It’s finally here! Zako Media is shortly moving to South Wales. We will continue normal operations, existing websites will remain unaffected and we will be more contactable.

Why is Zako Media moving to Swansea?

We’re currently based near London and so paying what I like to call ‘London Tax’ which is basically artificially raised prices of transport, accommodation, office rent and staff. Our clients are based worldwide so we can’t fairly pass this London Tax on. Moving our web design operations to Swansea and Cardiff means we can keep our prices competitive and give us a better shot at organic business growth. We’ve operated so far without loans, debts and investments and to make the leap forward, we would like to keep it that way. Our new offices will allow physical expansion, while extra spare cash will allow us to take on more staff.

The second reason behind the move is the environment. Watford and London have very few areas of natural beauty and no access to the real sea. We have Southend 45 minutes away, but that’s really just the mouth of the Thames. Swansea has the sea on one side and the Gower on the other. Cardiff being just up the road gives us the city culture we would otherwise miss.

Other city candidates included: (and please note I mean no offense)

Norwich - Was too flat, Yovina is Mauritian brought up at the base of mountains just a stone’s throw from the seaside. The beaches were lovely but less awe inspiring scenery.
Ipswich – Very similar to Norwich
Some surrounding villages were very idyllic however, but for transport and city life, they wouldn’t have been ideal.

Portland and Weymouth
We absolutely fell in love with Portland. We have some amazing photographs of water spraying up from between the rocks. Nearly every home on Portland island has a view of the sea… it was just stunning. It has to be on hold for now unfortunately as the nearest big city really is London and it would defeat the point staying that close.

Cardiff
Another bussling city of culture. Cardiff university attracts lots of young, dynamic people and it’s a great business centre. It lacks beaches and is too close to my mum.

Liverpool
Liverpool is my father’s birthplace and I have many family members up there. It’s definitely a city of culture and business but again a little too big with less scenery nearby.

We visited each of these places for a few days (plus many others) and decided that Swansea is the perfect compromise.

Timescale, the move will be some time near the beginning of August 2009 so Swansea beware, there’s a new web designer in the area with a strong client base, amazing contacts and the passion to take over South Wales

Networking group members, invites are welcome as we will be looking to network with people in the area to see how we can help each other.

Contact us using the email address at the top of this site, or by calling: 029 2125 0010

A big part of marketing is about the image you project from inside your company as well as out. As someone who wants to come across as very helpful with a supportive and can-do attitude, I got into the habit of asking clients after my final invoice ‘How do you feel it went so far? All feedback is appreciated’

It’s a simple question but one which has proven invaluable. The latter part invited negative criticism as well. I would like to say this never happens but it does which is a good thing.

We all make mistakes… but without generalising, I make mistakes. Most mistakes I know about and fix them before the client (and in my line of work, their clients) ever notice, if it’s a big mistake I will inform the client and tell them what I’m doing up at 3am, what I’m doing to fix it and when they can expect it to be rectified. Some ‘mistakes’ go unnoticed however. Asking this question ensures that I know what they feel I did wrong, and this gives me the opportunity to put it right. When that customer is deciding whether or not to renew, that could be a make or break decision. I have so far lost only one client in 2 years.

When things are going perfectly, it instead gives me the opportunity to proudly add their comments as a testimonial or I can ask that it is submitted via Ecademy or LinkedIn.

Customer feedback is essential as there are three types of complainers:

1) Something went wrong and they tell you
2) Something went wrong and they don’t tell you
3) Nothing went wrong and they complain anyway

Number 3 is the most annoying but number 2 is dangerous for your business because they are telling someone.

This is the easy way to move number 2’s into the top slot.

The news of Michael Jackson’s passing was quickly widespread, it was probably the fastest news story ever to reach the world and it did so because of technology, namely Twitter. Within minutes of the article appearing on TMZ’s website, it was global! I was following closely using one of my favourite Twitter news tools; Twitscoop which analyses public tweats looking for patterns in real time and shows emphasis on the most common subjects.

Through Twitter, I watched accusations on Michael’s Doctor, I saw mass hatred of Parez Hilton for accusing Michael of faking his collapse.

Yesterday I saw the start of the mass moonwalk in Liverpool Street Station, I even got to watch it live online through someone’s mobile phone!

Twitter is a wonderful thing because it allows mass communication spread instantly throughout the world.

