Category Archives: Internet

Internet Related Information

Windows Firewall Blocked netsession_win.exe

04/11/2011 – 10:01 am

I suspect thousands of Windows users are just about to start seeing this message appearing on their screen, just like we’ve had on Windows 7 :

This alert happens when Windows detects new software that it doesn’t recognise running on the system that is trying to access the Internet.

Having looking into this, it seems that netsession_win.exe looks like it’s part of a piece of safe software from a well known and trusted company called Akamai.  You might not have heard of Akamai, but the chances are that you’ll be using their services every day as they provide Internet acceleration services to many well known brands.

So the question arises why did Windows try to block netsession_win.exe if it’s safe?

Truth be known, your Windows computer runs lots of stuff in the background that you hardly ever see, and if it’s working properly, then you never really should see it or have to care about it, so at this stage it looks like it’s a mistake – which is why you’re seeing this message.

Whilst we can’t say definitely one way or another because it’s still too early to tell, we’ve decided that Akamai is a reputable brand, so we’re going to allow this, and so far there’s been no problems :)

(Urban Haze accepts no responsibility for changes you make to your computer as a result of reading this article or any other information on this web site!!)

If you see a similar message but it has a different path or name, then be warned – this is something different from Akami’s netsession_win.exe
- so leave it blocked and seek technical help from your nearest friendly computer geek!!
Please follow us on Twitter to get updates on this, as well as Internet, IT and digital photography related information

If you’d like to share any other useful information about this, please feel free to comment below

 

By the way, just a little shameless self promotion before you go:

Most likely you found this page because you searched for something in Google and this page came up top of the list.  The reason you found this article above others is because this page has been search engine optimised by Urban Haze.  Search Engine Optimisation is a technique to help ensure your web site is found above others, and its success is demonstrated by the simple fact that you’ve arrived here and are reading this right now!

If you would like some help to Search Engine Optimise the pages on your own web site, so that you stand out from the crowd and ahead of your competition, then please contact us for further information

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By urbanhaze | Also posted in IT & Computers, Search Engines | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (2)

Online Shopping Carts

26/10/2011 – 11:55 am

E-commerce TemplatesIf you’ve got a business and you’re looking to sell your products online, then we can help.

We use a variety of different software to suit individual business needs.

But one of the most popular e-commerce tools we use is E-commerce Templates.
This software is cost effective and incredibly adaptable to suit the needs of most businesses.

It does require some technical skill to get it set up, but once up and running, provides a solid platform for businesses to sell their products online.

Urban Haze has plenty of experience of setting up E-commerce Templates sites and can help handle all the technicalities to turn your needs into a high quality online shop, leaving you to concentrate on running your business, whilst your online shop generates an additional revenue stream.

If you’d like further information about us help you set up an online store, please contact us

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By urbanhaze | Also posted in E-commerce, Urban Haze | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Renewing Your Mobile Phone Contract

28/09/2011 – 3:03 pm

iPhone 4

Well my Vodafone Mobile Contract is finally up for renewal.
I’ve written a couple of blogs about Tethering which have proven to be quite popular, so hopefully this article will help advise other Vodafone customers (and those of other networks) about renewing their contract.

Contract Renewal Date – Put it in your Diary!

The first thing of note is that Vodafone, like many other Mobile Phone companies don’t really go out of their way to tell you that your contract is about to expire – sure they’ll tell you when you’re signing up and they’ll tell you if you ring and ask – but don’t expect any kind of pro-active notification, they’ll just let it expire, then roll over to the next month (beware your services and pricing may change once your contract is expired)

So my first tip is to make a note in your diary of the contract expiry date, and also put in another reminder 3-4 weeks before it’s up to give you time to sort things out.

Do Your Homework

First Have a look round on the web and see what the competitors are offering – generally I find that Three, Orange, Tesco and GiffGaff tend to offer good deals that will push Vodafone (don’t forget O2, although I find that they do tend to be quite similar to Vodafone in pricing)

Ask local friends on those other networks what the reception/coverage is like and ask them what kind of deals they get!

Next have a good look at your Vodafone account, recent bills and see what you actually use currently.
Don’t forget, if your contract originally included a handset, then you can always keep using that handset – which will now is paid for as soon as your contract is up, so your monthly cost should come down!

See What They’ll Offer You

3-4 weeks before your contract is up, get in touch with Customer Services (191 on your Vodafone handset)

The automated service will ask you to enter your PIN

Then choose option 3 for “Upgrades or Anything Else”

Then choose option 2 “If you’re thinking about leaving us” (not option 1 for “upgrades”)
I think this is kind of critical – the assumption is that you’re going to leave, not that you want to carry on and upgrade.

