Shifted Pixels Blog

Do you want better web design?

noreply@blogger.com (Stewart) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:31:00 +0000

Shifted Pixels have been designing websites for over three years and I have been a web designer for over 8 years, its easy for some people to forget that people don't have the same computer hardware that we develop our websites on, such as large screens and ultra fast processors. I’ve always found it interesting that TV show web sites are Flash based and loaded with images and video. It’s as if they are built for an elite group of TV watchers and everyone else doesn’t matter.

At a large family gathering, where family and friends of the family came to eat and relax at the shore, someone asked what I do for a living. When it was discovered that I help companies design better websites, I was bombarded with feedback about their experiences. The most outspoken people were over 50 years old. They were smart, not afraid of computers and had up to date computers and Internet connections. They were more likely to have time to browse.

What bothered them were poor user interface issues. They couldn’t find what they wanted without a lot of hassle. Pages were too busy, too long or too boring. Navigation was the area they all agreed on as being the worst. Drop down navigation menus? Hate them. Shopping cart checkout navigation frustrated them. They weren’t so concerned with privacy as much as they just wanted to get in, accomplish their task and get out without resistance.

Experience the user experience

This summer I got the pleasure of heading off on a bit of a holiday, as navigator, I relied on my mobile phone for directions. When the GPS chose to work, using Google maps on my phone, we were able to follow the tiny blue dot and know what direction we going. When I needed to call ahead to one of the campgrounds we booked for a night, in every single case their web site was a user nightmare. Something as obvious as a phone number and address on the homepage was missing from all of them. Their navigation was not designed for mobile devices. Every task took a long time and incredible patience.

User interface design is for everybody

I began to wonder at the wide gap between those who have been using the Internet for the past 15 years and those who are new to it. When I ask a site owner for their site requirements, they typically don’t have any or they are limited in scope. Most will say, “We don’t care about dial-up users”, but I know for a fact they still exist. Most will say they that accessibility is not in the plan or might be in the future. That decision has cost them another part of the population, including someone who has a broken hand they would normally use to guide their mouse. Nearly everyone forgets to design a site that can be accessed by mobile devices. They don’t realise that Flash and PDF files require a plug-in to work and most cell phones are not enabled.

There was a time when we used to say, “Build it and they will come,” regarding web site design. But those days are long gone. Today’s environment is competitive. In the case of retail sites, even a search on an SKU number can bring up 30 different sites selling the exact same item. Split tests are done for link labels or different layouts. I tend to flunk them. For some reason, I vote against the majority. I’m that tiny percent who liked it the “old” way. I didn’t need snazzy or big. But, because the test results indicate most users wanted snazzy or big, this is what the design team will make. They’ll do this even if those votes came from people who would not ordinarily use their web site.

I’ve long felt we’re missing something with the way we go about user testing. There’s a lot of advice to go out and get 5 random people, show them something and get their feedback. Companies pay for random people. I would rather spend time out in the field, with targeted users who have used the site or fall into the targeted group of intended users. I would prefer to watch them in their natural environment. That would mean being in a motor home, with restless dogs and a kid playing the electronic keyboard while another one is yelling that he can’t concentrate to read and watching the mom struggling to find directions somewhere in South Sydney using a cell phone with a screen smaller than a match box.

Understanding the true user experience, for me, means actually going out and experiencing what your site users are going through. Since this is not always a practical option, stand back from your project. Visualize how your friends, family, neighbors, customers in certain circumstances or those with limited incomes, Internet access and computer experience might respond to your design. There is so much we have yet to learn about the real day to day Internet user experience.

7 Considerations for Tracking Social Media Success

noreply@blogger.com (Stewart) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 06:41:00 +0000

As more and more websites and business are jumping on the social media bandwagon many questions has arisen:

Is it possible to track metrics and ROI?
What are other companies doing?
Why isn’t it working?

Being prepared to answer questions like these can make a difference in how a company interacts with social media and if they can succeed.

As with any kind of marketing efforts, each business has their own objectives and reasons behind reaching there customers via social media. That means different methods and approaches to the listening, monitoring and measuring of both social web and web marketing. Now we have 7 considerations that must be considering with any tracking of social media success.

