Social Blog

First Look: Playstation Move

2010-03-12T02:24:32Z

These are my opinions on the Sony Playstation Move.

2010 Shaping Up?

2010-03-11T23:04:02Z

All day today I have been in one of those deep thinking type of moods. 2010 is promising to be a great year for me and my company with recent success and the other things we have planed.

This got me thinking; what do you have planned for 2010? Or like me did you already have plans that are starting to come together? So many people have ideas or visions in their minds of what they would like to do, but generally don't think they can because of "time," "money," or "resources," but should this really stop you from reaching your goal?

Will one of you guys be the next big thing? Founder of the next big idea? eBay was started in a garage. Why can't another success story be any different?

So why don't you share your plans for this year or what you would like to do in the future. Networking is a big key to success and what better networking tool is there than the Internet?

Woody

Evolution of iPods 2001-2010

2010-03-11T18:54:05Z

Apple has always been an inspiration to me, so I decided to make a "tribute" to Apple. All the iPods since the beginning. It really is quite cool to watch. I also used music from Wall-E, because it is one of my favorite movies, besides Avatar.

Subscribe to me on YouTube: http://youtube.com/itsthemacaddict

Blogging with iWork

2010-03-11T11:56:46Z

I've posted a few videos and blog articles praising iWork for it's functionality, ease of use and clean interface. Now, I get to add a new word to the list: flexibility. You can use iWork's suite of tools for any number of things. Pages for simple documents or creative advertising. Numbers for accounting or a middle school pie chart. Keynote for a presentation or an animation. But what would you say if I added the idea of an online blog to the mix?
When you combine iWork and iWork.com, that's exactly what you can get. With Pages, you can create professional, magazine style, blogs that you can customize any way you want or simply use one of the pre-installed templates. When you want to publish, upload it as an iWork.com document and send updates to your user list. You can even use a dot.tk domain or your own to redirect it to your iWork shared documents folders. Users can then logon and view your post.

Downsides

The biggest downside is the lack of exposure you get with iWork.com. Setting up a domain is a little more difficult and users don't want to have to create an Apple account if they don't already have one. You also don't get as many complex tools that a regular blog site would offer such as statistics and rich HTML editing.

The Perks

I'll admit, I'm not switching over to this system any time soon but there are still some perks about it. You can easily update users on your mail list with every upload to iWork.com and allow them to comment with ease on every one of your posts. iWork.com also has a very impressive, easy and professional looking interface. When viewing documents, users have a helpful sidebar in the left that allows them to change pages along with a right sidebar with options and the comment box. When they return to your shared documents page, users will see a very clean layout of all the documents you've published and they can selected them accordingly to view them. As far as editing, there are hardly any drawbacks. iWork offers a great page creation experience in pages. Instead of clunky HTML, you get a very easy to use, ready made, drag and drop interface. You can use the provided templates or create your own. Then, just drop in some pictures, fill in the texts and hit the publish button.
Though it's a rather new concept for bloggers, it might prove to be a great new, and free alternative to creating a professional online magazine or blog. I might actually end up making an alternative version of the site on iWork.com just to see how it would work out. If it works decently, I might switch over and not pay a dime for web hosting or domains.

The Infinite Playlist #2: New Puppie!

2010-03-10T23:05:58Z

The second episode of "The Infinite Playlist" is now available!

You can download it straight from our website at http://www.infiniteplaylist.co.nr under "The Infinite Playlist," or you can download the episode and subscribe in iTunes by clicking here.

Complete show notes are available at the website.

Official iPad Ad

2010-03-09T22:53:53Z

In case you missed the iPad ad during the Oscars, here it is. This video is property of its respective owners. Hope you enjoy! Are you getting an iPad? Leave a comment! New video coming very soon! Keep watch and subscribe!

Subscribe to my YouTube: http://youtube.com/itsthemacaddict

Building A Successful Online Shop

2010-03-09T22:16:35Z

I get asked often by my clients on what I feel makes an online shop successful or a failure. Simple question for a web designer specializing in e-commerce to answer you would say? Well... not really.

Building an online shop for your company is not as easy as people may think. Yes, there are alot of tools out there for merchants to use for help. However there isn’t a “How To Guide” on e-commerce; well not one that will actually help you anyway! So I thought I would write a little article on some areas that you should pay attention to in selling online.

