Another one bites the dust

2006 has been an interesting year. Personally, it has been a challenging time preparing and launching the web site. It has also been a great year for meeting new people and making plans for the coming year.

Bad points of the year must be the way the Council have said allot but have not actually done anything (yet) Sometimes I wander if the tax we pay actually goes towards anything apart from sending councilors abroad on "field trips" or as the Croydon Advertiser story goes that they spent thousands on translators for those in the borough who can't speak English.

The Council seem to be starting the new year in the same way. At a time we are being pushed from piller to post to recycle everything or anything we can, it was sad to hear that the Council will NOT be collecting the Trees this year. Instead you can take them to a collection point on the 5/6th of the month. Great for those who don't drive or are elderly!

We say goodbye to Esplanade's night club. Yet another one bites the dust in are already busy area. Apparently, a new one will appear in the Spring. Must say that it must be an expensive way to keep a business going if you keep refurbishing year after year. We also say some goodbyes to friends or loved ones.

The new year brings some new things to our borough. Theres a royal visit in February, The Gateway project may even get off the ground or at least the foundations may be put in place. Waddon may be re-generated, South Norwood may get a new pool and leisure complex, Purley may get it's new road plans built, so on and so on.

I say "may" quite allot mainly due to the fact you could of printed this last year! Lets hope it wont be the same for next year.

So here's to 2007, let's make the most of it.

Christmas has arrived

Well it is finally here, Christmas is well and truly arrived. After years of saying we wouldn't leave any shopping to the very last minute, we took off this afternoon into centre Croydon.

To say the place was packed was an understatement. Felt sorry for the people in the que at Virgin as it was nearly the length of the whole store and for Woolworth's, we took one look and left it.

Must say that there was a great atmosphere in the Centre. Even that it was busy, people seemed to be in good spirits (some a lot more than others)but it wasn't like other times.

Would like to say a big thank you to the Guys at Virgin for helping out today. You where great and I know I got a great deal from you. (new mobile to replace old one)

And lastly, would like to wish all of our visitors a great Christmas.
I'm not adding the next bit as this won't be the last post before the end of the year unlike some others around Croydon!!

Getting ready for a new year

Over the last week or so, it has been absolutely hectic trying to get a few things finished for clients but also trying to clean up a few things on the site. When I say a few things, this may be an understatement. It's a bigger task than we thought.

We have been getting a lot of feedback regarding the web site and most of it has been great. There has been a few issues raised which we are now looking into. The first one of these was our home page. This has been completed now and we hope that it will make it a lot easier to locate things.

Behind the scenes, we are working hard on getting together a major new item which is going to become available in the early part of next year. This will see a major advance on what has (and is) available online for Croydon. Can't say to much yet as it's all a bit hush hush.

Please let us know what you think of the new home page layout. The site has been built with our visitors in mind and if we can do anything to make it more enjoyable, please let us know.

Bloody pop ups and IE7

Turned on computer to find out that windows update had decided to update my internet explorer. With all the bad press around, i had to think about trying it out. In the end, I gave it a go. Ok the look and feel of it has changed (to look more like another browser I may add) but when visiting the good old Croydon advertiser site, got a bit of a shock when the adverts take over and start popping up

As you guessed, I am one of those who hate pop ups, pop unders etc etc. That for me was a good enough reason to say no more to IE7 and welcome back my other browser Firefox.

For those who have not got this browser, it is great. No pop ups, loads of extras and it is free. It also works along site "Thunder bird" which is ten times better than outlook.

While we are on the subject of advertising, I know we use advertising on our site but we do carefully think about who we add, which after looking at C.A. web site, they may not be. They have a certain car finance company which at this time of year is pushing people who are in need of finance into a false sense of help.

As someone who has seen first hand what they are like, please, please DO NOT USE THEM. Visit the consumer action group first and read the posts on this car finance company and then you will get to see how many people have been affected by the way they sell you a deal which you will take years to pay back.

Out with the old - in with the new

In an earlier post i gave reference to a re-branding project we are currently involved in. Today, we have nearly completed the main structure and are on target to get the whole thing completed by Friday. To put you in the picture. This is our remit:

We were asked by a property agent to take a look at the way they are seen from an outsiders point of view. This includes how they compare to other businesses in their line of work.

This is a logo the company were using. We also looked at other items including the web site and other stationary. We took the view that this logo was letting the company down.

Mark, the graphic designer came up with the new logo. It is very simple but graphically, it is very eye catching. We believe it brings together what the company is about and secondly it stands out from other businesses in the business.

Over the next few days, the new web site and other items will start to appear. It's been hard work but we know that it is all worth it in the end.

Back to basics

Today has been very interesting. Having spent much of it at a clients office, there seems to be a real issue regarding graphics and just general presentation and communications. We (myself and Mark from Blue sky research have been commissioned to re-brand this company and it is really a time to get back to some basics.

Just to say, in the next few weeks some major changes will be taking place with the way the company is presenting itself and the way it looks. It has been really good to be part of this and we hope that the new look will be both pleasing and more eye catching.

When time is not taken up by lots of other things, we have decided to look into this a lot further and will be adding some items to our resource section.

Just another week

Well, its near to the end of another week and yet even closer to Christmas! (must think about doing some pressie shopping!) anyway, been looking around at some of our other Croydon web sites today and a couple of things have got my notice.

Main one is about the story that South end has no plugs on the street lights so there's no Christmas lights. Apparently this is due that new fittings have been installed. One question - Is there someone with half a brain at Croydon Council who would of thought of this when they were installed in the first place? Why do they come up with "it would cost £5.000 extra which the council can't afford" three weeks before Christmas. If Croydon council can afford to pay out to send a few people over Europe to look at stadiums, they can afford a poxy five grand for little plugs on street lamps.

