Reverb Studios Blog » General

Web Designer Versus Client

Leon — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 01:35:27 +0000

Every now and then a situation comes up for me whereby a web design client will question a website graphical element or logo I’ve designed and suggest something different.

Fine normally, I’m open to different views and criticisms but what if they want something that is clearly wrong or what if they presume to know better than me even though they’ve presumably hired me for my expertise!?

Should I stand my ground or let the client ruin the site and have my name on crap? Is the customer always right?

Vote now..

Leon.

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Moving House Checklist and Tips

Leon — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 17:18:40 +0000

We are in the middle of our 5th house move in 7 years so are well practiced! It occurred to me while ticking off things that I needed to do that I should document the process both for my own benefit (we may well be moving again soon!) and for the benefit of others. I’d like to present a list of things like Addresses you might need to change, how and who to contact to change them, etc..

Address Updates:

You will probably need to contact the following a week or 2 before your move in order to change your address details on file. I’ve included the organization/bill name, how to contact them and other relevant details beside each listed item. (This list is based on my own utility setup and might not include all companies.)

Bank of Ireland Bank Accounts/Visa/Loans – You’ll need to visit your home branch or put details in a letter (Company headed paper for Business accounts).
Permanent TSB – Over the phone.
House/Car Insurance – Phone as close to moving day as possible. You may be able to change your details online too.
Car Tax/NCT – Send in your amended License certificate (VLC). Changes will automatically go to the NCT office within a week or 2.
ESB – Ring in meter reading and close old account the day you move out of old house. Ring in readings and open new account in new house soon as you move in.
Eircom/Broadband – Ring in to move your account. Takes about a week to switch on a line int he new house and activate broadband. You will loose your number if you’re switching exchanges.
O2/Mobile – Should be able to change online or ring.
Tesco Clubcard – Phone or email.
Sky - Phone in details. You might have to install equipment at the new address and update your landline with them.
Health Board/Hospital/Doctor – Phone in new details.
Oil/Gas – Phone in details. You may also have to give meter readings in old and new addresses and open/close accounts.
Vets/Dog licenses – Phone in new details to receive license and immunization notices. An Post issue dog licence reminders.
Revenue/Tax – Phone or post in details to your local tax office.
TV License – Email or phone your local head post office.
Life Insurance – Phone the insurance company or your bank if with them as part of a mortgage.
Business – Update your address with all clients who have outstanding bills.
Website – If you’re in business and have a website don’t forget to update your contact details anywhere they appear online (Google yourself!).
eBay/Paypal – If you use either of these services, it’s very important you change your address quickly to receive goods and payments.

Tips:

Dump stuff you don’t need before moving (we will definitely do this next time!).
Write out a list of things to do well in advance of moving.
Change to paperless billing to make address changes less required.
Start picking up cardboard boxes from local shops well in advance.
Book your van and help if required a few weeks before. Having a van is invaluable and not too expensive.
Move essential stuff like beds, food, etc.. last.
Clean the old house if rented as best you can to improve the chances of getting your deposit back!

Hope this all helps.

Leon.

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Twitter Poll: About People or Search Engines?

Leon — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 12:44:55 +0000

This post was prompted by something I read on an email list and on Linkedin the other day where the author seemed to have the view that Twitter was more about Search Engines than People. His argument was that Twitter is far too ‘noisy’ for people to actually read and interact but that Google could find it’s way around Twitter a lot easier and index content from it. It was therefore good practice in the author’s eyes that businesses auto feed to twitter in the hope of getting indexed and neglect the social aspect altogether. Here is the author’s summation at the end of his article:

the most important readers of your Twitter Business posts are the Search Engines

Here’s my own conflicting and simple opinion on the best way to use Twitter:

READ other people’s tweets and get excellent and relevant info for free.
Return the favor and give your own valuable content to your followers.
Interact with people on Twitter and make valuable friends and business connections.
Brand your business effectively.

