Over the past few years we've been getting more and more requests to design, build and develop Squarespace websites for our clients.

Our latest launches include Sheikh Ali Dahab Resort and Nomad Safari, both in South Sinai, Mustache Bottle Opener based in New York, and The Chapel Forge in Bath, UK. An eclectic range of businesses with one thing in common.

Launched in 2004 from a dorm room, over the last eight years Squarespace now employ 118 highly-skilled people and can boast a total of around 1.8 million websites built on their platform to date.

So what's the big deal about Squarespace?

1. You get a two week free trial to try it out. No catches and no payment details required. Plus every annual account receives a free custom domain. That's surely a win win situation.

2. They offer a range of beautiful templates that a novice could use "out of the box" or a designer/developer could alter to their heart's content via a little clever thinking and some CSS knowledge.

3. Their content management system is excellent, and very intuitive. Their technology gives you the freedom to create visually rich pages with any configuration of text, images, products, and content blocks. You can drag and drop your content exactly where you want it and Squarespace will automatically align them in a perfect grid.

4. Squarespace's 24/7 support is second to none. If you have an issue you need to address, simply fire off a ticket and you'll get a reply in no time. From a human being. As they created and also host the platform (via cloud hosting), the team also offers help for issues regarding the build/design of your website and not just keeping it online.

5. Having used Squarespace for the past 4 years, I'm very impressed with their attention to keeping functionality up to date, and paying attention to their customers' wish lists. The most useful element I've come across is the slideshow function, which has quite literally improved my working life beyond my wildest dreams. ;-)

6. With the advent of Squarespace 6, you are now able to run a mobile version of your website so that it looks beautiful on any device.

7. Squarespace 6 also incorporates e-commerce for retailers. Although selling online is only available in the United States for now, you can register for an alert when they launch elsewhere in the world. However, we've incorporated another selling platform called Wazala into a few of our websites and it integrates well.

8. Squarespace began as a blogging platform, so if that's your passion, you can effortlessly create content and galleries, share easily, map posts with native geolocation, and use their bookmarklet to reblog content from the web.

9. The galleries are stunning, with photographs being very easy to upload and edit. Bear in mind that these don't have to be actual photo albums - they could also represent case studies, services, products, testimonials, or just about anything you can think of that needs to be presented in a gallery style.

10. Everything you need is in one place - Squarespace is fully search engine optimised and allows you access to your built-in analytics to view the traffic and behavior of visitors in real-time. That means you can easily learn where they're coming from, and what keywords they're using to find you. You are also able to invite contributors to help you manage your website, and set their individual permissions, from full administrator to a trusted assistant.

Having watched the incredible progress of Squarespace since I started using the platform in 2009, I have a strong feeling that they will take over the world one day. Watch this space.

If you have any questions about this article or would like more information about our Squarespace design, development and training services, please feel free to get in touch.

It's been quite a while since I updated our blog, largely due to the fact that we've been so busy creating new websites, developing existing ones, developing brands, and helping our clients out with social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and You Tube.

The big news is that I'm now based in both the UK and Dahab, Egypt. As I'm sharing my time between both countries, I've built up a healthy client and supplier base across a massive 3,800 miles.

This has really highlighted to me something that I have known for a long time. In my line of business, it really doesn't matter where I or my clients are based in the world. Manage My Website is number 9 out of over 16,000 UK based web design agencies* for a reason: we are passionate about what we do.

The main tools that I have come to rely on working on a global level are as follows:

1. A secure internet connection wherever I am working from (obviously!)

2. A team I can rely on. My colleagues, contacts and suppliers are the best in the business (in my humble opinion) and ensure that wherever our clients are based in the world, their project will be handled professionally and efficiently with minimum fuss.

3. Macbook

4. iPhone

5. iPad (yes I am an Apple fiend...)

6. Mifi - a clever little device that you can buy unlocked from the likes of eBay. You then buy a local SIM card for the country you're in, add some credit and you can have wifi wherever you go, as long as that area has 3G.

7. Various ways to communicate internationally for free or at a much lower cost that using my telephone. These include Skype and various apps for the iPhone including Viber and WhatsApp.

8. Having not only my UK telephone but also an Egyptian one to make calls to local clients as clear and cost effective as possible.

9. Online platforms that help me do my job properly - examples being Basecamp for project management and FreeAgent for accounting.

10. File sharing "cloud" platforms to share large files with clients and suppliers that would otherwise have clogged up our email inboxes. My personal preference is Dropbox.

