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How to Improve Yourself as a Writer

Guest Author — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 08:30:04 +0000

Great writers have different styles and different methods. However, when writing for the internet (especially when starting out) there are some standards you should aim to follow to improve the quality of your content and increase readership. Famous authors may be able to get away with a very personal style and a dependence on alcohol but your blog isn’t going to last very long if you don’t make it internet friendly. If you are serious about starting a popular blog then we recommend our Blogging & Content Marketing course to get you started. We also have WordPress courses if you would like to delve deeper into creating blog sites and SEO training and Social Media training to ensure your blog posts are searchable and shareable.

This article is written by McKinley Plowman, accountants in Perth, who provide business and personal financial advice.

Written communication remains one of the most important skills for a person to possess. Writing has allowed us to communicate precise ideas that are able to be digested by the reader at their own pace. Most importantly, writing has given man the ability to communicate outside of their mortal life. It has, in a way, pushed mankind into a post-human state.

With this said it is disturbing that a lot of the population write poorly. I’ll run through some ways you can improve your writing and will focus specifically on writing in a business setting.

Use smaller words if possible

Large words sap energy from a piece of writing. Many people believe that using a big word will make them appear more intelligent to the reader and hence improve their status. This is partly true but influence doesn’t come from convincing people you are smart, it comes from making people like you.

For an illustration of how this works consider this statement.

“I met a great man at a cocktail party, when he spoke to me I felt like he was the smartest person in the room. I then met an even greater man at that party; he made me feel like I was the smartest person in the room”

By writing in a manner that doesn’t send a reader rushing to the dictionary every now and then, you have a much better chance of communicating your written ideas to a reader.

Gain some more readers by entering our blogging contest! If you win, not only will you receive a limited edition pack of Top SEO Trumps but we will also promote your article and your blog!

Break some rules

There is no need to follow all the rules of structure that you were taught at school. This is especially true with internet writing. Single word sentences are OK. Very short paragraphs are fine too.

The typical paragraph of 8-12 sentences is mostly too long and creates large blocks of text that are hard to read. If you’re reading this now, I credit it to the idea that I have not made large paragraphs which tend to scare the reader away in this modern age of very short attention spans.

Get a lot of sleep

Writing requires creativity. Being tired or hung over is the nemesis of creative thought. You should be getting at least 8 hours of good sleep each night. Without being well rested, ideas will not come to you and you will more likely suffer from writer’s block.

Write about what you are passionate about

My most expressive and readable writing comes from writing about something I care about. Ideas flow more readily onto the page and people are more likely to enjoy reading what was written. If you are finding it difficult to write about something, it will also probably be difficult to read.

Make sure you’re aware of the fine line between inspiration and plagiarism. Getting an idea and stealing an idea are very different actions.

The simple solution for this is to research what you are writing a bit more. Typically writing about things you don’t know well are the most painful experiences.

Excessive Words

Don’t pad out sentences with catchphrases and corporate speak. Writing should be punchy and to the point otherwise the text will be boring and hard to read. I’ve seen corporate memos that are written using three times the number of words that are necessary to communicate the idea.

SEO Implications Of NoFollow Links: A Nuanced Approach Is Best

Guest Author — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 09:24:02 +0000

This guest post looks at an overview of follow and nofollow links, sparked by Google Search Plus Your World which is struggling to realise its potential as social networks are usually all nofollow. This prevents Google from adding their data to Search Plus Your World and severely limits its use. This returns the debate as to how you should use NoFollow links on your site…

NoFollow links are not new by any means, but they are receiving more attention recently with Google’s introduction of “Search Plus Your World.” At the center of the debate is whether Google is abusing its position as the world’s primary search engine by integrating social search in a way that favors its own social network, Google+. Because of NoFollow, Google is prevented from fully indexing Facebook and Twitter. Until this summer and prior to the launch of Search Plus, the Twitter Firehose provided a special feed to Google. When the deal expired, Twitter elected not to renew its agreement with Google, but other search engines still have access to the Firehose. This has become a complex business dispute that everyone seems to have an opinion on, but it has also reignited a discussion about the SEO implications of NoFollow.

