What does it take to get a web site performing well for you or more importantly to actually get a website? Neal will have all the answers and fill in those gaps for you.

Transcript

Jessie Clark: Hello! And welcome to Humber TV. I am Jessie Clark and I am the new addition and thank you very much for having me. Today I would like welcome Neal Edlin from West Street Design and he owns a web company. Hello Neal!

Neal Edlin: Welcome, thank you very much.

Jessie Clark: Nice to have you.

Neal Edlin: Thank you.

Jessie Clark: And Then, I think we will just get straight to it. Well, you¢â‚¬â„¢re not actually from Beverly, are you? Where are you from?

Neal Edlin: No, I¢â‚¬â„¢ve only lived in Beverly for the past four years or so, a bit of a, bit of a gipsy probably about driving a sense and that I grew up in Nottingham, moved down to London to find my fame and fortune and ended up in Gosport in Hampshire which obviously meant I didn¢â‚¬â„¢t find my fame and fortune.

Jessie Clark: Right.

Neal Edlin: And I ended up moving to Manchester and then decided to move over to this part of country about four and a half years ago, really, it was just a lifestyle decision wanting to get away from the rap race and ¢â‚¬¦

Jessie Clark: Did you had the Beverly was a nice place, or

Neal Edlin: Yes! We got a few relatives who ended up living in Beverly and nearby and obviously been seeing the area and its you know completely different quite a way of life to what we were used to in the city for¢â‚¬¦and I¢â‚¬â„¢ll just give you an example, where we lived in the city, we lived there for 4, 5 years, knew our immediate neighbours and that was it and we moved to Beverly and surrounded areas, walking down the street, I must, you know, when I¢â‚¬â„¢m out walking the dogs in the morning I¢â‚¬â„¢ll just count the number of people who stop say hello, and it¢â‚¬â„¢s a just completely different way of life and the people over here were just so friendly and outgoing.

Jessie Clark: And¢â‚¬¦so what was your first job?

Neal Edlin: My very first job, when I was 16 was packing ice.

Jessie Clark: Right?

Neal Edlin: Yes! I worked for an ice cube manufacturer the whole people and they used to supply ice to Harrods. So, that was short relation and because then I just decided to obviously move on and got into working in the shipping industry which I did for quite a few years. So, I¢â‚¬â„¢ve not, certainly not done web design all my life.

Jessie Clark: Right! What was your role in the shipping industry?

Neal Edlin: I was involved in sales and marketing. I¢â‚¬â„¢ve worked for several shipping companies, particularly on the freight side. One of whom being [2:32] and they used to travel the length and breadth of the country and trying to sell the services and persuading people to use the whichever shipping company I was working for at that particular time¢â‚¬¦

Jessie Clark: So, you didn¢â‚¬â„¢t travel the world with them and it was the¢â‚¬¦

Neal Edlin: No, I¢â‚¬â„¢m in the occasional trips to the continent but obviously I did travel whole around the whole of the UK and we are from Aberdeen, all the way down to Bristol and it¢â‚¬â„¢s strange, you just get to some place and people would say, ¢â‚¬Å“Oh! You are going to Edinburgh, well that must be a marvellous place¢â‚¬ and I¢â‚¬â„¢m just like I don¢â‚¬â„¢t know, I know all the industrial states.

Jessie Clark: Right so, is it a sight to be covered in the meeting room¢â‚¬¦

Neal Edlin: Yes! Not exactly a glamorous way of living the life.

Jessie Clark: Right! So, what brought you to web design?

Neal Edlin: Well! It got to a couple of years ago, and when I reached 40 and I have one of those moments thinking; ¢â‚¬Å“I need to do something different; I don¢â‚¬â„¢t want to do this for the rest of my life¢â‚¬ and I had already got a bit of a interest in web design. I have done few sites for my friends and family and decided that I wanted to go into it full-time and learn something a little bit more and I was just trying to decide I either change my life completely and a complete change of career, or I buy Ferrari. At that moment of time, as now I¢â‚¬â„¢ve done quite. I¢â‚¬â„¢ve enough money to buy Ferrari. So, that¢â‚¬â„¢s why I ended up with the web design.

