Info, notes and updates

Cavespider Spider Productions has relocated, did you notice?

Having been in the Surrey area for decades we decided we wanted a bit more space around us. The Fens in Lincolnshire do just that, fabulous.

Does it effect my business? I had built up a fantastic network of colleagues and contacts in the South East and I still work with those guys on a day to day basis. However, a large part of my client base is across the globe so where I am located is of little interest to them. One of the advantages of working almost exclusively online.

Saying that it is nice to meet prospects and clients face to face. The results are always positive.  So now I have started building up my network of contacts in this wonderful part of England.

Cavespider, Location not an issue

Cavespider Productions are specialist website developers. We create the sort of thing you might expect to get from a larger agency that claim to do everything. The difference is we charge a fraction of the cost with a great deal more transparency.

With regard to the 'everything' else. We use some genuine experts in Social Media, Digital Marketing, SEO and much else. So to use use an awful analogy, we're not a three in one printer where it does everything, but not very well. We can do everything by using some amazing perephials (people). So if you do want everything in one place that is no problem, we'll create the perfect team for your needs.

Cavespider, agency at non-agency pricing

I'm generally the cynical type about most things, I don't really go for most of the conspiracies that are touted about.

But...

I have come to notice something of a trend when trying to buy domain names for my clients. This is how it appears to go, you go to one of many websites that sell domain names. You do a search for the desired name and the result is a long list of possible alternatives. With any luck it will include the domain name you want listed and available.

So one calls the client to confirm they want to buy the name. You come back to the website to then purchase the name and suddenly the name is no longer available. However, mysteriously, it now features on a premium domain name site charging many more times the standard price.

This has happened far too many times for it to be pure coincidence.

I am assured by a colleague this does not happen with Google Domains, I have yet to try them.

Cavespider, helping you avoid the traps

By the way, thanks for the picture Nick Night

Photo by //unsplash.com/@nicknight?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&;utm_content=creditCopyText">Nick Night on Unsplash

You have probably heard a lot about various website agencies offering 'bespoke'  websites. Sometimes I wonder if it's merely a strategy to charge more...

I have been developing websites since 1994, so long before the likes of Wordpress or Wix. I now do use a platform called Joomla!. This is so my clients can login and manage their sites as they wish. However the rest is designed and created to the needs and wishes of my clients. I am not bound by a bought theme or template, I have built that to suit the project both with a mind to the current needs and future ones.

If you were to get quotes from some of my competitors for a 'Bespoke' website built from the ground up you'll start seeing quotes in the region of £40,000 and up. Even then there is no guarantee you'll get what you think you are paying for.

My prices start from around £3,000 and when I suggest and agree a budget for a project, that will be the price you pay.

I would suggest calling Cavespider, 07703 564636, before going for what might appear to be a better deal, it rarely is. It wouldn't be the first time a client has come to Cavespider after the expensive experience of going elsewhere.

Cavespider, being square in a round world 

By the way, thanks for the picture XiaoXiao Sun

Photo by //unsplash.com/@smile_97?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&;utm_content=creditCopyText">XiaoXiao Sun on Unsplash

Cavespider Productions is a leading website design and development company that offers a wide range of services to help businesses establish a strong online presence. There are several reasons why you should consider using Cavespider Productions for your website:

1. Expertise and Experience: Cavespider Productions has a team of highly skilled and experienced professionals who have a deep understanding of website design and development. They have worked on numerous projects and have a proven track record of delivering high-quality results.

2. Customized Solutions: Cavespider Productions offers customized solutions to meet the specific needs of each client. Whether you need a simple website or a complex e-commerce platform, they will work with you to create a solution that meets your unique requirements.

3. User-Friendly Design: Cavespider Productions places a strong emphasis on creating user-friendly and intuitive website designs. Their designs are optimized for ease of use, ensuring that your visitors have a positive experience and are able to find what they are looking for quickly and easily.

4. Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Cavespider Productions understands the importance of SEO in today's digital landscape. They will work with you to create a website that is optimized for search engines, helping you to improve your online visibility and attract more traffic to your site.

5. Responsive Design: Cavespider Productions creates websites that are responsive, meaning they will look great on any device, whether it is a desktop, tablet, or mobile phone. This is critical for providing a positive user experience and ensuring that your website is accessible to all visitors.

6. Ongoing Support: Cavespider Productions provides ongoing support to ensure that your website remains up-to-date and functioning optimally. They will work with you to make any necessary updates, resolve any technical issues, and provide any other support you need to keep your website running smoothly.

In conclusion, Cavespider Productions is a trusted and reliable partner for all your website design and development needs. With their expertise, customized solutions, user-friendly design, and ongoing support, they can help you establish a strong online presence and achieve your business goals.

A large part of the work I do is in conjunction with independant designers, of all flavours.  This I believe is because I can genuinely create what they design. However, designing a website is a very different challenge to that of designing a printed communication or suchlike. Fortunatley an increasing number either have a good understanding of a dynamic design, one that can adapt to variable formats and content.

It is great to work with designers new to web design as it opens up a whole new landscape of design opportunities for them. Naturally I am more than happy to work with them to get the best possible out of their concept and turn it into a fully responsive, effective website.

To get to the point, if you are a designer and a client wants you to do a website for them don't try and do it yourself. You do the design, come to me and together we'll produce your vision.

Cavespider, developing other peoples dreams

Marketing ones business is always a daunting challenge. You may have spent a fortune on SEO or ads in local magazines that acheive little or nothing. 

It can all be really discouraging and the contacts you do get may be of low value, if any.

I have been there and done that over the years so I do understand which is why, some years ago I started networking. At first it was with BNI, the were the biggest and best at the time, now there are a number of excellent networking groups and most a great deal more cost effective than BNI.

After the group I was a member of for many years shrank to a less than functional number I joined an ex-BNI group, Trusted Referrals Group https://trustedreferrals.co.uk/. 

Maybe I should explain how this all works. A common mis-understanding is that your potential customers are limited those in the room. In fact what happens is those in the room are likely to think of you when they speak to their clients and contacts. So in my case if one of the group has a contact who they think might need a website they pass my details onto them. If there are 20 people in the room and each of those has, lets say a 100 contacts, then you are marketing to 2000 people every week. Those numbers are probably on the pesimistic side. In time you may start getting business from the contacts of the contacts.

Most of my business now comes from my efforts in networking over the years. I get the best clients and have an excellent bunch of colleagues to boot.

Cavespider, a whole web of contacts

I have recently been assisting a large UK Government department, whom I have worked for on and off since the 90's. They contacted me because they haven't got any tracking data for the website they had developed.

This is not the fault of the developers, which isn't myself. Rather it's the SEO Digital Marketing Agency that the contracted. It appears that they haven't done a lot and it and didn't even know there was a problem. I have no idea what this agency is being paid for their services, but I would suggest this needs to be reviewed.

Which brings me to my point; I have been developing websites since 1994 and I have yet to deal with an SEO or Digital marketing agency who is worth what they generally charge. In fact I would go further to say in many cases they are running a scam.

When your customer doesn't understand what you do or how you do it it is easy to get away with jargon or bamboozlement. Send out a monthly report generated by Google and await your payment. For some companies this is almost an addiction, fearing that if they stop paying they will plummet on the Google Rankings, it's almost blackmail.

The people you should talk to are the developers of your website. They are, or should be, best placed to put in place all the tools to make your website succeed as well as advise you on what will help your website suceed. If you want to involve a marketing agency go for one that provides a holistic solution for your company. That would include the likes of your branding, your print media as well as your digital presence.

No apologies for my cynicism, I have seen too many of my clients pay £1,000s to these companies for little or no benefit. Let me add, somewhere out there I would hope there was an honest Digital Marketing company that offered a genuine service.

