Case Study: Lovebug Designs

Lovebug Designs was our first ever client back in 2007 and we have continued to have a good working relationship with them ever since. They provide beautiful handmade wedding stationery and invitations that are bespoke to each order based on a wedding colour and scheme.

We have recently re-designed their website using WordPress to give them full content management. You can visit the updated site at www.lovebugdesigns.co.uk which features things like a sidebar, site search and a blog which were all new additions after the re-design.

We also provide them with regular Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) for 'wedding stationery' related search terms which is quite a competitive area but we are achieving good results.

Lovebug Designs are also embracing social media and you can find them on Facebook and Flickr where we are helping them grow and engage with their followers.

We highly recommend Lovebug Designs for any wedding invitations and we are looking forward to working with them for many years to come.

Planning a Wedding anytime soon?

If you're planning a wedding anytime soon then I have a couple of recommendations for you...

Wedding Stationery
If you're looking for some amazing handmade wedding stationery then I highly recommend Lovebug Designs: www.lovebugdesigns.co.uk who create fantastic bespoke invitations, cards and wedding albums. I have used them on a number of occasions as their albums and keepsake boxes make great wedding presents. They also hand make Christening stationery from their sister company Babybug Designs: www.babybugdesigns.co.uk

Wedding Planner iPhone App
If you have an iPhone and you are planning a wedding then check out this iPhone app: click here It features a countdown to the big day, a to do list and lots more! Enjoy.

Uploading Properties to RightMove.co.uk

I'm putting the finishing touches to a recent project for an estate agent and thought I would blog about the process:

Summary: My client, an estate agent, was currently adding their properties to their own website and then also adding them to RightMove and basically repeating the 'addition' process for every property. Very tedious and time consuming so they approached me about uploading to RightMove automatically...

Started off by contacting RightMove and asking whether it was possible, and yep it was and many agents are now doing it this way as it makes a lot of sense. So they gave me their Automated Datafeed specification and my work had begun!

In a nutshell, I had to extract the data for all their properties from the database on the website, get everything in the right format and then upload it to RightMove. Yeah, easier said than done! :)

Here's how I've done it...
1. Wrote a PHP script that will extract all the properties from the MySQL DB at the end of the working day to grab all the latest properties. It then save the data into a delimited file with all required RightMove fields.
2. Now we have this data file, we need to 'Zip' it up along with all the photos for the properties. Did this with http://www.7-zip.org/ and wrote a batch file for the process.
3. The batch file then runs FTP and uploads the Zip file to RightMove.
4. A Scheduled Task will then run the batch file each night.
5. RightMove receive the datafeed file, process it, and Bobs Your Uncle, the properties all appear on RightMove.

I also had to increase the amount of validation on the estate agent website so that when they add their properties, all of the data is good. Else otherwise when it gets to RightMove they will not be able to process it properly.

Client is now more productive as they only have to add each property once to their own website. And I'm happy as its been quite a nice project to work on.

If there are any other estate agents who can benefit from a process like this then please give me a shout! In fact, AutoTrader allow the same bulk data upload for any car dealers who may be reading.

Cheers,
Swof

Corporate Impact Videos

Here are some Corporate impact video templates that would look great on a website to impress your visitors. Impact videos are great for advertising your services and tend to convert really well. Let me know if you are interested in having one created...







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PR Impact Videos

I was recently asked about producing some videos for a PR company and I've put together this collection of impact video templates. Impact videos are great for advertising your services and tend to convert really well...

.CO domain, the new .COM

.CO is a new global domain extension - available to anyone or any company worldwide.

So for the first time in many years, .CO will provide a significant new opportunity to register a truly global, recognisable and credible domain name extension.

.COM domains are now used everywhere. Due to its meaningful and universal appeal, .CO has a similar potential to grow quickly.


Let me know if you would like to register a .co domain...

How 'Bright' is your CRM?

As a Web Developer, I'm always looking at ways of making life easier by using the web to streamline our business processes. Here is a good example...

I'm sure you already have a website for your business, right? And on this website is probably a contact form? And when someone completes the form it e-mails you all the details, and your left thinking of a way to store their contact information. Sound familiar?

Well, I would like to recommend a great CRM system called Bright Pearl which is a web based system that does lots of clever things... Including the use of 'Smart Forms' which allows your website contact form to generate a new contact automatically into your database. Cool right? 

And once their in your database the fun really starts... You can contact them individually, mailshot everyone using MailChimp (which is what I'm doing right now) and it even has an Accounts system allowing you to generate Invoices with their details on, etc.

But don't take my word for it, I want you to try it free for 30 days! Here is a direct link: http://www.brightpearl.co.uk/?aid=37867

Cloud Computing rocks!
Steve