Jessie Clark: Right!

Neal Edlin: So, here I am.

Jessie Clark: And where did you get your first client from? How did it all come about?

Neal Edlin: My first client actually was a drama society which I¢â‚¬â„¢m a member of and they were talking about how to promote their particular plays and drama in the local villages and in the local areas and I¢â‚¬â„¢d said, I said well, I¢â‚¬â„¢ve been looking of doing a little bit of web design and they said, ¢â‚¬Å“We don¢â‚¬â„¢t know whether we really want to go down that route¢â‚¬ and obviously I hadn¢â‚¬â„¢t got anything in the portfolio and I said; well, you know be prepared to do it free of charge to which their response was, ¢â‚¬Å“When can we have it?¢â‚¬

Jessie Clark: Of course.

Neal Edlin: So, yes, and it sort of the, to come from there, it¢â‚¬â„¢s, still in existence place have the several modifications and revamps, since this is my first little effort.

Jessie Clark: Right! okay, on your website it does say that you can obviously help people who don¢â‚¬â„¢t have a website to talk but lot of people come to you who have already got the site and its not performing as they wanted it to.

Neal Edlin: Yeah! It is¢â‚¬¦sometimes people think that in the case of building a website, is the case of we will build it they will come¢â‚¬¦But I don¢â‚¬â„¢t think it¢â‚¬â„¢s quite that simple. I mean I had people come to me and say, ¢â‚¬Å“My website isn¢â‚¬â„¢t working,¢â‚¬ and I say what do you mean that your website isn¢â‚¬â„¢t working and they say well, ¢â‚¬Å“My friend down the road he said to me you¢â‚¬â„¢ve got a website, it¢â‚¬â„¢ll make you loads of money.¢â‚¬ And I say its not quite that simple, it¢â‚¬â„¢s is the same thing as may be writing in a book and anybody can in theory, don¢â‚¬â„¢t write a book, but once the book is written, you got to get it published, you got to get it in the right shop, in the right street, on the right shelf at the right price and attract the right people and who will want to buy it and that¢â‚¬â„¢s what I am quite passionate about, with the websites I create. To all the times people ask me to help them to get that site working for them, that much better.

Jessie Clark: Right! So, who do you work for? What sort of clients do you have?

Neal Edlin: I mean, to be honest that, a wide variety of clients I mean I have, in the past I have done sites for people who may be just want a simple web presence. They don¢â‚¬â„¢t want an all singing site with dancing girls and hippopotamuses doing flips. All they want is just a site to back up their existing advertisement.

Jessie Clark: Right.

Neal Edlin: That could be anybody from a plumber, to a butcher or a baker, I haven¢â‚¬â„¢t come across any kind of stake makers yet but you never know. But it could be a case of something simple like that or equally, some of the companies that I deal with the, companies may be have more than one office and have 50 to 100 employees who want to re-brand their image and it¢â‚¬â„¢s like that. It can be extremely varied equally as well as, people have may be have got an, may be got an eBay shop and just want something to add on the top of that so that can, you know, its just a simple basic e-commerce site. So, I tend to feel that that¢â‚¬â„¢s one of the exciting things about the job that I am doing now is that, you know, one minute you can be dealing with one section of society, somebody who runs a farm shops and the next minute you can be dealing with the board of directors and, but the thing is at the end of the day, they each want the same thing which is to be successful and to drive their business and they probably just have exactly the same problems but on, just on a different scale.

Jessie Clark: So, do you get involved with the Google rankings and things like that?

