This list is live and will be updated as I find better upgrades to those that existed previously; so if you find the suggestions useful – just bookmark the page and this post will always provide you with a list of the latest and greatest.

Spam

• Akismet

Navigation

• Page Lists Plus – amongst other things, lets you turn off links in the navigation
• Subpages Extended – displays a list of subpages on any blank pages

Content

• WP-Table Reloaded – full control of tables within content
• SRG Clean Archives – optimised archive page with shortcode

Images/Galleries

• NextGEN Gallery + NextGEN Smooth Gallery
  

Contact Form

• Fast Secure Contact Form
• ONW Simple Contact Form

Links

• WP Render Blogroll Links

Mobile

• WPtouch – automatic iPhone theme; Pro version also supports iPad

Admin Customisation

• Fluency Admin – beautiful admin theme with some customisation options for the logo etc
  

YouTube

• TubePress – create video pages from yout YouTube playlists
• Smart YouTube – easily add YouTube videos to your content with shortcodes, viewer customisation and clean XHTML

Twitter

• WP to Twitter – direct API connection for posting to Twitter
  

Facebook

• Facebook Fanbox Cache Widget
• Facebook Comments for WordPress

Search Engine Optimisation

• Google XML Sitemaps
• Google XML Sitemap for Images
• Use Google Libraries – utilise the Google libraries for jQuery etc.  better distribution of resources and uses Google’s fast servers
• Meta Keywords & Description – creates meta data based on your tags and content
• CSS & Script File Aggregation – combines CSS and scripts to reduce HTTP calls
• Platinum SEO Pack
• Atom Default Feed
• W3 Total Cache – caches and compresses almost everything across the site; should be used in conjuction with Amazon S3 and CloudFront to provide optimal delivery to users globally.

Advertising

• Advertising Manager

But when it comes to direct/email campaigns, whatever platform has been in place before has always proven to be an incredible chore.  The design of the email needs to be tested at length by someone who knows what they are doing (a developer, or me – mostly), then you need to ensure your target lists are correct and up-to-date.  The rigmarole of testing and previewing the email is also grimace-inducing.  Then you have all the data protection issues (which differ based on landing location), so you have to ensure that the email is built with all this in mind; it’s easy to forget that you also need to get all of this 100% correct the first time, because once the campaign is sent, there is no way of taking it back.  It’s a little like going to print, which is quite an anomaly for the digital age.

Step in MailChimp.  A cloud-based flexible and super powerful email campaign management platform, with a host of integration options.

This has to be the most elegant setup I have ever come across from any provider and has easily impressed me over its peers, including SilverPop, StrongMail, SugarCRM, Dotmailer etc etc.  The list goes on forever.

The reason for so much praise to be heaped upon this company and platform is because they have taken what is actually a very complex process, with all the applicable toolkits, and thrown it together into a very usable, fast and efficient system.  It’s the first that I have personally come across that allows the marketer to really focus on the marketing for a change, instead of worrying about the endless list of logistics that normally needs to be taken into consideration.

The features are exhaustive and really does harness every nuance of the email campaign process, including:

• Fully customised design with CSS
• Management of lists and groups, including unsubscriptions and form creation
• A/B testing
• API integration with a plethora of other platforms including Salesforce and the new Amazon SES
• Excellent pre-made ready-to-use templates
• Google Analytics
• Full social media integration, including a social toolbar on the web version of the email
  
• Inbuilt campaign analytics for sent/views/clicks
• iPhone administration interface

I’ll be entirely honest; I have only been using this system for one day and it has allowed me to explore everything mentioned above already, and best of all, they even offer a completely free account (these are far and few between for cloud-based services these days) that will enable you to send out up to 12,000 emails a month.  If you are asking for more, then you really need to pull your very large hands out of your very small pockets.

Take a peek, at MailChimp; I guarantee you will not be disappointed.

