i keep learning about more and more advantages and features with Chrome, with privacy, for example; now if only they would take care of the browser’s fickle cookie management…
How can you improve your presence online by doodling about noodles? Or was that noodling about doodles? I’m burning my noodle by trying to figure out this doodle…
Any way love it – It’s a doodalicious conundrum of a noodle-doodle-idea!
Keep it coming!
Keizer.
I once created oodles of doodles with noodles then painted them and it looked really cool, i then attempted to eat the noodles as they looked oodaliciouse and my tongue turned blues…. Sorry what is the question again?
I think doodles are an amazing insight to how and what people are thinking…. as well as how one expresses ones self…
Doodles Interpretation:
Triangles, squares , geometrical shapes: geometrical shapes may indicate that the person has got a rational and logical way of thinking, this person may also be a good planner. Drawing a triangle sometimes signifies the internal desire of going up or advancing in your career or social life.
Arrows, ladders Arrows and ladders may indicate that the person is ambitious, obsessed about some goals and looking forward to some achievements.
Doodling Good Looking Faces: Good looking faces may indicate that the person is social, people loving and optimistic.
Doodling Funny faces: Funny faces may indicate that the person is having a good sense of humour
Doodling Ugly Faces ugly faces may indicate that the person is not a social person, lacking self confidence, sceptic, bad tempered or aggressive.
Doodling Stars: Stars may indicate optimism and hopefulness.
Doodling Houses: May indicate that the person is missing his home, wanting a family, or is wanting to settle.
Doodling Flowers and plants May indicate that the person is sensitive, warm and kind
Doodling hearts : Means that the person is suffering from socio-anti-complex-bio-disorder , well, just kidding Smiling simply he is in love or in need of a relation Smiling
Doodling 3D shapes: Indicates the ability to see the full picture and all aspects of an issue or at least the desire to do so
Doodling underlined names: underlining a name with one or two lines may indicate that this person is important (whose name is underlined)
Doodling Food: May indicate real hunger or emotional hunger
Doodling AnimalsMay Indicate love for animals or sensitivity
Doodling cars, plans, trains:may indicate a desire for travelling ,freedom or the need for a holiday
Doodling Weapons guns, pistols and swords may indicate competitiveness and presence of a warrior spirit
Here is a we page i found were you can find out all about doodles, its really very interesting! https://drawsketch.about.com/cs/tipsandideas/a/doodle.htm
Hope you all have a supa dupa noodle doodle day
Monique 🙂
Hey Guys… I’ve just posted on my personal blog about not needing email! Clearly there is enough going on in the world of online to make us all think / re-think communication… In response to your suggested benefits (based on my blog post https://danwtmoon.posterous.com/why-do-we-need-email-im-for-noemail) I counter with the following:
“Sending step by step instructions so the recipient can sit in their own time and try out the tasks”
Instructions and / or task managed are more effectively handled through tools such as Remember The Milk or PM solutions such as Box.net, Basecamp, Huddle etc
“If you want to send a confirmation that something has been done and include a link.”
As per above; plus with the tools suggested, Dashboards and / or RSS become far more powerful at demonstrating progress which feeds back in to the relevant community
“Email is good for accepting an invitation or confirming attendance to an event or a meeting, so the recipient can keep track.”
Email is by design not a calendaring tool – leveraging tools such as Facebook / LinkedIn / Twitter event applications, where your community already exist gives greater functionality and organisation to managing events / meetings.
“Emails can be quicker as there is less small talk”
Even quicker than email is IM or real time comment fields as per Box.net, Huddle, Basecamp
“Emails are good for recapping a call with the points of action – to make things more official and avoid misunderstanding”
As per first point, email shouldn’t be a substitute for managing projects effectively with the right aforemetioned tools.
Just my two cents 🙂
I think it’s great in general that this kind of debate is starting to emerge in conjunction with that of the role of the workplace – we’re clearly heading for a tipping point of fully realising the environments where we can make a more productive impact to our social, personal and professional lives… Exciting times 🙂
Great information, I rarely use the postman these days except when I want to make an impact. Technology helps us communicate quickly and efficiently. Thanks for the tips.
Take care,
Jason
I am sure Amy will be greatly missed in the office, but I would like to thank you all for looking after my friend and for handing her back to me in sunny South Africa in one piece. I am sure you are as excited as I am to welcome Top Left Design to South Africa. I am positive that this could be the beginning to a whole new adventure for all of you. I hope you are all doing well. Hugs and kisses Mon 🙂
Thank you for sharing this very useful blog. I totally agree with everything. I have joined BNI a year ago, and I have never looked back. Thanks also for the tips, a very good reminder. I intend to make full use of it.
Hi there, you should also take into consideration that all links (including navigation structure) in the 404 template must have absolute paths. To illustrate this let’s visit this 404 destination for example: https://tld.topleftdesign.com/404/404
If you press on any of the navigation buttons, like Home, you’ll notice that it totally gets lost in the 404 labyrinth. Absolute paths would solve this problem.
Websites constantly need updating to keep up with constant changing times. This keeps your audience fresh and may inspire new customers to venture into looking at your website also. However the cost of this can be expensive if you want to create a whole new look for your website.
Luckily this is not necessary, more times than none your website can be given a fresh new look with just simple things such as changing some of your images or creating a little more detail and depth and detail.The tips given here are so simple and really effective. Keeping your blog up to date is definitely the easiest option and takes very little effort.
As much as many people love a little cheese, including myself, this is not a very good way of making your business look professional and could give the impression that your business and the way you deal with clients is not professional either. So changing your images to something sleek and modern could change the whole feel to your website and business.
I completely agree on the logo statement. This is the core of your business and should set the tone for every other design aspect in your business. So if this is not at its best, the rest of the company’s style will suffer. Finally the copy is another key factor in websites. This needs to contain all the information a customer needs to know yet still be interesting and friendly to read. Make them remember your company!
Good post. It’s always good to see when service industries see the value in good design and branding – just because people need you, doesn’t mean you don’t need to distinguish yourself and try and appeal to your potential customers.
Hi Keren! – hope you doing good. Am retail and hospitality director for above co. Am judging UK food awards on Tuesday with Jane, so just trawling the net for associated content and found you. Met Jane through another old networking mate from BRX – Caroline Hampstead – if you don’t know her, she’s a v good copy writer.
Go well and be well
Fiona
X
Great post i love the quality and emotive nature of the corporate identity logo, the choice of colour and typography. I think the website could be more sophisticated to match the high quality of the printed media.
Yes this movie looks great! I am a fan of all those stars and love the action movies!
I wish I was there at the Premiere, London with you guys – it sounds like it was a long good night!
I like your style, the fact that your site is a little bit different makes it so interesting, I get fed up of seeing same-old-same-old all of the time. I’ve just stumbled this page for you
Thanks for sharing these useful information! Hope that you will continue doing nice article like this. I will be one of your loyal reader if you maintain this kind of post!This is one of the best post I found so far. The contents are very good and very informative.I subscribed to your RSS feed by the way!Thanks, this is really cool!
I can completely agree with you here ( I came here via a friend who tweeted it BTW!) We run a successful property based blog and get loads of this spurious types of comment. Its very irritating. I now just delete and block them from further commenting. Unfortunately its one of the by products of having a successful blog in the first place. Gotta take the rough with the smooth I guess.
Im convinced there is a place in India somewhere with a call centre type set up where those employed target certain markets for blogs and type the same comment on every one they come to! I have one company that sets up email after email at google and puts the same comment on repeatedly. extremely irritating.
I also get loads of these. I was reading a bunch of strange comments received on my blog this morning. One simply said ‘Herp derp’!
Proof that using a good spam filter and ensuring you moderate comments before approving is a very good idea…
Great blog – I always thought these strange language comments were due to a person writing in their own language and using a converter to English.
It is also really difficult to work out who is actually giving valid info in a quite innocent manner eg ‘Don’t know whether you’d be interested in this Independent article: url xyz etc.’ and those who are flogging their own blog. (Flogging your blog (!) Hey, that’s quite good :D)
I thought of a new word for this! It’s like spamming, right? But not using email, using a blog. So … I was going to call it blamming. Brilliant, isn’t it? Then I did a search on google to see if anyone else had thought of it. I think splogging is a much better word now.
Anyway, this type of splogging is either automated, or is being processed by people in India on behalf of others, or is people using translators. It’s annoying but what is really reprehensible is people who should know better hijakcing blogs to promote their own stuff. That’s not joining in the conversation, it’s the modern, online equivalent of someone selling life insurance at a party (or a wedding, or a funeral…).
Two things you can do:
1. Set ‘Nofollow’ on your blog (ask any web designer how to do this) and that makes the spammer’s backlinks invisible to Google, and therefor useless for SEO purposes
2. Use a Comment Manager like Disqus to manage your blog comments. This allows for reporting spam and will block the user from yours and other blogger’s sites in future
Good Luck!
(ps both of the above can be implemented on WordPress)
The custom 404 error page is very important for the website to attract more users & increase the web traffic, so well done! nice post! Analysing 404 error log can help the website administrator to detect scans for holes or installed scripts
Love this post!
I am woman of lists, so it strikes a chord with me.
I also like that you advocate cake as a reward system. 🙂
…now I just need to perfect the not-getting-distracted bit and I’ll be fine!
tx
As a web designer myself I know only too well that websites look different depending on which browser you use. The main problem when developing websites is always the display on Internet Explorer, especially IE6. The sooner people experiment more with different browsers and step away from Internet Explorer the better!
My personal favourite browser to use is Firefox as this seems to be the least problematic when developing websites. This in turn means I get a weekend free from trying to solve IE6 issues.
Too much work and not enough time is an all too familiar story with a lot of people today. I lost count of the number of times I kept myself awake for days at uni with the aid of coffee due to the work load. I thought things would change when I began working for a web design company, however I still find myself working late to meet client deadlines.
The speed demon definitely sounds like a good idea with the head down, goals in mind and only stopping once it is complete. With the occasional toilet break of course.
Lists are by far the best way to work, if you can visually see what needs to be done you can tackle each task one by one and prioritise what needs to be done first. This also stops the tasks running round your head in panic adding more pressure.
So as long as you plan and organise first, deadlines should seem a lot more reachable with a great end result of treating yourself.
This vote is a great idea! I always wonder if anybody still uses Internet Explorer except my grand-father maybe… For web developpers it’s rather important to know which web browsers are commonly used. As for me, it’s Firefox, though Chrome and Opera are very good too!
These are great tips to anyone setting out with a new business on the internet for the first time. Marketing small businesses across the whole of the internet and not just a single website is key. With the competition increasing and the SEO techniques developing it can become very difficult to get yourself noticed on the internet.
Social networking is probably the easiest yet one of the most effective methods. It can be a little time consuming at first to set up your profiles but once its done its plane sailing. You can then also use these these to link to your website
Keren, this is great stuff. People forget that a company website is at its most basic a marketing tool. One piece in the armoury of any business. Absolutely critical to this is the UI, even before graphical side of the design is started on. That can only be done by understanding the target audience, getting into their heads and providing what it is they need for them to make a decision to buy, contact you, or whatever else it is you’re trying to get them to do. The first view they have of your site should tell them immediately if it’s a product or service for them or not. If yes, they’ll naturally read more, and if not, they’ll bounce. Bouncing someone isn’t a bad thing in this instance. They’ve had a good experience by virtue of the fact they have immediately been able to ascertain that they’re not looking for what it is you offer. Driving hits, like you say, is really just like firing a machine gun into the air and hoping some of the bullets come back down and hit the target you placed 50 miles away.
You offer some good reminders here, but I find it always helps if you start the conversation by asking the person: “how is the website working for you?”. Listen to them. Understand things from their perspective – it may change yours.
Aw, this was a really nice post. In thought I wish to put in writing like this additionally – taking time and actual effort to make a very good article… but what can I say… I procrastinate alot and by no means appear to get something done.
I actually play CDs often on the hifi and even played a vinyl record the other day. More often though I buy the CD then rip it to my mp3 player and PS3. I don’t like to download my.music as I still prefer to have the physical product.
Thanks for the comment Sharon! Yes, it seems that IF people are still using CD’s, it’s mainly for music, and a lot of people say they just use them because the car has a CD player! I own music CD’s, but keep them only for posterity, and never actually play them. Likewise I own a few vinyls, but they are framed! 🙂
How long until the generation of car’s with CD’s is phased out? I need to keep buying them, or I burn my downloaded purchases onto CD. Still, it’s not as bad as my house mate’s car. She only has a cassette player! Old school!
Thanks Annem 🙂
Maybe if I could drive I would also use CD’s more often 😉
For now it’s the tube and my iPod – but one day, when I eventually get a car, I hope there’s not a CD in sight! Love that she has a cassette player still!
I’m so glad you’re running these seminars and have already recommended them to a number of my clients.
Blogging is so important for todays small businesses, but so often we see it done badly – although it’s not THAT hard to get it right!
Anyone following your training will be putting out beautiful blog posts in no time!
tx
I was going to do this comment as a poem,
But those rhymes, I don’t really know-em.
So, I’ll have to make do,
With just a line or two,
And hope that I don’t simply throw-em!
Keren, I can heartily recommend both reading and writing poetry in addition to chasing rainbows and looking for unicorns as perfectly valid ways to while away a sunny afternoon. That is of course, if you don’t have blogs to write…
Your poem is delightful and I sincerely hope you win the contest.
I also love the underlying message. In the past I have thrown my arms around the neck of a unicorn, before checking out their credentials, to my detriment. So check out it’s pedigree, which mystical stable it comes from and then allow yourself to believe that magic can happen.
Thank you. You’ve really made me smile.
Great run-down Francesca.
I love cloud-based applications, although I don’t always want to be connected to the internet in order to use them.
However, tools like Dropbox work online AND offline, and I’m sure that’s only going to become more common (at least I hope so!).
tx
Wow!, this was a top quality post. In theory I’d like to write like this too – taking time and real effort to make a good article… but what can I say… I procrastinate a lot and never seem to get something done.
Keren, this is without a doubt one of the best value offers to all Oyster Club Members. After an admittedly slow start, my blog is about to go live thanks to your encouragement. But just commenting on other peoples blogs does amazing things for your on line profile. You explain it with such clarity. Every time you suggest something for me to do and I follow through, it brings results.
Lovely Pearls of Joy, this is a no brainer. Take advantage of this exceptional offer. Go and see Keren for an hour of pure genius, brought to you through the wonders of The Oyster Club.
Thanks Keren, as usual an invaluable post. I always make sure I read your posts as they are so helpful and informative.
Ros Astaire [WeightExpectations]
What you say makes absolute sense. I believe the two need to go hand in hand. I’m just writing my blog as we speak! It clearly is the way forward and a great way of keeping things fresh. Equally the website is a must for all the reasons you have mentioned. Very well put, thank you.
Thanks, Keren, for pointing out the advantages of blogs versus websites and making it clear that, really, it is important to have both. It’s great, though, when you are first starting up to know that a blog will be a good start, allowing you to share your latest news with your target audience, which reminds me, I really need to write mine….
Thanks for your clear explanation about the best uses for a blog and website. Something many business owners get confused about. Thanks for sharing, Keren, really useful.
Hi Keren,
As a very happy client of yours and having followed your recommendation, I’m really pleased I have a website with an inbuilt blog for all the reasons you’ve given. I feel I have a great online presence.
Thanks for your comments Tamsin and Karen- I think there will be some great developments in cloud apps in the coming months and years- cloud storage options seem to be developing weekly in their pricing and options- exciting times!
This is a great offer, Keren. I want to take it up!
Although I often advise others on their websites, I know that you can give me a completely different view with some top strategy & design pointers.
Book me in!
This is a great explanation of what works where.
I’ve worked with a number of clients who don’t set out the connection between their website and their blog in the right way to start with, and it always means they are losing out and sending a confusing message to their readers.
I especially like your point about having testimonials everywhere – it really works!
I absolutely agree, finding the right way of combining a website with a blog puts your site miles ahead of static, out dated websites. However, I’ve seen sites which have a blog section but don’t actually use them, many people don’t understand the benefits of blogging and how it can improve your ranking…but blogging is only of use to certain types of businesses and individuals. You should consider how you want your site to benefit customers and whether your able to continually update it, before committing to a blog.
The website looks stunning. Congratulations to Erika and to Tamlyn and all at Top Left Design. Amazing and consistent out put. I’m just putting the finishing touches to mine and now seeing Erika’s elegant site has made me so excited to see the final outcome of my own! The dream team at Top Left are wonderfully helpful and and informative. The inclusion of an afternoon of teaching blogging/and social media techniques in the website package should be a powerful incentive for anyone considering to seek their services. Erika I wish you all the very best, with a website that is now worthy of your fabulous talents.
What a beautiful, elegant site, represents Eirka’s brand and her image perfectly. It speaks of style, class and bespoke service. No wonder she has already gained new clients. Not only that, you have the essential marketing tool of the blog keeping her clients up to date with the latest news and events – and keeping her ratings up with the search engines.I’m envious – can’t wait to have my website revamped!
