During my relatively short time in web development, it has become apparent to me that businesses budget very little for websites, yet they want an up to date, fully functional website. It is not helped by people thinking they can create a website using Frontpage.

Businesses baulk at the idea of spending a few thousand pounds on a website – they think it’s too much money. I can do a website from £99 just like every other person claims, but it will be rubbish – just like everyone else’s £99 website. There is so much more to a website than everyone thinks. A big one is search engine optimisation, but there are also things such as accessibility and design and usability to consider. Web designers and developers try to keep up with all aspects of the web world, so you will always get the most up to date methods for your website when using a professional.

Consider your own methods when researching a company – your first port of call will probably be their website. Your own website is your shop front to the world – do you really want a website that makes your own company look amateurish? Your website could do much better at marketing your company than your flyers, your brochures and your traditional advertising – make sure you give it a budget that reflects its importance!

Most businesses are sales driven whether for products or services, and it is important to have a web presence – but make sure it does you justice. If you genuinely cannot afford a top notch website at the outset, don’t aim for that! It’s better to have an informative site that gets the correct message to your customers than to have every product you sell on a badly designed site with no search engine optimisation. Designing your website is step 1 – getting your website found is a very tricky thing to do and is necessary for your website to succeed. However, do not get carried away with the people that say they will get to the top of Google or any other search engine – treat them with suspicion! They will probably guarantee to get you top for your company name – which should happen naturally anyway. And ask yourself one question – what value is there in being top for your company name? Almost none is the answer. You want people to find your website when searching for your products or services.- and this is the tricky thing that takes knowledge, time and experience.

I see the problem time and again – someone gets their mate to set up their website for their business because they’ve dabbled in it. The website generates no business or enquiries and the business owner sees no benefit of having a website. A common but very costly mistake. If you go to a web design and development professional such as SpiderServe and explain your budget constraints along with your plans for the future, they should be able to come up with an affordable yet professional and technologically sound entry level site that can be upgraded when you feel the business is ready.

If you are serious about your business you will give your website the time and budget it deserves, and not whatever is left when you have done everything else.

I think calling estate agents crooks may be taking it a bit far. But a lot of them are certainly incompetent and offer bad advice.

They actually have the power to reduce the housing crisis by not telling vendors to reduce their asking price by £50k a pop. The bottom line is that if someone loves your property, they will do their damnedest to procure that home. As an example of what estate agents are doing – I know someone who had a house valued at £250k back in March – the house has just gone on the market and the estate agent wanted to put it on for £195k – that is ridiculous. The vendor managed to get the estate agent to agree to £235k – eventually. Proof enough that estate agents are only interested in getting a bit of commission and sod whether the house goes for a price that reflects the true value.

We ourselves experienced how bad agents can be. We were made an offer on James’ flat £10k below the asking price and the agent recommended we accepted that. Now bear in mind we had already dropped the price at the agents advice. So we told the agent we would not accept this offer and subsequently ended up with an offer £3k below the asking price which we did accept. We would have lost out on £7k if taking the agents’ advice. If I take anyones advice it will be my retired bank manager dad’s and not some spotty oik who’s been an estate agent for 3 years.

I have some very serious advice for you sellers out there – ask your agent how long he has been in the property market. If they haven’t seen a hard market, don’t take their advice and go elsewhere – over the last 10 years the market has dictated pricing of property and agents have not had to sell. Now the market is hard, they have no idea how to sell property and the scary thing is that they see themselves as facilitators working to secure a deal between parties, and not securing the highest price possible for the person paying them i.e. you, the seller.

No, estate agents aren’t crooks, but they are self serving, and the high turnover of staff means that many are incompetent. They also forget who they get their money from and we need some kind of law to be passed to make sure they are working on behalf of the seller and not the buyer.

Now, I know we all think that when we were kids we were all sweet and innocent and that kids today have no respect and are basically just little shits – but this helps to confirm that belief…

Boy fed zoo reptiles to crocodile

Firstly, how on earth did the kid get into the zoo in the first place?

Secondly, that kid knew what he was doing – he should be locked up. Showing such sadistic tendencies at such a young age should provoke the authorities to take action before his behaviour escalates.

My reaction is that if the parents have not been crying out for help then they should be castrated and have any other children they have, removed from their care. And as for the kid, he should be locked up as such antisocial behaviour at such a young age could produce a seriously disturbed adult.

I have read accounts of various notable serial killers and some of those actually show the same signs albeit at a much older age. Normally the behaviour manifests itself through shooting air guns and such like at cats and dogs, although one profile I read also tortured animals from an early age.
Now I am not claiming this kid will turn into a serial killer, but it’s a possibility when all is taken into account.

No matter what happens, this kid needs to learn that such behaviour does not belong in a civilised society.