Marcus Neto - Randomness and Ramblings from a Creative

ExpressionEngine Templates

2012-05-15T14:53:29+00:00

I have to say, when I made a somewhat innocent statement on twitter the other day I had no idea the conversation it would start. But I am glad for it.

** Full Disclosure: Let me say that what you will read here is me without my Product Evangelist EllisLab hat on. But I will say that I have always been a cheerleader for ExpressionEngine as a CMS and the community that surrounds it. I will also point out that I am still the owner of EETemplates.com **

Today Ryan Irelan wrote a piece over on EEInsider about ExpressionEngine templates/themes. I feel like it is a well balanced and thoughtful post on the pros and cons of templates for EE. This is not so much a rebuttal of that article but just some additional thoughts.

But first… some history…

A number of years ago I sat down with a friend that was active in the Joomla template community and we started brainstorming ideas for a business venture that we could run together. Through the course of that he went the route of Wordpress and I went the route of EE. He chose to go that route due to the size of the market. I just couldn’t do it. I felt EE provided a better experience for end users and did not have any other folks doing templates for it so I chose to go off on my own and start EETemplates.

EETemplates was a success in a sense. It never took off like I wanted it but I think that was due to my lack of patience more so than anything else. I rushed it. While I could have taken a year to do proper designs and build out a store with all of the functionality expected from a true marketplace, I didn’t and that hurt me.

I think the other thing that I had working against me was at the time I was the only person building Templates for EE. WooThemes did not enter into the market until a year or so later. I watched with interest as they waded into the market as I have always thought that in order to make templates for EE successful there would have to be several sites making them. The reason for this is that there is no mindset in the larger web community that EE is an option when a template has to be used due to budget constraints or lack of technical ability. Development shops that might choose EE don’t because there is a lack of templates that will speed up their development time. So they move on…

Woothemes never released numbers for how many templates they sold. I am betting that it was not a small number. But I am also betting that it was not nearly as large as what they sell for Wordpress and that from a business perspective it just did not make sense to invest in EE when there was still much to gain in the WordPress theme community. *Adii if you want to email me some number I would welcome them *

So that brings us to the current status of no theme shops for ExpressionEngine. Let’s think about that… The #1 commercial CMS with hundreds of thousands of users and many many more installed sites and there is not a single theme shop for it. Ryan pointed to the CMS Usage Statistics by BuiltWith. I look at those statistics regularly as part of my duties at EllisLab. And every time I look at them I see a market that just has not been tapped. I look at the top graph and wonder how many people would gladly pay $300 more than what they already pay to use any of the other CMSs for a better experience and the ability to make changes with only a knowledge of HTML and CSS. As someone that does not know PHP I would gladly pay that money. And while I do not have hard numbers I would think I am not alone in this.

This is not just about money to me. When I started in Web Design I very much studied the work of others. When I ventured in to providing CMS solutions for my clients I used templates as a way to learn how to create templates for Joomla and WordPress. I think there is a very important educational role that templates play in any CMS community. I received many emails from folks that used templates from EETemplates stating that they were worried about EE but that using a template allowed them to see how the basic functionality worked and they were able to learn EE faster through reverse engineering my code.

There is also a huge market for EE in the less expensive website market. As a studio owner I could make a higher rate on the sites that were simpler, where I used template that I made, vs a large custom site. If you want details on that I can cover it in a different post. But I will say that there are a lot of repeating elements in site design. The more that you can standardize and create a repeatable process the more it will allow you to speed up production and close out business faster. I have told several folks in our market that I could sell simple sites using ExpressionEngine for $2-3000 and build the site in a day or so. After licensing fees for EE and an add-on or two that leaves quite a bit or profit for a day’s work.

To those that would say that this will detract from the ExpressionEngine community and marketplace I would say horsehocky.

Are there still sites being built for WordPress, Drupal and Joomla for hundreds of thousands of dollars? Yes.

Will selling templates bring more folks into the community who will purchase add-ons from our totally awesome add-on developers? Yes.

Has the Code Packs provided by add-on developers like Solspace, BrilliantRetail and others been helpful to our community? Yes.