Hi Keren,
I attended Rachel’s Magic workshop in April and she is truly inspirational. Rachel has a unique approach to business: commercial, pragmatic yet personable, with a touch of Feng Shui. I really like the fact that after the Magic Workshop you can attend Rachel’s virtual mentoring sessions. Absolutely Magic!
Isabella
I went on a similar journey to Keren – firstly being inspired at the Women Unlimited Conference in March – and then taking the plunge and signing up to Rachel Elnaugh’s Magic Workshop and business support – and what a fantastic experience it was!
B.Hive was the perfect venue for the session – calm, inspiring, and very feminine! The workshop was really positive, and as Rachel suggested at the beginning the Mastermind effect soon took hold with us all making suggestions and trying to help our co-entrepreneurs to get the the nub of exactly what it is our businesses do.
I came away from the workshop immensely inspired and excited about the prospects for my business. I think the other women did too – we’re all planning to meet again in a couple of months to share more ideas and continue the journey!
Rachael Mills
SE2 Ltd (the environmental consultant!)
It sounds like the the workshop was amazing. I wish I could have been there. I feel I almost was because I know so many of the attendees and keep hearing about all the fantastic things you learnt that day! Thursday belonged to The Black Pearl Club and I was extremely proud to welcome Rachel as our special guest and speaker. I completely agree, she had the audience captivated. What a very special night!
Hi Keren
It was great to finally meet you at Rachel’s Magic Workshop day having been following each other on Twitter for some while.
So often as micro and small business owners we get so involved in our businesses we forget to work on our business. This day was a day for working ON! The energy in the room at B.Hive from the word go was papable. Lots of laughing and brain chatter. The day sizzled away so quickly but as I unfurl my large sheets of paper and read the notes I made I know I am moving forward and its exciting!
Can’t wait to see everyone again and in the meantime there is Twitter, FB, LinkedIn and blogs to keep us all up to speed with whats going on.
As much as I appreciate CDNs and cloud computing power and opportunities I have to say that recent Amazon downtime has shocked me so much that I would *never* in the future rely on any one cloud service. Be it hosting, SAAS or anything else.
It’s long established that backups are vital and it use to be normal for missiona critical content to be mirrored. Nowadays I would expect said content to be mirrored across clouds because, as we have learned from Amazon – no one thing is too big to FAIL.
I completely agree with everything you have said, it really is ideal to have both but when budgets are tight I’d definitely opt for a blog instead of just a website.
Great blog 🙂
You certainly do make a great team! Your skills dovetail perfectly. What I learnt from just one day with you both has enabled me to be very focused in my approach to how I use social media and very time efficient too!
Hi Keren!
Great to see your posts, and how you guide people online using real life examples, like these ones above…
Mystery Guitar Man is so funny, isn’t he?
Keep up the great work!
hi Dan – thanks for the comment – always lovely to have your support and to hear from you! Yes, I have listed MGM as one of my favourite brands actually – will be blogging more about him soon! XXX
I love seeing people putting a new spin on things, taking something and either making it better or taking it in a new direction. This was great. Thanks for sharing.
I love “Meet the Team” pages and you do them so very well! It’s great to click and get the different effects and amazing how many different ways you can do this. Brilliant work.
These are great. Shows how you can have an interesting about page that still looks professional and include some good additions – like including the linkedin profile links.
About pages can be a litle dull so it’s great to see you bringing them to life with some creative style, particularly for your professional clients. I especially like what you’ve done with the Petrus and Aprirose (have seen this in action – very nice!), oh, and the LinkedIn links, naturally!
Paul’s link – er, wow!
wow Keren – these are fab. I particularly like the Long Way Round look and feel. Love the way you’ve really taken on board the spirit of each company and incorporated it in the detail – not just the basic colours and fonts. Love it!
Good advice! I recently did an “audit” of all my social networking sites – including BNI – and uploaded the same profile details and image to each one. That way I’m sending a consistent message about who I am and what I do, wherever I (virtually) am. I even learned how to customise my Twitter page so it can reflect my branding. I’m getting there, slowly!
I really find ‘Meet the Team’ pages invaluable as it’s usually your first introduction to that person. Your examples are both professional and personable.
Great tips. I’d add one more – beware if their entire feed consists of Foursquare check-ins. Nothing spells “impersonal” like a barrage of app-generated location checkins. Not much conversation there!
Thanks for reminder us about Twitter ettiquette, Keren. I find it boring if people just send streams of links and never interact, or don’t respond when you comment on their post. Someone said Twitter is like a party – and if someone was so boring at a party you’d certainly go and talk to someone more interesting. I have a Twitter cull every few months to weed out people I don’t find engaging any more.
For a Twitter novice and someone who signed on only after the retweet button was introduced, what is the significance of an RT rather than just a direct retweet? And why is it important to use both RT and the automatic button?
And Karen, I completely agree. Extemely off putting. I challenge these tweeters to come up with thier own scintillating insight so we can all quote them.
Hey wait– wasn’t that seven things? : )
Also off-putting: an endless stream of personal @replies (to individuals) that are difficult to put in context. I also think a person’s Twitter wallpaper speaks to their credibility, at least to some extent.
Excellent post, thanks!
Agreed with most of this although with regards to linking back to your own site, it seems the majority of people use twitter for at least some degree of self promotion. There is no such thing as total altruism right? (Resisting urge to add my site link here)
Very good, Michael – especially that ‘enter site’ waiting lobby one. God, that has never made sense to me – if I didn’t want to enter your site why would I be on your page??
Oh how I laughed and sniggered (especially at the scrolling marquees) but then … OH NO I’m guilty of using Click Here links!
And It’s so obvious now that you’ve pointed it out! Thanks for this amusing but really useful article!
You’re so right about the first few weeks. It can be daunting for people just starting out to understand what’s going on. It’s also important to know that you don’t have to have a large number of followers to find value. Good followers are better than a lot of random followers that aren’t related to your market niche.
Great post Keren!
Another thing that I always encourage my clients to be cognizant about when deciding who to follow is the ration of followers, following and tweets. Broadcast accounts will typically have significantly more followers than the account is following. Someone who has a high number of fans and very few tweets has a high likelihood of being a spammer.
Hi
I was passed this link be a friend who knows I have been saying the same thing on my own site. A very well written piece Karen, you have said it much better than I have but we certainly agree – a good picture can make your website & company stand out, a bad one can have people clicking away in an instant.
Thankyou
Hi Keren
Great post, I couldn’t agree more. There is nothing more disappointing than seeing a great organisation misrepresent themselves with below average photography.
Great minds must think alike as we’ve posted a blog with a similar message this morning! A client came to us and for a variety of reasons couldn’t use professional photography for their subject matter, so we had to find another route! Our blog covers this in more detail…
Thank you for an interesting post,
Natalie
Great introductory tips, Karen! I think retweeting and replying to influencers in your industry is a great way to get noticed and get involved in the conversation (and share your knowledge/expertise!).
The design on the left is my favourite. In other words, from the top, white, orange, blue. I love the look of the book & can’t wait to see it fly up the charts! X
I couldn’t decide so I voted for 1 and 3!
Tamsin is a very valued client of mine and it was a pleasure to work with her on her company’s branding colours and seeing it applied across all her on and offline marketing and products.
Can’t wait to see which one cover is picked.
Really useful post, thank you Keren. My “don’t” would be moan – or whinge, or post only negative comments. There is enough negativity in the “real world” without seeing it spashed all over Twitter!
Sounds like an exciting talk. Wish I could be there. Is there any way you might be publishing a recording, or writing a future post on the points you outline above? x
I completely agree. Because my company runs live events, I always invite a guest photographer to capture the moment. This promotes the photographer, the speaker and all the guests because we put the pictures on the website, tag them on Facebook and sometimes even tweet them which people find fun!
First mistake, I was suspended for 48 hours for some illegal actions from me…if you asked me I will answer you I got no idea. They (twitter people) acused of wrongdoing. Time will tell, if I keep doing the same mistake over and over.They won’t say specifically the mistake, but they told me I am a bad boy.
Thanks Alyssa, I must say I spent a lot of time finding the perfect images so I’m glad you love the superhero boy! Nice to see you found my tips useful too.
Love the customised superhero boy on your site – Brill!
Great post Nichaela and I love your examples of photography, but my favourite part is the importance of learning how to make a good cup of tea – that was my starting point in agency life too!
Hi Nichaela,
Thanks for this blog. There is so much useful and interesting content in it it’s almost a mini workshop. What you have really made me think about is the important of paying attention to detail, being unique in the way you present yourself and your business and the necessity of getting out there and engaging with your clients and potential market. I always appreciate being encouraged to raise my game.
I’m so pleased you’re having fun playing Game of Like with me!
As you say, it’s less about the number of ‘likes’ you get from the others playing and more about meeting people, watching how others use Facebook for their business, and heaps of learning by doing – the best way!
Keren,
the biggest compliment that Keri and I could get is for Game players like you to blog about the Pre-Holiday Facebook: Game of Like!
Well done!
As a fellow ‘European’, it’s nice to see people from all over the world participate. I especially love the fact that most players, like you, have realized the value is not in the ‘likes’ or the ‘win’ but in the journey and the achievements.
Keri and I met during such a ‘like’ game and we dreamed of doing our own version. We wanted to do it bigger and better and we are so thrilled with the player participation!
We’ve had a blast.
I am glad to connect with you. Have we connected on Twitter yet?
Fondly,
Dorien.
You have been inspirational. I would love to hear more about what it was like for you 2 managing it together working constantly to keep up with the replies and scoring! Amazing!
Keren,
Nice post – great graphics!
It’s been a pleasure getting to know you through the Game Of Like. I hope we can continue once the game is technically complete.
Thank you for spreading the word, and giving a page on your blog to the event!!
~Keri
Nothing like a few points to spur me on! Thanks for the comments too! Nice to be meeting such lovely people overseas! We will definitely keep in touch!
Yes we will!
We’ve been impressed with your professionalism and quick response. And yes, it’s been a whirlwind of tallying and commenting, but so worth it! Thanks for getting in the Game of Like and also for getting some others involved.
Dorien.
OMG Keren – I love the cup cakes!!
I had my first cupcake (since they became trendy a few years ago) on Friday. It was scrummy. Those Halloween ones look a little more scary than scrummy… and the owls look too cute to eat.
Did you eat them already? xx
Brilliant post! I loved this edition of your newsletter – particularly the owls in the pumpkin suits and the monster cupcakes.
Wishing all the best for Tamlyn in the NY marathon. Go Tamlyn! 🙂
tx
This post really explains the game so simply – I’ve been thinking that it was too late to join in, but I was wrong! Wonder if I can get involved even on the last day?
tx
Good article.
A website should be captivating. But making it splashy doesnt serve the pupose.
Using flash & help videos, increase site loading time which your visitors dont want. Also, splash pages are kind of time waste (until your website is some designer brand like interiors, fashion, photography, etc), but still, people more often like getting to the point. Scrolling marquees, totally bad idea.
Nice post. Basics for any website development.
Wow, sounds like the most valuable 5.5 hours you can spend before Christmas! I’m not Googling and now I know I must, and I got that just from reading this blog! 🙂
There is no such thing as not having time for social media.
I know I don’t have time to do it WRONG, but doing it right is easy and quick when you know how.
I know this workshop is going to be as excellent as usual, and well worth attending for anyone that wants to save time with social.
Tx
Hi Keren – I love your points about learning what NOT to do, and what not to bother with. I think it is well worth turning up just to get clarity on these two points in themselves.
Sure to be a fantastic event!
xx
Thanks for your comment! We did look at the source code and we saw how it had been done.
So perhaps it is just clever marketing. Still, I wonder why lipsum.com allowed Jung von Matt to add this to their site – especially seen as it says “Do your layouts deserve better than Lorem Ipsum? Apply as an art director and team up with the best copywriters at Jung von Matt: https://www.jvm.com/en/”
Which in my opinion is saying – Lorem Ipsum isn’t very good, use us instead.
Seems a detrimental advertisement for lipsum.com to allow on their website. What do you think?
I see the code has been removed.
I thought it was removed too, but I do not think so.
We are talking about it, it is a sure sign that this is a good marketing ! And it will affect a lot of people too… But we cannot say if it is voluntary or not, I am not here to speculate, maybe they are related to each other, or maybe it is hacking (that would not be the first code injection in history, isn’t it ? ^^)
Why don’t you ask them ?
Just happened to me moments ago, so the code is still there. I agree with you, Amy, that this would not be good for lipsum.com. Seems strange and out of place to me.
Hey Keren,
I’ve been signed up to Pinterest for a good few months but haven’t really made the most of its capabilities, having only pinned a handful of [beautiful] images which have taken my fancy – I call my board ‘Desk & Office Envy’.
Your post is a fab reminder of how I should make more of it – if only as place to collate digital tear sheets of things that inspire me.
Alyssa.
p.s. happy to share invites too 🙂
This is the response that I got after I contacted the owner:
The site hasn’t been hi-jacked by the guys at JVM, the ad is deliberate, although it will only be there for another 6 hours or so. The site costs a fair amount to run, and the costs aren’t covered by the banner advertising alone. JVM approached me with the idea of putting a job advert into the cut-n-paste for a one week period, and offered to cover the running costs for 3 entire months. The site has been a free service for nearly a decade now, and it’s grown in that time to serving nearly 2 million unique visitors a month, and over 20 million pages a month, as a lot of those visitors use the site numerous times every month.
I love Pinterest, I’ve been sent a couple of invitations and it looks fabulous but being completely inept, I cannot seem to get the hang of it & I am desperate to do so!
I love all these videos! There are a couple I haven’t seen before and now love, the last two in particular; but the first one with the guitar is awesome! Thank you for posting this Keren, it’s so good to be well entertained!
This is a really informative post. I’ve had Pinterest on my radar for a while but not really explored it. Now I feel like I want to!
Please can I have one of those invites? I’ll pin your owls!
Tx
I had always thought that lorem ipsum was latin? Good to know the actual origins!
That is by the by though, the real item of interest here is on the ad. Caleb’s comment shows what was going on with the site, and I think that’s fair enough, but a whole week without users being able to get to their lorem ipsum text (which is why they were there in the first place) could be very detrimental to the site as users go elsewhere to find their placeholder text.
What would have been smarter is having the ad, and then some sort of ‘no thanks’ link with text like ‘Just give me my lorem ipsum, dammit!’, so site visitors can go straight there if they wanted to.
Thanks for finding out about that Caleb! That’s nice of JVM to have covered the running costs for 3 months – especially seen as the site is free.
I do however still think it was slightly annoying.
Tamsin, I later found out that it was the JVM advert and then a few blank lines down it had the usual lorem ipsum. I hadn’t realised that initially as I was pasting the text into a small text box in Photoshop and so I was only seeing the first few words. So at least you could get your normal lorem ipsum… after a few confused tries.
Even though it was a little inconvenient for the people trying to find their lorem ipsum text, it has raised interest in both companies, which is valuable marketing. Very clever.
You all looked very industrious in your stylish new offices. Great to be able to find cameras that are so small and yet functional. Thanks for the wave!
Hey Keren – great post.
Please could you invite me? Would love to join.
I loved your insights into making social networking worthwhile – creating and curating – snappy soundbite too!
Have you seen this? https://www.gratitudelog.com/
Its the twitter platform, but for people to post what they’re grateful for.
L X
Ha ha ha. I love it. But did you know that your screen shot of the video fooled me enough to triple click on it: I thought you’d embedded the video for us to watch 🙂
Nice post, good job Tina!
My name is Robin Morris of TrueArtistDesigns and Im definately interested in finding a home to showcase my work as a Visual Artist. Please invite. Thanks in Advance
That’s interesting to see the way a logo is born. However, there is a regrettable machist stain to this article. Why would you need to balance “feminine curves” with “seriousness” ? Saying it that way makes feminine things “unserious”, therefore only “masculine” things are “serious”. Words do matter where feminism is concerned, and that’s a pity a woman wrote that. How right was Sartre when he said “Half victim, half accomplice, like everyone else”.
Hello… I am starting as grafic artist and really would apreciate have a place to share stuff i like . Can u, please, send me and invitation for PINTEREST? Thanks !!
I love your owl board – and have seen some great fabric and knitting boards too… yes, I know, it’s becoming obsessive!
I’d love an invite too please…
thanks!
Hi Keren,
Thanks so much for this sweet Valentine’s gift, so glad Buffer is useful for you. And your picture is just the cutest thing ever!
Buffered that post for sure, twice! 🙂
Best,
Great to see you speaking and sharing your top tips and information with these lucky audiences. 🙂
I’m really looking forward to being on the same stage as you for WPE this week. It will be fun!
Very impressive Karen and hope that this is just the start of your global work. Just shows what amazing team work can produce in a short space of time. Credit to you and your team.
Of course, one of my favourite ever poems! I had never seen the disney version (or at least I don’t remember it) so thank you for that! Really great tips here; it’s so easy to get off track, and let things go, but planning ahead makes great sense. The offer of help with brainstorming topic ideas would be most welcome…over a delightful brunch, but definitely not Oysters!
