Webmastering Biker

The Black, White and Grey Areas of Business

2008-06-09T08:22:00.003Z

What this cartoon aims at getting at, as well as a cheeky Star Wars parody, is that in most things in life whether it be business or the fantasy world of film - there is a clear perception in good and evil, right and wrong and good practice and bad practice. In Star Wars, there is the good side and dark side of the "force", but if you logically apply what happens in the real world away from our pre-concieved perceptions - things are certainly a lot more grey.

One clear example can be seen in the world of search engine optimisation where you have a clearly defined barrier between "black hat SEO" and "White hat SEO". In all essence these guys are the Sith and Jedi of the internet world, the former doing all in their nefarious power to subjucate the search engines to do their will, while the latter work by integrating with the natural laws of search engines.

While there clearly are some who embody either of the opposite sides of the spectrum, I am willing to bet that there are a considerable number who will be placed in between. This grey area is more often than not a place where a lot of people reside. Take for instance the world of sales. Sales people have for a long time been tarnished by the brush of the "second hand car salesman" way of selling. The aggressive sell may be attributed to the worst attribute in a salesman but there are plenty of sales people out there who are offering solutions to people who have a definite need and in doing so are operating in a professional and courteous manner.

The temptation of a salesman (and I have seen this) is that when being nice doesn't work, then you see a change of tactics and a different persona. I see this in certain respects as worse than your conventional aggressive salesman, at least you know where you are with this person.

An Obstacle to Business Objectives

2008-06-03T08:20:00.004Z

The most common human obstacle in business and indeed most things are people who are known as gatekeepers. Gatekeepers can be any person who you have to go through in order to meet or speak to someone that you wish to converse or do business with. In business, this will most often be the personal assistant or secretary, but in other cases could be the spouse of someone you call or in small businesses a work colleague.

The purpose of gatekeepers is really to screen and protect the intended recipient from unwanted calls. For instance, at work, if I pick up a call and a person asks to speak to the finance director or the managing director then my first instinct is to think that this may be a canvass call, because the person doesn't know the name of either person they are calling. I might request further information to see whether I should pass this call on and if I am satisfied that the call isn't important enough I will screen the call and block them from speaking to the MD or FD. In this case, I am the classic gatekeeper.

The common tendency is get very annoyed with people who do this because they are hampering your business objectives. Some people will try many interesting and clever ways to bypass this person or at least to engineer their way past them. However, there is a problem of tackling gatekeepers. If a person is entrusted with the task of protecting other people then the likelihood is that they have some influence in business matters. A PA might in passing mention their distaste for a particular person who in turn will influence the buying decision of the MD in a deal. As Ian Brodie mentions in a great article The Impossible Question - What Makes a Good Salesperson? one of the best characteristics of a business/sales person has to be in their trustworthiness and likeability, having neither will never result in much success. In one key stroke a gatekeeper has the power to nullify any trust or likability you have with a person if you don't treat them right.

Never Make Assumptions - Qualify your information

2008-05-28T10:08:00.003Z

This really isn't just a piece of advice for those in business but can be applied to life in general, but the rule of thumb should be that if you aren't absolutely 100% sure of something then it is best not to say it otherwise you risk dropping yourself in deep water.

There have been a number of times where I have encountered someone who has enquired when "the baby was due" to someone only to find the perturbed stare or near homicidal glare confirms that in fact no baby was due and they had inadvertantly drawn public attention to a person's weight problem. Similar situations have included mistaking a person's sex, mispronouncing a person's name (or in fact mistaking it completely and calling them by a different name), pre-judging their origin, assuming that the person you are talking about doesn't understand your language etc.

In business as in the real world all information should be qualified before being acted upon. If you are going to make a statement then make sure you have all the facts straight, because digging yourself out of a hole, though thoroughly amusing for those around you can be a very embarrassing and costly exercise.

The Problem of Asking for Prices

2008-05-21T16:14:00.006Z

If there is something that you can rely on when working in a service based industry is that relatively early on in a sales process a potential client will ask that all important question "how much is this going to cost?". If you are really unlucky, this will be one of the first questions you get, which makes things quite interesting because your service is going to be judged mainly on cost.

If you were to come to me for a website and asked me how much a website was going to cost, and I replied "£150,000", most people would find this extortionate, yes?

What then if you had the gift of foresight and would see that by spending that money your business would make £500,000 in the coming year? Is that price extortionate now?

