Founded in 2004, Maildistiller is the largest specialist e-mail filtering organisation on the island of Ireland and is building its presence in the UK and further afield. The company’s award winning technology was created and spun off from BT, one of the world’s leading providers of communications solutions and services.
The company needed a redesign that would refresh their brand from an outdated site that was struggling to encourage new partners to sign up.
The main focus of the maildistiller site was to attract more partners to sign up for a trial. To do this the site needed to look as professional as the product, easily showcase the product features and make it very easy to find the signup as a partner page.
The Maildistiller product is one of the most advanced and attractive email managed services out there. I proposed that we focused visitors attention on this attractive product from the homepage by showcasing a number of screenshots that would expand to full view on click. A call to action below these screenshots takes the customer to a more in depth product tour were all the products features are broken down as easily digestible chunks accompanied with some video screencasts and a live demo to really give the visitor a feel for the product.
Integrating the site with the worlds leading blogging CMS WordPress allowed Maildistiller to easily keep their customers and community up to date. Allowing them to offer subscriptions, trackbacks and get valuable customer feedback. A news widget was also integrated into the site homepage to make it easier for customers to view the latest news topics and alerts.
]]>Campaign Monitor
What’s it about?
Campaign monitor is online email marketing application aimed at Web Designers, it makes sending email marketing campaigns to you clients as simple as step 1, step 2, step 3 …done!
Why its great
1. Aimed at Web Designers
2. Clean, simple, fresh application design
3. Attractive looking Report Charts
4. Save HTML templates
5. Easy to use HTML upload
Before Campaign Monitor I used Vertical Response for my email marketing. There isn’t much between the two regarding pricing, in fact they are basically exactly the same. I use the ‘pay as you go’ option, this suits me as I don’t send that many emails to my clients. Where Campaign monitor stood out for me was the usability of its application design. The simple step by step setup of an HTML newsletter couldn’t have been made simpler.
Screenshots
If you know of any other email marketing applications worth a mention? share it with a comment.
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It’s a question we probably don’t ask ourselves that often due to its morbid nature, but as we continue to rely more and more on the web for running business and handling personal information, we really should.
Your website is an asset
Your website, blog or freelance business may not seem that important to you as you write out your last will and testament, however when you think about it, all of these things are assets that you own. Therefore it makes sense to dissolve, sell or pass them on, same you would everything else.
Passing a website on to family members may seem like the right thing to do, however depending on your families business interest and experience other options should be explored first. Maybe a committed fan of your blog would be more suitable to carry the flame after you are gone.
Fans, followers and friends
People who are very active online such as internet bloggers may have a large following of fans and subscribers who live for their next post, tweet or reply. What happens when all this activity suddenly stops? It may be worth considering leaving a message of thanks to your followers for all the great support that they have given you over the years.
Passwords, email addresses and login details
The average Internet user has around 4 – 6 passwords that they use on a daily basis. These can range in importance from facebook logins to Paypal access.
Worst case scenario would be that a Paypal account full of virtual money would be left locked in virtual space behind passwords that can only be retrieve through a seance.
I would suggest creating a master document with lists of login credentials and websites that you are affiliated with accompanied with clear step by step instructions on how to gain access.
If anyone has any other solutions please feel free to leave a comment below.
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Finally I have completed my new Portfolio and Blog site. It took me just over two days of working flat out into the early hours. The site is built using a WordPress backend and I have utilised a number of WordPress plugins to handle things like Twitter Feeds, Popular Blog Posts, The Portfolio Section and Contact Form.. you gotta love WordPress 
Please let me know your thoughts on the new site and subscribe to my blog if you would like to keep up to date with my ramblings. I intend to use blog as a discussion platform for things that I find interesting in Web Design and Development, so if you are interested in that sort of stuff stay tuned.
Thanks in advance for any replies.
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