Web Together Blog

Battle of The Bay Video Featuring Big Brother’s Ray Shah.

2013-05-20T13:59:43+00:00

Ray Shah and Web Together.

At Web Together we produce great video for our clients. Check out Big Brother's Ray Shah in our latest video production for Clontarf TV's "Battle Of The Bay".

Battle for the Bay Promo from ClontarfTV on Vimeo.

Google+ Gets 41 Amazing New Features Highlighting Implications For SEO in Business

2013-05-16T15:01:07+00:00

If you are in business and have a website there is no escaping the powerful influence of Google. You rank in Google listings may have a direct influence on the success of your business or you may be using one of the products from their powerful suite of tools: Gmail, Google Analytics, Webmaster Tools, Adwords, Google images or the increasingly important Google+.

Since its launch two years ago Google+ has had its share of jousting with Facebook for the much-coveted position of most popular social media tool. And Google has been explicit in the fact that the success of Google+ is very important to the already massive company.

So much so that Google has cleverly linked the Google+ social media platform directly to Google search in a way that allows businesses using Google+ properly to reap extra benefits in terms of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). Google+ has become a very powerful tool for business but it has nowhere near reached critical mass… a point all too evident to Google.

Google has struggled to win over users from Facebook with its social network.

In a major bid to address this deficit Google launched a completely redesigned Google+ on Wednesday at Google I/O with features that could make Google+ a fierce Facebook competitor.

Google+ is getting a huge update of 41 new features, including an awesome new column based interface with some nice customization options.

The Google+ overhaul includes a fancy, multi-column stream (not a news-feed, a stream) that can be customized according to your screen size (so if you have a larger screen size you can add more columns to use up the white space. You can customize with cards that you can click to flip over and find related content. Google will now auto-hash tag your Google+ posts with relevant tags, even if you post a photo with no description.

Google’s Official Blog described the announcement as:

"We unveiled the newly designed Google+, which helps you easily explore content as well dramatically improve your online photo experience to give you crisp, beautiful photos—without the work! We also upgraded Google+ Hangouts—our popular group video application—to help bring all of your real-life conversations online, across any device or platform, and with groups of up to 10 friends."

Google didn’t reveal all the details as to what the 41 new features would be but they were very clear about one thing: they want people to use Google+.

In the fast evolving world of the Internet, where businesses continually vie for first page places on Google search, one thing is certain – With this level of commitment from Google, it is assured that Google+ will continue to grow in its already important place in the SEO strategy of businesses online.

Post by Patrick James Horan

Small Business Network Security - The Human Factor

2013-04-15T15:17:41+00:00

Internet security is a subject that concerns everyone and these days it can be hard to go online without reading something to do with viruses, network security and of late, an increased number of stories in relation to businesses or corporations being hacked.

It is common sense for people to ensure that we take steps to make sure that their home computer and internet are secure but for businesses it is a legal requirement that they ensure their information and data is secure and that requires having procedures in place.

Ask yourself, does your business have a “security policy” or a set of procedures in place in the event of a breech? Do you run regular security audits?

We hear about breeches and hackers attacking different companies and often it is only the big corporate ones that make the news, however small business fall prey everyday and we never hear about these attacks.

When you hear about Hackers and attacks on security a certain image comes to mind, maybe of an 80s style wiz-kid locked in his room trying to take over the world for his Mac computer or more recently, the masked visage of the group that call themselves Anonymous… but this couldn’t be further from the truth.

Reality is in fact, more mundane!

While Criminal Hackers, or more correctly titled “Crackers” (which we will discuss in detail in a later post) present a very ominous risk to business it is more common that most attacks occur from much closer to home in the form of Malicious Users among staff.

Malicious use can come in many form, whether through the inadvertent misuse of data, carelessness, revenge, deliberate theft of information for personal gain or simply members of staff snooping around in areas that they know they shouldn’t be in or have no need to be in.

According to the 2013 Information Security Breaches Survey:

57% of small businesses suffered staff related security breaches in the last year (up from 45% a year ago).

36% of the worst security breaches in the year were caused by inadvertent human error (and a further 10% by deliberate misuse of systems by staff).

And more frighteningly only 17% of small businesses know their staff broke data protection regulations in the last year (up from 11% a year ago).

The human factor is a very serious consideration for business in relation to security and one that should not be viewed lightly. Insider breeches can very easily go unnoticed as often management has given people access without questioning as to how it will be used or without proper training and security procedures in place.