A common mistake that a service based business can make in these situations is attempt to tackle the issue of price at the outset. By acknowledging price you are entering into negotiations that can be tackled after the value of the service is established. In offering a service, your talents are used to help your customers achieve their ambitions, these services require time, dedication and expertise and are valuable. In most cases, the price of a service reflects the value of the work, by negotiating price you in fact establishing two things; that your services weren't priced correctly in the first place and that the value of your product isn't as rewarding.

The Pulp Press Art, Textiles and Photography Site

2008-04-19T12:09:00.023Z

The Pulp Press is a new site that is offering something slightly different. Art is art, and textiles is textiles etc. but the Pulp Press is a place where nothing is compartmentalised.

The Pulp Press is split into two sections, the first deals with art based subjects, like hand and machine sewing, felt making, hand made paper, screen printing etc. and the works that can be obtained by combining all the different skills. The second section deals with the different skills of black and white wet process photography.

Qualified to teach, the Pulp Press not only make and produce different and unusual art pieces but offer the general public the opportunity to learn these skills by teaching courses of general interest photography and "AS" level qualifications in photography as well as general interest textile workshops in Winchester, Hampshire.

SymVolli Launch Event

2008-04-17T20:29:00.001Z

Try and spot the 2 second cameo that I play in this film. It's quite obvious that I don't look that comfortable in a suit but they wouldn't let me wear motorcycle gear...sheesh.

Support Your Local Small Business

2007-11-25T17:33:00.000Z

All bloggers should have a sabbatical...

At least that is my excuse for shamelessly neglecting my personal blogging duties, however, it should be noted for all would be blogging enthusiasts (and I have said it before) that starting a blog is all too easy, but maintaining it is a completely different kettle of fish, and without getting all philosophical, nothing ever lasts...which goes double for blogging.

And so my first post in several months is not going to be deep and meaningful or full of worldly wisdom but is instead a shameless plug of a website that I have just created for a friend.

As part of many web designers life, freebies are an integral part of helping out family and friends with what can be a daunting investment in online presence generation. So, when Andy a friend of mine came and asked me for my services I didn't hesitate to offer him the benefits of my experience. Andy Jewell is based in Southampton and offers a mobile dent repair service in the surrounding area. What I like about Andy's business is that he is competing with a heavily competitive automobile industry that is dominated by some heavy big garages that would normaly drive small businesses out quite quickly. By operating a niche that is so specialised he offers a great service that the big companies cannot offer in both customer service, price and convenience. As plugs go, I am quite proud to shout about this chaps business and hope that I can offer him a helping hand in his online marketing effort.

A Bitter Sweet Stumble

2007-08-21T13:03:00.001Z

Installing the stumbleupon toolbar and hitting the stumble button has been both an insight and a curse as I've got thoroughly addicted to stumbling sites that other people have found. As a social networking/web 2.0 application, stumbleupon has been a phenomena in the simplicity of it's idea yet it's genius in understanding the complexities of social interaction and human curiosity. It's been one of those things that I have understood more the more that I have participated, and I have genuinely been intrigued by the humour, style and creativity of the sites that people find.

On a stumbling session I will find usually a smattering of decent humour, well designed sites and inspirational artwork that I wouldn't have normaly found if this facility wasn't available. However, there is the very rare circumstance when you find something that is truely remarkeable that mere words can't describe. Pure luck of hitting the stumble button found myself looking at A Mother's Journey a photographic masterpiece following the traumatic events of a childs final months battling cancer. It is no wonder that this work won a pullitzer as the energy and emotions are captured so vividly and dramatically. It is hard to not be touched by looking at these photographs and following a journey that some would say is the hardest a person can take.

It is nice to be reminded that there is a human touch to working on the web sometimes and I for one feel better for knowing and sharing such important sites like this and being reminded that the internet is not all about cool widgets and clever designs.

A Typical Conversation Between Two Bikers On a Motorway

2007-08-18T16:15:00.000Z

One of the main benefits of being on a bike is that we don’t get stuck in traffic having the ability to filter through stationary and irate cars crawling at really slow speeds, so when I filtered the other day through a particularly long bout of congestion it was a surprise to end up at a full stop at the beginning of the queue. Apparently, not even bikers get past waiting when the motorway is closed, as it was in this case due to an accident. The accident didn’t look at all serious and there were no ambulances so while waiting I took the opportunity to do what is a rarety, having a look around the motorway while at a stop…it was really boring.

