Elf Designs News

Online tools for small business

efindlow — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 01:40:59 +0000

This article from mashable shares some of the great online tools that are available for small business – as many of them are free and access to them is online, it means that you can access them any computer with internet access and that you dont have to purchase and install expensive software on your computer.

Image editing

efindlow — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 09:52:26 +0000

A client I met the other day gave me a name of a great tool to use for resizing images.. its free and easy to use its a starnge name but works great – check out Minh’s Stupid PhotoResizer

How to remember stuff

efindlow — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 23:29:02 +0000

I came across this post today – great because it summarises a heap of useful tools all designed to help you remember things, many of the tools I use daily and my favourite is probably evernote. The post also offers some tips on the best way to create notes – a good read check it out

Internationalized Domain Names

efindlow — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:16:04 +0000

ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, has voted to allow non-Latin domain names beginning in 2010. This is one of the biggest technical changes to happen on the Internet, and can have some major ramifications for your e-commerce website. Starting November 16, ICANN is launching a fast-track program to allow countries using non-Latin characters to request top-level domain names that reflect their country’s name. Once this process has begun, individual users will be able to take registrations as early as the first half of 2010. This development will help users, especially consumers who have been tentative about online shopping, to perhaps feel more secure about your website if they are able to use their local keyboards. With China’s huge growth in both Internet users and e-commerce, being able to have a Chinese-language website with a Chinese domain name could be invaluable to your web business. More information seems to be coming out about this every day, but here are some articles that might give you some more insight:

http://www.dynamicexport.com.au/news/icann-votes-for-international-domains00771/

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009-11/16/content_8979647.htm

http://www.internetnews.com/infra/article.php/3846401

http://www.icann.org/en/topics/idn/

Collaboration Tools

efindlow — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 06:00:22 +0000

As I travel frequently and always need access to my files – I carry around a portable hard disk, however there have been occassions when it has failed, or worse I could have lost it. I have found and started to use some of these online tools which make them readily available as long as I have an internet connection available.

Drop box - I really like this to share between my 3 computers
Mozy - online back up
Google Docs – I use this word docs and excel so that peopl that I work with in Canada and Australia can access the same files ( and its free)
Zoho has a heap of online collaboration tools thatyou may find useful

Dan Ariely on Decisions

Nimi — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 04:30:41 +0000

I just spent $4.80 on 1 scoop of boysenberry ice cream and could have gotten a 1L tub for the same price at the super. Logically and rationally I can see now that this was probably not an wise economically decision but when I was looking at the price list at the counter:

Small – $4.80
Regular – $5.80
EXTRA – $7.20

The small was the most value add option. Behavioral economist Dan Ariely, author of best seller Predictably Irrational, delivered a talk at the TED Conference in 2008 on how we make decisions, and how these decisions are not necessarily the logical choice.

You Choose

Nimi — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 12:16:11 +0000

Today we live in a world of choice, where brands are prepared to offer their buyers above and beyond the generic, but at a premium rate. Element Bars is new brand and probably the most transparent Health Bar brand I’ve come across in my many an hour spent scanning nutritional information in supermarket aisles. Based in the US, the site lets you build your own Health Bar from bar textures, to dried fruits, nuts, sweets and additional vitamins. The best part of this is watching the nutritional information update as you add and take out certain ingredients. Once you’ve crafted your very own Health Bar you can name it and share it and order your first box of 12 to sample. To give you an idea of the premium rate a Chewy bar with organic sultanas and Apricots, Organic Almonds and cashews, choc chips, honey and Soy Protein comes to about USD 36.00 which equates to about USD 3.00 a bar.

We increasingly see brands offering this level of customisation as consumers become more informed about products and are willing to pay a little bit extra for a choice in product. Whether it be customising sneakers, to tailored clothes, and custom built Laptops and computers, and even Domino’s highly complex Pizza builder. The generic product, the one size fits all model doesn’t cut it any more and as marketing demographics continue to splinter by more than just age, sex, and socio economic group and we realise that the word majority is actually made up of a series of minorities. Trying to create a overarching product is high risk without a solid R&D phase behind it.

So the benefit of having in- built choice in products means you can access a larger market share and with an online database behind it you can gain valuable insights into who your buyers are; are they mainly chewy or crispy texture people, or do they like nuts more than lollies? From there you can roll out popular flavour to recoup some economies of scale for your business.

The product research learning curve and testing phase can occur while Element Bars are generating sales and those real learnings can be applied to build “popular flavours”.

There is of course the flip side in this model as humans can only really focus on five to seven things on a page at once and so limiting choice can actually help users arrive at the desired end goal quicker. There is a point when a plethora of choice can become a deterrent to convert and the user experience required to manage the process must become more complex. For the Element bars site the level of choice and customisation is high but well managed through the progress bar and the dynamic nutritional information label.

Then check out the domino

Power Point Karaoke; Be prepared to be unprepared

Nimi — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 02:57:27 +0000

Have you ever been under prepared for a power point presentation? I know I have found myself trying to talk through a complicated flow/ strategy diagram, often without much success. The power point presentation is something most people have had experience with, whether in having to prepare them or present them as well. Some people can deliver them on the fly with minimal prompting notes, and others require two dress rehearsals.

How would you feel if you were asked to give a presentation on a topic that you didn

Chris Brown saved by a viral

Nimi — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 11:09:17 +0000

There has been a recent viral craze around choreographed Wedding dances on You Tube and you have probably seen this latest instalment which made its past Ellen, right into 6 o

Rupert Murdoch to charge for his news

Nimi — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 10:59:17 +0000

To escalate his goal to get News readers paying for online content Media tycoon Rupert Murdoch recently announced that New Corps will begin implementing susbscription measures into all their online papers. “Quality journalism is not cheap, and an industry that gives away its content is simply cannibalizing its ability to produce good reporting,” Murdoch said.

The details around payment options were vague suggesting a mix of online subscriptions, charging fees to read single stories and selling content on new platforms such as mobile reading devices.

However be prepared for these measures to come in soon; ”We’re thinking in terms of this financial year,” Mr Murdoch said.

Two years ago, with Ad Dollars still flowing strongly through News Corp, Murdoch maintained that online content would remain free for users; a sustainable model given the steady flow of Advertising revenue. Since then however the Global Recession has seen advertising budgets halve and clients demanded performance media buys, online inventory has devalued into Click and Acquisition based pricing models. All media publishers including News Corp have been unable to withstand the financial repercussions and last week they posted a USD 3.4 billion loss to 2008.

The Wall Street Journal, one of Murdoch’s most prized publications, is currently running on a subscription basis. It