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A Dream Speaker Lineup for a Dream Conference 10 May 2013 4:26 AM (11 years ago)

*This is an imaginary conference

I’ve decided to have a bit of creative fun and put together my ultimate dream speaker line-up for a conference. For the sake of this post I am calling this imaginary conference “DreamCon13” #dreamcon (I’m trademarking that before you get any wise ideas!)

Before I begin, I just need to clarify a couple of points first. This is my wish list of speakers for a dream conference and it does not really exist, there are no tickets available (if you are a person of means and have lots of spare cash available and would like to help me make this dream come true, then I’m all ears!)

I consider myself a bit of a conference veteran and personally I find conferences a great way to stay up-to-date with current trends in a particular industry. Not only that, but it’s a fantastic place to meet like minded individuals. I’ve even seen some pretty fantastic speakers along the way and with any good conference there are always one or two stand out talks.

But wait just a second though! What if there was 10 amazing talks by 10 amazing (out of this world) speakers!

I decided against having a theme for my conference, I hate themes, I’m just one of those people who likes to learn lots of different stuff and not just focus on one particular field. I’m an entrepreneur that’s just how we roll!

If I could organise this ‘Dream Conference‘ it would be AWESOME and if it could ever happen I would invite the following people to come speak.

Seth Godin

The ‘Mac Daddy‘ himself, a best selling author of numerous marketing books. Seth Godin is to modern marketing what Albert Einstein was to modern Physics. If you’ve never heard of Seth Godin before, you’ve either been living under a rock or simply put you’re just not reading the right stuff about marketing!

I’d have Seth talk about my favourite Godin based topics; including being remarkable in business and how to spread ideas that win. I’d also ask him to include loads of real life business examples as he does in my favourite talks.

Seth would be the keynote speaker at the event. Below is one of my favourite Seth Godin talks, you can almost imagine what it would be like if he were to speak.

Gary Vaynerchuk

What can you say about Gary Vaynerchuk, a self-made entrepreneur from humble roots with a dream of owning the New York Jets. A person whom I have the utmost respect for. Gary’s advice is always straight shooting, to the point and has raw honesty behind it.

He rose to fame through his awesome work on WineLibary.TV revolutionising the way people talk about and buy wine online. He is also the author of two best selling books Crush it & The Thank You Economy (both of which I can definitely recommend reading).

What I love about Gary is his passion for life and for business. His motto  ‘Crush it!‘ is something that everyday I try to put into practice, doing the very best I can in everything I try to do.

Give the video below two minutes to start – there are visuals. And enjoy Gary’s entrepreneurial story as he shares his insights into using social media for marketing and selling online.

Lewis Howes

Lewis Howes is just one of those people born to become an athlete, he could of being playing in the NFL today…but what happens when a Pro Athlete gets a career threatening injury that turns his world upside down.

Do you sit there feeling sorry for yourself? Or do take inspiration from Lewis’ story and learn to become a entrepreneur just by going out there doing it, making it up as you go a long.

For those people who haven’t ever been self-employed or have worked for themselves before you, might be forgiven for not knowing that being in business is one MASSIVE learning curve. You’re expected to simply get it, but most often than not you learn through your own mistakes and failures.

I should know because that’s exactly how I’ve developed as a business owner.

Whilst Lewis was recovering in hospital from his sports injury, he discovered LinkedIn. It was through using LinkedIn that Lewis built one of the biggest groups on there, the ‘Sports Industry Network’, and turned the social network into a place where you could sell products and gain more business for just about anything you decided you wanted to do.

He just happens to be a pretty approachable and a nice guy to boot.

Lewis was able to leverage his authority and connections through building up his group and even turn that into an entire site dedicated to the Sports Networker.

His current courses and eBooks on using LinkedIn for business are extremely worthwhile. Having attended a couple of his webinars, I can say he really knows his stuff and I know a tone of things about using LinkedIn for business myself.

Note: There has been some pretty big updates on LinkedIn since this video was recorded but a lot of the advice is still excellent and really useful today.

Sean Malarkey

Sean Malarkey is another online entrepreneur and also business partner with Lewis Howes, one of the main reasons I found out about Sean was directly through Lewis.

Sean is the Author of Twixplode, a book about how to generate a strong following on Twitter and find potential customers who might be interested in your business or products via tweeting.

What I’d really be interested in having Sean Malarkey talk about (aside from how he takes awesome photos on his iPhone) is the story about how he and Lewis got started doing webinars together and the tips about how they use webinars to generate income, sell products and increase their e-mail lists. This is something both Sean and Lewis are incredible good at.

Perhaps, I would get them to put on a dual workshop on this subject alone. I’d also be interested in hearing Sean’s story of how he went from a relatively novice social media user to expert in such a short space of time and the steps he went through to achieve this.

Sarah Parmenter

Sarah Parmenter works as User Interface Designer for the Web and iOS, she was recently named .Net Magazine’s ‘Designer of The Year’ in 2011 and as a designer myself (see my presentation work) Sarah is someone who I look up too and whom I’m inspired by to improve my design skills further.

I also had the privilege of hearing Sarah speak back in 2010 in my old University lecture hall at the Hull Digital (HDLive) Conference. Sarah has a real determination for problem solving and for asking challenging questions about they way we do things as designers.

She’s not content with simply approaching a solution in a traditional fashion. As designers we should always be looking to push the boundaries of how we can improve usability and change the way people see and use our designs.

She started her own web design business aged 19 and has since developed her skills through hard work and practice (something I can really relate with). She has spoken at some of the world’s most respected and prestigious web / digital design conferences and now it’s time to take centre stage at DreamCon.

I’d love to have Sarah talk about the developments in user interface design and the challenges that rapidly changing technology pose in the future. The added insights into her early beginnings and the lessons learnt whilst in business at aged 19 would also be great to hear.

