Teesside Web Design

New Website for Cygnet Family Law

2012-02-26T16:03:00.001Z

This week saw the launch of the new website we have created for Cygnet Family Law, a law firm in Redcar. The website has been developed over a couple of months and provides a friendly yet corporate look that has been developed in close collaboration with our clients. We hope it helps them to generate new business.

The rest of the week saw us updating a number of sites for existing clients with additional functionality and attending another meeting of the Redcar Creatives Collective which looks at developing collaborative creative ventures in the area.

We also developed the prototype of a new site for a local firm of architects and expect to launch this in the coming week.

Stardom at Last

2012-02-20T10:35:00.001Z

Well not really but last week we had a photographer in for a quick shoot to go with a piece about us in Wilton News. This is the Wilton Centre newsletter, which is also distributed externally, and will include a piece about us and our two French interns Matthieu and Guillaume who are working on side projects. All good publicity, or perhaps not if my photo is included.

This week also saw us at a meeting in Newcastle with partners from across the North of England in relation to the project Matthieu is working on. Whilst it is still early days we have agreed in principle to set up a new limited company to develop and launch this project.

We launched a couple of new sites for clients last week including Northern Tank Services, a company supplying and installing fuel oil tanks in Northern England and the Doctor Group who repair windows, doors, roofs and water leaks in North East England, including insurance work. We hope their websites generate plenty of business for them.

I seem to have brought a never ending cold back from Italy last week and can't shift it - obviously I didn't drink enough to kill all known germs, must try harder next time.

A short week last week

2012-02-14T13:41:00.002Z

Last week saw a couple of meetings with potential clients plus further developing prototype designs for a couple of clients ...

... but mainly a trip to a snowy and freezing Rome for a cracking long weekend in a great city and watching England win their 2nd 6 nations game this season.

New Interns and E-marketing

2012-02-05T11:07:00.000Z

This week our two new French interns, Matthieu and Guillaume, joined us to work on a couple of side projects we are developing with our partners. Matthieu will be working on aspects of a countryside access project that incorporates a web-based portal and Guillaume will be working on a web-based educational application that will see the prototype application launched whilst he is with us. Both came in on Thursday for their induction and will begin work in earnest next week. We are very happy to have both of them with us and hope their English language skills extend to my Teesside accent!

This week was largely taken up with SEO and e-marketing work for clients to boost sales and market specific aspects of their business. With the sudden cold snap, we launched a firewood logs campaign on Google Adwords for A and B Tree Contractors who are based in Newmarket in Suffolk and deliver firewood to Newmarket, Cambridge, Bury St Edmunds and the surrounding areas. The campaign does not normally run but has been specifically timed to match the cold weather and led to a big increase in sales. Such a targeted campaign is a good way of limiting an Adwords budget and get a good return on investment. We're happy to discuss options with anyone who is interested in using Adwords to boost business - give us a call on 01642 438173.

The big news is, of course, England's Calcutta Cup win - a great defensive performance but still a lot to work on. I'm really looking forward to being in Rome on Saturday to watch Italy v England (which incidentally means the office will be closed Thurs - Sun) and hopeful of another victory. Now what do I do with Matthieu and Guillaume when France beat England?

Great Draw for Boro at The Stadium of Light

2012-01-29T16:29:00.001Z

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!!

Interesting New Projects

2012-01-22T18:22:00.000Z

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.

A Bad Week

2012-01-15T12:37:00.002Z

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!

First Week of 2012 Done

2012-01-09T10:50:00.001Z

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.

Happy New Year

2012-01-03T08:47:00.001Z

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.

A Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year

2011-12-23T10:25:00.004Z

We wish you all a very Merry Xmas and a peaceful and prosperous New Year as we shut down at lunchtime today (23rd Dec) until 9 a.m. on 3rd Jan.

Our email will be monitored and telephone answered over the festive period for emergencies such as websites failing, email collapses, etc. and the usual numbers and email address s on the website will function, If you telephone and do not get a reply please leave a message and we will get back to you.

Our advent calendar is still running - so why not pay a visit and see what there is each day.

New Web Designs & SEO work

2011-12-19T09:27:00.000Z

This week has seen us developing new prototype designs to update a client's website and for new clients plus some SEO work for a new client.

In designing new websites we generally create a framework design to give the client an idea of the proposed look and dimensions of the new website. We put this in a password protected area of our test site and modify this until the client is happy. This is usually done as pure html/css.