I said to myself that I would not be buying anymore Apple hardware this year after being stung after their ever-so-slightly-less-than-impressive earnings announcement that lost me a stack on CFDs. But having seen the 20th October announcement – finally, for a 12″ Powerbook replacement – I just pounced and had to own the new 11.6″ Macbook Air.

The design is flawless and I am incredibly glad now that I didn’t part with my cash for the iPad, with its stifled iOS operating system. For my money (and the fabulous corporate discount that I am still, somehow, entitled to), I have received a wonderfully scaled-down version of my Macbook Pro that runs full-blown OSX, Terminal, BBEdit, Photoshop/Fireworks and anything else that I am likely to need.

Many observers will probably complain about the price and the ‘lack of features’, but this is simply not a fair comparison as there is no other product out in the market like this. Netbooks are generally of a poor construction – especially when compared to the Macbook Air; they are also slow, coupled with awful screen resolution that makes them a passing solution for a professional, at best. In some ways, I am inclined to comment that they should have repackaged this product as the ‘Macbook Air Pro’, as it has left the issues that plagued its predecessor far behind.

Key Features

• Solid construction: aluminium unibody as with almost all their notebooks now.
• 64gb of fast flash memory. Ignored 128gb option, as an external drive is fairly mandatory anyway.
• 1366 x 768 resolution trumps anything else at this screen size – feels no different to my Macbook Pro or my old Macbook Air.
• Two USB ports! (Only old Macbook Air owners really appreciate this)

Grumbles

I do feel that at any of these price points set out, that 4gb of RAM should now be included as standard. RAM prices are so cheap now for 2/4gb modules, so there is no reason in my mind for Apple to not have provided this.

Where has the backlit keyboard gone?! This is, oddly, one of the most important things to me since owning the first Powerbooks to include this feature and I cannot believe it has been omitted from this product in both sizes! One has to believe that in shaving off additional micrometers, the backlit keyboard was one of the casualties, but had I been the engineer/designer, it would not have gone.

OK, I think that is all the grumbles I have at the moment. Time will test the overall build quality and the quality of the new internals – the old Macbook Air had a serious screen/hinge issue (the lid and screen were essentially all one part) where it simply got looser and looser, to the point where the plastic hinge began to crack and eventually, the whole lid came off. Hopefully this will not happen this time around.

If you have contemplated the Macbook Air in the past, but it didn’t quite cut the mustard for you in all areas, then this new model should not disappoint.

Impetus

It made sense for me to buy the Kindle as I love reading on the move and recently switched my commute from driving to taking public transport.  The thought of driving to work was always far dreamier than the reality and in the end, had my blood pressure levels soaring, so now I can simply read/sleep/daydream – anyhow, I digress.

It also looks like this market is on the tipping point of going mass market and some would argue that it already has now that Amazon is officially selling more e-books than hardcovers.  Admittedly, this story broke just weeks before the announcement of the new Kindle and I think this must have been a major factor in my decision to purchase.  Proof that PR is still well and truly alive and kicking.

I paid for Express delivery and it arrived promptly on 9 September.

Screen

The techy inside of me was eager to see the quality of the screen after all the fuss that has been made in regards to reading the device on the beach – something that is really not all that possible on alternative devices like my iPhone 4 or even the iPad.  It definitely did not disappoint – very, very sharp in 6 inches of glorious E-Ink technology.  The screen is viewable at almost impossible angles (this is new to me, having never owned one of these devices previously) and really does have the overall feel like you are reading a paperback in front of you.  What has been even stranger is that whilst sitting on a tube, I have found myself reading the Kindle, then looking up to see one of the thousands of advertisements Amazon has placed on the network.  And then also finding that someone next to me has done the same, making me feel like some sort of walking advertisement!

When the device is switched ‘off’ it displays one of many fancy screensavers that you have probably seen from any of the marketing shots of the device and proves that it can display photos and images in very high-quality and contrast greyscale.