A couple of weeks ago I was working on a new Squarespace website for a beauty client based in Bath, Somerset. As it turned out, she had no idea that I was currently based in Egypt until I told her. This was largely because we communicated by email on a daily basis, so there was no way that she would have guessed. Her compliments about the service she received were a real joy to read.

If you're looking for a new website or blog, be it a self manageable Squarespace website (these are proving very popular at the moment), e-commerce, or something a little more complex we can help. We also offer brand development, logo design, online marketing assistance, copywriting and social media management.

The Allie's Eye website has just been launched to promote another service we've been providing to clients recently - photography. As I'm passionate about travel and iPhone photography (also known as iPhoneography), it made sense to provide a portfolio website to display the work I've created up until now.

Wherever you are in the world, if you'd like to hear more about our services just contact us and we'll get right back to you!

*FreeIndex web directory - 1 August 2012.

We recently ran a guest post about Pinterest from a female perspective, so we thought it would be a great idea to follow this up with why men might find it intriguing too. This journal entry is guest-written by Mike Saunders, owner of Saunders Artwork Ltd and a self-confessed Pinterest addict. Mike's career spans two decades of creative production at the sharp end of the UK's top creative agencies, academic institutions and newsprint.

The Next Big Thing? Mmmmmm, maybe… maybe not. Either way, I love it! A lot’s been written about Pinterest already - it is different things to different people, but this is my experience of it.

My friends have told me Pinterest is ‘a picture site for girls’. So perhaps appropriately, it was introduced to me by the girl-next-door-at-work one day. I’m currently based in a Creative Agency in London’s Square Mile where we’re often pioneers of playing with ‘next big thing’ sites before they catch on (Twitter, flickr etc) or fail (anyone remember Google+?). So perhaps I should’ve been surprised to be introduced to a picture-based community by confirmed word-person, professional copywriter, author and friend Diana.

It was all very casual at first. The first thing I noticed was multiple columns of eye-catching images. Glossy, ‘finished’ looking pictures, often image library standard. Delving a bit deeper I discovered that people have arranged ‘boards’ along themes. Ask for an invitation and you can ‘follow’ people much like Twitter, and build your own boards of things you find cool, funny or generally interesting.

So I signed up, and it was the very first communication from Pinterest that made me like it.



“be respectful!”

and that’s the challenge, isn’t it?

Humour

I didn’t join Pinterest to peruse pictures of cake, dresses and curtains (a lot of people do, and that’s fine), I joined out of curiosity and boredom, but I stayed to have fun with my friends (and strangers who may eventually become my friends). It’s nice to find humour that isn’t cruel, and I’m fast discovering that Pinterest is heaving with it:

I love Pinterest’s capacity to make an averagely funny picture hilarious with the right caption – it’s like a global caption competition, and my friends are very good at this…

Excellence

“It’s a little fix of something excellent in your day” said my friend/colleague (frolleague?), and she’s right. Our working days are peppered with short, natural pauses. Normally, you’d make tea, maybe dig out the Maltesers, read a magazine, that kind of thing. Well if the latest issue of take-a-break depresses you as much as me, why not log on and absorb some brilliance?

Social comment

Skill and thought

Impossible beauty

Film reference

Art

Pinterest has revived my appreciation of art.  I’ve started to follow people who regularly post snippets of great Art that I know and love, but never quite have the time to look at in books and galleries. Of course, a small screen is no substitute for the 3 dimensional strokes of Vincent Van Gough but if I see a bit of

I’m fleetingly reminded of my last visit to the Rijksmuseum (and the mad night in Amsterdam that followed, but let’s not go there). Pinterest is also a an emerging platform for real galleries to raise their profile and publicise work and events. Through my friend Diana, I’ve been introduced to Corpus Gallery who regularly exhibit their own, original work, the work of others and images that inspire them, which I still find pleasantly surprising nearly every day. It’s even fair to say it’s influenced my view on modern art just a bit. A little piece of art in your day is a brilliant thing.

Psychology

You can tell a lot about people from their choice of pictures, boards and importantly, their choice of captions. I’m consistently surprised by my friends’ posts – say, when their sense of humour is riskier than I’d assumed or when they post something apparently personal, poignant and philosophical I gain a new perspective into their thinking, and I really, really love that.

I like this because it’s risky, true and not offensive.

Business

This is something I haven’t really explored yet, but Pinterest’s potential to connect providers of niche, crafted goods and services is obvious. The fashion and interior design overlap is a natural fit, and for small businesses selling via their own website it’s as simple as a click through from your picture that anyone re-pins. I seem to know people who have, or want to quit the rat-race to bake cakes for a living. Why not widen the appeal of their wares to a global audience? Well, I say global but at the moment it seems to be mostly American women on there and a few Europeans. If it keeps growing though, it will be a ready-made audience of educated potential customers with disposable income, looking to plan their weddings and host dinner parties. Ch-ching.

