Wired Nomad

New Bunkhouse in the Tweed Valley

Kailzie Gardens, a long-standing client, has just launched a bunkhouse (sleeps up to 24) close to the mountain biking destinations of Glentress and Innerleithen in the Scottish Borders. First stage of the web promotion was updating their website with more details and a photo gallery, plus an entry on the Visit Tweed Valley blog. I'm still impressed with the way that blogs, correctly used, can get almost instant results on key search terms in Google - within 2 hours of the post a search for "bunkhouse glentress" brought up a number 2 position.

I'm also pleased with the domain name I managed to acquire, just working on a small dedicated bunkkouse site that will involve more customer involvement through blogs, a Flickr group and so on...

Caritas Music Site Updated

Just revamped the Caritas Music Publishing site, some of the photographs are mine, taken on my last visit to Ullapool, e.g. on the cassettes page, the video page (actually that's a bit washed out I must look at it again!) and the commissions page.

The rest are by other members of the family (the fact everyone is called Douglas is a bit of a giveaway).

Book Festival Audio Updates

Just added a batch of new audio files to the streaming server including some of the biggest names for this year's Festival - Sean Connery, Gordon Brown with Ian Rankin and First Minister Alex Salmond.

Plus another 8 in the podcast series (if you subscribe via iTunes you'll get them automatically) otherwise listen here for new ones including comedian Mark Billingham, Charlie Higson talking about the Young Bond phenomenon and Children’s Laureate Michael Rosen.

Scottish Borders Awards 2008

One of my client's, the Tweed Valley Tourist Consortia, has been shortlisted for a Scottish Borders Award 2008 in the “Award for Best Use of IT in a Tourism Related Business” category.

There are three finalists in this category, and the winners will be announced at the Awards Dinner on Friday 3 October at Springwood Hall, Border Union Showground, Kelso...

Cake Partnership Website Launches

Just launched an updated site from an existing design for a new client, The Cake Partnership, who create unique Wedding and Celebration cakes, offering a service for clients in Edinburgh, the Scottish Borders and Lanarkshire. Based around the SimpleViewer gallery programme, there is a huge variety of cakes to look at, from Spongebob Squarepants to 60th Anniversary cakes.

The whole site has been given a major overhaul for search engine optimisation.

Sean Connery at the Book Festival

No, still didn't manage to get tickets to see the world's most famous Scotsman (actually, didn't Groundskeeper Willie from The Simpsons win that nomination a few years ago?), and anyway the event finished quarter of an hour ago. Still, just added a short of Sean Connery and Murray Grigor to the website. There should be some material from the actual event shortly as well.

Topical Video from the Book Festival

If you've been following the events in Georgia recently, the Book Festival have a topical video on the website in place of the appearance of the author at today's Festival.

A former Russian conscript who fought in Chechnya, Arkady Babchenko was unable to make it to his event today due to the situation between Russia and Georgia. Here he makes a special, very personal, recording for the Book Festival for their Anna Politkovskaya memorial event.

So do blogs work?

Well if you're reading this, then that's a start. But this blog is just about what work Wired Nomad has been doing, plus various rambling thoughts from myself.

On the other hand, a blog which was quickly set up using WordPress for client Mainstream Publishing a few months ago  is doing fantastically well at representing the amount of interest in the second autobiographical novel by Martha Long, whose first book was a UK bestseller. Just check out the number of readers desperate to see how her life turned out inthe next volume...

Edinburgh Book Festival Podcasts

Just been adding new podcasts from this year's Festival including Simon Callow, Quintin Jardine, Bill Paterson and Jenni Murray. You can subscribe to the Book Festival podcast series here or listen to individual shows as well on your computer.

Flickr Site Bringing Business?

Being a keen amateur photographer, I publish a lot of images I take on my page on the photo sharing site Flickr, but there have been a few commercial approaches because of what's there. I think I need to work out where the value of an image is, but at the moment the first image requested was used free of charge in the Schmap Edinburgh Guide

The message from the company was: "I am delighted to let you know that your submitted photo
has been selected for inclusion in the newly released fifth edition of our Schmap Edinburgh Guide: Our Dynamic Earth"