tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21233127187189363432024-03-05T19:34:30.310-08:00The Datapartners BlogThe twisted views of a grumpy web developerLord Depravushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13381809995884196040noreply@blogger.comBlogger72125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2123312718718936343.post-52884506991393358692018-06-12T01:51:00.001-07:002018-06-12T01:51:21.427-07:00Is your site secure?A few years ago Google started favouring sites with secure certificates (SSL). For those of you who don’t know, an SSL (Secure Sockets layer) puts HTTPS in front of a website address, rather than the standard HTTP.<br />
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It’s fairly common knowledge that any site that asks you to input sensitive data (address or credit card details for example) should run on HTTPS otherwise there is a greater risk of the data you entered being hijacked.<br />
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Google started putting more weight behind these sites and favouring them with higher rankings in their search listings over non secure sites because they want safer and better quality sites to be more prominent as part of their results.<br />
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In July, Google Chrome browsers will begin flagging every website that does not use HTTPS encryption. Any website that contains input fields, asks for passwords or any other sensitive data, or is visited in incognito mode, will be marked as ‘not secure’ if it does not have an SSL Certificate. This will be prominently highlighted in the address bar. With the majority of internet browsing across desktop and mobile devices now carried out on Google’s Chrome browser, this means that any site not running on a secure certificate will be deemed unsafe and consequently fewer people will be willing to visit.<br />
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So this is really just a friendly bit of consumer advice from the friendly Datapartners team. If you don’t already have an SSL Certificate, speak to your hosting company and get one. If you are a Datapartners customer already, you will already have been made aware of this. The choice is yours but you’d be damaging your web presence if you don’t get one.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13529566558548392829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2123312718718936343.post-90596323906462371682017-08-16T03:32:00.000-07:002017-08-16T03:32:10.919-07:00It’s war. A price warIt’s great when supermarkets try to compete with each other on price. It means things get cheaper for the shopper. It’s the same with petrol as well. As soon as one petrol station reduces their price from a gazillion pounds per litre to only three quarters of a gazillion pounds, all their competitors have to drop their prices as well because otherwise they will lose business. Of course the big supermarket chains like Tescos, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Asda are starting to struggle against these budget supermarkets like Aldi and Lidl. And let’s face it, only stuck up, snooty upper-class snobs who want to let you know how rich they are shop at Marks & Spencer.<br />
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It’s very much the same story in the web world. Back in the day when it was all very new and exciting and people all had great ideas about how to use the internet to make millions, it was a very lucrative business. People wanted completely bespoke websites and we had to design and code very complicated things tailored just for them. It was therefore perfectly acceptable to charge them several thousand pounds for the privilege. Also, server infrastructure was more expensive back then so our hosting charges were a lot higher.<br />
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However, over the years, the industry became so saturated that it became harder and harder to gain an advantage. Then along came things like Wordpress, and god-awful companies like 1and1 and Wix. These programmes are like the budget supermarkets, who sell second-rate (but annoyingly adequate) products at low cost. For some reason, people have become happy to have a website which looks like everyone else’s and they are also happy to compromise on functionality in order to save a few quid - unless of course they want me to build a bespoke system in which case they expect the the most functionally advanced system at the price of a budget website.<br />
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An example of this was a builder who contacted me recently. It was a lead through a friend, which is always risky in my opinion. He wanted a brochure website with a content management system so he would update his own pages, gallery, portfolio and contact information. Not overly complicated. I quoted him £600 + VAT for the design of the site, integration of a content management system and a year’s free hosting. Bargain I thought. Apparently not. He thought that was far too expensive and didn’t want to spend more than a couple of hundred pounds and couldn’t understand why he would ever need to pay for hosting.<br />
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Now let’s put this into perspective; even for a small company like mine, I have salaries to pay, PAYE, NI, pensions, cost of web servers, database servers and email hosting, domains and all the utility bills on top of that. We mostly work remotely and from home so I’m fortunate enough not to have to pay rent. Still, it costs several thousand pounds to keep the company going. A one-off income of £600 doesn’t go anywhere and is basically small change.<br />
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Also, this guy was a builder. This is the same guy who will happily quote someone £50,000 for a loft conversion and then quote them an additional £10,000 halfway through taking the roof off because “I don’t have the right parts on the van love and this roof is made out of Welsh tile, not regular tile, know what I mean sweetheart?”.<br />
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Basically, the only way to get a website cheaper than that is to go to Wix or 1nad1 or some other god awful template site which will look like everyone else’s and people will only be able to find it if they have a photographic memory and can remember your website address of iamacheapbastard.website.wix.1and1wordpressclone.blog.com.<br />
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The fact is the days of websites costing thousands to build will soon be gone as us proper web designers and developers have to compete with these budget template sites. Rarely now does a job come in that I can justify charging huge sums of money for because I have to use stock code and stock designs in order to get it up instantly and at low cost, at the bequest of the customer. It also means I have to find other ways of paying the bills and reducing my own expenses, like shopping more at Aldi and Lidl.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13529566558548392829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2123312718718936343.post-40080530186387156992017-06-06T04:05:00.000-07:002017-08-16T04:07:04.786-07:00What's the point?Are you looking for a low cost, or possibly free website? You should probably head over to 1and1 or Wix and get a free website that looks like everyone else’s.<br />
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There’s nothing wrong with having a website that looks like millions of others. It just looks as though you don’t really care, which is fine. The problem is that soon all websites are going to look the same, so it’s going to become more and more difficult to stand out in the crowd. So what then?<br />
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At some point, probably when someone realises that we’re not actually in a recession or that Brexit isn’t going to push us back into the Dark Ages, some bright spark is going to wake up and realise it’s probably a good idea to invest a little bit of money and get a website that looks a bit different and can be tailored to their exact needs, you know, like was the case a few years ago.<br />
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The problem then is going to come when they try to move their site away from one of these free web-in-a-box companies. They’ll soon find this isn’t possible because those companies probably hold intellectual copyright over everything. They might be able to move their domain name away by jumping through hundreds of hoops and paying a thousand million dollars to release it and, good luck if you think there is any sort of technical support from these companies. Even if there is a human at the end of a phone line, they’ll probably charge you another thousand million dollars per minute to give you any sort of coherent advice.<br />
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The other problem with these free template sites is that they’re actually very limited. Sure they look nice, and there are very functional plugins that allow your website to sell things online, integrate with Facetube and Youbook and probably wipe your backside, plus you’ll get third party companies offering to do this, that and the other for you for practically nothing but the reality is that doing very simple things almost certainly won’t be possible.<br />
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Also, I’ve used the administration of some of these web-in-a-box templates before and they are about as intuitive as a health and safety document. So chances are if you aren’t technically minded or simply have the IQ of a potato you’ll need to pay someone to update the site for you anyway, which kind of negates the point of having a content management system in the first place.<br />
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The other option is to get a proper web “design” company to install a Wordpress theme for you, do all the technical stuff (like click a few buttons to install pre-built plugins) and host it for you. The problem there is that they’ll charge you the same amount as a real web design company would for building a proper website which, again, negates the point of going down that route in the first place.<br />
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Still, if a Wordpress site is what you want, we can now do that too. I need to go and wash my hands now; I feel so dirty.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13529566558548392829noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2123312718718936343.post-49027502974008832292017-01-10T02:16:00.000-08:002017-01-10T02:16:11.160-08:00Content editing serviceSo you’ve got yourself a website. Perhaps it was one built by us. Perhaps you did what a lot of people have done and got yourself a cheap Wordpress website that looks identical to millions of others. Great. Now you want to tell people about it, right? Now you want to “get to number one on the Google”. Perhaps you just want to keep your customers and visitors interested so they keep coming back.<br />