Another perfect business connection would have to be photography. Pinterest is the perfect place for photographers to showcase their work to a new audience. Popular subjects include travel and landscape, and it’s easy to see why - photographers are gaining exposure to viewers who are more likely to ‘stumble across’ their work now where previously it would have required a specific search.

Dogs

Anyway, as I said, I don’t do Pinterest to window-shop cakes, dresses and curtains. I’m a bloke and I like fun, and some of the most fun I’ve had has been collecting some excellent pictures of dogs onto their very own board, called, naturally “Excellent Pictures of Dogs”, with my excellent friends Alec East and Diana.

Pinterest allows multiple users to administrate boards, which means we’ve quickly built a great, and already-popular board with hundreds of funny, cute, silly and moving (but mostly funny) images of dogs

or images about dogs:

Creating boards in a group like this really makes it fun. It’s become quite competitive – we’re always trying to out-excellent each other (I think Diana’s winning at the moment if I’m honest). Have a look, enjoy the dogs, start your own board, add your friends as contributors, compete! There’s a good dog.

Mememememememe

Pinterest is a perfect breeding ground for the internet meme (pronounced “meem”). It’s faster than Facebook, and about as quick as Twitter for viral pictures and video but because you can pin video faster and more accessibly than Twitter, and it’s shared more effectively, I think the future will see memes spread via Pinterest before other social media.

Other specialist boards

There’s a wealth of specialist, elusive, uncategorised boards out there. Here’s an odd one that springs to mind. It has no explanation. Why is it there? Social comment on our nation’s declining diet? Or does the fella just really, really like fried chicken? I need to know.

There’s also this one:

Why? But I suppose it proves a point, you can collect, organise and share anything you like. If you’re into a something a bit different, Pinterest is the place to find and share it. (And even sell it.)

Banter

Now, I like a bit of banter, not the Sky Sports kind but banter with girls on equal terms, you know, Banter 1. Banter 2. I love this daily chat with people I know and like, and new people too. I’m starting to have regular dialogue with people whose pictures I like, who in turn, like some of my pictures, and it’s great fun because everyone’s generally quite nice, unlike on Twitter or even Facebook where it’s easy to get into an argument. I hope Pinterest develops the social side of this excellent site, the ability to send messages between followers like Twitter, or ‘like’ comments as on Facebook would enhance the experience for me.

How

So how do you start? You can search Pinterest without an account, but it’s far more rewarding if you sign up. The quickest way is to get a friend to invite you, Diana and I joined at the same time and had to apply for invitation by Pinterest, which meant a wait of about 24 hours.

Once you’re in, Pinterest will automatically assign you some people to follow, and you can start liking and re-pinning away. I unfollowed most of my default starters, and found new pinners that were more ‘me’ within a couple of weeks. I love that more of my friends are joining now too. You can follow people, which means you’ll see all of their pins in your timeline, or just certain boards to keep life less busy, or you can just look as and when you want to, like reviewing a collection. Once you’re on it though it’s quite intuitive. I’ve had the benefit of exploring with a friend, but I’m sure if you get stuck Allie Astell would love to help you out ;-)

It’s probably worth mentioning that Pinterest is mostly about ‘re-pinning’ previously generated content onto your own boards. That is, finding something you like, collecting it for yourself which means it’s pinned onto your board of choice and appears in your followers’ timelines. You can pin pretty much anything, including video in a variety of ways, typically through the menus or a little add-on for your browser such as the pinmarklet. Of course everything starts somewhere though and I’m increasingly starting to add my own original content. It’s very satisfying when your own work is liked and re-pinned by lots of people.

Criticisms / room for improvement

As with Facebook and Twitter. Pinterest is evolving as it grows in popularity. Bugs and omissions are fixed quite regularly, and new improvements are added all the time. The latest areas being administration for multiple-user boards and board cover presentation.

The biggest need for improvement in my opinion though is the mobile app. Pinning from the web while on the move is almost impossible. I can’t believe we still haven’t got a ‘pin-it’ button on the iPhone. Most of my truly spare time is spent on the train, over two hours a day, 5 times a week - I could pin a lot of content in that time.

Other areas that could be improved would be better integration with other social media, which to be fair, is already happening. Changes to the way Pinterest interacts with Flickr are taking place but traffic with Facebook is currently one-way i.e. you can’t pin Facebook content, although you can share your pins with your Facebook friends.

To summarise, I’d say just get on there and have a go. You might really like a bit of regular brilliance in your day. I apologise in advance for the addiction.

