An ‘Independent Web Advice’ Blog

I have had a wonderful break but it is time to return to the world of the web. Having been offline for a while I suddenly feel all ‘out of date’, but my task lists are virtually empty, although milestones are looming large, and my RSS feeds are full of new material to read and digest.

I think I will start tonight! Speak soon -

Paul

I am considering creating my own search engine. Obviously it will simply scrape results from the big seven, but I can control the results and perhaps provide a better niche service than is already available.

I thought about calling it ‘topsy turvy’ or perhaps ‘wwearch’. But the last thing we need is another Google clone.

So I am stuck.

The search engine will return results only from the UK. It will search Google, MSN, Yahoo, Altavista, Ask etc etc and find relevant results. Those results will be limited to several themes and perhaps a keyword or two. Those results can then be presented in any format and any sort order, creating a niche provider search engine.

Should it be part of this website? Or perhaps a more catchy domain? Independent Web Advice is not particularly easy to type, but how many times do you actually type a domain name? Usually you follow a link or a bookmark. So does it matter?

Any suggestions welcomed!

Paul

Take the Google Quiz, it is just for fun, and see how you do.

A score above 20 is very good, unless you worked out the system! It really isn’t a sophisticated quiz (just for fun) but I like it.

There is a mistake in one of the questions - not in the correctness or not of the answers, but a mistake indeed, a childish error I have made. Can you spot it?
I will post the answer here in a few days time when I have had time to correct it. Busy Busy Busy!!!!!!!

Paul

I have come to realise that communication is a weakness for me.

What do I mean?

It seems that I can’t help making assumptions about other peoples knowledge of the net. I always assume too much.

I often go off at a tangent in my thinking and run ahead with a project without a proper buy-in from others.

For this I apologise.

The solution!

The solution is remarkably simple. The answer was given to me by Tom Jones of Cherizena Coffee. Just get on the phone and speak. Emails are no good.

Why are emails no good? Because we write them in sloppy English, they are after all, not novels. Sloppy English can be read in different voices. So a funny comment by you in an email seems like an angry outburst to a reader. A concern raised can come across as a criticism. A slight nudge to action can appear like a command.

PLUS: The final nail in the coffin, email tennis, the inevitable consequence of lengthy electronic communication.

So from now on, the telephone is once again my friend, and my inbox (stuffed to the rafters as it is) will become a secondary form of communication.

Paul.

01455 557 553

My time is scarce and I am sure yours is too.

We live increasingly hectic lives. Occassionally we achieve great things in a day and at other times we go around and around in circles. Occassionally I can spend the morning shifting a website structure around, and spend the afternoon shifting it all back again. These days are often all too common.

I can manage far more in a day than the majority of all the human kind that has lived before me, and so can you, thanks to these remarkable little machines we call computers. But in the morning I still can’t find my socks. Nothing really changes. I, myself, am not any faster. My tools are better.

I have recently tried quite a few project management tools, and none of them are quite right. So I have reverted back to a paper based todo list. But this time each week is photocopied for repeating tasks.

My repeated first task is to write in this blog. The spammers are killing my enthusiasm. Today I deleted 476 blog spams. They are never published, but the spammers never give up.

As if I didn’t have anything better to do.

See the new design here - an out of the way page as I add final touches. Comments welcomed. I can’t believe the time. Goodnight everyone.

After a wonderful christmas comes the long dark coldness of the January blues.

After a bout of flu, a virulent and violent strain of course (men never just have a cold, it’s true!), I am finally recovering despite barely being able to breathe out of my nose.

Our faces should have an extra hole specifically for excreting mucus. Imagine designing a body where mucus exits from the same cavity that you breathe through! Surely there must be a better design.

Roll on genetic engineering, immortality and disease free bodies.

If I had stem cells, I would donate them.

Become a blood donor

Happy new year,

Paul.

I had to say it. Sorry.

Paul

PS Oh and a happy new year!

I often get asked by fellow web developers how to create a succesful website. Here it is in black and white without any needless explanations.

If you are not a web developer and not used to these terms, then please ignore this post. Read a bit more from Independent Web Advice.

