The Witterings of a Web Developer

Is the iPad breaking your website.

2010-07-26T17:37:00.000+01:00

You will no doubt be aware that Apple have launched another product onto the market; The iPad.

Unless you are one of Apple's clan of geeky followers that purchases everything as soon as Apple launches it (Yikes! That now includes me) you probably won't have rushed out and got one, so it's likely that you are blissfully unaware that your website may not be working correctly (or even at all!) when viewed on an iPad.

What websites are affected?
Any website that uses Flash to display all or part of its page content is affected.
Flash is typically used wherever movement or visual effects are required, typically this would be image slide-shows and "call to actions", but Flash may also have been used for key elements such as Menus. Some websites are even developed completely in flash.
On the iPad Flash is not supported, so any object in flash will not display. If your menu is made of Flash no-one will be able to navigate your website. If your website is made completely of Flash it will not display at all!

Here's the techy explanation about Flash!
When you view a website you are using a browser, typically this is Internet Explorer or Firefox if you are on a PC and Safari or Firefox if you are on a Mac.
The browser contains most of the instructions that are required to display your website, however the instruction to display Flash is provided through a "plugin" which is not part of the browser. Flash is the proprietary software of Adobe (the Flash plugin is pre-installed on most computers, but you may remember being instructed to update it at various intervals in the past) and Apple have indicated that they will not allow the plugin to be installed on the iPad. No plugin - no Flash! Apple are adamant that they will never support Flash on the iPad and without going into details there is no reason to disbelieve them.

What can be used instead of Flash?
All modern browsers support JavaScript and over the last few years Javascript functionality has improved rapidly to the point that it can now provide an alternative to flash whenever a similar effect is required. As Javascript works within the browser and not a plugin it will work fine on an iPad.

Will the iPad be big?
YES. Sales have been extraordinarily fast already (even for Apple products) and as more people become aware of the advantages of owning an iPad, sales will continue to soar.

For most people the iPad will replace the need to own a laptop. The iPad provides users with access to websites (not flash ones!) , email, music, digital books, photos, films and "apps" (applications extend the way information is presented - such as digital newspapers) and there are already apps being written specifically for the iPad - the BBC launched a news app for the iPad just a few days ago. Add to this the fact that it is small (similar in dimensions to a page of A4), it's light, it has a battery that lasts in excess of 9 hours and is so easy to use that even your granny will get on with it!

But even instant successes take a time become mainstream, not everyone will rush out and buy them - they're certainly not cheap, but they will be particularly popular with certain audiences such as frequent travellers, others will wait until they can justify the purchase but they will end up being used by a sizeable amount of people within a relatively short space of time. I also feel that Apple's refusal to support Flash will be viewed as a defining moment in how websites are developed in the future.

What should I do?
If you don't have flash on your website, you are not affected by this issue and don't need to worry.
If you do have flash, your website will have display issues when viewed on the iPad. Your first consideration should be to decide how many of your website visitors may use an iPad and how will they be affected. If the flash elements are just images, you may decide that it is not important to do anything at this stage. If Flash has been used for menu's or your whole site is developed in Flash I would suggest that you start considering a re-design/re-development of your website for some time in the foreseeable future. Certainly this year. If your target audience is unlikely to be the early adopters of iPad's, there is less of a rush, but I would still suggest planning to move away from flash by the end of next year.

If you have any questions at all or you are unsure how your website will be affected and would like me to take a look for you, feel free to get in touch

Free Training under the Train to Gain Funding scheme.

2010-07-22T09:45:00.005+01:00

How would you like your company to have £500 worth of free training?
The Train to Gain scheme offers funding for the training of UK business owners and managers. The scheme guarantees £500 absolutely free, and if required a further £500 will be matched pound for pound with your contribution.

for example;
First £500 of training is free
Total of £800 training will cost you: £150
Total of £1500 training will cost you: £500

This is too good an opportunity to miss and I want as as possible to benefit, therefore It is very important to register as soon as possible as this guarantees the funding - there is a likelihood that this scheme will not be available for much longer!

What training can you offer?
I can tailor courses to suit your individual needs on any Internet related topics. Here are a few areas to consider; Website Content Management, Search Engine Optimisation, Email Marketing, Social Networking, eCommerce. The money can be used either for one-to-one training (on-site or at my office), or for any of my "Workshops for Website Managers" group sessions.

Do I qualify?
Your company must have 5 or more full time employees. (Directors can be included in this number and companies with part time employee's, should still be eligible if the time worked by part-time employees is equivalent to that of 5 full time employees)

Training is for business owners and managers (other members of staff can be present as long as they are in addition to the owner or manager being trained). The scheme must be used for training and cannot be used for design or development work (ie: I can train you how to use your current website but you cannot use the funds toward the cost of a new website)

What do I do to register?
Contact me to express your interest straight away.
I will then pass your details to Iain Stevenson of Business link who will get in touch. Registration involves a telephone call/visit from a Business link manager who will explain the scheme and complete the paperwork.

Once qualified, you are guaranteed the money and can organise training for a time that suits you. Ideally this will be between September and December.

How do I get the money?
Business link will reimburse you after receiving your receipt for training from me.

.CO Domain name released today

2010-07-20T18:59:00.000+01:00

There's a new domain name extension being released today and I think it's important that you know about it.
The domain extension is .co (www.yourname.co) will be freely available to all from today - 7pm to be exact.

Will .co be big?
Nobody can say for sure but here's my view. It could take a year or two (depending on uptake) before website users become familiar with .co website addresses and in this time you may find yourself explaining to customers that it is not a .com or .co.uk domain name that you have.
There is no absolute guarantee that this domain name extension will fully catch on - but because of it is memorable and universal appeal (Associated globally with the words “COmpany,” “COrporation” and “COmmerce” ), I suspect it will.

Is it for you?

If you missed your chance to get the .com or .co.uk domain name you wanted because it was already registered, this domain launch gives you another chance.
If you are looking for a shorter domain name or an additional domain name to give to customers or to promote a separate product, get it.
If you are worried about a competitor purchsing it and using it, get it.
If you are not sure, get it just in case, you can always let it go in a years time. Once registered by someone else you will have missed your chance - possibly forever.
Google puts some importance on keywords in domain names, so for example if you sell cars and cars.co is available - get it!

A bit of advice
For existing websites, it is better to stay with your current domain name than to change to a new one, purchase the domain name as an additional domain name for your current website or to use on a new website.
For the foreseeable time, most people will associate .co.uk domain names as being UK based companies and .COM as being from anywhere. Depending on who your target audience are, I would still advise .co.uk and .com as your primary choice.
The .co domain name has been available for pre-registration at a premium price, so you may find that your perfect domain name has already been reserved.

The £105 million website

2010-07-10T15:24:00.000+01:00

It has recently come to light that the HMRC website has cost £35 million per year over the last 3 years!