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What you really need is engaging content. Prominent calls to action on your home page, regular news stories or blogs. Engaging e-newsletters. The problem is that this is not only time-consuming, it also requires creativity and a good grasp of the English language (i.e. knowing the difference between “your” and “you’re”).<br />
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Datapartners can help you out. We are launching a new content editing service. This includes updating basic site content to focus on key words, regular blogs or articles, e-newsletter content and even providing stock privacy policies and cookie policies which are now mandatory for the majority of UK sites.<br />
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If this sounds like something you would be interested in, <a href="http://www.datapartners.co.uk/content-editing.html" target="_blank">please visit our content editing page</a> to read more and view our very competitive prices.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13529566558548392829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2123312718718936343.post-12297346523389942902016-10-31T09:07:00.001-07:002017-03-03T05:25:49.962-08:00The halloween horror of the web industryI was talking to my wife the other day about work. She is in the same industry as me, although she’s more a graphic designer, whereas I’m more of a programmer/nerd. She’s also inherently happy, whereas I’m a natural grumpy git.<br />
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Anyway, the point is we were both talking about how hard our industry is at the moment. She’s recently had to take a small pay cut as well as reduce her hours to help cashflow . Although things aren’t that bad for me, there has definitely been a noticeable drop in sales over the last few years. This is partly due to the recession, partly to do with it being such a saturated industry but mostly it’s to do with the way the internet has gone thanks to social media and also companies like Wordpress, Wix and other “web in a box” companies offering nice looking and fairly functional websites for next to nothing. I’m sure there are people out there who will blame climate change and Brexit as well but those people probably aren’t worth talking to.<br />
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My wife made a fairly valid point that, although things are looking a bit unsettling now, these cheap template sites are probably just a fad. Sure they look quite nice now but they all look the same. You look at most modern websites built or re-designed in the last two or three years and they all follow the same template: A big banner across the top (usually with rotating images), three featured boxes underneath and a bit of text. This is a layout that works well on all devices.<br />
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The thing is that in a few years, people will probably get bored with having a website that looks identical to every other site. Also, website visitors might start looking at sites and thinking “you know what, these people obviously haven’t spent much time on their website because they’ve just used a template like everyone else, so what does that say about their attention to detail and general interest to do work?”<br />
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In a few years time, it may very well be that people start ditching Wix and Wordpress and all these other annoying companies that are trying to put hard-working web developers out of business. It may well be that they will start wanting unique looking websites. It may be that tastes will change again and people will stop thinking that websites with a big banner image and three boxes look nice.<br />
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Of course there is the argument that, if people are used to having nice looking and fairly functional websites almost instantly and for next to nothing, why would they want to go back to paying someone lots of money to develop something different?<br />
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At the end of the day, the future of the web developer is uncertain. People are always going to need programmers and they are always going to need designers but is the world going to need as many and will it still be a lucrative industry to be in? Will I be sat here in five years time doing this job and asking people if they’d like a new website, or will I be stood behind a counter asking people if they’d like fries with that?Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13529566558548392829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2123312718718936343.post-48068352461675458132016-09-19T03:40:00.001-07:002016-09-22T06:03:41.176-07:00Leave it to us, that kind of thing is our domainEvery little thing has changed in the 17 years I’ve been in the web industry, from the way websites are built, the coding behind them, the designs, the general direction of the internet and the way people perceive it.<br />
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Back in the early days, people would come to us for a website (which was still quite a novelty back then), we’d build it for them, register the domain name, do all the necessary donkey work and everyone would be happy. Nowadays people are so used to having sites and used to everything being quick and easy (because the internet world and computers in general have become so advanced they give the average person the idea that they are actually clever) that people are rarely happy and always want something changed or control granted to themselves in some form. People are also getting used to things being cheap or even free.<br />
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One of the big ones these days is domain names. More and more people seem to be registering their own domain names or asking if we can transfer a domain name we hold to their own control. The problem is that these people generally haven’t got the first clue what they are doing. They are generally doing it because it is cheaper for them to buy it themselves rather than get us to do it for them because we (and indeed most) web companies mark the price up to cover a basic management cost.<br />
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Whilst it’s not a problem, it does tend to bring up a few issues and it almost always ends up costing the customer more money. My first question is usually “who have you registered your domain name with?” and the number of people who can’t even answer this simple question is worrying in itself. I then have to raise a charge for releasing the domain and processing a transfer because, let’s face it, I have to charge for my time otherwise how would I make money? This cost, whilst small, generally means any cost saving they’ve made on registering the domain themselves is negated.<br />
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Then there is the technical side of things. When I explain to these people that it’s fine for them to host the domain themselves but they have to be in charge of all the DNS settings, this usually confuses them. When they ask how they get the domain name to point to the website, my answer of “You need to log into your domain control panel and update the DNS settings to point the A NAME records to our server IP address”, people tend to look at me in the same way I look at Kanye West fans.<br />
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What happens is people say “I haven’t got a clue what you just said, can you walk me through it?” Of course if it’s a domain control panel I’m familiar with, I might be able to do it but then I’m giving support so I’d have to charge for my time. If it’s a control panel I’m not familiar with I’d have to say no, whereby I’d either suggest they contact their supplier and I give them detailed instructions of what I want, or I’d request they send me their login details so I could mooch around their control panel myself and make the changes. In both cases, I’d have to charge for my time. Given I’d be charging at my hourly rate, it would end up costing the client more than it would have cost them to take the domain name out with us in the first place. This would inevitably piss them off.<br />
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It gets worse because people usually want an email address set up and they realise once they’ve bought the domain that they either have to pay extra for it or they simply can’t figure out how to set it up. They then come back to me asking for help and advice and, in a lot of cases, requesting we manage the email for them which involves them having to update more DNS settings to point the MX records to our mail server. This confuses them even more, makes me a bit cross and also costs them even more in my time charges and hosting which pisses them off even more. Basically nobody is happy any more.<br />
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Then there is the added hassle of behind-the-scenes changes. Every so often we have to upgrade servers or migrate data or even move to different hosting providers. This has happened several times over the 17 years I’ve been in the web business and every time it happens I need to update the DNS settings for all the domains we host. Generally speaking this is something the customer is never aware of because the transfer is seamless. The only time it ever becomes a problem is when people have their own domain names and either don’t know where the domain name is held and/or don’t know how to update the settings and/or ignore my repeated requests for them to update because they assume it’s not important and then get really angry when their website stops working. Again, this is something that’s happened a number of times over the years.<br />
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So, yes, it is possible for you to register and manage your own domain names. My advice, however, is don’t. Let us do it for you because, although it might cost a bit more up front, in the long term it’ll save you a hell of a lot of money, time, effort and stress.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13529566558548392829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2123312718718936343.post-73776751027733619312016-09-09T07:00:00.000-07:002016-09-09T07:00:18.725-07:00What are the best blogging sites?<b>The Datapartners Daily Blog about blogs: 10 of 10</b><br />
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For someone like me who designs and builds websites for a living, I could build my own blogging platform. In fact I did have a blogging app at one stage but it was one of many things I shelved because I simply couldn’t compete with the big players.<br />
