Not exactly work, but due to my son's rugby match being cancelled this Sunday has meant a nice walk in the fresh air and then sat in front of the TV watching Middlesbrough get a draw at Sunderland in the FA Cup. I rarely go to football these days but shall try and get tickets for the replay on Tues or Wed in around 10 days time. The end of that week sees a trip to Rome to watch some proper sport and hopefully see the dawn of a new style of rugby for England.
This week we've produced three new prototype designs for clients and these sites will be completed in the next few weeks. We're also still waiting on the final text for the content of the last couple of pages for a local solicitors so we can launch their new site. We've also agreed a new website contract with a local house repairs firm and created a prototype forum for Spirit Seekers, just needs a few tweaks before that goes public.
Thursday saw us at another meeting regarding the Redcar Hub and we met some great creative people from the Redcar and Saltburn area who have some fantastic ideas for developing the new seafront area at Redcar and out in Saltburn. Fantastic to meet these people for the first time and hopefully we can collaborate on some projects even if the Hub Collective idea does not go ahead.
We still awaiting details of our interns from the University of Teesside. We know their names, we know they'll be with us 20 hours a week, we know they're supposed to start sometime from tomorrow but that the hours fit with their lecture times, we just have no idea of the days/times they will be in - would be nice if the relevant people at the uni could answer emails and supply the requested info, I'm not impressed!!
Sunday, 29 January 2012
Sunday, 22 January 2012
Interesting New Projects
In between nose blowing due to a heavy cold, this week has seen us agree contracts for a new website for Chemseal, a local solvents company, and a web forum for Spirit Seekers, a North East haunted events and paranormal investigations company who we made a website for some time ago.
We also had meetings regarding two collaborative projects. One is an initiative set up by Redcar Council for a "Hub Collective" regarding a collective for creative businesses in Redcar and we will be involved in a number of meetings to develop this idea over the coming weeks. The second is a collaborative venture in its early stages that will be a web-based portal dealing with geographic data and there will be a meeting shortly involving a small number of interested parties from across the North of England.
In a week's time we have two French interns starting with us part-time, one of whom will be working on the geographic web-portal and the other on another side project we are planning. So we've had to buy another computer and a desk to accommodate these two fellows when they start with the furniture delivery tomorrow (Monday).
The coming week will see us complete a couple of new websites plus launch a plumber's directory and create the framework designs for a new first aid training company - should keep us busy until next weekend.
We also had meetings regarding two collaborative projects. One is an initiative set up by Redcar Council for a "Hub Collective" regarding a collective for creative businesses in Redcar and we will be involved in a number of meetings to develop this idea over the coming weeks. The second is a collaborative venture in its early stages that will be a web-based portal dealing with geographic data and there will be a meeting shortly involving a small number of interested parties from across the North of England.
In a week's time we have two French interns starting with us part-time, one of whom will be working on the geographic web-portal and the other on another side project we are planning. So we've had to buy another computer and a desk to accommodate these two fellows when they start with the furniture delivery tomorrow (Monday).
The coming week will see us complete a couple of new websites plus launch a plumber's directory and create the framework designs for a new first aid training company - should keep us busy until next weekend.
Sunday, 15 January 2012
A Bad Week
It was one of those weeks with late Monday to Wednesday morning being spent fixing an issue with one of our servers where the glue records seemed to have stopped working. The fault was eventually traced and rectified and we had some great support from 34sp.com who physically manage the server and who helped us trace the issue. It meant half a week of me not doing anything productive (and having sleepless nights) which is not ideal. It also meant around 36 hours where clients had websites and email down and we apologise for that.
The bizarre thing is that via my ISP both at home and in the office, Virgin Media, the cached server allowed connection to the domains at all times - and some clients never saw a problem with their websites as their ISP also used cached DNS servers. It would be interesting to know how long these cached servers keep records for and how long they take to recognise changes, for instance when a domains nameservers are changed.
On the plus side we got a free accountancy advice session via Redcar & Cleveland council which helped me clear up some queries I had regarding VAT and other countries both within and outside the EU and also regarding pension payments from the company. The advice was supplied by Teesside Accountancy Services who gave concise and simple answers that a layperson like me could understand - was impressed with the service.
We're now close to launching a new website for a local law firm and are pleased with the way it looks, as are our clients. The final content will be added shortly and we expect this to go live in a week or so. There should be another three sites launched for clients by the end of the month and we've got a meeting tomorrow regarding another potential site - hopefully my cold clears up sufficiently so I don't infect them!
