Recent Blog Entries
Make sure your website works in all the relevant browsersTired of spammers adding themselves to your following list without your permission? StopTweet may be the solutionWe can now offer you a heat map of your websiteCreate, schedule and send real greeting cards online6 tips to help you close a sale onlineBrainstorm Design Blog
Make sure your website works in all the relevant browsers
Posted by Danny Bermant - 10 Mar 2010
There has been a lot in the news lately about the recent court ruling that forced Microsoft to offer its European customers alternative browsers to Internet Explorer.
As a result, there are a lot of new browsers that are likely to be widely used. This could potentially be a nightmare for web designers, but it doesn't have to be. There are 4 different rendering engines used by the different browsers. Provided you are are know what they are, you only need to test your website on 4 different browsers instead of 12.
|
Rendering Engine |
Browsers using it |
|
Trident |
IE, avant, maxthon, green browser, Sleipnir, Slim |
|
Gecko |
Firefox, K-Meleon, Flock |
|
Webkit |
Safari, Chrome |
|
Presto |
Opera |
Tired of spammers adding themselves to your following list without your permission? StopTweet may be the solution
Posted by Danny Bermant - 08 Feb 2010
This morning, I discovered 4 Twitterers I was following that I've never heard of. I'm interested in high-tech web related Tweets, but I don't recall opting to follow anyone who sells shutters, debt management or porn. And this isn't the first time. Despite regularly changing my password, I have had to remove about 20 users over the last few weeks that I was "following" but never heard of.
Twitter spam is not only frustrating, but it damages your credibility. You can report the spammers, but it often makes little difference. Now there is finally a solution. StopTweet is a fully customisable application. You can tell the blocker what you personally consider to be a spam
account. And you can choose to simply unfollow those users, block them
or report the accounts to Twitter, as well - all with just one
click.
The application can be found at http://stoptweet.com
We can now offer you a heat map of your website
Posted by Danny Bermant - 05 Feb 2010
Would you like to see where your clients are clicking when they visit your website?
We are now able to offer you a visual heat map of clicks on key web pages, showing hot and
cold click zones. This will help you to identify where to place key content when designing your site.
The heat maps take only minutes to set-up, and once your website has been tested, we will talk you through each page of results to explain what they mean.
Create, schedule and send real greeting cards online
Posted by Danny Bermant - 02 Feb 2010
I am so fed up with buying greetings cards. Every time a birthday comes up, I spend hours and hours at WH Smith or Clinton cards trying to find a suitable card, but the only cards available are either:
- cards with lame jokes about getting older
- cards with lame jokes getting drunk
- cards with vulgar sex jokes
6 tips to help you close a sale online
Posted by Danny Bermant - 31 Jan 2010
If you're serious about selling online, be sure to make it easy for the customer to make the buying decision
- Remove distractions from the buying decision process
- Remove negatives about the product or offer
- Remove complications that may result in the customer saying 'let me think about it'
- Include something extra that makes the customer want to buy it now
- Make the actual ordering easy. Give the customer their choice of payment options and a simple order form to fill out.
MOST IMPORTANTLY
- Don't distract or anger the customer once they have decided to make a purchase.
You may think this is all common sense, but so many web sites miss all six of the items on the above list.
They have too many distractions on their sales pages, they have complicated offers, they leave questions unanswered, they surprise you with hidden charges, then require you to fill out a multipage order form.
Remember, the websites that make money are the ones that make the buying process simple and straightforward.
There are more useful internet marketing articles to be found here.
New iPad will change internet use from being browser based to app based
Posted by Danny Bermant - 28 Jan 2010
Make no mistake, the new iPad will change the face of wireless computing.
Tablets have been around since the mid 90s, but they have never caught on as a mass market product. But the iPad changes everything. Here we finally have a product that bridges the gap between PCs and smart phones.
- It has a large enough screen (10"), enabling books and newspapers to be read online, but it is still small enough to carry around.
- It can carry out all the functions of the PC such as word processing and spreadsheets. You can type via the on onscreen keyboard, but it also has the functionality of a smartphone, enabling you to download apps.
