Articles

What is Google Trends, and Can I Use it To Find Keywords?

Google Trends is an invaluable tool to help you stay informed and make data-driven decisions  – the key to any good marketing strategy. Google Trends is a free tool from Google that allows you to uncover what topics people are searching for, whether specific search trends are going up or down, and other analytics that

Augmented Intelligence in the Age of AI

At the core of the AI debate lies a fundamental misconception. Rather than viewing AI as an autonomous, all-knowing entity, let’s see it as a tool.

Digital Marketing for Membership Organisations: A Comprehensive How-To

In today’s world, the internet is king. This is why it’s important for member organisations to leverage digital marketing to sustain membership growth and maintain a vibrant community. Digital marketing plays a crucial role in enabling organisations to gain new members, ensure continued engagement with existing members, and attract the appropriate traffic to their website.

How To Choose A Domain Name

When you’re first starting out, choosing the right domain name is one of the most important things you have to do – just as important as business name ideas. The right domain name will reflect well on your brand and increase your website’s visibility and search engine ranking. In this article, we will explore everything

Why Does a Website Go Down?

Websites are one of the most important marketing tools for businesses today, which is why it’s important to make sure they’re up and accessible for visitors as much as possible.  A website being ”up” means internet users can access it and all the critical functions are working as they should. Having a website that’s consistent

What is Software as a Service (SaaS)?

If you’ve been looking for ways to maximise productivity for your business and streamline communication, SaaS (short for software as a service) might be the solution for you. With its use skyrocketing in recent years, now is the time to look into a switch from the conventional software delivery model. In this article, we’ll explore

What is Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)?

Have you ever wondered how a search engine provides certain responses when you conduct a search? That’s where SEO comes in. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation and is the process of improving your site to increase its likelihood of showing up in search engine results. Search engines are websites such as Google, Bing, Duck

Canberra Web Hosting – Types, Considerations and What to Look For

In today’s digital age, having a website for your business or personal brand is essential. But to make your website accessible to the world, you need a reliable web hosting service. Web hosting is the foundation of your website, providing the storage, bandwidth, and infrastructure needed to keep your site up and running. Choosing the

How to Clear Cache and Cookies on Your Browser

Everyone’s browser is different and so are their browsing habits. To make sure you’re getting the most out of your computer or device, it’s important for you to clear cache on your browser, so that you can have the best browsing experience possible. Clearing the cache is also useful when working on a website development

.AU Direct Priority Periods Ends 20 September

.au direct is the marketing name given to the new domain name launched by auDA (the organisation in charge of managing Australian domains including .com.au, .org.au etc). This new domain name was launched in March 2022, with a priority period that reserves a domain for the owners of domain names with a .au ending ie

Best Stock Photo Sites – Free and Paid

Why should I use a free stock photo website? When you’re designing websites, creating marketing collateral or doing anything else design related, a good stock photo will do wonders for your finished product. Often, you don’t have the budget, time, or skills to capture the photo you have in mind. If you have a big budget, you can explore a premium stock

Six Essential Pages to Include on Your Website

Websites can vary significantly depending on your industry, business or objective, but there are six pages every website should have. Every website should have a homepage, a services page or product page, about page, contact page and a blog. Read on to find out why these pages are important: 1. Homepage Your website’s homepage will

Best Way to Securely Store Files

With basically our whole life being digital, and things only becoming more digital with the metaverse around the corner, being smart about how and where you store your files is more important than ever. The best way to securely store files The best way to securely store files is to actually store files in at

How to Use Colour in Website Design

Colour is incredibly important when it comes to branding and website design. You may not realise it, but colours communicate more than what meets the eye – every colour can be associated with an emotion, an idea or a personality trait. Take a look at many fast food restaurants and you’ll find they use red

Does Web Design Affect SEO?

Search engines such as Google rely on various metrics to rank websites in search results, such as how much time users spend on a website, how quickly they return to their search or how quickly the website loads. Ultimately, your web design affects SEO and your website’s ranking in Google. There are many design decisions

Canberra Web Design: How to Build a Website

A great website is an indicator of a great business. It’s often the first point of contact for many prospective customers so you want to make a positive first impression. But how do you go about building a great website and getting a great website design? And should you do it yourself? Below, we’ll explore

Studio Hire – What Size Studio Do I Need?