Businesses, even small business who are often the most vulnerable, need to regularly assess their security and the risk from both external and internal sources.

It is recommended that business run regular security checks and a full security audit yearly at least but here are some areas that a business might want to look at in order to try keep you safe from breaches, whether deliberate or inadvertent:

User education and awareness
Information risk assessment
Access to networks for home and mobile work
Managing user privilege
Access Control to vital areas like server rooms
Incident management
Removable storage control
Monitoring
Secure configuration of networks: modems, routers, databases and computers etc.
Malware software
Appropriate firewalls and network security

The simple truth for business is that you can never fully guard against security breeches and it is foolish to believe you are immune. Reality is that a hacker or malicious user only has to find one weakness in the armor, a business must find them all in order to fully protect itself.

The best advice is to be aware, assess your weaknesses and continue to monitor for areas that you can improve your security. If you are not sure employ a professional to do a security audit. It is the responsibility of all business to make it as difficult as possible for malicious users and hackers, both internal and external.

In a future post I will be looking ats more tips to keep you small business safe and offering a list of simple tips on things you can implement to make your business more secure.

Post by Patrick James Horan

Using Testimonials on Your Business Website

2013-03-21T15:18:47+00:00

Testimonial can play a vital role in securing new customers for your business and getting them to buy your products.

Simple truth is that no matter how honest you are, your customers will always be more persuasive than you.

Research has shown that 63% of consumers are more likely to purchase from a website that has reviews and testimonials.

With this in mind business should be making use of this valuable resource that Testimonials offer. Using reviews and testimonials is one of the simplest and most cost-effective ways of adding credibility and emphasis to your website.

Here are some considerations to help:

Always use real testimonials instead of made-up ones.
You should create an entire page on your website for testimonials and then place excerpts through-out the rest of your site, linking back to the testimonials page. Don’t forget to make sure you use the best testimonials on your website’s home page.
There is much debate about the use of images on testimonials but they can be a great way to increase trust. You can complement the persuasiveness of genuine reviews by simply adding a picture of the reviewer who is commenting on your business.
Use full titles. Nobody believes testimonials like “John D.”. Use the customer’s full name and description to increase believability “John Dunne, Dublin 3”.
Get the person who wrote your testimonial to also copy and paste the text into the recommendation area of your profile on LinkedIn.
Post your testimonial on Facebook and Google+ so your social media followers can see how well you are doing.
Don’t try to polish the client or customer’s words so it sounds like professional ad copy. Testimonials are usually much more convincing when they are not edited for style.
Get permission. As obvious as this may sound, always make sure you get permission from your customer to post their testimonial on your website.

Post by Patrick James Horan

Five Tools To Help Your Blog Keep Up With Trends

2013-02-22T15:38:07+00:00

A Blog or News section on your business website is a great way of improving your Google ranking and contributing to your overall SEO (Search Engine Optimisation).

A blog is an easy way to introduce dynamic content to a website and offer fresh and unique content. However, with so many blogs out there it can often be a challenge for people to distinguish their blog… often people struggle with ideas about what to write or even how to keep up with all the latest trends surrounding their particular industry. So with that in mind here are a few easy to use tools that can help you keep up with what is happening, what is the latest trend and write content that people want to read.

Tools to help you keep up with trends:

Google Trends

Google Trends shows you a list of “Hot Searches” whereby you can see what people are searching for over a specific period of time. You can click on “More Hot Searches” to see a larger list of hot topics for that specific day. From there you can change the date to see what’s been trending over the past few days to a week.

Some days will produce topics that you can use to blog about, and some days will not. The trick to keep an eye on tools such as Google Trends so that you can capitalize on those days when people are searching for a topic related to your website blog or news section.

Alltop

Alltop collects headlines of the latest stories from the best websites and blogs. The purpose of Alltop is to help you answer the question, “What’s happening?” in “all the topics” that interest you.

Alltop does this by collecting the headlines of the latest stories from the best sites and blogs that cover a topic. It then group these collections — “aggregations” — into individual web pages. It then displays the five most recent headlines of the information sources as well as their first paragraph.

Quora

Quora is a Question & Answer site similar to Wikipedia in that it gives users the ability to post questions and reply with answers to others’ questions. It’s a highly useful tool for finding topics that people have questions on. Once you have an account you can simply enter a few keywords into the Quora Search Bar to find questions that people have involving those keywords.

