In this update:
1. Welcome
2. It's been four years
3. New look to What The Papers Say
4. Daily online reporting from your PR agency
5. Up, up and away from £158
6. Earn up to £500 for one 'phone call
7. New address reminder
8. Random numbers
9. Taking the pain out of customer support
10. Taking The Weight Off Your Shoulders
11. Cool Sites
1. Welcome
Thanks for reading this update from inframes.com, the creative internet technology company.
A message from the editor:
As usual for this time of year, I've just finished making my christmas list. But it's not the kind you hand round to unimaginative relatives to help them with their shopping. This is a list of everything I want to achieve in the new year to make all the inframes websites bigger and better. Perhaps you should do the same. Now's the time to decide how your website is going to look a year from now - and, moreover, what you're going to do about it.
At inframes, we can give you pretty much anything your competitors' websites can do. So if you've got a burning ambition to improve your website, whether it's through e-commerce, membership, mailing lists, customer relationship management, design, graphics, editorial, animation, Flash/Shockwave, Powerpoint presentations, logos or anything else, make your own wish list and send it to me. I'll tell you how we'd go about it and how much it would cost - no strings attached. I won't even call you, if you don't want me to.
All the best,
Jon Ewing
jon@inframes.com
2. It's been four years
On October 8th 2003 we began our fifth year as an internet development company and along with that milestone we celebrated the millionth unique visitor to What The Papers Say and the 20,000th news story in our database on September 23rd.
And there was another red letter day this summer when PressReleased was officially launched on September 11th 2003. An online reporting centre designed exclusively for PR professionals, it had been in production since March 27th 2001 and has the distinction of being the only website we've redesigned even before it was finished. But then it's also the only project that has taken us over two years in development and commercial trials. We think it was worth it.
3. New look to What The Papers Say
What The Papers Say has been given a revamp over the summer months and the quick fix for busy news junkies now looks quite different, especially on the extended homepage. As well as all the usual news from the online broadsheets and tabloids we've added a box-out featuring the day's quirkiest newspaper story, we highlight a snippet from our archives with the "One year ago..." story, we give more emphasis to readers' letters with a "Dear Jenny" snippet and every day we throw a "Spotlight" on one of Britain's leading online news sources.
Perhaps the most significant change, though, is the arrival of Google ads, which is without a doubt our most successful ever network advertising venture, earning us an average of about $2 per 1,000 page impressions; nothing else we've tried has been anywhere near so successful.
See for yourself at WTPS.co.uk
4. Daily online reporting from your PR agency
Does your PR agency give you secure access to real-time online account activity briefings? Can you log on to a secure website every few hours and find out what new achievements have been made on your company's behalf? Does your PR account manager upload draft press releases for you to approve online or provide you with a facility to browse cuttings or read reports?
If not, why not?
If you are a marketing professional or company director you can now use PressReleased, the online PR report centre developed by inframes, to improve communication with your agency. Our online tools guarantee complete accountability for your PR spend and save your account handlers' time, allowing them to really focus on getting results.
Find out more at www.PressReleased.com
5. Up, up and away from £158
If you're stumped for christmas, birthday or anniversary gift ideas this year you could do worse than take a look at our new price comparison websites, Driving Experience and Flying Experience.
Built using our own content management software suite, Streamline, these simple but content-rich sites help you to find the most thrilling gifts at the least possible expense. So if you know someone who would like to float over London in a hot air balloon, drive a classic Porsche 911, jump out of a plane or take a spin round Brands Hatch, you know where to go: www.wtps.co.uk/drive and www.wtps.co.uk/fly
Incidentally, prices range from £45.00 at the bottom end for a passenger ride in high performance car right up to £8,750 for a trip to the edge of space in a Russian MiG-29 Jet fighter.
6. Earn up to £500 for a minute's work
During our first four years in business we've haven't spent much on advertising because the majority of our business has come from personal recommendations. So, instead of spending money on ads, we reward the people who bring us new business by paying a 20% commission, up to a maximum £500.
If you know anyone who needs web development work, email jon@inframes.com right now or call us on 0845 6445513. If it comes to nothing, you've wasted a minute of your time. But if we make the sale, you could soon be treating yourself to that new iPod you've had your eye on, courtesy of inframes.
7. New address reminder
Just in case you haven't yet updated your records, we moved to Huntingdon House, 35 Field Road, Reading, Berkshire, RG1 6AP in August and our telephone number is now 0845 6445513.
We'll be making our christmas card list shortly, so if you've changed your own address in 2003 please drop us a line.
8. Random numbers
| 10 | age of Persian Punch, winner of this year's Lady O Goodwood Cup |
| 20 | number of Wimbledon titles won by Martina Navratilova between 1976 and 2003 |
| 78 | record worst Open score by a defending champion, courtesy of Ernie Els on July 17th |
| 88 | age of Denis Thatcher when he died on June 26th |
| 92 | runs scored by Zimbabwe before losing to England by six wickets in the NatWest Series in July |
| 50 | number of people in "flash mob" who went to Sofas UK in London to speak English without using the letter "o" |
| 450 | average cost, in pounds, of a dinner at Sketch, London's "most overpriced" restaurant |
| 750 | the fine, in pounds, imposed on Stephen Field at Tower Bridge Magistrates' Court for attempting to cut off David Blaine's water |
| 30,000,000 | amount in dollars paid to the informant who fingered Saddam Hussein's sons |
| 50,000,000 | number of North Americans whose power supply was cut off on August 14th |
| 100,000,000 | Lloyds TSB's compensation bill, in pounds, for mis-selling "precipice bonds" |
9. Taking the pain out of customer support
inframes has been working with local IT support consultants CTMS to lend our web savvy to their Helpdesk solutions. Our Support Automation service integrates market-leading Helpdesk software seamlessly with your own company website, meaning customers' issues can be raised and resolved using a web browser, even on the move using your iPaq! To find how CTMS and inframes can bring your customers closer to you, check out www.ctms-uk.com.
10. Taking The Weight Off Your Shoulders
Are you a keen walker or cyclist? inframes has recently been putting the finishing touches to an online booking system for Sherpa Van, the country's leading backup service for Britain's long distance footpaths. You walk (or cycle) the trail and Sherpa Van will pick up and transfer your bags between nightly stops, saving you - and your back - the bother of carrying a heavy pack. They'll even book your B&Bs or hotels for you, and you can leave feedback to recommend or warn future walkers about each place you stay. Ramble over to www.sherpavan.com for more details.
11. Cool Sites
Bhanu's Spice Kitchen
A collaboration between cook Bhanu Mistry and our old friend and sometime team-mate Dave Gerrard, this is a brand new site featuring tried-and-tested family curry recipes that are both delicious and easy to prepare.
Creature Comforts
A very attractive and relentlessly cute exercise in functional Flash design promoting the series of short films by Aardman Animations.
Nerdy Books
If you use Windows or any Microsoft Office products, be sure to sign up for the mailing list and receive a handy cartoon tip every day revealing shortcut keys, functions and time-saving features you never knew existed.
Word Origins
Well-written website exploding some of the myths of etymology. We hate to be the ones to break it to you, but it says here Thomas Crapper did not invent the flush toilet. Shame.
About inframes.com
inframes.com is an independent company formed by ex-Scoot developers, Jon Ewing and Daniel Rosewarne in 1999. The company is dedicated to providing creative internet technology services to webmasters and corporates whilst delivering an enjoyable and useful experience to the end-user. The company's headquarters are at: Huntingdon House, 35 Field Road, Reading, RG1 6AP.
