IQ Prize

We’re only 11 days into June and what a month it’s turning out to be!!

My freelance business has been successfully rebranded as Web Together. Next, we move into our bright new offices in Ashbourne. Then, we get some really nice weather…

And now, the icing on the cake, we have been shortlisted for the IQ Prize! We’ve been shortlisted for our Freelancer Web Application called Octopied.

249 entries and we are now in the final 8. Happy Days! We now have a Dragon’s Den style pitch to prepare for July 8th but we’ll start worrying about that next week. Last night and today are about enjoying the moment!

Accompanied by Ronan Morris and Michael Flanagan, my associates on this, I went in last night for the shortlist announcement and it was great to meet the guys from IQ Content. They had chosen the aptly named Sky Bar to hold their reception. A great 7th floor view of the city. Great venue for an event.

The Charity auction raised €1,300 for Barnardos which was great. Sale of the night was a €200 voucher for Patrick Guilbaud’s that sold for about €300!

What an unbelievable number of entries to the contest! I hope Enterprise Ireland are watching. It’s great that the Awards have highlighted this potential innovation area which has up to now been pretty much under the radar.

The no-strings-attached-funding prize is a great idea because what normally stops these web application ideas from getting  to launch is the very long lead in times before you start generating any cash.

• First, you need to build your app
• Then, (in most cases) you have to offer a free trial period
• And finally, you have to gradually build up your customer base.

I’m not sure what this adds up to but it feels like about 12 months. The very guys that have ideas like this normally can’t really afford to take the required cashflow hit in order to make it happen.  Anyway, so hats off to IQ Content.

Anyone know where you can get a box set of Dragons Den, Series 1 – 7??? I need to brush up!

If you’ve every been to a barcamp, I’m sure you’ve an idea of what bizcamp is about. If you haven’t, bizcamp can only be described as an un-conference set up and run by its attendees and targeted at business topics. Here’s the official description of what bizcamp is:

A free conference/ gathering which is happening in Dublin on Saturday 7th March. The venue is the Digital Hub on Thomas St.
It’s a chance for us all to lift ourselves out of the gloom of the endless bad news stories. It’s based on the fact that each of us as entrepreneurs have loads to learn from our peers. And we have a lot to share with them as well. There are a lot of great things happening in the Irish Economy – especially in small and medium businesses and this day will be a celebration of those. And a great place to come for people who have lost their jobs and are actively looking at starting up.

There’s loads more information about the conference, the speakers, who’s attending, etc. on the conference website. Places are filling up fast so if you’re interested in going, you should get your name down under the registration page.

I’m looking forward to meeting old and new faces – I’ll be doing a talk or running a workshop on the day so say hello if you’re there.

I’ll be back officially on January 5th but if there is anything you need, please email or phone me.

Golden Spider Awards Finalist

Well, it’s Golden Spider time of year again (this coming Thursday, 20th November actually) and this year we’ve got one of our websites up for an award – MurtaghBros.ie has been shortlisted in the Best Property Website category. Following the success we had in 2006 and 2007, we’re hoping to make it a hat trick of wins. The competition is tougher this year I believe and some big names are in the same category so it’s hard to tell whether we’ll win it again. The other websites up for the award are:

• www.belmayne.com
• www.chesterfieldblackrock.ie
• www.lisney.com
• www.osberstown.com
• www.owenreilly.ie
• www.privateseller.ie
• www.sherryfitz.ie

Best of luck to all the above – looking forward to meeting some of you on the night too.

We’ve built on previous years experience and added new functionality to the Murtagh Brothers website that will hopefully make us stand out from the crowd. With this property website launched earlier this year, we added some AJAX functionality to enhance the user experience, especially in property listing browsing. We’ve been able to speed up the navigation and browsing of properties by loading the most important part only – the actual listings – without having to reload the entire page. The result is a smooth transition between pages, making browsing the website a much better user experience. You can check out this feature on the Murtagh Brothers website by viewing one of their listing pages and clicking through the paging (next/previous buttons that are top right of the properties). Fingers crossed, with features like this, we’ll be coming home with our third Golden Spider on Thursday.

I’ll be attending the event as well as Dillon Murtagh so if you’re going, keep an eye out for us and say hello if you get the chance. I’m looking forward to meeting lots of new people and saying hello to people I met in previous years. Best of luck to all nominations too.

Oh, if you haven’t voted for the publicly voted category yet, you shoud do so by the end of the day.

BarCamp Cork

BarCamp is coming to Cork for the second time and it’s being held in the Webworks building on Eglinton Street, on November 1st. If you haven’t been to a BarCamp before, they are really good for learning new things, getting advice and meeting people in the industry. I’ve been to a couple so far and it’s always a good event. It’s definitely a great networking event and from the talk I’ve seen on twitter and around a number of the blogs and forums, it looks like there should be a really good turnout. Oh, there’s no cost to attend the event.

