During our lead up to the wedding, the owners of Shiedhill Castle told us how they had planned to convert their house (by the stables) into a restaurant and for them to move out.

Having looked through planning applications on the South Lanarkshire Council website, there was no sign of such application. The most recent had been the conversion of the stables to rooms back in 2006. The one detail I did get out of the planning applications was that George Simpson Architect had worked on the stables as well as previous projects around the castle.

George Simpson Architect

So I emailed George Simpson Architect regarding the closure of Shieldhill Castle in hope that he would know something. George kindly responded with the following to say;

Hello Adair

The Shieldhill Castle Hotel is indeed closed. I don’t know any details but there was an article in the local newspaper, the Lanark Gazette late last year I have been involved with Mr. and Mrs. Lamb on various projects over the last 10 years, the latest being the stable conversions two or three years ago. The conversion of the house was to be a future phase.

I’m sorry I can’t throw much light on the situation. I haven’t been over there since the completion of the stable conversion.

Regards

George Simpson

That’s enough confirmation for me to say that it is well and truly closed. I really do hope that someone will buy it in the near future and keep it going. Thank you to George Simpson Architect for your response.

Here’s a picture from our wedding day showing just what a beautiful castle it is.

staff:

Has it been three years already?!

February was a month of big milestones for us, possibly the most exciting of which was that you guys viewed Tumblr more than a BILLION times. That’s 36 million times a day, 25,000 times a minute, and more than 400 times a second!

To say thank you, we have some beautiful, free, and awesome features we’ll be pushing this week.

And follow us on Twitter for some special news.

Thank you!!

How NOT to do SEO

I thought I’d see what the Tumblr community have got to offer in terms of SEO this morning. The best I could find was also the best example of how not to do SEO along with self promotion on a platform such as Tumblr. It’s no wonder people who work in this industry have this bad cloud around what we do! So without trying to upset anyone or company. This is a little example on ‘how not to do SEO’.

Who is Website Optimization India?

Websiteoptimizationindia[dot]com offer SEO services in what “I think” appears to be the Tampa area. Part of those thoughts are down to the homepage mentioning Tampa 43 times along with a further 39 in the meta data (of which 24 are meta keywords).

So that’s their idea of keyword relevancy for Google to pick up?

So What’s Tumblr got to do with it?

When searching SEO on Tumblr, I found the blog seocompanytampa[dot]tumblr[dot]com (yes that’s right neither site are getting a real link from me). In the last 4 days they have posted the same link (plus comment) to their main site 7 times;

It’s companies like these that really give SEO a bad name as they have the cheek to “guarantee” top rankings. If techniques like these are anything to go by, I feel sorry for their existing clients.

So if you are looking for SEO in Tampa, do some research first!

TweetMeme & Tumblr

If you’ve got a blog then you’ve got to make it as easy as possible for people to share the love.

AddThis v TweetMeme

A couple of weeks ago I finally got round to putting AddThis to the sidebar of this Tumblr blog. If you’re wanting people to share your blog post, then this is the worst place to put it. Although it’s in a good position within the sidebar, there’s just no association with that button and the content within a blog post. I would have moved it if it were not for the great little Retweet button by TweetMeme.

I am a fan of the AddThis sharing tool but I feel that the simplicity of TweetMeme makes it the favoured choice. It’s very impressive that AddThis offers one click sharing to over 200 sites but realistically how many are actually used? Sometimes the more isn’t necessarily the better. With so many people using Twitter these days it’s important to make the most of it and make it as easy as possible for someone to share your content.

How do I add TweetMeme to Tumblr?

Now I’m not the most technical of people but do have a basic understanding of code. So when I looked at the TweetMeme help pages and found a guide on installing TweetMeme to Tumblr - I quickly got stuck as to where to place it and making it look good on the (most) popular Tumblr theme that is Redux.

It wasn’t as simple as copy/pasting the code as I later learnt that I was pasting the formatted code where quotation marks were frustratingly not the quotation marks that work on code (not sure how to explain that any better?). So how do you place the retweet button on the top right like my Tumblr blog? By using the following code will allow people to retweet each individual post:

<mce:script type=”text/javascript”><!— tweetmeme_url=’{Permalink}’;tweetmeme_source=’adaircameron’; // —></mce:script> <mce:script type=”text/javascript” mce_src=”http://tweetmeme.com/i/scripts/button.js”></mce:script>

Obviously, you would need to change the source name to your own username. Place it within its own <div> to allow it to float correctly with the right amount of margin. Paste the following code straight after <div class=”post”>:

<div style=”float:right; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px”>

<script type=”text/javascript”>tweetmeme_url=’{Permalink}’;tweetmeme_source=’adaircameron’;</script>

<script type=”text/javascript” src=”http://tweetmeme.com/i/scripts/button.js”></script>

</div>

And there you have it, a good looking retweet button in a great position.

