News | Web Design News, Reviews, Opinions and Stuff

Happy New Year from 18a!

9th January 2012 12:00 by lisa

Happy 2012!

It's our first day back in the office today, and we've hit the ground running with 1 new commission confirmed and requests for 3 other estimates!

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas and New Year and we wish you all the best for 2012!

18a Christmas 2011 opening hours

19th December 2011 03:00 by lisa

Our offices will be closed from 5.30pm on Friday 23rd December 2011 - 9am on Monday 9th January 2012. Hosting:

All hosting will continue to be monitored 24/7 and any problems will be addressed throughout the Christmas period. We might be on holiday, but we're still on hosting-watch!

Support:

If… Read more

WordPress 3.3 is released

13th December 2011 03:00 by lisa

If you've got a WordPress blog, then you might want to consider upgrading to the latest version - WordPress 3.3.

Features include the ability to drag and drop a batch of mixed media instead of uploading each file (there's been a multi-file uploader for a while which I found was never… Read more

Join us for the first RWW Bristol meet up!

5th November 2011 03:00 by lisa

One of the biggest technology blogs in the world, Read Write Web, are organising a Worldwide meet up on Tuesday 15th November, and encouraging people across the globe to organise meet ups in their area.

So we're organising the Bristol one! Calling all South West geeks! If you're in the web industry… Read more

Paypal now keep their fee when you refund a customer

26th October 2011 12:00 by lisa

We're just setting up the Paypal API for a new client, and have found a change since we last did it just a few weeks ago!

It seems that in September 2011, the UK terms for Paypal updated to say that Paypal now keep the fixed part of their fee when… Read more

The Dead Circus has come alive!

25th October 2011 03:00 by jo

One of our latest website is now live! It is The Dead Circus.

This site was made to promote a one off Halloween party. It is set to be a great event and it's now fully booked.

The site had an in-built ticket booking system, which let customers buy not only a ticket… Read more

Fancy a stake in Half Baked Brand?

12th October 2011 03:00 by lisa

We made Half Baked Brand's website for them last year so they could begin selling their cycling apparel online.

It's been an exciting year for the new company, with shop premises all but open and great features in leading national cycling magazines.

And now it's set to get all the more… Read more

Have you got customer reviews on your Facebook page?

10th October 2011 03:00 by lisa

If you've got customer reviews on your Facebook page, which are no where else, then copy and paste them and save them quick!

Facebook have announced that as of the 31st October 2011 they're removing the reviews tab from Facebook Pages, so as to encourage people to use the wall instead.… Read more

How to get different shipping rates on your OpenCart shop.

13th September 2011 03:00 by jo

If you ship your products globally you may find you need to provide different prices for different countries. A common set up in the UK is; a flat rate shipping fee to when shipping to addresses in the UK and then a higher rate for Europe and then an even… Read more

How to get rid of vertical scrollbars in a Facebook fan page application

12th September 2011 03:00 by tom

More and more companies are getting customised Facebook pages, like ours! But when you create a basic Facebook fan page application you might find that the lovely design you've created gets horrible vertical scroll bars added along the right hand side. Here's a quick 'howto' to explain the steps you… Read more

How to make someone an admin of your Facebook page

9th September 2011 03:00 by lisa

If you're an organisation with a Facebook Fan Page, a time is likely to come where you need someone else to be able to administer your page. This is particularly the case in companies, when the person who created the page goes on holiday or is out of the office.

It's very… Read more

Facebook Terms and Conditions – Fan pages

7th September 2011 03:00 by jo

For those who know how, Facebook certainly is very easy to use and user friendly. However it can be confusing and a bit tricky knowing that they continuously make updates and changes to the site.

Facebook Fan pages are great. They can be regularly updated and clear for those who… Read more

Facebook rolls out new privacy settings.

5th September 2011 03:00 by jo

Yet again Facebook have made some more changes to their privacy settings.

They are continuing to roll out new measures to increase privacy to users. The latest, is the ability for users to have greater control over who can and can’t see their status updates.

Many people are seeing this as Facebook’s… Read more

We had a LoveSpice taste test lunch

2nd September 2011 03:00 by jo

For lunch this week, we decided to try out a recipe using our LoveSpice chilli oil!

We had LoveSpice Garlicy Red Pesto Brushetta, a recipe that can be found on their website and WOW was it tasty!!

It was so good...we all decided to have seconds!

We would now seriously recommend that… Read more

A new look for The Inside Man CSCart website.

26th August 2011 03:00 by jo

The Inside Man has had a make-over.

Our client came to us with a CSCart shop that needed a revamp so we did a redesign with CSCart in mind.

It was an interesting experience as we tend not to use CSCart. One challenge that we came across was working with Cybertill, as… Read more

A new website for laptopkit.co.uk

25th August 2011 03:00 by jo

LapTopKit came to us because they needed a new website that they could update easily and that looked good. So we moved them away from their old OSCommerce site and built them a new shop using OpenCart.

With this website our client is able to add new products, as well as… Read more

A WP e-Commerce Guide

23rd August 2011 03:00 by jo

Below you can find instructions on to how to use certain aspects of WP e-Commerce.

Adding Products

Adding products is now easier on WP e-Commerce. Once signed in simply select Products from the menu on the left hand side and then click Add New.

When adding a product, start off by adding a… Read more

Bad luck for Somerset in the enterprise zone locations

17th August 2011 03:00 by lisa

Here at 18a we were excited a few months ago when Bristol's Temple Quarter was announced as one of the Goverment's new Enterprise Zones.

After Bristol was named in March as being a spot for one of the new zones, the exact location of 173 acres near Temple Meads was announced… Read more

Seafields Fostering has gone live!

16th August 2011 03:00 by jo

We are really happy to announce that the new and improved Seafields Fostering website has gone live!

Seafields is a website about fostering that gives you all the information you need to know.

This website has been recreated with a fresh and up-to-date look and clear contact forms so you are… Read more

Does Social Media Have an Effect on Society?

12th August 2011 03:00 by jo

Over the past week we have seen riots all over the country. Most of the rioting has been contained to the London area, where some horrible scenes have unfolded.

But how did this all happen? How did people know to riot, and where?

It would appear that today’s social media… Read more

Do Internet Explore Users have a lower IQ??

4th August 2011 03:00 by jo

An interesting article appeared on the web at the beginning of the week about research that had been conducted regarding web browsers. The conclusion that was found by Canadian firm ApTiquant was that Internet Explorer (IE) users have a lower IQ than people who use other browsers.

The story made headlines… Read more

Langford Live - September 10th 2011

27th July 2011 03:00 by jo

Langford Live is taking place on Saturday 10th September, 2011.

We are proud to support Langford Live. The first of hopefully many Langford Live mini festivals, in support of the Teenage Cancer Trust.

This year's festival will take place on the 10th September 2011 in the beautiful setting of Langford Court. The… Read more

Setting up PayPal with openCart? Remember to check the default settings

26th July 2011 03:00 by jo

In recent months we have set up several openCart websites with PayPal settings. We have found that there are settings that have to be updated when creating them. These settings can be found by logging in to your openCart and going to Extensions > Payments then click edit next to… Read more

Mapping Mobile Reception in Britain

21st July 2011 03:00 by jo

The BBC as well as others have noticed that if you want to find out which network provider give the best coverage in your area, then this information can be very hard to find out.

So, the BBC has decided to take it upon themselves to map out mobile coverage across… Read more

Wallpaper for your iPad - how to make good sized iPad wallpaper

20th July 2011 03:00 by lisa

If you're using your iPad in a presentation, you might want something more branded and professional than a photo of your cat as the background, whilst being more interesting that than patterns and generic squiggles the ipad comes with by default.

However - as we all know - the wallpaper/background on… Read more

18a Productions - The new exclusive digital partner for Precedent Internet!

19th July 2011 03:00 by jo

18a Productions is now the new exclusive digital partner for Precedent Internet!

Precedent Internet has been producing websites for dentists for almost 10 years! They are up to date with what information needs to be clearly shown on dentist websites.

A lot of dentists are unaware of many of the stipulations that… Read more

WordPress 3.2 has been released!

15th July 2011 03:00 by jo

WordPress have just released a new version – WordPress 3.2 – Have you updated yet?

This new version of WordPress (3.2) is the 15th major release of WordPress. It was created to make a fast and lighter Wordpress with several extra new features.

Firstly it should be noted that it no… Read more

The Different Roles of WordPress Users

14th July 2011 03:00 by jo

One of the great thing about Wordpress, is that it comes with 6 different user roles, allowing you to manage what other members of your team are allowed to do on your website.

The first role is the 'Super Admin', although, if you have upgraded to WordPress 3.1 or above this… Read more

Mahi Naturals has gone Live!

12th July 2011 03:00 by jo

MahiNaturals has gone live!

This is a great customised OpenCart shop.

This shop is user friendly and designed with SEO in mind. This shop is linked up to PayPal for secure and easy payments. It was also set up so that products could be shiopped internationally with the relevent shipping price for… Read more

A new feature for Google search – the Google Plus One button

11th July 2011 03:00 by jo

The Google Plus 1 (+1) button

When you search for something now on Google you may notice that beside some of the listings is a little grey box with a +1 inside. If you click on this it will add your count, much like a Facebook Like Button. If you have… Read more

The New Social Network Site - Google Plus - Has Been Launched

29th June 2011 03:00 by jo

Google has unveiled a new social networking service. Although it is still in its early stages Google have explained that it is an add-on feature that works with existing Google features.