It was then no surprise that after a few minutes another bike ended up along side me having experienced several miles of stationary cars. Now, bikers are usually a social bunch of people who share in some way an affinity with one another in experiencing the same lifestyle. If you watch bikers pass one another on the motorway, some will wave or nod and it is customary to nod to another biker if you a travelling in the other direction on a road. So, when this biker pulled up along side me, I guess we both felt the need to converse or acknowledge this situation we were in and in a comradely way bond in a bikerly way. There is one difficulty in this and that in keeping the elements at bay we usually wear such things as neck protectors and helmets which tiresomely prevent the optimal expression of speech. Here then is a transcript of the conversation that we had:

Biker: Hrmph, mumble (nod) mumble (gesticulate wildly) mumble, mumble some more for a bit (guffaw) mumble?

Me: Sorry, didn’t quite catch that.

Biker: mumble mumble mumble etc. (only a little louder)

(Haven’t the faintest idea what he just said, but would be pretty rude to ask again)

Me: Yeah, (laugh) isn’t that the darndest thing. (I have never used the word darndest and am not entirely sure where I picked up the Americanism but it sure seemed appropriate at the time and it didn’t matter anyway because he couldn’t hear me anyway)

Thankfully, the road was cleared and traffic started again which was lucky as it was becoming quite embarrassing.

Aren't MOT test's just a pesky nuisance...

2007-08-06T22:25:00.000Z

Apologies for the long absence but it appears that our home computer decided that it didn't like us any more and stopped working. This has happened to me before and I lost quite a lot of work a week before a college deadline when a lightening strike blew my Mac up, so I know what a pain in the arm it can be, but the Missus was none too pleased at losing all her work and photographs. Another reminder that though technology is here to make our lives easier, over reliance can mean a whole heap of inconveniance when things go arm over tip.... and yes, I am still a little shy with using certain language on such an open medium, so you will have to get used to the annoying connotations.

Anyway, I haven't posted up anything bike related in a while, mainly due to me being reliant on public transport while it has been fixed up to pass it's MOT. What a bloody nuisance that was. I'll have nothing to say bad about my Yamaha (pictured above), it is after all over 18 years old and can out accelerate many cars today. It was also very cheap to buy and insure, being a classic motorcycle, as well as being economical to run (or at least compared to your average family saloon). Unfortunately, MOT time is when the odds are then stacked against my poor machine as the bits that keep falling off need mending and things like indicators and the such need to pass pesky safety standards. All in all, the bike has cost me as much as it cost to buy to keep it on the road. Do I regret it? Of course not. Will it pass next years MOT? We'll see...

Donating Organs - Something Close To My Heart...And Lungs, Kidneys etc.

2007-07-19T13:06:00.000Z

I completely forgot that Blogcatalog were organising a world wide blogging awareness exercise today and only when I read Rippin Kitten's post on organ donation just now did it occurr to me to write anything.

I, like Ms. Kitten, ride a motorcycle which I am fully aware is a dangerous if not enjoyable pastime. Some years ago, I became a blood donor on the premise that since the likelihood of me spilling blood in the future and requiring a transfusion was slightly higher than the average person, I should at least give back by donating some of my own. A little while ago, I also became a bone marrow donor... this was a purely selfish act. I was persuaded by the month off work that I would get if I donated bone marrow.

Anyway, I feel quite happy in myself at making these decisions, and will probably donate any non-mashed organs in the event of my death. I would, of course, recommend that everyone do the same and the world would be a better place.

For further information in donating organs in the UK visit the following sites

NHS Transplant site
Department of Health's Donation information
British Organ donors Society - They really need a redesign of their site...

Sorry about the haste, but I am still at work...

PS. This topic in the UK has is quite relevant at the moment due to proposals that 'presumed consent' be given in organ donation. I fully back this proposal due to the unforseeability of one's demise a lot of people don't get around to making the effort to become an active donor.

Newsflash: Blogging is hard

2007-07-12T22:06:00.000Z

Yup, been over a week and haven't had the time to post anything....

This means one of several possibilities, of which the choices consist of:

I have run out of things to say.
I have run out of time to bother with saying anything
I have run out of patience and blogging doesn't mean as much to me anymore
What I say doesn't have the slightest impact on anyones life, so why waste the effort?I

I guess most bloggers will come to this point at sometime, and philosophically wonder what all this blogging is all about? I liken it to marathon running when at around the half way point of 26 miles you suddenly contemplate the distance ahead. At such times a runner hits a 'wall' of agony and that is when most people would quit...

Of course, I have never run a marathon, and would stake money on giving up around 200 metres, so I can only imagine what that feels like, but in blogging terms there has to be a time when the discipline of writing quality material seems heavily outweighed by every other duty that a person has. I write blogs for SalesVision and Nomis but in all honesty they are business orientated and the time I employ in writing for that I consider a job (though I enjoy it). This blog is written as an experiment in social media writing and is written in my spare time. Finding the time to write when I have a kid and Spouse-in waiting can be a tricky manouvre.

