The App Development market is taking the world by storm and there is an app for everything. In fact there is so much demand for App Developers we have launched a complete range of Mobile Development courses including an exciting new Android App Training workshop, and an iPhone App Training workshop. Every developer should be familiar with Web App design too so we also run a Mobile Web Design Course. All businesses should be looking into design mobile friendly sites at the very least, and all new media business need to up-skill to take advantage of this explosive market if they want to survive. Not everyone wants to learn to build these treasures though, some people just want to use them to make life easier. Here our guest author Denis makes his recommendations for the best apps for the entrepreneur:
Some people want to use their iPhone or iPad to do more than play video games. Some actually use them to remotely control their work computer. Take a closer look at some of the iOS apps that an entrepreneur can use to make their life easier here in this article.
Your iProduct Can Connect To Other Computers
TeamViewer for Remote Control
The iPhone or iPad can be used just like any other computer but thanks to their mobility they are much more convenient. For those with the entrepreneurial spirit, mobility is important, and some apps are targeted just for them. The first is called “TeamViewer for Remote Control“. This is an app that connects to your other computers so that you can use them while you are are on the run. It is billed as secure and fast, working with Linux, Mac and Windows systems. It is already being used with 100 million computers in the world. It works with more than just an iPhone or iPad. The iPod Touch can also control another computer remotely. It comes in a free version and professional version which will cost $99 that’s £63.34 GBP. If you feel like jumping ship it also comes with an Android version as well.
Welcome to Part 2 of our BrightonSEO 2011 round up. We hope you enjoyed BrightonSEO Part 1 featuring our round up of round ups! Once again we’ve provided either the slides or video for each talk for those who missed the conference. These presentations are all from the afternoon session and include the six 20 : 20 slide talks where each speaker had 20 slides which changed automatically every 20 seconds. After a great morning the afternoon session had a lot to live up to – but that it did with some interesting talks featuring Mad Men, James Bond and internet cats.
Neil Walker – Links – SEO Value vs Client Expectations vs Cost
Neil Walker - Brighton SEO 2011
Neil was the first of the afternoon speakers and was presenting his findings from research he had conducted on both SEOs and clients to find out if they shared the same expectations on links.
He found that clients didn’t often know what links they were after and so it is the job of the SEO to be transparent with the client and explain the cost of links and link strategy.
Neil Walker gives his opinion on the conference along with his slides here.
Roger Warner – What Can Social Media Learn From Mad Men?
Roger Warner - Brighton SEO 2011
This proved to be a very popular talk with Roger using the TV show Mad Men to compare traditional advertising to SEO with the emphasis on learning from traditional methods to improved social media relations. Roger has posted up his talk in a nutshell using the following points:
Social Media is not a spaceship – it’s a communications tool.
It’s been a week since BrightonSEO 2011 now organised by Kelvin Newman of Site Visibility. The round ups and takeaways have come flooding in so fast we thought rather than simply providing the same we’d give you a list of the best ones. We even had a look around and filled in all the gaps so this is the most complete round up and roundup of roundups there is! Even the elusive Toby Barnes, and Dom Hodgson videos are included in part 2 of our Brighton SEO 2011 roundup
The following is our round up of the day. We’ve included slides and/or videos for all the presentations where we can as well as a summary of the talk with links to any additional content provided by the speakers.
The first talk was from Jonny Stewart on how the Google Panda update affected ReviewCentre.com. He used the site that he works for as an example of a site that suffered due to the update and then established how they were able to recover and avoid future penalties. Jonny mentioned that you’re not a good SEO until you’ve been hit by a really big penalty and that it can take up to 4 months to recover from a big loss in rankings. However, as shown in the slides below, he offers some great tips on how to avoid being hit by penalties and turn your rankings around if affected. Read more about the Google Panda update.
Since writing this we have attended Brighton SEO 2011, click the link to see our first blog post of the morning session and stay tuned for more to come.
Writing or blogging about trending topics can be a great way to generate traffic (and links) to your site, provided that your content is high quality and that you pick the right keywords to optimise on.
The second half of that equation can be the difference between loads of traffic and very little, so identifying what people want to read about (and more importantly, exactly what they are typing in to Google right now) is paramount. If you can be among the first to blog on a trending topic you can get your site on the front page of Google quickly, and bag the traffic (what’s more if you’re the first, you’re more likely to stay on the front page longer).
So – “how can I find trending topics?” At Friday’s BrightonSEO conference Malcolm Coles gave a very informative (and highly entertaining) presentation about how he used a variety of tools to discover trending topics when working on the celebrity news site HolyMoly, including some very interesting data on the searching habits of the Great British male!
Here are our video highlights from his presentation, along with a summary of the tools discussed (more information can also be found on Malcolm’s site here)….