As a developer of websites, it is fair to say that I am more aware that the larger the website the more complex the technical requirements, non more-so than for a government operated site. Cost would naturally be high because of operational considerations such as content management, security implications, site reliability and visitor traffic on scales that most sites do not have to cope with. But even allowing for all of this, I am absolutely staggered at the cost.

I'm also pretty sure that if the costings were analysed closely, a dispraportionate amount of money would have been spent on the decision making process compared to the actual development or management of the website. If the layer after layer of bureaucracy that accompanies government projects was stripped back, vast amounts of money could be saved, but unfortunately, departments would much rather talk about what is going to be done and then refer to someone else than to actually make a decision - just in case at a later date, the decision could be deemed to have been wrong.

In my industry we call this process "death by committee", but whatever you want to call it, this stalling process delays projects and increases the end price.

This is one of the first areas that needs tackling if the government is to be more cost effective in future.

Read BBC blog entry "The £105 Million website"

Should free speech be free?

2010-06-05T12:18:00.002+01:00

After much talk and speculation, the times has replaced the times online website with a subscription only service for both The Times and Sunday Times.

Clearly The Times, or to be more specific, Rupert Murdoch certainly feel that free speech and the freedom of the press should not be free to their consumers.

The subscription based news service, referred to by Rupert Murdoch, as a "defining moment in journalism", costs £1 for a day's access or £2 for a week and the heads at The Times are confident that there will be enough subscribers willing to pay to make the service a profitable venture.

I just don't think that The Times has a full understanding of people's expectations of the Internet and I'm pretty sure the service is prone to failure.

Here's just a few of my reasons.

News is seen as a free commodity on the Internet.
Users of the internet are reluctant to pay for any service online that is freely available elsewhere.
The Times is expecting to retain customers who want quality journalism or wish to follow particular journalists, but brand loyalty is not as strong online, Times readers could and are likely to switch to the Telegraph, Guardian, Observer and BBC to name but a few alternatives for their news.
Lack of added value. Subscribers are not offered anything that makes subscription a "must have" necessity over alternative services.
Usability issues. The process of logging into a website is a hurdle that most would avoid. Put aside the cost implications of subscribing for a moment, if you were faced with two similar services and one required you to login and the other not, which would you choose?
In our own way through blogs, twitter, facebook etc, we all contribute to news as much as anyone else and the act of paying to receive news online is alien.

I would like to assume that extensive research was conducted before deciding to take the paid subscription route, I certainly hope the decision wasn't based just on Rupert Murdochs' judgement, who is reported as an infrequent user of the Internet who needs assistance whenever he does. I can't help thinking of how a paid subscription so badly damaged Friends Reunited popularity.
The Times thinks it has a successful formula but I doubt it very much and it would seem that I am not alone. I searched for positive feedback and hard as I looked it was virtually non existent. I did find one person that said they would subscribe, but only because they thought that other news providers would follow suit in the near future. I for one would be very surprised if they did.

So what do you get that is different?
At first glance, not a lot. The layout of The Times reflects the style of the print version, which makes the site look a bit dated by todays design standards, the Sunday Times design is more up to date in style but not ground breakingly different from anyone else.
There is less advertising but not a complete ban which is a shame as this might of helped swing some into subscribing.
I am a great believer in not inventing the wheel, but I couldn't find anything that seemed revolutionary or got me excited which you would expect when paying a premium. All in all there was nothing to write home about (pun intended).
Perhaps I am missing the point, The Times are banking on loyalty to their journalism, or more I suspect, to their journalists. But will the loyalty to a style of journalism or the wish to follow a particular journalist be enough? I doubt it.

Only time will tell - or should I say, only The Times will tell, but at £1 per day or £2 per week!

Clients from Hell

2010-05-25T16:20:00.002+01:00

My job means I work closely with a wide variety of companies and from the outside many appear to be in the enviable position of running businesses that are hassle free. On the inside it's normally a different case altogether.

So, what's the common denominator that causes nearly every business to suffer so much grief? Yep, you guessed right, it's their customers. They all say that if they could get rid of their customers their business would run much more smoothly!

I recently came across the Clients From Hell website, which is a collection of actual comments and discussions with clients proving that if you have problem customers you are not alone. There's some classics, and whilst the website is specific to our industry there's a good bet that you will find a few quotes that could just as easily be applied to your company - if you are unlucky enough, you might have already have heard some of them.

Here's a few choice ones from the website that stood out for me;

Client: I talked to God for a couple hours last night, and he agreed that I shouldn’t have to pay you.
Client: This is everything we asked for but not what we wanted.
Client: You design our marketing campaign, we give you 5 kilo bag of Basmati rice.
Client: I said that to be confusing to show you that clarity is crucial.
Client: Before we start to work, can you please send a picture of you? We want to work with only good looking people!
Client: Can we articulate the idea of the nexus of conversation a little bit more cohesively within the design?
Client: Can you just work half as hard on my job as you would normally do? Then maybe I can pay half your normal rate?

A website needs a website manager

2009-06-07T10:07:00.006+01:00

Yet another report reveals that the majority of businesses know that they need a web presence, but a third of those interviewed admit that they neglect to make changes to to update their websites.

One in four are unhappy with their websites design and other common reasons given were; outdated content and images, missing methods for communicating with customers and limited or no e-commerce functionality costing them in missed sales.

The main reason for the lack of attention that a website receives fall down to time restraints - but without finding the time owners understand that their website will fail to reach it's full potential.

In summary, it appears that most businesses have reached the point of identifying the problem, and by doing so they are aware of the solution - more time and focus must be given to their websites.
For many companies, all that is then required, is to delegate the responsibility of website manager to a key member of staff and ensure that they are rigidly allocated the time needed to carry out this new role. Problem solved.

Design for show, type for dough

2009-05-02T18:33:00.001+01:00

Most golfers will be familiar with the phrase 'Drive for show, putt for dough'.
In golf, sinking putts is more likely to win you big money than being able to hit a ball a long way.

I've tweaked the phrase and applied it to websites.
If you want a successful website remember, 'design for show, type for dough'.

The most common area of a website that is overlooked and in some cases completely ignored is website content - the written word - the copy. Naturally the design plays its part, but not as much as you may at first presume. Only when a website is underperforming does attention turn to the strength of the copy.

Successful websites will have powerful content and in every instance, it did not arrive there by accident. Understanding the power of the written word and putting it to good effect within your own website will have dramatic results.

I don't just mean the page content either, wherever and whenever text is used, consideration should be given to the effectiveness that the words you use will have. This includes menu names, text links, instructions in graphics and particularly 'call to actions'.

On arriving at your website, a visitor will start skim reading your website looking for what they want - at this stage they probably haven't even given your design much of a glance, they are still deciding whether you have what they want or whether it is would be best to move on. Well written copy will immediately grab their attention and then once it has, it will smoothly guide them through the process of performing the action that YOU want.

This may be to email, buy from your online shop or just to pick up the phone and call you. Not only will you have achieved your goal, but your website visitors will thank you for making it easy for them. Whatever it is that you want your website to achieve, take a look again with a fresh pair of eyes and see if the copy is doing it’s job well.

