RMX Direct Ready To Make Publishers $$$ (out of beta)

RMX Direct was officially released from beta this morning. In our beta testing we proved one thing - that RMX Direct works at making publishers more money. Now, we are ready to help any and all publishers with that challenge.

It's going to be an exciting day! Just check out the buzz:

• RMX Direct Has Launched - Conversion Rater
• Right Media Launches RMX Direct for Publishers - Cost Per News
• Right Media Spurs Network Sparring Over Small Site Inventory - Clickz
• Right Media Eugene launches RMX Direct - Off The Island

New RMX Direct Website (still in beta)

I wish I had a screen shot to show how the old website looked, but take a gander at the new RMX Direct website! It took a lot of work from a lot of people to get it all done!



Special thanks to:

• Pat McCarthy
• Cam McNeeley (no relation to me)
• Shane Foster
• Brad Nelson
• Vince Panero
• Jerri Gillean
• The Horn Group
  
• Christine Hunsicker
• the RMX Direct PHP developers
• Luke Walsh and Becca Bullack for the case studies
• and anyone else I forgot (email me if I missed you)
  

Beta for the product is still in progress, but when we launch - we'll be ready!

Oregon Federation Of College Democrats

This was another volunteer project. The Oregon Federation of College Democrats came to me in need to a website/blog and they wanted me to design it. I was happy to help them out. It's been a while since the Dems have posted to the blog - but I'm told they will be ramping it up with the elections coming soon.

All Washed Up

All Washed Up was a project that I worked on for a business project - nothing more nothing less. :)

University of Oregon Alpha Mail Redux

The University of Oregon really gets my goat...

First, they choose not to become the flagship university using Gmail. OK, I fought that fight hard, but lost. I can live with that. The smart strategists over at the Daily Emerald suggested Google's program wouldn't work for a school as big as UO (and our 20,000 students). I guess ASU (and their 65,000 students) didn't get the memo. Nice job Sun Devils.

Next, I tried to help out where I could by offering to redesign Alpha Mail, the University's new open source email program, which is supposed to be their answer for Gmail. It's funny, UO liked Gmail so much they copied it's UI. In the end, it was all a big waste of time... the developer of Alpha mail has moved on, and yet again, the students at UO have an inferior email client because of the poor long term decision making of the UO administration.

Original (and current) Alpha Mail Login:



Alpha Mail Login Redux:



There were some crazy design constraints with this... Apparently UO was trying to develop this system so a bunch of universities could use it and "fight off" gmail (seriously). So the design had to be one that could be used by multiple schools. I tried to keep everything simple, because it's just an email login page - how complicated does it need to be? I've put up several designs, to show how flexibility of the design.

Fanconi Redux

The Fanconi Anemia Research Fund is a great little non-profit located here in Eugene, Oregon. They've been doing some great work for a lot of years on an important medical condition.

I took up the design project at the suggestion of Dave Frohnmayer. Although the design was never implemented, I was happy to do my part in trying to help where I could.

Original Fanconi (and current design):



Fanconi Redux:



Basically, I was instructed to keep the same layout/look and feel to the site - but just to update and refresh. I focused on changing from the three column layout down to two, and cleaning up the color scheme and navigation. Also, because a lot of Fanconi's traffic was from out of the USA, I made it text based as much as possible (for ADA too).

Google Business Solutions Updated

There are no huge changes, but the design and content layout of Google Business Solutions has changed.


Already having changed Google Sitemaps to Google Webmaster Central, it seems that the bees in Mountain View have been very busy.

Google's Own Maps + Local + Main Search Results Mash-up

I never know if this stuff is new, but because I use Google all the time and I've never seen it, I'm going to make the assumption that it is. What you see below is a Gmap in the Gserps... Something I've definitely never seen before. Has anybody else seen this?

Google More: Suggestions

Do a search for "Portland." Notice anything different? Sure you do.


It's almost like a Google suggestion tool right? Kind of cool. I'll see what I can find out.

Jets Draft Kellen Clemens

Holy Crap - how stoked am I right now? My favorite NFL team, daaaa Jets. Favorite college team? Well, since I'm a Duck it has to be Oregon.

Clemens is going to kick major butt in New York! Can't wait to see him play with the other O-line picks.

Yahoo and Prudential team up in real estate

I wish I could find more information about this online, but I just can't. I was watching TV when I say a commercial advertising Prudential Financial and Yahoo Real Estate.

It seems to me this is significant, especially with Google getting a lot of attention for their inclusion in the Pontiac commercial.

More Yahoo Images

I think these are pretty cool, so I took some extra screen shots. It seems that I can only find the Yahoo image text ads on Yahoo Sports articles and only using Firefox, but not IE (at least not the IE 7 preview).

Here was my original post about the Yahoo images in their text ads.

Yahoo Ads Displaying Images

So I was reading about how George Mason beat Connecticut in the NCAA tournament when I got to the bottom of the article. Holy Crap - look what I found!

