about
I am primarily a 'developer'. Which means I write the code that displays and runs a website. I have done some design, but that is not my strong point. Usually I am coding websites designed by real designers.
For design related queries I would love to direct you to one of the graphic designers I work with.
With over 7 years experience in the web development field I am able to provide basic websites as well as C.M.S.(Content Management Systems) for websites which need regular updating.
For those requiring online payment facilities, I can provide online stores and shopping carts which can integrate with payment gateways.
Technologies used are the following:
- HTML
- CSS
- Javascript
- AJAX
- PHP
- MySQL
- jQuery
Regarding S.E.O.(Search Engine Optimization), a certain amount a S.E.O. is included in the programing, but there are other aspects of S.E.O. that can be included upon request.
For more information, or for a quote, please click here to contact me.
about YOU
1. In today's economic environment, you cannot go without a website.
It is by far the cheapest element of your marketing strategy, and potentially the element with the best return for cost. A website doesn’t have to be expensive. It simply has to portray your business clearly and attractively. Sometimes the simplest options are the best. Particularly when the visitor is a first-time visitor.
2. You cannot rely on the visitor finding you. You have to find them. You have to make yourself so accessible that they don’t have to look very hard in order to find you.
Understandably, people don’t look for things they don’t know about. In other words, they don’t know that they don’t know.
Sounds obvious, but apply this reality to your business, and what do you have? Not just a world of people who don’t know about you, but they don’t know that they don’t know about you. They’re don’t have even slightest intention of looking for you. You have to start looking for them.
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about S.M.M. (social media monitoring)
Very seldom do people tell you exactly how they feel about you to your face. This is true in personal/social relationships as well as in business relationships.
So the challenge then, if you wish to grow and improve your business, is to find out what people actually think of your business and service delivery. Ideally you want to find out what your customers are saying to each other and to their friends about your business. You want to know what they're saying when their guard is down, when they're not feeling the need to hide anything.
Now you could employ the services of an investigation company or secret service, and acquire satellite tracking devices, hack accounts, bug telephones, and so on. But, aside from being illegal, this is also hugely expensive and time consuming.
The alternative is Social Media Monitoring.
This is an automated system by which you can crawl the internet looking for comments being made about your business. Basically, it's the equivalent of constantly running searches with specific criteria relating to your business.
Social Media Applications like Twitter, Facebook, linkedIn, amongst others, contain a wealth of valuable "perception information". Very often people are not really circumspect about what they put on their blogs and the comments they make to each other over the web. This is more often than not seen as a bad thing, and we often think that people should consider what info they are publishing. But in terms of S.M.M. this is a hugely positive thing.
The automated search will return all the public comments being made about you on the various Social Media websites. You can then analyze these and get an idea of the general feeling the public has towards your business.
If the search returns no results, then you have a bigger problem. It means no one is talking about you! In which case, A) Do they even know you exist? which means you then need to re-visit your marketing strategy, or B) Is your service/product so average that no one is talking about it? which means you need to re-visit your service delivery model or product quality standards.
So while this is a powerful, free tool, be prepared for some harsh realities. Technology doesn't know anything about tact. If it finds negative comments about you, it's going to show you those in all their naked brutality. BUT, the up side of this is that once you know the actual truth of how people feel about you and why, you can do something about it.
If you are interested in detailed customer surveys and analysis, you can visit: www.futurethink.co.za
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about S.E.O. (Search Engine Optimization)
One of the web's greatest babies: Search Engines!
Within a matter of seconds you can have over a million answers to any question. Thousands of companies selling the product you are looking for. The ease of this process is the undisputed power of the web.
This means that businesses have an additional race to run on their road to success: the race to the top of the Search Engine results list.
What is generally not understood about S.E.O. is that while there are some parameters, and some guidelines to follow, S.E.O. in and of itself will not necessarily get your website to the top of the results list.
In addition to the parameters and guidelines, the indexing methods of Search Engines rely heavily on the amount of traffic to your website. The popular websites get priority. Which may seem like a catch-22, because surely the Search Engine is supposed to get traffic to your website. This is only true if you ignore the fact that your website is only one element of your marketing strategy.
So while a website is an essential element to any marketing strategy, and S.E.O. is an essential part of every website, these cannot survive without an effective marketing strategy which directs cusotmers to your website.
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about WWW (World Wide Web)
Some have said that the World Wide Web(www) has "revolutionised" business processes and strategies, and marketing processes and strategies.
Possibly. But it is interesting to note that this new "direction" cannot do away with the existing elements of business and marketing strategies. Which means that this is not so much a "Revolution", but a major "Evolution" in business and marketing strategies.
If you take some time to look at what the huge brands have done on the web you will see that they have not swapped their "offline" marketing for "online" marketing. The only change to their "offline" marketing has been a little line that says: "go to our website: www.xxxxx.xxx", and visitors to the address find a fantastic website. So it's orthodox marketing PLUS the web, not the web in place of orthodox marketing.
The reason I mention this, is that many small and medium size businesses rely too heavily on the prospects of the web. They expect the world population to run to them for business because they have a website. Only to be disappointed because they have not taken into account the tried and tested "offline" processes of business and marketing.
This may sound like I am not doing myself, as a web developer, any favours. However, I have found it beneficial when all parties engaged in a web project know who fits where, and what can be expected from whom.
Your business and marketing strategies will determine the objectives, and therefore the content and 'flow', of your website. A successful website is one that is an extension of your marketing strategy. In other words, in your marketing strategy there need to be "offline" elements directing people to your "online" element. A website has become an absolutely essential element to any marketing strategy, but it cannot replace the elements that already exist for successful marketing.
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