I think the above will guarantee longer lasting benefits to your business than simply hammering twitter for SERPS although this is beneficial too of course! Google has publicly stated that it will be indexing ‘live’ content from social networks even more in the near future. Here’s a recent article from the Google Blog about this:

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/relevance-meets-real-time-web.html

What’s your opinion?

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New Cuil Search Engine

Social Networking, Ego and Religion

Leon — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 17:20:06 +0000

I’ve recently been thinking about Social Networking in terms of Ego and Religion of all things!

I believe Blogging, Tweeting and Facebook status updating is one big ego trip. What better validation of one’s self can there be than sending out a message to hundreds of listeners and having them ‘Like this’, Retweet or comment positively on it!?

The Parallels between social networking and organized religion are hard to ignore in my opinion. With most networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, etc..its’ all about Following people and spreading messages. Followers could otherwise be referred to as disciples who subscribe to the preachings of the Blogger/Messianic figure and by aggreeing with his views and reccommending to others thus follow his particular Gospel.

Then there’s the networking or connecting aspect which is akin to joining a group or Cult which has in place as it’s leader the group founder or Moderator.

Summation? Social Networking is the newest Religion!

Leon

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FREE Webtexts with Jelly SMS

Leon — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 22:40:28 +0000

Most of us are probably aware of the 250 or 300 free webtexts we are allowed each month from mobile operators like O2 and Vodafone. You basically login to Vodafone.ie or O2.ie and send your free text. Pretty handy eh? Well I’ve always found those websites slow, confusing and awkward so it was happy days when I came across the Jelly SMS iPhone App and started using it. Quick and simple. I then found out there was a PC program that done the same thing just as easily – Jelly SMS Desktop App. It also imported my Outlook contacts so all in all pretty impressive.

Well done guys.

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Online (Earned!) Media and Dublin Web Summit

Leon — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 11:00:24 +0000

Had a good, educational and inspiring day in Dublin yesterday!

In the morning I caught Damien Mulley’s talk on the benefits of Social/Online Media and although I’m fairly heavily involved in this area already there was plenty to learn, proved by all the notes I took! The new idea is that you have to “earn” your online space and give great value in return for followers, connections, search rankings and sales leads.

Damien covered the basic and advanced reasoning and features behind the likes of Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin and gave some great stats on just how important and effective this whole area has become for businesses.

Of particular interest to me was when Damien spoke about the amount of targeting you can do in both Facebook Ads and also Status updates. It was also nice to hear him suggest that websites weren’t a thing of the past just yet and that they need to be optimized correctly. His movie and comments (below) on exactly where people look in Google search results was sobering. It seems if you’re not in the top 4 or 5 then forget it!

Following a nice lunch and catch up with an old friend in The Cedar Tree Lebanese restaurant it was over to Trinity (slightly drunk!) for the well attended and anticipated Dublin Web Summit.

Matt Mullenweg's Nexus One Photo!

Matt Mullenweg’s appearance at the summit was what brought me to Dublin from Leitrim. How could I not go see and hear the man who has revolutionized my business!? He created and continues to work on my CMS of choice, Wordpress. A legend. He didn’t disappoint either with a lively talk and fantastic shoes! He was responsible for one of the quotes of the night – “Learn to code. Scripting is the new literacy.” I hope to take up that particular challenge.

The summit was interesting, inspiring and educational with excellent and entertaining talks from all speakers and was well chaired by RTE’s Mark Little. Craig Newmark of Craigs List said: “We need a business culture that doesn’t stigmatise failure,”. Final and best quote of the night came from Wired UK’s editor, Ben Hammersley who said: “Whatever you do, make it Beautiful”.

Off to change the world now!

Leon.

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Domain and Hosting Renewal Advice

Leon — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 18:03:49 +0000

I’m prompted to write this after a recent experience with a client who ignored my once yearly invoice for Domain and Hosting renewal a little too long (one of many!). If you have a website then you will almost definitely get a yearly or monthly bill from either your hosting company or web designer for 2 things at least:

Domain or Website Address Renewal
Website Hosting

You never actually own your web site address you just rent it for periods but once you are renting it no one else can have it.