As of June 2011 this is Google's biggest attempt to rival Facebook and gets its foot firmly planted in the… Read more

LoveSpice goes live!!!

28th June 2011 03:00 by jo

LoveSpice is a lovely customised WordPress that enables people to look around the site and gives them the option to buy the yummy LoveSpice products.

When customers go to buy the products the site has been linked up to Paypal making things easier for the buyer and the seller.

The site was… Read more

Key Words and Google - Does using key words get you higher in Google?

23rd June 2011 03:00 by jo

Should you, or should you not include meta key words on your site? Many people assume that if they simply put the right keywords in their headers that they will have great results in Google. But this is not the case, and there is so much more that should be… Read more

Are you making the most of social media?

22nd June 2011 03:00 by lisa

Social media isn't for every business - and if you're going to bother, then you've got to do it consistently - but there are lots of reasons why it's good to find the time for it.

With over 600,000,000 people using Facebook, it's quite likely that some of them are also… Read more

ICANN to make big changes to internet domain suffixes

21st June 2011 03:00 by jo

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers also known as ICANN will increase web domain suffixes. The vote was made by the global internet body to allow for this to happen.

Currently there are 22 suffixes including; .com, .gov, .edu and .org. There are also a further 250 country level… Read more

Great book release for our client Nathan Lee Davies

20th June 2011 03:00 by jo

A little while ago we designed and set up a WordPress blog for our client Nathan Lee Davies.

We are happy to announce that a book he wrote for as a special guest, has been published and is now available on Amazon! This book is called The Great British Breakfast: In… Read more

Facebook face tagging - and how to turn it off

8th June 2011 03:00 by lisa

Facebook have done it again - rolled out a feature and angered people who didn't want it turned on by default. And this latest feature, is more than a little bit creepy!

Now, when you upload photos, Facebook will try to recognise if your friends are in any of them, and then… Read more

Gmail autoresponders not working with POP3 email accounts

1st June 2011 03:00 by lisa

For years now, I've run my work email through Gmail and never had a problem with people receiving an "out of the office" message when I'm in meetings or on holiday.

However, it's just come to my attention that this feature isn't 100% reliable lately, so I've spent this morning investigating...

A… Read more

Facebook Like Box not showing faces?!

23rd May 2011 03:00 by jo

Have you found that your Facebook Like Box doesn’t appear properly on your website? You get the title but it doesn't seem to pull through any faces?

Well the problem is so much simpler than I had imagined!

The default height of the box given by Facebook is too short. The code by… Read more

ExploreIrelandTours.com has gone LIVE!!

20th May 2011 03:00 by jo

This is so exciting – it is such a great site.

It is a website that lets you can book adventure travels in Ireland. It is a bespoke booking system which allows admin to plot points along a route which visitors can then book, according to where they would like to… Read more

An osCommerce makeover for FoxFittings.co.uk

19th May 2011 03:00 by jo

We did a design makeover for our client FoxFitting on their osCommerce Shop.

A new design was created for the site, but we chose to use much of the old layout so that the structure to the website did not have to change.

The new site is more modern and streamlined as… Read more

Web browsers - Are you having problems with IE 9?

18th May 2011 03:00 by jo

Since the release of the Microsoft IE9 - 14th March 2011, there have been no major glitches reported. However there have been many reported minor problems. A problem that appears to be more and more common is a troubleshooting problem when you are trying to install Internet Explorer 9. We have seen… Read more

Beta Sage and Sage - A Comparison Of Their Old and Their New Website

17th May 2011 03:00 by jo

Looking at the two Sage Software sites, and not knowing which is the new one and which isn’t is hard to decipher. While the colours are the same (greens and greys)everything else appear different, so much so that if you didn’t know what Sage does then you could be easily… Read more

The new Google Chromebook

16th May 2011 03:00 by lisa

So when I first heard of the "Chromebook" I honestly couldn't think what it might be! I thought it was maybe a published document of research from Google. But doh! It's a little netbook (small laptop) that doesn't have anything else than a web browser on it.

No desktop (and so… Read more

The Facebook Smear Campaign Against Google

13th May 2011 03:00 by lisa

I read on the BBC website today that Facebook have admitted to paying a PR company to run a smear campaign against Google.

Imagine taking the tactic of rather than paying a PR company to promote you, you pay them to bad mouth your competition? Not an approach I like, or… Read more

Internet World Conference

12th May 2011 03:00 by lisa

I'm writing this on the way back from the last day of the Internet World conference, and overall I'd say it was an interesting day out!

There was the usual barage of email marketers, SEO-ers and hosting companies and at least one "newly invented brand new product" that has of course… Read more

Cinemagraph - Amazing Photos That Move

10th May 2011 03:00 by jo

Have you ever seen a photo move?

Well if you haven’t, have a look here! Cinemagraphs, which is what they are being called, are a cross between a moving video and a still image. And so far the examples we have seen look great! They are made with the old gif.… Read more

WP e-Commerce Delivery Paypal Fix

3rd May 2011 03:00 by tom

We love Wordpress as a CMS platform. It's a very cost effective way for people to get their own basic content managed website online and one of the few 'out of the box' solutions we recommend to clients.

One of the great things about Wordpress is the vast array of plugins… Read more

How to stop others seeing your personal Facebook profile

26th April 2011 03:00 by jo

Some people do not mind leaving their Facebook profiles open for everyone to see however that is not the case for everyone. Facebook has different settings put up in place, so that you can change what people can and can’t see and if you only want your friends to see… Read more

Magento launch a pay monthly option - Magento Go!

18th April 2011 03:00 by jo

Magento Go is a piece of shop software that helps business owners and entrepreneurs launch their own professional looking online shop.

Magento which was set up in 2008 have launched the new Magento Go platform that allows you to run your own business, where you can list and sell your products.On… Read more

An Example of Two Different HTML Emails

15th April 2011 03:00 by jo

Here is a good example of why it is important to experiment with different layouts of HTML email. Below is an example of a company who have updated their HTML email. The old one (pictured first) looks good but doesnt offer much to the viewer. The new layout (see the… Read more

Affiliate Management of A Quarter Of - A Star Performer

14th April 2011 03:00 by jo

18a are proud to say that we do the affiliate management for A Quarter Of. However on top of this we can tell you that A Quarter Of have been named as a star performer on Affiliate Window for the 4th month in a row! This is great news!

If you… Read more

Choosing which page your Facebook fan page opens on - Tips for your Facebook fan page

8th April 2011 12:00 by jo

Thinking about having a Facebook fan page?Well you also need to thing about which page your fan page opens on.

If you don't have a lot of discussion or updates on your wall, or you have a competition or promotion to push, you may wish to create a custom page… Read more

Customising your Facebook fan page banner - tips for your Facebook fan page

7th April 2011 03:00 by jo

Last week I wrote an article about fun customisation of your photos on your Facebook page.

I just wanted to update that post with an image our 18aProductions business fan page, showing other businesses how they can have fun with their own pages. We have gone with the simple, festive images of… Read more

Adding a Share page on Facebook - tips for your Facebook fan page

6th April 2011 12:00 by lisa

So once you've got people liking your Facebook fan page, how do you get them to spread the word?

Well one way is to create a Share page, as shown below.

A very good adoption of this page is to send people there as soon as they've liked your page. So… Read more

Giving fans exclusive content - tips for your Facebook fan page

5th April 2011 03:00 by jo

If you have a Facebook fan page, a great tip for businesses is to have exclusive content on there.

This is great (and a clever) way to get people to ‘like’ your page, as people want to know what the hidden content is. Potentially it could be, special offers or money… Read more

AddMySupport.com changes

4th April 2011 03:00 by jo

Here is another example of the sort of work we can help with...

AddMySupport.com needed a home page animation designed to explain their website – and they needed it in a hurry! So in a day we designed and built them a 4 frame animation, which we will shortly be converting… Read more

Fun Facebook Profiles

1st April 2011 03:00 by jo

When researching press release websites I came across something completely unrelated but I thought it was pretty cool so here I am sharing it with you.

Facebook are often making updates to their appearance, so click here to see some examples of how people are taking advantage of these changes… Read more

MillhouseData.com Is Launched

23rd March 2011 03:00 by jo

We are happy to announce that the new MillhouseData.com website has gone live. It is fully up to date with some new and improved details.

Firstly the client needed a site that worked on an iPad which this one now does. The photo below shows an image of the website from an… Read more

BoltsHairAndBody.co.uk goes live!

18th March 2011 03:00 by jo

We are really excited to announce that the new look Bolts Hair and Body website has gone live!

Bolts Hair and Body, located in Axminster, wanted a fresh look for their website, so have created a more up to date, modern and lively design, going to show how you don't need… Read more

Stop the Black Hatters

17th March 2011 03:00 by tom

Everyone who does even the smallest amount of SEO, appreciates the importance of outbound links. Black hat seo monkeys are no exception. Except rather than sending one of those annoying 'will you be my friend' emails to request a link, they just hack away until they find a route into… Read more

Hey Everyone - I'm new!

15th March 2011 03:00 by jo

Hi everyone, my name is Jo.

I’m the lastest member to join the 18aproduction team! I am the new studio assistant and I hope to get stuck right in. Having graduated last summer, I am very happy to be a part of this exciting web company in Bristol. I was… Read more

Solid chocolate; solid gold!

14th March 2011 03:00 by lisa

This isn't a particularly web orientated blog post, but it's not everyday you get a solid chocolate kit-kat!