Tamara Sturtz, aka The Word Girl, is a journalist, blogger and social media addict. Having written for Vogue, Grazia, Elle, Marie Claire, Harpers Bazaar, Red, Guardian Weekend and Sunday Times Style, writing and spreading the word are her passion. 

I have a new addiction. It’s not drinking, drugs or smoking, it’s not even the odd flutter on the horses. In fact, it couldn’t be further removed from any of these things. What happens is this. I lie in bed at night with my iPad, while the rest of the house is in sleepy darkness, indulging in my guilty pleasure, pinning onto Pinterest.

After a long and hectic day of work, meetings, entertaining a three-year-old, cleaning, tidying, cooking for the family and the foreign student, and more work, thanks to Pinterest I can transport myself to my interior-designed Scandinavian-style palatial house where I produce magnificent meals on a budget, dressed like a diva. I holiday in Provence or The Hamptons and have incredibly stylish parties under the trees in my garden every weekend. I even make my own bunting to colour co-ordinate with my cupcakes and I can make pretty much anything out of a paper doily!

And I’m not alone, with over 10.4 million users Pinterest is the fastest growing social media platform to date. But Pinterest is not purely about pleasure, it’s good for business too. With 97% of its fans being women, and bearing in mind the amount of time and money I spend shopping online, it’s a target market just waiting to be tapped into. If you sell a product that is particularly appealing visually, whether it’s fashion, jewellery, interiors or villas in Spain, Pinterest is the gallery of your dreams. It’s completely free and can reach as many people as you let it. The more you follow and interact with others, the more you get back. Follow the etiquette of Pinterest – credit pictures, websites and photographs if and when possible – and you can’t go wrong.  

So what is Pinterest and how does it work? It’s a social networking site with a ‘virtual pinboard’ interface. Users collect photos and link to products they love, creating their own pinboards and following the pinboards of other people whom they find interesting. What better way to discover what your customers want? The beauty of Pinterest is that it is aspirational, and can give you a clear look at what your target market loves and is passionate about. Once you know what they are interested in, you can create boards for related topics, using magazines, websites, and blogs that appeal to your market.

Just like Facebook and Twitter, Pinterest is a two-way relationship. You can follow, like, comment and link to your target market’s pins. Just like other social media platforms the key is to balance promoting your own business with engaging customers. Start a conversation and create a relationship with your potential customers, show an interest in order for people to find and follow you. Repin the posts you like, and comment on the ones that stand out to you.

However, it’s important to remember who you’re talking to, Pinterest is not the place to openly talk about your business all the time. Make sure that most of your boards are for your community’s enjoyment, not purely a hard sell. Creating really good boards, posting engaging images, and providing tips and advice to help customers become what they aspire to be is a simple way to increase brand awareness on Pinterest. The more you repin and comment – in addition to creating interesting boards – the more people will follow you back and engage with your content.   

So apart from learning how to make 20 different things with a paper doily, what have I actually gained from Pinterest? I have recently set up a social media business, The Word Girl, aiming at a niche lifestyle market including fashion, beauty, interiors, travel and food. My Pinterest boards reflect who I am and what I like. If you were a van hire company, you would be able to tell straight away from my Pinterest page that I would not be the right person to promote your business, whereas if you were launching a fashion or beauty website, I could be just the person you’re looking for. My profile details what I do, so every new follower is made aware of the services I offer. Fantastic publicity, it costs me nothing and I love every minute of it.

Whoever said you can’t mix business with pleasure?

If you enjoyed reading this article, you can find Tamara here too:

Pinterest

Twitter

Facebook

Word of mouth has always been one of the main ways

The great news is that from now on, anyone who passes our details on to someone else will receive 5% of the total amount invoiced, to show you our appreciation. It's a way for us to say a big thank you to all our amazing supporters who have helped us get to where we are today!

So how will it work? Simply email us with the details of your friend, colleague or contact, we'll get in touch with them to find out how we can help, and if the initial project goes ahead you'll receive 5% of the amount invoiced straight into your bank account as soon as we've received the final payment installment. It's that easy!

• So if we build an e-commerce website for the person you've put us in touch with and the amount invoiced is £4,000, you'll receive £200.
• If we create branding work and a more simple website on your recommendation and the amount invoiced is £2000, you'll receive £100.
• For a day's social media training with a £500 invoice, you'll receive £25.

We could have offered to send you a cupcake, but this option's a little less fattening... ;-)

For further information or to send us your recommendation, just get in touch.

