How to Transfer a .ie Domain to a new Owner

I’m writing this article to document the process I’ve just gone through for the first time to transfer a .ie domain I owned to someone else. I’ll probably need to do this again some day so I can refer back here! It’s not the simplest process.. Continue reading How to Transfer a .ie Domain to a new Owner

Mobile Phone Masts

Went out to the bank today and spotted a mobile mast being erected in Drumsna, Co. Leitrim no more than 30 feet away from an existing one, same height, same eye sore. The existing one used to power my O2 broadband and phone 3G connection before we moved from Drumsna so I’m guessing this one is for Vodafone, Meteor, etc or maybe part of the 3 broadband rollout.

Seems a bit strange that existing masts can’t be used by multiple carriers the same way Eircom have been forced to share their infrastructure? Would save a bit of money, time and eyesore?

Leon.

Posted via email from Reverb Studios’s Posterous

Poor Upload Speeds?

I find it hard to believe that in 2010 Upload speeds in Ireland from all the main providers are still so low compared to Download speeds. I’m on a 7MB down package at the min and I normally get around 6MB of this on speed tests but the upload speed is always only a few hundred kilobytes max. Very low. Fair enough a few years back when I started out as a web designer and needed to send stuff out as well as download I couldn’t have expected Eircom or whoever to sort me out as I would have been in a minority. These days though I’m guessing there’s a hell of a lot of uploading going on as more and more people actually contribute to the web through youTube, Facebook, Photo sharing sites etc..not to mention sending emails.

I dream of the day we’ll have the same upload speed as download!

Check your actual up and down speeds here www.SpeedTest.net

Set Yourself Apart in Business

I’ve always thought of myself as a little different, from my strange name to the fact that I’m an only child to lots of other reasons and when you’re young this is not a good thing! You just want to fit in. But as you get older you begin to realise that being different can be a good thing. In business however I am coming to realise that being different and setting yourself apart is almost essential especially if you are in a competitive industry like web design. Continue reading Set Yourself Apart in Business

Web Design Contract

I’ve been having some problems lately getting paid quickly (or at all sometimes) for work done. Unlike a lot of other design companies I’ve never asked for deposits or signed contracts up front, preferring instead to get started quickly on a project and give a client something to see and be impressed by. This has worked quite well for me and has speed up my whole process nicely. But perhaps it’s naive of me. Continue reading Web Design Contract

External/Affiliate Link and Download Tracking in WordPress

I write reviews on my WordPress blog here and obviously link to the website of the product or service I’m reviewing and it recently occurred to me that it might be handy to know exactly how many people I’m sending to these websites for free! I tried manually adding tracking to links in articles but that’s a bit tiresome. I tried one or 2 other plugins also but nothing has worked as well as the Google Analyticator plugin by Ronald Heft. Continue reading External/Affiliate Link and Download Tracking in WordPress

Tornado in Leitrim!?

Very strange thing happened this morning in Keshcarrigan, Leitrim. Was in the toilet and there was a crazy rumbling noise all around me and the extractor fan looked like it was gonna pop out and hit me in the face. My partner started shouting at me that stuff (big stuff!) was flying around the garden and we all got a bit panicky! I had vision of the roof and walls lifting off the house and me sitting there on the toilet for all to see! I went out the back and everything was upended including a massive swing which took four of us to move last week and which had been lifted up, flipped over and fecked on top of a wooden fence, smashing it. My business sign out the front which itself is damn heavy also got wrecked.

The weird thing is that it was fairly calm and sunny only minutes before and we were thinking of going out with the dogs and baby. My partner said it got dark really quick, start lashing with hailstones and severe winds then minutes later it was calm and sunny again! I even thought it might have been some nuclear type wind!

Scary global warming…

Leon.

O2 Mobile Call Divert Codes

I just moved to a village in Leitrim (Keshcarrigan) with virtually no coverage on the O2 network, yeh I know I shoulda checked coverage before we moved in or at least believed the previous tenant who pointed it out to us when he was showing the house! Anyhow, I’m here now and I’ve tried a few things with my iPhone as suggested by Apple and O2 support including restoring to factory settings, swapping Sims, etc but the signal is just crap. The only other thing I could think of doing was to redirect calls to my mobile to the land line, but that wasn’t very ideal or efficient. Continue reading O2 Mobile Call Divert Codes

Web Designer Versus Client

Every now and then a situation comes up for me whereby a web design client will question a website graphical element or logo I’ve designed and suggest something different.

Fine normally, I’m open to different views and criticisms but what if they want something that is clearly wrong or what if they presume to know better than me even though they’ve presumably hired me for my expertise!?

Should I stand my ground or let the client ruin the site and have my name on crap? Is the customer always right?

Vote now..

Leon.

WordPress Banner Ads Plugin Review

Blogs in general (including some of my own posts here!) are some of the most trafficked sites on the net and the first thing that pops into most people’s heads when it comes to monetizing that traffic is advertising. I’ve been using some of Tribulant’s excellent WordPress plugins and was delighted to see that they had a Banner Advert plugin as I needed one for a new online venture AboutLeitrim.ie.

wordpress-banners-plugin

Tribulant’s Ad plugin is compatible with the current version of WordPress (2.9.2 as I write this) and goes in easily in the usual way. Here’s a quick rundown on what the plugin can do:

  • Multiple Predefined and Custom Ad Sizes & Zones.
  • Multiple Sidebar Widgets.
  • Manual Embedding/Hardcoding into your theme.
  • Page and Post Embedding.
  • Order or Random Ads
  • Static Image, Text and Flash Ads supported.
  • Integrated Ad Banner Upload.
  • HTML and Google AdSense supported.
  • Banner URL’s.
  • Ajax Ad Rotation with Time setting.
  • Impressions, Click and CTR Tracking.

Some standout features for me are:

  • Template embedding of Banners and zones.
  • Ad Ordering or Random rotation (you choose).
  • Click Tracking.
  • Ad placement/Zone flexibility.
  • Ad duration settings.

The click tracking might be a method of charging your advertising clients per click or view rather than monthly, weekly etc..

The plugin is very reasonably priced at $30 ($149.95 for Developer/Multi Site version) and perfectly stable.

Demos, Documentation and Support available HERE.

Get it HERE.