Your hosting is also rented and this is basically website space you rent so the files/pages (and emails) on your site have somewhere to exist and be shown to the world.

You need to make sure you pay these bills as soon as the invoice comes in because if you don’t and possibly without warning, your web address could expire automatically and your site will go down. If it’s expired longer than the few weeks grace period you get then you’ll be faced with a hefty bill to recover it. If you wait a couple more months you can avoid the hefty bill and your address might come back up for registration but anyone else could buy it too. All this time your site will be down.

NB – Don’t rely on your web or hosting company to pay the bill on your behalf, sort things out for you or chase you too much for the money. They will often have a lot less to lose than you if your site goes down.

I personally have a policy of not paying to renew clients domains/hosting until I receive payment first.

Leon.

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Business Startup Advice

Leon — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 12:40:57 +0000

Maybe I’m qualified to give business startup advice or maybe I’m not but here’s what’s worked for me so far!

I would highly recommend starting your own business, especially in the current climate. You know it’s unlikely you’ll ever be happy in your 9 to 5, doing the same thing day in day out and all for the benefit of someone else. Working for yourself means no more boss looking over your shoulder, no more restrictions on your time, no more journey times (if you can work at home!), no more repetition (self employment is never boring!). However you might also be saying goodbye to a regular wage and some security!

Here’s the best advice I can give to anyone unhappy in their current job and dreaming of working for themselves..

For a start I’d recommend not starting any old business on the basis that “there’s money in it”. You might make a lot of money relatively quickly but eventually, if it’s not something you like doing, then you will loose interest and might end up in the same situation as in your old day job.

Sit down and think about what you like doing best in life or what you know most about (normally the same thing) and investigate if you can possibly make money out of it. If your main hobby is Tiddlywinks maybe it might not be so obvious but who’s to say there isn’t a gap int he market for new Tiddlywinks games!?

Next, approach your local Enterprise center and ask for some startup support. They’ll probably help you write a business plan which is a tedious job but it helps you think through your business and see where it might head. They should also help with identifying a target market and supplying training courses to help you gain the skills you might need.

Consider giving away very cheaply or even freely your first few products/services just to get them out there and of course try to generate some publicity everywhere you can especially online.

Working for yourself is definitely not the easier option but of course if it works out it will be far more rewarding in the long run. Who wouldn’t love to be working for themselves, from home at something they love!?

Leon.

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Complete Beatles Chords & Lyrics

Leon — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 15:42:39 +0000

Here’s a handy PDF for Beatles lovers and musicians, the entire Beatles catalogue of songs with lyrics and chords!

Credit to Sergio Palumbo for compilation.

Enjoy!

Beatles Complete Guitar

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The Beatles – Blackbird

Leon — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 18:44:55 +0000

Had a bit of time over Christmas as you do and learned this excellent Beatles song after hearing Paul McCartney play it live in the O2 just before Christmas. It’s just me singing and playing acoustic guitar.

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Advertising in Leitrim

Leon — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 18:02:00 +0000

I’m running a new site www.AboutLeitrim.ie which aims to collect and display all kinds of Leitrim News from Property and Jobs to Entertainment and Local Services information. I hope that this site will become a great resource for anyone interested in Leitrim, living and doing business in it, or maybe considering a move here. It’s well on the way to achieving this.

Over the last few months since the site was launched it has generated more and more traffic. Here are some stats for the past couple of months:

I’d like to offer a 30% discount on the Advertising Rates to both my Leitrim Based clients and members of the Leitrim Business Network. You can Contact Me if you are interested in this offer or require further information.

Advertising online is fast becoming the most efficient way to spend marketing resources and having an ad on a well trafficked and relevant site like AboutLeitrim.ie should be very useful.

Regards,

Leon.