Tom just offered me a Kit-Kat and I declined, but really wished I hadn't when he bit into his to find it was solid chocolate! Both sticks!

This followed a conversation on… Read more

Standard Banner Sizes

11th March 2011 03:00 by jo

We often get asked about advertisement banners for web advertising and the different sizes that they come in. So we thought that we would include a list of some typical banners that would be used on a website.

You can read the latest list of standard banner sizes on the IAB website.

Good newsletter subject line by Gizoo

25th February 2011 12:00 by lisa

I get A LOT of emails - and I really don't read all of them that are just trying to sell me something. So I always take note when one makes my finger click to read it...

Gizoo's latest email had the subject line "Our most reviewed product, the amazing… Read more

Giving access to your Google Analytics account

25th February 2011 12:00 by lisa

You might want your web developer or someone doing some consultancy for you to be able to view your Google Analytics but without giving them your Google account password and therefore access to your email and everything!

Or similarly you might just need other people in your organisation to be… Read more

Code Style and Syntax Guide

20th February 2011 12:00 by tom

When writing new code it's really helpful if developers adhere to a few basic rules and conventions. PHP is a fairly lose language which lets developers do things in a multitude of different ways, while this gives a creater level of flexibility and makes picking up PHP quick and easy… Read more

The importance of keeping your website updated

19th February 2011 03:00 by lisa

We always preach to clients about the importance of fresh content, but recent results from a web service provider back up our suspicions!

A recent survey by an online web tool SiteKreator has found that the small number of websites involved in their research that updated their site more than… Read more

Another great review for muchbetteradventures.com

19th February 2011 03:00 by lisa

MuchBetterAdventures has officially launched now, after a soft launch gathering information for the extensive site.

As as a result there's more great press coverage pouring in, talking about the wealth of functionality on the site and the tremendous amount of adventure holiday information already available there.

The latest write up… Read more

How to embed videos from YouTube on your website

18th February 2011 03:00 by lisa

It's very easy to add videos from YouTube to your website or blog, and it if you're concerned about hosting costs it's a great way to keep the load down on your site.

Firstly I'm going to start this article with the answer to a question I get asked a… Read more

How to generate your own QR codes

16th February 2011 03:00 by tom

There's nothing particularly new about QR codes, they've been kicking around the web for ages, ever since they first popped up in Japanese car production lines all those years ago.

At first - I have to admit, I didn't really see the point... Ok they're pretty cool... You can… Read more

How to make your website talk to you

16th February 2011 03:00 by tom

If you're like me and you prefer listening rather than reading, then a new API from Ericson might be just up your street!

Their new text to speech API lets developers quickly and easily convert strings of text into audio files. It's then just a small step to creating a… Read more

Security threat in Internet Explorer

1st February 2011 03:00 by lisa

Microsoft have issued a warning that any Window's user who uses Internet Explorer to view the Internet should download a security patch whilst they work on fixing the problem for good.

The patch is available for download from Microsoft's website, and is designed to stop websites you visit being able… Read more

The devil is in the detail, as Google demonstrates

11th January 2011 03:00 by lisa

Google announced yesterday that they're going to change how URLs appear in ads on search results pages.

The search engine constantly tweaks and refines it's offerings and way of going about things, and the latest announcement is that all URLs displayed in ads will be shown with the domain in… Read more

How has the snow effected your work? Take our quick survey...

21st December 2010 03:00 by lisa

In case you haven't noticed, the UK is at a bit of a stand still this week due to the crazy amount of snow we've had. I've been speaking to several people over the last couple of days who have had to work from home because they couldn't get into… Read more

Snowy website updates

20th December 2010 03:00 by lisa

Don't forget to keep your customers up to speed on your business operations in these snowy times!

If you've got a blog or a CMS, consider adding a message to your website that tells your customers when you're open this Christmas, or about any changes to your normal operating times… Read more

Get your own Google Places page

17th December 2010 12:00 by lisa

You may have noticed, when you use Google, that some listings appear at the top of the results as bullet points next to, or on, a map.

If you want to get featured here, you need to sort yourself out with a Google Places page. Through this you can display… Read more

18a Productions 2010 Christmas opening hours

15th December 2010 03:00 by lisa

It's been a busy year here at 18a HQ so we're taking a break over the festive period!

Our offices will be closed from 24th December 2010 - 4th January 2011 inclusive.

Hosting:

We might be on a break, but we don't get off that lightly! All hosting will continue… Read more

VAT rise in January 2011

13th December 2010 03:00 by lisa

Yep, it's happening again - the VAT rate is changing. So let us know if you need a hand updating your site for it.

Whether you have an online shop, a subscription based service, an online booking system or just the odd "buy now" Paypal button, get in touch if… Read more

Alex from Much Better Adventures quoted by the Guardian

6th December 2010 03:00 by lisa

We always get excited when our clients - especially start ups with great ideas - are featured in the press.

And even though muchbetteradventures.com are getting press coverage all the time now, the novelty still doesn't wear off!

This month, site co-founder Alex Narracott was quoted in the Guardian in… Read more

Facebook tries to copyright the words face and book!

26th November 2010 12:00 by lisa

The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has this week granted the social media giant Facebook a "notice of allowance" to trade mark the word "face".

Apparently Facebook have a history of going after anyone who use "face" or "book" in their name - UTalkMarketing cites examples such as Teachbook… Read more

Bristol restaurants coming up trumps!

25th November 2010 03:00 by lisa

We're always mentioning the latest places we've eaten in Bristol to friends and family outside the city - and increasingly these little gems are getting the recognition they deserve!

After achieving Bristol's first Michelin Star, Casamia in Westbury-on-Trym have just been crowned Britain's best restaurant by Gordon Ramsey! Brothers Jonray… Read more

Day and Night design feature on LoveGloucesterRoad.org.uk

10th November 2010 03:00 by lisa

This is really quite simple compared to the rest of the coding we do here at 18a Towers, but it's still fun!

If you visit LoveGloucesterRoad.org.uk - a website we've made for free to help promote our local area - then, depending on whether you visit it in the day… Read more

How to use the TinyMCE Filemanager Plugin

2nd November 2010 03:00 by tom

TinyMCE is my favourite WYSIWYG editor (and I've used quite a few editors over the years). It's far from perfect - some of the code it produces can be a little non-standards compliant and we often get clients who copy and paste directly from Word, which causes all sorts of… Read more

The Web Design Process

29th October 2010 03:00 by tom

Making a website doesn’t have to be complicated, this is how it works.

1. We have a chat with you about your requirements and what you hope to achieve from your website. It’s important at this stage to fully consider your audience. We can help you ensure that your website… Read more

WP e-commerce plugin User Guide

27th October 2010 03:00 by lisa

Below are instructions for how to update WP e-commerce, a very good online shop plugin for Wordpress websites.

Adding products:

The main thing you need to know how to do, is to add products. Here's a screenshot of (what looks like the very long...) products page. You access it by… Read more

UK Number 3 in Top Startup Hotspots

22nd October 2010 03:00 by tom

Everyone knows Silicon Valley is the 'home of the startup', but here in the UK, we're not doing too badly in terms of levels of innovation. There are clearly some motivated people around the UK, trying to dream up new ideas and push new online startups. So why then have… Read more

Halloween campaign for AQuarterOf.co.uk

18th October 2010 03:00 by lisa

Case Study: marketing with the seasons.

We do the affiliate management for AQuarterOf.co.uk - the UK's favourite online retro sweet shop - and as you can imagine, Halloween is a busy time!

The Halloween banners were rolled out a month ago, and we've been working with various affiliates on… Read more

Shop Software Review: OpenCart

7th October 2010 03:00 by tom

I was recently asked to quote for making a few improvements to an OpenCart shop. OpenCart wasn't a package I'd customised before, but as I always like to keep abreast of the latest software packages for use on clients sites, I thought I'd spend a little time having a play… Read more

Setting up public key authentication over SSH

6th October 2010 12:00 by tom

This post is a little on the techy side, but for those sys admins out there who have ever needed to setup SSH keys between 2 servers so they can authenticate without prompting for a password, you know what a hassle it can be.

I've done it enough times over… Read more

Nasty spam email offering tax rebate

5th October 2010 12:00 by lisa

Just a quick note to watch out for emails like this one I received supposedly from HMRC this morning.

Hovering over the links in the email shows me it's actually trying to send me to recivetaxrefund .xf .cz - quite different to hmrc.gov.uk!

It also doesn't have a "to" address -… Read more

Think you've cleared your cookies? Think again!

1st October 2010 03:00 by tom

There's nothing new about Cookies, most people are aware of their existence and accept that they're just a fact of life. They're fairly easy to delete after all, you can just go into your browser settings and 'clear history' or something similar and all traces of your browsing habits are… Read more

Going that extra mile with Wordpress - great feedback for Growing Vision Gardens

28th September 2010 03:00 by lisa

A fine example of a bespoke Wordpress customisation, Growing Vision Gardens is now live!

This site is a case study of how going the extra mile can make all the difference. Rather than stop at the initial completion of getting content on the pages, we worked with Growing Vision Gardens… Read more

Cost Effective SEO & Link Management

27th September 2010 03:00 by tom

SEO can be extremely time-consuming and expensive. To get results in anything but the least competitive market these days you need to invest a considerable amount of time and effort, over an extended period.

