"Every little deal is a big deal."
all around celebrity #1 (drum roll) John W. Johnston of Northampton England
about the father's business - Fishes Interviews
Candid interviews with web site builders & designers "A series of interviews with online shop owners, artists, musicians and business owners, all are celebrities in my book. Level of web design, W3C Validation or CSS and HTML expertise is not as important as their hopes, dreams, struggles and accomplishments. "
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Welcome to the Fishes Candid Interviews | design by atfb, web design and custom graphics, photograph restoration, photograph enhancement and logo creation.
John, lol. You're such a sport to agree to this interview. Thanks
QUESTION: You will remember the image on the right. Lol, in the not so recent past I created this image as a visual representation of my feelings about css, validation and all things web in general. You stated at the time that you felt the floating upside down fish represented your feelings. Do you still feel this way? If not then which fish would you say best described your abilities now? (note that I amended the image to included a "blind eye" fish. You know why!)
Answer: Oh yes, I remember that image. You and me were the little fish trying to get along in the same sea as all the big fish ... and even the odd shark here and there. Out of our depth, that's for sure. Uh? How can a fish be out of it's depth? Oh well, that's something to ponder later over a glass of malt. Yep, I was the one floating on my back completely beyond help. Which one now? Probably the same one ... but maybe the right way up. I've learned some things since then but I'm still very much a novice blindly splashing around in the murky waters of the net. I haven't made anywhere near the progress you've made and I now see you as a much larger, more capable, experienced and knowledgeable fish. Note to John: you are not a little fish and I am certainly not a big fish! I see us as little fish with the large teeth strapped on. I just noticed that I've left validation and accessibility out of the sea. Must not have been a concern then!.
QUESTION: If you don't mind, what do you do in "real life".
Answer: "Real life?". We all refer to our time away from the internet as 'real life'. Why do we do that? It implies our time on the internet isn't real. Actually, I believe I am a different person when I'm online, but that's another story. Professionally I hold a multi-role position with a local company. My official title is 'Company Secretary' which I think is a UK-only title given to the person who deals with all the statutory and legal matters on behalf of the Directors. I am also the company's Management Accountant and I.T. Manager. I work long hours and often from home using remote connections to our network (darn internet)
Outside of the office, I am a typical busy husband, fixing things at home and tending the garden, but most of my free time is spent online. When I have no significant web project on the go I like to dabble with watercolours and pencil drawings but it's been over a year now since I've done any. Hmmm ... I must do something about that!
QUESTION: What site domains or sub domains constitute your site? Is this a personal site or business site? Please included links. Heck for that matter you can also provide a few smallish screen shots if you like. But please optimize for me, ya know I'm lazy.
Answer: My site is a personal hobby site. The main domain is http://www.JWJonline.net. I have a sub domain for a very small site I made to introduce children to the instruments of the orchestra. This is at http://orchestra.JWJonline.net. The only other sub domain I have is for development purposes and small short term projects. A sort of experimental area where I can harmlessly mess things up as I try and figure out what the heck I'm trying to do.
QUESTION: Where are you located? You don't have to provide me with details, just a overview, like country.
Answer: At the moment, in my office. LOL ... sorry, old joke. I live in Northampton, England. It is fairly centrally situated and the county of Northamptonshire is a fairly flat and uninspiring part of the world. I guess Northampton people will hate me for saying that but what I mean is that it doesn't have any great lakes, huge mountains or breath-taking views. Northamptonshire is known as the "Rose of the Shires" and that very well describes it. It is a county of Spires and Squires and is the Rose in England's garden. There is a brief history of Northampton, with some of my local watercolours, on my site.
QUESTION: John or JWJ, how did you settle on your domain name?
Answer: Oh, you know how it is, the first name you try has gone, so has the next, and the next. I'm not very imaginative with names. My first web space was with aol and because it was used to display my paintings I called it JWJarts. By the time I'd decided to get my own domain there was a lot more on my site than just my paintings so 'art' didn't seem to fit any more. I didn't want to lose what small 'identity' I'd established for myself nor did I want to have to redesign every page so I decided to stick with the JWJ logo. JWJonline seemed to fit the bill.
My first web presence must have been around 2000 but only consisted of a few pages of paintings. My present domain went online in November 2004 and that is the point when I consider my webmastering experience began.
QUESTION: What prompted you to build a web presence at all?