DoFollow/ NoFollow – What are you on about?

NoFollow Links: Not like sheep

In case you didn’t know, DoFollow is the default for links and does not require specific code; rel=”nofollow” is code you insert that tells a search engine spider to index the text it encounters but not the link attached. It was originally conceived to combat spam in comment sections by preventing untrustworthy sites from having outbound links indexed, which could in turn increase the page rank. Eliminating the incentive for cluttering comment sections with spam was sound in theory. Also, by designating necessary but not particularly interesting links that appear on multiple pages such as “About” and “Contact” as NoFollow, you could ensure that your link juice was not diluted and only divided between important links. Unfortunately, this reallocation of link juice lead to the SEO practice of PageRank or link sculpting – which Google looks down on.

Prior to 2009, designating links as NoFollow meant that if there were five links on a page and one was NoFollow, then each of those links would receive 25% of the site’s link juice. Google, however, quietly changed the way it treated NoFollow links and, when no one seemed to notice, it actually made a point of announcing its reversal in June 2009. Now, with the same scenario, those four outbound links would receive 20% of your site’s link juice and that NoFollow link would still receive none. You are no longer redistributing link juice, but actually throwing some of it away. The intention was to undermine unethical link sculpting practices that were attempting to game the system, but it also complicated the reputable practice of link building.

Holistic Approach to Link Building

Link building, when done well, is a perfectly valid means of increasing your site’s visibility and rank. Linking to sites you like and respect and asking sites to link to you is a great way to foster a sense of community and expand your site’s reach. Just like with content, however, you need to make sure that you are adding value to your site, and there is a solid rationale for those links. If you do not tag untrustworthy links as NoFollow, you will leech link juice from outbound links that matter. Also, if you are invaded by spam or low quality links, you will actually damage your own page rank. Undermining your site with indiscriminate link building is completely counterproductive. Link building and the implementation of NoFollow have become more nuanced tasks. For example, just because a link is initially marked as NoFollow does not mean that you cannot remove that code if you determine a site is worthy of being followed. Ethical link building is done with everyone’s best interest in mind and does not involve compensation. That said, there is also nothing wrong with buying and selling links as long as you indicate what they truly are-advertising.

Google’s stance on NoFollow links is very clear. Untrustworthy and paid links should be tagged rel=”nofollow”. Paid links masquerading as unsponsored text run afoul of Google’s Terms of Service and will be severely penalized, as in your page rank will plummet to zero. Lest you think that is highly unlikely, keep in mind that Google buried the download page for its own browser, Chrome, for at least 60 days, when a marketing campaign went awry. If Google is willing to hold itself accountable, it certainly will not hesitate to do the same to you.

What Does This Mean for SEO?

Ultimately, what this means for SEO is that all links on your site, regardless of whether they are NoFollow or not, need to be managed with care. It is still smart to designate structurally important but not particularly compelling links such as “About” or “Contact” as NoFollow. If you decide to link to something in the content of your pages, make sure you are doing so with pure intentions and linking to something valuable for your audience. Lastly, while you want to encourage conversation in your comment sections, it is safest to mark links posted by others as NoFollow until you have an opportunity to evaluate their worth. While that means extra work for you, it is the best way to protect your own page rank and ensure you are sharing your link juice with sites that truly deserve it.

While NoFollow links are not new, recent developments have reignited a discussion about the SEO implications of NoFollow & the best way to approach link building.

Top SEO Trumps Blogging Competition

Heather Buckley — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:48:24 +0000

The great Top SEO Trumps Blog Off has begun!

We have been slaving away creating the top SEO Game of the Decade. To get your hands on one of these limited edition Top SEO Trumps packs we are inviting you to take part in our Top SEO Trumps Blog Off!

Here’s a preview of how the cards look:

Simply write a blog post that meets the conditions below to be in for a chance to win.

