Apple are known mostly for their fabulous hardware but what really makes their iPhone and iPad sing are the Apps. Apple have worked hard to get the mechanics and business model of their App store just right, it’s a single marketplace, bright and colourful, fun to use, appealing. The single payment route builds trust and keeps things simple and easy for the end user. These stores are obviously making Apple and many of their content providers a lot of money. Cost per unit is generally low but volumes are consequently high. Competition and quality are strong.

Sadly the situation with the expandability of WordPress is not so fabulous. It’s a great platform but it could be so much better. WordPress is community rather than business based and although that all sounds lovely and cosey its currently a bit of a problem. Yes there are the WordPress directories but these are not a patch on an Apple experience and have no single payment gateway. I would estimate that you would be able to buy WordPress additions, be they plugins or themes from hundreds, if not thousands or different vendors using a massive variety of payment routes. Its a scattered marketplace, sometimes done well, sometimes very poorly. Of course thee are some fabulous pay-per-use plugins but these are often overpriced and there are equally many talented individuals relying on donations unable to make a decent living, invest in their ideas and develop high quality software.

I’m writing this in response to the news that support and development for one of my 5 favourite WordPress plugins ‘Login Lock’  has now been abandoned  by its maker.
I quote “Apologies that we can’t continue providing people free support. It got to the point where it took too much time, which obviously distracts from earning money to get the bills paid.” All in all this is a very sad end to a great piece of software and this is not an isolated incident.

If WordPress took a closer look at Apple’s App stores I’m sure they could bring benefits to everyone within the community and encourage WordPress to flourish even more.

We love to be involved right from the start, developing the brand, print materials and website which truly reflect and support a companies ambitions. For us its a real responsibility but also one which we are happy to take on, relishing the possibilities that lay ahead for us and our business partners. To this end we have created some cost effective small business design packages. We hope these will encourage SMEs and startups in St Albans and Hertfordshire to consider us their design partners.

Of course we don’t want this to be a one off. We ideally want to build long term relationships and support businesses with all the design, print, exhibition, website and social media needs that growing enterprises may have, now and in the future.

Why is a good logo important?

A logo speaks volumes about a company but what does it say:

• A good logo can win trust, a bad logo can lose it.
• A good logo will establish a professional image, a bad logo may just shout ‘Cowboys!’
• A good logo shows a caring responsible business, a bad logo can look like no one cares.

In many cases a potential customer gets their first impression of a business from the logo. If it is good they will have an idea that the business is professional and they will remember and be able to identify the company. It may not be complicated, some of the very best logos are extremely simple, but it really needs to be right!

What makes a good website?

• A good website can be found easily by the people looking for the service it provides.
• A good website builds trust, is easy to use and provides strong communication for a business and its clients.
• A good website emphasises the brand and retains the integrity of a business online.

At Thirteen Eighty we are big fans of WordPress websites, indeed our own site uses WordPress as its base. WordPress started life as a blogging engine but in recent years it has grown to become a very powerful Content Management System (CMS). WordPress is Search Engine friendly and cost effective. It can be easily expanded to handle e-commerce, custom forms, video, forums etc and it integrates well with social media. In fact we think its the ideal solution for todays small businesses.

If you are a small business owner or are looking at starting a business in St Albans or Hertfordshire, please take a look at our small business design packages, we genuinely enjoy working with companies from an early stage, our costs are very reasonable, our turn arounds times are quick and we are sure you will not be disappointed, We look forward to hearing from you.

1. Login Lock

Simple and effective, Login Lock upgrades the security of your WordPress site at the door. With Login Lock you can ensure that all your users use suitably strong passwords. You can limit the numbers of attempts to enter before being forcibly locked out and when someone is barred for a time Login Lock can mail you to let you know you may be under attack. It’s worth spending the time on the options screen – all simple stuff but you’ll be glad you did. Best of all Login Lock is Free!
Sadly Login Lock has been abandoned by its developers since this article was written.
You can read a little bit about how we think WordPress could support its developers here.

2. All in One SEO Pack

Optimise your WordPress site for search engines. If you have a website chances are you want people to find it. Goes great leaps towards getting you ranked. Can be pretty much installed and activated and you should see some improvement but for best results you still want to have a feel for what Google and the like are looking for and put the work in. Luckily you can tailor your search information quickly and easily as you edit your pages and posts. There are alternatives – WordPress SEO by Yoast is well respected. Again All in One SEO Pack is a Freebie.
Visit the All in One SEO Pack WordPress plugin page.

3. Scribe SEO

Another SEO plugin? Yes! While All in One SEO Pack is great (and indeed needed to get the most from Scribe), it doesn’t really give you realtime feedback about your SEO efforts. That’s where Scribe comes in gently pointing out your failings, telling you when you are trying too hard or if you have missed your intended keyword targets entirely. It’s not cheap and it’s a monthly subscription but search for a promotional code and it becomes pretty reasonable if you are publishing a lot of content.
Visit the Scribe SEO WordPress plugin page.

4. Formidable Forms

Many WordPress themes have simple contact forms but unless all you want is an alternative to a regular email you will soon want to  create bespoke dynamic forms. Formidable forms is free but if you want access to it’s full and extensive functions there is a one off fee to go Pro. Overall though I’d say these fees represent very good value. The forms are easy enough to put together considering the complexity and functionality available to you. There are also extensions that will integrate with PayPal, MailChimp and allow users to Register with your site.
Visit the Formidable Forms WordPress plugin page.

5. AddThis

This simple but powerful plugin makes it easy for you and your audience to share content over social media. The AddThis bar (which is fully customisable) appears above or below your content and with a couple of clicks your article can be ‘liked’, ‘tweeted’ or sent to over 30o other social sites. There are alternatives but AddThis is my current favourite. This increased exposure will do great things for your google ratings too.
Visit the AddThis WordPress plugin page.

Please note these are just my opinions having used WordPress for some time and are not intended to be taken as a definitive list. Nor will any responsibility be accepted for any issue you may have with any of these comments or the plugins themselves.

Thirteen Eighty has been established as a creative graphic design agency in St Albans since 2004 and this is our third website and our first non-flash site. Why the move away from flash? Well several reasons really. Flash had a lot of advantages – you could do almost anything given the time and skills but there was a cost…

Flash sites were difficult to build in a way that worked well for search engines so SEO could be a problem. It could also be tough on your computers processor – not a problem on a powerful home computer but on a laptop and more so on mobile devices these sites could slow you down and put a strain on your battery.

Apple has been criticised for not supporting flash on it’s iphone and ipad but this was never a technical issue. Apple had made a stand against the use of flash and now Adobe have accepted that flash is not suitable as a mobile platform. So here we are reacting to the changes in the industry, bringing you a site that is consistent where ever it’s viewed.

You might be interested to know that this site uses WordPress as it’s base. Once purely a blogging engine WordPress has grown to become a powerful content management system used by many big name companies to power their websites. It’s powerful, SEO friendly, very cost effective and infinitely customisable – ideal in-fact to power the websites of the real world today.

We hope you enjoy our new WordPress site.

A well crafted WordPress website can be a great asset to you and your business too.  Thirteen Eighty are now offering some great fixed price design solutions for SMEs and start-ups. Please see our small business design packages.