I do not want EE to change. I don’t think it has to in order to support templates and I would never use my position at EllisLab to advocate for a solution that would change what we love about EE. I have talked with several very smart folks in our community that have ideas for how to accomplish this without changing the flexibility of EE. I would argue the solution has already been found by folks like Solspace and BR as they already provide mechanisms for installing code packs into an existing sites without harming the already existing parts of the site. The have the ability to install Template Groups, Templates, Channels and Field Groups/Custom Fields at the click of a button. Last time I checked that was a template.

Ryan closes his article by saying that there are three things that are necessary for Themes to take hold in. I agree with 2 of them:

I think we could stand to have more documentation on how you can template EE. I wrote two articles on this on EETemplates found here and here. But that is certainly not a complete vetting of the abilities. They were written prior to my time at EL so they were not validated by anyone at EL. But they are a good start.

I also think a site similar to Devot-ee but for themes would make things easier for folks. Themeforest has a section dedicated to ExpressionEngine (Woo’s old themes made by Bjorn). At one point in time I considered using EETemplates as a marketplace. Who knows…

But the thing I really don’t think is necessary is a lower priced ExpressionEngine license. Anyone that has used EE and had their lightbulb ‘AHA!’ moment will tell you that it is worth every penny EL charges for it and then some. So to think that EllisLab needs a lower priced tier is just not something I think is necessary.

What is necessary is for 3-4 different folks to say that templates are going to happen in the ExpressionEngine community and start building them. Take different views on whether they should be fully flushed out sites or starter kits for Developers. Build the market. I will put my EllisLab hat on for one second to say that I will promote and talk about what you are doing.

Want to talk more about this? Feel free to marcus@marcusneto.com your thoughts or disagreements.

Published in: Technology by Marcus

Chase what you want in life…

2012-05-08T15:39:07+00:00

I was struck by something in an article about David Rockwell of Rockwell Group in Inc. Magazine the other day. As some background, David is the founder of Rockwell Group. They are an architectural group with a twist. My understanding is that they are a group of creatives (not just architects) that can apply their creativity to anything, from the interior design of a new restaurant to the Oscar ceremonies, with equal success.

All that to say that he is not someone that is “known” in technology circles. But he speaks as someone that has become extremely successful in applying creativity to problems.

In the article he says:

I believe in going after jobs rather than waiting for the phone to ring. I approached JetBlue to do their terminal at JFK. In the office, we are constantly asking ourselves, “Who do we want to work with? Why? How can we make a difference?” We also have a companywide retreat that starts with the question, “What kind of work do we want to be doing?”

When I read this it resonated with me. In the website business studios often go from project to project schlepping their creativity to those that will pay. Many times studios will have bid on work through an RFP process. If they are lucky then the client will have chosen them based on what they were looking for in creativity but more often than not that is not the case. There are a few that I have come across that have figured out a genre or industry that they play well in. But I know that is not the norm.

What if today… right now… you were to stop and write down all of the companies/industries/genres of business that you want to work with? This isn’t about money. Money will follow when you chase your passion. But this is about identifying places that you think you can apply your creativity to instill change. For instance, maybe you are a gamer and want to try and help gaming companies build some awesome websites? Pete and the folks at Digital Surgeons are doing that. Maybe you want to work with non-profit groups to change plight of the afflicted? Blue State Digital does a bit of that.

But enough name dropping… there is a market for everyone. If I were to think of the areas that I would want to help I would go after CrossFit boxes and businesses in the Gun industry. There is so much work in those three genres I could stay busy for years.

Stop chasing work you don’t want just because you think it will be a decent paycheck. Transform your business by chasing the jobs you want. It will make you happier and wealthier in the long run.

