The Proof Fairy

Poorly designed mobile websites drain smartphone batteries

Alison — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 13:18:53 +0000

There’s an interesting article on the BBC website today about how even mobile-optimised websites can be a drain on smartphone batteries if they’re not designed properly. The report looked at several of the most popular websites’ mobile versions, including Wikipedia and IMDB.com, and found that excessive coding or the use of large image files were affecting the performance of smartphones and causing the battery to drain faster.

With one in five Google searches now being done on a mobile device, it’s really important that businesses have simple, mobile-optimised versions of their website. That way, people can access key information quickly – and, hopefully, without their phone battery running out!

If you’re not convinced, have a look at this video I put together that has some interesting information about just how prevalent mobile web browsing is now. And if you’d like to see what your mobile-friendly website could look like, fill in the form under the video and I’ll put together a dummy site, completely free of charge and with no obligation for you to purchase anything.

Infographic that demonstrates WordPress popularity

Alison — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 13:07:25 +0000

I’m a huge fan of WordPress – the online version at wordpress.com is the way I got started with blogging, and the self-hosted version, which is what I build client websites in, is flexible, adaptable and easy to use. And it seems I’m not alone … according to this WordPress stats infographic from yoast.com around a quarter of all new websites are build using WordPress, and it accounts for a massive 14.7% of websites worldwide!

If you are interested in finding out more about using WordPress, either as a website or blog, or you’d like some helping getting started with it, give me a call on 01367 888229 and I’ll do my best to help!

The Top Five Copywriting Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them)

Alison — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 12:39:53 +0000

Time for a guest blogger … today Izzy Woods offers some crucial copywriting tips.

If you write on a regular basis, you’ve probably found your flow – meaning that when you write, the words seem to just appear on the page. You may then simply send the writing to its final destination, assuming the job’s done and the brief’s fulfilled. But you might be surprised at how many copywriters (and writers in general) make the same mistakes over and over again. Whether you’re writing for a client or your very own website, the rules remain the same and while we’re not questioning your ability as a writer, it might help if you heard about the five top mistakes that (almost) all copywriters make. It might just make your next bit of copy the best one yet.

Mistake one: Failing to proofread enough

All writers are trained to read their work once its complete. They may even read it twice. But is that enough? Sometimes, it’s a good idea to leave a piece of writing in a drawer (literal or digital) for a day or two, then go back to it. This will ensure that your writing works on every level – from the punctuation and grammar to the actual message itself. It’ll also help you spot any typos you may have missed first time around.

Mistake two: Being a bit too ‘me, me, me’

One of the main roles of a copywriter is to sell a product or service. It’s easy to see then why so many copywriters create copy that’s very focussed on who is talking. There’s a lot of ‘we do this’ and ‘we offer that’, but not very much about the actual benefits. If you’re trying to write persuasive copy, telling the reader why they will benefit is a great idea – so make it more ‘you’ and less ‘us’. It’s easy to see why copywriters do this; after all, they’ve usually got a client to please, but it doesn’t necessarily make for the most compelling read for the customer.

Mistake three: Not providing a clear call to action

Another distinguishing feature of copywriting is that it will usually feature a call to action. This could be a ‘buy now’, ‘call us’, or ‘visit our website’. It’s essentially an invitation to the reader to take action and respond to the copy. Lots of writers know all about CTAs, but don’t use them properly. It’s easy to say ‘get in touch’, but if you don’t provide a contact web link or a phone number, the call to action is useless. Always be sure your CTAs are at the relevant spot (usually at the end), and that they’re clear.

Mistake four: Lack of focus, lack of ‘punch’

Unlike novelists or other long-form writers, copywriters usually have to work with tight word counts. That means that they often don’t have much room to make their point, so being concise is vital. By waffling on and talking about features rather than benefits, a copywriter can quickly lose the reader and the copy becomes worthless. Instead, a copywriter should use their words like a sniper – and make each and every one count. This brevity also helps to add ‘punch’ and immediacy to a piece of copy.

Mistake five: Not making the most of headlines and sub-headings

Imagine that you opened a magazine and saw an advert with a wall of text from top to bottom. What would your next move be? It’s unlikely that you’d read the whole thing, if any of it. If you are writing a longer piece of copy, it’s vital that you break it up somehow. The headline helps draw the reader in, but sub-headings are also very important to help keep the flow of the piece right. They can also serve as summarisers for scan readers – and there are plenty of those!