Picture source by Excomedia

I have completed a website for my wife’s boss today and really happy with the result! The difficulties around this little project was the understanding of the business itself.

Until last week, I’d never have heard of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) never mind build a design around it. So what is it? Cognitive Behaviour Therapy is a talking therapy aimed at helping people with mental health difficulties.

I believe that my design is sensitive to those who may visit the website with a formal, yet, light hearted feel. It’s a simple navigation that guides them through a journey up until the point of the contact page.

It’s been a fun little project and wish Angela Roberts all the best with her Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) Service.

On of the main things I’ve learnt from working with Angela Roberts Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) Service is that Internet Explorer 6 should be banned as it causes more problems than it solves. We are in a world of Internet Explorer 8, where their TV adverts are a common feature to day-time television. Yet, around 10% are still using version 6? Am I right in assuming that the majority of these users are coming from the workplace?

staff:

Now testing: Pages

You can now add static pages to your blog, with a few very useful options. Head to your blog’s Customize page and click the “Pages” menu to get started. There are currently three types of Pages you can create:

• Standard Layout. Create a simple page with a title and body using your current theme.
• Custom Layout. Create a page with a completely separate layout.
• Redirect. Forward a route to a page on another domain. Useful for maintaining links when moving your domain name over to Tumblr.

Developers: Check out the Theme Docs for instructions on implementing the new {block:Pages} tag.

I’m so glad Tumblr has introduced this, great feature! It was the one thing I felt it missed when I moved from Wordpress.org.

Thank you Tumblr!

Google Stars Enhance Personalised Search

So the latest personalised search rollout for Google has taken place

We’ve long believed that personalization makes search more relevant and fun. For nearly five years, we’ve been tailoring results with personalized search. Today we’re announcing a new feature in search that makes it easier for you to mark and rediscover your favorite web content — stars.

Read the official post, Stars make search more personal, on the Official Google Blog.

For example, when searching for credit cards you will be presented with the following top results (UK).

Credit Card Search on Google UK

You’ll notice a subtle star by each result in which is clickable, allowing you to select your “star” pages. As part of this example, I decided to click on Barclaycard as below.

Clickable Stars

Do another search for credit cards and there you have it - your starred page is ranked top of Google for your reference.

Second Search

So what happens with multiple star pages? I’ve continued by selecting numerous credit card provides and as the screenshot below, the maximum shown at one time is 3 starred results with a link to “show more starred results”.

Multiple Starred Sites

Nice idea and isn’t too much of a distraction to the natural listings. The question I’ve got is that if you search on Google and find a site you like, the first your going to do is spend time on that site, not go back to Google and click a star.

Interesting … can we track the links of those that are starred and clicked through to our sites?

Alice in Wonderland

Is it just me or are there plenty out there who are excited to see Tim Burton’s extension of Alice in Wonderland (2010)? It comes out Friday 5th March but frustratingly I won’t be able to watch Alice in Wonderland until the week commencing 15th of March.

It’s not all bad as rather than enjoying it in 3D at the new(ish) Odeon Wrexham, Eagles Meadow. We can look forward to watch it at the Odeon IMAX in Cardiff! So it’s definitely worth the weight.

Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll

It’s quite impressive to think that Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll) wrote the novel in 1865!?!? Alice in Wonderland 2010 will be the 21st adaptation of the novel with the first being a silent motion picture in 1903.

I fell in love with Disney’s Alice In Wonderland (1951) cartoon and just hoping that Tim Burton has replicated that success with this version.

CSS IE Only

I’m currently working on a website and trying to overcome the css issue that is IE (Internet Explorer).

It can be a dangerous thing using an Apple Macbook when building a website. Everything is coded up and looking good then all of a sudden you think @£$% I’ve forgotten about Windows users and the evil IE6.

So I log in to my Adobe BrowserLab account (a highly recommended tool) and find that all browsers look great other than IE6 & IE7. So my solution was to query ‘css ie only’ and find a great article by Chris Coyier @ CSS Tricks called How To Create an IE-Only Stylesheet.

So I decided to focus on IE7 and below since IE8 was working just fine, using the following code;

<!—[if lt IE 8]>
<link rel=”stylesheet” type=”text/css” href=”style_ie.css” mce_href=”style_ie.css” />
<![endif]—>

All seemed to work fine at first until I looked at other pages such as ../about/ where the issue remained? So I tried the following without luck;

<!—[if lt IE 8]>
<link rel=”stylesheet” type=”text/css” href=”../style_ie.css” mce_href=”style_ie.css” />
<![endif]—>

I even tried the actual url of the IE stylesheet but it still doesn’t work.

Does anyone have experience with doing CSS for IE only and have a solution for this please?

Whether these would compete in the top 5 in the UK I don’t know, but I’m sure they wouldn’t be far off.

