Octane’s new look website and blog

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Finally, the new Octane website and blog are live and in the wild. It’s taken plenty of planning, designing, coding and time, but I think the end result has been worth the wait.

So why the major overhaul of the Octane website?

I wanted a totally fresh start. But more importantly, I wanted the Octane website to be the hub of operations for all of the other stuff I’m doing.

Octane is my business, but many more people know me for my popular tech’ opinion blog, Blah, Blah! Technology. And more recently, I’ve enjoyed great success with my free ebook, The Beginner’s Guide to Social Media.

The one thing I don’t lack is content, so the purpose of the Octane website is to pull together those sources of trusted and valued information and knowledge into one place, so people can learn more about the things I offer.

Right now, you’ll find two columns of links in the footer of certain service pages, like social media and internet marketing, the Octane blog and the home page itself. However, over the course on the next month, I’ll be integrating specific articles from the other two blogs directly into service pages.

How much would a website like Octane’s cost?

Good question! A guestimate of cost would be around the £1,300.00 (Net) mark, which would include:

  • Design & Artwork — 8 hours / £360.00
  • Web Design & Development (incl. custom programming) — 12 hours / £540.00
  • WordPress, installation and setup — 8 hours / £360.00
  • Hosting, Email and FTP — one-off £20 account set up and then £30 each year thereafter.

It’s taken me months to complete this re-design, but that’s because I’ve been fitting all of this work in between my client work, which actually pays!

What do you see as the key benefits of having a new website?

First of all, the re-design is a fresh look. Totally new. Secondly, as mentioned previously, I’m turning the Octane website into a hub for all of my other stuff. But there are other benefits, too.

  1. A far cleaner, clearer design and layout means it’s much easier to manage and update the website and the blog.
  2. A better layout also means that articles and pages are easier to read and find.
  3. Having a business blog is a great way to raise awareness, engage with customers and expose people to your brand and your expertise.

Key points

Keeping the pace — the fact is, if I want to attract new clients, I need to demonstrate the strength and depth of my talents, and that’s what this new website does.

Room to grow — sometimes, you just out-grow a website, and fixing what you have simply isn’t practical. The previous design had served its purpose and something new, bigger and better was needed.

Having more to say — you can’t fit a pint of water into a half pint glass, can you? And that’s the problem I faced. So the challenge was making everything easy to find and read.

What’s next for the Octane website and blog?

As you can imagine, there’s a lot of work involved, not least the actual effort in creating the website and blog. Over the long-term, the value rests in keeping the website and the blog up to date. The typical schedule of activities would include:

  • Updates to service pages, with links to new and related blog articles.
  • New blog articles, based on a variety of different themes.
  • Adding new case studies, linking to related blog articles.
  • Adding new images to the portfolio page, also linking to case studies and related blog articles.

Right now, these are the very services I’m offering my clients who’re wanting to embrace and make the most of social media for their businesses.

I’d like to think there’s a good 1-2 years in this new website design, with maybe 2-3 years in the underlying structure, before I’d consider another major overhaul.

In the here & now, the timing of the new design is to coincide with the impending launch of a client website, and planned marketing efforts of my own.

Work has been good for me this year, with no real slow down, which is excellent. But I don’t want to sit back and become complacent! I always want more work.

If you’d like to know more about how Octane can help you business, feel free to contact me right now, or call 0870 755 0004 Monday to Friday 9am-5pm

How a web application can save your business money in a recession

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We’re on the brink of a global recession and here’s me talking about web applications for your business! Well here’s the thing — why not save money while you’re making money?

Octane can help your business maximize profitability by reducing costs through automating tedious and complex tasks.

Right now, business owners all over Britain are looking at 2009 as a year of change. Many businesses are going to struggle, which is sadly inevitable. The question is a simple one: will your business survive the hardening global economy?

Building on your strengths and removing weaknesses

Many businesses have their own routines and their own ways of doing things. Microsoft Office is good to a point, but businesses need more flexibility.

Certain aspects of their business processes are automated, some are paper-based. It’s when one of those processes moves from computer to sheets of paper, and then back again, that things become difficult to measure, even harder to quantify and innumerable errors creep in.

This need not be the case. This is where a custom-built web application picks up where Microsoft Office et al and sheets of paper stop short of fulfilling their business needs.

By automating as many of their processes as possible, we remove most, if not all, of the traps that snag businesses, ruin productivity and invite error.

You, the innovator

I will sit down with your whole team and invite a candid, honest discussion, detailing specific needs, at the end of which, I’ll be equipped with an intimate knowledge of how your business functions. From there, we as a team will develop an outline of the ideal solution to your business needs.

  • Bespoke software specific to your business
  • Access your software from anywhere location
  • Secure and private access
  • Completely automate specific aspects of your business
  • Track, measure and analyze your data

Your business. Your needs. Your solutions.

