Web Designers

The Counsel Connect Network (“CCN”) publishes legal Web sites, sites that discuss particular legal topics. We also partner with other legal Web sites that place our Web forms and (800) telephone numbers on their site. Our sites and these affiliated sites produce leads from prospective clients, which we then screen to determine if they have a viable case. If they do, we refer the prospective client to a suitable attorney in their area, in exchange for an introduction fee from that attorney.

Within 24 months, we expect to have over 1000 affiliated Web sites, with a typical site producing 20 to 50 actual cases a year (cases as opposed to leads). Accordingly, within two years we expect to be handling approximately 30,000 cases a year. Our business is extremely lucrative, as legal cases often generate significant legal fees. For example, we recently landed a toxic mold case with over 1000 clients to be represented both individually and through a class action, with a settlement value in excess of $20 million; we will receive about 11 percent of that, and that is just one case. Using some very conservative assumptions, we expect to be generating over $100 million in revenues. For further information, see about our company.

Clients contact us in four different ways. We call these “Calls to Action.”

Web forms
(800) telephone numbers
Web chats
Click to call (the click enters their telephone number and asks us to call them)

B. Web Designers Sought

We are looking for a few talented Web designers. We are open to several types of designers:

A visually talented Web designer who does not know WordPress. This person could be particularly useful in creating and modifying “Calls to Action” we place on affiliated websites. See Section L.
A visually talented Web designer who is pretty good at WordPress and who seeks to be very good at WordPress. It’s essential that you have some experience as a Web designer, being just a graphic designer would not be acceptable.
A Web designer who is both visually talented and is quite proficient in the technical aspects of WordPress. Obviously this would be an ideal combination for the first position (see Section C).
Someone who is quite technically adept at WordPress but is not a particularly talented designer
A Web developer who knows PHP and WordPress well, someone who is really a Web developer rather than a Web designer, some who knows how to write WordPress plugins and perhaps themes. This position is described here.

A few things to note:

We are looking for designers with a very high level of personal responsibility — you return telephone calls and e-mails quickly, you meet deadlines, you are not a flake. See Section F.
We will need to talk you on the telephone on a regular basis. See Section R.

C. Two Positions

We currently have two positions open:

First Position — A web designer who would design new websites, using WordPress (“WP”). For this position, we have a reasonably strong preference that you know WP reasonably well.
Second Position — A web designer who interacts with affiliated websites, as described in Section L. For this position, it is not important that you know WP. It is essential that you either have a PC or a Mac that runs Windows (see Section M).

We are certainly open to one person (or a small firm) that can handle both positions.

D. Characteristics We Seek

The ideal characteristics we seek include the following. As we note elsewhere, this is a “wish list” and please do not worry if all of these do not apply to you.

1. Ideally you are be a talented Web designer — You are simply very good at visual design, almost certainly using traditional tools such as Dreamweaver and Photoshop. We want our sites to be quite visually appealing. In Section W, we have listed ten sites we particular like, and we are looking for designers who are capable of designing sites of the same level of quality.

2. Ideally you know WordPress very well, and have used it to design a reasonable number of Web sites. It would be great if you knew all — or at least most — of the WordPress tricks. It would be great if you know how to create custom themes, and at a minimum know how to extensively customize existing themes. If you do not know WordPress, that is OK, as for one of the positions we have a need for someone who is just a good Web designer, rather than a WordPress expert. (See Section L.)

3. To the extent that you know how to program WordPress using PHP, that would obviously be a huge advantage — e.g., writing widgets and plug-ins.

4. Ideally you should have experience in creating static Web sites using WordPress, since such sites require a fair amount of customization of existing themes (if you are not writing a theme from scratch). In other words, if we looked at the “traditional” non-blog Web sites you have developed using WordPress, we would have no way of knowing that you used WP to do so (except by looking at the source HTML).

5. You should have a strong intellectual curiosity about WordPress, it should be a platform that you are very committed to, one that you want to know more about. Ideally you are already aware of the good existing WP resources on the Web, and perhaps you already have a Rolodex of WP gurus you can turn to for particularly tough questions. We are going to ask you a ton of WordPress questions. You should know most of them and for the others, be able to quickly find the answers. If you are not a WP guru now, your goal should be to become a WP guru. We are really really impressed with WP and expect to be using it for the next decade.

The landing page of each site would be custom designed by you for that particular topic, and then you would customize the Thesis theme to create the particular graphical look you want for that site.