The Vodafone Call Centre rep will ask you some more security questions (if you ask me, this is overkill, as even my bank only asks for my card and PIN, Vodafone knows its you from your mobile number already, asks for a PIN and then for some reason asks further security questions!!) then you can actually get down to business…

Negotiate

These Call Centre People are nice enough and will do their best for you, but do push them a bit by using the information you’ve gathered on your homework.

They generally don’t offer much different from the prices displayed on the web site, but they will try for you
Please keep in mind that at this level, these people can only do so much, and they do have a job to do, so don’t be rude to them if you don’t get the deal you want!

NEVER ACCEPT THEIR FIRST OFFER

This is the crux, whatever they offer, tell them that it’s not as good as you’ve got elsewhere (ideally your homework in the previous steps will back this up)
And ask them for your PAC code.

Your PAC code is a unique code that allows you to transfer your number to another network, it’ll take a couple of days for them to generate the code and then the PAC code is valid for 3o days.
Note: If you don’t use your PAC code then nothing will change!!

Then Just Wait (don’t forget you’ve got 3-4 weeks before your contract is up!)

This is the stage I’m at, at the moment, so from here on it’s speculation based on previous experience!…

From previous experience, it seems that requesting a PAC code starts some kind of escalation procedure within Vodafone and before long somebody from Vodafone calls your mobile (I’ve know their number show up in caller line ID as 0808 002 4636 It might be worth putting that 0808 number into your contact list, so if they call you, then you’ll be prepared and know what to expect!) to ask why you’re leaving and to see if they can do a better deal.

At this point put on your very best negotiation skills and squeeze them hard – baby!

I’ve also seen that the same procedure of escalation and calls from a retention department after requesting a PAC works with Three, I’d imagine other networks will be similar.

What to do Next?

So far, every time they’ve called me, they’ve been in a position to offer a better deal than than I could get when calling customer services.

In the past I’ve known the “Retentions Department” Rep offer a better deal and say that this is a one-time deal that you have to take here and now – to me this is a bit like high pressure sales.

Up to now I’ve always given in with Vodafone Rep who’s offered me a better deal, but it’s up to you if you want to take the money and run and try your luck for an even better deal still!
This is where your homework will come in handy again, know what deals you can get from competitors, so that you’ve always got a worst case scenario to fall back on even if you leave your current provider.
The only counter arguments they’ll have to that is that their network offers clearer reception or more coverage – which may be true, but you’ll know this if you’ve asked your friends on those other networks – and don’t forget, you can always counter that argument by telling them that you spend a lot of time in an area where you KNOW that a competitor offers better reception than they do – say at work or something!

Having said that I’ve given up at that second step with Vodafone, I’ve had the same thing with Three, but at that stage I declined their “Retentions Department” one-time-offer
And I can tell you that it was followed up a few days later by another call (let’s call them the “Super-Retentions Department”) who offered an even better deal still.
To be fair to Three, that deal was pretty amazing, and the poor chap tried so hard- and I would have taken his offer had Three’s reception not been so poor in the area at the time!

Summary (So Far)

Well, I’m in the middle of this experience, so it’s not over yet, and I’ll be posting updates as things progress.

What I can say is that I’m a little disappointed with both Vodafone and Three – the fact that they have “Retentions Departments” and the fact that you have to go through this process means that most of the time, unless you follow these steps, you’re not getting the best deal from them that you could – which means that you’re being ripped off and they know it!
As a loyal Vodafone Customer for over a decade now I’m a little annoyed by this, but I’ll play the game one more time – maybe this year it’s time for a change!

One more point of note – it’s rumoured that a new iPhonewill be announced next week (whether this is true or not, and whether it’ll be the iPhone 4s or iPhone 5 remains to be seen). If it is announced, then no doubt it’ll be a while before it reaches the UK – but this may will come into my negotiations :)

Keep Tuned for updates which will be posted below

Update 1: the following morning (Thursday)
Shock, horror, just missed a call from that same 0808 number. They didn’t leave a message!

Update 2: Thursday afternoon:
Another call from the 0808 number – asked why I was leaving and sure enough said they would check with their manager then came back with a much better deal than Customer Services could do.  As I explained, unfortunately I wasn’t able to take that offer at the time as I didn’t have my notes with the deal from Three, so wasn’t sure if it was better or not.  Sure enough true to form, the nice lady couldn’t keep the deal and explained that she couldn’t ring me back because apparently their calling system was automated, and if they had to call back every customer they’d only get through half as many – a nice honest touch I think!

So this is a soft kind of  high pressure sales.  Sadly I had to decline the offer, and “hoped” they would find a chance to call me back.  So, I might have blown it here, but let’s just see if Vodafone is as persistent as Three were!

