Coding In The Darkness

BT Better World Campaign Exhibition Bag

Today I happened to be scanning my Google Analytics account and noticed a big drop off for the BT Better World site.

Forgetting that i was still subscribed to the tracking data i decided to remove it when i realised that it had no fews on Tuesday, knowing that couldn’t be possible my fears had become reality, the URL btbetterworld.com had been redirected to the main BT CSR site.

Now of course many of the tools still exist on the BTPLC site and they are really, really useful for teaching young people vital and valuable communication skills, but after working on the previous site I was very sad to see it virtually die in the eyes of the web.

It always felt odd that the site was created off the BT main site and perhaps should of been built onto it in the first place although corporates have very strict rules when it comes to what sits on their webspace.

With much of my early web work hosted on the site and the hours I put into the web pages both my own and using the templates system, the newsletters from early HTML to the fancy Adobe designed masterpieces and even the beloved TalkDog mini site it’s a shame to see all that work now gone.

Even more so the special html pages i coded to make all of the Flash animations run in full screen on all browser types and sizes, they really should of kept that code.

It gave me a reason to look back and remember the good, fun times I spent on what i value as a major part in shaping the current person I am today, from what I learned and from the great people I met and worked with. Although I don’t miss waking up at 5AM to catch the first train to an exhibition up North!

So goodbye btbetterworld.com you’ll always have a found place in my heart.

Its been over a month since my last post, incredible really, i have had much to say but so little time.

Ben's trips to the Job center didn't last long!

I will post an update my Social Media Experiment this week, although i can’t say i expect a massive improvement as i haven’t been dedicating much time to it. Thanks to the recent leaving then rejoining BT / Dialogics and finally leaving again i found myself without work, for 1 day!

So my current role if you haven’t checked my LinkedIn Profile is with a very new online retailer called shop.co.uk, they are a UK only online retailer and they / we are looking to join the likes of Play.com and Amazon in the online retailer environment. So my current role is “Online Marketing Executive” which basically means i optimise content pages, promote pages, help devise PPC campaigns, generate inbound links, create good content and lots more techniques i haven’t started yet (All white hat SEO techniques of course!)

i have also been spreading the word via the old fashioned word of mouth with my friends as Shop.co.uk sell many items very cheaply including two of the products i have been working on Sim Free Mobile Phone Handsets & Discount Perfumes, Discount Colognes / Aftershaves & Discount Beauty Products.

My role is with Shop.co.uk

I’m hoping i gain some great SEO experience form this role, it’s very fast paced and a definitely different environment from my last role. Lets hope it turns into something really great.
Oh i also wrote an online buying guide for mobile phones, it may be worth a look maybe you know someone who could use it? Either way here it is Mobile Phone Buying Guide.

Over the last two months i have also been doing some freelance work for friends and I’ll add links here as well as my online portfolio as soon as it all finished. One is for a friend who is a recent Dance graduate who is starting her own Dance class business called Rhythms, if you live near Southend i suggest you take a look.
The other piece of work is for my ex managers husband Anthony Bailey who is a Cambridge & Chelsea based Counsellor. He needed some SEO advice and we done some basic SEO techniques to help him get higher ranked in Google which proved quite successful. For his four main targeted keywords he now has 4 top 100 results including a #1 and a number #3. You can view Anthony’s site here Chelsea & Cambridge Counsellor.

Well that’s it for my brief update, i had more interesting stuff to talk about like the decline of MySpace & Bebo, where i think Twitter, Facebook & social networking is going in general with the mobile arena, plus other bits and bobs but another time perhaps?

Stay Classy

Ben Scowen

I found this blog whilst googling the other day and thought it was just such good advice i had to pass on.

Google doing it's searching magic

SEO Gold – http://www.seo-gold.com

I will be viewing posts regularly as there just seems to be some good information there about Search Engine Optimisation, I’m still learning and perfecting the craft and i wish i had found this site months ago!

I think its worth checking the SEO Tutorial post first, to help get your head around the whole idea and references. Also helps to teach you the good and bad ways to do SEO, although they mention they fit into neither bracket as they test both ways in a test environment i just find it helpful that someone is presenting all the information clearly without pushing the one and only “correct way to do it”.

Also the fact that the advantages and consequences for doing SEO cleanly or doing it the risky naughty way are very interesting and hopefully the more people who have a better understanding of the subject means that we will always have search engines pointing us to the best and correct content.

Let me know if it helps you in anyway, or you could let SEO Gold know yourself!

Wow it’s been 12 days since i started my social media experiment, I’ve been putting this first update off for a while as i have been busy with life and my own site but i think now is a good time to see just how everything is going.

Before i get into the numbers i thought I’d just give my overview and thoughts. I think i have been doing an OK job so far of actually trying to boost my web presence, i have been blogging on a occasion basis, updating my twitter feed and looking at trends, as well as regularly checking my Google rankings. But i know i need to do more, so I’m gonna up my game as far as blogging and twitter goes so hopefully by update #2 i feel like i should have a 8/10 for effort rather than the 3/10 i feel like so far.

