Provoke News and Blogs

Just over 5 years ago Provoke’s founder; Daren Bach, left one of London’s top design agencies to set up in Cheshire. One question he still gets asked is why Cheshire?

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Online Marketing can perhaps be the saving grace to your online business. Many individuals out there have been making money by expanding their businesses online or simply just previewing their products and services through blogs or websites. Unfortunately, there are those who venture on the same journey, yet never live to see the day. These are also the same people who brand that internet marketing is just not the way to go. (more…)

With broadband internet access being somewhat ubiquitous these days, the way we use the internet is changing. Since it’s inception people have used the internet to seek out information. Today with technologies like blogging and video sharing beginning to mature, more and more people are more receptive to turning to the internet for entertainment, and not just information. With this change, and the advancing sophistication of ad-serving technology, online video advertising has seen huge growth in the past three years. (more…)

What’s the goal of your website?

• To inform?
• To build a community?
• To gain valuable market research?
• To reduce support and customer service costs?
• To reach a broad audience with a message?
• To find sales leads?
• To conduct e-commerce?
• To gain advertising revenue?
• To brand your company?
• To build trust?
• To reduce printing and mailing costs? (more…)

The world in which we live in becoming one of instant gratification, a “we want it now” approach to life. This trend is as applicable in the search engine industry as it is in the world as general. (more…)

Whilst the great British Summer has us reaching for the great British brolly its not all doom and gloom! With people not wishing to venture out into the wet weather, we have seen an increase in Internet usage.

With this increase it’s now more essential than ever to ensure that your website can be found online. Search engines like Google are the first place consumers head to when they are looking for a product or service. (more…)

A usual problem facing new Web Developers is how to split a Database query over several pages (paginate).  The example following is in a basic form so will not contain code or methods for content filtering or to allow dynamic options for the pagination but should give a good base to build from.

For this example we are going to use OOP and create a class.  This will enable an easy way to plug this code into existing database queries and to make it unobtrusive so that it can be modified and extended at any time. (more…)

Recently moved home and sgned up for Be There Broadband.  This service comes with a Be branded Thomson 585v7 Router, which is a very basic and horrid bit of kit.  While it is self explanatory using the basic web interface to this device to forward ports and services to the correct machine on your LAN, I found I could not forward port 443 (HTTPS) even though I had set up the rules to do so.

The reason why is that the router is using an HTTPS service for itself (I believe remote administration) so will not forward requests on port 443, and this cannot be turned off in the web interface yet it still gives you the option to forward this port.

The solution is to disable the HTTPS service on the router and to do this we need to use Telnet.

telnet 192.168.1.254

You wil be prompted for your User name which is Administrator the default password is bank but if you have set up a password in the Web Interface you will have to enter it here.

Next turn off HTTPS service

service system modify name=HTTPs state=disabled
saveall

Thats it.  Now you should be able to forward port 443

I’ve recently moved to a Laptop as my full time computer, replacing my Desktop.  My Desktop had an Asus Xonar D2X sound card and my Dell Inspiron has a very bad on-board sound card by comparison.  To make up for this I have purchased a USB sound card for use when my Laptop is “docked” at my home office.

A problem I encountered is while Ubuntu Hardy recognises my external sound card I have to go to

System » Preferences » Sound

to enable USB Audio for Sound Events and Music and Movies.  The only problem is that while Rhythmbox and Totem use my external sound card, the OS sounds and VLC do not.  Using asoundconf to set my default sound card does not rectify this solution.  I cannot also disable my on-board sound card in the BIOS as this option doesn’t exist and would also mean changing my BIOS every time I’m using my laptop on the move if I want sound. (more…)

Internet marketing is an indispensable tool in the survival and success of an online business. The facts are clear: those businesses that have a strong online presence generate more clients and more product awareness.

The power of the internet is not one to be trifled with, and as a result more businesses have chosen the road more traveled nowadays- that is to promote one’s existence both offline and online.

There are a few essential things that a company needs to master, in order to be a pro in internet marketing. Creating and developing a website is the first one. A website will serve as the platform with which to create a product or service offering, provide information and background on the business, accept payments for purchases, and even to communicate to the clients through e-mails and feedback.

Of course there are a number of web hosts that offer to set up a website for free. There are upsides and downsides to these so-called free services. The upside would be on terms of no or less expense- free websites mean you get to have your own website without having to pay anything. However, with a free website, there is lesser stability and lesser control on the part of the business owner, thus the restrained internet marketing efforts. The no-charge web host may choose to discontinue the free service anytime or to automatically delete the site account, and this could turn out to be detrimental for any online business.

Promoting and advertising the product through a number of means should also be given top priority in internet marketing. Even with a website, site traffic will not increase if efforts geared towards such traffic goals are not being done. Some of the means at promoting a business site would include article marketing, affiliate marketing, Pay Per Click advertising, Search Engine Optimization, web content writing and redesign, and even blogging. Anything that seeks to promote your site and offerings in a positive manner should be helpful, although you must find those that you believe are reaping the most benefits for your online business.

Maintaining good customer relations is always good for any business, whether land based or internet based. After all, in any business the customer is always king. Constant communication with clients through autoresponders would give the strong impression that the online business is taking the effort at improving awareness, and maintaining relationships.

Through all these, internet marketing is made more valuable in achieving a more powerful and longer lasting online presence for businesses.