We then add the individual elements of the site and once the client is happy with the complete design of one page we convert the relevant areas to php to allow for dynamic content and ease of editing for repeated areas such as footers.

When all is complete the site gets transferred to the live domain and all the SEO content and monitoring tools are added so the site goes live.

No Let Up As Xmas Approaches

2011-12-11T09:35:00.001Z

Another busy week saw meetings to finalise plans for new websites with clients with two new websites to be launched early in the New Year plus e-marketing packages for these and some other clients to be created as well.

We also had a really useful meeting with Charlotte Allen, Creative Industries Advisor from Redcar and Cleveland Council. They have great plans to help creative businesses develop and we look forward to greater involvement as these progress. It was good to meet Charlotte again - we both worked at Teesside Tertiary College many moons ago and I didn't realise it was the same Charlotte until we met.

Another positive meeting took place with a large local organisation as we plan to develop a web-based application. We are hoping to have some input from a University of Teesside student in the New Year by providing a work placement to help develop the application. We have a follow up meeting with our potential partner organisation this week and hope to develop a specification for the planned application so a prototype can be created and tested in a live environment. This is a long term project and we would hope to launch around in the middle of 2012.

This week saw the creation of a couple of Wordpress powered website for a client who organise sailing holidays and own a ski chalet for hire in Tignes in the French Alps.

The week included the usual regular work of updating SEO content and updating a few bits and pieces including making the final CMS additions to Ann Kenney Yoga. The week also saw a new regular event - the preparation of a VAT return, our first. The joy and excitement of doing the accounts and sending money for the Government to squander!

Xmas is Coming ...

2011-12-04T11:24:00.001Z

On 1st Dec we launched our 2011 Advent Calendar http://bit.ly/ty8mQ4 with offers, tips or competitions for freebies such as free business cards each day. Each new "window" will be available from 9 a.m. each morning - take a look and see what's behind the window today.

During the last week we've also been compiling a number of quarterly SEO reports for clients. The reports we supply look at how the site has performed and suggest areas for improvement. Once improvements are agreed we make changes to the site to attract more visitors and improve its search engine ranking - all as part of our SEO or e-marketing packages.

We have also launched a new website for Ann Kenney, a yoga teacher in Berkshire, and made some design changes to her hypnotherapy site so that they largely match to give a consistent image. We still have a little work to complete for Ann's new site but wanted to get it up and running with SEO content included so that search engine's are showing it well for the New Year. We will also be creating Ann's Google Adwords campaigns which will be launched at the start of the New Year to help those of you who want to tone up after the Xmas excesses.

It was also another busy week on the marketing front with two new websites commissioned and an e-marketing contract agreed. More details of these will be posted later and we have meetings with our new website clients next week to finalise the details. Next week also sees us meeting a potential partner for a long-term web-based business application plus meeting a potential client for a new website. It's great to be busy despite the economic doom and gloom and great to see that new contacts and existing clients are also doing well.

This week should see the launch of our new plumbers and heating engineers directory which has been developed by Manoj, who is really impressing me with his ability and work ethic. This will continue to be developed over time but will list businesses based on town/city and county. Each entry will be editable by the client with a banner, testimonials and images included. We are giving away lifetime listings for the first 3 relevant businesses in each town and will build it on a county by county basis starting with Cleveland. So if you are a plumber or heating engineer, or have friends and family who are, get them to contact me and we'll add them for free.

Lots of Enquiries and an HTML Newsletter

2011-11-27T18:42:00.001Z

In previous years we have hit the end of November and business tapers off until around mid-January as business seems to stop new activity until the New Year. It may be threats of recession and businesses keenly maintaining their marketing strategies online or businesses planning their New Year campaigns now or just simply we are attracting more business but we have had a lot of enquiries about new websites, SEO and e-marketing strategies this week. In fact most of this week has been spent meeting new potential clients, discussing new websites for long-standing clients and writing quotes for those people.

That's great news for us and we're also very pleased that the clients we have spoken to are saying that business is good - we hope our work for them has played some part in their success. The news is still full of doom and gloom economically but it appears that the picture is patchy - some experts do seem to think that investment and expansion in difficult economic times is the way forward. It involves a lot of hard work but it's a view we subscribe to.

