Blog entries

What people want and expect of thier websites in 2010

mork@digiflip.tv — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 21:32:09 +0100

People want to build their own website, create their own blogs, put together their own form validation process, manage their own user pool, create and administrate their own ad campaigns, and the list goes on. For an application to have success in 2010, it must allow the user to do everything and not depend on any company support or complicated FAQ page.

By Catalin Cimpanu - Top Web Trends for 2010

Well I would not recommend people to build their own website or I'd be out of work!Read More...

Static vs Dynamic Websites

mork@digiflip.tv — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 13:00:00 +0100

2005 in the web community was as I recall heralded as the year the Content Management System (CMS). Now five years later there really isn't any excuse not to be using a CMS, even if you are just a one person show.

To prove my point I've made a little comparison below:

Static vs Dynamic Websites

Comparison Point

Static Website

Dynamic Website

Change content
Only a website designer with the right skills and applicRead More...

Why online advertising can be so much better than offline

mork@digiflip.tv — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 04:12:45 +0100

Well, firstly I must say I'm no online advertiser. I prefer to stick to one thing and become a master of it, you get my drift. Anyway last week I took the plunge and launched my first Google Adwords campaign as a complete novice. After 2 days and having spent a huge $19 Aud, I had already had a enquiry from a big potential client.

Compare this to last year when I paid $250 Aud to advertise in a certain local business magazine and after 3 months had only one enquiry! (which turned out Read More...

For your own safety: Please STOP using Internet Explorer 6!

mork@digiflip.tv — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 00:10:27 +0100

If you mention 'Internet Explorer 6' within earshot of a website designer it's highly likely they will break into a cold sweat and will possibly need medical attention. Internet Explorer if you are not already aware is a 'web browser' - usually free and freely available software you use on your computer to browse the web.

Since 2001 Internet Explorer 6 (or IE6Read More...

Comparing the cost of static vs dynamic websites

mork@digiflip.tv — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 02:22:04 +0100

Static site = A site you have to pay someone to manually update

Dynamic site = A site powered by a content management system that can be managed by anybody

In early 2006 I became the new webmaster of a 10 year old static website. The clients are non profit and wanted to ensure they spent the absolute minimum on their web presencRead More...

Review of Rollip - pro online photo effects

mork@digiflip.tv — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 03:59:59 +0100

I recently came across a new site that offers professional online photo effects for your digital piccies. Seeing as though I'm a regular Photoshop user I thought 'what's the point of this? - I could do this myself in a jiffy'

Now after a quick test I must say I'm impressed and pleasantly surprised! The site is very simple to use, just choose your effect, upload your image and download it upon completion. The whole process took less than two minutes and I've never done it before.

12 ways to get the most out your website designer

mork@digiflip.tv — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 02:33:43 +0100

Designing a website isn't what it used to be back in the 90's when companies would ask someones niece or Uncle Bob to whip something up and slap it on the web. Gone are those day! thankfully. This post isn't about how to choose your website designer there are plenty of those around already. This is about how how to get the most out of your website designer from the start of your project to your ongoing relationship as your website, your business and technology grows and evolves.

I Read More...

Low budget DIY websites vs custom professional ones

mork@digiflip.tv — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 05:06:54 +0100

In the last two weeks I've noticed an emerging trend amongst professional businesses looking to be online for a low budget. In a bid to save money could it be said that they are compromising their professionalism and reducing the potential number of clients?

Of course I could be wrong as I'm biasedRead More...

A website designers client of the fiscal year award

mork@digiflip.tv — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 04:18:05 +0100

There is nothing more torturous for a visually creative person than having to do accounting. So to put off doing my accounts for a short while longer I devised a 'digiflip client of the fiscal year award'. This would allow me to create a silly graphic and play around with a drop shadow for a Read More...

JRD - Joomla Resources Directory is good for business

mork@digiflip.tv — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 23:13:40 +0100

As a Joomla obsessed website designer and developer I like to keep a very close eye on Joomla developments. The best way to do this is of course Twitter. This is how I got to help test the new JRD - Joomla Resources Directory.

The JED is directory run by Joomla that enables those who provide Joomla services list their business (for free!). I'm not a professional copywriter or marketing guru but despite my humble business decription on the JRD I'm getting some good traffic to my websRead More...

Offline marketing my online business

mork@digiflip.tv — Fri, 29 May 2009 05:49:33 +0100

The challenge:

Use my website design skills to create an offline advert thereby promoting my business locally.

