making a successful website

Good is not good enough

"Every success is built on the ability to do better than good enough", or so the saying goes; and as sayings go that one will go far.  Good enough was only good enough when you were the only game in town and that town only had one horse.  Even then, good enough was never really very good. Today's world demands excellence.  Every sector can be neatly divided between excellence which generally has the lion's share of the market, and good enough which bumbles along just about making ends meet.  Gone are the days in which you could sell good-enough at the price of excellence based upon a lack of competition.  Welcome to the global marketplace where there is competition for everything, and your competition may well be paying just pence an hour.  Good, cheap and fast; pick any one to target as a market advantage, so long as it's not cheap.

AJAX, the mystery begins

Let's talk about true and false.  Ah, basic boolean?  No, not exactly.  AJAX is one of the most common buzz-words in website development today.  True.  Most web-developers are able to write AJAX.  False.  Most web-developers who create fancy 'AJAX-effect's know how to write AJAX.  False. Pick up a book on AJAX, and often as not it will start off by telling you that the key to AJAX is 'this' framework or 'that' library.  Ooops... that's not teaching you AJAX, that's teaching you how to use a tool for setting up dynamic interaction.  The AJAX was written by the guy who created the framework or the library. What's so special about AJAX?  To be honest, nothing.  It's elegant; but what it gains in elegance it loses in both speed and support. More true and false.  AJAX is the only way to set up asynchronous communication with a server.  False.  AJAX is the name for things which aren't Flash but look like Flash.  False.  AJAX requires ActiveX support to run on Internet Explorer, the disabling of which has long been highly recommended to all.  True.  AJAX is fast.  False

Alloyfish brand development. {Part 2}

The form of a fish was stripped down to create a simple geometric form based on three dissected squares. The different parts and colours satisfy the requirement for the likeness different parts to make up an alloy. The following image shows the basic transition from concept ideas towards the final graphic.

Dealing with Black Hat competitors

Complaints about unfair tactics being used by competitors are certainly not uncommon.  Black Hat SEO techniques do work and they are able to deliver great rankings.  This leaves those of us who depend upon White Hat SEO feeling frustrated and angry.  Fortunately, there is a solution in most cases as the strength of Black Hat SEO is also its greatest vulnerability.

Link Baiting - an introduction

Here at Alloyfish we've mixed feelings about bait, but there's one kind of bait which we unanimously support: link bait. Far from being a tasty treat containing a barbed ticket to the deep frier, link baiting is a positive way of engaging with the wider internet community whilst raising the profile of your site. See this extract;   "As much as you find your flea-ridden begging and wildlife chasing cat adorable, I cannot stand seeing it climbing into my garden.  You have never asked permission to use my garden for exercising your cat, and if you cannot control your cat then you need to keep it locked.  His next visit will be his last.  I have a large