E. Legal Website Watch

We have purchased the domain name Legal Website Watch, a site we will launch soon. It will be written for owners and publishers of legal websites. The site will discuss monetization strategies, trends in payments of referral fees, search engine optimization, Google AdWords, Google AdSense, other pay-per-click networks, Google Analytics, other Web metrics tools, WordPress, social networking, the evolution of HTML and XHTML, hosting companies, monetization, the FCC “must carry” regulations and other topics of interest to such owners and publishers of such sites. We will also write reviews of legal websites: their history, traffic, competitive positioning, future plans, and monetization strategies.

Consider, for example, Online Personals Watch, a site that examines the online dating/personals industry. OPW provides comprehensive coverage of its industry and almost everyone in the industry reads it. Our goal is publish a similar site for owners and publishers of legal websites.

We would be curious to hear your thoughts about this.

F. Personal Responsibility

We seek to partner with and employ people who are “at the top of the food chain” in terms of personal responsibility and follow through. You must have a high level of personal responsibility. You do what you say you are going to do, you meet deadlines (or at least be reasonably close, since there really are no absolute deadlines in this business), and you are the furthest thing from a flake. You are diligent at returning e-mails and telephone calls not promptly, but quickly. We are highly successful entrepreneurs who get things done and we have zero (actually, negative) tolerance for flakes and space cadets. Please read our CEO’s essays on total cost of interaction, most appropriate form of communication, and the process should go smoothly, as well as his essay for prospective business associates.

G. WordPress

We use WordPress extensively. If you do not know it well, we would want you to learn it over time. Although when you first start using it, WordPress looks brain-dead simple, it is a complex software package and there is a substantial learning curve.

How long is the learning curve? If you already are a talented Web designer, are adept at computers, have access to WP experts who can answer your questions, and you spend the next year full-time designing WP sites, you could probably become competent within 12 months, and proficient in 24 months. If you are working part-time designing WP sites, it would probably take you at least two years to become competent, assuming you are quite dedicated and you are very good with computers.

If you do not know it, that’s OK, because as we note in Section L, we also have a need for a general Web designer.

H. Visually Talented Designers

We are open to partnering with visually talented Web designer who is competent in WordPress but is not an expert. It’s essential that you have experience designing Web sites. In other words, if you are a graphic designer without Web design experience, this is the wrong situation for you. If you are not really good at WordPress:

You must be an exceptionally talented designer. If you are not and you are not good at WordPress, you simply do not bring enough to the table to be of use to us.
You should be willing to become an expert over time.
You obviously need to be proficient in Web technologies — XHTML, CSS 2.0 (including the box model), etc.
You must be good at computers. If you are not good at computers and you are an adult, the odds of your ever becoming good at computers are about equal to winning the lottery.

I. Themes

When we first started, we did not pay sufficient attention to which theme a designer was using. This was a big mistake, as there are a lot of lousy themes out there. Recently we adopted Thesis — a cutting edge theme designed by Chris Pearson — as our company standard. Going forward, all of our new sites will be based on Thesis, and over time we will redesign our current sites so they are also based on Thesis.

This has several advantages for us. We only need to learn one theme, and so we have the time to learn it well. DIY has published an excellent online manual for Thesis. Technical support is also available. DIY regularly updates Thesis, so we benefit from Pearson’s continual updates. Thesis separates the core theme from user customizations, so that our customizations are not overwritten when we upgrade to a new version of Thesis. Thesis can be extensively modified to give a completely different look from site to site.

As a general rule, we are not interested in other themes. Thesis is very powerful, and assuming you know what you are doing, you can modify it to give a completely different look. The author of Thesis is making a ton of money off it, which means he is constantly enhancing it. So except in very unusual cases, Thesis is the theme we want to use. Some Web designers have their own favorite themes and have wanted us to use those themes. That is not something we are willing to do. For affiliated websites, they obviously choose which theme to use, assuming they are using WordPress in the first place.

J. Adobe Software

Other than WordPress, we use Adobe software extensively. Photoshop is the most relevant package, as well as Illustrator and sometimes Flash. Occasionally we meet an open source zealot who uses GIMP and Inkscape in lieu of Adobe software. This is something we have no interest in. Inevitably there is some incompatibility, or the file formats are not identical, and we spend a week trying to figure out what the problem is. Life is too short. Adobe is the standard and by our adopting a standard, life is much easier.

