Josh Anstey’s Blog

This week, the annual Web Directions South conference was held at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Center.

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to attend this year, but I definitely plan on it next year.

A colleague of mine at Elcom, attended the event and kept a running summary on his blog. Click here to check out Anthony Milner’ Blog.

Click here for the Web Directions South website.

If you attended the event, I would love to know what you thought of it and how it was. As an entrepreneur, I am looking forward to some great ideas being born from this event.

Business cards are a must-have for every entrepreneur!

Business cards say more than just who you are and how to get hold of you. They are a tangible asset that is vital for promoting your image and business, and leaving a memorable footprint on those that receive it. They need to be taken very seriously, with a lot of thought behind them.

I want to provide you all with some basics for business cards and some finer details.

The Basics
Business cards must have some basic standard information:

• Full name
• Company Name
• Position / Occupation
• Contact Information including your office number, mobile number, email address, postal address, fax number, and direct line
• Beeper / Pager number if you have one – this makes it easier for your client to contact you
• Company Logo
• Company website

Some Finer Details
As mentioned earlier, your business card says a lot about you and your business. Make sure that the overall impression of your business card is one that people will remember and be able to identify you with.

Creative Design
It is also important that the business card design follows through with your other marketing collateral, and especially your website. These days, your website is often the first place a person will go when receiving your business card, so make sure they match and are easily identifiable. Design your business card in full colour and double sided as this will only add to the impact that your business card makes. The shape, size, and cut are also other factors that need to be considered when designing your business card, as they all have different effects on the business cards presentation and impression.

Quality
Another important finer detail is the quality of paper of your business card. It is worth spending the extra money to make it a smooth, solid business card. After all, first impressions count, and your business card is a first impression that a prospective client, potential business partner or prospective networked is walking away with.

Content
Only put information that is relevant and that sums you and your business up in a nice concise way. Don’t overload the business with irrelevant information just to fill the space. Make sure there is just enough information so that a person looking at your business card will understand what you are all about, but be enticed to want to find out more.

Just remember, your business card is one of the greatest promoters, and influencers of your business. Make sure it leaves the impression you are talking or pitching about.

Check out my post on ‘Networking with Business Cards’. It’s a must read!

Most of you out there are budding entrepreneurs, either eagerly awaiting to enter the marketplace, or already in the marketplace and maybe looking at re-branding yourself or your business. Now if you haven’t yet heard about Web 2.0, then welcome back to earth, please leave a comment and tell us about your long vacation in outer space. If you would like a quick recap, check out my earlier post: What is Web 2.0?

Web 2.0 logos are everywhere, and there are a few characteristics that define them, differentiate them, and enable them to stand out from the crowd.

Here are a few of the characteristics of Web 2.0 logos for you to keep in mind when designing your logos.

Colours
Web 2.0 logos are famous for their bright, soft colours, that both blend nicely into a website, yet stand out for you to remember them. The colour scheme is often very simple and basic, but can include many different colours. It is also interesting to note the high use of ‘white-space’ in Web 2.0 logos.

Fonts
Big artistic fonts are what embody the Web 2.0 logos. The type faces are often very founded but simple too.

Sizes
Web 2.0 logos are big and grab your attending straight away. Be bold and strong when designing your Web 2.0 logo, as it will make a stronger impact on the people that see your logo, and they will be able to remember it and your company better too.

Style
The style of Web 2.0 logos really shows the changing internet and technological world that we witness. They often provide a very futuristic and innovative look and feel, and this is often followed through in the theme of the website. Web 2.0 logos also have a very ‘rounded’ style to them.

Creative
Web 2.0 logos are very creative. They include shiny effects, bright colours, reflections, swoosh’s, fades, shadows and many other interesting effects. Try be original, and go with a fresh, innovative look.

That gives you a good basic run down on what characteristics Web 2.0 logos have.

Take these tips on board, and your Web 2.0 logos will have the potential to be used as great examples in the future. If these tips helped you and you have designed any Web 2.0 logos, it would be great if you could share them so we could check them out.

I look forward to seeing your Web 2.0 logos! Click here to see my follow up post, ‘Web 2.0 Galore‘ which has some great examples of Web 2.0 logos.

On Friday, 21st September, Microsoft’s founder Bill Gates was named the richest man in America for the 14th Year in a row, according to Forbes magazines latest list of the wealthiest Americans. It is stated that his net worth is US$59.0 billion; not bad for a Harvard drop-out.

The entry for the rich list this year has increased to $1.3 billion, which is quite a high about you would have to say. Having founded Microsoft 32 years ago, Bill Gates has turned himself into a billionaire and become a household name.

The list also included Warren Buffet (US$52.0 billion), Oracle Chief Executive Lawrence Ellison (US$26.0 billion), Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page (US$18.5 billion), and Michael Dell (US$17.2 billion).

You can view the slideshow of Forbes’ list of the richest American by clicking here.