I never thought that blogging was an easy thing, and the marathon analogy is a good one. Let us hope that I get past that 'wall' and carry on the race...

Web Design Cowboys and how to spot one

2007-07-02T18:23:00.000Z

What do you think is the greatest obstacle to a professional web designer. Believe it or not, but up there at the top, one of the biggest hurdles that I face when pitching to a company about corporate web work is the already incumbent web designer who currently does that company's online work. Not altogether surprising, but then you wouldn't realise how many corporate web sites are made and maintained by someone who know's someone whose son is a web designer. Knowing a web designer isn't necessarily a bad thing, I do sites for friends and relatives for mates rates and help them out. What I am getting at with business sites relates to what luke says in our work blog about the cheap alternative proving more expensive in the long run.

The thing is, is that web designers are like builders, there are lot’s of them at varying degrees of standard and everyone knows ‘a friend of a friend’ who is one. Just because you know someone who’s cousin’s, friend’s, brother’s, bank accountant’s sister is a web designer and can probably get you a good deal, doesn't make it the right decision to choose that person. Cost rarely is a good decision in getting professional services. The real decision in today's world is what that person can achieve with the site that they create. With WYSIWYG programmes and off the shelf sites it really is simple for anyone to be a 'web designer'. However, with only limited knowledge of online marketing, social media, search engine optimisation etc. the cheap alternative is not altogether the most advantageous.

Coming a close second to the 'bedroom' site designed by the managing directors cousin, the other main competition I encounter is the "professionaly designed" site from a web design company. How many business sites today are created with state of the art content management systems, flash sites and glitzy graphics only to prove unwieldy, unmanageable and totaly inneffective for the purposes of the business it is aimed at serving? Quite a few.

To give an example of such a costly web mistake, I have seen tens of thousands of pounds spent on content management systems for companies whose sites don't bring in any business. To add to this, the company's that pay for this, rarely have the need to update their site catalogues or site structure to warrant a content management system in the first place. If you take into account what I said in my last post about measuring return on investment in webdesign then these companies are wasting money foolishly.

The two pitfalls a company can fall into in creating a web site is that of cost. On one hand, there is the designer who focuses on cost and saving money and on the other hand there is the other designer who smells profit and focuses on selling you a site that is all singing and dancing. Neither of these sites focuses on what should be at the heart of any web project, the ultimate goal of the site and it's return on investment.

How Do You Measure ROI on Web Sites?

2007-06-28T18:34:00.000Z

Generally speaking, I always think that if you make in direct attributable revenue from a web site the amount you put in to create it then that is a positive return on investment. A naive way of looking at it, and I can't say that I spend vast amounts of time calculating monetary value from a web site, but if your intention is to make money online then that I think is the minimum goal. Anything extra, of course is then profit.

This is quite simple if you are selling directly to someone because the measure of success is purely monetary in nature. The difficulty of course in measuring ROI is when either the product is too complex to sell via the internet or requires alternative methods of communication. What prompted me to write about this is due to a website I created for my brother in law who has started up a tree and garden business in Carmarthen. The site I created for him is simple, I didn't charge him and I spent the odd hours here and there doing it, and to tell you the truth it is no where near finished. Yet since it has been up, he has procured three jobs that would have covered the creation of a medium sized e-commerce site. Now, he knows that the phone calls have come via interest in the web site because he doesn't have any other form of marketing... and they told him that they called him after seeing his web site. Were he to have an alternative method of direct marketing then that phone call is more difficult to trace (other than asking outright where the caller has arrived from).

Harder still is when you are selling complex products like the company I work for, which sells CRM and sales management systems. The greater the investment the longer and more complex the process from sales prospect to close of deal. The corporate site may be one of many factors that a person may encounter in the build up to a sale from enquiring into products, costs and personell. They may visit several times over a period of months, but one thing is certain it is difficult to assess how much the site has played in the process. It is conceivable that they might not have resulted in your product if they had not seen your web site, certainly this is true if they first found you through organic search, but also even if they hadn't, it is also conceivable that if subsequent to a face to face meeting a prospect might visit your site to re-enforce knowledge and further research your products. The corporate site evidently fills different roles and must meet the expectation of every stage of a prospective sales process, but your site may not directly make any money. However, that doesn't mean it isn't a worthwhile investment.

