Warning: sem_get() [function.sem-get]: failed for key 0x152b: Permission denied in /home/fhlinux201/m/mathewbrowne.com/user/htdocs/wp-content/plugins/wp-cache/wp-cache-phase2.php on line 98
Mathew Browne - the blog of a Welsh web designer
Mathew Browne - UK Web Designer, SEO Expert, Logo Designer, etc.
Welcome to my site. I’m a web designer, search engine optimizer, Internet marketer, and various other clever-sounding job titles. In a nutshell, I make websites for people. I like to think I’m fairly good at it too - my current employer is University College London, and I run my own web design and SEO business.
I’m originally from South Wales in the UK. At the moment I live in London’s Docklands with my fiancee of three years, Louise. She is a final-year medical student who doesn’t mind the inordinate time I spend on my computer because she’s usually got her head in yet another medical textbook.
When I’m not squinting at my laptop and gradually acquiring RSI, I enjoy photography, music, film and television. Of course, being Welsh, I enjoy watching a good game of rugby.
Bob, in the highly unlikely event you’re reading this: you are an insufferable, whinging, reactionary cretin.
So it looks like there is yet another tube strike on the cards. (see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7354470.stm) All of life’s ills can be resolved by striking, according to Bob’s blinkered logic. “The RMT executive was left with no choice but to set strike dates” apparently.
Just you wait until the Olympic games are here - he’ll hold the city’s transport to ransom in exchange for a 500% pay rise, citing some tenuous grievance barely worth mentioning. He may be trying to drum up sympathy for his hard done by workforce, but this is hard for the average person to do when tube drivers earn £30k for doing pretty much fuck all, let’s be honest. What he’s actually doing is making himself the most hated man in London.
Yesterday marked the 10th time I’ve seen WWE wrestling live. Pro wrestling is my guilty pleasure, though at least I’m not convinced it’s real unlike the moron sat behind me last night. Also, I noted a surprising amount of suited-and-booted Wharfers enjoying the show sans children.
In case you’re wondering, which you probably aren’t, these are the shows I’ve seen. Note that there is no Wrestlemania on this list. One day…
29 September 1992 - NEC, Birmingham (house show)
5 December 1993 - Cardiff International Arena (house show)
27 November 1996 - London Arena (house show)
6 December 1998 - London Arena (Capital Carnage pay-per-view)
8 October 2004 - Wembley Arena (Raw house show)
11 October 2004 - Manchester Evening News Arena (Raw taping)
25 April 2005 - NEC, Birmingham (Raw taping)
21 April 2006 - Wembley Arena (Raw taping)
22 April 2006 - Wembley Arena (Smackdown taping)
14 April 2008 - O2 Arena, London (Raw taping)
About half an hour ago I’m tapping away at my computer, minding my own business when it dawns on me that I’m rocking in my chair, yet my feet aren’t touching anything to propel me. And the tea in my mug is rippling, Jurassic Park-style. I thought my mind was playing tricks on me until I saw Louise seconds later (who’d gone to bed an hour earlier) who’d been woken from her sleep. Early reports from BBC say the earthquake (or earth tremor… when does a ‘tremor’ become a ‘quake’?) was in the Midlands, but it was strong here too.
I have just spent the last 4 hours responding to 107 emails. Yes, over a hundred emails have piled up over the last 8 days, mainly web design and SEO enquiries. In the last 4 months, average daily page views of MB Web Design have trebled, presumably as I’m ranking on page 1 of Google for web design and for website design. I’m struggling to cope with demand, which leads to the next logical step - hiring. Well, hiring on a freelance basis, at least. I know that there are a few of you web design types out there who read this blog and/or know me personally, so here is your public invitation - send me an email with your portfolio and let’s see if we can do business together.
I seem to still be attracting a disproportionate amount of “I have the next eBay” messages, where someone wants me to design free or on the cheap in exchange for equity in an awful business model. I have a polite “thanks but no thanks” message that I copy and paste in response to such enquiries, which usually see them off, but I was a little taken aback by one person’s response. It was, in a nutshell, a request to go through their business plan, suggest how to make it foolproof for investment, and then they might consider hiring me once they have the money. Talk about singing for your supper!
The fact is: if the business model was any good, and if the ‘entrepreneur’ was serious about their concept, then they’d be able to find funding for it. And if they can find funding for it, then they can afford to pay me for my services. My mind is not completely closed to the idea of working for shares, but really, some of the ‘offers’ I get verge on the insulting. I remember an intensely patronising one I got from a student a few months ago, which asked me to design the next Betfair purely because “it would look really good for your portfolio”.
Anyway, onto better matters.
I’m about to start designing for a salon marketing consultancy run by Liz Ridley, who has an impressive track record of turning around health and beauty businesses into successful enterprises. She’s now turning her hand to helping other businesses achieve the same success via her marketing consultancy. Where I come in, rather obviously, is in successful Internet marketing and search engine optimisation for their websites and redesigning the sites themselves if they are, shall we say politely, below par. Liz is my kind of person - we discussed the venture over a Tyskie, a welcome step up from my usual client meeting beverage - an overpriced American-chain coffee.
