We are delighted to have the backing of BMW, and this strategic investment represents not just a huge vote of confidence in the business model, but also marks the culmination of five years of hard work and dedication to take the seed of an idea and turn it into a successful business.

With the support, advice and expertise that the BMW team can bring to the table, we have a global partner who can help us achieve our long term ambitions as we look to build on the successes achieved in the UK and expand into new territories.

We were also fortunate enough to involve Hugh Chappell in the investment round who has joined us as a director. Hugh has worked in the IT industry since 1976 and was honoured to work with Apple Computer in the UK from 1979 when the PC industry was in its infancy. He has sold two companies and currently has investments in a number of UK technology start-ups. Welcome to the team Hugh.

Alongside Hugh, we have also hired a new CTO. Rich Taylor is joining us from IPC media where he served as lead developer and will be heading up the technology side of the business. We’re really excited about these two new appointments and will hopefully announce some more appointments over the coming months.

Our mission with ParkatmyHouse is to become the leading online parking website in the world enabling home and business owners to benefit from their underutilised parking spaces and for drivers to be able to find a low cost and convenient parking space wherever they happen to be going.

This investment begins what is looking like a very exciting time for ParkatmyHouse and we look forward to sharing it with you.

For more information, please read our press release about this announcement.

I had realised for a while that Parkatmyhouse was in need of a fresh coat of paint and that although much of the functionality was in place, extending it and explaining what tools were available was proving rather more difficult. After easily spending a couple of years coding and developing Parkatmyhouse using a mixture of trial and error and guess work, I was able to build the first version of the website.

So much time was wasted due to a lack of pre-planning and something that is known as wireframing. I therefore felt extremely relieved to have come across Balsamiq Mockups.

The need for mockups

Let me first talk a bit on the benefits of doing mockups. I would compare this to writing an essay or building a house: you don’t simply start writing when you enter an exam hall or start buying the furniture before the floor plans and colour schemes have been decided.

To us, building a website or online product is the same.

Prototypes in Adobe Photoshop, Fireworks, etc. are good and provide a visually appealing graphic to share and comment on, but they tend to take a long time to create. What is required is a very simple way to drag and drop elements on to a page, work out what each input box, paragraph and label represents and how much screen real estate is available.

A product developer’s new best friend

Creating mock-ups is a new concept for the Parkatmyhouse team. Before this latest iteration of the website, most of the ideas were roughly sketched on a piece of paper and made available without much user interface testing.

Then, thanks to a recommendation from some friends on Twitter we learned about Balsamiq mockups. We decided to have a look at it, due to the attractive user interface, design, quirky typeface and the sheer number of positive reviews across the blogosphere and social networks. Along with the drag and drop interface that is required for quick wire-framing, it also seemed to have a growing community of users supported by great customer support.

Using the tool

As well as providing an online version of Mockups, there is also a downloadable version which runs on top of Adobe Air. I have only used the Adobe Air app, so forgive me if anything I describe is not found in the online version.

Mockups provides a vast array of UI elements to choose from. Everything from the standard form elements, image and text layouts, icons, maps and iPhone assets are all available to use with plenty of options and attributes that are customisable. There are far too many to list here but you’d be hard pushed to find an element that they are missing.

The most impressive element has to be the table/grid system that Peldi and the team have added. Want to add a checkbox to a table? No problem, simply type in [x] and the checkbox will have a tick in it. Have multi-line cells, or want certain elements to be in bold or italicised. Again, they have a solution for this.

One thing that I feel should be more prominent both inside the application and also on their website is the availability of a community website called MockupsToGo. “A user-contributed collection of ready-to-use UI components and design patterns built using Balsamiq Mockups.”

Conclusion

There are plenty of online and desktop applications on the market to help you with your mock-ups and wire-frames but you’d be hard pushed to find a more affordable and feature rich application. Balsamiq has saved us days worth of designing and has really helped in pushing forward with many of our new features and enhancements.

“The Smarta 100 is a collection of the most exciting, promising and disruptive new businesses in Britain, and the 2010 list has just been announced today.”

Parkatmyhouse has been named as one of the 100, as selected by judges Deborah Meaden, of Dragons’ Den, Bebo co-founder Michael Birch, Smarta CEO Shaa Waasmund, plumbing magnate Charlie Mullins, and Coffee Republic co-founder Sahar Hasemi.

You can access a full list of the winners and some additional background information by visiting the Smarta Top 100 website.

Also a big congratulations to all the other 99 companies!

While we prepare to show off some of the new features we have been busy building over the past few months, I wanted to reassure you all that we are still promoting Parkatmyhouse both online and offline (including a great article in the Daily Telegraph’s travel section yesterday.)

More information to follow soon… I promise!

For the past three years I have been promoting ParkatmyHouse.com rather than just ParkatmyHouse for the simple reason that we didn’t actually own the parkatmyhouse.co.uk domain. Someone had registered it just a month before I thought of the name and I was under the naive impression that I could offer a token amount to acquire the domain in the future.