Quality over Quantity
Hearing vs. Listening
Engage & Participate
Social Media is About Being Where the Conversation Is.
Assign Value to Get Value.
Define an Objective.
Social Media is An Investment.

If you want to read more on this please click here

Can social media actually cause social change?

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Vaughan) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 05:56:00 +0000

Today the Sydney Morning Herald had an interesting article about if social media can actual cause change after The Hopetone hotel unexpectively closed it's doors Monday night, almost instantly a facebook group called "Save the Hopetoun Hotel" group to over 8000 within two days, prompting wide spread media attention and support.

According to comScore, almost 9 million Australians visited a social networking site in June - a 29 per cent jump from last year.

The article also mentioned the outpore of consumers disgusted by the new vegimite's "iStack 2.0" name, and how this consumer backlash has left Vegimite with no other choice but to select a new name.

Click here to read the rest of the article

Why Your Company Needs Social Media

noreply@blogger.com (Stewart) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 06:29:00 +0000

Why Your Company Needs Social Media: Sales, Retention & Customer Service

There are case studies abound of how big brands such as Zappos, Jet Blue, Comcast, etc. have put social media into action and the success that they’ve had with it. Can small businesses be just as successful using social media? Absolutely! There are many advantages of using social media during the sales process for customer service, sales prospecting and customer retention for small businesses.

With the state of the current economy, social media networks are even more critical to companies, especially small businesses. Social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Ustream and Youtube, are all extra avenues that a small business has at its fingertips to increase sales.

Here is the top 5 reasons why social media is an important requirement for your companies success.

Sales Prospecting
Customer Service
Sales Retention

If you would like to find out to use social media to connect with your customers click here to read on

Timeline of Search Engine History

noreply@blogger.com (Stewart) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 05:53:00 +0000

Search engines have changed the way we find information, conduct research, shop for products and presents, entertain ourselves and connect with others. Behind almost every online destination, social network, cell phone and online newspaper is a search engine. Search engines have become the connecting force and directional guide to everyday life.

This year, we’ve witnessed the consolidation of search, with the blockbuster Microsoft Yahoo partnership, the launch of Microsoft and Google becoming more and more dominant and diversified. But how did this all start?

Remember when Google powered Yahoo? Remember when Google was Backrub?

We’ve put together a timeline of the history of search engines to understand the roots of this technology which has become such an important part of our world.

Click Above to Expand the Search Engine History Timeline in your Browser Window

Notable Search Engine Milestones :

1994 : Yahoo! created by Stanford University students Jerry Wang and David Filo in a campus trailer. Yahoo was originally an Internet bookmark list and directory of interesting sites.

1996 : Sergey Brin and Larry Page, two Stanford University students test Backrub, a new search engine which ranks sites based on inbound link relevancy and popularity. Backrub would ultimately become Google.

1998 : Goto.com launches with Sponsored Links and paid search. Advertisers bid on Goto.com to rank above organic search results which were powered by Inktomi. Goto.com is ultimately acquired by Yahoo.

2000 : Yahoo partners with Google and lets Google power their organic results instead of Inktomi. Beforehand Google was a little known search engine. The end result, Yahoo introduces their largest competitor to the world and Google becomes a household name.

2003 : Google launches AdSense after acquiring Blogger.com. AdSense serves contextually targeted Google AdWords ads on publisher sites. The mix of AdSense and Blogger.com leads to a surge in monetized simple Internet publishing and a blogging revolution.

2006 : Google acquires user generated video sharing network YouTube which ultimately becomes the 2nd most used search property in the world. Google is still working on properly monetizing YouTube.

2009 : In an attempt to challenge Google’s 70% grip of the search market, Yahoo and Microsoft join forces to partner on a 10 year search deal. And the future is now.

Source: Search Engine Journal

4 Easy ways your business can benefit from Social Media

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Vaughan) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 23:51:00 +0000

Social media is in the limelight right now, and I bet your wondering the best way your business can benefit from it, we have 4 easy steps to get your business on top.