1) Keyword Research (difficulty 9/10)

2) Domain Name (difficulty 7/10)

3) Avoid the Sandbox (difficulty 4/10)

4) Create Content (difficulty 5/10)

5) Site Design (difficulty 9/10)

6) Page Size (difficulty 2/10)

7) Usability (difficulty 6/10)

On Site Optimization (difficulty 10/10)

9) Globals (difficulty 4/10)

10) Headers (difficulty 2/10)

11) Site Map (difficulty 3/10)

12) Content (difficulty 9/10)

13) White Hat Only (difficulty 2/10)

14) Competition Analysis (difficulty 7/10)

15) Submit (difficulty 1/10)

16) Blog (difficulty 5/10)

17) Links From Other Sites (difficulty 8/10)

18) Study your traffic with statistics (difficulty 4/10)
* Where are your visitors coming from?
* Which search engines do they use?
* What queries do they type in?
* What pages on your site do they visit the most?
* What are the entry pages on your site?
* What are the exit pages?
* What path do they follow when they browse your site?

19) Look Ahead (difficulty 2/10)

20) PR and Articles (difficulty 7/10)

Good luck everyone - let me know how you get on!

Paul Drewett

Independent Web Advice.

Time and time again I am asked by customers and clients “why isn’t my website working?”.

I ask them a simple question, “what do you want from your website?”. Most people do not know. They wave their arms meaningfully in the air with a serious and ponderous face, but usually the answer is the same - more business.

Yet when I look at their sites they are often a cross between a business plan and a very boring, often unread, brochure. Who we are, where we are based, how to find us, how to contact us, what we do, our services, me me me me me me me.

If you want someone to give you money, then tell them what you will do for them. Talk about them, their life, their needs and wants. Not your own. I can assure you that no-one goes online with a burning desire to know all about you. People want to learn something about themselves and unless you talk about them, empower them, inform them, give them something of value, your visitors will just dissappear again.

The trouble with your website is not your website, it is you and your business. Positioning your website in the first place is sometimes the most difficult of decisions. Repairing an otherwise wayward site is usually a case of starting all over again. From scratch. With a blank canvass.

So sort out what you actually want your website to do (more business is not good enough). Remember to make these goals SMART, specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and with timescales included. Otherwise you may as well be sailing without a rudder, orienteering without a map or on a picnic without any food. (For the less troubled by coarse language, you are pissing in the wind.)

What do you want your website to do? Got an answer? Is it S.M.A.R.T.?

Paul

What do you do with a real monster? Do you try to tame it? Do you placate it? Or do you pen it up so tight that it can’t get out and cause any damage.

On the internet there are two types of people. Those that respect the web sites of others, and there are those that see the web as a source of soft victims to gain free advertising from.

The first set are the users that use forums and blogs, to leave genuine comments, criticisms and questions. To learn and grow by using the web to talk to others, to hear what they have to say and to seek advice.

The second set are the spammers, the rude and indecent people of low moral fibre that prey on unsuspecting web sites. Yet it is my web site that is penned up as tight as I can make it. The spammers are free to roam where they please.

I hope to see the day that we can gather together in a web mob, to flock to the doors of the spammers and burn their web sites to the ground.

At first the spam postings made me laugh. Then they made me smile. Now I simply treat them as the dirt they are. Splashing pornography and pimping sub grade virility drugs to the masses, these people are criminals, and only a step up from the mugger in the dark alley.

Spam has never made it onto my site because I personally read and moderate every post. So to any potential spammers out there - if I knew who you were, I would drag your filthy criminal arse through the streets and into every court I could find. I would not rest until you were behind bars. You are a leech on the web, a pestilient infestation that one day, when we have the powers, we will exterminate.

Long live the free and open web. Death to spammers.
Paul Drewett
Independent Web Advice

PS The spam postings that have been attempted involve gambling, pornography and drugs. The spammers must be so proud of themselves. I am sure their mothers would be so proud too if they knew. If these postings got onto my web site, they could damage my standings with search engines and users. So thank you for trying to damage me. If I ever meet you, I will stamp on you, like the locust you are.