http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/blog.php Web design Cheltenham: Bluelinemedia Blog en-gb http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/how-to-detect-user-scrolling http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/how-to-detect-user-scrolling Thu, 16 Feb 2012 16:37:54 +0000 Track your users' scrolling to detect how far they read on a page with MooTools framework JavaScript justin.munro@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Justin Munro) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-marketing-seo/blog/diy-seo-review http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-marketing-seo/blog/diy-seo-review Thu, 12 Jan 2012 16:18:14 +0000 Review your own website for potential SEO improvements with our simple article ben.jeffery@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Ben Jeffery) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/20-off-services http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/20-off-services Tue, 13 Dec 2011 11:05:17 +0000 20% off our services ben.jeffery@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Ben Jeffery) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/scrolling-html-table http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/scrolling-html-table Tue, 06 Dec 2011 15:35:26 +0000 A dynamic scrolling HTML table With miniview using Mootools JavaScript simon.jackson@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Simon Jackson) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/about-us/blog/client-survey http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/about-us/blog/client-survey Thu, 03 Nov 2011 11:17:36 +0000 97% of clients would recommend us ben.jeffery@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Ben Jeffery) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-marketing-seo/blog/10-steps-linkbuilding http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-marketing-seo/blog/10-steps-linkbuilding Tue, 25 Oct 2011 15:20:11 +0000 Read our free guide to carrying out your own link building campaign so you can appear higher on search engines ben.jeffery@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Ben Jeffery) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/about-us/blog/canoeing-2011 http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/about-us/blog/canoeing-2011 Mon, 19 Sep 2011 10:41:42 +0000 Canoeing 2011 - Team Building simon.jackson@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Simon Jackson) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/new-rules-cookies http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/new-rules-cookies Tue, 23 Aug 2011 15:47:54 +0000 New rules for cookies suggest that all websites will need to get permission from users when using cookies. Cookies are small files used to store key information about a visitor and remember preferences ben.jeffery@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Ben Jeffery) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/which-social-media-buttons http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/which-social-media-buttons Tue, 09 Aug 2011 11:01:24 +0000 You can hardly miss social media buttons. They are sprawled across the internet and appear in ever greater numbers on various blogs and websites. justin.munro@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Justin Munro) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/speed-up-third-party-scripts http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/speed-up-third-party-scripts Thu, 16 Jun 2011 16:45:59 +0000 Integration with third party sites using their APIs is all the rage. Sites like Twitter, Google, Facebook and Flickr all provide the ability to integrate their content into your website. Using these services helps your site by providing more interesting and useful content to your visitors, for example an up to date Google calendar or an active Twitter feed. simon.jackson@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Simon Jackson) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/automatic-link-shortening http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/automatic-link-shortening Wed, 18 May 2011 16:35:48 +0000 We recently had a requirement to extend our CMS to allow posting to Twitter. Each post needed to have a link back to the site and to save space we decided to use the bitly (http://bit.ly) shortening link service to create shortened links to enable extra characters to be entered into the Tweet. justin.munro@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Justin Munro) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/pci-dss-compliance-websites http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/pci-dss-compliance-websites Thu, 21 Apr 2011 16:14:46 +0000 If you're taking credit or debit card payments for your business you need to be compliant with the new "PCI DSS" requirements. ben.jeffery@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Ben Jeffery) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/better-web-projects http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/better-web-projects Mon, 18 Apr 2011 12:45:06 +0000 Web development agency adds value to your project by learning about your objectives and having ideas ben.jeffery@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Ben Jeffery) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/web-design-process http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/web-design-process Thu, 07 Apr 2011 10:43:05 +0000 Bluelinemedia project process james.brown@bluelinemedia.co.uk (James Brown) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/why-web-database http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/why-web-database Wed, 06 Apr 2011 17:41:29 +0000 Why you need a database justin.munro@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Justin Munro) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-marketing-seo/blog/freepayperclicktrial http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-marketing-seo/blog/freepayperclicktrial Tue, 29 Mar 2011 13:31:28 +0000 Free pay-per-click management trial, free £50 budget and professional management ben.jeffery@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Ben Jeffery) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/no-free-design-concepts http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/no-free-design-concepts