1- Get to Know Your Audience

Social media is full of groups, fan pages, and other things that make it relatively easy to find an audience that is already interested in your topic or industry.

Use search.twitter.com to see what people are talking about
Get a Facebook account if you don’t have one already and look for relevant groups and fan pages.

2- Managing Your Reputation

Social media is a great way to keep an eye on the conversations that are happening online and respond to them. In fact, many companies have employees dedicated to watching the online conversations about their company and addressing them.

Once again, you can use search.twitter.com to keep an eye on any conversations going on in the world of Twitter that relate to your brand.
One of the best Social Media Monitoring platform is Buzz Numbers check out what they can do for your businesses reputation

3- Promotions

Promotion is nothing new to the internet, but it hits new levels with social media. If you push the right message through the right channels you can reach a lot of people.

The key here is that you have to already have a lot of connections, especially with people that are willing to push the information to their followers as well. Twitter’s Retweet (RT) feature is very useful for this. If someone finds a story, blog post, or promotion interesting, they can just pass it on by doing a simple Retweet.

4- SEO and Traffic Benefits

Social media is also a great way to have a lot of links built to your site. As a page is promoted on different networks people are going to be linking to it. These links will include tweets, bookmarks, and even blogs. All of these links can help improve the authority of your site and lead to higher rankings in the search results.

Read more ways social media can help your business

10 Ways to be a great social media user

noreply@blogger.com (Stewart) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 23:40:00 +0000

I read Matt Leonard’s post on 10 Ways to be a Great SEO a while back and thought it would be great to put a social spin on it. Without further ado, here are 10 ways you can help build your social network/portfolio.

1. Socialize

Remember when your mom dropped you off for Kindergarten and told you to go make lots of friends? This is essentially the same thing, choose your social portal and use it for the reason it was made: SOCIAL NETWORKING. If you’re working on Twitter, be sure to speak with those you’re following and get to know them. I’d much rather have >1000 followers that I actively engage with than tens or hundreds of thousands of people I’ve never said word one too.

If the social news sites are where your focus is, be sure to network with the friends you find there. Go beyond just voting on their stories, comment and share them with others in your group. Not only will your friends begin to notice, but they’ll reciprocate.

2. Diversify

If your goal is better brand yourself or just simply to network, choose more than just one outlet to do that. Twitter is probably one of the best ways of interacting with your followers, but adding those same connections to Facebook or LinkedIn tends to take that relationship to a different level where you can share connections, photos and more. In my opinion it helps to solidify the friendship that you were building on the other portals.

3. Participate

It’s one thing to have a Twitter or Digg account, it’s another to use them. Twitter currently has over 70% of accounts that are considered “inactive”. I’ve had periods of time where Twitter was the last thing on my mind and with the myriad of ways I could update my status, I just didn’t want to. I feel like I’ve missed out on a bunch of things and have let some relationships stagnate because of those deserted periods.

One way to make your Digg, Reddit or StumbleUpon account obsolete is to ignore it. I’ve unfortunately found that out the hard way, but I’ve also talked with many people who’ve had the same problem. Accounts just aren’t as strong and don’t garner the votes they used to when you socialized and participated in the past.

4. Contribute

Sites like Digg and other social news sites wouldn’t even be around with the submissions of its users. I’ll take this a step further and say you should really contribute quality articles (there’s enough spam as it is already). Along with supporting your friends’ accounts, build up your own by constantly looking and submitting good articles. Digg/Reddit/SU users notice someone who submits quality over quantity.

5. Be Real

Whether the account is your own personal one or business’s, don’t be fake…anyone can smell a fake from a mile away. A great example of this is the @10e20 account, there’s a great mixture of comedy, news-worthy links and communication amongst its followers. I gather the added snarkiness has come from bringing @rebeccakelley to the team :) Be who you are and who you know how to be and you will get REAL followers that want to follow you because of what you say and what you share.

