One of the things that customers tell us they like about Silkmoth is the direct access to our developers and technical staff. Customers love the fact that they don't have to explain anything to first line support, they always speak to someone who knows exactly what they're talking about.

So it's important to us that all of our development staff are comfortable talking directly to our customers. With this in mind we decided to let our developers do this year's Silkmoth Day presentations. To say they were a bit nervous about the prospect is an understatement! However, they all rose to the occassion and collectively pulled it off yesterday.

We covered the following topics:

• eMail Marketing - Denise
• Search Engine Optimisation - Mike
• Pay-Per-Click Advertising - Christopher
• Social Media and Networking - Martin

We've been through the comment sheets and it would seem everyone who came felt the day was worthwhile. Here's a selection of comments:

Excellent event - Richard Thomas, Midland HR

All the subjects covered were useful and relevant to our business, however social media was particularly interesting as it's an increasingly popular communication tool and we need to consider its use and potential benefits for our business - Karen Welden, National Tyres and Autocare

Well pitched, worth attending - John Embrey, Betterware

Info direct from expert technicians rather than sales gimmick opportunists - Colin Dean, Linder Myers

One of Silkmoth's charity customers, ChildHope, have been chosen by the BBC for their Lifeline Appeal. As a small charity this provides Child Hope with a unique opportunity to raise awareness of and support for our work with some of the world's most exploited and abused children.

Tune in on Sunday 15th November, from 4.30pm on BBC One to find out how ChildHope's work in Bangladesh is positively changing the lives of these children. With our help they can make a real difference to the lives of even more children around the world.

Please tell all your family and friends to watch... with our help they can protect many more vulnerable children around the world to make positive and lasting changes to their lives.

We've just pitched for a major new project with an existing customer. It was a competitive pitch and they asked us some really good questions.

I expect this will turn into a bit of a series, because there's lots of things you could (and perhaps should) ask any potential web developer.

The client is a recruitment company and I suppose they know the best questions to test interviewees to the limit.

Anyway, one of the clever questions was "tell us something that we don't know about but that could have a major benefit to our business in 2010". What a great question!

So what did we tell them? Well, we told them about Hitwise and Twibes and a way to use Google Alerts to identify new business opportunities.

We suggested Hitwise because the market intelligence it would offer them about their market sector would help them to better understand their competitors and how well they are performing on the web. 

Twibes because we hope to be working with them to develop their social media strategy and this type of site will be invaluable in that process.

The key point is that, whatever your plans are on the web, push you web developer to contribute more to your success than just a nice design. A good web developer should be bringing experience from lots of companies to bear on your business.

One of the things our customers always ask of us is that we push them to use the Internet more and better.

I hope that our answers to the recruitment client will help us win the next stage of their business.

PS. They loved the designs as well!