Usability

The device came setup with my Amazon credentials already setup, which made getting started on the device a complete breeze.  I simply connected to my wireless network and had my latest Kindle books ready to read on the device in seconds.

Coming from a background of user-interface design and having used hundred (or even thousands) of different interfaces, I should be more able than most to ease into using the device fairly quickly; however, this was not necessarily the case immediately after beginning to use it and I do wonder if this is attributable to using the iPhone for too long.

One thing that I found quite interesting/difficult, for example, were the buttons to each side of the device for turning pages.  My immediate thought before and even when holding device, was that a button on each side of the Kindle would turn a page in that direction; I also thought that any additional buttons to each side would allow you to skip several pages or even advance to the beginning or end of the book, but alas, this was not to be.

Instead, the buttons for moving forwards and backwards between pages are duplicated on each side, which I assume is to allow one-handed operation and does to an extent make a fair amount of sense – it just wasn’t what I had envisaged.  In-use it does work very well and after giving myself some time to adapt, allowed me to read standing up whilst travelling; one hand with the Kindle and one hand holding my regular early morning americano.

Success here.

Store

The Kindle store had to be my biggest letdown so far, but hopefully things will get better with time and as user-adoption grows.

Although they do have a lot of titles available (and many more I would guess than alternatives such as iBooks et al) there are still many, many titles missing.  Most surprising of all, however, is that the difference in price of the e-books from their paperback and even the hardcover alternatives (in some instances) is not as much a cost-saving as you might have expected. I suppose that in a lot of ways this isn’t really surprising, given the pricing found for digital music vs. the cost of CDs, but it almost feels like you are incurring a loftier ‘loss’ from the weight and feel of a well-bound hardcover.  Also, an area I haven’t managed to yet explore in full detail is what is lost for any accompanying media with some book titles, including audio commentaries; DVD’s; and additional media provided on CD-ROM.

Pricing and Verdict

Amazon have done well here and I opted for the simpler wifi-only option at a price point of just £109 including their ubiquitous Super Saver delivery option (although as previously mentioned, I did opt for the £7 Express premium delivery).

Although the iPad is not exactly the most comparable device, many will want to extoll the virtues of a more converged platform.  However, the Kindle does what it needs to do best.

The screen is more apt for reading with its infinitely higher contrast ratio; the battery lasts a month; and the cost is just a quarter that of the average iPad.

If you read a lot and the weight of all those books has become an increasing burden in your life, then it is probably time for you to get an e-reader and there is none better at this time than the Amazon Kindle.

• Engadget Review of the Kindle
• Buy the Amazon Kindle direct from Amazon

In what looked like TV-advertising 2.0 (not to be confused with TV 2.0), the programme advertised a ‘Best Bits’ segment, which went on to display Big Brother Best Bits in an odd Big Brother-branded picture frame with the Big Brother eye logo in the bottom-right corner. In between each of the clips, an advert was shown, within the same picture frame.

Maintaining the Big Brother branding throughout the advertising slot was quite a clever technique, as it was less intrusive during the viewing experience and in a case like mine, even caused me to engage further than simply watching the advertisements half-heartedly.

Is this going to be the method for television ads to up conversion rates and start the fightback against digital? In my opinion, such tactics will only have a short shelf-life unless they continuously change the methodology; after a while, the audience will simply learn and gain age old ad blindness.

I guess the channels will need to do whatever they can to maintain ad revenues, whilst the rest of the world continues to disappear online.

Personally, I am a reports junkie. I need constant feedback and even if a given report isn’t available, I will try and ensure there is some way of obtaining it.

However, not everyone shares this sentiment and it is often hard to relay the cold hard facts of a report in a meaningful way to someone (your boss, your board, your wife?) without some form of translation from numbers into plain English and/or pretty pictures.

Well, a genius by the name of Nicholas Felton – part designer, part statistics junkie – decided to put together a series of meaningful ‘annual reports’ into a format and creation all his own; for the unacquainted, they are marvels in their own right and will catch the eye of even the most glass-half-empty naysayer.

