How to make a cool $10k
News reaches us today of one clever kid. 10 year old Jani from Finland is suddenly $10,000 better off thanks to Facebook. Well, thanks to Instagram really (Facebook owns Instagram).
What did Jani do to earn his windfall? Simple. He hacked into the supposedly highly secure Instagram application and started deleting comments left by other users. He then told Instagram, who then told Facebook who then gave him $10k for his trouble. And probably a job at some point in the near future.
Happy Mondays
Yes, we know it's Monday, but try watching this without laughing and set yourself up for the rest of the week.
The end of Internet Explorer
You might remember that Microsoft released Windows 10 late last year. Ringing any bells? What you may, or may not, have noticed, is Microsoft Edge. That's Microsoft's new web browser, their answer to the slow death of Internet Explorer (IE).
IE has been losing the battle of web browsers for years now, particularly since Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox have been on the scene. Microsoft knew they needed to get their act together and hence created Microsoft Edge, their brand new web browser. Admittedly, we don't quite think Edge has taken off as well as they'd liked it to - I guess the Chrome and Firefox users are thinking "If it ain't broke...", which is fair enough. Both browsers work really well.
This being said, Microsoft Edge is slowly taking over Internet Explorer completely. In fact, as of January 12th, the software giant will no longer provide security updates or technical support for IE 8, 9 and 10. That means if you're still using those browsers, you could be vulnerable to threats. Microsoft are keeping IE 11 for now, so we'd recommend upgrading to the latest version if you want to hold on to the browser. Otherwise, you'll need to pack in IE altogether and get used to Edge.
To be honest, we're not surprised to see the back of IE. We've not got the best wrap with it, in fact, we've found it quite problematic in the past. We are strong believers in Google, so our advice would be to make the move to Google Chrome if you're wondering where to turn.
RIP Internet Explorer.
25% of the Internet is managed by WordPress
Breaking news! WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg broke some pretty big news on 9th November this year - WordPress now manages 25 percent of the Internet. That means a quarter of all websites built are made using WordPress - that's a LOT!
The guys at W3Techs (responsible for the most reliable and extensive web technology surveys) crunched the numbers and broke down the Internet by popular content management systems, and WordPress far exceeded number two on the list, Joomla, at 2.8 percent.
W3Tech also shows that WordPress has been the fastest growing CMS, in fact useage grew 1.7 percent since January to now (November 2015), which is a huge increase compared to the competition.
Mullenweg mentioned that these numbers usually change with every month, but that it's pretty exciting WordPress supports one in four of all websites.
It's not gone to the co-founder's head though, as Mullenweg remarked “The big opportunity is still the 57% of websites that don’t use any identifiable CMS yet, and that’s where I think there is still a ton of growth for us (and I’m also rooting for all the other open source CMSes)".
The future definitely seems bright for WordPress!
A lot can change in four years...
Websites are living, breathing things, and like us humans, they age too. But unlike us humans, websites can actually grow younger (we're totally not jealous) with a little bit of help from, well, us! And here's a perfect example:
One of our longest standing clients, Champor-Champor, a super delicious Thai restaurant in the heart of London, came to us over four years ago looking to create a website for their swanky restaurant. Obviously we jumped at the chance and created a beautiful, easy-to-navigate and fully functioning website.
Fast forward four years and guess what? Things have changed. WordPress designs are more seamless, better designed for user experience and generally look modern and cutting-edge. Let's just say it takes a lot less time for a website to become vintage than say, a car! It was definitely time for a refresh.
So what did we change? Pretty much everything. Whilst we used the same content (which has been continuously updated throughout the years), we're using a brand new parallax theme which essentially structures the website into one fell swoop (or one fell scroll, if you will). Parallax themes have become really popular over the last year and can really add that "wow" factor to a website.
We've also utilised some professional images our client had, displaying them in a full screen way that their old website simply wouldn't have been able to achieve. We could go on, but simply put: the whole website has had a complete upheaval and refresh. And we (that's us AND our client) love it. Have a peep here.
