july 2006 newsletter

Congress have just passed a bill into law that makes it illegal to use misleading domain names and hyperlinks with the intent to deceive web users into visiting sites with unsuitable material. The law is aimed primarily at protecting young children from being tricked into viewing material that could be described as 'harmful to minors', but it is one of the first legal steps in regulating the content of an unregulated Internet.

Offences under this law can result in jail sentences up to 4 years, but you wonder how easy it will be to enforce?

Ever tried accessing a web site on your mobile phone? Most web pages just don't map very well to the small screen on your phone.

However, we've just added a new feature to the Blot Design web site that lets you view our articles easily on your mobile.

Regular readers will be aware of the upheaval caused by the last major Google update back in January.

Called the 'Big Daddy' update in the industry, many observers and web site owners have found it to be the mother of all updates, because of some of the spectacular changes in the search engines rankings.

Some sites had hundreds of pages dropped from the index and saw their ranking plummet from the first page to a placing like #600 or worse.

Generally, it is believed that Google got caught out by spammers, trying to fool the index. They have taken steps to fix things with their ongoing updates but there is still a lot of churn going on.

When an online store goes from #5 to #781 for no apparent reason, the repercussions can be serious - stories abound of businesses' revenues falling by more than 80% and even companies folding.

No doubt Google are working frantically to bring some stability but just goes to prove that you should always spread your marketing efforts across a range of areas if you can.

Blot Design is a member of BNI, the most successful business networking group in the world.

Each month we showcase member companies that might be of interest to you.

This month we'd like to introduce you to Airhouse Studios in the Borders.

Picture this - birds are singing, a cow grazes in the meadow and the rolling hills provide a perfect backdrop. You're not dreaming or holidaying, you're at Airhouse Studios, learning computer skills!

Airhouse Studios in Lauder provide accredited Microsoft training for the Microsoft Office suite (including Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Access), and a range of other courses (interested in computer based knitting?). They've even got a chauffeur service to ferry to and from the courses.

If you need to brush up on those IT skills, do it in the relaxed environment of Airhouse Studios and give Carol Ann a call on 01578 750642 or email
training@airhousestudios.co.uk