There are 46 Top SEO Faces from the SEO world, each ranked by:

Popularity on the web
Twitter followers
Google+ contacts
Fanciablility (we are keeping our judges a secret for this category)
Geek Cred

Can you guess who is hiding behind Danny Sullivan? If you can’t guess or want to see the other 45 Top SEOs then you can follow all those who made it into to pack by creating your own SEO circle from this one we made earlier, just click on the image to view or add this circle in Google+:

35 Limited Edition Top SEO Trumps packs are up for grabs.

Anyone can enter: SEOs, marketing people, social media specialists, bloggers, content marketers, and students, anyone who thinks they can write a good blog.

There are so many ways of winning that the playing field is wide open, there is a really good chance of winning so it’s worth a go. As all great SEO’s and Content marketers know, generating great content is just par for the course anyway. What have you got to lose?

Not only that, if you are one of our 35 finalists we will publicise your fine post using our many social media accounts, and link to it from all of our resources and blogs, as well as on our own well ranked site, so it would be good for your SEO too.

All you have to do is what you do best: write a great blog post.

How to win

Write a blog post that contains a link either to one of these links
http://www.siliconbeachtraining.co.uk/blog/seo-top-trumps OR http://www.siliconbeachtraining.co.uk/seo/
Tweet a link to your post to: @sbttraining with the message: “My SEO Trumps entry” and the Hashtag #seotoptrumps

It’s as easy as that!

For example if this was my entry I would tweet:

@sbttraining My Top SEO Trumps entry http://www.siliconbeachtraining.co.uk/blog/seo-top-trumps (or shortened version) #seotoptrumps

You can publish your blog post anywhere (not necessarily on your own blog) as long as you identify yourself as the author somewhere in the post and tweet the link with hashtag as above.

After the closing date April 1st 2012

Votes will be counted and verified and prizes will go to the authors of the winners of the following categories:

The 5 funniest posts
The 5 most original posts
The 5 most useful posts
The top 5 posts that drive the most traffic to the destination link.
The 5 top most liked posts on Facebook – where that information is available
The 5 most +1’s on Google Plus
The 5 most tweeted posts – where that information is available

Good luck and get blogging!

Become a future top SEO trump with our many SEO related courses. SEO training will provide you with the best practice approach to optimising websites and content for higher rankings, you can then use the knowledge learnt on our Social Media course to market your website and build strong brand identity. If you want to measure how your site is doing (and your social media efforts) then Google Analytics training is essential, while Advanced Google Analytics training is available for those who already use it on a regular basis. Don’t forget, we also now provide Content Marketing training – great for building brand and author identity whilst gaining valuable backlinks!

Spring Festivals & Events in Sussex

Guest Author — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 09:15:27 +0000

Now that the Christmas festivities have finished and the New Years Eve hangover has fully worn off, a certain sense of deflation seems to have settled over the UK. No one’s got any money, there’s no celebrations left to look forward to and the emphasis is very much on cutting back on the booze, getting to the gym and getting early nights. However, even if you are currently in a state of detox, there’s no need to be glum because spring is just around the corner and there’s a whole range of spring festivals and events in Sussex to look forward to.

Why not learn a new skill this spring? It could be the most exciting thing you do this year! If you’re thinking of a career move in 2012, want to dust off some old skills, pick up that new talent you’ve been thinking about for a while or even flourish in your current role then training courses are the best way to start. If you want to get your creative juices flowing then our Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator courses are all perfect. If you want to take the web by storm then our Web Design courses are all tailored to different skill levels and SEO and Social Media are both important as well. If you are looking further up the career ladder or want some help in the corporate environment our range of Business and Management training courses are all very useful. We run everything from Management Skills Training and Leadership Training to accredited PRINCE2 and Six Sigma Training. Spring is not just for learning though! In your time off why not attend some of these great events…

Sussex Beer Festival takes place on 8-10 March and if you’re having a bit of a dry month at the moment then this is something to really look forward to. The festival has around 230 beers on offer, including a range of British and foreign beers, as well as other mouthwatering tipples, such as ciders, perries and wines. Tickets cost between £4 and £7, depending on the day you go, and include a free souvenir glass and programme.

