 |
 |
 |
|
||||
|
This month, we’d like to welcome a new wave of NHS websites to the Network including Essex Ambulance Services and the UK National Screening Committee. mysinglefriend.com has also gone live, so more about them later. Thanks also for all the entries we’ve had to the UKFast Internet Awards. We’ve now begun the judging process and aim to let you all know how you’ve got on early in November. As ever, if you have anything you’d like to share with me,then please get in touch either by email jonathan.bowers@ukfast.net or give me a call (0870 421 1585.)
|
||||
|
October @ UKFast – Singles, speedy sites and servers
Our friends at mysinglefriend.com have gone live this month and it has been a busy old time. But they’ve paused to pass on some interesting marketing facts. Sarah Beeny has spent two weeks running the gauntlet of TV and Radio publicity. She has promoted the site on BBC Breakfast, ITV’s Loose Women, Virgin Radio and Jo Whiley’s Radio One show to mention just a few. And here’s the IT news: The bandwidth charts clearly show just how effective the coverage is every time Sarah is broadcast, but they have also discovered that Radio listeners are much more likely to register with the site than TV watchers. After appearing with Jo Whiley, they had so many visitors to the site that they decided to take out extra protection and place it on a load balancing system. As Co-founder Amanda Barnes points out, “We can’t risk singles taking the plunge – adding their details only to experience connection difficulties before they hit ‘submit’.” Speedy sites At UKFast, we’ve been securing the speed and usability of our own website over the last month and have finished transferring the entire site over to the new CSS format. Already, we are seeing big differences on search engine rankings. The extra speed has boosted our open results rating for ‘dedicated hosting’ placing us on more first pages than ever before. We’ve also introduced some new flash banners and would love to know what you think about them. Perhaps you could tell us which your favourite is? Servers As all the work on the site is bringing in the calls thick and fast, we’ve been looking at ways to speed up the set up process for new servers. Veritas not only provides us with world class back-up for our network solutions but we are able to use the technology to clone server set up’s allowing us to bring the time down from 8 to 2 hours. We’re hoping that very soon, the 5 day server installation standard will be a thing of the past. So that’s not horrific news at all!  Microsoft Windows Shortcuts.
Most of us know that CTRL+C copies and CTRL+S saves but did you know that Pressing down Num Lock and holding it for 5 seconds Toggles the ToggleKeys on and off? Personally, I didn’t know we had the option to toggle at all! Luckily, the guys at Microsoft know plenty of these and I managed to bend their ears in order to place a car boot load of them in an easy to read cheat sheet for you lot. Here are my favourites to wet your appetite: Minimize all your windows – Windows Logo+M Open the Properties box - ALT+ENTER. Works well with Email applications. Create a Shortcut – Press and hold down CTRL+SHIFT while you drag a file to the desktop or a folder. Refresh the current window – F5. Select All – CTRL+A And here’s the Windows Shortcuts cheat sheet. 
Getting hold of Feedback. As most of us are aware, feedback doesn’t just mean asking your mates to have a look at your site/campaign and say whether they like it. Having said this, it’s often hard to know how to get the priceless information to boost your business. Taking notice of feedback is hugely valuable and so here are five ways to get some. 1) Telephone or online market research + Customer satisfaction surveys. 2) Online feedback forms 3) Response Rates from Direct Marketing 4) Monitor click-throughs 5) Desk Research At UKFast, we practice what we preach. Between now and Christmas we are conducting a research project to discover how you feel about the products and services you’re getting from us. We’ll be placing feedback forms online and making sure we hear from as many of you as possible in order to maximise the performance, reliability and care that you receive. 