5. Ben Nevis

At 4,409ft Ben Nevis is the UKs largest tallest mountain (picture by Martin Third)

4. Aonach Eagach

Not the tallest of mountains in the Scottish Highlands at 3,173ft but Aonach Eagach is definitely an impressive one (picture by Straubo)

3. Stac Pollaidh

Smaller still at 2,008ft Stac Pollaidh just looks great from both a distance and upclose (picture by David C Walker)

2. Sgurr nan Gillean

Found in the Northern section of the Cullin range, Isle of Skye, at 3,162ft (picture by Nick Landells)

1. Buachaille Etive Mòr

This has definitely got to be my favourite mountain in Scotland. At 3,352ft it’s a pretty big mountain and it just looks stunning. It can be seen as you travel towards Glen Coe (picture by Billy Currie)

How many friends have you got that have asked you, what’s the point in Twitter?

If, like me you use it for the sake of voicing your opinion and just general online interaction then it’s quite a difficult question to answer. But if, as a company you use it properly, it can become an extremely powerful tool for driving free traffic to your site.

My personal gains from Twitter are my followers. I was became extremely excited when I got my hundredth follower. I lost interest (like many) for a few months, just like my blog, I didn’t have much to say that was of interest so I left it alone. Now, I’ve got my blogging hands back and becoming far more active on both Twitter & Tumblr.

How many people do you follow?

Currently, I follow 173 people on Twitter but truth is that I don’t take much notice of the majority (no offence). When I first started using Twitter, I followed people in the hope for a reciprocal follower or other times I’d follow just for the sake of it.

So out of the 173 people, how many do I keep a look out for each time I login? In order of the most recent, this is my list of people I keep my eye out for (out with work colleagues to stay on the safe side LOL);

• @Searchcowboys
• @Randfish
• @nickjfrost
• @simonpegg
• @gizmodo
• @htc
• @ChrisCathcart
• @aaronwall
• @eddieizzard
• @patrickaltoft
• @GoogleWebmaster
• @youtube
• @blogger
• @GoogleAtWork
• @dannysullivan
• @firefox
• @sengineland
• @Econsultancy
• @mashable
• @bing
• @facebook
• @yahoo
• @smashingmag
• @twitter
• @yoast
• @mattcutts
• @google
• @wordpress

That works out at just 16% of the people I follow, I actually intend to follow.

How many people do you actually follow?

Tumblroid Lite

So I’ve finally caved in and decided to try out Tumblroid Lite since there’s no sign of any Official Android App.

Whether I could use this to blog on the go I’m unsure? But that’s mainly due to the fact that my HTC Hero & Orange don’t seem to get along that well (anyone else get poor signal with this combination?).

Tumblroid Lite definitely looks the part with a nice simple UI. It does what it needs to do, however, I appear to be getting a bit of lag at times. A little frustrating when you press a key such as ‘p’ only to get the number ‘0’. It’s uncertain whether this is due to Tumblroid Lite or Android itself on my HTC Hero. If its the latter then like many others I hope HTC haven’t forgotten about us Hero users in terms of an update.

Back to Tumblroid Lite, if there’s one thing that I find irritating with many Android apps is when you are in landscape mode and using the tracker ball to get to the end of a msg after editing a previous paragraph/sentence. If you go too far which is often the case, you jump out of the text editor only to have to go back in to continue and having to attempt to get back to where you left off.

My overall impression of Tumblroid Lite is that it’s a decent app, just not sure whether its worth buying the full app. I’ve also had to cheat a little to allow the H1 tag due to the lack of functionality allowing you to edit source or add tags.

Can we have a source code mode please?

Just been on the BBC website having a read through World News to see what’s happening outside the UK.

I couldn’t help but notice a headline under the ‘ALSO IN THE NEWS’ section Visitors evacuated as Dubai’s shark aquarium cracks open! Now that’s a BIG story! So I clicked through to the article to read the headline;

Huge shark-filled aquarium in Dubai cracks open

It ends up that there was a water leak in a panel joint in the tank. Still a serious matter I know but the headlines blew it right out of proportion as engineers fixed it pretty quickly.

I’d expect such headlines from the likes of the Daily Star but not the BBC!?!?

My latest blog has not been around long enough to get any form of decent traffic or following (or is that due to the fact I’ve never got anything worthwhile to say!?!).

However, every so often I’ll notice on Google Analytics that yet another person out there has searched my name? Fair enough if my name was a little more popular but the fact that I had a newspaper contact me a few years ago to discuss my name due to the rarity. It’s safe to say that I am the only Adair Cameron in the UK and only one of two in the World (that I have found to date). Without going into detail about that second person, all I’ll say is that she (yes, she) lives in Australia and I am friends with her on Facebook purely due to the fact that she has the same name as me!

So who’s searching for me? The latest have been from Haydock & London of which I didn’t know where Haydock is and I know just a few people in London. Hmmm…

For the next person to search my name on Google, please feel free to leave your comments so I have some sort of idea.

Thanks