At precisely 10.30am all 120 participants were allowed to open an envelope containing a list of photo subjects. We then had to run away and take the listed photos on a disposable camera - just 1 pic per subject, in the order listed - and bring the camera back by 5pm. We also had to take 10 photos to sum up “Bristol Today” after finishing the list.

We won’t see our attempts until Friday night at the exhibition opening - but we’re very much looking forward to it! It was a great day and many thanks to SecondLook and Photographique for organising it.

If you want to come along to the open evening, entry is free and there’s going to be live music, cakes, pictures, games and lot’s of fun! 

Details:

Fri 22nd May 5:00p.m. to 11:00p.m

South Bank Centre, Dean Lane, South Bristol

Well all is not lost. Rather than sitting on your digital assets, why not pass them on to a new loving home. Someone who’ll give them the time they deserve and help develop the way you had intended, but never found the time.

There are loads of places to sell your websites online and while I’d love to tell you all about the sitepoint marketplace, digital point forums, website broker and ebay, I think the only really good, and 100% dedicated UK based marketplace for selling websites is webchalkboard.com. Maybe I’m biased but hey ho, check it out for yourself and you’ll see I’m not fibbing. Cash in your digital assets today. Enter the promo code ’springclean’ and you’ll even get to list your sites for free, so you’ve nothing to loose!

If you don’t believe me check out this 100% accurate comparison list. (Disclaimer: Not 100% accurate.)

Website Marketplaces

Sitepoint Marketplace

Pros: Large audience and lots of interested buyers

Cons: Lots of rubbish listings and picking out the really good sites can be a mission. The gems (if there are any) are certainly very well hidden in the rough. It also costs about 10 dollars for a basic listing, which given todays exchange rates can be quite steep for us poor recession hit Brits.

ebay

Pros: Large global audience.

Cons: If you thought sitepoint was full of crap, then you’re in for a surprise (or perhaps not) as any gems here are well hidden beneath moutains and moutains of get rich quick schemes and ebooks. As always it also costs a percentage of the final selling price to list items on ebay.

Webchalkboard

Pros: 100% dedicated, uk based website marketplace. Free to list if you enter the ’springclean’ discount code

Cons: None

So there you have it, advertise your websites for sale today at webchalkboard.com and get that spring clean feeling, along with a few extra quid.

The initiative is a national programme run by vinvolved, with regional organisers - in this case, Changemakers and 2qab Community Interest Company. The portal also gives information on vcashpoint sponsored by HSBC - offering young people up to £2,500 to help turn their ideas for volunteering projects into reality.

The site features a striking design over a customised version of our versatile and user friendly SimpleCMS and links to all the vinvolved social media pages. My favourite feature are the background images of North Somerset which change each time the page refreshes - see which you like best!

Overview

Affiliate Marketing is the process of paying a commission on items that other website publishers (Affiliates) sell for you.

Glossary

Affiliate / Publisher – an information website, or price comparison site..

Merchant – you.

Affiliate Network – a middle man who can put you and the Merchant in touch and manage the process.

Affiliate URL – the link affiliates use to send a visitor to your website. This link contains code which ties that visitor to the affiliates, so your system knows to pay them a commission.

Commission Tiers – it’s normal for you to set different levels of commission as a thank you (and to encourage affiliates further). You may pay for example, 15%, to your best affiliates, when you usually only pay 12%.

Creative – the term used for banners/pictures/artwork affiliates use on their site to promote you.

Deep Linking – this refers to an affiliate linking to a particular page of a your website, perhaps to send a visitor directly to a particular product, rather than to just the home page.

Conversion Rate – this represents the percentage of visitors to your site that actually go on to buy something. If you have a particularly low conversion rate, this may be because your website is difficult to navigate or faulty, so people do not end up placing an order. Therefore affiliates may decide to invest their efforts in promoting a different Merchant with a higher conversion rate, who provides a better customer experience. If this is the case, you need to have your site reviewed from a UI perspective - to find out the User experience. Please contact us to carry out an assessment for you.

Cookie – some information is picked up from the visitors computer when they click on an affiliate URL, and passed from the affiliate site to your site so that you can track where the visitor came from. Cookies have been given a bad press – but they are not all created to threaten/attack people’s privacy!

