VAT rise in January 2011

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…

Alex from Much Better Adventures quoted by the Guardian

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…

Facebook tries to copyright the words face and book!

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…

Bristol restaurants coming up trumps!

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…

Day and Night design feature on LoveGloucesterRoad.org.uk

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…

How to use the TinyMCE Filemanager Plugin

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…

The Web Design Process

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…

WP e-commerce plugin User Guide

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…

UK Number 3 in Top Startup Hotspots

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…

Halloween campaign for AQuarterOf.co.uk

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 content…

Shop Software Review: OpenCart

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…

Setting up public key authentication over SSH

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…