Archives for February 2008

Introductory writing tips

Visitors don’t read text on websites; instead they leave as soon as possible. Take this into account when you create a website. One click to leave Your website is only one click away from a million other websites. Grab the reader’s attention, and keep it, or they are just as likely to leave your site […]

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Do your images drive people away?

Make sure the size and waiting time for your pictures don’t drive away your visitors. Here’s how.

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Google mail benefits me

Google’s search, spam filtering and threaded conversations make their email service the right fit for me.

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Use Mailing Lists to keep in touch with groups

Mailing lists are extraordinarily useful for anyone who regularly sends messages to groups of more than about five or ten recipients. You could use a mailing list for a committee, the users of your service, funders, donors and many other groups. [First published December 2004.] This Panui goes out each month to more than 500 […]

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Whew. Coming to from Webstock

Whew! It’s astonishing just how much of a month one conference can swallow up. As one of the organisers of Webstock (11 to 15 February 2008) I had a lot to do in the first couple of weeks of February. Many other activities went on hold for a while as organisational activities reached a peak. […]

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Give your website visitors the power

Add some movies, images, sounds to your web site as you see fit, but tell your visitors what you’re doing and give them the controls. [First published December 2004.] Camera, lights, action! Now that you can buy inexpensive digital cameras, and a cheap microphone to record straight into your computer, you might decide to enliven […]

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It was a weasel

An update to yesterday’s post about the predator at the Sanctuary: A weasel was spotted, cornered and trapped by staff on Friday. [Via : Radio New Zealand News : Latest News : 200802222117 : Predator caught at wildlife sanctuary.] The Sanctuary haven’t updated their news page yet, so there’s no further information.

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Send the right message

You’ve designed a conference programme with photos, explanations of the workshops, a registration form, extra information. What’s the best way to distribute this? [First published February 2005.] Email and web Imagine it’s your annual conference. It’s a big event with speakers and workshops, conference strands and a fundraiser dinner. You’ve designed a programme with a […]

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Genuine call or ID theft attempt?

I find it bizarre and alarming that someone claiming to be from the ACC Business Centre rang me a few minutes ago offering me payment options on a bill that is apparently due in about 3 weeks time. Caller ID on my phone indicated a Private Caller. The worrying thing is that I took the […]

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Wellington’s full up again

I love Wellington between Christmas Day and mid-January — everyone clears off to somewhere else — all the students and government workers and what-not. The streets are quiet, you can find parking spaces. It’s lovely. And then the year builds up speed and momentum. People return from holiday, workers filter back to their offices, schools […]

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Customise the news

Not so long ago we had to rely on broadcasters to select our news for us. Then they would issue us with the ‘news’ at regular intervals. [Of course, by then it was often ‘olds’.] Now we can read the personal experiences of ordinary people as events happen, and we can check a News web […]

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Whitcoulls: still crummy, even online

In February 2008 the new Whitcoulls website was showing every sign of 1990’s website design, with some truly rotten code.

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