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By urbanhaze | Also posted in iPhone | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments (1)

BT Infinity in Saddleworth

14/09/2011 – 1:54 pm

Urban Haze LogoAs mentioned in a previous blogpost, high speed Fibre Broadband is coming to Saddleworth

Update: Some Saddleworth Cabinets are enabled now some are delayed

So this has kicked off my investigations into the best deal for me personally.

I’ve tweeted Zen, ADSL24 and BT about the previous post – no response from any of them yet.

At the moment, BT Infinity Unlimited still seems to suit me best.
I decided to ring BT for more details.

They did confirm that it was an 18 month contract, and there seemed to be no room for negotiation on that.

And clarified that it’s not actually a better deal for new customers than existing ones, it’s the same deal – one is with line rental, so that explains that!

BT also advised that it is possible to have a static IP address for an extra £5 a month, but only if you take business broadband rather than residential.

The business services are the same as the residential services as far as upload and download speeds go, but the business ones are a bit more expensive, so I asked what’s the difference?

The nice salesperson explained that business services are generally on 24 month contracts, and they get priority on fault repairs.

After the call I realised that business isn’t really such a good deal compared to residential.
Basically the only benefit I can see is that it allows me to add additional service of a fixed IP at an extra premium.
Having said that you can always use Dynamic DNS to achieve almost the same thing.

One the downside, business broadband means signing up for an additional 6 months contract, and does cost a bit more each month.
For that, you get priority on fault repairs.  But think about that for a moment – who is responsible for the “faults”?

In essence aren’t you paying more & tied in for a longer period of time just to pay BT to fix stuff that *THEY* break faster?!

 

One useful thing that BT told me is that’s worth keeping in mind, if you are changing Broadband Suppliers, you’re going to need something called a MAC code.  This is a unique code that allows your line and broadband service to be identified and transferred from one supplier to another.

By law your current supplier must supply you with a MAC code within 5 days of you asking for it – requesting the code does NOT terminate your contract, it only provides the facility to change.

More really great information about Broadband MAC codes can be found by clicking this this link

Orange did duly provide a MAC code 2 days after I requested it, although they also got somebody to call me to ask why I was leaving Orange.  I simply told him the service had got slower and slower – he made no attempt to try and improve things, and just politely thanked me!

 

Do also remember that if you’ve signed up for broadband contract with your current provider, you’ll either have to wait for the terms of that contract to be up before changing, or pay to get out of it (hence my slight concern over BT’s lengthier contract terms)

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By urbanhaze | Also posted in Saddleworth | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Saddleworth Village Olympics

09/09/2011 – 7:40 pm

Saddleworth Village Olympics LogoIf you’ve not heard of it, the Saddleworth Village Olympics is an annual event that’s been held in Saddleworth for 26 years.
It’s a three week event that starts tomorrow.

It brings children aged 7 to 17 from all around the area of Saddleworth to compete in various sporting events.

The Saddleworth Villages are grouped into seven teams that compete against each other:

  • Delph & Denshaw
  • Diggle
  • Dobcross
  • Greenfield
  • Lydgate, Grasscroft, Friezland & Grotton
  • Scouthead Austerlands & Springhead
  • Uppermill
Urban Haze provides the web site for the Village Olympics, and we’ll be there to do some photography (probably a few thousand pictures!)
For the next few weeks, you’ll notice Village Olympics News appearing in the Urban Haze Tweets.
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By urbanhaze | Also posted in Digital Photography, Saddleworth, Urban Haze | Tagged | Comments (0)

Saddleworth Broadband & New Fibre

28/08/2011 – 7:19 pm
BT Engineer Laying Fibre

BT Engineer Laying Fibre in Uppermill

High(er) speed Broadband is coming to Saddleworth!

You may think you’ve already got high speed broadband with ADSL, but what we’re talking about here is something called “Fibre”, sometimes known as FTTC (Fibre To The Cabinet)

What’s the difference?
Well, there are currently two main Broadband Internet services found in here Saddleworth, either ADSL (Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line) or LLU (Local Loop Unbundled)

Fibre is slightly different.
All of these services use your existing copper telephone wire that runs from your house to a telegraph pole and then to the nearest cabinet in the street.
FTTC then uses Fibre Optic cables to connect that that cabinet to the telephone exchange.
Generally speaking, ADSL use slower copper wire to connect the cabinet to the exchange.

