All articles posted under Ninja

Just how valuable is a domain?

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

Domains, domains, domains….. oh how we love them at here redsauce.com. They’re the key to any successful online business and the decision over which to choose can be turbulent and nerve-wracking.

But just why are they so important and how valuable can a simple name be? The answer? Very, very important! It’s all to do with that little phenomenon called SEO and usability! Since the start of 2009 a staggering 192 million domains have been registered, marking a rise of 15 million since 2008. These huge figures show just how important and valuable domains have become in the big-bucks land of the internet. It also means businesses now have even more choice and factors to consider when searching for that oh-so-important domain. (more…)

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Ninja | No Comments »

Celebrity endorsements as linkbait?

Monday, March 8th, 2010

Would it be a good idea to have a celebrity endorse a website?  Lets say specifically them being on the home page of a website.

Lets explore the scenario.

I, as a director of the company, am toying with the idea of using a cult comedian in the UK to appear on the home page of the redsauce.com website.  The comedian in question has a few screws loose, and comes across as a mad-scientist (points go to those that have guessed the comedian).  This means that he fits our brand – very clever, salt of the earth, but bafflingly strange. (more…)

Posted in Ninja | No Comments »

What did we do before social media?

Sunday, March 7th, 2010

New research out this week shows nearly 80% of the largest 100 companies in the Fortune 500 Index now use social media on a daily basis. And it’s not hard to see why.

Since the launch of the social media phenomenon it’s gone from strength to strength with a growing number of users accessing all platforms every day. The study by Burson-Martseller found Twitter was the most popular social media tool, followed by Facebook and YouTube. So, what’s the draw to social media sites? It’s all about communication and laziness! Social media sites allow users to communicate in the easiest possible way; from the comfort of their own computer.

(more…)

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Ninja | No Comments »

Google advance on AJAX crawling

Thursday, March 4th, 2010

Google has been attempting to crawl AJAX applications for a long time only crawling an estimated 30% of AJAX applications. The problem being that AJAX URLS contain hash mark (#) which conflicts with the use of anchors resulting in Google ignoring both.Yesterday however Google outlined an idea to get around this by creating a new standard in which developers code AJAX applications. (more…)

Posted in Ninja | No Comments »

SEO does not guarantee usability

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

Technical and content driven SEO together can create massive business’s and generate may online leads, but while chasing the dream its easy to miss oppurtunitys.

A lot of business’s especially new ones, think that all they have to do to be a success on the web is to throw up a site and pump money into SEO until they have their desired rankings. This is all fine and dandy and will probably generate quiet a bit of business but by ignoring usability and design you will be missing thousands upon thousands of pounds of business every month. (more…)

Posted in Ninja | No Comments »

Tips for a better looking blog

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010

Well done you have a blog, and you’re writing it frequently. But it looks awful. Slap!

So what can you do? Read on…

Start with a decent theme – If you understand CSS etc really well you can make your own, if you’re a complete novice, shop around online for themes you can buy  and install yourself. It’s really easy to do, and there are loads of tutorials online to show you how. If you’re in between a newbie and a pro, then take the most simple theme going and adapt it, that way you wont have to write any new code and but there is a wide scope to play about. Just make sure it looks unique and memorable, brand it for yourself. (more…)

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Ninja | No Comments »

Have fun with viral marketing!

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

A few weeks ago we were having a chinwag in the office about a local barber shop.  The first bit of amazement was just the fact that James got a haircut. After the initial shock of James’ grooming, we chatted about how the barber he went to seemed to be struggling for custom.

The barbershop has been in town for years, and being in a town centre should be doing reasonable well, offering cheap ’short-back-and-sides’ services. So the team wondered what we would do if we were hired to help promote his business. Believe it or not most of the techniques we discussed were offline, not online – bizarre for an online content and SEO company! (more…)

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in Ninja | 1 Comment »

Happy Birthday YouTube!

Sunday, February 21st, 2010

Can you remember a time without YouTube? No, neither can I!

The online video monster site is celebrating its fifth birthday this week! Those five years have flown by quickly haven’t they? The site which was created to allow “anyone with a video camera and an internet connection…to share a story with the world” has gone from strength to strength since its launch in February 2005.  YouTube proved an instant hit with a generation which has sparked the user generated content phenomenon. (more…)

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Ninja | No Comments »

Make a webpage printable

Thursday, February 18th, 2010

This week I have been working on an interesting tool that enables the users to print the output. Introducing the print style sheet. Most people assume that printing web pages is a simple task , but when they come to print the page they might find table cells printing across pages or print margins skewing the design of the sites layout. This is where the print style sheet comes in. (more…)

Tags: , ,
Posted in Ninja, Programming | No Comments »

Tactics for shameless online self promotion!

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

Many designers, creatives and all sorts of other business use many kinds of self-promotion tactics. As a designer I’ll focus on the ones more suited to creative industries.

Website: The main starting point for any creative is to have their own website. Not belonging to any social network or pre-made site, it must be completely your own. If you’re a creative then this should be easy, even if web is not your area, you can still design it and pass it onto a web designer to put it together coherently. Keep it simple and let your work  speak for itself. Don’t have too many gimmicks as it can be distracting to users trying to see what you do. Keep the branding on the site consistent and have simple navigation, don’t make your work hard to find! (more…)

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Ninja | No Comments »

« Older Entries