Yahoo's sponsored links at the bottom of the page have small little images screen shots of the destination website.

Here is what I saw:



Now, I have not seen this before, but let me check into this a little bit more and I'll blog it up if I find anything else.

PS - Hey Yahoo, can we get a little YPN love and throw some images in our contextual ads? Please?

Google Base On GSerps

Haha, I ran across this in the Google Serps yesterday when doing a search for "Google Jobs." Thought that it was something new, then changed back to reporting old news, only to find out it was new news. Go figure. :0)

Oregon Football Loses To Oklahoma

The Oregon football team barely lost the Holiday Bowl tonight. God, I can not even describe how terrible I feel. First of all, the Ducks almost overcame a poor showing in the first half to come back against an Oklahoma team.

Then, after an amazing 4th down conversion, Brady Leaf threw an interception on 1st down of the last drive and the game was over for the ducks. My roommates and I were literally heart broken. Everyone is going to say how Oregon was overrated, but I say screw that. Oregon just did not execute its game plan effectively and killed itÂ’s first half momentum by changing quarterbacks. Excuse me as I go cry...

Either way, cheers to the next year of Oregon Duck Football; I also hope that the basketball can turn the team around! Go Ducks!

Reactions to the new University of Oregon homepage

So at the beginning of Fall Term 2005, the University of Oregon launched a new website redesign. The new homepage features some more descriptive and interactive graphics. It seems to me that the new Oregon page is an attempt at appealing to new students and faculty, whereas the last homepage design catered more to the students. Based on reactions to the new page which I have heard from my peers, I'd say the page isn't being welcomed as administrative officials might have thought.

Although I did not originally like the new page as well, it has grown on me. The old page was so unique to the University of Oregon. What we have now is something much more standard and played out. However, I did say that it has grown on me, and it has. I like the new flash on the welcome screen and the better news feature on the bottom of the page.

As much as I'm starting to accept the new page for what it is, there are some things about it that I just can't seem to get over. I think that the design on the JavaScript drop down menus is terrible. The menus seem to appear out of no where and have nothing to align to.

The other thing that I dislike is that other pages are not being converted to the new format quickly enough. All I want for Christmas is a university website that is unified on all levels. For example, take a look at the Office of the President. See any design differences? Sure you do, the Office of the President page looks like it was made pre-2000. It's not professional, and it's not representative of the University of Oregon. Now take a look at this, I incorporated the information from the Office of the President page into the new format. It took me practically all night, but never the less I did it. Why did I do it? I did it simply to show that pages can and should be updated to the new format. If the university can't allocate resources to updating pages, then they should outsource the work to a design firm. I can think of a few great web design firms that would love the work.

Sending Flowers To & From Eugene

Well, it's my first blog posting after settling on a blog design that I am fairly happy with. I thought that I would write about something that I knew most about - flowers.

When I was a freshman at the University of Oregon, I started a small florist directory called FloristDEX. The site has grown and grown, from the little baby I once knew into a giant website.

At the Eugene, Oregon florist page on FloristDEX, the information is up to date on all of the major florists in our area. If you are sending flowers this holiday, remember to order early to allow the florist time to prepare.

Decided you want to send flowers but can't decide on an arrangement? Never fear, I can help you. Here are my recommendations from FTD:

Christmas Flowers

The FTD® Lights Of The Season™ Centerpiece

This is just a simple, yet elegant center piecece that is not going to break the bank. If you call one of the local FTD florists in Eugene, you might be able to get tharrangementnt for less money. It's worth a shot!

Hanukkah Flowers

The FTD® Festive Season™ Arrangement

Without a doubt, I have always thought this was one of the best Hanukkah arrangements to send. It's just so simple, yet so beautiful. One look at this bouquet in person and you'll wish you had sent it to yourself.

Oregon Ducks Pumpkin Carving

On the University of Oregon campus today, one of the executive chefs for the University displayed some amazing Pumpkin carving skills.

Per the artist, the pumpkin you see to the very top took about four hours to complete. It is one of the coolest carved pumpkins that I have ever seen.

Along with showcasing some of his best art, the chef offered some advice to the students who were interested in learning some pumpkin carving skills this upcoming Halloween.

Ritz Quacker - Painted Ducks On Parade

While I was out exploring the streets of Eugene, I came across one of the Painted Ducks! Several years ago, there were a number of these ducks placed about the city. Now and days, your lucky if you see one or two.

This duck is located near Wells Fargo Bank and Ambrosia restaurant on East Broadway Ave between Pearl and Oak St.

Ducks On Parade Art Profile:

Ritz Quacker
Artist: Christina Brown

"Big duck beckons me…Slap some paint on me, Mama…Now it's flown away."

Sponsor's Charity of Choice: The Relief Nursery
Sponsors: Nick & Nora's, Footwise the Birkenstock Store, Brush Fire, Broadway-Pearl Associates