Tue, 08 Mar 2011 13:33:01 +0000 Occasionally we're asked to provide a free design concept as part of our proposal for web development. There are a few reasons why we say no. ben.jeffery@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Ben Jeffery) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/desktop-online-software http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/desktop-online-software Fri, 04 Mar 2011 11:26:56 +0000 Replacing desktop software with online alternatives sirbastian.manning@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Sirbastian Manning) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/ftp-two-websites http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/ftp-two-websites Mon, 28 Feb 2011 16:28:49 +0000 Recently we built 2 separate websites that used the same CMS (content management system). The problem we had with this is when files were uploaded using the CMS, take images for example, they would upload to the website under which the CMS resided. Therefore the images could not be accessed by the second website. miles.wheelersmith@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Miles Wheeler-Smith) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/interactive-timeline http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/interactive-timeline Mon, 28 Feb 2011 11:27:39 +0000 A Javascript based interactive timeline simon.jackson@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Simon Jackson) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/sagepay-iframe http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/sagepay-iframe Fri, 25 Feb 2011 10:49:37 +0000 Embedding a SagePay iFrame in to your website to take credit card payments james.brown@bluelinemedia.co.uk (James Brown) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/mootools-ajax http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/mootools-ajax Thu, 24 Feb 2011 16:50:47 +0000 Ajax is a method used in web applications to enable the retrieval of data from a server asynchronously in the background without interfering with the display and behavior of the existing page. This can be extremely useful in web software as it allows the user to interact with a web page without the page having to reload. justin.munro@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Justin Munro) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/online-shop-feedback http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/online-shop-feedback Fri, 18 Feb 2011 13:23:36 +0000 Web design survey of business websites ben.jeffery@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Ben Jeffery) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/web-hosting-basics http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/web-hosting-basics Thu, 17 Feb 2011 17:13:11 +0000 The basics of how domain names, web hosting and DNS work. miles.wheelersmith@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Miles Wheeler-Smith) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/member-event-bookings http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/member-event-bookings Fri, 11 Feb 2011 17:01:48 +0000 Bespoke systems and features for websites, such as member event bookings james.brown@bluelinemedia.co.uk (James Brown) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/top-5-web-development http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/top-5-web-development Fri, 21 Jan 2011 17:10:07 +0000 Our top 5 wishes for 2011 sirbastian.manning@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Sirbastian Manning) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/bespoke-content-management http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/bespoke-content-management Wed, 19 Jan 2011 16:47:00 +0000 News on Bluelinemedia new content management system miles.wheelersmith@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Miles Wheeler-Smith) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/salesforce-web-integration http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/salesforce-web-integration Wed, 12 Jan 2011 11:46:32 +0000 SalesForce is an online Customer Relationship Manager (CRM) and business application tool. I will not go into more detail about SalesForce as there website explains what they do. justin.munro@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Justin Munro) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/css3-support-tools http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/css3-support-tools Tue, 11 Jan 2011 16:20:42 +0000 Using supporting tools to help implement CSS3 simon.jackson@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Simon Jackson) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-marketing-seo/blog/html-email-marketing http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-marketing-seo/blog/html-email-marketing Fri, 17 Dec 2010 11:10:48 +0000 Why email marketing is an effective way of communicating commercial or charitable messages online. miles.wheelersmith@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Miles Wheeler-Smith) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/wireframes-web-design http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/wireframes-web-design Fri, 17 Dec 2010 11:00:01 +0000 We use "wireframes" during the design of our websites. These are simple page layouts without colour, with the various elements of the page laid out as an example of the site. Wireframes help us put the user experience first and make sure the design makes things easy for users ben.jeffery@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Ben Jeffery) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-marketing-seo/blog/track-traffic-heatmap http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-marketing-seo/blog/track-traffic-heatmap Wed, 08 Dec 2010 10:41:47 +0000 What are Heatmaps and should you use them? justin.munro@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Justin Munro) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/select-date-calendar http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/select-date-calendar Tue, 07 Dec 2010 15:09:43 +0000 Pop up calendar feature to all you users to select a date and time from a calendar. james.brown@bluelinemedia.co.uk (James Brown) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/sales-software http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/sales-software