Today we have launched the Greene Adventures site at www.greeneadventures.co.uk. The site, owned by Duncan Greene, is a content managed site, so the client can simply manage and control the site at all hours of the day, aimed simply at promoting Duncan's expanding business in offering training and activity days in both the Lake District, and across the UK as a Whole
Activities and Training courses offered by Greene Adventures include;
Rising to the challenge to support Butterwick Hospice and BNI (Business Network International) Stockton Member Lisa Halligan, of Elizabeth’s Embroidery, who had recently lost a dear friend to cancer, 5 other businesses signed up for the Great North Run during an early morning networking meeting.
Said Lisa, “ I was spurred on to run for the Hospice after my best friend, Laura Gourlay spent time at Butterwick before passing away in May this year. I wanted to do something to say thank you. I am not a runner but this is my challenge. Laura’s was to be there at the finishing line for support but sadly she lost her battle on 13th May and now I am very proud to be running in her memory.”
Joining Lisa are:-
Michael Monkman, (28) Partner in Mint Design & Print, Stockton on Tees, who is an adrenalin junkie who has abseiled, bungee jumped and skydived for Butterwick Hospice. This year he is keeping his feet firmly on the ground and taking part in the Great North Run for the first time.
Andy Flisher, (35), Director, dotUK of Yarm, started running in 2009 and has also managed to fit in the Middlesbrough 5k and 10k for Butterwick. He was persuaded to try the Great North Run on account of his new physique, being leaner and fitter.
Marianne Holt, (52) Director of Etcetera Magazine also of Yarm, frequently supports Butterwick Hospice and decided it was the right time to try for the big one.
Russ Sawdon, (37) Director of Flowerhouse, Hartburn, will be running his fourth Great North Run for the Butterwick this year. Taking it in his stride he always manages a smile at the end ready for his bar of chocolate, t-shirt and cup of tea.
Emma Simkins, (40) Director of Henderson’s Insurance Brokers is running for the second time and says the training is gruelling!
And of course……
Lisa Halligan, (30) a Partner in Elizabeth’s Embroidery, Stockton on Tees, is a complete novice at running and is willing herself to do well.
All 40+ Members of the Harald Chapter of BNI have sponsored the group and provided goody bags of chocolate and crisps to help them gain their strength at the end of the race.
With an article clipped courtesy of the Stockton Times we're glad to announce that Stockton's Big Challenge is Back. The Big Challenge website was a bespoke development by dotUK on behalf of Sustrans and the Hub Active travel centre in Stockton, and was sponsored by NHS Stockton on Tees, Stockton on Tees Borough Council, and the Big Lottery.
The aim of the site is to motivate people and businesses in the Stockton area to log their active day to day travel on the site, you can even use the innovative local favourite the Parmo to monitor your journey's and see just how many parmo's you've burned!
At dotUK we have have worked with a number of projects over the years that have had funding sourced throught the local Teesvalley and North East Business Link advisors, obviosuly this is an avenue that is changing with the closure of regional Business Advisory Service, so we're taking the opportunity to re-publish an update we have received this morning;
"Following recent Government announcements regarding the future provision of business support, I would like to update you on the services we’re currently delivering and clarify the range of support available now to you and your customers.
The Government announced last month that the regional Business Link advisory service will close at the end of November 2011 and will be streamlined into a national Business Link web-based offering and contact centre.
However, until then for the region’s Business Link service, our priority is to continue working on behalf of North East businesses whilst working with the Government to ensure that there is a smooth transition to the online support at www.businesslink.gov.uk and the accompanying contact centre.
We’re keen to emphasise that the Business Link service will remain open for business until the end of November and will continue to offer the same level of support and guidance for new and existing customers across the region.
The Business Link team here has consistently delivered exceptional results and we remain committed to offering the very best advice and assistance to existing businesses and budding entrepreneurs across the region. That support, which can be accessed by calling 0845 600 9 006 or visiting www.businesslink.gov.uk/northeast, includes:
Intensive face-to-face advice and support for established businesses looking to develop and grow
A range of tailored events and seminars at venues across the region
Access to information and advice for all businesses in the North East by telephone, email, newsletters and Business Link's website.
Start up support for budding entrepreneurs, which includes tailored workshops to encourage people to start new enterprises in the region.
The Business Link service is one of the many contracts we deliver here at Business & Enterprise North East. And through all of our services including the North East England Investment Centre, The Regional International Trade Office operated on behalf of UKTI and Compete North East, this year, we remain focused on expanding the North East’s private sector – continuing to make businesses more competitive, creating sustainable jobs and helping more budding entrepreneurs start successful businesses.
The Business & Enterprise North East team is now actively working with key regional partners to develop the next generation of business improvement services, driven by the needs of the North East’s business community.