Never underestimate the power of the written word on your website.
Design for show, type for dough.

Facebook users do poorly in exams

2009-04-12T20:51:00.004+01:00

Research has found that students who use the social networking website 'Facebook' perform worse academically. The report indicates that students that use facebook on a daily basis are underperforming by as much as a an entire grade in comparison to students who do not subscribe to the site - so being a user of Facebook could be the difference between getting an A or B.

About 83% of British 16 to 24 year olds are thought subscribe to 'social networking' sites which include, Facebook, Myspace and Bebo as a way of keeping in touch with friends. However, when a sample of Facebook users were questioned, 79% said that they believed that the time they spent on the site did not affect their work.
As you would expect, Facebook defended itself by saying that there was academic research to show the benefits of services like Facebook - although without any evidence from Facebook as to what these benefits were, can I hazard a guess that it was to seek assistance from friends when trying to answer tricky exam questions when revising which may have resulted in them getting a grade B when a grade C would have been their more likely acheivement!

Poor websites miss sales

2009-04-05T17:50:00.005+01:00

Research by BT has found that small businesses are missing out on valuable online sales opportunities because they fail to maintain their websites properly.

Jerry Thompson of BT Business says: "Most small businesses understand that it is vital to have a website and are quick to get online, but unfortunately many websites are withering on the vine because customers cannot actually find them".

About 25% of retail spending this year - around 78 Billion - is predicted to come from online sales, but experts warn that firms must improve their websites significantly if they want to benefit from the growth in e-commerce.
Findings show that one in six businesses has no facility for customers to buy goods through their website. More than 40% of sites have pages that contain missing or broken links and incredibly, only one in 3000 small firms utilises keywords even though this greatly increases the chances of search engines selecting their web sites.

Not surprisingly, one in ten small businesses rates their own site as very poor.

Thompson concludes, "As well as taking basic measures to make their website more visible to search engines, firms should plan the content to ensure that it reflects the services or goods they offer."

The report backs up what we have found -many businesses are only paying lip service to marketing their business online, but this is often because of the confusing nature of the whole topic. Worryingly, much of the advice being offered by "experts" is poor or misleading and in many cases "Search Engine Optimisation Specialists" are profiting because of the clients lack of understanding of the correct approach.

source or article; Daily Mail, April 5th 2009

Launch of the .tel domin

2009-03-24T08:00:00.000Z

The .tel domain went to public release today (24th March 2009), meaning that it is now available for anyone and everyone to purchase. The .tel domain differs in concept to a standard domain and is not designed for the hosting of websites - in fact, you are unable to point the name to a website. Instead, it acts as a directory entry, allowing the centralisaion of all contact information.

The .tel domain is available for both private and business use and I believe that .tel registrations are set to explode in popularity.
Why? well from an individuals point of view - garry.tel is a lot easier to give someone than; home numbers, work numbers, mobile numbers, email addressess, skype name, website address .... you get the picture.

And for business, the ability to centralise all contact information in one place (and update it instantly) has got to be a good thing, particularly for businesses with multiple offices or departments.
And for those of you out there with the equivalent of; www.I-really-would-like-a-shorter-name-but-they-were-all-gone.com, I suggst that you get cracking and snap up one of the most memorable domain names you could possibly wish for.

AOL - voted the worst of all time

2008-09-04T18:00:00.003+01:00

It comes as no surprise to see that AOL has been voted the worst ever tech product of all time PC World (US).
It has certainly been a thorn in our side when it comes to emails.

AOL's inability to recognise friendly emails that are being forwarded from one email address to another frequently results in them being treated as spam.
I notice with interest that in position 8 of the worst products of all time, is Intenet Explorer 6 - which was also the feature of one of my recent blogs!

Internet Explorer 6 is 7 years old today!

2008-08-27T20:26:00.003+01:00

Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) was launched 7 years ago on August 27th 2001. This shouldn't really be of that much interest any more as Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) has been available for over 2 years, giving internet explorer users plenty of time to upgrade, right? - apparently not!
It looks like IE6 is still the most popular browser in the world with about a 35% market share, putting it just in front of IE7. www.counter.com

This is bad news.
IE6 was a poor improvement on it's predecessor (IE5.5) with major security issues being one serious issue, but most apparent from a developers point of view was it's lack of acceptance/adherence to web standards.

As every good developer will know, this means that having gone to the trouble to code a website to meet web standards as recommended by the World Wide Website Consortium www.w3.org (the controlling body for the internet), it is necessary to 'hack' the code to get the website to display and function acceptably on IE6.

IE7 still has not met the same level of standards that other browsers such as firefox and opera meet (yes there is an alternative to internet explorer - try one you might like it!) but it has got a bit nearer.

There is now increasing talk in the web development world of dropping support for IE6 in an effort to force users to upgrade and with Internet Explorer version 8 which is already in beta testing and promising to be the first ever standard compliant web browser from Microsoft - joy of joys! this would seem to make sense.
In simple terms this means not bothering to 'hack' the code and leaving the website to display with all its shortcomings as a way to force users to make the change.

Dropping support for IE6 may force users to upgrade, but I feel it may prove detrimental to our clients success.

It is easy to say 'if the user does not update his system what should he expect' until you consider that the user may not be aware that there system is the reason for your websites poor appearance or the reason why they can't make an online purchase or complete a contact form enquiry.

Generating business is why you have a website. Like it or not, first impressions count, so it makes sense to look good to the widest audience and if you have a product to sell online you will want to take every chance you get to sell it.

This means that whilst IE6 remains so popular, we have to reluctanly continue bastardising good websites so they work for the masses.

Gold at Olympics creates huge interest in our clients website.

2008-08-25T12:27:00.007+01:00

Congratulations to Ben Ainslie for winning his third gold medal at the Beijing Olympics in the Finn Class Sailing event. His achievement is truly outstanding and ranks him as Britain's most successful Olympic Sailor of all time.

Naturally, interest in Ben's Olympic progress in the Finn Sailing event and his eventual success at winning the Gold medal would create a lot of additional interest, both in Ben as an athlete and also in sailing.

As web developers and hosts of the British Finn Association website www.finnuk.org.uk we were able to watch at close hand the effect that this had on the Finn UK website.

Even we were not prepared for the scale of interest - or the effect that external links (links from other websites that 'point' to your own website) had on it's Google Ranking.

For those of you who are starting out on the road to understanding Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) principles, the areas that make a difference to your SEO success fall into two categories; Optimisation on your own website (internal optimisation) and inbound links (external optimisation) .
Whilst internal optimisation of your website is essential and is rewarded to a certain degreee, Google (and other primary search engines) put a lot of importance on inbound links.
The reason for this is simple. To generate inbound links to your website, other websites are required to link to you. Consequently it is far harder to fake external interest in your website.

Remember - Google is interested in providing the most relevant websites for the search engine terms that have been used. If other websites suddenly start linking to your website (inbound links) for a particular search term, Google will view your website as more important than one that does not get linked to. Additionally, if the links are from well respected and high ranking websites the effect will be amplified.