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Average Web Design Costs UK and Ireland

Leon — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 21:23:11 +0000

Here’s an interesting statistical analysis of the average cost of having website work done in this part of the world, whether it be e-commerce, basic brochure with CMS or just a one pager:

www.thewebdesignblog.co.uk/web-resources/share-your-web-design-prices-anonymously

I’m glad to say I’m way below the average cost of a finished site and about the average for hourly rates!!

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Website Contact Details Poll: Phone or Email?

Leon — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 18:37:58 +0000

Quick poll for those of you in business and who have a website displaying various different contact methods. I suppose it might depend on the business and product/service being sold but I find it increasingly difficult as a web designer to be constantly answering phone calls whether new inquiries or for support. I think its much more structured and efficient if I only let people email me as I can then run through emails systematically, prioritise them, have a record of what was said and keep everything nice and tidy as opposed to having to remember what was said on the phone or having to find scraps of paper where you’ve quickly scribbled down someones details or requests.

What do you think?

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Leitrim Carrick-on-Shannon Floods

Leon — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 13:10:16 +0000

Here’s some photos from the apocalyptic scenes in Leitrim over the last week or two..Amazing and tragic.

Most photos courtesy of Tony Beattie

[View with PicLens]

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Ireland Hand it to France!? Poll

Leon — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:32:28 +0000

Wow, what a reaction to last night’s game! The Media, Twitter, Facebook, etc…all bursting at the seems with anti Henry and anti french sentiment. Is it justified? As usual Ireland go down in a blaze of glory and end up Bride’s maids. It always seems to be an unluckily conceeded goal or a shoot out loss or a bad refeering decision.

On this occasion I personally think we are showing ourselves to be bad losers and moaners and we’ve jumped on an easy reason for the ultimate failure of the qualifying campaign. Where were we in the first match in Dublin and where were we for all the other games!? And why didn’t we take some chances and nail the French when we had them on the ropes last night? The RTE panel got it right when they pointed out 2 things – 1. What if we had handled it? & 2. Henry didn’t plan to handle it, it was a reflex action…

What’s your opinion!?

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House Swap Dublin for Leitrim

Leon — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 19:41:04 +0000

On a personal note, I’d love to hear from anyone in Leitrim who has a nice Rural, Country house, around 4 bed and would like to swap permanently for my house in Kimmage, Dublin which has a good rental income. My Kimmage house is also for straight sale and Open To Offers! Here’s some details:

2 bed corporation style.
Large Kitchen/Diner.
Parlor/Sitting Room.
Bathroom.
Large back garden for possible extension.
Located in a quiet Cul de Sac.
Near to Kimmage, Crumlin, Terenure, Harold’s Cross, Walkinstown.
On bus routes to town and Tallaght.
Shops and Superquinn within walking distance.
Valued at around – €230,000.
Rental income around €900 per month.

Some photos below:

More details here – www.MyHome.ie

[View with PicLens]

Call Leon on 0876147538 for futher info.

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Blogs Get Noticed!

Leon — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 14:32:57 +0000

I got a call from a journalist from the Sunday Times last week in relation to an article she was writing on IVF and Infertility in Ireland. She wanted a male orientated view and must have googled same (as journalists are known to do as part of their research!). Luckily enough I was one of the few men talking about infertility and men on my blog so I come up fairly high for related searches.

What I had written on my blog was obviously interesting and relevant enough for her to call me and do an impromptu interview for the feature. The article went out on Sunday the 27th and covered a full page with a huge photo of myself, my partner and our baby! And had she included a link back to the blog articles in question, it would have brought a lot of exposure to my site for nothing!

The moral of the story is that if you continue to supply your blog with interesting and relevant content you will get noticed and become a valuable resource for others.

Read the Times article here.

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Twitter Pervasiveness

Leon — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 10:43:18 +0000

I was at Bizcamp in Dublin last Saturday and was interested in the fact that almost anyone I talked with mentioned Twitter in some shape or form. My co-passengers on the journey to and from the event Tweeted our travel progress and the one talk I went to that was specifically related to Twitter was full and was given by a girl (Claire Boyles) obviously very enthusiastic about it! The day served as confirmation for me if I needed any that Twitter is now the biggest thing since bread slicing.