Published in: Sales by Marcus

Breaking up a Matrix Field for use in a SafeCracker Form

2012-04-28T12:50:24+00:00

Recently I built a SafeCracker form that will never see the light of day. It was beautiful but the client didn’t want to use it… But I digress. This for had your basic sign up form and then allowed you to add an additional attendee. The form was designed so that if a parent was bringing children they could add them by filling in a couple of fields and then clicking on Add Row for any additional children. Initially I created this functionality in the normal way by just adding the following to my code:


{field:cf_registration_add_attendees}

But that did not give me the custom look that I wanted. Plus, my matrix field actually have 8-9 fields in it so I wanted to break apart the Matrix field so that I could lay out the fields in a way that would make more sense for the user. I searched and searched the Matrix forum for hints on how to do this and found some info. In an effort to make this easier for my future self, here is an example of how you would do that:

<fieldset>
          <legend>Additional Attendees:legend>
            <div class="attendee">
                <input type="hidden" name="cf_registration_add_attendees[row_order][]" value="row_new_0" />
                <label for="">First Namelabel>
                <input class="input_xlarge" type="text" name="cf_registration_add_attendees[row_new_0][col_id_7]" />
                <label for="">Last Namelabel>
                <input class="input_xlarge" type="text" name="cf_registration_add_attendees[row_new_0][col_id_8]" />
                <label for="">T-Shirt Sizelabel><br />
                <select name="cf_registration_add_attendees[row_new_0][col_id_14]"><br />
                    <option value="Child's Small">Child's Small
                    s Medium">Child's Medium
                    Child's Large">Child's Largeoption>
                    <option value="XS">XSoption>
                    <option value="S">Soption>
                    <option value="M">Moption>
                    <option value="L">Loption>
                    <option value="XL">XLoption>
                    <option value="XXL">XXLoption>
                select><br /><br />
            div>
            <p><a href="#" class="addrow">Add Rowa>
            <a href="#" class="remrow">Remove Rowa>p>
    fieldset> 

Notice that in the name of the fields there is a slight change from the normal parameter that you use to pass values to SafeCracker. In these you have cf_registration_add_attendees[row_new_0][col_id_7]. The col_id_7 points to the column ID of that particular field in the Matrix Field. I believe I went old school and used Firebug to inspect the Matrix Field when I was displaying the whole field in the SafeCracker form (for testing purposes).

This next part was provided by Carl Crawley of Made By Hippo. I could not, for the life of me, figure out why my Add Row code was not working. Carl thought to add the Div around the form with a class of Attendee and hook the javascript into that. He also worked out the bits where row_new_X where X gets incrementally higher with each added row. The javascript code is as follows:

<script>
$(".addrow").live('click',function(e){
    e.preventDefault();
    var $attendee = $("div.attendee:eq(0)");
    var $size = $("div.attendee").length;
    var $clone = $attendee.clone().html().replace(/row_new_0/g,'row_new_'+$size);
    $("div.attendee:last").after(''+$clone+'

');
})

$(".remrow").click(function(e){
    e.preventDefault();
    if($("div.attendee").length > 1)
    {
        $("div.attendee:last").remove();
    }
})

So that’s it. This example should be enough to get you to a working version on your SafeCracker form. Just make sure to include {safecracker_head} so all of the supporting javascript files are available and you should be good.

Published in: Technology by Marcus

LessConf 2012

2012-02-29T01:54:43+00:00

This past week I spent 2 days at LessConf in Atlanta. I had never heard of this conference before going to Panama City to speak at the meet-up a few months ago. Allan Branch, the person that organized the meet-up, started LessConf about 4 years ago. He is business partners with Steve Bristol at LessEverything and they are a hoot!

I will admit I was a bit confused about what the conference was going to be focused on. There seemed to be a lot of hub-bub surrounding the conference but no speakers were announced and there were not really any old videos of speakers to give any indication of what it would be like. Having said that this conference was probably one of the best I have been to. Turns out the conference is about helping and fostering growth in people that have start-ups. And while EllisLab is not necessarily a start-up there is a lot to be reminded of in how start-ups think, behave and operate.

Spike Jones was the first speaker of the conference. He was easily my favorite. He is active in the Word of Mouth Marketing Association. In his talk he shared about how he helped Fiskar (maker of scissors… of all things) create a word of mouth initiative that fed off of the scrapbooking community.

