Scribbleit is a UK based web design and hosting company. Scribbleit develops applications for clients and also develops its own web applications and ecommerce sites. PassYourTheory, MakingYourOwnCandles and PassYourCitizenship are all Scribbleit developments.

Fixed price development

Scribbleit is currently developing a product that will allow small business owners and others to have a fully designed site built using WordPress technology and hosted on our space with built-in webmastering services for a fixed development price of £399 followed by a low cost monthly hosting fee. This product is being tested with a number of clients at present before launch. If you’d like to find out how to be part of this beta test phase email me now at kevin.partner@scribbleit.co.uk  to qualify for a £100 discount on the development fee.

Founder Kevin Partner has been a Contributing Editor of PC Pro Magazine since 1996 and is also the author of How to set up an online business, a complete guide to planning, building and marketing a profitable web business idea: it even includes methods of ensuring that your idea will make money. Order it from Amazon.

Follow Kevin on Twitter at kevpartner for all the latest technology and internet marketing news, and some undisguised grumpiness.

We use BigCommerce, by far and away the best online ecommerce solution we’ve found.

Current Scribbleit Projects include:

• a publishing project with PCPro Magazine
• a 360 degree appraisal survey on behalf of a management consultancy including a highly graphical report delivered as a costomised PDF to each respondent
• an online desktop publishing application for consumer use written in Flex/Flash and PHP
• an ecommerce business selling Candle Making Kits to the public

Our latest commercial venture www.MakingYourOwnCandles.co.uk has launched in time for Christmas. This site/business was created as part of a project for PCPro (or which more in due course) and offers easy-to-use but professional quality candle making kits that anyone can use to create coloured and scented 15-hour candles.

The site was created using WordPress and is linked to a shop created using EKMPowershop’s ecommerce structure. It’ll run until Christmas, at which point we’ll evaluate whether to run it as an ongoing business.

Somewhat off-topic, I’ll admit, but I’ve worked with Automotive clients for years helping to teach them how to sell properly so perhaps I’m well placed to help you get the right deal for you. Having just bought a used Toyota Verso, here are my practical observations:

Choose your car before you go to the dealer

Car sales executives will want to sell you the car that best suits them, whilst (more or less) meeting your requirements. This might be a car that’s been on the forecourt for a while or one that the sales executive has been incentivised to sell for whatever reason.

Use the internet and personal recommendations to select your car. Check out What Car and pay particular attention to the user reviews (whilst bearing in mind that reviewers are self-selecting: either gloriously happy or, more likely, bloody angry!).

Once you’ve generated a short-list based on your requirements, find possible cars using each manufacturer’s used stock service (usually found from their main web page). Most services include the ability to select a maximum distance you’re willing to drive to find a car. From this, you will have an idea of whether you can afford your preferred cars: if more than one remains from your list, go and test drive them in order of preference.

Make sure you know roughly what the car you’re buying is worth

Go to Parkers and use the free valuation service to see how much you should expect to pay for the car. You shouldn’t expect to pay any more than this unless the  car has done fewer miles or is in exceptional condition.

Know the value of your part exchange

You can get a valuation via Glass’s Guide. Currently, Vauxhall are giving away free valuations. Be honest about the condition of your vehicle: it’s likely to be in “average” condition (that’s what “average” means, after all). Don’t tell the sales executive that you have this information: it could be useful in the negotiation process.

Go to a main dealer

If you possibly can, I suggest going to a dealer that specialises in the car type you are looking to buy. You will then get a manufacturer authorised health-check, a one-year warranty (usually, sometimes longer) plus membership of the driver’s club. You can also feel a little more confident that you’re not buying a lemon since these dealers have more of a reputation to protect.

Test until you’re happy

You can test drive as many cars as you like: it’s a lot of money and you must be happy with it.