A case of quality not quantity is in some cases more effective.
With the BBC website (One of Britain's most important websites in the eyes of Google), and other prominent websites linking to the www.finnuk.org.uk website it was great to see the Google effect at work.

We hope that the British Finn Association goes from strength to strength and that interest in Finn Class Sailing continues to grow. Particularly with the London Olympics getting nearer by the day!

Once again, congratulations to Ben for winning his third Olympic Gold and in a indirect way, for helping the British Finn Association website to achieve a higher prominence with their Search Engine Rankings and more success as a result.

Who do we want to employ? Sorry I can't say!

2008-07-21T15:13:00.002+01:00

If you have been sending out numerous CV's and not getting anywhere, do not be disheartened. It's more than likely that for most of your applications you were a non runner from the start - usually because of no fault of your own!

When it comes to advertising a job, political correctness knows no boundaries and unfortunately it is getting harder to actually indicate who you would like to employ. The latest slap on the wrist for me came when advertising a job which included the naughty phrase; "Salary dependent upon experience".
I received the following reply,"We have amended your vacancy advert as ‘salary dependent upon experience’ may contravene the new age discrimination legislation. Your advert now reads ‘salary unspecified'".

On a previous occasion when wishing to indicate that the job would only be suitable for someone from Bournemouth as it involved contact with local clients, I was told that this was discriminatory to anyone who was not from Bournemouth???

These restrictions are particularly niggling to me, because in most instances the criteria for employment in web design and development can be more flexible than any other industry I can think of. I am able to employ candidates who have disabilities, from any race, religion age, gender and even any location, including overseas and already do. Currently I have full time employee's that live and work at their home addresses which are 100's of miles from Bournemouth and it is not a problem. So in the instances when I want someone who meets a specific criteria, I would like to be able to say so!

The bit that has been forgotten through political correctness (legislation), is that businesses just want the most suitable person for the job and will employ the best person who apply's (I remember watching a programme where entrepreneurs were asked the secret to their success and one guy said, "Surround yourself with good people and when asked if liking your employee's was important - the response was; "If they are good - you force yourself to like them").
I'm guessing that this is how most businesses also work. We all want the most suited person for the job, but because of political correctness we are not allowed to include enough clues as to who this may be in the job description.

Not being able to indicate who you wish to employ in my opinion helps no-one. If I can't indicate that the person must be local does not change the fact that I will only employ someone who is. Unfortunately this means that I have to sift through piles of CV's that have been sent by enthusiastic applicants who wont get the job. My heart goes out to the applicants who must get disillusioned at the 100's of CV's they have sent out without the offer of a job

Remember when you enquire about a position, unfortunately the following will apply;
Of course you can apply for the job - but only because I'm not allowed to tell you that you are unsuitable it will be a total waste of your time.

Bespoke or not Bespoke that is the question?

2008-06-21T11:58:00.006+01:00

Bespoke
Just recently I read an article recently (Rashid Razaq, Evening Standard) which explained how the Tailors of Saville Row had lost a legal battle over the right for the word 'Bespoke' to refer exclusively to hand made suits.

Menswear retailers Sartoriani was referred to the ASA because it was advertising bargain bespoke suits as "uniquely made according to your personal measurements and specification".

After a fitting session, where the clients measurements were taken, the company admitted that the process of cutting and sewing was then handled mostly by machine.

We often refer to our design and development services as being bespoke.
The word bespoke, is not universally used and seems to be favoured/adopted by some industries and ignored by others, but it originates from the tailors of Saville Row in London.
The word bespoke was a term used to describe how a customer would 'speak' for a length of fabric.

A search on Wikipedia fills in most of the details;
Bespoke is usually a British English term for tailored clothing made at a customer's behest, and exactly to the customer's specification. Bespoke clothing is created without use of a pre-existing pattern, differentiating it from made to measure, which alters a standard-sized pattern to fit the customer. In American English, it is a synonym for "custom made."

Today, it is also frequently used for technical components specifically developed for a certain application (e.g. bespoke software), as well as in the automotive and cake decorating industries, when customers get a chance to have an automobile equipped or cake decorated to their specification.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bespoke

The Advertising Standards Authority upheld the suit manufacturers claim that the word 'bespoke' did not have an exclusivity to Saville Row tailors or should it indicate that a suit was fully hand stitched. They argued that it could also be used to refer to a garment that had been made to an individual customers requirements regardless of whether all of the process was by hand.

In my view the ruling is appropriate and I can draw parallels to how we approach bespoke web design and development for our clients.

When we say our websites are 'Bespoke Developments', what do we mean?
Our designs are certainly individually 'tailored' for each client. Each design is unique, and evolves as a result of a number of discussions with the client. On completion ownership of the design is passed to the client. At this point, you could say that the design has been 'spoken' for.
During the process of building each website there will be the necessity to produce 'bespoke' code to meet individual requirements, but in many instances of development we will also make use of re-useable code if the functionality already exists.
A couple of examples are; the use of re-useable code to produce website enquiry forms and the inclusion of a web page editor for users with content management systems. The website editor has evolved from 1000’s of man hours of development – why re-invent the wheel? Another reason for the practice of using re-useable code is price; we can produce a website in the fraction of the time and subsequently at a far more attractive price than one that has been hand coded line by line.
This comparison can be drawn with the suit company that used automated methods and reduced the time and therefore the cost to the client.

Saville Row tailors likened the use of the word 'Bespoke' to the legally protected term 'Champagne', but I would guess that whilst the process of producing champagne may remain the same, the vineyards may have adopted some machinery along the way to improve efficiency. Also, the word bespoke isn't just linked to Saville Row tailors in the same way that Champagne is linked to a wine growing region.
The Saville Row Tailors arguments seem to be a case of sour grapes.
Ultimately, this argument boils down to money, if you want a fully hand stitched suit from Saville Row it will cost you more.
If you want a bespoke website that has been fully hand coded it will cost you more than a development where some code has been used before.

Will a Bespoke hand coded website be better - No.
Will it cost you more, Yes - substantially more.
So when it comes to bespoke, be it suits or software and dependent on how deep your pockets are (no pun intended) – the choice is yours.

Typing errors make me want to Yell

2008-06-08T16:41:00.008+01:00

Typing errors certainly can come back to haunt you!

Now, I don't want to come across as too judgemental here. I make my fair share of typing errors and even worse, some remain unnoticed for ages.
It's normally a case of not seeing the 'would for the trees' or the spell checker not picking up on grammatical interpretations of words (yes, I did intend that typo for effect - sorry!).

It can be even more frustrating when the typing error is beyond your control. This situation is amplified if your audience is likely to be particularly scornful of typing errors and is not aware that they were not of your own making.

Hence, it is with some sympathy that I noticed the spelling mistake that I will presume the Yell.com representative has made when adding this entry on behalf of the Learning Centre!

(Wimbourne should be spelt Wimborne).

Perhaps the Yell.Com representative will be able to attend their establishment for a lesson or two?