K. How We Work; The Process

Although the process of designing every site is slightly different, for our own sites that we put up, typically the process is:

Domain name is acquired. Either you or one of our managers installs the site, including the Thesis theme. You or the manager installs Google Analytics on the new site.
As soon as the site is uploaded, the writer is expected to write the text for the landing/home page.
After that, the site is submitted to search engines, so that the site begins to age and the meta tag information is added to the search engine’s databases.
Writer writes each page or post. The site is then edited by two other writers and a final edit is done by the site manager.
By the time the designer is assigned a site, the site should have been completely written and edited. Basic on-site SEO should have already been done.
The designer reads the entire site, to understand what the site is about.
The designer looks at competitive sites.
The designer prepares three mockups, typically using Photoshop.
Once a mockup is chosen, typically there are two primary designs: the landing/home page and the master design for the interior page.
Designer implements his design, based on the Thesis theme. Any customizations are written to the /custom folder or via hooks.
The designer makes certain that our customer input form is prominent on each page, as well as our (800) telephone number.
The designer makes whatever on-site SEO changes he believes are appropriate.
The site is reviewed from the point of view of conversion. Having a nice looking site is important, but if we have to choose between that and conversion, we will choose conversion.
We and the designer may then implement A-B/split or multi-variant testing procedures.

A common complaint by Web designers is how much time they spend on editing a site and dealing with content issues, such as handholding the writers. At CCN, designers rarely babysit writers, in fact they rarely even talk with the writer. Instead, they interact with James Mitchell (the CEO of CCN) and the manager of the site. All editing and handholding is typically done by the manager. In addition, because WordPress is so easy to use from the writer’s point of view, once a writer spends 30 minutes or so with WordPress, he should be self-sufficient. If he is not, he probably does not have the technical skills we expect of our writers.

L. Affiliated Websites

In addition to our sites, we place Calls to Action on affiliated websites. We expect to add 1000 affiliated sites within the next 3 years. We always start with a template and then modify the forms and banner to meet the preferences of the affiliated site. We need a web designer to handle this task, as well as other design tasks. This person simply needs to be a good designer, they do not need to know WordPress.

When we place and modify our web forms on affiliated websites, all of the elements of the form are controlled by our Microsoft SQL Server database. Our front end to this database is written in Microsoft Access. Thus, you would be using Access to change various parameters (font size, border color, length of rules, you get the idea). The data are then merged and a form is output for the affiliated website to place on their site.

For the first position, you would be interacting solely within our firm. For the second position, you would be interacting with numerous outside firms, and thus it is essential you have excellent communication and interpersonal skills.

M. Microsoft Office

We are extremely sophisticated users of Microsoft Office 2007. For the first position, there is no need to use Office. For the second position, you would be using Access regularly, and thus you will need to have Microsoft Office 2007 installed. Please note that the Mac version of Office does not include Access and thus if you are a Mac user, you will need be able to run Windows on your Mac. Please see our pages on Microsoft Office and the Macintosh.

(Please note we are not interested in a discussion about how Microsoft is evil, Office sucks, Google Docs is better, your system could be written quickly in Ruby on Rails, etc. We have had a million of those discussions and in general have found them to be remarkably uninformative. The reality is that for developing reports, queries and forms, there is no better tool for developing front ends to a relational DBMS than Access. Our Access system took about 6 man months to develop. Using Ruby on Rails, it would have probably taken two developers two man years each to write, and using any other tools, it would have taken much longer than using Rails. So unless you are willing to rewrite our system for us, let’s skip the Microsoft bashing. Access is simply better than any other tool for development of front ends.)

N. When You Begin

We are only interested in long-term relationships. To be frank, there are currently a number of good Web designers who want to work with us, and we only have so much time to spend on getting Web designers up to speed, so we would prefer to work with designers that offer the potential of a long-term relationship.

We have written a number of manuals, including a Guide for Web Site Designers and WordPress Installation Instructions. It’s important that you read these manuals carefully, so that we do not spend scarce time explaining things to you that are described in our manuals. After that, any deficiencies in your knowledge of WordPress should be quickly remedied. Next, it’s important that you learn Thesis well. We will be launching over 500 sites in the next 5 years, all based on Thesis, so you might as well master it now. You can, of course, use Thesis for other sites you design. The publisher of Thesis has a good online tutorial, which you should read. In particular, it’s important that you understand how Thesis separates the core theme from your customizations, so that you can implement your customizations correctly so they are not overwritten when we upgrade to a new version of Thesis.

After this, we can start designing sites together!