The difference Fibre offers to your broadband speed is significant.
Of course, the actual speed you get will depend on a number of other factors such as the service you purchase and distance from the cabinet and number of other people using the service, but these are the generally quoted maximum speeds:

Service Max Download Speed Max Upload Speed
ADSL/LLU  12 Mb/s  0.75 Mb/s
Fibre  40 Mb/s  10 Mb/s

As the Internet grows and people use more things like video online, there are more and more requirements for higher speeds, both for download and for upload.
I have tried Fibre at other people’s premises already and found it to be noticeably faster than ADSL, ADSL Max, ADSL Plus or LLU.

In time, Fibre will be accepted as the standard “High Speed Internet” and compared to ADSL just as ADSL is compared to Dial up now.

 

Fibre is coming to Saddleworth on September 30th 2011

Recently I saw a BT engineer laying Fibre cable on High Street in Uppermill, he was a pleasant chap so we had a chat about what he was doing.
He mentioned there was a blockage further up the street by the Hardware shop, but once that was fixed, then that’d complete the job.
The next day, the poor chap was outside the Hardware shop in the rain, no doubt unblocking things and finishing the job!

The latest expected activation date for Saddleworth provided by BT is September 30th, although the date has been put back a couple of times already (which has kind of messed up some of the resellers’ marketing campaigns!)  Having said that, now that the cable has been laid, and is only about a month away, I think it’s we can reasonably expect them to keep to this schedule now.
Note – BT call their Fibre package “BT Infinity” and tend not to mention the word “Fibre” for some reason.

You can check if you can get Fibre, and if/when it’s expected by using this online Infinity check with BT

Things to know about Fibre in Saddleworth:

You may have seen some companies advertising the service of Fibre coming to Saddleworth.
But you should be aware that it’s actually BT who provide the exchange, cabinet and cable to your house.
Other companies then resell this service and in some cases are able to offer better deals than BT themselves can.  They may also provide their own engineer to do the setup at your premises.

But do take care when comparing Fibre Broadband Service Providers – cost is not the only consideration.  You may also want to think about things like:

  • Your Existing Setup
  • Installation Service
  • Included Router or Modem
  • Maximum Allowed Download Speed
  • Maximum Allowed Upload Speed
  • Inclusion of other services (such as Telephone Calls, WiFi, Static IP Address, Webspace)
  • Contract Length
  • Monthly Usage Limit (offpeak and on-peak)
  • Any Traffic Shaping or Port Blocking
  • Tech Support Availability
  • Call Centre location
As I work as an Internet business from home, I’m quite a demanding user, so am looking for the fastest: (40Mb/s down and 10p Mb/s up) service
So far I’ve found the following options:
Provider
Package		 Monthly Usage Limit Contract Length  Extras / Notes Setup Cost Monthly Cost
BT
More Broadband and Calls
with superfast BT Infinity broadband		 40GB 18 Months Includes BT Home Hub Router
Free Weekend Calls
Free BT Openzone or BT Fon WiFi Access		 Free £7.50 for 3 Months
Then £18 per month
BT
Unlimited Broadband and Call
with superfast BT Infinity broadband		 Unlimited 18 Months Includes BT Home Hub Router
Free Anytime Calls
Free BT Openzone or BT Fon WiFi Access		 Free £20 for 3 months
Then £28 per month
BT
Superfast BT Infinity broadband		 Unlimited 18 Months This is if you have a BT Phone Line Already
Includes BT Home Hub Router
Free BT Openzone or BT Fon WiFi Access		 Free £25.60 a month
ADSL 24
Fibre 15 Pro 		 15GB Peak (8am – Midnight)
Unlimited Off Peak		 12 Months Includes Fibre Modem
Includes Static IP
200 MB webspace
Unlimited e-mail accounts		 £49 £21.90 a month
ADSL 24
Fibre 30 Pro 		 30GB Peak (8am – Midnight)
Unlimited Off Peak		 12 Months Includes Fibre Modem
Includes Static IP
200 MB webspace
Unlimited e-mail accounts		 £49 £27.90 a month
ADSL 24
Fibre 60 Pro 		 60GB Peak (8am – Midnight)
Unlimited Off Peak		 12 Months Includes Fibre Modem
Includes Static IP
200 MB webspace
Unlimited e-mail accounts		 £49 £39.90 a month
ADSL 24
Fibre 90 Pro 		 90GB Peak (8am – Midnight)
Unlimited Off Peak		 12 Months Includes Fibre Modem
Includes Static IP
200 MB webspace
Unlimited e-mail accounts		 £49 £50.90 a month
Zen
Fibre Office		 200GB 12 Months Requires Additional Router (starting at £50)
Includes 1 or 8 Static IP Addresses
Includes 11 POP3 Mailboxes
2GB webspace		 £75 £55 a month
Zen
Fibre Office Plus		 500GB 12 Months Requires Additional Router (starting at £50)
Includes 1 or 8 Static IP Addresses
Includes 11 POP3 Mailboxes
2GB webspace		 £75 £65 a month

It’s worth noting that this is only how I’ve interpreted each supplier’s offers from reading them on their web sites.
You should check each provider’s details for yourself, and note that this table is subject to errors and omissions, and also that “Unlimited” usually does mean subject to some kind of limit such as a fair usage policy  :-)

Please also keep in mind that all of these services require you to have a BT phone line at your premises, so you will need to consider that as part of your budget as well.

