Posted on Apr 22, 2009 by Adam Franklin

3 ways a virtual assistant (VA) can make your job easier

Updated on December 3rd, 2019

The power of a virtual assistant (VA)

Recently I was amazed to discover that a friend of mine Jenny* a BDM at a large company was spending the first half of her day researching prospective clients to call on.

This research consisted of googling companies in certain suburbs or buildings and then manually entering in the company, contact name, phone number & address into an Excel spreadsheet.

Then after lunch, Jenny would visit these people.

This shocked me because 50% of her day was spent performing administrative tasks that a virtual assistant (VA) could have done overnight for between $1-4 per hour.…

Posted on Apr 21, 2009 by Sarah Hyne

Web DIY – the best tools out there

1. Shrink O’Matic
Resize your images quickly and easily

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2. GIMP
Like Photoshop, but free

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3. Wufoo
Free HTML form builder

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4. Pic Markr
Place watermarks on your photos

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5. BG Patterns
Create your own patterned background tile

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6. smush.it!
Optimise your images for the web

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7. Color Scheme Designer
Put together a colour scheme that works for your web project

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8. Dot TK
Free “.tk” domains

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9. Toddle
DIY free email newsletters

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10. HTML-Ipsum
Create dummy HTML text, lists, and much more
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Posted on Apr 11, 2009 by Sarah Hyne

Weekly round-up

Happy Easter!

Image via jpockele

10 useful flash components for graphing data — Six Revisions
8 simple ways to improve typography in your design — Smashing Magazine
9 information design tips to make you a better web designer — PSD Tuts +
The top free 500 free fonts from around the world — Fonts 500
How to find an effective personal virtual assistant — Fool’s Blog
12 tips to help your website convert — Smashing Magazine
A simple, streamlined e-commerce solution — CSS Newbie
Using address finders in web forms — Good Usability
iPhone Development – 12 tips — Site Point
Free-access World Digital Library set to launch — Free The Guardian Online
Facebook reaches 200 million active users — Marketing Pilgrim
Who needs designers?

Posted on Apr 8, 2009 by Adam Franklin

8 Must-dos for planning your website

Without a doubt, planning is definitely the key to a successful website. Yet amazingly many websites you see have had little or no planning at all. Here are 8 things you really should do to get the best out of your website!

1. Decide what you want from your website
What is the purpose of this website? This is the first consideration for any web project. Also, what are the company’s grand plans and how does the website fit in? What are the KPIs for the website?

Generally speaking, primary business goals can more or less be narrowed down to 3 things — generating good quality leads, transacting online sales and saving time (& therefore money).…

Posted on Apr 7, 2009 by Sarah Hyne

Content is King

Writing for the web can be tricky. But do it well and you can watch your site’s SEO results, usability and overall effectiveness as a marketing tool soar to new heights. Here are a couple of tips to improve your web content.

Image via Dwonderwall
Everybody’s a scanner

“Web users are an impatient bunch. If users can’t immediately find what they’re looking for, they move on. For this reason users tend to scan information rather than reading it closely. One reason is physiological. Research—by Nielsen, Stanford University/The Poynter Institute and others—has shown that reading pixels on a screen makes eyes work harder than reading ink on paper.”

Posted on Apr 2, 2009 by Adam Franklin

SEO for beginners – 5 part process

Updated on May 31st, 2015

PART ONE:

Keywords are the words or phrases that your prospective customers & clients type into search engines (like Google) to find companies like yours. It is important to know what keywords your potential customers are searching for so you can optimise your website appropriately.

TIP #1: People will often search for lay-terms & not industry jargon – make sure you find out or test which keywords your prospective customers use.

TIP #2: Use these keywords in your website copywriting.

EXAMPLE: people may not be googling for “financial advisor” (because to them that sounds boring and expensive), instead they may be googling for “good investments” or “wealth creation” (because these are the things they really want!)…