There you have it: five handy tips that will help save your copy from certain doom. And even if you’re not a copywriter, some of the rules still apply to all forms of writing. At the end of the day, you’ve got a story to tell or a message to deliver – and avoiding the well-known pitfalls can be one of the best ways to set a piece of writing up for success.

Image: Jomphong / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Is your website mobile-friendly?

Alison — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 16:47:52 +0000

Have you ever been out late at night and fancied popping into a favourite restaurant for a meal, but you’re not sure what time they close? You reach for your phone, find their website … and by the time you’ve managed to track down the opening hours you’re too late, they’re shut. Frustrating, huh? What that restaurant needs is a mobile-friendly website!

Some statistics for you about mobile phone use in the UK:

28% of internet browsing is done on a mobile phone – and the number of people searching the web via smartphones doubles every two months

50% of Google searches on mobile phones are looking for local businesses – restaurants, shops, locksmiths, grocers, bars, pubs …

86% of all adults own at least one mobile phone

Yet most websites aren’t optimised for mobile phones.

What do I mean by that? Well most websites are designed to be used on a large screen. They probably work perfectly on a monitor – but when you try to use them on your mobile phone you run into problems. The phone may display only a part of the website or it might cleverly resize the whole site, reducing it to such a small size that it’s impossible to read. To click links or buttons you have to zoom in and scroll around to find the information you need. And all this takes time and uses up your phone’s data allowance too! But what’s the answer? Mobile-friendly websites, that’s what. Mobile websites are designed specifically for use on mobile phones so they are simple to navigate and easy to use. You don’t have to scroll around to find the information you want, or get a magnifying glass out – it’s all there, it’s easy to read and better still it’s easy to access. To show you what I mean have a look at these two images. The one on the left is eBay’s normal “desktop” website as viewed on an iPhone. The image on the right is eBay’s mobile website, again viewed on an iPhone.

Which one would you prefer to use?

I’ve just launched a brand new product – mobile-friendly websites that complement your main site. The sites are simple yet stylish and incorporate your company logo and brand colours. You can also have up to 10 pages that give people the kind of information they want at their fingertips when they’re out and about – information like prices, menus, opening hours, directions – plus a big fat CALL NOW button so people can get in contact with you quickly and easily.

The mobile-friendly websites will be £197 for 6 pages (£99 for 3 pages and £297 for 10 pages) but for the first ten orders only I’m offering a special price of just £99 for a six page mobile website … If you’d like to reserve your mobile-friendly website at the special offer price email me now!

You can see a sample of a mobile-friendly website and find out more here. Alternatively point your smartphone at the QR code below, or take a browser’s eye view of a mobile website by visiting m.theprooffairy.com

My first video testimonial

Alison — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 08:55:17 +0000

I’ve been working with Ant Hodges as part of the HodgesNet internet marketing team for a few months now. I am the team’s official client blogger and I’ve been writing on topics as diverse as technology and internet dating! I’m really thrilled that Ant has taken the time to create a video testimonial about me – thanks Ant!

Ant filmed this in his own Web Video Studio. It’s a new venture he’s about to launch in Swindon, Wiltshire – a fully equipped professional video studio that you can hire by the hour, half day or day. You can use it for all sorts of things – creating your own video testimonials, filming training materials or recording a message to send home, for example. The prices are very reasonable and if you sign up for more information you can also get your first hour at half price. Nice one, Ant!

I’m also going to be working with Ant on A Social Media Insight Day. This full day workshop aims to show business owners not only how to use social media to promote themselves, but why they should use it as part of their marketing campaign. The workshops will look at all the main social media platforms (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter etc) as well as video and blogging. I’m really looking forward to the day … if you’d like to come along you can find out more here.

Where to find free images for your blog

Alison — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 17:52:49 +0000

Blogging is great for websites – it lets you target niche keywords, gives you something to share on social media sites and keeps you website’s content fresh and regularly updated. However, pages and pages of text with no images can look dull and off-putting – but stock image libraries can be expensive and it’s often difficult to know where to find free images for your blog. Here are my favourite sites:

Stock.xchng
This site (at the time of writing) has nearly 400,000 images that you can use free of charge. most of the images don’t even need you to credit the photographer, though some do, and you need to check the licence conditions before use. The quality varies – there are some really great images on there, especially if you’re looking for backgrounds, but equally there are some very poor images too! It’s normally the first place I search though. Just be careful of the “Premium” images in the top and bottom rows, which are adverts for images you can buy from other sites.