Yes, we love that #hawkeye !
This idea that all your online marketing collatoral is your cape is a good one. Superman just wouldn’t be ready to save the world without his cape and a business isn’t ready to promote themselves without having all their marketing ducks in a row either.
Tx
Love it!
Its great that you find interesting things to talk about, woven into marketing know-how. Always a delight to read your posts Keren. And I always learn something new.
X
I love your analogy if being a super hero – there is something so fantastic about that thought that it makes it seem fun and easy!
Kids have no problem imagining what they might be and acting those parts. Somehow when we become adults, we can lose that ability to dream and pretend.
After reading this post I think I will “Act As If” – act as if I am a super hero and my business dreams are coming my way – I know by doing this I will feel more confident and happy…..
Thanks!
Great advice here – I love the planning aspect of your blog – creating a waiting lists of posts is a great way to do it instead of scrambling around the night before the post is due!
Great analogy Karen.
Getting my cape by having had my website and blog created by your team. Wearing my cape by getting my trusty Marketing Mentor Tamsin Fox-Davies helping me and now I am flying by doing more speaking engagements, press opportunities pouring in.
This really does work.
I love all your points about being a marketing superhero! Some I am doing while others are totally new to me and I will be implementing a few in coming weeks.
Thanks
Gutted I have seen this post too late and the event has passed. I’m very interested in marketing my business via social media. Will keep my eyes peeled for more events 🙂
A good collection here. It’s a really tough ask to do this sort of page justice. Do you go for pics? What style? Relaxed, formal? Black & white, colour? Portrait, full body? Transparent background? It takes a very good design eye and a good photograph to get the most out of this page. There’s also a good deal of skill in the copy writing. It’s very hard to do it well and easy to come off a bit cheesy. A nice collection!
I love a pun-based post, especially when it contains such sound advice too!
Definitely agree with all points including the one about Blogger. It’s harming your web-cred, so time to jump to WordPress!
Having received social media training from both Keren and Alicia, I know exactly how they feel – more able and capable. And what a gorgeous part of the world…
I’ve only just heard about this course. Will you be running another one in London soon, or do you have seminar notes? I’m about to get started on blogging my interiors/ gift store and could really do with tuition as I feel rather self conscious writing a blog even though I’ve got lots to say!
In truth what you have to realise is that this cookie law has been in place for the last 12-18 months, it’s not new. The issue about ‘tracking’ cookies is something that is meant to prevent unauthorised 3rd party cookies (advertising etc) ‘tracking’ you to other websites. It does NOT cover things like Google Analytics despite what the documentation suggests.
The actual cookie law is so ambiguous that no company can properly adhere to the ‘law’ without severely damaging or hindering their site(s). Look at the UK Government; their sites are not yet compliant.
My advice is to wait for further clarification before coding in explicit ‘opt-in’ policies for ALL cookies. Whilst it’s nice to be compliant, it’s also nice to be compliant to a workable ‘law’. Virtually every site falls foul of this law. They’d have to sue everyone, and who are ‘they’ exactly? This is the net neutral, country agnostic internet. Good luck.
This happened to me about 3 years ago when a company in India completely cloned a website of mine and replaced every reference to London with India. (not the site that you guys are doing for us!).
My site was called London PO Box and they were called Deli PO Box. The design, wording and everything was identical, except all links changed to their site. I only came across it when I Googled a keyword for my site and saw that they were ranking no 2 on page 1, as they failed to change all the Meta data (idiots!) which is where I usually am for that keyword. I clicked on it and couldn’t believe what I saw. I telephoned the company and, much to my surprise, got through to someone. I impersonated to be from my company’s Legal Department and it certainly scared them. It was down within 4 or 5 hours!.
Thanks for your support everyone! An update: We just got an email sent through by a supporter of ours – and I want to share it here, word for word – he sent this to KHI Web and a whole bunch of the clients they have listed on their site = and copied us in:
Here is his message:
——————————–
KHI web, before you delete this message – I have CC’d some of your clients* and cover company MakeWebsite.in so next time you have a meeting you can explain why you rip off other designs and sell them to your clients to rip them off? Bala as an artist understands originality, Mahakal Advertising should understand the importance of truth, Dr. Sejal Desai will understand honesty, and maybe Method Of Learning can teach you?
The website design KHI are using https://khiweb.com/ is not designed by KHI it’s copied without permission from https://tld.topleftdesign.com – have a look everybody!
N.B. This email was not sent by Top Left Design but I as a witness to this plight and blight.
Apologies for sticking my boot in, Keren but I can’t stand this blatant ripping off, it’s downright evil and destructive to the cherished industry of design around the globe.
Kire
Design with a conscience
Good on you Keren. Behaviour like this needs to be made public and shamed. Much more damage than just taking legal action. Keep tweeting and using Social Media.
In fact, why don’t you get in tiuch with local paper and submit article?
Good Luck,
Tina x
Hi Keren,
I had similar experiences when not one but TWO different homecare companies stole the copy I’d written for another provider. One of them has taken down the word-for-word copy and spun it. The situation unfortunately is made more complicated because the copy is now owned by my client, of course. Very aggravating nonetheless.
I wrote a blog post about it – more an amusing take on why people do this than a guide to sorting it out! https://nexus-copywriting.co.uk/blog/?p=470
THIS is why design does not cost £5… (or even£99)
Remember that, folks – the next time you decide to “crowdsource” your logo / branding / website design. You’re probably just paying talentless rip-off artists as seen above!
Hi Keren,
Great article, but horrible situation. We had something similiar with EX client who, even after polite requests, kept unpaid for photos on her website. I also went to her hosting company with an emotional letter. Nothing was done until I sent them a letter based on this DMCA template (link below). My goodness, site was taken down immediately and stayed down for a week while they got other photos sorted! https://labnol.blogspot.co.uk/2007/09/dmca-notice-of-copyright-infringement.html
This particular client only contacted me a couple of weeks later to ask if I could quote for another photo session for her – MADNESS!!
You’ve probably done this already, but couldn’t bear to sit back and not pass on lessons learnt.
Hope it helps and gets a response. It worked for me.
OMG! Cant believe the tumbler and RSS feed links still point to your site. Not only are they rip offs, they are lazy too. Seriously feel like tracking down EVERY SINGLE one of their clients and pointing out what kind of dishonest, immoral business they are associating themselves with. Hope the company gets trashed to the ground, they dont deserve to be in business!
Many websites are created from templetes provided by web hosting companies and can appear almost exactly like others, except with different photos, text and other modifications that are inserted during creation.
This may be what occured here. If so, would that be considered a rip-off?
Thanks for this comment Tom – our site wasn’t based on a template it’s a completely unique design. But the good news is that the copy site got taken down!
If anyone wants the text for the DMCA takedown notice email we sent, or the email we wrote to Google that I think was the thing that got them taken down, just get in touch and ask, we are happy to help others who find themselves in the same situation (as people have helped us)
Insane rip of your site, glad you got it sorted. Re the point made above about templates I’ve had lots of customers cite yellsites. I wrote a little blog post about identifying such sites after a customer asked me to “prove it”. https://www.web-design-talk.co.uk/478/yell-web-design-review/
I’m glad you got rid of them in the end, as you know I had exactly the same happen last year. I know people pinch ideas, and pieces of copy regularly but I still can’t believe someone has the cheek to copy and paste an entire site – it makes me so angry. How dare they steel your owls!!
Hi Keren
I have been in touch with you since my first day at BNI somewhere in 2008 and I have always been impressed by your creativity, joy and dedication.
I get many newsletters from different company but yours is the only one I read.
Great job
Nir Shpitzer
J and J Security
07850171620
I am not so sure. Yes, each platform has different strategies but some dashboards (notably hootsuite) take that into account and add visual previews to Facebook but not to twitter. All our department blogs are auto-posted, especially given that we write posts in advance, scheduling sometimes up to a month at a time. This strategy gained us guaranteed viewings for each post, even before you take into account retweets and shares. The fact that we are on sustained growth in traffic and clickthroughs seems to bear out the usefulness of this strategy. Also, something like 50-60% of our visits now come via facebook, even though all our posts are short enough for twitter.
So, I actually think that autoposting can work and I would recommend at the very least, using a third-party dashboard. If you want to, this can be used to post to single channels. It probably does depend on your metrics and where and who your audience are.
I do both …
Fully automated everything if I am very busy with work: blog post is scheduled, auto-posts itself and auto-alerts the social media sites.
Hand-crafted everything if I have those minutes to spare – and then a different message on each.
And I usually re-notify later, to catch people at different times of day / in different time zones, and will vary it then.
Thanks for talking about this important issue!
Liz
Excellent article. This sums up annoying things I’ve noticed in some websites that I could never quite “put my finger on.” You’ve done a great job of identifying these web offenses and explaining why we should avoid them, and what we should do instead. thanks.
– Jan Jasper
This is a great article. One of my favourite things about testimonials, is that they really help if you pair them with calls to action. So, if you have a ‘join my mailing list’ button, you have a testimonial underneath about how great your newsletter is. This makes more people act on your call to action!
Great article Keren, especially the questions. This is really helpful. I will be using them when asking my clients if they would like to give me a testimonial. Thanks this 🙂
Hi Keren,
Thanks for this post. I agree that each platform can have a very different feel, audience and of course length. I follow your guidelines and post separately and it doesn’t take much time at all.
Charlene
I’ve been considering putting testimonials on my site for some time, don’t know why I haven’t yet. Your article has inspired me to action because I think it’s also great to read through them and realise that we offer a good service that our clients are happy, and of course, for future and potential clients.
The questions are a brilliant idea because sometimes clients can get stuck with what to write, I always ask them to write from the heart. Asking good questions helps get the fingers moving on the keys.
Great article.
Thank you
Awesome Keren
I’m so going to use this because I get on top of myself…oh I must write a blog…what should it be about…let me research…oh oh oh
I love how you get things done and that you have shared in another fantastic blog.
Really enjoy reading them.
Keep em coming.
Sharon
Perhaps men are like fish. They do the same thing when you come home from work as they’ve been doing all day, going round and round in circles open mouthed, and they only notice you when you drop some food in their general vicinity.
If you try and get love and attention from the fish you will realise it can’t do anything different than what it’s doing already and the only option is to flush it down the loo.
LyncMeUp is the best daily deal site which has great good customer service and really cares for customers. Darshana is very hard working and hardly has time to rest, I will look forward to seeing the business grow in years to come.
A fantastic article. With Darshana’s illustrious career it’s great to see someone trying to help out the small and medium business compete with the big guns whilst also suiting the buying experience around the customer and further putting them at the heart of a user experience and sale.
Hi Keren
Although the 8 is upside down, The join where both loops meet is level with the bar in the H in the same line, so does not look out of place. It could be taken for a stylistic statement.
HTH
George
I was actually searching for a comparison of the merits of using Blog versus News – and your article gave me just that – and some insights that had not occurred to me.
Thank you!
Thanks for the wishes of luck and good energy Keren! I hope you enjoyed skiing, the pics looked amazing but I do wish I was able to meet you in person at SXSW! Maybe next year 🙂
LOL Keren… what a lot you missed 🙂 … I’m sure you had a brilliant time on holiday – next year the WU conference is on March 7th … we should make plans to fly out to SXSW on the Sat morning!
Update: The events listed above are all sold out. I created 3 more dates in April and they are also sold out, but 2nd of May still has place! And I may add more dates going forward. Very probably!
Our motto – “Make the customer the superhero of the story.” Clients and consumers alike!
Love the story and believe this is what sets some marketing professionals apart. In today’s fast paced works of interactive marketing and mobile social media, business owners are looking for more than a song and dance. They need to connect with consumers in ways must traditional media doesn’t offer. Thank you for taking the time to recognize her talents.
Signed,
Jody Sigmund – cape designer
I like your blog because I learn things. I’ve made changes to what I do because I have learned things. Also, because someone was kind enough to nominate me I am passing forward the Very Inspiring Blogger award to you. I understand it may go against the purpose of the blog and as a result you won’t accept, (but it would be great if you did). The main thing for me was to give the award to you.
Briefly here are the rules:
1. Display the award in a blog post (you can grab the image from my blog)
2. Thank the person who nominated you and include a pingback.
3. Tell us 7 things about yourself
4. Nominate 15 other blogs and link them on your site
5. Let them know with a comment on their blog, and include instructions as to how to accept.
Aim: Remind people of Kurt’s life, his influence.
We are going to put his biography, videos, interviews, GIF…
The core of our Tumblr is to share Nirvana’s iconic singer positive/funny quotes.
You’re so cool! I don’t suppose I’ve read something like this before. So good to discover someone with original thoughts on this subject matter. Really.. thanks for starting this up. This site is something that is required on the web, someone with a little originality!
Nice blog, captures the essence of Puy which is a hidden gem for families. We’ve been going for the last three years, children are now 11, and we have already booked next year’s trip over the NY.
Hello Karen,
I am a BNI member. Hail from Malaysian and currently live and work in Doha, Qatar.
Your article ‘That’s why I do BNI – 11 things people will get out of BNI membership’ is an awesome article – with lots of plain truth and power.
I use your share your article with prospective members and to retain existing members.
Thank you. Keep writing.
– Patric Rozario
Doha, Qatar
I’m a great advocate for thank you letters, upwards from children to gift givers, to prospective employers who have turned us down, and this lovely letter from Zak will definitely make him stick in your firm’s collective brain for the future. Well done Zak for remembering everyone!
What a treat to get Amy’s blog – now I know what she was up to. Telephone calls are too short – not enough detail and no photos. I am so glad that Amy had such an enjoyable and fruitful time, I think that she really deserves it and am sure that all the rest of the team too. Keren, thank you very much for organising such a wonderful experience for Amy (and the others) and for being such a great boss in so many ways.
With love to you all and hope that you all go back to Bonnie Scotland again.
My wife, daughter (5) and in-laws styaed here for two weeks and absolutely loved it. I had high expectations from looking at the website pictures, and these were exceeded. The villa was spacious, the pool was gorgeous (our daughter finally managed to swim a length without armbands), the games room well equipped, and our master bedroom was amazing. It was located in a lovely location within easy reach of Disney (30 mins) and Universal (40 mins) and we all had a great time.One tip if you are going is make sure you go to Gatorland (I wasn’t too keen to go but it was a great day out), and if you can pre-book a table at Capone’s Dinner and Show (a great evening and our daughter loved it too)
Thanks for the inspirational blog. I will definitely be sharing your 11 additional benefits of BNI with my chapter in Dubai! If you have a clever memory hook for a psychotherapist I would love to hear it. All the best. Anna
Great post Keren. Like you I am shocked by the vote. What concerns me is that those who sold Leave to the country have no plans and those who voted Leave seem to think that it will all be ok in the end, somehow, but without any concrete plans either. I think
Thanks Chris, I had a few ‘aha!’ moments while reading your post – particularly the perils of using short cuts. I wondered why a YouTube video disappeared from my blog! And so with you on the Ted Talks procrastination syndrome. Those talks are like catnip.
Overall, a very useful post that I will undoubtedly return to time and again.
Cheers, Jo.
A truly delightful series of blogs, full of good advice for potential interns. They clearly show what a supportive and encouraging company TLD is to work with.
I understand the problem with crossing the road, it took me a while when I was working in Europe, but what is this thing about the English keyboard? How different is it?
Hi Keren – it’s been too long since I’ve seen you! I saw your talk appear on LinkedIn and my business partner and I would love to attend if you have any spots left?
Very best,
Caroline
Excellent article, Keren! I’ve been doing some content sharing all along, but you’ve given me lots of ideas for other ways to do it. I’m sharing this on LinkedIn.
I was in BNI for 8 years. It was a good experience, but as I became more successful it seemed to consume more and more of my time until I seemed to be spending nearly 1 full working day on BNI. Was the investment in time worth it? Maybe. But it also seemed BNI didn’t want you to be overly successful because it meant you didn’t need them.
As an expanding one-man business I always felt trapped by the business. I couldn’t get away for a long break. After I left BNI, I realised I wasn’t trapped by the business, I was trapped by BNI with the strict attendance policy and everything else that goes with it.
I would still recommend BNI, I am happy to have been a member, but even happier I’m no longer part of it.
There is life after BNI, and its good!
SSL is a small, subtle sign of trust which, I think, is very important to an average internet user. They are constantly bombarded with the treats of fishing and the possibility of identity theft, that they are looking for anything that can give them a bit of security.
I committed to a year and BNI Biscayne connections Miami Florida but the members kicked me out after 9 months not even letting me complete my full year with the reason that I just wasn’t getting the referrals that I should. I explained to him that as a commercial real estate professional deals take time to put together and I didn’t expect immediate results and I wanted to continue for a second year but they would not let me turns out they had their sites on a current member who is a book reseller to replace me as commercial realtor. Little did I know this until after I left. So you can see how I feel that there are unscrupulous individuals with ulterior motives that really have done a disservice to the BNI model
Great article Keren, what you say is so true. My sole video re property tips on instrgram got many more hits than a stand alone photo. You have reminded me to do more. Thank you
Hi there Keren,
If you still have any availability, I would love to take you up on this planning session?