Beer by Tim Dobson on Flickr

2012 sees the 45th Brighton Festival taking place between 7 and 29 May, guest directed by Vanessa Redgrave, and celebrating themes of liberty and freedom. The festival is an important annual event for the town and is the largest multi-art form festival in England. You can expect to find a broad selection of dance, music, art and film on the programme and a wide range of events for all the family.

Children’s Parade 2010 by Brighton photographer on Flickr

At the same time as the Brighton Festival is happening, the Brighton Festival Fringe is taking place, which holds the impressive title of the third largest fringe in the world. In the past the festival has attracted audiences of up to 180,000 and had more than 625 events taking place across Brighton and Hove. Anyone can take part in the Brighton fringe, whether complete beginner or competent professional, which results in a fantastic mix of arts talent and fabulously groansome performances!

Circus of Horrors – Brighton Fringe – By Heather Buckley on Flickr

Sussex Food and South Downs Fair takes place at the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum in Singleton between 6 and 7 May. The festival offers food and drink lovers two days of complete indulgence with tastings, cookery classes and a fine selection of delicious produce to try and buy. There is also music and demonstrations of local rural life that give the event a fun and educational feel.

Eastbourne Festival takes place between 7 and 29 April and offers an impressive selection of traditional and contemporary arts performances, including dance, theatre, poetry, street dance, theatre and storytelling. The festival is now in its fifth year and has become a serious arts flagship, so that it is now viewed as a showcase for talent in the Eastbourne area.

If you’re a fan of the races then an evening discussing the favourites for the forthcoming Cheltenham Festival at the Cheltenham Festival Preview Evening at Plumpton Racecourse, Lewes is likely to be right up your street. The smart event brings together a panel of racing pundits, trainers and well known media commentators for an evening of racing chat and a slap up two course meal. Tickets for the evening cost £50.

Plumpton Racecourse by Ronnie MacDonald on Flickr

The annual Glyndebourne festival opens for ticket sales on 24 March, with the first performances commencing in mid May. The Glyndebourne festival is an opera extravaganza that consists of six productions each year, staged in a 1,200 seat opera house, set in fabulous grounds that make for a romantic picnic spot. Tickets start at £10 for a standing position up in the gods, going up to £230 for a prime stalls seat.

The Glyndebourne Festival by HerryLawford on Flickr

Brighton & Hove Food and Drink Festival takes place each year for ten days between 30 March to 09 April and is a showcase for local food and drink. Events included in the umbrella of the festival include Brighton coffee and cake festival, Sussex gourmet bus tour, the big food debate and Brighton wine festival.

Celebration of Spring – if you have thoroughly had enough of winter by now and you’re ready for the primroses, warmth and Easter eggs of spring then no doubt you will be quite keen to celebrate its arrival. Parham House near Pulborough holds a special Celebration of Spring each year on Sunday 22 April with activities for kids and speakers, tours and sales for the adults. Tickets are £9 for adults and £4.50 for children.

There may still be a few more months of cold (possibly grey) days left until the UK starts to warm up again but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t still plenty to look forward to. With all these exciting events and festivals coming up, Sussex is certainly the place to be to welcome in the spring in 2012.

John wrote this post for Elite Hotels who run some of the best hotels in Sussex and wedding venues in Sussex.

Why Should You Start Content Marketing?

Daniel Twigg — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 10:53:49 +0000

We have now added Content Marketing to our Blogging Training course to create the mighty Blogging and Content Marketing Training course, so you can get a head start on your internet marketing endeavours.

It can be tough to get your brand, company or website noticed on the big World Wide Web. Fierce competition for search engine rankings and SEO dominance is rife between websites gunning for the same keywords and with the same general target audience; so what can you do to get yourself to stand out from the crowd?

Currently, one of the most effective methods of generating interest from users and building up back links to appease the search engine lords is content marketing. This form of marketing has many advantages and uses which should be explored by anyone looking to extend their website’s visibility, outreach and exposure.