Josh Long

Josh Long is another well respected designer and also Editor at Treehouse. He the co-host of the Happy Monday’s Podcast with Sarah Parmenter (a podcast I’m an avid fan of).

Josh recently co-wrote and published a book in just 8 days called Execute. It’s packed full of great advice on how you can quickly turn inspiration and ideas into real tangible products. Simply by getting starting, taking action and shipping fast you can accomplish anything you set your mind too.

I’d invite Josh to speak about his tales of co-authority a book and the process he went through to get it done in such a short amount of time, sharing some of those golden insights contained within Execute.

Jason Santa Maria

Sticking with the designers, next up is Jason Santa Maria a person I consider to be a very talented individual (world class I would even say).

One day, I was checking out the Creative Mornings talks that take place on monthly mornings in NYC and elsewhere around the globe. This is were I noticed Jason’s talk all about ‘Saying NO’, this talk changed the way I work completely.

In the talk he recaps his lessons and learnings from going freelance and why sometimes it’s best to say NO to a project if it’s going cost you money, time or sap you of your creativity.

I’d love to listen to this talk all over again because it’s that good and it’s one of the MOST important lesson that any freelancer can learn.

Learn to listen to your gut, that’s what Jason would say.

And my gut instinct would tell me that Jason would bring the house down with an awesome and creative talk!

2012/10 Jason Santa Maria (Benefit CreativeMornings) from CreativeMornings on Vimeo.

Darren Rowse

What Darren Rowse doesn’t know about blogging isn’t really worth knowing. He is looked on as one of the pioneers of turning a blog into a fully fledged business.

He is respected as a true guru when it comes to blogging and producing content on the web.

With the success of his sites such as; Problogger.net & Digital Photography School, Darren has many wise lesson he can impart about how to make a successful career out of running your own website online and generating an income from it. He’s also being doing this since before blogging was even consider a ‘thing’ or cool I might add.

Ben Settle

Some people think e-mail is a dead medium for generating business. And to those people you are really stupid.

Meet Ben Settle, Ben is not your average Joe marketer. He is an avid and passionate e-mail marketer. Not many of those around anymore.

But can you make money from e-mail? Well, of course you can!

Is there a quick fix? NO.

Ben is not a ‘guru’ who selling methods and training doesn’t actually work or someone who does not put his own advice into practice. He literally loves e-mail and writes e-mails to his lists every single day, 365 days a year.

Why? Because people respond, people buy and most importantly the more Ben e-mails, the more engagement he gets from his lists.

Just like Gary Vaynerchuk, Ben is a straight shooter who will never BS you with crap advice that isn’t going to cut the mustard. Ben e-mails are something that I look forward to reading every day, as they usually contain a truck load of useful advice and tips.

E-mail as a medium is a copywriters dream – it allows you to get super creative.

Most people’s inboxes are an intimate place and one that you’ll never get a single e-mail read by bland, run of the mill, dull ass copy which wouldn’t even sell a Ferrari if it was offered freely.

Welcome to the stage Ben and feel free to go blow people perceptions and negativity around using e-mail to make MASSIVE amounts of business online.

Anivash Kaushik

The King of Data himself, Anivash Kaushik. As the Author of numerous Web Analytics books and also a world leading expert on digital marketing data intelligence. Anivash is well place to give you the low down on why data is important to businesses online.

As we move further into the digital age and at such a rapid pace, having a true understanding of the data behind your website and how your online marketing is performing is now more critical then ever.

I myself have been constantly blogging about the important of web analytics for years. I have been very much inspired  by reading Anivash’s content for so long.

It’s about challenging the HiPPOs (Highest Paid Person Opinions) where most Directors or Marketing teams will assume that their website is performing well and that customers are buying from them online…but do they really understand the data behind this reasoning.

• What if we changed the website to green?
• How would that effect conversions?
• What if we tested the janitor’s idea? 

These are all the things I’d expect to hear in Anivash’s talk.

Web Analytics can tell you within a 95% of accuracy just how effecitve your marketing channels are performing online. Yet, it can do so much more.

We can delve into the data to find nuggets of gold which help improve bottom line or increase overall sales revenue dramatically.

As an overview data doesn’t mean much but when you segment the data and ask specific questions such as; How many customers purchased a product and then signed up to our e-mail list?

It is only then does Web Analytics truly become as important to a business as having an reputable accountant.

Some Worthy Mentions:

There a few more names that I would have liked to add to this list but I could only pick 10 for the purposes of this blog post and admittedly I really don’t enjoy writing all that much (as I’m a visual creative thinker and my brain simply hurts working in this way creatively).

Anyway, I digress these are the people I’d also would invite to speak if we could have more than 10 speakers available:

• Scott Stratten, Author of UnMarketing. I’d have Scott impart some of the lessons and advice from UnMarketing and the way social media has changed how we market a business online. 
• Steven Pressfield, an American author, of historical fiction and non-fiction – I’d get Steven to talk about his book Do the Work, which is all about the daily battle with procrastination and getting more stuff done.
• Brad Frost, A mobile web strategist & font-end designer, from the States. I’d get Brad to do a version of his talk Death to Bullshit, which would be absolute winner.
• John Cleese, an English Comedian, National Treasure, Played Q in James Bond and also a writer. I’d have John Cleese do his talk on creativity, which is a simply genius talk and something everyone can relate with. Even if you don’t consider yourself a creative type, you will learn much from this talk.

Well, there you have it folks I hope you’ve enjoyed looking into a slice of my imagination. One day in the future maybe I’ll be able to organise this conference and enjoy hanging out with the people who inspire me.

You’re Turn

If you were to put together your own dream conference who would you invite to speak? Tell me in the comments below and I’ll reply with my thoughts.

