bbm blog

Friday, 29 February 2008

Bangalow Limousines Radio Production



Sisters Melia and Nerida of Scarlett Affection laying down a radio ad at Bay FM for Bangalow Limousines. Three radio ads were developed by Bush Branding & Marketing and will be hitting the radio waves soon. A big thanks to Grant O'Neil for his reworking of Folsom Prison, to Simon Barker for his his sweet production skills and last but not least our client Grant Kelly for watching over me.


Production of a television commercial using this sound track is also in the works.

posted by bbm

Tuesday, 19 February 2008

Web Wrangler for Hire

Web Wrangler is a term a client used to describe one of the roles Bush Branding & Marketing played in developing her website. The term wrangler has a few meanings but mostly it is used to describe the role of caring for livestock and the catching and saddling of horses.

A web wrangler then, can be described as someone who cares for critical web assets like web site domain name registrations and web hosting. In my experience, catching horses is very much like trying to get hold of a domain name registration or sorting out ftp (file transfer protocol) access to a website: it's bloody hard work. Here are some of my web wrangling tips.


  1. Domain name registration. Your domain name is much like a brand you put on a horse. It's a unique and important way of identification and proves ownership. Be sure that your domain name is registered in your name and that the contact details are in your control, especially the email address. Don't rely on any third party to take care of this for you because you will be at their mercy for critical things like renewals and managing dns (domain name system).
  2. Website Hosting. Your website needs to live on a computer somewhere, much like a horse needs a ranch to run around in. Be sure that you know as much as possible about the ranch before you put your horse on it. Ftp access to your website is required for development and updates. You need to have 3 critical bits of information: domain name, username and a password to get in.
Without a doubt web wrangling is one of the toughest jobs I have ever had and the worst paying job by far. Most clients understandably get very confused about domain names and hosting; and often for good reason. The people they entrusted to handle these things that are beyond their grasp are motivated to make it even more difficult in order to maintain their strangle hold on your website and business.... the bastards.

Pictured with me are Lady and Deniro on a recent ride in the Goonengerry Forest with my apple mac wrangling mate Sagaro.


posted by bbm

Wednesday, 13 February 2008

Sorry Snowballs to Canada

Australian Boot Company in Canada has joined the movement in Australia to say Sorry. Pictured is one of their snowy store fronts on Queen Street West in Toronto. Australian Boot manager Andria Gillis made up this sign and took this photo after she received an email from Greg Cromwell in Australia about Sorry Day. A copy of Kevin Rudd's speech has been posted beside the sign to let people know what it's about. "We have had a great response to our sorry sign, although one of our customers called us after seeing it from a passing streetcar and asked if we were going out of business," said Andria.

posted by bbm

Homeland Security Sorry T-shirt

This is what my favourite t-shirt looks like. I bought it on Walpole Island (Bkejwanong) near our family farm in Chatham, Ontario.

For me wearing this shirt is a way of acknowledging that we are like terrorists to our indigenous people. I am going to wear it today to acknowledge the terrorist acts against Australia's aboriginal people and to show that I am sorry.

If anyone would like to buy this T-Shirt showing Geronimo, Sitting Bull, Numaga, Oseola, some of the many original directors of homeland security for Native Americans visit cafe press.


posted by bbm

Tuesday, 12 February 2008

Let's put an internet forum on our website

Adding an internet forum to your website is a great way to generate dynamic content. A forum or notice board as they are also called allows people to interact and develop a community. There are lots of open source forum solutions available.

The best online forum Bush Marketing built is on bayweb. My partner in bayweb, Jason Ferris, deployed it as part of a relaunch of bayweb.com.au in 2003. Our goal was to give our Byron Bay website a purpose. We wanted to have a community portal that competed and complemented byronbay.com. If you visit bayweb today you will see the little forum we started has a total of 1727 articles and 10349 registered users.

If you want a forum to be an asset be prepared to work your little ass off to make it happen. Forums need to be moderated, seeded with articles and most importantly maintained with the latest software versions. Hackers and spammers just love to join and muck up forums so do beware.


posted by bbm

Monday, 11 February 2008

Internet Questionnaire

When we first starting building websites for clients we put together a list of questions to help us help them. Surprisingly our questionnaire has undergone very few changes over the years. As much as technology changes the basics of building a website stay the same.

BBM-internet-workbook.pdf

posted by bbm

Friday, 8 February 2008

Practice Random Acts of Appreciation

My mind is always racing, thinking about ways to help brands and businesses grow. The title of this blog, Practice Random Acts of Appreciation, is a guaranteed winning growth strategy.

Putting my blog where my bush wallet is, here are some of Bush Marketing's strategies for 2008.

  • People: Reward your people with pay and benefits.
  • Community: Give generously. Through Rainforest Rescue we are going to give 1% to the Bush.
  • Thank You: Two words that are never said enough. Send letters, emails and gifts.

Instead of adding to this list I am going to get busy with some appreciation.

posted by bbm

Joomla Day in Byron Bay Sunday May 11th

A Joomla Day is now confirmed for Byron Bay in 2008. Appropriately we have picked a Sunday and will kick things off at 1 pm and wrap up by 5 pm. Brad Baker and Andrew Eddie will both be present as well as presenting. Joining Andrew and Brad will be a list of other enthusiastic and internationally experienced communicators including Yossi Ghinsberg (ghinsberg.com) and Sagaro from Lightforce Computers, Byron's Apple Mac Legend.

The event will take place at Bush Branding & Marketing's studio in the Byron Bay Arts and Industry Estate with a maximum of 50 participants. Please register your interest quickly as we anticipate a sold out event. There will be $20 fee at the door with profits from the event being donated back into the open source community. If you are interested in attending you can purchase tickets online at joomlabyronbay.com

The Bush Marketing web development team have been using Joomla since its release and have successfully developed a broad range of websites using this incredible open source content management system.

For more information on Joomla visit these sites:
Joomla
Joomla Day

posted by bbm

Mini Nee Required Urgently: designer, web developer and project coordinator


Bush Branding & Marketing's Creative Director Nighean O'Brien (Nee) is seeking a Junior Designer. Our ideal candidate will be a Mini Nee: a graphic designer with skills and interests in web development; intermediate to advanced experience in Photoshop, Illustrator, Quark or In Design and Dream Weaver are essential. You must be able to work under tight time lines with loose briefs.

This is a great opportunity to get hands-on experience with a growing international boutique advertising agency. Please contact us for more information or send your resumé with a covering letter to grow@bushmarketing.com

posted by bbm