Fri, 03 Dec 2010 16:35:59 +0000 A quick online quotes update. sirbastian.manning@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Sirbastian Manning) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/2-way-sms http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/2-way-sms Fri, 03 Dec 2010 11:18:57 +0000 Website intergration of email and SMS messaging. miles.wheelersmith@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Miles Wheeler-Smith) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/about-us/blog/new-website-benefits http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/about-us/blog/new-website-benefits Thu, 25 Nov 2010 17:50:17 +0000 Find out what tools your website can have to improve marketing and get more enquiries or sales ben.jeffery@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Ben Jeffery) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/website-snow-effect http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/website-snow-effect Thu, 25 Nov 2010 14:32:10 +0000 As it's almost the festive season and already getting colder, it can only be time to roll out a simple snow effect. The effect you see in the banner above this blog is a MooTools script which can use text or images to model the snowflakes you see drifting across the banner simon.jackson@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Simon Jackson) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/creating-pdf-documents http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/creating-pdf-documents Wed, 24 Nov 2010 13:13:38 +0000 Dynamic PDF conversion from a website, automatically create PDFs on the fly from your website justin.munro@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Justin Munro) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/mootools-examples http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/mootools-examples Fri, 19 Nov 2010 11:53:44 +0000 Some examples of how we use Javascript at Bluelinemedia miles.wheelersmith@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Miles Wheeler-Smith) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/understandable-code http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/understandable-code Tue, 16 Nov 2010 09:46:17 +0000 Why is writing understandable code important? simon.jackson@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Simon Jackson) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/6-best-css3-features http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/6-best-css3-features Fri, 12 Nov 2010 16:37:47 +0000 Some of our favourite CSS3 features sirbastian.manning@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Sirbastian Manning) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-marketing-seo/blog/3-steps-website-leads http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-marketing-seo/blog/3-steps-website-leads Wed, 10 Nov 2010 12:14:39 +0000 There are three stages to turning website visitors into enquiries or sales: first impression, qualification, and action. To get more from your website, think of your visitor's experience as a process, and look at how you're helping them along. ben.jeffery@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Ben Jeffery) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/designer-brief http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/designer-brief Mon, 08 Nov 2010 17:23:03 +0000 Designers - What we need from you when building a website justin.munro@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Justin Munro) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/web-software-notifications http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/web-software-notifications Fri, 29 Oct 2010 10:37:40 +0000 An exploration of email as a form of communication for online applications. simon.jackson@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Simon Jackson) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/web-hosting-support http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/web-hosting-support Thu, 28 Oct 2010 16:13:44 +0000 Why use Bluelinemedia hosting? justin.munro@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Justin Munro) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/about-us/blog/officetour http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/about-us/blog/officetour Thu, 28 Oct 2010 11:35:29 +0000 A video tour of the Bluelinemedia office miles.wheelersmith@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Miles Wheeler-Smith) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-marketing-seo/blog/writing-search-engines http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-marketing-seo/blog/writing-search-engines Mon, 25 Oct 2010 12:21:56 +0000 In a bid to make their results more useful, search engines are placing an increasing value on the actual content of your web pages, as opposed to the "meta" keywords that can be nonsensical. This is a simple guide to writing content that works for your visitors and your search engine ranking. ben.jeffery@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Ben Jeffery) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/track-your-web-enquiries http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/track-your-web-enquiries Thu, 21 Oct 2010 16:53:01 +0000 Tracking your business enquiries to assess if your marketing strategies are working james.brown@bluelinemedia.co.uk (James Brown) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/sales-project-software http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/sales-project-software Thu, 21 Oct 2010 12:46:33 +0000 We've started development on an exciting new internal project! sirbastian.manning@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Sirbastian Manning) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/html-5 http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/html-5 Sun, 17 Oct 2010 21:49:28 +0000 HTML5 - a brief overview and discussion of its advantages and downsides. simon.jackson@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Simon Jackson) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/about-us/blog/ecommerce-testimonial http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/about-us/blog/ecommerce-testimonial Wed, 13 Oct 2010 11:14:11 +0000 E-commerce web design success story ben.jeffery@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Ben