Ask for a price for the deal

Make sure the Sales Executive gives you figures for both the part exchange and the car you’re buying. It’s essential that you get a complete breakdown and the sales exec might resist giving this to you because they don’t want to argue the toss about each figure

Mull it over

Don’t let them convince you to sign on the dotted line that moment (unless you’ve driven a long way to get there and are completely happy with the deal). Think it over, make sure that you’re happy with the figures and if not, come back with a counter-offer the following day. Do this by email if you possibly can because it limits their ability to use their patter to confuse the issue. It also gives you a paper trail

If they try to convince you to buy today, simply keep repeating “I need to think it over tonight, I’ll come back to you tomorrow” as there’s really no answer to that.

First, negotiate on the price of the car you’re buying and then, when you’re happy with it, negotiate the part ex price IF they have undervalued it (as they did in my case). Tell them you’ve checked on Glass’s (which is the service they use themselves).

Don’t buy any add-ons

Dealers make LOTS of money from Add-Ons which means they’re unlikely to be good value for you. If you think you’ll benefit from GAP insurance then buy it separately online as it’s MUCH cheaper done that way. If, on reflection, you want any particular add-on, you can always go back.

Pay by debit card

Dealers will charge you around 3% to pay by credit card and banks will charge for drafts so the most economical way to pay is by debit card if you possibly can.

So, my main advice is to be well informed, confident and upfront but to examine carefully every single statement the sales executive makes. They simply can’t help coming out with white (or not so white) lies such as “my boss insists I ask you” or “ok, although we said we wouldn’t budge on price, we haven’t had to give any other discounts today so maybe we can”  or “the FSA says we must offer you GAP insurance” (all of which I heard this week). This is mainly fluff which is part of their persona as sales people: if it’s important to you, get it written down.

Safebuy, the online accreditation scheme for web traders, is currently down. Type www.safebuy.org.uk into your browser and you’ll get “No web site is configured at this address”. No warning. Charming: so my potential customers who click on the logo will see that message and assume I’m taking the mickey when the whole point of the scheme (for which I pay a yearly subscription) is to reassure them.

Posted via email from Kevin’s posterous

I’m finding Posterous an excellent blogging tool: it allows me to post to all my blogs and my Twitter feed with a single email. I’ve now discovered that I can even ensure the entry goes to the right category in my blog by simply “tagging” the email. In this case: ((tag: marketing)) in the subject of the email sends it to my marketing category. Very cool.

Posted via email from Kevin’s posterous

Just signing up for a new yahoo mail account. Am being asked for the name of a relative as a security question. Problem is, they require four characters or more and the person concerned has a three character name! Genius.

Posted via email from Kevin’s posterous

Just completed Ch36 of book on starting a web business. Subject: autoresponders. Would you believe how hard it is to find a good autoresponder sequence covering autoresponders?

Posted via email from Kevin’s posterous

Just heard on radio: “a propensity for people we think of who are involved in gang culture to lower their age of entry” = “Gang members are younger now”

Posted via email from Kevin’s posterous

Talk about trying to bolt the door after the horse has bolted. The news that the Sun etc are going to charge for access to their websites from next year had me nearly falling off my chair with laughter. It’s the stupidest idea I’ve heard in a long time and has precisely zero chance of success. All that will happen is that people will find the same news elsewhere for free and the Sun’s advertising income will fall through the floor.

Got this email today from Moneywise magazine:

Your opinion is vital to us as our aim for the website is to ensure that you have all the information you need presented in the right way for you.

They want me to complete a survey, spending my own time and helping them to make more money. The word “vital” appears, as does the word “valuable” later.

And what’s in it for me? Apparently, I’ll then get all the information I need “presented in the right way for you”. When what they actually mean is I’ll be presented with information that, based on all the responses to the survey, the average customer will respond best to in terms of renewing their subscription.

Here’s the bottom line. If you want people to respond to a survey, give them something tangible even if it’s just an entry into a prize draw. Otherwise, the natural response is to think “what’s in it for me?” and to delete the email.