There can be 2 or 3 parties involved in Affiliate Marketing.
In-house Affiliate Programmes.

This involves affiliates getting some code directly from you and placing it on their website. You will have to build a comprehensive system on your site, so that affiliates can log in and get links, creative, and check your balance/commissions.

Affiliates will then send people who visit their site to your site, via their special affiliate link. When they do so, a ‘cookie’ is set on your site, telling it that that computer/visitor came from that particular affiliate. When/if that visitor places an order, code on your site will use that cookie to determine which affiliate needs to be paid a commission.

Example: The beauty website LoveLula.com has an In-house affiliate programme (LoveLula.com is therefore a Merchant).

I.    Affiliates create an account with LoveLula.com, and get their affiliate URL.

II.    They then then send people to the LoveLula.com website via this link.

III.    LoveLula.com matches that visitor to them and pays them a commission on anything that visitors buys.

IV.    Affiliates log in to their LoveLula.com account (on the LoveLula.com website) to check their balance.

Going via an Affiliate Network.

A Network stores all the programme details (creative, links, commission structures) for  hundreds of Merchants. From an affiliates point of view, it means it is easy to find lots of Merchants to link to, all in one place. Also, to check their balance/commissions earned, they need only go to one place (or just a couple if they are a member of more than one Network). From your point of view, it means you get more exposure as Affiliates are already looking on Networks and receive regular email newsletters of new Merchants etc. Also, affiliates may have more faith in the system (tracking code etc) of a large Network than your site which they have no experience of.

Example: John Lewis uses the Network Affiliate Window (please note: some Merchants use more than one Network – John Lewis are also with Tradedoubler).

I.     Affiliates create an account with Affiliate Window, and get their affiliate URL.

II.     They then send people to the John Lewis website via this link, (which, without their visitors knowing, goes via Affiliate Window).

III.     Code on the John Lewis website then matches that visitor to them and pays them a commission on anything that visitors buys and reports back to the Affiliate Window system.

IV.     Affiliates log in to their Affiliate Window account (on the Affiliate Window website) to check their balance.

Examples of some Affiliate Networks are: Affiliate Window, Tradedoubler, Affiliate Future, and Webgains.

Overview

Affiliate Marketing is the process of earning a commission on sales you generate for a Merchant.

Glossary

Affiliate / Publisher – you.

Merchant – the retailer you are earning commission from.

Affiliate Network – a middle man who can put you and the Merchant in touch and manage the process.

Affiliate URL – the link you use to send a visitor to a Merchants website. This link contains code which ties that visitor to you, so the Merchant knows to pay you a commission.

Commission Tiers – if you make lots of sales for a Merchant, as a thank you (and to encourage you further) they may put you on a higher tier of commission. They may pay you for example, 15%, when they usually only pay 12%.

Creative – the term used for banners/pictures/artwork you use on your site to promote a Merchant.

Deep Linking – this refers to linking to a particular page of a Merchants website, perhaps to send a visitor directly to a particular product, rather than to just the home page.

Conversion Rate – this represents the percentage of visitors to a Merchants site that actually go on to buy something. If a Merchant has a particularly low conversion rate, this may be because their website is difficult to navigate or faulty, so people do not end up placing an order. Therefore you may decide to invest your efforts into promoting a different Merchant with a higher conversion rate, who provides a better customer experience.

Cookie – some information is picked up from the visitors computer when they click on your affiliate URL, and passed from your site to the Merchants site so that they can track that the visitor came from you. Cookies have been given a bad press – but they are not all created to threaten/attack people’s privacy! Your website will not use Cookies, but you should state somewhere that sites you link to use Cookies.

  

This involves you getting some code directly from a Merchant and placing it on your  website. You will have a log in to the Merchants website from which you can get links, creative, and check your balance/commissions.

You will then send people who visit your site, to the Merchants site, via your special affiliate link. When you do so, a ‘cookie’ is set on the Merchants site, telling it that that computer/visitor came from you. When/if that visitor places an order, code on the Merchants site will use that cookie t determine that you need to be paid a commission.

Example: The beauty website LoveLula.com has an In-house affiliate programme.

  

    

I.You create an account with LoveLula.com, and get your affiliate URL. 

II.You then send people to the LoveLula.com website via this link.

