Jason Pearce

By the way, if you are ever interested in submitting an article to ALA, members of their team are great to work with. Simply stroll over to their Contribute page to learn more.

I simply pitched my idea to Erin Kissane (managing editor and producer) and Jeffrey Zeldman (site designer). Within a few days, Erin wrote back saying she liked the idea and that I should put something together. So I did.

A few weeks later, I finished my article and sent it back their way. They responded within days, made only a few changes (thanks, they were good changes), and posted it that Friday.

I have no idea if the process is as painless for others, but I found them to be a pleasure to work with. So if you’ve got a good idea, don’t sit on it. Pitch it to ALA so that one day, others can benefit.

I’ve received good feedback on my CSS/PHP article, which was published by A List Apart last Friday. Though some are critical of the PHP code I used, many have liked the article and offered ideas to expand upon it. Thank you all for the great comments. Do keep them coming — yes, even the critical ones.

Though I’m pleased by the response, I wish I had been a little more prepared. For starters, I’m embarrassed by my personal Web site’s state of affairs. I really should have taken the time to clean it up, update content, and improve its code. Though I’m not unhappy with my site, it just doesn’t accurately reflect my abilities.

For you non-programmers and designers, it’s like inviting everyone over for an open house before finishing your kitchen counters. And if I ever wanted an open house for my personal Web site, publishing an article on ALA was the grand invitation.

On Friday, November 7, traffic to my site soared within hours of my article’s posting. On a typical day, I used to get about 30 unique visits a day (27 of which are likely my mother). Now, my site receives more than 100 unique visits each day, averaging 3.3 pages per visit.

Google rankings also jumped. A search for Jason Pearce has held the top ranking for several years. Other projects I’ve worked on appeared in the search results, but in no particular order.

Now? Well, my article on ALA is listed second in Google’s rankings. Furthermore, all of those other projects that I’ve worked on have jumped up to the top as well. Now my obscure Peace Corps profile and genealogy research receive similar acclaim. Oh the power of Google’s PageRank technology.

Sadly, it will be some time before I perform some house cleaning on my personal site. So, thanks for dropping by — please excuse the mess.