Blog | Lead Generation, Online Marketing

Is LinkedIn making websites redundant?

There was a time when setting up a business meant setting up a website, yet more and more small businesses are doing without a website altogether and using LinkedIn to promote their business. The reasons are simple:

The most effective way of finding business is through networking. Customers ultimately buy from people rather than from companies. LinkedIn caters for this by providing a free web presence combined with the ability to link to literally thousands of friends and business colleagues who can view your business profile online.
LinkedIn has a number of features that you won’t necessarily find on your website: the ability to upload photos and videos, online discussions, the ability to share your thoughts with thousands of others, and the ability to post online polls for your contacts to take part in. If your clients are happy with you, they can even post testimonials to your profile.
It is relatively easy to become visible on LinkedIn: If you have a detailed profile, a lot of testimonials from clients, a lot of online contacts, and if you regularly take part in the online discussions, people will notice you. For your website to become visible on Google, you have to spend lots of time and money on search engine optimisation. On LinkedIn, you just need an active profile and to interact with other users.

Using my iPhone in Israel

Danny BermantiPhone / iPad

I have taken my iPhone abroad for the first time and have made a few observations.

When you arrive in a new country, you get a text message from O2 warning you to switch off data roaming if you want to avoid high roaming charges. I don’t know if this warning is something they were forced to do, but it’s a good idea.Lord knows how many people forget to switch off roaming.
The moment you enter the passenger terminal of Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport, you get free wifi access. This is quite unlike the rip-off BT Openworld you’re forced to pay for when using Heathrow or Gatwick.
I try and avoid making phone calls on my mobile whilst abroad, but as I use the iPhone for everything other than phone calls, I hardly notice the difference.
I can’t use any of the roaming apps such as Google Maps or the Compass, but this is more than compensated for by the fact that you can pick up wifi just about everywhere. And it’s usually a lot faster than the patchy 3G access you get in England. Just the other day, I took a bus through the centre of Jerusalem and was able to pick up wifi hotspots throughout the journey.

Spending time in Israel makes you realise just how backward the UK is when it comes to the internet.

I thought I’d landed in Israel, but my iPhone told me I was in Palestine

Danny BermantiPhone / iPad

I have just arrived in Israel for a two week trip. I switched on my phone after we landed and was surprised to see a network message welcoming me to Palestine! After a couple of minutes, the phone adjusted itself and gave me a signal from Orange. Is this another of the iPhone 4 glitches?!

iPhone 4 first impressions. If you’re thinking of upgrading, don’t bother.

Danny BermantiPhone / iPad

Carphone Warehouse called me out of the blue on Thursday. My contract was up for renewal. Would I like a new iPhone 4 they asked? Who can say no to a new iPhone? Especially when it’s costing you only £29 to upgrade and you pay the same monthly fee as before.

Well, I received my new phone just 24 hours after the call, and four days later, the novelty has already worn off. Firstly, I don’t care for the new design. I liked the rounded design of the old phone, whereas the new flat backed design looks old fashioned. It’s how I would expect an early version of the phone to look, not the latest version. Secondly the battery life (or lack of it) as almost as bad as the old phone. Fortunately for me, I carry a Mili recharger with me wherever I go.

And what do I like about it? Well I like the front facing camera (unfortunately I know only one other person who has both the iPhone 4 and wifi that are necessary for videophone calls). I like the camera flash, and the sound quality is noticeably better.

I am also benefiting from the fact that I can enjoy all sorts of benefits denied to me on the iPhone 3G such as augmented reality, and the ability to shoot movies. I have also been able to enjoy the benefits of OS4 (which I was never able to successfully install on my old phone) such as the ability to run multiple apps and group apps in folders.

But my overall impression? I would say that if you’re running an iPhone 3GS, there’s not enough new features to merit upgrading to the iPhone 4. Hold out for the next version of the iPhone.

Are you a graphic designer, a web designer or both?

Danny BermantWebsite design

Website designers seem to be two a penny these days. Whenever I go to networking meetings of any description, there are a few financial advisers, a few accountants and just about everyone else seems to be a website designer. If you are considering a career in website design, be aware, the jobs market is saturated with them.

Be wary of link exchanges, only swap links with relevant businesses

Danny BermantSEO

This morning I participated in a forum discussion on a recurring subject: Should you exchange links with other businesses?

It’s a well known fact that a large number of inbound links to your site can improve your search engine ranking. Google views a high number of links as a "vote of confidence" in your site. What is less well known is that Google also looks at the relevance of the links to your site. e.g. If you are a construction company, it may be helpful for you to have inbound links from an architect and surveyor. But it won’t make much difference if the link is from an online jeweller.

Make sure your website works in all the relevant browsers

Danny BermantBrowsers

There has been a lot in the news lately about the recent court ruling that forced Microsoft to offer its European customers alternative browsers to Internet Explorer.

As a result, there are a lot of new browsers that are likely to be widely used. This could potentially be a nightmare for web designers, but it doesn’t have to be. There are 4 different rendering engines used by the different browsers. Provided you are are know what they are, you only need to test your website on 4 different browsers instead of 12.

Tired of spammers adding themselves to your following list without your permission? StopTweet may be

Danny BermantSocial media, Twitter

This morning, I discovered 4 Twitterers I was following that I’ve never heard of. I’m interested in high-tech web related Tweets, but I don’t recall opting to follow anyone who sells shutters, debt management or porn. And this isn’t the first time. Despite regularly changing my password, I have had to remove about 20 users over the last few weeks that I was "following" but never heard of.

Twitter spam is not only frustrating, but it damages your credibility. You can report the spammers, but it often makes little difference. Now there is finally a solution. StopTweet is a fully customisable application. You can tell the blocker what you personally consider to be a spam account. And you can choose to simply unfollow those users, block them or report the accounts to Twitter, as well – all with just one click.

We can now offer you a heat map of your website

Danny BermantWebsite usability

Would you like to see where your clients are clicking when they visit your website?

We are now able to offer our clients a visual heat map of clicks on key web pages, showing hot and
cold click zones. This will help you to identify where to place key content when designing your site.

The heat maps take only minutes to set-up, and once your website has been tested, we will talk you through each page of results to explain what they mean.

6 tips to help you close a sale online

Danny BermantEcommerce

If you’re serious about selling online, be sure to make it easy for the customer to make the buying decision

Remove distractions from the buying decision process
Remove negatives about the product or offer
Remove complications that may result in the customer saying ‘let me think about it’
Include something extra that makes the customer want to buy it now
Make the actual ordering easy. Give the customer their choice of payment options and a simple order form to fill out.

Using my iPhone in Israel

I thought I’d landed in Israel, but my iPhone told me I was in Palestine

iPhone 4 first impressions. If you’re thinking of upgrading, don’t bother.

Are you a graphic designer, a web designer or both?

Be wary of link exchanges, only swap links with relevant businesses

Make sure your website works in all the relevant browsers

We can now offer you a heat map of your website

6 tips to help you close a sale online

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