I Might Be Giving a Talk

Yes, I’ve put my name down to give a talk on how to sell websites (well, sell anything really). Basically, I’m just going to share my experience and give advice on drumming up business, sales calls, sales meetings (incl. body language basics), proposals, contracts, closing the deal, etc. It’s my first talk on such a subject but I’m looking forward to it. Now that we’ve moved into a recession, it looks like most industries will need to get back to basics when it comes to selling. I hope to see a good turnout of new and familiar faces.

Pre BarCamp Dinner & Drinks

A number of us have been talking about the possiblity of dinner and drinks the night before the event and it looks like it’s going ahead. Pat Phelan is organising a dinner the night before, so if you’re interested in coming, get your name down quick. The guys from the Irish Webmaster Forum are also meeting up for drinks so we’ll all probably end up together the night before.

Accommodation

We did some research on the hotels in the area and here’s a couple of links with pricing. I’ll probably be staying in Jury’s Inn as it close to the venue:

• Jury’s Inn – €129
• Jury’s Cork Hotel – €129
• Clarion Hotel – €140
• Cork Int’l Airport – €150

Carpooling

If anyone is interested in a lift down on the Friday afternoon from Dublin, I’ll probably be heading down with Michele and I’ll be driving back on the Sunday. I’ve space for 2 more so let me know if you want to join us.

Well, that’s it. Hope to see you at the event. If you see me wandering around, don’t hesitate to stop me for a chat.

It’s the first year of the awards set up by Damien Mulley, following the success of the Irish Blog Awards. We’ve made the long list in the Best New Web Application / Service category and we’ve got some tough competition:

Irish Web Awards

• Pix.ie
• PutPlace
• Locle
• Mortgages and Loans
• Nooked
• BookMeetingRoom.com
• Next Action
• Url.ie
• LouderVoice
• Twitterfone
• Zignals
• eWrite
• Album Shopper
• Edenbee
• PropertySwap.ie
• Poll Daddy
• Decisions For Heroes

There really are some great web apps and services in that list. I think it will be difficult to make the short list with such a competitive category. We’ll just have to wait and see.

I felt a little cheated that I wouldn’t get a chance to judge any of the categories in this years awards as we had a nomination. However, I just read on the awards.ie blog that Damien is doing something quite unique with our category. He’s getting us to judge all the other nominees in our category, which will then be added to the other judges scores before the final short list is announced. A great idea Damien.

Well, I just want to wish everyone the best of luck and looking forward to meeting familiar faces and new ones on the night.

Sponsored by Blacknight

The kind people over at Blacknight who provide excellent hosting in Ireland, are kindly sponsoring the event. There’ll be free drinks available to attendees so make sure you turn up early! I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Michele, Paul and the team over at Blacknight for their great support and service, and of course for sponsoring the event. If you don’t host with them already, you should really consider it. Check out their website at www.blacknight.com

Where and When?

Date: Saturday February 9th
Time: 7.30PM till whenever
Venue: Harbour Master, IFSC, Dublin

More information can be found on the IWF Forum. Drop a reply into the post to say you’ll be there or contact me and I’ll add you to the list.

Attendees

Some of the attendees to date include:

• Ken Stanley
• Richard Hearne [Redcardinal]
• Dave Davis [Redfly Marketing]
• James Larkin [Forbairt Media]
• Cormac Moylan
• Louie [Eire Web Design]
• Mark Walsh
• Allistar [Logon]
• Eoghan McCabe [Contrast]
• Ciaran Rooney [Weeno]
• Gavin Doolan
• Micky Wall
• Gavin [Ireland SEO & Marketing]
• Michael Flanagan

Pre Meetup, 6 Nations, 2-for-1 Special Offer

There’s a few of us meeting up earlier in the day for the Ireland v France rugby match at 4.30pm in Fitzsimons, Temple Bar. If you’re interested in meeting up to watch the game with us before heading to the IFSC, contact either myself or Ken Stanley and we’ll exchange numbers!

Looking forward to meeting people on the night! Slainte!

Padraig Smith wins Best Property Website
Well, it was Golden Spider Award time last Thursday in the Burlington Hotel, Dublin. After last years success of RaymondPotterton.com winning Best Professional Services Website, we had 3 clients up for Best Property Website – Padraig Smith Auctioneers, Raymond Potterton Auctioneers and Geraldine O’Reilly Auctioneers. I am very glad to say that we were successful when Padraig Smith Auctioneers won the category. It was our second year entering and our second year to win! I must say well done to Raymond Smith and all the team at Padraig Smith Auctioneers for their ideas and effort they put into the background while running the site. It’s an award they will surely cherish! Well done guys!

