Recently I upgraded our blogging software to the latest release. The upgrade went without a hitch and all looked ok. I even did a quick check. It really was a quick check however, as it was getting late and I wanted to go home.

Never do an upgrade either last thing in the day and never, never do an upgrade or release on a Friday afternoon! Why you say? because it will invariably go wrong and you wont check things properly if you’re in a hurry. The observant of you will notice the blog looks nothing like the rest of our site.

That’s because I’ve overwritten the template that we use with the default. What makes it worse is that I’ve overwritten the backup! Foolish boy…. granted, I never normally overwrite the templates and in fact, we normally change the template name when we build new blogs with custom templates for other people. Still, we aren’t doing for ourselves what we do for others are we?

The blog will be fixed later today when I get to my laptop (which has a backup of the template on it). By which time everyone reading the blog who subscribes to the how-do weekly wrap (which Pyxisoft currently sponsor) will have seen my mistake.

No Friday afternoon beers for Steve as punishment.

Last night’s Manchester Digital AGM went well and the 12 members of this year’s council were chosen. you can read more about each coucil member in the article on the Manchester Digital site.

Congratulations go to our friends Simon Wharton from PushOn and Raj Mahapatra of Legal 2.0 who were both re-elected. Also, Nina Mack from Mitooshi and MadeWith who was newly elected.

I’ll be at the Manchester Digital AGM tonight to vote at the elections. It’s at MDDA’s offices on Portland St.

Good luck to everyone who’s nominated.

Last night I was at Chorlton Library to deliver a talk on ‘What makes a good website?’. It was a dual presenter event and my partner for the evening was Andy from Sputnik who gave a talk on thie importance of brand and marketing.

The event was well attended and prompted some good questions, although we were running out of time by the end! I’ve never witnessed ’speed presenting’ before but Andy really went for it

The sandwiches were nice too…..

For more information visit the MDDA website.

Happy New Year!

I don’t normally go in for New Year’s Resolutions much. They invariably get broken after a few weeks or so and you conveniently forget about them so as not to feel guilty.

I’ve made a couple this year – which I honestly intend to keep.

In November last year I published a post on the importance of regularly updating your site/blog. Aside from a few posts about Christmas (an a little rant) I didn’t do much. Now I know I was ill and not really at my computer, but I still could have mentioned the things of real worth that were going on. Such as the new storage facility opened at Movers Transport. Or the upgrades to the Movers quote software – you can now get a quote for transport based on the start and end postcodes. There was no mention of the upcoming e-commerce facility opening soon which will allow you to buy packaging (boxes) and other materials for moving house either.

No mention of the new online booking service which is currently under development for Cardinal Maritime.

Not a word of the new contract win for the National Board of Examiners for Dentistry, or the Dentistry School in Salford.

The other impotant thing I should mention, is that it’s not just the frequency of the updates, but the quality of the content you post. Whilst some people appreciate the off-hand manner in which I write, some even empathised with my little rant it’s of little value to people. What is missing are the articles I originally promised myself I would write. The comments on new technology, legislation, changes in our industry or some useful hints/tips to reward you for taking the time to visit the site.

It not just about what you have won/completed. It’s about adding something useful to the mix. Giving something to your visitors – like a reason to come back!

So, my main resolution is to do just that and I’ll start off with my first tip – try to keep the content interesting to your visitors. Give them a reason to keep coming back. Give them something for free as a reward for taking the time to visit you.

As the phrase goes – a little goes a long way.

All the best for 2009,
Steve

Merry Christmas from Pyxisoft and here’s to a prosperous 2009.

2009 is billed as being a difficult year ahead, but we wish everyone the best of luck for the coming year.

Why is it men aren’t allowed to be ill? Why is it that we supposedly have “manflu” and therefore it can’t be as bad as we make out?

I think the bloke playing the big bass drum on the inside of my skull and eyeballs would beg to differ. I wont bore you with the minute details, but I feel proper ill and slightly ticked off by the amount of people who tell me I have “nothing but manflu”.

Still no shopping, still no Secret Santa gift. If I’m not careful, I could be in bother…..

I dont know about you, but I haven’t bought most of my presents – including my Secret Santa for the office.

One top of that, we have plenty to keep us busy in the run up to Christmas so I have even less time for last minute shopping.

To put the tin hat on it, I’m feeling ill too…..

We’re guilty as charged m’lud.

One of the things we tell our clients to do is make the time to update your website and/or blog on a regular basis. “We don’t have the time” people say; “we have a website, I have more important things to worry about”. Once a month we say, more is better; but at least make time for once a month.

We’ll, I’m afraid we haven’t been doing that ourselves. Whilst there has been plenty going on, we’ve not bothered to talk about it – just concentrated on the job at hand. As a result though, our Google rankings have slipped somewhat.

It just goes to show – it really does matter, it really does count. We aren’t just saying it for fun you know!

As the person who generally updates the blog – it’s my fault for not keeping the blog up to date.

I will try harder. Promise

The new Greater Manchester Safeguarding Children site went up today. Whilst not all of the procedures have been ratified yet, the site launches with a number of procedures and guidelines aimed at public sector workers.

The site also features a forum which will become active over the coming days and we hope this provides a place for all parties of GMSC to share ideas and best practice.