We've launched our monthly html newsletter to keep clients informed on what we are up to - the first issue is out and you can subscribe on our website at http://www.tadwebsolutions.co.uk/newsletter.php

New Employee - New Clients - New Businesses

2011-11-20T15:46:00.001Z

This week we welcomed Manoj Belbase to the team and he has been working on a demonstration/prototype application for a new, young entrepreneur called Jack Jenkins. We can't say too much about this at the moment but the application is for the education sector and looks like a great idea. We will be meeting up with a local FE College along with Jack in a few weeks with the aim of developing a live package to help Jack get some investment and take this to a much wider audience.

We are committed to helping new web-based businesses and to this end we are also working with another business to develop a great idea that has massive potential. We will shortly be meeting with a team of others to determine the structure of this business and hopefully will have a long term stake in it both as a business and in developing the software.

This week has seen us complete an e-marketing plan and set up some of the e-marketing strategies for a roofing contractor in South Yorkshire who also grow the sedum plants that are used on living green roofs, We've hosted their website, which was created elsewhere, for a few years but have now taken over managing site improvements and their SEO and online marketing. We welcome Yorkshire Sedum and Future Roofs to our family of clients and look forward to continuing our work with them.

We have also launched a new website for Seaton Spring, a spring water and water cooler company based in Seaham, County Durham. There's a little more work to do on this and we will be working in partnership with the company over the year on SEO and possibly some extra web-based projects. Again we are very happy to be involved in this local company that looks to be growing its business.

Remembering The Fallen

2011-11-11T12:40:00.001Z

It is the 11th November today and I was pleased to see that the Wilton Centre observed a 2-minute silence at the appropriate time. It's a time to reflect on the sacrifices made by those killed and injured in the many wars and conflicts that continue to this day and we should pause to think of those and the service people still active now and also their families.

As someone who likes a moan about how hard work is, the biggest threat I face is a paper cut so I really have nothing to moan about.

We do remember them.

DULCE ET DECORUM EST by WILFRED OWEN

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.

Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!---An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime...
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,---
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

First Week In Wilton Centre Over

2011-11-06T16:37:00.001Z

We moved into The Wilton Centre on Tuesday 1st November and have been impressed with the staff, facilities and services in there - it looks like a good move. We've arranged induction there for Manoj, our new Web Developer, on Thursday and if all goes well he should start with us the following week - looking forward to having him with us.

Manoj will initially be working with me on a new business idea from a young entrepreneur based in Tyneside. We can't reveal details yet but this young man has a very promising idea and we're offering a bit of free, yes that is free, support to help him create a prototype and use it to get investment. We're great believers in helping out people with new ideas - so if you fit that bill, get in touch!

Saturday saw us with our first ever exhibition stand to coincide with the first week as a "new" business - Tad Web Solutions Ltd which only fully launched with the office move. The Start Your Business event at the Thistle Hotel Middlesbrough seemed to be big success and we've got a number of follow up calls to make with a number of people looking to set up sound businesses locally plus follow ups with a couple of potentially large businesses that are still at a very early stage. Really exciting projects in the pipeline form the event plus looking at ways to help out someone who has a bad experience with another web design company - hopefully we can do something to help them out.

We also met up with some people from other companies we may be able to partner with in some work plus some direct competitors - and all were top, friendly people it was a pleasure to meet.

Ready For the Big Move

2011-10-30T15:57:00.002Z

Tuesday sees the move to the Wilton Centre, Redcar. New PC arrived, new router, new printer, some other bits and bobs and probably a load of stuff I should have bought or arranged but haven't! Electrical testing arranged for any older bits going in to the office.

So still to finish asap:

The new website - too busy creating websites for clients as we get paid for that
Arranging induction for our new staff member
Checking all the visa stuff for our new staff member
VAT registration - get a move on Mr Accountant
Changing the company registered address to the Wilton Centre - see number 4
... and probably sorting out a new accountant, see numbers 4 and 5

A Busy Week

2011-10-25T19:23:00.001+01:00

A round up of the week shows how much time and effort is needed to get the new business branded and ready for full lauch. The last week has seen us:

Attend a PR workshop - very informative and useful
Set up the new business bank accounts at Lloyds TSB
Arranged for taking card payments via Lloyds TSB but whilst they're happy to take my money for the bank account their cards section "don't do businesses with companies like yours" - cheeky **********s
Turned down the offer of insurance & various policies from Lloyds TSB insurance section - I told them "I don't do business with companies like theirs"
Produce new artwork for the ltd company's printed materials
Get inducted into Wilton Centre for the office move next week
Create a number of fact sheets for marketing purposes
Work on our own new re-branded website (not sure this will be completed in time)
Swapped insurance to the new company
Attempted to swap mobile phone contract to new company - but that's not going well
Loads of legal paperwork for corporation tax, VAT, etc (better send a cheque to my accountant)

