Twitter is becoming a interesting place to hang out. A combination of micro-blogging and community. I'm actually finding out interesting articles and links, and learning new things from some smart people.

If you're on there, and even if you're not, please consider following me at http://www.twitter.com/scottjduffy

And if you follow me, I'll follow you.

I love stumbling on to things.

Wordle takes a bunch of words and arranges them according to frequency with an artist twist.  You have to see this in action. This is the SEO 101 blog post I did last month. This is cool technology.

SEO Wordle.

Watching a stupid reality show called Beautiful People on Slice. I guess "advertising works" as they say, I've seen so many ads for it over the months I've finally broken down to watch it. I'm not a huge fan of "fake reality". Fake reality is when the participants are obviously acting a certain way for the cameras. Like when the two primaries of the show are walking through the Calgary airport and one guy is acting all surprised he is in Calgary. "Calgary? Calgary? You brought me to Calgary? What's in Calgary?" Um, you just spent 6 hours flying there, and you had to wait to get there to ask the question?

Or in any reality show, when one person has to call another for some reason, and there is a camera already stationed at the other end of the call. Sort of fake spontenaity.

Hey, ever see the show Extreme Home Makeover? When Ty shouts "Good morning Jones family!" from his megaphone, and they come running out acting all surprised (fully dressed, fully made up). Ummm, fell asleep in your jeans again? Of course, most people can't just take off for a weeks vacation from work on a moments notice either, so let's say they've had a few weeks or months notice the team was coming that day.

Anyways, Beautiful People? One of the fakest of the fake reality shows.

We're 24 hours to go before the end of voting in the United States. By most accounts, 97.2% of people have made up their mind already of who to vote for. A dozen national polls are released daily, and they all show Obama with a lead of anywhere from 5-12%. None of them show a lead for McCain, and haven't for a month.

But the national percentage is actually irrelevant in this race, but that is what everyone focuses on. Americans use a system called Electoral College that assigns votes based on the size of a state. So by that measure, the most probable scenario from fivethirtyeight.com has Obama winning 311 electoral votes to McCain's 227. Obama wins the election 96.3% of the time.

If you asked Americans who they "think" will win, regardless of who they vote for, the majority will say Obama will win. Let's say 99% of Obama supporters think Obama will win and 60% of McCain supporters think Obama will win. That's like 80% of the U.S. population that thinks Obama will win. The media has been largely assuming Obama will win. Other Republican Senators running for reelection are also assuming an Obama Presidency. And if you asked that question outside the United States, in Canada or Europe, closer to 90% of people will say they think Obama will win. Most people think that it won't even be close.

So what if, tomorrow night, the 3.7% happens? What is McCain wins?

Would that mean the U.S. election system is broken? Would it mean the Republicans stole yet another election through legal shenanigans? Will foreign countries with budding democracies (such as Iraq and Afghanistan), or formerly corrupt third-world countries (such as the Philippines) think the U.S. is no longer the standard-bearer for how elections are run? How can these guys come HERE and tell us how to run things when the will of the people was clearly violated?

I mean, every single poll for a month has shown Obama ahead. There is a possibility McCain can win, but what happens if he does?

It will be interesting.

I just saw an online ad with an intriguing premise, "Read why some African-Americans won't vote for Barack Obama". Forget for a moment the highly charged rhetoric implied in the ad. Check out the promo code you need to enter for find out why:

Maybe I don't understand as much about the Internet and marketing as I thought I did. I DO understand the need to track where people come from to know your marketing campaign is working. And I do understand coupon codes to ensure only specific targeted groups get the free things you are offering.

But I do not understand 14-digit promo codes, ever. Promo codes should be easy to remember. "Enter FREEDOM to get your free report!" The above is the stupidest thing ever, and that bothers me. Why why why?

I need to know...

Recently I saw a question posted to a web site. The poster had been trying to make it as a graphic designer, but wasn't getting a lot of work. They tried signing up as a provider at one of these online job sites, and only made $10. "So how does someone new get work?" they asked.

I am a freelancer who deals with one client 9-to-5 (a contractor technically), but does a lot of small projects for other clients on the side. I have a day job AND a night job then.

Most of my "on the side" work comes from personal connections. Scratch that, ALL of my on the side work comes from personal connections.

I am not a huge networker, and don't have a thick rolodex. But when I'm talking to someone, quite often I hear them say "I've been looking to redo my website" and bing-bam-boom we start talking about how I would be able to do that for them, and how it doesn't sound very complicated or difficult to do.

Everyone who knows me in my personal life (spouse, mother, sisters, friends, coworkers) knows I do websites. Does everyone who knows you know that you do design work?