Next - Talking of stadiums and Europe, Croydon Council apparently getting together a cpo (compulsory purchase order) on land know as the Gateway project. Why? To cut this very short otherwise we could be here all night, one company came up with a design for the area that didn't have a stadium - They then bought the land, cleared away allot of the old buildings etc. In other words, they have already spent some money. The other company has also designed plans for the area and they have included the stadium. Guess what, the council have now decided that they like the last one of these better, so they want the land back.

I'm all up for have the area re-done, it's been like that for bloody years, but I would of thought a massive project on this size, Croydon Council might of looked at something else. If we did have a new stadium in Croydon, Where are the visitors going to park? (or are they going to make everyone arrive by public transport) and secondly, wouldn't it kill off places like Fairfield halls. Personally, and please, lets get back to the original plan and get the bloody thing built otherwise my 3 year old might be retiring by the time anything else will be done.

Last nights Christmas party was great (apart from running out of good wine!) but thanks to a quick thinking person, extra supplies where brought in. It was up the top of the newly refurbished NLA tower or No. 1 Croydon as it is now know. The views from up there really did show how big our borough really is . Thanks to all at Croydon Business Ltd for putting it on.

Stats and more Stats

Websites can be brilliant for any company but unless you know who or where your customers are, you can't provide for them. Had a great meeting this morning regarding this issue. Statistics that work behind the scenes can be great to work out who is looking at your site, how they found you and other bits and bobs that can help you to make sure your site is doing the best for you.

Our stats are generated twice, once by a SEO (Search engine optimum) company and Google. The reason we have got two is to compare them and to see if they are gathering differnant information. The figures do give us a real insite to who is looking at our site. For instance I can tell straight away that over a thousand visitors to date have come from Croydon. We have also had 8 from the states and others from all over the world.

Keywords that are getting the site picked up are "Croydon" and "All about" which is great for us. Looking into this we did a check with Yahoo search engine to find out we were no 1 in there listings.

Overall the site is picking up pace by the day which is great. More are coming on board and we are getting the name about.

That's it for today as we are off to the Croydon Business Christmas Party. Bring it ON!!!

Planning for the future

Ok, the year has only a few weeks to go and it's off to think about what 2007 will hold. Croydon has some big changes coming (apparently!) with the start of the Gateway project and other re-generation projects. For those who haven't heard, Croydon Gateway is a massive site near East Croydon station. Back to the web site. We are already in stage two (out of four) and working flat out to make sure we stay on target but then a spanner turns up in the works.

I can't go into it to much but what I can say is for those of you with broadband, the site is going to be adding new technology to really put us away ahead of all the other sites for the area. We are also going to be adding a number of new items to the site. One of these is something called "My Croydon". More about that another time.

The second is very hush hush and will be announced in the early part of next year. Looking forward to a Christmas party tomorrow evening with Croydon Business. Thought I better add that here as there may be no post on the blog tomorrow!

Time warp

My daughter is growing up fast and today, it made me realise how fast. Next year, she starts school and today, we had a tour around one of the local schools which happened to be where I went many years ago.

It was very strange walking back into a school that I hadn't been back to for about 30 years. I must say that it has greatly improved in look and feel but there where areas where it did feel like yesterday. Throughout the tour, and corridors, we came to the final area - the main hall. Talk about nothing changed, the same old tiles on the floor, same curtains hanging up and even the same paint on the walls (well it looked like it anyway!). Shame they didn't spend a little money on this area.

With the way the teaching goes and everything else, Hats off to those involved. The facilities and the way the teachers worked was really impressive and I just wished we had it like that all that time ago. Maybe then, I would of enjoyed being there more!

Final note goes out to another of Croydon's papers "The Guardian". In a recent blog, we picked up on a story regarding the armed robbery in a local post office in Sanderstead from the Croydon Advertiser. Well now this paper has moved it and placed it in near by "Selsdon". I really wish that some of these papers would actually go out and visit these places and get there facts right before printing things!.

Time to reflect

Ok, we are now in December and shopping has gone into first gear. We are being pumped by every means possible by commercials and other advertising material to buy the latest items, the cheapest items or even the crap items that no one would ever think of buying any other time of the year.

And all because it is Christmas!

For many in retail this time of year is the "sink or swim" of the life of the business. If they do badly now, will they survive the next year. If they do well, can they expand somewhere else or provide new products. Us consumers can have a lot to say to these business especially at this time of year.

But hold on. Are we forgetting one small item. The PC gang want to change the name of the Christmas holidays to "winterfall" Others want to stop carol singing or schools stopping the children from Nativity plays. To these - Look at the word CHRISTmas. The whole reason for the celebration and the reason we give gifts to others is the story of the birth of Jesus.

Without getting too religious on the matter it is a matter of principle. While I totally except other religions and beliefs, it is a Christians belief that this time of year is very special. Many other people who might not enter a church for the whole year, will visit one of the Christmas period. Why? Do they feel guilty about something or is it that no matter what people say or believe, the real story behind Christmas and why we do certain things all lies with the birth of a child.

The three kings bought gifts - presents to a new born child. They didn't go down to the local outlet to spend well over what they could afford on the latest have gadget. This could go on and on.

In summery, while respecting the fact that Christmas is a make or break time in retail. Retail should show some respect in the way they advertise products. Parents are being pressurised into having to buy products well out their price range. That is not what Christmas is about. Christmas is about being together, sharing gifts (for which are affordable) and peace. Lets try and keep it this way.