About 18 months ago, we were contacted by a young student called Matt Malone to volunteer to build a charity website for him. Since then, with our help, Matt's been working hard at learning to make his own, and now he and his business partner Joey are about to launch a new and exciting student social networking website. Here's Matt's story, in his own words.

So in a world full of social networking sites (Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Linkedin etc.) is there really room in the market for yet another one? Student Junction is launching on the 4th of June to UK students, and as one of the creators I'm going to be talking you through the reasons that there really is room for just one more...

Who are we?

Well, thanks for asking. I'm Matt Malone, officially the CIO of the site, though we don't actually use our titles. That means I'm in charge of the technical side of the site as in how it looks, what it does, making sure it works properly, making sure the server doesn't explode, that sort of thing. My colleague, Joey Russ, is officially the CBDO, which means he's in charge of marketing, promotions, making sure people know about the site, making sure they're happy on the site and all that sort of thing.

Together we form the directorship of Quantum Design and Media, a small firm who (if you hadn't already guessed) do design and media. We're both students, and when we were working one day we thought of how social networking is usually such a distraction, I wonder if there's a site where we can work and be social at the same time. We checked. There wasn't. Hence the Student Junction project was born!

What is the site?

Linkedin is for businesses. Facebook is for everyone. Twitter is for Twits (correct me, no?). Student Junction is for Students. That's our target audience summed up right there. We're specially making the site just for students, and only students will be able to use it. We have a specific feature set aimed entirely at productively working whilst being social.

But what are these features?

Here's a non-exhaustive list to get you started:

• Social Network:

  The core of the site which everything revolves around. One login and you'll get access to everything for free forever. Not bad, eh?



• Forums:

  Have a question about that studenty thing you're doing and can't find an answer? You can ask on the forums as chances are someone else will know if you don't.



• Library:

  You can't actually read the books, but you can find the ones you need for your course (or others that we recommend) and buy them in one click. Then you could even post a review on the forums!



• Marketplace:

  Have an old book you bought last year (possibly from the library?) and want to sell it on to another students? Sell it on our marketplace quickly and easily.



• Organiser:

  Need to keep track of when your work is due, or when that sale on the marketplace ends? Put it into your organiser and you'll never forget.



• Blogs:

  Everyone likes blogging, right? Well, maybe not, but everyone likes reading them. Blog on the site or read blogs from other students all over the UK!



• All the other things we have planned:

  An online cookbook, virtual classrooms, sell courses, teach other students, access to special offers and discounts, and so much more!

Now that's what I call an awesome feature set. Interested yet?

The end bit

We're launching Notch style in the fact that we're launching in Beta. Everything we currently have works, and is ready to be used, so we figured we may as well let you use it while we finish everything else we have planned. We're gonna be opening the floodgates on June 4th, but you can get in a week early by putting your email in the box on our landing page at student-junction.com and we'll email you nearer the time letting you know how you can sign up and be one of first people ever to use the site!

Shout from the rooftops!

Yes, literally if you like!
Find us on twitter @TheJunctionUK

Find us on Facebook at Student Junction

Also, if you enjoyed this, please "Pay with a tweet" and recieve a free tiny web badge (The best we could do at short notice!)

Most importantly, if you're a student, sign up at Student-Junction.com!

We've been building quite a lot of Squarespace websites recently. They're very popular because they give our clients full control of their website. For more information check out our Squarespace web design page.

Once you've finished the design and build, proof read the text, checked your links, etc. there are various "good housekeeping" procedures to follow and sometimes these can be difficult to keep track of, so I thought I would list them for you. This will be useful not only to people who specialise in Squarespace web design, but also to those who may have built their own websites and want to check that they have done everything they can to optimise them for the search engines. Your SEO is obviously essential! I'm going to use our client Big Blue dive centre in Dahab, South Sinai as an example.

Website description and search indexing

This is crucial for SEO as this will be used by search engines that catalog your Squarespace webpage. Go to Website Management, and then Website settings/search indexing. Look at the screenshot below for guidance on the settings. The description I used for Big Blue is: Big Blue Dahab is a leading PADI Five Star Dive Resort in Dahab, South Sinai, Egypt.

Page descriptions

Once you've changed the search indexing settings as above, you can add a page description for each page of the site via the Squarespace Structure mode (the cubes on the top right), then Configure Page. Again this is very important for SEO as the search engines will find it.

For example on the Big Blue homepage I have entered: Want to dive in Dahab, Egypt? Look no further. Big Blue Dive Centre has all the equipment you need plus the support of skilled guides and instructors who will show you the wonderful underwater world in the Gulf of Aqaba.

For the Why Dive With Us page I have written: Read all about Big Blue Dive Centre, Dahab and why we're the only place you should consider for your diving holiday.