Unfortunately, without any contact information being available through the normal channels (whois, etc.) and Sedo not being a lot of help, I had no way of making an offer for the domain. I should have approached Nominet to contact the owner on my behalf, however I had no idea that they had a free mediation service.

After three years, I finally got in touch with the owner of the domain and was able to purchase it from him for a fair price without any hassle. Thanks John!

For anyone reading this post that has any kind of SEO knowledge, it is well documented that there are significant benefits to owning the .co.uk domain name if you are targeting the UK population. It is just one of the thousands of variables Google takes in to account when determining search engine positions along with back link quality, page content and anchor text being other key components.

The next few months (or weeks, depending on how quickly Google and the other search engines crawl the website) will shine some light on the SEO benefit of having the correct country specific top level domain extension. Thanks to third party tools at my disposal, I am able to track even the smallest of changes in our search ranking positions. I will post a table of changes in about a month on this blog.

Currently we rank very highly for the majority of our key search terms but there is always room for improvement and we know how important that number one position is. Our parking space owners rely on us to send them drivers on a regular basis and the difference between position 1 and position 3 could double some of our parking space owner’s income.

Apart from putting in all the relevant 301 redirects between the domains in place, checking with Google that there wouldn’t be a duplicate content penalty by having the same content on different domains (www.parkatmyhouse.co.uk/about-us/ and www.parkatmyhouse.com/about-us/), there is still always an element of risk involved.

Google Webmaster Tools has really helped in easing my worries as it allows website owners to target countries by domain or sub-domain. However, as always with SEO techniques, it is a wait and see (and maybe pray) process.

Will we drop in our search engine rankings? Maybe, but if this does happen, I expect them to bounce back quickly and hopefully increase our search rankings over the long term.

So… all that is left is to start asking webmasters and site owners to change our back links to our new structure and making sure that we serve the right domain and content to the appropriate users. Thank goodness for Maxmind and their Geo IP service.

Now.. what to do about our logo… the .com makes part of the wheel.

“This was my first experience of ParkAtMyHouse, and it was a very good, very easy one. The owner of the land was available, friendly and helpful – AND I got prayed for. Excellent! Thanks” – Parked near Kings Cross

Definitely one of the benefits of parking in a church car park!

“really excellent, would def book again if i’m up that way. VERY helpful! told us quickest way to get to stadium and let us use toilet before and after the concert.” - Parked near Wembley Stadium

This is a great example of how adding some additional facilities and advice can make the difference between a happy customer who would go out of their way to leave positive feedback over another who may not be willing to take the time to leave a comment.

Last month we decided that a standard positive, neutral, negative feedback policy was not providing enough information to prospective drivers about the parking location they were enquiring about. We felt that this information was hard to understand for new visitors and none of this data was available while conducting a search for parking

To overcome this issue, we have changed the old, tired feedback system to a brand spanking new `star rating` system that allows drivers to leave constructive comments and specific ratings for the service they have received. In addition, each parking space owner’s feedback ratings are clearly displayed during the search and booking process with the total number of reviews they have received.

Currently drivers can rate the parking space by:

• value for money
• convenience
• communication
• accuracy of parking space description

In addition, parking space owners have the ability to rate the driver on whether they:

• arrived and left on time
• parked correctly in the space
• paid promptly

We have already received great feedback about this improved functionality but please let us know your thoughts within the comments.

What has this got to do with parking you may ask…?

Well, today ParkatmyHouse.com became the first UK online marketplace (not just parking) to implement street view to enhance our existing service. Not only do we provide you with an availability calendar, pricing information and a secure payment environment to name a few of our features, but we also now let parking space owners show exactly where a driver is going to be parking.

We hope this will remove any doubt on possible size restrictions and the suitability of the area you will be leaving your vehicle. It may also help you find exactly where a parking space is located.

Adding `street view` to your parking space could not be easier. Simply log in to your account and edit your parking space. Under the address tab, you will be able to choose the exact view of your parking space you wish potential parkers to see.

This is a completely `opt-in` service, so anyone with any privacy concerns will simply not have street view functionality available for their parking space listing.

Currently `street view` is available in 12 UK cities and a number of other cities around the world. If it is not currently available in your area, please be patient while the little Google cars work their way around the country.

An example of this implementation is now live around Kings Cross and we expect it to be available in more areas shortly.

Today saw the re-launch of Her Majesty’s Website and myself along with just under 100 others were invited to attend a reception at Buckingham Palace to honour this occasion.

What to ask?

After receiving the invitation back in early January I had been trying to think about what I might actually say to the Queen if I got the chance to talk to her. “Ever thought of renting those parking spaces in the forecourt Ma’am?”, was one of the more popular suggestions. It is certainly a prime location for hedge fund managers, tourists and even visiting Presidents! I am confident that she could earn at least £10,000 per parking spot per year and as you can see from the photo… there is plenty of space to go around.