 

At the moment it seems like BT is offering the best deal for me personally, as they’re the only provider to offer unlimited usage (subject to a fair usage policy)
- only because I live on the Internet day and night!
On the downside, I don’t like the fact they’re asking for an 18 month contract, and it also does seem like existing BT customers like me don’t get such a good deal as new customers – so I think it’d be worth a call to BT to clarify that, as I’d quite like Free Anytime Calls and cheaper pricing for the first 3 months!!

I’d also be interested to know if BT can offer a static IP as their competitors do, and if they do any kind of port blocking or traffic shaping – probably these geeky technical considerations will not affect the average user, but I like to know the whole story!

At this time, from just browsing their web sites, it’s not so clear what Zen or ADSL 24 are offering in addition to what BT are offering to justify their higher prices or restrictions on usage, but again, it might be worth a phone call to see what they say about that.

Like anything else, the early adopters of a service or product usually pay more than those that patiently hang around, so do keep in mind that over time it’s likely that these and other service providers will offer even better deals than these.  Having said that, these prices are not unique to Saddleworth and Fibre has been provided to other areas for some time now, so pricing and competition has already had some time to settle down.

 

I’ve also found this rather good explanation of Fibre and comparison of prices from Think Broadband, although their prices don’t seem to always match those of the suppliers, so again, it’s worth just using this information as a guide and doing your own research to confirm the details and get the best deal to suit you.

 

As soon as Fibre becomes available in Saddleworth, I’ll be calling BT, Zen, ADSL24 and perhaps some other service providers to find out more about their services and will write about them here.

If anyone has had any experiences of Fibre already, or can offer any advice about these or any other service providers, please do comment below and share your experiences.

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By urbanhaze | Also posted in Saddleworth, Urban Haze | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments (5)

Do You Want Something for Nothing? – Then Freecycle!

10/06/2011 – 1:15 pm

Freecycle LogoThese days times are hard and everybody is looking for any little way they can find that helps.

Freecycling is one of those ways, and there’s a local Freecycle Group right here in Saddleworth

What is Freecycling?

It’s a really great idea to simply put people who want to get rid of things in touch with people who want those things!

There are two aspects:

  1. If somebody doesn’t want something any more
    They advertise it on freecycle and if somebody wants it, they come and collect it

  2. If somebody wants something in particular
    They ask the freecycle members if anyone has got one – if they do, then they collect it

So it sounds a bit like eBay right? – but with one major difference:

It’s all FREE!

(OK, you’ve got petrol costs to go and collect it the item – but it’s local, so it shouldn’t be too far to go!)

As I mentioned before there’s a local group right here in Saddleworth, but there are other groups all over the world, simply find your local group by going to the Freecycle Network web site

Sounds Great, How do I do it?

It’s all been well thought out by the people who set up Freecycle and is very easy:

If you live in Saddleworth, then go to the Freecycle Saddleworth Site, from there go to the Yahoo Group and Sign Up

If you don’t live in Saddleworth, the chances are that there will still be a Freecyle Scheme somewhere near you – Search on the Freecycle Web Site for your nearest group

Then what happens?

Once you’ve gone through the registration process (just be patient, it takes a little effort and time as it’s managed by volunteers, but it’s worth it to get stuff for free!), then you’ll become a member.

From there you’ll start receiving emails from local FreeCycle members, which explain in the subject what it’s all about such as:

  • [SaddleworthFreeCycle] OFFERED: Espresso Maker Diggle
    For somebody offering an item at that location
  • [SaddleworthFreeCycle] TAKEN: Baby Car Seat Delph
    For somebody having an interest in taking that item at that location
  • [SaddleworthFreeCycle] RECEIVED: Baby Car Seat Delph
    To explain the item has now been collected and is no longer available
  • [SaddleworthFreeCycle] WANTED: Gas Cooker
    For somebody wanting an item

It’s easy enough, each Freecycle email has a handy reminder to explain how it works, and the Freecycle web site will show you how it works in much greater detail,

JMB Breadmaker from Freecycle

JMB Breadmaker from Freecycle

What kind of Stuff is on There?