Trust us, a LOT can change in four years. In fact, a lot can change in even just a day with the ever-evolving internet, whether it's new features, new apps and plugins, or simply new trends. It's definitely crucial to keep up with the Joneses when it comes to websites, and luckily that's our job! Think your website might need a refresh? We're always happy to have an informal chat, so pop us an email or give us a bell.
Bring in the old, bring in the new!
We've been super busy in May, having launched numerous high-profile websites for clients old and new. However we're especially proud of two websites in particular and they hold a special place in our hearts here at Terra Ferma Media because they're just a hop, skip and a jump away from us in Wimbledon!
Thought to be the oldest recorded horse stables in England, Wimbledon Village Stables approached us looking for a new website to bring their business into the 21st century. Their out-dated, unresponsive and non mobile-friendly website needed a serious re-jig, and we were the ones for the job! With a lot of careful planning and working very closely with the client, we were able to create a beautiful new website for Wimbledon Village Stables which has, we quote, "changed [their] lives!".
At the other end of the spectrum, we have Wimbledon Brewery. Whilst the original Wimbledon Brewery was tragically lost in a fire in 1889, a small team of local business men decided to bring the brewery and beer scene back to Wimbledon. Wimbledon Brewery needed a basis for their online presence and came to us to create their very first website. This website needed of a lot of customization in order to produce the website the brewery required.
Here's what our happy clients have to say about us:
Carol Andrews, Wimbledon Village Stables
"Thank you all at Terra Ferma Media, we love our new website!"
Mark Gordon, Wimbledon Brewery
"The team at Terra Ferma Media fully understood our brief and delivered accordingly, it is a pleasure working with them and we all look forward to unveiling further website developments over the coming months."
Google's upcoming SEO update - what you need to know
Search engine giants Google will be rolling out a major SEO update this April (next month!) that will see mobile-friendly sites rank higher than those that aren't designed for mobile.
It's thought that small businesses will be affected the most, with leading SEO experts suggesting they could lose up to 30% of their traffic if their websites aren't responsive.
How will the new SEO update work?
When someone using their phone or tablet searches for something related to your business, and if your website isn't mobile-friendly, it's likely that your search result will be pushed down Google's rankings.
At this stage, it doesn't look like desktop versions of websites will be affected. Ie, if someone is searching on a desktop, even if your website isn't mobile-friendly, your Google ranking should remain the same.
Obviously the best outcome would be that both desktop and mobile search results benefit your business. This could mean updating your website entirely to ensure it's mobile (and desktop) friendly.
So, is your website mobile-friendly?
One of the quickest ways to tell if a website is mobile-friendly is by its responsiveness. By this, we mean your website should re-jig itself when the screen resolution is changed. Simply minimize your browser whilst on your website, and if the website re-orders itself to leave no horizontal scrolling, it's responsive. If your website stays exactly the same and requires you to scroll horizontally to view the menu, then it's not responsive and not mobile friendly.
If you're still not sure if your website is mobile-friendly, Google have their very own free mobile-friendly test. Pop your URL into the box and see what the big guys at Google have to say about your website.
I don't think my website is mobile-friendly, what do I do?
Don't panic! It's fairly simple to create mobile-friendly websites, and us tech folk at Terra Ferma specialise in mobile-friendly WordPress websites. In fact, every website we've ever created has been responsive and mobile-friendly. For us, it's a no-brainer to optimise our websites for mobile devices.
Take a look at our work here and get in touch if we can help you with anything, big or small!
LinkedIn - Are You In The Business Loop?
Did you know that LinkedIn has over 277 million members worldwide? There's definitely no denying that LinkedIn is the world's largest B2B professional network, but are you part of it?
LinkedIn is all about establishing connections. When you connect with other professionals in your field, you're gaining additional knowledge and valuable insight. Networking is one of the most important skills that you could learn in order to make your business a success story. In other words, your connections on LinkedIn can help grow your business or accelerate your career.