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WordPress for Business Q&A with Toby Drysdale 11 Apr 2013 3:13 AM (12 years ago)

Today, we are proudly joined on the Smartdog digital blog by a very smart man who deals with WordPress themes and development on a daily basis, Toby Drysdale, who is the Chief Technical Officer at Gimme Media.

We’ve known Toby for quite a while here at Smartdog and we’d thought we bring over some of his insight and knowledge to help individuals like you who might be considering using WordPress for their company or blog.

So Toby, I’d like to ask you a few questions on WordPress best practices and how WordPress can be used more effectively for businesses.

Toby: ‘Sure thing’

Q: Why do you think so many businesses are turning to WordPress as software to run their company website or blog from?

I think there are a number of reasons to be honest. Price, development time, technical skills, maintenance in a nutshell.

To elaborate a little further:

• Price – With the platform being free itself, the themes & plugins are cheap to buy – the initial outlay is so small compared to traditional bespoke coded websites.

• Development time – You can have a functional website up and running in less than a day compared to the weeks/months that you expect with traditionally coded websites

• Technical skills – Most hosting companies offer one click installers of WordPress, so you don’t even have to spend the “5 minutes” that it takes to install it manually. Adding plugins is a simple affair and adding new content and images is on a par with a simple Word processor.

• Maintenance – No more going to web developers to get a new piece of content in there – and paying a pretty penny for the joy. WordPress allows you to do it all yourself.

Illiya: I would also add to what Toby has put that there are a number of plugins that you get download for free from the WordPress plugin depositary.

Q. Where do you buy your WordPress themes from primarily? What theme companies or designers do you specifically recommend?

I buy from a number of sources. Themeforest seems to get a fair share of my money these days, but I have a developer’s license at Elegant Themes who offer a stupid amount of themes for an annual fee of $39. Themefuse and FrogsThemes also deserve a mention for high quality themes that I use and have bought.

Q. Do you think businesses are finding WordPress easier to use than other CMS’s that you have used in the past?

I would say yes, with over 20% of the “worlds” websites being WordPress based it kind of speaks volumes.

With the mainstream free alternatives out there being Drupal and Joomla, WordPress seems to have stolen a massive march on them without having to do any advertising, so there must be something in it.

Q. What is one of biggest stumbling blocks when it comes to developing a WordPress website for a client?

I would say this stumbling block isn’t just reserved for WordPress – educating them as to what is important on a website and what isn’t. I still get a few that feel because it’s “their” site, they know what’s best and want certain stuff that just isn’t important or required.

An overly large logo, a stats counter or news ticker seem to be more important than a lead capture form, a prominent call to action or a well proportioned and structure website!

You can almost hear them crying as you tell them that their logo, that takes up half of the screen, is not important to their potential customers and won’t help them generate new business (and yes, I still get people who want a stats counter).

Q. How do you see WordPress being used by bigger companies in the future?

For blue-chip companies (FTSE100, NASDAQ, etc.) – purely as a blogging and brand awareness platform – not for main site prominence.  There are some big names out there that already use WordPress in this way and have great looking and engaging sites, but I don’t see them switching to WordPress for their main sites.

It wouldn’t surprise me though if a few of them concentrated some of their efforts into Google+ for his kind of work. Whilst, I’m not a big fan of Google+ and its layout or usability, it is starting to gain momentum for brand awareness projects – watch this space!

Q. What is the most important WordPress Plugin that a business should install on their WordPress site?

Ohhh crumbs, just one – wow, toughest question I’ll have all day that. From an important to me point of view it has to be one that saves me a lot of time and that would be Yoast’s WordPress SEO plugin.

All plugins are about saving time, but WordPress SEO implements stuff site wide and saves me a heck of an amount of time, not just in the initial setup but from a long term point of view.

Q. How important is it for businesses to consider investing into reputable hosting for WordPress?

Very. There are so many hosting companies out there it is sometimes hard to see the wood for the tress.

I recommend checking out up-time, complaints about customer service, how long they’ve been in business, where the servers are based – before you consider the things they offer you in their packages.

Not everyone needs dedicated servers or can justify the cost associated with them – but if you’re only paying £3.00 a month for your hosting, don’t expect a quick site or stellar customer service.

Q. What are the main pitfalls in trying to setup a WordPress theme yourself? How easy do you think it is for non-technical users?

The main pitfall for me is in the theme itself, buying a theme that isn’t coded correctly or doesn’t work how it was portrayed to work.

If it is coded correctly and is flexible enough, there aren’t too many pitfalls for the experienced developer.

However, for somebody who isn’t technical I would say they tend to go with what looks good on the theme author’s sales page.

They presume that because the theme is for sale and looks good – then everything will work properly.It isn’t always the case and can be frustrating when things don’t work properly and they don’t know why – or don’t have the technical skills to identify it, let alone rectify it.

One other pitfall I see is plugin overload. They see so many plugins that they think they can have them all, without realising the effect it has on site speed and compatibility. One of my favourite questions to clients who have done this is

“So, which one of the 50 plugins do “you” think broke your site?”

Q. Have you got any advice on WordPress Security? What should businesses do to protect their installations?

First thing a business should do is “expect” some form of hacking attempt in the first month of their site going live.

Too many business owners have the mentality that nobody would bother to hack “their” site. Wrong. They have a vision of some geeky kid sat in his pyjamas in his bedroom furiously tapping at the keyboard to hack into websites.

What they don’t realise is that automated programs do it now and WordPress sites, from a bots point of view are easy to spot. There isn’t a website I own, or manage that doesn’t have at least one hacking attempt every day or two and most are several times a day.

Second thing to do is to not install every security plugin on the market to protect their site. That in itself can cause further security holes.

Thirdly, get some proper advice and help. Don’t expect this to be cheap, but do expect it to be cheaper than having to rebuild a website or have somebody like me take out all the malicious code that has been added.

