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27th June 2015 by Ben Barden

Does everyone need a full website?

This week, my dad got in touch to say his two WordPress self-hosted sites had been suspended by his web host as they had been hacked. I cleaned things up and the web host reopened the sites.

My dad then asked if he could manage without a website, and simply use social media. There are many things to consider, such as how much control you want to have – and being at the mercy of a third-party (Facebook, Twitter etc). But if something goes wrong with your web host, it’s not a totally different scenario.

Years ago I would’ve said that everyone should have a website. Today, I think it really depends what the website would be used for, and what the company does. My last few jobs have all been developing websites, either as part of an in-house development team or working for an agency building sites for clients. These would not have worked purely on social media. They were all fairly big sites with a lot of custom functionality behind the scenes. We also had an in-house development team. A small business may not have ready access to developers.

I think there’s a benefit in having a website, but if it’s taking a lot of your time to manage and you’re not seeing a lot of sales from it, perhaps it’s time to consider what the point of it is. Does your website have a specific purpose, and is it fulfilling that purpose? Or do you have a website because you feel you should, or someone told you that you need one?

If you’re not seeing the benefits, consider streamlining it, keeping it simple and cutting out anything that isn’t worth keeping. It’ll take less work for you to manage in the long run – and means you can spend more time on the things that matter.

Filed Under: General Tagged With: business, websites

26th June 2015 by Ben Barden

Instapaper rocks

I’ve tried several ways of managing my bookmarks, saving links for later, and sharing links if I enjoy them.

Tools such as Pocket, Evernote, Delicious, standard browser bookmarks, and a few others I can’t recall right now have been generally fine. But nothing has really worked out for me. Typically, I try a new tool, throw some links into it, then don’t really use it.

However, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by Instapaper. I’ve started saving links to it, including 30 or 40 tabs I had open on my iPhone, and links that were previously in a “To Read” folder in my browser bookmarks. I’ve got more to go through, including other browser bookmarks, and Evernote notes. But so far, so good.

Today, during my morning commute, I read a few posts on my phone and either liked them or archived them. That’s a good start.

If you haven’t used it before, Instapaper is definitely worth a try. You can see my recent “likes” on my Instapaper profile.


On an unrelated note – I like the rainbow at WordPress.com today!

Wordpress.com rainbow - Same-Sex Marriage Ruling

More: Tech Companies Find a Rainbow of Ways to Celebrate Same-Sex Marriage Ruling (Recode)

Filed Under: Tech Tagged With: instapaper

24th June 2015 by Ben Barden

Introducing the Miniblog

There’s regular blogging (conventional blogs such as WordPress), and there’s microblogging (Twitter).

I’ve been struggling with what to write about on my main blog, and I’ve also had difficulties completing my posts. It feels as though I need to write a certain length of post to justify publishing it at all. This means a lot of ideas sit on the shelf.

I’m not sure of the value in sharing unfinished posts and ideas. But I’d like to write more. So I’m going to try writing shorter posts here – my “miniblog”.

For now, my main blog will stay put. What happens next depends how the miniblog goes.

Filed Under: General Tagged With: blogging

30th March 2015 by Ben Barden

City AM: Homepage/Category redesign

Note: This is a backdated post, originally published in March 2015.

Since joining City AM in June 2014, we’ve introduced a series of gradual changes to the site layout.

The main changes can be grouped into a few areas:

  • a new header
  • a tiled layout
  • getting the homepage and category pages to match
  • mobile-first
  • a refreshed sidebar with compelling content and greater variety

Barring a few tweaks, the theme has stayed roughly the same.

What did we change, and why did we make those changes?

[Read more…] about City AM: Homepage/Category redesign

Filed Under: Product management, Project management Tagged With: city am, redesign

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