O. Wikis and MediaWiki

In addition to our legal sites based on WordPress, we will be starting a legal wiki, which is described on our page for MediaWiki professionals. If you have any experience in designing or developing wikis, please let us know.

P. Personal Computers

We are exceptionally advanced users of computers. Our Chief Technology Officer, Keith MacKay, is a graduate of MIT and has managed over 1000 software development projects, including more than a dozen for Microsoft and more than 90 for Harvard Business School. Our CEO, James Mitchell, was a senior software engineer at Digital Equipment Corporation, had a research fellowship in information systems at Harvard Business School, and has managed more than twenty complex software projects. Our software developers are among the best in the world. For our Web sites, we typically use WordPress running on the LAMP (Linux-Apache-MySQL-PHP) software stack. For our internal information systems, we use Microsoft development tools: Windows Server, SQL Server, .Net, Visual Basic, Access.

We have developed some of the most sophisticated software systems in the world. We do not expect or require all of our professionals to be software developers, but we do expect them to have a strong aptitude for computers, have a high level of intellectual curiosity about them, and to be keenly interested in enhancing their computer skills.

Applicants who are not computer proficient regularly assure us, “I can learn.” Our experience has been otherwise; realistically you will not be able to meet our expectations for computer proficiency within a reasonable time frame. The few times we have gone down the “I am not good at computers now but I can become good quickly” path it has not been a pleasant experience for us or for them.

If on the other hand you are really good at using computers and you want to become an expert, CCN would be a fantastic company for you! You will be working with some of the top software minds in the world, and we will show you things you have never imagined.

In the “If You Are Interested” section below, we ask numerous questions about your use of computers. Please do not let these questions intimidate you. As we mention below, there is probably no one on the planet who can provide a favorable response to all (or even most) of them. The comprehensive set of questions we ask does allow us (and you) to get an overall sense of how good you are at using computers.

Q. Location Does Not Matter

This is a telecommuting situation so you can live anywhere. We will consider applicants who live in the United States and Canada. (Canadians are honorary Americans.) In certain circumstances, we will consider applicants who live abroad, even though our experience has not as been as favorable as with Americans. If you currently live in India, we are sorry, but we cannot consider your application, as we have had so many unfavorable experiences. If you are an Indian living in the U.S. or Canada, that is a different matter, we welcome your application.

R. Frequent Communication

We will need to speak with on the telephone frequently, most likely several times a week. Those who seek solely an e-mail relationship should look elsewhere.

S. Skype

As noted in Section R, we will need to speak with you on the telephone regularly. If you live outside the U.S., we ask that you have a Skype account; otherwise, it is simply too expensive to telephone you. If you do not have a Skype account, you can obtain one for free at www.skype.com/getconnected.

As long as you are calling other Skype users via the Internet, your telephone calls are free.

T. Please Read

If you are interested in this position, you should read the following:

U. When You Apply

When you apply:

Please include the questions along with the answers; otherwise, we have no way of knowing which question you are answering. If you do not, we will simply write back and ask you to resend.
Please format your responses. Make it easy for us to read your answers. The best is to copy and paste the answers and responses into Microsoft Word, and then send us the Word file.
Please include the headings in your responses.
Please send us a resume.
If you have a writing samples, please send them.
In the subject line of the your e-mail, please include the position you are applying for.
Please send your response to jmitchell@kensingonllc.com, and also send it (including any attachments) to recruiting@kensingtonllc.com.

We ask a lot of questions about Microsoft software, simply because we use Microsoft tools extensively for our internal corporate information systems. We do not necessarily expect a Web designer to know about Microsoft software, but if you do, that would be a plus.

V. If You Are Interested

If you are interested, please answer the questions below. Many of these questions are computer questions. CCN is an exceptionally advanced user of computers, and it’s important that every professional who joins our firm is highly competent in using them and is keenly interested in becoming more proficient. We have included an extremely comprehensive set of questions. There is probably no person alive who could truthfully provide a favorable response to all of them, not even our Chief Technology Officer. Please do not let these questions scare you, we do not expect favorable responses from you to most of these questions. We have included all of them in order to get a comprehensive view of your skills. At the same time, after reading these questions, you might say to yourself, “Realistically, I am not very good at computers.” In that case, it makes no sense to apply, as we are the wrong firm for you.

If “(1-10)” is listed after the question, that means please provide an answer in English and also answer the question on a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 = no experience or knowledge and 10 = world class guru.

If for any section you do not use that software package, just say that in your answer to the first question and then feel free to ignore the remaining questions in that section.