So, how do you calculate ROI? In my opinion this is not the right question. What should be asked is how do you calculate the loss of not having an effective web site? And by effective, I mean any way that you would gain any advantage on the web, be it a useful contact, exposure to different markets or just a central resource for existing clients. Take away that site and you open up the opportunity of the web world finding your competitor and having another option other than the one they would have had if they found you.

Web Design Mistakes: What I look for...

2007-06-27T18:24:00.000Z

Let me give you a little insight into what happens when someone asks about webdesign. Most people today have a web site, especially businesses, so the majority of corporate web work that I get professionaly is companies that have existing web sites. Now, this might seem obvious, but a webdesigner when they get an opportunity to critique a current web site is always going to look for problems in design and coding that he can exploit if you like, the opportunity of getting work. This is natural, and before you take offense to the word "exploit", the difference between an objective critique and an "rob you blind" critique is all about ethics not motive. Every web designer/developer is out to gain business, the difference between some is that they can justify the need to change or rework a site through necessity not just cosmetically.

I for instance will look for tell tale signs of 'old fashioned' design, for instance the over reliant use of tables or javascript making the code of the website run like a monk reading the magna carta. My boss has a particular bug-bear and will always look for 'mailto' tags and then invariably sigh in disgust as all too often he finds them. He alludes to it in his blog article on 'business web design' and the point we are really looking for is whether the current design is relevant and can handle the rigours of modern day business objectives.

'Mailto' tags have been around since the middle ages of webdesign and are an archaic form of contacting someone that is tantamount to waving ones arms, jumping up and down and requesting the spamming world to supply you with a lifetimes supply of viagra, with a side order of plastic surgery for various appendages. If a site has this as a part of it's web strategy (and you will be surprised how many have) what hope have you in the rest of the design. Similarly, there are still sites (and I mean business sites, not personal) who grin and impressively show off their brand new site designed in flash. I design flash sites as part of my portfolio, but I don't do many, and if I do I expressly make sure the client knows exactly what they are getting into and that they are in effect making themselves blind to search engines. In fact I make it a priority that I will not design a site in flash unless a client definitely isn't bothered about search engine optimisation. For a business site, flash is a no-no of the highest order.

Basics I know, but you will be surprised at how many people are still getting sites designed like this...

My Grief For A Fallen Soldier

2007-06-22T08:59:00.000Z

I apologise, this diverges from the remit of what I intended to write on this blog...

I met Paul a several months ago at a party and over what could only be a few hours I instantly liked him. he had a sense of humour that I really understood and thought at the time how unlike a soldier he was, not in looks as it was evident that he was a man who was physically very fit (and someone whom you wouldn't want the mistake of starting a fight with), but in the easy going, confident but not over-bearing personality. I realise now that I had a stereotypical prejudice of a soldier and what I expected a soldier to be, Paul was not and cured me of that natural assumption.

I remember then, that I had some trepidation when I learnt that he was due to go on a tour in Iraq, and I remember also my rationale of "accepted risk and a soldiers lot" that I convinced myself at the time. I also remember glancing through the paper and skim reading the Independant this morning and recall the all too regular short paragraph about the "152nd British casualty" of Iraq. I didn't read further and even if I did it wouldn't have registered. It was a shock then that shortly after I got into work my fiance called and said that her friends husband Paul was that person. It was a shock and surprise at how badly I am taking this and a reflection of the impression that Paul had on me in such a short time. It is doubly hard to empathise with the grief with Paul's family whom I met and bonded with at that very same party. It seems very hollow to wish condolensces and prayers at this time, but my thoughts go to them nonetheless.

I am aware of the hyprocisy of the situation. I have read many such headlines over the years and every family that this awful tragedy has gone through has had to endure unimaginable fear for loved ones serving and equally unimaginable grief at news of such tragedy. I have always sympathised when such news appears on the TV but other than a disassociated political anger I have never been moved to do anything about it. Hell, what could I do about it? It is our selfish nature I think that only when personaly affected does anything hit us at all. And though I think that generaly, I attribute that mostly to myself as well. All I can say is that the strong feeling of grief that I have for Paul's loss will affect me deeply, and the same thoughts that go to his family will go to all those who have suffered the same and unfortunately will do so in the future.

To put this into context read the BBC Story of Major Paul Harding and the tributes to his character at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6227978.stm .

Will Public Transport Ever Be Number One?

2007-06-19T19:40:00.000Z

In my last bike related rant I said that I was restricted to riding at 70mph. This was due to some severe maintenance issues which included:

A dodgy chain which were it to snap would have posed some interesting problems on a motorway (hence why I resisted unnecessary speed and staying in the left lanes) and
a broken rear suspension which feels like a hefty kick in the brussel sprouts every time I ride over a pot hole.

