I've recently relocated to London from Sydney and I'll ramble about good food and drink around town, eclectic electronic music, absolutely anything to do with digital media, throw some sport (more than likely cricket) in and the odd personal experience — as seen through my camera lens.
I will be part of a panel discussion on Corporate Blogging tomorrow at Online Banking Review’s – Enterprise @ Web 2.0 for Financial Services conference.
Other topics include:
The business benefits of Enterprise 2.0
Building a collaborative culture inside a conservative corporation
Mad flow from The Poetic Prophet (AKA The SEO Rapper) is back with another marketing rap. This time he describes how web standards and proper design can affect the ranking and conversion of pages on your site.
Lyrics:
Your site design is the first thing people see
It should be reflective of you and the industry
Easy to look at with a nice navigation
When you can’t find what you want it causes frustration
A clear call to action to increase the temptation
Use appealing graphics they create motivation
If you have animation
Use with moderation
Cause search engines can’t index the information
Display the logos of all your associations
Highlight your contact info that’s an obligation
Create a clean design you can use some decoration
But to try to prevent any client hesitation
Every page that they click should provide an explanation
Should be easy to understand like having a conversation
When you design the style go ahead and use your imagination
But make sure you use correct color combinations
Do some investigation, look at other organizations
But don’t duplicate or you might face a litigation
Design done, congratulations but it’s time to start construction
Follow these instructions when you move into production
Your photoshop functions then slice that design
Do your layout with divs make sure that it’s aligned
Please don’t use tables even though they work fine
When it come to indexing they give searches a hard time
Make it easy for the spiders to crawl what you provide
Remove font type, font color and font size
No background colors, keep your coding real neat,
Tag your look and feel on a separate style sheet
Better results with xml and css
Now you making progress, a lil closer to success
Describe your doctype so the browser can relate
Make sure you do it great or it won’t validate
Check in all browsers, I do it directly
Gotta make sure that it renders correctly
Some use IE, some others use Flock
Some use AOL, I use Firefox
Title everything including links and images
Don’t use italics, use emphasis
Don’t use bold, please use strong
If you use bold that’s old and wrong
When you use CSS, you page will load quicker
Client satisfied like they eating on a Snickers
They stuck on your page like you made it with a sticker
And then they convert now that’s the real kicker
Make you a lil’richer, your site a lil slicker
Design and code right man I hope you get the picture
What I’m telling you is true man it should be a scripture
If it’s built right you’ll be the pick of the litter
Everyone will want to follow you like Twitter
Competition will get bitter and you’ll shine like glitter
If you trying to grow your company will get bigger
Design and code right man can you get with it
Now there’s a headline for you! Below’s an excerpt from Chapter 13 of Luke Wroblewski’s forthcoming book Web Form Design: Filling in the Blanks (Rosenfeld Media, 2008). And the excerpt is an excellent read for what it’s worth.
I’ll just come out and say this: sign-up forms must die. In the introduction to this book I described the process of stumbling upon or being recommended to a web service. You arrive eager to dive in and start engaging and what’s the first thing that greets you? A form.
We can do better. In fact, I believe we can get people engaged with digital services in a way that tells them how such services work and why they should care enough to use them. I also believe we can do this without explicitly making them fill out a sign-up form as a first step.
Hi! You will have noticed that I’ve made quite a few changes on the site over the last few days which has been in the pipeline for about three months now. Yes, it is actually version 16, which isn’t too many considering that the site is 13 years old!
New features, some that you can see, some that you can’t, including:
A new coat of paint and CSS driven layout – a clean look to allow the you, the user to focus on the photography across the site
Content management system upgrade – to Wordpress 2.3.3 (from 2.0.4)
Social bookmark “chicklets” – share the posts across your favourite social networking sites like Delicious, Facebook and Digg
There’s a few bugs and some further improvements to be introduced over coming weeks, but nothing that will stop you reading the content. So, let me know what you think!
Whether it was done internally at nab, by someone at Clems or a client fanboi, or someone at Clems claiming it was done on the “outside”, it’s a clever piece of work. Tongue in cheek and a little cute.
Web data is a gold mine to marketers. As its value grows, the web analytics function is jostling its way into the organisational structure. Yet where is its rightful place, who sets the rules, and how do policies evolve to ensure its efficacy?
Opinions about which department ‘owns’ web analytics vary. In the 2007 Australian Web Analytics Survey, 57% respondents said that web analytics is the responsibility of the web team, 22% place the responsibility within marketing, and 10% in IT.
In other organisations, web analytics may fall on operations’ shoulders or a standalone role may be created.
Here’s an article I wrote for Sub Lumen magazine in December 1995. I can’t help but chuckle when reading it today.
Not so long ago, the majority of society had never heard of the Internet, E-Mail, World Wide Web, or the banter that goes hand in hand with these activities. In fact, only a small percentage of people are getting used to their electronic mail programs, let along pulsing down the optic fibres to an abstract World Wide Web site in Kalamazoo. However, more and more people are going “on-line” every day. So many, that firms that make envelopes and other associated paraphenalia are worried they will be bankrupt in the next five years.
People from all walks of life are getting in on the act. And now, many clubs, magazines, record companies and clothing companies are setting up sites on the World Wide Web. They have all voted with their modems that this is the future of the media, and by joining in this trend, they will earn some credability.
There are so many Websites, thus a site must be distinctly different to gain attention. Nobody wants to spend their hard earned money by down-loading worthless information, or poorly designed graphics. User interaction is a definite must, and no thought into what people want to see is just not allowed! All this aside, a Website which has had alot of time and effort put into it will attract multitudes of people.
What is the future of the Internet? Walking into a record store, picking up a new 12″ and having a listen, before deciding to purchase it on your credit card. What’s the difference between this and real life? Well, you wont have stepped out of your front gate, and you can’t put greasy, fingerprints on the vinyl! What is the world coming to?
Drambuie have taken a bold, and somewhat brash approach with this video. Instead of showing people endorsing your product, they’ve gone the other way – displaying people who completely dislike, even hate your product. It’s a clever approach as it truly illustrates the type of people who will not be seen drinking it.
The website that ties in with the campaign is a wee bit naff. However, the executive summary is worth a read – tongue in cheek and telling it like it is.
Much respect to the bloke who says “It’s not for a rough bloke like me.” Now is that a Bentley in the background for added effect? Not at all… more likely a Chrysler 300C.
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