Spotlight on the Client – PADTECH – organised for life! PADTECH are a great example of a client with an application server. A much more common solution than you might think. More and more companies are coming to UKFast requiring solutions that use the Internet but do not materialise on the Web or SMTP (email). PADTECH are a leading name in multi-resource calendar and scheduling solutions and Schedule-3 downloads onto your PC. It uses the server to maintain a live link to the application so that information can be updated when necessary. The truly interactive nature means it is perfect for a medium size office environment for instance. The calendar can be shared by any number of users and can record up to 200 resources (people, rooms, equipment etc.) Let’s say we need 6: Two meeting rooms, three employees and one car parking space. All users can see when the boardroom is available, when key staff have meetings and who has booked the parking space. If anything is changed it changes on everyone’s system simultaneously. It can even send out SMS alerts to anyone involved to notify them of an appointment, or even more urgently, to change one. PADTECH has amassed success stories from a host of business sectors, including Auto Trade, Contract Cleaning, Estate and Letting Agents, Health and Beauty Salons and Plumbers. The Test Centre is one of the largest MOT testing stations in England, which means a very hectic diary and, with additional services such as courtesy vehicles and pick-up and delivery, running to a tight schedule is imperative. 'Every MOT test station needs PADTECH schedule-3', says owner Ian Wills. Not only does it provide an easy to use solution for staff to enter bookings, it also sends both confirmation and a 2-hour reminder SMS message to customers, keeping no shows and late arrivals to an absolute minimum. Perhaps this Halloween, PADTECH could do a calendar for the children of Manchester so that they don’t double up their trick or treating…not that I begrudge giving a few little Dracula’s a handful of miniature heroes! If you’d like to know more about PADTECH, take a look at their website. www.padtech.co.uk. They are interested in working with UKFast resellers who may have clients that would benefit from Schedule-3 – so feel free to contact me if you’d like to get in touch with them.
45000 websites worldwide are feeling the pressure to buy a new name following the opening of the .travel domain this month (October 3rd). But there are some who believe it’s just another money-making scheme for those at the top. Internet body ICANN has handed control of the registry process to Tralliance – a US company looking to organise the world’s travel information. Consequently, Tralliance aim to create an online travel directory supposedly improving the consumer experience. Having worked closely with travel sites for years, UKFast’s Lawrence Jones believes the introduction of .travel is unnecessary with profiteers mostly affecting the sm I decided to talk to travel firms across the board to canvas opinion. Malcolm Challinor, MD of Stoke-on-Trent firm Challinor Coaches doesn’t intend to pay over one hundred pounds a year for a name he is not interested in using. “Our web sales are bookings from colleges and universities that find us through Google,” says Challinor. “Why use a new directory, when established search engines are so popular.” Lawrence agrees and would advise anyone not to overreact. “Tralliance appear to be a travel conglomerate looking to join the Search market too late in the day. They design it to look like it benefits businesses and the consumer, but it only lines a small number of pockets.” However, the big players are getting involved. BA have secured a list of names including www.ba.travel and www.britishairways.travel. They point out however, that at this stage the move is more to protect their brand than use the domains. The process for securing a .travel domain involves gaining accreditation from a national travel association (such as the ABTA). So specific names are free from poachers. Generic names however are more available and for some companies the risk is a reality. Andy Speight of www.skybargains.co.uk has received his accreditation and got skybargains.travel. He has no intention of the company trading on the new name at the present time but like BA feels the need to protect his name. “I think this will just add confusion in the consumer’s eye and offer no real benefit. Once Online consumers have used Google and Yahoo there’s rarely any need to search further.” Lawrence thinks ICANN ought to be concentrating their efforts on other things. “There are much more important Online issues than new top level domains which compartmentalise the Internet. ICANN should be working harder to combat Spam, malware and other cyber crime, protecting businesses online not ripping them off! The new TLD will be launched in full in the New Year and time will tell what effect it has on the travel industry and the Web as a whole. I’d love to know your opinions. Please email me at jonathan.bowers@ukfast.net with any thoughts.
9) Colorzilla 8) gTranslate 6) CustomizeGoogle 5) Sage 2) The Web Developer 1) FlashGot Final Thought: Until the next time – please take care. And on Bonfire Night, remember to hold sparklers right at the end and twirl in a slow and safe circular motion. If you have to spell your name out, please choose a shortened version. Best wishes, 
|
||||
Singles
If you’ve ever had a broken mouse you’ll probably remember that moment when you wished you
knew more shortcut keys to get you around your computer. 
I’ve been using my Outlook Calendar ever since I first used email. It’s ok for a personal record of where and when. Even as a shared resource
with a colleague it does the job. But quite frankly, it’d be as useful as a chocolate teapot if I had to run a large office or bustling enterprise. I’m just not a natural organiser. But nowadays, I don’t have to be, because PADTECH has created Schedule-3 and it may well be the answer to any organisational nightmare.
aller fish in the pond.
- Mozilla special – Firefox extensions