Interestingly, we both studied the same course at university and although this would not necessarily seem to be all that interesting, Interaction Design is still not quite a widely known subject.  I am also a maths geek.

Take a look at some of the Feltron reports now.

With the recent David vs. Goliath battle of Facebook Places (circa. 500 million users at time of writing) head-to-head with the relatively unknown, (yet ubiquitous in its own right), Foursquare (circa. 2.5 million users at time of writing); this quick poll of user activity has proven that yet again, niche-level services continue to prevail.  One is led to believe that Facebook Places will only survive as an internal ‘app’ within the Facebook framework, if it recognises that Foursquare addresses the cognitive behaviour of its users in a congruent manner and seeks to either emulate or work with the said newer network in order to further its own proposition.

The Rise of Mobile

There has been much discussion and speculation regarding mobile as being the future of the web, but relative to the growth of technology in the last couple of decades – mobile’s influence on the market has been relatively slow to reach critical mass.

Indeed, it has been the charge of one particular industry innovator – that is, Apple – who have sought to capitalise and shape the industry almost single-handedly with its iPhone product and platform.  Even Google with their army of genii could only limp into the market, post-hype, with their Android platform; this now dominates the rest of the mobile smartphone market and has set the scene for a new wave of technology, software and user adoption.

Geo-location

So, working slightly backwards in this post, this leads me back to Foursquare, which like any great new startup, has found its niche and stamped its authority on the market very quickly.

It does what it does well; it provides a fun and addictive platform for users to ‘check-in’ to locations; collect ‘badges’; leave ‘tips’ for places that they enjoy visiting; and add other places on a virtual ‘to-do’ list for whenever they are in the area in future.  Even I have found it a particularly useful tool and as active as I am in the digital space, I tend to keep my personal social media activity to a minimum – especially with all this talk of future identity issues.

Perhaps the smartest planning involved in the makeup of Fourspace is its clever attention to business and the model for revenue generation.  This has always plagued the social networks when stepping up to the IPO plate, so it looks like these guys have their bases covered.

The Future?

From my perspective, it does appear that the industry is moving even further into the long-tail – perhaps even more so than was original envisaged by Chris Anderson.  It will perhaps become more likely that generic behemoths like Facebook (or perhaps, just Facebook on its own) will continue to provide the basic structure for sharing a little of everything with your friends – but it will be the specialist and niche social networks that will continue to innovate and form the fabric for new communities going forward.

Services like Flickr, for example, are quickly becoming very large communities in their own right and I don’t see this trend diminishing anytime soon.

The importance of technological convergence looks equally important in this social media revolution; key, converged, but niche-focussed products like the FitBit and Amazon’s Kindle could well be pivotal in forming the social networks of the future.

This applies for many reasons.

Matching Ads with Consumers

Facebook is basing its matching criteria almost solely on 2 factors – Profile Page information submitted by users, and geo-targeting (this could be a combination of IP address tracking and user-submitted information).

Now, when you compare this database of user-submitted information – yes, there are however many millions of Facebook users (then subtract all inactive/spam accounts) – this simply pales in comparison to the quantity of data in Google’s database, alongside its user base, i.e. anyone with a computer. (I’ve even intentionally left out the content network and search partners that Google offers as additional sources of traffic.)

Arguably, you will say that this is actually a niche factor when using Facebook, but unfortunately I think it really affects its ability to achieve any kind of real effectiveness – especially when up against such strong competition.

Now, I don’t want to come across as some kind of Google fan boy, but criticism of the Facebook advertising network continues.

Review Time

Wow, review time on Facebook takes what feels like an eternity. Google adverts are reviewed and can be seen online very quickly – you’d barely notice there was a review process at all. It took over 24hrs for the first advert on Facebook to be reviewed and approved, and only slightly less for the second.