Jeffery) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/about-us/blog/flash-developer http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/about-us/blog/flash-developer Tue, 12 Oct 2010 15:13:01 +0000 Freelance Flash work ben.jeffery@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Ben Jeffery) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-marketing-seo/blog/guide-feedburner http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-marketing-seo/blog/guide-feedburner Tue, 12 Oct 2010 11:48:16 +0000 Feedburner is a very useful service provided by Google to allow your feeds to be monitored and then analysed. The Feedburner interface has 5 tabs, Analyze, Optimize, Pulicize, Monetize and Troubleshootize. At Bluelinemedia we are currently using Feedburner for our blog RSS feed and we find it very useful. justin.munro@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Justin Munro) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/white-label-web-build http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/white-label-web-build Fri, 08 Oct 2010 15:40:36 +0000 White labelling websites from Bluelinemedia james.brown@bluelinemedia.co.uk (James Brown) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/how-to-web-design-brief http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/how-to-web-design-brief Thu, 07 Oct 2010 12:22:20 +0000 A good brief will help you compare alternative web developers on an equal basis, and give your chosen supplier more opportunity to get involved. Here's a few ideas on what to include. ben.jeffery@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Ben Jeffery) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/how-to-google-fonts http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/how-to-google-fonts Wed, 06 Oct 2010 16:02:08 +0000 Google is currently working on a font directory API (Application Programming Interface) that allows anyone to use high-quality web fonts on their website. Adding these fonts to your web pages is very simple. miles.wheelersmith@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Miles Wheeler-Smith) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/automatically-display-facebook-twitter-updates http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/automatically-display-facebook-twitter-updates Fri, 01 Oct 2010 15:02:29 +0000 With the increase in popularity with social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook, more and more clients are asking for their latest status updates and tweets to be displayed on their site. james.brown@bluelinemedia.co.uk (James Brown) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/web-design-print-design http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/web-design-print-design Fri, 01 Oct 2010 13:03:31 +0000 Here at Bluelinemedia, we work closely with a lot of designers who arrive from a print background. As a result we have a fairly good idea of the challenges designers face when translating their print experience to an online project. What follows is intended as a primer to help avoid the usual pitfalls. simon.jackson@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Simon Jackson) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/website-javascript http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/website-javascript Fri, 01 Oct 2010 10:19:51 +0000 As Javascript becomes an evermore popular way of adding extra functionality to websites, it's growing increasingly common to find websites that are either bloated and slow due to their overuse of Javascript or entirely dependent on Javascript and unable to work without it. sirbastian.manning@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Sirbastian Manning) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/working-in-teams http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/working-in-teams Mon, 27 Sep 2010 14:31:59 +0000 Advantages of working in teams justin.munro@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Justin Munro) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/intellectual-property-website-code http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/intellectual-property-website-code Thu, 23 Sep 2010 14:57:25 +0000 If you decide to use our services, we'll ask you to sign our terms and conditions. This often leads to questions about intellectual property, who owns what, and how this affects you ben.jeffery@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Ben Jeffery) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/about-us/blog/ourboomerangattempts http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/about-us/blog/ourboomerangattempts Fri, 17 Sep 2010 15:05:20 +0000 Cheltenham web design team with promotional branded boomerangs ben.jeffery@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Ben Jeffery) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/why-php http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/why-php Fri, 10 Sep 2010 15:29:44 +0000 Why do we use PHP? justin.munro@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Justin Munro) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/why-pay-more-for-your-website http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/why-pay-more-for-your-website Mon, 06 Sep 2010 11:07:21 +0000 Why you should pay more for your website, how do I compare web design quotes, how much should I pay for my website ben.jeffery@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Ben Jeffery) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/integratinggooglemaps http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/integratinggooglemaps Fri, 03 Sep 2010 16:12:09 +0000 How to embed a Google map into my web page. miles.wheelersmith@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Miles Wheeler-Smith) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/website-post-twitter-facebook http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/website-post-twitter-facebook Fri, 03 Sep 2010 11:59:56 +0000 Now we have a blog on our new website we wanted to automatically update our Twitter feed with the latest items. james.brown@bluelinemedia.co.uk (James Brown) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/choosing-jpg-gif-png http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/choosing-jpg-gif-png Fri, 27 Aug 2010 10:58:26 +0000 These three image types are used throughout websites but understanding when to use each image