Let me know.
Kind regards,
Siobhan
Metier Rendezvous
Love this blog – thank you – I am one of those crazys that you refer to at the beginning, but one who also labels and fils much to the consternation of my colleague…. but I wasn’t always and I would love to return to inbox 0…. you have inspired me!
Thank you Keren and team , really interesting. I am going to send an interview request to the lovely people from easygerman.org. Great podcasts and videos for learners of German. As I recently features them in a Blog on various podcasts I am most certain they will say yes.
Another interesting article, Karen. I recognize some of those lovely clients, Interesting also that you tag your blog articles and your bold invidation to share on Social media. I am enjoying myself reading through your blog articles this afternoon.
I need to create a landing page ASAP.
Can I ask about the free one training session? Is the 11th word ‘ask’? And it’s actually this post? Have I won?!
Clever if it is as I had a look at some of the other posts too!
HI Karen
It certaiy caught my eye !
I would love to have your help in my buisness at this very difficult time.
I believe you could add real value in a specific and experienced way.
Best wishes
Frank
Hi Helen, I spoke to Tina, she said: “Hi, how funny! Yes, I know Helen! I did have some artwork in her gallery in St Ives. Unfortunately, we lost touch over the year but I’d love to get back in touch. I’m not sure I have any of her contact details though!
It looks like his profile has been shutdown. Probably because of the exposure he’s received from his incredible work. Any way to find his Etsy shop? I’ve tried looking but just find crap.
Keren – this is wonderful. As two budding entrepreneurs who started their business together I feel we have shared this journey together.
Outsourced sales is an interesting ‘lesson’ and one I have also recently embarked upon. We are in the early days however you have been very humble in your approach to learning and that makes it easier for all of us to acknowledge the good and the bit so good bits of the pie.
Lots of positiveness here and I love working with you and your team. It’s always a pleasure, challenging and a learning experience.
I may well take up one of your spots for a lower budget website as I’m developing an idea for my photography love. Will it become a business?? Who knows .. what magic can the TLD team work.
Gina has made some wonderful moments and really captures the essence of you and the subject matter.
Thank you for the wonderful blog post. This was an excellent summation of many of the benefits of a BNI membership. I have been in BNI for eight years now and it has been excellent for my career. I am going to present your post for our education moment this week and my Bni group. Thank you!
You can change the font on the Customize Journal Style page; the font settings can be set in the “Fonts” section. You should replace Arial with the name of the font you would like to use, 12pt with the size, and #000000 with the hexadecimal color code you would like for your journal.
Hitler continued to eat a favourite dish, Leberklösse (liver dumplings).” Today, it is believed by scholars, including Alan Bullock, Arnold Aluke, Clinton Sanders and Robert Procter, that Hitler — at least during the war — followed a vegetarian diet.
The most common font used is black Times New Roman at 12 points in size. Other serif fonts, those that have tails, that work well include Cambria, Georgia, Garamond, Book Antiqua, and Didot.
How do I change the default font in Microsoft Word?
To use your favorite font in Word all the time, set it as the default.
Go to Format > Font > Font. You can also press and hold. + D to open the Font dialog box.
Select the font and size you want to use.
Select Default, and then select Yes.
Select OK.
I don’t want lots of followers on Twitter. I just love the information that comes from Twitter and how it is often posted days before it appears on mainstream media and I filter it. I enjoy the people that I choose to follow but I don’t want followers other than my family.
I’ve been on Twitter for a couple of years. I don’t follow anyone and I have 5 followers. I really don’t care if I have any followers or not. I have certain people I will read posts from, maybe I’ll leave comments. Or if something is in the news, I’ll check Twitter. That’s it.
In Twitter world, that makes me a “bot” apparently. According to some, to make any Tweet “valid” I need to have some sort of fan club behind me. I’m not there to make friends, that’s what Facebook is for. But, yeah, as soon as someone disagrees with me, I get “you’ve got no followers, you’re a bot”. Ok, whatever you say.
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I cannot find his work anywhere as well. It’s genius. I hope he is still making these b/c they are hilarious. If he is still, I’d love to know as well. Thanks.
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Read information Choosing between “Breaking News” and “Blog” depends on the brand and audience preferences. Ultimately, it’s about engaging readers with the right terminology, aligning with your brand identity and encouraging discovery. Great idea.
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The tips for combating imposter syndrome struck a chord with me. It’s reassuring to know that I’m not alone in experiencing these feelings of self-doubt and that there are concrete strategies for overcoming them.
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Comments
Alex Kelleher
A friend of mine (Ed Yu) runs a carbon-offsetting program at https://www.4offsets.com/, might be a good addition to the offering!
film fan
i keep learning about more and more advantages and features with Chrome, with privacy, for example; now if only they would take care of the browser’s fickle cookie management…
chinaman
Hi
I like your posts, It makes me thinking.
Keizer Wilhelm
How can you improve your presence online by doodling about noodles? Or was that noodling about doodles? I’m burning my noodle by trying to figure out this doodle…
Any way love it – It’s a doodalicious conundrum of a noodle-doodle-idea!
Keep it coming!
Keizer.
Dave Clarke
Great tips, Keren!
Monique Smith
I once created oodles of doodles with noodles then painted them and it looked really cool, i then attempted to eat the noodles as they looked oodaliciouse and my tongue turned blues…. Sorry what is the question again?
I think doodles are an amazing insight to how and what people are thinking…. as well as how one expresses ones self…
Doodles Interpretation:
Triangles, squares , geometrical shapes: geometrical shapes may indicate that the person has got a rational and logical way of thinking, this person may also be a good planner. Drawing a triangle sometimes signifies the internal desire of going up or advancing in your career or social life.
Arrows, ladders Arrows and ladders may indicate that the person is ambitious, obsessed about some goals and looking forward to some achievements.
Doodling Good Looking Faces: Good looking faces may indicate that the person is social, people loving and optimistic.
Doodling Funny faces: Funny faces may indicate that the person is having a good sense of humour
Doodling Ugly Faces ugly faces may indicate that the person is not a social person, lacking self confidence, sceptic, bad tempered or aggressive.
Doodling Stars: Stars may indicate optimism and hopefulness.
Doodling Houses: May indicate that the person is missing his home, wanting a family, or is wanting to settle.
Doodling Flowers and plants May indicate that the person is sensitive, warm and kind
Doodling hearts : Means that the person is suffering from socio-anti-complex-bio-disorder , well, just kidding Smiling simply he is in love or in need of a relation Smiling
Doodling 3D shapes: Indicates the ability to see the full picture and all aspects of an issue or at least the desire to do so
Doodling underlined names: underlining a name with one or two lines may indicate that this person is important (whose name is underlined)
Doodling Food: May indicate real hunger or emotional hunger
Doodling AnimalsMay Indicate love for animals or sensitivity
Doodling cars, plans, trains:may indicate a desire for travelling ,freedom or the need for a holiday
Doodling Weapons guns, pistols and swords may indicate competitiveness and presence of a warrior spirit
Here is a we page i found were you can find out all about doodles, its really very interesting!
https://drawsketch.about.com/cs/tipsandideas/a/doodle.htm
Hope you all have a supa dupa noodle doodle day
Monique 🙂
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I follow your blog for quite a long time and should tell that your articles always prove to be of a high value and quality for readers.
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I usually do not comment on blog posts but I found this quite interesting, so here goes. Thanks!
Vince Stevenson
Yes, I like LinkedIn, it’s brought me some friends and some work. Like it. Rgds Vince
Dan
Hey Guys… I’ve just posted on my personal blog about not needing email! Clearly there is enough going on in the world of online to make us all think / re-think communication… In response to your suggested benefits (based on my blog post https://danwtmoon.posterous.com/why-do-we-need-email-im-for-noemail) I counter with the following:
“Sending step by step instructions so the recipient can sit in their own time and try out the tasks”
Instructions and / or task managed are more effectively handled through tools such as Remember The Milk or PM solutions such as Box.net, Basecamp, Huddle etc
“If you want to send a confirmation that something has been done and include a link.”
As per above; plus with the tools suggested, Dashboards and / or RSS become far more powerful at demonstrating progress which feeds back in to the relevant community
“Email is good for accepting an invitation or confirming attendance to an event or a meeting, so the recipient can keep track.”
Email is by design not a calendaring tool – leveraging tools such as Facebook / LinkedIn / Twitter event applications, where your community already exist gives greater functionality and organisation to managing events / meetings.
“Emails can be quicker as there is less small talk”
Even quicker than email is IM or real time comment fields as per Box.net, Huddle, Basecamp
“Emails are good for recapping a call with the points of action – to make things more official and avoid misunderstanding”
As per first point, email shouldn’t be a substitute for managing projects effectively with the right aforemetioned tools.
Just my two cents 🙂
I think it’s great in general that this kind of debate is starting to emerge in conjunction with that of the role of the workplace – we’re clearly heading for a tipping point of fully realising the environments where we can make a more productive impact to our social, personal and professional lives… Exciting times 🙂
Jason Cobine
Great information, I rarely use the postman these days except when I want to make an impact. Technology helps us communicate quickly and efficiently. Thanks for the tips.
Take care,
Jason
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Anine
Very cool guys! 4 very pretty ladies 🙂
Good luck for the good bye today…
Anine
x
Monique Smith
I am sure Amy will be greatly missed in the office, but I would like to thank you all for looking after my friend and for handing her back to me in sunny South Africa in one piece. I am sure you are as excited as I am to welcome Top Left Design to South Africa. I am positive that this could be the beginning to a whole new adventure for all of you. I hope you are all doing well. Hugs and kisses Mon 🙂
Amy
Thats one impressive moustache Mike!! How sad I am not to be there to experience the magic mo gro! Gro Mo Gro!!!
Nejoua
Thank you for the great tip, i was thinking about you the other day. I mean, her, awesome thoughts
Saskia Steur
Thank you for sharing this very useful blog. I totally agree with everything. I have joined BNI a year ago, and I have never looked back. Thanks also for the tips, a very good reminder. I intend to make full use of it.
Tommye Orem
Thank you for the awesome information. I’ve been conducting a bunch of research on this over the past several weeks.
Kerrie Dorman
Love this idea!
Tom
Hi there, you should also take into consideration that all links (including navigation structure) in the 404 template must have absolute paths. To illustrate this let’s visit this 404 destination for example:
https://tld.topleftdesign.com/404/404
If you press on any of the navigation buttons, like Home, you’ll notice that it totally gets lost in the 404 labyrinth. Absolute paths would solve this problem.
Michael Hobson
Thanks Tom! Will amend and add to the post 🙂
Gregory Despain
Great blog. Just enough info. BTW some of you may find this intresting that blogflaw posted about Google Search on cell phones. https://blogflaw.com/2010/06/04/google-search-for-mobile-phone-users-now-includes-mobile-app-results/
uk website design
hey……..thanks for giving de tips..
i m using some of dem ….bt now i ll work on other’s too…
thnx…
Hannah Hurst
Websites constantly need updating to keep up with constant changing times. This keeps your audience fresh and may inspire new customers to venture into looking at your website also. However the cost of this can be expensive if you want to create a whole new look for your website.
Luckily this is not necessary, more times than none your website can be given a fresh new look with just simple things such as changing some of your images or creating a little more detail and depth and detail.The tips given here are so simple and really effective. Keeping your blog up to date is definitely the easiest option and takes very little effort.
As much as many people love a little cheese, including myself, this is not a very good way of making your business look professional and could give the impression that your business and the way you deal with clients is not professional either. So changing your images to something sleek and modern could change the whole feel to your website and business.
I completely agree on the logo statement. This is the core of your business and should set the tone for every other design aspect in your business. So if this is not at its best, the rest of the company’s style will suffer. Finally the copy is another key factor in websites. This needs to contain all the information a customer needs to know yet still be interesting and friendly to read. Make them remember your company!
Daniel
Good post. It’s always good to see when service industries see the value in good design and branding – just because people need you, doesn’t mean you don’t need to distinguish yourself and try and appeal to your potential customers.
fiona Gale
Hi Keren! – hope you doing good. Am retail and hospitality director for above co. Am judging UK food awards on Tuesday with Jane, so just trawling the net for associated content and found you. Met Jane through another old networking mate from BRX – Caroline Hampstead – if you don’t know her, she’s a v good copy writer.
Go well and be well
Fiona
X
Victoria Blount
Great post i love the quality and emotive nature of the corporate identity logo, the choice of colour and typography. I think the website could be more sophisticated to match the high quality of the printed media.
Teddy Tunick
It’s a cinch.
Adrian Grossett
Yes this movie looks great! I am a fan of all those stars and love the action movies!
I wish I was there at the Premiere, London with you guys – it sounds like it was a long good night!
Diseño Grafico
I sure will follow these rules
Diseño Grafico
I love that blue color, nice design
Diseño Grafico
is this all done digitally?
Mana Wetmore
Love the design of your blog. You mind telling the name of the themeyou are currently using? Thanks a bunch, Joanne.
Keren
We created this design ourselves, it’s not a theme, but thanks for the compliment!
Paul Nealson "The Phone Guy"
I like your style, the fact that your site is a little bit different makes it so interesting, I get fed up of seeing same-old-same-old all of the time. I’ve just stumbled this page for you
Sarah
whoa, you have cool wp design, is it a self made one?
Keren
Yes it is, thank you for the compliment!
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I like your blog – great work!
agencja interaktywna
Great blog, I have just bookmarked it 🙂
Dried Flowers
Another great post! I shared this on Facebook – you should consider adding a “like” button to your posts.
Tracy Jonson
you are really a good webmaster, you have done a well job on this topic!
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Top web site, I had not noticed http://www.topleftdesign.com previously in my searches!
Carry on the great work!
Cosmetic Bags
This was absoultely helpful, I appreciate it
Julieann Dible
Cool, have not been able to find the information I was looking for before now, thanks to the blog owners for this master piece work…
Alden Wojenski
Good post! I have been searching yahoo for hours searching for relevant facts about this, they definitely need to position your website much higher!
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Thanks for sharing these useful information! Hope that you will continue doing nice article like this. I will be one of your loyal reader if you maintain this kind of post!This is one of the best post I found so far. The contents are very good and very informative.I subscribed to your RSS feed by the way!Thanks, this is really cool!
Andri
So funny, I keep getting random comments in Chinese that sound like they’ve come from fortune cookies.
Keren
Those ones we haven’t seen. Mind you I have to go through around 500 of them still. A good use of my time I am sure!
Alan Ogden
I actually know the reason but the speculation is funnier!
Roberta Ward
I can completely agree with you here ( I came here via a friend who tweeted it BTW!) We run a successful property based blog and get loads of this spurious types of comment. Its very irritating. I now just delete and block them from further commenting. Unfortunately its one of the by products of having a successful blog in the first place. Gotta take the rough with the smooth I guess.
Im convinced there is a place in India somewhere with a call centre type set up where those employed target certain markets for blogs and type the same comment on every one they come to! I have one company that sets up email after email at google and puts the same comment on repeatedly. extremely irritating.
Alicia Cowan
I also get loads of these. I was reading a bunch of strange comments received on my blog this morning. One simply said ‘Herp derp’!
Proof that using a good spam filter and ensuring you moderate comments before approving is a very good idea…
Keren
Herp derp. What does that even mean? The mind boggles.
Adele Jameson
Great blog – I always thought these strange language comments were due to a person writing in their own language and using a converter to English.
It is also really difficult to work out who is actually giving valid info in a quite innocent manner eg ‘Don’t know whether you’d be interested in this Independent article: url xyz etc.’ and those who are flogging their own blog. (Flogging your blog (!) Hey, that’s quite good :D)
Colin Newlyn
I thought of a new word for this! It’s like spamming, right? But not using email, using a blog. So … I was going to call it blamming. Brilliant, isn’t it? Then I did a search on google to see if anyone else had thought of it. I think splogging is a much better word now.
Anyway, this type of splogging is either automated, or is being processed by people in India on behalf of others, or is people using translators. It’s annoying but what is really reprehensible is people who should know better hijakcing blogs to promote their own stuff. That’s not joining in the conversation, it’s the modern, online equivalent of someone selling life insurance at a party (or a wedding, or a funeral…).
Keren
Colin that’s genius. Splogging! It will be in the urban dictionary within weeks! But you saw it here first, folks!
Chris McLellan
Two things you can do:
1. Set ‘Nofollow’ on your blog (ask any web designer how to do this) and that makes the spammer’s backlinks invisible to Google, and therefor useless for SEO purposes
2. Use a Comment Manager like Disqus to manage your blog comments. This allows for reporting spam and will block the user from yours and other blogger’s sites in future
Good Luck!
(ps both of the above can be implemented on WordPress)
Sue
Great article – I get most annoyed with those who know enough to want to promote themselves and just keep overdoing it.
giorgia
The custom 404 error page is very important for the website to attract more users & increase the web traffic, so well done! nice post! Analysing 404 error log can help the website administrator to detect scans for holes or installed scripts
Tamsin
Love this post!