The bizarre thing is that via my ISP both at home and in the office, Virgin Media, the cached server allowed connection to the domains at all times - and some clients never saw a problem with their websites as their ISP also used cached DNS servers. It would be interesting to know how long these cached servers keep records for and how long they take to recognise changes, for instance when a domains nameservers are changed.
On the plus side we got a free accountancy advice session via Redcar & Cleveland council which helped me clear up some queries I had regarding VAT and other countries both within and outside the EU and also regarding pension payments from the company. The advice was supplied by Teesside Accountancy Services who gave concise and simple answers that a layperson like me could understand - was impressed with the service.
We're now close to launching a new website for a local law firm and are pleased with the way it looks, as are our clients. The final content will be added shortly and we expect this to go live in a week or so. There should be another three sites launched for clients by the end of the month and we've got a meeting tomorrow regarding another potential site - hopefully my cold clears up sufficiently so I don't infect them!
Monday, 9 January 2012
First Week of 2012 Done
It's always a bit strange being back in the office after a nice relaxing week off over Xmas and a bit of walking in the North Yorks Moors but that is over now. A fairly large part of the week was spent chasing up clients who had not paid invoices by the due date (we won't mention any names!) but most of those have now come in - we do understand that things get forgotten and post gets delayed during Dec but we have bills to pay too!
The rest of the week was spent in updating websites for clients where we fully manage the website and they wanted some new products or information posting or where the business has changed hands like http://www.delboyvanhire.com/. We've got a couple of other sites with changed content to set up in the coming week.
We have also agreed a contract for new website for a local client which will be launched later this month - details of that will appear later this month once the site is up and running.
And finally a cautionary tale. We originally traded as TeesADS (a sole trader) and in our early days we hosted a number of websites for a some local SEO cowboys (sorry a local SEO company) who ceased trading, owing us and many others money, a couple of years ago. A number of their clients are now our clients and in many cases we have designed new websites for them and all is now well.
Some of their clients switched to a new local set of cowboys (sorry SEO company) that used many of the same people as the company that went bust. They now appear to have ceased trading leaving companies without websites and thus damaging their business.
Last week we spent a fair bit of time trying to help one of those businesses recover website files and get up and running again. It seems that by tracing some cached files via Yahoo and using some image files from the site we originally hosted for the first SEO company we can recreate their website for them and get them up and running again when they get their domain back this week. We will then help them update or redesign their site as they wish.
It seems a common tale that the "disappearing SEO company trick" was again used where a payment is taken from a client's credit card, without authorisation, just before ceasing trading.
There are legitimate and good SEO companies out there, and we do SEO for our clients, but be aware of registered companies who run little more than a scam.
The rest of the week was spent in updating websites for clients where we fully manage the website and they wanted some new products or information posting or where the business has changed hands like http://www.delboyvanhire.com/. We've got a couple of other sites with changed content to set up in the coming week.
We have also agreed a contract for new website for a local client which will be launched later this month - details of that will appear later this month once the site is up and running.
And finally a cautionary tale. We originally traded as TeesADS (a sole trader) and in our early days we hosted a number of websites for a some local SEO cowboys (sorry a local SEO company) who ceased trading, owing us and many others money, a couple of years ago. A number of their clients are now our clients and in many cases we have designed new websites for them and all is now well.
Some of their clients switched to a new local set of cowboys (sorry SEO company) that used many of the same people as the company that went bust. They now appear to have ceased trading leaving companies without websites and thus damaging their business.
Last week we spent a fair bit of time trying to help one of those businesses recover website files and get up and running again. It seems that by tracing some cached files via Yahoo and using some image files from the site we originally hosted for the first SEO company we can recreate their website for them and get them up and running again when they get their domain back this week. We will then help them update or redesign their site as they wish.
It seems a common tale that the "disappearing SEO company trick" was again used where a payment is taken from a client's credit card, without authorisation, just before ceasing trading.
There are legitimate and good SEO companies out there, and we do SEO for our clients, but be aware of registered companies who run little more than a scam.
Tuesday, 3 January 2012
Happy New Year
We wish you all a happy, peaceful and prosperous New Year.
Back in the office for the first time in 2012 (though yesterday was spent working from home) and a busy week planned with new websites to create, meetings with potential clients and a meeting on Friday for a new project involving a number of organisations that has the potential to be rather large - but we'll post about that if and when there is more information we can put in the public domain.
In the meantime look out for our newsletter which will include our January sales offers.
Back in the office for the first time in 2012 (though yesterday was spent working from home) and a busy week planned with new websites to create, meetings with potential clients and a meeting on Friday for a new project involving a number of organisations that has the potential to be rather large - but we'll post about that if and when there is more information we can put in the public domain.
In the meantime look out for our newsletter which will include our January sales offers.
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