Answer: To display my paintings. I tried painting for the first time in my mid-fifties and was quite amazed with the result. I don't consider my work good and I'm certainly not an artist, but the experience made me realise that anyone can paint. I truly believe that. I wanted to spread the word and encourage others to have-a-go as I had done. A painting does not need to be a masterpiece for it to be enjoyable. The pleasure comes from the 'doing'.
If I am truly honest, I also wanted to get some feedback on my work. I expected true artists to email me telling me how amateurish and poor my work was. I'm not sure I've ever heard from a 'true artist' but what feedback I have had has been most encouraging. I suspect most of my visitors need to adjust their monitors or visit their optician, but I appreciate their kind words all the same.
QUESTION: What was the "dumbest" question you've ever asked concerning website design or implementation? Feel free to elaborate if you need to.
Answer: Oh my word ... LOL ... there have been so many!!! Actually, I've often heard it said that there is no such thing as a dumb question and I think that is true. If there is something you don't know or don't understand then it's not dumb to ask for an explanation. I've certainly asked very many questions where I've felt very silly after doing so because the answer was something that I already knew.
QUESTION: Do you feel your site is finished or do you still have grander goals? Elaboration is expected.
Answer: It will never be finished. For a long time now I have been feeling most dissatisfied with the overall scheme of my site and I know that it needs a complete make over. As anyone with a site will appreciate, site-wide changes involve editing or recreating every page on the site, which makes it a mammoth task (depending on the size of the site of course). Sites that make good use of 'include' files and css can be made over much more easily because changes to a single file can be effective right across the site. So, I decided to convert my site, page by page, to make use of such techniques. One day I will have everything in place for the big make over, but that will only lead me into the next problem. What should my new design look like? I've experimented with a few idea's but nothing that leaves me feeling excited.
As far as additions to my site are concerned, I certainly want to code some new galleries for my artwork. I've got a cupboard full of 35mm slides from back when I was heavily into photography and I think my site could take more photographic content. I've also decided to extend the encouragement I've tried to give to art beginners into other areas by putting up articles about web design, site creation, writing, photography, and more. Do these things come before the make over or after, and what about all the day-to-day tweaks and fixes that stop me getting on with any of the above. LOL ... like most webmasters I need 30 hour days.
QUESTION: Your most recent addition to your site, the World Cup Forecasting pages, How did you ever come up with that idea? And have your expectations for that portion of your site been met?
Answer: Hey, the response to that has been phenomenal. Part of any accountants job is budgeting and forecasting and for the 2002 World Cup I had this stupid idea about using some fairly basic modelling techniques to predict the results. I set up a spreadsheet, fiddled with some calculations and enjoyed the tournament. I didn't do too badly but I was fiddling with the calculations as the tournament was played. It was just a one-off 'budgeting' exercise.
Early this year many webmasters found their traffic volumes falling and the question "What can we do about it?" has been tossed around all the forums. Many are sitting it out, and many more are seeking exchange links, directory listings or whatever else they can think of. I decided to add some new content and just at that time the World Cup came along. I remembered my old spreadsheets, reflected on the world wide interest in the games, and knew this was a must-do.
My site used to average a measly 200 page loads per day but this had fallen to 150 tops. As soon as my new pages were indexed by the search engines my traffic volumes started to climb and, within just a few days my traffic was exceeding 2000 page loads. I know this is small potatoes but for a small personal site like mine, it's not bad. Once the games begun interest in the forecast fell away but I am still averaging 700-800 per day. Of course, that will stop altogether very soon but I am hoping that some of the links and referrals I have picked up in the meantime will have given my site that much needed boost. For sure, the traffic to my regular site is currently averaging around 250 which is better than it was a couple of weeks ago.
Have my expectations been met? You betcha!!!
QUESTION: I also know you built a sub domain site presenting the Orchestra to kids. I know why you did, but could you tell my readers (that sounds funny) why? You must elaborate here.
Answer: I'm trying to make my long stories short and not doing so well. This is another long story but let me do my best to keep it short. This work is that of my daughters. She was set a school project to produce a booklet aimed at a particular age group of people and about a specific subject. As a musician and with designs on a teaching career, she chose the orchestra and 4-8 year olds. She did her own drawings and wrote in a language suitable for young children. Her finished booklet was submitted to the examination board and that's the last we saw of it. The school received a letter stating that the board would be retaining the work as an example for others to follow. Proud Dad? You betcha!!