For the past week and a half, I have had the dubious pleasure, due to garaging the bike for a much needed makeover, of taking public transport to work from Winchester to Camberley, a journey that normaly takes me 45 minutes. I won't hold back in my appraisal of the state of this country's public transport system by saying it is certainly the worst I have ever encountered.

To get to work, I have had to get a bus into town, the timing and regularity of which I think must be ordained by the national lottery. A train journey from Winchester to Farnborough isn't that much more reassuring in reliability, but at least I can pay up the nose for the privilege, and then at Farnborough I wait 20 minutes for a bus to take me to Camberley. The journey takes me just under two hours and over a week I have spent £75 in travel....

Have I missed something here? In a world where carbon emissions is being spouted by every politician on every idealogical divide, doesn't it figure that if you want to cut polution and encourage people to drive less then there has to be an alternative. I certainly don't have any compulsion to volutarily take public transport, though I might want to do my bit for the environment, the facts are quite simple. I spend less and get places much quicker and with far less hassle if I just rode my bike.

It is an absolute disgrace that in an economy that we live in that basic services are so poor and so expensive. When I visited India a few years ago, I traveled a transport system that technologically would not have been out of place in the 30's and yet the punctuality of service embarrasses the shambling unhappy experience we put up with in this country.

I just hope it doesn't take too much longer to fix my bike, I really need a lie in...

Where Do Good Bloggers Get Their Material?

2007-06-18T19:22:00.000Z

Future Mrs. Biker told me the other day that there were only 7 basic stories in the world with only variations on theme that diiferentiate from the masses of stories published. This discussion ensued due to one of my favourite ramblings on the 'unoriginality of Harry Potter' and what is basically a collection of different ideas collected from C.S Lewis to the 'Worst Witch' books that I remember from when I was a kid. At this point, I would add that, though I have laboured to stay true to my principles, I have, like many millions, actually got quite addicted to the books.

Anyway, back to my point about originality. Though I don't have much to back my better half's statement, the idea that nothing is original is rather an obvious one, the more so when it comes to blogging when you add the many millions of people who decide that they have something to say. I read once, that the age of traditional journalism has been superseded by amateur editorial's brought on by the web 2.0 phenomenon and blogging is by far the most journalistic medium that people are using to express themselves. However, what is evident is that a great deal of us can't all be unique and original in what we post.

The only original content that bloggers really can aspire to providing is unique knowledge of which there is little going around. The successful bloggers in industry are usually in places where they have access to important knowledge, so people like Vanessa Fox, Matt Cutts etc. have a healthy position to base blogging on. The rest of us have to base our blogging on conjecture and debate and where a person is without a source of unique knowledge of interest to others, their success is based on interpreting, debating and cogitating already known fact in ways that appeal to other people.

The sign of a good blogger really has to be in the ability to read and then formulate new ideas. Since I started blogging, the greatest time that I have spent is in reading other people's work, and that I think is one of the secrets to being a successful blogger. Time will tell if this experimental blog will become popular but I know the direction that I should be going.

2007-06-15T20:32:00.000Z

Came accross this while blog wandering and couldn't help find it amusing. Ever since I've been a kid, I have been one of the biggest Star Wars fans (and truth to tell, still am.. but not the new films). I am not a typical 'geek' in the fact that I am rather technophobic (ironic as I am a web developer), I don't spend 23 hours a day on a computer and I can't stand gimmicky 'cool' sites like Facebook and Myspace. However, the whole Star Wars thing really is a serious step towards geekdom. I take solace in the fact that in biking gear most people will be too intimidated to stress this point.

Anyway, anything that makes me smile is good in my books and I liked quite a few cartoons in the serious so, I strongly recommend checking it out if you haven't already done so.

Blog Linking is a Selfish Act

2007-06-14T07:36:00.000Z

Reading Andy Beard’s article on the reasons why people link to each other, I realised that I did actually fit into quite a few categories when it came to linking and commenting on peoples blogs. This isn’t something that I am ashamed of, I link to Andy’s blog because I regularly read it and feel by linking to his blog I am showing a relevance to what I write about as well as showing a resource that readers might not have known. Similarly, I would be inclined to link to people who comment regularly, and certainly would link to people I know, besides I link to my work blog which isn’t a selfless act.