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So what are the best blogging platforms out there? The most popular ones are Wordpress and Google’s Blogger and there are benefits to using both. Wordpress allows you to build a much more professional looking website and there are a huge number of mobile friendly templates out there. My only complaint with Wordpress is the admin is verbose, unintuitive and I think it’s a tiny bit crap. I’ve used Wordpress a number of times over the last few years for a handful of projects and I usually end up swearing a lot.<br />
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I prefer Blogger (well, that’s obvious isn’t it?) Firstly, I’m a big advocate of everything Google. Secondly, whilst it is a lot simpler and not as good looking as Wordpress, it does exactly what it says on the tin. Also, with the blogging network, it’s a lot easier to get found by other bloggers.<br />
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Of course there are others. The likes of Wix, Squarespace and Tumblr all offer some good features. Plus Networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn also have the ability for you to write notes and articles so that is always worth considering. The advantage of doing it through a social networking site is because publishing it automatically shares it with your network.<br />
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My personal recommendation is Blogger, especially if you want to earn some pocket money. Google’s AdSense is by far the best and biggest pay-per-click advertising medium out there and it’s very quick and easy to get ads hooked onto the site. The trick is getting people to click on them without violating Google’s terms of service. So please don’t click on the ads on this blog… #ReversePsychologyAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13529566558548392829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2123312718718936343.post-3902594705960670312016-09-08T02:40:00.000-07:002016-09-09T03:42:06.046-07:00Getting other people to write my blogs<b>The Datapartners Daily Blog about blogs: 9 of 10</b><br />
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The thing with blogging is it requires both a passion to write and, ideally, literacy. Unfortunately not everyone can come up with new material on a consistent basis and, more worryingly, few people in this world are literate.<br />
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There’s nothing worse than reading a badly written essay full of spelling mistakes and no punctuation. It also won’t help your readership if people have to try and decipher gibberish masquerading as English.<br />
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So what can you do if you want to start a blog but don’t have the inclination or skills to do it? Well you could get someone else to write them for you. This was briefly covered in the “<a href="http://datapartners.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/can-i-make-money-from-blogging.html" target="_blank">can I make money from blogging?</a>” post last week. There are professional writers out there who offer their services (like me for example). You might also want to consider opening up your blog and allowing other keen bloggers to become contributors. For most people, blogging is a hobby so, if it’s a subject they are interested in, they may be willing to do it for free. Guest blogging is also a good way of expanding your reach. If you ask a contributor of another successful blog to write something for you, they are likely to share it with their followers. Likewise, if you offer to write on another blog, you are sharing your wordage with a whole new group of people. It’s all about networking.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13529566558548392829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2123312718718936343.post-22590165716063679102016-09-07T01:45:00.000-07:002016-09-09T02:44:44.116-07:00What about vlogging?<b>The Datapartners Daily Blog about blogs: 8 of 10</b><br />
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Something that is becoming increasing popular these days is video blogging, or “vlogging”. The most successful “vloggers” appear to be attractive lesbian couples making videos discussing their mundane every day life, interspersed with the occasional kiss. In all honesty most of them probably aren’t even lesbians but are just a couple of attractive females who realise that 99% of the internet traffic is made up of horny men who like looking at pretty girls kissing, and are simply cashing in on their desperation. Fair play to them.<br />
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So is it worth vlogging if you’re not an attractive fake lesbian? If you feel comfortable in front of a camera and aren’t afraid of people making fun of your face then it’s probably worth considering. I personally don’t like being in front of a camera on account of my face and the fact I hate the sound of my own voice. I’m also much more comfortable and can get a message across much more clearly using written words. Some people may find it easier to convey their message via spoken word.<br />
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Also it does usually require a bit of video editing which involves buying some software or downloading some free software that will no doubt infect your machine with Trojans and all sorts of hideous internet diseases. Depending on the material, you may also need some additional software. For example, if you want to vlog about something that requires giving a visual demo, you may need to invest in some software that allows you to record your browser.<br />
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With the huge reach of Youtube, plus the fact a lot of people prefer to watch something rather than read (because let’s face it the majority of people can’t read) it’s definitely a worthwhile option.<br />
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If you become a fake lesbian, you’ll get plenty of visitors.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13529566558548392829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2123312718718936343.post-46752526868851407552016-09-06T02:22:00.003-07:002016-09-06T02:22:47.179-07:00What benefits does blogging have?<b>The Datapartners Blog about blogs: 7 of 10</b><br />
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Blogging has many benefits. As well as the therapeutic effects of writing (I usually feel much better after a good old fashioned rant) the benefits to your business or website can also be greatly helped with regular blogs.<br />
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For starters there is the visibility in search engines. Everyone wants to get found on Google. The best way to get found on Google is to have lots of good quality content and many back links to your site. Enter the blog. If you are regularly blogging, you are submitting more and more content to Google’s index. There more content you have out there, the more chance there is of people finding it and potentially clicking further in to your site. If you have links back to your own website, the more chance there is of people following them. Also, the quality of relevant back links and referrals will have a positive impact on your overall ranking in Google.<br />
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It also helps gets your name out there. When used in tandem with the likes of LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter it can increase your exposure if people share it. Rather than just coming to your site from a single source, people will potentially get to you from a number of different avenues.<br />
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It can also help establish authority. A blog like this is providing free advice. Becoming an expert on a particular subject is likely to get you a following with people who are interested. Again, regular updates will keep visitors coming back and reading, and logically looking into your services in more detail. Of course this is the seventh of ten planned blogs on the subject of blogging and I’m mostly talking bollocks. Still, it’s useful advice.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13529566558548392829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2123312718718936343.post-27631860572319639072016-09-05T06:34:00.003-07:002016-09-05T06:35:23.815-07:00How do I promote my blog?<b>The Datapartners Blog about blogs: 6 of 10</b><br />
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If you want to make money from blogging or use blogging to sell your products and services, it’s important to make sure people know about it. If blogging is going to be used to promote yourself, the idea of promoting the thing that you are using to promote your products and services may seem like a bit of a pointless step.<br />
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The reason it isn’t is because it actually is quite easy, providing you have something worth saying. By simply using social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, LinkedIn and generally annoying your friends and associates, you can start to spread the word and get people visiting your blog. The beauty of viral marketing like this is it’s absolutely free and very effective.<br />
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Of course you can also pay to increase visitors. Something like Google AdWords or Facebook or Amazon adverts are the most obvious ways. You can also pay some of these stupid companies who will suddenly boost your hit rate by a million percent or get you a thousand new Facebook likes and Twitter followers overnight. You’d be a fool if you did this though because all those accounts are dead links and won’t actually be real people.<br />
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This does all take time and requires you to regularly post about it multiple times in multiple locations but, the more content you have, and the more you promote it, the more visits you get and generally speaking the higher natural listing you may get in Google.<br />
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This coming from a blog that gets relatively few hits because I never promote it. Do as I say, not as I do.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13529566558548392829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2123312718718936343.post-49448483539702368042016-09-02T08:06:00.001-07:002016-09-02T08:17:02.207-07:00Can I make money from blogging?<b>The Datapartners Daily Blog about blogs: 5 of 10</b><br />
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So you’ve got your blog, you’ve got good content, you enjoy writing. Now you are thinking “hey, I’d like to do this for a living. Can I actually make money from writing?”. The answer, simply, is yes.<br />
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In truth, making a living out of blogging is very difficult unless you have an enormous fan base (and I’m talking millions of views a month) or you are getting paid to write blogs for other people and are charging per blog or per word.<br />