The Difference Between a website and a online shop
Seems to simple doesn’t it, but many people fall into the same trap of thinking an online shop can be in the context of a information website or blog for instance , however this unfortunately isn’t the case. An online shop needs to be designed & laid out in such a way that a potential customer doesn’t think about the money they are about to spend, Getting the customer from the homepage to the checkout stages of a website as quickly as possible. Something that is also very big on information or blog website are advertisements...Online shops should never have adverts that don’t link to an internal page.

The Right Design
One of the major areas of concern within is the shops design, So easy to get wrong an yet can be so hard to get right at the same time. One tip i always give is to keep the design on theme with your products or services, no point in setting a shop up if the design represents school supplies if your selling computers is there. Another area of a shop’s design that should have some thought put into is the layout , Keep it simple & clean...nothing worse than a shop you cant navigate to where you want to go.

Payment Options
This is a tricky area to discuss as i’m aware alot of the social blog viewers are American and as i’m from the UK it’s hard to advise on payment processors. However a payment solution that everybody is familiar with is paypal , most people that shop online have had some interaction with their solution however paypal isn't the best service to use with an online shop as their transaction fee’s are generally very high and can easily mount up and eat into the profit of a new company. It’s very important to shop around and get the best deal from the company that give you and your company the services & tools you need.

SEO
Yes , commonly known as the most boring part of e-commerce , a long winded and potentially painful job for you to have to do. Know their are companies that offer SEO services...my company for example, however you have to be extremely careful in employing an agency to do help you with this area , cost can mount up to £1000’s and not always work , SEO is a trial and error job and can take months for it to take effect. So be prepared for this and don’t think your efforts are being wasted.

Now i have only really covered some of the basics of online shopping , there so many more areas that need attention paying to them. For people that are thinking of getting into the world of e-commerce i would say go in with your eyes wide open of the work that is involved and don’t be scared to ask for help in areas your not sure about.

If you want to know some more or have a question you can email me on mike@woodydesign.co.uk or get in touch with me through twitter at www.twitter.com/woodydesign

Woody

This Week in Sports 2010: Week 9

2010-03-09T02:17:10Z

As we get closer and closer to the Big Dance, we start to see more and more teams competing harder and harder, and we see the true colors of bubble teams. There are a few conference tournaments going on this week, but most are next week, including the MWC Conference Tournament in Las Vegas which I will be attending! But College Basketball was not the only thing going on this week.

Spring Training started in the MLB this week. Everyone keeping an eye on the Yankees, who are now Johnny Damon-less, Roy Halladay’s first pitches with the Phillies, and all the new additions to the Red Sox rotation. I am also proud to say that Tampa Bay is now 4-1, taking down the Yankees, Red Sox, and Phillies along with a loss and win to Baltimore. I was slightly skeptical on the Rays this year, but Rafael Soriano is doing a good job and the real bright spot is Sean Rodriguez who was in the Scot Kazmir trade last year.

Free Agency started in the NFL this week. The major players moving were Julius Peppers going to Chicago, Kerry Rhodes going to the Cards, Anquan Boldin going to Baltimore, and Antonio Cromartie was traded from the Chargers to the Jets for a 2011 3rd round pick. LaDanian Tomlinson, Thomas Jones, and Brandon Marshall are all still available, but probably not for long. The Bears were busy this week and picked up Chester Taylor as well. And the Panthers said good by to Jake Delhomme, who was very emotional during the good-by press conference, and admitted the move “blind sided” him. In a side note about the NFL, Steeler’s QB Ben Roethlisberger was once again accused of sexual assault by a female college student in Georgia. Witnesses say they saw nothing that would indicate any wrong doing by the Steeler QB, but this is not the first time Ben has been accused.

Also my prayers go out to Rodney Stuckey and his family. The Detroit Pistons point guard suffered a seizure during the game against the Cavaliers and Friday. Stuckey was taken to the hospital on a stretcher after being treated by EMT’s on the court for 12 minutes. He returned to Detroit after spending the night with the team trainer in the hospital.

http://twitter.com/WebReddy

Buzzie iPhone App Review

2010-03-09T00:13:13Z

Please View in HD.

Buzzie is a great start and I hope to seen updates in the near future that could turn this app into a power house. I recommend this to anyone who uses google buzz. And I also recommend other app designers look at this interface for pointer. Thanks again Alberto for letting me review your app.

twitter.com/onemorereviewer

Best Buy Gift Card Giveaway Winner

2010-03-08T18:33:03Z

This video is just announcing the winner of my latest giveaway.

-Cannon

Congratulations "TheRealImJom"