Why should I do it myself?

The internet is made of content. It’s what people use it for; to find useful information, tips and entertainment. By creating your own content you can write about the topics your website, blog or company specialise in from as many angles as you can think of. Doing this not only gives you more searchable content to be found via search engines it also gives you the opportunity to stamp your authority on a subject, working your way into becoming an expert in your field that people will look to for knowledge, answers and cutting edge info.

However, if you aren’t ready to put yourself forward as an expert just yet, content marketing still has some valuable other uses which when used properly will help improve your site’s traffic and exposure to new users.

If you would like to find out more about content marketing then have to look at our post on Guest Blogging and Great Places to Post Your Content, or read on to find out more about how blogging and content marketing can benefit you.

Guest Blogging

Writers have been creating guest content for other sites for some time now, giving writers the opportunity to share their knowledge and writing style with a new audience, as well as being able to get a link to their own website. This link is useful for a few reasons, namely it allows the reader to hop straight to your site if they like your content and also the back link can work in your favour when it comes to SEO and search engine rankings, especially if it is coming from a website with a high authority or page rank.

Accepting guest posts can work in your favour too. Search engines like sites that update their content regularly, so posting relevant and useful content from others can take the strain off of keeping up with the demand of writing as well as giving you to post articles on topics you may not be as knowledgeable in.

You don’t even have to approach sites directly now to enquire about guest blogging. With guest post sharing and distribution sites such as My Blog Guest making the process of bidding for content and choosing who you want to publish your own offerings far easier than ever before.

Going Viral

Another major advantage of making your own content is sharing. Social media sites have made sharing content so easy these days that if you have something that is timely, unique or of exceptionally high quality you can find your content being shared all over the web, hopefully going viral. Combine this with the fact that Google’s new Search plus Your World search algorithm weighs heavily in favour of popular, well shared content on Google’s social network, Google+. So this method can boost your search engine rankings as well as bring in interest from a new audience.

Easy on the Wallet

Content Marketing also has another big advantage; it’s extremely cost effective. If you are creating your own articles or accepting guest posts the cost is extremely low, if not free (except for staffing costs!) Bear in mind that your content will also hang around for far longer than any advertising campaign you may choose to run, so you are likely to see a far better ROI on these efforts.

All of these benefits make content marketing an extremely attractive marketing method, which is why we have updated our Blogging and Content Marketing Training course so you can learn all of the latest techniques to teach you how to make high quality, sought after content.

Car Share Photo Competition

Heather Buckley — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 10:22:14 +0000

Brighton-based car share website Catch-a-ride have just launched their photography competition and it is being judged by Silicon Beach Training‘s co-founder and photographer, Heather Buckley.

Catch-a-ride is set up to encourage people to car share by connecting drivers and passengers. This is a great idea to reduce travel costs, emissions and traffic!

Read more about the competition at Catch-a-ride’s blog or we’ve provided all the info below…

The Competition

The competition theme is ‘Car Share’ so send in your most interesting photo of people car sharing for a chance to win a fantastic prize. You can interpret that as you like but the most interesting one wins! Just don’t break the law of the road or your entry will be discounted.

The Prize

Up for grabs is a 16-megapixel Nikon Coolpix compact camera, perfect for taking more photos of your car sharing adventures!

The Rules

1) Only UK residents may enter

2) All entries must show a car share journey but must not include any activities that go against road safety

3) By entering, you agree that www.catcharide.co.uk may use your photo on their website. Photos will not be used for any other purpose.

4) Photos must be in JPEG format and a maximum of 1MB.

The Entry

To enter, send your car share photo to: contact@catcharide.co.uk

The Closing Date

All entries must be in by 15th March 2012.

Photo by Heather Buckley. Follow Heather on Google+, Facebook, Twitter and Flickr.

Why not really make your photo stand out with some nifty Photoshop tricks? By coming on our Photoshop Training course you will be able to edit your photos professionally to really make them shine. If you’re already competent on Photoshop and want to take your skills to the next level then our Advanced Photoshop course is worth checking out. Call us on 01273 622272 or email awylie@siliconbeachtraining.co.uk to discuss either course or any other training requirements.