III.LoveLula.com matches that visitor to you and pays you a commission on anything that visitors buys.

IV.You log in to your LoveLula.com account (on their website) to check your balance.

Going via an Affiliate Network.

A Network stores all the programme details (creative, links, commission structures) for  hundreds of Merchants. From your point of view, it means it is easy to find lots of Merchants to link to, all in one place. Also, to check your balance/commissions earned, you need only go to one place (or just a couple if you are a member of more than one Network).

If a commission doesn’t track (you know someone went through your site and bought something but you didn’t get your percentage) you can talk to the Network who will try to fix the problem (and hopefully compensate you). 

Example: John Lewis uses the Network Affiliate Window (please note: some Merchants use more than one Network – John Lewis are also with Tradedoubler).

I. You create an account with Affiliate Window, and get your affiliate URL.            

II. You then send people to the John Lewis website via this link, (which, without your visitors knowing, goes via Affiliate Window).  

III. Code on the John Lewis website then matches that visitor to you and pays you a commission on anything that visitors buys and reports back to the  Affiliate Window system.                                                                                                          

IV. You log in to your Affiliate Window account (on their website) to check your balance.

Examples of some Affiliate Networks are: Affiliate Window, Tradedoubler, Affiliate Future, and Webgains.

The great new website Stuff2Send.com which we’ve been working on since it’s launch, adding new features and giving it a fresh look, was featured as part of Money Saving Monday. The feature clearly expressed just what a great idea the site, the brain child of founder Colin Hay, is - with interviews from all walks of life showing just what a fantastic service the site offers.

An art student who currently has to drive across the country each week helps cover his petrol costs by transporting things for people, a property developer paid just £55 for someone coming down from the North to bring his new spiral staircase all the way to London (much cheaper than him hiring a van and taking the day off work), and a family run courier company now manage to make use of their return journeys too - when previously their van would have been empty. 

Watch the feature on BBC iplayer (quick! It won’t be live forever!)

Stuff2Send.com on BBC Working Lunch

There are some web services out there they check compatibility for you by displaying screen shots of your design in various browsers…. but they can be very slow (which is annoyingly time consuming when you’re just tweaking something) and even the best ones can cut off the bottom of a page. At 18a, we check all websites we build against 7 past and current browsers - and so far the only way I really like to do this is on a computer with that browser actually installed. This means we’ve got old laptops and various computers coming out of our ears!

So I was interested to read about Microsoft’s proposed offering; Microsoft SuperPreview. Eventually this will be a stand alone product which is available for free, although the quickest way to get your hands on it is with the next edition of Microsoft Expression Web - which doesn’t suit us as we code all our work by hand and in PHP.  But from looking at some screenshots, it’s pretty feature packed, allowing you to compare sections of a page side by side as if viewed in different browsers, or even overlaying them. Whilst the screenshots focus alot on pixel perfection - which isn’t what you need so much - let’s hope it’s as good as it looks and as freely accessible as it promises to be!

Now, as the initiative to engage young people across London boroughs with cricket continues, they needed to be able to update the site themselves quickly and easily.

So today the new site went live - complete with galleries, a calendar of events, listings of meetings, and a blog, all of which can be updated whilst keeping neatly within the design of the site. And as always with our custom built Content Management Systems, the word back is that they’re finding it very easy to use!  

The idea was to be able to browse large quantities of information, using hypertext links between documents. The date of that first paper was March 13th, 1989. 20 years ago last week.

Can you imagine how different life would be today without the Internet? If Mr. Berners-Lee, or anyone else since, hadn’t thought up what we now all take so much for granted? How often do you check your email or log on to Facebook? Or check the tv guide or read the paper? 

I’ve often wondered if my lifetime will see the advances that my Grandparents’ and Great Grandparents’ did - things like the mini-disc and the CD don’t seem like such a jump after cassettes and A-tracks. And Blue-ray (if that’s how you spell it) doesn’t effect my life in the slightest (yet)! But then I’m reminded of the World Wide Web - which, due to my profession, but also due to life in 2009, has a profound impact on my daily routine. 

So yes - I think it’s safe to say that my lifetime has already witnessed a hugely important event - I wonder what else is to follow? And where the web will be in another 20 years time? Hopefully I’ll see you here in 2029 to discuss it some more!