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The most obvious ways of making money from a blog are by sticking adverts on them. Google AdSense is the most popular choice and you earn money every time someone clicks on an advert on your site. As mentioned above, however, you need to be getting a large number of visitors to make any sort of money. To put it into perspective, one of my small personal blogs receives about 2000 page views/ad impressions every month and I am making on average £2 per month from it. That’s not going to allow me to retire early so, using a bit of basic maths, it’s safe to assume that if I had 20,000 visits a month, I might make £20 per month, 200,000 might earn me £200 per month and 2,000,000 page views per month could earn me £2000 per month, which would be an average salary. Of course if I was getting two million page views a month on one site I’d probably need to spend all the money I earned on a bigger web server.<br />
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Another way of making money is through some sort of affiliate scheme. Amazon offer something like this whereby you can place product adverts on your blog and when a visitor clicks through and makes a purchase, you earn a commission. Again, however, they only give a 5% commission (up to 10% over a certain threshold) so the amount of money is likely to be minimal.<br />
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Other ways of making money are offering your own products and services on your blog. Do you need a new website? Then visit <a href="http://www.datapartners.co.uk/">www.datapartners.co.uk</a> and we’ll quote you happy.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13529566558548392829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2123312718718936343.post-78041632555577582692016-09-01T02:28:00.002-07:002016-09-01T02:33:12.308-07:00How often should I blog?<b>The Datapartners Daily Blog about blogs: 4 of 10</b><br />
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Do you know someone who talks a lot? Do you want to punch them in the face? Or do you perhaps know someone who doesn’t say much and trying to converse with them is like the proverbial blood from the stone conundrum? Do you get to the point where you can’t be bothered with them any more?<br />
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The same principle applies with blogging. You may have a lot to say but do people need to hear about it every five minutes? Flooding people with constant updates will probably start to annoy them after a while and will likely stop reading. On the flip side if you don’t do it enough people are likely to forget all about you.<br />
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So how often should one post? Well given that between 2014 and 2015 I published less than half a dozen posts on this blog, I probably shouldn’t comment. However, because I’m one of these people who never practices what he preaches, I’d say that at least one a week is optimal. I’m currently doing a “one a day” challenge for two weeks on this blog and that’s probably not excessive either. Again, the subject matter will depend greatly on how often you will be able to blog. For example, one of the publications I write for is a satirical news site and it’s based on relevant stories so it’s only really possible to blog when a related story comes out. Trying to write posts for the sake of releasing something would probably not work because it wouldn’t be relevant to anything.<br />
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Conversely, I know a guy who is a huge Star Wars fan and does at least one video blog per day on that - usually ranging from 2 minutes to 10 minutes each depending on the subject. Given all the thousands of books, comics, films, TV series and general nerdy fanboy material there is out there, the guy will probably never run out of material. He also has about a quarter of a million subscribers so it’s fair to say he’s doing it right.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13529566558548392829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2123312718718936343.post-79000638209096502992016-08-31T03:14:00.001-07:002016-09-01T02:32:42.344-07:00What should my blog contain?<b>The Datapartners Daily Blog about blogs: 3 of 10</b><br />
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Once you’ve established why you want to blog and what your blog is going to be about, you need to consider your target audience. The subject matter and the type of people who will be reading it will affect what you put in your blog. The way you write it will also make a difference to the types of people who will read it and keep coming back.<br />
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For example, I keep my blogs relatively light-hearted and quite often make fun of consultants and other inherently stupid people. Therefore, the chances of a serious consultant enjoying my blog are slim, unless they are the rare breed of consultant born with a sense of humour and a personality. In fact the chances of a consultant being able to read is slim so forget everything I just wrote.<br />
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Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, content. While some blogs contain humour, it’s only worth doing that if the subject matter allows it and if you are actually funny. Don’t try to force it otherwise it almost inevitably has the opposite effect.<br />
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Images and video can also bring a blog to life. Certainly photos are the first things people notice on any website so if you’ve got a nice, bold image, it will almost certainly draw the viewer in, meaning there is more chance of them actually reading your content. Personally I use very little in the way of imagery on this blog because I rarely have use for it. However, I also write articles for other publications where images and photos are much more relevant (news sites and profile sites for example).<br />
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Perhaps embed a related video. Either one you made yourself or sharing someone else’s video. People are more likely to respond to something visual (like photos and video) because reading is more arduous for people (especially consultants).<br />
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So there you go; Your blog should contain words, photos, video and some light-hearted and easy-to-read material. Pretty obvious really. This blog was a bit pointless… I’d probably make a good consultant...Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13529566558548392829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2123312718718936343.post-69703326919574910162016-08-30T02:30:00.000-07:002016-08-30T02:30:03.506-07:00How long should my blog be?<b>The Datapartners Daily Blog about blogs: 2 of 10</b><br />
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Guys, have you ever actually asked a woman whether size matters or not? Me neither but I’m sure different women would give you different answers. The nice ones will lie just to make you feel better about yourself.<br />
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Anyway, the point is that it’s the same answer to this question. Some people like short and sweet, others like it long and substantial. In truth, it doesn’t matter how long a blog is, as long as it’s good quality. If a blog is badly written, it’s less likely to get much in the way of interest. Unless it’s so badly written it goes viral for its utter ridiculousness, but you probably don’t want that.<br />
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Having said all that, I would personally never want to write a blog longer than a thousand words. This is because I wouldn’t want to read a blog that is over a thousand words. If I wanted to read copious amounts of text, I’d read a book. On the flip side, I wouldn’t personally write a blog that is less than two hundred words. This is because anything under two hundred words is barely a sentence.<br />
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It’s really a matter of preference but I’d say a good guide was between 200-1000 words. As long as the content is good and engages the reader.<br />
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This blog is 242 words. Oh and for the record, I’m hung like a genetically modified horse.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13529566558548392829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2123312718718936343.post-21047289694523911102016-08-29T02:30:00.000-07:002016-08-29T02:30:14.497-07:00To blog or not to blog<b>The Datapartners Daily Blog about blogs: 1 of 10</b><br />
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Before embarking on a blog, you need to ask yourself why you want to do it. Do you have something to say? Do you enjoy writing? Are you literate? If the answer to any of those questions is “no” then you probably shouldn’t do it.<br />
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One of the reasons I haven’t done much in the way of blogging lately is because I haven’t been able to think of anything worthwhile to write about. Partly because of a lack of inspiration and partly because I’ve been busy. For a blog to work, you really need to post on a regular enough basis to keep your readers active, but not too much that you end up pissing people off. Rather than posting crap just for the sake of it, I personally haven’t bothered.<br />
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If your blog is more of a personal journal whereby you are sharing random thoughts and events of everyday life, then you’re more than likely going to have more to say. Blogging in this way is quite therapeutic. Writing your thoughts down is a good way of getting things off your chest and sharing it with the world is equally so. Caring is sharing and all that bollocks.<br />
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If your blog is more business oriented, you need to ask yourself if it’s right for your business. Also, is your writing style suitable. For example, my blogs are very light-hearted and often involve mild sarcasm, swearing and insults directed at celebrities and other annoying turds. This sort of behaviour wouldn’t sit well if I worked for a stuffy, boring, corporate company because they have a pompous image to maintain. Also, not all businesses have enough happening to warrant a regular blog. For example, I would personally find it hard to write a relevant blog for a company selling, say, wood because there is only so much I’d be able to write before I ran out of things to say, or started writing irresponsible posts involving sexual innuendo.<br />
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My business is quite easy because there is a lot of change in the web industry and there are a lot of relevant related topics like computers, software, hardware, other websites, new technology and countless other things.<br />
