Patrick Oak

I'm an internet consultant. Over the past 10 years, I have built my own online businesses and helped companies build theirs. From strategy to development to marketing I am a jack of all trades and love sharing my experiences and advice.

11 must-have Firefox add-ons for web developers

There are plenty of Firefox plugins that help make the day-to-day tasks of a web developer a little bit easier.

Here are 11 of my favorites....

by Patrick Oak 06 October 2008 08:30am 0 comments

Share your presentations online

So you have a PDF document that you want to share with the world. Or you have a PowerPoint presentation that you want to make easily accessible to your company's stakeholders.

You could upload these documents to the web in their original form but there's no guarantee that those downloading them will have all the software required.

by Patrick Oak 30 September 2008 17:12pm 2 comments

Reputation monitoring on the cheap

Online reputation monitoring is a growing market and there are a number of companies offering such solutions.

Yet some are overkill for most businesses and many firms simply can't justify the costs.

by Patrick Oak 03 October 2008 08:40am 6 comments

CAPTCHA tools

If you run a website that lets users submit any information (either to you, to other users or as part of a registration process), you've probably had to deal with spam and related issues.

by Patrick Oak 29 September 2008 08:45am 2 comments

Dealing with the financial meltdown - tips for businesses

With the global financial markets in disarray, lots of people are worried about their money.

In times like these, business owners need to be just as vigilant about their business accounts as they hopefully are about their personal accounts.

by Patrick Oak 24 September 2008 17:03pm 0 comments

Useful copywriting tools and resources

The importance of good copy cannot be understated. Whether you're writing copy for your website, an email newsletter or offline marketing materials, copy can mean the difference between a sale and a lost customer; success and failure.

by Patrick Oak 25 September 2008 13:21pm 3 comments

10 Twitter tools

Twitter's popularity is growing and regardless of the skepticism that exists about it, marketers and businesses are taking notice.

If you're thinking about giving microblogging on Twitter a try or are already using Twitter, here are 10 Twitter tools that you can put to work.

by Patrick Oak 22 September 2008 13:30pm 6 comments

An email every step of the way - a customer service best practice

Last week, I couldn't resist purchasing another computer. I found a great deal on a refurbished Dell through the Dell Outlet.

It's my first Dell and I'm looking forward to testing it out.

by Patrick Oak 19 September 2008 12:51pm 1 comment

Run multiple blogs with WordPress MU

Last week, E-consultancy's Graham Charlton discussed the benefits of running a corporate blog.

As more and more companies are asking employees to blog (or considering asking employees to blog) in an official capacity, one of the things that goes unrecognized is the importance of using a blogging platform that is easy to set up and easy to maintain for multiple users.

by Patrick Oak 19 September 2008 11:44am 2 comments

The importance of ad placement

One of the most overlooked and least understood aspects of running an ad-based website that I think small to medium-sized publishers make is that of ad placement.

Many publishers simply slap up some banner ads (or Google AdSense ads) and never give any thought to how effective the placement of those ads is. Yet the placement of ads can mean the difference between great results and no results.

by Patrick Oak 17 September 2008 11:28am 1 comment