Well, you never know, but much like the lottery, you’ve got to be in it to win it!

 

I’ve recently received a JMB breadmaker, which I’m very pleased with!

Here’s a list of some of the items that have been on Saddleworth Freecycle recently:

Baby Gates, Baby Car Seat, Crockery, Dyson Hoover, Electric Towel Rail, Fridge Freezer, Gas Cooker, Krups Espresso Maker, Laptop PC, Plasterboard, Wooden Futon, Ikea Bedside Lamp, Mountain Bike, Dulux Paint, HDTV, Body Board, Video Recorder, Dial Up Modem, Carpet, Tent, Clothes Rails, Tickets to the Ballet, Gas Cylinders, Stone, Wood, Wall Lights, Curtains, Printer, Roof Bars, Computer Memory, Hamster House, Pedal Bin…and so on!

There’s a wide variety of things on Freecycle and you never know what’s going to appear.

 

What’s the Downside?

The only major downside that I can see is that you’re going to get more emails, as every item has an email for offered taken and received, plus its unlikely that any item offered will have any kind of guarantee – but then you are getting something for nothing!

Plus you’ll need to put in the effort to collect any item that you want.

As somebody offering the item, there’s no guarantees that anybody will want it – but then surely it’s better to try rather than throw it away!
Plus if you’ve seen a recent episode of BBC’s The Apprentice – you may now that sometimes it costs to have some items taken away!

And of course, as a disclaimer:
You should always take care when things involve meeting strangers
Although so far my experience of Saddleworth Freecyclers is that they are lovely folk!

Freecylcing does rely on people being kind enough to offer their items for free - fortunately, there seem to be quite a few people like that round here at the moment

 

If you’ve enjoyed reading this article and found it useful, then perhaps you would like to hear similar tips about useful online resources, local information and information related to Internet and IT, if so, then please subscribe to our newsletter!

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By urbanhaze | Also posted in Saddleworth | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

What’s the Purpose of Your Web Site?

08/06/2011 – 1:41 pm

One of the questions I like to ask my customers is:

“What is the Purpose of Your Web Site?”

It sounds straight forward enough but actually, I tend to find it’s sometimes something that’s not so easily answered, but taking the time to get to the bottom of this matter can really help you achieve the difference between a regular web site and a really great site that works hard for your business.

Some people wrongly assume that online sales is the only way your site can make you money

Whilst online sales shouldn’t be ignored there are other ways that your web site can work hard for your business…

Urban Haze Logo
Ten years ago, most web sites were simply about “Marketing” – if you didn’t have a web site, then your business wasn’t seen as forward thinking.
Most web sites followed the standard format of:

  • Home
  • About
  • Products/Services
  • Contact Us

And perhaps a few additional pages – with some sites including online sales as an expensive add on..

But, it’s not really surprising that in ten years, the web (of all places!) has moved on and had advancements both in technology and usage.  Don’t get me wrong, it is still important that your business can be found online, but now web sites serve so many more purposes as well.

A modern web site should work as hard for your business as an employee would – and rightly so too, after all, you’re paying for it!

E-commerce (online sales) have become more common, more integrated and moved into a more reasonable price bracket for the small business, but online sales may not be appropriate for every business, and it’s important not to get too hung up in thinking that your web site should still work like a ten year old one!

It’s pretty common sense to say that businesses tend to rely on having customers in order to survive and grow

So it’s fair to say that one of the main purposes of a business’s web site should surely be to acquire new customers.

That sounds like common sense too right? – But take a long hard look at your web site, can you honestly say that it has been optimally designed with that in mind?

Many web sites fall foul of this first trap – they’re so busy talking about their products and services (though these are still important things!) – but they’re so busy talking about these things, that they can miss the obvious step of “Now you’ve read how great we are, become one of our customers!”

In Marketing terms we call this CTA – Call To Action

Generally speaking people read from Top to Bottom – so the optimum place for your CTA is at the bottom of your web page, right after you’ve made your main message (take a look at our page footer!)

 

Loyalty

One of the other simple things a web site can do is generate customer loyalty, once they’ve become interested in your business, keep them interested, keep them coming back for more!

Sounds simple right?  But again, take a step back and a long hard look at your web site – is there really a good reason for people to keep coming back?
One of the things that will encourage people to return to your site is if it has something new to offer.

Blogging is just one way of easily getting new information onto your site and give your visitors new information that they crave!
There are plenty of other ways – but I don’t want to give away all our trade secrets at once, so you’ll have to keep coming back if you want more! ;)

 

Other Specific Purposes

Other purposes of a site can depend on the unique nature of any business for example:

  • You may wish to show off a portfolio of your work
  • You may wish to tell people about your successes (to give your business credibility)
  • You may have useful information or advice that you wish to give away (just because you’re feeling generous!)