In your e-mail, please tell us:

A few Web designers work as a team. One designer, for example, works with his wife. His wife is quite visually talented while he is quite technical; it is a good combination. In other cases, designers have teamed up with other professionals even without being married to them. If that is the case with you and you are certain that the other person(s) would be part of the services you are offering, then feel free to answer these questions from the point of view of the team (whether two people or five people), but in your answers make it clear which answers apply to which person. If you are really are a team with complimentary skill sets, we welcome hearing from such teams.

Name and Contact Information

What is your full name?
What is your e-mail address?
Do you have any other e-mail addresses? If so, what are they?
Please list all of your telephone numbers.
Which telephone number is best to call you on? As noted below, please state this in your local time and in Boston time.
Do you have Skype?
If so, what is your Skype ID? (If you live outside the United States, please install Skype (www.skype.com) now (ideally before you fill out this form), so that when we want to call you after receiving your e-mail, we can do so.
Where do you live (city, state, country)?
What is your mailing address?
James Mitchell lives in Boston, and Boston is the same time zone as New York City, namely the East Coast time zone. When it is 9 a.m. in Boston, what time is it in your time zone? In other words, how many hours ahead or behind Boston are you?
Are you interested in the first position, the second position, or both? (See Section C.)
Are you interested in a full-time position, an outside freelance relationship, or are you flexible? Tell us your thoughts on this issue.
For whichever position you are interested in, would you be doing the work yourself (i.e., you are one individual) or are you part of a team? If the latter, please tell us briefly about the team.

Education and Professional Training

Briefly describe your education. If you have sent us a resume, then you can just refer us to your that.
Which professional organizations, if any, are you a member of?
Which Web sites and blogs topics do you read for professional purposes?
What other forms of professional development do you engage in, if any?
Which books have you read on WordPress and Web design that you think are really good?

Skills

How strong are your oral communication skills? (1-10)
How well do you write? (1-10)
How detail oriented are you? (1-10)

David Allen

Have your read James’ essay on David Allen?
How interested are you in learning and implementing David Allen’s system? (1-10)

Personal Responsibility

We are looking for professionals with an exceptionally high level of personal responsibility. Please tell us your thoughts about how this applies to you.
We are looking for professionals who are self-managing. How does this apply to you?

Responsiveness

How easy is it to reach you on the telephone? In other words, if 100 people call you in X days, what percentage of them are able to reach you when they call, as opposed to your calling them back?
How quickly do you return telephone calls?
How quickly do you respond to e-mails?
We will most likely need to talk with you at least once a day. What are your thoughts about that?
Have you read our CEO’s essay on what is the most appropriate form of communication? How do you feel about his statement that in many cases, it makes more sense to have a telephone call rather than sending e-mails back and forth?
We are looking for professionals with an exceptionally low total cost of interaction. How does this apply to you?

Personal Computers

Do you have your own PC (as opposed to using one at work or at a library, for example)?
When did you purchase it?
How much RAM do you have?
How many monitors do you have connected to your PC?
Tell us about your computer skills. (1-10)
How often, if ever, do friends of yours ask you for computer advice? (1-10)
CCN is an exceptionally advanced user of information and computer technology. Whatever your level of computer skills, we will want you to become more adept at them than you currently are. How interested are you in enhancing your computer skills? How capable are you of learning new software packages?
If you have a Macintosh and you do not have a PC, are you able to run Windows on your Mac? Do you have to boot your computer to switch operating systems or are you able to run both operating systems simultaneously? Which program are you running to run both OS X and Windows?
If you have a Mac, have you read our page for Macintosh users?

LAMP

What does the acronym “LAMP” stand for?
How well do you know Linux? (1-10)
Which Linux control panel (e.g., cPanel) do you use?
How well do you know Apache? (1-10)
How well do you know MySQL? (1-10)
How well do you know PHPMyAdmin? (1-10)
Do you know how to program in PHP? (1-10)

Computer Programming

How much computer programming have you done? (1-10)
Which computer programming languages have you used? How good are you at each one of them? (1-10)
For how many years have you programmed computers? In which year did you start?
If you are not currently programming in a programming language, in which year did you last use any programming language?
What is your most favorite programming language and why?

The Internet and the Web

What kind of Internet connection do you have (e.g., cable, DSL)?
How fast is your Internet connection?
How reliable is your Internet connection?
Do you have your computer connected to the Internet via a wired connection (such as Ethernet), or do you use a wireless connection?
Which browser are you using?
Do you know what a top level domain is?
What does “http” stand for?
Do you own any domain names, and if so, which one?
Which domain name registrar do you use? Why do you use them?

