1.2 has just been released, unfortunately it no longer connects with Sipgate.co.uk or .de (I’m told).

I’m reverting back to 1.1, which is dissapointing because 1.2 looked to have some cool new features.

Hopefully Touchmods will address this problem and release an update pronto.

Clinton Cards – Server Not Found – Down

Originally uploaded by buytees

Why can the server not be found for clintoncards.co.uk?

Because the not so savvy ecommerce team at clintoncards have not added “clintoncards.co.uk” to the list of host names for their website.

It’s a 2 second job!

How much type in traffic do you think a well known brand name like clintoncards get?
I lot probably.

How many people get pissed off and go elsewhere?
More than necessary.

How many people blog about it?
LOL – maybe just me.

But, for days I have been watching to see if they fix this, and they haven’t – obviously. Even after a couple of emails to their ecommerce team, to alert them to the error, they haven’t even acknowledged the problem. In fact, they actually said I should refresh my browser because everything was ok.

Arghhh – ignorance

Not so long ago I purchased one of these to use as my new fileserver. They are pretty cool, obviously for the sheer capacity but also because they act as a media server too. You can connect a UPnP-enabled audio/video player up to it, e.g. wirelessly, so you can stream music to your hi-fi.

And even better I just discovered how to connect a network storage device up to Time Machine on Leopard OS X.

Here’s how. Open up Terminal and type:
defaults write com.apple.systempreferences TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes 1

I’m currently coding a server app for my iPhone that includes a number of features:

iTunes Remote
Volume Control
X10 Remote
SMS Sender (using Sipgate API)

more stuff coming as I think of it.

I think the SMS one is pretty cool. Currently it is not possible to send SMS via the iPod Touch – some people have mocked up an email to sms solution but I’d rather have the real thing. Using the Sipgate API (awesome API btw) I was able to whip up an SMS app for my iPod Touch. Now we have v1.1.3 firmware I can add a cool webclip icon to my homepage.

Mail for the iPod Touch – this thing rocks!!!

£12.99 though – rip off! Didn’t I pay a couple of ton for this thing? Nearly three I might add.

Who claim their site is the next online evolution. Heh! I think not.

I wasn’t even aware until now that this site wasn’t live but from demos it looks like a flash based shopping experience that you walk around in (a’la SecondLife) and try and purchase stuff.

Like Kippy said “it’s reinventing the wheel” but only this time, it’s not going to be perfectly round, it’s going to have jagged edges. Oh dear, I wish I had spoken to them more to see how they thought this would work. Of course I was initially drawn in by the sexy women promoting a free track day in a Lambo, but silly them had their real stand over the way so they lost my interest. Whoops!

OK – if you’re an affiliate ever thinking of going to ad-tech – don’t bother. There are so many half-wit, fly by night companies exhibiting there – who 1. Don’t know their product 2. Can’t answer any technical questions relating to their product 3. Haven’t released yet 4. Talk down to you because you’re not a “big” corporate. I’m sure their were 10 other reasons why not to go.

There were a couple of plus points too however:

One company called topposition – an SEO company – hired a Smoothie making firm to make and give away smoothies to anyone who visited their stand. I couldn’t believe it but the smoothie firm did one conference per week! Niche!!!

I enjoyed the Google seminar about Adwords and Checkout. Plus now I will be the coolest person at the Swimming Pool with my Google Bag!! I also have a G pen and a mousepad oh and not forgetting the notebook (Kippy liked that).

There were a few lectures happening one was about SEO which was kinda basic but pin pointed a couple of things that you shouldn’t neglect. Mention of 301 redirects, duplicate content, not forgetting to 301 redirect all your old content (if you have recently migrated to a new url structure) – as it will probably be gone in 2 weeks if all Google gets are 404s.

The most useful thing I took away one thing from the Google seminar was to A/B test not only your Adwords compaigns but also your landing pages. I’ve just redesigned one of my sites, I’m going to split test my landing pages and see exactly how well they individually perform by closely monitoring their stats. You can change a number of thing, colour of buy now buttons, position of them, size of product images, the use of descriptions, above the fold content, etc etc. The moral was don’t just plonk it up and be done with it – test, test, test. You can make considerably more money if your content is formatted in a specific way.

Affiliate Window – my preferred UK affiliate network blew me away tbh. Maybe it was something to do with how bad the other booths were but AWIN seemed to be very much about the affiliates, large or small. The one thing that sets AWIN apart from all the rest are their tools – they have APIs, free datafeeds, awesome performance stats (not just an ePC) and they continue to grow this area of their business too. Every tech savvy affiliate should check out their apis… truly awesome. Whether you are in the US, doesn’t matter, I’m sure you get UK traffic. You’ll see a lot of US affiliates with a .co.uk version of their site because they don’t want to lose on that market potential. I’d certainly recommend AWIN as a place to look over buy.at, Affiliate Future or Tradedoubler.

Oh and I also came up close to a real celebrity (well mini one). Kippy and I stood 4 ft away from a women and stared for 5 minutes thinking “I know her”. Kippy remembered! It was Naomi from The Apprentice. Most of you will not know who she is but it was cool to us. LOL

I have been working on a new website ready for Halloween. HalloweenMe.com sells Halloween Costumes for adults and children. Please check it out and tell me what you think.

Halloween Costumes

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I wouldn’t even know about this company if it wasn’t for the cheesiest adverts on TV since Crazy Frog!  Their brand does everything to annoy me )   Maybe that is the purpose – maybe they want their name to stick in my head for hours upon hours hoping I’ll purchase a card from their website.   Well,  I’m sorry, not only does their website suck but they have completely alienated me as a potential customer.

Kill that theme tune!  If you have to have a pig from the moon as your brand make it make sense.  Carry the brand throughout your website.

At least come up with an innovate reason why a pig from the planet of cheese wants to sell me a card.

Oooh Venice Framed Prints. <— Going there soon. Yaay!!

Ok back to watching T, the Fonejacker is on E4+1 now

You need to watch Fonejacker on Youtube – if you don’t you’re not cool.

IKCoupon.com is a new website that features the art of Imagekind and Flickr members.

The art in this screenshot features the beautiful photography by MJ Gaylard.

IK Coupon makes it easy to explore Imagekind. We have included tag clouds of popular galleries and artists to help you delve into the wonderful art of Imagekind.

One can search by keyword or by artist name. Searching by keyword will display galleries that contain the term. For example searching dogs will return this:
www.ikcoupon.com/shop/?dogs

By clicking on the "more artists" link will show you all Imagekind members that have dog art in their galleries. A neat little feature that will let you explore Imagekind quicker.

Please browse some of my favourite Imagekind artists:

* Kristen Fox
* eVision Arts
* Pristine Photography
* JGoode
* Jean Roth

Or shop here for more Imagekind artists.