I am woman of lists, so it strikes a chord with me.
I also like that you advocate cake as a reward system. 🙂
…now I just need to perfect the not-getting-distracted bit and I’ll be fine!
tx
Hannah Hurst
As a web designer myself I know only too well that websites look different depending on which browser you use. The main problem when developing websites is always the display on Internet Explorer, especially IE6. The sooner people experiment more with different browsers and step away from Internet Explorer the better!
My personal favourite browser to use is Firefox as this seems to be the least problematic when developing websites. This in turn means I get a weekend free from trying to solve IE6 issues.
Hannah Hurst
Too much work and not enough time is an all too familiar story with a lot of people today. I lost count of the number of times I kept myself awake for days at uni with the aid of coffee due to the work load. I thought things would change when I began working for a web design company, however I still find myself working late to meet client deadlines.
The speed demon definitely sounds like a good idea with the head down, goals in mind and only stopping once it is complete. With the occasional toilet break of course.
Lists are by far the best way to work, if you can visually see what needs to be done you can tackle each task one by one and prioritise what needs to be done first. This also stops the tasks running round your head in panic adding more pressure.
So as long as you plan and organise first, deadlines should seem a lot more reachable with a great end result of treating yourself.
Kevin PLATTRET
This vote is a great idea! I always wonder if anybody still uses Internet Explorer except my grand-father maybe… For web developpers it’s rather important to know which web browsers are commonly used. As for me, it’s Firefox, though Chrome and Opera are very good too!
Joani
Great blog Keren! I so enjoy your tweets!
Lewis Malka
An excellent and well thought out topic. I will use this one week as my education slot. Many thanks.
Hannah Hurst
These are great tips to anyone setting out with a new business on the internet for the first time. Marketing small businesses across the whole of the internet and not just a single website is key. With the competition increasing and the SEO techniques developing it can become very difficult to get yourself noticed on the internet.
Social networking is probably the easiest yet one of the most effective methods. It can be a little time consuming at first to set up your profiles but once its done its plane sailing. You can then also use these these to link to your website
nick bateson
i would like to do £10 deal but cant use your link for some reason
Nick
07828859768
Tom Simnett
Keren, this is great stuff. People forget that a company website is at its most basic a marketing tool. One piece in the armoury of any business. Absolutely critical to this is the UI, even before graphical side of the design is started on. That can only be done by understanding the target audience, getting into their heads and providing what it is they need for them to make a decision to buy, contact you, or whatever else it is you’re trying to get them to do. The first view they have of your site should tell them immediately if it’s a product or service for them or not. If yes, they’ll naturally read more, and if not, they’ll bounce. Bouncing someone isn’t a bad thing in this instance. They’ve had a good experience by virtue of the fact they have immediately been able to ascertain that they’re not looking for what it is you offer. Driving hits, like you say, is really just like firing a machine gun into the air and hoping some of the bullets come back down and hit the target you placed 50 miles away.
Nic R
You offer some good reminders here, but I find it always helps if you start the conversation by asking the person: “how is the website working for you?”. Listen to them. Understand things from their perspective – it may change yours.
Jerilyn Hyndman
Outstanding post once again! I am looking forward for your next post.
Terrell Casini
Aw, this was a really nice post. In thought I wish to put in writing like this additionally – taking time and actual effort to make a very good article… but what can I say… I procrastinate alot and by no means appear to get something done.
Sharon
I actually play CDs often on the hifi and even played a vinyl record the other day. More often though I buy the CD then rip it to my mp3 player and PS3. I don’t like to download my.music as I still prefer to have the physical product.
Michael Hobson
Thanks for the comment Sharon! Yes, it seems that IF people are still using CD’s, it’s mainly for music, and a lot of people say they just use them because the car has a CD player! I own music CD’s, but keep them only for posterity, and never actually play them. Likewise I own a few vinyls, but they are framed! 🙂
Annem
How long until the generation of car’s with CD’s is phased out? I need to keep buying them, or I burn my downloaded purchases onto CD. Still, it’s not as bad as my house mate’s car. She only has a cassette player! Old school!
Michael Hobson
Thanks Annem 🙂
Maybe if I could drive I would also use CD’s more often 😉
For now it’s the tube and my iPod – but one day, when I eventually get a car, I hope there’s not a CD in sight! Love that she has a cassette player still!
Karen Haller
Brings back memories when I was in Nepal during Holi. Covered in a rainbow of colour. My hair was multi-coloured for weeks!
Michael Hobson
Sounds great Karen! Do you have any pictures??
Amanda
I like this! Very nice, you should do one for every occasion.
Valentines could have been full of hearts 🙂
Karen Haller
Yes I do somewhere…. just need to dig them out.
Tamsin Fox-Davies
I’m so glad you’re running these seminars and have already recommended them to a number of my clients.
Blogging is so important for todays small businesses, but so often we see it done badly – although it’s not THAT hard to get it right!
Anyone following your training will be putting out beautiful blog posts in no time!
tx
Tamsin Fox-Davies
I love the look of this site, and in particular how your design really shows off the fabulous photographs.
tx
Karen Haller
You really get a sense of who they are. Makes me want to go and savour the atmosphere.
Alan Ogden
wow that’s very good Keren!
Tamsin Fox-Davies
I was going to do this comment as a poem,
But those rhymes, I don’t really know-em.
So, I’ll have to make do,
With just a line or two,
And hope that I don’t simply throw-em!
Tanya Rennick
Keren, I can heartily recommend both reading and writing poetry in addition to chasing rainbows and looking for unicorns as perfectly valid ways to while away a sunny afternoon. That is of course, if you don’t have blogs to write…
Karen Haller
What a joy to read Keren, you had me in by the second line. Of course I’d say yes. What an adventure we’d have!
Alicia Cowan
Surely, it’s a winner! Will you tell us if you win?
Tamsin Fox-Davies
I am jealous that my wedding was not immortalised in Pez, but we did do pretty well on the cake front!
tx
Isabella Brusati
Love those cakes! I wish I could eat them!
William Whitehall
If nothing else, the Royal Wedding really is bringing out people’s creative side!
Lewis Malka
Very creative! Then again, I would have expected nothing less!!
Francesca Fiumano
That is excellent Keren, we should all speak to Unicorns and chase Rainbows –
Felicity Lerouge
Your poem is delightful and I sincerely hope you win the contest.
I also love the underlying message. In the past I have thrown my arms around the neck of a unicorn, before checking out their credentials, to my detriment. So check out it’s pedigree, which mystical stable it comes from and then allow yourself to believe that magic can happen.
Thank you. You’ve really made me smile.
Tamsin Fox-Davies
This one is ultra creative: https://youtu.be/JAlnM7RUDcA
Tamsin Fox-Davies
Great run-down Francesca.
I love cloud-based applications, although I don’t always want to be connected to the internet in order to use them.
However, tools like Dropbox work online AND offline, and I’m sure that’s only going to become more common (at least I hope so!).
tx
Karen Haller
Great article. I use many cloud computing storage apps. No worries about back-ups, storage etc… all taken care of!
Karen Haller
Just loving the fun and humour coming through. After all, it is all about celebrating!
Joe Hewes
Impressive statistic there about the reduction in carbon footprint, something to think about for green commerce. Thanks for the heads-up Francesca.
Kerrie Dorman
LOVE it!!!
Happy Easter
Thumbprint Cookies
Wow!, this was a top quality post. In theory I’d like to write like this too – taking time and real effort to make a good article… but what can I say… I procrastinate a lot and never seem to get something done.
Amanda
This is an awesome blog! 😀
I’m so tempted to tweet it, but I must stop tweeting about cake instead of design 😀 ha ha
jessica bird
keep up the good work, if u continue to produce content like this, u will be ranking #1 in google before long
Chris
Hey, nice to see some funkier Royal Wedding stuff rather than the official collection… take a look at these stylish and modern designs https://www.dhub.com/work/identity/royal-wedding-collection
Tanya Rennick
Keren, this is without a doubt one of the best value offers to all Oyster Club Members. After an admittedly slow start, my blog is about to go live thanks to your encouragement. But just commenting on other peoples blogs does amazing things for your on line profile. You explain it with such clarity. Every time you suggest something for me to do and I follow through, it brings results.
Lovely Pearls of Joy, this is a no brainer. Take advantage of this exceptional offer. Go and see Keren for an hour of pure genius, brought to you through the wonders of The Oyster Club.
Ros Astaire
Thanks Keren, as usual an invaluable post. I always make sure I read your posts as they are so helpful and informative.
Ros Astaire [WeightExpectations]
Tanya Rennick
What you say makes absolute sense. I believe the two need to go hand in hand. I’m just writing my blog as we speak! It clearly is the way forward and a great way of keeping things fresh. Equally the website is a must for all the reasons you have mentioned. Very well put, thank you.
Felicity Lerouge
Thanks, Keren, for pointing out the advantages of blogs versus websites and making it clear that, really, it is important to have both. It’s great, though, when you are first starting up to know that a blog will be a good start, allowing you to share your latest news with your target audience, which reminds me, I really need to write mine….
Alicia Cowan
Thanks for your clear explanation about the best uses for a blog and website. Something many business owners get confused about. Thanks for sharing, Keren, really useful.
Karen Haller
Hi Keren,
As a very happy client of yours and having followed your recommendation, I’m really pleased I have a website with an inbuilt blog for all the reasons you’ve given. I feel I have a great online presence.
Francesca
Thanks for your comments Tamsin and Karen- I think there will be some great developments in cloud apps in the coming months and years- cloud storage options seem to be developing weekly in their pricing and options- exciting times!
Tamsin Fox-Davies
This is a great offer, Keren. I want to take it up!
Although I often advise others on their websites, I know that you can give me a completely different view with some top strategy & design pointers.
Book me in!
Tamsin Fox-Davies
This is a great explanation of what works where.
I’ve worked with a number of clients who don’t set out the connection between their website and their blog in the right way to start with, and it always means they are losing out and sending a confusing message to their readers.
I especially like your point about having testimonials everywhere – it really works!
Anneka Mistry
I absolutely agree, finding the right way of combining a website with a blog puts your site miles ahead of static, out dated websites. However, I’ve seen sites which have a blog section but don’t actually use them, many people don’t understand the benefits of blogging and how it can improve your ranking…but blogging is only of use to certain types of businesses and individuals. You should consider how you want your site to benefit customers and whether your able to continually update it, before committing to a blog.
Tanya Rennick
The website looks stunning. Congratulations to Erika and to Tamlyn and all at Top Left Design. Amazing and consistent out put. I’m just putting the finishing touches to mine and now seeing Erika’s elegant site has made me so excited to see the final outcome of my own! The dream team at Top Left are wonderfully helpful and and informative. The inclusion of an afternoon of teaching blogging/and social media techniques in the website package should be a powerful incentive for anyone considering to seek their services. Erika I wish you all the very best, with a website that is now worthy of your fabulous talents.
Felicity Lerouge
What a beautiful, elegant site, represents Eirka’s brand and her image perfectly. It speaks of style, class and bespoke service. No wonder she has already gained new clients. Not only that, you have the essential marketing tool of the blog keeping her clients up to date with the latest news and events – and keeping her ratings up with the search engines.I’m envious – can’t wait to have my website revamped!
Erika
Thanks TLD. You did it again! Thanks for the fab post and hope to see you all soon. xo
Tamsin Fox-Davies
This is a really lovely AND effective site. I used it as an example of good branding at a recent seminar I ran.
Great work!
Karen Haller
Everything Erika says about TLD I can vouch for as I’ve had their full service too. And it’s their after sales service that’s really impressive!
Isabella Brusati
Hi Keren,
I attended Rachel’s Magic workshop in April and she is truly inspirational. Rachel has a unique approach to business: commercial, pragmatic yet personable, with a touch of Feng Shui. I really like the fact that after the Magic Workshop you can attend Rachel’s virtual mentoring sessions. Absolutely Magic!
Isabella
Rachael Mills
I went on a similar journey to Keren – firstly being inspired at the Women Unlimited Conference in March – and then taking the plunge and signing up to Rachel Elnaugh’s Magic Workshop and business support – and what a fantastic experience it was!
B.Hive was the perfect venue for the session – calm, inspiring, and very feminine! The workshop was really positive, and as Rachel suggested at the beginning the Mastermind effect soon took hold with us all making suggestions and trying to help our co-entrepreneurs to get the the nub of exactly what it is our businesses do.
I came away from the workshop immensely inspired and excited about the prospects for my business. I think the other women did too – we’re all planning to meet again in a couple of months to share more ideas and continue the journey!
Rachael Mills
SE2 Ltd (the environmental consultant!)
Tanya Rennick
It sounds like the the workshop was amazing. I wish I could have been there. I feel I almost was because I know so many of the attendees and keep hearing about all the fantastic things you learnt that day! Thursday belonged to The Black Pearl Club and I was extremely proud to welcome Rachel as our special guest and speaker. I completely agree, she had the audience captivated. What a very special night!
Julie Stevens
Hi Keren
It was great to finally meet you at Rachel’s Magic Workshop day having been following each other on Twitter for some while.
So often as micro and small business owners we get so involved in our businesses we forget to work on our business. This day was a day for working ON! The energy in the room at B.Hive from the word go was papable. Lots of laughing and brain chatter. The day sizzled away so quickly but as I unfurl my large sheets of paper and read the notes I made I know I am moving forward and its exciting!
Can’t wait to see everyone again and in the meantime there is Twitter, FB, LinkedIn and blogs to keep us all up to speed with whats going on.
Anthony Fox-Davies
As much as I appreciate CDNs and cloud computing power and opportunities I have to say that recent Amazon downtime has shocked me so much that I would *never* in the future rely on any one cloud service. Be it hosting, SAAS or anything else.
It’s long established that backups are vital and it use to be normal for missiona critical content to be mirrored. Nowadays I would expect said content to be mirrored across clouds because, as we have learned from Amazon – no one thing is too big to FAIL.
Erika
This looks great, Keren!
Erika
Thanks for the lovely comments, Felicity and Tanya.
Amanda Vlahakis
I completely agree with everything you have said, it really is ideal to have both but when budgets are tight I’d definitely opt for a blog instead of just a website.
Great blog 🙂
Tamsin Fox-Davies
I’m really excited about this workshop! It’s going to be a lot of fun. 🙂
Brinda Chhabra
2. Excellent work once again! Thumbs up;)
Karen Haller
You certainly do make a great team! Your skills dovetail perfectly. What I learnt from just one day with you both has enabled me to be very focused in my approach to how I use social media and very time efficient too!
Laura
Looks like its going to be an awesome event – and that you’ll be covering a lot of ground – lots of notes to be taken, methinks!
Have a great time! 🙂
Daniel Bertorelli
Hi Keren!
Great to see your posts, and how you guide people online using real life examples, like these ones above…
Mystery Guitar Man is so funny, isn’t he?
Keep up the great work!
Keren
hi Dan – thanks for the comment – always lovely to have your support and to hear from you! Yes, I have listed MGM as one of my favourite brands actually – will be blogging more about him soon! XXX
Tamsin Fox-Davies
Love this blog post and that video – it’s brilliant!
Karen Haller
I love seeing people putting a new spin on things, taking something and either making it better or taking it in a new direction. This was great. Thanks for sharing.
Laura
OMG! This is brillaint. Thanks for sharing Keren! xx
Tanya Rennick
I love “Meet the Team” pages and you do them so very well! It’s great to click and get the different effects and amazing how many different ways you can do this. Brilliant work.
Tamsin Fox-Davies
These are great. Shows how you can have an interesting about page that still looks professional and include some good additions – like including the linkedin profile links.
Paul Ashton
Nice list. Meet the team pages are normally pretty bland… Came across this one the other day that stuck out:
https://www.technologywithpassion.com/about-us/team/
Michael Hobson
That’s an amazing team page Paul, thanks for sharing!
Alicia Cowan
About pages can be a litle dull so it’s great to see you bringing them to life with some creative style, particularly for your professional clients. I especially like what you’ve done with the Petrus and Aprirose (have seen this in action – very nice!), oh, and the LinkedIn links, naturally!
Paul’s link – er, wow!
Laura
wow Keren – these are fab. I particularly like the Long Way Round look and feel. Love the way you’ve really taken on board the spirit of each company and incorporated it in the detail – not just the basic colours and fonts. Love it!
Michael Marks
Good advice! I recently did an “audit” of all my social networking sites – including BNI – and uploaded the same profile details and image to each one. That way I’m sending a consistent message about who I am and what I do, wherever I (virtually) am. I even learned how to customise my Twitter page so it can reflect my branding. I’m getting there, slowly!
Karen Haller
I really find ‘Meet the Team’ pages invaluable as it’s usually your first introduction to that person. Your examples are both professional and personable.
Gerry Grant
Great blog! Really enjoyed it thanks for posting!
Stefan
Great tips. I’d add one more – beware if their entire feed consists of Foursquare check-ins. Nothing spells “impersonal” like a barrage of app-generated location checkins. Not much conversation there!