Over the next few months there will be some profound changes to business support and Business & Enterprise North East will be working hard to improve and stimulate the opportunities available to the region’s business community. As well as the services currently on offer, we will also be introducing new services, initiatives and sources of information to help SMEs fulfil their potential.
Although we’re now diversifying and developing our markets, our key focus continues to be on helping more businesses in the North East to start, succeed and grow. We will continue to make sure that the services we operate in the region and the relationships we have built with you, our local partners, generate the greatest possible impact."
If you have any projects in mind that might be eligible for funding, or Business Support here in the North East then please don't hesitate to contact us. We can still operate with you and put you in touch with a local Business LInk advisor who will be best placed to advise as to the current situation.
A KEEN photographer who was recently made redundant has launched a business which transforms family photos into works of art.
Nigel Dawson, from Ingleby Barwick, near Stockton, has created Crafty Canvas after bouncing back from losing his sales job.
The company turns photos into wall art by printing them onto canvas after customers have cropped them on the Crafty Canvas website.
The business will also act as a gallery for photographers, who can upload their own pictures to the site and sell them to the public as potential canvases or large gloss prints.
Mr Dawson said: “I had always had the dream of being my own boss as I always seemed to be working hard for other people’s gain.
“There is a great sense of freedom that comes with creating your own destiny.
“What differentiates Crafty Canvas from other businesses in the market is that we have given customers the unique ability to crop their own pictures, so they will always get the best possible print for them.”
Mr Dawson, who was born in Blackpool but moved to Teesside after meeting his partner, Jill, on a skiing holiday, is a passionate photographer who honed his skills on an Open University course.
Crafty Canvas prints cost from £19.99 to £129.99, and are produced entirely in-house.
Mr Dawson added: “I would like to say a big thank you to Business Link and Andy Flisher, from Dot UK, for designing the website.”
Crafty Canvas is a bespoke Ecommerce and Canvas printing solution created from scratch according to Nigel's specific requirements. It utilises a robust PHP, Apache, and MySQL framework for the Ecommerce and Image Processing functions, but introduces Ajax and Jquery functionality to improve the user interoperation and introduce functionality such as image cropping within the user interface that would otherwise not be available to the end user.
The site is hosted on our managed hosting platform which uses virtualisation to allow as to scale services according to usage requirements, and to offer high availability options that would not normally be cost effective.
'A DIGITAL firm has used the muchmaligned parmo as an integral part of a healthy living campaign.
DotUK has developed a website for the Stockton Big Challenge initiative, which runs until the end of this month.
The challenge, which is being run by charity Sustrans, with backing from the National Lottery, the NHS and Stockton Borough Council, aims to encourage people in the area to walk and cycle rather than taking the car.
And despite being deep fried, smothered in cheese and loaded with calories, the traditional Teessideparmo is being used as an integral part of the campaign, telling participants how many calories they have burned off during their journey.
A spokeswoman for dotUK, which is based in Yarmand employs 16 people, said: “Participants will be able to measure the healthiness of their journey against an unusual yardstick – the parmo.
“DotUK has created a parmo counter, which tells users how many of Teesside’s signature dish, if any, they have effectively burned off on their journey.
“A five-mile walk is worth about a sixth of a parmo, while a 135-mile cycle – the length of the Coast-to- Coast route from Whitehaven to Tynemouth – earns you just over one and a half.”
Andy Flisher, founder of dotUK, said: “The parmo counter is an excellent way to promote healthy living on Teesside and it was great to be part of the initiative.”
Paul Morrison, Stockton Active Travel co-ordinator, who is managing the challenge, said the project helped people to fit exercise into their daily lives, when they may not have time for other sporting activities.
He said: “It is all about trying to get people more active, including active travel.”
He added that having the right website to promote the initiative was really important.
The website contains information and tips to help people start travelling actively.
As part of the challenge, residents will also log their daily cycling or walking routes on the dotUKdeveloped website which will automatically enter them into regular prize draws.
Prizes include a weekend holiday for two and a spa treatment day.
Sustrans is a national charity which encourages people to choose healthier and more environmentally friendly forms of transport.
It works with families, communities, policy-makers and partner organisations.
'DESPITE being deep-fried, smothered in cheese and loaded with calories, Teesside takeaway delicacy the parmo is to be used as part of a major healthy living campaign in Stockton.
Cleveland-based digital firm dotUK has developed a website on behalf of Stockton Active Travel and leading UK charity, Sustrans.
The Stockton’s Big Challenge initiative will encourage residents to log their daily cycling or walking routes on the website, which will automatically enter them into regular prize draws.