There are many reasons that people link to each other and all of them are selfish (I don't think Andy is cycnical here, just a realist). Just as I don’t work for a living giving away my services for free or product vendors don’t sell their wares at cost prices there is one thing that is prevalent in society in general and that nothing is free. There is nothing in the internet world or the real world that offers something for nothing. The next time Tesco are offering a 2 for 1 offer, they aren’t doing that for their own welfare, these loss leaders are intended to raise awareness and pull in extra customers to spend on their other products. So, in most cases there is no such thing as a selfless act, there is always an agenda.

This is not to mean that everything that we do has a seedy motivation. The very idea of social interaction and networking in any environment is to gain knowledge to achieve ones ends and gain new ideas to overcome obstacles that may present in everyday life. Blogging is only an extension of ways in which we can gain that contact with other people. The next time I link to someone it is going to be a selfish act. The selfish act is most likely to involve gaining new ideas and contacts, promoting conversation so that I can learn new things and contribute to other dialogues and exchanging knowledge. If there was no benefit to me in the long run, then I wouldn't do it. It's as simple as that.

Blogging is just one big Childrens Playground for Adults

2007-06-13T07:43:00.000Z

I was talking to the future Mrs. Biker the other day about blogging and she turned around and said to me "I don't get blogging, it's just filled with millions of useless, childish uninteresting ramblings. I hate reading the mundane trivialities of people who have nothing to say".

I replied that a great proportion of blogs are just like that and most within a few weeks just stop and give up because they realise that after the one or two things that they really wanted to say, it was in fact quite difficult to continue writing interesting material week in week out. However, there are blogs out there that are useful and popular and if you have the material and the dedication then it is worth attempting.

She wasn't convinced. And then it occurred to me that there was an analogy that is quite appropriate to blogging. Here is what I should have said to her..

Do you remember the first time you went to secondary school at 11 years old. Usually this is the biggest move a child makes and entering a huge building filled with people you don't know is a daunting place. I remember the first break time wandering around the school yard filled with thousands of people who scared me witless. I will admit that I didn't enjoy my first day at the bigger school.

But after a few days you make friends and start hanging around with people you do like. That school yard is still filled with thousands, and you can't hope that you will connect or befriend all of them but having a few friends makes this all irrelevant. Similarly, the playground is full of different kinds of people, some will not like you, some are indifferent and some will openly like you when you meet them. Being a child in a playground is all about finding a small network of people that relate to you.

Blogging is no different, it is filled with a multitude of people and it is unrealistic to assume you can connect with everyone, but after a while if you persevere you will have your own little circle of people who relate to you. It is realistic to assume that you will encounter many more people who may or may not like what you do. Blogging isn't always about shouting to absolutely everyone in the world, but is more about finding a network within the multitude so that you can connect with people who relate to you. The other's whom you don't connect with are not important.

I think I'll try this with her.

Selling SEO isn't as Easy as You Think

2007-06-08T12:22:00.000Z

A client comes to me requesting a quote for a web site to be built. The first thing I ask is what do you want your web site to do?, and invariably I will get the answer on the lines of "I want my web site to pull in clients from searches as well as showcase my products and services". OK, so in fact you are looking at your site as a lead generation tool or in some way to fill a sales need. Yes.

So I go away and and map out what I think would be a good model of site that over time could be effective in achieving these needs with all the work involved by both client and myself in getting to that level. When I explain what is involved, the client looks puzzled and replies "all I was looking for was a six page website with a little bit about the company, a nice design and a products section with a list of our products with pictures next to it... oh and when you click the picture it opens up a larger version of that picture so that they can look in more detail".

Usually at this point, I am trying to keep calm...

You see, working for a company that specialises in sales and marketing, I have learnt a lot more than new methods of web development, but also a good deal in the principles of sales cycles and buying cyles. In this situation, the client already has a firm idea of what kind of product he is looking for, the fact that the product he is looking for and the initial statement of intention he made don't match, are immaterial. Selling anything requires a meeting of minds in what is expected at the completion of a contract. There is no use me offering to mow someone's garden when they might only need some hedges trimming. Unfortunately, when selling abstract idea's or services, clearly defining what the product is, can be a difficult process.

There are some clients who can never be convinced of the merits of a certain action, and with SEO, blogging, social media, internet phones etc. there will be a certain percentage of customers who cannot be persuaded of the merits of it's uses. I have clients today, who are satisfied with six page web sites. I knaw my own thumbs in exasperation when I look at some major industry companies who have web sites dating back to the 90's. Sometimes, in my job, I succeed in convincing a client that his idea of a product and a product that will pay dividends in the future are different, sometimes I don't. I am still happy to take work designing sites that won't work if they are adamant, but I will fight hard in trying to convince them of the proper ways.