You can enter high-level keywords like “Blog Content” or “Blog Writing” to see what questions people have about those topics. If there are multiple questions centered around one topic, or if there’s a question that nobody’s answered yet, it may make for a good topic to blog about.

Stumbleupon Trends

StumbleUpon now provides users with news or content on trending news. Trends are grouped into topics or headings: Explore each topic for more ideas in your industry.

Trending posts on StumbleUpon show the kind of content users are interested in at the moment, and the type of topics they click on or share. Take advantage of the StumbleUpon lists to create your own lists to follow.

TweetMeme

TweetMeme is a Twitter tool that allows you to see what’s trending on Twitter. TweetMeme basically keeps tracks of all of the links that are tweeted on Twitter and how many ReTweets each link has garnered within a given time frame. The links that have the most ReTweets move to the top of the TweetMeme list. This allows you to see what topics people are talking about on Twitter. If people are already talking about the topic, and you write an article pertaining to that topic, there’s a good chance that your article will be talked about as well. This is especially true if you take the conversation in a new direction. How you could use TweetMeme:

Check out what’s trending on TweetMeme.
Find a few topics that you think are related to your website and read through those articles.
Think about how you can add a new spin to each of the articles. How you develop the discussion around the topic.
Write your blog post.

Making The Internet Easier - A New Online Series Of Tips and Advice.

2013-01-30T10:16:44+00:00

Web Design and Using The Internet

As one of Ireland’s leading Web Design companies we often receive emails from people with questions about the many aspects that go towards accessing the internet and using computers, along with the other Web Design related queries.

In order to remain at the cutting edge of Web Development we spend many hours testing the latest software releases and updating our knowledge base. As our clients know we always try to in ensure that the very latest standards of practice are being used and that the people we build websites for are up to-date and able to use all the latest online tools in an easy and comfortable manner.

Making The User Experience Easier

We build great websites, but we also value the importance of a nice user experience. Often we find that it is the little things that people want to know more about: Some of the more common questions lately have been about Windows 8, Online Security & Privacy, Safe Surfing and how to use Social Media properly, such as twitter, Facebook & Google+, the best free software but to mention a few topics.

Another thing we notice is that people often find the technical terms quite daunting. So with this in mind and following a bit of research into what people want to read about, here at Web Together we have decided to do a series of posts to try and help break down some of the mysteries of the internet, with bite-sized tutorials on everything that goes with owning a computer and using the internet.

And if there is anything you would really like to read about then post a comment and we will add the request to our list and answer as many of your questions of possible.

Last weekend alone I had three separate enquiries about Social media. Facebook are renowned for making changes to their platform and may result in some default settings being activated in a way that leaves people feeling at risk

Safety tip for Facebook and Twitter

One thing certain is that identity theft is on the rise and the increase of Social Media users makes for a lot more available data in the public domain so it is important not to leave yourself vulnerable. You may work very hard to restrict the amount of personal details available on the internet but have you ever considered how your Facebook Friends may allow “Data Leakage”?

One very useful App is a tool called “Bitfender Safego” There are a couple of similar products available now, however I use this myself so I know it works. Bitfender Safego is a Facebook Application that works in the background to monitor your Facebook details and returns a report on vulnerabilities so that you can correct the issue easily.

A very nice addition to this App is that it also monitors your Timeline and reports any information about you that may be given by your Friend’s list. It is very much a plug-and-play app, is very self explanatory to use and most importantly, it does exactly what it says on the tin. There is also a version which works in line with you Twitter account to keep that safe as well.

If you have any other thoughts, ideas or tips of your own please feel free to post a comment - we would love to hear from you.

Post by Patrick James Horan

Responsive Email Design - Time to Update Your Newsletters

2012-12-07T09:31:22+00:00

I get a lot of newsletters into my inbox everyday. I'm sure you do too. You probably send some campaigns as well.

I've cut down on the amount I receive but I do still get a lot. I also do a lot of processing of emails on the move on my iPhone and iPad, which happens pretty quickly. If I'm not captured by the newsletter in the first few seconds, it's deleted. This goes for a lot of people.

The majority of the newsletters I receive are built for desktop computers. And they look great on my computer, even the iPad. That's because the screen size supports the width of the newsletter. But they don't always look so good on my iPhone.

The Problem

When you view these same emails on the mobile, you're seeing a zoomed out view of the email, usually at 50%. This makes the text impossible to read, as it's half the size. You need to tap and pan to read the email. Not the most efficient way to communicate with your mailing list, especially when a higher percentage are using mobile phones to read emails.