Many website owners don't have the time or inclination to get links from other websites,… Read more

Sexy forms with jQuery

24th September 2010 03:00 by tom

I just found something pretty cool. I've always found form elements really boring, unless of course you view them on a Mac - then they look beautiful. But for most of us we're stuck in the 1980's with some pretty dull elements...

Well not anymore! Checkout uniform a neat little… Read more

Impressive Amateur Special Effects

23rd September 2010 03:00 by tom

I just found this short film reading an article on reelseo and just had to share it because it's really impressive stuff and just shows what you can do with a couple of $1,000 cameras, a decent software suite, a couple of interesting looking Russian dudes and a lot of… Read more

What is Google? And how does it work with your new website?

21st September 2010 12:00 by lisa

One of the most common causes for confusion with website owners is how Google works, so I thought I'd just write a little explanation!

When you have a website built, you have a domain name address (www.yourwebsite.co.uk) where you and other people can visit your website.

The way to get… Read more

Browser testing to include skype?

20th September 2010 03:00 by lisa

Just to add to the long list of what us web developers have got to check for is Skype installations.

I've been noticing recently how if you've got Skype installed on your computer, then it is very helpful and turns phone numbers into clickable links for you on websites you… Read more

Tart featured in Good Housekeeping

16th September 2010 03:00 by lisa

Gloucester Road's very own Tart has a double page spread in the latest edition (October 2010) of Good Housekeeping.

Tart are our client (we help them looking after their website) and our neighbour on Gloucester Road so we were very excited for them when they told us to watch out… Read more

The meerkat strikes again.

15th September 2010 03:00 by lisa

We follow Aleksandr Orlov on Twitter, so I noticed yesterday that he (!) was quite chuffed that his catchphrase "Simples!" was used in hit E4 show The Inbetweeners.

Series 3 of The Inbetweeners had been eagerly awaited by many after gradually building up a huge army of fans, and Channel… Read more

New twitter site starts rolling out

15th September 2010 03:00 by lisa

Twitter have unveiled their new look site - and I think it looks pretty good! Of course the proof is in the using...

I really like the way Twitter have managed the space on the screen - with show and hides you can give a user a lot of information… Read more

Yarty Valley Dairies win Taste of the West Award

14th September 2010 03:00 by lisa

I just made a round of tea in 18a HQ and found that - by pure chance - we had Yarty Valley Dairies milk. Which was very exciting because we made Yarty Valley's website for them earlier this year!

The wordpress site allows them to update the site with news… Read more

New reviews section of muchbetteradventures.com

9th September 2010 03:00 by lisa

Muchbetteradventures.com are going from strength to strength, and so to build on the community aspect of their adventure travel site, they needed a full scale reviews system!

When the site launched last November it had the facility for members to leave a review, along with photos, but it was time… Read more

Uploading PDFs and other file attachments in Wordpress

1st September 2010 03:00 by lisa

If you want to offer your readers a downloadable PDF or other file on your Wordpress blog, then here's how you do it...

Just above the main content area - whether you're writing a page or a post - there's a row of symbols. You'll be familiar with the first… Read more

18a.co The quicker way to visit us

31st August 2010 03:00 by tom

When we heard that you could now buy .co domains we were quick to snap up 18a.co as we thought it sounded pretty cool and we loved the idea of even shorter email addresses.

Ok we're not Columbian, but .com domains aren't just used by American companies either, and the… Read more

Horizontal spaces between images in Gmail html emails

27th August 2010 12:00 by lisa

I just received a HTML newsletter from play.com and it reminded me of something we discovered with Gmail a few months ago...

Since the powers-that-be at Google created a new class of font-size:80%, horizontal spaces have been appearing between images. And it looks like play have unfortunately (maybe) fallen foul… Read more

Clever email marketing idea from my-wardrobe

26th August 2010 03:00 by lisa

I received a newsletter last night that I thought was quite a clever idea, from my-wardrobe.com.

With the bank holiday approaching, they asked several high profile editors what they'd be wearing over the long weekend. Bang on subject for their target market - trend setters discussing styles, with tips and… Read more

How to Spy on your Competition

24th August 2010 03:00 by tom

Everyone knows getting backlinks is vitally important when you're trying to build up good rankings in the search engines. But how do you know who to get links from? One way I've found particularly useful is to check out who's already linking back to your competition, and try and get… Read more

How to put Facebook on your Site

23rd August 2010 03:00 by tom

It's now easier than ever to share your website's content on Facebook, which could prove to be an excellent way of getting more visitor interaction on your site.

Facebook has released a whole set of social plugins that let you do some really cool stuff, in many cases just by… Read more

Great Logo Design

21st August 2010 03:00 by tom

Getting a good logo design is essential for any brand, but sometimes it's easy to get carried away with what you think your logo should encapsulate and lose any real originality or memorable identity. The best thing you can do is keep it simple and memorable.

If you're designing the… Read more

The £20 iPad Replacement

20th August 2010 03:00 by tom

I got quite excited when I read a report this morning about a tablet PC from India which was going on sale for just 1,500 rupees which according to XE.com just now, is as little as £20!

It really sounds too good to be true, and for the moment it… Read more

How to Automatically Create a Newsletter

17th August 2010 03:00 by tom

Everyone knows that newsletters are a great and cost effective way of keeping in touch with your customers, letting them know what you've been up to and reminding them of the services you offer. But finding time to create an attractive and interesting newsletter can be a real challenge, especially… Read more

Half Baked Brand off to a flying start, and a feature on bikeradar.com

16th August 2010 03:00 by lisa

Great news today that a relatively new client of ours, Half Baked Brand, with their unique range of cycling jerseys, have been featured on Bikeradar.com.

Future Publishing website Bikeradar gets over 1.5 million unique visitors a month, so it's a great piece of coverage for the new online based business.

The Internet of Things

13th August 2010 03:00 by tom

A nice little introduction to the Internet of Things or the semantic web as it's often refered as.

People have been talking about the interconnections which are possible between systems for years and there's no denying that things are becoming more connected and smarter. At the moment the… Read more

Twitter customer service from 123-reg

10th August 2010 03:00 by lisa

Yesterday I tweeted that I wasn't very happy with 123-reg auto-renewing a .com domain name for 2 years without my say so - and I just received a phone call from their customer services team to see if they could help resolve the issue.

It wasn't the auto-renewal I had… Read more

UKCourseBookers.com goes live - 2 week turn around

31st July 2010 03:00 by lisa

UK Course Bookers Ltd. needed an identity and a slick website - and they needed it quickly. So they came to us!

In just 2 weeks we designed and built ukcoursebookers.com which features admin bookings management tools and user accounts so customers can view their past orders, update their details… Read more

18a and the top creative companies in the South West

30th July 2010 03:00 by lisa

I've just been checking out the results for the South West Top 100 Creative Companies, which is ranked according to fees earned/turnover. Which means that we're not on it, because we're not big enough (or don't charge enough ;) to beat the big boys. But still, it was great to… Read more

What To Do When You Launch: Before, During, and After

28th July 2010 03:00 by tom

When setting up a new web venue for the first time you could be easily forgiven for thinking that building your website would be your biggest hurdle, but it's really not.

I was just browsing our industry news when a post on ReadWriteWeb popped up and really rang true for… Read more

Trailer for The Social Network Movie

27th July 2010 03:00 by lisa

They're right - you don't make 500 million friends without making a few enemies along the way too.

If you haven't seen the trailer for the new film about the creation of Facebook, check it out below.

It looks better than I thought it would, but I find some of… Read more

Code for America... Why not Code for Britain?

23rd July 2010 03:00 by tom

I just stumbled upon this interesting project currently going on in the US.

Code for America is a project aimed at bringing some of the skills and experience from the private tech sector into government to help councils in cities around the US become more efficient.

I particularly like the… Read more

18a meet Facebook Developer Matt Kelly

22nd July 2010 03:00 by lisa

We admit it. We're geeks. Which meant it was very exciting to meet Facebook Developer Matt Kelly (left in the pic, with our Technical Director Tom Freeman on the right) in San Francisco as part of our 18a Road Trip the other day. He was a lovely guy and it… Read more

Embargo a post or page in Wordpress

20th July 2010 03:00 by lisa

When you add a post or a page to Wordpress, you have the option of embargoing it so it doesn't display on your site until a set date. Really useful if you want to write a whole load of content once a month and have it drip feed through during… Read more

Using the Wordpress more tag

17th July 2010 03:00 by lisa

Sometimes you see blogs and just from looking at the first page you can read the whole body of 10 articles. Other times you see blogs and you can only read the first paragraph or so before you have to click on a title or read more link to see… Read more

Select All in Image Ready

16th July 2010 03:00 by lisa

Quick little Image Ready tip - if you're trying to select the whole of a frame using Ctrl+A on your keyboard, you need to have the "hand" tool on from the options palette. This is different to Photoshop, where you can pretty much use Ctrl+A anytime.

So just incase you're… Read more

San Fransisco Facebook Developer Meetup

17th June 2010 03:00 by tom

As part of our epic US social media tour we're really excited to be meeting up with some Facebook developers and engineers from the other side of the pond at the San Fransisco Facebook Developer Meetup on June 28.

It should be a great opportunity to discuss the new platform… Read more

How to change the border on image thumbnails in a Wordpress gallery

9th June 2010 03:00 by lisa

Just a quick little "tutorial"/pointer for anyone looking to change the thickness, style or colour of the border of a thumbnail in a Wordpress gallery....