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So basically if you want to seriously consider starting a regular blog, ask yourself whether or not you have enough to say and if you think what you have to say will be of interest to others. Providing you have adequate knowledge of your chosen topic (or topics) and can keep it going for long enough, then you should definitely give it a go.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13529566558548392829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2123312718718936343.post-91595522994248072952016-08-24T03:09:00.002-07:002016-08-24T07:55:57.477-07:00The blogging challengeFor someone who is very keen to promote the idea of blogging and general social networking to my customers, I’m painfully aware I don’t do anywhere near enough of it myself. This is partly because I’m too busy trying to encourage other people to do it and also because, having written several books and managed numerous different blogs covering a wide variety of genres, I never find time to write a company blog. I’m also inherently lazy.<br />
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Blogging is great but is it for everyone? A blog, like any form of written work, should be worth reading. That means it should be either informative or entertaining, or both. There’s only so much a single person can write that is useful and informative without getting repetitive. It’s not always possible to be entertaining either. I mean seriously, you try writing humour into the subject of web design and content management systems. It’s harder than listening to a Justin Bieber song without wanting to rip your own face off.<br />
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Anyway, to encourage myself to blog more, I am setting myself the challenge of writing one blog a day for two weeks (starting Monday and excluding weekends because, you know, I have a life) on the subject of blogging. These blogs will cover the following topics:<br />
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To blog or not to blog<br />
How long should my blog be?<br />
What should my blog contain?<br />
How often should I blog?<br />
Can I make money from blogging?<br />
How do I promote my blog?<br />
What benefits does blogging have?<br />
What about vlogging?<br />
Getting other people to write blogs<br />
What are the best blogging sites?Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13529566558548392829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2123312718718936343.post-40071222716627566372016-07-01T02:15:00.001-07:002016-08-24T08:50:53.131-07:00Will leaving the EU affect your website? NoFirstly I want to point out from the outset that I refuse to call it Brexit. This is because I flatly refuse to acknowledge another stupid tabloid-created word that sounds like a breakfast cereal.<br />
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Anyway, the majority of the country voted to leave the European Union and now it seems the majority of the country is disgusted with the vote and thinks we should stay. This is typical of us Brits. It’s like the weather: We complain when it’s cold and wet all the time but as soon as the sun comes out we all complain that it’s too hot. There is simply just no way of pleasing a nation of whiny, fussy, weather obsessed queuing addicts.<br />
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The mainstream media don’t help either. They are all spreading doom and gloom and telling us the pound is worthless, our costs will rise and we’ll all die of poverty which is simply making people believe that’s what will happen. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. What people need to do is say “right, we’ve got what we wanted so let’s make this work. Let’s get our heads together and make Britain great again.” But of course that doesn’t sell newspapers.<br />
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So how is leaving the EU going to affect the majority of us? How is it going to affect my industry? How is it going to affect the many companies who rely on my business. How is it going to affect their businesses? The truth is probably not at all. I personally don’t think Joe Average will notice much difference at all, if any. People who have a vested interest in Europe in terms of their market sector will be affected; those who work abroad, foreigners who work in the UK, those who have clients elsewhere in Europe, multi-national companies, overseas investors and the like. People who run small to medium sized businesses and whose businesses are local probably won’t notice. I’m certainly not worried. It’ll be just like when Labour takes over from a Tory government or vice versa; Despite all the uproar, nobody really notices any difference in their everyday life because it doesn’t matter who runs the country, they will all find their own unique way of screwing us.<br />
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Of course this doesn’t mean that people won’t tighten their belts and be a bit more frugal. It’ll be just like when the recession hit a few years ago (again, I refused to call that the “credit crunch” because that also sounded like a breakfast cereal). Everyone started shopping at Aldi and Lidl because they realised there was no point paying £5 for something that they could get for £1. It was the same in the web world. People realised they could get a cheap, nice looking Wordpress site rather than pay silly amounts of money for a proper site. This is great except I personally think Wordpress is crap.<br />
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These were all subjects I was discussing with a friend of mine the other night whom I know from a business networking group I go to. He’s someone who might be affected by the EU referendum because his market sector is overseas. He was asking me what I charge for websites and hosting and was stunned when I gave him ballpark figures of a few hundred to a couple of thousand for a design and between twelve and thirty pounds a month for hosting. He was stunned because he is used to dealing with figures of tens of thousands. This is because he deals with big companies who have more money than sense and probably assume that they are getting something far superior because they are paying more for it. This is nonsense. What I do is more or less exactly the same, except I do it a lot quicker and without the layers of bureaucracy, politics, middle-men and general bullshit.<br />
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So I’d like to reassure all our clients and all those companies who aren’t our clients yet and are spending far too much on their websites, that leaving the EU is unlikely to affect them anywhere near as much as the press would have us believe, if at all. I’d also like to say that if you are spending silly amounts on a website and/or would like a nice one built quickly and at little cost, give us a call.
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Fear not, Webxit will not happen.
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13529566558548392829noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2123312718718936343.post-66799545198246175582016-02-16T01:08:00.003-08:002016-02-16T01:36:53.321-08:00Nominet price increase and CRAM-MD5 supportOK so this is more of a public service announcement rather than a blog. We sent some of our customers an email recently, informing them that Nominet (the official registry of UK domain names) is increasing the wholesale cost of UK domain names by 50% this year and we, in turn, have been hit with more like a 100% increase from our upstream provider. Unfortunately, we've had to increase our prices as a result but we've managed to keep it as low as possible. To be fair, it's the first time Nominet has increased its prices for UK domains since 1999 so we can't complain really. Well, we can and I'm sure some of our customers will too, but that's just life unfortunately.<br />
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Also, some of our customers were contacted recently about changes being made to older mailboxes. This will affect many other people as well so, being the nice people we are at Datapartners, thought we'd share our knowledge on this matter too.<br />
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Basically, something called CRAM-MD5 support (yeah I don't know either) is being switched off on 22nd February 2016 in line with industry security requirements. Therefore, anyone using this must update their email clients (Outlook, Windows Mail etc) to use secure sockets in order to improve email security and to continue using mail after February.<br />
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As complicated as it may sound, the necessary changes are simple to make on your computers, phones and tablets and we have found some great step by step instruction videos on how to do this:<br />
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<b>For Android devices</b><br />
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HY0ejyXpN_0<br />
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<b>For iPhones / iPads</b><br />
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZN7PNk2xs10<br />
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<b>Professional:</b><br />
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5bQJ-ZFpJo<br />
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<b>For Windows 10:</b><br />
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWffeFTPmJA<br />
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<b>For Apple Mac:</b><br />
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0ISihtgsMQ<br />
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We suggest watching the relevant video through first and only make changes to the settings if required because it may not affect you at all. Of course if you only access your email using online webmail then you're fine anyway.<br />
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https://help.fasthosts.co.uk/app/answers/detail/a_id/2745<br />
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You're welcome :-)Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13529566558548392829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2123312718718936343.post-67426437630548438602015-08-27T08:31:00.001-07:002015-08-27T08:52:32.039-07:00A responsive website explainedFor the last year or so, I've been trying to convince a lot of our customers to part with some of their hard-earned cash and update their website. This isn't because I'm a greedy, money-grabbing parasite, it's because the internet moves very quickly and websites go out of fashion quicker than boybands.<br />
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The reason I've been pushing people to get their sites redesigned is because of the introduction of mobile-friendly, or "responsive" websites. But what is a responsive website? It's a concept I try very hard to explain to people but, for some reason, very few actually seem to understand it.<br />