Wimborne Community Learning and Resource Centre

Another of my blog entries on the topic of typing errors

The Evolution of British Maths Teaching

2008-06-02T21:08:00.006+01:00

I received this from a colleague,

1. Teaching Maths In 1970
A logger sells a truckload of timber for £100.
His cost of production is 4/5 of the price.
What is his profit?

2. Teaching Maths In 1980
A logger sells a truckload of timber for £100.
His cost of production is 4/5 of the price, or £80.
What is his profit?

3. Teaching Maths In 1990
A logger sells a truckload of timber for £100.
His cost of production is £80.
Did he make a profit?

4. Teaching Maths In 2000
A logger sells a truckload of timber for £100.
His cost of production is £80 and his profit is £20.
Your assignment: Underline the number 20.

5. Teaching Maths In 2008
A logger cuts down a beautiful forest because he is selfish and inconsiderate and cares nothing for the habitat of animals or the preservation of our woodlands.
He does this so he can make a profit of £20.
What do you think of this way of making a living?
Topic for class participation after answering the question: How did the birds and squirrels feel as the logger cut down their homes? (There are no wrong answers).

Yes, I know it is not not politically correct - but hey. It does strike a cord!

A high success rate means cheaper quotes

2008-06-01T22:28:00.008+01:00

Putting together a proposal for a customer is time consuming.

Even putting together a proposal for the smallest of developments can take many hours. The larger the website or the larger the client the more costly the process becomes.

Quotes for corporates can be a particular nightmare, the process can go on for months and involve many meetings.
One proposal springs to mind where the requirement was relatively simple and from the initial brief it was obvious that we could complete the development in under 2 weeks.
However the selection process the corporate had put in place for choosing the development team went on for ever.

It required an initial proposal, followed by a selection meeting, The corporate then chose their favourite 3 development companies from the initial 7 that they had started with.
The final 3 were invited back in again for round two.
All had to provide a revised proposal along with another boardroom presentation. Then a finalisation of requirement and back in again to present another proposal to the Directors. This process took over 6 months. The calculated time for putting together the proposal was a lot longer than the actual time on development would have been.

We bowed out gracefully after round one.

The problem with lengthy proposals, is that if you don't win the quote, the costs have to be spread over the ones that you do win and you find your quotes start shooting up dramatically.
We are now very cautious before pitching to corporates for these reasons.

By being a bit more selective with who we do enter quote, you will be pleased to hear that we now win most of the work we quote for.

Beecause of this we are able to keep our prices down and our percentage of conversions high.

It's a win win situation for us and our clients!

Our quotes are free - unless you would prefer to pay instead!

2008-06-01T21:53:00.006+01:00

Dear prospect,
thanks for inviting us in to discuss your development requirements, we would love to do the work, the next stage is for us to put together a proposal.
Now where's that cheque book of yours?
Why? - Because we want paying for providing you with the quote.

Does the above sound normal or odd? Would you pay for a development proposal to be provided (or have you paid) by the companies that you invited in to quote for the job?

Whilst visiting a company recently to discuss their requirement, it was remarked that of the companies that had been invited in, one had stated that they would require paying before they started assembling the development proposal.
Pushing your luck a bit I thought - pushing it a bit too far as it turned out, because they were declined the opportunity to quote!

Hopefully their loss will be our gain, we have provided the company with a development proposal with detailed quote - free of charge!
In fact we have never entertained the idea of charging and I haven't heard of other companies that do either, but it did get me thinking! I wonder if they would have been cheaper than everyone else?

Let's assume hypothetically, that we all suggested an identical proposal and all built the development to the same standard, would their actual development quote be cheaper (I would like to think that our standard would always be better, but this is hypothetical!).
It should be cheaper. As they would have already been paid for putting together the proposal, they wouldn't have to factor in the preparation cost for the proposal into the overall development charges. Additionally, if they were charging for every proposal, they wouldn't have to the cover the cost of time spent on proposals for other companies that they didn't go on to win. Our success rate at winning business has always been very high and I am sure this is why our quotes are far more attractive than our competitors.
Somehow, I doubt if the other developers would have been cheaper and I'd love to know how many quotes they actually do win!

The good news is our quotes will remain FREE.

Small Business - Big Advantage

2008-06-01T13:08:00.004+01:00

I read an article recently that had been written by an Aussie guy called Brendon Sinclair. He runs a Web Development Company in Australia, and his company sounds like it is not too disimilar to ours in both size and structure. The way he operates his business also has a lot of similarities to the way we operate ours, so I find myself agreeing more often than not with his views (have you noticed how an article is far more enjoyable to read if you share the same viewpoint as the author!).

Brendon wrote an article recently called "Small Business, Big Advantage" explaining how Smaller Businesses could offer their customers a big advantage in customer support over large businesses or coporates.

He went on to say;
"The big advantage? Easy. Small business cares.
I care about my clients. I can't afford not to care. If I don't care, they won't keep paying me.
Big business doesn't care; the guy on the end of the phone still gets his paycheck no matter what happens with your web site. It's all about accountability."

Brendon went on to site a case where he was able to assist a client, who was in a panic because her domain name had expired causing her website to go offline at the weekend. He took her call at the weekend and was able to quickly resolve the situation and the client was back online within hours. His point was that a larger company would have kept her waiting until after the weekend before even taking a look.

He summed up by saying;
"If that domain name was managed by a small business, it would never had expired in the first place. A small business is far more likely to have a finger on the pulse, because its service is more personalized. A small business will know what's happening, who it's happening to, and what to do to fix it, averting this sort of problem."

Very true, I can fully relate to Brendon's viewpoint - we offer a personalised service and we know our customers on an individual basis, in fact we have forged good friendships with many of our customers over the years. They rely on us for advice and support and we don't want to let them down - after all nobody likes to see their friends in trouble!

Would you buy from this man?

2008-05-18T15:39:00.001+01:00

This article rides on the back of the Giant Rabbit article (no pun intended).
I was visiting the 'Internet World' trade fair at Earls Court, London recently and as you would expect there was intense rivally between stands to attract visitors attention. In the same way that the 'Giant Rabbit' had failed dismally, there were some equally frightening attempts to get attention. Top of the list of poor ideas, was the stall that had employed a midget, dressed him in a purple suit and had painted his face hair and hands purple. Oh dear!
It was actually quite sad, and didn't provoke the humorous response intended.
a: Because it wasn't funny.
b: Because you don't like to laugh at people who are vertically challenged.

It was a marketing attempt that had failed poorly and was having the same affect that the giant rabbit had on everyone. You gave their stand a wide berth.
Interestingly, the stands that were offering face to face advice (no pun intended at the expense of the midget!) or hands on trials and demonstrations of their products were very busy.
If the principle aim was to get the company noticed, then that failed too - partly because I was doing my best to avoid getting too near to the stand (and most others were too) so I wouldn't have to enter into a conversation about business with a 3ft purple midget.