He also talked about the ins and outs of this. How they created a barrier to entry by making the ambassador program small (4-5 people) to make the Fiskarettes feel special. How they personalized some scissors and sent them to them. How they created a new level in a scrapbooking forums especially for them. And ultimately the positive effect on the Fiskars brand that they carried into scrapbooking community.

He also talked about how to tell stories with powerful identities. His example was the State of Texas. Love them or hate them Texas has an incredible marketing campaign. Don’t mess with Texas, Everything’s bigger in Texas etc. He talked about a great brand as being polarizing. This idea resonated with me…

Rob Walling was the second speaker (don’t worry I am not going to write about all 10 talks). Rob’s talk was excellent for a different reason. Rob runs 5-6 small startups. His talk was all about Cost per Acquisition, Lifetime Value of a customer and how to use the information those numbers provide when making decisions about your business. If I remember correctly he also talked quite extensively about A/B testing and using CPA and LV when doing your A/B testing so that you know whether your changes are working.

He also talked about leveraging low budget ways to get word out about your product (Podcasts, Guest posts etc.) using relationships that you might have with apps that are integrated with yours to get word out by cross-promoting to each other’s communities.

John Crawford talked on the second day about not forgetting your friends. My major take-a-way from his talk was a quote:

Your friends have awesome powers - They can create alternative Universes - Let them

The quote builds on his talk about how the people around you can often open doors or take you in different directions by introducing you new people. In his case it opened up some doors that led to 1.5M in funding. Not bad if you ask me.

The final talk I wanted to tell you about was the guys from Intercom.io, Eoghan McCabe & Des Traynor. They talk about how ability and hard work will only take you so far. That without passion you will not acheive as much. And I was struck by something.

The team at EllisLab is a team of positive thinking and passionate people and I am proud to be associated with them.

They discussed the idea that starting (or running) a business is like working on a piece of Art. That there is no scientific forumula that you can follow to get from point A to point B. And that like most pieces of art it only acheives it’s true potential when it is complete. Some really good stuff in this talk…

They also mentioned that Des has called every single one of their (thousands of) customers. That proactively reaching out to their customers is one of the best ways to delight them. I would love to experiment with this. I may not be able to call every new customer to ExpressionEngine but I would like take more time to reach out to the community members that are NOT on twitter. Twitter contains such a small fraction of our community and I often wonder what the rest of our wonderful community is up to (nothing against my twitter friends ).

Their final thought (and they were the final talk)? Was that you must be customer obsessed. That we are entering into an age of the customer. I agree with them. Businesses that stand out for me are the ones that provide ridiculous customer service.

For me there was a common thread in all of the talks. My main take-a-way was to focus on the customer/client in a more personal manner. The EllisLab community is waaaay bigger than a lot of the communities the speakers at the conference deal with, but that shouldn’t matter. We not only need to be Bacon, but I also need to take a chance and personally connect with our customers. But that means I have to put myself out there, and that is a bit unnerving…

LessConf was awesome!

Published in: Technology by Marcus Neto

Reflecting on 2011 and looking forward to what 2012 brings

2012-01-02T01:50:54+00:00

Many moons ago a mentor of mine beat it into my dense skull that if you don’t set goals then you have no way of knowing whether you are moving forward, staying stagnant or moving forward. Looking at it now I don’t know if that is accurate but I have spent so many years planning and scheming on things that I want to achieve that I just don’t know how to do it any different. Perhaps I should have a goal of not setting any goals… nah.

Last year was amazing. Everything seemed to click. Not to say that it was all roses. I think a lot of us are scratching our heads wondering when the hangover called 2011 is going to end. My hope for us all is that 2012 will be a mind blowing year and that we will all check off our to-do lists early, achieve inbox 0 on Thursdays and blow the doors off of our New Year’s Resolutions by February.