And visitors to the site will be able to measure the healthiness of their journey against an unusual yardstick – the parmo.
dotUK, which employs 16 people at its Yarm headquarters, has created a parmo counter, which tells users how many of Teesside’s signature dish, if any, they have effectively burned off on their journey.
A five-mile walk is worth around a sixth of a parmo, while a 135-mile cycle – the length of the Coast to Coast route from Whitehaven to Tynemouth – earns you just over one-and-a-half of the cheesy favourites.
Andy Flisher, founder of dotUK, said: “The parmo counter is an excellent way to promote healthy living on Teesside and it was great to be part of the initiative.”
Stockton Big Challenge is backed by the Big Lottery Fund, Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council and the NHS.
Prizes on offer to Stockton residents include weekend breaks, meals out for two, spa treatments and shopping vouchers.
The website also contains information and tips to help people start travelling actively.
DESPITE being deep-fried, smothered in cheese and loaded with calories, Teesside takeaway delicacy the Parmo is to be used as part of a major healthy living campaign in Stockton.
Cleveland-based digital firm dotUK has developed a website on behalf of Stockton Active Travel and national active travel charity Sustrans which aims to encourage more people in the borough to walk, cycle and use public transport to work.
The Stockton’s Big Challenge initiative will challenge residents to log their daily cycling or walking routes on the dotUK-developed website which will automatically enter them into regular prize draws.
However, visitors to www.stocktonsbigchallenge.org.uk will also be able to measure the healthiness of their journey against an unusual yardstick – the Parmo.
dotUK has created a Parmo Counter, which tells users how many of Teesside’s signature dish, if any, they have effectively burned off on their journey.
A five mile walk is worth around a sixth of a Parmo, while a 135-mile cycle – the length of the Coast to Coast route from Whitehaven to Tynemouth – earns you just over one and a half of the cheesy favourites.
Andy Flisher, founder of dotUK, said: “The Parmo counter is an excellent way to promote healthy living on Teesside and it was great to be part of the initiative.”
Stockton Big Challenge is backed by the Big Lottery Fund, Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council and the NHS.
Prizes on offer to Stockton residents include weekend breaks, meals out for two, spa treatments and shopping vouchers.
The website also contains information and tips to help people start travelling actively.
dotUK, which employs 16 people at its Yarm headquarters, is currently working on projects with North East start-up Crafty Canvas and law firm Jacksons solicitors.
SEO, and it's related analytics and research is time consuming. Time consuming means expensive for the client, and whilst cash flow is good, even if sold is not necessarily profitable. So one thing we're always on the look at as is means to automate and simplify, and SEO software is an area where no one has quite got it right.
There are levels of expectation, from the end user, through the webmaster, to the SEO professional managing multiple clients, all our needs and requirements from a piece of SEO Software differ.
One that's doing a good job for us, and many of our clients is Sheer SEO. It's a web based application, which offers the ease of access from anywhere that we expect, but as SEO Software it's fully functional and available on a 90 day trial, it's features include;
Rankings Tracker
Page Rank
Directory Submission
Twitter link tracking
Backlinks watchdog
Master Account (One account for multiple sites)
Competitor Tracking
There is also a White Label feature, and from our perspective it's very easy to deploy for clients to watch, query, and understand their own data, whilst allowing us to analyse in greater depth and plan campaigns accordingly. There are no doubt features missing, certainly at the Pro end of the market, but for day to day use we're struggling to workout what they are!
So if you budget won't stretch to a fully managed SEO campaign, and we won't pretend that is something that can ever be offered on the cheap and done properly, we can highlighy recommend Sheer as the SEO Software of choice to help your market your website, and help us help you promote it further.
As the original developers dotUK were glad to be rewared with the chance to re-develop and improve the Christmas Cards for Schools (www.christmascardsforschools.co.uk) site for the fourth year in a row. The site is primarily a School Fundraising scheme that is based in Middlesbrough but the web site caters all across the UK. The concept is simple, your children draw and design their own christmas cards which are uploaded and professionally printed, giving parents the opportunity to buy genuinely bespoke and unique packs of cards whilst at the same time raising money for their child's school.
This year we have added a subtle re-design to the site's theme and and an improved Ajax powered gallery search and display. For the co-ordinators we have added a more interactive order process alongside electronic invoicing and despatch notes. The volume of cards handled by the site are building year on year.
Senior Developer at dotUK, Andy Flisher, has decided that days in front of a screen and keyboard on behalf of our clients is too much, and has elected to run the Middlesbrough 5k on Sunday 16th May instead. Andy, through dotUK, is a member of BNI Harald, a local Business Referral Organisation here in the North East, and is running on behalf of fellow member Butterwick Hospice Care who operate locally in nearby Stockton on Tees.