For anyone who did make a point of noting the companies name, I am convinced that it would be for the purpose of avoiding them at all costs in the future.
For me they lost all credibility with that marketing stunt and I would not be able to take them at all seriously.

Would you buy from this man - a purple painted midget? NO.

Bournemouth to get 100mb Broadband

2008-05-15T19:06:00.003+01:00

It has been announced that Bournemouth will be the first town in the country to become a "Fibre City" with broaband delivery of up to 100Mbs. This is great news for those of us who work and live in Bournemouth and as work is scheduled to start straight away we shouldn't have too long to wait before we can test the benefits!

H2O, the company behind the project, announced;
This will be the largest Fibrecity project in Europe and the company will be funding and providing the network at a cost of around £30 million. The majority of the fibre will be put in the sewers using H2O Networks' patented FS (Fibre Optical Cable Underground Sewer) System. The fibre will provide ultra high bandwidth to all Bournemouth's businesses and more than 88,000 homes at speeds far exceeding current DSL or cable modem speeds, typically by tens or even hundreds of Mbps.

The bit that caught my attention was that the broadband cables will be put laid in the sewer. So for those of us that spend time worrying about the internet going down the pan - it seems we aren't far wrong!

For more info on the announcement, see: BBC technology website and Fibre City website

The giant rabbit

2008-05-14T14:43:00.002+01:00

I was watching the Apprentice on the BBC the other night and the 'apprentices' had been given the task of selling wedding products at a weddings trade show, with the team that made the most money being the team that one and the losers.
One team was offering wedding cakes and the other wedding dresses. In an effort to attract attention one of the team members (I can't remember for certain which team it was, cakes I think? - I hope this isn't the start of 'senior moments' affecting the old grey cells) had dressed up in costume as a giant rabbit.

It was comical watching the lengths that people were taking to avoid 'the rabbit'. Needless to say, this had a negative effect on the number of visitors they received at their stand and no guesses which team lost.

In the boardroom, the giant rabbit was delivered with Sir Alan's immortal words 'You're Fired' (just to clarify, the apprentice wasn't still in costume when he was in the boardroom being fired).

It proves the point that if you are not careful, you can try just a bit too hard to generate attention and it can all backfire.
Trying to be clever with marketing if it is misunderstood or ends up scaring or intimidating your audience is not going to work. You need to give careful thought to your marketing.

Understanding what will attract an interest need not be that hard, keep things relevant to your product, informative and be approachable.
Anyone for a piece of cake?

If you want a job done quickly - ask someone who is busy!

2008-05-02T13:59:00.000+01:00

I received a cry of help from a well respected local company a couple of weeks ago. They were being messed about by the company that had been given the job of developing the companies new website.
They had started in August 2007 and by May of 2008 the website still was not ready!

I suggested that I take a look at what progress had been made and detail what was needed to get the job done, but from first glance it was obvious that this was not the job of anyone with web development knowledge.
The guys had tried to bodge together some 'off the shelf' template design breaking every rule of website development in the process.

Fortunately, the company took my advice, severed the relationship and let us start from scratch with a bespoke website development for them. Oh, and this also included an additional bespoke website development for their sister company.
It did make sense to have both websites ready for when the company re-located to larger premises, but this put us up against the clock.
We only had two weeks to play with and two websites to build - eeek!
But hey, there's nothing like a tight deadline to get everyone springing into action and rising to the challenge and sure enough we completed both websites on time!

It's not the first time (and won't be the last) that we have had to turn a development around in a very short time.
So, if you want a job done quickly - ask someone who is busy!

Internet World - Stand back and observe!

2008-05-01T16:16:00.003+01:00

One of the things that I found most interesting during my attendance to the 'Internet World' trade fair (29th April - 1st May 2008) was observing which seminars were most popular.
As the trade fair is primarily attended by business managers, It is prudent to stand back and observe what the business community finds interesting. If advice falls on deaf ears, no matter how good the advice is, it is ignored. It is better to preach to the converted and it is good to see that the business community are now very interested in the virtues of the internet as a method of marketing their business.

The queue's were out of the door for all of the seminars that focused on the grey art of Search Engine Optimisation and to a lesser degree on Internet Marketing - there is a blurry line over what falls into which category.

Typically it would seem that many of the businesses I talk to now associate Search Engine Optimisation as the all encompassing activity of promoting themselves on the internet. This is not technically correct. Certainly Search Engine Optimisation is an important area. But it is important to have a rounded understanding of what methods are available for marketing online, and not become blinkered on one activity at the expense of others.
Whether you choose to call it Search Engine Optimisation or internet marketing or both is up to you, but make sure that you have a strategy that stretches beyond just tweaking keywords or page content. There are many other marketing activities that should also be considered and many will provide you with more success.

It's good sometimes to stand back and observe rather than rush straight in, but if you haven't started thinking about your internet marketing strategy don't leave it too long. Your competitors have been out and about and have done their homework. If you want some help with yours, we are here to help.

another story resulting from my visit to Internet World

Thinking outside of the Box - Aaaaaaaah!

2008-04-01T18:18:00.001+01:00

If I hear someone say 'think outside of the box' one more time, I will crack up.

It's not the only cliché that I hate (hmm, I can't think of any that I do like), but it is the worst. Whenever someone starts talking about lateral thinking, out they all come. If you are approached by anyone who tells you to 'think outside of the box', run away. Certainly do not at any stage let yourself get drawn into conversation with this person as it will result in a slow agonising death.

I thought I would have a quick look on Wikipedia and see if it had a listing. Of course it has, silly me for doubting the power of Wikipedia (it's actually quite a good article. If you want to read it click on the link; Thinking outside of the box )

I was discussing this and other equally annoying corporate/marketing babble ('you have got to be in it to win it', 'aim for the the low hanging fruit' etc) with a friend the other day and apparantly, there is a game not unlike bingo that can be played at meetings, called 'Bullshit Bingo'. Prior to a meeting bingo cards containing a selection of phrases are discretely handed out among attendees who try to complete their bingo card first, by ticking off the phrases as the speaker unwittingly mentions them until there is a winner. Apparantly, the tempation for the winner to actually shout 'Bingo' is quite strong. Secret hand signals between the players is the accepted method of indicating who has one, so the gaff is not blown.
Naturally fully containing ones excitment can be a bit tricky, but apparantly an occassional giggle smirk or laugh normally has the affect of just encouraging the speaker even more, who assumes that everyone is loving his presentation and hanging on his every word (technically speaking, i guess they are!).

Not quite on the same topic, but it's worth a mention anyway, just because it is so laughable;
A few years ago, whilst attending an education seminar the delegates were advised that on no account should the term 'brainstorming'be used in future, as this could be deemed detrimental to children with special educational needs?
The advice was to use the phrase 'thought showers' in its place!

Will anyone support me in trying to ban 'thinking outside of the box' from being used in a public space during the hours of daylight.

How much do you need to spend on Internet Marketing?

2008-03-01T17:10:00.002Z

Most business managers are now aware that a sizeable proportion of their target audience will be researching products or making purchasing decisions from the information they find on the internet. If you are not reaching this audience you are missing out on their business!