Karen Haller
Great tips Keren, good reminders. I also get a bit put off when someone just sends streams of quotes.
Felicity Lerouge
Thanks for reminder us about Twitter ettiquette, Keren. I find it boring if people just send streams of links and never interact, or don’t respond when you comment on their post. Someone said Twitter is like a party – and if someone was so boring at a party you’d certainly go and talk to someone more interesting. I have a Twitter cull every few months to weed out people I don’t find engaging any more.
@MichWalkden
For a Twitter novice and someone who signed on only after the retweet button was introduced, what is the significance of an RT rather than just a direct retweet? And why is it important to use both RT and the automatic button?
And Karen, I completely agree. Extemely off putting. I challenge these tweeters to come up with thier own scintillating insight so we can all quote them.
Mark Armstrong
Hey wait– wasn’t that seven things? : )
Also off-putting: an endless stream of personal @replies (to individuals) that are difficult to put in context. I also think a person’s Twitter wallpaper speaks to their credibility, at least to some extent.
Excellent post, thanks!
Dr. mohammed A.AlGhaith
Excellent six points.very guiding,mowever,the type of culture the person is living might interfere when it comes to his/her poersonal judgment.
Deidre Tavares
Lovely tips. I am following a few people who tweet every minute. Its very irritating. Im new to twitter and I am really enjoying it.
Tamsin Fox-Davies
Love this list!
My addition is: Do they ask a lot of questions but never seem to respond to the answers they get?
That’s just Twam (Twitter-Spam).
tx
Philip Gregory King
Agreed with most of this although with regards to linking back to your own site, it seems the majority of people use twitter for at least some degree of self promotion. There is no such thing as total altruism right? (Resisting urge to add my site link here)
khaled
for me the most important thing is what they tweet about
Adele
Very good, Michael – especially that ‘enter site’ waiting lobby one. God, that has never made sense to me – if I didn’t want to enter your site why would I be on your page??
Gina Romero
Oh how I laughed and sniggered (especially at the scrolling marquees) but then … OH NO I’m guilty of using Click Here links!
And It’s so obvious now that you’ve pointed it out! Thanks for this amusing but really useful article!
Michael Hobson
Thanks very much Adele & Gina! Glad you enjoyed the article and found it useful!
Tanya Rennick
Love these Twitter tips! There are a few here that I have yet to try…
Karen Haller
Same as Tanya, a few new things to try. Thanks for sharing.
Jeff Weiss
You’re so right about the first few weeks. It can be daunting for people just starting out to understand what’s going on. It’s also important to know that you don’t have to have a large number of followers to find value. Good followers are better than a lot of random followers that aren’t related to your market niche.
Lyuba
Great post Keren!
Another thing that I always encourage my clients to be cognizant about when deciding who to follow is the ration of followers, following and tweets. Broadcast accounts will typically have significantly more followers than the account is following. Someone who has a high number of fans and very few tweets has a high likelihood of being a spammer.
Yvonne White
Hi
I was passed this link be a friend who knows I have been saying the same thing on my own site. A very well written piece Karen, you have said it much better than I have but we certainly agree – a good picture can make your website & company stand out, a bad one can have people clicking away in an instant.
Thankyou
Matt
Unless you’re a dating website 😉 In which case you want warts and all!
Natalie Smith
Hi Keren
Great post, I couldn’t agree more. There is nothing more disappointing than seeing a great organisation misrepresent themselves with below average photography.
Great minds must think alike as we’ve posted a blog with a similar message this morning! A client came to us and for a variety of reasons couldn’t use professional photography for their subject matter, so we had to find another route! Our blog covers this in more detail…
Thank you for an interesting post,
Natalie
Kenneth Bitz
Nice piece Julien. Sounds like your internship was a rewarding and lovely experience.
Cheers,
Kenneth
Hotel Cheltenham
There are many social events, such as this one cropping up all over the country.
Thanks for this great information.
Brittany at Sprout Social
Great introductory tips, Karen! I think retweeting and replying to influencers in your industry is a great way to get noticed and get involved in the conversation (and share your knowledge/expertise!).
Wayne Slater
Good article for beginners and a good reminder as you get into it the use of Twitter, lists is a must, just starting to see the benefit ot this.
Tanya Rennick
The design on the left is my favourite. In other words, from the top, white, orange, blue. I love the look of the book & can’t wait to see it fly up the charts! X
Yariv Lerner
I like the first or the third but If I had to judge one book from its cover I would get the first.
Yariv
Karen Haller
I couldn’t decide so I voted for 1 and 3!
Tamsin is a very valued client of mine and it was a pleasure to work with her on her company’s branding colours and seeing it applied across all her on and offline marketing and products.
Can’t wait to see which one cover is picked.
dan barker
i say the right-hand one, but invert the text so that ‘Marketing’ is in white & is the stand-out word?
Alan Ogden
First one for me! It is the most visually striking.
Sue Oliver
Definitely the one on the left – my intuitive response
Karen Haller
Great to hear that book cover 3 was picked! Definitely eye catching.
Karen Haller
What a lovely surprise! And perfect timing for your upcoming event!
Lorelei Gibb
Really useful post, thank you Keren. My “don’t” would be moan – or whinge, or post only negative comments. There is enough negativity in the “real world” without seeing it spashed all over Twitter!
Karen Haller
Thanks Keren for these helpful tips. I can already see where I can improve on my monthly newsletter.
Laura
Wow Keren – some of these newsletters are seriously eye-catching.
Thanks for sharing the 5 tips! x
Laura
Sounds like an exciting talk. Wish I could be there. Is there any way you might be publishing a recording, or writing a future post on the points you outline above? x
Tanya Rennick
I completely agree. Because my company runs live events, I always invite a guest photographer to capture the moment. This promotes the photographer, the speaker and all the guests because we put the pictures on the website, tag them on Facebook and sometimes even tweet them which people find fun!
Tanya Rennick
Thank you for this timely reminder. I’m just about to send out my next newsletter so I will check all 5 points!
Tamsin Fox-Davies
I hope it went really well, Keren – I loved speaking for SBN, they are a great group.
LUIS BEVILACQUA
First mistake, I was suspended for 48 hours for some illegal actions from me…if you asked me I will answer you I got no idea. They (twitter people) acused of wrongdoing. Time will tell, if I keep doing the same mistake over and over.They won’t say specifically the mistake, but they told me I am a bad boy.
Michael
Great blog post Nichaela! All the tips are fantastic, and LOVE the images!
Nichaela Thompson
Thanks Michael! Happy to spread the knowledge 🙂
Alyssa Aldersley
Great post Nichaela. Fab tips on image selection and Photoshop masks. Can’t help but LOVE the superhero boy too!
Nichaela Thompson
Thanks Alyssa, I must say I spent a lot of time finding the perfect images so I’m glad you love the superhero boy! Nice to see you found my tips useful too.
Love the customised superhero boy on your site – Brill!
Alyssa Aldersley
Thanks Nichaela. Customising only takes a little tweak in Photoshop and I just love keeping things on brand. Glad you’re enjoying life at TLD Towers.
Ros Astaire
What a lovely article – you have obviously learned loads with Keren and her team!
Thanks for the info,
Ros
Nichaela Thompson
Thank you Ros.
I have learnt so much already and I’m still soaking up new things every day!
Natalie Smith
Great post Nichaela and I love your examples of photography, but my favourite part is the importance of learning how to make a good cup of tea – that was my starting point in agency life too!
Nichaela Thompson
Thanks Natalie.
Its always important to know how to make a good cuppa!
Felicity Lerouge
Hi Nichaela,
Thanks for this blog. There is so much useful and interesting content in it it’s almost a mini workshop. What you have really made me think about is the important of paying attention to detail, being unique in the way you present yourself and your business and the necessity of getting out there and engaging with your clients and potential market. I always appreciate being encouraged to raise my game.
Alicia Cowan
I’m so pleased you’re having fun playing Game of Like with me!
As you say, it’s less about the number of ‘likes’ you get from the others playing and more about meeting people, watching how others use Facebook for their business, and heaps of learning by doing – the best way!
Dorien Morin-van Dam
Keren,
the biggest compliment that Keri and I could get is for Game players like you to blog about the Pre-Holiday Facebook: Game of Like!
Well done!
As a fellow ‘European’, it’s nice to see people from all over the world participate. I especially love the fact that most players, like you, have realized the value is not in the ‘likes’ or the ‘win’ but in the journey and the achievements.
Keri and I met during such a ‘like’ game and we dreamed of doing our own version. We wanted to do it bigger and better and we are so thrilled with the player participation!
We’ve had a blast.
I am glad to connect with you. Have we connected on Twitter yet?
Fondly,
Dorien.
Keren
You have been inspirational. I would love to hear more about what it was like for you 2 managing it together working constantly to keep up with the replies and scoring! Amazing!
Keri
Keren,
Nice post – great graphics!
It’s been a pleasure getting to know you through the Game Of Like. I hope we can continue once the game is technically complete.
Thank you for spreading the word, and giving a page on your blog to the event!!
~Keri
Keren
Nothing like a few points to spur me on! Thanks for the comments too! Nice to be meeting such lovely people overseas! We will definitely keep in touch!
Dorien Morin-van Dam
Yes we will!
We’ve been impressed with your professionalism and quick response. And yes, it’s been a whirlwind of tallying and commenting, but so worth it! Thanks for getting in the Game of Like and also for getting some others involved.
Dorien.
Joel Carter
Eight 8 is enough reasons to publish the newsletter before Halloween. They all add up to very good reasons. Great Newsletter.
Laura
OMG Keren – I love the cup cakes!!
I had my first cupcake (since they became trendy a few years ago) on Friday. It was scrummy. Those Halloween ones look a little more scary than scrummy… and the owls look too cute to eat.
Did you eat them already? xx
Laura
hey Keren – thanks for putting us on to Launch. Looks like a valuable resource. Checking it out now.
Thanks again! xx
Karen Haller
It seens like the number 8 is your lucky number this month. And what a multi-talent team you have! I just love the owl cupcakes, so cute.
Karen Haller
Sounds like it was a lot of fun. Hopefully by the time I get my business FB page created they’ll play this game again.
Tamsin Fox-Davies
Brilliant post! I loved this edition of your newsletter – particularly the owls in the pumpkin suits and the monster cupcakes.
Wishing all the best for Tamlyn in the NY marathon. Go Tamlyn! 🙂
tx
Tamsin Fox-Davies
This post really explains the game so simply – I’ve been thinking that it was too late to join in, but I was wrong! Wonder if I can get involved even on the last day?
tx
Tanya Rennick
Your blogs are always so much fun, thank you! I hope you all had a great Halloween x
Aniket Mohite
Good article.
A website should be captivating. But making it splashy doesnt serve the pupose.
Using flash & help videos, increase site loading time which your visitors dont want. Also, splash pages are kind of time waste (until your website is some designer brand like interiors, fashion, photography, etc), but still, people more often like getting to the point. Scrolling marquees, totally bad idea.
Nice post. Basics for any website development.
Wil
Do you think Tamlyn would do at 38 design on some at seminar on the 8th of December! We would love it!
Tamlyn
Yay for cupcakes! Thanks for the lovely words Keren! And of COURSE we can do an @38 design on some for the next Seminar, Wil!
Craig Bower - Design That Rocks
Great work Keren….both on the pages and on the post! Also love your avatar pic 😉
Keep Rockin!
Stephanie
Number three. It’s the first one that caught my eye.
Tanya Rennick
Wow, sounds like the most valuable 5.5 hours you can spend before Christmas! I’m not Googling and now I know I must, and I got that just from reading this blog! 🙂
Karen Haller
Your workshop sounds great. Following your steps will really make doing your daily social media easy peasy!
Tamsin Fox-Davies
There is no such thing as not having time for social media.
I know I don’t have time to do it WRONG, but doing it right is easy and quick when you know how.
I know this workshop is going to be as excellent as usual, and well worth attending for anyone that wants to save time with social.
Tx
Laura
Hi Keren – I love your points about learning what NOT to do, and what not to bother with. I think it is well worth turning up just to get clarity on these two points in themselves.
Sure to be a fantastic event!
xx
Dan McKernan
Great post! Love it! None of these videos ever get old!
Saturnin
Hey, look at the source code of the page !
There is an id called “invisible”, it is just an ad…
Amy Senyard
Thanks for your comment! We did look at the source code and we saw how it had been done.
So perhaps it is just clever marketing. Still, I wonder why lipsum.com allowed Jung von Matt to add this to their site – especially seen as it says “Do your layouts deserve better than Lorem Ipsum? Apply as an art director and team up with the best copywriters at Jung von Matt: https://www.jvm.com/en/”
Which in my opinion is saying – Lorem Ipsum isn’t very good, use us instead.
Seems a detrimental advertisement for lipsum.com to allow on their website. What do you think?
I see the code has been removed.
Saturnin
I thought it was removed too, but I do not think so.
We are talking about it, it is a sure sign that this is a good marketing ! And it will affect a lot of people too… But we cannot say if it is voluntary or not, I am not here to speculate, maybe they are related to each other, or maybe it is hacking (that would not be the first code injection in history, isn’t it ? ^^)
Why don’t you ask them ?
mhenry
It’s not clever, just annoying.
Mike
@Amy: it’s not detrimental because everyone understands that lorem ipsum is NOT copy, it’s placeholder.
Ricky
Just happened to me moments ago, so the code is still there. I agree with you, Amy, that this would not be good for lipsum.com. Seems strange and out of place to me.
Henry
Chrome > Settings > Under The Hood [Bonnet] > Privacy > Content Settings > Javascript > Manage exceptions button.
Block js from lipsum.com
Karen Haller
Great piece of technology. Love the fisheye lens. What was the actual time?
Karen Haller
Hmmm, wonder what the real intention was here and to whose benefit….
Alyssa Aldersley
Hey Keren,
I’ve been signed up to Pinterest for a good few months but haven’t really made the most of its capabilities, having only pinned a handful of [beautiful] images which have taken my fancy – I call my board ‘Desk & Office Envy’.
Your post is a fab reminder of how I should make more of it – if only as place to collate digital tear sheets of things that inspire me.
Alyssa.
p.s. happy to share invites too 🙂
Caleb
I just emailed info@lipsum.com to see what their response was. In the mean time it’s time to find another lipsum generator.
Caleb
This is the response that I got after I contacted the owner:
The site hasn’t been hi-jacked by the guys at JVM, the ad is deliberate, although it will only be there for another 6 hours or so. The site costs a fair amount to run, and the costs aren’t covered by the banner advertising alone. JVM approached me with the idea of putting a job advert into the cut-n-paste for a one week period, and offered to cover the running costs for 3 entire months. The site has been a free service for nearly a decade now, and it’s grown in that time to serving nearly 2 million unique visitors a month, and over 20 million pages a month, as a lot of those visitors use the site numerous times every month.
Tanya Rennick
I love Pinterest, I’ve been sent a couple of invitations and it looks fabulous but being completely inept, I cannot seem to get the hang of it & I am desperate to do so!
Tanya Rennick
I think the guy pulled a clever stunt, although cheeky. As long as it goes back to normal, it’s ok.
Tanya Rennick
That was really fun to watch and great music too! The office looks fantastic! Congratulations 🙂
Tanya Rennick
I love all these videos! There are a couple I haven’t seen before and now love, the last two in particular; but the first one with the guitar is awesome! Thank you for posting this Keren, it’s so good to be well entertained!
Tamsin Fox-Davies
This is a really informative post. I’ve had Pinterest on my radar for a while but not really explored it. Now I feel like I want to!
Please can I have one of those invites? I’ll pin your owls!
Tx
Tamsin Fox-Davies
I had always thought that lorem ipsum was latin? Good to know the actual origins!
That is by the by though, the real item of interest here is on the ad. Caleb’s comment shows what was going on with the site, and I think that’s fair enough, but a whole week without users being able to get to their lorem ipsum text (which is why they were there in the first place) could be very detrimental to the site as users go elsewhere to find their placeholder text.
What would have been smarter is having the ad, and then some sort of ‘no thanks’ link with text like ‘Just give me my lorem ipsum, dammit!’, so site visitors can go straight there if they wanted to.
Amy Senyard
Thanks for finding out about that Caleb! That’s nice of JVM to have covered the running costs for 3 months – especially seen as the site is free.
I do however still think it was slightly annoying.
Tamsin, I later found out that it was the JVM advert and then a few blank lines down it had the usual lorem ipsum. I hadn’t realised that initially as I was pasting the text into a small text box in Photoshop and so I was only seeing the first few words. So at least you could get your normal lorem ipsum… after a few confused tries.
Felicity Lerouge
Thanks for shring these videos, Karen. Each of them are brilliant but the wedding is my favourite. What a great start to married life!
Felicity Lerouge
Even though it was a little inconvenient for the people trying to find their lorem ipsum text, it has raised interest in both companies, which is valuable marketing. Very clever.
Felicity Lerouge
Pinterest looks really interesting and worth exploring. Thanks for showcasing it in your blog, Keren (and can I have an invitation, please).