We are always keen to support our clients and partners alike and this is just one little way in which we can give. So if you would like to see what a web designer looks like after 5K on a Sunday then please pop down, encouragement needed, else please give what you can. Andy has set up a page at the JustGiving site which also means Gift Aid can automatically be claimed on donations from UK Tax Payers. Thank You In Advance for your sponsorship
As active members and supporters of the Harald chapter of BNI (A Weekly Business Networking organisation based locally to us in Stockton on Tees, covering Teesside and the North East as a whole) we manage and support the Chapter's website at www.bniharald.co.uk. One regular feature
is to promote the weeks 10 minute speaker, which is often acompanied by a powerpoint presentation which we wanted to showcase online for members to review, and also for the members themselves to use.
Our solution was to create the BNI Harald Youtube Channel, where we could export powerpoint presentations in video format, upload, and embed within the BNi Harald site, the members can utilise within their site, we can share within Facebook and other social networking sites, and of course collate together on the Youtube Channel page itself.
This is a relatively simple, and in-expensive, setup that we can offer to all our clients, so if you're looking fort a means of hosting or including video clips, slideshows, presentations and animations within your web pages we'll be happy to assist. As an example we've included a recent presentation of dotUK's client portfolio below to highliught exactly what can be achieved.
dotUK has been chosen to develop the "Stockton's BIG Challenge" website. Co-funded by Stockton on Tees Borough Council, Sustrans, and the North Tees PCT the web development is to to encourage employees, and employers alike, across the North East and Stockton Borough to get out there, on their bikes or on their feet and find a new way to get to work.
The website will enourage staff to log their miles, and using the unique 'Parmo Calculator' identify exactly how many calories you've burned in a visual way familiar to everyone across Teesside.
We are hoping to have the site ready towards the end of Q1 2010 so watch this space for developments
Following a complete refurbishment of the former Pathfinders Public House in the village of Maltby, in the summer of 2009, a top class much discussed fine dining venue on the outskirts of Middlesbrough has been formed. To complement the relaxing atmosphere in company of friends, dotUK have created www.chadwicksinnmaltby.co.uk which we are pleased to launch.
The brainchild of former Middlesbrough footballer and current BBC Tees matchday summariser Gary Gill, his wife Helen, headed up by Masterchef Matthew Roath, Dave Brownless former patron of Chadwicks Restaurant in Yarm, and supplied with fresh local produce (including eggs laid by 'Chadwicks Chickens') they would like to welcome you whether calling in to read the papers and enjoyt a cup of freshly ground Italian coffee, fine dining in style from the evening menu, or lunching with friends, Chadwicks has a warm welcome for you.
If you would like to sample the lavour of Chadwicks Inn then we would invite you to visit the site where sample menus, a photo gallery, an online wine shop, and the ability to book your table online are all featured.
We are pleased to annouce this week the launch off Yarm (North Yorkshire) based NRG4Business's new site. NRG4Business are truly independent, and are able to offer the you the best all round commerical gas and electricty supply prices.
They are not tied to any commercial utility suppliers, and have particular expertise in providign high level quality services to multi site organisations, not just in their North east base but nationwide.
NRG4Business can offer;
Cheapest prices for commercial gas and electrical supplies
We handle all aspects of the transfer to your new supplier
As members of the BNI Harald chapter (Business referral organisation based in Stockton on Tees) we like to think we do our bit and help where we can, we're a broad chapter of 30+ members and we all pitch in where our skills are appropriate. In our case we've put together and managed a new site which we can use to promote the chapter and member successes.
A key part of this is using the technology around us, and social networks to reach a broad audience, with this in mind we've created @bniharald and it's corresponding Facebook Page. We're finding more and more that micro blogging and Social Networks really are the key to quick promotion of clients online (especially with Bing and Google recently signing real time indexing deals with Twitter), and with automation tools it really is simple to publish once and syndicate to many.
If this or any other Internet marketing / SEO opportunites are of interest then feel free to contact us.
Yarm Computers Ltd t/a dotUk are a Web Design Company based in Yarm / Stockton on Tees (Cleveland) in the North East of England, covering regions such as Teesside, North Yorkshire, County Durham, Cleveland, Tyneside, Wearside, Tyne and Wear, and Northumberland. Our primary focus is Web Design, Ecommerce, SEO (Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing) and Web Services both in the North East and Nationally. dotUK are listed on the NEESPR (North East England Service Providers Register) and are able to assist at all stages in your Web Design Project across the Tees valley and the North East. We also accredited partners with Microsoft, Novell and VMWare as well as promoting Open Source and Free Software.
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Senior Developer at dotUK, Andy Flisher, has decided that days in front of a screen and keyboard on behalf of our clients is too much, and has elected to run the 
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