My business journey begins...

If your like me, you want to discover new music before the radio!. So what are the options?. I usually go on Youtube and search for new songs, say for instance "Kings Of Leon", but what usually happens is the videos get taken down by the record company, which is fair enough, but if they do manage to stay on they are usually bad quality and there is no video just rubbish still pictures to accompany the music.

Spotify is an awesome idea, as itunes is the market leader, its difficult to find the need to register your details to sign up for another website. Lets face it, if you are a member of youtube for watching videos and facebook for social networking then your probably a member of itunes. If your not a member of itunes go for this, spotify is going to be just as strong as facebook and youtube in the future.

On the business front I'm looking to negotiate with Spotify to offer design work in 2010 to help "asittingduck" find its world stage and boost Spotify's presence on the internet.

Watch this space.

Thanks

David

www.asittingduck.com

With the internet becoming so competitive, more and more high street shops closing down, and more and more online shops opening, its clear to see that you have to build a strong brand to survive. At "a sitting duck" we have the scope to design lots of styles as it has a collaborative nature.

I've also been working on an animation which Im going to launch on the youtube channel soon - asittingducktv. Its about the UK's biggest radio station, radio one.

Thanks

David

www.asittingduck.com

I'm currently working on an animation for my new character : Tune Chunky Monkey. There's a tune that Zane Lowe on Radio One plays in the background when he talks and its awesome!.

I've searched youtube and google and have had no luck in finding it to download. If anyone knows the track name let me know on the comments...

Thanks

www.asittingduck.com

A Sitting Duck is based in Cardiff Wales. Its offers design work and website design for small business's. It also is an online gallery and shop for undiscovered illustrators.

www.asittingduck.com

A Sitting Duck is working with the local government to place a 5 day exhibition in Cardiff City Centre. It will be held in the Capital Shopping Centre on the first week of August 2009. It will showcase over 10 pieces of illustration art and offer a range of prints for sale from top designers from all over the world.

Its going to be a cool show and a chance to see the illustration stuff in the real world as well as online.

www.asittingduck.com

A Sitting Duck welcomes Simon Corry and the world of mylaststar. Simon Corry is a graphic designer based in falmouth, uk.
Simon works as a freelance graphic designer for several web design companies and also runs his own design studio 'anphie' based in falmouth, that caters exclusively for those who require; quality, affordable web design.
Illustration however is Simon's greatest passion and the website exists to display Simon's illustrative creations and character design.
Simon is looking forward to be part of "a sitting duck's" future projects.

For more details check out : www.asittingduck.com

Thanks

A Sitting Duck DotCom will be looking into printing on Acrylic in 2010, the glass effect is awesome and is set to phase out canvas prints very quickly. Its perfect for a modern home or a new flat. I've had a look through the websites on page one of google. Theres some awesome Japanese Manga stuff, so I'm thinking some great digital art designs would look awesome on glass.

www.asittingduck.com is looking to invest money into a brand new printing machine that has the ability to print on all kinds of materials, at the moment the main material is high quality paper which is always a popular choice to mount and frame.

Stay locked in through asittingducktv - Youtube.

Thanks

www.asittingduck.com

I've been working really hard on increasing my website traffic, at the end of the day, sales is a numbers game, so if you can get 1,000 people looking at your website a week then at least 50 of those people will have cash in their bank account and be willing to spend it. Its the snowball effect that website traffic has as well, if someone looks at your website and they like the look of it, chances are they will tell a friend or family member and pass on what they have discovered on the net. The best situation is when someone is surfing the net in work. When I worked in a sales office in Cardiff I spent hours surfing the internet inbetween calls and when I found something funny or interesting I'd post it to my mate the other side of the office then he would send it on and so forth, you never know, it could have been me that started some of the youtube videos that now have millions of views to their name. So the trick is to have a clean good looking website and to choose some links to big websites for people to keep in touch. I use Facebook and Youtube, Facebook is good for building up group members and to show people quickly what your recent work is. Youtube can be amazing for publicity but its not as easy to get popular as it was in 2000. I only launched the facebook and youtube links a few months ago so it will take time to build up contacts on there. Facebook has the capacity to have 5,000 friends and youtube is unlimited friends I think. Its easier to make friends on facebook with the people you may know feature. Youtube can take a bit of time as its only the big channels that log in every day, some channels have not been used for over a year. Just check before you add someone as a friend when they last logged in, if its less than a month ago you should become friends pretty quick. So Facebook and Youtube help people keep in touch, the biggest way to get website traffic is to be top on google. One way to do this is to blog!. As if you blog about the subject of your website like I sell illustration art prints and t-shirts, then the more you chuck these key words into your blog the more chance your website will climb the google mountain!. If you have a dotcom that can make things easier as people remember dotcoms, also dont have dots or slashes in your address - keep it simple - www.asittingduck.com

I got lucky and managed to get a term well used in media, films and songs. There is a band called cage the elephant and their new song on radio one says "a sitting duck" which I thought could be good for my traffic!. The song is called back against the wall, it would be awesome if they called it a sitting duck!.

