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![Phat Reaction newsletter]()
| Worker owned since 2003 |
Update End 2009 |
It’s been while, so here is all the news
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Jeeze it’s been a busy one
My word, if it has not been one rush job to complete it has been another. But hey, I don’t mind. It’s great to feel the warmth of praise when you are able to complete things cheaper, better and quicker than those around you. Well I think it is, and so far this year so have my customers.
Yep, I have had a great year, creating sites that are what is wanted in the time available and under the cost that of other providers quoted.
May sound strange to offer such a complete statement, but time and time again this year, I have found it to be true.
‘‘I have been seriously impressed with Andy’s work in bringing the Commonwealth Conversation website to life. We contacted him in a panic at the end of June as we needed a fully functioning website built in 2 weeks. It was a LONG fortnight, but we pulled it off and over the last five months have been working very closely together. Andy is always on call to fix problems as they arise, and to continue making the website as attractive and appealing as possible. Most importantly - we have gone from a Google page rank of 0 to 7 - Andy has been a fantastic help over the past few months - we couldn’t have done it without him’’
Zoë Ware, The Royal Commonwealth Society
No it’s not underpricing
For a change I am often more expensive per hour than most of my peer group. OK I am not charging Advertising/Communications Agency money (mainly because I do a lot of work for those types), but good value based on skills.
In fact it has stood me in such good stead that during the apparent financial crash, I have not noticed it all.
Good’old fashioned business
Yep that’s it, you know the things
- I don’t make a commitment I can’t keep.
- I treat the time it takes like it is my money being spent.
- To be aware of trends in the web and implement them as standard.
- I say yes, because I can. It’s called experience.
Coder or Designer?
The eternal argument, what are you? me, I am clear about who I am. I am first a foremost a coder, I make other peoples graphic designs come to life, secondly I am a designer that makes a special kinda website, one that goes WAHH! one that really pops. Now these are not your normal business websites, they are usually fashion and music based.
In other words: “I code corporate, I design off the wall”. Don’t ask for my design work unless you want super-bright colors, freaky commodore 64 type animations or street graffiti artwork. you have been warned
Don’t worry though as I have built up strong relationships with some great graphic designers, no matter what you want in the way of design, these guys can do it.
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Sites recently created
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jump section to other stuff than the main content of this newsletter
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I made that.
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The Commonwealth Conversation
The Royal Commonwealth Society contacted me from a word of mouth recommendation (none better to have), with a large set of plans and a small amount of time to do it in. Their usual supplier was firstly unable to complete in the time described saying that it would take them months, and because of the months taken rather than weeks, it was at least double the cost that I was quoting.
Since going live back at the beginning of July, the site has gone from strength to strength. Most importantly it had jumped up to PageRank 7 by the beginning of November, this was approximately 4 months after going live.
Personally it was an honor to do some work for the Queen of England (head of the Commonwealth), and to see it succeed so well based on a lot of my suggestions and knowledge, is very rewarding. Roll-on more wannabe high-profile sites, I am ready.
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PrizeWize up for “Website van het jaar”
PrizeWize is up for “consumer comparison website of the year” in the Website van Het Jaar awards in the Netherlands.
I created the infrastructure and application design as well as coded the frond end and defined the business model of this multi-million turnover company (thank you intel for the training!). Currently PrizeWize are rated number 1 in the Netherlands for energy comparisons. (site graphic design by mercl)
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Properly made pages last longer at Denon USA
I am quite proud of this, after 2 years (more or less) the same web page that I created and pushed for correct configuration and SEO, is still top of the google search listing. Try it yourself S-52. As you can see it is still top.
This I find amusing as Denon USA have removed this micro-site from their website menu and search engine. Yet here it is in all it’s glory at the top of the list. And this is the very poor replacement that Denon have tried to use to replace the page. (micro-site graphic design by Loomis Group)
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Designs that pop.
Fresh ladies Fashion from Unselfish Designs
Unselfish Designs is a fledgling company, just starting up and wanted to have an impressive web design to really show off their new hand printed garments. Rather than using my designs this time, nearly all of the artwork has come directly from unselfish. They have been created by making a lino stencil and printing with various colors.
Wendy the designer at Unselfish Designs is so happy with the site as it stands now with a simple blog that reflects the spirit of the company, but cannot wait for her new Unique T-shirt Builder to be completed, which is the next stage in her growth path.
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City-Zen Clothing
City-Zen Clothing wanted a design that said “street culture, cool fashion”, and finally chose the design that is used in this email boundary. A cityscape with moving clouds that has a very street graffiti look.
City-Zen’s plan is to have many designers selling their products through this site, alongside existing well known fashion labels for men, women and children. Making this site has been a bit of a return to form from when I was UK IT Manager for Kookaï. Very enjoyable to get back into fashion retail. Anyhow, the site goes live soon, they are just adding the content now.
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New in the stable.
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In touch with Cornish roots
MyCornwall.TV started up this year in the beautiful county of Cornwall in the south west of england. Their mission is to bring cornish things to cornish people around the globe. If you have ever met a cornish person you’ll know how proud they are. Anyhow together were in the process of a site re-design, SEO’ing, getting pagerank and creating a special facebook application to Win Cornish Prizes.
So if you want to be a cornish pasty taster for a living or maybe win your own weight in beer (actual proposed prizes) join the MyCornwall.TV facebook fan page and I’ll make sure you get informed when the facebook app goes live. And if you do know anyone Cornish, let them know, they will love you for it.
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Pink Euro’s anyone?
Bear Necessity contacted me (word of mouth recommendation) as they wanted to be able to have a number of changes to their site. Most notable a change to how the photo gallery works and a change in the menu style, on the lower end of the scale was to look at SEO and implementation of the gaygo.eu ticket shop.
So now I’m earning pink euro’s as well…. excellent.
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Watch this space.
DJ Bynar
I’ve got a bunch of new projects on the horizon, but the one that I think will be the most fun and rewarding will be DJ Bynar. DJ Bynar is one busy bloke,
performing on a weekly radio slot (on waveradio.gr Tues 20:00), making mash-ups (mashstix.com/DjBynar or a cracking youtube video),
while finding the time to make weekly 2hr podcasts [indie disco] and music journalism over the indie music scene(djbynar.com)
The task here will be to raise Bynar’s profile and turn the website into a money making entity. So there are challenges in this one, Page Rank, SEO, improving the site navigation and hooking into Amazon around the world to sell music. Sounds like fun to me.
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*Free stuff.
We all like free stuff
We all like free stuff so I have included a few goodies for you. All created by my own fair hands.
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Why you have recieved this Newsletter
You have been sent this email because at some point in the past we have either worked together (Apricot, MJN, intel, Kookaï, Omron, Prizewize, Phat Reaction), or I have done some work for you, or that you have contacted me via email, or lastly that you have given me your business card. Feel free to drop me a mail to say “I don’t need this Andy” and I won’t be sending it to you again in future.
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