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In the old days (a couple of years ago) when people started using their mobile phones more regularly to surf the internet, they found most websites were hard to view on such a small screen and they needed to zoom in and out, scroll left, right, up and down to navigate around it. Then some bright spark decided it would be a good idea to create a "mobile" version. This was a trimmed down version of the site that fit better on a mobile phone.<br />
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This was great except it meant that people effectively needed to get two websites designed: One for viewing on a regular computer and another for viewing on a mobile device. This meant more cost for the customer. It was made worse when smartphones boomed and suddenly there were hundreds of different mobile phones and tablets on the market, all different shapes, sizes and using different browsers that rendered web pages slightly differently. This meant that a mobile site that looked good on an iPhone 3 wouldn't necessarily look good on a Samsung Galaxy (or an iPhone, 4, 5, 6, Galaxy s3, s4, s5, Google Nexus, iPad, Kindle... you get the idea).<br />
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Then some brighter spark decided the code behind the website should be able to control this. I won't go into any technical detail but what happens is there is just the one website and it is coded and designed in such a way that it will automatically adjust and realign elements on the page depending on the size and shape of the browser it is being viewed on.<br />
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That's all there is to it. However, despite spending hours explaining this concept to people, the number of times I've then gone on to build a site and the customer has come back saying "But it looks completely different on my phone compared to my computer" makes me want to quit my job and become a hermit. That is exactly the point. The website will look different. It will shrink and readjust to best fit the screen.<br />
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They say pictures speak louder than words so here goes. Below are visual examples with an explanation. For this example, I have used our very own <a href="http://www.datapartners.co.uk/" target="_blank">Datapartners website</a>, which is a shining example of a responsive design.<br />
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<b>On a desktop computer</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9v7nMapILxdfgWJyUkUEcBW_1btf9ntfdgwUdmhC3imU0EXOMzMGdqN-QRVd2rQF1RPQLRXM-cAqfK6IgwOgmUNBheHAK4MSe86UtnrNhGgdT4aC69tdo7UDdzIzH_ud6yyY0dsADm8nu/s1600/desktop-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="279" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9v7nMapILxdfgWJyUkUEcBW_1btf9ntfdgwUdmhC3imU0EXOMzMGdqN-QRVd2rQF1RPQLRXM-cAqfK6IgwOgmUNBheHAK4MSe86UtnrNhGgdT4aC69tdo7UDdzIzH_ud6yyY0dsADm8nu/s320/desktop-1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
So you can see there it looks like a "normal" website. There is a main navigation on the top left, a site search on the top right, an eye-catching cover photo that spans the entire width and a bit of blurb that explains in brief detail who we are, what we do and how we can help you. Underneath that is a list of our apps and services in three columns. It uses a very familiar and fashionable layout that is used by a lot of companies.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYrNiCEfwR8mR9ixahaPt6T7tsaLY9YCKmVClrcEHxs_lVE4KQYGbpe1DayNfHlejzV_0AHr3nVa-gb3Qxw6S2hSaaErAaYnVIhbgHF4224DD1DpxneZPo8GwlD3sJKAGwbKAYgcUnTPeJ/s1600/desktop-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="279" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYrNiCEfwR8mR9ixahaPt6T7tsaLY9YCKmVClrcEHxs_lVE4KQYGbpe1DayNfHlejzV_0AHr3nVa-gb3Qxw6S2hSaaErAaYnVIhbgHF4224DD1DpxneZPo8GwlD3sJKAGwbKAYgcUnTPeJ/s320/desktop-2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
For the purposes of this example, I have included another screenshot of the home page when scrolled. This is just to emphasize the use of the three columns for the <a href="http://www.datapartners.co.uk/apps.html" target="_blank">apps</a> and <a href="http://www.datapartners.co.uk/services.html" target="_blank">services</a> we offer (you should check them out by the way; they are awesome!)<br />
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<b>On a tablet</b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh_K37fD19zc6f5LLABm1cyHPbzC_X1ohYDE39s0jQ_6E37P9dVzlb9A44tnHmLGzIhIezVrfSYN55gYsz2baRwQiymc3pRmlXcO-4E_qFa77Ow88Bxi8n_naD9-rDyRBWjT4tGHXAoLpX/s1600/tablet-landscape-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh_K37fD19zc6f5LLABm1cyHPbzC_X1ohYDE39s0jQ_6E37P9dVzlb9A44tnHmLGzIhIezVrfSYN55gYsz2baRwQiymc3pRmlXcO-4E_qFa77Ow88Bxi8n_naD9-rDyRBWjT4tGHXAoLpX/s320/tablet-landscape-1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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So now someone is viewing it on a tablet. Generally this type of screen is roughly between one half and one third the size of an average desktop monitor. In this instance, the cover photo fills most of the page. This is basically because having a photo of this proportion that is as wide as the screen but only half the depth would look crap. However, the main navigation has become larger and the intro text stretches across the page. The rest of the page looks the same as the desktop version, only everything has slightly less spacing because the screen is half the size.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMiSxJTZCiuwJt8FO1dwdj-x5qOVIO7s9N3TsACbEZAse0xSN3yX6s9xYuSScLbhVr0daLF5pcLH1D5uPtCbRh-AZN9b4oz_kxOJJMvq261Pt_rQIQfe_3F2Yd5xuOD3DIbBVJ_iz8mlfg/s1600/tablet-portrait.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMiSxJTZCiuwJt8FO1dwdj-x5qOVIO7s9N3TsACbEZAse0xSN3yX6s9xYuSScLbhVr0daLF5pcLH1D5uPtCbRh-AZN9b4oz_kxOJJMvq261Pt_rQIQfe_3F2Yd5xuOD3DIbBVJ_iz8mlfg/s320/tablet-portrait.jpg" width="211" /></a></div>
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However, if the person then flips their tablet round so it is now displaying in portrait rather than landscape you will see where the responsive site really starts to work. In the example on the right, the website automatically aligns the intro blurb and call to action to the middle. The cover photo is cropped to fit the new sized browser and the apps and services which were previously in three columns are now tiled one above the other. This is done to allow the text to be bigger and more accessible. If we still had three columns the text would have to be so small so as to fit on the screen it would be very difficult to read.</div>
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The other change when viewed on this device is the search box has disappeared. This is done simply to save space.</div>
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So, just to clarify, all of this stuff happens automatically as soon as the device is turned around. It is still exactly the same website, using exactly the same code. It isn't a separate site. The user doesn't have to do anything. The site automatically knows it needs to readjust to fit better on a smaller screen. Clear?</div>
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<b>On a mobile phone</b></div>
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So, following on from the tablet, we come to the mobile phone. Teenagers often look at websites while walking down the street not looking where they are going and end up walking into me. None have yet been pushed in front of a bus. Yet.</div>
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Anyway, you can see similarities between this and the tablet viewed in portrait. Because a mobile screen is generally narrower than a tablet in portrait, we can see the intro text has wrapped slightly more. That's about the only difference. When the phone is viewed horizontally (in landscape) it looks just like the tablet version in landscape. In this example, we have made the main navigation slightly bigger so it spans the whole width. Again, this is done simply to make the text bigger.</div>
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As with the tablet, the search box has been hidden on the mobile phone as a way of saving space. However, there is an alternative way of building the navigation on the smaller browser so we can get the search box in as well. This is explained in the examples below:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmqeHo3DmRzyT1a0U3UPzVjUzyFCI-PbcjRJihiTwnORWmodXUu92Xtk17mOzuTmRxYqc0O7jHdvsfQxDNMI36J96lZGVFgJz6U2phpuLvInDzf8keEdlk1CkHWsdfTatmTAIIUbWfKuqK/s1600/mobile-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmqeHo3DmRzyT1a0U3UPzVjUzyFCI-PbcjRJihiTwnORWmodXUu92Xtk17mOzuTmRxYqc0O7jHdvsfQxDNMI36J96lZGVFgJz6U2phpuLvInDzf8keEdlk1CkHWsdfTatmTAIIUbWfKuqK/s1600/mobile-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmqeHo3DmRzyT1a0U3UPzVjUzyFCI-PbcjRJihiTwnORWmodXUu92Xtk17mOzuTmRxYqc0O7jHdvsfQxDNMI36J96lZGVFgJz6U2phpuLvInDzf8keEdlk1CkHWsdfTatmTAIIUbWfKuqK/s1600/mobile-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmqeHo3DmRzyT1a0U3UPzVjUzyFCI-PbcjRJihiTwnORWmodXUu92Xtk17mOzuTmRxYqc0O7jHdvsfQxDNMI36J96lZGVFgJz6U2phpuLvInDzf8keEdlk1CkHWsdfTatmTAIIUbWfKuqK/s320/mobile-2.jpg" width="160" /></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgROCKbUZNTTVW4xxKkgecygfaHEOCGNiXV0WQn7-374bwrrELB7ed1OMLjhMyIPT81WfdTBdg4NOGKeCbxX0iLl46ptTr9ougDC7kRLbgy68xvY_CVBW3lMDBy47GKQqw5CegATmHPmQrW/s1600/mobile-3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgROCKbUZNTTVW4xxKkgecygfaHEOCGNiXV0WQn7-374bwrrELB7ed1OMLjhMyIPT81WfdTBdg4NOGKeCbxX0iLl46ptTr9ougDC7kRLbgy68xvY_CVBW3lMDBy47GKQqw5CegATmHPmQrW/s320/mobile-3.jpg" width="160" /></a><br />
So, can you spot the difference? No? Well in this example, we have hidden the main nav and replaced it with what's called a "hamburger menu". You don't need to be a genius to figure out why it's called that. Because this menu only takes up a tiny space on the left, there is now plenty of room for the search on the right.<br />
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So where has the main nav gone? Well, click on the hamburger menu and the main nav is revealed.</div>
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To see this in use, visit <a href="http://www.eddiehall.com/">www.eddiehall.com</a></div>
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So that's it. I will stress one last time: This all happens automatically. The website can tell what size browser it is being viewed on and will automatically change to best fit the screen. The site WILL look different when viewed on a mobile phone. It WILL look different when viewed on a desktop computer. It WILL look different on tablets. But that is the idea! It is all about making the site more accessible and easier to navigate for your visitors. If people can't navigate around your site well enough they will leave and go and visit your main competitors. Simple.</div>