Keywords

Facebook does allow you to enter keywords, but only from a preset selection, which I assume is derived again from the content that is submitted by users on their profiles. What becomes immediately apparent, is that the selection of keywords is incredibly limited – again, this is easily understandable, as the majority of Facebook profiles neglect ‘wordy’ information as users would rather interact via chat, pokes, photo-sharing and applications. Google on the other hand allows an almost unlimited amount of fine-tuning when it comes to keywords. In Facebook’s favour, however, due to its undeniable restrictions, it does present you with an exact audience figure that will be targeted from your campaign, which is a nice touch.

Advertising Blindness

Additionally – and this is a fairly personal view in terms of my usage of the social network – Facebook is used primarily for social reasons. Keeping up-to-date with friends and family, sharing photos etc. I feel that advertising blindness has never been more present for contextual adverts than they are here. I even started to question myself halfway through running the campaign; could I even recall adverts I had seen when using Facebook myself? This is in stark contrast to Google’s contextual adverts, which run along the top and side of search pages, which I’ve found to be incredibly useful in the past, when the organic search is sometimes a little lacklustre.

CPM vs. CPC

This is where I believe Facebook may have a gem – albeit a tiny one – in its crown.

CPM (cost per mil) is the old method of paying for advertising on the web, which didn’t work for advertising buyers, so internet advertising began to fall out of favour. Most of the networks switched to the CPC method of billing – also known as PPC – where the advertiser only pays when a user takes action and actually clicks through to the target site.

However, Facebook offers this as an option when setting up your advert – and it is much cheaper than I can remember – you can spend just 10p per thousand impressions. Google offers this only on its content network, but not on its search or search networks.

As an example, in the last few days I ran two almost identical adverts in parallel on Facebook, one CPC and one CPM to compare the results, to a very focused target audience. On the CPM side, the advert achieved around 60,000 impressions with about 12 clicks. On the CPC side, the advert achieved around 3,000 impressions, but no clicks. Both of the bid rates were the suggested averages.

Now, although the overall CPC cost was higher on the CPM campaign, the cost was relatively cheap considering the amount of impressions that were displayed and I feel that in the long run – for a branding exercise – this could well help a brand achieve critical mass. But, of course, the issue with branding is that it is fairly difficult to measure success in a short period of time.

Conversion

From a conversion point of view – and the vast majority of online advertisers will probably be focussed on this, rather than exposure – the results are very clear. (The budget was approximately the same for both.)

In the Google campaign, from just 2 days – the advert achieved around 200 impressions, 15 clicks and 1 transaction.

Facebook achieved 60,000 impressions on the CPM campaign, 12 clicks, no transactions. The CPC campaign achieved 3,000 impressions, no clicks and no transactions.

I don’t think anymore really needs to be said.

This leads me to the subject of importing goods to the UK, which brings a whole new range of issues to any company that is new to the import workflow.

Here I will try to give an overview of the major points I have recently encountered, in establishing a brand new import business, since a lot of this information wasn’t readily available in a single source. I will try to make it read in layman’s terms too, so not to scare you with the jargon that complicates much of this procedure.

VAT

Import VAT is payable on any imports from countries outside of the EU. Please refer to this page for the full list of countries included and excluded:

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/VAT/managing/international/esl/country-codes.htm

Customs Duty

Trade between EU countries is Customs Duty-free.

Customs Duty for imports from countries outside of the EU can be quite a complex beast. I’ll try to explain my understanding of it, but I would suggest you read more on the sites provided below.

Any goods arriving from countries outside of the EU will be subject to customs duty, if over the value of £120, and depending on their classification according to a book published called “The Tariff”. Luckily for us there is a free online version of this available at the Business Link Tariff website.

You will need to try and classify your product according to the online tariff, which will tell you whether you need to pay any Customs Duties. Although the online tariff is a good guide – if you are unsure about your product’s content or make-up, then you should consider using the HMRC Classification Service.

Lastly, consignments below £18 are customs duty-free.