Felicity Lerouge
You all looked very industrious in your stylish new offices. Great to be able to find cameras that are so small and yet functional. Thanks for the wave!
Taryn
invite please!
Laura
Great post Amy. I agree – its a clever ad – and I learnt a little bit about behind the scenes in the design world. Thanks for sharing!!
L 🙂
Laura
Hey Keren – great post.
Please could you invite me? Would love to join.
I loved your insights into making social networking worthwhile – creating and curating – snappy soundbite too!
Have you seen this? https://www.gratitudelog.com/
Its the twitter platform, but for people to post what they’re grateful for.
L X
Charlie
Please can I have an invite!! Thank you!
Gladys Byrnes
I didn’t know that. Thanks for taking the time to enlighten me. I’ll be sure to come back to see what else you can teach me!
Dorien Morin-van Dam
Ha ha ha. I love it. But did you know that your screen shot of the video fooled me enough to triple click on it: I thought you’d embedded the video for us to watch 🙂
Nice post, good job Tina!
Robin Morris
My name is Robin Morris of TrueArtistDesigns and Im definately interested in finding a home to showcase my work as a Visual Artist. Please invite. Thanks in Advance
Victoria
Invite me invite me 🙂
Stockholm
That’s interesting to see the way a logo is born. However, there is a regrettable machist stain to this article. Why would you need to balance “feminine curves” with “seriousness” ? Saying it that way makes feminine things “unserious”, therefore only “masculine” things are “serious”. Words do matter where feminism is concerned, and that’s a pity a woman wrote that. How right was Sartre when he said “Half victim, half accomplice, like everyone else”.
Ondra
Can you, please, invite me?
Tássia
Hello… I am starting as grafic artist and really would apreciate have a place to share stuff i like . Can u, please, send me and invitation for PINTEREST? Thanks !!
Caroline
I love your owl board – and have seen some great fabric and knitting boards too… yes, I know, it’s becoming obsessive!
I’d love an invite too please…
thanks!
Alyssa Aldersley
Awesome post, and you’re right, Buffer rocks! I’m sure Joel and Leo will love being your not-so-secret-anymore social media valentine 🙂
Leo Widrich
Hi Keren,
Thanks so much for this sweet Valentine’s gift, so glad Buffer is useful for you. And your picture is just the cutest thing ever!
Buffered that post for sure, twice! 🙂
Best,
Keren
That’s very sweet Leo! I am proud to be buffered! Hope to meet in person someday soon!
Sarah
I would love an invite to Pinterest. 😉 I signed up over a week ago and am still waiting. Many thanks
Karen Haller
Well done Keren and team. With a globally based team you are able to literally ‘work around the clock’!
Karen Haller
Having received training and expert advice from both of you I know those who attend your course will benefit enormously.
Tamsin Fox-Davies
Great to see you speaking and sharing your top tips and information with these lucky audiences. 🙂
I’m really looking forward to being on the same stage as you for WPE this week. It will be fun!
Laura
Wow – great turnaround Keren & Co! That’s a lot of work, but so well coordinated. Well done for yet another great site! 🙂
Laura
Sure to be a great course.
I can’t wait for you guys to start recording them and selling the info as product! X
Lucy Elliott
Very impressive Karen and hope that this is just the start of your global work. Just shows what amazing team work can produce in a short space of time. Credit to you and your team.
Tanya Rennick
Ha ha ha! I love this! I would like to go over the list above and by next year but a tick next to each suggestion!
Tanya Rennick
Of course, one of my favourite ever poems! I had never seen the disney version (or at least I don’t remember it) so thank you for that! Really great tips here; it’s so easy to get off track, and let things go, but planning ahead makes great sense. The offer of help with brainstorming topic ideas would be most welcome…over a delightful brunch, but definitely not Oysters!
Tamsin Fox-Davies
Yes, we love that #hawkeye !
This idea that all your online marketing collatoral is your cape is a good one. Superman just wouldn’t be ready to save the world without his cape and a business isn’t ready to promote themselves without having all their marketing ducks in a row either.
Tx
Laura
brilliant post Keren. Love the analogies! 🙂
Laura
Love it!
Its great that you find interesting things to talk about, woven into marketing know-how. Always a delight to read your posts Keren. And I always learn something new.
X
Wendy
I love your analogy if being a super hero – there is something so fantastic about that thought that it makes it seem fun and easy!
Kids have no problem imagining what they might be and acting those parts. Somehow when we become adults, we can lose that ability to dream and pretend.
After reading this post I think I will “Act As If” – act as if I am a super hero and my business dreams are coming my way – I know by doing this I will feel more confident and happy…..
Thanks!
Wendy
Great advice here – I love the planning aspect of your blog – creating a waiting lists of posts is a great way to do it instead of scrambling around the night before the post is due!
Nicola Holden
What a brilliant analogy Keren. Now to put it into action …!
Nicola Holden
Keren, thanks for all this really useful information. It definitely helps to focus the mind on blog and newsletter topics!
Karen Haller
Great analogy Karen.
Getting my cape by having had my website and blog created by your team. Wearing my cape by getting my trusty Marketing Mentor Tamsin Fox-Davies helping me and now I am flying by doing more speaking engagements, press opportunities pouring in.
This really does work.
Charlene Hutsebaut
I love all your points about being a marketing superhero! Some I am doing while others are totally new to me and I will be implementing a few in coming weeks.
Thanks
Web design Darlington
I am totally getting a cape! 😉 it will make marketing much more fun! Lol
Web design Darlington
Gutted I have seen this post too late and the event has passed. I’m very interested in marketing my business via social media. Will keep my eyes peeled for more events 🙂
Mark Cooper
What a beautifully crafted article and such a strong underlying message. It also shows that Lewis Carroll was over 100 years ahead of his time.
Daniel
We have just launched our new website and we have tried to be creative with our Meet the Team page. Check it out at https://www.druff.co.za/Druff-Interactive-Meet-The-Team.asp and let me know what you think.
Dave Patrick
A good collection here. It’s a really tough ask to do this sort of page justice. Do you go for pics? What style? Relaxed, formal? Black & white, colour? Portrait, full body? Transparent background? It takes a very good design eye and a good photograph to get the most out of this page. There’s also a good deal of skill in the copy writing. It’s very hard to do it well and easy to come off a bit cheesy. A nice collection!
Taor
Great article guys, I also specialise in social media and you have nailed it on the head. Love the dinosaur terminology, very clever
Tamsin Fox-Davies
I love a pun-based post, especially when it contains such sound advice too!
Definitely agree with all points including the one about Blogger. It’s harming your web-cred, so time to jump to WordPress!
Tamsin Fox-Davies
I love the TLD owls. They make me happy just to look at them!
Tamsin Fox-Davies
Awesome!
Well done Michael & Co. I cant wait until polarize.me is available to all. Genius idea.
Hubert Nanka
Some truly quality posts on this site, saved to my bookmarks .
Karen Haller
What great mascots the owls make. All seeing, all knowing. The illustrations also bring in an element of fun.
Karen Haller
Having received social media training from both Keren and Alicia, I know exactly how they feel – more able and capable. And what a gorgeous part of the world…
Rachel Root
I’ve only just heard about this course. Will you be running another one in London soon, or do you have seminar notes? I’m about to get started on blogging my interiors/ gift store and could really do with tuition as I feel rather self conscious writing a blog even though I’ve got lots to say!
Keren
Hi Rachel, our next one isn’t in London but you can email keren@topleftdesign.com if you want info on 1-2-1 training – or see our latest newsletter for info on the Brighton event: https://tld.topleftdesign.com/newsletters/april-2012.htm
Michael Hobson
Thanks Tamsin!
Zachery Roadarmel
Very nice design and style and excellent written content , nothing at all else we require : D.
George Mathew
Keren,
it was good to see you here in Singapore. the hour and a half primer on websites and social media was useful.
thank you for coming.
Alan Ogden
In truth what you have to realise is that this cookie law has been in place for the last 12-18 months, it’s not new. The issue about ‘tracking’ cookies is something that is meant to prevent unauthorised 3rd party cookies (advertising etc) ‘tracking’ you to other websites. It does NOT cover things like Google Analytics despite what the documentation suggests.
The actual cookie law is so ambiguous that no company can properly adhere to the ‘law’ without severely damaging or hindering their site(s). Look at the UK Government; their sites are not yet compliant.
My advice is to wait for further clarification before coding in explicit ‘opt-in’ policies for ALL cookies. Whilst it’s nice to be compliant, it’s also nice to be compliant to a workable ‘law’. Virtually every site falls foul of this law. They’d have to sue everyone, and who are ‘they’ exactly? This is the net neutral, country agnostic internet. Good luck.
Mark Tassell
This happened to me about 3 years ago when a company in India completely cloned a website of mine and replaced every reference to London with India. (not the site that you guys are doing for us!).
My site was called London PO Box and they were called Deli PO Box. The design, wording and everything was identical, except all links changed to their site. I only came across it when I Googled a keyword for my site and saw that they were ranking no 2 on page 1, as they failed to change all the Meta data (idiots!) which is where I usually am for that keyword. I clicked on it and couldn’t believe what I saw. I telephoned the company and, much to my surprise, got through to someone. I impersonated to be from my company’s Legal Department and it certainly scared them. It was down within 4 or 5 hours!.
Karen Haller
KHI Web Solutions isn’t a Total IT solutions, it’s a total rip off of your website. Good luck getting it removed #plagiarism
Lewis
Whoa, that’s ridiculous. I couldn’t imagine if someone completely copied my site and only changed the logo, I’d be angry!
Keren
Thanks for your support everyone! An update: We just got an email sent through by a supporter of ours – and I want to share it here, word for word – he sent this to KHI Web and a whole bunch of the clients they have listed on their site = and copied us in:
Here is his message:
——————————–
KHI web, before you delete this message – I have CC’d some of your clients* and cover company MakeWebsite.in so next time you have a meeting you can explain why you rip off other designs and sell them to your clients to rip them off? Bala as an artist understands originality, Mahakal Advertising should understand the importance of truth, Dr. Sejal Desai will understand honesty, and maybe Method Of Learning can teach you?
The website design KHI are using https://khiweb.com/ is not designed by KHI it’s copied without permission from https://tld.topleftdesign.com – have a look everybody!
N.B. This email was not sent by Top Left Design but I as a witness to this plight and blight.
Apologies for sticking my boot in, Keren but I can’t stand this blatant ripping off, it’s downright evil and destructive to the cherished industry of design around the globe.
Kire
Design with a conscience
tina
Good on you Keren. Behaviour like this needs to be made public and shamed. Much more damage than just taking legal action. Keep tweeting and using Social Media.
In fact, why don’t you get in tiuch with local paper and submit article?
Good Luck,
Tina x
George Emsden
Keren
Thought of getting in touch with the Beeb about this?
Eddie Nestor Drivetime might be interested?? or R4?
HTH
DavidK
Hi Keren,
I had similar experiences when not one but TWO different homecare companies stole the copy I’d written for another provider. One of them has taken down the word-for-word copy and spun it. The situation unfortunately is made more complicated because the copy is now owned by my client, of course. Very aggravating nonetheless.
I wrote a blog post about it – more an amusing take on why people do this than a guide to sorting it out!
https://nexus-copywriting.co.uk/blog/?p=470
George
This is shocking – I bet even this blog appears on their site!
Keren
Actually their blog doesn’t work on their site. See https://www.khiweb.com/blog.html
Mark Ballantyne
THIS is why design does not cost £5… (or even£99)
Remember that, folks – the next time you decide to “crowdsource” your logo / branding / website design. You’re probably just paying talentless rip-off artists as seen above!
Abi
Hi Keren,
Great article, but horrible situation. We had something similiar with EX client who, even after polite requests, kept unpaid for photos on her website. I also went to her hosting company with an emotional letter. Nothing was done until I sent them a letter based on this DMCA template (link below). My goodness, site was taken down immediately and stayed down for a week while they got other photos sorted!
https://labnol.blogspot.co.uk/2007/09/dmca-notice-of-copyright-infringement.html
This particular client only contacted me a couple of weeks later to ask if I could quote for another photo session for her – MADNESS!!
You’ve probably done this already, but couldn’t bear to sit back and not pass on lessons learnt.
Hope it helps and gets a response. It worked for me.
Keren
Thanks Abi – I really appreciate this advice – have tried this tactic and we will now wait and see!
Hope it works for us like it did for you!
Blackhat
Below is their facebook page and wanted to post something but it was disabled, unfortunately.
https://www.facebook.com/khi.web?sk=wall
Jay
OMG! Cant believe the tumbler and RSS feed links still point to your site. Not only are they rip offs, they are lazy too. Seriously feel like tracking down EVERY SINGLE one of their clients and pointing out what kind of dishonest, immoral business they are associating themselves with. Hope the company gets trashed to the ground, they dont deserve to be in business!
Steve Woods @woodss
It’s down now – well played 🙂
Keren
Thanks so much for letting me know Steve! So glad they finally took it down! Yay! We will celebrate this weekend!
Tom O'Neill
Many websites are created from templetes provided by web hosting companies and can appear almost exactly like others, except with different photos, text and other modifications that are inserted during creation.
This may be what occured here. If so, would that be considered a rip-off?
Keren
Thanks for this comment Tom – our site wasn’t based on a template it’s a completely unique design. But the good news is that the copy site got taken down!
Keren
If anyone wants the text for the DMCA takedown notice email we sent, or the email we wrote to Google that I think was the thing that got them taken down, just get in touch and ask, we are happy to help others who find themselves in the same situation (as people have helped us)
Carl Potts
As a web designer I’m slightly concerned about the consequences of this legislation
Rob Allport
Insane rip of your site, glad you got it sorted. Re the point made above about templates I’ve had lots of customers cite yellsites. I wrote a little blog post about identifying such sites after a customer asked me to “prove it”. https://www.web-design-talk.co.uk/478/yell-web-design-review/
Liz Gall
I’m glad you got rid of them in the end, as you know I had exactly the same happen last year. I know people pinch ideas, and pieces of copy regularly but I still can’t believe someone has the cheek to copy and paste an entire site – it makes me so angry. How dare they steel your owls!!
martin allman
What a great article, stumbled on this as you. Actually I think I was trying to pin who created the look of Zabu!
Nir Shpitzer
Hi Keren
I have been in touch with you since my first day at BNI somewhere in 2008 and I have always been impressed by your creativity, joy and dedication.
I get many newsletters from different company but yours is the only one I read.
Great job
Nir Shpitzer
J and J Security
07850171620
Cheryl Laidlaw
OMG sorry but I didn’t realise how much they ripped it off!!!
Some people have no shame! Good for you guys!
Abi
Hurrah! A great victory.
Alan Ogden
Dear JP and Kevin, please come for a week with us 🙂 We will show you what geeks do 🙂
Jonny Hardwick
Nice top list mate! Thanks for sharing.
Neha
Hi,
How can I get one of these?
Keren
Hi Neha, just send us an email to team [at] topleftdesign.com and include your postal address – and we will post it to you!
Logic Design
This is outrageous!, how did they expect to get away with it!
Also who installs PHPMyAdmin in the server root! https://www.khiweb.com/
lol
Stéphanie
Great idea!!
To give it a try I will take 7, 21 and 3 is a little bit less than 8 and 36 but it’s 7 my lucky number.
Nada Photography
Hilarious! I have one more, and it’s more visual than technical – stretched (badly re-sized) photos. It just screams “I don’t care”.
Jonathan Downie
I am not so sure. Yes, each platform has different strategies but some dashboards (notably hootsuite) take that into account and add visual previews to Facebook but not to twitter. All our department blogs are auto-posted, especially given that we write posts in advance, scheduling sometimes up to a month at a time. This strategy gained us guaranteed viewings for each post, even before you take into account retweets and shares. The fact that we are on sustained growth in traffic and clickthroughs seems to bear out the usefulness of this strategy. Also, something like 50-60% of our visits now come via facebook, even though all our posts are short enough for twitter.
So, I actually think that autoposting can work and I would recommend at the very least, using a third-party dashboard. If you want to, this can be used to post to single channels. It probably does depend on your metrics and where and who your audience are.
Liz Broomfield
I do both …
Fully automated everything if I am very busy with work: blog post is scheduled, auto-posts itself and auto-alerts the social media sites.
Hand-crafted everything if I have those minutes to spare – and then a different message on each.
And I usually re-notify later, to catch people at different times of day / in different time zones, and will vary it then.
Thanks for talking about this important issue!
Liz
Jan Jasper
Excellent article. This sums up annoying things I’ve noticed in some websites that I could never quite “put my finger on.” You’ve done a great job of identifying these web offenses and explaining why we should avoid them, and what we should do instead. thanks.
– Jan Jasper
Tamsin Fox-Davies
This is a great article. One of my favourite things about testimonials, is that they really help if you pair them with calls to action. So, if you have a ‘join my mailing list’ button, you have a testimonial underneath about how great your newsletter is. This makes more people act on your call to action!
