They say that you can’t take it with you when you go – it turns out that applies just as much to Mackerel as it does to money. How? Well, an article in the Wall Street Journal explained how tins of mackerel are used as currency in some US prisons.

Prisoners aren’t allowed to process cash and therefore need a proxy they can use to remunerate each other for services they provide – haircuts, legal services and so on. Until 2004, when smoking in federal prisons was banned, the currency of choice was a packet of cigarettes.

Now, foil packets of Mackerel fillets – known as ‘Macks’ – are the currency of choice. They’re conveniently sized, cost around $1 each and can be brought into the prison from outside. Hence, they’re a perfect choice.

The problem is of course that their value stops at the prison gate – no matter how many macks you’ve accumulated during your time inside, there’s not much you can do with them on the outside. Unless, of course, you’re happy to eat them, which few of the prisoners seem to be.

You can read the full article on the Wall Street Journal Web Site.

Following on from our recent post about working with Glengoyne, The Drum has an article about the appointment on their web site today.

The full article as featured on The Drum web site

Thanks to Glengoyne and Ian Macleod for putting the release out!

PS: to read the full article you’ll need to register on The Drum’s web site.

In these uncertain economic times, it pays to make sure you have plans in place to make sure your business continues running in the event of a supplier going out of business. In the case of a web site, it can be a difficult area. If your developer goes out of business you may well find your web site off line – not good news for any organisation. Even worse, you may lose it. But how do you mitigate against the risks? Here are 6 ways you can protect yourself from the worst happening:

1. Know Who Does What

Many web design and development companies will sub-contract work to other groups. They do this to keep costs down and be able to deliver a wider range of services without the associated overheads.
For a client, this represents risk – being fully aware of who does what is essential in being able to plan for a disaster.

Read more →

Congratulations to Funky Frog Music – who are the latest to take up our Free AdWords Review Offer.

Funky Frog produces ‘Zootopia’ – a CD of original, professionally performed children’s songs. The company was established by musician and singer-songwriter Sally Stapleton.

For more information on the company and the CD, visit the Funky Frog web site.

For more information on our offer – visit the Free AdWords Review Offer page. We have three left to give away.

We’re very pleased indeed to announce that Mackerel Media has been appointed by Glengoyne Highland Single Malt Scotch whisky to undertake a variety of digital marketing activities aimed at increasing the online visibility of the brand around the world.

Already, we’ve worked with Glengoyne to achieve high levels of publicity for the recent re-launch of www.glengoyne.com, through a hard-hitting Online PR campaign. The news release announcing the re-launch was distributed internationally and, after appearing on Google News and Yahoo News, delivered a 100% uplift in site traffic over a 3-day period.

Further work will involve increasing the visibility of the web site in the global whisky market, increasing sales through the online distillery shop and growing sales of personalised whisky bottles.

We’ll keep you updated as the project progresses!

Like to Know More?
For more information on this please call us on 0845 224 7428 or email us at hello@mackerelmedia.co.uk.

The famous numerals on the front door of 10 Downing Street

I was particularly keen to use WordPress to power this site as I’ve long been a fan of its power, simplicity and open approach. There is a huge community of users and contributors behind it and it’s rapidly gaining a more mainstream following through wordpress.com.

So I (along with many others) was pleased to read today that Gordon Brown (that’s our British Prime Minister for those who have been asleep for the past year) has just launched a new WordPress-powered web site (blog) at www.number10.gov.uk

Obviously the site will be busy – very busy indeed. So it’s fantastic to see that the developers consider it fit to be a stable platform. Already there has been a huge amount of chatter about the Super Cache plugin, which the site uses.

It’s also good to see that Mr Brown has a Flickr account (does he comment on other photos in his spare time?) – he’s (remarkably) embracing digital marketing.

It will be interesting to see how the site develops – I imagine that it will end being being a trailblazer for other high-profile sites. I hope also that the experience of running it will be fed back into the WordPress community, benefiting everyone.

Keen to Know More?
We built this site using WordPress and work with other clients to do the same. Please Contact Us if you’d like to know more about using WordPress as a blogging or digital marketing tool.

Moving a web site to a new domain name is often carried out as part of the development of a new site, the re-branding of a company or a change in internet strategy. On the surface, it’s a relatively easy thing to do, however there are deeper implications that may impact significantly on the visibility of your web site and your company.

Google recently generated some conversation after a posting on the Webmaster Blog that received a very mixed reception, with some commentators calling it old news and others lapping it up. Our experience shows that the issue is alive and well. Many organisations still face huge problems when they make a decision to move to a new domain. So, is moving the right thing to do? Let’s take a look….
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Viart is an increasingly popular off-the-shelf PHP e-commerce system used by a number of fairly high profile online shops. As an application it’s very flexible, powerful and integrates well with a number of Payment Solutions Providers. However, out the box it’s not particularly well optimised for search engines. In this post we’ll take a look at whether or not it has the capability to be truly search engine friendly.

Tables

Many e-commerce systems rely heavily on tables for layout, and unfortunately Viart is no exception. Tables are used extensively for layout, and for decoration.

Much as we’d prefer this not to be the case, it’s likely that until Viart updates the templates provided with the package, we’ll be stuck using tables.

Read more →

Everything has to have a beginning and this little post is the beginning of the new Mackerel Web Site and the Mackerel Blog. Hurrah!

We hope you enjoy reading what we have to say over the coming weeks, months and years (fingers crossed!)

Our approach will be to take an honest, considered, humorous and irreverent approach to the world of digital marketing, the business of the internet in general and technology. We’re not going to be particularly strict about articles – they may drift a little. We will try to be interesting, however, or at least introduce a slightly different viewpoint on something.

Lastly, we might shout a little about new client wins, or developments within the business. We’re proud of the work we do and proud of the relationships we have with our clients. So for that reason, forgive us if we blow our own trumpet just a little.