Rachel Soothill | Resources,Technology
If you are creating your own website there are a lot of factors to consider besides the look and design. There are certain elements that are repeatedly used among successful sites which have been tried and tested. Here we give you a rundown of the major elements that you should bear in mind when planning and developing your website
Rachel Soothill | News,Technology
At the beginning of the week Google announced the launch of its Google+ Pages. Specifically designed for companies, the pages allow them to set up profiles for their brands. There are also a host of business related features that they can benefit from.
If you have your own business website, it might take the form of a blog, or at the very least have a blog section. Content is king, as they say. If you want to be king, you’ve got to have content. Blogging is a great way to start a conversation with potential customers, improve traffic to your site, and keep visitors coming back.
TimothyTim | Guides,Technology
OK, that’s it. I’ve had it with sloppy internet stupidity and moronic marketing strategies from site owners. Here are my top ten (alright, eight) moronic things you’re doing to your website that dramatically hinders your ability to sell stuff.
Sending out B2B (that’s business-to-business) email marketing can be a key tool in helping you accumulate clients and to increase awareness. However, it is also a difficult activity to get right. Most of your recipients will be pushed for time and will undoubtedly receive an abundance of similar emails every day.
Last week software developer Serif released a new piece of research showing that some small businesses are spending over £1,000 on developing their company websites. The motives for this survey were obviously self serving, however the press release raised some interesting questions.
In January 2011 there were a reported 153,205,413 identified blogs on the internet and this number was growing by approximately 47,719 per day. These figures reflect just how popular blogging has become but also highlight the difficulties of getting your blog to stand out from the crowd.
Freelancer.com, the largest online marketplace for freelance workers, yesterday added hourly billing to their repertoire of services for freelancers and employers. The site’s 2.8 million members can now specify an hourly rate (assuming they have no qualms about going public with pricing), and be hired on short- or long-term contracts by employers with commission starting at just 3%.
In the same way that most people will pay close attention to the way they dress, how you ‘dress up’ your business deserves just as much attention. The visual identity you apply to your business will shape external perceptions and attitudes, playing a key role in the long-term success of your business.
A survey carried out by Sedo, a global domain marketplace, has revealed that small businesses are paying 5% more for their domain names than they were this time last year.
Rachel Soothill | News,Technology
Cookies, aside from being delicious mid-morning snacks, are small files places on your computer by websites. They allow sites to remember and recognise visitors and information such as log-in details, browsing history and ordering information. Many websites function using cookies, as does Analytics software and third party advertising such as Google’s AdSense.
Good website addresses are like gold dust these days. All the good ones are taken, either by people with the same company name as you, or by soulless URL squatters who want to charge you exorbitant amounts for them. For example, I recently enquired about buying thebomb.co.uk, which I discovered was available for £500 – and since then the price has gone up to £600!
Jon Norris | Lifestyle & Time out,Resources
If you follow us on Twitter (and really, why don’t you?) you may have noticed us chatting with Freelance Five. This new site, set up by freelance designer Mark Bowley aims to take all it is to be a freelancer – all the lost weekends, invoice chasing, personal successes and wonderful freedom, and boil it down into five concise questions.
Here’s something you don’t see often – the Government making appreciable, concrete strides towards a more user-friendly, useful web portal. Under the guidance of web brainbox Tom Loosemore, Alpha.gov.uk is a test version of a new Government portal that is supposed to eventually replace Direct.gov.uk.
Jon Norris | Guides,Technology
It’s all well and good designing and building a website to promote your business – but how do you know if people are actually visiting it, and what they’re doing once they’re there? Luckily, Google is on hand to provide anybody with free, relatively in-depth website analytics.
A little while ago HMRC issued a warning about a series of email scams that had popped up in the wake of the January 31st Self-Assessment deadline. Using faked email addresses (usually rebate@hmrc.gov.uk), the nefarious scammers were informing people they were eligible for a Tax Rebate running into the hundreds of pounds, and asking for bank details to complete the transaction.
I’m only guessing here but you probably use a whole host of software to manage your workflow. I personally use a heady mix of GMail, Google Docs, Google Calendar, Wordpress, Twitter, Facebook, Disqus and Tweetdeck.
Earlier this week we featured online presentation tool Spiceynodes as a great way to present information to clients or customers, in person, on a screen or directly embedded on your website. Today we look at a few tools for making quick website wireframes, prototypes and mockups.
From simple, free rapid drafting and prototyping tools to more complex and outright technical offerings we give you a quick overview of the options for freelancers needing to quickly create a mockup for a website or landing page.
Checklists are an essential part of finishing any project and when it comes to website launches there are a whole host of checks, fixes and tests that need to be done to make sure your project is firing on all cylinders, with valid HTML, CSS and javscript, that works in every browser, at different resolutions and on all platforms.
Launchlist.net is your one stop web checklist. Simple enter your details, project name and your clients email address, then set to work checking all the boxes.
Winning new business the easy and fun way. By following 6 simple rules you can build the freelance life you always dreamed of. Lucky you! You could be getting yourself shed-loads of new business starting from today.
You may to want to earn good money, have long holidays and be your own boss….but all you have to do is win new business. That’s the bit where most freelancers get the heebie-geebies. But I promise you can do it and you’ll get good at it!
Freelance Advisor and author of ‘Spare Room Start Up’ Emma Jones gives us her review of the best applications for freelancers. Top 5 technology apps of 2008 As we enter the month of December, I can’t help but look back at the year that was. The thousands of new businesses started, the people we’ve profiled, [...]
Freelance Advisor and author of ‘Spare Room Start Up’ Emma Jones give us a timely reminder of the things we could be doing in the run up to Christmas. What can freelancers do when things get quiet over the holiday season and what plans can we make for 2009. When the phones hush and emails [...]
Freelance Advisor founder Darren Fell is a successful entrepreneur and all over the first page of results when you Google his name. We asked him to share the secrets of his success and he responded with this guide to marketing yourself. Marketing yourself for free, a guide. The big question running through everybody’s mind when [...]
In the age we live in having a website as a business is critical. I’m not sure about you but it’s literally the first thing I do when I want to vet a supplier out and in my old days at Pure360.com I’d even do that for customers. No site and to be honest I [...]
