Archive for the ‘Business Practices’ Category
Bicycle Transportation Alliance
Tuesday, January 26th, 2010The Bicycle Transportation Alliance website went live late last year in an effort to create more traffic for a late 2009 membership drive. Like many clients, they’d been meaning to update their old website for a while. They approached me three years ago and, perhaps because a bicycle is my main means of locomotion these days (I’m more than a little green, although don’t advertise that much) we crossed paths again and I was asked to upgrade their site.
Click here to visit the new BTA website
The graphics and colour scheme have just been applied and the site is working well. Four people administer the site and write articles / blogs. Each has their own level of access and only the administrator can do things like add new site pages.
The site also incorporates some Paypal functionality. People and families are able to join or renew their memberships and you can sign up to receive new information via email.
Working from Home (Part 1)
Sunday, September 20th, 2009
business card prototype
I recently moved house. It wasn’t the terrible ordeal I’d expected, but it wasn’t pleasant. I have thousands of books. Most of the move was all about books and book cases. Now that everything is in its right place, today was my first real day on the job.
I’m designing a business card for Cave Pictures (computer animation and video editing). I’d forgotten how much I enjoy fiddling with graphics until I spent the morning playing with a business card and logo design. Rob had already commissioned a logo designer and it was a matter of re-working existing graphics to suit the new business direction. I really had fun doing this, but it’s not quite right. Never mind, one for the folio. Now for draft 2 . . .
Update your website
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009There’s nothing worse than a site which was last updated in 2002.
It irks me to say this, but I’ve had about 500 clients over the years and the ones who are making money are also the ones who regularly update their website. I don’t make any money when someone updates a site because they usually do this via a content management system. It’s just mostly … I dunno … a shame. By providing real, up to date and useful content, you are also providing a service and building confidence in potential customers (who are following your site).
I read a book once – not a best seller and it had nothing particularly to do with the web. It was called, “Customer Loyalty – How to Earn It How to Keep It” by Jill Griffin. Great book. In it she points out that it takes 7 times the effort to get new customers as it does to service an old one. She used cinema advertising as a result. One poster for a movie doesn’t sell the movie, but; a poster, an article, an interview and a free bag of popcorn did. Well, seven things. I think you get the picture.
Imagine your website. One page won’t get you a customer. But 7 articles written over time, a search engine result via google adwords and a banner ad about your product or service might lead to sale. Not much has changed. Think traditional advertising – and then, laterally – think of the web equivalent. Because teh nature of the internet is chaning all the time, you might actuallly get ahead of technology if you experiment with some of your marketing ideas.
Case Study
watch 007 quantum of solace in HD download dan mccafferty into the ring
One of my favourite clients (I won’t mention any names) has a BLOG-style (WordPress) site. It took a bit to convince her to use a BLOG interface, but this particular person was pretty keen to have a News section and update it regularly. Like with all my clients, I told her to update the site as often as possible. Every day is fantastic, every week is good and every month is okay. She started with regular updates and finally settled on updating every month. Out of all my clients, she is the only one who updates her site that regularly and, sure enough, she also happens to be the one who is making money and creating leads directly from the website.
In Conclusion
Update your site!
That’s all I have to say. :)
Work, Life & Telstra
Sunday, May 17th, 2009I apologise to people who have received “I’m sorry but I’m much too busy to do your website” email recently, but it’s true! Without actually going the next step (face-lifting this site, getting in a bunch of employees, buying an office and – the most appalling idea of all – floating Geoffrey! on the ASX) I can’t commit to any more work presently. What I can do for new clients (for free) is sit with you over a 1hr coffee / green tea / chamomile and point you in the right direction. I’ve had so many work calls that Telstra cut my phone line yesterday!
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I'm now "naked"! (ADSL 2+)
Monday, May 11th, 2009In case you didn’t already know, “naked” simply means not having a phone line. I still have my phone number, but now all local and national calls are completely free and they go through the internet. My phone line is now digital. It doesn’t seem to have stopped Telstra sending me line rental bills in advance, so I’d better make a polite call to them and tell them to stop. They are really … “annoying” me now.
Once I received the modem from Iinet, it took about half an hour to install everything and I was up and away. it’s best NOT to use the installation CD. I got a lot more joy out of speaking to a service technician on my mobile phone.