The Solution

So, what can you do about it? Well, over the past year there's a concept in web design getting very popular called responsive web design, which is a design process that allows a website to adapt to the screen size it's being viewed on. The web page automatically responds to look perfect on mobile, tablet, desktop, etc.

This same concept can be applied to emails so we can have 'responsive email design'. When coding a newsletter template we have a lot of restrictions in what we can do in comparison to what we can do on a web page, but there are a few tricks that allow us to make responsive emails work very well.

The Benefit

If you design your newsletter this way, your subscribers and you will get an immediate benefit. As soon as they open your email, they won't have to fiddle with their phones to zoom in and pan to read it. All they need to do is scroll. It's a more pleasurable experience for your subscribers and you're more likely to see conversions on the back of it.

The Stats

Below are screenshots from 2 campaigns we sent recently to approx. 5,000 recipients each. You can see that the stats vary a little but both have a common trend - mobile email client usage is high. The first has 48% being viewed on mobile (iPhone + Android) and the second has 35.8%. Nobody can ignore these percentages anymore.

I suggest checking the stats on your last campaign to see how many of your subscribers are viewing your campaigns on mobile. I'm sure it'll be high.

Summary

Of course, if anybody is looking to get a responsive email designed for their newsletter campaigns, we'd be more than happy to help out. Just drop us a message here.

Oh, if you're looking to do it yourself, Campaign Monitor have a good guide on the subject of responsive email design. Also, Zurb recently released some responsive email templates. We haven't given the Zurb templates a try yet, but we have created a number of custom responsive emails for clients with the help of the Campaign Monitor Guide.

Protect Your Email with an SPF Record

2012-11-30T06:23:57+00:00

What's The Problem?

Before I get into what an SPF Record is, let me tell you why you need one. If you have your own domain for your email, e.g. you@yourcompany.com, you may see mails returned to you saying your mail was rejected from X server. This mail wasn't sent by you but it looks like it was. This is often spammers sending mails to 1000s of people, pretending to be from you.

In fact, in code, it's pretty easy to do. We develop email functionality into most of our websites and apps. When generating an automated message from a website or app, we need to set a from address in the code. We use the company's email, something like noreply@yourcompany.com. What we're doing is actually spoofing this email, but in a legit way. Unfortunately, spammers often use this same technique to try and hijack your domains good name to get through the spam and human filters out there.

Protection with an SPF Record

What the hell is an SPF Record, I hear you say. Well, I hope I can explain this as non-technical as possible. An SPF Record is a little text record that can be attached to your domain name that no spammer would have access to. What this text record has in it is a list of servers that are authorised to send mail on behalf on your domain.

So, for example, the list would contain your website server, your own mail server (in-house or with your hosting company), Google mail servers, newsletter software mail servers (MailChimp, Campaign Monitor, etc.), and any other specific servers you want to allow send mail on your behalf.

When an external email server receives an email from your domain (e.g. the from address has noreply@yourcompany.com or you@yourcompany.com) it automatically runs it through spam filters to try and combat spam for it's users. Google mail is probably the best fighter of spam and is extremely accurate.

One of the checks it goes through to verify your email as legit is to check if your domain name has an SPF record set up, and if the mail originated from one of the allowed servers. If the email didn't originate from the allowed list, it's spam rating goes way up and it'll most likely be thrown to the spam folder.

That's what you want! You want mails that look like they're from your domain, that didn't originate from your allowed list of servers, be thrown to the spam folder. The reverse of this is that mails originating from your allowed servers should easily get through spam filters. Well, as long as your not breaking other spamming rules (e.g. selling viagra tablets or mass mailing 5,000 customers using the BCC field).

How to set up an SPF record

Setting one up is pretty straightforward. You need to access your domain control panel, the place where you first registered your domain name is a good place to start. If you don't know what this is, you could ask your web design company, hosting company or technical support company. They will know what this is.

I'm going to take a couple of screenshots from our domain control panel at Blacknight but all control panels have similar tools.

Step 1

Find the DNS Records section for your domain. This will list things like A records and MX records. Don't worry about these, you're just looking for this section.

Step 2

Look for the 'Add DNS Record' button or a place to add a new record.

Step 3

You need to change the record type to TXT or SPF, if it's available. TXT should always be available.

