Marketing trick 103: make your customers smile

Dave — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 03:33:45 +0000

While being dragged around a shopping centre yesterday I came across this sign in a tiny little flower shop. So simple, yet it stopped me in my tracks and made me smile. Clever marketing…

WordPress 2.7 is about to become the only CMS you’ll ever need

Dave — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 18:53:34 +0000

I came across a promotional video for the Beta release of WordPress 2.7 on Webmonkey today. Looking at the promo it looks like the WordPress development team are really starting to put more emphasis on the Content Management aspect of the platform.

No longer is WordPress just a blogging tool. It’s becoming the only tool you’re ever going to need to run your website. Take a look at this

When the Internet breaks, who do you call?

Dave — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 08:03:45 +0000

I don’t really punt myself as a website hosting expert, but I have helped out a few of my clients in the past by offering cheap, simple web hosting. Web hosting is a great service for a freelance web designer to offer because it generally costs next-to-nothing to run. Until something breaks.

The strange thing about hosting problems are that they aren’t normally the fault of the person hosting the website. Of the 10-20 hosting support calls I get each month, I’ve only ever had 1 server outage.

So, if you host a website and you’re not sure who does what, here’s a 3-step guide to “who to call when the Internet breaks”.

1. Can you get on to the Internet?

If you can get on to the Internet, try going to a website that’s updated often (I use skynews.com). If the page loads you have an Internet connection. If it doesn’t, your connection is the problem.

Phone the person who provides you with your Internet connection (usually a phone company or ISP) for assistance.

2. Does your email work?

Now that you’re on the Internet, can you receive email? If your normal email client (MS Outlook, Thunderbird, whatever) shows a send/receive error, try going into your email via the Internet. If you have your own domain, this is often done by visiting http://webmail.yourdomain.com and entering your email username/password.

If this works your email is fine and it’s your Desktop software that’s broken. Phone the person who maintains your computer for assistance. If, on the other hand your webmail account doesn’t work and you’ve confirmed that you have an Internet connection, phone your hosting provider for assistance.

3. Does your website work?

If you’ve checked your Internet connection and your Webmail, and everything works except your website, phone the person who maintains your site (incidentally, that person should be me) for assistance.

Thats it. If you follow these 3 simple steps, you should always phone the right service provider and get your problem fixed without having to threaten mass murder.