dan barker

I'm an independent consultant.

Over the last 10 years I've worked on the web: client-side, agency-side & freelance (& loved every minute of all three!)

From coding small sites to managing e-marketing for a $multi-billion blue chip.

Learn to code: make your own Bitly interface in two minutes

In this blog post, you will learn to code your own bitly user interface in just two minutes. (caveat: this depends on how fast you can copy/paste!).

The post contains ten steps to build your own bitly interface, a ready-made example, a simple explanation of how it all works!

by dan barker 30 May 2012 12:46pm 8 comments

The 68 tracking technologies used by large news sites

You're probably aware that almost every website you visit tracks your behaviour in one way or another.

This post looks at which third-party tracking technologies the UK's largest news sites use.

by dan barker 21 March 2012 10:42am 20 comments

Useful e-commerce trends: the promo strip

This post highlights a simple, useful feature that's crept onto most of the UK's largest e-commerce sites over the last couple of years, with no real coverage.

"The promo strip" is not new, but has slowly caught on to the point it's almost standard for high street retailers, yet still fairly rare on smaller sites.

promo strip

It's a very useful addition from both the customer perspective (quickly informative without being overbearing) and from the brand perspective (conversion orientated without being overbearing!).

There are 12 examples below, including variations on the central idea.

by dan barker 09 February 2012 12:01pm 17 comments

How to steal some 'not provided' data back from Google

Google's recent introduction of SSL encryption for search queries from logged in users means that a lot of valuable data has now gone missing from Google Analytics.

This post explains a useful Google Analytics hack to regain some of the insight we used to have, and improve life for you in light of the '(not provided)' issue.

by dan barker 23 November 2011 13:21pm 58 comments