Will Roberts,17.

Finding a balance

Finding a balance between school, work and the rest of my life is hard, very hard and I get it wrong all the time. For me, the main problem is ‘switching off’, I simply can’t do it which can be the best thing in the world and keeps me driven to work in to the early hours of the morning but for a majority of the time it means I miss out on spending ‘proper’ time with the people who mean the most to me -friends and family.

I want to succeed in life. I know I have some great opportunities that I wil regret not making the most of in years to come if I don’t give it my all now but at what cost? So far, this has been quite a depressing post but, to be honest, the purpose is to see who else feels in a similar situation?

One day, I will find a balance but in the meantime it looks like sticking to my minimum sleep policy to try and fit everything I want to do in my life!

Surely I’m not the only one who feels like this? How do you deal with it?

Hackathon London

If you at all interested in coding, development or even the business/marketing side of an overnight startup then Hackathon London is worth going to.

It’s tempting to go in to a sales pitch about why you should go but in all honesty, there is no point because if you are interested then you would have already been ‘sold’ by now and if you’re not then you are unlikely to ever be converted! All the details are on the site that I have linked to above (I like the site, it has moving things) and if you do have any questions then get in contact with the team behind it as shown on the site or even ask me, I may be able to help!

One last thing, scroll down to the bottom of the page and stop when you see the 6 pictures - that’s the office I work in which I’ve got to say is pretty cool so go along and see the random shed we have or the paddling pool or even ‘Meeting Room 5’ a.k.a. the bean bag room.

I’m going to be at this event so if you do go, let me know via twitter so that I make sure I say hi!

BBC films london bridge

A BBC crew were in the office today so thought I would link to the blog post about it. That is all.

Effect of social on SEO

I find it very hard to believe that ‘social’ has no SEO value what so ever but an argument saying that the links are ‘nofollow’ and therefore google has no way of even seeing them has been put in front of me. Personally, I say, rubbish. Of course social has an impact, especially now with Google +. BUT, I’m relatively new to the game and want to know what people think; is there any evidence that proves or disproves the effect?

The main reason I ask is because on a current project, one of the competitors pages seems to be weaker than ours on all typical metrics, except on social where they have significantly more tweets and shares. Could this be the reason they are above us? Or at least a contributing factor?

I would be interested to know people’s thoughts!

Problem with Klout

Klout, for those who don’t know, is a (free) service that scores your influence on a social media platforms based on ‘true reach’, ‘amplification’ and ‘network influence’. My score is 48/100 which is okay I guess especially considering I only really use twitter now; but back to the point…

Why use Klout?

If you are an individual then Klout means that you can qualify for ‘perks’ if your overall score and influential topics match what the companies offering perks are looking for. An example is that I got a £50 AirBnB voucher recently which I will be using, the hope from AirBnB is that I will write about how amazing it was and suggest you all do it as well. Good targeted marketing in my opinion - we all know that peer recomendations are far more effective than ‘traditional’ advertising.

If you are a company, the purpose of Klout is to see how effective your social media strategy is. One slight problem (hence the title) and that is this… the goal posts keep moving. What company is going to invest in using the guidelines and framework of a system that is not stable? None and rightly so.

At this point, I would like to credit to Ben Nunney who I met at Tomorrows Web who suggested the above and confirmed that it wasn’t just me who was thinking it.

What are your thoughts on Klout?

My first guest blog about economics

Today, my first guest post about economics has been published! It is only a short post that didn’t take me too long to put together but hopefully it will be of interest. The main theme is vouchers for meals out and the economics behind that, in my opinion at least. I don’t claim to be a great economist, I don’t even claim to be any good at economics, never mind qualified to write a post about it but I hope it someone, somewhere will like it! It will take you less than 1 minute to read (that is the purpose of this 60 seconds economics blog) so go on, give it a go and if you like it feel free to share the page with as many people as you physically can - and this one, please, for me?

I would like to thank Ayath Ullah for accepting and publishing the post.

Snow... (and food)

For many of us across the country we have woken up to snow lining our rooftops. Snow on Sunday is a perfect opportunity to be a kid again, go out and enjoy it while it lasts and put everything on hold for a day. We all laugh at the media panic and hype, get our gloves on and throw balls of grit, ice and snow at each other (with no malicious intent against our siblings, honest!).

Who fancies cooking a Sunday roast today? Seriously? Go out, enjoy and then treat yourselves to a meal out. I dare ya! If you want any restaurant vouchers to make that meal even cheaper then take a look at the link; might as well use them if you can!

I hope you all have a great day and in a parent-like fashion, stay safe!

Tomorrows Web

Today I attended Tomorrows Web in London and it was a superb event with a lot of respect and appreciation for the organisers, speakers, sponsors and those who had traveled for many hours to get there!

The event took place at GHSpace next to Angel station and over 100 people with a range of ages, backgrounds, interests and purposes were there! This mixture made the event what it was and there was a networking frenzy, successful for many, that left everyone walking down the narrow stairs with a smile on their faces at 4:30pm.

Oh, except me. I had lost my train ticket and had to purchase another one (without my railcard discount because I was buying the ticket from a tube station). But you know what, it was worth it, it really was. If you weren’t there, why not? They mentioned doing another one in March/April (I’ll update the blog as and when dates are confirmed) but get along because it is a unique setup that could move your business a long way - even if you haven’t started yet.

There was pizza. A lot of pizza. Tickets for this event cost £5 yet there was at least double that available for everyone with the amount of food and drink, forgetting everythink else!

This is just a quick overview, I will be posting a lot more reaction to the meetup in the next week or so where I can do full justice to the elements that made TWmeetup what it was. If you want an idea of reaction, #twmeetup on twitter was the official hashtag and was well used!

RBS Bonus

This time last week the King of Vouchers, Mark Pearson, was driving around London…in a tank. The message was clear and the banner on the side of the tank said it all: ‘Didn’t get an RBS bonus? Use MyVoucherCodes.co.uk’. 

Stephen Hester clearly saw the tank protest and subsequently turned down the £1m bonus! What I would like to know is what do you think? Should he have turned down the bonus or not? Did he deserve the payout because of what he done for RBS? Would it have been a ridiculous way to spend tax payers money? I could go on…

Let me know what you think using this survey. 

For more information on the Mark Pearson stunt, check out this What’s Hot blog.

60 Second Economist

There is a blog that makes economics interesting. Yes, interesting and even funny at times. The 60 Second Economist does exactly what it says in the title; gives you bitesize economic scenarios and explanations that are relevant to our lives and include everything from Queues to Christmas decorations.

The man behind it all, Ayath Ullah, even answers questions submitted by members of the public - so go on, I dare you, test him!