We've also had some work we get paid for:

Completed most of a dating site, just waiting for the final bits from our client, http://www.luvpod.co.uk
Completed a budget website for a therapist, http://www.cctherapy.co.uk
Management of Google Adwords account for a client
SEO work on a number of sites
Updated products on http://www.awrplant.co.uk as part of our site management package
Transferred the hosting of http://www.redcarrooms.co.uk to us and have agreed to transfer some other sites from the same owner plus create some microsites on their behalf and a little bit of e-marketing
Met with a young entrepreneur to be via the Experience Bank and offered some free help to start up with a view to a longer term commercial relationship.

Still managed to watch the Rugby World Cup final and Middlesbrough U16s pretending to be Middlesbrough U17s (but better) in the Yorkshire RFU top division. Also sneaked in a winning game of chess for Middlesbrough one evening.

Much better than being bored!

New Company, New Website

2011-10-16T13:12:00.000+01:00

On 01 Nov 2011, TeesADS becomes Tad Web Solutions Ltd and moves to The Wilton Centre, Redcar, As a web design company we couldn't make his change without a completely new website to go with the launch of the new company - so here's a sneak preview:

Web Design for Power-Flushed.co.uk Teesside

2011-03-20T14:01:00.000Z

We have just completed a new website for power-flushed.co.uk, the central heating power flushing arm of a local plumbing firm based in Teesside, North-East England. This company offers power flushing of central heating systems to clear out sludge and scale thus improving the efficiency of your central heating (and hopefully saving you a few quid into the bargain).

This site is a simple bespoke design created on a budget for a local company. We offer special rates for Teesside companies so why not give us a call on 07739 408645 or visit our website at www.teesads.co.uk.

SEO for Pest Control Surrey

2011-03-10T21:12:00.001Z

We have just carried out an initial analysis for a Surrey Pest Control company who provide pest control services in Guildford, Godalming, Cranleigh, Haslemere, Horsham and throughout Surrey. We have a one year contract for hosting and SEO services with them and hope to build up a mutually beneficial relationship with the company and design a new website for them in the near future.

On the CD Player: Orff

Website SEO

2011-03-03T21:04:00.001Z

We have been analysing the search engine performance of 3 of our newer SEO clients today.

It is the second month of stats for AWR Plant (who sell used industrial plant such as spray booths, powder coating, etc). The site has doubled traffic over the last month but there's always room for improvement and we're not one of those companies who just throws in a couple of meta tags and a few keywords (you know who mean).

It is the first month of stats for AC Shooting School (clay pigeon shooting in Hampshire, Devon, Dorset) and DAC Loftspace (Loft and Garage Conversions Oxfordshire) so we are just getting a feel of what has worked well and what needs some concentrated effort.

All our SEO clients get monthly statistics reports and detailed quarterly analysis and updates of theior SEO content. New SEO clients get monthly analysis in the first quarter as we gather data on how their site is performing for the first months.

Middlesbrough Business Listings

2011-02-17T21:02:00.000Z

Today we have been revamping a listings site for businesses located in and providing services to Middlesbrough and throughout Teesside. All of our clients who have SEO packages with us and meet the criteria of being local or supplying goods and/or services locally will be listed on middlesbroughbusiness.com for free. Other companies can contact us to add their listing.

The site is very simple to use - select the category you are looking for and click search.

You will then be presented with a list of companies in that category. Select a company and you will be taken to either a standard page with logo, images, links to their website, email, phone, etc., e.g.

Or a purpose made page that matches the company's website design where all the links take you to their main website.

If you want to be listed then contact us at TeesADS.

On the CD Player: Schubert, Debussy and Tchaikovsky

New Hosting & Hosting Management Accounts

2011-02-10T21:24:00.001Z

We have just struck a deal to host the site of a local bearing and transmission company based in Stockton. We welcome Stockton Bearings and Transmissions Ltd to the TeesADS family and wish them every success with their website.

We have also been adding new content to the AWR Plant website. We have a deal to manage this site, as well as optimise it for search engines, and update its content based upon the latest plant they have for sale including pictures. New plant has just been added and there is more to come shortly.