News Search Tools: How to Find Trending Topics
We’ve split the video of Malcolm’s presentation in to two parts – the first summarises the News Search Tools used to identify Trending Topics. The second, which I couldn’t resist adding, is an example of how HolyMoly used these tools to exploit the search term ‘Karen Gillan Underwear‘, which reveals some interesting (and very amusing) trends in men’s searching patterns after they’ve watched Doctor Who!
#BrightonSEO Video: News Search Tools Summary
A summary of the News Search Tools mentioned is provided below, but do watch the video as Malcolm puts them nicely in to context with examples…
News Search Tools Summary:
Which of these tools you use will depend largely on the sort of content you publish…
The Facebook Registration Tool is a great way to attract loyal followers. The tool enables websites to offer quick and easy social options for users to sign-up, which could increase the number of users on your Facebook pages by up to 300% – definitely worth trying then!
This short guide explains the benefits and how to install the code. You can learn more about marketing your business or organisation via Facebook on our Social Media Training course.
You can register at new sites easily — there is no need to re-enter your information or remember usernames and passwords.
Facebook Registration Tool allows you or your web friends to bring friends with them
When you Log into sites with Facebook you will see what’s popular with your friends and read their comments and recommendations.
Your users don’t even need a Facebook account to sign up
This eliminates the need to provide two separate login experiences.
Facebook Registration tool is a great alternative to the old Facebook Connect because it allows you to provide an option for those users who don’t have Facebook account (yes they do still exist). It also allows to design the login page any what you wish and even ask for extra information from your users. Be careful though, asking too much information can encourage people to click out of your registration process, so best keep it simple.
What’s really valuable about Facebook’s registration it how easy it is for people to sign up to bring their friends with them. It’s proven that people are more likely to follow through with the sign up process, will be active on sites longer, share more content, and return more often.
When FriendFeed beta tested the tool their sign ups by users with Facebook increased by 300%, quite a result!
Rob Green from iCrossing talks about Data Analysis for SEO.
I know it’s taking me forever to upload all the videos from #brightonseo but I am getting there! Don’t judge me! @kelvinnewman of Site Visibility is already talking about the next one maybe in November. I might be finished by then!
Its time for Rob Greens presentation on Data Analysis for SEO. One of his recommendations was to use a combination of the Google Keyword Tool and Competitor Analysis data together to to collect more data to make more informed decisions about identifying keywords.
Rob suggested looking for search terms that include universal search in the results on them and using media (image and video) effectively to appear in universal search.
He made an interesting point about how you can use SEO to help increase brand awareness and encourage direct visitors to the website. Rob showed the effect that non-branded keywords can have on brand terms.
I really don’t need to go into more detail as Rob says it all and I have it all on video:
Data Analysis for SEO Part 1 – Rob Green form iCrossing
Read more for the second part of Data Analysis for SEO
If you are completely new to Google Analytics you may want to book on our beginners Google Analytics Course in Brighton, Sussex. Some information on Segmenting Traffic is included on our Advanced Google Analytics Training course.
Nikki Rae from Fresh Egg, as usual, provided us with an entertaining presentation – this time on Custom Variables in Google Analytics at Brighton SEO conference on Friday organised by Kelvin Newman of Site Visibility.
Custom Variables allow you to get more details and tailored results Google Analytics, allowing you to define additional segments to apply to your visitors other than the ones already provided by Analytics.
A good example of where this would be useful is the case study presented by Annabel Hodges AKA @searchpanda (will write this one up later so keep posted) where she had a site that was being used by teachers and students, she could have used two logins on the site – one for teachers and one for students these different logins could be variables that could be used to create two segments in Google Anlalytics. These are User Defined variables.
What is interesting to Google Analytics specialists like Nikki is that Custom Variables allow you to set session level segments, which will stick to the visitor while they are active on the site, and page level segments, which correspond to pageviews and events on the site. This allows you to get much more detailed with the information you’re gathering and storing in the custom variable. For example, you could separate different sections of the site by using the page level scope, or you could track if a visitor has completed a particular action during their session with the session level scope.
The different levels of interaction that can be used to find out more about your users behaviour are:
The Visitor; such as the browser or mobile phone operated by a person.
The Session; what happens during the period of time during which the visitor is active on the site.
The Page; activity on a page like a click on a movie button or an add to a shopping cart
Nikki got members of the audience to participate in an amusing demonstration.
Are you wondering how to grow your business and develop it in a way so it’s not wholly reliant on you? Have you considered outsourcing/franchising/productising as a way to achieve that growth? Emma Jones outlines the options with tips for each strategy.
Grow, grow, grow!
Fellow business owners will understand when I say having a business often feels like having a child; you conceived the idea, you nurtured the business in its early stages, and it can feel tough to let it go and grow on its own! There are smart ways to scale your business and here are four of them.
The 