is essential for having fast website load times and crisp graphics. justin.munro@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Justin Munro) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/ie8-opacity-fix http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/ie8-opacity-fix Thu, 26 Aug 2010 15:44:24 +0000 One of our current projects required a news ticker that faded in and out with new headlines appearing against a background image simon.jackson@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Simon Jackson) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-marketing-seo/blog/5-ways-improve-search-engine http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-marketing-seo/blog/5-ways-improve-search-engine Tue, 24 Aug 2010 17:00:45 +0000 We've been building websites and getting them on search engines for almost 10 years, and we've boiled all that experience down to five simple steps that don't require any technical knowledge. ben.jeffery@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Ben Jeffery) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/designing-web-apps http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/designing-web-apps Mon, 23 Aug 2010 15:37:10 +0000 A few hints nad tips on how to design a web app. miles.wheelersmith@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Miles Wheeler-Smith) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/javascript-flash http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/javascript-flash Mon, 23 Aug 2010 14:05:45 +0000 It used to be so simple - when you wanted to add something more, well, "flashy" to your website you used Flash. Where JavaScript was clunky, no good at transitions or animation and was riddled with cross-browser inconsistencies, Flash was smooth, presentation rich and as a plug-in was consistent across browsers. However, with the advent of frameworks such as MooTools and jQuery and increasing browser functionality, the decision is no longer straightforward. Perhaps now the starting point when implementing a "whizzy" feature should be "why can't we use JavaScript?". (START-HEADING)Statistically speaking(END-HEADING) Whilst it's difficult to ascertain accurate figures for both the install base of Flash and the number of browsers with JavaScript enabled, it seems that most sources agree both are available to 90-95% of users. In both instances, it is most likely to be large corporations with locked down internal networks that block both the execution of JavaScript and the installation of 3rd party add-ons. Bearing this in mind there is no in-built advantage in terms of market penetration for either of the two protagonists. (START-HEADING)Accessibility(END-HEADING) Another area of concern with both methods is the accessibility of content. Flash has a reputation for being rather flaky in this area, but in a lot of instances this is due to lazy production techniques. By the same token, whilst JavaScript manipulates standard HTML, badly-written code and CSS can still obfuscate the accessibility of content. However there does remain an underlying issue with Flash and its proprietary behaviour - user interface basics such as the back button and standard page loading cues are potentially lost where users expect them. Whilst JavaScript (specifically in conjunction with AJAX) can also suffer from these issues they are much less likely to occur and the default behaviour and accessibility of browsers is more likely to prevail. (START-HEADING)Graceful Degradation(END-HEADING) If your users do not have JavaScript or Flash installed what are the alternatives? Both methods have the ability to supply alternative content to users, but there is an inherent downside for Flash developers in that the alternative format is completely alien to the Flash development. For instance, if data is being supplied to the Flash file from a database or XML source and you are implementing a genuine fall back, this means writing a solution in a back-end process to extract the same information for presentation as HTML. The immediate advantage that JavaScript has is that it takes standard HTML as its data for manipulation in the user's browser. This means that the process used to present this data can also be used to supply the fallback presentation. The advantage of this to your users is that the non-JavaScript alternative is much more likely to stay in sync with the JavaScript presentation - with much less effort from the developer. (START-HEADING)SEO(END-HEADING) Search engine optimisation is one area where JavaScript wins hands down. As long as the code used to supply the content is standard HTML then search engines can analyse it with ease. Flash does provide SEO capabilities, but this places the onus on search engines to be willing to delve into the Flash mechanisms to ascertain the relevant content. (START-HEADING)Applications(END-HEADING) Complex animation and video players remain the most obvious reasons to use Flash and JavaScript simply cannot compete in that regard. Whilst HTML5 will reproduce these features directly in-browser this is not currently an option. Where frameworks such as MooTools have caught up with Flash is in the domain of slideshow-style transitions, slides, opacity etc. This type of functionality is well suited to JavaScript as the code is lightweight and in many cases the non-supported fall back is often much easier to implement. (START-HEADING)Conclusion(END-HEADING) The number of applications where Flash is still a de-facto choice is shrinking and will continue to shrink with the adoption of HTML5. As mentioned earlier video, complex animation and other types of functionality that the underlying browser technology does not support is its stronghold and JavaScript does not at the moment provide a viable alternative. On the other hand, JavaScript with its lightweight implementation provides the best solution for adding "bells and whistles" to websites and online applications. The graceful degradation of these "bells" is easier to implement and, critically, if the content contained within is SEO critical then JavaScript is the obvious choice. simon.jackson@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Simon Jackson) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/send-sms-website http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/send-sms-website Tue, 17 Aug 2010 09:38:39 +0000 Sending SMS text messages from a