FreeDigitalPhotos.net
I’ve been using this site more and more often recently as the quality of their images is very high. All the images are free at low resolution (fine for using on blogs) to use BUT you do need to register on the site (free) and give credit where it’s due – and the site makes it easy to do this by supplying you with the relevant HTML code. If you don’t want to add a credit to your blog post, or you want a higher resolution file you can buy images in a range of sizes from about $3 each, which is pretty good if, for example, you wanted to use an image in some promotional material.

Wikimedia Commons
This is a huge repository of public domain and freely-licensed educational media content that you can use free of charge. It’s especially useful if you’re looking for images of people, places, animals etc, but not so good for conceptual images. You may need to credit the contributor or photographer, but each individual image page has details and there are normally a number of sizes available for download.

Pixabay
Pixabay has a smaller collection of public domain and creative commons photos than the sites above but they are all of high quality and no attribution is required. It’s probably better for images of things rather than concepts though. You need to register to use the site.

Flickr
Flickr might not be the most obvious place to search for images you can use on your blog but it is one of the biggest photo storage sites on the internet and amazingly many of those photos are available for re-use, so long as you credit the contributor. To find such images use the Advanced Search feature and make sure you click the button beside “Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content ”.

Veezle
This is actually a search engine that looks for royalty-free, free to use and creative commons images. It searches a lot of sites including Flickr and SXC and the quality of the searches can be a bit off the mark, but it is useful if you’ve exhausted your favourite sites and still haven’t found the right image. Just make sure you check the usage conditions on whichever site it takes you to.

Small Business Sunday (#SBS on Twitter)

Alison — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 15:53:17 +0000

Somehow I’ve missed the #sbs phenomenon that has had small business owners reaching for their phones and tweeting frantically on a Sunday evening. Fortunately, my friend and fellow business owner Neil Jackman of online underwear retailer Whites and Smalls has been following events more closely – and he was lucky enough to be one of the #sbs winners who went to a special event last week. Over to Neil to explain more!

Theo Paphitis, from BBC Dragons’ Den, started Small Business Sunday (#sbs) back in October 2010 in an attempt to help small business owners gain increased exposure by awarding six lucky ‘winners’ a re-tweet (RT) on Twitter. Theo has more than 230,000 Twitter followers and the list is growing. This means that one simple tweet can be spread widely and create a window of opportunity for a small business owner to spread their message to thousands.

The potential benefits of being a #sbs winner are obvious – an increase in Twitter followers, positive publicity, increased website visits, and therefore an increase in sales.

My own business is an online store called Whites And Smalls that retails men’s underwear. Although I trade online, the world of Social Media is not something that I yet feel completely at ease with – although it is getting easier the further I venture with it.

I only came across the #sbs activity earlier this year; on 12^th February 2012 I decided I would give it a go, and so I tweeted Theo the following:

@theopaphitis #sbs If you want to change the world, start with your underwear. Happy Valentines! http://www.whitesandsmalls.co.uk

Out of the 1779 tweets that Theo received within the 2.5 hour period, this was one of the six chosen for a re-tweet.

In addition to the spike in website visitors in the following 24 hours, and the numerous messages of congratulations received on Twitter, I also benefitted from an immense feeling of pride in my business and a boost in confidence and motivation. The recognition and support received from so many was quite overwhelming.

As #sbs has gathered momentum and received growing interest in the past 18 months, this Twitter initiative has now developed further.

On 30^th March 2012, Theo Paphitis hosted an event (sponsored by Ryman Stationery) at Edgbaston Cricket Stadium for all the #sbs winners to date. This provided an excellent opportunity to network with hundreds of other #sbs winners who were feeling equally passionate about their respective businesses; the buzz throughout the day was palpable.

At this event we were told about the launch of the new #sbs website – www.theopaphitissbs.com, which is in embryonic form currently and will grow as each winner completes their profile in the coming weeks. With a Q&A session, meeting many other small business owners, and having a photo taken with Theo, the event passed quite quickly – but I left the venue with a sense of belonging to a whole new REAL community that had been strangely created from the virtual world of Twitter.

