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.

Read the rest of this entry »

Artistic, fashion and travel photographer Ben Heys lives like a king. Highly respected in photography circles for his artistic nude and fashion photography, Ben makes his entire income online by licensing his photography to designers.

This is called “stock” photography and he currently has 1300 images available in his Shutterstock.com library.  Each photo is licensed for a lean amount of money - and his commission is even smaller - but the numbers add up to provide a consistent flow of passive income sufficient to live like a king while he travels Asia. Even when he doesn’t work for weeks at a time.

Read the rest of this entry »

When What the Duck cartoonist Aaron Johnson posted to Facebook a photo of his kids playing with the
not-yet-available WTD plush toy, he did something very clever indeed.

That photo, entitled “Kid Tested, Kid Approved” appeared on my Facebook page when I next logged in and, being the die-hard fan that I am, I immediately copied and pasted it into the BrisbanePhotography.com community forum.

Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s a nifty little online tool that you can use to discover if a website is down for everyone - or just you. Go to: isthisdown.com

Social networking site Facebook.com recorded a record number of people logging on Christmas Eve, grabbing a massive 2.18% of the US market share and 4.65% of the UK market share. For the Poms, that’s one Facebook visit in every 22 site visits anywhere on the Internet! [Src]

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.

With not many sleeps left until Christmas it’s time to delete your corporate email and enjoy your Internet connection for a change!

Here are seven little Christmas treats from me to you.

• The Ten Funniest YouTube Videos of All Time (so far)
  My own personal collection of the funniest videos I’ve found on YouTube!
• The Most Popular YouTube Video of All Time (so far) (Wow-worthy)
  At over 100 million views, Evolution of Dance is the most popular YouTube video of all time
• The Top 10 Most-Viewed YouTube Videos of 2008
  Check out what the world been watching this year and which YouTube video has been watched over 52 million times since June!  (I think she’s lovely, but where are all the non-commercial videos?)
• Mastering the Office Prank (Roll-on-the-floor-laughing)
  Check out the photos near the top and the “Ultimate Cubicle Prank” video further down. Hil-ar-ious.
• 10 Ways to Spy on your Competitors (In-ter-esting!)
  Knowing your marketplace is critical. Here are ten online ways to keep track of what your competitors are up to.
• 12 Breeds of Client and How to Work with Them (Good advice wrapped in humour)
  For anyone in the service industry: A bit of helpful advice wrapped in humour. I laughed my socks off as I realised that I’d encountered all 12 breeds. Now I’m wondering which breed *I* am!
• 16-Year-Old Becomes The Youngest Best-Selling Business Author Through The Power of The Internet
  On my 27th birthday Stanley Tang’s eMillions: Behind-The-Scenes Stories of 14 Successful Internet Millionaires hit #1 spot on Amazon.com in FOUR different categories: Small Business, Web Marketing, E-Commerce and Home-Based Business.  I’ve chatted to Stanley online - he’s one switched on and motivated young man!  I think this is one book worth buying.
  

Merry Christmas and I’ll catch up with you in 2009!  Follow me on Twitter in the meantime.

I have just updated the What The Duck PHP code for including the comic strip into any web page.

Here’s a sample for those not already familiar with this hilarious photography-oriented comic strip.

Over the past year or so I have compiled lists of YouTube videos that have inspired, intrigued and irritated me. This is a list of videos that made me laugh myself silly. Just in time for Christmas!

Read the rest of this entry »

Any serious shop owner will know: how many people enter the shop; the conversion rate; the minimum number of shoppers needed to break even; which promotions worked; which promotions tanked; what the competition is doing; and, when more staff need to be hired for busy times.

Whether you sell jeans, make jewellery, design offices or coach executives, your website is your virtual shop front. Just like a real shop front or office it must be properly managed, maintained and regularly evaluated.

Here are ten questions about your website (and email marketing) that are critical to your online success:

1. How many people visit your website every month/week/day?
2. How do they find your website? (if they came from a search engine, what keywords did they search for?)
3. Why are they visiting?
4. Which visitors are converting the best (and/or staying the longest) and why?
5. When was the last time you updated the website?
6. If your web designer disappears tomorrow (it happens!) do you have up-to-date Control Panel, FTP, Domain Name Management and Content Management System access details so that you can hand it over to a new web designer?
7. How many people downloaded your ebook and/or signed up to your newsletter/articles last week?
8. When you send out an email campaign, what is your average open rate? Which topics and subject lines produce the best open rates?
9. For what keywords has your website been optimised? (Are you using these when writing new content?)
10. How does your website compare against your competitors’? What are they doing that you can learn from?

Most business owners and managers with whom I talk can answer, at best, three of the above.  Bail up your web designer or website manager and ensure that you have access to the necessary statistics.  If in doubt, take me up on my free consultation offer.

Christmas is getting close!  What is Santa bringing you?