Hiring a studio can be a daunting task when you don’t know what you’re looking for. Many studios are designed around one thing, such as photography, videography, or sound recording. Other studio hire may be more suitable for multi-purpose use, with a large, flexible space that can accommodate most projects. One of the main considerations

How to Use Camera Movements in Videos for Social Media and Marketing

This is our final article in our series on visual storytelling. If you missed the first two, read about camera framing and camera angles. Camera movements are a versatile tool in story-telling. The right camera movement can set the pace of a scene, put the viewer in the shoes of the character as they experience

How to Use Camera Angles in Video Content for Social Media and Marketing

This article is the second in our series about visual storytelling. If you missed the first, read about using framing to influence emotions here. Different camera elements, used individually or combined, influence a viewer’s experience and emotions. While camera shots allow the viewers to perceive the character and the story, camera angles help add layers

Using Camera Framing to Influence Emotions

Visual content is taking over the internet and videos are a major part of this trend. Each video serves a different objective and together they form a major part of the content users consume in this day and age. According to a HubSpot study: 72% of customers prefer video to learn about new products 82%

Think You Need a New Logo? Here’s Why You Might Need Something More

Your logo is one of the most identifiable representations of your business. It can tell customers who you are, what you’re like and what you stand for. Unfortunately, this can work against you when your logo is outdated and no longer aligns with those things. More often than not, logos require tweaks and updates as

What Can You Use Laser Cut Vinyl Signage in Canberra For?

Laser cut vinyl signage is a great, cost-effective option for advertising your business, product, or personal venture. Vinyl lettering can be used across many surfaces, sizes, and for a wide array of purposes. Vinyl lettering is great because it’s long-lasting (generally at least 3 years) but easy to remove if you’re only advertising a sale

Top Facebook Groups for Business in Canberra

A Facebook group is a great place to connect with likeminded individuals. This is great for entrepreneurs, small business owners or freelancers who are taking new risks. To help you share ideas and build a network, we’ve compiled a list of great Facebook Groups for business – in Canberra, Australia, Internationally and groups for women.

Photo by Finn Hackshaw on Unsplash
Update and Share Your Business Hours Before the Holidays

If there’s one thing to add to the to do list before your holiday break, it’s updating your business hours everywhere you can. As we head into the holiday season it’s important to let your customers know when you’ll be available. Updating business hours is often overlooked or forgotten by small businesses. To help, we’ve

What Is Instagram Shop and Why Should You Be Using It?

Instagram have introduced their new feature, Instagram Shop, in a deliberate push into the ecommerce world. In selected locations, users will be able to browse through a wide range of products directly from the app, from various ecommerce stores. This is great news for both businesses who are trying to reach more customers and users

The 7 Type of Logos (And Examples You’ll Recognise)

Big businesses spend a significant amount of resources on their logo, and for good reason – a logo is often the most recognisable element of your brand. There are various types of logos that impact customers differently due to the combination of text, icons and illustrations used. Each logo type achieves different things for the

Your Guide to Writing Great Website Content

Writing content for a website can be a daunting task – there is so much to consider. We’ve put together this guide that will outline the main things we consider when writing content. If you’d like to get more help from our team, please get in touch. Site-wide considerations There are some things to keep

The Ultimate Collection of Branding Jargon

Branding is an exciting marketing exercise that combines creativity and analysis. If you are getting started on learning about branding or simply looking to grow your knowledge of branding, you have come to the right place. There are extensive industry terms that are used to describe various aspects of branding. To help you understand the

All Websites Look the Same, but Are They?

With each passing day, web design and web development are evolving. When you look at many websites these days the first thought is “they all look similar”. You’d be right in thinking this – there are often many similarities in the layout, menu style, font choice and use of colours.