Most will also be aware that success rarely happens by accident – an Internet Marketing strategy is all about establishing a successful, on-going approach to online marketing that will provide increased success now and over the long term.

The amount to spend will vary dependent on the market sector you are in, but it goes without saying that being more prominent than your competitors on major search engines such as Google, certainly wouldn’t be a bad thing.

As a matter of course, you should ensure that you are at least as visible online as your competitors.

The good news is that most of your competitors probably don’t have a successful marketing strategy in place at the moment either.
This gives you the chance to seize the opportunity and gain a marketing advantage.

And by assessing where your current marketing budget is being spent, it is normally possible for businesses to shift the marketing away from dated methods and use the money saved to good effect on their internet marketing campaigns – so it may not cost you more and it could even save you money!

If you want to place more emphasis on internet marketing, take a visit to our website for more details Active Internet Support

Where have all the Yellow Pages gone?

2008-02-01T08:27:00.000Z

Have you noticed how you rarely see the Yellow Pages or phone book on an office desk anymore?
I am visiting different workplaces all the time and I rarely see a copy of the Yellow Pages on a secretaries desk - or even in view. I presume that they are all shoved underneath the desk or in a drawer.

Why is this?

Well, anyone sat near a computer is using the search engines to find the services they need. But looking at the new issue of Yellow Pages, it surprised me how thick it still was. It looks like businesses are still spending a chunk of their marketing money promoting their company in publications that they don't even use themselves!

Remember - your customers are just as likely to be using the same methods as you do to find the services that they require. If they are looking online and your details don’t appear, they will use someone else who does.

As an absolute basic, you should make sure that your website appears when someone types your business name into a search engine (particularly Google) - you will be surprised how many don't appear, try it yourself and see if you do!

Then, type in the service or product that you offer and see if you appear. If you don't - you are losing business to your competitors who do.

Remember that the internet is another Marketing tool and one that you should now be spending a decent portion of your marketing budget on rather than overlooking.
I am not saying stop the yellow pages advertising - but go for a smaller ad that directs readers to your website and put the money saved into better online marketing.

Roll up, Roll up, Free SEO report

2007-12-04T22:12:00.000Z

We were discussing how amazed our clients are when they see how detailed our website search engine optimisation reports actually are.

Well, following on from this, we have decided to offer a free report on your website as an example - should you choose to ask!

Our only stipulation is that you are are a UK based company as colloquial differences can catch us out (Brits and Yanks can't even agree on how to spell optimisation/optimization - it just wouldn't work for us to get involved!)

I'm not sure how long we are going to run this offer, but we will try and accommodate all who do contact us.

It only takes 30 seconds

2007-11-01T23:02:00.000Z

If you have a website that isn't doing very well on the search engines, there is probably a good reason why!

It takes us just 30 seconds to see if a website is ever going to be successful, don't wait years to find out what we can see in half a minute.

Get in touch and we will carry out a free appraisal.

Active Internet Support

Retro Spam

2007-10-19T13:51:00.000+01:00

Still getting spammed with emails from drugs companies, but the tactic has gone back to clearly stating what they are trying to sell you.
We used to be inundated with spam offering cheap VIAGRA, but because users set spam filters stopping emails that contain the word VIAGRA, the emails would be sent out offering cheap VI@gra, V1_agra, and a ever increasing range of combinations in order to get past the spam filters.
Not sure what the actual success rate is for this type of spam, but i am assuming that anyone who has setup their spam filters to stop VIAGRA will not suddenly wish to buy the product just because it is now called VI@GRA.

I might be wrong about this, but I have never met a VIAGRA spammer to ask them!

Just recently we seem to have come full circle and the email title is saying "Cheap VIAGRA" again, this seems like a good marketing strategy to me, if you are after VIAGRA, you are sure to notice the email - therefore the spammer has reached his target audience.

I would like to name this return to the good old ways, as Retro Spamming.
Keep your eyes peeled for Retro Spam, coming to a email box near you!

10 Downing Street - twice in one week!

2007-10-01T20:01:00.002+01:00

Writing about 10 Downing Street twice in one week reminds me of the old saying about having to wait for buses. You wait ages for one and then a couple come along together!

A good friend brought the following incredible revelation to my attention and "absurd" does seem to be the best way to describe it.
See what you think;

If you agree, you are invited to add your support to the petition. If you don't agree, you are still invited to join the petition. Whatever has happened to British pride? The world-famous Red Arrows have been banned from appearing at the 2012 London Olympics because they are deemed "too British".

Organisers of the event say that the Arrows military background might be "offensive" to other countries taking part in the Games. The display team have performed at more than 4000 events worldwide, but the Department of Culture, Media and Sport have deemed the display team "too militaristically British". Red Arrows pilots were said to be "outraged", as they had hoped to put on a truly world class display for the Games, something which had never been seen before. Being axed from a British-based event for being "too British" is an insult - the Arrows are a symbol of Britain .

The Red Arrows have been excellent ambassadors for British overseas trade, as they display their British-built Hawk aircraft all over the world.

The Arrows performed a short flypast in 2005 when the winning bid was announced, but their flypast at the Games was to have been truly spectacular.

It is to be hoped that common sense prevails If you disagree with this decision, sign the petition on the link
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/RedArrows2012/?ref=redArrows2012

I would have understood if it was the Chinese Olympics they were talking about!
I'll be interested to see how many names accumulate, there is a lot of time left between now and 2012.

The day that Gordon Brown didn't visit my wife!

2007-09-27T11:01:00.000+01:00

The Labour Party conference started on Monday in Bournemouth. Each year one of the major political parties uses Bournemouth as its venue and apart from giving the "Bournemouth International Centre " a wide berth, because of the hold-ups that are encountered due to the additional security, the nearest we get to being involved is watching the coverage on the news to check that the weather is still promoting the "Sunny Bournemouth"image that the town has been nicknamed!

My wife is a primary school teacher (a very good one, although she will be too modest to agree) at a local school. The friday before the conference started, the school received a phone call out of the blue, to say that it was 90% likely that "someone very big" would be coming to view the school on the following Wednesday and for security reasons this should be remain confidential until the day. There followed a stressful week-end where my wife's mind ran wild with images of how controlling 30 reception year kids ( 4 year olds, who had only just started school a few weeks earlier) could go so horribly wrong!
At the beginning of the week, the Labour party press office arrived and did the tour and asked a host of questions and sprang the news that there was also a possibility that, Gordon Brown may choose to visit a Secondary School instead.
Yep, you guessed right, it was the secondary school that he did visit!

My wife had lived the stress, psyched herself up for the media, prepared a lesson that was least likely to end in disaster on live TV, and all to no avail.

I Can't help wondering why he chose the secondary school instead?
Was it the thought of lots of 4 year old pulling his tie or how he might be asked the type of question that 4 year olds ask that even a media hardened politician can not prepare for, or the task of trying to look sensible for the cameras whilst sitting on a mini chair at a mini desk for the photo shot of the PM "getting involved"!
As the saying goes; never work with children or animals!