While watching the trending keywords on Twitter however, something strange happened. Jeff Goldblum’s name popped up and quickly grew. After looking into it, news of his death was spreading just as quickly. Harrison Ford also cropped up as having died or gone missing depending on the source.

News of Michael Jackson stopped people in their tracks and brought them online to Twitter. Now people are poised for news, this story went even faster!

At the time of writing, both Jeff Boldblum and Harrison Ford are alive and well (and no doubt questioning that fact Sixth Sense style)

Before Twitter, reporters researched stories before publishing. All information needed some proof before it would get published.

With Twitter, the information leaks uncontrollably and is retweeted and spread with little or no such research.

The world has become a nation of well connected, free publishers. Is this a good thing? The alternative Orwellian Internet doesn’t bare thinking about but we should learn to be ever more careful about the source of our information.

We need to learn to fight the urge to become the ‘first’ and instead become the ‘best’. I wonder where else that lesson could be applied.

Blogging isn’t new, most people have their own blogs and can see the benefits, but some people don’t, and I want to play a part in changing that. A good business blog isn’t about inane subjects like where your last holiday was spent or your new kittens (unless you’re in the holiday or animal rescue business) and if you are an expert in your chosen field, it doesn’t have to be difficult to come up with new ideas and topics.

Top 10 reasons for having a blog:

1. SEO – The search engines LOVE blogs, more and more are appearing in the top results. Google in particular is now concentrating on newer content vs old and it’s time your static website started getting a piece of that action.
2. Credibility - By releasing well worded articles, you can prove your expertise to the general public, you will build up a reputation of being knowledgable and passionate about your chosen subject and not just following an ‘it pays the bills’ mentality about your business.
3. Free links – A good article is shared with others, the link gets emailed and posted on other’s blogs and comments, the back links help both click throughs and again aid the SEO.
4. Up-to-the-minute – Almost all industries are undergoing change on a daily basis, by writing articles about these changes and how they affect your target market, you can keep people informed, especially if you’re the first to blog about it.
5. Interaction – Blogs are usually linked by keywords, once a user has finished with one blog either by reading or irrelevancy, there is the option for them to see previous articles on the same subject, this gives more exposure, more chance of being seen and shared. Again the SEO benefits are amazing.
6. Openness – Depending on the type of business and impression you want to give as a business, adding personal blogs can be a benefit. In many businesses, the USP is the individual involved. By being open and sharing shows you have nothing to hide and helps visitors build a rapport with you.
7. I’m still here – The Internet is well over a decade old, it is full of closed business and obsolete sites. By updating a dated blog, you are showing Google and your visitors that you are still operating in full force.
8. Special offers and Updates – Blogs are a great way to update clients without hitting them with constant unread newsletters. It enables them to see smaller changes within the company, new product launches and allows you to post special offers.
9. Allows overpopulation – One of the first mistakes people tend to make with new websites is to write too much information. Some visitors want that information however and the blog is a brilliant repository. You can keep your main pages clean with good sales copy and write all the technical details and performance results in an article.
10. Feedback. – A static website is relatively flat, it can act as a barrier between the visitor and the business. A blog opens the comments channel allowing visitors to play a part in the growth of your online presence. They also tend to be written in a more relaxed way helping your visitor to feel more relaxed and less defensive to sales copy.

“But I’ll run out of things to write about”

Ask for ideas, look at similar industry blogs, read your industry’s news, blog about what you see, put it into plain English.
Accountants – Tax saving tips, How the budget effects small businesses (dumbed down version), what does the expenses row mean?, why are politicians choosing to wait until the next election to stand down?
Estate Agents – What’s happening to the property market? What should first time buyers be looking out for? What can sellers do to increase their chances?
Graphic Designers – A good designer produces work which is beautiful to look at, show it! What thought processes go behind a good design? Give us case studies, explain why a blue blob with the letter ‘Y’ just cost your client £600.
Unemployed people – I’ve been talking to a young lady who’s making a small fortune by being unemployed, she’s written a book about job hunting blogged and vlogged about it and is really pushing her online profile.

The lists are endless but you get the idea.