6. Consistency

As I stated above, I highly regret the depressions in usage on Twitter in the past. Hubspot did a pretty interesting article on the optimum number of tweets per day to gain the most followers. While those graphs are nifty, I think this goes back to my previous mention of being real. If you’re a talkative person, tweet to your hearts desire. Don’t feel obligated to tweet/digg/submit a certain amount of times per day because it’s “statistically better”, that’s when things can get sloppy. Find what works best for you and stick with it.

7. Be Meaningful

Above all, the thing that will make you shine the most is to show people that you actually give a crap! So many people out there are trying to reach that 10,000th follower or reach a certain number of front page stories they’ve submitted. My philosophy is, if you continue to do the simple things listed in this article, you’ll eventually get there. It may not be the path that gets you there the quickest, but it’ll be a path filled with meaningful relationships and friends that will gladly share your stories, upvote your submissions, have a conversation with you on Facebook chat or whatever. I love the piece Lisa Barone wrote on How to Be Remembered. It really struck a cord with me not in just networking, but it blogging and client work as well. Make it a priority to genuinely care about the people you’re interacting with and you’ll build more than just a number on a follower’s list.

8. Get Creative

I know this isn’t necessarily the most hyped of the group, but another way to stand out as just another Twitterer or Digg user is to be different. If you’re trying to get the attention of a certain person or group of people, do more than just Retweet their story…make comment on the blog or attempt to strike up a conversation regarding the matter. Take a great story you saw on Digg and submit it to Reddit or Stumbleupon and help to get that story some more attention there through cross-pollination.

Probably one of the best examples of creativity on Twitter is @darthvader’s account! I don’t think I’ve seen a funnier set of tweets for another account than his, taking somewhat of a Robot Chicken-ish approach to his tweets, like this:

9. Monitor

This may be more for a business than for a personal account and probably more so for Twitter than most places, but listen to those who talk to/about you. Comcast did an awesome job of this by creating their slew of Comcast employee accounts as well as the main @comcastcares account. They were able to turn the majority of bad tweets into solutions for those with the issues.

One company that I think has failed in this area is AT&T (of which I will thankfully no longer be a customer of in 3 hours). Toward the beginning of August, AT&T was a trending topic on Twitter for nearly 3 weeks straight (on and off). If the tweet wasn’t about the iphone, it was usually something about how AT&T screwed up their bill, being on the phone with tech support for over an hour or some other negative tweet. Unfortunately, for AT&T, they have done little, if nothing to quell the barrage of negativity online. And while it may not be a big deal now to a large corporation, I’m sure there will come a time where no company will be safe, large or small.

10. Relevance

Staying relevant can be a key factor in why someone does and does not follow you. It’s understandable to be random on your own personal account, but if you’re looking to brand yourself or your business account, it’s important to share and promote stories within your industry. This will lead to more followers that talk about what you talk about and can help in further promoting your stories and building beneficial relationships with those who you share common interests with.

So there it is…10 ways you can personally become better at social media. Not the standard, by any means, but one that has worked for myself and many others I’ve spoken with. I’d love to hear of any ideas and practices that you have used to better your social accounts. Note that each social portal is different and users on each will likely be so (like when I was on Plurk a long while back), so find what works best for you.

By Vince Blackham Source: SearchEngineJournal.com

20 Tips for Effect Web Design Solutions

noreply@blogger.com (Stewart) — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 00:24:00 +0000

Below are twenty excellent techniques and design elements you can incorporate into your designs to create a beautiful, polished website. Combine them or pick and choose which ones you want to use for each project you do. And we’ve also included plenty of examples to give you real-world examples of how designers are using them to create gorgeous website designs.

Vivid Colours
Gradients and Lighting Effects
Transparency.
Grunge.
Hand-Drawn Designs.
Muted Colors.
Watercolor Effects.
Nature-Inspired Elements.
Photo-Realistic Backgrounds.
Oversized Typography.
Decorative Typography.
Bold Backgrounds.
Retro and Vintage Elements.
Eye-Catching Headers.
Collage Elements.
Textured Backgrounds.
Tabbed Navigation.
Black and White.
Horizontal Scrolling.
Cartoon Elements.

