Blog
Instagram videos – January-February 2022
I've proven to myself over and over that video content on social media channels gets more engagement than still images or plain graphics. Here is a small selection of social media graphics that I wrote and edited in January and February 2022 for Instagram and Facebook...
The copywriter’s guide to urination
https://vimeo.com/499130632 One thing I see business owners do over and over again is to cover their website with the words we, I, and us. Now, as a business owner you’re probably proud of what your company does, it’s natural, you can’t help yourself. If you have a...
Give your audience what they want
There is little point in writing content for a blog post, podcast or video if your audience won't be interested in the subject. The way to being a success is to be useful and provide something that people want. Quite often they want the answers to questions that your...
Mono magic in Pure Cheshire magazine
If you’ve looked at my website you’ll see that I really love monochrome photography. This isn’t anything new to me, black and white is where I started all those years ago as a kid, developing Ilford HP5 and FP4 films and printing images on an old enlarger up in my...
Canal walk July 2020
Whenever I'm photographing for myself these days, I tend to work in Black and White. I love monochrome images, but taking landscapes with no colour takes some work. Without the power and punch of colour you have to work much harder on your composition. It's a great...
Why write a blog post?
To write a good blog post, first you need to ask yourself ‘what is my controlling idea?’
What’s the biggest website mistake?
You wouldn't make a movie like this! Why do it with your website? Imagine a movie set, a professional film crew. The director shouts ‘shoot,’ and the actors stand there motionless. After an uncomfortable pause, the lead turns to the director and asks, “what do we...
Building an online store
Setting up an online store has suddenly become a logical step for many businesses suffering in lockdown. If you have a WordPress based website, Barn2's Multiple Product Page plugin can have you up and running very quickly. Lots of food businesses are now realising...
Features vs Benefits
Sell the hole, not the drill bit Benefits are the most powerful way of selling online Humans are generally nice. Most are friendly, many generous. But when it comes to buying things, people want to know ‘What’s in it for me?’ To sell with words, you need to make good...
If you don’t like selling, try marketing
If you don't like selling, try marketingI don’t like it, I always seem to be talking about selling these days. I was the most un-salesperson you could ever meet. The thought of trying to ‘flog’ something to people when they didn’t really want it used to make me...
Greenslate Food
This is just a small sample of images that we have shot for Greenslate Farm's new menu and for the website. Greenslate is such a special place where we don't talk about food miles, it's food metres here. It has been a privilege to be the grower at Greenslate over the...
Finding your USP
Finding your USP You can create your USP from something that you and your competition already share What is it that’s different about you and your product or service? What’s your USP or Unique Selling Point? Having one makes you, your product or service...
Become a graphic designer
The visual part of the marketing mix Visual marketing is an important part of delivering your message With digital media becoming more important in our lives we're all having to embrace this way of communicating. And that's what digital is, a way of communicating....
Britain’s Rare Guitars Live
Britain's Rare Guitars Live is the first event of its type run by Britain's Rare Guitars. Britain's Rare Guitars airs on Sky TV, and the content for this show will be broadcast sometime in November 2019.Questions cost nothing, ask me one now. Call me on 07803...
Your website should earn you money; if it doesn’t, we can fix it.
Your website should earn you money. If it doesn't, we can fix it.Does your website work? And when I say ‘work,’ I don’t mean do the menu’s function or do all the pages load fast. Or ‘does it look pretty or professional?’ I mean does it work for your business? Does it...
Climate strike Preston September 2019
Some things you need to take part in because they are so important. Climate change is such a massive problem for us, taking part in the climate strike in Preston seemed the right thing to do. The sun shone, it was a beautiful day and a wonderful group of people came...
The best marketing strategy
The best marketing strategy Life, and therefore business, is a gamble. Getting it right, developing the right product, coming up with the perfect solution, that’s what many of us in business try to achieve. Often, when we come up with a new idea for a product or...
How often should you update your website?
Q1. When did you last visit your own website? Yesterday, last week, last month; or has it been so long you can't even remember? Q2. When did you last change something in your business? When did you take on a new product, change one of your services, or something...
Manchester Day
I had a great time working with ‘Walk The Plank’ on the ‘Sowing Seeds’ project back in April 2017. So, I was excited when they commissioned me to do a series of photo essays covering ‘Manchester Day.’ The Manchester Day parade in August brings together communities...
Sowing Seeds Photo Essay
The 'Sowing Seeds' project was a collaboration between Burscough Community Farm, Edge Hill University Performing Arts and the 'Walk The Plank' theatre company. Over the course of March 2017 the three groups worked together to produce a unique one off arts project...
Southport Shrimper
Burscough Skyline
The Eden Project
Photographing the Eden Project in colour would be too obvious so I decided to commit to black and white.
Frosty Morning Walk
My daughter and I went for a walk and to take a few pictures this morning.