The details of the thumbnails can be found in wp-includes/media.php. Here you'll find:

#{$selector} { margin: auto; }

#{$selector} .gallery-item { float:… Read more

Second Sainsbury's website goes live.

28th May 2010 03:00 by lisa

Back in January we launched a website for Sainsbury's new store in Ashton Gate, and so we were delighted to be asked us to build another for the potential store in Wadebridge. It's always nice to get repeat business :)

Sainsburys-Wadebridge.co.uk went live today and features a custom built CMS and… Read more

Lessons from Silicon Valley

26th May 2010 03:00 by tom

A really interesting video entitled, Lessons from Silicon Valley, popped into my inbox this morning, part of the latest businesszone.co.uk newsletter.

Silicon Valley really does sound like a great environment for encouraging and nurturing startup potential. There's certainly a huge amount that both the UK business community and… Read more

Use social media imaginatively for your business

21st May 2010 03:00 by lisa

Facebook isn't for every business. And for those that it suits, just creating a Fan Page isn't enough to bring social media success. You've got to think about your audience and what they want...

One of the most imaginative (but at the same time a little nauseating!) uses of social… Read more

Designing for Wordpress

20th April 2010 03:00 by lisa

I love Wordpress - it's a great piece of opensource software that's really blog software, but because of it's feature of "pages", also makes a great CMS.

I've been asked by a few designers lately what they need to consider when designing for Wordpress. So I thought I'd share what… Read more

New invoicing system a success

10th April 2010 03:00 by lisa

As we do our invoicing at the beginning of each month for the previous month, this week has been the first chance I've had to play with our new invoicing system. After a year or so battling with the rubbish system our bank wanted us to use, we've now built… Read more

OrchardOsteopaths.co.uk goes live

9th April 2010 03:00 by lisa

We were very excited this week to unveil the new Orchard Osteopaths website. The Chard, Ilminster and Axminster based osteopathy practice wanted a contemporary looking, easy to navigate brochure website for their services.

They also of course needed it to be highly search engine optimised and as we got their… Read more

How to embed a Google Map onto your website

8th April 2010 03:00 by lisa

If you'd like to display a Google Map on your website, then it's very easy to do thanks to Google's embed code. Just follow these simple instructions.

(If you'd rather your website could get the maps from Google itself directly, then ask us about setting up the Google Maps API… Read more

Last minute HTML emergency!

31st March 2010 12:00 by lisa

CCT rang us on Thursday afternoon asking if we could help them out by building 3 HTML pages and an HTML email (and test all of it across a variety of email clients and browsers of course!) by Friday lunchtime....! It was a tight deadline but we're not afraid to… Read more

The Times and The Sunday Times to charge for online content

26th March 2010 03:00 by tom

I've just read on utalkmarketing that the Times and The Sunday Times will start charging for access to it's content from June 2010.

This is truly a big moment for the entire traditional publishing industry and journalism as a whole. But will it work?

Personally while I might be happy… Read more

New holding page for Organic Jam

25th March 2010 12:00 by lisa

The Organic Jam had a very funky design for the holding page of their website - and so I was excited to be asked to make it!

The large, over blown background image is separate from the top layer, which gives a fluid effect when changing the size of your… Read more

New website goes live for Stuff Advertising

23rd March 2010 12:00 by lisa

Our friends over at STUFF wanted a new website to showcase their work and services, so we were happy to oblige!

The site is a combination of a bespoke CMS - meaning their work and clients pages are easily updateable by them whilst there was no compromise on their design… Read more

Should you use Google Adsense on your website?

22nd March 2010 12:00 by lisa

I've been asked a few times in the past whether I think a client should put Google Adsense on their website. This question normally comes after they've just read a book called "How to get rich quick on the Internet" or some other similar title.

Google Adsense works by displaying… Read more

Win £50k in the Barclays Startup Competition

22nd March 2010 03:00 by tom

Getting funding for your startup idea can be a real challenge, particularly in todays climate of financial uncertainty. So a competition offering a prize fund of £50k is what every entrepreneur dreams of, and could really help a business get off to a flying start.

This is what they say:

Logo tweaks for chamonixselfcatered.com

19th March 2010 12:00 by lisa

We're currently building a new wordpress-based website for Chamonix Self Catered, and so they asked if we could liven up their existing logo a bit.

It was really good that they asked for this, as if you have a dated logo, the chances are your shiny new website design that… Read more

The importance of good photography in web design

18th March 2010 12:00 by lisa

As monitors get bigger and Internet connections get faster, more and more eye catching web design is thanks to striking photography. I've just found a blog post of 30 beautiful designs thanks to clever uses of - often simple - imagery.

I've always tried to find strong photography for my… Read more

Gmail fetching emails via POP3 which then don't appear

15th March 2010 12:00 by lisa

I check my work email address via POP3 using Gmail which just means that Gmail goes to our server and picks up my latest email and shows them in my Gmail account. And I do it this way so I can manage several different email accounts all from one place.… Read more

How to tell what browser you're using.

13th March 2010 12:41 by lisa

I've just written a long support article on how to find out what browser you're using, and what version of that browser. So whilst it's useful for our clients, I thought it might be useful to anyone else too! So here's a link to it!

6 tips to great logo design

1st March 2010 14:08 by lisa

I've just read an interesting article on istockphoto with 6 tips for great logo design. Sometimes articles like this just state the obvious or retell you what you already know, but it's still helpful to read them and remind yourself of some fundamentals you might have forgotten along the way.

Using Wordpress 2.7 - a beginner's guide

1st March 2010 12:00 by lisa

Wordpress are now onto version 2.9.2 - but the fundamentals are the same since 2.7, so use the guide below to help you out!

Written December 2008:

If you've just got a Wordpress Blog, it should be version 2.7. And if you've used Wordpress before, you'll notice the layout this… Read more

Advertiser stats system goes live for muchbetteradventures.com

27th January 2010 07:59 by lisa

muchbetteradventures.com launched in October 2009, and we're really pleased to see how well they're doing already! It takes a lot of time and determination to make a website successful, and Alex and Ed are giving it their all and reaping the benefits with endorsements from Alastair Sawday (Founder of ethical publishers… Read more

HTML newsletter for launch of Wedding Fayres UK

19th January 2010 04:50 by lisa

WeddingFayresUK.co.uk got a new look (and features - so a new site actually!) last week, so we designed and built a newsletter to send to our opt-in list of wedding fair organisers. The open rate was high and the click rate very impressive - with the amount of wedding fairs… Read more

Sainsbury's micro-site goes live.

19th January 2010 00:00 by lisa

We got the go ahead this morning to lift the covers on the Sainsbury's Ashton Gate site we designed and built for them recently. The site has been under wraps whilst they populated the content using the SimpleCMS we custom built for them. The site allows Admins to add, edit… Read more

Creating a social networking website with Wordpress

18th January 2010 13:34 by lisa

We recently got asked to quote on building a social networking website (we were asked by a design agency and we're secret-subcontractors so I'm afraid I can't give examples of the site now it's done) and we gave prices for both a bespoke solution and a wordpress set up (the… Read more

UnwinPhotography.co.uk - new site launches

18th January 2010 12:40 by lisa

I built the Unwin Photography website many moons ago (before 18a was even heard of or I'd even met Tom!) and as their business has developed they've needed new things from their site - so the time had come to create a smart new design, with fresh content and lots… Read more

JACJoinery.co.uk goes live

6th January 2010 11:17 by lisa

Two working days into the near year and we're setting sites live already! JACJoinery.co.uk is a remake of the client's old site, which was built in Microsoft FrontPage. JAC used FrontPage to update their website... but when they got a new computer they were faced with having to buy more… Read more

Update the VAT on your online shop or service.

4th January 2010 11:26 by lisa

It's the first working day back for many across the UK (Happy New Year!) - and that means charging the new (or old!) rate of 17.5% for VAT. If your website states the old rate, or uses the old rate for calculations, make sure you ask your web developer to… Read more

Merry Christmas from 18a productions!

21st December 2009 10:51 by lisa

It's thick with snow here in Bristol! And we're just closing up shop ready for our Christmas break. So have a lovely Christmas and a very happy New Year - and we'll see you in 2010! (Below is a picture of our 2009 Christmas Card with the snowy view from… Read more

Christmas e-card for Chance to Shine

17th December 2009 10:45 by lisa

Chancetoshine.org - the Cricket Foundation and the ECB's charity for supporting and encouraging young people, asked us to build their Christmas e-card and send it to their supporters, sponsors and participating schools. The design, created by Hotrod Creations, had to be built with particular care and tested across a variety… Read more

New User Dashboard and features for Stuff2send.com

12th December 2009 12:02 by lisa

Back in September we added a permanent log-in to Stuff2send.com, so that carriers and senders could choose for the website to leave them logged in from a certain computer. And now we've just set live the follow on from this (via a redesign of the home page along the way… Read more

Christmas banners and a new blog for AQuarterOf.co.uk

11th December 2009 12:25 by lisa

As Christmas fast approaches I've been busy working with our affiliate management clients making sure their programmes are ready for the shopping season. A little while ago the AQuarterOf Christmas banners went into the Webgains and Affiliate Window interfaces, and I've now set them up a blog on our new… Read more

amblogs.co.uk goes live

10th December 2009 12:22 by lisa

We needed a new space for our affiliate management client's blogs - so we built amblogs.co.uk! It was my first experiment with Wordpress MU - and I was very impressed (as I always am with Wordpress). If you're involved with affiliate marketing and you want a blog - you might… Read more

VAT changes back on the 1st January 2010.

