I am the sort of person who occasionally checks back on previous employers, hoping that the continue to grow and succeed even after my departure. I have had good and bad departures from companies over the years, as is probably true of most of us. However it is often rare that someone can move to a company and get a lot of direct control over the way it is run or doing business.

When I arrived in Australia I saw an editorial in the Mandurah Life Magazine regarding the importance of the web, it was written by Gareth Lane of Concise Services. The article was speaking my language, but upon further research I noticed they could benefit from my experience. There was no job advertised, but just thought I would enquire as to any possibilities that may be present. After a great informal chat, I was offered a position and took it up!

When I first arrived I think it was fair to say that the company was going ok, it wasn’t really setting the world alight, but it was managing – however the biggest thing I noticed is that it needed guidance. I was fortunate in that Gareth had faith in my knowledge and experience, so much so that I was able to implement a re-brand whilst improve a lot of business practices. One big area was the redesign and build of the website, which, whilst development is still ongoing (I am told) is actually generating a lot of enquiries. I helped to identify key ways to promote the business, both to new and existing customers. I know during my time there the quality of client improved 10 fold.

So when I heard the news that this fantastic little web design company from Mandurah had won a small business award I was as pleased and proud as the current employees. Business awards are ways of adding real authority behind your business, and it was good to see the seeds I had sown, through implementing better business practices, new branding and improved internal marketing had been continued and enhanced further since I left.

Whilst I was only at Concise for about 5 months, it was and may forever be a career highlight. For the first time in my career I was allowed to push real creative elements, I was given creative control, and through using my experience and applying my knowledge I helped this company grow. In just over a weeks time they are due to open a new office. A lot can be achieved by employers listening to their staff, and it is fair to say that it is the new recruits, paired with Gareth’s enthusiasm who continue to drive the company forward. Click here for more information about the award they have won.

Filed under: SEO, PPC, Design by Moley
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I was just reading a great post about daydreaming from the Boston Globe, a subject close to my heart – ironically I cam currently reading the book evolve your brain which is a great book focusing on similar content.

What was interesting about the article was that it touched upon children turning to television to cure boredom. My concern is that perhaps, on a greater level we are all turning to other means to cure boredom. Whether those means are the internet, blogs, televisions, computer games and beer (not in that order).

By creating new ways to stop boredom, are we actually creating new ways to stop creativity? If Day dreaming is the link between theoretical thinking and creativity, then surely we need to create more ways to expand ways to allow our minds to wander, instead of actually squeezing our creative element.

I suppose if we look back through history, creativity, or creative thinking has been both good and bad. For instance, had Hitler had access to a PS3, then it is possible he may never have found the time to daydream, and obviously form the Nazi party, which murdered millions of people. If Hitler had never helped to start World War 2, then there is every chance that perhaps the Atomic Bomb may never have been developed.

Additionally without the development of the Atomic and then Nucleur Bombs, then it is possible the Cold War may not have occured. Cuba would not have the restrictions placed on it, the West might have a higher regard for Russia, and vice versa. Perhaps day dreaming is a dangerous thing? Too much time to ponder about certain things can drastically alter our environment.

However by the same token, without daydreaming, it is possible Albert Einstein might have been watching Baywatch, instead of working out the formula E=Mc2. Hundreds of scientists wouldn’t have considered novel ways of treating illness or disease if they were stuck in modern day chatrooms, discussing celebs or the latest tunes.

There is no doubt, day dreaming, the forming of ideas independant of influence, has truly effected the world and the human race historically, both for good and bad. For most of us, we probably have used day dreams as a release from our lives, or to deal with things, I often use it to try and be creative. It almost seems ironic, that fantastic products like TVs, the net, and computer game consoles, all the product of day dreaming, may actually now blunt true creativity, by stopping independant thinking.

Is this good or bad? Has mankind progressed so much that we are hitting a brickwall. We have day dreamed so much, historically, that now we are restricting the ability of many to day dream, thus restricting ideas and creativity.

Boredom is, well, boring! However I will continue to take my 30mins of boredom on the train each morning to work, and float off into my own little world, hoping to find the next big idea. It might not happen, but at least I am allowing myself to try and be creative. Lets hope, the people who want to do good in the world can also exercise that mindset, whilst those obsessed with death and destruction, keep boredom at bay with the lastest offerings from satellite TV or computer games!

Filed under: Ramblings by Moley
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For those of you who use Adwords, please feel free to view my recent article on www.SEOmoz.org regarding reducing keyword costs by using Adwords editor.

The article is short, and lacks a lot of substance, but I have found this technique quite interesting and it has helped to reduce some of the costs per click associated with running paid search campaigns. On a side note, anyone looking for more information about search engine optimisation would do well to pay SEOmoz.org a regular visit, as both the blog posts from site staff, and contributors (like myself ) regularly post extremely useful information offering good advice.

Hope the article is of some use!

Filed under: SEO, PPC, Design by Moley
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I quite often like to take a look at Web Pages That Suck, it reminds me that I can design decent websites, and that there is a lot of word still to be done! What amazes me though is the massive amount of websites which either do not have a clue, try to be too clever or perhaps just make me want to use words which would be innappropriate on such a public website.

Whilst there is a lot of drivel out there, there is always the odd site, which goes that much further, I know I know, it is hard to imagine just how bad some websites can be, but let me introduce for your entertainment only http://www.havenworks.com/ - without doubt, one of the worse websites I have ever had the displeasure of seeing!

In fact the website is so bad, I just don’t know where to begin! It is information overload on a massive scale, yet the information has no hierachy, and the colours only detract from what the content of the site is actually about. So rather than me comment, I will let you be the judge, if ever there was a lesson on how NOT to design your website, then this site would be lesson 1-25.

Filed under: Bad website design by Moley
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Just thought I would send out a quick update based on my previous post, the great blogging experiment.

Firstly, July 2008, was the first month my blog had any action on my site, to cap off that month my stats were as follows:

• 98 Visits
• 69 Search Engines
• 16 Referring sites
• 13 Direct Traffic

August 2008, has been the first month of the blog being live for the whole month. I have been quite surprised by some of the statistics.

• 535 Visits
• 104 Search Engines
• 293 Referring Sites
• 138 Direct Traffic

Now I will advise you to ignore both the Referring Sites and Direct Traffic data, this has been influenced by joining a few site networks, and thus I am going to exclude this from discussion and instead focus on the search engine benefit alone.

In June 2008, 2 months ago, search engines only generated 17 visits to my site. Since adding the blog, within 2 month, traffic has increased by around 900% – up to 104 visits. The figures also indicate that the blog section of my site is now the most popular piece of content here, which is not really surprising.

I have also noticed that since I have been adding content on a regular basis, my blog posts are now indexed within hours, and generally less than 2 days. So in theory, I am currently adding between 2-6 pages of new content to the Google index each week. So realistically speaking I should be able to add at least another 200 pages of indexable content in the next 12 months! (easier said than done).

I will provide a much bigger update with more stats soon!

Filed under: SEO, PPC, Design by Moley
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