What the Duck?

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.

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Is your website down?

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

Merry Facebook-mas: Record Traffic on Christmas Eve

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]

We’ll be back Monday 12th January

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.

Christmas Goodies from Webnerd

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.

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

Update: Add the What The Duck comic strip to your website using PHP

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.

The Ten Funniest YouTube Videos (so far)

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!

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Ten things you must know about your website

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?

Wotif.com’s Ten Steps to Online Success

A month or so ago Graeme Wood, the co-founder of the immensely successful wotif.com, delivered a guest lecture to my E-Commerce students on the topic “Ten Steps to Online Success”.

He discussed with us his experience of coming up with an innovative idea, prototyping it, and seeing it through to the thriving, global business that it is now.  A business generating, last year, a profit of $34.5 Million (source).

Below is a summary of the questions that he believes must be answered in creating a successful business and some tid bits of wisdom that ressonated with me.  If you’re serious about starting or developing a business – online or offline – you might find yourself having a few “ah-ha” moments if you get out pen and paper and start answering the questions.  I did.

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Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams

I had a different article scheduled to go out this week but sometimes a seemingly unrelated series of events line up to show you something you wouldn’t have otherwise seen.  Something important.  Something worth sharing.

Knowing he had only months to live, Carnegie Mellon University Professor Randy Pausch (Oct. 23, 1960 – July 25, 2008) gave his last lecture at the university on the 18th September 2007 before a packed McConomy Auditorium. In his moving presentation, “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams,” he talked about his lessons learned and gave advice to students on how to achieve their own career and personal goals.

And I’d like to share it with you:

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