by Neill Watson on July 29, 2009
If you haven’t ventured into launching a company blog yet, you can talk to me about dipping your toes in the big blog ocean. Or if you’re trying to work out the best way to start a company blog, try reading my ten tips for writing company blogs to help you get started.
1. Be yourself! It’s what all your existing customers like about you, remember? Don’t try and write in ‘corporate speak’ on your blog, write in a slightly more informal way but without appearing too familiar or chatty. Above all, try and set the ‘tone’ for how you’d like others to perceive your company
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by Neill Watson on May 28, 2009
One of the most successful websites in recent years has been the Ice Driver website for Andy McKenna. I’ve been involved in Ice Driver all the way from it’s concept right through to it becoming the premier winter driving experience. At the end of 2009, we managed to capture the dot-com Ice Driver domain that had not previously been available. But it was right at the top of the enquiry season for Ice Driver and the SEO work was paying off, so did we really want to move house right then?
It was tempting to fire it up, but we decided to shelve it until the summer. Now, summer’s here and we’re about to start the dot-com move and I thought readers would be interested to see the steps we’re taking to make it happen, hopefully without being penalised too much along the way. I’ll also be describing some of the new stuff we’re putting on the site, as we’re doing much more than just copying over last year’s model to the new domain.
The first thing I did was install the domain and add some content. Brand new domain names are often subject to Google’s ’sandbox’. This means that Google take a look and let the site sit for a while (no-one knows how long) before they decide you’re a ‘good guy’ and start to show you in search results. So we added content and sat back a while to see. Not too long and it’s now starting to appear, so time for the next step – finalise the design look, write the new 2010 content and start with the SEO stuff.
Next time, I’ll write about what we decided to do with the layout, how we’ll be using social media this season and what visitors think of the new site.
by Neill Watson on May 5, 2009
If you bring up the subject of web design with small business people, it wouldn’t take you too long to find someone who has been burned by a web designer. Sadly, some have even come to the conclusion that a web site is not worth the expense, the time or the hassle. I sat down recently and took a look at how and why that happens and hopefully outline some success principles that will help you when you need web design services. Since so many web designers get it wrong, the web design principles that actually work may surprise you.
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by Neill Watson on March 12, 2009
I’m reposting this from my other blog over at Octane Gossip, as I think it bears relevance to my thoughts on the current state many people in sales will be finding themselves in
I bumped into an old friend last week, as I had to call into a car showroom I used to work in. Of course, they relocated a few years ago to a cool, trendy out-of-town site, lots of smoked glass and chrome and very nice to look at, the perfect shopping experience and surely a great place to be? But when I asked how things were going, while I didnʼt expect it to be roses given the current climate , I was truly surprised by what he had to say. [read more..]