As I have mentioned in the past I have been developing websites since 1994, but I have been solving problems on computers since 1984.

I'm not going to give you my resume here. If you'll excuse the nostalgia before websites I had a bureau service outputting in the most part 35mm slides from computer files. There were a lot of file formats and standards were all over the place. Converting a file so that my system could read it was always a challenge.

I learnt a lot during those years and the methodology I picked up then still applies today. Everyday in my work there are problems that need solutions. You might think what a pain, but I do like developing websites because I enjoy the problem solving. It is so satisfying when you find the solution and the result is another beautiful website.

Cavespider, love a good problem

To those who have been on this website before might have noticed something of a change. It had to be done, a redesigned, updated website for Cavespider Productions.

In our case the website had been in it's current form for some time. Due to work pressures, not complaining, it was one of those projects that kept on being put off. But it was our shop window so it really had to be current, which it was rapidly becoming less so.

It's not an easy call as you need to think how your website looks to others. Do you really need to refresh it or is it just that you're bored with it? It could still look wonderful to a new visitor. I certainly wouldn't not consider spending the money until you had done a little research. 

Cavespider, a fresh look

For those of you that know me and Cavespider you'll be aware that I have a bit of a thing about off the shelf themes and templates. All the websites I create are bespoke, I create the templates for all my new websites.

I do, occasionally, take on the management of a website that was created using a ready made theme. Often from the likes of Yootheme or theme forest, there are many of them. To give them credit these templates take serious man hours to design and create. They have to be robust, flexible and hopefully reasonably easy to use. The results can look quite good and they do provide a solution though they may not save you as much as you might expect, unless you're creating the website yourself.

I have been creating websites since long before there were such things as themes, though I wasn't at the stage of tying dinosaur bones together. So creating a website from scratch is not new to me, it's the norm. I have tried using a ready made template and I found it really frustrating. I know how I want something to look and work so trying to make something pre designed do that is harder than just building it from scratch in the first place.

There is another big positive, as far as I'm concerned, are my templates will last and have lasted the years of technologic progress. Whereas I constantly have problems with the off the shelf variety because they won't work with the latest versions of the various support software the many of the hosting companies are implementing. On occasion, too many, I have gone back to the Theme producer to find the particular theme involved is no longer supported. It's not a good look to be telling a client their website is 'end of life'.

So, if you don't mind, I'll stick to creating bespoke websites. Then I don't need to ever tell a client their website has come to an end.

Cavespider, unchained

The Coronavirus has made a lot of people isolated and the reasons are many, including working from home, lockdowns, self isolating and so on. Guess what? They are going to be relying to a much greater degree to finding what they need online.

So consider, what's your online presence looking like. This is the time to make sure it's right up to spec and getting your future clients picking up that phone and getting you involved.

The Covid 19 crisis really can be an opportunity as more and more are forced online you need to be there. 

I have been so busy that I haven't been posting which is exactly the excuse my clients give me for not posting. So maybe I should be saying 'do what I say, not what I haven't been doing.

It would be hard to miss the press coverage of the Cambridge Analytica story and how they used Facebook apps to get into your data. Well to varying degrees there are many other organisations trying a similar thing on. 

Are you a designer or someone who knows exactly what they want? Have you noticed how many web developers have a tendency to tell you what you can and can't have?

When someone asks 'What do you want for your birthday?', do you always know? When you know you need a website, do you know what it's going to say?

I assume when your computer software needs updating your probably excited to discover what new features might have been included. On some systems you don't get the choice.

If you use a lawyer, the garage, even an accountant you generally don't discover the cost until you see the bill. Wouldn't be nice to know the cost before you hire?

I would be surprised if as the owner of a domain you hadn't received a few of these. Emails purporting that your domain renewal is overdue.

There was a time you could add a contact form to your website, people would use it to respond and you would contact them back, easy! Things are changing...