Locale

To set the time and date for your blog entries, go to Website Management, then Website settings/locale - for Big Blue I set it to Egypt, English, and Eastern European Time (Egypt).

Meta tags and code injection

I can't stress enough how important this is for your SEO! There are so many Squarespace websites that I have come across with no meta tags so if you haven't got them you're definitely missing a trick.

Go to Website Management, then Website settings/code injection. See the screenshot below for the option to choose and the code I used for Big Blue is: <meta name="keywords" content="Big Blue Dahab, diving Dahab, diving South Sinai, diving Egypt, diving Dahab, PADI, PADI Dahab, PADI Egypt, PADI South Sinai, camel safari Dahab, boat safari Dahab, Blue Hole Dahab, Bells to Blue Hole Dahab, Canyon Dahab, Eel Garden Dahab, Golden Blocks Dahab, Island Dahab, Light House Dahab, Moray Garden Dahab, Ras Abo Helal Dahab, Ricks Reef Dahab, The Caves Dahab, 3 Pools Dahab, Um Seid Dahab" />

Favicon (or that pretty little picture you can put next to the URL in the browser)

Use this URL to generate the favicon, based on either your logo or a good visual element of your website that will work in a small, square shaped format. The size should be 16 x 16. Download the .ico file, don't rename it, and then add it to the file storage area in Website Management. After that go to website settings/advanced/favicon and look at the screenshot below for what to do next.

Contact form

Check the contact form configuration goes to the right person (i.e. the correct email address and not the default example that Squarespace supply) and that it has nice friendly messages rather than the default ones. You can access this via the cube icon on the top right, and then "configure page".

Member accounts

Check the account names and email addresses in the Website Management are correct. Remember that if you send a support ticket to Squarespace they will use the email address you have listed to reply to you, so it is vital that this is accurate.

Labelling images for screen readers

This one can be time consuming but is good standard practice for all websites. You need to consider people with sight problems who use screen readers. That means you should really describe each image on the website (apart from the Gallery pictures). Go to the HTML area of the page (access this via the A symbol on the top right, then Edit page, the HTML on the top right), and look for where the image path code is. You will see alt="" there. You need to add a small description between the speech marks. For example: alt="boat on the sea".

Footer code

If you'd like to add a standard footer message and include a link to your own website as a designer, go to the Website Management area on the top left, then website settings/header and footer.

Copyright &copy; 2011, Big Blue.  All rights reserved. <a href="http://www.managemywebsite.co.uk/display/Login"> Log in.</a>  Website design by <a href="http://www.managemywebsite.co.uk/">Manage My Website.</a>

Custom domain

And finally, in order to use your "proper" domain name and not have a standard Squarespace one, there are various steps you need to follow. You can find all the details you need here.

I hope this article has helped you! If you have anything to add or ask, just get in touch or leave a comment below and we'll be happy to speak to you.

As one of our most eccentric clients, Captain Fawcett’s moustache wax, specialises in all things hirsute we’ve launched an offer for the month of November for anyone looking for their own fully self manageable website.

You’ll no doubt realise by now that today marks the start of Movember – the month where millions of men all over the world grow a moustache in aid of male prostate and testicular cancer.

Being female it would be pretty hard for me to grow a wonderful handlebar moustache (as much as I’d love to), but we can offer you a beautiful new Squarespace website that you can manage yourself for £800 plus hosting, and what’s more we’ll donate 10% of all profits from this venture to the Movember cause.

Your website will include: 

• Homepage
• About page
• Photo gallery with up to 50 pictures
• Blog or News page
• Contact page
• Two further pages of your choice
• Social media links
• Full search engine optimisation

Squarespace is a fully hosted, completely managed environment for creating and maintaining a website, and is used worldwide by all sorts of people - from business owners and photographers to doctors and record labels. In fact, its flexible platform can power sites of all sizes including e-commerce and gives you total control over your content and site customisation.

All you need to do is get in touch via our contact form and let us know what you’re looking for, and we’ll get right back to you.

If you need any extra pages or functionality (for example e-commerce) let us know and we’ll send you a quote.

You can read some of the nice things our clients have said about us here, or view examples of previous websites we’ve built here.

If you'd like to read about 10 signs your website needs an urgent makeover, read our article for the HSBC Business Matters October newsletter.

This offer is subject to a 50% deposit before we start work on your website and we will advise you on purchasing your domain name before work commences.

The price quoted will not be subject to VAT.

I can only apologise for the lack of updates to our Journal recently, especially when one considers that I regularly lecture our clients about the importance of keeping their websites fresh and interesting.