Excise Duty

Excise Duty is strict. If your goods are alcohol or tobacco products, then excise duty has to be paid. Excise Duty doesn’t apply to other goods.

Labelling

Ensure that the labels attached by your supplier clearly state the following:

• The full value of the goods including shipping fees and any local taxes
• A full description of the goods
• The senders full name, address and telephone
• The recipients full name, address and telephone

These are important for both customs clearance and in case the parcel gets lost! Common sense, yes, but necessary.

EORI Numbers and Why You Need Them

The Economic Operator Registration and Identification (EORI) scheme was introduced 1 July 2009 to tie-in with the European Union, and replaces the previous TURN system that was in place here.

The bottom line is that if you are bringing goods into the country for trade or commercial use, then you really need one of these. Even private individuals regularly importing goods are required to register for one of these numbers.

Luckily, the process is fairly straightforward (very unlike HMRC in general) by submitting a Word document to them via email.

EORI Application Information

Surface Mail – Shipping – Air Freight

So, at this point you have your ducks in a row, and are ready to decide on a shipping method with your supplier. This decision very much depends on the quantity, size, weight and value of the goods you are importing.

Generally speaking – and especially for the new importer – the likelihood is that Surface Mail (often referred to as EMS) will suffice. This service uses the normal postal service (with air-mail services connecting the two countries) and has some limitations on weight/size/value depending on the operator, so this is something you will need to research and ask your supplier about.

Larger imports will require either a shipping service or air freight, but this is really out of the scope of this post.

The Parcelforce Monopoly

Now this is the fun part that almost nobody out there will tell you, except for perhaps a few forums or blogs.

You’ve finally got your tracking number and are checking it far more frequently than you probably should.

But you’ve realised, what actually happens when it arrives in the UK?

• Does it just appear at your door?
• Who gives it to customs?

Well, as it happens. Parcelforce are the logistical ninjas working behind-the-scenes to help do all this for you.

• They will kindly pass the goods over to customs for inspection.
• They will kindly pay any fees including VAT, Customs Duty and Excise duty on your behalf.
• They will kindly deliver the parcel on to you finally; but only once you kindly pay them back for the fees owing, including either £8 or £13.50 (EMS, GLS or items over €1000) in handling charges from Parcelforce themselves.

My suggestion is that once you know the goods are in the country, contact Parcelforce, and keep contacting Parcelforce until you finally receive the notification slip at your door, that you need to pay fees.

Once this is received, your goods should be ready for delivery or collection from your local Parcelforce depot – so quickly pay the outstanding fees online or by telephone.

Done!

I’ve worked out a little formula to understand the costs involved.

Import Cost = Cost price + Shipping + Shipping Insurance + Customs Duty + VAT + Excise Duty + Parcelforce Charge

And there you have it – my little guide to importing your first Purple Cow into the UK. Good luck!

Anyhow, installation of this platform is interesting to say the least – but this post is about post-installation. This is a very general checklist of all the things that I found needed tweaking. Some of these are very obvious, but the list also includes those tricky hidden elements that you might only find via customer feedback after launching your site!

Here is the list:

• Find a good theme (if you haven’t already)
• Fix mod_rewrite issue if your SEO-friendly links aren’t working (check .htaccess in Magento root)
• Check file permissions on all Javascript files (loads of issues arise from this)
• Up the php memory limits to 128M or higher (depending on your server)
• Delete all irrelevant country <codes> in magento/app/etc/config.xml (this helps to avoid admin login issues)
• Learn about ‘Magento Connect’ (official plugins/themes from the Magento site use this process)
• All ‘Transactional Email’ templates
• Newsletter templates
• Newsletter cron job (to get newsletter to send)
• Contacts
• Remove all sample data (as long as you are comfortable with customising everything)
• Check/change all text in CMS pages and static blocks
• Setup and test payment methods (Paypal/Google Checkout etc)

Ok, that’s all I have for now but if I remember more later, I will add them.

Good luck!