Being the spontaneous, romantic sort, I booked a long weekend in Vienna for me and Louise next month. It should be a welcome break from wall-to-wall work (me) and wall-to-wall revision (her). Although I suspect she’ll smuggle a textbook onto the plane. We’re staying in the Hilton - yay me! I have never stayed at a 5* hotel before, I’m sure I’ll feel like I’m not rich enough or posh enough to be there. Louise is particularly excited that Vienna zoo has a young panda, having exhausted herself fawning over them via Cuteoverload.com
In other news, my Dad came to stay for a couple of days last week. We saw the Tutankhamun exhibition at the O2, which was well worth seeing, although Tutankhamun’s exhibits made up only a fraction of the things there. That doesn’t make them any less interesting, it’s just that if you are an absolute die-hard Tutankhamun freak, then you might be disappointed. In which case Lastminute.com might have some nice deals on flights to Egypt… The gift shop was hideously expensive but you must remember (a) it’s a gift shop, they always are, (b) the exhibition costs a fortune to host and (c) it’s in London.
I didn’t realise what a great selection of restaurants the O2 has. None are cheap - in fact some are disproportionately expensive - but if you’re ever in London and want to go eat, try the O2 (not on an event day, obviously). We had lunch and sweet-talked the waitress into letting us steal our Peroni pint glasses, which were quite a sight to behold.
Thoroughly enjoying Welsh rugby success. I don’t think I need to elaborate on that.
Next month I’m doing a presentation at the House of Commons! I have submitted a proposal for a new website design for an animal welfare council, who happen to be meeting at the HoC on March 13. Little ol’ me, talking to a selection of VIPs. I don’t feel as nervous as I think I ought to be…
Louise found out today that one of her applications for doctor’s job in Llanelli and/or Carmarthen has been successful, so in just over 5 months I’ll be back in my old manor. I’ll miss London, but I won’t miss the cramped public transport, the extortionate property prices necessitating an equally extortionate rental, the threat of randoms blowing me up on my way to work, the beggars, the general misery etched onto people’s face as they go about their daily lives.
A calmer existance and the appetising prospect of freelancing fulltime from my home office beckons.
Every generation witnesses one - at most a handful - of world events so profound that everyone remembers where they were, the circumstances around them in which they found out what had happened. The Kennedy Assassination, the moon landings, and most recently, the terror attacks of September 11 are arguably the most shocking of them all.
I found a documentary on Youtube about the notorious “falling man” photo that was taken on that day.
Just a brief update for infrequent visitors to digest what is happening in my life right now. Business has boomed this month, fuelled primarily by a surge of businesses wanting new websites for a new year. Later this week, Louise finds out whether any of her applications for junior doctor vacancies in South Wales (via Wales Foundation School) have been successful. Fingers crossed that’s the case. If unsuccessful, there is a second round of choices from the hospital/course combinations left on the list.
A number of very exciting work prospects have presented themselves in the last week. My lips are sealed per NDAs but what I can tell you is that if either/both are successful then they could prove quite lucrative and a regular stream of work, which is very appealing given that I’ll be working freelance full-time as of April/May this year. A perfect start to my full-time freelance career. Much like Louise’s job applications, I mustn’t count my chickens.
Louise rang me this afternoon in a fit of giggles. She had been standing on the eastbound DLR platform at Canning Town station, when an announcement over the tannoy started playing what apparently sounded like an American-style infomercial selling a sex toy! Given it was the middle of the day I don’t imagine there were many people around to have heard it, but it still sounds a cracking prank. Wonder if it’ll be in any of the papers tomorrow?
Well, it had to happen sooner or later. Mattel and Hasbro, the owners of Scrabble, have decided to sue the developers of the enormously popular (and addictive) Facebook application, Scrabulous. This has caused quite a furore. I, for one, would be sad to see Scrabulous go. On the other hand, let’s look at the facts: the developers have taken the concept of Scrabble - an intellectual property protected by copyright - and ripped it off shamelessly. They’ve distributed it for free via Facebook, which gets them the sympathy vote from Joe Public - “I’d never played Scrabble until I found Scrabulous” is one of the most common responses.
What many people don’t consider is that the developers are creaming off huge advertising revenues from the app. If Mattel and Hasbro have any business acumen they won’t kill Scrabulous; instead they should claim the share of the advertising revenues that they rightly deserve, and enjoy the benefits of the offline Scrabble renaissance fuelled by the runaway success of Scrabulous. Or will Mattel and Hasbro follow the steps of the recording industry - fail completely to embrace a new technology that could rejuvenate their business, and try to sue innovation out of existance.
I'm Mathew Browne, a Welsh web designer currently living in London. I have a job at University College London in web development; I also run MB Web Design, a web design and SEO company.