The only excuse I can give you is that we've been inundated with new enquiries on a daily basis as well as finalising and launching The Party Pirate website. Beautiful isn't it? Within its first week of launch, The Party Pirate won a "Women on Wednesday" award from business woman, Jacqueline Gold. Congratulations Tamara!

If you have children, wouldn’t it be brilliant if you could buy invitations, birthday cards and ribbons, cupcakes cases and glitter, cake decorations and cookie cutters, bunting and balloons, cool paper plates and cups, party hats, wings and wands, tutus and fancy dress, unusual party bags and party bag goodies, all in the one place? Well now you can!

Whether it’s a princess, fairy or pirate, a 1st birthday or 8th birthday party, summer or winter, indoors or outdoors, it’s all here (and if it’s not, please let them know). We built the website on the Zen Cart open source shopping platform, and have had a lovely review from our client.

The other piece of very exciting news is that we've featured in the latest HSBC newsletter 'Business Matters'. The article is called "10 signs your business needs an urgent makeover" and it has resulted in more new clients than you can shake a stick at. Have a read and hopefully you'll find it useful too.

We'll be posting more updates soon but meanwhile why not check out The Party Pirate? If you don't have children, it'll make you wish you did!

Google+. G+. Google Plus, if you will. Should Facebook and Twitter be very, very scared? Or is it just yet another network to check in to? Ray Morrow takes a closer look…

Having spent seven years in creative with leading UK agencies, Ray now provides freelance planning, strategy, concepts and copy. Read Between The Lines, her business, is all about   applying creative curiosity to marketing challenges come up with hardworking solutions. And, of course, supplying the creative and practical support to turn considered strategy into successful reality.

According to Google’s blog, Google+ is a ‘social project’, borne out of Google’s desire to make a better social network – to ‘fix’ what it sees as a ‘broken’ world of online social sharing. It aims to bring in the nuances of real life, bringing in shades of grey on what you share, with whom, and in what format.

How does it work?

See for yourself: http://www.google.com/intl/en/+/demo/  “But that’s the party line!”, did I hear you say? Alright then. A quick run through follows, though you can skip to what I thought at the end of this article if you’ve been there and done that.

Well, it’s skulking about in a Beta-ish fashion at the moment, but thanks to Kind Friends, I blagged an invite and stepped into a world of Circles, Hangouts, Huddles and Sparks.

Circles – are groups into which you sift your connections – work, family, friends, uni and so on. You can then share content with all circles, selected circles or everyone on Google+. It’s logical and very easy to get to grips with. You can share with multiple circles or just the one and can ‘follow’ people who you’re interested in but don’t know, like Twitter. So far so good. Twitter is public (unless you’re on locked settings, you weirdo), Facebook is wholly personal (unless you’re a random friend-collector), while LinkedIn, in my opinion, should be purely professional.

Sparks – are something of a tumblr/traditional search/stumbleupon hybrid. It finds ‘contagious content’ to share and chat about with your Circles and the rest of Google+. I wasn’t hugely impressed – no options to filter results, and a lot of content returned was US-focused. It doesn’t appear to be intelligent either – there’s no way to ‘like’ and ‘not like’ results return to teach the search engine to interpret your tastes. That said, it might improve in time. I suspect this feature has been created with monetisation in mind – something I’ll come back to later.

Hangouts – online video chit chat. Like facetalk, skype and what have you, though you can have more than one person, which, if you like video conferencing (I’m a hater, but each to their own) or needed it for work, would be pretty damn useful.

Huddles – a collaborative way to chat and organise meeting up – professional or personal – online or using your mobile. I haven’t given this a go yet as not enough friends G+.  

There’s also ‘the Stream’– a live feed like Facebook – and the ability to ‘+1’ content, which is a bit like Stumbleupon/Facebook/LinkedIn ‘liking’.

Functionality-wise, it does everything you’d expect a social network to do – you can post updates, share content, and comment on posts. Privacy is easy to grapple, and simple to set up. And you can’t post to people’s profiles, presumably to thwart so-called friends who might share photos of you with sporting fake moustaches for eyebrows in front of your boss.

So how was it for me?

Getting started felt like hard work. Though, like most Google products, it is mostly logical, there’s a LOT to learn, new etiquette to figure, and not many people there to play with. That said, there’s a lot to love. The idea of the separate circle to share content with different people. For the first time, for example, I might consider including family members to a network. However, the default ‘all circles’ share option leaves plenty of margin for embarrassing error – post in haste, regret at leisure?

