Month: September 2009

Blogs Get Noticed!

I got a call from a journalist from the Sunday Times last week in relation to an article she was writing on IVF and Infertility in Ireland. She wanted a male orientated view and must have googled same (as journalists are known to do as part of their research!). Luckily enough I was one of the few men talking about infertility and men on my blog so I come up fairly high for related searches.

What I had written on my blog was obviously interesting and relevant enough for her to call me and do an impromptu interview for the feature. The article went out on Sunday the 27th and covered a full page with a huge photo of myself, my partner and our baby! And had she included a link back to the blog articles in question, it would have brought a lot of exposure to my site for nothing!

The moral of the story is that if you continue to supply your blog with interesting and relevant content you will get noticed and become a valuable resource for others.

Read the Times article here.

Track Your Visitors

I’ve come across a few websites recently for one reason or another and couldn’t find any trace of a stat tracker code (some people might be relying on their host’s stat package). I would have thought most web designers if not their clients would include something like Google Analytics by default in every site they build. Especially considering its quick and free!?

I make a point of installing this code in all my sites at no cost and I’ve well over 100 clients sites added to my personal analytics account now. I have setup automated monthly emails to clients with a PDF attachment showing a quick breakdown of their visitor statistics. I have added some clients as users of my own account so they can login and view more detailed stats.

I believe for me its a valuable add on service and one that more and more clients are asking for and impressed by when you bother to do it.

Twitter Pervasiveness

I was at Bizcamp in Dublin last Saturday and was interested in the fact that almost anyone I talked with mentioned Twitter in some shape or form. My co-passengers on the journey to and from the event Tweeted our travel progress and the one talk I went to that was specifically related to Twitter was full and was given by a girl (Claire Boyles) obviously very enthusiastic about it!  The day served as confirmation for me if I needed any that Twitter is now the biggest thing since bread slicing.

I was only in the door and filling out my name tag when I noticed others putting their Twitter username on their badges so I done it myself and shortly afterwards I got recognised by someone who is following me! I spent most of the day looking at people’s name tags to see if I knew them from Twitter and anyone I did know and managed to get to talk to, the ice was broken simply by having Twitter in common.

I also got recognised a few more times which is always a nice ego trip and of course once conversation starts it could lead anywhere so the value of Twitter is obvious. Other people without Twitter name tags kinda got ignored (sorry!) but this only serves to enforce the fact that if you’re in business you need to be on Twitter and part of the “stream”.

@reverbstudios

Custom Web Site and WordPress Theme Design

After a year or 2 of installing WordPress for clients and using initially free, now commercial themes, I’ve now acquired the ability (after extensive messing around!) to design customised layouts and themes for this content management system. Using ready made templates will still be much more efficient and cheaper to the client of course but for people who require highly customised web design while keeping an easy to use CMS, and can afford it, I can now design a look and feel based on full design specs provided by the client.

Prices dependent on specs.