website. sirbastian.manning@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Sirbastian Manning) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/web-developer-experience http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/web-developer-experience Fri, 13 Aug 2010 16:08:45 +0000 Explanation of the skills and experience required to be a web developer at Bluelinemedia james.brown@bluelinemedia.co.uk (James Brown) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-marketing-seo/blog/online-marketing-better http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-marketing-seo/blog/online-marketing-better Tue, 10 Aug 2010 09:23:17 +0000 It's no secret that the trend of advertising spend is moving to the internet (as struggling newspapers and commercial TV stations are well aware). This isn't to say that offline marketing doesn't work, but moving marketing to the internet is about more than just following the audience. Online marketing has several advantages which especially favour the small business ben.jeffery@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Ben Jeffery) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/frameworks-web-code http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/frameworks-web-code Mon, 09 Aug 2010 15:29:23 +0000 Should we use frameworks when programming? justin.munro@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Justin Munro) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-marketing-seo/blog/email-marketing http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-marketing-seo/blog/email-marketing Thu, 29 Jul 2010 16:40:47 +0000 Email marketing with HTML templates and subscriber management, Cheltenham Gloucestershire ben.jeffery@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Ben Jeffery) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/outsource-web-build http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/outsource-web-build Mon, 26 Jul 2010 10:49:25 +0000 Outsourced web build for design agencies ben.jeffery@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Ben Jeffery) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/dont-need-iphone-app http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/dont-need-iphone-app Tue, 20 Jul 2010 16:44:16 +0000 Why you (probably) don't need an iPhone app, does my business need an iphone app, should I get an app for my website ben.jeffery@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Ben Jeffery) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/ie-refresh-fix http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/ie-refresh-fix Thu, 15 Jul 2010 15:21:46 +0000 Recently we ran across an issue with Internet Explorer 7 and 8. It was only refreshing a page using the meta refresh tag once, when we wanted to refresh the page multiple times. Below is an example of the code we were using. miles.wheelersmith@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Miles Wheeler-Smith) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/about-us/blog/monthlyupdatemonday12thjuly2010 http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/about-us/blog/monthlyupdatemonday12thjuly2010 Mon, 12 Jul 2010 12:08:47 +0000 Monthly digest of Cheltenham web design company ben.jeffery@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Ben Jeffery) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-marketing-seo/blog/idiots-guide-social-media http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-marketing-seo/blog/idiots-guide-social-media Wed, 30 Jun 2010 13:29:51 +0000 "Social networking", "Web 2.0", "interactive marketing". Whatever you call it, lots of people are talking about the implications for business and online marketing ben.jeffery@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Ben Jeffery) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/what-ask-web-designers http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/what-ask-web-designers Wed, 23 Jun 2010 15:09:26 +0000 Questions to ask a web design agency when looking for a new supplier ben.jeffery@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Ben Jeffery) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/about-us/blog/bluelinemedia-website http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/about-us/blog/bluelinemedia-website Fri, 11 Jun 2010 17:03:42 +0000 Web design Cheltenham agency Bluelinemedia launches new website and corporate identity ben.jeffery@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Ben Jeffery) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/cheaper-brochure-sites http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/cheaper-brochure-sites Wed, 28 Apr 2010 13:24:45 +0000 Brochure websites built for less ben.jeffery@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Ben Jeffery) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/sme-working-with-large-businesses http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/sme-working-with-large-businesses Tue, 20 Apr 2010 14:01:27 +0000 Article on SME working with large enterprises justin.munro@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Justin Munro) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-marketing-seo/blog/earn-affiliate-income http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-marketing-seo/blog/earn-affiliate-income Tue, 23 Mar 2010 17:38:16 +0000 Earn affiliate income for your website ben.jeffery@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Ben Jeffery) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/cheaper-web-development http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/cheaper-web-development Tue, 16 Mar 2010 12:08:27 +0000 Web development maintenance work ben.jeffery@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Ben Jeffery) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/better-web-development http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/better-web-development Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:39:24 +0000 Better web development ben.jeffery@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Ben Jeffery) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/cheap-recruitment-software http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/cheap-recruitment-software Sat, 06 Mar 2010 12:16:05 +0000 Apricot HQ allows recruitment companies to pay monthly for a central recruitment software solution. james.brown@bluelinemedia.co.uk (James