The important thing is that whatever your business does and whatever the purpose of your web site is, the Internet now offers new ways for your web site can work harder for you.

 

So if you’d like to find out more about how your web site can work harder for your business and make more money for you, then please contact us

You can also sign up for our free Newsletter which will send you more free tips, updates and local information
(see what I did there?!)

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By urbanhaze | Also posted in Marketing | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Trade Secrets to Building Outstanding Web Sites

16/05/2011 – 9:00 am

Urban Haze LogoI get asked quite a lot about how to make a web site stand out from the crowd.

As somebody who’s been lucky enough to have had years of experience in Corporate Environments before moving on to start up my own business, I can tell you that there are quite a lot of trade secrets out there to make your site something special that really does stand out from your competition.

And whilst I’ve got a business to run and can’t go giving away all of our trade secrets (!), in a fit of madness I’ve decided to share a few of those secrets to help those people who want to have a go at things themselves…

The first thing to know about having a good web site is:

Content is King

What I mean by that is that you can have the prettiest, most functional web site in the World, but it’s just not going to be used or found if it doesn’t contain any useful information.

This means that the first cold hard fact is that it’s down to you to do the work and create some good content on your own site

Whether it’s text or pictures or some kind of useful information in a database, I’m really happy to say that one of the reasons Urban Haze’s customers have excellent, successful web sites is simply down to the customers’ own expertise in their fields and their willingness and enthusiasm to share that expertise and information through their online presences.

Please take a look at our portfolio if you’d like to see some of the success stories

 

The next thing to know about a good web site is this:

Design Isn’t Everything

Web sites are very personal things, and if you’re writing your own web site, then it’s sometimes very difficult to see the wood for the trees.

By this I mean that it’s very easy to take the look and feel of your site very close to heart and to get so wrapped up in tweaking the design that you never actually have enough time or effort left to be able to produce good content in your site.

Consider for a moment one of the most popular web sites in the World: Google

Have you ever seen a more basic, uglier design?!  It’s a big empty white page with a multi-coloured logo and a big box to type in what you want
….yet it’s one of the most popular sites on the World

Why?
Because (this brings us back to the first point) “content is king” – behind that simple design Google have a spectacular database of information that is so cleverly created to allow you to type whatever you want in that big box, and find high quality search results that are very much related to what you wanted to find.

Now, we can’t all be as successful as Google from the start, but we can learn from their success.

In order to have a good web site, you need to separate your online presence into a few different parts:

  • Content
  • Functionality
  • Design

That doesn’t mean you should ignore design completely, a good simple design will help make your site look attractive and not distract from the content.

If your business has a brand, then consider creating a design for your web site to match that brand

If you don’t have a brand yet, then you may want to create one, alternatively you may choose not to have one so that you’re completely open to have any design on your site, including one of the many thousands of free template designs that are out there

If you need help creating a brand from scratch or a template to match your brand then Urban Haze can help – please contact us for more information

 

At this point I’m going to give away another trade secret…

When building your web site ALWAYS choose a Content Management System

10 years ago, people built web sites using tools like DreamWeaver and FrontPage – and at the time these tools did an excellent job of hiding the HTML code from the person writing the site, so that they could get on with writing good content, then Software would take care of the code for you and publish everything up to the web for you, usually using something like FTP.

All of this meant that you needed to have some technical know-how in order to get your web software up and running on your computer, then it’d do it’s best to hide the code from you and let you get on with creating your web site.

Having said that, it was usually necessary to have enough technical know-how of how web sites worked, and sometimes there was also some painful maintenance of links and templates and things like that that made things a bind and eventually led to stressful late nights and grey hairs!

Of course, 10 years on and the web (unsurprisingly) has had advances in technology itself – perhaps more so than anywhere else, but these advances are not so well known.
(Again I blame my fellow geeks for hiding the technology that actually makes life easier!)

Perhaps one of the biggest advances is something called a “Content Management Systems (CMS)” and whilst us geeks love to give things complicated names and acronyms to scare the bejezus out of people and try to put them off having a go themselves (because we used to have to always pick up the pieces!), the truth is that a CMS  is not a scary thing at all – in fact quite the opposite, they’re designed to make publishing web sites easy, and if you have a go, you’ll find that it doesn’t break and there are no pieces left for the geeks to pick up!

A good CMS will hide the complexities of web publishing from the user, so that they can get on with creating good content, without being disturbed by technicalities

What a CMS does is make a “template” for your web site, and then each time you create content, it uses that template to create a web page with a fixed design around your page.  And there are usually also clever extra bits that look after creating the menus and other things automatically for you.