I always believed this little book should be published but my daughter could see nothing special in it. I've tried a few publishers to no avail but, in the end, realised that I could perhaps do something through my web site. Thankfully, the proud dad in me had caused me to photocopy the book before she sent it in. Many nights of scanning and colouring soon had the raw material onto my computer and from there it was just a case of pulling it all together into a workable web site.
Through my stats and contact form I do know that several schools/colleges have used the book. A childrens college in Finland used it as a month long homework project and only last week a Canadian College was hitting my site with 1500 page loads per day over a 3/4 day period. It's great to know that my daughters idea of introducing children to the orchestra really is introducing children to the orchestra.
QUESTION: John, what was your most glorious moment as it relates to your web site (s)? And if you can, what was the most disastrous moment?
Answer: I think the most glorious probably goes back to soon after I'd joined Statcounter. I was getting hardly any traffic to my site and so I risked everything and put myself up for public ridicule by asking that age old question "what can I do to make it better?". You know, that's a brave thing to do ... offer your site up for criticism. LOL ... the first response I had said something like "You haven't got many visitors because your site is so boring!". Thankfully I also received a few helpful suggestions and I went away to make some changes. When I came back a week or two later and put up my redesign I was churning inside. The response I received from everyone was stupendous. I know my site isn't cutting edge and isn't the most pleasing to look at ... far from it ... and in those days it wasn't even good code, but the "Wow's" I received thrilled me to pieces and it was certainly a turning point for me.
I haven't had any truly disastrous moments. I once had an old site with a meta refresh in the index page and I accidentally uploaded it to my current site by mistake. I received a load of emails from my online friends saying "What's up with your web site .... it keeps refreshing every 2 seconds". It did wonders for my stats. :-)
QUESTION: How do you balance your web building time and your life time? Do you feel you balance it well? Do you take pity on your wife and take her to dinner once in a while?
Answer: Trust a woman to hit me where it hurts!!! I don't balance my web building time at all well. If I did I'd get nothing done on my site. It really is a case of stealing a few minutes here and there but that obviously makes it quite difficult to keep any sense of continuity to my thoughts. What I do to make amends for the time I spend online is sacrifice my painting. I know I can't have my cake and eat it. I try my hardest to keep a sense of priority and won't waste time online if there is something more pressing needing my attention. No, that's not true either. Oh heck, let's be honest, I spend far too much time online and am hopeless at trying to balance my priorities. OK? Satisfied now? My wife is very understanding and doesn't complain (very much) when I keep rushing off to the study to check my emails.
QUESTION: What, John are your dreams and aspirations? They don't have to relate to your website.
Answer: As far as my future is concerned, I wish to get through my last 6-years at work and retire with sufficiently good health such that my wife and I can enjoy a few good years of leisure time. A lottery win wouldn't hurt. Apart from that, I am a simple man with simple needs and no great aspirations. Boring eh? ;-)
QUESTION: John, what would you say was the most difficult part of building your site? What would you say was the easiest part?
Answer: My site has been put together in such small pieces over such a long time that I can't think of any one particularly difficult task. Perhaps, if I have to single out one thing, the Orchestra. A number of new things came together at the same time. It was my first attempt at css, my first use of include files, and my first dip into php .... oh, and due to considerable pressure from my friends, my first pages using divs rather than tables. The pages don't work too well technically and I think that is because I didn't know what I was doing.
The easiest part? There haven't been any easy parts. For anything to be easy you have to know what you're doing. I don't.
QUESTION: How do you feel about following the W3C validation recommendations?
Answer: Oh, that's easy. I'm all for it. Of course my reasons may not necessarily be the best. As a non-technical home-spun site builder my knowledge of code is very poor. I've never made a table without using a wysiwyg editor to generate it for me. Oh, that's not true ... I did my World Cup Pages using only Notepad. Still, that was a one off. My point is that I am a very poor coder and the W3C validator is a superbly easy way of getting my code checked for free (that's the accountant in me). I must admit that removing old extraneous deprecated code from my pages has considerably reduced their size and that must have an effect of load times I would have thought. Of course, reading and editing the code is also a lot easier when there's less garbage to wade through.
QUESTION: How much attention do you feel one should pay attention to web standards and accessibility issues?
