Mark Simon pimps his websites.

I’m a creative and I need all the work I send out on the streets to look fine. My websites work for me. Look here momma, I can’t be standing on every corner asking every John if they want to turn a trick with my art. That’s why I send my girls, my sites, out to pimp my work for me.

Yo, a long time ago I busted my buns to pimp my work. I either had to spend a fortune on overnight freight fees or I had to settle for faxing a black and white version of my work to my Johns, and hope their fax machine was working right. To work with the Johns in my local red light district, I had to carry around large portfolios and print expensive color samples or shoot color slides. We didn’t have no color printers of our own. Shiiioooot, momma, you got it easy these days.

Now I just tell each and every John to check out my sites. They’re somethin' to see, too. I make sure they get to see it all. I want to them to see enough to want to date my art. Site sells.

You ain’t got no sites working for you? What self-respectin' pimp ain’t got no sites? Any ol’ site is better than nothin. Don’t wait for that perfect beauty; just get something on the street that sells your work. You can always make it better later.

I may be giving away some street-trade secrets here, but we pimps gotta stay together. Sending bad sites out on the street don’t help no one.

But, I don’t want my girls looking too slick for their own good. Each of my sites shows only the assets that are relevant to the trick she’s turning. My storyboard site shows off her great boards and credits. My animation site reveals hot animations. My writing site titillates you with surgically enhanced words.

Pimping Mark’s storyboard site.

Since anything is possible these days, it’s easy to dress your sites in the latest hot effect or animation. However, be aware of what you are selling. Focus on your product and what your clients are looking for. I’m not saying you need to have a plain-Jane, just don’t distract your Johns with things that don’t matter.

I’ve seen girls who like to Flash. They Flash animations, they Flash their designs, they hold their pages together with Flash buttons. But most of those sites don’t offer Flash services. Flash is great, but use it to support your girls, not to confuse your Johns.

There are also other issues with Flashing which many creatives don’t consider when they are dressing their promotional sites.

Flash pages will usually not print properly unless they are programmed to do so. You want your Johns to print your samples so they can show them to their friends and bosses. Make printing easy for them.

Flash sites often do not have page links that can be forwarded. This happens when the pages and transitions are part of one Flash file and not uploaded as separate HTML pages. It may not seem like a big deal to you until you can’t send a link to a specific page on your to one of your Johns.