Talk to Your Customers How They Want to Listen

We’ve all heard of the phrase “the customer is always right” haven’t we? I could argue about the merits of this phrase and I could probably argue for both sides, but I wanted to discuss a thought process along a similar vein but with a different focus. As a consultancy focused on websites, marketing and

42 Ideas for Marketing Your Business

We’re always thinking of interesting and effective new ways to market. Some of the ideas we come up with are simple, tried and tested methods that we can stand behind but may come across as a little stale or boring. Others are a little more out there and as a result more eye-catching and interesting.

Who Is an Influencer and Should You Hire Them?

The term ‘influencer’ has become somewhat of a dirty word in today’s society. Most conflate the title almost exclusively with Instagram fitness models who try to sell their impressionable audience ‘useless’ fitness teas and expensive workout plans. Certainly, there is some truth to this stereotype as the lack of regulation regarding this area of product

Top 3 Pros and Cons of Shared Workspaces

Futuretheory has finally expanded to our new home in Fyshwick – the Work Canberra shared working space. This was a 5-year dream that Germaine had of offering an affordable home for Canberra’s freelancers, creatives and solo to small businesses is taking shape. For the uninitiated, a shared workspace or coworking space is a shared workplaces

Getting into photography – tips, terms and where to learn

I love photography. It’s something that I have been in love with since as long as I can remember. One question I get all the time is about getting into photography, where to start, what equipment to buy and where to learn. In this blog post, I want to cover a few of my thoughts

Biggest Announcements From Facebook’s F8 Conference

Above is a recap uploaded by Facebook themselves. 1. Instagram is going to focus less on likes In case you didn’t know, Instagram is owned by Facebook. While this list is not necessarily ranked, we pushed this to the top because there is still a lot of room for individuals and businesses to grow on

Mini LinkedIn Workshop

Together with Regus, we’re running a free Mini LinkedIn Workshop on Wednesday 22 May, 4:30pm – 5:30pm The workshop will run for 1 hour total, including 15 minutes reserved for questions. Afternoon Tea will be provided. LinkedIn is the largest professional social network in the world but very few people use it to its full

Amazing Camera, Lighting and Audio Setup for Under $1,000

The phone in your pocket is amazing in a pinch, but eventually, you’re going to want to upgrade your kit. The kit below can be purchased through most camera shops including Teds and JB Hi-Fi, or of course through the Amazon links. The inspiration for this kit is the first kit we used over 5

What WordPress Plugins Are We Using? (March 2019)

When it comes to websites, we trust WordPress – in fact, 99% of websites we build are on WordPress unless a client has a specific platform they would like to build on. We are not alone when it comes to building sites on WordPress, something like 27% or just over a quarter of the world’s

10 Tips for a Better You

I am always trying to improve myself, optimise what I do so that I can do it better and try to take a small step in the right direction every day. The tips below are some that I turn to, they help me to be more productive, be more content, get better sleep, build better

Adding a Site-Wide Message on WooCommerce

Getting messages out to your website’s visitors is important. You might want to let them know that orders will be sent out after the Christmas period, or that there is a new product in stock. Sometimes these messages are more important than a pop up but you also don’t want to ruin the browsing experience.

Canberra Groups To Follow For Creatives

Canberra is getting more and more creative by the day – from photographers to models, to fashion labels. These people don’t just spend their time offline, but also spend their time in Facebook Groups and on Instagram (along with all the other major social networks). If you’re the fashion, photography, or modelling industries, the groups

Stop Spreading Your Socials So Thin

Social media is amazing – everyone is on it, everyone knows about it, posting on there is free and you get to add all sorts of hashtags to get all sorts of people interested. It would make sense then that the more social media platforms you and your business are on, the more people you

7 Digital Marketing Buzzwords You Need to Know in 2018

Marketing is one of the quickest developing industries in the world. It can sometimes seem like just as soon as you’ve gotten up-to-date with the latest industry trends, techniques and influencers, there is already a new wave of marketing trends to learn. If this sounds familiar, don’t worry! Most of the marketing trends are short-lived

Canberra Search Engine Optimisation
Our Recent SEO Success (Up to 20x Gain)

