WordPress is without doubt a powerful blogging platform and more recently it’s being used more commonly as a Content Management System. Amongst some of the big brands using WordPress include Sony, Ford, Wall Street Journal, Samsung, Playstation and a whole heap of others.

Currently there is an abundance of WordPress Blog Themes to choose from and setting up your own blog can be achieved in a lunch hour. What there isn’t a abundance of are WordPress Themes targeted at businesses who want more than just a blog. Even those themes that are never seem to tick all the boxes on what a business really need, so this is what I need some feedback on. I’m planning on creating some nice, simple themes targeted at SME’s to get them online with the features and control they need.

What do you want?

Theme

• Business WordPress Theme
• Personal WordPress Theme
• Government WordPress Theme
• Kids WordPress Theme
• Personal Portfolio WordPress Theme
• Blog WordPress Theme
• E-Commerce
• Photography WordPress Theme

Background

• Dark Background WordPress Theme
• Light Background WordPress Theme

Price

Would you pay a small fee? Would you rather it was FREE?

Please Give Your Feedback Below

Once I gage demand I’ll get cracking. Please leave your thoughts below with any links you think would be useful. Also any features or plugins you’d like to be incorporated.

Internet Explorer could be affecting how your clients websites are displayed…… and I’m not just talking about IE6! IE8 has finally thrown it’s hat into the ring and is a reinforced weapon in Microsoft’s fight to maintain their prominent market share in web browser usage. Web professionals, like you and I, code new sites to cater for the Ogre better known as IE6. Using hacks and fixes to make the website display as desired. We get these sites signed off by the client, the site goes live and we get paid. Now here’s something to think about… Do you support future versions of browsers?

The scenario

You build a site pre IE8, launch it without any issues and the client is singing your praises. Then one day out of the blue they call you up and complain the website is broken in IE8! What do you say? The question is do you support their website through future releases of web browsers? If you haven’t stated you don’t then you could be liable to fixing it, especially if you stated in your initial pitch that their website will work cross browser.

The effect

Now 10 clients call you up and demand the same fixes as in scenario A, and they don’t want to pay extra, I’d say your screwed! Big agencies have potentially hundreds of clients, all with the possibility of calling up and causing chaos. They typically are covered legally as their initial specification is water tight and covers future browser releases and support.

The solution

By being efficient and actively taking the first move to combat this issue you can save yourself a few sleepless nights. Make the first move and contact all of your clients detailing the news of this latest browser and the potential effect it could have on their website. A letter or email from you makes the client feel protected online and serves as a reputation booster for your company. Being proactive and offering the answer to some potentially bad news that is yet to occur can really solidify the relationship between you and your client. Within the email you can start with simple facts, like:

With UK usage estimated to be around 65%, Internet Explorer is by far the most popular tool used to browse websites – including yours! But beware, big changes are afoot. In reaction to customer demand, or perhaps just off their own back on this occasion, Microsoft have recently launched a new, upgraded Internet Explorer Version 8 (IE8).

new browser implications:

This new browser brings with it resolutions to issues Microsoft were aware of e.g. malicious viruses and the like, but it also brings with it potential compatibility issues affecting the viewing of websites. The main concern for many e-businesses is that the way the new upgraded version of Internet Explorer interprets their website has changed so that it won’t be completely “backward compatible”. In other words, it’s likely to have formatting implications for anyone with a website developed prior to the launch of IE8. Whilst we always build websites that are compatible across all major browsers (both current and older versions), this new development may mean that your web pages do not display correctly when viewed using Internet Explorer 8.

Then your solution:

As a valued customer and as part of our commitment to you, we’re offering to conduct a full IE8 compatibility audit on your website.

Now set your price:

For a fee of £xx plus VAT we will thoroughly test your site in IE8 and along with fixing any minor issues, we’ll provide a report detailing any changes that need to be made to ensure it works with the new version.

Finish with a clear call to action:

If you’d like further details or for us to audit your site, then please reply to this email and a member of our team will contact you.

The outcome

Being proactive in this scenario has enabled your business to overcome a common issue and could save you many hours of tedious work that could be unpaid.

New browsers typically thorough up a set of new issues can can learnt and used time and time again in an efficient manner. You can also fix multiple websites in one go and earn some extra revenue. The third important thing is that you’re communicating with your clients. Dormant accounts could be revitalised and further work could generated through simple being proactive and protecting both yours and your client’s business interests.

For further information about IE8 visit Microsoft.com.

The Floating Frog is my baby and has been for several years. Starting as a personal portfolio website it has now developed into a leading UK based Digital Design Blog, if there is such a niche? Lately I’ve been a bit quite as all my attention has been concentrated towards a very exciting project I’ve been working on, with Zoe, Doug and Nick. Bethemiddleman.com is it’s name and through all the efforts of the team throughout the last few months, it’s almost ready to go into BETA!

It’s an exciting exercise to see if we can use our expertise and industry knowledge and start an online property portal for private house sales that has the potential to changing the way the property market operates and how we buy and sell our homes in the future. It’s a subject we all feel passionate about and we want to shake things up a bit. For those who have never heard of Bethemiddleman.com before, here is a quick summary of the Bethemiddleman.com concept.

Overview: Bethemiddleman.com cuts out the middleman (the Estate Agent) and let’s you advertise your property for sale direct to potential purchasers.

The Offer: Bethemiddleman.com let’s you do this for FREE! No Agents No Fees No Fuss!

The whole housing market: Bethemiddleman.com doesn’t stop with just buying and selling, it links up the entire housing market. Landlords can advertise a whole property or a room to let. Renters can in turn search, find and contact these landlords.

Savings: Bethemiddleman.com is FREE. If you’re selling your home, you have the potential or saving thousands in agents fees by missing them out. While this new market develops, you can also use Bethemiddleman.com and your existing Estate Agent. The service is so flexible and will be a pleasure to use.

