Underground Web Designs Blog

The Hennessy Hammock is one of the coolest inventions I’ve seen in a long time, and HennessyHammock.com is a great example of the power of the internet for small businesses. What started out as a personal project to re-create an old army hammock has turned into a thriving, full time business.

Even thought the Hennessy Hammock website may not be have the most flashy design or the latest web technology, it does it’s job well — it provides lots of information about the product, and above all makes it easy to buy the hammock you want. Surprisingly, there are lots of business websites that are well designed and use all the latest technologies, but are hard to navigate and difficult to order from. If you do business online, it’s worth taking a few minutes to look at HennessyHammock.com and think about the order process of your own site; making sure it’s as simple an intuitive as possible.

As for the product itself, I must admit that I haven’t tried a Hennessy Hammock… yet. However I have done lots of traveling, camping, and hiking, and I can appreciate the benefits a Hennessy would provide: light weight, easy setup almost anywhere, and comfort. The fact that a Hennessy is built to provide a comfortable sleeping place almost anywhere with zero environmental impact is also a big plus. In fact, I’m already sold, and I’m planning on purchasing a Hennessy Hammock in time for camping season this summer.

I just found The Art of Nonconformity today, and though I haven’t explored the site extensively (yet) I can already see that it’s worth a post.

The site definitely is full of “unconventional ideas for remarkable people”. There are articles and ebooks on world travel, posts on changing the world (and world domination too), and even an article supporting “ass kicking”. Chris speaks his mind, doesn’t pull any punches, and actively questions things many people take for granted — his writing is exactly what you’d expect from a site with the title “The Art of Nonconformity”.

The site design is also very fresh, which drew me in immediately. A strong theme and unconventional layout make the site stand out from the HUGE number of blogs out there, and made me take a closer look. In fact, I really like how Chris has put products, signup boxes, latest posts, most popular posts, about the author, about the site, links to Twitter, links to media coverage, and much more all on the home page… without making anything seem crowded.

Like I said, I’ve just found this site myself, so I’ll be exploring it further over the next few days. Why don’t you join me? Just head over to The Art of Nonconformity, have a look around, and post your thoughts in the comments. I’d love to hear what you think!

You really should read the SanDisk story on Chris Brogan’s blog. Go ahead, I’ll wait. 

Back?

When I read that story, I was blown away by the power of social networking. A customer had complained about a product on Twitter, so hundreds would read the complaint and most companies would not have even noticed. Because Rachel was plugged in to the social web and acted quickly to address the complaint, thousands have heard the story, and thousands more will hear it in the days to come, because it is spreading.

The sad part (or maybe not) is that Rachel lost her job with SanDisk. However because of her willingness to help and social media savvy, she now has a public recommendation on a popular blog. I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s been hired already.

If you do business in the online world, it’s important to make the first step when it comes to customer service. You can’t just deal with the people who contact you… you have to engage the discussion about your product or service where it matters: on the social web.

Sorry this is a day late. I’m visiting my family this week and was busy spending time with them yesterday.

Improv Everywhere’s stated goal is to ”cause scenes of chaos and joy in public places”; and they do that by organizing “missions” of all sizes where participants perform an organized prank. Some of these pranks have included “freezes”, where a crowd of a few hundred people freezes at exactly the same time in a public place, or their annual ”no pants” subway rides, where hundreds of people ride the New York Subway in their underwear… in January.

Why do they do it? They do it for fun, both for themselves and for those who witness the pranks. We’ve all had moments where we think “hey, wouldn’t it be funny to get a bunch of people together and …..”, Improv Everywhere has taken this natural creativity and given it an outlet. As long as it doesn’t break any laws or harm anyone, why not do it? With the power of the internet, finding a few hundred people willing to participate (especially in a city like NY), and then organizing the event, is really quite easy.

And Improve Everywhere is succeeding in their mission. Their pranks have drawn widespread attention, being featured on The Today Show, ABC’s Nightline, in the New York Times, and in other media, with almost zero negative publicity. In fact, Improv Everywhere is now part of the Urban Prankster Network, a network of sites, communities and individuals from around the world dedicated to bringing fun and a little bit of chaos into your everyday life through public pranks.

It all just goes to show what a website, a little creativity, a little bit of guts, and a LOT of volunteers, you can pull of just about anything, and have a great time doing it.