Neal Edlin: Yes! I mean, people can get hung up on Google rankings and the particular page rank but I just think that as long as someone can find your site, that¢â‚¬â„¢s the important thing and whether that¢â‚¬â„¢s a case of, you know, finding a site through doing a search on Google, then that¢â‚¬â„¢s, obviously that¢â‚¬â„¢s great but you find that some people as well decide that well I don¢â‚¬â„¢t want, I don¢â‚¬â„¢t necessarily want people to find me through Google. I just want a site as part of my existing advertising campaign, may be they hand out a lot of literature or may be it¢â‚¬â„¢s a case of the exhibitor chose or you know, in markets and it could be somebody just like for example, who is selling fruit and Veg in the market but they offer an online delivery service for all the people and so, you know, people who actually see a site in that market and you know you can just go in there and actually go online and may be get deal just direct. There is many different ways of getting it to work for you and it¢â‚¬â„¢s just a matter of finding the right, the right way for the right person because everybody¢â‚¬â„¢s individual needs are completely different.

Jessie Clark: And do you find the people come to you and they don¢â‚¬â„¢t really know what they want? They want advice and they want you to help them¢â‚¬¦

Neal Edlin: Yes, certainly, I mean, to be honest you get people from the different ends of the spectrum. Sometimes you get people come to you and say, ¢â‚¬Å“Right, I know exactly what I want, this is what it looks like, this is what colour I want, here are the images, go ahead and do it.¢â‚¬ Unfortunately, sometimes those are the people you go back to and then they say; ¢â‚¬Å“I don¢â‚¬â„¢t want it like that, I want to change.¢â‚¬ And, but equally yes. You do get a lot of people who say, ¢â‚¬Å“I know I want something but I am not quiet sure¢â‚¬ and that¢â‚¬â„¢s one of the things I¢â‚¬â„¢ve tried to bring into the business dealings that I have with people and that, nothing to myself. I remember going in my previous business life before doing this, going around and visiting people and listening to them, listening to what they wanted and see whether if I could help them rather than saying, right this is a website, you can either have it in blue, green or yellow and, you have to, everything laid out in this way. I attempt to turn up with somebody and sit down with a blank piece of the paper and say to them look this is ultimately going to be your site, so, what is it that you want? What do you want it to look like? Which allowed me to put some ideas and, you know, and these, we could go down this route or this route and it¢â‚¬â„¢s an, more the case of, a lot of time I like holding someone¢â‚¬â„¢s hand and work in partnership rather than customer and supplier and being able to listen to what they, you know, what they are actually asking for.

Jessie Clark: Right .And do you actually get involved with writing things for the website or do just that?

Neal Edlin: Again it¢â‚¬â„¢s a completely flexible service. Yeah that is the service that I can offer as well. Some people already have that copy on their text writing. It¢â‚¬â„¢s just the case of saying no because we¢â‚¬â„¢ve already got some existing brochures and we want to replicate it. Exactly, equally as well people can say you know, I¢â‚¬â„¢ve about, I know roughly the image of what I want to get across. Could you help me with writing it? So, an example recently a guy said to me, he said, ¢â‚¬Å“Well I know how to fix washing machines but I don¢â‚¬â„¢t now how to write about fixing washing machine. Can you help me with that?¢â‚¬ And yeah that¢â‚¬â„¢s an atom benefit of, you know the services that we try and offer.

Jessie Clark: I know that you are involved locally with network and where do you go?

Neal Edlin: Well several things really, being where I am, just outside Beverly I¢â‚¬â„¢m living and I feel this fund ideally suited for quite a bit of networking that¢â‚¬â„¢s going on. First and foremost I¢â‚¬â„¢m the member of Beverly Chamber of Trade. They meet here in Beverly at, on the first Wednesday of every month and it¢â‚¬â„¢s a good place for people to come along meet with the people, meet people who may not be in the same line of business as you. I¢â‚¬â„¢m also the member of the Hornsea Chamber of Trade. Just, obviously geographically I¢â‚¬â„¢m half way between the two. I meet with them and that¢â‚¬â„¢s the very similar thing. On both chambers I¢â‚¬â„¢m really trying to drive and encourage businesses to do business with other local businesses in the area. And basically keep the money within the East riding and then the other networking group which I joined, which I¢â‚¬â„¢m quite heavily involved in is the East Riding Business Network.

