I am wrting this from my my new Asus EEEPC. It is a small, book sized machine that I’ve had for a couple of weeks now.
The people who know me know I am gadget mad, but this is the bet one I have had in a while. The new screen is big enough to comfortably use, as is the keyboard (even for my ham sized fists). I absolutely love it. It weighs less than a kilo - so if you stuff it in your bag, you don’t even know it’s there!
Check it out here at Amazon.co.uk
I had a conversation with someone the other day who wondered why their website was not working quite the way it wanted. We didn’t design or build it. I asked the person who commissioned the website about the commissioning process and how it started. “We started with the design”, was the response.
It is important to remember that when form precedes function; deciding how you want something to look before you decide what you want it do is fraught with problems. I firmly believe (and I am sure you know this already) that you should always make a list of this things you want to achieve before how you decide how you want to achieve them. Check out the articles on the Siamang website for more info.
Paul
I went to one of my regular seminar/lunches the other day. I was particularly enthused as the guest speaker was Graham Jones - a speaker I have been wanting to hear in a while.
He imparted some very interesting and I think excellent advice which I thought I would impart.
Graham is an Internet Psychologist. You may have seen him on the TV (he was recently on the BBC) or you may read quotes from him in various places.
The thing I found most interesting was this take on Search Engine Marketing. To distill what Graham said into a couple of sentences is difficult, but basically, Graham suggested that the best search engine marketing technique is to ignore Google entirely. Sounds strange, but I think he is right.
On Google’s webmaster help pages they tell you to write for your customers, not for Google. And that, I think, is what Graham was saying. If you think about your customers when you develop and market your website, and Google will follow.
Find more on Graham on grahamjones.co.uk
This is more of a reminder to me than to anyone else.
I have spent the afternoon being “techie” We are re-designing our
Website and I spent ages struggling with a database - trying to male a
test version of our current website for our new design.
Long story short, I managed to break it. These things happen, and I
panicked a little. I usually make a copy before I make changes, but I
had been in a rush and didn’t this time. Sound familiar?
Luckily (and this is pure look), my server had taken a backup 5 minutes
before I started, not the night before,as I had expected. I had to take
a second look at the date - I thought I had lost a morning’s work.
Anyway, all’s well that ends well!
if you want a sneak peek at our new site as it’s being developed, look
here test.siamang.co.uk
if you want to see it before it changes click here www.siamang.co.uk
Paul
When dealing with suppliers, it is normally you who decide what you want before you search for a supplier or a partner. How do you approach this? Define your needs and requirements and what have a good idea what you want to pay? Do you always go for the cheapest or do you always go to a friend? No, I thought not.
Think about how you approach your website. Do you do the same?
It really is quite straightforward, although it is quite simple to be caught out.
The first step is to decide what you want to achieve – Do you want to attract more customers or increase sales? Are you planning to sell directly to your customers, or is this more about providing information?
Don’t be fooled by smart design. A very cool leading edge website may very well look good, and appear on your web designers portfolio – however, have you measured the outcome against your original plans?
Often, the best performing websites are not the ones we think about. Your web site is part of your overall marketing effort and needs to work within it. As a small business owner, you can’t afford Brand Advertising like the big boys – you don’t have the money to waste.
In short, decide what you want to achieve. Brief your suppliers on this. Don’t get caught out by flashy design and the latest fad, measure the effect changing your website has had on your sales.
Thousands of companies provide website design and development services. With so many companies ready to execute your project there is a good chance that you get confused over choosing the right company for your project. To add to your misery, you may find many companies offering services at similar prices. How do you choose the right website design company?
Follow the step-by-step approach discussed here, and you will be better equipped to choose the right website design company for you.
Websites have become an important and integral part of today’s business community. Before you get your website developed, take a few moments to understand what makes a website attractive and unique and optimally presents your business to the online community. After all, the primary objective of a website is to attract customers. How will you develop that understanding? You can develop it when you think like a user. As a user, what is it that attracts you the most in a website and why do you visit a particular website? When you see it from a user’s perspective, you know it better what makes people stay longer on some websites and what makes them immediately leave others.
Good websites have become a rarity. Among the millions available on the Internet, only a few attract the attention of its users. What is it that makes them attractive? A common belief is that if your website has lots of nice pictures and catchy animations, it will be considered good and will attract people and business. But is that really so?
So what makes a good website? How can you position your expectations from your website developer to deliver you a website that works for you? Here are some key features that your website must possess to make it effective.
Read the full article here
I am not sure who exactly will read this, but I am doing it anyway! I run Siamang Ltd and we are a small web development and IT consulting company in the Thames Valley of England. I thought I might use this blog to help some people from my experience as an IT consultant and experienced project manager. I have worked across both large and small companies and it is often frustrating to come across the same fundamental problems every time.
Anyway, here goes….
Paul Mcgovern
www.siamang.co.uk