Fourthly, backup your site – regularly. Most hosts make this so easy for you it would be shameful if you didn’t. But please, please, please – do not store your backup on the same server as your website. Back it up locally, make a separate backup on a USB stick or DVD, even cloud storage – but never have your backup on the same server as your website.

Q. Why do you think so many business fail to produce an effective website, even if they do use WordPress?

I refer to the point in earlier – businesses don’t understand what is involved. It’s like taking a bricklaying course and expecting to be able to build the house, do the plumbing, wiring, interior design etc. There is a lot more to websites than just installing WordPress, a theme and a few plugins!

Illiya:  A big thank you to Toby for answering all these questions and adding to the already great advice on WordPress that we have been adding to this blog for a while. Stay tuned for more advice and interviews from my other colleagues in the digital industry.

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Be Remarkable, Be Like Seth 8 Apr 2013 4:12 AM (12 years ago)

Competition in business is like stepping into a piranha infested sea, if you don’t stand out you’ll be quickly eaten alive. Unfortunately, too many businesses struggle to reinvent themselves or offer anything different to their niche or industry.

Let’s face it, some people just aren’t naturally creative or just don’t have a clear vision about their company. Should those reasons really stop you from coming up with an interesting business or a strong brand. I don’t think so.

If you’re simply not the creative type, then hire a designer who can come up with some genius idea or talk to the brand agency who can help you come up with a clear vision.

Or even simpler still just be like Seth does and BE REMARKABLE.

Become the Purple Cow

If you haven’t yet heard of Seth Godin, he’s one of the world’s leading experts on Marketing and Business, a multi best selling author.

In Seth Godin’s book ‘The Purple Cow‘ he made the argument that:

‘The TV model of I make average stuff for average people but promote it a lot, or I have good location or my hours are convenient – is broken. It’s broken because there are too many choices, there are too many average things to choose from. The alternative is to make something worth talking about.  Make something remarkable. Because ideas that spread WIN.’

YOU have to get out of the traditional midset of being just like everyone else. You’re not going to win if you’re making more average stuff and adding it to already crowded market. Seth gives the visual concept of why be another brown cow in the pasture field when you can be the Purple Cow instead!

On the Internet nothing is more important than connecting with consumers. It’s all about building relationships, people forget that on the web you can be as visual and interesting as you like. In fact, the Internet gives you even more possibilities than any other medium to speak to consumers directly.

The question is WILL you spread the word and HOW will you do it? Are you going to shout about your average products and services to anyone who will listen? Or will you create something worth talking about? Go create something that is remarkable.

How can you do MORE like Seth?

Often, the biggest mistake a business can make with their website is making it all about THEMSELVES! It’s not designed for that. Your web presence is for your customers and you should make it about THEM.

Have you ever noticed how most website copy goes off on a complete tangent? We did this, we sell that, we produce this, we like those, look how great WE ARE. Does anyone really care about WE?

Start by telling stories that matter. Create something worth talking about. Even, if its just creating a remarkable looking website – that alone can generate exposure and interest around your business.

My first website design of Smartdog digital accumulated in getting featured on some the top web design blogs in the world – I gained links, a tone of traffic and most importantly exposure from it.

All it took was some genuine effort and love poured into the design stage.

What I could have done better was making the copy and services something worth talking about. By just following the example of other agencies and businesses in my niche was probably my one biggest mistake. I may have had a strong brand and website worth talking about but my copy and services were UNREMARKABLE.

I recently sat down with a client who supplied me with the most AVERAGE boring copy that I’ve ever read. I asked him two simple question;

If a customer were to read this copy what impression do you think it would give them about your overall business and services? Would it inspire them to buy from you today?

He answered that it would not give the right impression about the business and offer reasons why they are different to their competition. It also  would not inspire them to buy.

Having reminded him that the brand and website we created together did stand out from his competition, he went away to improve the copy and make it something worth talking about. The difference was really clear to see.

There are some alternatives ways to writing WE based website copy. For example you could write;

• Your self-confidence will be increased by using our products
• This service will change your life
• You can get your money back if you are not 100% satisfied
• This is HOW our service will help you

Sure, these are all better than just saying we. They are more focused on the benefits to the end customer but do they go far enough. The answer is NO. If all your competitors did the same, then how are you remarkable?

Making your Content Remarkable

With the Internet even more competitive than ever before. Many businesses have adopted the model of content marketing or as I prefer to refer to call it ‘Thought Leadership‘ – becoming an authority in your field or industry.

This can apply to people blogging about a particular topic or industry but for a retail business for example; how do they make their content remarkable?

The answer is simple do something different to the rest, do not follow the crowd.

Here are some simple ideas that you can employ to make your content more remarkable;

• Write about something that matters to you
• Tell a great story about your business – perhaps you went the extra mile to help out a customer
• Drop the ‘Top 10’ post – everyone else does them, they are NOT remarkable
• Create an interesting video
• Showcase your products
• Produce a unique piece of insight or research
• Run an experiment and publish the results
• Don’t just write posts for search engines – an overly optimised blog post can kill off any interest in the title or content
• Ask your customers for ideas
• Run an event and spread the word
• Share amazing images
• Do something for charity
• Give a rememberable talk – think about creating a great TED style talk

I recently put together a presentation design for Kunle Campbell of Fuzzone – his talk titled ‘Building Thought Leadership – Beyond SEO‘ discusses what you can do as an alternative to only focusing on improving your search engine optimisation.

He also talks about how thought leadership is not shameless self-promotion and that it is a defined strategic method to influencing links and rankings.

Google has even started rewarding thought leaders and if your business has the resource, time and talent – you should focus on driving the conversation online and round your business and services.

P.S – If you loved this presentation and would like something creating for your business. Come talk to me over at The Presentation Designer.

I hope this helps you the next time you think about your website copy or when you next approach creating a web presence for your business.

Is it remarkable? Is it a Purple Cow? Is it something worth talking about?

