‘At the beginning of the year my stand-up comedy workshops had “nail-biting” enrolments that were just above minimums. James spent one day with me in which he identified key problems in my business and in my personal focus. He then taught me the basics of Internet marketing and laid out a strategy to proceed. Six months later, my comedy workshops are booked solid (enrolments have doubled), I have expanded into Adelaide and Perth, and the vision of my business is now becoming reality.’

– Robert Grayson, YouStandUp.com(EDY)

Webnerd has enjoyed a long business relationship with Smooth Latin Groove, beginning when its owner Ian Corbett stumbled upon one of my business cards that had been left on a dance studio seat.

When Webnerd first designed and built the Smooth Latin Groove website more than two years ago, it was acknowledged by the Australian Web Designers Network who gave it their highest award.

Over the years the website has grown to include an online shop, an online enrolment system and a custom-made student management system that is now integral to the smooth running of the school.

More recently we have overhauled the front page to feature a chroma-keyed video (the background is transparent) and promotional boxes controlled by the Content Management System. Check it out

It’s been a while since I had a good brag session. The last client project that I wrote about was the Urban Office website and Jim Hardy’s tongue-in-cheek testimonial that “we shouldn’t be this excited about a website!”

Since then we’ve done some other great work and I feel it’s time to highlight some of it. Some of the work I can show you. Other work is more about consulting and/or behind-the-scenes programming, so I can only tell you about that.

(more…)

Webnerd will officially re-open Monday 12th January.  Until then we are busy undertaking business admin and development work to ensure that we do good work for our clients in 2009!

Existing clients are welcome to phone through any urgent/critical tasks.

We have just finished the design and development of a new website for Urban Office. Urban Office is a custom furniture and office fitout company featuring a team of licensed builders, interior designers and furniture specialists. They are awesome at what they do and they are the experts to talk to when you’re starting to think about moving or reburbishing your office.

Urban Office already had a website when its General Manager, Jim Hardy, approached me about an “overhaul”. I love this testimonial that Jim has written for me:

“We had a website built for us, by another web design company, just over a year ago and it was okay. It was there and our clients visited and even occasionally used it to contact us. Little did we understand the promotional control, flexibility and impact that our website could create until we met James at Webnerd. Changes in our industry have forced our business to consider our promotional methods (i.e. costs and effectiveness) and our approach to the changes within our clients own businesses. We needed to come up with a way of updating our clients and of providing information when and where they needed it while keeping our costs under control. Webnerd has helped up to create a new, fast and flexibile service, not just a website. James has proven that he can quickly understand the operations and needs of his clients and present options that create a promotional solution.

We shouldn’t be this excited about a website! Its wrong isn’t it?….”
– Jim Hardy, General Manager, Urban Office

(more…)

Just a quick note to let you know that I have accepted a position as Unit Coordinator of the E-Commerce unit at Queensland University of Technology (QUT).

In this role I will be delivering a 2-hour lecture every week this semester, coordinating tutors, marking assessments and supporting the 150 or so E-Commerce undergradudate and masters students.

The majority of the students will be forming into teams of three and working on an e-commerce project of their own invention.  At the end of the semester they will also be undertaking an exam to test their understanding of the theory.

I do not foresee this to adversely affect current WEBNERD projects however I will not be contactable via phone at times on Mondays.