2nd December 2009 04:44 by lisa

....and how much has it cost the country to print all the stickers and paper work and reminders necessary for that little 2.5% holiday we all had?! And how many shops will be disrupted on New Years Day by having to change their systems back again? Personally I really wish they'd left… Read more

What's your website doing for Christmas?

28th November 2009 09:24 by lisa

Have you considered what you're doing online this Christmas? If the answer is nothing - then maybe you should think about how you can use your website and online presence as an asset to your company this Christmas. It's easy to think of a website as just a brochure that all companies… Read more

18a Productions Christmas opening hours

27th November 2009 07:50 by lisa

We've just sent out a newsletter (using 18amail of course!) to our clients about our Christmas opening hours, but I thought I should post them on here too. Our offices will be closed from 5.30pm on Friday the 18th December and we'll be back in action again on Monday 4th… Read more

Tradedoubler link changes

25th November 2009 13:34 by lisa

Just a quick reminder to any affiliates out there who deeplink to products from the Tradedoubler product feed - their new linking structure went live today (according to an email I received on 29th October). So cast an eye over your site and make sure all is as it should… Read more

Shiny new homepage for 18amail

25th November 2009 13:14 by lisa

Well I haven't done what I set out to do when I sat to my desk this morning! But not to worry - because instead we've got a shiny new home page for 18amail! Quite a fast turn around - designed and built since 10.30am this morning! We've done it… Read more

Refined home page design for Stuff2Send.com

18th November 2009 05:14 by lisa

Stuff2Send.com is going through some major changes at the moment, with lots of new features being added before Christmas. As part of these changes, some design tweaks had to be made to the home page - which once built, we decided were so nice they should be set live before… Read more

Photoshop Tutorial: Resizing, Cropping and 'Squaring' images in Photoshop

18th November 2009 03:00 by lisa

Someone new to Adobe Photoshop was asking me yesterday how to work with images, and this is particularly useful/important if you're updating websites as you want small images that'll load quickly and look good when they're on the site. (In this demo I'm using Photoshop CS2, but it's quite basic… Read more

WinYourWedding.co.uk launches.

12th November 2009 12:27 by lisa

Last week I got a call from an event organiser who in conjunction with a newspaper publishing house wanted to buy a domain I registered a couple of months ago. I didn't want to sell it, but I said I'd develop the site immediately so they could feature on it… Read more

Customising blogspot blogs.

10th November 2009 12:40 by lisa

I've just reminded (by a potential client requesting the service) that a little while ago I customised a blogger/blogspot blog for one of our websites, Chelsea flower show tickets. I usually always do a wordpress install, but for quickness on that occasion I set up a blogspot blog, and used the editing… Read more

"Undoing" an oscommerce shop

6th November 2009 06:00 by lisa

Whilst online shopping is still a rapidly growing sector, it's not right for every business. A client who came to us last year for an e-shop have since decided that whilst having the products online drive sales, actual orders come from direct enquiries. They deal with plumbing supplies, and so… Read more

Getting Agile with SCRUM - Choosing a Development Methodology

4th November 2009 13:02 by tom

There are so many different approaches you can take when starting a new web project. In the past I've preferred to use an 18a take on the time tested waterfall approach. It's what I was taught at uni, and it's served me well over the years. Being a straight forward… Read more

You know you've made it when you're the Google logo.

4th November 2009 04:53 by lisa

It's not every day one of our clients is the front page of Google! The first page of search results, yes, but being the search box itself is pretty special! Oscars, Baftas - you see them all when you go to make a website at Aardman HQ in Bristol. But today… Read more

RSS making machine!

3rd November 2009 03:00 by lisa

I'm loving rssa.at at the moment! We're kitting all our clients out with free RSS feeds, which can then be fed into Twitter or a Facebook Fan Page. For muchbetteradventures.com it's great, because I've been able to make them feeds for all the different areas of their site in just… Read more

Snowflake Champions!

30th October 2009 04:46 by lisa

We were (or I was!) very excited on Wednesday night to get the Affiliate Window newsletter announcing that we'd won the Christmas Challenge in week 1. The task was to create the best snowflake... the winning entry is below and I'm £50 the richer for it! Thanks Affiliate Window! You… Read more

GiftedUk.com online shop goes live

27th October 2009 16:40 by lisa

Blimy - can 1 web development company launch more sites in a month than we are doing this October?! Another one went live last week - GiftedUk.com - the online gift shop of the Worcestershire Boutique, Gifted. The site uses oscommerce software, as it provided everything Gifted needed as a… Read more

Create an RSS feed quickly and easily with rssa.at - new system launches

26th October 2009 16:48 by lisa

I've just realised that in all the excitement of last week, I didn't blog about the launch of our brand new exciting system! rssa (really simply syndicate anything) lets anyone create an RSS feed of their news in 2 quick steps. The system's completely free, and as long as your… Read more

SouthBristolRiverscapes.org.uk site launches for Bristol City Council

23rd October 2009 07:30 by lisa

It's been a busy couple of weeks for us, with several big site launches as projects come to completion. SouthBristolRiverscapes.org.uk is a website where people living in Bristol can learn more about their local rivers. The site allows authorised members of River Groups to upload resources on to a map… Read more

Twitter API - job done in 30 minutes!

22nd October 2009 04:48 by lisa

Here at 18a we're getting very excited about our new web service - it's been under wraps for a little while but it's very nearly ready to launch! And one of the final stages was for Tom to integrate the Twitter API. He sat down to do it this morning… Read more

MyDiscountVoucher.co.uk goes live.

17th October 2009 07:09 by lisa

We recently provided My Discount Voucher with a new design for the remake of their site. And I just received an email from Kunal this morning to say their team have built it and it's now gone live! Always exciting to see your work on the (big) screen! So we wish… Read more

MuchBetterAdventures.com launches in Beta.

16th October 2009 07:12 by lisa

This has been a big project for 18a, and we're really thrilled for Alex and Ed from Much Better Travel Ltd that their site has gone live. I'm also pleased to be able to unveil the design at last, as we really love the photography we sourced with the guys… Read more

muchbetter already; a long day in the 18a office.

8th October 2009 07:33 by lisa

We had the guys from Much Better Travel around yesterday to go through every last detail of their new adventure sports holiday site. When I say "long day", I mean they arrived at 11am and left at 11.30pm. That's a long day for anyone! Especially poor Tom who was programming… Read more

Calling all QuickBooks Pro 2008 invoicing system users

6th October 2009 09:31 by lisa

This software has it's fair share of bugs (I keep thinking I'll ask Tom to code us up a different invoicing system instead, but our accounts dept have spent a while getting all our clients details and templates etc in there now), but by far the most annoying one is… Read more

Brand damage online - and they probably don't even know about it.

4th October 2009 14:08 by lisa

Just had a missed call from an 0845 number... so a spot of Googling later and it ends up it was from a rather well known double glazing company. What actually came up in Google was a discussion about how rude and pushy people who call from that number are,… Read more

Client reminder HTML email for ChaletinSlovenia.com

2nd October 2009 08:46 by lisa

Last year we made a website and booking system for ChaletinSlovenia.com, and this year, to encourage their previous guests to go back to the site, they're going to send out a pretty HTML email using 18amail.co.uk. Their designers (hotrod creations) designed the mail shot after we advised them on what… Read more

Can we already get too much "on demand"?

2nd October 2009 08:36 by lisa

Tom just had a call from BT, trying to sell him BT Vision - their TV service where you buy a box for £15 and then for a small amount a month (the prices all sounded OK to be honest) you can get lots of channels, and as well the… Read more

MuchBetterAdventures.com nearly ready for launch.... including new banner pallette

2nd October 2009 03:35 by lisa

We're getting very excited here at 18a Towers, as the new adventure sports travel website muchbetteradventures.com is nearly ready to go live! We met with Alex and Ed on Tuesday to run through the first working version of the site and now we're just finishing off some of the wealth… Read more

Example of a good email newsletter by firebox.

2nd October 2009 03:24 by lisa

For a while now I've thought Firebox newsletters have been good, with eye catching designs that perform well, such as the one below. Even if you're using an email client that can't display the background image, the centre area is still very smart. But I was particularly impressed by their… Read more

HTML email template for UKForex

28th September 2009 04:14 by lisa

Foreign Exchange company UKForex came to us for an HTML template to be designed and built so that the emails they send to their private and corporate clients were more attractive than just plain text. They will be sending it using their inhouse email system, and it may be rolled… Read more

18a Orchard bears fruit!