And it is the apps that change everything.
Internet use has traditionally been browser based. But with apps, you can harness the web more effectively as you are using a customised service that runs a lot faster. Many apps can also be used offline. Try using e-bay or reading your web stats on a browser, then try the same thing on an iphone app. The apps win every time.
It is apps more than anything else that have driven the success of the iphone, and it is apps that will drive the success of the iPad as well as expanding the appeal of apps to the mass market.
We have finally reached a point where the web browser (and the traditional PC) may be a thing of the past.
How to create a simple amusing website and generate some revenue
Posted by Danny Bermant - 18 Jan 2010
Bill Myers has recently highlighted a website called http://www.peopleofwalmart.com - not much to this site, just photos of people shopping and a comment about their choice of clothing.
But the site caught on, and now gets almost 4 million page views a day.
And with that many daily viewers, the site is able to generate more than $45,000 a month in paid advertising revenue. Not bad for a site that only cost a minimal amount to build and host.
Following on from this, Bill Myers has now created a short 4 minute video showing the step by step process to duplicate the http://www.peopleofwalmart.com web site, using free software and $7.95 monthly hosting.
This video can be found in the members area of http://www.bmyers.com - highly recommended.
Sometimes, creating a web site that generates close to tens of thousands of dollars can be pretty easy. Just pick the right topic, use the right tools, and get the site launched.
Is your website really down? Or is it just your internet connection?
Posted by Danny Bermant - 09 Jan 2010
Do your clients ever complain that your website is down? Before
you run off complaining to the web host, why not carry out a proper
check to find out what's causing the problem. The inability to access a
website can be caused by any number of issues such as a poor internet
connection or the clients' ISP blocking the website.
Just do the following:
Using the free website, http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com
, just enter a web site address and you quickly discover if the site is
really down, or whether it’s something else that's causing the problem.
Another useful (and free) resource is the Internet Traffic http://internettrafficreport.com/
You can use it to see the overall condition of the internet, as well as internet conditions country by country.
This is an edited excerpt of a longer article that appeared on Bill Myers online - http://www.bmyers.com/
Make sure the copyright dates on your website are showing 2010 and not 2009
Posted by Danny Bermant - 02 Jan 2010
It may be only 2 days into 2010, but anything on your web site with last year's date (2009) can already appear old and outdated. Make sure copyright dates on your site are up to date. The same is true with any files containing dates.
Go through the date references in all your online articles, sales pages, press releases etc. and make sure they are up to date.
If you are running an e-commerce site, make sure the selection list of credit card expire dates has 2009 removed.
These small changes can freshen the look of your entire site - and keep your site from becoming stale.
This is an excerpt of a longer article that appeared on Bill Myers online - http://www.bmyers.com/
If you're building an e-commerce site, make sure you invest in usability testing
Posted by Danny Bermant - 30 Dec 2009
It never ceases to amaze me how many of the high street retailers
invest hundreds of thousands or even millions of pounds on e-commerce
sites that don't work properly. I recently tried to make a purchase on www.comet.co.uk , but as soon I added an item to my shopping cart, I was taken to the mobile version of the website. Not in itself a huge problem, except for the fact that the mobile version of the site doesn't let you complete the purchase. You can view the contents of your shopping cart or "continue shopping" but there is no way to proceed to checkout. Some basic usability and browser testing may have nipped this problem in the bud. I ended up making the purchase over the phone, but you wonder how many thousands of other users gave up and shopped elsewhere.
How to find out if your web host is blacklisted
Posted by Danny Bermant - 30 Nov 2009
If you're looking for somewhere to host your website, beware of any web hosts who tempt you with low prices.
Low cost hosting companies keep their prices down by operating a "no questions asked" hosting policy, storing large number of websites (sometimes over 100) on their servers without vetting any of their clients first. The problem is, if one of their clients is using their hosting to send out spam, anyone else who has their website hosted on the same server will find they are blacklisted, with the consequence of having their websites and email blocked.
