Here is something new I haven’t seen before. Apparently Google is trying out a new way of key wording images, getting humans to do the hard work! I did a search and eventually found this link. Google seem to have made the process fun by turning it into a competition. What a clever idea! To allow...
We have just recently launched another website created for a solicitors based in Hereford. You can visit the site by clicking here. Our full portfolio can be seen here
I get this all the time. Some bloke phones me up, seemingly my friend. He’s got a heavy Asian accent, but his name is Jonathan and his favourite football team is Manchester United. He likes beans on toast. I know all of this because he makes a big point of telling me. He asks me how my day has been and what I’ve been up to. He’s too nice. You just know he’s after something; usually he’s trying to get me to switch my phone company or to out-source all of my work to some other country. Nowadays I just say something like “Is this a sales call?†and then after he eventually admits it is I tell him a polite no thank you.
Now a friend and client of mine has a different approach, it goes something like this:
I think the best tool I use often in developing a website is the internet itself. If there is anything I don’t know or am stuck with, I Google it. As you probably know Google is now actually a verb in English dictionaries. This is due to the fact that so many people use Google to research and seek out information due to its superiority over other search engines.
Over the last few years I have come across many tools and utilities that have helped me complete various tasks and I have decided to list them here in the hope that the will be of help to some else. They are not listed in any particular order as they are all great.
Edit Plus
Download
Edit Plus is a great text editor that supports probably every known programming and database language there is. It has great colour highlighting, ftp, customisable scripts and extensions and much more. Its a 30 day free trial, but in the past I have used it for much longer than 30days meaning, I guess that purchase is voluntary. No doubt you will find it so useful you might consider paying the shareware fee.
I have been doing a lot of research about this lately, there are loads of sites telling you how to make thousands from the google adsense affiliate program. They all make it sound so easy. In reality you have to put in a lot of hard work. From my research there are three main factors which will enable a high payout from google:
Lots of traffic
There are untold strategies to boost traffic to a site, including well optimised pages and keywords (meta data), inbound links, paid advertising etc. in my opinion the best way to drive visitors to a site is to have decent content. If you offer something to your visitors, be it information or advice or the free use of a service you will undoubtedly get a certain level of traffic
A good click through rate (CTR)
Positioning of ads can help increase this, either by blending in your ads or making them stand out from your content. Some people place images next to the ads, which apparently increases CTR by attracting more attention to the advert.
High paying keywords
Now this is tricky. Making a site only to generate high paying key-worded ads is a bad idea, and not allowed by google. This doesn’t stop people doing it though! I personally think if you don’t know what you are talking about, then don’t bother writing about it. Pick a subject you are interested in, your visitors will have a far more informed and enjoyable visit and will keep coming back.
One way of increasing the keyword price is by using section targeting. This allows you to emphasise or ignore certain content from the site. Results aren’t immediate as you have to wait for google to re-crawl your site before there is any noticeable difference.
It’s now just coming up to Christmas and we have recently been approved for another web project. This particular job is going to be part funded by Business Link. If you are a UK based design company or individual I strongly suggest you consider signing on to the Business Link Consultants Register as your clients may then be eligible for up to 50% funding. The main advantage of this is that your client generally has twice as much money to play with meaning that he or she will be able to get a bigger website or more designs etc. You will also be listed in their directory so you will often get proposals sent directly to you.
To be eligible, you first need to contact your local Business Link which is normally based at the same offices as the Chamber of Commerce. They will then need to assess you for professional qualities that are required to be listed. They will speak to previous clients about the success of projects you have undertaken for them and will ask you to fill in a report outlining your working methodology. Initially you will need to pay them a fee of around £300 to cover all of the research and assessing. You will also need Professional Indemnity insurance and Public Liability insurance to cover up to a certain amount. Mine covers up to a million pounds each and I also have Products Liability to cover for the same amount and Employers’ Liability to cover up to a whopping 10 million pounds. Basically you need these insurances so that if anything happens (i.e. you accidentally deleted a client’s hard drive) you would be able to compensate them. My insurances cost me a total of about £350 a year, but shop around.
So the initial expense is quite high at least £650 setup in total and £350 a year thereafter for insurance, but I think it is well worth it in the long run if your clients can afford to give you projects twice as big. The reason the government provide this type of funding is to encourage regional growth and to help those companies that work by abiding to high levels of professional practices. I think it’s a great initiative.