I was only in the door and filling out my name tag when I noticed others putting their Twitter username on their badges so I done it myself and shortly afterwards I got recognised by someone who is following me! I spent most of the day looking at people’s name tags to see if I knew them from Twitter and anyone I did know and managed to get to talk to, the ice was broken simply by having Twitter in common.

I also got recognised a few more times which is always a nice ego trip and of course once conversation starts it could lead anywhere so the value of Twitter is obvious. Other people without Twitter name tags kinda got ignored (sorry!) but this only serves to enforce the fact that if you’re in business you need to be on Twitter and part of the “stream”.

@reverbstudios

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Leaving Cert Results

Leon — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 10:25:52 +0000

So thousands of kids will be getting their exam results today and some will get exactly what they need and be on top of the world but others will be left feeling devastated as they miss out on their chosen college course, perhaps feeling that its the end of the world and not knowing what to do next.

I done my leaving cert in 1992 (17 years ago – jaysus!) and I done woefully bad. Out of 7 subjects I got 4 D’s, 2 B’s and an F which amounted to about 220 points, not enough by a long shot to qualify for any of the slightly ambitious courses I put in the CAO forms! I did actually get 2 D’s, 4 F’s and an NG (I famously drew a picture of a Viking long ship on my maths exam and nothing else!) in the Mocks so I guess I improved but nevertheless I was faced with the problem of not having a clue what to do next.

What I ended up doing was a PLC course in Engineering (not sure why I chose that, maybe because it was in the school where I done the leaving) which was a one year course and had connections with Tallaght IT. If you got good enough results in this PLC course you got in the back door so to speak to do a full Engineering course in Tallaght. I ended up doing 2 boring years in Mechanical Engineering in Tallaght and eventually dropped out after failing a subject. I have a National Cert from it but this remains the only qualification I ever achieved and I don’t even reference it any more.

I ended up becoming a musician for about 4/5 years then had a couple of odd mechanical/electronic type jobs mainly because of my love of messing with Maplin kits. I bought my first PC in August 2002 and the rest is history! I just found out through messing around what the pc could do and taught myself how do do all sorts of stuff with it just by messing around, reading books and doing the odd one day course. I now run a full time, successful IT business from home and I’m proud to say its also my hobby and there’s nothing else in the world I’d rather be doing.

So whats the moral of the story? It’s not the end of the world if you don’t get the results you wanted. There are plenty of options for further study, travel or working but the one thing I’d advise is to do something that interests you based on your hobbies rather than doing something that’s just convenient. If you’re looking at the further study option, consider doing courses that will prepare you best for starting your own business as there’s no better feeling than working for yourself and there’s lots of good support for startup companies at the minute.

Good luck to all.

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Inhouse V’s Outhouse Content Management

Leon — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:35:47 +0000

Got an idea to write this post from an email from the Enterprise Ireland Mailing list. It’s just an angle to think about that never occured to me before but it affects me as a user/provider of open source software!

Everybody wants content management on their sites these days. I’ve been asked for it by most of my clients for years now. So is it better for a client to be handed an open source CMS or the web developer’s own custom made one? And which is best for the developer?

As a web developer I’d like the idea of being able to create and brand my own cms and impress my clients with my ability to do so and in the process, keep my clients tied to me. I might also be able to add on a few zeros per year for the use of it. I could also hope to sell it to other non clients as a packaged system.

But what about my client? They will be inheriting a closed system that ties them to me for support, updates etc and they’ll have bigger bills. If I give them an open source system they can go off by themselves and avail of the multitude of free plugins, support and updates without having to worry about me going out of business or a yearly licence fee.

So the client is better off with open source it seems but am I foolish to loose money and possibly clients by not tying them to my own system?

Comments please!?