Bill Gates, and many of these other names on the Forbes Rich List, are perfect examples of the positive outcomes of an entrepreneurial spirit. These people epitomize what can happen if you have vision, are dedicated, and most importantly persevere and never give up.

To all the entrepreneurs out there, we can learn many great lessons from these individuals, whose actions have inspired millions, and changed the world in one way or another.

So many opportunities are out there, and we are the ones that can make the most of them. So if you have an idea, give it a shot, you never know where you will end up, even on the Forbes rich list. What are you waiting for?

Springwise is a company that provides daily entrepreneurial ideas, trends, and concepts from all over the world.

These ideas come from a trusted network of ‘springspotters’, which are the people who spot trends and alert Springwise of them.

Springwise is required for anyone and everyone, but specifically:

• Entrepreneurs
• Management consultants
• Marketing Managers
• Consumer Insights Experts
• Trend watchers
• Journalists
• Private investors
• Business development directors
• Venture capitalists

It really is a great source of inspiration and motivation.

Springwise is a great informant for all entrepreneurs.

Check it out, before you miss out.

This morning, Elcom held its ‘Experience Enterprise Search’ breakfast seminar, which was the first in a series of breakfast seminars. I blogged about this event a few days ago, and for the 7:30am kick-off, it attracted a huge turnout.

Here is a brief summary of the event for those that missed out. John Anstey, CEO of Elcom, gave an introduction about Elcom, and ‘Community Search’, the new product that is part of Elcom’s Community Manager.NET which was developed in-house.

Anthony Milner, Elcom’s Project Director, introduced the well known guest speakers Derek Jardine from Information Solutions, and Hurol Inan from Bienalto Consulting.

Derek talked about taxonomy, what it is and how to use it. He talked about the developments in the world of search, and did a live demonstration of taxonomy and Community Search, that had been implemented for the Austrade website. Derek’s presentation also focused on the best way of improving search results in the enterprise. Hurol discussed search analytics, where businesses go ‘right’ with search, and where there is room for improvement. It was really interesting to learn that through analyzing the search results, as well as the failed search results, you can hugely improve the user experience on your website.

This event held by Elcom was a huge success, and everyone that attended gained a lot from ‘Experiencing Enterprise Search’. I’m looking forward to the next one!

I will post any future Elcom events here, so that you can stay informed, and so that you don’t miss the next one.

Josh Anstey (left) and John Anstey (right) at Elcom’s ‘Experience Enterprise Search’ seminar today.

Click here to see the original ‘Enterprise Search’ Event post. “Elcom’s Experience Enterprise Search”

For those that do not yet know, Web 2.0 is the new or ‘second’ generation of the internet. This can be seen in the social-networking sites, wikis, folksonomies, blogs, podcasts and RSS feeds. The main focus is collaboration, increased sharing and integration between users and content. The term has been popular since 2004.

Web 2.0 shows the power of the internet as a platform, where applications can now be web-based. This has come about through a shift in software development, allowing for a rich interactive experience for the user.

Websites are no longer static pages, but are rather fluid, dynamic and evolving portals where users can interact and contribute.

I hope this gave you a good brief summary definition of Web 2.0. This is a topic that will be evolving throughout my blog. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this summary and Web 2.0 in general.

Elcom will be holding a breakfast seminar this Tuesday, 18th September, at the Australian Technology Park in Sydney.

The ‘Experience Enterprise Search’ event will focus on information in context – anywhere in the enterprise.

The ‘Experience Enterprise Search’ event will feature Australian taxonomy and information in context consultant, Derek Jardine, and search analytics specialist, Hurol Inan.

‘Community Search’ part of Elcom’s homegrown developed Community Manager.NET will also be unrelieved. The event is free and I would recommend it to you all out there.

For more information on the event click here

Elcom is a developer of online commerce solutions and software products for secure Internet, Extranet, and Intranet sites.

Click here for more information on Elcom Technology, the enterprise content management experts.

Click here for the follow up post about the event. “Elcom’s ‘Enterprise Search’ a success!”

The domain name game is fast paced and competitive.

There are so many applications and websites providing information of how to register the right domain name for you or your business.

Folksonomy’s Domain Name 101: An Entrepreneur’s Guide provides some good information if you are looking at starting a Web 2.0 service. While there is still so much more to add on to these suggestions, it is a good start.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts of it. If you have any other good sources of information on registering domain names, post them up so we can check them out.

Wikipedia, the online free-to-edit encyclopedia, had its 2 millionth English language article written on the 10^th of September 2007. 

The article was written on a Spanish television program called El Hormiguero.

Wikipedia was founded in 2001 by Jimmy Wales, and has about 3.4 million volunteer contributors. What an awesome achievement in a short period of time.  I wonder when the 3 millionth or even the 10 millionth will be published - any ideas?

Jimmy Wales, Founder of Wikipedia