Mountain biking

2009 will herald the World Mountain Bike Conference in Dumfries and Galloway so there will be a strong influence on the activities and visitors to the region in the coming year. This is the first time the event has been held outwith USA so it has significance.

We were in contact with Trailbrakes, a mountain biking holiday provider in the region who are now extending the range of their biking trips to Morocco as well as within the region (and of course the famous 7 stanes course at various points in Southern Scotland.)

I'm sure mountain biking awareness will increase tenfold and we welcome this positive influx to Scotland.

Nicotine logic

"I swear I'll kill someone I love today", quipped the drug addict. Outbursts like these can be uttered by those in the throes of craving when experiencing stress.

This craving can reach a certain point where imminent delivery of the drug is no longer consciously exciting, usually when the habit-formed procedures have kicked-in and the subconscious machine has taken over control of feeding the craving.

The resignation afforded to the conscious mind manifests itself by abstractions like "I don't even want this" and thinking of other removed things.

Time is a face on the water

What does that mean?

If you want space and peace in a beautiful place check out Elm Cottage in Kippford, and I'm not just saying that!

The Solway coast in Dumfries and Galloway is quite magical to travel along and looking beyond the normal tourist traps you can find your own places of activity and comfort. Otherworldly.

Apples of the earth

We've just finished an enjoyable phase 1 project for a website selling seed potatoes. There are a few refinements we can pick up in phase 2 but the shop is now live for the end of the month and enquiries are already coming in.

My dad's a big fan of Kerr's Pink so maybe the client will send a bag my way for crimbo - not the most obvious fringe benefit but good potatoes are hard to beat.

So, plenty of other work to be getting on with having also finished setting up the Independent Financial Adviser template site for Duncan Brown & Co. This deals with investments, pensions, mortgages and protection and is regulated for compliance under the FSA.

Website revisions

We are embarking on a marketing phase of company development this quarter so the website is going to be designed with a more professional image and better management of content and information.

Some good template sites that are css and xhtml have been made available by Andreas Viklund. This has been adopted by Geodata Solutions, for example, for use in their surveying and digital mapping services resource.

Never one for the bells and whistles approach, Callisti will aim for an efficient, usable website that looks pretty sweet.

SEO what not to do

The mysteries of acquiring a page rank are myriad but here's what not to do.
Traffic for Callisti is being picked up by Google analytics but the site has not been assigned a page-rank as yet.

Some sources say that having AdSense on when the site is launched is deemed questionable by Google but this seems a little bizarre as it's part of their website services.

So with that in mind more time can now be invested in developing the site content and describing the services more informatively.

Writing for fun

Callisti services include website copywriting and document preparation. Copywriting is a key part of any communication as this is the message. This is what is expressed and this is what is interpreted and processed by the reader.

On a webpage this is a component of the design, especially when the page uses the visual appearance to convey a sense of style, mood, movement and the many other presentation techniques used today. The text message however remains key to a successful site as this is read by humans and search engines alike and is very effective as a vessel for meaning.

Document preparation is quite a wide area. Taken from a basic letter to a published book, a leaflet to a high value proposal, a presentation to a newsletter - there are so many ways that documents are made public to as many different audiences. Callisti can combine desktop publishing and layout tools to give your documents that consistent professional appearance. We can edit copy and proofread to reduce embarrassing typos. We can also get your documents print-ready using postscript software for consistent delivery.

How important is your document?