  • Automation saves time
  • Greater work capacity
  • Reduced data errors
  • Increased work efficiency
  • Increased data accuracy
  • Cost savings over time (ROI)

I can really help your business possibly save thousands of pounds over time, freeing your team up to be more productive elsewhere in your business — where it matters most…

6 five minute SEO guides for business websites

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Optimizing your business website for the search engines might seem like a daunting task. Either you do it yourself, or you pay someone. Sometimes, doing SEO work yourself might end up costing you more than hiring a professional like me. So here’s a collection of 5 minute SEO guides for business websites.

The following are a collection of articles originally published on the Blah, Blah! Technology blog, taken from my instant SEO article:

5 minute SEO primer for beginners — “In SEO, it’s often the simple stuff that works the best. But time and again, people ask: “How do I get to the front page of Google?” — we start with the basics of Search Engine Optimization…”

SEO for URLs and externally linked files on websites & ‘blogs — “Google is a reader of websites who’s best kept happy with sensible structure and strong content. Google will read almost anything — or should I say almost any file…”

Search Engine Optimization: the art of ti… — “Titles maketh the article. Without a concise title, enriched with meaty keyword chunks, an article is just so many bytes of miscellaneous data. So I just thought I’d touch upon my thoughts on quick, easy SEO tips again, with an example. It’s the simplest principles of Search Engine Optimization that do the most good. But it’s the simple things that often get overlooked .. even by the big guys…”

2-4-1 keyword listing on Google SERP — “Ever curious as to the circuitous route some of the visitors to my ‘blog take en route, I’m often left in various states of mind…”

SEO tips for websites — “Here are my top Search Engine Optimization tips for giving your web pages a lift, making your website that little bit more friendly to the search engines and your visitors alike!”

What search engines really, really want from your website! — “The similarities between the web, the way the web functions and real life are much closer than you’d think.”

Feeling empowered? Hopefully, I’ve armed you with enough SEO know-how to at least give your business website a boost…

Will your business survive the hardening economy?

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Do you innovate or sit and wait? Work smarter, not harder, with Octane

In the current economic climate, it’s essential your business cuts costs, raises productivity and efficiency while still providing an excellent service.

As a business, Octane has been around since 1999, providing web design, development and consultation nationwide. I can help your business succeed at a time when your competitors might struggle.

Did you think the web was just websites? It’s now also about sharing data & information instantly with colleagues and clients anywhere in the world.

And because I, as Octane, have clients in the manufacturing, engineering and healthcare industries, offering their products & services globally, I’m confident that I can help your business meet your present and future needs — personally.

  1. Cut costs and raise productivity by being more efficient.
  2. I’m a designer, a consultant and a programmer — 3 people for the price of 1.
  3. Fully managed web hosting, email and support.

A sample of your FREE website critique

  • In addition to the list of completed projects, why not add Case Studies and Testimonials?
  • Add in CTAs (Calls to Action), to prompt visitors to call you, or complete your response form.
  • By improving the way your website is built, you’ll improve the chances of being found on Google.

To arrange your free consultation call Wayne on: 0870 755 0004, or send me a message right away…

Great ideas in search of good money

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Four years of Research & Development really ought not to be for nothing. Frustrating as it may seem, that has been a distinct possibility for some years, now. Why? Because I don’t know the right people. Question is, are you the right person for me to share my ideas with?

Great ideas are worth far more than good money — and I have more that just great ideas. I have a product that is almost complete.

As a creative type, when it comes to formal project management and time tracking, things tend to be less than optimal. So I decided to write my own software to keep track of the time I spend on the projects of the clients of web design and internet consultancy, Octane, which is my own company.

But all that effort & toil just got me thinking.

“What if?”

For anyone who’s read read my Blah, Blah! Technology blog, that’s a question you’ll see me ask a lot!

Well, I did ask “What if?” and several hundred hours later, I’d written an all-grow’d-up version of my time tracking tool — and then some.

You see, it wasn’t enough for me to write an application that teams of people spread all over the world, connected via the web, could use to track time spent on jobs. No, what if I developed a platform onto which all kinds of applications could work and flourish?

Well, I did that too.

Sadly, I am an embarrassment to my dad. Why? I’m extremely bad at maths. And because of this, I wasn’t able to complete two key functions of my time tracking application, which are invoicing and reporting.

What do I need to finish it? Between £15-£20k to pay for developers to do the work I can’t.

What else do I need? People with vision, patience and the skills to push the software ideas I have, of which there are many.

So what are these other ideas? I’ve developed a platform for web applications that in some respects goes toe-to-toe with the likes of Salesforce and Microsoft. Did you really think I’d just stop with the one application?!

Consider a range of web applications, all working together seamlessly in a way you’ve never seen done before — not even with desktop applications.

Imagine an ecosystem where software developers can write their own web applications for Workspace, my software platform.

Think of the licensing deals and software subscriptions that come with creating a venue for software sales, promotion and production.

Yes, these are hard times, but we’re talking about software that will save people money over time.

Join the dots, guys…