Graphic and Visual Design

Please tell us which of the following is true of you:

You are extremely good at WordPress technically but you do not consider yourself to be highly gifted visually and graphically.
You are gifted visually and graphically but you do not consider yourself to be an expert at WP
You are both gifted visually and graphically AND you are quite technically proficient at WP.
You are either (a) or (b) and you have a partner who is the other, and thus together as a team you are (c). If that is the case, please mention which you are.
Some combination of the above
None of the above

How good are you at visual/graphic design? (1-10)
How many logos have you designed?
How much experience have you had in graphic design that does not involve Web sites — e.g., brochures, collateral material, posters, annual reports? (1-10)
How many corporate identity programs have you designed?
How good are you at drawing? (1-10)
How well do you know Adobe Photoshop? (1-10)
How well do you know Adobe InDesign? (1-10)
How well do you know Adobe Illustrator? (1-10)

Web Design

How much experience as a Web designer do you have? (1-10)
How many Web sites have you designed?
Please list the URLs of the sites where you did not use WP. You do not need to list all of them, just list a few that represent your best work.
Are you able to produce Web sites equal in quality to the sites we list below that we particularly like?
Are you aware of the features that have been added to HTML 5? (1-10)
How well do you know CSS 2.0 (including the box model)? (1-10)
How much experience do you have in programming Javascript? (1-10)
How well do you know Adobe Dreamweaver? (1-10)
If you use a different tool for Web design than Dreamweaver or WP, which tool do you use?
How well do you know Adobe Flash? (1-10)
How well do you know Adobe Flex? (1-10)

WordPress

How well do you know WordPress (“WP”)? (1-10)
Which version of WP are you using?
For how many years have you used WP? In which year did you start using it?
Are you currently using WP? If not, in which year did you stop using it?
Do you know how to automatically update your version of WP? (1-10)
Which WP plugins do you like?
Which WP themes do you like?
Do you have any experience with the Thesis theme? (1-10)
Do you understand the WP loop? (1-10)
Do you know how to program in PHP? (1-10)
Do you know how to modify a theme? (1-10)
Do you know how to write a WP theme? (1-10)
Do you know how to modify the code in a WP plugin? (1-10)
Do you know how to write a WP plugin? (1-10)
Which WP plugins do you use on a regular basis? (1-10)
Have you setup a WP blog/site from scratch? (Using a script such as Fantastico is acceptable.) (1-10)
Which blogs about WordPress do you read, if any?
Which syndication services (such as RSS) do you recommend and why?
How knowledgeable are you about RSS? (1-10)
How knowledgeable are you about FeedBurner? (1-10)
How much do you know about BuddyPress? (1-10)
Have you ever installed BuddyPress?
How much experience do you have with BuddyPress? (1-10)
The BuddyPress website suggests using their default theme for a WP site that uses BuddyPress. How necessary is that?
Does BuddyPress impose any special maintenance requirements? If so, tell us about them.
Please list the URLs of the sites where you used WordPress to design and manage the site (not just adding a blog to a site designed with another tool, but where WordPress is the primary tool). If you did actual page design in another tool (e.g., Dreamweaver) and then imported the html into WordPress, that is fine, but we want to see what you can do with traditional Web sites, as opposed to blogging sites.
Which blogs on WP and/or Web design do you read?

Wikis

Do you have any experience designing, administrating or developing wikis? If so, please tell us about it.
Do you know MediaWiki? If you have substantial experience with it, you may also want to answer the questions on our page for MediaWiki professionals.

Search Engine Optimization

How much do you know about search engine optimization (“SEO”)? (1-10)
Which programs do you use for keyword discovery? (1-10)
How well do you know Google Analytics? (1-10)
Which traffic measurement services do you use (e.g., Compete.com, Quantcast)?
Have you read Aaron Wall’s SEO Book?
Excluding black hat techniques, are there any SEO techniques you think are particularly clever?
Which SEO blogs, if any, do you read?

