The first thing you will want to do is download the UK locale files and upload via FTP. You will then want to check that you have configured the options in the configuration section of the admin console, to reflect the options you need. From the backend, head over to System / Configuration, you will then want to check the General (General, Currency Options), Sales (VAT, delivery and sales), Admin (System) these pages contain most of the UK based options you will want to set.

There are two options that I activate during site development, the first is Translate inline, this enables you to edit text directly on the frontend of your website. This is activated via: System / Configuration / Developer / then select enable next to Translate for Frontend under the Translate inline option. You can even edit text for the bakend too, simply enable the Translate for Backend option.

The second thing I enable, this is not specific to locale editing by the way, it will however speed up development, especially if you are relatively new to Magento, and that is Template Path Hints, this option can be found by first selecting a site to edit under System / Configuration, then heading over to Developer, under Debug you will see Template Path Hints, set this to Yes. You will notice now be able to see the files that generate each element of your magento site.

Lastly, during development, ensure that you disable Magento’s cache, otherwise you won’t see some of the changes you make, you can enable it again (and should), prior to launch. To disable cache: System / Cache Management, then Select All, then from the Actions drop down menu, select Disable. You will now have no problems seeing changes made.

These are tips that I usually implement when building a UK Magento site, you may also find the following extensions useful:

• Royal Mail Domestic and International Shipping extension
• Sage Pay extension

Feel free to share your own tips and extensions.

After pressure from the European commission, Microsoft has agreed to proactively offer the user of one of browser twelve browsers. These options will become available to those that update via the Microsoft Windows update system from today (Monday, 1st March 2010).

Here is a list of the browsers that the user will be able to select from:

• Avant
• Chrome
• Firefox
• Flock
• Green Browser
• Internet Explorer
• K-meleon
• Maxthon
• Opera
• Safari
• Sleipnir
• Slim

My recommendation, as it has been for some time, would be Firefox. Now we just need to find out how we can automatically update all IE6 users.

The important thing to note is that ads will only be displayed when searching, not all the time, so a search for bike for example, might show a Halfords ad.

Each ad will honor the 140 characters or less format and will be available to 3rd party services as an option to show.

There has been much talk on the subject of profitability with Twitter, it is clearly a viable marketing tool for individuals and businesses, why not for the company themselves? I suppose an unobtrusive ad based system would be a good solution.

Posting details of blog entries on your twitter feed may be something that you are currently manually doing, lets save some time by automating the process.

Here’s how to do it:

Thing’s to note

The first sentence or two from the Blog are posted to Twitter, with this in mind, try and give the user a reason to click through.

Twitterfeed comes with a handy dashboard, once you’ve setup, started publishing and had Twitterfeed do it’s magic, login to Twitterfeed from time to time and check statistics available in the dashboard.

Update: 10th February 2010 - The app has been updated today, you are now able to view channels using the 3G, not just Wi-Fi.

The channels available are:

• Sky Sports 1
• Sky Sports 2
• Sky Sports 3
• Xtra
• Sky Sports News
• ESPN
• At The Races
• Sky News

Sky have teamed up with O2 to offer UK customers a 3 month free trial. The trial is limited to the first 150,000 customers or until 2 February 2010. To get your free trial, text SKY to 2020.

All you do is navigate to their iPhone version of the site and they you have, 28 or so UK channels to watch on your iPhone, including:

• BBC 1, 2, 3 and 4
• ITV 1, 2, 3 and 4
• E4, E4+1
• FIVE, FIVER
• FILM4
• Men and Motors

It worked great for me on 3G, not bad considering the BBC iPlayer site for the iPhone doesn’t allow playback on anything less than WI-FI. Anyway, hope this site sticks around, if only to make the commute into London more enjoyable.

Make sure your email program is not checking for emails every 5 minutes

If it is, you will find it hard to find any momentum with your work, you will constantly be reacting as oppose to completing the task in hand. Instead, try increase it to an hour or so.

Schedule a set time and day for social networking

If social networking is a part of online marketing strategy, make sure that you schedule a day and time for posting and responding. Knowing how to get the most out of Twitter is an art in itself, one that is beyond the scope of the post, rest assured though, it needn’t be a full time time job.

Get away from the screen

It may sound strange, being a web design company and all, but we are finding that our most productive and creative time is spent away from the screen. During the design process, we go for a walk in the park, or perhaps into town, observe colours, architecture, posters, nature, they all contribute to getting the creative juices going. When we work on reports, briefs, proposals etc. it all starts out on paper.

Limit the number of programs you have open

Flicking between applications can be distracting, just open the ones you need to get the job done. We use a nice little application for the Mac called Isolater, what this does is black everything out on the screen, except that application you are currently working on.

In short, make sure you are not constantly reacting to situations, at the expense of getting your to do list done.

One of the first things I would recommend after you have setup your Google Analytics account is to make sure that you exclude your company’s network (IP address) from the statistics. Doing so will ensure that your statistics are ‘true’, and not manipulated by internal staff visiting the site from day to day.

Here’s how to do it:

Step Four

Enter name for your filter , then select Predefined filter, using the following settings:

Exclude / traffic from IP addresses / that are equal to:

…and then enter your own or your companies IP address, then click Save Changes.

If you do not know your IP address, contact your network administrator or ISP. Some ISP’s may assign a dynamic IP, ask them if you can have a static IP address.

Now you should have a true reflection of how the site is doing within Google Analytics.

Don’t have a Google Analytics account?

Not a problem, you can register for one here for free. You will need to place some code on your website, let me know if you need any help with this.