If you're already a member of LinkedIn, are you using it to your best advantage by maximising its value? Or, if you're a newbie to the social media channel, how can you make the most of LinkedIn to benefit you and your company?
There are many ways you and your business can benefit from using LinkedIn. It's imperative to know how to create effective personal profiles, company pages and showcase pages, develop your LinkedIn network and promote your business through LinkedIn to maximise your company's success.
We understand that it can be tricky to navigate yourself around a huge business network that you're not yet familiar with. If you've fallen out of love with LinkedIn and need some friendly encouragement to get your business back on track with the social network, a LinkedIn workshop could answer all your niggles.
We like to think that we're social media experts and all-round marketing geniuses here at Terra Ferma Media. We therefore decided to hold a one-off LinkedIn workshop in Wimbledon on Wednesday 10th December, where you'll be encouraged to ask any LinkedIn-related questions and will learn a great deal about the benefits of LinkedIn for your business.
For further information about our LinkedIn workshop and to purchase tickets, please click here.
Five reasons why WordPress is the best for blogging and websites
Here at Terra Ferma we’re pretty evangelical about WordPress. As a free blogging platform and the backbone for premium websites, Wordpress has loads of advantages for different users: businesses and bloggers alike can benefit from its dynamic themes, SEO friendliness, fantastic functionality, incredible usability...the list goes on. In fact, 15% of the top 1,000,000 websites in the world use WordPress (including The New York Times and Time Magazine Blog). This can all seem a bit intimidating for the humble blogger, yet this evolving and expanding platform should still be the top choice for your blog.
Almost five years ago I decided that I’d like to channel a passion for cooking and eating into a blog. I’d admit it; I had no idea what I was doing. Since then I’ve learned a few things about how easy it can be to create, nurture and expand a Wordpress blog.
So here are five reasons why WordPress is the only word in blogging:
- You don’t have to be a computer whiz to use Wordpress
Creating a WordPress site; choosing a theme; and uploading your first post is simplicity itself. As long as you know how to open a web browser, you can create your very own blog. Of course, if you would like help developing your site, you can get all the support you need from WordPress savvy website development experts like us!
- Perfect for the technologically savvy
WordPress blogs can be as simple or as sophisticated as you want. With lots of additional functions, it offers the opportunity for users to gradually develop their blog. Whereas other blogging platforms leave you high and dry when you want to change things up a bit, Wordpress always offers easy ways to improve your site.
- It offers amazing themes
WordPress offers a fantastic choice of free designs as well as a huge catalogue of Premium themes. Whether you want a personal gardening blog, or one to showcase your business, there’ll be a theme to accommodate it!
- It’s incredibly popular
Wordpress really dominates the blogging world and has been around for over a decade. This means that users instinctively know their way around Wordpress sites, making it really easy for site visitors to navigate. You might have fantastic content, but if your reader can’t make head to toe of your blog’s layout, they’re not going to stick around.
- Content is easy to manage
In the digital world, content is king. It doesn’t matter how flashy your site is, if you can’t easily manage and clearly display your fantastic content, you won’t be able to draw the readers in. WordPress also have a great app – perfect for uploading posts and photos on the move!
Perhaps the best thing about WordPress is its potential. If you’d like to find out how to get the most out of your blog then please get in touch.
You're not still using Internet Explorer are you?
Latest stats show that Google Chrome continues to make huge inroads into the once seemingly unassailable lead that Microsoft's Internet Explorer had in the world's web browser market share.
And not before time we say! By specialising in building WordPress websites, we run tests on all types of web browser to ensure that everything we create works well however you look at it browser-wise. The one browser that is slowest and gives us the most compatibility issues - you've guessed it - good old Internet Explorer, bless 'im.
Now, we're not saying this is necessarily Microsoft's fault, but it's funny that all the other browsers seem to be able to cope with the demands put on them by WordPress.
Here at Terra Ferma Towers, our browser of choice is Google Chrome (we're fully paid up members of the Android Freedom Fighters Army anyway). If you haven't made the switch yet, you really should.
Just Google it and you're away...