We’re going to have a countdown for the beta launch on the website as soon as date have been agreed so for this and everything else, stay up to date over on the blog. Also signup for free to get the VIP treatment.

Yesterday Patrick twittered about an article in The Times – apparently Your Golf Travel are advertising for a writer/researcher to travel the world playing golf and talking about it. Applications are encouraged from redundant ‘city types’ – city types are getting a bad rap at the moment so this does sound a little like charity from the company owners (also ex ‘city-types’) – but then, who better to go and work for a golf company than someone who knows about business and plays a lot of golf?!

Anyway, I actually quite like the idea. Remember the Wookey Hole job advert on Piggynap the other week? Well, they said that because of employment regulations and their lack of hard evidence for witches being female, they had to accept applications from men. This might be a tenuous example but I’ve never been one for positive discrimination – you should be allowed to hire the best person for the job. So Your Golf Travel are holding a golf tournament to find the best candidate. Yes! Interview By Tournament!

Entrants have to have a handicap of less than 14 (whatever that means) so presumably CV’s saying “I’m sort of okay at golf” will go straight in the bin. I applaud Your Golf Travel for choosing employees based on their own metrics, and I reckon they’ll get loads of applicants from people really well suited to the job.

In fact, this is an interview that could run and run, Apprentice/British Open style. There could be pictures and video of  ex-city men, wearing slightly ragged suits, playing ‘desperation golf’ with a set of sticks because they had to pawn their clubs, and instead of ‘You’re Fired’ they’re told ‘You’re Shit At Golf’…! When not playing golf they could be seen sleeping under old copies of the Financial Times in the club house, or hunting for food on the green.

Am I getting too much fun out of this?

fr0gsqu1d

A former oil rig worker spent 15 years building an exact replica of a North Sea platform – out of more than four million matchsticks. David Reynolds, 51, spent up to 10 hours each day painstakingly crafting the half a ton model of the Brent Bravo rig in his living room. The full article and image gallery can be viewed here.

A picture paints a thousand words and here are 10 that do that with flair. I love the photo of the storm over the island, such a tremendous image. If you like them why not give it a “Thumbs Up!”

Storm over an island

Massive Butterfly

Penguin Army

Clever cement advertisement

Crazy Soil erosion

Traffic deadlock in downtown hell hole

BIG wave coming

Weird Lego

Summit view

Massive Coconut Crab

Calling all web designers, you may be interested in this cool little tool we discovered that lets you test the usability of your brand spanking new website. So before you start slicing and dicing, stop! Like Grolsch Lager, “it is not ready yet!”

As a designer I can stand up tall and confidently say I have designed a lot of websites that have under performed (not lately of course ). Designs that have failed to fulfill the objective of the brief and work for the client. A successful design isn’t just made up of a few pretty graphics and a jazzy logo, it’s strategically planned to give the user exactly what they want. Within 5 seconds they need to know who you are and what you do. Secondly comes the every so important ‘Call to Action or CTA’.

JARGON BUSTER : CTA : Simply getting the user to do something specific, like signup or leave a comment.

Now the best way to see if your new design works is to do a very simple usability test. Five Second Test is a smart, yet simple online tool that lets you upload a design to be tested. It’s a simple process:

1. Upload a JPEG of your swanky new Badger Traps website.
2. Choose whether you want a Classic or Click Test
3. Sit back and wait for the results.

Classic Test: Testers have 5 seconds to name things they remember about the design they have just seen.
Click Test: Testers have 5 seconds to click on the design then describe what they clicked on.

So far over 17,000 tests have been completed (17,000 x 5 seconds is like…. a whole lot of time). If your new Badger Traps websites gets comments like:

“I have no idea what they sell” or “I think the name of the website was Cat Houses” then the design may need some work.

It’s so easy to use it’s worth a go. Spending 2 minutes to upload a design to ascertain these valuable comments could save you a lot of heart ache down the line.

Goldie Lookin’ Chain, the legends behind the legendary “Guns don’t kill people rappers do” have created possibly the best/besteva/bestestever Trumps card game set.

Simply click on any thumbnail to see a full size, uncropped enlargement.

Even better, why not download the set and play Trumps with your nan, wickaaaard!

Best Trumps set eva innit!

Tango, the orange flavoured fizzy drink from Britvic PLC, has launched a new advertising campaign that really caught my eye.

While passing a bus stop the poster on the side read “Too much Tango made me think I was a Ninja but I’m not. I’m just Gary.”. I laughed, cos I’m immature you see. British humor never fails to capture it’s audience through advertising. The trick, or so I’ve heard, is to make a statement, ask a question and most importantly communicate that through to your target audience.

Maybe the statement is true, all those E-numbers can make a child go doo-lally!

Too much Tango will make your hair turn ginger. Yes those ones too.

Too much Tango makes your guffs smell like oranges

Too much Tango causes facial mince, gorilla jugs and cabbaging of the knee

Too much Tango causes hair loss and casual sexism

Too much Tango made me shave my nan. Innit.

Too much Tango made me suck a bull’s udder

Too much Tango made a friend of mine not be able to get a lob-on

Too much Tango will make you bite stuff like horses and that

After a much needed vacation we’re glad to say we’re back, refreshed and ready to go again. We spent our time in the beautiful island resort of Kuramathi in the Maldives. To celebrate our arrival back I thought I’d generate a photo album front cover that captures the real essence of the place and our time there. Maldivian Dreaming in a Maldivian Paradise.

This is my traveling counterpart Zoe doing the modeling for us at Sunset while looking up at the moon. It was a special moment in a special place. How I wish I was still there…

Now we’re back we have big plans for The Floating Frog so stay tuned and watch this space