If the answer is NO. Don’t launch it and spend the time getting that right first. If your current website is unremarkable, boring and dull – then seriously just go fix it now. You’ll thank me later.

I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. Get involved people I don’t bite. Trolls go home.

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Do you EVER Discuss your Website? 20 Mar 2013 2:29 AM (12 years ago)

Do you ever discuss your website?

What is with these companies that leave their website to rot for years never to be updated again since the last time in 2000, when it was first built.

Maybe that’s not you. Or maybe you know a business that sounds just like that.

For a lot of companies their website is merely just a commodity past around like some unwanted cold that ends up becoming some poor persons sole responsibility to look after. And yes I can’t actually believe I’m saying this in 2013!

The whole company should take responsibility for their website and not just one lonely member of staff.

You should be proud of it.

If your website stinks and looks like the rear end of a baboon’s backside then people probably aren’t going to take your company very seriously. I know I wouldn’t.

But even if your website looks pretty nice, is it usable? Can your website visitors actually find what they are looking for and use it easily?

I would argue that the percentage of companies who actually sit down to meet once a month to discuss their overall website strategy is very slim.  Unless, they are multinational, and even then I’m pretty sure I’d find some shocking results.

What could meeting about your website help to accomplish:

Not only will the people involved with running the company have a clearer picture about their web presence, but I would like to think Directors and Managers would feel far more confident about the terms surrounding website marketing and have a greater understand of things.

Some of benefits include:

• Directors are more aware of the website’s value to the business.
• Marketing teams gain an understanding of the website performance, traffic and visitor figures.
• Action plans can be put in place to improve SEO rankings and content.
• Focus can be placed on customer surveys to improve website usability and relevance of the offering and engagement.
• More ideas from different departments. Moving away from just one persons opinions and decisions.
• Multiple ownership of the website. More accountability.
• Team learns together. Develop more staff skills in digital marketing.
• Able to react faster to technology developments online.

These are but just a few reasons for having a monthly discussion about your website could provide.

So what is stopping you right now?

Just add it on to the agenda and make sure it finally gets talked about. Your website isn’t something to be ignored, certainly not in 2013.

I do understand that not every business needs or heavily relies on their website for revenue, but even so that’s no real excuse to claim complete ignorance to the Internet.

As a business owner I’m not a big fan of accounting, and yet I take a keen interest in understanding it as it helps me run my business more effectively.  Shouldn’t other business owners want to know what is happening with their website, just like they know what is happening with their books.

This is where I believe we’ve gone wrong thinking that the Internet isn’t that important, but what if you could realise that potential and bring in an extra 20% in revenue. You would probably jump at the chance.

Another miscalculation by many businesses is the cost and budgets placed forward for digital marketing and promoting their website. Effective digital marketing takes time and money – it can’t happen without a sensible budget being put forward.

A £100.00 to do a SEO campaign or social media strategy isn’t going to get you jack. You wouldn’t spend pennies on other areas of your business so why tighten the belt when it comes to your website.

You’d be wise to remember that the web is far more measurable than print or offline marketing (not that they don’t have value), but when you can measure activity with a 95% degree of accuracy over the assumptions and guesswork for offline marketing results. For me it really is a no brainer.

Yet, still many smaller companies heavily rely on Direct Mail, TV & Newspaper / Magazine adverts to generate business at a exponential cost. Even though we are starting to see a shift to digital advertising, small businesses still look at the Internet with reluctance and trepidation.

So let’s actually get talking about our websites they should no longer be the grey Elephant in the room. Heck, you might even learn some valuable golden nuggets about your customers and the products / services they buy from you.

Do you discuss your website in your company regularly with other key members of staff?

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Maude4Marketing Launched 19 Mar 2013 4:38 AM (12 years ago)

How do you improve a website quickly and affordably without having to get something bespoke built or designed.

Simples. WordPress is the answer!

Yes…you really can have a website as a good as this for less than £500.00. If you know what you’re doing with WordPress you can even do it yourself.

I recently had the pleasure of working alongside Maude4Marketing, Managing Director, Sara Maude.  Maude4 are a specialist B2B marketing agency based in Yorkshire.

Sara approached me to give her existing website a bit of a refresh and an overall re-brand, whilst maintaing her vision for her company and getting across the right tone to prospective clients.

She’ll be the first to admit her previous WordPress site left a lot to be desired and wasn’t representative of the good work she was doing with her clients

So What Did I Do to Help?

Firstly, I looked at the overall Maude4 brand to see if any improvements could be made. Instantly, I noticed that the existing logo (which was a bit of an eye sore) could do with a re-brand.

This was primarily to fit the new WordPress theme I had recommended.

Here is the logo development:

I tried to imagine the possible uses for the logo, in branding materials, documents and elsewhere. This is why I decided to go with the smaller version of just simply ‘Maude4‘, not only is this easier to remember and say, it can also fit into places where other versions of logo can’t.

Now Maude4Marketing have a brand worth remembering, rather than something that is forgettable.

The New Site

I scrapped the existing WordPress theme which was clunky, badly optimised for SEO and a pain to update for this theme by Orman Clark. He is one of the very best WordPress theme designers on the planet and it shows when his themes are extremely easy to update.

For a novice (non-techie) person setting up a WordPress theme isn’t the easiest process in the world, I’ve seen even developers struggle to get to grips with some themes. This where I came in.

Having setup and built over 50 WordPress themes over the years, I can say I’ve been there and got the t-shirt when it comes to this stuff.

Needless to say the new site looks great. Sara is pleased. Her clients are pleased.

I also provided a bit of hands on training and helped her setup Joost De Valk’s world class WordPress SEO plugin. I also demonstrated how to properly use the plugin to improve the search engine optimisation of content entered into WordPress.

