I have been reading the IOD magazines in my Christmas break and they have got an interesting article on e-commerce. They claim that you have got seven seconds to capture and interest your visitor. With so much content online these days the old maxim that content, content, content would guarantee a number of visitors is yesterdays news. Why?
First it takes time to produce quality content, not only do you have to be well informed you also need an opinion. Even if you have these two aspects it may not be enough. Writing content is an art as Sherrilynne over at Strive Pr can explain. Is it cheap to produce quality content? Hell no, even the most established bloggers such as Dosh Dosh require an indeterminate amount of time to write and check there content before it goes on there website. Other bloggers or companies employ other people do it for them. Which ultimately costs money instead of time.
Is Content King? Nope. A few months ago I looked at setting up a debt recovery business. In my research I was staggered to find so much quality content already on the net . I could have written till I was blue in the face with original content. I do not think that that my debt recovery website would have got on to the golden first page of google results for debt as a search word. As Chris Barling, in the IOD article also CEO of e-commerce software company Actinic, explains: “People try to trick Google, but it’s very good at finding relevant sites.
So what to do? Owen and I have been talking too about this problem recently and we do believe there is a solution. It does not lay in the content that you produce. Although original content is beneficial. It is no longer about one certain area but the concept as a whole. You can now buy a very respectable website for £1000 pounds. Unless it is geared to engage your market in all honesty you are better spending the money on hosting a wine and cheese evening for your potential customers . The only problem with that is, in a time poor world you are severely limiting your market and my 7 seconds was up long ago.
Why join a Group?
To share an interest, discover more about something? There are hundreds of groups from writers to sport fans all blogging on the internet. There are groups within groups such as Face book, and than for example the David Bowie group page. There you have a public and private group. You could just join David Bowie website group instead of the facebook group. Interesting!
What can you add to a group?
What do you expect from a group?
What groups are worth pursuing? Is there communication within the group? Do they achieve anything?
How can you tell?
First know what you want from the group and than start by asking questions.
A recent advertising campaign by Manx Telecom claims that you get 3000 text messages free or 6000 text messages free depending on which account you sign up to.
Or do you?
Apparently not according to the text below from their website.
Free texts only apply when purchasing top-ups online or via 154. Free texts only apply when sending to other Manx Telecom mobiles. When available, they will be used first at anytime. If no free texts are available in an account normal text messaging charges will apply. Free texts cannot be used whilst roaming, normal roaming charges apply.
If you are going to give something than give it.
If not that do not say it is free.
Why?
Because you will build up expectation and than cause disappointment.
Ultimately damaging your business.
There is a very interesting, well written post over at http://link4business.info which deals with some of the practicalities of setting up a company.
Questions like: Must all companies have a secretary? Are answered.
Here is an excerpt.
“Yes and No. From 6th April 2008 private companies will not need to have a company secretary but public limited companies still will. Furthermore companies registered before 6th April 2008 will have to change their Articles of Association at an Extraordinary General Meeting of the shareholders to remove the requirement to have a company secretary.
It should be noted that although a director of a company can also be the secretary that only applies if there are more than one director. A sole director cannot also be the secretary.”
I recommend taking a look at the site for more information about forming a company.
It is the wierdest message in business I have seen posted on the internet. First Mr Reese goes on about how he has arrived at the decision.
“After careful consideration, we have decided to shutdown the BlogRush service. If you have the widget code on your blog you will need to remove it.”
Then he talks about how he has received offers but none of them held enough integrity for the users. It is admirable but puzzeling.
“We have received several offers & inquiries about acquiring BlogRush, but we are choosing not to go that route. While many might think this is crazy, we truly feel it’s the ‘right’ thing to do for our users. Believe it or not, it’s not always about the money. In fact, BlogRush will have lost a small fortune when it’s all said and done, and it was by choice. There were many things we could have done to monetize the service but we wanted to make sure it was going to benefit our users first.”
What do you make of it?
“Last but not least I want to say that I hope the failure of this service doesn’t in any way discourage other entrepreneurs from coming up with crazy ideas at 4AM (like I did with this one) and from “going for it” to just try and see if something will work. Without trying there can be no success. And as we all know, ideas are worthless without action. The Web wouldn’t be what it is today without entrepreneurs trying all sorts of crazy ideas.”
You can read the whole thing here: http://www.blogrush.com
The first thing in setting up an office or moving to another place for business is letting people know that you there. You can do this by a number of means. Registering at the Chamber of Commerce, sending out information, attending networking events.
There are also some more interesting and innovative ways. Like writing a blog post about the area and mentioning the names of businesses that appeal to you. Of course in my case Lancaster is really well known for it’s Universtiy where some 15,000 sudents come to study. There are a lot of networking groups and clubs. Most of the clubs tend to use tools provided by Facebook for organising events.
So a little about Lancaster courtsey of Wikipedia. “Lancaster is a city in Lancashire, England. Situated on the River Lune, it has a total resident population of 45,952, and together with a number of other towns, forms part of the wider City of Lancaster local government district, with a population of 133,914.
Long existing as a commercial, cultural and educational centre, Lancaster is the traditional county townof Lancashire, to which it gives its name. Lancaster has several unique ties to the British monarchy; the House of Lancaster was a branch of the English royal family, whilst the Duchy of Lancaster holds large estates on behalf of Queen Elizabeth, who herself is also the Duke of Lancaster.”
Some companies that caught my eye that are based here include, Backbone Solutions McCulloch Accountants Lancaster, Choices Employment Services, Mount Recruitment Ltd, Intec, Gillows. Ubertechs.