On the CD Player: The Horrors, The Velvet Underground

Managed Hosting, SEO Analysis & SEO updates

2011-01-28T18:38:00.002Z

Today we have been updating the content for one of our managed hosting clients. AWR Plant Sales sells used industrial plant throughout the country and we have been adding their latest sales items having recently upgraded their site for them by tweaking the design and improving its search engine performance.

A large amount of SEO content has been added to DAC Loftspace to get their website ranked as it currently does not appear in the major search engines - by taking over their SEO management we intend to provide them with the service they deserve rather than the one they were getting!

We have also been updating the SEO content for Craig Morris Plumbing & Heating to give their click through traffic a bit of a boost.

Finally we have been engaged in some analysis for existing SEO clients to measure site performance and suggest improvements to the SEO strategy including G&D Roofing, Michael Bott Plumbing & Henrietta Hire.

On the CD Player: The Pixies, The Raconteurs, Joy Division, Nirvana

Two New Contracts

2011-01-19T19:56:00.001Z

TeesADS is pleased to announce contracts with 2 new partners.

A and B Landscaping based in Suffolk have engaged our services to redesign and search engine optimise their website. We have hosted this site for a couple of years but the design was created for them some time ago. We aim to provide a more professional and vibrant image for this company on the web and drive new business to them.

Our second client is a new web based micro business from business consultants based in Teesside and we hope to provide them with a spanking new image for this website and develop an ongoing business relationship that will benefit both companies.

Look out for new designs on both sites in the near future.

On the CD player: The Wedding Present, Arctic Monkeys (we're tired & it's late - so something lively)

The Recession is Over?

2011-01-19T07:37:00.001Z

Watching Newsnight night last night the economic discussion highlighted that the UK has been out of recession for over a year. Talking up the economy is fine but what does that mean for SMEs and ordinary folk? We think that for some there has been no light at the end of the tunnel and for many working people the worst is yet to come.

TeesADS started the financial year with a plan to widen our client base and broaden our portfolio with more design work for print, more direct customers and more SEO work. This has been a successful strategy in these difficult times and vital in maintaining the business. In August an important regular client of ours ceased trading and yesterday another regular client informed us they could not pay their bill. It is sad that two local business have gone to the wall.

In both cases we designed and hosted many of their clients' websites. In the vast majority of cases we continue to do so and have taken over the management of those companies web portfolios. The bizarre outcome of these two companies declining is that it has strengthened our portfolio and client base. Hopefully when the worst of the economic situation is over those of us still here will be in a much stronger position.

We wish those involved in the failed companies well and hope they bounce back.

Print Design

2011-01-08T14:41:00.000Z

Today we have created some advertising leaflet artwork for Henrietta Hire, a wedding car hire firm in South Wales, who are a website client of ours. The leaflets are A4, Z-fold and double-sided and the artwork matches their website for wedding cars South Wales.

On the CD Player (Matt's in charge): White Stripes, Kings of Leon (early stuff not recent poppy stuff).

Putting a Quote Together & Updating Websites

2011-01-07T17:44:00.000Z

Much of today has been spent making a few updates to the functionality of Something Paranormal requested by the folks there. This meant a little change to the database driving this dynamic site as it wasn't part of the original requirements. A good, normalised database design initially means these things aren't too difficult to do and it keeps the client happy so is well worth it.

We're now working on a proposal and quote to update a website for a local company - we can't say who at the moment but we think we can provide a competitive quote and more importantly offer a better solution than those we are competing with. Time will tell whether the potential client agrees!

On the CD Player: The Pixies, Radiohead and Lindisfarne (yes a strange mix, we know)

Merry Xmas

2010-12-24T16:42:00.001Z

We at TeesADS wish you all a Merry Xmas. We shall be working over most of the holiday period but at a much reduced rate. Our main task is a redesign of plant listings page for AWR Plant and setting up their managed hosting package where we will regularly update their products for them. We will obviously be available for help with any customer queries whilst we huddle to keep warm in snow filled Middlesbrough.

New Middlesbrough Business Directory

2010-12-23T16:58:00.000Z

We have set up a new business directory for Middlesbrough and the wider area of Cleveland, North Yorkshire and South Durham. Over the next week or so our first clients will have their entries on there.

Updating Our Own Website

2010-12-20T17:37:00.002Z

We've not been happy with the look of our own website for sometime now but customers come first and we've not had time to revamp it.

Well it's nearly Xmas and things always slow down a little so rather than eating, drinking and being merry we've done a complete redesign. Not completely finished yet as we've got 5 or 6 pages to complete but we're happy with it at last.