Jessie Clark: Right. Is that Tickton Grange

Neal Edlin: That¢â‚¬â„¢s Tickton Grange, yeah, they meet on the, normally on the first Tuesday of every month and that is specifically set with the network currently. A wide variety of things from, I think the next meeting that we¢â‚¬â„¢ve got next week is speed networking and it would be taught presentations and you get a free buffet from in.

Jessie Clark: I have [¢â‚¬¦] three of those, yes such a nice [12:27]

Neal Edlin: And again, you can have people from all different types of business. It¢â‚¬â„¢s just encouraging to try and see people do business together and¢â‚¬¦

Jessie Clark: So, you actually see business transacted.

Neal Edlin: Yes, I mean, a part of it is the case of, it¢â‚¬â„¢s not always business between, I mean necessarily me, say, if the two of us run thing and you may engage me to do some business for you or vice versa. It can operate like that but you can also operate just on a referral from the third party, I mean, I¢â‚¬â„¢ll give you an example, I was actually when, once, I was ended up sitting next to a solicitor and didn¢â‚¬â„¢t really know him all that well, first I¢â‚¬â„¢ve not met him and a while later I was at an other networking event and was seated next to a guy who had a particular service and was looking into putting it to solicitor. So, I got on the phone to solicitor chat on the net and said this was the person I¢â‚¬â„¢ve met. They are offering the service offering the service I know about them as well as I know you. Will it be okay for me to give you, to give your email details and I said ¢â‚¬Å“I will mail you sir¢â‚¬ but got a call later on from the supplier to the solicitor to say looks we may be have to do some business, I really appreciate everything that you¢â‚¬â„¢ve done and equally, then it¢â‚¬â„¢s over and I said, you know, I don¢â‚¬â„¢t have any need for any web design or web help at the moment but I will remember you as soon when something comes up.

Jessie Clark: So, it sort of actually sales people for each other rather than doing what you said, doing directive sort of¢â‚¬¦

Neal Edlin: Yeah. It¢â‚¬â„¢s the age old thing that every body says that people do businesses with people and it sounds a little bit puny but I think there is a lot of knowledge in that and I just feel quite passionate that you can, there are so many businesses in East Rider and in the Homburg region that a lot of the time businesses don¢â‚¬â„¢t know that somebody could be a good supplier to them. It may be only half a mile down the road but they are certainly not aware of the and I feel like going to the things like networking events, whichever type of networking event it is, I can only increase the opportunities for local businesses to do business with each other rather than you know, having to do with somebody half the way across the country.

Jessie Clark: So, if anybody is watching and if they¢â‚¬â„¢ve just started up a business or have been thinking about network and may be a little bit of nervous about going and not be known or not to be meeting people, you got any tips for people to introduce themselves.

Neal Edlin: I would just say, yes you would be nervous because I think everybody is nervous the first time and I think that it¢â‚¬â„¢s perfectly natural to be nervous, but just be yourself because, don¢â‚¬â„¢t go there to sell yourself, don¢â‚¬â„¢t go there to sell a product. Just go there to meet people who are light minded who are business people. You just want to meet the business people. And, every body has been in the same position when they first got on to a networking event. When they thought, you know, I¢â‚¬â„¢ve got to stand up and may be introduce my self. Just relax and if you are nervous and you¢â‚¬â„¢re asked to stand-up and say something, the best thing you can do is say, ¢â‚¬Å“Sorry this is my first time, I¢â‚¬â„¢m a little bit nervous.¢â‚¬ They¢â‚¬â„¢ll try to understand.

Jessie Clark: Now you could feel the fear and do it anyway.

