Whenever I pull out the “Oh yes, I got my start in the industry with Amazon.com in the late 90’s” line, some part of me feels a little guilty, a little fake, for not completing the statement with “…as a customer service rep in the call center”.

It wasn’t a glamorous job, but the couple years I spent “de-escalating” angry customers and trying to “make things right” taught me some quite valuable, relevant job skills - and ingrained in me a service-oriented business perspective that I use every day.

Sam took this photo of Emma at a Mommy Group recently. She just loves bouncy chairs.

Emma loves bouncy chairs.

Which door should I use?

Jakob Nielson is one of my favorite voices on the web. Most people either love him or hate him, which I’ve found to be a good indicator that someone is worth listening to, at least until I can form a judgment myself.

His latest Alertbox column reminds me, again, that no amount of design “wow” can make your website visitors buy more, contact you, or whatever your desired conversion goal is.

Bad content, bad links, bad navigation, bad category pages… which is worst for business? In these examples, bad content takes the prize for costing the company the most money.

Successful sales-oriented websites make it easy for users to accomplish the desired action and encourage them every step of the way. Good web design supports, rather than gets in the way of, the conversion process.

When my parents, sister and niece came to visit a month or so ago they took some great pictures. My sister Cheryl took this one:

Emma & Dan

It’s bear season again in Durango.

Durango Herald Online.

Stop whatever you are doing, right now, and thank your mother for being your mom. Whether she is still alive or not, whether you think you have a “good” relationship with her or you don’t get along, even if you have never met her in person, just say thank you.

Yes, Mother’s Day is coming soon but the real reason this is on my mind is that I am now married to a mom. Emma may not be able to speak, but I can see how much she would like to tell her mom what an amazing job she is doing, how much she appreciates being held/fed/changed/bathed/comforted/entertained by Sam, at any and all hours of the day and night.

So, here’s to all you moms out there!

Emma is Smiley