In reviewing my goals for 2011 I did pretty good. I like to keep it fairly general when writing goals (I’ve learned). Below are my goals for 2011:

Bodyfat below 15% - possible (I haven’t measured it recently) but more importantly I stuck with going to the gym 3-4 times a week. I am now in better shape than I have been in a decade or so.
Run a 5k - negative. I have struggled with an achilles issue for the year. It is getting better. But now I have no desire to run a 5k. I can bench 250lbs though
Be more focused with my time and tasks - definitely. I am very pleased that I can say I achieved this goal. It is so easy to get off task. Especially for me. I feel I had a really productive year. I have learned tons.
Net (insert a specific dollar amount here)k - yup. Made it. Saved a bunch because of it. For whatever reason we have been blessed and I am thankful for it
Save 5-6 months of salary - Can’t believe it but we made it. Those of you that know us know that both Jen and I work pretty hard. It is an amazing feeling knowing that if something were to happen we have a little bit saved up. I know it definitely helps Jen sleep better at night.
Take 2 vacations with Jen alone - Yeeessss! Gotta get some alone time with my bride. I am excited about this year as we have our 20 year high school reunion in DC that we will be going to. I would also really like to arrange to go away for a long weekend to Jamaica for our 15 year anniversary since that is where we went for our honeymoon.
Spend quality time with the boys - So glad I did this. My little men are amazing. I think the world of them and can see them turning into amazing men right in front of my eyes.
Take date nights with Jen 2x per month - nope. Too expensive. Sitters cost us $10-ish per hour around here. Add that to the cost of dinner and a movie and you can spend $100 for a 3 hour date for a cheap dinner and a movie.
Have abs - close. This. will. happen. this. year.
Continue eating healthy - This is for my family. My father had a heart attack in his 40s. I am closing in on that. Fortunately I have the luxury of making diet and exercise a priority in my life. I am determined to not follow in his foot steps on this one.
Keep my office - yup. I love having a place to go work. I miss having my cohort in crime (Casey Lee) but at least I didn’t have to move into our closet when he took a job in Birmingham.

So what does this year hold? This year I have some of the same or similar personal goals.

Do physical activity 4 times a week - 3 times at the gym and some hefty yard work or something is good.
Continue eating healthy - Try to eat out as little as possible. Paleo if possible. Mmmmm Bacon.
Read at least 2 books per month - Time to dive into topics instead of just skimming the surface.
Spend more time with my parents - They just moved to ATL so this should be easier. In years past they have lived in Caracas, Soeul, Sao Paulo and DC. ATL is closer so I hope that this year we get to see them for Birthdays and stuff.
Watch less TV - see #3
Have abs by summer - I don’t care if it is a 2 pack….
Take 3 vacations with Jen this year - Time away for us to reflect on 15 years of marriage and 20 years of being together. So awesome. If we go somewhere for our anniversary and DC for our 20 year reunion then we only have 1 other trip to arrange. Perhaps NYC near Christmas?
Teach my boys something new, often - I think there are things every man needs to know. How to whittle a stick. How to operate a mower. How to be safe with a knife. How to build a really cool fort.
Keep learning - I would really like to dip my toe into PHP this year… I hope DJ doesn’t read this… I think it will help me understand a section of the ExpressionEngine community that has different needs than the average user.

For business my main goal will be to help the ExpressionEngine community grow. The new position is something I am really excited about. Once I wade through the mountain of email that awaits me tomorrow I intend of formalizing a lot of my plans for this year. I definitely intend on attending more conferences this year. I hope to have more conversations with members of our community, especially the Pro Net (hint hint). I may be doing some speaking. I will definitely be giving demos. If you are a member of the community marcus.neto@ellislab.com if you have ideas of what you would like to see us do to help our community grow.

So maybe this is not your thing. I have a friend that will probably read the first paragraph of this and go ‘meh’. But for me it works. I keep these reminders in a folder in Omnifocus and refer back to them pretty often. And it makes me feel good to know at the end of another amazing year I worked hard towards some goals and achieved them.

Published in: Catch-all by Marcus

Thanksgiving

2011-11-23T20:30:12+00:00

I can’t believe that Thanksgiving is here already. It seems like just yesterday I was dipping my toes in the turquoise waters of the Gulf Coast and chasing the kids in the water. I wanted to take a few minutes and reflect on all that I have to be thankful for.