Low cost hosting companies will usually provide the minimum of support (often by email only), so if you are unfortunate enough to discover your website on a blacklisted server, you may be waiting hours for support. In many cases, the hosting company will wash their hands of the matter and say it's out of their control.
Before moving your website to a new hosting company, carry out a bit of research first. Robtex offer a background checking service, enabling you to see who else is hosting their website at your preferred host. Their service also enables you to see if their servers are blacklisted.
As an example, here is a report from one of Zen Internet's web servers (who I should add are a reputable hosting company), but even they have a server that is blacklisted.
- http://www.robtex.com/ip/82.71.204.19.html - you can see what a large volume of sites are hosted here, well over 100 sites on this server.
- http://www.robtex.com/ip/82.71.204.19.html#blacklists - shows the Zen server is currently blacklisted (As 30th November 2009 - this status can change).
Although we do not provide hosting ourselves, we are able to recommend a number of premium shared hosting companies who charge a bit more, but vet all their clients before signing them up for web hosting. You can contact me here for more information.
So if you're choosing a shared hosting company, make sure you carry out some background checks first. You wouldn't move to a new town without checking out the neighbourhood first, why not take the same attitude to web hosting?
Gary Mckinnon is no different to any other cyber criminal
Posted by Danny Bermant - 27 Nov 2009
I'm afraid I don't feel particularly sympathetic to Gary Mckinnon.
The papers have reported that he has threatened to commit suicide if he
is extradited, but that's not a good reason for blocking his
extradition. After all, there are hundreds of prisoners in UK jails who
commit suicide because they can't face going to jail. Is that a valid
reason for not jailing them?
The whole outcry over his extradition smacks of anti-americanism.
There's a very simple lesson here: If you don't want to be extradited
to the US, don't hack into the Pentagon's computers.
The great password security scandal
Posted by Danny Bermant - 26 Nov 2009
You wouldn’t let your bank give your PIN to a stranger, but some
sites are taking a similarly cavalier attitude to security, warns Paul
Annett in the latest issue of Net Magazine.
Millions of books to be added to Google online library
Posted by Paul Freedman - 17 Nov 2009
Plans by Google to digitise millions of out-of-print books to
create the world’s biggest online library have been approved by British
publishing groups and authors. The new deal will still enable
tens of thousands of British writers to profit, as readers can search
millions of works, read extracts online and buy full copies. For more information about the deal, read here
Your page load time may affect your google ranking
Posted by Danny Bermant - 16 Nov 2009
When businesses go to the trouble of building a website, how many
of them pay attention to how quickly their web pages load? They should do.
Visitors will spend no more than a few seconds viewing a
website before deciding on whether to stay or go elsewhere. So if your home page doesn't load pretty quickly, you risk losing a lot of potential business. But even more seriously, you could risk losing your google ranking. You can read more about it here.
All Hebrew domain names available in 2010
Posted by Paul Freedman - 02 Nov 2009
If you're setting up a Hebrew website, you no longer have to register a domain name using the Latin alphabet. Israelis are already prolific internet users, but for a significant chunk of the world's population, the Latin alphabet is unfamiliar and makes internet use difficult. From next year, this will all change as domain names will become available in several non-Latin scripts such as Mandarin Chinese, Cyrillic and
Arabic.
ICANN, the regulatory body for the setting of domain names, called the
process of allowing domain names in non-Latin languages "the
internationalization of the Internet."
Double your productivity, upgrade to Camino
Posted by Paul Freedman - 09 Jun 2009
If you're building / testing websites, the majority of your time is
spent using a browser, so if your computer appears to be acting slow, make sure it's your browser and not your computer. For the past six months, I've been under the illusion that my ibook is too slow and needs to be
replaced....until I discovered Camino.
I've just downloaded the latest version, 1.6.9 and boy it's fast. Previously, I was using Firefox 3 and I kept seeing the dreaded spinning cursor every few seconds. Now, even with several windows open, it's lightening fast. I'm literally getting a days work done in half the time. Unbelievable.
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