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.

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"

Online Book Store

No, I'm not doing consultancy for Amazon, just been appointed by local bookshop Linton Books to develop an online presence with e-commerce. The online shop will sell their second-hand specialties in Scottish fiction, history and topography; the Pentlands; Borders interest; hill walking, equestrianism and country pursuits; prose and poetry by Scott, Ramsay, Hogg, Buchan, Stevenson and MacDiarmid.

It's the end of the web as we know it

Well that maybe is a bit apocryphal. but yesterday ICANN (The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) decided to permit the introduction of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of new Internet domain names to join ".com" and ".co.uk" making the first major changes in the network's 25-year-old domain naming system.

They also voted unanimously to open public debate on a separate proposal to permit addresses entirely in non-English languages for the first time - which would perhaps mean the introduction of a separate internet for Russia (purely Cyrillic), for example.

But for UK companies it means considering whether to reserve yet more domain names, if categories like .bank and .news arrive. And apart from possibly creating different language webs, the potential for more localisation arrives with the the start of domains like .berlin.

Although costs look set to be very high (we're talking thousands not £12.50 for 2 years), I assume in the Berlin example, the German government or city authorities would step in to buy it then resell individual sub-domains.

One to watch.

New Look Sea Tours Site

Long standing client Mull of Kintyre Sea Tours has just launched a new look website with some images supplied by clients (we're working on some video to go on YouTube as well).

Why video?

On the comments page, T.S. (age 5) Edinburgh, said: "Best day of my life!"

So, for the adrenalin rush of the speed of the boat, combined with the opportunities to see dolphins, killer whales, puffins and more wildlife on the west coast of Scotland, video must be the next sales tool.

Edinburgh Book Festival Website

The new programme was launched today, with the press leaping up and down about the final day with Sir Sean Connery launching his new book Being A Scot. But there's plenty more on offer, with tickets going on sale on 20th June. The website updates went smoothly this morning, let's hope the server copes with the demand next Friday!