Have a look at the examples of all 20 Techniques

Tips on how to quickly improve your online marketing results

noreply@blogger.com (Stewart) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 00:41:00 +0000

Make a dummy purchase - get a friend on family member to go to your website and make a purchase tell them to evaluate there visit
Ask for feedback - Place a link on your website to ask for feedback
Add more keywords - increasing keyword density can dramatically increase search rankings
Keep your homepage changing - A fresh new image every few weeks will let visitors know your site is contently being updated
Give incentives to affiliates - a 10% kick-back on purchases from referrals can do wonders
Add a new page of content each week - gives you more pages people can search google and find you, it also increases your page rankings for your existing page including your homepage!
Change the colour of your buy now button - Make it bright opposite colour to the rest of your site so it stands out
Make sure your phone number is easy to find - and listed on every page and that all the numbers listed on the website are working
Add mis-spelling to your Paid search campaigns - people often search for misspelt words, you might get the benefits.
Upsell other products - Add a upsell on your add to cart page, gift wrapping, related products, accessories.

Read more tips to increase your online marketing

10 Easy Tips for how to write great web copy

noreply@blogger.com (Stewart) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 23:23:00 +0000

Are you looking to increase conversions, gain more blog subscribers, amplify your authority and extend your bottom line?

Good web copy holds the answers!

10 Tips For Writing Effective Web Copy

1. Make sure content is easy to read so its at a high school level would be best
2. Write in a casual style as it was from me to you,
3. Make your content Drive Actions such as moving towards a solution
4. Write with search engine considerations, especially titles e.g. Great sydney web design agency
5. Create Effective though provoking headings that summarise the paragraph below
6. Remember to write keyword rich heading and title tags for each page
7. Provide links throughout the body and connections to other pages in your website
8. Write effective summaries at the start of each page, and conclusions at the end
9. Sell your businesses benefits not features, people love to know what it will do from them
10. Edit. Then edit twice more! The print it off and read it out loud.

For more in-depth reading on this subject click here

Think before you write
Complete a draft before you edit
Edit before you publish
- Give it a global edit, checking structure, voice, and scannability.
- Give it a line edit, checking flow, clarity, and concision.
- Proofread by reading aloud.
Publish

A comparison of Online Advertising Costs by Industry Vertical

nickhac@gmail.com (Nick HaC) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 23:03:00 +0000

The publishers that charge advertisers the highest rates are those in the travel, tech and automotive verticals, according to Adify, which buys media on 12,000 publishers for 200 ad networks.

Below, see a chart from Adify that shows what rate -- CPM, or cost per 1,000 impressions -- publishers from 13 different verticals have charged advertisers over the past three quarters.

Travel leads with a $19.89 CPM; tech is second at $16.01; food is last at $3.63.

Social Media Marketing Basics: Facebook & Blog Promotion

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Vaughan) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 07:50:00 +0000

As companies grow their confidence and familiarity with the social web, there’s a bit of a mental hurdle they pass in accepting that it makes sense for their organization. It’s not unlike 10 years ago when companies finally started to “get” the need for a company web site. And just like a web site, building it doesn’t mean “they” will come, so the logicial next step is:

“Once you start a social media effort, how do you promote it?”

The reason for a company or brand’s social media participation, the audience they’re trying to reach, budget/resources and the actual social platforms being used will all flavor how a social media program can and should be promoted. This can be resolved with a few key questions that should be a part of a social media strategy:

What is the primary goal? Secondary goals?
Where does the target audience spend their time on the social web and what do they do there?
On what social platforms is your company already participating?
What existing resources can be repurposed or adjusted and what new resources will you need to forecast and budget for?

As a tactical example, let’s say a fan page has been created on Facebook to promote a specific brand / product. The promotion of that fan page could be accomplished through:

On – Facebook:

Facebook advertising
Contest or giveaway promotions that encourage fans to share links back to the fan page
Participation in groups and other fan pages that reach the audience being targeted
Leverage mailing lists of other group or fan pages for the same brand
Creation of a widget that provides the ability to interact, offers value and invites users back to the fan page.