So thats what Im going to stick to, youtube facebook and this blog. With more and more emails coming into the business inbox its good to see that people appreciate a good looking website thats got a bit of character!.

You've been reading a sitting duck!

Thanks

www.asittingduck.com

Cardiff has always been the Capital of Wales, but now its becoming one of the top cities in Europe for nights out!. There are many chain night clubs in Cardiff which alot of people are tired of, they are now becoming training binge drink places for teenagers!. Once you hit your twenties you look for something with more culture than a fight on Greyfriars road.

This is why cool one off night clubs are popping up in the side streets, one of which is called 10 feet tall, and there is now a night that is kicking off "Stoosh", great name and is starting to attract people to drive down from Bristol and even London. Annie Mac from radio one has dj'd on Stoosh night and is attracting big opportunities for new stars.

With Tv becoming dead and the internet getting bigger and stronger every day, its still important to not forget the radio. Radio will always be powerful as its in every vehicle in the world and it gets us away from the screen!.

Anyway with the new cool clubs popping up, there is one guy they are all willing to pay cash to have mixing the tunes and thats Chesus. He is big on myspace with over 20,000 page views and has a collection of fans on facebook. Hes happy to don the egg t on the big nights and that should boost the sales for a sitting duck!.

Thanks

www.asittingduck.com

Kidrobot is the number 1 designer toy retailer which dominates the internet with its cool t-shirt designs, range of prints and urban toys for your work desk!.

You can see Kidrobot in London up until 21st February 2009 in the wonder room at Selfridges. I'm going next week to check out the top toy designs and t-shirts. The Uk's biggest name in the world of cool art at the moment is a guy from Nottingham called Jon Burgerman. Not a name thats easy to forget and his artwork is really interesting, he invents characters and places them in a picture which connects up with a line.

With illustration art and street design there are no boundarys, for instance in the art world people would not buy your painting if say another person finished it off!. With this new culture there can be a team working on a toy, t-shirt or print design and what will happen is they tag it with a name eg "a sitting duck". This builds a brand and people like to collect the t-shirt range etc.

I'm off to check out the 2009 work, ready for "a sitting duck" to start designing a vinyl toy ready to hit the shelves world-wide in 2010.

Also I had good news this week!, "a sitting duck's" 1st t-shirt design the "Egg T" is now being sold in 2 other online stores!, the same price as my store so dont worry!, and Spreadshirt.net have approved my design for the market place so that anyone can search egg t on designs and upload it onto to anything!: bag, badge, t-shirt etc. So if your looking for a new t-shirt or print stop by www.asittingduck.com

Thanks!.

David.

With 3D becoming so popular and Adobe products becoming easier and easier to use. Its not surprising that illustrators are looking for new and exciting ways of producing artwork.

Illustrator CS is a new package by Adobe which will take design and artwork to a new level. Sure people will still want 2D for playrooms and kitchen pictures.

If you are an illustrator, chill out!. Adobe has produced a package that has the old school drawer in mind. In the 80's 3D packages were intense!, in the 90's they were still more for the mathematician than the artist, but now they are designed for anyone!.

Once you upgrade, it will take about 3 months to start getting to grips with the features, but google is packed with blogs and videos with different topics.

Best advice, give it a go!.

Thanks

www.asittingduck.com

With the internet becoming full of adverts, pop-ups and product placement on videos, people are learning to switch off that side of the brain so they can do what they have to do as quick as they can. Be it sending an email, writing their blog, applying for a new job or getting in touch with their friends family or potential future partner.

This is why it is getting more difficult for business's to think of new ways of getting in touch, in the 90's cold calling was huge where companies would set up small offices in the back streets of city centres getting students and people with no qualifications to go through phone directories one by one calling people to see if they wanted to buy a kitchen or a mobile phone contract.

This form of sale has almost gone now, with people wise to credit card fraud and better deals on the internet. So what are business's supposed to do?. Cold calling is dead, internet adverts are losing their appeal to people fast and the business still needs to get people's attention to buy their service or goods.

Maybe its worth going back to the days in the 80's where flyers ruled the city centres, get a team of girls in their early twenties to wear bomber jackets with your logo on them to distribute 10,000 flyers in London?. It doesnt cost that much, £100 for the flyer design, £300 for 10,000 flyers at the printers and £50 each for the 5 chosen Uni students.