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So, are you interested? yes? Good. We can help you so <a href="http://www.datapartners.co.uk/contact.cfm" target="_blank">contact us</a> and we can design you a modern, mobile-friendly, fashionable, accessible, search-engine friendly and generally awesome website.<br />
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I think I've run out of superlatives.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13529566558548392829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2123312718718936343.post-8910079403293037522015-04-13T01:13:00.002-07:002015-05-12T00:26:19.322-07:00Get bigger results by staying smallOne of the things that annoys me about people in general is their inability to listen. Most women are a case in point; they never listen to what you tell them. They hears words, rearrange them in their head and twist them into what they want to hear. Politicians are another example. They never listen to what the public actually want. They pretend to listen in order to gain votes but then just do what they want to do, rather than doing what the majority of voters want.<br />
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I’m guilty of not listening myself from time to time. If, for example, somebody talks at me for more than thirty seconds without actually involving me in the conversation, I switch off. I can’t help it - it’s a defence mechanism. I also tend to stop listening to people when they start talking complete bollocks. So it was I found myself doing this the other day when I was at a social gathering. I got talking to some chap who apparently did the same sort of job I do. The only difference was he works for a big London agency and I actually work for a living. He spent ages telling me how he’s been working on some big project for the last eighteen months involving lots of acronym-type things that I’ve never heard of and how the change control and project management and schemas and methodologies and blah blah blah something with involving a flux capacitor have been causing him something or other.<br />
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I found myself thinking about the difference between what he does and what I do and the only difference I could find was his job involves a colossal amount of bullshit. To put it into perspective, over the last few weeks I’ve launched two new websites. In other words, two people have asked me to build them websites, I’ve designed them, coded them, had them approved by the customer and launched them onto the world wide web. Most of the time was spent going backwards and forwards with the customers to make sure I was building exactly what they wanted and waiting for them to respond. The build process itself took a few days.<br />
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So why do big companies take so long to do anything? It’s because they make things so complicated and, the more complicated something seems, the more they can charge for it. That means the chap I was talking to the other day probably earns three times what I do and no doubt drives an expensive car to make up for having a small penis. The other reason is big companies have a lot of people working for them. I, for example, take a phone call directly from a customer, do the work myself and liaise directly with the person who wants the job done. Developers who work for big companies have to go through their manager who probably has to go through their manager who needs to go through an account manager who then liaises with the client’s account manager who goes through their manager who goes through their manager who was probably told by a third party consultant to get the work done so, consequently, doesn’t have a clue. The time spent simply exchanging messages is immense and it’s really a pointless waste of time and the number of people doing jobs that aren’t really needed just strikes me as being pointless.<br />
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Here at Datapartners we like to keep things simple. We are also very honest. We may not be able to talk convincingly in Bullshitese or confuse people with jargon in order to convince them to spend more money than necessary for a website. We actually pride ourselves on this. If you come to us for a website, we will do our best to find out what you want, give you an honest quote that is probably ten times less than a big London Agency would charge, get it built in a tenth of the time and then strive to build a long-term relationship with you and continue forward in partnership. This is the Datapartners way!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13529566558548392829noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2123312718718936343.post-48200017983512776702014-08-21T06:55:00.001-07:002014-08-21T06:55:23.213-07:00It's good to be responsiveAs a web developer, it is my job to keep up to date with the ever changing and constantly evolving internet industry. Whether it’s researching some stupid new legislation devised by an impotent politician whose only experience of the internet is porn, or learning about new programming languages, SEO tricks, social networking fads and what is new and in fashion in terms of design.<br />
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The internet industry moves very quickly. Technology moves at an alarming rate and tastes and fashions change too. Basically, if your website is over 5 years old, you might as well not have one. With desktop monitors getting bigger all the time, mobile browsing becoming more and more popular and social media/apps changing the way people use the internet, tastes and requirements have changed significantly over the last few years.<br />
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Largely because of the dawn of mobile browsing, responsive websites have become the new “it” thing. When I first heard the term “responsive website”. I had absolutely no idea what it meant. I assumed it just meant a website that was interactive or did something responsive based on a user’s input, which is what 99% of the websites I’ve built over the last 13 years have been.<br />
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It actually refers to a site that dynamically adjusts its own layout depending on the size and type of browser that it’s being viewed on. So for instance, if you looked at it on a big desktop monitor and then shrank the window, you would see it realign itself and change right before your eyes. It’s very clever.<br />
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This is good because it negates the need to create a separate mobile version of a website which means it is more economical for the customer and means I don’t have to build two different sites.<br />
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Of course it also means everything that was built prior to the dawn of responsive sites is now out of date. This is annoying because, having spent the last couple of years redesigning our suite of apps and control panels to match our company branding and website, I now have to recode most of it again to accommodate the responsiveness. Of course this does also mean that we can now offer our clients the chance to rebuild their sites and, in the process, make them look nicer too (because, let’s face it, what may have looked good 5 years ago almost certainly looks rubbish now).<br />
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So if you don’t want a tired, dreary and unfashionable website but want something new, exciting and responsive, Datapartners can can help. Below are just some of the sites we have started to rebuild as responsive. Check them out.<br />
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<a href="http://www.eddiehall.com/">www.eddiehall.com</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.thegearshop.co.uk/">www.thegearshop.co.uk</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.evolvestore.co.uk/">www.evolvestore.co.uk</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.mastersort.com/">www.mastersort.com</a>Lord Depravushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13381809995884196040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2123312718718936343.post-87310316502914467502014-07-01T02:34:00.002-07:002014-07-01T02:35:46.994-07:00Keeping your privates privateA property developer has recently bought the house across the road from me and has been attempting to build a second house on the plot of land that it sits on. Needless to say, I, along with most of the other neighbours, have vetoed this. There are a number of reasons. Firstly the plot is only big enough to fit a shoe in and would look ridiculous. Secondly, it would inevitably be rented out to a bunch of drug dealers or benefit cheats and, quite frankly, I don’t want the lovely quiet street I live in occupied by scumbags. Thirdly the building in question would look right into my bathroom and I don’t like the idea of a bunch of scumbags who are high on cocaine watching me getting all soapy and wet in the shower. No one wants to see that.<br />
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There is a reason I bought a house with four walls and a roof. It’s the same reason I lock the toilet door before emptying the contents of my stomach. It’s called privacy. I guard my privacy quite tightly and get really rather annoyed when people attempt to take it away from me. It’s why a lot of people are annoyed with Facebook and its ever-changing privacy policy that appears to be determined to make everyone’s details public.<br />
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Of course the internet industry is one where someone always has access to someone else’s personal information. Take my business: A lot of my customers run online shops so whenever someone buys something on that shop, their details are saved in a database that I have access to. Technically I have the power to see names and addresses of their customers. I also run a lot of my business off Google. I store most of my company documents on Google Drive, I use Gmail, Google Calendar and pretty much every other product. Technically, someone at Google could see all this information too. Does it bother me? No. Why? Because I chose to place my trust in Google in the same way that my customers chose to place their trust in me.<br />
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It’s all very well and good people complaining because Facebook violates their privacy but, I’m sorry, when you voluntarily sign up to a free service that is solely designed to share information with other people, you can’t really complain when the information that you voluntarily shared is shared with people. That’s a bit like breaking the speed limit in a car and complaining when you get stopped by the police. You chose to do it, therefore accept responsibility for your actions.<br />