Answer: I approve of standards. I think it is good that we should all be trying to work to the same criteria. If the various browsers would apply a single set of criteria in a consistent fashion across all of their products then we web site builders would have a much simpler task. As it is, we have all experienced the problems of having web pages working well in one browser and not so well in another. In the final analysis, the viewing public are the losers when things don't work right. Standards that aim to provide the end user with a consistent quality experience can only be for the better. Accessibility is equally important and we should all do whatever we can to ensure our sites are as accessible as possible to everyone. I do believe that both Standards and Accessibility issues can be viewed differently according to whether a site is for business or personal use. There should be much stricter requirements placed on business sites. I certainly don't pay as much attention to these things with my small site as I would if it were a business.
QUESTION: Are there any questions you would have liked me to ask but I didn't? If so please do elaborate.
Answer:Yes. You could have asked "What do you think is the most important feature of a web site?, etc." "What is the most important feature?" .... Hmmm .... good question Sharron. Without a doubt it is content. It is content that brings people to your site, content that they look at while they are there, and more content that draws them away. No one visits a site because it looks good, nor because it is validated, nor because it is technically advanced. Surfers do a search and your site is found based entirely on it's content. When the surfer arrives on your site, if the content is as expected, they stay and enjoy. If it isn't they're out of there quick as a flash. A good design with a pleasing colour scheme and nice layout will help them enjoy their time on your site and maybe make your site a little more memorable. If the site is validated 99% of your visitors won't even know it. A lousy design with poor code will still get visited if it has good content. A great design with superb code will not get visited if it has bad content. Content is King!!! Oh, just to clarify ... I haven't just said validation and good design are unimportant ... they are.
QUESTION: How do you feel about this interview and the process? Do you have any recommendations or suggestions to make?
Answer: I think this interview has been great. I'm sure when I look back on it I'll think "Oh boy, did I really say that?" but to run back through it making edits and changes will destroy any spontaneity in it. The process doesn't allow you to ask new questions that may arise out of one of my answers but short of doing the interview on IM I don't see how you can deal with that. Yes I do ... send me any new questions and slot them in afterwards.
I think this whole concept is typical of everything you do. It is unique, excellently implemented and 'outside the box'. The only downside is no one gets to interview you.
Hey, why not consider providing RSS feeds so that we will get to see whenever you've added a new interview to your site. I'd certainly display one on my site if you did.
QUESTION: If you had one bit of advice or a tidbit of knowledge to impart, what would it be?
Answer: It would be something that you and I have shown ourselves to be very good at ... asking dumb questions. No matter what it is you are trying to do, if there is something you're not understanding then find someone more knowledgeable than yourself and ask. So what if some answers leave you feeling that you should have known that already. And if you ask a stupid question and you're given a stupid answer then find someone less stupid and ask your stupid question again.
QUESTION: John, if you could post two links to websites online, that you consider to be outstanding sites what would they be? They don't have to be outstanding due to validation, css or web standards just outstanding in that they are interesting, helpful and or contribute to the over all betterment of the web wide world.
Answer: The first would be to the Statcounter Forum. I say the forum rather than the counter itself because the counter is only a product. The forum is a multi-faceted resource. The people there are tremendously helpful and if they can't answer a question directly they can at least point you in the right direction. I have never known anybody make a polite first post and get anything other than a warm welcome and there aren't any lengths those guys won't go to if someone has a problem. My second is a site that I don't visit very often despite displaying a link for it on my own site. It is a site that is a mine of information; that generates user awareness; that fights back at the things that spoil the web for everyone - spam, viruses and hoaxes. I am talking of Hoax-Slayer run by our very own Brett Christensen, who I first met in Statcounter. Brett works tirelessly at warning us all of new hoaxes and scams and is playing a very positive role in trying to make the web a better place for everybody.
Ha, John, you did very well indeed. I approve of all your answers. If you want to interview myself, feel free use the format I sent you, and I will certainly post it here. lol As per your suggestion to rss feed interviews, I don't have the slightest notion on how to implement that. If you do, please tell me how to do so, or better yet, do it for me! Now, do you think anyone else would consent to being the intervieweeeeeeeeeeeeee?
Thank you so much for being so gracious and generous with your time. I know you are busy busy.
You are welcome to edit your answers, but I agree it detracts from the spontaneity.
