conveying credibility and consistency important for online retailer

By Jason Sherrill
Posted on Sep 25, 2006

Paul, owner of http://www.rdbelectronics.net, asked for members of StartupNation to review his website.

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Beware of the SBC DSL Installer

By Jason Sherrill
Posted on Sep 19, 2006

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One of our clients recently moved to a new office. They tried to transfer their LDMI telephone and DSL service to the new building, but LDMI missed several deadlines so our client switched to AT&T. Today, our client called seeking advice on troubleshooting some network problems after the AT&T DSL installer left. After 20 minutes of pinging, ipconfig'ing, switching SMTP server settings and numerous other troubleshooting steps, I determined that their internal LAN subnet had changed. "Hmmm," I thought.

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Site Review - tell visitors only what they want to know, not what YOU want to tell them

By Jason Sherrill
Posted on Sep 18, 2006

The owner of www.scientificbusinesssolutions.com asked for feedback regarding his website's home page. My recommendation follows.

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Site Review - simplify home page layout to help visitors find next steps

By Jason Sherrill
Posted on Sep 15, 2006

Mike, the owner of www.jobsitejoe.com, attracted 230 visitors to his website that matches landscape contractors with customers in a local area. Mike asked for feedback about his website home page.

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Using ASP and AJAX to check availability of a username

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Posted on Sep 13, 2006

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In this example, I’m showcasing how we can use ASP and AJAX to check for whether a username exists before a user completes a website registration form. When registering to join a community website, such as www.digg.com, users must typically choose a username or handle. Normally such usernames must be unique to the community, and because of this new users often run into the problem of choosing a name that is already in use. A couple common results occur on a typical registration form when a user submits his data:

• The page reloads with a message indicating that the username is already in use, allowing him to choose another username and try again.


• In some very bad cases, the page is refreshed, destroying everything the user input on the form requiring him to start over.

I’ll be adding a feature that allows the user to enter a username and check immediately if the username is available before submitting the entire form. Through the use of AJAX and ASP, we will update only a small section of the page rather than reloading the entire page.

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