So here I am – writing this while being on the phone. For $60/month. Now isn’t that a lot better than $100+ / month. Of course – I still have my mobile phone – which is entirely separate. Now – if I buy one of those 100% electric cars, stick some solar panels on my roof and pump a bit of money back into the electricity grid – I’ll be Superman!
Time to go"Naked" (ADSL)
Saturday, May 9th, 2009In an effort to rid myself of Telstra’s $30 phone line, I recently signed up with Iinet to “go naked”. Pretty good deal on the face of it. $60/month gets you free local and national calls. 5c / minute calls to US and UK and very fast broadband (8Gb up and 8Gb down). It cost me about $80 to set up and $200 for a (very good) VOIP modem. Voice Operated Internet Protocol (VOIP) is how I will make my phone calls – in other words, I will now make phone calls as usual – but they will go through the internet.
The only drawback is the 3 week wait. That’s 3 weeks without the internet. Arrgh! And the third week without a phone. And if you’re not at home to receive your new modem, it might be a bit longer for you to find out where it is and go get it.
So – the wait is the main thing. I’ll fill you in on how hard it is to install your new “Naked ADSL” when I get back from my Easter vacation…
Buying a new computer
Monday, December 15th, 2008If your existing computer is more than 2 years old, it’s probably time to buy a new one. Upgrading your old computer is like buying parts for an old washing machine. But don’t throw the old computer away. You’ll get a few bucks on Ebay for it, but unlike the old washing machine, mature computers still has a lot of use. I use my old Dell Inspiron (laptop) as a bedroom mp3 player and, while it’s a bit slow compared to the new Dell XPS M1530, it has a 10 hour battery and so I can take it to a cafe where I can write and code all day long. That’s fun, right? You can always give the old computer to the kids or donate it to their school. You get what you pay for with computers – especially when it comes to established dealers.
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Marketing Your Website
Sunday, September 21st, 2008If you build it, they won’t necessarily come. Not unless you have something worthwhile to say, buy or do on your website. It’s also a good idea to give something away for free. Something memorable. Something that will advertise your presence long after the 30 second (average site visit) experience you give them.
If you want more traffic, consider these following methods:
Something for Free
Thursday, September 11th, 2008It’s all the rage. To be in business on the ‘net, you have to offer some of your product for free. It makes sense. Why should anyone buy your product when there’s a world of choices out there?
I lost 16 bucks on Facebook
Friday, June 20th, 2008I’m so angry. I just lost $16 by accidentally clicking an ad in Facebook. How did this happen? . . .
The reason why I don’t have a mobile phone, home phone, email or address on this site is due to a recent spate of privacy and SMS theft. Recently, I clicked a widget in Facebook and was sent a slew of SMSs from a dating service. I didn’t think anything of this (just kept deleting them) until I got my phone bill. Each SMS had been charged at $2+.
I then had to find my deleted SMSs and figure out how disconnect from the service. A difficult tract of text at the bottom of one SMS explained how to disengage the service. To disengage (from “Australia Data” – don’t bother Googling they’re not on the web) I had to phone a 1300 number. I was told to wait (1300 numbers are charged by the second) – was disconnected a few times and (after half an hour) finally got through, whereupon I was prompted to enter a series of numbers followed by my mobile phone number.
The phone, literally, went blank after I’d put in my number. No “goodbye”, no “you have been disconnected from our service”. But . . . the SMSs stopped coming. As did the slew of fees charged to my phone account.
Lesson: Never give your mobile number to Facebook. They ask for this info when you sign up. What they don’t tell you is that it’s shared with all their “clients”, so if you click an ad – or join a fan group, that information is then passed to third parties and marketing firms. So be careful with your personal info. It’s (literally) worth money.
Now on Facebook, I’m a 43 year old woman who lives in Austria. Needless to say – this new “identity” has a different mobile phone number.
Hopefully . . . it’s not yours! ;)
From the Blog
- Can You Make My Logo Bigger?
Tuesday, January 31st, 2012 - Resizing Images for the Web
Sunday, January 22nd, 2012 - 7 Website Tweaks for Non-coders
Wednesday, December 7th, 2011