Don’t have a blog? have I convinced you to give it a try? How about this for numbers: I don’t put much time into my own site, I spend too much time with other people’s, but every so often I post a new blog. When I do, my site traffic spikes up 50-100% within a few days before settling down at an overall 2% increase. One blog per week will double my overall site traffic every 35 weeks, one blog per day will almost double the traffic every month!!! If I stop, a decrease will start, but for now it just grows steadily.

How do you get it? You can install Wordpress straight on to your website with custom or matching themes, (or we could do it for you) or you can use one of the hundreds of free blogging websites. Wordpress again is by far the best in my personal opinion and very easy to set up and use. (I’m not on commission with Wordpress, it’s just really good, in fact this blog is using wordpress)

Is there a benefit to having it installed or using the free option?

The free option is excellent but does have some advertising on for Wordpress and links to other people’s blogs on similar subjects. Quality here is key, make sure your blog is better than the other related articles and yours will shine through. Wordpress also benefits from high seo rankings so there is a good change of being seen.

The self-hosted version loses the ads and has no competition. It helps build the seo rankings for your whole site and allows you to use your domain name, although the seo benefits may not be instant, they will be longer standing.

If you haven’t got one, get one now and happy posting.

Richard Branson’s Blog
Stephen Fry’s Blog
Ivan Misner’s Blog
Derren Brown’s Blog

Social and business networking has seriously taken off, but how did we do business before then?

Before the Internet, we had the telephone directories. A content rich book of potential clients and suppliers… the problem was we had no idea who these people were, it was a gamble every time we picked up the phone.

The search engines took over from the telephone directories but weren’t much better. As websites are cheaper to set up, it’s even easier to fall into traps and scams.

Ok go back again, before the telephone. How did people do business? Well we belonged to lots of clubs, societies and went to meetings. We had country clubs, the masons, sports clubs, big dinner parties all in the name of socialising. All the big businesspeople socialised regularly, sharing their interests and lives with each other. As needs arose, contracts went out to friends, family and friends of friends. We were people, not businesses.

This form of networking has made a big comeback online, it’s not new, it was always here and should be treated that way. If we look on it as something new, we end up making simple mistakes by trying new things, or applying the principals of ‘the website’ to these potential relationships.

“Hi, I’m Simon, I’m a web designer, you can find out about me ‘here’, do you want to connect with me?”

The classic mistake, I’ve given simple information that will only encourage people to connect if they are either desperate for a website or are interested in websites… i.e. the competition.

Change that to:

“Hi, I’m Simon, I see you are in a band, I play trumpet myself although need to bring my standard back up before looking into bands, how is the live music scene lately?”

Now I’ve read their profile, I’ve found a similarity i.e. something which we can talk about. The best thing is that the conversation will interest us both and allow a natural connection. The verb ‘To Like’ stems from ‘To BE like’. I am now showing myself as a person, a business can’t play the trumpet. (some people would argue that I can’t either but that’s open to debate)

We follow the conversation(s) through and decide to meet up for a drink (a business can’t go for a drink). I have a new friend, someone who can and will vouch for me and talk about me whenever a related conversation comes up. I will never try to sell to that friend but they will like and trust me. They already know what I do without me ramming it down their throats, I don’t have to insult their intelligence by telling them ‘I’m a web designer’ over and over. The day comes, they need a new website or just some advice, or better yet, one of their 200 clients, 10 suppliers, 400 friends or 30 family members needs a website, I’ve accidentally earned some business from this relationship.

If I never get business, I still have a friend who I can rely on when I bring my trumpet skills back up to scratch and want to find a band in my area. Oh, he’s also an accountant, I can phone him about something now my tax return is due, I need to know how to process a proportion of my rent and bills as a business expense. (while I’m there, I need a new swimming pool, the moat needs cleaning, my other house needs furnishin………

And don’t forget, relationships are bi-directional. Keep checking for replies, keep replying if one is due keep that friendship going. If your spouse kicks you out and you don’t feel you can call them to borrow their sofa, you don’t know each other well enough, keep trying!

Join in on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Ecademy etc etc. and make friends and have fun, pursue your passions and they (and the business) will pursue you. Be a person not a business. I can’t befriend a business.

And don’t forget to tell me if you like this blog, comment if you want to add or reply to this or any following comments. If you also play trumpet or are a member of a jazz band, connect with me. If you know any good free resources of some smooth jazz solos, I need something easy to get my skills and confidence back. (AND never start a new sentence with the word ‘And’ it’s grammatically incorrect.)