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Michael Jackson Poll Saint or Sinner

Leon — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 11:08:11 +0000

As is often the case when someone famous/infamous dies, opinion is divided as to whether we should forgive their limitations or hail their virtues. I am a fan of Michael Jackson’s music but I was also a fan of his personality ever since his famous interview with Bashir. While most viewers quickly decided he was off the wall, I remember thinking it would be great if we could all be so innocent and sure of ourselves. I think Michael was another example of the lack of tolerance people have for anyone who is a bit different when I believe we should really celebrate individuality. On the other hand while he didn’t seem to fit the profile of a child molester, there was some evidence that he might not have been as pure as he said he was. Poll below.

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New Flock Browser Review

Leon — Thu, 28 May 2009 11:31:20 +0000

Review of Flock Browser

I just recently heard about a new internet browser, alternative to Internet Explorer, Firefox etc.. called Flock which I’ve been playing with for the last few days. Here’s my opinion of it.

Flock, powered by Mozilla, is labeled a “Social Web Browser” due to its ability to incorporate multiple popular Social Networking sites within one interface. So as well as doing all the usual things a browser should do such as browsing, searching, bookmarking, etc.. it also lets you interact with your social networks without having to go to multiple sites, login etc..

The current supported list of networking sites includes:

Twitter.
Facebook.
Bebo.
Flickr.
MySpace.
YouTube.
Picasa.
Wordpress.
Delicious.
Facebook Chat.
Gmail.
And quite a few more..

I’m writing this post from its built in Blog Editor which can handle most of the main Blogging platforms including, Blogger, Typepad, LiveJournal and self hosted Wordpress which is what I’m using here. You can have multiple blog accounts too.

The Social Networking tabs are conveniently and tidily located in the sidebar and your logins are remembered once you visit the sites and login. You can view and update yours and your friends statuses on all the sites directly from the browser as well as upload photos using the dedicated Photo Uploader application which allows for resizing, rotation and tagging.

RSS feeds are supported by default but theres also a Feed Reader built in.

There’s a Media bar also which shows media streams at the top of the screen from various sites such as YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, Bebo and Photobucket.

There’s a very handy Web Clipboard which can take multiple content/pastes from various sites including both text and images and make them available for use later.

Of interest to me as a user of Firefox was the ability to add plugins and Flock was able to take all of the main ones I had in Firefox so that sealed it for me! It’s now my default browser!

Checkit out at www.flock.com

Rated 4/5 on May 28 2009

Vote on Leon’s reviews at LouderVoice

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Web Design Grants in Leitrim

Leon — Thu, 21 May 2009 11:20:16 +0000

Leitrim Enterprise board have opened applications for financial assistance towards the cost of Website Design & Development. They will pay up to €750 (50%) of the cost of having your website built if your business resides in Leitrim and you satisfy other qualifying conditions. The closing date for receipt of applications is Friday 19th June 2009. For more information contact Geraldine at the enterprise board on 071 9620450 or email info@leitrimenterprise.ie

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My Logo Design Inspiration

Leon — Wed, 06 May 2009 09:50:50 +0000

I’m just wondering how people come up with ideas for their business logos? Mine was inspired by music notation. My initial business idea for Reverb Studios was to be a digital recording studio so heavy on all things audio. I was also a former musician in a Doors cover band! The 3 squiggly lines on top of each other are called “Upper Mordents” and they are musical notation for a “Trill” which is basically playing 2 musical notes repeatedly in quick succession. Visually,the mordents also looked like repeating sound waves to me and since Reverb is an instrumental and vocal effect which basically repeats whatever you play or sing, it all tied in nicely!

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Blogging Pitfalls!

Leon — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 11:00:25 +0000

Whenever I build a new site or complete any new project, I write a Blog article about it here in my Recent Projects Category. Reasons for doing so include the following:

Showing people that I’m busy!
Adding content to the Blog.
Having an easily accessible Portfolio list.
Promoting my client’s Websites.