On the CD Player: Borodin

The Tax Man Cometh

2010-12-18T10:57:00.001Z

The business current account was looking so good and then the HMRC bill's just arrived in the post. So the money is now stashed in our tax deposit account - that's made a bit of a difference to the current account. Still well in the black despite the economic situation so all is well.

Well, if it keeps the banks running so that the fat cats can pay themselves huge bonuses why should we complain - after all "we're all in it together".

Creative Loft Designs & Pet Care Solutions

2010-12-03T15:50:00.000Z

We have uploaded a prototype site we designed for Pet Care Solutions (though our client is another design company) who provide dog walking, pet care and animal taxi services in Cleveland. The site is currently mainly html whilst the client requests amendments but it will be converted to full php with a content management system once the design edits are complete.

We have also been updating a site with a nice Flash header we originally designed for a client who has now ceased trading, but their client, the site owner, has not. We have now taken over the management of this site directly and Creative Loft Design Ltd are now our customer - we look forward to a successful business relationship with them. They requested an update on some site elements which we have gladly done.

On the CD Player: Mendelssohn

SEO Analysis

2010-11-27T09:47:00.000Z

Today we are analysing the data for some of the clients who have Search Engine Optimisation contracts with us:

Alongside the monthly reports we send to them via GoogleAnalytics we also analyse this data along with other Google tools to check site performance, keywords and geographic location analysis, referrals from other sites (particularly paid for directories), pages viewed, time on site, etc. From this we make recommendations to drive more visitors to the site and convert them into customers.

Matt's working on hosting renewal messages and customer invoices for the month.

On the CD player (Matt's in charge): The White Stripes

E-Commerce Junius Design

2010-11-26T19:36:00.001Z

Today we are working on a simple but stylish e-commerce site for Junius Design (http://www.juniusdesigns.co.uk/shop), though our client is Web Aspirations. This isn't a new design but an adaptation of an old one we did for another of WA's clients as they want to keep costs down low - yes they know that's what we're doing, it was their suggestion (and we wouldn't be putting that on our blog if that wasn't the case!)

Tomorrow (Sat) will be admin in the morning and the rest of the day off to watch rugby. Was hoping for local rugby on Sun but the weather has put paid to that, as we're busy we'll probably make it a workday.

On the CD player today: Albinoni, JS Bach and the Arctic Monkeys

Content Management System for Something Paranormal

2010-11-24T15:11:00.000Z

Today we are working on the bespoke Content Management System (CMS) for www.somethingparanormal.co.uk. This CMS allows the client to add, edit and remove content from their own website and includes forum management tools. As the website is fully bespoke and so is the forum then the management tools are also created from scratch.

As this is a new site it's not ranking that highly on Google yet and we will be doing some work to improve that over the coming month. The aim is to get it to perform as well as www.spiritseekers.info, another site we made for a similar local company that is getting a lot of business via its website with several thousand hits every month.

Todays office music: Tchaikovsky and Schubert

SEO for Heating Engineer Teesside

2010-11-23T18:50:00.000Z

This evening we are making some Search Engine enhancements to Craig Morris Plumbing - a website for a heating engineer in Middlesbrough.

On the CD Player: Rachmaninov, Debussy - should keep JB gobsmacked for a while!

Search Engine Optimisation - Wedding Cars South Wales

2010-11-22T19:26:00.000Z

This evening we've been updating some of our SEO work for Henrietta Hire to get them higher up the Google Rankings. Already had them ranking well for wedding cars South Wales/Cardiff/Newport/Chepstow/Gwent but working on the vintage Rolls Royce hire side of the business - seems to be moving them up and generating new business so good news

On the CD player: Mahler

Current Work

2010-11-22T16:14:00.000Z

Today we have been working on the "behind the scenes" content management system for the site we designed and host for Something Paranormal, a local company who organise paranormal events and also have an online shop we created for them. This was a white label project which appears as designed by Web Aspirations, though in the source code you can see that the author is Ian Elcoate, owner of TeesADS, who appears on the Web Aspirations website on the "meet the team" page.

We also designed the Web Aspirations site and we are currently updating some of their contact details and ongoing projects.

On the CD Player today: Shostakovich

New Blog - For Testing

2010-11-19T22:38:00.000Z

Asked by a client at http://www.chriscowlmagic.co.uk/ to show free blog - so here goes.