Preparation

After spending far too much money on a new suit, shirt, tie, shoes and belt and trying a number of different combinations of each, I set out this morning to the palace, constantly checking that I had my invitation stored in a secure pocket. The only dilemma left was to decide on whether to take the tube and walk through the front gates of the palace, or to drive and park inside (I was given a permit!).

Although it would have made a better story if I had driven and parked within the palace walls, London traffic always seems to work against me so I didn’t want to take any risks.

After reading on the tube about Spain’s demolition of the English football team the night before, I proceeded through Green Park towards Buckingham Palace. It was a glorious day without a cloud in the sky and therefore the Victoria memorial was mobbed by tourists and there was a lovely atmosphere about the place. I was 20 minutes early so I decided to take a few photos, enjoy the fresh air and of course send a few tweets on Twitter.

Entering the Palace

On entering through the front gates, I realised that I had walked in to a sea of unknown faces. However I eventually saw a friendly face in Spencer Kelly from BBC Click and went about starting a conversation with him. It is rather strange feeling that you know someone when you have only met through a TV screen.

Once we handed in our coats, (funnily enough, a much more organised system than your average nightclub), we proceeded to the `gallery room` where we were offered nibbles, champagne, orange juice and the opportunity to walk around and enjoy our surroundings.

Mingling with the Crowd

Shortly after, we were joined by a representative from Number 10 (the guy who twitters for Downing Street!) and also Martin Lewis from MoneySavingExpert.

At about 1pm, there was a sudden silence as the doors opened leading in to the blue room (original name). Rather strangely, standing right there in front of me was Her Majesty the Queen dressed in an immaculate light green outfit. Spencer had told me earlier that as soon as she says “that’s interesting” to you, it is supposedly code for “you are boring me”. I wasn’t sure whether to say something interesting or just shake and walk. Fortunately everybody was shaking and walking so the decision was made for me. We proceeded to walk in an orderly line and shake her hand while another gentleman read out our names. Needless to say, he pronounced my name wrong.

The Launch

After gathering in another beautifully decorated room and after the Queen had finished her shaking hands routine, she walked up to the front of the room in front of the TV screen where Sir Tim Berners Lee (the founder of the world wide web) was at the podium ready to introduce the new website.

After a short video presentation of the old site and a showcase on how children use the web now, compared to how they did back in 1997, he thrusted a remote control in the direction of a rather shocked Queen which triggered some sniggering from the audience. After a push of a button the site was officially launched and to be honest, she looked rather bemused by the whole thing (I found out later, that she has never used the internet herself but everyone else in the Royal Household relies upon it).

Some networking… with the Queen

Quail’s eggs, sausages, mini-pasties and some rather tasty smoked salmon tartlets were moving around the room while I continued my conversation with Martin, Spencer, Ian (from Number 10) and we were soon joined by Rory Cellan-Jones. We had started a little discussion about online privacy and the pros and cons of the openness of the web when were told by a member of the Royal Household that the Queen would soon be coming over to talk to us.

After panning out in to a semi-circle, the five of us found ourselves standing in front of probably the most famous person on the planet (maybe Obama has now overtaken her). After she recognised Spencer and Rory from the TV we started talking about her use of the web, how the web has evolved and how people are starting to use the internet at such a young age. She made great conversation and even laughed at and made a few jokes.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get the chance to ask her about her parking situation or that of the Royal Carriage but I did cheekily pass on my business card to a member of her staff. I’ll let you know if I hear anything.

After an interesting conversation with Professor Dame Wendy Hall(another pioneer of the world wide web) and chatting with a few other people I proceeded down the grand staircase to get my coat and make the slow walk back to the front gates.

We were not allowed cameras so I have no photos from inside the Palace, just this one from my phone of me walking back towards the front gates.

Overall, it was a truly memorable few hours and one I would love to experience again. It was a great honour to be invited and I hope that in time, ParkatmyHouse.com will benefit from some of the connections made at the event.

Thank you your Majesty.

A very quick post to announce the introduction of a very useful feature which will reduce the amount of searching you need to do for a parking space.

Embedded in to our parking space search bar is a little calendar icon which when pressed will display two calendars. Simply choose the desired start date of your booking and the end date (if applicable) and we will only show you spaces that are available.

We expect to have more news and feature announcements over the next couple of weeks.

Following on from the re-launch of our Facebook Application, we have added some more tools to enable you to promote your space on and offline a little easier.

In addition to the `Share on Facebook` button that has appeared on all parking space listings for a while, we have just added `E-mail to a friend` that will allow you to share a parking space listing you have found or are looking to promote. Alternatively you can simply copy a link to the parking space page and paste it in your website, blog or any of the online forums you currently use.

We have also revamped our `Promote Us` section and have added a few new features including the ability to add the ParkatmyHouse.com Search Engine directly on to your website or blog.

Visit www.parkatmyhouse.com/promote/ for further details.

If you can think of any other tools you would like to see please let us know.

Your Busy ParkatmyHouse.com Team