing. It helps lower their costs, helps us provide better service and is just good ole fashioned doing it smart!

If you just don’t feel comfortable with a project or accomplishing a particular need and think you need a professional that’s all well and good. Of course DHD digital wants to throw our hat into the ring; but, we’re not the only ones out their and we might not even be the right choice for you. That’s right, DHD digital will gladly tell you we don’t know how to do something; but, we will offer to consult for you and do the design work so that you can get a third party to do it for you at a lower cost. That’s doing it cheap and smart.

If you do find yourself in a spot that requires a professional you can still get the work done for free depending on your need. If you’re a non-profit or willing to take longer to get it done, or whatever agreement you can come up with, many companies may be willing to do the work for free in exchange for some free marketing space on your website and or some other arrangement. Just remember to be reasonable with your request for free stuff; after all, businesses need to make money too. Find a professional just out of college. They need a portfolio and you need work done. Makes for a great combination; but, be aware that experience goes a long way and the fresh out of college professional may not have the level of experience you need. It really comes down to your needs

There are so many free resources and options out there that if DHD digital did just one blog entry it’d be massive – well actually we’d never get it finished because free is ever growing. As DHD digital works on THE PROJECT we will publish blogs on the free resources we will be utilizing. We’ll also include any additional things we think are nifty and useful. Be sure to check back regularly on ways to do it free.

DHD digital repeatedly sees many “experts” in the fields that we provide services in that say you can’t use our philosophy of do it free, do it cheap do it smart to create a complete marketing strategy free or cheaply. You can’t build a website free or cheaply. You can’t leverage social networking free or cheaply; and the list of “cant’s”  goes on and on. Seems like these experts are only experts of “can’t.” Well we’re going to prove them wrong with THE PROJECT. [sounds ominous huh?]

DHD digital will concede that there is nothing that is truly free in this world. Everything has strings attached. In DHD digital’s philosophy free is a relative term. If you go to your favorite browser, type in some search term related to something you want information about that is free. The knit picky technical argumentative person would argue that you paid for your computer, you paid for the hardware to connect to the internet, you pay for an internet connection so it’s not free. In the most literal since of the word they are correct, it isn’t free. However, in applied terms doing that would be free since you’re already paying for all of those services and products anyway for either professional or personal use. So you can do it “free”.

Some of these experts are even friends of DHD digital. Many a friendly debate has been centered around doing the “can’t's”. Some of these debates have gotten pretty heated, on a professional level, over the years; but, none have been so heated as the one around the first of the year, 2010.

DHD digital won’t go into all the details of the conversation as to outsiders it was pretty boring and even out times down right silly; but, towards the end of January, the beginning of February, the owner of DarkMoss, located in California, and the owner of DHD digital returned to their old arguments concerning “Do It Free! Do It Cheap! Do It Smart!” DHD digital and DarkMoss have worked on many projects together and the owners have been long time friends. This is the way the conversation went:

DarkMoss - Seriously, you’ve been going on about [Do It Free! Do It Cheap! Do It Smart!] for years. I think it’s time you finally put up or shut up.

DHD digital – What are you talking about? I’ve been doing that for years with every client!

DarkMoss – OK, I’ll agree that your philosophy will work on small projects and non-profits and things like that; but, you can’t do it with any major projects.

DHD digital – I bet I can.

DarkMoss – I bet you can’t.

[conversation breaks down into the silliness of two friends that have known each other for many years]

DarkMoss – Seriously, I don’t think your methods will work on a large scale project.

DHD digital – I know it can because we’ve refined them over the years to be scalable.

DarkMoss – Well like I said in the beginning, put up or shut up.

And that was how THE PROJECT was born. After some consideration, weighing the risk versus gain, DHD digital will take a website from scratch to finish and using the “Do It Free! Do It Cheap! Do It Smart!” philosophy and methodology completely redesign, rebuild and redeploy not only our web site; but, our entire marketing presence.

We have three goals with THE PROJECT. The first obviously being marketing. Yes, this is part of a strategy for our marketing presence to get new clients. The second being to prove that our philosophy and methodologies will work on large scale projects. The third being to provide valuable, usable, adaptable information to you the reader.

To provide the best possible environment to prove the effectiveness of “Do It Free! Do It Cheap! Do It Free!” we have closed down all our other marketing and information sites. We’ve transferred our main domain URL [<a target="_blank" href="http://www.dhddigital.com">dhddigital.com</a> to what was once our testing zone [it's the cheapest web space we had] and will be starting with a clean slate. Depending on when you read this you will see either bits and scraps of old websites, web experiments or you will see THE PROJECT in some stage of development. [If you go there as of the date of the publication of this blog you will see a really ugly place. We've got to do some house keeping on it before we can start THE PROJECT.]

Over the course of THE PROJECT we will detail everything we do. We will also provide information on specifics as well as in a general form to show you how to apply it to different needs and projects. We’ll answer questions, whenever possible, on the generals of the way we’re doing things. What we won’t do is tell you exactly how to do it. OK, in some cases we might; but, the point of this blog isn’t to teach you how to code or do graphics work, though we will recommend places to get those resources, it’s to show you how to do it free, do it cheap and do it smart.

Be sure to sign up for the mailing list to get news on when the blog is updated. You aren’t going to want to miss this. DHD digital is either a genius or a lunatic. Stay tuned to find out!

Did we mention that this is all primarily going to be done by one person; the owner of DHD digital Mr. D.E. Wiles?!