Microsoft Windows

Is your computer running Microsoft Windows?
If so, do you have a PC or are you have a Mac that can run Windows?
Which version of Windows are you running (e.g., XP, Vista, Seven)?
Which edition of Windows are you running (e.g., Home Basic, Home Premium, Professional, Enterprise, Ultimate)?
Are you running 32 or 64 bit Windows?
How often do you use the Command Prompt?
How familiar are you with the Windows PowerShell? (1-10)
Do you know how to add or remove programs from the Startup folder? (1-10)
Do you use any text editor other than Notepad? If so, which one?
Do you use any file manager other than Windows Explorer? If so, which one?
If you had a program and were unable to close it through the “normal” way, would you be able to close the program using Ctrl + Alt + Delete?
How familiar are you with the Windows Control Panel? (1-10)
How much experience do you have in editing the Windows registry? (1-10)

Microsoft Office

Which version of Microsoft Office are you using (e.g., 2003, 2007, 2010)?
Are you running Office on a PC or a Mac?
When did you start using Office?
If you are not currently using Office on a regular basis, when did you stop doing so?
Have you read our page on Microsoft Office?
Does your version of Office include Microsoft Outlook?
Does your version of Office include Microsoft Access?
Have you recorded Visual Basic for Applications (“VBA”) modules in Office? (1-10)
Have you written VBA modules in Office? (1-10)

Microsoft Word

Which version of Microsoft Word are you using (e.g., 2003, 2007, 2010)?
Are you using Word on a PC or a Mac?
How well do you know Word? (1-10)
For how many years have you used Word? In which year did you start using it?
Are you currently using Word? If not, in which year did you stop using it?
How well do you know how to use styles in Word? (1-10)
Do you know the differences between the three types of hyphens? (1-10)
Do you know the differences between the three types of page breaks? (1-10)
Do you know the differences between the four types of section breaks? (1-10)
How well do you know how to use sequences (a type of field code)? (1-10)
How well do you know how to use bookmarks? (1-10)
How well do you know how to use cross references using sequences and bookmarks (1-10)
How well do you know how to use mail merge? (1-10)
Do you know how to create a custom dictionary (for spell checking)? (1-10)
How well do you know how to use track changes (aka blacklining)? (1-10)
How well do you know how to use compare documents? (1-10)
Do you know how to insert a hyperlink in Word? (1-10)
Do you know how to insert footnotes and endnotes? (1-10)
Do you know how to change views (e.g., go to Draft view to Print Layout view to Outline view)? (1-10)
Do you know how to customize the ribbon in Word? (1-10)
How much experience do you have in recording Visual Basic for Applications (“VBA”) modules in Word? (1-10)
How much experience do you have in writing VBA modules in Word? (1-10)
Unless you already are an advanced user of Word, we will probably ask you to read a comprehensive book on Word, such as Special Edition Using Microsoft Word 2007. How do you feel about that?
In general, how interested are you in becoming highly proficient in Word?

Microsoft Access

Which version of Microsoft Access are you using (e.g., 2003, 2007, 2010)?
How well do you know Access ? (1-10)
For how many years have you used Access? In which year did you start using it?
Are you currently using Access? If not, in which year did you stop using it?
Do you know how to create tables in Access (i.e., column definitions)? (1-10)
In defining tables, how many different data types have you used?
Do you understand the relationship between a parent table and a child table (i.e., one-to-many table relationships)? (1-10)
What would an autonumber field/column be used for?
Do you know how to create a query in Access? (1-10)
Do you know how to create a report in Access? (1-10)
In creating a query, do you know how to link two or more tables to each other? (1-10)
In linking two tables, do you know the difference between an inner vs. outer join (i.e., and vs. or)? (1-10)
Do you know how to create a query upon a query? (1-10)
Have you ever created an update query? (1-10)
Using the wizard, do you know how to create a form in Access? (1-10)
Do you know how to create a subform in Access? (1-10)
In creating a form, have you used the radio button control? (1-10)
In creating a form, have you used the check box control? (1-10)
Using the wizard, do you know how to create a report in Access? (1-10)
Do you know how to create a report from scratch in Access? (1-10)
In creating reports, do you know how to use sorting and grouping? (1-10)
In creating reports, do you know how to use subtotals per group? (1-10)
Have you used macros in Access (e.g., Access macros as opposed to VBA modules)? (1-10)
Have you written Visual Basic for Applications (“VBA”) macros in Access? (1-10)
If you are not highly proficient in Access, we may want you to read a book such as Microsoft Office Access 2007 Forms, Reports and Queries. How do you feel about that?
In general, how interested are you in becoming highly proficient in Access?