Does it still work?. How many of the 10,000 flyers will make it back to peoples houses?, then how many will go next to the laptop?, and how many will manage to find themselves being copied into google?.

With todays technology you can track how successful your promotions are by checking the website traffic stats, I use 101 pound website.com which is good for this purpose.

If you would like a flyer designed fill in the contact page on www.asittingduck.com

If your business needs a website then asittingduck recommends you fill out a quote with www.101poundwebsite.com ref. a sitting duck for the best quote in the uk on small business websites.

Thanks

www.asittingduck.com

2 years ago I met up with a mate of mine in the summer. I said I've just got back from Spain, he said "what was the hotel like?". I said I'll email you a photo if you like. He said, instead of that join Facebook, you can add all the people you know, past and present and upload cool photos like nights out, holidays and days off work.

I thought it was a cool idea, a year later Facebook brought out a "People you may know feature", thats when the whole networking scene went nuts!. Now you can have up to 5,000 friends and they are all linked in some way or another.

I started an online business in August 2008, by October 2008 I could see the potential in having 5,000 contacts all over the world that have an interest in art and design. Think of the snowball effect if someone likes the work you upload.

I then found out about groups, in November 2008 I set up a group called : a sitting duck. The group gains about 100 new members a month, not as quick as I thought, but its not just business's that start groups, nearly everyone that has a facebook account has there own group. The most popular group Im a member of is called: "Remember when you had to blow on a nintendo cartridge to make it work". This group has over 100,000 members, and the reason for that is its funny and its not trying to sell you anything.

Some groups once you join, they send a message to all members everyday. All that makes people do is leave the group. Other business's like night clubs in the UK create events every day, "open mike night", "open 7pm till 3am". There are some night clubs in Cardiff that set up 3 events a day and message everyone thats in the group or they are friends with. Yes we know your a night club, we know you sell drinks, yes theres music, and your usually open every night of the week, and all the night clubs are in the city centre so they are not hard to find.

They are not events any more, they are just free rubbish adverts. Its more of an event if I make porridge for breakfast!.

Thanks,

www.asittingduck.com

No events!, just a group, a youtube channel and this blog, thats enough!.

"asittingduck" will be launching a Vinyl Toy in August 2009. With a few major toy companies in the pipeline, we have been receiving alot of publicity through Facebook and Youtube, the plan is to finish a collection of 5 illustrations, design the character which will be printed on t-shirts and A3 prints, then with digital processing the character will be shown as a 3D object so that the toy manufacturers have a good idea on how to make the mould and produce the toys.

Its an exciting project that has been in progress since 2008. Stay in touch through asittingducktv on youtube or a sitting duck the facebook group. The team in South Wales are due to start the digital processing in March 09 and full pictures will be launched on the website in April 2009.

Thanks for reading and don't forget to check the website out as the egg t-shirts are getting very popular in the hip-hop industry.

Thanks

Good Night!.

www.asittingduck.com

With the current economy being so tough to make money in, its important that business's show what there service or product is very clear and make it appeal to the customer. In the 80's and 90's business's could get sales by using key words like "limited edition" or "limited time". These days people are wise to the sales tricks and will buy a product if they are recommended by a person they trust or they get inspired by an advert or packaging. This is where "asittingduck" kicks in, we have the tools to make sure your business is looking clean, sharp and presentable on the world wide web. It looks like by 2010 most people will buy items off the net, 25% increase last xmas shows that people find it hassle free, as long as you are happy to wait up to 7 days for a product you can buy almost anything from the comfort of your home, no car parks, traffic, queues or stress. With that in mind if you are a business that sells products or a service, its worth thinking about a new poster design, logo design, website facelift, new product packaging design or new signage. Stop by at the website, t-shirts and prints sell really well off the website and if you get in touch by filling in the easy contact page (no annoying outlook box!) and you to could have a cool crisp business thats fit for 2010.

www.asittingduck.com

There are new websites being launched every second of the day. The best websites are the ones that have been online for over 1 year, but they are usually not the best looking websites and alot of them are not updated with fresh information and products. If you are looking to launch your own website to become the next dotcom millionaire, consider a quote from a professional, it takes about one minute to fill in the form, no obligation, they will get back to you with a price, and I bet its lower than you expected!. I launched www.asittingduck.com in August 2008, the first 4 months were really slow, now I have sales 24 hours a day, t-shirt sales, illustration and digital art print sales. With the success of the website I also offer design work which people are really happy with and that also is having a snow ball effect. Check out : http://www.asittingduck.com
Buying a t-shirt or print is really easy, and if you are interested in buying a website fill in the contact page with your needs.

Hope this helps in this tough economy. To survive we need to evolve, the way forward is cool, crisp, easy to use websites, so that people can buy stuff easily and get a service that they want.

www.asittingduck.com

Thanks.