Fab Gas is run by Andy Benson, he has a team of gas safe registered plumbers working all over Leeds. He helps domestic customers with problems ranging from a leaking pipe to boiler repairs. This website was build using Skypanel so the customer is able to change the website when ever they needs, view the site here: Fab Gas Leeds

Kingston CAD

Kingston CAD provide computer aided design 3D modelling to a variety of business in the UK, they are based in Hull and they came to us to upgrade their website. The old website was quite dull and did not feature much imagery. Lee was keen to introduce some renders of the 3D models that the company had designed, you can see the end result here: Kingston CAD.

I then obviously had to go through all of the sites on the server to find the depreciated functions & I used Dreamweaver’s search by regular expression to do this, which is a quick way to find these functions.

Paste this code into your find box:

(call_user_method([\s]+)?\(|call_user_method_array([\s]+)?\(|define_syslog_variables([\s]+)?\(| dl([\s]+)?\(|ereg([\s]+)?\(|ereg_replace([\s]+)?\(|eregi([\s]+)?\(|eregi_replace([\s]+)?\(|set_magic_quotes_runtime([\s]+)?\(|session_register([\s]+)?\(|session_unregister([\s]+)?\(|session_is_registered([\s]+)?\(|set_socket_blocking([\s]+)?\(| split([\s]+)?\(|spliti([\s]+)?\(|sql_regcase([\s]+)?\(|mysql_db_query([\s]+)?\(|mysql_escape_string([\s]+)?\()

In the “Find in” box select entire local site & make sure you have the tickbox “Use regular expression” ticked – this will then find all of the depreciated functions in that particular local site… awesome.

John the plumber provides a first rate plumbing service to the homes and businesses of Leeds.

Plumber in Leeds

Yorkshire Windscreens

The Autoglaziers specialise in windscreen repair and windscreen replacement, they cover most of Yorkshire including Leeds and Wakefield.

Windscreen repair Leeds

Drain Clearance Leeds

CDC Draincare are a long established drain clearing company covering Leeds.

Drain clearance Leeds

Skip Hire Leeds

Aireborough Skip Hire offer a wide range of skips from minis to maxi skips, they offer great prices and free delivery.

Skip hire Leeds

A couple of websites launched for July:

Trials UK

Trials UK is an online store and community hub for trials riders. Their old site needed an overhaul to take their business to the next level, I designed and built a custom ecommerce platform from scratch to run the site exactly how they wanted with no compromise.

Visit The Trials UK website

Builders in Yorkshire

A strong online presence for Leeds based builders, Whitkirk Building Services. We’ve done this one on a per call basis!

Builders in Leeds

Towbars Leeds

Another website on a per call basis, a refreshing and content rich website for Leeds based towbar fitter and retailer.

Visit the Towbars Leeds website

Leeds Roofing

Website for a Leeds based roofing company.

Visit the Leeds Roofing website

MOT Bradford

Website for a car service centre in Bradford offering the cheapest MOTs in the region.

Visit the MOT Bradford website

If you would like to pay for a website only once it’s generating leads for your business, go here for more info: Pay per call websites.

Well the recession may be over for the UK but it certainly seems over for Simon Green Motor Engineers! Is this a result of their new website?

The website has was launched on November 5th 2009, since then Simon has received more traffic and more calls though the website than ever before.

In January 2010 the website received 853 unique visitors, 537 of which came from highly relevant search terms on Google, this lead to 191 calls, this roughly equates to one in every 4 and a half visitors calling in – that is a staggering conversion rate!

The website has achieved some very impressive results on Google (UK), bearing in mind its only been live for 3 months!

• Car Servicing Leeds – Position 2
• BMW Servicing Leeds – Position 8
• Citroen Servicing Leeds – Position 9
• Ford Servicing Leeds – Position 5
• Honda Servicing Leeds – Position 3

(Positions on Google UK taken on 02/02/2010 22:46 GMT)

These should continue to grow throughout the year and will hopefully bring Simon more record breaking months this year.

When it’s done right it gets results, period.

This website and the results it has yielded for the company over the first few months is proof in practice as to why it pays to do it right. The website is a great sales and conversion tool because:

1. It looks clean fresh and professional
2. The copy and content is light and flowing
3. Its built correctly to current accessibility guidelines
4. The photography is professional, genuine and believable, not cliché stock images
5. The pages have been optimised for specific keywords to yield the best results

This project I could not have done without the help of Media Spy who provided the copy and the phone number tracking software and also Clear Lens Photography who did an excellent job of the photography.