Here’s what Sara had to say about our work;

“Illiya is great to work with, bringing fresh creative ideas to the table to deliver exceptional results. Always a pleasure to work with, I would recommend Illiya’s services to any of my clients”

 

 

Do you like what you see here? Want me to help you out with your website? Get in touch.

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Wine Website Examples 18 Mar 2013 9:02 AM (12 years ago)

This a round up of my previous wine website example posts for your inspiration. I’ve also added a number of new finds into this post for 2013.

I’m carrying on this series on the back of requests from a handful on my readers who asked me for some more recent examples.

If you are looking for a company to design or build you a stunning wine website I can honestly recommend you get in touch with me directly. Having been involved with web design way before it was even considered cool and being a wine website buff I’m actually the guy you need to speak to!

Previous Wine Website Examples:

Here are some of the previous wine website posts I’ve done.

•  Wine Website Design Inspiration #4
• 10 MORE Examples of Beautiful Wine Websites
• 7 More Amazing Wine Website Examples
• 5 Examples of Beautiful Wine Websites

Latest Wine Website Design Finds:

I’ve enjoyed a few decent bottles of wine over the last few months with some good friends, one friend in particular my buddy Nick Walker knows far more about the actual drinking of wine than I do. You should get in touch with him if you want to buy some nice wines!

The Hungarian Wine Society

Eastern European wines are the best (if I don’t say so myself), obviously I’m incredibly biased here. I’m actually a big fan of Spanish wines myself as I find them to my taste.

Maybe you’ve never tried Hungarian wine’s before but now is your chance. What I really love about this website is the colour scheme and the typography primarily. Also, there is some really well thought content on this website.

I did a bit of digging by searching for ‘top ten hungarian wines’ in Google and look what I found.

Yep, they certainly understand their SEO  and are outranking both the Lonely Planet and Wikipedia no doubt. Folks this is what content marketing and good SEO looks like. Please take note.

A nice looking website is just the start of building a business online, most people build it and then hope people will just show up. If you try this in 2013 you are going to be in for a nasty shock!

Jax Vineyards

In complete contrast to the previous example Jax Vineyards have opted for a very clean and minimalist look to their website which helps create an overall modern feel.

The powerful striking image of the wine bottle and fork really capture your attention and complement the creative copy well. This a common theme that is seen in the better wine website examples. I’ve being saying it for years, good imagery really makes a website go from good to great.

If you can’t take good images you should look to employ a creative photographer who can.

LA Wine Agency 

The LA Wine Agency website is extremely type led which gives it a unique design that sets it apart from its other competitors. I love the creative images used for each of the wine types.

The only problem I have with this website is the navigation and usability is made far more difficult because of the typographic design. For people who aren’t great web users and want to buy some wine from this website quickly they might struggle to find where they are going.

My props though to LA Wine Agency for doing something completely different.

La Bubbly

Everyone loves a nice glass of bubbly, especially when it’s well deserved. What I really like about this example is the focus on the video as the primarily thing a web user would interact with.

It’s been well documented that video can help improve user engagement with a page of content and even increase conversions. Not only is this video interesting and unique, it also draws your interest into the website well.

Again, great use of typography to give this website a style, personality and overall impact. I think it’s a fantastic example of how to do it right.

Well, that’s it for now folks. Stay tuned for more updates from the Cork & Bottle series.

Flickr image credit for blog header – Image of Wines by Alex Brown, alexbrn edited by Smartdog digital

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Welcome to the Digital Dog House 18 Mar 2013 7:23 AM (12 years ago)

You may have been enjoying a relaxing weekend putting your feet up this Sunday (and good for you), instead I was busy at work getting the new version of Smartdog digital ready for the world to see.

It was Smartdog’s three year anniversary this month since the original launch of the business way back in March 2010 and to celebrate I decided it was high time I gave this website some much need TLC.

So why the NEW Theme?

Simply put, I’m taking a brand new approach with both the overall content on this blog and the way this business operates and the type of service we offer.

I’m not a digital marketing agency (so gone is the generic agency style website) and instead I’ve gone back to getting people to read my blog posts first and foremost, hence the focus back on content!

As I’ve recently said on Twitter,  this is the website that I actually wanted to launch back in March 2010 but I had to go through a bit of a quest for the holy grail to find a theme that finally fitted my overall vision and direction for Smartdog digital.

Welcome to Dog House

What is going to be new on the blog then? I hear you asking.

This blog is actually over four years old and a lot has chance since my very first post.

Gone are the days of just posting up digital marketing tips, I’m now opening up the blog to post topics to:

• Business tools / products
• Entrepreneurship
• Business advice
• Design & Branding
• Interviews & Q+A’s

Most importantly, I will just blog about what inspires or annoys me in digital. If you are expecting to see more ‘Top 10 tips post‘ on digital marketing or social media, then you’re on the wrong blog!

I’ve stopped following what everyone else is doing and I’m taking a completely new approach. Also, do expect to see some blunt truths about digital marketing. I really do think the smoke and mirrors need to be attacked with some honesty and passion. And that’s exactly what I plan do.

Also, if you want to get involved and maybe you have:

• A question you need solving
• An idea for a post
• Some worthwhile business advice to share
• A great marketing story to tell

If you do then I’d love to hear from you, I’ll also reward anyone who does get involved with some sweets and a link to your website with some additional promotion about you.

Looking for forward to the next four years blogging!

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Content Marketing – The Buzzword for 2013 2 Jan 2013 3:31 AM (12 years ago)

*Drum roll. There’s a new buzzword in town, 2013 is the year for ‘content marketing’.

You’ll hear it vocalised in the corridors of digital industry, it will be mentioned many more times than both the words ‘ROI’ and ‘measure’.

You’ll hear it and by the end of 2013 I guarantee you’ll be sick of it.

SEO and social media have had their rein at the top move so over for the new blood that is content marketing!