Or might the reason for not visiting have been that there are still 30 kids in each class (the maximum), the fantastic IT suite and electronic whiteboards in the classes were paid for by parents through fund-raising activities, the etc, etc ....

When we watched conference coverage on the TV in the evening, the sound bites from the education minister Ed Balls, were of how Labour had already managed to reduce class sizes and improve facilities in schools and would continue to prioritise and target education with its resources.

Am I being cynical again, or just maybe, my wife's school wasn't visited because it would be a little too tricky to show where the money had been spent!

Is there a safe way to save?

2007-09-22T15:48:00.000+01:00

If you live in the UK, you can't help to have noticed the panic that surrounded the Northern Rock Bank recently. You may have even been affected.

The panic was triggered by Northern Rock Bank requesting financial assistance from the Bank of England.
There followed unprecedented scenes of individuals queuing around the block as savers rushed to withdraw their money even whilst at the same time statements were released by Northern Rock and the Bank of England, telling everyone that there was no need to panic.

I don't think that it was Northern Rocks request for assistance from the Bank of England that triggered the panic as has been widely reported.

What came to light was the fact that if the bank did collapse, a maximum limit of £2000 was all investors would be guaranteed to receive. It appears that this is the normal amount guaranteed for savings accounts throughout the industry under regulation.

Am i little naive? I seem to remember whenever I have sought advice on where to put my savings, the advice has always been that to avoid risk I should stick to a bank or builiding soceity savings account. Alternatively, If I were prepared to speculate for a higher return, I could choose something a little more risky, such as stocks and shares.

Suddenly, and I am convinced that I am not alone, I find out that money in a savings account is at risk and not safe after all!
I'm betting that this was news to most of the savers in the queue and the main reason for them withdrawing their money. After all, if you knew that your savings were safe, you wouldn't rush to withdraw them.

In the Northern Rock instance, the government stepped in, guaranteeing to underwrite the savings and thus quashing the panic. At present, there is no guarantee that the bank would act in the same way again.
Now we are aware of the 'risk' of saving, I would like to see a few changes. Firstly a method of depositing money in an institution that is 100% safe (even if the interest return is lower). Solicitors operate seperate customer accounts in order to protect money that is not theirs, I would like to see the financial institutions find a way of achieving a similar method of ensuring that when we choose the safe route to saving, the bank aren't taking risks with it and that we get back what is rightfully ours ( and a bit of interest on top would be nice too!).

Never let a designer design your website!

2007-09-20T17:42:00.000+01:00

Never let a designer design your website!
You may have heard of Jane Moore, the Journalist and womens author, If you dont read the sun or girly novels, you may still know her from TV as a reviewer of the morning papers on BBC's news programme Breakfast, and now on the "Grumpy Old Women" series.
I quite enjoy listening to her comments and even find we are quite like-minded in our opinions!
Unfortunately Jane doesn't know me, if she did, it would have stopped her choosing a DESIGN team that has made BIG BIG mistakes with her website.

Luckily for Jane she has enough celebrity status that her website will still be found on the search engines, but that is the only reason why!

Rule 1. If you want your website to be viewed, don't let a design team, design your website. Why? I hear you cry, it looks great! There, you have found the problem already.

Yes it looks very good to a human eye, but search engines don't have eyes, they read text content on each page of your website. Additionally, search engines weight the importance of the content found on the home page of your website (this is the first page that you see when you type in the website address). Search engines assume that you will put include the main information about your website on your home page - so this is the page that you really want to get right!!

Designers however, are control freaks, they want their designs to look as identical online as it would in a magazine. Here's the problem, text (that search engines can read) is limited to a relatively small choice of fonts. Include the text as part of the design and you are not limited by the nasty restrictions that the web imposes, and you are in full control of how everything will appear on the screen (as long as the visitor to the website is not a search engine).

Now take a look at Jane's site; www.janemoore.com
The home page (remember this is the most important page on your site) is one big graphic, saying "Click to Enter", Oh dear! WHY WHY WHY?. This page serves no purpose whatsoever.

Total amount of readable text on the home page; NIL.
(hold down your mouse and drag across the screen, you will be able to see for yourself what graphics make up each page)

Now, "Click to Enter" the site. (we have never built a website that has a "click to enter" home page, now you know why).

Repeat the hold and drag excercise on each page, even the contact page, and you will find that every page is made up of graphics with not one word of text visible for a search engine to read.

This means that the whole website is invisible to a search engine - it's the search engine equivalent of the Sun publishing Janes column in white ink on white paper.
Additionally, as text readers for the visually impaired also rely on being able to read text, visually impaired visitors will also be kept in the dark as to the content of each page as well!

Not one word of text in the entire website!
I can't even remember the last time I came across a website which was completely invisible to a search engine.

The key point here, is to use a web development company not a design team.
I might be generalising regarding designers, but the importance of a successful website is in the development.
Take a look at the Spear-Bournemouth website, where we have ensured that the page content is separated from the website design; www.spear-bournemouth.co.uk. The website user can even select how they view the page, by selecting from a choice of designs!

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder as they say, but don't get wrapped up just on the visuals, there is a lot more to developing a website, than just uploading a pretty design!

Typing mistakes in spoof emails

2007-09-19T23:08:00.001+01:00

It never ceases to amaze me how frequently basic typing mistakes appear in Spoof/Phishing emails (just in case you don't know, a phishing email is the name given to emails sent under false pretences to lure information from you - normally banking details).

It would be fair to assume that prior to committing fraud on a major scale and even if it was only to gain a higher success rate, our nasty criminal would think to run it through the spellcheck!

No matter how accurately the email design matches, a quick glance for a typo is normally all it takes to confirm that the email is a fake (that's assuming that it's masquerading as a email from a bank that I actually use in the first place - most from a banks that I don't use). It's almost as if the cyber-criminal is giving us a sporting chance of not getting caught.

Just in case you can't find a typo, always follow these steps - just in case a grammatically correct spoof email has slipped through the net!

1. never click on links and never open or save attachments.
2. see if the email includes your name not dear si, etc.
3. see if it was sent to your exact email address - a lot of spoof emails are sent with any name in front of your website address.
4. always open a new browser window and type in the website address that you want to visit. clicking on a link that says www.yourbank.com will not necessarily take you to your bank.

Incidentally, most banks and institutions have a fraud squad that can normally be reached by emailing spoof@addyourbanknamehere.com It's always worth forwarding phishing emails to this address so they can be tracked.

Optimisation or Optimization?

2007-09-02T12:55:00.000+01:00

I follow Search Engine optimisation (SEO) practices pretty closely and would suggest that I have a pretty good understanding of the topic, but have noticed that references to SEO, always refer to the American spelling; Optimization, which differs from the correct spelling as recognised in the UK; Optimisation.

Does this mean that it could be damaging to your SEO results (assuming that your topic was SEO) to not go with the American spelling, or is our good friend Google recognising both spellings and rewarding equally?