I have a beautiful wife that loves me and puts up with my crap. I will be forever thankful for that. It has been 14 years of marriage and 20 years of being together as a couple. She is an amazing human that I love spending time with.

I have three boisterous young boys that keep me on my toes. I look at them and I see a perfect blend of my wife and I. They are so awesomely amazing. They are healthy, smart and curious. Those are there qualities I want in a son. I would not trade their wonderful smiles for the world.

I have a wonderful extended family. My wife’s family has adopted me like a son. My own parents have recently decided to move to Atlanta to be closer to us which is going to mean we get to see them more than 1-2 times a year. #bonus

One of the bigger changes this year was my move to the EllisLab team. I love my work. I am so thankful for the camaraderie that we have. Going to work each day is a joyous experience. I am also very very thankful for the many friends that I have made in the community. They keep me on my toes and make me laugh… well some of them : )

I am thankful for my health. It has been about a year and a half since I decided to take control of my health. Short of a recent battle with an ice cream addiction (please don’t judge) I have been pretty good. I have been very consistent with my workouts and eating and my health has improved because of it. My Dr ha taken me off of most of my drugs including the Cholesterol meds that I was on.

I am thankful for my church. I have never been part of a church that cared for their local community as much as Bay Community does. I love that right before writing this blog post they sent an email telling everyone we have raised enough money to give away 3200 bikes to needy families this year. So many kids will get a gift this year because of the giving hearts of the Bay Community family.

Anyway, I do hope that if you are reading this that you have much to be thankful for. I believe that having a thankful heart is key to having a better life.

Published in: Catch-all by Marcus

The Importance of Life Insurance

2011-10-31T15:18:06+00:00

Jen and I have been quite involved in the Insurance scene over the last decade or more. Several of her family members have worked for NY Life and my father sold Insurance back when I was a wee lad. And full disclosure I spent 8 months of my life selling Insurance for NY Life as well till I decided that putting on a suit every day to talk to people about death and protecting their loved ones was not something I could do. It’s a hard sell to say the least.

With all that said I think Life Insurance is something EVERYONE needs.

Here’s why:

Parents should by their children permanent life insurance for two main reasons. First it guarantees their insurability. Most reputable insurance companies (NY Life, MetLife, State Farm, USAA etc) will have riders on the policy that state that the child can purchase additional levels of life insurance with no additional health checks. See kids have it easy. Since they are usually in fine health their insurance comes without a health check. And with this rider in place if they do ever contract something that would negate their insurability then they at least have a small policy in place that allows them to purchase additional life insurance.

For instance:

If a child named Bob has loving parents that have done their homework they will probably have purchased a small permanent life insurance policy on him. The smallest face value for permanent life insurance right now is usually $25-50k and will cost the parents somewhere in the neighborhood of $225-400 annually. Now let’s say Bob gets to age 9 and finds out he has cancer. No worries though as his cancer is operable and he will live a nice long life. But later in life Bob hits a trigger point built into his $50k permanent life insurance policy that allows him to purchase an additional $50k worth of insurance with no questions asked. He just checks a checkbox on the annual payment and Boom! He goes from 50k to 100k just like that and payments will go up slightly from $325 to $450 Annually. Say he does this a couple of times prior to his 30th birthday and has a total of $250k in Life Insurance. He ends up meeting a nice lady (Jane) that he falls in love with and they have kids. Because he is a responsible spouse and parent he meets with his agent to get additional life insurance to make sure his family is taken care of if he passes away only to find out that because he has a history of cancer and his cholesterol has been a bit elevated he cannot afford a new life insurance policy. Again, no worries as he has $250k currently and can purchase additional through that policy at similar triggers to what he has used before. Plus he is buying it at a lower rate than he would if he were to purchase it at his current age.

This brings up point number two for purchasing life insurance for kids. You are enabling them to purchase life insurance for the rest of their live’s at a lower rate. Life Insurance premiums are calculated by a number of factors including: Age, Health, Marital Status, Gender, Previous medical history, dangerous activities, credit history and more. The two biggest factors are age and health. So if you purchase insurance for a child at age 4 and they are assumed to be in perfect health then you are enabling them to purchase additional life insurance at a much lower rate in the future.