Flickr Protests Against SOPA/ PIPA

Craig Charley — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 13:21:14 +0000

Flickr is just one of many websites protesting against SOPA and PIPA today by giving Flickr users the option to blackout their images for 24 hours. If you log in and view your Flickr images today (Wednesday 18th January 2012) you will see this box appear below your photo:

Unlike Wikipedia and a number of other websites, Flickr is not forcing its users to join the protest and is not preventing them from showing their content. This is because you own the rights to your images and so it should be your option. Respecting content ownership, nice one Flickr! If you choose to ‘darken this photo’ in protest of SOPA and PIPA here is how your photos will appear:

Don’t worry, you can change your photos back at any time and the darken effect should disappear after 24 hours!

Create images you are proud to show off and use to make a point by coming on a Photoshop Training course in Brighton.

At this point you may be wondering (if you’ve avoided newspapers and messageboards for the past week) what on earth SOPA and PIPA are, and why you should bother covering up your lovely photos for a day in protest against them.

This animation is courtesy of theoatmeal.com

What is SOPA/ PIPA?

SOPA stands for Stop Online Piracy Act and is currently going through the U.S. Hosue of Representatives.
PIPA stands for Protect Intellectual Property Act and is currently going through the U.S. Senate

The acts are similar in their aims and are backed by some of the largest copyright holders in the U.S. including MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) and RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) who claim that internet piracy is a direct threat to businesses and artists. The acts are also backed by trademark-depending companies including Nike. All of these companies back SOPA and PIPA under the banner of fighting piracy but opposition parties (including Wikipedia, Reddit, Flickr and more) claim that there are serious flaws within the bills that could severely damage the internet as we know it.

The main problem for opponents of SOPA and PIPA is that every time they protest, the corporations and legislators in favour claim that they are backing piracy – a great way to argue even though it confuses opposing one thing with agreeing with another. Many of the websites who are protesting today are actually firm believers in copyright and actively fight against piracy on their websites. They just also welcome the distribution of free information. That is why Flickr users get to choose how their photos are licensed!

So what is included in SOPA and PIPA that is getting the internet so angry?

These bills are aimed to allow the U.S. Attorney General’s office to take actions against foreign websites. Something they have actually already done recently by ordering the extradition of British student Richard O’Dwyer who they want to convict for running a website that links to links that provide pirated content. This is not a crime in the UK but the goodwill deal between the two countries means that O’Dwyer is likely to face charges in the U.S. These bills will only increase acts like this and will go a step further as the Attorney General’s office will be able to take the following action:

If the site is U.S. directed:

Prosecute the owner of the site of criminal violations
Seize the site in question

If the site is foreign:

U.S. sites and search engines are required to remove all links to the site
U.S. advertising services are required to drop all advertising to the site
U.S. payment networks are required to cease any transactions between the site and U.S. customers
U.S. service providers are required to block access to the site through DNS blacklisting

Here is a video from musician and geek Dan Bull on why he thinks we should fight SOPA:

Duty to Monitor

There is a paragraph under SOPA that states that ad networks and payment networds do not have a duty to monitor the placement of links. However, search engines are not included so it may be assumed that they are expected and required to constantly monitor for new links. This is stop the links just appearing again after they’ve been removed.

Domestic or Foreign

One of the many areas that is controversial due to confusion is that sites are deemed ‘domestic’ or ‘foreign’ based entirely on domain name. Supported of the bills claim that the new legislations are aimed at foreign sites (US sites are already regulated to an extent) but under the muddled definition of a ‘foreign’ site, a domestic site with a .co.uk or .jp domain could easily be classified as foreign.

What Offences are Covered?

Another incredibly open area of the bill, violations are described as the ‘facilitation’ of illegal activity. This could be anything as broad as telling somebody how to rip a CD or download a file, without even providing any links to copyrighted material or explaining how these practices could be used to break the law. As shown by the upcoming extradition of Richard O’Dwyer, the U.S. already prosecutes people who link to links that provide pirated content so the meaning of ‘facilitation’ is wide open.