Now that’s out the way we can proceed. Having a proper outlined content strategy for your business is actually a great way to promote your business online and establish your authority around your products and services.

To keep it very simple you are using your content online as a means to drive more traffic and convert more customers into buyers.

Many rent-a-marketers are well aware of this fact and they’ll be pushing this service like it’s a supermarket’s buy one get one free offer.

Be aware that simply doing a few guest posts or creating average content and posting it on your business blog isn’t really going to cut the mustard.

Just like with anything, it will take effort, commitment and a sensible investment of both money and time if you want to see true results.

It should not be the only thing you are doing in 2013 to promote your business online, nor is it a substitute for SEO or any other form of digital marketing.

18 Important Things you need know about Content Marketing:

1. You know your business better than anyone else.  You should be the one creating great content around it.
2. Good writers cost money. They aren’t cheap.
3. An infographic – is a graphic containing information that is nicely designed to present the information in a neat way.
4. You don’t need to invest into expensive infographics campaigns
5. Let your customers share in the creation of content – invite participation, feedback and interaction
6. If the words ‘analytics’ or ‘measurement’ are not mentioned in your content strategy then you are not off to a good start.
7. Content is not a replacement for good SEO
8. One truly great piece of content is better than 100 average pieces of content
9. Creating content isn’t expensive just time consuming
10. Guest posting isn’t content marketing
11. Keep it visual. Keep it informative
12. Can’t design. Hire a designer
13. Your company is content rich you just have to look for it
14. Don’t hand it off to your interns or junior staff
15. Don’t be boring. Tell stories through your content.
16. Content isn’t just reams of text
17. Images are louder than words
18. Your own staff are experienced content creators

Start Me Up

Where do you start?

Personally, I would start by looking at your products and services.

What do you do differently to everybody else? Got it? Great!

Start by telling stories about your customers, your business, your products and your services.

I did not say make it up, please keep it honest and stay truthful.

What information could you create that would be interesting, relevant, entertaining or useful to your audience online? I’m doing mine right now in this very blog post!

To give you an example; a florist online might create the following content: 

• Video – How to Beautifully Arrange Flowers
• Blog post – What Flowers to Buy Your Long Suffering Wife
• Infographic or Image – The Most Popular Types of Flower Bouquets in 2013
• PDF – Simple Tips for Keeping Your Flowers Looking Healthy and Lasting Longing
• E-mail – Why Flowers are the Best Gift to Give in 2013

See how hard that was really! I’m no florist but if I was one I’d probably run with some of those ideas. A real florist could properly come up with some better ideas if they gave it a bit of thought.

Creating a Digital Library of Assets

Once content is created it can be used time and time again in different places online. I like to think of it like a digital library, accessible anytime.

Gurus will call it ‘evergreen’ content, like the evergreen trees. Frankly, I just find that plain confusing calling it that.

What I’m not saying here is go publish the same blog post 100 times on a 100 different websites. That will likely lead to some major red flags with many search engines. You don’t want your website rankings penalised.

What I’m saying is create a video and put it into an e-mail campaign. Send it to your customers. Share it on Twitter. Publish it to Facebook. Play it at a meeting.

Look at your business, there is content all around you. A collection of blog posts can be turned into an Ebook. White Papers can be turned into the statistics used to create an infographic. FAQs can be used for creating How to Videos.

The list is endless. The most important thing you need to remember about creating content is to have fun with it.

Content should never be boring. If you enjoyed creating it the likelihood is people will enjoy consuming it.

If your customers can create killer content for you then you’re really on to a winner!

Good luck and if you need my help you know where to find me.

Photo Credit Library By Paul Lowry

Photo Credit Keyboard by Adikos

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A New Chapter 20 Dec 2012 2:26 PM (12 years ago)

The last two years have not been easy, as business owner I am by no means the finished article, nor have I ever claimed to be. I’ve already made plenty of mistakes along the way.

We are all human. I’m glad I’ve learnt from mine.

The first couple of years working for myself have been where the ‘real’ world education has truly started. I’ve learnt more in two and bit years than I did throughout my whole business degree, high school education and professional working years combined.

Not only that but I’ve learnt lots of things about myself on a personal level.

I believe it is very important that we encourage young people with ambition to start a business early in their lives. No matter how successful they may be with it, good or bad, they will all learn an exceptional amount of life skills from the experience. These skills will serve them in good stead throughout the rest of their lives.

As I alluded to earlier, I didn’t embark on this journey without prior hindsight knowing that there would be some difficulties to face along the way. Next year I’m going back to the core reason I started this company and the sole reason I believe I was put on this planet to do; educate people about technology and show them how it can really help their business.

Knowledge is power and I’m keen to share mine with my clients.

Having grown up with the rise of social media, the rapid development of computers and the growth of the Internet I’ve never known a world without the impact of technology. It is all very natural to me. Since the age of 6 when I got my first very computer, an Apple Acorn, I knew working with computers was what I wanted to do.

I built my very first website called ‘Illz World’ in Microsoft Word at the age of 11, since then I’ve gone on to build many, many more.

People talk about a calling in life and following your passions, I have a passion for technology and that is why I am here. It’s why I got into digital marketing and it is why I decided to pack in my salary paid job to realise my dream of sharing my knowledge and teaching other business owners about the benefits of the Internet.

In my professional career I’ve seen so much bad advice given to clients by cowboys, snake oil SEO salesmen, wannabe digital gurus, bad agencies and other so called marketing companies.

At what price has this advice cost?

There is no running away from it, we are in a recession, the media kindly remind us of that fact every day. Can any business afford to waste money flushing it down the toilet?

The answer would be no.

I don’t claim to have all the answers and most importantly I’m not here to point any fingers either. I just want to make sure businesses have someone to turn to if they want a friendly, honest and impartial second opinion on the advice they may be already receiving about their website or digital marketing.