As for Parents you are in need of insurance as well. Most of the time you will have to buy Term Insurance though as costs will be prohibitive and your insurance needs are greater during certain portions of your life than others. You are purchasing insurance so that if something happens to you your spouse and children will be able to live the same life they live today. So you are in effect purchasing insurance to guarantee they have your income for as long as needed. If one spouse works by staying home with the kids then they will need insurance as well since if they pass away the spouse generating the income will have additional expenses of childcare and helper type expenses.

There are many reasons to have Life Insurance. It is not an ugly thing. It does not need to be morose. Life Insurance is really the a great act of love since you are saying ‘Even if I am not around I want you to be taken care of’ to your family. Think about it.

Finding a Life Insurance agent doesn’t have to be a difficult process either. There are some slime balls in the industry but for the most part Insurance People are knowledgable and are interested in making you wealthy. Many of them have licensing that means they handle investments as well. They know that the more money they can make you the more money they will make (at least the good ones). The first step is making sure you are protected by insuring the various aspects of your life (house, car, disability, health, life, etc). Then you can start to plan for investment. Insurance is first since if you have a large sum in investment and become disabled then you are going to eat through your investment portfolio to provide for you and your family. If you are insured for that aspect of your life, disability, then the insurance covers you and your investment is safe.

Anyway, if you have any additional questions just email… I get nothing from this other than knowing those that read this are a bit more knowledgable about the importance of insurance.

**** Additional Info: Someone just asked me on twitter if I am against the Dave Ramsey outlook on Life Insurance. I would say no. Life insurance as an investment is typically going to provide lower returns than the stock market or mutual funds when looked at long term. But I don’t think Dave Ramsey disagrees with life insurance. He tells people to purchase Term life insurance and invest the rest. I agree with that. I think everyone needs a little bit of Permanent life insurance as it is always going to cost something to bury you and it would be nice if those expenses were at least covered.

For adults I think Term is good enough. I would just look at term insurance that is going to cover you for the duration of time that you have till all of your kids are grown. And even then you may still need insurance if your investment portfolio is lackluster. By this I mean, if you are older 55+ and have no insurance and then pass away are your investments going to allow your stay at home spouse to live without having to subsist on Social Security only? If the answer is no then you may need Life Insurance later into life. And the premiums on Term insurance are RIDICULOUS once you get past 45. So while I typically agree with Dave Ramsey and have followed many of his principles this is one area that I think needs individual attention for each person and their family.

I will agree with his statement on the above link that Universal is typically not something that should be used. Universal Life Insurance is like permanent life insurance but it is tied to an investment portfolio (typically mutual funds). The idea is that you should see higher rate of return than permanent life insurance. But if you are wanting to invest then do it through a straight investment vehicle like an IRA or Mutual Fund or 401k where you do not have the overhead of handling fees and charges typically associated with life insurance.

If you are a diehard Ramsey-ite then his tenets may be true since you should be debt free by your 50s (or sooner) and have invested heavily so you have a nest egg for your loved ones. Reality is often different though.

Published in: Catch-all by Marcus

NYC and EECI 2011

2011-10-24T21:20:11+00:00

Last week I was fortunate enough to attend the ExpressionEngine / CodeIgniter conference. For those of you not in the Tech world EE and CI are made by EllisLab which is where I currently work. This was my first time in New York City. As the date approached I was quite nervous. I usually travel well but this trip was throwing me a bit. I think it may have been a combination of my new role as Director of Services and Product Evangelist for EllisLab or the idea of going to NYC after not having lived in a city for a number of years (grew up in DC).

The trip was great though. Flying in was awesome as we got to see the skyline (oooo preeety) and the Statue of Liberty. The drive to Brooklyn was no disappointment. Those NYC cabbies make you feel like you are riding a roller coaster at Coney Island. I had dinner the first night with an awesome group of EE devs. Eric Miller played host and introduced us to a nice Latin joint not too far from the hotel. Bigota Bistro was the name, and their fish tacos are A.m.a.z.i.n.g.