Off – Facebook:

PPC on major search engines to a landing page
SEO and link building to landing pages
Press release optimization & promotion
Email promotions to segmented lists
Cross promotion to Facebook fan page from other social media properties

Another example might involve a newly launched company blog. A blog should have content when it goes live, so anywhere from 5-15 posts can provide a good kickstart. Those pre-launch blog posts are great practice to iron out everything from creating an editorial schedule to familiarity with the blogging process itself for contributors.

Getting attention to a new blog with content can involve both active and passive blog marketing tactics:

Make valuable comments on other relevant and influential blogs with a similar target audience. Comment forms often include the opportunity to link back to your blog.
Link out to other influential blogs from your own blog posts and/or a blog roll. They’ll notice.
Leverage other social channels that you’re participating in (such as Twitter) to promote particularly useful blog content.
Contribute posts to other blogs. This builds your visibility to a new audience and links back to your blog.
Include the blog URL everywhere you post your web site address: online AND offline.
Have employees add the blog URL to their email signatures as well as online profiles (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter)
Write great content on a regular basis. There’s no substitutre for attracting attention than publishing content worth sharing and linking to.
Contact existing customers, marketing partners and industry peers and let them know you’ve launched a blog. Profile them in a blog post to give extra meaning and incentive to pay attention.
Promote your new blog and the value of its content via email to prospect or customer lists.
With PR efforts such as media relations pitching of journalists or press releases, include a link to your blog in those communications

This is really just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to ongoing blog content marketing and promotion.

The key to answering the “how do we promote our social participation” question is directly tied to goals, audience, tactics and resources. Promotion will impact awareness, buzz and traffic directly and indirectly. Analytics and monitoring need to be in place from the start as well as ongoing to track progress and refine just like any other digital marketing effort.

Source: Social Media Marketing Basics: Facebook & Blog Promotion

New Shifted Pixels Blog Coming Very Soon!

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Vaughan) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 07:18:00 +0000

Stay tuned to the blog because we are in the process of upgrading it to a brand new look and feel, not to mention a whole new Shifted website is in the works!

Social Media Revolution

noreply@blogger.com (Matt Vaughan) — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 07:33:00 +0000

Shifted launches the new Goldwell.com.au website

nickhac@gmail.com (Nick HaC) — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 03:03:00 +0000

Shifted is pleased to announce the launch of the Goldwell website, we think its an amazing outcome and have really enjoyed working with the great team at Goldwell on this amazing website project!

Consequences of slagging off your Boss on FaceBook

nickhac@gmail.com (Nick HaC) — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 02:54:00 +0000

Our Latest Work! Goldwell Australia National Website

nickhac@gmail.com (Nick HaC) — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 06:00:00 +0000

We are proud to show off our latest project is now live, www.goldwell.com.au which is the consumer website for Goldwell a national hair care company.

It all began with the production of a lotion in Germany in 1948 which enabled people to give lasting shape to their hairstyle.

60 years on Goldwell has grown to become a global leader in haircare, operating in 60 countries worldwide. Goldwell is committed to delivering

When it comes to innovation for professional hair coloration products and services Goldwell is a market leader. We are 100% committed to satisfying the needs to professional hair stylists by exclusively supplying them with the very best products and services.

Please visit the website at goldwell.com.au and let us know your thoughts on this in the comments

Shifted Blog Announced as Top 50 Marketing Blogs (B&T)

nickhac@gmail.com (Nick HaC) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 04:04:00 +0000

We are proud to annonuce that the Shifted Blog has been announced in the Top 50 Marketing Blogs according to B&T.

We came in at #33, so that is a pleasing result!

Thanks for reading this blog and for all your support to date.

Any feedback or suggestions would be welcomed in the comments section :)

Revolutionary New Portfolio for Shifted Pixels

noreply@blogger.com (Stewart) — Mon, 18 May 2009 04:43:00 +0000

Checkout the New Shifted Portfolio with all our latest projects we have completed in the past few months.

Click here to view our new portfolio

25% of Australians on Facebook

nickhac@gmail.com (Nick HaC) — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 01:41:00 +0000

Facebook has experienced a 18% rise during the last quarter of 2008 in Australia, to now boast 4.3 million Australians - up from 2.3 million from 12 months ago.