Can I do the same for your business?

I’ll try my damn best, give me a call on 0800 611 8222 for a chat and I’ll see what I can do for you.

Skypanel will be launching a new website in the coming months that will showcase the CMS, publish available add-ons and serve as a support hub for customers.

I’m going to be working very hard on a dedicated support area that will be available to customers subscribed to Skypanel support. This section will feature tutorial videos that will demonstrate the basic functions of the CMS.

Watch this space: http://www.skypanelcms.com

Lets start with a simple form:

<form action="send.php" method="post">
Name: <input type="text" name="Name" /><br />
Email: <input type="text" name="Email" /><br />
Message: <textarea name="message"></textarea>
<input type="submit" value="Send" />
</form>

And now for send.php

//Where is it being sent?
$destination = "test@test.com";
//Thats all you need to do!

$message = "<html>
<body style=\"font-family:Arial; font-size:10pt;\">
Hello,<br>
You have recieved a submission through the form on your website:<br><br>
";
//Gather posted variables:
foreach($_POST as $keys => $vars){
$message .= "<b>$keys</b>: $vars<br>";
}
$message .= "
</body>
</html>
";

mail($destination,"Form Submission",$message,"From: $email\n".
"Content-Type: text/html; charset=\"iso-8859-1\"\n".
"Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit\n".
"MIME-Version: 1.0\n");

Let me know how you get on!

So version 3.3 marks the start of Skypanel as a licensed product. Clients still have the option to buy unlicensed… Heres some of the new features and changes I’ve implemented for this version.

1. New, more user friendly GUI.
   The GUI (Graphical User Interface) has been modified to highlight important elements & make the whole system easier to use.
2. Backup Functionality.
   Now users can create backup points for Skypanel, so if something happens to your content you can restore to a saved point. Clients can also subscribe to additional backup functionality, that automatically backs your website up every night and transfers it to a secure server!
   
3. Drag and drop page order in Sitemap plugin.
   Users can now sort their website pages easily with a simple drag and drop system.
4. Page preview function.
   You can now preview the content of your pages as it would look on your website.
5. More intuitive page creation layout.
   I’ve added extra functionality to add and edit pages to make the process easier, and more intuitive.
6. Dedicated support line: 0844 884 9880.
   Support is going to be more structured and more readily accessible. Users with a subscription receive this service for free!

If you would like to discuss upgrading or implementing the latest version of Skypanel to your website or to see a demonstration, please call me: 0800 611 8222!

Captcha forms, having to type in obscure numbers and letters into a form to verify you’re a human is almost as annoying as receiving spam its self. I’ve spent some time thinking about an alternative to a captcha form that still detects if the form submission is spam without the need for users to enter an annoying code, here is the solution I’d like to share with you.

The theory is as follows; when a spam bot comes to your website, it does not see your website as regular users, nicely styled with CSS… it sees code, specifically forms, textareas and text inputs, then it fills them out and submits the form.

How do you stop this without a captcha form?

Create a text input field & hide it with CSS.

<div class="hidebox">
Please leave blank: <input type="text" name="gotcha" />
</div>

Create a textbox that the bot will presume is just a field it can exploit with rubbish and label it with an indicator to let any viewers without the privileges of CSS know that it is to be left blank.

Disregard submissions with a value for this field.

if($_POST["gotcha"]!=""){
header("Location: {$_SERVER[HTTP_REFERER]}");exit;
}

The above example is in PHP, it basically aborts the script if there is a value entered for the field!

I’ve been running this on my website and websites I’ve built for the last year or so and it has cut out all spam, give it a try let me know how you get on!

1. Reset password function.
   If you’ve forgot your password you can now reset it yourself via email.
2. More concise and easy to use page content editor.
   We’ve done a lot of work on the TinyMCE page content editor, cutting out the confusing features and focused on improving the fundamental functions. We’ve even added a basic help section to guide you through the basics.
   
3. File uploader and browser.
   Skypanel users will now be able to upload documents and files and add them to pages of their website.
4. Editable sitemap tree.
   Users can build their own website structure with no technical knowledge, add pages with sub-pages and custom widget style elements to each page.
5. Spell Checking and Auto-save.
   Our content editor will now allow users to spell check their page content, SkyPanel will also auto-save your content every 3 minutes, so you’ll never have to worry about loosing your work.

If you would like to discuss upgrading or implementing the latest version of SkyPanel to your website or to see a demonstration, please call us: 0800 611 8222!