As a Gmail user, the integration with the email and chat services I use most is great. The intuitive upload interface is lovely – and, unusually, works beautifully on a Mac. The +1 feature is nice, and will presumably feed into Google search results in the future – great for good content that’s already ranking high, not so good for splendid-but-lesser-spotted gems. I very much like how it might act as a bookmarking tool for those too lazy/disorganised (like me) to properly bookmark. I may even dip my toe in the murky waters of video conferencing next week, when I have to catch up with a client whose team works in multiple locations.

I’m not so keen on the locked ‘wall’ feature, as I often use social networks as a light-touch way to keep in contact with friends and colleagues when busy. The lack of events-sharing functionality and integration with Google Calendar seems an oversight – I know we’re still in Beta, but that would have been a killer feature that would encourage take-up. Maybe they’re saving that for launch…?

Personally, I’m not sure whether I want or need single network to integrate everything – a one to rule them all as it were. I like a bit of separation in my networks, behaving differently with separate personas in each. I think of the different interfaces as different spaces: work (LinkedIn), a buzzing bar where everyone chats and networks (Twitter), a party with friends (Facebook). And I suspect I’m not alone…

But what about other users…?

“Not enough people have transferred, and to be honest there are a few bugs that could be worked out before I would openly suggest to someone to swap. But I definitely intend to eventually. For the moment http://startgoogleplus.com/ is helping.”

“Just checking occasionally. Twitter is still where it's at for me. “

“I'm using G+ as a cross between Twitter and Tumblr for now.
Have to admit that I never really got Facebook or LinkedIn. Will still check them occasionally, but I expect I'll use this instead…”

“I'm encouraging FB friends (the ones I actually like) to move over but they've got no real appetite for it. I guess they must have work to do…”

So a tepid welcome from my friends and colleagues, but it’s very early days, and all seem keen to make it work. And I’ve seen conversion efforts to put Evangelists to shame already!

There’s talk of integrating the whole Google Empire into one mega-network.  I’ve also heard whispers about a games platform being in development that’ll provide a commercial element whilst pleasing the I-have-nothing-better-to-do-with-my-time-Ville types, if every they migrate from Facebook. Which brings me onto my next point….

Marketing and monetisation

The Content Marketing Institute dived straight in, decreeing Google+ a useful tool for the content marketer – a great way to source content (through the ‘Spark’ feature) then share (through Circles), then collaborate with colleagues.

But could Sparks become much more interesting to the whole marketing team?  I, for one, suspect so. In fact, if I was the gambling type, I’d wager my favourite Kurt Geigers on Sparks becoming paid – a place where sponsored content masquerades as natural search. All outlined in a privacy policy. But who ever reads that…?

Imagine the heady combination of finely profiled users and opted-in audience. The ability to break down your audience with the detail of Facebook adverts, without the advert barrier.

With my marketing head on, absolute genius.

As a private individual, a major turn off.

Either way, if it happens, I suspect that many users won’t notice the difference – or care if they do, providing a whole new platform for marketing and advertising. From viral seeding to more direct campaign placement, I’ll be interested to see what happens.

Tomorrow's world

As far as growth is concerned, according to PocketLint, Google+ is going great guns:

“Facebook took over 3 years to achieve what Google+ has done in just 3 weeks – hit the 20 million users milestone.”

Impressive stuff. But will this exponential growth continue? Will loyal Facebook fans really migrate? And does it matter if they don’t?

A very hypothetical hypothesis

Of my 300+ Facebook friends, I’d estimate that under 30% are regular users. That leave at least two-thirds – let’s say 70% – ripe for the switching. Apply that to the whole of Facebook (750 million users) and you get 525 million potential G+ devotees.

Then there’s the older generation. As I mentioned at the beginning of this piece, I’m not ‘friends’ with family. In fact, I actively discouraged them from joining Facebook because I’m concerned about privacy – on my part (what you don’t know doesn’t hurt you) and theirs (Facebook privacy is a notorious minefield if you’re not a digital native).

But if Google Plus does what it says on the tin, I might be sorely tempted. And so might countless sons, daughters and grandchildren, opening up a whole new audience that Facebook and its ilk couldn’t dream of touching.

Now imagine if one in four of the hypothetical Facebook switchers (131.25million) mentioned above felt the same, and added two previously un-networked family members (that’s an extra 262.6million)... G+ is now bigger than Facebook with a whopping 1,012.5million users.

So let’s call it a billion users. A billion users sharing sponsored content – advertisements – building individual data profiles whilst propagating and growing and adding yet more users. A self-perpetuating profit machine. Very, very clever stuff indeed.

Question is though Google, what does it all look like on the old bottom line?

A whopping great big plus, by any chance…

Still with me? Recommended Google+ links…

Google Plus resources
Google vs. Facebook privacy debate