Are you a budding photographer? Win free training and online exposure!
Whether you’re an aspiring photographer or have a photographer who works for your business, enter Silicon Beach Training’s photography competition to win a free training course. The winning entry will be announced on our blog, Twitter and Facebook as well as other social media platforms – an excellent way to generate online exposure and increase traffic to your website!
Photography competitions will run bi-monthly, and the theme this time is “My Home Town”. It’s up to you how you interpret this; it could be about people, architecture, landscape, culture etc.
To follow this competition head to Flickr or our Facebook page and hear about updates on our blog. We will also be announcing regular photography competitions and details of winners on Twitter so don’t forget to follow us @SBTtraining.
Read on to find out more about the free training prize, learn about the high profile photographers who will be judging the competition, and how you can enter.
Google handles 80% of European web searches, according to ComScore, compared to 65% in the US. Does this give Google a Monopoly over search and more importantly the advertising revenue that search engines attract?
This week there has been a enquiry by the European Commission into three separate allegations that Google’s ‘so called’ democratic style seach is being adapted by Google who they claim are demoting competing websites in faouvour of their own services in the search results. Google will sometimes insert links into results offering its own own specialist services – news, price comparison, maps or book search. Competitors claim this diverts traffic away from rival services.
The commission has sent out questionnaires seeking information about complaints from a British vertical search company called Foundem, a French legal search engine called eJustice and the shopping site, Ciao, which is owned by Microsoft.
Many SEO and Search companies will be rejoicing in the fact that the commission is taking the issue seriously. This enquiry should shake up Google who will be aware that the commission has previously levied huge financial penalties on Microsoft and Intel in recent years for using tactics to squash competing software.
Google is claiming that the attack has been orchestrated by Microsoft, which recently merged its search business with Yahoo’s in an effort to challenge Google. They have pointed out Microsofts interest in Foundem which is part of a trade grouping sponsored by Microsoft called the Initiative for a Competitive Online Marketplace, and their ownership of Ciao. Read the rest of "Google Monopoly questioned by the European Commission"
You can read Peter Handley’s review of BrightonSEO here – and we’ll be posting more from the event on this blog later in the week. Silicon Beach Training offer a complete range of Web Design Training and Social Media Training courses.
Here’s our summary of what Cookies are – along with a clip of Nikki’s demonstration.
What is a Cookie?
A cookie is a small text file sent to your computer via your web browser when you visit some websites. They store information about you like where you went and what you clicked on, which is used when you revisit the site.
What do Cookies do?
Cookies can do many things – for example:
Remembering purchasing information
Recording your viewing preferences
Storing results of online quizzes
Once downloaded by your browser, a cookie will sit on your hard drive until the next time you visit the same website.
Without the cookies the web server would have no way of knowing that you had been to the site before unless you logged in with a username and password.
* Cookies allow web servers to remember you.
How do cookies work?
Here Nikki from Fresh Egg explains how Cookies work at BrightonSEO with a little help from her friends.
If you Twitter and Flickr you will probably like to update your twitter account with your new images. I have been looking around for an easy way to integrate Twitter and Flickr this is the simplest way I have found using twitter feed.
Apple, Microsoft, and Google have all recently announced great integrations with Flickr. If you’ve spent ages building up a library of great photos in Flickr you can now link them to Google Buzz, Google Maps, Bing Streetside, iPhoto and Aperture
If you need help with editing your images before you upload them you should check out our Photoshop Training and advanced Photoshop course here in Brighton. We also run a comprehensive Social Media training course to help you make the most of these platforms.
This post covers how to link your Flickr account to Google Buzz, Google Maps, Bing Streetside, iPhoto and Aperture…
It’s really annoying that many Apple keyboards dont have a # hashtag. This is especially annoying when you tweet a lot and want to empahsise or tag your post with a hash tag using a Mac. If you are like me and are pretty tired of googling it every time you need to find it, or cutting and pasting an existing hash tag, I suggest using a post-it note on your monitor with the following written on it.
They have arrived, what every avid photographer and DSLR user has been waiting for - the new and improved versions of the Micro Four Thirds (hybred compact) camera. Photographers who have been lugging huge and heavy backpacks around in order to get a decent image have been hungry for something like this for a long time. Once you have read this review and made up your mind and you have all your lovely images you could come and visit us on one of our Photoshop Training courses.
Now, with the launch of the Panasonic GF1 to rival the Olympus E-P1 we have a tough decision to make. These are not cheap cameras, and each have their own merits and pitfalls. By the time I have trawled through all the reviews and testimonials on line, and chatted with camera suppliers, I will make my decision, meanwhile I am going to write about everything I find out.
What is Micro four thirds anyway?
It is a system that uses a quality of DSLR sensor without the necessity for a mirror mechanism (this is the bulky bit of a DSLR camera). So it is a compact sized camera with an DSLR quality sensor. It also (unlike compacts) allows interchangeable lenses.
Do you want a built in flash?
Then you need the Panasonic GF1, the Olympus E-P1 has an optional flash accessory available but it uses the same hot-shoe fixture as the additional viewfinder accessory – so you cant use both together.
How many blogs have you read selling you the idea of making money on the web? Probably not as many as you think – you will be so used to these that you read the first line and click out. Your blog becomes a great marketing tool when you use it as a way of connecting, forming relationships, giving stuff away and initiating dialogue. Forget about selling, think about giving and you will soon develop a following that should result in generating long term clients and relationships.
5 Top Tips for generous blogging
Avoid pop-ups and keep advertising and affiliate links to a minimum, most of your space should be about you and what you have to say.
Promote the work of others, encourage them, and support what they’re doing.
Provide links to other resources. People will return to you if you are a great resource provider. Tell others that you are linking to them, they are much more likely to comment or link back.
Give stuff away.
Provide answers to questions, respond to comments.
Google handles 80% of European web searches, according to ComScore, compared to 65% in the US. Does this give Google a Monopoly over search and more importantly the advertising revenue that search engines attract?
If you Twitter and Flickr you will probably like to update your twitter account with your new images. I have been looking around for an easy way to integrate Twitter and Flickr this is the simplest way I have found using twitter feed.
Apple, Microsoft, and Google have all recently announced great integrations with 
They have arrived, what every avid photographer and DSLR user has been waiting for - the new and improved versions of the Micro Four Thirds (hybred compact) camera. Photographers who have been lugging huge and heavy backpacks around in order to get a decent image have been hungry for something like this for a long time. Once you have read this review and made up your mind and you have all your lovely images you could come and visit us on one of our 
It is a system that uses a quality of DSLR sensor without the necessity for a mirror mechanism (this is the bulky bit of a DSLR camera). So it is a compact sized camera with an DSLR quality sensor. It also (unlike compacts) allows interchangeable lenses.