No buzz words, no marketing lingo, no bull.

I look forward to sharing my infectious enthusiasm and love for digital marketing with many more businesses this coming year. ROLL ON 2013!

If you interested in my help then I’d love to hear from you. To all my true friends, colleagues and the lovely people who I’ve had the pleasure of working with this year. Good luck in 2013 and best wishes.

Visual Sounds & Shapes

You are also going to be seeing and hearing me a lot more next year. I’m not a big writer and actually I don’t enjoy writing that much (surprising as it may be to some of you) it is very difficult for me to get my thoughts down by keyboard so I’m introducing two new things to the blog.

• Monthly Podcast where I’ll probably bring colleagues of mine in the industry to talk about digital marketing topics with.
• Much more video with me on camera! Scary stuff I know! I’m hoping people will enjoy my discussions and content.

Have a good one!

Illiya Vjestica – Founder & MD of Smartdog digital

Feature Image Credit: By Ross Catrow

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Don’t Over-Extend Yourself as a Business Owner 29 May 2012 5:39 AM (12 years ago)

Have you ever felt that maybe you are taking on too many commitments? Have you ever felt that things are starting to get on top of you?

Working for yourself can leave you regularly feeling like it’s a continuous juggling act with numerous things trying to pull you off into different directions. The world wants us to do more tasks than is physically possible in a day.

Sometimes it can be difficult even to focus on the important tasks and prioritise your commitments, especially if you are the sole person (and I hear you brother!) running your own business.

There are also your personal commitments to consider, you need to juggle your own leisure and family time into the mix. Don’t even get me started on trying to fit a fitness regime in there as well!

In this blog post I’m going to share with you some useful advice that I’ve learnt in my short two years of being self-employed; hopefully this will help you prevent ‘burn out’ or from ‘over-extending’ yourself all too easily.

Recently, I launched my second business, The Presentation Designer. With most of my spare free time I help out my brother with the design and website management of Awesome Games our UK gaming blog.  There is also a bi-weekly podcast that we do as well (and let me tell you, doing a podcast is hard work!)

This year one of my main personal goals was to collaborate more with others. Yes, I do enjoy working for myself but I also miss the social interaction and ability to share ideas working as a team that you inevitably get when you’re employed for a company.

Personal goals are important, they are excellent for your overall development, not just to try new ideas, tactics or strategies but also to allow you to work on other projects aside from your main business.

However, before you rush off to collaborate with that friend, buddy or business contact on that shiny new idea you’ve just come up with, please take a moment to think about the following first:

Answer these Simple Questions Firstly:

• How much work commitments do you currently have on-going?
• Note down your current weekly working hours, make a note of how much leisure time you are currently dedicating to yourself.
• Try to visualise how long you’d like to commit to a new project, idea or strategy – is it a realistic timeframe?
• How much work will you be required to get this project off the ground?
• How many hours will it take up of your time each week? How much time would you be prepared to spare?
• Will you have to commit weekends to these projects?

I recently made the mistake of ignoring these simple questions before committing myself to a recent collaborative project, but I can safely say that now I answer these set of questions each time I have a new project or idea I want to do.

Commit to the Things that Benefit you the Greatest

If you are like me, sometimes you can have a million and one different ideas floating around (most of them being totally crazy). Each new idea seems even better than the preceding one before. With so many ideas it can be very easy to get carried away.

The questions above will help you to realistically address the idea or project and to validate your decision to move it forward to a stage where you decide to commit fully to it. Don’t be committing half-paced, you’ve got to bring your A game on this!

You should also try focusing on the commitments, task, ideas or projects that will benefit you greatest personally. Maybe it’s that night out with your best friend you’ve been promising for months, or reading that great book you bought, or in my case, focusing on the projects that can help me reach my life goals more quickly.

For others, it might be working on the things that bring them money or working on the projects that improve their abilities or the things that they love working on the most.

Everyone will have a different reason to commit to something. It is after all, a personal choice.

Do a Mind Dump

Recently, I learned of a new productivity method called a Mind Dump. This is a technique where you write down all the thoughts, ideas, worries, concerns and commitments you currently have in your head directly on to a piece of paper (paper is best or you could type it down etc.)

Once, you have everything down in front of you it makes it much easier to prioritise what is important right now and what are your pressing concerns or tasks that need to be done.

I’ve only just started using it but it has already helped me unwind from work and clarify my thoughts into a manageable, workable system. Mind dumps FTW (for the win!).

Sometimes it’s Best Just to Say No

Be your own personal critic; ask yourself ‘is this really going to help me achieve what I want to do or benefit me in someway?’

Do this each time you get a new idea, are approached to commit to something new, or when you find something new to spend your time doing.

If the answer is no, then simply don’t do it. Why would you want to put yourself under more unnecessary pressure?

Stress is not helpful, good for your health or generally an aid to one’s life. Don’t risk having more.

Be Prepared to Give Things Up

Finally, sometimes you might have already started a new project or committed to something that at first seemed like a great idea and you’re even finding the time and money available to do it. However, things can change suddenly, if it’s not a major priority to you right now then put it on the back burner, scale it down or even be prepared to give it up completely.

Finally, if you’re starting to feel ‘burnt out’ or ‘overworked’ look at your current life commitments and figure out what you can do without or what is not important, perhaps you’ve simply taken on too much too soon. There is always a simpler or more effective way of doing something.

To end, don’t be afraid to try new things, start new ideas or try something new, but remember sometimes that blissful enthusiasm and keen desire can lead you to become over-extended with your commitments. You have to sometimes reign it in and learn to be your own personal ‘judge & jury’ when it comes to accessing new projects, ideas or commitments.

You will thank yourself in the long run. I truly hope you find this blog post useful.

Image Credit: Picture of NO Graffiti By marc falardeau

Image Credit: Brainstorm Image By andymangold

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