Brown) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/about-us/blog/saleswithouttheselling http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/about-us/blog/saleswithouttheselling Tue, 02 Mar 2010 15:31:55 +0000 Expertise and sales for web development ben.jeffery@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Ben Jeffery) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-marketing-seo/blog/getting-started-seo http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-marketing-seo/blog/getting-started-seo Tue, 02 Mar 2010 09:32:04 +0000 I recently stumbled across a document published by Google that describes how best to optimise sites for Google and other search engines simon.jackson@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Simon Jackson) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/upload-large-files http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/upload-large-files Mon, 01 Mar 2010 09:29:10 +0000 Recently we had an issue where we needed to upload large document files through the browser. Uploading documents through the browser is normally limited to around 10 to 15MB using a simple HTML form and for most users that is sufficient. When documents are above this size the file upload will usually fail due to the upload timing out. justin.munro@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Justin Munro) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/twitter-web-integration http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/twitter-web-integration Tue, 23 Feb 2010 10:20:44 +0000 We have decided to add more integration with services like Twitter on our new website. This will make the site content more dynamic and hopefully interesting to users as various parts of the website will regularly change. As you may have noticed our new website has twitter integration on the home page. justin.munro@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Justin Munro) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/facebook-integration-issues http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/facebook-integration-issues Mon, 22 Feb 2010 17:28:32 +0000 Problems with facebook website integration simon.jackson@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Simon Jackson) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/about-us/blog/new-web-design http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/about-us/blog/new-web-design Mon, 22 Feb 2010 14:02:00 +0000 Bluelinemedia has a new look. It's not just a facelift but a refection of how we do business ben.jeffery@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Ben Jeffery) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/web-software-saves-money http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/web-software-saves-money Thu, 18 Feb 2010 17:34:27 +0000 Bespoke web software ben.jeffery@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Ben Jeffery) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/ie6-problems http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/ie6-problems Thu, 18 Feb 2010 11:50:07 +0000 Developing websites with Internet Explorer 6 justin.munro@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Justin Munro) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/import-web-data-using-email http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/import-web-data-using-email Thu, 18 Feb 2010 09:45:48 +0000 One of our clients wanted us to allow them to update their online recruitment system with emails they send out to candidates and clients. Whenever they sent messages to prospective candidates & clients or to existing candidates & clients they wanted that message to be created as a note within their online system. james.brown@bluelinemedia.co.uk (James Brown) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/about-us/blog/business-independence http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/about-us/blog/business-independence Thu, 11 Feb 2010 09:11:23 +0000 Making your business independent ben.jeffery@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Ben Jeffery) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/about-us/blog/growing-your-business http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/about-us/blog/growing-your-business Thu, 11 Feb 2010 09:11:11 +0000 A simple idea for growing a small business ben.jeffery@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Ben Jeffery) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/web-link-pdf-page http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-design/blog/web-link-pdf-page Wed, 10 Feb 2010 15:15:00 +0000 A client of ours recently needed to link to specific pages within a pdf document. This is something I did not realise was possible so I thought it may be useful to post how this is done. justin.munro@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Justin Munro) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/usingpicturestocommunicate http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/usingpicturestocommunicate Sat, 16 Jan 2010 14:54:00 +0000 Using pictures to communicate ben.jeffery@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Ben Jeffery) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/about-us/blog/new-premises http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/about-us/blog/new-premises Mon, 09 Mar 2009 15:58:57 +0000 New premises at Clarence Street, Cheltenham 4 March 2009 ben.jeffery@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Ben Jeffery) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/about-us/blog/interactive-map http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/about-us/blog/interactive-map Thu, 15 Jan 2009 16:00:55 +0000 Featured website ben.jeffery@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Ben Jeffery) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/wisdomofcrowds http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/web-development/blog/wisdomofcrowds Fri, 12 Dec 2008 17:21:34 +0000 The wisdom of crowds ben.jeffery@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Ben Jeffery) http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/about-us/blog/custom-website-map http://www.bluelinemedia.co.uk/about-us/blog/custom-website-map Mon, 06 Aug 2007 16:57:56 +0000 Web mapping tool customising Google Maps to provide a bespoke website of locations ben.jeffery@bluelinemedia.co.uk (Ben Jeffery)