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Tech Talk Point Redesign

December 8th, 2009 · Personal

As one does on a Sunday morning, you get up and decide to redesign your blog.  Not this blog, as my regular readers will attest the design has ‘nay changed at all’, but my longstanding technology blog Tech Talk Point.

As part of the visual redesign, and attempt to improve the bounce rate and average pageviews per visit, I lightened up the design, removed the Google Ads (for the precious little they were making me), improve the logo for readability, and moved the search box further to the top right and improved the post listings on the home page and category pages:

Tech Talk Point - New Home Page Design

To my mind it is a lot lighter, cleaner and easier to read and the initial stats on the changes are improved, though perhaps not as much as I would have liked, but still positive.

These changes spell the start of a bunch of changes which will hopefully bring more valued content to all of my blogs, both this one, Tech Talk Point and a third, Apple Mac Tutorials, which itself needs upgrades to the stock theme I am using on it.

Anyhow, for those of you interested in following the goings on over at TTP also, you can join me on Twitter, Facebook or subscribe to the RSS feed.

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The Recession and How It Is Affecting Londoners

December 5th, 2009 · Opinion

As a reminder to those of us with jobs How the Recession is Affecting Londoners in the Evening Standard.

The recession and how it is affecting Londoners

The article covers the exploits of one Jessica Marr, a friend of mine, and her trials and tribulations through the market place for jobs since December 2008, and how, despite being more than willing to take a hefty pay cut, just to land a job, it seems nigh on impossible to get hired.

Thankfully, for my sins, I have been gainfully and consistently employed since April 2006, when I first joined Last.fm, and had nothing but a weekend between finishing my role there and joining my current employer Stink in September 2008.  Of course it is easier for the papers to cover the recession from a more negative angle, and those with jobs aren’t the ones they are going to be sticking the tape recorder in front of to interview, but it has been interesting to see the reporting of the recession and credit crunch, as if it were the apocalypse.

Having seen my father, self-employed since 1978, weather multiple recessions, as well as industry down-turns when the price of Brent Crude was no more than $10 a barrel, I am more circumspect about recessionary events being reported, but then I also benefit from relative professional attractiveness and the fact that I could likely walk from one job straight into another, something I am both thankful for and definitely don’t take for granted.  And so for this Londoner, the current recession is just another economic cycle, one luckily that I seem to be weathering better than most.

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5 Tips for Selling Online This Christmas

December 4th, 2009 · SEO

Merry ChristmasBased on my recent experience with 2 online retailers, I have come up with 5 quick and simple tips for online retailers this Christmas:

  1. Don’t Sell Items You Don’t Have!
    It sounds simple but you would be surprised.  I ordered an item that appeared to be in stock on the Mac Warehouse UK web site.  I ordered on a Friday, but when I arrived into the office the following Monday and had heard precious little I rang up customer service, only to be told the items were not in stock, and that the lead time from the supplier was going to be 10 DAYS!
  2. When a Customer Cancels an Order, Cancel It!
    Having realised it would be a long wait for the goods, I decided to shop elsewhere.  Needless to say I asked customer service at Mac Warehouse UK to cancel the order and refunded the amount they had already charged to my card.  Simple right? Wrong!  Another 3 calls and 5 days later and they finally canceled the order, having lied to me in the prcess, saying the cancellation takes 3 hours to show up in their system.
  3. Bend Over Backwards for Your Customers
    Having taken my business elsewhere to UK Insight, I placed the order and the product arrived the next day.  Pretty Simple.  having then realised I needed a new hard drive, I placed another order with next day delivery.  When the order didn’t come the following day I rang up the day after and asked for a refund on delivery.  UK Insight didn’t quibble it, they simply refunded the charge for shipping and took up the matter with the courier company.  BINGO! I know where I will shop again.
  4. Provide Lead, Delivery & Opening  Times.
    At a time sensitive period like Christmas it is good to let your customers know how long it will take for them to receive their goods.  It might seem insane to tell your customers to stop shopping for Christmas on your site from, let’s say 20th December, but nothing will infuriate them more if they order something and it doesn’t come. Moreover it is not like people will stop shopping at that date. Hell, people even go shopping online  on Christmas day!  If you run a bricks and mortar operation too then make sure it is easy for people to find you and know when you are open over the festive period.
  5. Custom isn’t Just for Christmas.
    If you want to build long term customer relationships, follow up with any pre-Christmas shoppers after the holiday season and get feed back, start doing the soft sell, try and ad value to them and create customer loyalty by being a useful resource, and connect with them via email and social networks.  People love to follow their fave stores on Facebook and elsewhere.

Anyhow, 5 quick tips, 5 minutes.  Hope they were handy! Let me know what you think.

Photo – Bixentro on Flickr

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Production Company of the Year 2009 – Boards Magazine

December 4th, 2009 · Work

Stink, the company I have been working for since September 2008 have been awarded, for the second year running, Production Company of the Year, by Boards Magazine. So congratulations to all on that score,  It’s a nifty way to end what has been a busy and successful year as part of the Stink Digital collective, working on the award-winning project Carousel for Philips via Tribal DDB Amsterdam, House of Cards for Shelter via Leo Burnett, and the latest and greatest PS3 Campaign 15 Reasons for Sony via Hyper, to name but three.

Stink - Production Company o the Year 2009

There is, of course, much merriment to be had this Christmas Season with the current and ex-stinkers, along with the plethora of helping hands we have had this year.  So thanks to all from me, personally, and I wish you all a GREAT holiday season.

For all those interested in finding out more, you can find the Production Company Year in Review and a more in-depth and details article on Stink and Stink Digital and what convinced Boards Magazine to award us, along with MJZ, the grand title.

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Shelter House Bling Online Campaign

December 3rd, 2009 · Design

My ex-colleague at Stink Digital, Christophe Taddei (@tadd31) has a great blog, Veni Vidi Vici,  covering web campaigns, and I must say he does a great job of it.  That being said, he also has his own unique test for campaigns, otherwise known as the cock test.  Need I say more?

Anyhow, apologies for any offense caused, but here is a snapshot of his latest efforts in conjunction with the new Shelter HouseBling campaign, to raise awareness of Homelessness in the UK this Christmas and to raise money for the UK-based charity. In it you can decorate your abode in Google Streetview with some smashing christmas lights and share it with your friends.

Shelter's Housebling Cock TestFeel free to find yours and share it with me.  Perhaps you can find a little more creativity … ho ho ho.

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