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Of course transparency is they key to trust. I recently uninstalled an app for my Samsung Galaxy because of this:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxRAZmFcoalLOCp4XNRAFevuFDoW5tE8pQilTx4r7fPPUj0zl64bYmHCPkQVQ_aar7XK2Xn3wIJZrefEbTGsf9jAdadZUZLowcWKz0_T1-rSv_DwMy4Irr4hZzMHmHt6FxJ2RQwRQh43ER/s1600/Screenshot_2014-03-13-07-40-35.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxRAZmFcoalLOCp4XNRAFevuFDoW5tE8pQilTx4r7fPPUj0zl64bYmHCPkQVQ_aar7XK2Xn3wIJZrefEbTGsf9jAdadZUZLowcWKz0_T1-rSv_DwMy4Irr4hZzMHmHt6FxJ2RQwRQh43ER/s1600/Screenshot_2014-03-13-07-40-35.png" height="640" width="360" /></a>
Do you see the problem here? It wants to modify my calendar, send emails to people without my knowledge, read my confidential information, delete the contents of my memory card and know my exact location. Errrr no thanks. I just want to look at a map of the London Underground on my phone. I don’t want my phone being taken over by hackers.<br />
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Now, if I had accepted these terms, I couldn’t rightly complain when the developers of this app hijacked my phone and started sending photos of underage chickens to MI5 any more than I could complain if a drug addled pervert took photos of me showering and sold them to Big Boys in Boots magazine because I didn’t object to them building a house that looked into my bathroom. That is why the house isn’t being built.Lord Depravushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13381809995884196040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2123312718718936343.post-31079136457668401822014-01-07T08:20:00.000-08:002014-01-07T08:20:42.697-08:00My head is in the cloudsIt’s no secret that I’m a Google advocate. I've always loved the simplicity of their stuff. I've always loved how their stuff works. I've always loved how good their stuff is. I've always loved the fact that most of it is free. I even watched The Internship the other day and thought it was a good film.<br />
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Like most people, I use Google exclusively to search for things on the internet. Youtube is always my first port of call for watching videos and Google Maps is always where I’ll go to get directions. Being in the web industry, I use Google Analytics, Webmaster Tools, AdSense and Blogger but I've recently starting migrating a lot of other areas of my business to Google. This is partly because I’m fed up with Microsoft and the obscene cost, colossal unreliability and general stupidity of its products and services, but mostly because, being in the web industry, most of my day is spent in the cloud.<br />
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Now, this doesn't mean I spend all my time daydreaming. I only spend a third of my time doing that. What it means is I am almost exclusively working online, so it makes perfect sense to have all my stuff online too. The problem with the way I used to work is that all my stuff was on my computer in the office. If I ever needed to work from home, I couldn't access that stuff unless I transferred everything I needed onto a memory stick, which is a pain in the backside. The beauty of using Google is that everything is online.<br />
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I am now using Gmail to power my work emails, I've ditched Microsoft Word and Excel for Google Docs, I’m storing all my documents and files on Google Drive and I’m using Google Calendars to manage my diary. This means that it doesn't matter where I am in the world, I can access all my data at any time simply by logging on to my Google account. I even set up Google Cloud Print the other day which means I can assign printers to my Google account and print from anywhere in the world to the printer I set up. It’s bloody brilliant.<br />
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Sure Microsoft are jumping on the bandwagon now and there are sites like Dropbox, Amazon Cloud and iCloud that provide online storage, but Google have got it just right. Their products are simple, easy to use and, best of all, free!<br />
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The cloud is the way forward. As well as the accessibility benefits, it mostly removes the need for external backups because that is controlled by the cloud service. It removes the need to save copies of files and transfer things from one machine to another on memory sticks. It allows easy sharing of files, making collaboration much easier.<br />
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Of course there are always going to be members of the anti-change committee piping up and saying it’s dangerous, not secure, and you’ll catch anal herpes from it but, quite frankly, these people are idiots. I’ll explain why:<br />
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Storing data online is no less secure than storing it on your computer or a memory stick. Sure, if someone knows your username and password they could get into your cloud device and steal your information but unless you are having your fingernails pulled out in an interrogation chamber there shouldn't be a reason for anyone else to have your password. In any case, there is more chance of someone breaking into your house and stealing your computer or memory stick. I have a Google Chromebook and if someone steals that, my data is perfectly safe because there is no data stored on the hard drive - it’s all in the cloud. They couldn't even view downloaded files because the data has been encrypted by some of the best minds in the world.<br />
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Some people will claim Google will use everything stored in the cloud to spy on them, steal their identity and kill their family, but anyone who truly believes Google is part of a Zionist conspiracy to rule the world is a moron. In any case, who’s to say Microsoft couldn't do it to your old fashioned desktop computer? Think about it: How does Microsoft know when your computer is in need of Windows Updates? Whenever you connect to the internet, your computer communicates with a server at Microsoft. I’m sure it is very possible for Microsoft to look into the bowels of your hard drive if they wanted, which of course they wouldn't.<br />
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It really is an exciting time. The way the internet is continuing to evolve is fascinating for a geek like me. People should embrace change and live in the cloud. Change is good.<br />
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This blog was produced on Google Docs, in Google Drive from both my Google Chromebook and Desktop PC, and published on Google’s Blogger.Lord Depravushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13381809995884196040noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2123312718718936343.post-53267399956134848452013-07-02T07:02:00.002-07:002013-07-02T07:02:41.271-07:00No, you're not the number oneOne of the most common questions people ask after a website has been launched is “can you get me to appear at the top of Google?” Answering that question is like trying to explain quantum physics and the theory of relativity to a piece of cabbage. Now please don’t think I’m comparing any of my clients to cabbage, I am simply trying to make the point that it is a pointless exercise. Even if they could comprehend what I am saying (and cabbages can only comprehend 10% of the human language) it is a promise that simply cannot be fulfilled.<br />
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For instance, our website www.datapartners.co.uk advertises all of our services. These services range from designing websites, programming, building and supplying web apps like shops, email marketing, e-invoicing and content management systems. We also offer writing/blogging services, social networking assistance and free doughnuts that can be emailed at any time.<br />
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In an ideal world, we would like to be at the top of Google’s search results for all of the above but that would be like a premiership football player also being an Olympic gymnastics champion and an Oscar-winning actor. We can only really target one or two key areas of a site and even then we are competing against literally thousands of other businesses offering exactly the same services. Also, no one really knows Google’s algorithm and, in any case, Google’s results will vary depending on things like your location and, if you are signed in, probably a combination of all the gubbins you’ve used on Google+, Gmail, Blogger and other searches you’ve performed so it is genuinely impossible to know how to get a site more prominent than another because results will be different for everybody.<br />
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There are a lot of SEO companies out there who will promise to get a website to number 1 on Google. I once took a call from such a company and the sales rep proudly informed me he had got many companies like mine number 1 on Google. His smugness was squashed when I enquired how he could possibly guarantee two similar companies top ranking on Google for the same keywords at the same time... In any case, all they will do is create a Google AdWords campaign to get you paid listings and charge you a million times more than it actually costs.<br />
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Even if you are lucky enough to appear at the top of search results, it isn’t going to guarantee you sales. A lot of people still think that a website is a magic tool that will make them millionaires. A website is simply the shop window to your business. Our job is to make the website look as pretty and appealing as possible, which will encourage people to go beyond the home page. Once you have got them in, it is your responsibility to make the most of it.<br />
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Also, search engine optimisation is only a small part of marketing a business. You still need to do the old fashioned things like go to business events, advertise in industry publications and hand out business cards, brochures and leaflets like sweets. You wouldn’t open a highstreet shop and just expect all and sundry to notice you, so why would you think the Internet is any different? In fact, relatively speaking, the internet is the size of a large country so the chances of people finding you are slim.<br />
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So is there anything you can do to get your site number one on Google? Well yes. Pay for it. Sign up to Google AdWords and waste loads of money seeing your site appear above everybody elses for certain keywords. See it make bugger all difference to your sales. Alternatively, you could concentrate on getting good content on your site, making your prices competitive with your rivals, go to shows, network with real people and run the business how it should be run.<br />
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I really should take my own advice...Lord Depravushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13381809995884196040noreply@blogger.com1