Every other day we would get questions about Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). What is it? Why is it important? Should we be doing it? Until now, we haven’t offered SEO services to our clients despite the clear need for it. Why? It’s simple. We haven’t been able to come up with an offering that we

6 Domains That Exist – Surprisingly!

Everyone is familiar with the usual suspects when it comes to domain names – .com, .com.au, even the occasional .net.au and .org. But did you know that there are thousands of domain available to purchase and more are added all the time? .pizza Everyone’s favourite. Tastes great served hot, cold, or the next day and now

Using videos in your marketing plan
5 Benefits of Including Videos in Your Marketing Plan

YouTube and other video platforms have increased the popularity of videos. People not only visit these platforms to watch music videos and videos of cats doing silly things, they use them for research and information. If you are still not convinced about using videos to promote your business, you should have a look at the

3 Favourite Website Speed Testing Tools

It’s no secret that we believe website speed is a crucial factor, but you are probably wondering three things: How can website speed be measured? How can speeds be improved? Does website speed affect SEO? The answer is simple: website speed test services. There are many services out there offering website speed tests and most

How Website Speed Impacts Effectiveness

Website speed is extremely important. That’s why we focus on speeding up our own site and providing website hosting that is as fast as it can be. A fast website loads quicker, provides a better experience for visitors and gets your messages across more effectively. Website speed can also affect SEO, so there are numerous

Free Software and Services We Love

1. VLC Media Player This is our go-to tool for reading any sort of video. VLC is recognised as the best tool to play any sort of video. It is completely free, infinitely customisable and has advanced features such as file fixing that let’s us open files we thought were lost or corrupt. VLC is

Linked In Training Canberra FutureTheory
LinkedIn is Better Than Facebook and Everyone Else

LinkedIn might not win the social media race when it comes to a lot of statistics and comparisons, but I believe it is the #1 social media platform right now. The best part of it all is that it is relatively untapped and free of competition. 1. LinkedIn is a professional platform The social media

Site Security September

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Website security is an often forgotten thing. The common understanding is that an organisation’s website has nothing worth the effort of hacking so that wouldn’t happen, but hackers nowadays don’t care. They’re happy to hack into your website, find nothing, deface it and leave it silently with nothing to show for their efforts. We’ve gone

What is SSL and Why is it Important?

So today we’re going to talk about SSL Certificates, and why they’re going to become even more important than they already are. What is an SSL certificate? SSL Certificates are the little padlocks that you see on websites when you visit them, mostly on websites like eBay, at least historically, but moving forward, every website

WordPress .com vs .org – What’s the Difference?

We often get asked what the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com is, either that or a blank look on the face of someone when we ask they which version of WordPress they are referring to. Is there a difference between the two? Does it matter which version you use? We’ll break down the similarities and

What is a CDN or Content Delivery Network?

CDN is short for Content Delivery Network. It is a network of servers that deliver content from websites to users depending on the geographic location of the user visiting the site. CDNs exist to speed up a website and the browsing experience, though they also have security and other performance benefits. To get an understanding

Canberra photography, tips, photographer, FutureTheory
Tips For Shooting Better vVdeo

If a picture speaks a thousand words, then how powerful is video? The answer is very. The fact is that there has never been a time in human existence that this many people have access to videoing devices. Not just any video device either, but smartphones that in a lot of cases are capable of

What The Different ‘Roles’ on a Facebook Page Mean

There are 6 different roles for people who can manage Facebook Pages. When you create a Page, you automatically become the Page’s admin, which means only you can change how the Page looks and publish as the Page. Only an admin can assign roles and change others’ roles. The table below goes into detail of

What is a Website Server?

In simple terms, a server is a computer designed and set up to provide data to ‘clients’. Clients in these case refer to any device that accesses a website. The server is the computer that is storing all the information about the website so when someone visits the website, the server sends the information to

5 Tips for Posting on Social Media

Social media is a great way to engage with your client base. Whether that’s on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or any of the other social networks both great and small. The following 5 tips will help you make the best out of every post and create content that will work for you. 1. Spelling and grammar