This number represents about 25% of the online population !

Source: Frontiering blog (Thanks Ian Farmer)

The media in boom and doom

nickhac@gmail.com (Nick HaC) — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 23:37:00 +0000

Are business media watchdogs acting in the public interest, or are they merely messengers? To whom does the media owe allegiance when global economic meltdown looms.

A great podcast from ABC Radio National's Background Briefing Program

LISTEN NOW DOWNLOAD AUDIO

The internet loves parallel projects (Seth Godin)

nickhac@gmail.com (Nick HaC) — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 11:31:00 +0000

The internet loves parallel projects.

Linux development is parallel. Thousands of people can work on it at once, none of them waiting in line.

Wikipedia is parallel, because a large group can go at millions of articles, side by side. The YouTube Orchestra auditions were parallel too, because you didn't have to wait in line to practice or apply.

Parallel is faster and more efficient. The Huffington Post will always outperform a traditional news site because they have 3,000 contributors, not a few dozen.

If you want to make a buffet go faster, all you need to do is move the serving table away from the wall and let people serve themselves from either side. If you want to go faster still, use two tables.

Self-service customer support outperforms the traditional model because people don't have to wait in line.

Your organization probably isn't parallel. There are bottlenecks throughout, and finding them and making them parallel could change everything.

There's one place you don't want to be parallel, at least at first: sales.

When you are linear in your sales process, you learn something. You don't make the same mistake on each and every call. Instead, you make a few mistakes on your first call, then a few less and then, finally, you get it as right as you're going to get it. That is when you go parallel, not before.

Source: Seth Godin - Linear and parallel

Why digital business models continue to kick ass

nickhac@gmail.com (Nick HaC) — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 11:28:00 +0000

Found this great article at HotHouse - Interactive agencies need to stop being advertising agencies - although i dont think the name of this article gives the vision it offers justice.

...For the internet industry... the last 15 years have been extraordinary. The world has changed. Minnows attacked huge existing businesses and won. In some cases those traditional businesses are still around. But in many cases they are not. There are many examples:

-Why did Brittanica not become Wikipedia? They had a start, they had the content.
-Why did LexisNexis not become Google? They had a start, they had the content.
-Why did Trading Post not become eBay?
-Why did Dymocks not become Amazon?

Too lazy, too stupid, not ready to take a risk?

And the examples go on. Small businesses have in a short time overtaken and beaten traditional business by changing the game. To be part of all that has been a privilege.

This a great article... Interactive agencies need to stop being advertising agencies - Have a read

9/10 website have unidentified spelling errors... does yours?

nickhac@gmail.com (Nick HaC) — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 03:47:00 +0000

spellr.us - A cool aussie startup company who was featured in the TechCrunch top 50, had just launched its commercial service!

From the website:

spellr.us is a web-based application that reviews a web site and reports back on spelling errors.

spellr.us provides the user with easy to understand reports and screenshots of all relevant errors.

Suggestions of correct words for each spelling mistake are provided.

spellr.us can also be configured to scan a website at pre-determined intervals and notify the user of newly introduced errors.

Give it a go! Its free! Does your website have spelling error's, check here with spellr.us :) Our's does!

You can follow @spellrus on twitter also if you like.

Five Digital Trends to Watch for 2009

nickhac@gmail.com (Nick HaC) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 07:43:00 +0000

Steve Rubel (Micropersuasion Blogger) has released a whitepaper for Edelman Digital, called Five Digital Trends to Watch for 2009. I found it really interested.
There are five trends covered in this white paper...

Satisfaction Guaranteed - Customer care and PR are blending as consumers use social media to demand service

Media Reforestation - The media is in a constant state of reinvention as it transitions from atoms to bits

Less is the New More - Overload takes its toll. Gorging on media is out. Selective ignorance and friends as filters are in

Corporate All-Stars - Workers flock to social media to build their personal brands, yet offer employers an effective and credible way to market in the downturn

The Power of Pull - Where push once ruled, it’s now equally important to create digital content that people discover through search
Edelman Digital's Five Trends to Watch for 2009

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