Rising stars Ph Creative have launched the Eco Environments website, July 2009. Eco Environments is a renewable energy specialist in Liverpool and the UK, seen an innovator in the energy field. The design is fresh, great use of flash and HTML. It feels easy and efficient so a perfect fit to its client brand. Some cool use of icons.

Well done Mando Group on winning this year’s big chip design award for the ‘Liverpool Biennial 08’ website. It’s a great achievement by the Liverpool agency beating off a lot of heavy weight contenders. For me it confirms Mando Group’s position as one of the region’s best agencies.

Online PR – Search Engine Marketing. Since the majority of us don’t have Google’s bankroll for huge Pay Per Click camapigns, you are left to find less expensive ways to drive visitors to your websites. Online PR could be part of your answer – sharing your company news and views directly over the Internet.

You can get decent online exposure starting from £60 using a news distributor such as www.prweb.com.

I just hate the new pedestrian road crossing systems in Liverpool. The stupid, impractical low down box things that you can’t see as soon as one person stands in front of them! Its safety gone mad. The system had to have been tested with the world’s most patient people. Technology improvements where simply not needed, nor the cost of installing a new system.

The pelican crossing, a lovely black and white mat to walk cross, huge belisha beacons guiding you across …

Online virals have been around for what seems an age. The big sports brands like Nike, Adidas have caught on big time to the value of online virals and do the best job in my eyes. Probably because they now spend the most money on production and promotion.

The first one I remember back in the day of great big Mpeg email attachments screaming through your 56K dial up wasn’t in a corporate, it’s the kick boxing floppy leg! It’s still …

Leaving aside the usual frequently heard mutterings of “is it good enough” and “did it warrant the £100,000 price tag” – the bigger puzzlement for me is – who is actually using it?

Rippleffect redesigned Formby Hall Golf Website back in February 2009. This site is one of the best in sector for golf and hospitality. Its simple, clean, great use of imagery and I can get around it easy enough. That couldn’t be said about most of the golf websites out there which are shocking. Surprised Rippleffect haven’t mopped up all the UK Golf courses with this as an example.

The creation of one of Europe’s largest Science Parks plus innovations such as the International Centre for Digital Content and a new Art and Design Academy put the Liverpool City Region at the forefront of the creative and digital economy. IT, Digital and Creative companies include:IBM, Sony CEE, BT, Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), Cybertill, Orgmetrics, Lime Pictures (formerly Mersey TV), Mando Group, River Media, Hurricane Films, Rippleffect, Bizarre Creations, Fraser Williams Logistics, New Mind, Amaze, Felix Blow, CL5 Search Engine …

Funding for Creative Industries.

There is, after much searching, a plethora of pots of money out there. I know this because I have been through the considerable task of leaving no stone unturned in an effort to find funding to launch a new business into the digital media sector.

As the banks bolt their doors and concentrate on re-stabilising and re-capitalising, less and less of their money …

MediaCity – Is there an opportunity for Liverpool digital companies to get invloved?

The 36 acre Peel development is possibly the biggest opportunity that will happen to the digital media community this decade in the North West. Manchester will be the biggest beneficiary of the opportunities and rewards, but surely Liverpool must be invloved in thier plans?

How does Google determine which sites will rank above others in its natural search results? Unlike web directories that list sites on the basis of editorial review by a human, Google is software that uses a complex maths formula to make its ranking ‘decisions’.

No-one outside of Google can claim to know the whole formula, but outside of a whole range of quality factors that are pretty well published and …

Access to finance has been the big issue for SMEs in the recession, obtaining public sector investment can be a useful alternative.

I started CL5, a digital consultancy specialising in search engine marketing in April 2009. To launch and then grow the business I needed more capital than I could afford to invest personally. I had been kicking at the doors of all the major banks for a good six months asking the questions, with only a set of …

One of the responsibilities of the search engine marketeer is to look at the performance of your website ‘beyond the click’.When you consider that it can take several months investment to improve the ranking of a website and that pay per click costs can be considerable in some online markets, it makes sense to ensure that if a user clicks through to your site, you are maximising the chance of them …

Social media is transforming brand communication; in this article Mark Jones discusses the impact of this emerging medium on consumer and advertiser behaviour.

b.TWEEN is holding a digital media forum where creative innovators can meet potential collaborators and major clients in the industry.

If you are interested in fast cars and motorsports then you’ll appreciate there’s a world of difference between a Lotus Elise and a pimped-up Ford Focus. One car has been built from the ground-up for performance, the other needs a whole lot of effort and expense before it can look – and act – the business.

Bolting a spoiler on an Reliant won’t improve its 0-60. Similarly, getting an existing site retro-fitted for SEO can sometimes waste your efforts in Search.

The …

Where’s the heart of the North Wests Digital community. Take the major commercial developments which have emerged over the past decade, which have brought real term benefits to the creative community and two names dominate the arena – Urban Splash and Peel Holdings. Both developers are backing our sector with long term and specific building design.

Peel Holding’s Media City – need I say more. Also for those of you …