The important thing to note is that the CMS lets you easily create the content whilst all the technical functionality and design is left within the surrounding CMS template

So this achieves one of the core principles of separating content from design and functionality.

 

Time to give away my next trade secret….

Choose WordPress.org for your Content Management System

WordPress LogoWordPress is a great FREE tool that comes in two flavours:

  1. WordPress.com – where WordPress hosts your site for you
  2. WordPress.org – where you use WordPress on your own site

Now, the second option, WordPress.org is best almost every time because you’re going to want to use www.yourname.com or .co.uk for your site, so that means that you need your own site rather than one that’s part of WordPress.com – which would be http://yourname.wordpress.com – This technique is called a subdomain, and isn’t going to give you your complete branding without including WordPress’s name in your address too.

Unfortunately the second option does need a little bit of technical skill – but the good news is not too much!

You need your own hosting, and there are thousands of hosting providers out there.

In order to run WordPress on your hosting, you need two key things:

  1. PHP hosting
  2. a MySQL Database

Again, these services are provided by many hosts, and I’d recommend looking at 1&1 Linux Hosting who offer a very professional hosting service with a range of packages – which support PHP and MySQL, as well as providing simple management tools to let you order a domain name and point it at your hosting.

Once you’ve got your hosting, you can follow WordPress’s excellent online help and instructions to complete their famous 5 minute installation

I’m going to leave WordPress at this point – you have to do your homework, to be honest, I’ve never managed myself to do this in 5 minutes yet, but have done it in 20!

If you need help with setting up WordPress then Urban Haze is more than willing to help with as much or as little help as you need, please contact us for more details

 

Time to give away my next to last trade secret….

Make Sure Your Site Includes a Blog

Blogging is another one of those words us geeks have invented to make something simple sound complicated!

Blogging is quite simply News

But here’s the thing – your web site may contain say 12 web pages of information about your area of business, but every time you add a single blog, you’ll create another web page.

What this means is that even if you only blog just once a month, in a year you will have DOUBLED the amount of information on your site about your business, and most importantly, you will have DOUBLED the chances of your site being found by search engines like Google, Bing or Yahoo

Once again we come back to the first point “Content is King” – the more you blog, the more you’ll write about your area of expertise and the more your site will become an authority on that subject.

Quite simply, the more of an authority you become and the more interest people will take in your site.

 

Here comes my last trade secret….

Your Web Site Alone Does not Make a Successful Online Business

OK so you’ve bought your hosting, built your lovely WordPress site, filled it up with interesting content and have been blogging furiously, but that I’m afraid is not enough!

You Must Do Online Marketing As Well!

You can have the best web site in the world, but if people don’t know about it and can’t find it, you’re wasting your money and efforts.

 

It’s all very well and good having Auntie Vera tell you that your new web site is “Lovely Darling” – but that isn’t necessarily a reflection of your entire audience!

Get some Analytics on your site to help you measure your site – I’d recommend Google Analytics to anyone, they’re quite easy to use and understand, they’ll give you some superb insights into your online presence.

Next get your web site out there in every way you can imagine

  • Make sure all the Major Search Engines Can Find It
  • Tweet about It
  • Facebook about It
  • Join Forums and Groups in your industry and talk about your site
  • Try to get links from other web site (but do NOT buy links!)

Online Marketing is absolutely Key to making your web site a success.

 

Fortunately Urban Haze are experts in Online Marketing, and whilst we’ve run out of generosity for handing out trade secrets in this particular blog post, please stay tuned and consider signing up for our Newsletter if you’d like to find out other trade secrets and more details about some of the things we’ve discussed here.

If you can’t wait, then you can always contact us for more information!

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By urbanhaze | Also posted in Analytics, Marketing, Search Engines, Twitter, Urban Haze | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

Urban Haze Hosts Twestival Oldham Online Auction

19/03/2011 – 5:30 pm

Twestival Oldham LogoWe’re really proud to be hosting Twestival Oldham’s amazing Auction for things that money can’t buy.

There are some amazing things to bid on such as:

  • A SIGNED copy of Professor Brian Cox’s Latest Book, Wonders of the Universe
  • A SIGNED Latics Shirt
  • An amazing night in a kitchen with an award winning chef
  • Golf Lessons with a Oldham’s Golf Pro

…and even more other great items too

Please bid generously as every penny raised goes to Oldham Mountain Rescue

So, click on over to the Twestival Oldham Auction Page and place your bid now!

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By urbanhaze | Also posted in Twitter, Urban Haze | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)