Neal Edlin: And that¢â‚¬â„¢s the good way of doing it. Yeah, ride the surf. [laughing]

Jessie Clark: Yeah. But I think the thing with the network is to ask questions, isn¢â‚¬â„¢t it, from people if you, rather than talk about yourself and just¢â‚¬¦

Neal Edlin: That¢â‚¬â„¢s right, because, it is a case of building up relationships with people and getting to know people. Yes, to some extent price is very important particularly at this dime age but I think it is vital to get to understand your suppliers, your customers, to listen to them, to know what they require and of you where you may be able to help them in the future because if you can help them, they can help you and that is all part of the networking. You know, people think that networking has a particularly, special aura to it but I, it¢â‚¬â„¢s no different to actually in days combined may be been, you know, going down the pub with your friends and listen to his saying oh my blood is broken and somebody saying you know it gets bubbling, I met him on the port the other week, he is good at this you know and that¢â‚¬â„¢s all networking. It¢â‚¬â„¢s just on a more official basis, there is nothing complicated later.

Jessie Clark: And I¢â‚¬â„¢m just on the¢â‚¬¦ there is another site to you, you are involved with another site?

Neal Edlin: Yeah, I have, yeah when it comes around its just dramatic. I have an enormous ego.

Jessie Clark: Do you?

Neal Edlin: Yes. I don¢â‚¬â„¢t mind admitting it.

Jessie Clark: You love being on that stage too.

Neal Edlin: No, I don¢â‚¬â„¢t love being on the stage, I love being on the centre of the stage.

Jessie Clark: Alright, okay, you¢â‚¬â„¢re not the member of the chorus then?

Neal Edlin: No, yeah, I mean I have been but, I mean, it¢â‚¬â„¢s with the groups that I¢â‚¬â„¢m a member of you know whenever we are doing new production everybody get s the scripts and just as a joke and laugh. We count how many words are on the lines that we¢â‚¬â„¢ve got and say, oh he¢â‚¬â„¢s got more lines than me. It¢â‚¬â„¢s wrong because its something that is completely disconnected from the world of business and I think within business people, as much as, even if they have really driven by what they want to achieve in the business life, they need to have, some sort of over the belays and ¢â‚¬¦

Jessie Clark: Social escape for you.

Neal Edlin: Yeah. And certainly standing on the stage where we make up singing a song in front of people. It is very, very different from what I normally do during the week

Jessie Clark: And what sort of the parts have you played?

Neal Edlin: And, I have played, no I haven¢â‚¬â„¢t played a murderer yet, but I¢â‚¬â„¢m just about to play a murderer but I shouldn¢â‚¬â„¢t have mentioned that, any body¢â‚¬â„¢s watching? It¢â‚¬â„¢s not me, honestly. And, I have played all the murder mysteries and pantomimes and I¢â‚¬â„¢ve played a [18.33] and,

Jessie Clark: Are you going to say something else?

Neal Edlin: Which consisted of me, I¢â‚¬â„¢m into more on the stage saying such things as ¢â‚¬Å“Boobs Mrs. Pilkington, where are my trousers?¢â‚¬ and I¢â‚¬â„¢ve also played a dwarf which considering¢â‚¬¦

Jessie Clark: A tall dwarf then?

Neal Edlin: Yes, I won¢â‚¬â„¢t tell you the dwarf¢â‚¬â„¢s name, that¢â‚¬â„¢s really embarrassing but anyway there is another story but I¢â‚¬â„¢ve also played a camp buttons in Cinderella and the idea was it, of it was that I would look so anything unlike camp, that it would be rather your music.

Jessie Clark: But you are a butch camp buttons

Neal Edlin: I still had a, I looked as a butch camp buttons but I still had a I can put it crime not invoice.

Jessie Clark: Alright, okay, interesting.

Neal Edlin: There is a hidden site to everybody there. Just that I¢â‚¬â„¢ve told my republic.

Jessie Clark: That¢â‚¬â„¢s interesting. And, alright well, if anybody wants to get into contact with you, I think we¢â‚¬â„¢ve got all the information on our website and so, I think that¢â‚¬â„¢s [19.50]

Neal Edlin: Thank you very much.

Jessie Clark: Thank you very much for coming. It as nice to meet you.

Neal Edlin: That was pleasure.

Jessie Clark: Thank you very much for watching.