The next day I hung out with Jeff Claeson and some other Scottish dude that is lost in New Zealand named Iain Urquhart. Seriously though, Jeff and Iain are awesome. We made it to Times Square before they decided that they were starving and needed sustenance. After that Leslie decided to join us and we made our way to the Empire State Building. This was the sightseeing highlight of the trip for me. I thought I would be a bit freaked out by being 80+ stories high but I did not freak out. The day was perfect for it. Outside of that, I made a blunder. I wanted very badly to visit B & H Photo since I have ordered so much stuff from them. Unfortunately it was a Jewish Holiday and they take that sort of thing very seriously so I was out of luck.

The conference was awesome. I am always amazed at the talented people that I get to talk to at conferences. It was fun being mentioned by Les a few times during the keynote. And even though I would consider myself an expert in EE I am always learning. Tech is definitely an area that you can spend a lifetime not mastering. Matt Weinberg of Vector Media Group is always great for some good information. He did a really nice Top 10 this year. His talk on ecommerce last year was something I watched several times. And Aaron Gustafson made me feel like I didn’t know a thing about HTML/CSS. His talk was jam packed with good tidbits for those of us wanting to master HTML and CSS as it relates to Responsive Web Design.

All in all it was a good experience. My only wish was that we had had more time. There were so many people to talk to I felt like I didn’t get to everyone I wanted to catch up with. I left NYC feeling like I had eaten well, talked to a lot of very smart people and experienced something I will remember forever. I mentioned on twitter that I felt the same leaving EECI as I used to when I would go to a camp during the summer. So many friends that you have to say goodbye to…

Published in: by Marcus

Becoming a Better Writer

2011-10-09T17:51:12+00:00

Several months ago I was having a conversation over tequila with someone I would consider a mentor. He was describing his own journey to (what I would describe as) success. Part of his journey including being challenged by a mentor to write business plans. Many, many business plans. At the time I thought this was just part of his formal training, a curriculm followed by many. I now see that his mentor was giving him the practice he needed to succeed in the position he has today. His mentor saw something in him that told him he would need to be able to put together a vision and sell others on that vision with his writing. I can say that his mentor must be proud.

This morning I was reading Seth Godin’s blog. I was getting caught up on a month of posts when I stumbled across a great article on talker’s block. The premise is that none of us ever complain about getting talker’s block. We should strive to have the same attitude in our writing that we have with our talking. Talk, talk, talk till what comes out starts to represent something intelligible then talk some more.

Putting 1+1 together I am beginning to understand that becoming a better writer is much easier than many would have you believe. It comes from reading writers that you would aspire to be similar to in voice. It also comes from writing, writing, writing till what comes out is presentable and with the proper voice. Succinct, powerful, intelligent, and carefully crafted.

Now to practice….

Published in: Catch-all by Marcus

Hearty Beef Stew with White Sweet Potatoes

2011-09-19T17:24:20+00:00

For those of you that are looking for some healthy eats here is a nice alternative as the seasons start to go cold on us. This recipe fits with Paleo except for the sugar. So omit that if you are so inclined.

What you’ll need:

2 large onions diced
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 cups red wine
3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
3lbs stew beef
2 cups unsalted chicken broth
3 tablespoons of minced Garlic
3 largish white Sweet Potatoes chopped in halves
1/4 cup sliced fresh basil

I use a large pot over medium-high heat. First you add the onions and sprinkle in the sugar, season with salt and pepper. Stir it up till the onions start to soften. Add 1/2 cup wine. Cover and cook until onions are very soft, about 25 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add vinegar and cook until liquid somewhat evaporates, about 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Season beef with salt and pepper and add to the pan. Now you can Add broth, garlic, and remaining 1 cup wine. Partially cover and simmer, turning occasionally.

This is a good base recipe but if you want to add carrots or other veggies you can. Get creative. Let me know what you think in the comments.

Published in: Recipes by Marcus