21st September 2009 07:59 by lisa

I really thought Tom's Dad, who very kindly let us plant the 18a Orchard on his farm, was playing a joke on me by sticking an apple on to one of our tiny little saplings when I walked across the field to check out the orchard the other day. But… Read more

New collection of Halloween banners for AQuarterOf

21st September 2009 07:02 by lisa

This morning I've been busy making a new pallette of creative for one of our Affiliate Management clients, AQuarterOf. The retro sweet shop are of course very popular at this time of year, what with Trick or Treat being the topic of the next 6 weeks! So I wanted to… Read more

Update your browser

17th September 2009 14:42 by lisa

Hurrah! We are all behind this campaign from updateyourbrowser.net - not only are old browsers slow, they just don't let you experience the cool stuff the web has to offer now a days! And the longer web developers and designers have to support rubbish IE6 and others, the longer jobs… Read more

LovelyTart.com - updates to new client's site

17th September 2009 04:37 by lisa

I've loved the style of Tart on Gloucester Road ever since before they even opened last year - our old offices were practically next door so we could see the interior design coming together every day and couldn't wait to get inside. By the time we introduced ourselves to our… Read more

VivienMallock.co.uk - updates to sculptor's website

15th September 2009 04:38 by lisa

I had seen the remarkable work of Vivien Mallock a few months ago, and it didn't cross my mind that we would get a call asking us to host and maintain her site. It seems the site was originally made with software (I think Dreamweaver, but I'm a hand-coded kinda… Read more

AQuarterOf feature in the Sunday Times

7th September 2009 06:23 by lisa

My my, it really was a busy day yesterday for our clients getting great media coverage! AQuarterOf, the old fashioned online sweet shop for whom we do affiliate management, had a feature in the Sunday Times yesterday; an interview with their founder Michael Parker about how he made AQuarterOf the… Read more

UKPropertyClub.co.uk feature in the Observer

7th September 2009 04:44 by lisa

We're very excited for our client ukpropertyclub.co.uk, as they were featured in the Observer yesterday, in a half page article complete with a photo of one of their members! ukpropertyclub helps like minded co-renters, co-buyers and co-letters find each other and work together to get the properties they want. The… Read more

CompetitionsandGiveaways.co.uk launches.

6th September 2009 14:17 by lisa

Yey! Finally a spare weekend so I can put together my designs for my new hobby site. I've had the domain and PSDs sitting around for months - and now I finally have a working site to show for it. CompetitionsandGiveaways.co.uk lists prizes and freebies up for grabs across the… Read more

Google Maps API geo locating

4th September 2009 14:33 by lisa

It was a late night last night, as Tom was keen to get his new site live. HallsHire.com is a site of Tom's that he made ages ago (2004 I think...) that was in certain need of a revamp. It was written in Perl, and whilst it worked fine, it… Read more

And a new home page for nbs...

29th August 2009 14:24 by lisa

Ok, so I couldn't leave it at new landing pages. Once the nbs bug got me again, I was hooked! So the site now has a much cooler (we think) home page, allowing us to feature competitions and features, and link to shopping and delivery guides. Plus with a section… Read more

New naturalbornshopper.co.uk shopping landing pages

25th August 2009 12:07 by lisa

It's always your own projects that get neglected when you've got lots of client work on (which we're not complaining about!) but I finally had some evenings to put together the magazine pages for naturalbornshopper.co.uk that I've been planning for months! I hope you like them! Shown below are the… Read more

The importance of a good meta description

21st August 2009 04:30 by lisa

Whilst debate still rages as to whether Google takes any notice of meta keywords anymore (keywords you put in the head of your webpage, that you and your visitors don't see, but that Google and all other search engines do), it's still vital to have strong title tags and, I… Read more

Clarke Willmott internal HTML email newsletter templates

19th August 2009 09:28 by lisa

Clarke Willmott's PR company, JBP, asked us to build their HTML email newsletter templates from designs done by Stuff. We really like the designs and they suit emails really well, as there are several things to be wary of when designing good HTML emails. The main thing is that they… Read more

New Hop Pocket Wine Co site goes live

18th August 2009 12:20 by lisa

Yey! We're all very excited about the launch of the new Hop Pocket Wine Co website. The site is built around oscommerce, as the specialist wine shop already had an online shop using the software, and so wanted to quickly and easily be able to refill their database of hundreds… Read more

3 new instructions for 18a

18th August 2009 04:10 by lisa

We are delighted to be working on new projects for 3 new clients over the next couple of months. Orchard Osteopaths unfortunately had a rough ride with their last web development team and the site never launched, so we're picking up the baton and have the designs under the way… Read more

Website planning - muchbetteradventures.com

10th August 2009 04:58 by lisa

We're always telling our clients that planning a website before the build begins is vital. And never has this been more true than with the planning of muchbetteradventures.com. The guys behind the site, Alex and Ed, have loads of great ideas and so it's been a detailed process to wire… Read more

Stressed Eric build for Aardman

30th July 2009 04:23 by lisa

It's not every day you step into work and are greeted by an Oscar! But I was this morning when I arrived at the Gas Ferry Road Aardman studios. I was there to build their design for the new Stressed Eric website, and after all Tom had said about the… Read more

New blueCRM site goes live

22nd July 2009 07:43 by lisa

The new blue CRM site has gone live, for which we designed and built the front end, and planned and wireframed the back end/member area for their in-house team to build in .net. They produced the video on the home page in-house, and we included checking scripts so that if… Read more

HTML Aardman email

11th July 2009 04:12 by lisa

Tom got called into Aardman's HQ this week to build an HTML email for the Oscar Winning animation and digital company. The newsletter was designed inhouse, but needed to be coded into suitable HTML to be mailed out using an HTML email service to their thousands of newsletter subscribers. This… Read more

We've moved! New premises for 18a Productions

1st July 2009 07:29 by lisa

Exciting times for 18a Productions, as we've just moved from 18a Gloucester Road (sob! a special place in our hearts!) to our new offices near the top of White Ladies Road, Bristol. Our new phone number is: 01179 680989. Email addresses and our web address stay the same. Below is… Read more

UK Property Club site launches

25th June 2009 05:25 by lisa

We were very excited to set ukpropertyclub.co.uk live - we built the site a while ago, but the company decided to pause the launch until a more suitable time in the economic climate. So now it's live - and if you're looking to co-invest, co-buy, or co-let a property, hop over… Read more

HTML email builds for Matrix Group

1st June 2009 05:08 by lisa

I've been busy this month building a variety of email templates for the Matrix Group and all their divisions from the designs they've had done. The templates have to suit their HTML email newsletter system and be easy for their team to update quickly - in some cases everyday. I… Read more

Pet shopping section for mypettrade.co.uk

21st May 2009 04:37 by lisa

Tom's just finished adding the great new features to the mypettrade.co.uk shopping section, so you can now choose from over 22,000 products for your pet shopping. Cron Jobs mean the feeds are updated from top pet retailers every night, and mypettrade can choose "featured products" for the scroller on the… Read more

SecondLook photo marathon exhibition on Friday night.

20th May 2009 08:44 by lisa

At the weekend 18a Productions took part in the SecondLook Bristol Photo Marathon. 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… Read more

Working remotely - from Italian mountains!

18th May 2009 03:00 by lisa

Everyone's always telling us "the great thing about your job is that you can do it from anywhere". So we thought we'd test it. And went on our first holiday for 18 months (since the birth of 18a) to a teleworking village in the mountains in Italy. As you can… Read more

Have a Digital Spring Clean and Clear out your Old Websites

30th April 2009 09:11 by tom

If you're anything like me, you'll probably have dozens or even hundreds of old websites hanging around your hard drive, gathering virtual dust, that never quite developed into the world dominating websites you first intended them to be. Maybe they bring in a few quid now and then, but lets… Read more

Finishing touches to GetStuckIn.org

21st April 2009 09:54 by lisa

Today I've been doing the finishing touches to GetStuckIn.org - a website portal for vinvolved North Somerset, helping young people find volunteereing opportunities in the South West. The initiative is a national programme run by vinvolved, with regional organisers - in this case, Changemakers and 2qab Community Interest Company. The… Read more

A Beginner Merchant’s Guide to Affiliate Marketing

15th April 2009 03:39 by lisa

Yesterday I wrote an Affiliate's Guide to Affiliate Marketing - so today I'm doing the same but from the point of view of a Merchant - a retailer or shop owner. As yesterday, there's far too much to it for one blog post, but I'll give an overview… Read more

A Beginner Affiliate's Guide to Affiliate Marketing

14th April 2009 03:00 by lisa

We often get asked to explain what Affiliate Marketing is - and whilst there's far too much too it for one blog post, I can at least give an over view here.

If you're considering entering into the Affiliate Marketing world though, give us a shout as we provide consultancy… Read more

On a screen near you...

6th April 2009 09:08 by lisa

We were very excited today to see one of our latest designs on BBC 2's Working Lunch. 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… Read more

Designing Cross Browser.

20th March 2009 12:06 by lisa

Neat, well put together code can often avoid major browser compatibility issues. But can still be the odd few problems - especially when a design calls for a certain amount of words on one line etc etc. There are some web services out there they check compatibility for you by… Read more

StreetChance supported by Barclays Spaces for Sports new CMS goes live.

17th March 2009 13:08 by lisa

We were very pleased last year to be asked to build a microsite for StreetChance, a partnership between the English Cricket Board/Chance to shine, Barclays Spaces for Sports, Cricket for Change, Positive Futures and the Metropolitan Police Service. Now, as the initiative to engage young people across London boroughs with cricket… Read more

Happy Birthday to the World Wide Web!

17th March 2009 12:51 by lisa

20 years ago, when I was already older than I care to remember, Tim Berners-Lee, and later his chum Robert Cailliau, were busy writing a proposal for an idea called "WorldWideWeb". You can read it at w3.org - a very nicely put together doc. The idea was to be able to browse large quantities of information, using… Read more

Noel Gallagher and Wired Strings news sent from 18amail.co.uk

13th March 2009 06:16 by lisa

Buy The Sunday Times this weekend! I've just built and sent an email in 18amail telling Wired Strings fans about a CD that they have worked on with Noel Gallagher in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust, that's free this weekend with The Sunday Times. The Album, entitled ‘The Dreams We Have As Children’,… Read more

BBC World Record dreams dashed!