Will This Stop Online Piracy?

Opponents of the acts think this is highly unlikely. They claim it will put far too much power into the hands of copyright owners to restrict the internet. Currently they have to file reports that prove ownership and ask for specific links and content to be removed. Now they can require whole domains are removed, this could seriously hamper sites such as Flickr, Reddit and Wikipedia which support the internet as a free and open space.

Are Corporations Being Given Too Much Power?

The final question is whether U.S. corporations should be able to wield this much power in court to the point of helping to draft and push through legislation. It is easy to look back at almost every new technology and see a way that copyright owners have tried to ban them to increase profits. Cassette tapes, VHS, CDs, DVDs and MP3s have all started out as the enemy of media corporations but after protesting they have realised that they could actually make a lot of money from them. Perhaps these companies should stop trying to fight a losing battle. A statistic shows that the weighted average of software download illegally compared to legally is 59.9%. The U.S. is actually one of the lowest countries with only 20% of software downloaded illegally – this shows why they are now trying to battle against users in other countries. Perhaps it would be better to try and come up with a new way of making money that embraces the internet instead of trying to censor it?

What do you think? Fighting piracy or censoring free speech? Let us know in the comments below!

Don’t be a victim of dodgy link building by only using ethical SEO training. Our methods are a best practice approach and work in the long term without getting you kicked off Google! Social Media training is also important to understand how best to social networks to promote your business. InDesign courses, Photoshop training and accredited Prince2 training courses also available.

New Mobile Web Design Course Using Dreamweaver & jQuery

Aaron Charlie — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 09:08:29 +0000

Adding to our growing list of Mobile Development courses we have now added Mobile Web Design Training using Dreamweaver & jQuery Mobile. This course is for individuals and businesses who want a simple solution for designing mobile websites. Whilst our comprehensive Mobile Web Design Week includes HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript Training, this course only requires that delegates have an understanding of different mobile platforms and general knowledge of the web and either Windows or Mac operating system.

By 2015 it is predicted that more people will access the internet via mobile devices than by traditional desktop computing. Already 900 million people use their phones and tablets to access the web. If you do not have a website optimised for mobile – whether that is a new site or a mobile version of an existing site – you may be losing valuable potential customers.

There are two main reasons that you should have a site for mobile devices:

1. People will leave if a website is difficult to use

Have you ever tried browsing a website on your phone and been stumped by tiny links, unreadable text and elements that don’t work on mobile browsers? I imagine you left quickly. With the size of monitors and speed of computers growing it is great to have loads of links and impressive content on your main website but if none of it is visible or usable on a mobile then you will turn away visitors. Everything on a mobile website should be readable on a small screen. As most people browse the web on mobile devices with touch screens, links should not be small and close together or people can’t click on them without zooming in.

More mobile web design tips.

2. There are some great features available on mobile devices

Modern smartphones use touch and swipe gestures. Designing a site that works well with these makes it a joy to use and people will remember and return to your site. Simple menus and big, clickable links for touch screens and setting up actions for swipe gestures makes browsing the internet on a phone a pleasant experience. On a desktop you want all the information in front of your eyes, on a small mobile screen you want as little as possible but you want an easy way to navigate.

More on designing for touch screens.

On this Mobile Web Design course, delegates will learn:

Why design for mobile?
The difference between mobile websites and mobile apps
How to use jQuery and Dreamweaver mobile tools
How to style mobile websites
How to input widgets, buttons, sliders and forms onto mobile websites

We run a number of other Mobile Development Training courses if you want to create more detailed websites or even mobile apps from scratch. These include:

These three courses are more hands on and are aimed at programmers, while Web Design Training with Dreamweaver and jQuery is open to anybody who wants to create simple mobile websites.

Why not read more about why 2012 is such a big year for mobile and why it is important for businesses to have mobile content:

Have you come across any great mobile websites? Let us know in the comments below!