We are delighted to launch an online store for our friend Pam Nicholls of ICS Training in Worcestershire. As well as being a very busy IT Trainer Pam has a menagerie of animals she looks after. She wanted a "sideline" so has had developed a range of novelty nightlights she is selling as gifts to children and animal lovers.
Lite-Cite provides a user friendly online store to buy these low cost gifts. For more info click here or email Pam.
NetSecrets are continuing their long term sponsorship of Bromsgrove-based Primrose Hospice by donating a facelift for their website. This is especially prompted by 2008 being the 21st anniversary of Primrose Hospice.
NetSecrets are the leading web designers in Bromsgrove and as well as providing Primrose with a feature rich website have also made it prominent in search engines so that those needing their services can readily find them.
The local press in Bromsgrove and Redditch have also featured the new website and the news article can be viewed by clicking here.
We are pleased to announce the launch of a new website for our good friends, Martin & Colin Barnett, otherwise known as MCB Financial Planning Ltd. MCB are independent financial advisers based in Brierley Hill providing mortgages, pensions, savings and investments and life assurance and protection to individuals and companies.
Please take a look at the site at www.MCBFinancial.co.uk and post any comments back to the blog.
Most of us are well aware that some unscrupulous website owners are not averse to stealing content off your site and sticking it on theirs. This is not only a rip off of the hard work you put into producing your content but it could potentially damage your search engine rankings through the issue of "duplicate content".
Obviously the search engines don't want results 1 to 10 for a given search to be identical. Good search results need variety which is why Google and the others frown on duplicate content and can penalise sites that are guilty of it. Now it is believed that Google only penalises the second and subsequent copies it sees of any given content so in many cases it will be OK because Google will have seen the original first. But you can't count on that happening every time. If Google sees the plagiarised version before it sees the original then the original will be penalised.
Anyway I have found a terrific tool to help overcome this kind of thing, Copyscape.
Basically you feed it a url click go and it searches the web for any other pages that have copied any significant part of your page. And it really works!
I found a number of sites that had ripped off content from FastSMS, PlanetStream and NetSecrets and have taken first steps to getting them removed. There's no guarantee the plagiarisers will comply in all cases but Copyscape also gives some advice on tackling that.
Give it a try and if you find anything interesting please come back and add a comment.
NetSecrets development team produced the UK's leading SMS platform NetMessenger, which enables over 4500 UK businesses and organisations to send and receive SMS text messages over the internet.
This puts the team in a unique position to blend SMS and MMS functionality into your website. Bespoke SMS developments have included delivery by text of horse racing tips, texting of order progress messages for a large retail group and delivery to phone of directions to hotels from a web request form.
If you would like to know more email sales@fastsms.co.uk or call 01386 791880.
NetSecrets have now set live new blogs for 2 Worcestershire Chapters of Referral Marketing organisation BNI (Business Networking International).
BNI Black Pear meets every Friday at Bromsgrove Rugby Club and BNI Saltway meets at Gaudet Luce Golf Club in Droitwich every Tuesday.
As far as we are aware these are the first two BNI Chapters in the Midlands, possibly in the UK, to have their own blogs which will be used to publicise events, promote the groups and their members and make news available to the local communities.
The Bromsgrove blog is here and the Drotwich blog is here.
Download corporate_blogs.pdf from NetSecrets for more information on what we have to offer in this area.
Sandy Burt of NetSecrets is a member of BNI Saltway, a referral marketing and business networking organisation that meets every week in Droitwich to help its members gain new business through word of mouth recommendations. This is one of over 500 such groups in the UK and is one of the newest, having been formed early in 2008.
NetSecrets have designed and built a new website for the group to give details of its meetings and present a list of the members.
To view the site go to www.BNI-Saltway.co.uk and if you would like to go along as a visitor contact Sandy on 01386 792972 or email info@bni-saltway.co.uk.
You can also visit BNI Saltway's blog.
Why Most Websites Fail (And What To Do About It)
If you run seminars or any events where you address business or development issues I would be pleased to offer a contribution based on a paper I have already presented several times. The abstract is as follows:
The I-Myth : Why Most Web Sites Fail (and What To Do About It) by Tony Burt
Tony Burt is the founder of NetSecrets and has been involved in the building of many successful web businesses for himself and for others. Through this he has evolved some very clear notions of what works and what doesn’t when looking to create commercial advantage through use of the internet.
He is outspoken in his disdain for the methods (or lack of them) used by most web design companies which result in mediocre results for the disappointed site owners. He will detail the most common omissions in most web sites and give solid, practical advice on how to achieve success. Topics covered will be:
Tony will offer all attendees a FREE web site audit. This has been developed by NetSecrets to highlight any weaknesses holding you back and many of the remedies are so easy to implement that you’ll be shocked your existing webmaster didn’t know about them!
If you have an event where you think this presentation would be of interest email tonyb@netsecrets.co.uk
NetSecrets have today launched a new website for Central Storage Solutions Ltd.
They are designers, manufacturers and installers of mezzanine floors, storage platforms and partitioning. We met them through an introduction from our accountants, Worton Rock, who keep both companies on the financial straight and narrow.
The aim of the site is to attract enquiries via the search engines. The site has a large photo gallery showing some of the projects that Central Storage have undertaken and they boast that they can deliver a quotation in 2 working hours for most enquirers which is impressive to me!
Here's a good news story for a change.
One of our SEO clients, LHP Law, has decided to sponsor the Wills and Probate page of our web design client, Primrose Hospice in Bromsgrove.
Primrose Hospice is a charity that supports people suffering from cancer and other life threatening illnesses in the Redditch and Bromsgrove area of North Worcestershire. LHP Law are a legal practice based in Redditch, Bath and Bristol.
Hopefully the sponsorship paid will help Primrose continue their sterling work and LHP will gain some visitors to their website as a result of the publicity surrounding their sponsorship.