12th March 2009 07:24 by lisa

Tom and I were delighted to be invited by the BBC to witness a World Record Attempt last night in Bristol. Kev F Sutherland entertained us for 1 hour with 470+ jokes, both written by himself and submitted by the public. As pointed out by the Official Guiness World Record Adjudicator, the… Read more

Working on a shoestring...

10th March 2009 10:30 by lisa

I am! Literally! Shoestring.org.uk to be precise! Shoestring is a collaboration between several London based companies who all have experience of working together and are now offering their services to Museums - at a good price (hence the name!). 3D designers, graphic designers, writers and content developers have all joined forces to help… Read more

New blog category - what we're up to!

10th March 2009 10:24 by lisa

We've decided we should share the word about some of the exciting projects we're a part of every day! So welcome to our new category, to keep you up to date with what we're up to! Read more

18amail soft launch - send and monitor HTML emails to your mailing list.

11th February 2009 18:52 by lisa

We are extremely excited to annouce the soft-launch of 18amail.co.uk. After many clients asked us for an affordable system which would allow them to create and manage mailing lists, as well as send and schedule HTML emails, we created a system to give any one all the functionality they could dream… Read more

A tree for every website.

11th February 2009 18:44 by lisa

We promised to plant a tree for every website we make. So at the end of 2008, we got busy planting our own little 18a Orchard in a beautiful part of Worcestershire. We planted a selection of Apple trees (inc. Bramleys and Cox Orange Pippen), some Cherry trees, and -… Read more

BBC TV ad error spotted!

6th January 2009 14:25 by lisa

Ok, so this is about as geeky as it gets... but on a rather nice animation for BBC 3 (you know - the kind they play whilst the voice over says what's coming next etc - know they've got a name but can't think what it is...) there was a… Read more

Stephen Fry is now following you on Twitter!

24th November 2008 08:04 by tom

This totally made my morning! The Dancer, couturier, superheavyweight boxer and rapper Stephen Fry is now following us on Twitter! (Ok along with another 19,372 people) but still really made my morning! Thanks Stephen, thoroughly decent of you! :) Read more

Retailers who currently don't submit feeds to comparison engines may be missing out!

14th November 2008 12:56 by tom

According to an online shopping survey conducted by e-consultancy, retailers who currently don't submit feeds to comparison engines may be missing out on the growth of online shopping. With 56% of consumers claiming their online spending will not be effected by the 'credit crunch' and 62% claiming they are now… Read more

Web Design Time Breakdown

21st October 2008 10:31 by tom

Sometimes it's really hard to know where all the time has gone, suddenly you look up, and it's time for lunch, then before you know it, it's getting dark! This pie-chart breaking down the time spent in modern web design amused me, hehe, how true! Except it doesn't count for… Read more

18a in the Guardian!

10th October 2008 11:36 by lisa

Jemima Kiss, a blogger for The Guardian, interviewed Tom a little while ago (and requested some photos - eek!) about our site PriceCheck.at. Pricecheck.at is a quick and easy to use tool for checking the price of items when you are out and about on your mobile phone. So next… Read more

Happy birthday to us!

23rd September 2008 10:44 by lisa

This week marks the first birthday of 18a productions! And so to celebrate, we had a little party with our friends and work colleagues on Saturday, complete with birthday cake and party bags. Unfortunately the cake, along with the BBQ, disappeared before we had chance to take any photos...! We'd… Read more

Making Payments with your Mobile

8th September 2008 07:19 by tom

Apparently according to a report by O2, 9 out of 10 people who took part in their six-month trial were happy to pay for stuff using their mobile phone, instead of the traditional credit card. The technology, called field communications technology or NFC for short, works by… Read more

Google launch their new browser - Google Chrome

2nd September 2008 05:27 by lisa

So the inevitable has happened - Google have built their first browser, set to take on Microsoft and leave Internet Explorer as a distant memory.News of today's launch was 'leaked' to Google Blog-oscoped (the blog by Philipp Lenssen - which is currently down, probably due to having been visited just… Read more

The importance of telephone support.

29th August 2008 08:55 by lisa

I have 2 clients at the moment who both have .com domains registered with budget - and in one instance, extremely well known - hosting companies / domain registrars. All each of them need is that .com redirected to their website that is running on the .co.uk. I do not… Read more

From India with Love...

27th August 2008 10:52 by tom

Outsourcing to India is nothing new. But today alone we've been cold called by 3 companies, all based in India, wanting us to outsource technical development. I'm not sure if this is good news or not really, but I do know it's very annoying to have the same conversation over… Read more

Hunt for the Perfect CMS

15th August 2008 05:13 by tom

Probably the most commonly requested requirement for a website is the ability for the client to add and edit pages. It sounds such a simple requirement, but in reality it's really tricky to get the balance right between functionality, flexibility and the level of technical skills required. There are literally… Read more

How to Let your Users Create Desktop Shortcuts to your Website

12th August 2008 04:25 by tom

Bookmarks are very handy for remembering sites you like, but wouldn't it be really neat to let your users create a proper icon on their desktop that links directly through to your website? Or even a link in the Quick Launch bar right next to the start button. Using Gears… Read more

Count down for press launch!

11th August 2008 03:09 by lisa

We were extremely proud to be commissioned to build the website for the StreetChance supported by Barclays Spaces for Sports campaign recently; a partnership between Chance to shine, Barclays Spaces for Sports, Cricket for Change, Positive Futures and the Metropolitan Police Service. The initiative is a three year project, initially… Read more

Round the coast of Ireland on a bike! They Must be Nuts!

7th August 2008 07:06 by tom

Our friends over at Wibfilm are leaving this Saturday to start their ambitious cycle ride round the coast of Ireland and in the process no doubt testing the theory that you can live off Guinness for 2 weeks! ;) The trip will be starting on the 11th of August 2008… Read more

DELL gets pretty

5th August 2008 12:14 by lisa

Wow! I absolutely love these new DELL computers! And I defy anyone not to think they look stunning and crave one for their desk! Dell claim it's their greenest, most "power-efficient consumer desktop", as it uses 70% less power than a regular desktop and has an 87% efficient power supply.… Read more

Friends Reunited TV advertising campaign

30th July 2008 04:51 by lisa

A few weeks ago I wrote about how Friends Reunited had announced their site is now free for users - in an attempt to catch up with Facebook I presumed. Well I've just seen a TV ad for the 'new Friends Reunited' website on ITV! Correct me if I'm wrong,… Read more

Firefox Guinness World Record Download Attempt

21st June 2008 12:18 by tom

Has Firefox Set the Guinness Record for the most downloads in a 24 hour period? That was the aim for the latest release of their ever popular browser; Firefox 3. Millions of people logged into the official site to grab a copy of the browser, infact according to the Download… Read more

Friends Reunited playing catch up

12th June 2008 03:15 by lisa

Who else found an email in their inbox this morning, announcing FriendsReunited has gone completely free? The email says "[w]ith over 19 million members, we're still the best place to find your old friends". Hint of desperation there? Trying to remind us that there was a world before Facebook? What… Read more

18a client BOLTS hair and body on Channel 4

11th June 2008 11:15 by lisa

Axminster based salon BOLTS hair and body came to us for a website to match their new image. The company, formerly BOLTS hair design, added a beauty salon to pamper the senses, with holistic treatments such as Hot Stones Therapy, Indian Head Massage and Reflexology, along side more traditional body… Read more

Brains work best when they're hydrated. We have the proof.

28th May 2008 10:37 by tom

You don't have to be a fan of the thunderbirds to appreciate how brilliant this ad campaign is. Using a combination of highly skilled puppeteers following choreography and clever computer work converting a digitally scanned real dancer into the image of Brains. I really love this ad; it makes me… Read more

Pricecheck.at - The Mobile Price Checking Service

13th May 2008 08:48 by tom

We've touched on mobile web development in the past couple of posts. It's an exciting new area which offers a huge potential for growth as more people get online with their mobile phones. Well rather than just talk about it, we thought we'd give it a go, and Pricecheck.at is… Read more

Keep Up With Promotions!

13th May 2008 08:32 by lisa

We've all done it - well, those of us who have accounts with affiliate marketing networks. Set up an account, put a few banners on a site, and then get tied down with the next project, forget exactly who we joined/what we linked to and just delete each merchant email… Read more

Is the Mobile Web Dead?

16th April 2008 11:35 by tom

This might seem a strange thing to ask considering my previous 2 blog entries, but it's a view shared by a couple of long standing mobile web entrepreneurs, and highlighted in an article I've just read. Personally I think this is a prime example of link baiting! By stating something… Read more

Basic Guidelines for Developing a Mobile Friendly Website

15th April 2008 08:14 by tom

There are a few basic things to consider when building a site that's mobile friendly. It's all pretty common sense when you think about it, and infact I've found most of these rules simply apply as good 'general' rules anyway. I.e. Use of good quality well-formed code, css based design… Read more

The Mobile Internet is Now

14th April 2008 12:41 by tom

I've been reading a fair bit lately into what many people suspect will be the 'next big thing' on the Internet; the final 'coming of age' of the mobile Internet. There are a lot of people doing a lot of things in the mobile web world, I feel like I've… Read more

Number 1 in Google...

10th April 2008 11:58 by tom

That's where everyone wants their site to be. Some people, incredibly naively, think that as soon as they make a website, their site will magically appear above the millions of other existing pages in the search results. I've often heard stories from other developers of clients calling them up in… Read more

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