This community is ever-expanding and if things continue to progress so positively, then winners may gain in many more ways – with access to additional information, training, and forums.

If you are a small business owner, then this is definitely for you. The rules are straightforward and are outlined on the #sbs website:

Tweet about your business in 140 characters or less, directed to @TheoPaphitis, adding the hashtag #SBS.
Tweet on a Sunday between 5.00-7.30 PM.
Use humour and topicality if it feels natural to you.
Feel free to add a link or web address in your tweet.
Having a website increases your chances of being noticed.
Ensure your profile sells your business and has a link to your website. Include a colourful graphic.
It helps to know the names behind the business. #SBS is for small businesses. The personal touch is liked.
Just tweet once in each weekly time slot.
Look out for the re-tweets.
If you are not chosen, don’t despair and try again!

If you decide to participate, and get re-tweeted then I look forward to seeing you at a future #sbs event.

Guest Blogger:
Neil Jackman, Whites And Smalls
Follow Neil on Twitter: @underwearformen

I’m a guest speaker at the Social Media Insight Day

Alison — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 15:25:33 +0000

I received an unexpected invite this week – renowned internet marketing expert Ant Hodges asked me to be one of the guest speakers at an event he’s organising in Swindon later this month.

It’s becoming more and more obvious that social media is something that no business can ignore. With over 30 million people in the UK using Facebook regularly (that’s over half the population!), 175 millions tweets being sent every day and an hour of video uploaded to YouTube every second, social media is here to stay. Done well, it’s a really effective marketing tool and one that businesses can use at little cost … so long as they know what they’re doing. However, many business owners struggle to understand why they should engage in social media, how to use it properly and how not to let it consume all of their time.

To help those business owners, we will be delivering a full day of social media insight and training. To kick off the event, Ant Hodges will be covering the following areas:

Why social media is so important for business today
Where to start when thinking about using social media
How to apply an effective social media strategy to your organisation
An overview of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and Pinterest

There will also be two practical workshops. I will be presenting Blogging for Business, where I will explain what blogging is about, why businesses should be doing it and how to get started and build a blogging strategy. The other workshop, Online Video for Business, will be presented by Jay Blake of Ichthus Video.

I know both Ant and Jay through 4Networking and they are both experts in their field and people I would trust implicitly, so I can guarantee that the Insight Day will be well worth attending.

A Social Media Insight Day takes place at Basepoint Business Centre, Swindon on 26th April 2012. It’s £295 per person, which includes 3 expert speakers, a work book, a training DVD and lunch. There are only 20 places available though, and Ant expects it to book up quickly. If you’re interested, have a look at the video below, where Ant talks about the Social Media Insight Day, and if you’d like to come along you can book your place here. I hope to see some familiar faces on the day!

The first Faringdon Jelly – a quick report

Alison — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 15:46:18 +0000

I organised the first Faringdon Jelly today – well, I say organised – after my initial burst of enthusiasm I was so busy I didn’t have time to properly promote it, so I really wasn’t expecting anyone to show up. So I was really chuffed when Martin from Brickends saw a message on Twitter saying I was sitting in the i-cafe in Faringdon on my own, and he decided to come along! We spent about three hours chatting and working and it was a really interesting experience. In terms of productivity I couldn’t do this all the time – I got done what I had to do but nothing else – but in terms of socialising with another local business it was really enjoyable, and made a pleasant change to working alone in my home office.

Anyway, I’ve decided to give it another go and the next Faringdon Jelly is scheduled for Monday 30th April. It’s free but places are limited to 8 so if you’re free that day and want to come along please book your place.

Proof that social media is not just for kids!

Alison — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 17:29:14 +0000

I came across this interesting infographic today that splits UK social media users by age groups. I’ve known for a long time that it’s not just something that teenagers enjoy – but this really demonstrates how much social media has touched every age group. It’s also proof that if you’re in business your target customers really are on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. if you’re not there too you’re missing out! If you’d like a chat over coffee about how you can raise our profile and drive traffic to your website using social media give me a call on 01367 888229 – the coffee’s on me!

Infographic provided by Umpf PR