As people may know, linking to a new site from an established one and especially one that has a bit of search engine traction like this blog, helps to get the new site into the search engines a bit quicker. Google in particular crawls this blog quite regularly and whatever links it sees, it follows. A lot of my sites are on the first page of google within weeks due to a combination of this and good domain choice.

Recently, I linked to a client’s site from here, same as usual and its caused all manner of problems and arguments and I’d like to warn other bloggers/designers of what could happen when you’re generous with your linking!

Basically, when the client googled his main keywords, my blog article announcing his site came up about 3rd in the results and his own site was about 10th. He was very dissapointed and “disallusioned” that my site came up for his search term and he threatened not to pay for the site. I pointed out that my post had a link to his and that his site might not have even been 10th if it wasn’t for my free publicity. I also showed him his google analytics stats which had 47% referrals from me! but he wasn’t having any of it!

In the end I had to delete my post and related tags then to go to Google webmaster tools and delete my blog post from there also.

Be careful!

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Moaning gets you Places!?

Leon — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 13:55:02 +0000

Not sure if its coincidence or not but a couple of my first posts in my “Naming and Shaming Companies” venture have yeilded results within a matter of days. My fixed TV finally arrived from AM TV Ballinamore and I got an email from Sherry FitzGerald blaming spam for no replies to house enquiries!

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Naming and Shaming Companies

Leon — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 12:53:18 +0000

I’ve decided to do my bit for the recession by naming and reviewing the companies that I do business with both as a customer and service provider myself. Whether the service was good or bad they will get a review from me and I wont hold back. I will include companies that I’ve done work for and who have been too slow to pay or not paid at all. Hopefully doing this will help some companies realise they need to be more professional in their approach. The companies I’m happy with will get free promotion for their good work!

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My Blogging Stats

Leon — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 20:06:14 +0000

Further proof that Blogging works to drive traffic to your site! The first dip on the 12th week of April was about when I switched hosting..the second is this week so still counting!

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Blogging, SEO & Hits

Paying for Online Social Networking Services

Leon — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 20:31:11 +0000

Online Social Networking via the likes of Twitter, Linkedin, Blogging, etc.. is fast becoming a proven and effective method of promoting your company and brand and as more and more people realise its benefits I’m sure more and more companies offering to “network” for you will spring up. However I’d like to pose a few questions before you confirm that you don’t have the time yourself and prefer to splash out what’s sure to be thousands of euros on the services of some internet marketing company.

Given that Online Networking requires a a lot of time dedicated to it to be properly effective, where will these companies get the time if they have more than a few clients?
How will an external company best know how to represent you to the world. Will they say the right things on all your profiles and will they interact with your potential customers in a manner you’d be happy with?
If you’re going to spend the time telling someone else exactly what you want said on your behalf all around the net, wouldn’t you just be better off doing it yourself anyway?
Will the marketing company have other clients on their books who are your direct competitors, and if so how would they handle this?

In short, getting someone else to promote your company on your behlf requires time, effort and trust on your part if you wan’t to avoid potential problems.

Isn’t the best person to represent your own company you!?

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Ireland – Grand Slam Winners 2009

Leon — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 18:26:49 +0000

We’ve been a bit starved of sporting success in this country in recent years. Italia 90, Olympics 92, and Atlanta 96 are all distant memories but yesterday we had an Irish victory significant enough to go into the history books and lift the nation. Our national rugby team, under achievers for lat last decade at least, finally put their fears of winning to bed and conjured up perhaps our greatest achievement in rugby ever.

I for one expected the usual narrow and unlucky defeat but moral victory and a crippling inability to shoulder the favorites tag that Ireland as a nation commonly shows on the sporting field, but everyone you listened to before the game from people on the street, to TV pundits to the team themselves showed an unusual but inspiring confidence and that seems to have carried the team through.

Lets hope it has an uplifting effect for all of us on an economic downer in a similar way that the success of the national soccer team had in the late 80’s and early 90’s just before the start of the CT!?

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