The Organisers
It was a fantastic night all told and once again proved to be a great networking event. I wish to say thank you and well done to the guys and girls (Jennie, Grant, Andrea and the others that I can’t mention or have forgot their names – you know who you are!) with the tough job of orgainising the event. There’s always backlash online and somebody giving out but I think you did a great job on the night and I know all of us that attended, really had a good time.

Jason and Glenda
Once again, Jason Byrne and Glenda Gilson presented the awards. I met Jason outside for a cigarette a few minutes before going on stage and he was looking for someone to update his website. I refrained from giving him my card as I know he likes to pick on someone in the crowd but Jason, if you’re reading this, drop me a mail and we’ll sort something out! Unfortunately I didn’t get to meet Glenda other than been presented with the award so I didn’t get time to ask for her number. So, Glenda, if you’re reading this, my number is on the contacts page! Somehow, I doubt I’ll get a call

The Networking
I got to meet a lot of people in the industry once again. We were seated with Owen Gallagher, and his lovely wife, from Spirit Design and I have to say we had a great time with them all night. I had a good ol’ chat with Chad Gilmer, CEO of Vazumo.com – a very innovative approach to online search. I’ll be interested in chatting to them a little more on behalf of my clients. I was also talking to Tay from CCMA.ie and I had a very interesting chat with Declan Donnelly from United for Children and the work that they do. I’ll be talking to Declan again soon and will hopefully be helping him spread the word about what they do, which I believe to be a fantastic project. And what would the Golden Spiders be without having a few drinks with the gang from Daft.ie – always a pleasure!

The Other Winners
I was quite impressed with a number of the other winners on the night. My old college where I started learning web design while studying accounting, dkit.ie, picked up an award for Best Education, Research & Training Website. Lightbox.ie picked up Best Web Design Agency – I’ve always liked their own site and their work. MicksGarage.ie for having such a cool name! MenuPages.ie – I really like that site, great resource. Pix.ie – A great site for sharing photos, must start using it soon. CullyAndSully.com for their playful looking site and great content. They won the overall Grand Prix Award also. I’ve just been reading their blog, which is great, and have to post a link to how cool the Gardai are!

There was a number of other winners and well done to everyone… but the best award on the night had to have gone to Grandad over at HeadRambles.com. I was so happy to see him nominated and I just knew he’d win on the night. The only reason I stopped reading his blog is that it is too addictive. He’s back in my RSS Reader but I will refrain from spending too much time reading it. If you haven’t been over to his blog before, you should check it out at headrambles.com. Congrats Grandad.

And Finally…
As I mentioned to a number of people on the night – the Golden Spiders are a business award and it does wonders for business. After winning last year, Padraig Smith Auctioneers found our business and commissioned us to design their new site. This year, they won. The Golden Spiders do work and are great for business. Well done to the organisers once again and thank you for a wonderful night. I’m already looking forward to entering a few sites again next year!

Regards, Dave!

Last week saw the launch of the new Blue Sky Mortgages website. Blue Sky Mortgages are a network of mortgage brokers across Ireland, that help their customers save money by switching mortgage providers, help first time buyers get on the property ladder with the best mortgage, and a lot more. Their new website exhibits a web 2.0 feel, a number of DHTML features, Google Maps of their offices, as well as being fully XHTML 1.1, WAI AAA and Section 508 compliant.

Visit their new website at www.blueskymortgages.ie

They did a number of advertising campaigns including a very good viral campaign about a man made shamrock island off the coast of Dublin. You can view it on YouTube here. Funda entered the market with good intentions but never seemed to be able to battle it out with the big boys – daft.ie and myhome.ie. After only 10 months in play, they have decided to close up shop. An idea of how funda.ie faired out traffic wise in comparison to the big boys, have a look at the report below generated at Alexa that Richard Hearne discussed a few months back.

In the “Important Announcement” email, Funda Ireland CEO, Ronan Higgins explains that it was not possible to achieve the market leading position within the target timeframe in order to make the business financially viable. He also thanks staff, the IAVI and it’s members for their support and efforts. In addition, he suggests alternative property portals for clients to advertise on.

It’s a real pity that funda.ie could not survive in this property portal market and it shows how cut throat a business it is. It’s not enough to have a good marketing campaign or even all the properties, you have to offer something more. In the past myhome.ie was the market leaders and who ever thought someone could surpass them, but daft.ie came along and did it. Who’s to say that someone won’t be able to come up with that “extra” factor and leave daft.ie floating behind.

In conclusion and open for discussion… what does this mean for the property website market? If spending a lot of money on marketing can’t get you above daft.ie and myhome.ie, what will? It’s going to take something really special from a property website to be able to knock these off the top, especially daft.ie as it always seems to be ahead of the group. Has this opened up a gap in the market for someone to fill? I wonder will any of the smaller property portals try and capitalise on this gap opening up?