Step 4

You add your SPF Record into the data field. Here is an example SPF record that can be added:


v=spf1 a mx include:_spf.google.com include:aspmx.googlemail.com ~all

Taking each part of this record, I'll try explain it briefly:

v=spf1
This defines this TXT record as an SPF record. When mail servers look for an SPF record for your domain, it will use this to identify it.

a
This tells the mail server that it should allow all other A records as allowed senders of emails. Quickly, an A record points website traffic to particular servers, e.g. your main website. So, by allowing A records, your effectively saying any server that hosts your website(s) can send email on your behalf. By just adding "a" here, it saves you adding each of your web servers.

mx
Similarly, you can auto allow any MX records into the list as well. The MX records are the location of your own mail servers. You will of course want to allow these as senders. This is really a shortcut to use your existing records instead of having to add them all again.

include:_spf.google.com include:aspmx.googlemail.com
This is where you can add other servers to send on your behalf. You can include a number of servers here, such as the Google ones above. I know we often use Gmail to send emails from our domain as well as our own mail servers so allowing Google to do this, should be specified.

You can add more servers here too. Here's a few examples:

include:cmail1.com - this one is for campaign monitor
include:spf.mtasv.net - this is for postmarkapp.com
include:brightwurks.com - this is for help scout app

These are 3 services we use online that send mails on our behalf so we want to authorise each of them. Otherwise, mails generated from these systems may not get through the spam filters.

The important thing here to remember is to add each of the services that need to send mail on your behalf. If you don't add them to the list, spam filters are going to see them as likely spam. But at least you're in control.

~all
Using the ~ specifies that you wish for emails that don't match your allowed list to get flagged with "SoftFail". This is good when you're setting up at first. The intended action for the mail is "Accept but Mark". You can change this to -all later when you're happy the SPF is working and you're now telling servers to reject mail not coming from your domain, don't just mark it. The all bit is usually added to all records and always matches.

Conclusion

You can build much more complex rules and configuration for your particular needs. I think the simple approach is best. If you're having trouble with spam, getting bounce backs that look like your domain is being hijacked, or you're having trouble getting your legit emails through to a recipient, setting up an SPF record is a definite first step.

There's loads more information on the different types of rules you can create on the official SPF record site:

http://www.openspf.org/SPF_Record_Syntax

Also, once you set up an SPF record, you'll want to check if it is working so you should run it through a checker. There's a number of free tools to do this, including:

And, if you want to take it a step further, you could start looking at DKIM keys for even more domain protection. But that's another days post. For now, you can find out more about that here:

http://www.dkim.org

If anyone needs help or advice setting up an SPF Record for their domain, don't hesitate to get in contact. We'd be glad to help.

Inbox 0, Productivity 1

2012-11-26T12:00:30+00:00

We all use it and along with our mobile phones, email is probably one of the top things we couldn't live without in this modern day. How we use email is constantly changing and with the explosion of smart phones and tablets, so many of us are using email even more now, with this 'always on' culture.

Personally, I struggle with email. I need it for work, communicating with the team and clients. But you have this 'always on' culture, reading emails day and night, and it's this that I struggle with.

We're always on, checking email, replying immediately… even if you're in the middle of something. Email drains productivity and is a resource hog. Let's face it, email is great but it takes so much bloody time, a minute here, 2 minutes there. There has to be a better way…

Inbox Zero - Seeing the Light

I've talked to many friends and clients about Inbox Zero, and how it can benefit them. Sometimes it's hard to get a practical approach across for them to follow. So here I'd like to put that approach down for someone to follow. Adapt as you will.

Before I get into that, I'd just like to give a little background on Inbox Zero. I first came across the concept at a Bizcamp seminar in Dublin, around 2006. It was Mr Keith Bohanna that delivered the seminar and one of the questions he asked the group was "how many emails we had in our inbox that day". I actually remember seeing my inbox that morning and having more than a thousand. The group laughed but I was serious. Then came the eureka moment when Keith explained the concept of Inbox Zero.

In a nutshell, when you receive an email, you should deal with it there and then. Do something with it, then get rid of it. Out of your inbox. It might sound difficult to do that but in practice, it's actually not. Essentially, you should always have 0 emails in your inbox. And it's such a nice feeling when you do.

Inbox Zero - A Practical Approach

So, how do I do it? Well, I've a little system set up and I try to follow it as close as possible. Sometimes I relapse but I do get back on track as soon as possible.

1. Backup Everything to Gmail
Set up a gmail.com account and forward all your emails to this account. This is your email backup and allows you to delete mails from your main account, knowing you can always find them later in Gmail. The search in Gmail is great as well, much better than the native apps on your computer. Your emails are also completely secure, even if you lose your computer or suffer a hard drive failure.

