Nate Covington

I very much enjoyed working with Nate Covington on the redesign of the National Docent Symposium Council website. We are a unique organization and have different needs and Nate was very willing to learn about our organization and how it is structured. In working with him there are three things that stood out:

1. His reliability. He always answered my email and did what he said he would do. He is quick to post additions to our site.
2. His willingness to make changes based on our needs, and an honesty to tell me when what I wanted wouldn’t work, and to make suggestions that would work.
3. His help to me so that I could learn to do some of the posting and make some of the changes. He is also very patient in answering questions, no matter how obvious or trivial.

From beginning to end it was a good experience.

Harriet Neal, President
National Docents Symposium Council

Background:
In order to allow for safer electronic communication, I've finally set up my own PGP encryption for sending email. 

Don't ask for your privacy. Take it back.
"Mass surveillance is illegitimate. I'm taking steps to take my freedoms back and I expect governments and corporations to follow in my footsteps and take steps to stop all mass government surveillance."

Below is my PGP Key...

Website
First and foremost, your website needs to be up to snuff.  Is it search engine friendly?  Does it look presentable?  Is it up to date?  Does it work on iPhones, iPads, and other mobile devices?  

All of the following services are going to link back to your website so put your best foot forward.  

“Now, people are calling and saying they found my site through an internet search.”
- Chris Pip, owner of CP Construction

We recently rebuilt this website for a local contractor and wanted to share the results.  

We are pleased to announce that we offer financing through PayPal's "Bill Me Later" service - details:

To get started please contact us and use the Payments page to make a payment using PayPal.  During checkout, use the "Bill me Later" option.

"Nate has been great to work with, very flexible in his approach to satisfying our specific needs and requirements and extremely easy to both work and communicate with which allowed us to accomplish a lot in small amount of time. We (inDimension3) highly recommend Covington Creations and Nate for any company that just wants to get it done without the typical technical difficulties associated with web development and maintenance."
- Dave Tribbett, CEO, CTO

Nate's inside-out knowledge of Joomla provides BlattCom with the programming expertise to build user-friendly websites that our clients can easily maintain themselves. Great to work with - he has been very responsive and proactive in suggesting solutions to improving functionality. I look forward to creating more websites with Nate, including a rebuild of my own site!

In the 7-10 days after Hurricane Sandy hit our area (Northeast PA), we were entirely without electricity and cable service.  As a web developer, this would have assumedly resulted in a general lack of productivity.  Luckily, we had just switched from AT&T to Verizon a few months prior, so tethering is included with our data plan.  And, just last summer, we had our generator hard-wired into the house.  So, unlike most of my clients and colleagues who were waiting for services to be restored, I was able to keep plugging away.  I certainly wouldn't want to work off of my cell phone's data plan on a regular basis, but in a pinch, it works great.  Now, if only Verizon would let me talk on the phone and tether at the same time (cough cough)...

I've written previously about the importance of maintaining control over your website and wanted to post this follow-up.  In addition to having your site's domain registration in your company's name and billing, you also want to have your hosting account in your company's name and billing.  The reason?  You are able to choose who works on your site without moving your site to a different server.  Have a falling out with your web guy?  Or he/she simply fell off the face of the earth?  No problem, you have control over the hosting account.  Change the password and find a new consultant to work with.  Give them your new password.

As much as I personally despise the growing popularity of social services like Facebook and Twitter, they are excellent mediums for a 'normal consumer' to be heard by large corporations.  In the past, a single consumer would only be able to make phone calls and write letters, short of funding their own advertising to publicly shame a company.  With today's popularity of Facebook and Twitter, and the equally growing pressure for corporations to engage with their customers, it offers a lot of incentive for companies to resolve issues with customers.  Here are some of my own personal tips for getting good customer service.