“Things may come to those who wait… but only the things left by those who hustle.”

— Abraham Lincoln

They are important though, our data is out there: likes, dislikes, interests, location, friends, etc all can be accessed with ease. It’s not always valuable, but if it comes curated it can be extremely powerful. Anyone can find my number online, but it’s only when they have my age & interests that they know what to sell me.

There’s many a potential shit-storm on the horizon and if we, the people who create these things, don’t start taking responsibility for them someone who doesn’t have a real grasp of the technology / capabilities / potential will do it for us. That would be much worse.

There are so many awesome things you can do with data, let’s keep it that way.

…I would love to see a paragraph at the beginning of every privacy policy that explains, transparently, why we want the data, what we are going to do with it & how long we are going to keep it / retain access to it. Keep the legalese but keep it real!

…“few are taking advantage of the opportunity to collate [data] and present it to people who desperately need it. Think about how much needs to be sorted, compared, updated and presented to people who want to choose or learn or trade on it.”

— Seth Godin, Information about Information

Don’t get it twisted – optimisation is free

Anybody building websites should be optimising for SEO. It’s best practice (semantic markup / accessibility / usability — all those buzzwords are what SEO is). Don’t pay for technical optimisation, If you’re being told to then SEO is probably the least of your worries.

Keep it real

Don’t write copy for search engines, write it for your audience. If you’re buying a car and suddenly the vendor starts talking rubbish & dropping buzz-words, chances are you won’t buy that car. You want someone relatable, knowledgeable & most importantly, trustworthy! A good ranking is organic and will come from you (& others) talking about your product.

People spend on recommendations

I don’t think this needs explaining, it’s a bit of a cliché so i’ll keep it short. Do a good job for others, be helpful and know what you’re talking about… It will come back to you!

Relationships are worth £1M adwords

Pick up the phone, get on Facebook, tweet, be personal, be approachable. When you meet someone you’re forming opinions about them straight away, are they trustworthy? are they cool? do we see eye to eye? could I work with them? This matters. Anyone can google for a freelancer, but if I know you & I can relate to you (and you’re good!), i’m much more likely to use you.

The web isn’t a yellow pages, your customers are people, building relationships is far more important than SEM campaigns, don’t waste your money.

My portfolio & blog have sat somewhat neglected over the last 12 months or so (it’s been a busy year!). I’ve been lucky enough to help design and launch some cool new websites, iPhone & Facebook apps. I’m still working through the non-disclosures at the moment to work out what I can put update my portfolio with!

I’m working on some new personal projects as well — a new WordPress theme and a web app. Both coming very soon!