Forwarding your mail to the Gmail account can be easily set up on the server side, so that it's automatically done in the background.

2. Schedule Times to Check Emails
If you've got your email open constantly, it'll always be a distraction. You'll be in the middle of an important task and then you'll hear "bing", and a little window will popup saying you've a new email from Johnny about X. Of course, it's human nature to want to check the email straight away. But this is the productivity killer in full swing.

Switch off!!! This can be difficult to put into practice but you really should just shut down your email. Turn off notifications, turn off phone alerts. Pick times that suit you to process your emails. Maybe 9.30, 12.30, 14.30, and 17.30. The rest of the time, you turn off your email. When you do open your emails, deal with everything, there and then.

3. Process Emails
So, how do you process them. Well, I try to process them like this:

Support Emails: if I can sort it within 2 minutes, I do it and reply, then delete the mail. If I can't, I create a support ticket for it, reply saying it is scheduled, then delete.
Project Emails: copy text/attachments to our project management application, respond to client, then delete.
Newsletter: scan read it… if there's something worth reading in it, I drop it into a "read it later" folder. Otherwise, it's deleted.
Meeting Requests: check and add to my calendar, reply to organiser, then delete.
Personal Emails: read, respond if needed, then delete. Simple.

The idea here is to do something with the email immediately, then delete it. You might need to come back to it someday, and that's were the Gmail account backup comes into play. I have emails going back to 2006 fully backed up, so I can just delete as I go.

You'll find you receive other types of emails but if you treat them all with the same process of do something with it, reply, then delete… you'll keep that inbox empty and less to worry about it.

4. Reduce The Number of Emails You Receive
Another little tip I suggest is spending a few weeks removing yourself from mailing lists. This was one of the best things I could ever do.

I was just receiving way too many emails and I decided that every newsletter type email I received, I would remove myself from the list. And going forward, I would be more protective of what newsletters I would sign up for. The less mails I receive, the less I have to process.

5. Balance How Much You Connect to Email
This is the one I struggle with most often. I often check my email first thing in the morning, within minutes of waking up. Seriously, what email could I have received during the night that requires my attention first thing when I wake up. Usually they're just auto emails, reports, etc.

I'm definitely checking mails during the evening, all the way up to bedtime. Waiting in the queue to get lunch, or at the bank, sitting at traffic lights, as soon as I come out of the cinema, travelling on the bus or train, that sort of thing.

I suppose I'm trying to find the right balance, of how much I should connect to email. I need to make sure there's nothing too important that I need to deal with now but I don't want to check too often, that it consumes my downtime. But I do see a benefit of checking mails when you're in a queue or on a bus, etc. You can do your processing quickly - read, reply, delete. It's less time you need to spend processing when you're actually at your computer.

Conclusion

There's a lot more to Inbox Zero and GTD in general, then what I've touched on here. This article might just whet your appetite and inspire you to dive into it a bit more. If you can employ some of these techniques, you'll find that you actually get much more productive during your day. Less distractions by emails, pressure to respond immediately, etc.

This takes practice and I don't think the same approach works for everyone but a mix of different techniques can definitely work. I'd love if people could share their own techniques, maybe I can learn from them.

If you are looking to take things further, get more productive… I strongly suggest you get in contact with @keithbohanna and see if he's running a productivity course. I'm not sure if he's still doing the productivity courses, but he might. I've been on a couple of his workshops and he sure knows a lot about this topic and many more to help with productivity. Inbox Zero is just one of many GTD techniques.

Finally, thanks to Keith for teaching me these techniques and saving my sanity in the process :)

Awards Season is in Full Swing

2012-10-29T10:33:36+00:00

Following on from our recent success in the IIA Net Visionary Awards, we were mostly delighted when we saw the shortlists for the Eircom Spider Awards and the Irish Web Awards.

The Eircom Spiders disappointed us by not shortlising the Cricket Leinster website in the Sports category. This website had won us the IIA award so that leaves us scratching our heads a little. This is made up somewhat by the fact that we are shortlisted for a main award in the Best Web Agency category.

The Irish Web Awards aka 'The People's Choice' has even better news for us with us and our clients being shortlisted in nine separate categories. This is more than any other agency so this is very pleasing and underlines the progress in our business over the last two years.

UPDATE: 9th November 2012

Sadly, no further awards this year but we're really happy to have been included in so many shortlists. Great motivation for next year.. We're setting a target to get at least two.