I'm not talking about being pushy or bringing up "boring work stuff" when your having a beer with your buddies. But you need to have an "ear open" for opportunity every time you're talking with someone. And everyone who knows you should know that if they hear of a person in need of design, you're the guy to talk to.

Lastly, one of my biggest connections has been with a small business who does tech (servers, Exchange, hosting, etc) but does not do web development. So they send their clients who ask about web dev to me. Is there a small business in your area that works with people who will likely be your customers but is not a competitor? How about hooking up with web developers who are always looking for a designer to call on in a crunch?

Oh and one more thing, what exactly is "graphic design"? A lot of people outside our industry don't know what "graphic design" is. Maybe you should make that more specific "I design web sites" or "I do logos and business cards", not to cut yourself off from other work, but the average Joe the Plumber isn't going to really know "graphic design" and won't be able to spot opportunities for you.

One area where I have developed considerable expertise is in hiring and dealing with overseas developers. I have hired many dozens of developers on rentacoder and odesk (my two primary sources) over the years, and I wanted to share a few tips with you.

The first thing you need to decide is whether you want a fixed bid, or would like an hourly worker. Depending on the project, I have used both, and there are pros and cons for each.

A fixed bid project is perfect for a small, well-defined task. "I need a logo." Great, you can find a cheap or reasonably priced provider to do that kind of work for a fixed amount up front. "I need a small, 5-page web site." "I need a program to calculate the odds of lightening hitting a golf ball mid-flight."

An hourly bid project is more suited for tasks that still have some unkowns in terms of scope and duration. With hourly contractors, you can change your mind on things, tell them what to do. Ask them to make changes that you hadn't considered beforehand. "I need to convert a ASP web site I have to ASP.NET." "I need someone I can call to do a few hours work a week."

Of course there are down sides too. Fixed price projects generally are less flexible for changes. You need to know what you want up front, and specify it in the bid request. And once the programmer thinks they are done, you have a harder time trying to get them to do a little more. Of course, I've had fixed bid projects where the programmer did extra work for free just because they're nice. There's just no guarantee.

In the hourly project, the risk is that the project will take longer than you expected. That the programmer will be slow. And if you're not happy with the work, there's not much recourse because you're buying their time, not quality.

So, let's say you've chosen between fixed and hourly? Now what?

Well, you post a bid request to a freelancer site. Pick one and stick with it, don't post your request to multiple sites. Be as detailed as you can, be specific. Mention when you will like the work done. Also be detailed about what skills you require (PHP vs. .NET for instance), and ask to see sample web sites the person has worked on. If you don't ask, you won't always get it.

Sometimes, the site asks you to enter an expected price. How much per project or per hour you would expect to pay, although the bidders can bid more or less. Be realistic with this, but don't show your cards. Always put a price in there that is lower than the maximum you really would pay.

To set expectations for you, for programming talent, the cheapest you will find of reasonable quality is in the $8-$10 an hour range. Now there ARE people out there bidding $2 and $3 on projects. I tend to stay away from those. Because you get what you pay for to some degree. For projects I may not care about quality as much I might be tempted to try those low bids. For $2 an hour, you really can't be taken advantage of too much. One week of work for $40. But I am comfortable paying $10.

Then comes the fun part. You will undoubtedly get applications. In my case, I can get 30 or 40 applications on a typical job posted for 2-3 days. I have had as high as 100 for jobs I've left up for a week. In both cases, that's just too many people to seriously consider. So how do I choose?

1) Reject those that are too expensive. As I said in my last post, I can't pay someone $44 an hour for PHP development.

2) Reject those with bad reputations. If 1 or 2 people rated this developer poorly (less than 4 out of 5), steer clear. Buyers don't rate developers poorly for nothing. I rate all my developers 5 out of 5 unless they really did let me down.

3) Reject those who are easily determined as unqualified. I am looking for an ASP.NET developer, and the person's application summary says "Expert PHP Developer", that's an easy reject too.

4) Reject those who didn't follow instructions. No cover letter, no links to work they have done, a cover letter of only one or two lines. That's a sign of someone who applies to 100 jobs a day.

Now we are getting to the ones harder to reject. If I still have a lot of resumes, I might have to cut deeper.

5) At this stage I reject people at $20 an hour, there are just way too many qualified people at $10.

6) I also reject those with no online experience. I would rather work with someone 5-star rated, with hundreds of hours of online experience. Why take a chance?

7) And lastly, if your English is just way too poor, I will reject it at this stage. Communication is difficult enough over IM and email.

Hopefully at this point, you have 5 or 10 good candidates. They are reasonably priced and they are qualified on the surface. Now its time to read their letters in depth, visit their links, and reject them solely based on the quality of their work and experience.