Microsoft SQL Server

How much experience do you have using Microsoft SQL Server? (1-10)
How much experience do you have using Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio (or Management Studio Express)? (1-10)
In creating a table, do you know how to define a column as the primary key? (1-10)
In creating a table, do you know how to specify a column as a autonumbered column (e.g., identity specification) (1-10)?
In creating a table, do you know how to write computed column specifications? (1-10)
How much experience do you have in writing Transact-SQL statements? (1-10)
How experienced are you in writing stored procedures? (1-10)
How experienced are you in writing triggers? (1-10)

Microsoft .Net

How much experience do you have using Microsoft .Net? (1-10)
Which version of .Net are you using (e.g., 3.5, 4.0)?
How much experience do you have using Microsoft Visual Studio (“VS”)? (1-10)
Which version of VS are you using (e.g., 2005, 2008, 2010)?
For how many years have you used VS? In which year did you start using it?
Are you currently using VS? If not, in which year did you stop using it?
How much experience do you have programming Microsoft Visual Basic.Net (“VB.Net”)? (1-10)
For how many years have you used VB.Net? In which year did you start using it?
Are you currently using VB.Net? If not, in which year did you stop using it?
Are there other .Net languages that you have programmed in? If so, which ones? How well do you know them? Are you currently using them? If not, when did you stop using them? (1-10)

Commitment You Can Make to The Counsel Connect Network

Are you currently employed?
How many hours per week are you currently working in your current job?
If so, are you planning on continuing with your current position, or would you quit your job to work with us?
If you will be quitting your position, how much notice do you need to give?
How soon would you be able to start?
Once you start, for the first 90 days, how many hours a week are you able to devote to this opportunity?
After those 90 days, how many hours a week will you be able to provide?
We want to get a sense of when you would be able to work, stated in both your time and in Boston time. Monday through Friday, when would you be able to work and for how many hours each day? Again, please state both your local time and Boston time.
On Saturdays and Sundays, when will be you able to work and for how many hours each day? Please state in your local time as well as Boston time.
Are you looking for a short-term, medium-term or long-term relationship with JI? How long can you commit to working with us?
Please tell us about family commitments. If you have kids, who takes care of them? Are there other relatives (e.g., parents) that you take care of?
What else is going on in your life? Hobbies? Board memberships? What other commitments do you have?

Salary History and Earnings Expectations

Please provide your salary history for the past five years, broken down into base salary, bonus, commission, and any other categories you think are relevant.
How much a month do you need to live on?
How much would you realistically like to make 12 months from now?
24 months from now?
36 months from now?

Miscellaneous

Is there anything else we should know about you?
Any comments you have on our idea?
Which topics for new legal Web sites do you think would be particularly worthwhile?
Are there any areas of the law, particularly in the area of mass torts, that you think we should be paying particular attention to?
Do you have a blog or Web site? “You” means yourself or a company that you control. If so, what is the URL?
What questions should we have asked but did not?
If we or one of our associates sent you an e-mail through LinkedIn, there was a nine digit number towards the end of the e-mail, immediate after their name. It would be in the format of 100-029-987, or something like that. Please list that number if you can find it in the e-mail we sent to you. If you cannot find it, do not worry about it.

Have You Sent Us

Have you sent us a chronological resume?
Have you sent us writing samples?

Please include the questions and answers in your e-mail. In the subject line, please state “Applying for Web Designer position.”

We will respond to every inquiry with 48 hours. Our founders have an impressive track record in starting, managing and selling businesses successfully. We are kick ass, get things done type of people and within 24 months, we expect to have more than 1000 affiliated Web sites. For the right person, this is an extraordinary opportunity.

We look forward to hearing from you!

James Mitchell
(781) 718-1301
jmitchell@kensingtonllc.com
www.jmitchell.me

W. Examples of Sites We Particularly Like

These are example of sites we particularly like. The first two we know are WP sites:

Georgia Judo
We particularly like the way there is no left or right border, it just flows across the screen.

Blue Canyon Partners

The following are sites we also particularly like, but none of them are WordPress sites:

Foley, Hoag & Eliot
We like this one a lot, particularly the blue on the right and top right. We don’t like the differentiation between the block/frame and the gray on the right and left. We would like a more continuous blending look.

ESP Interactive Solutions
We like this one a lot. Colorful but appropriate.

Accenture
Looks quite nice

Makovsky & Company, Inc.
This one we like a lot. Different from the other sites. Let’s look at this carefully. The one thing we do not like is the box in the middle surrounding the logo hurts the surrounding photo. It should blend in more.

Capital Resource Partners
Looks very good. We really like the photos of Boston and San Francisco.

Charles River Ventures
Very well done

Highland Capital Partners
Very colorful. We like this one a lot.

growthink
This one I really like.