There is a maxim "The customer always know right", and it is a maxim I am not always fond of, because they don't. However, what this maxim does point out, is that in any sales based system to sell a service or product the customers expectations are the critical factor in making a sale. You can't sell an all singing all dancing search engine optimised site if the customer wants something else..

Web Design - Be Seen But Not Seen

2007-06-06T18:14:00.000Z

I started a thread in a forum about six months ago asking "What good design was?" which was based on a curiousity on my part initialy to see what kind of web sites people associated with 'good design'. I got varying answers ranging from things like good content, to any thing that made a site work well. Not one, said that web design involved making a site look good. Why is this?

Web sites serve a purpose, and today with everyone seemingly obsessed with Search Engine Placement, web traffic, keyword density, conversions etc. the thing that most people really want a web site to do is simply to be successful, whether it is getting subscribed readers on a blog to selling items on an e-commerce site.

When I started web design some years ago it was towards the end of the 'flash' generation of sites where everyone had to have a flash site to show off their design. This proved a huge turn off and the internet bubble collapse can, I think, be laid in some part at designers who viewed creating sites as an extension of a portfolio of ones ego. This in turn has lead to a shift in perception in designing for the internet away from aesthetics but more towards usability and effeciency. What people don't realise is that the two are integral. Why don't people think web design is about making a site look good. Because they don't notice. The art of designing for the internet is making a design of the site that complements usability, effeciency and every other SEO technique that you are going to implement BUT also makes a site look nice without detracting from the main purpose of the site.

Ask yourself this question, can you remember the music for the last Oscar awarded film score? I can't, usually because film music is meant to be so subtle you don't notice it. Watch the same film without the music and the same effect isn't achieved. The same is said for a web sites design? If you like a site, then chances are they have spent a great deal of time thinking of designing it to achieve this effect.

Nofollow and Social Censorship

2007-06-05T18:30:00.000Z

It is sometimes difficult to comprehend that it has been over twelve years since Google first came out with the answer to spamming in the form of the 'nofollow' tag. This in internet terms is a very long time, so it is doubly surprising that people are getting quite upset about it now, and for good reason. With the proliferation of blogging around the world, more and more people are getting to terms with SEO and the importance of inbound links, this in turn has resulted in a tidal wave of dubious methods of obtaining links, spam comments being one of them.

Now, I have always developed and designed sites specifically for hosted servers and the SalesVision blog that I regularly contribute to is also hosted on our servers, so I only came accross this problem very recently when I decided to dabble with a personal blog on blogger. The problem as I see it, is that free blogging software is open to abuse, but is also the only option available to someone who cannot afford to host their own blogging platform or server space. Yet, that doesn't mean that those people's voice or opinion matters less than someone who can host their own site.

Spamming is an increasingly big problem and terribly annoying but the answer is not to cut every person's voice. Nofollow is in effect social censorship in that in order to prevent one part of a community from breaking the rules, everyone suffers. I don't doubt the intentions behind the action, but the internet is a place where ideas are shared and networks and communities are created. I know that without the incentive of creating relevant linking then discussions themselves will evaporate. I for one am more than willing to cope with some spam or look for other methods of dealing with it than preventing social commentary.

I am terribly new to 'no follow' and I would like to thank Andy Beards list of nofollow remedies which in turn pointed me to webstractions blogger 'nofollow' removal tip . I would also highly recommend the bumpzee nofollow community where I found all this information.

70mph - Probably the Most Dangerous Speed in the World

2007-06-02T10:47:00.000Z

It didn't take long but here is my first bike related post which I promise won't outway any possible useful material on this blog in the future.

Let us just say that 70mph has been forced on me for reasons that I will not divulge. I travel day in day out on the M3 to get to work, and I have decided that 70mph (the legal speed limit just in case you forgot) isn't at all safe, especially for a biker. The reasons for this include the following:

Cars of the business class variety who think that travelling 70 is holding them up and that it is ok to drive 30cm behind me to let me know this fact.
Cars in general. Next time actually try driving at 70 and see what happens. You will be the slowest vehicle on the motorway barring some (but not all) lorries.
Stopping distances. People in cars don't think stopping distances apply to them. The false sense of security you get while driving a car means that even if you hit someone you have a steel shell to protect you. Guess what, bikes don't have that. I ride with a stopping distance in front of me because if I hit someone, I am likely to suffer a severe form of death. The space in front of me is NOT an invitation to pull in front of me.

And some people wonder why bikers ride fast...