When friends launch sites

Although I generally keep a pretty strict rule about working for friends (I personally find that mixing friends and family with money stresses relationships), I get an almost zen-like happiness out of building WordPress themes. Equipped with my soon-to-be forthcoming WordPress framework “Skeletor,” the process of taking a comp from a static image to a “living breathing” website is almost ritualistic.

My friend and co-worker Tom Censani has had a dream: to write a burger blog with an absurdly unfortunate title. As the design neared finish, he asked if I’d be willing to WordPress-ify it, and I said I would, time willing. While on the 2-hour flight back from my last trip to Knoxville, I was able to knock out about 95% of the theme. I was limited by the last 5% because the comp I had with me didn’t have the comments section in it. Thanks to Skeletor, MAMP, and my trusty work Macbook, I almost don’t have to think while I churned this puppy out. By Friday (the launch party), the whole thing was done, installed, and ready for release. The site you ask? MeatInMyMouth.com. Yea, unfortunate. If you have a second, stroll over there and see what a true foodie has to say about burger joints in the Big Apple. Turns out, he’s also a pretty good photographer.

Today as timing would have it, Jonathan Finnegan and Mark Hunt rolled out a new site (AdPricks.com) for their company Gyro Advertising as well, also equipped with a possibly misunderstood name. As seems to be the trend, you can follow AdPricks on twitter if the site isn’t enough of a fix for you. Jonathan, also known as haveboard, has a slew of properties under his belt, but this is the most recent addition. Those interested should also check out haveboard.com, The Giraffe, and assorted others.

Congrats on the launches to both. May your traffic overfloweth.