The constraints:

Seeing as though my budget was small I could only afford the 1/8 Page (64mm x 90mm) advert.

The small ad meant I'd have to design my ad to be noticed amongst possiblyRead More...

Essential extensions for Joomla

mork@digiflip.tv — Wed, 20 May 2009 23:20:47 +0100

One of my favourite Joomla companies has come up with a great idea: ask everyone what thier essential extensions are for Joomla. My number one extension is the JCE wysiwyg editor, I use it as standard on all my clients sites. I'm not sure what I'd do without it. In fact I'm using it right now to write this post.

Compass Designs wrote the tutorials I used to learn how to build templates for Joomla, I feel indebted to them for that and so here is an announcement direct from them:

Lone website designer at Australia's largest IT Expo - CeBIT Sydney 2009

mork@digiflip.tv — Sat, 16 May 2009 03:37:21 +0100

Lone website designer flys to CeBIT Sydney 2009 from digiflip on Vimeo.

Well I flew away from my wife, toddler and baby to seek new clients at CeBIT. Unfortunately I didn't meet a single potential client. Although the exhibition was great. I saw some awesome things including a data center in a cargo container, usb microscopes, eye tracking, GPS laptop tracking, military grade Tablet PC's. There where delegations and representatives from Korea, UK, South Africa, China, GermanRead More...

Joomla Day Brisbane

mork@digiflip.tv — Mon, 04 May 2009 00:29:05 +0100

Yesterday I attended Joomla Day Brisbane. It was a day long conference all about my favourite open source content management system, the one I use on pretty much all my clients websites.

The conference was held at the South Bank Institute of Technology in Brisbane. Two of the Joomla core members were there and gave presentations including Andrew Eddie who kindly tought us a few new tips and tricks. He also gave us a look at Joomla 1.6 which looks to be pretty amazing indeed.

ERead More...

New Joomla VirtueMart eCommerce Book out now

mork@digiflip.tv — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 23:10:53 +0100

I've been asked by Packt Publishing to review a new book just published about building an eCommerce site in Joomla using VirtueMart. I've done a few of these now so this book will be an interesting read for me. To my knowledge it is the first book about Virtuemart published in English.

I'll publish a review as soon as I have time. In the meantime here is an excerpt from the book....

Managing Manufacturers, Vendors, and Product Categories with Joomla! E-Commerce VirtuRead More...

First page in Google six days after launch!...

mork@digiflip.tv — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 02:02:08 +0100

Due to loads of work at the moment I really haven't got time to be blogging but this is worth it...

I designed and built a low budget quick website for a company that hires out things such as portable traffic lights and so on. I just had a look on Google to see if my search engine optimisation efforts where really worth the extra time spent on the project.

I was quite surprised to see that when I typed in 'hire solar powered traffic lights' and clicked on 'pages from AustraliaRead More...

digiflip has a new joomla powered website!

mork@digiflip.tv — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 23:00:00 +0100

As you may be able to tell I have finally got round to re-designing and building my website! I've moved it across from WordPress to Joomla for many reasons. The main ones being that Joomla is easier to build templates for, more adaptable / expandable and much quicker to add content.

I was able to this project due to an unforeseen quiet period in Dec 2008 / Jan 2009. Although at the time having no work was a daunting prospect, I'm glad of it now as it has been two years since my last Read More...

Save the web! - Getup.org

mork@digiflip.tv — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 02:53:55 +0100

Hi I know that I have not posted for sometime but seeing as though this is so important I thought I had better. So go on then sign the petition and save the web!

people don’t usually read websites!

mork@digiflip.tv — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 23:00:00 +0100

Hi even though I have tons of work to get through I can't resist telling you all about this. On the Joomla blog an author wrote a post entitled - "Have questions? We have answers.". It was all about using Google to search the Joomla forum to find the answers to your questions. Nobody actually reads the post though, they just read the title and started asking questions about anything related to Joomla!

If you read down the comments it gets quite funny :)

See it in iRead More...

Low cost professional branding

mork@digiflip.tv — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 02:58:54 +0100

I just came across this site recently whilst wilfing on the job (don’t worry it may sound rude but it is not I assure you). Anyway if you need a logo at a very reasonable price then this seems like a good idea. You enter the max you are willing to pay for the ‘prize’ in USD then artists from all over the world will come Read More...