Coding In The Darkness meets Google spider

Although if you have a look at the image to the right, Google found my blog after 45 minutes of posting, so i was very happy with that! I’ll wait to see how well my other posts and website go down but was shocked to see that the blog was picked up so quick when it wasn’t ranked in at least the top 10 pages before and it jumped to 6th.

So the stats so far;

• Twitter follower increase by 5 to 31 (I have had more followers but i seem to be losing some, maybe i am not interesting enough!)
• Blog views was 128 now 223 with an average of 5 views per day
• Facebook – i have decided to drop this stat as i just think it won’t be a good measure
• LinkedIn – still 23 connections, i haven’t done much with LinkedIn put i am looking to get involved with groups soon so we’ll see what comes of it, hopefully some good connections

Google Results

• ben scowen – 5,650 results, 7 out of 10 on the front page are all me and this blog is 6th!
• “ben scowen” – 121 results, same as above

I haven’t looked at anything else yet but i am going to try and impact the top 100 for:

• scowen
• ben! – Will have some competition for that one
• Not sure what else maybe London freelance web designer etc, let me know your ideas.

That will do for this update, i am off now to write some code, buy my domain and re-enter the Twitter-sphere, but next time i am going to add some data from various twitter mash ups, and some more blog stats, but before i go here is a great piece by MediaSnackers who have a guide for entering Social Media for beginners >,
enjoy.

… I’d be happy with a hundred!

I have been keeping a watch on this for the past 2 or 3 days now and i just find the whole concept very funny. (Link to story here)
The fact that a) CNN @cnnbrk has only just got ownership of the account, so technically they have only really earned the last 80,000 or so followers, b) That of all of the twitter accounts out there it has fallen upon Ashton Kutcher @aplusk to try and steal this race.
I have nothing against Ashton, i like him actually and i have chosen to follow him because his posts seem interesting enough, i just was surprised that there is only one news feed against two celebs for the first mill (Including Britney Spears @britneyspears who is third).

I suppose it confirms the fact that we are more interested in celebrity culture than news, well celeb news is news but you know what i mean.

I like the whole story as its just a nice fun story in the news for a change and whoever wins the Malaria charity’s and suffers will benefit which is great. Also the special number followers who will get games by EA is cool and should help up the numbers!

Also found this of Ashton on YouTube helping to fight the cause, all i can say is one man, nearly a million followers, what would happen if this guy ran for president, or worse if Britney Spears did!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ma8AcfKGaEI]

Anyway if you want to follow me and help me get to 100 followers i can be found here @BenScowen, maybe I’ll do something for charity too, but you will get no games!

TTYL

I suppose the title sums up this post, i talk to lots of people about Social Media, Networks on the web, and Google and SEO rankings etc, but am i right?

Basically as it stands i have:

• 175 Friends on Facebook
• 26 Followers on Twitter
• A very Old MySpace and Bebo page
• A nearly finished Web Site
• YouTube & Flickr accounts
• And this blog which needs a good shot in the arm

I admit i am selective and don’t add just anyone, i know >90% of my FB friends for instance.

So the EXPERIMENT!
How famous can i get by the end of the year?
Basically i have no idea how i am going to measure it but i want see how many “friends”, “followers”, “subscribers”, how high up the google rankings i get when i search for “Ben Scowen” (and how many are actually me).
I have to learn a lot more about good blogging, SEO, Social Media but there is no better test subject than myself.

So i will set some rules to make the test fair throughout and not cheat.

1. I will not request people to be my friend, follow etc, they must want to join me on there own accord
2. I will blog, tweet, video blog etc as often as possible but at least once a week
3. On certain sites i will become or follow someone but not ask them for a return, i want to make myself visible without forcing myself upon people.

That’s it for rules unless i get some good suggestions, i will post weekly or monthly updates on my progress with graphs etc for all you stat geeks out there.

That’s it, if you have any advice, or can find anyone else who has done similar so i can compare please let me know, but for now,

Stay Classy (Maybe i need a new non Ron-Burgundy sign off?)

Just a quick post, found this on YouTube  whilst looking for videos in how to repair external hard drives?

Anyway i thought it was really good and wanted to share, i may buy this guy’s book.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQVTIJBZook&feature=channel]

Enjoy

Just to let you all know i work on the BT Better World Campaign, mainly on the web and interactive elements of the campaign.

The campaign aims to improve the spoken communication skills of young people from the UK and around the world. So far we have already helped 3 Million young people communicate better!

I just wanted to let you all know the campaign provides many free resources for teachers, parents, youth workers and anyone who works or interacts with young people.

The resources range from DVDs, online games, online activities, white board resources, teachers notes, comics, sticker packs, books & printable worksheets.
The resources cover ages -9 months to 19 and are all free to order or download from the site.

We also fund raise for ChildLine and help promote youth voice.

OK that’s enough for now, but seriously check out the resources

Ben