Karen Haller
Great article Keren, especially the questions. This is really helpful. I will be using them when asking my clients if they would like to give me a testimonial. Thanks this 🙂
Charlene Hutsebaut
Hi Keren,
Thanks for this post. I agree that each platform can have a very different feel, audience and of course length. I follow your guidelines and post separately and it doesn’t take much time at all.
Charlene
Sharon
I’ve been considering putting testimonials on my site for some time, don’t know why I haven’t yet. Your article has inspired me to action because I think it’s also great to read through them and realise that we offer a good service that our clients are happy, and of course, for future and potential clients.
The questions are a brilliant idea because sometimes clients can get stuck with what to write, I always ask them to write from the heart. Asking good questions helps get the fingers moving on the keys.
Great article.
Thank you
Sharon
Awesome Keren
I’m so going to use this because I get on top of myself…oh I must write a blog…what should it be about…let me research…oh oh oh
I love how you get things done and that you have shared in another fantastic blog.
Really enjoy reading them.
Keep em coming.
Sharon
Alan
Perhaps men are like fish. They do the same thing when you come home from work as they’ve been doing all day, going round and round in circles open mouthed, and they only notice you when you drop some food in their general vicinity.
If you try and get love and attention from the fish you will realise it can’t do anything different than what it’s doing already and the only option is to flush it down the loo.
Aliyah Page-Graham
LyncMeUp is the best daily deal site which has great good customer service and really cares for customers. Darshana is very hard working and hardly has time to rest, I will look forward to seeing the business grow in years to come.
Theodore
A fantastic article. With Darshana’s illustrious career it’s great to see someone trying to help out the small and medium business compete with the big guns whilst also suiting the buying experience around the customer and further putting them at the heart of a user experience and sale.
Sue Butler
Hi
The number 8 above looks slightly upside down and I’m really hoping this comment earns me a free training session!
Keren
Hi Sue, yes, you are correct! Let’s talk soon and arrange for you to come for your free session! Well done!
George Emsden
Hi Keren
Although the 8 is upside down, The join where both loops meet is level with the bar in the H in the same line, so does not look out of place. It could be taken for a stylistic statement.
HTH
George
Joyce
Great article! I read every word, including point #4 and the mention of the upside down 8.
Glenn Ferrell
Great lyrics work – I’m impressed ! The lovely intersection of inbound marketing and outbound “jingling” 🙂
Keren
Wow thanks! Appreciate the comment Glenn!
Alan Ogden
Congratulations!
Michael Harper
I was actually searching for a comparison of the merits of using Blog versus News – and your article gave me just that – and some insights that had not occurred to me.
Thank you!
Craig Bower
Thanks for the wishes of luck and good energy Keren! I hope you enjoyed skiing, the pics looked amazing but I do wish I was able to meet you in person at SXSW! Maybe next year 🙂
Julie Hall
LOL Keren… what a lot you missed 🙂 … I’m sure you had a brilliant time on holiday – next year the WU conference is on March 7th … we should make plans to fly out to SXSW on the Sat morning!
Keren
Update: The events listed above are all sold out. I created 3 more dates in April and they are also sold out, but 2nd of May still has place! And I may add more dates going forward. Very probably!
superhero cape designer
Our motto – “Make the customer the superhero of the story.” Clients and consumers alike!
Love the story and believe this is what sets some marketing professionals apart. In today’s fast paced works of interactive marketing and mobile social media, business owners are looking for more than a song and dance. They need to connect with consumers in ways must traditional media doesn’t offer. Thank you for taking the time to recognize her talents.
Signed,
Jody Sigmund – cape designer
GeoFoodie
I like your blog because I learn things. I’ve made changes to what I do because I have learned things. Also, because someone was kind enough to nominate me I am passing forward the Very Inspiring Blogger award to you. I understand it may go against the purpose of the blog and as a result you won’t accept, (but it would be great if you did). The main thing for me was to give the award to you.
Briefly here are the rules:
1. Display the award in a blog post (you can grab the image from my blog)
2. Thank the person who nominated you and include a pingback.
3. Tell us 7 things about yourself
4. Nominate 15 other blogs and link them on your site
5. Let them know with a comment on their blog, and include instructions as to how to accept.
Pink Birds
Hi,
Here is our planning pic.twitter.com/fPdWo5R6y8
and our Pinterest: https://pinterest.com/memepassion/
Pink Birds
CCTC team
To discover new tips to get a healthier lifestyle including detox, beauty, recipes and fun exercises follow us on ‘fitandsharp’ Instagram account!
The Blue Owl
Aim: Remind people of Kurt’s life, his influence.
We are going to put his biography, videos, interviews, GIF…
The core of our Tumblr is to share Nirvana’s iconic singer positive/funny quotes.
Mo Jumale
This caught my attention I never read blogs. Nice one Keren, I enjoyed reading it. But the first comment Lol! Poor little fish. I’m a cat by the way.
marketrefuge.com
You’re so cool! I don’t suppose I’ve read something like this before. So good to discover someone with original thoughts on this subject matter. Really.. thanks for starting this up. This site is something that is required on the web, someone with a little originality!
Kevin Corcoran
Nice blog, captures the essence of Puy which is a hidden gem for families. We’ve been going for the last three years, children are now 11, and we have already booked next year’s trip over the NY.
Patric Rozario
Hello Karen,
I am a BNI member. Hail from Malaysian and currently live and work in Doha, Qatar.
Your article ‘That’s why I do BNI – 11 things people will get out of BNI membership’ is an awesome article – with lots of plain truth and power.
I use your share your article with prospective members and to retain existing members.
Thank you. Keep writing.
– Patric Rozario
Doha, Qatar
Paula Mason
I’m a great advocate for thank you letters, upwards from children to gift givers, to prospective employers who have turned us down, and this lovely letter from Zak will definitely make him stick in your firm’s collective brain for the future. Well done Zak for remembering everyone!
dottdesignsuk
Thanks for sharing such a great post regarding Responsive Web Design.
Dinesh
Very nice blog post
Dawn
Thanks for this. I used the Google test for my new website and it passed! Just got to tidy up the content now…
Geoff
Absolutely amazing, I must have watched it at least three times in the past ten minutes.
Penelope Senyard
What a treat to get Amy’s blog – now I know what she was up to. Telephone calls are too short – not enough detail and no photos. I am so glad that Amy had such an enjoyable and fruitful time, I think that she really deserves it and am sure that all the rest of the team too. Keren, thank you very much for organising such a wonderful experience for Amy (and the others) and for being such a great boss in so many ways.
With love to you all and hope that you all go back to Bonnie Scotland again.
Archi
My wife, daughter (5) and in-laws styaed here for two weeks and absolutely loved it. I had high expectations from looking at the website pictures, and these were exceeded. The villa was spacious, the pool was gorgeous (our daughter finally managed to swim a length without armbands), the games room well equipped, and our master bedroom was amazing. It was located in a lovely location within easy reach of Disney (30 mins) and Universal (40 mins) and we all had a great time.One tip if you are going is make sure you go to Gatorland (I wasn’t too keen to go but it was a great day out), and if you can pre-book a table at Capone’s Dinner and Show (a great evening and our daughter loved it too)
Anna Yates
Thanks for the inspirational blog. I will definitely be sharing your 11 additional benefits of BNI with my chapter in Dubai! If you have a clever memory hook for a psychotherapist I would love to hear it. All the best. Anna
Megan
Great article Keren!
Inga
Great post Keren. Like you I am shocked by the vote. What concerns me is that those who sold Leave to the country have no plans and those who voted Leave seem to think that it will all be ok in the end, somehow, but without any concrete plans either. I think
Infa
… I think we have a lot of very hard work ahead of us, especially the young generation. If it doesn’t kill us, it will make us stronger…
Jo
Thanks Chris, I had a few ‘aha!’ moments while reading your post – particularly the perils of using short cuts. I wondered why a YouTube video disappeared from my blog! And so with you on the Ted Talks procrastination syndrome. Those talks are like catnip.
Overall, a very useful post that I will undoubtedly return to time and again.
Cheers, Jo.
Alan Butland
A truly delightful series of blogs, full of good advice for potential interns. They clearly show what a supportive and encouraging company TLD is to work with.
I understand the problem with crossing the road, it took me a while when I was working in Europe, but what is this thing about the English keyboard? How different is it?
Alan
Really valuable advice here. Thank you.
Ann Wright
Very useful crib sheet – am going to do the first today!
Caroline Bosher
Hi Keren – it’s been too long since I’ve seen you! I saw your talk appear on LinkedIn and my business partner and I would love to attend if you have any spots left?
Very best,
Caroline
Carol Roberts
Excellent article, Keren! I’ve been doing some content sharing all along, but you’ve given me lots of ideas for other ways to do it. I’m sharing this on LinkedIn.
Claire
Lovely post Keren. And good luck to Charlotte! It’s so rare to find good people – great story and great outcome.
Nicoletta Adda
Ciao Keren! I’ve been to Bulgaria many times too and the last time I visited Nu Boyana which I loved! It is like a beautiful oasis outside Sofia.
Tanya
Message for Keren
I love Sophia too! Amazing place. The food is awesome. It’s great to see you looking so well x x x
David Marks
Brilliant article! And BNI St Paul’s are brilliant too!
Rajshree Murarka
It is the nice reminder for a member for motivation.
Dorine Kielly
Love to learn more about the benefits of BNI!
Ray Spex
I was in BNI for 8 years. It was a good experience, but as I became more successful it seemed to consume more and more of my time until I seemed to be spending nearly 1 full working day on BNI. Was the investment in time worth it? Maybe. But it also seemed BNI didn’t want you to be overly successful because it meant you didn’t need them.
As an expanding one-man business I always felt trapped by the business. I couldn’t get away for a long break. After I left BNI, I realised I wasn’t trapped by the business, I was trapped by BNI with the strict attendance policy and everything else that goes with it.
I would still recommend BNI, I am happy to have been a member, but even happier I’m no longer part of it.
There is life after BNI, and its good!
Peter Vukcevic
SSL is a small, subtle sign of trust which, I think, is very important to an average internet user. They are constantly bombarded with the treats of fishing and the possibility of identity theft, that they are looking for anything that can give them a bit of security.
Darryl
I committed to a year and BNI Biscayne connections Miami Florida but the members kicked me out after 9 months not even letting me complete my full year with the reason that I just wasn’t getting the referrals that I should. I explained to him that as a commercial real estate professional deals take time to put together and I didn’t expect immediate results and I wanted to continue for a second year but they would not let me turns out they had their sites on a current member who is a book reseller to replace me as commercial realtor. Little did I know this until after I left. So you can see how I feel that there are unscrupulous individuals with ulterior motives that really have done a disservice to the BNI model
Genevieve
Bravo!
Matt Turner
Great article Keren, what you say is so true. My sole video re property tips on instrgram got many more hits than a stand alone photo. You have reminded me to do more. Thank you
Siobhan Casey
Hi there Keren,
If you still have any availability, I would love to take you up on this planning session?
Let me know.
Kind regards,
Siobhan
Metier Rendezvous
Kim Jobst
Love this blog – thank you – I am one of those crazys that you refer to at the beginning, but one who also labels and fils much to the consternation of my colleague…. but I wasn’t always and I would love to return to inbox 0…. you have inspired me!
bill young
…and people so often say they can’t think of subjects to write about!
Albert David
Thanks for the tips. I’ll keep that in mind next time I think about choosing the pro version.
Barbara Classen
Thank you Keren and team , really interesting. I am going to send an interview request to the lovely people from easygerman.org. Great podcasts and videos for learners of German. As I recently features them in a Blog on various podcasts I am most certain they will say yes.
Barbara Classen
Another interesting article, Karen. I recognize some of those lovely clients, Interesting also that you tag your blog articles and your bold invidation to share on Social media. I am enjoying myself reading through your blog articles this afternoon.
Kate Lovejoy
I need to create a landing page ASAP.
Can I ask about the free one training session? Is the 11th word ‘ask’? And it’s actually this post? Have I won?!
Clever if it is as I had a look at some of the other posts too!
Frank Boltman
HI Karen
It certaiy caught my eye !
I would love to have your help in my buisness at this very difficult time.
I believe you could add real value in a specific and experienced way.
Best wishes
Frank
So Elliem
Hahahaha are they exactly like Parvaneh and Patrick??
Delahoz32084@aol.com
Sara
Great blog, a checklist for improving the effectiveness of social media marketing. The 8 looks like an exclamation mark in a classic late 1960’s font!
Jack David
Nice Article
Helen Mcluckie
Is that Tina who used to come to my gallery in St Ives ? If so I’d love to hear from you x Helen
Keren Lerner
Hi Helen, I spoke to Tina, she said: “Hi, how funny! Yes, I know Helen! I did have some artwork in her gallery in St Ives. Unfortunately, we lost touch over the year but I’d love to get back in touch. I’m not sure I have any of her contact details though!
Can you email us your contact info to team@topleftdesign.com? We’ll send it on!
Thanks,
Keren
Scott Herkes
It looks like his profile has been shutdown. Probably because of the exposure he’s received from his incredible work. Any way to find his Etsy shop? I’ve tried looking but just find crap.
Keren Lerner
I emailed you with an update!
Scott Herkes
Better late than never! Thank you.
Pranit Dhonge
I am interested in your membership
Anne Dowling
Keren – this is wonderful. As two budding entrepreneurs who started their business together I feel we have shared this journey together.
Outsourced sales is an interesting ‘lesson’ and one I have also recently embarked upon. We are in the early days however you have been very humble in your approach to learning and that makes it easier for all of us to acknowledge the good and the bit so good bits of the pie.
Lots of positiveness here and I love working with you and your team. It’s always a pleasure, challenging and a learning experience.
I may well take up one of your spots for a lower budget website as I’m developing an idea for my photography love. Will it become a business?? Who knows .. what magic can the TLD team work.
Gina has made some wonderful moments and really captures the essence of you and the subject matter.
Happy New 12 months!
Anne
test
The last subheading needs some proofreading, other than that great article!
Keren Lerner
Thanks for spotting, fixed now!
Julia Klein
Yeah, collaboration definitely becomes easier when you use project management tools. There are more benefits from it, check them out: https://kanbantool.com/blog/a-comprehensive-list-of-benefits-of-using-online-project-management
Danielle
Thank you for the wonderful blog post. This was an excellent summation of many of the benefits of a BNI membership. I have been in BNI for eight years now and it has been excellent for my career. I am going to present your post for our education moment this week and my Bni group. Thank you!
Bertie Oberholster
Candice is a very conscientious worker.
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melodyrilay
How do you change the font in LiveJournal?
You can change the font on the Customize Journal Style page; the font settings can be set in the “Fonts” section. You should replace Arial with the name of the font you would like to use, 12pt with the size, and #000000 with the hexadecimal color code you would like for your journal.
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arth
You can Watch the Latest News on arthParkash
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Arth Parkash
You can Watch the Latest News on arthParkash
Read More: Hindi News | breaking news in hindi
melodyrilay
Hitler continued to eat a favourite dish, Leberklösse (liver dumplings).” Today, it is believed by scholars, including Alan Bullock, Arnold Aluke, Clinton Sanders and Robert Procter, that Hitler — at least during the war — followed a vegetarian diet.
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melodyrilay
What font should you use for a student’s CV?
Common Resume Fonts
The most common font used is black Times New Roman at 12 points in size. Other serif fonts, those that have tails, that work well include Cambria, Georgia, Garamond, Book Antiqua, and Didot.
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melodyrilay
How do I change the default font in Microsoft Word?
To use your favorite font in Word all the time, set it as the default.
Go to Format > Font > Font. You can also press and hold. + D to open the Font dialog box.
Select the font and size you want to use.
Select Default, and then select Yes.
Select OK.
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Jill osborne
I don’t want lots of followers on Twitter. I just love the information that comes from Twitter and how it is often posted days before it appears on mainstream media and I filter it. I enjoy the people that I choose to follow but I don’t want followers other than my family.
Chris R
I’ve been on Twitter for a couple of years. I don’t follow anyone and I have 5 followers. I really don’t care if I have any followers or not. I have certain people I will read posts from, maybe I’ll leave comments. Or if something is in the news, I’ll check Twitter. That’s it.
In Twitter world, that makes me a “bot” apparently. According to some, to make any Tweet “valid” I need to have some sort of fan club behind me. I’m not there to make friends, that’s what Facebook is for. But, yeah, as soon as someone disagrees with me, I get “you’ve got no followers, you’re a bot”. Ok, whatever you say.
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NJ Graphica
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NJ Graphica
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Türkiye’den Hollanda’ya Sineklik Gönderimi Hollanda ve diğer avrupa ülkelerine gönderimini yaptığımız plise sineklikler hakkında daha fazla.
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sgtamilan
Read information Choosing between “Breaking News” and “Blog” depends on the brand and audience preferences. Ultimately, it’s about engaging readers with the right terminology, aligning with your brand identity and encouraging discovery. Great idea.
MOM
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slade
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edvin
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Ress Teva
Those coders didn’t last the distance. But our core team did, for years and drift boss years.
Lindsey John
Fantastic insights on customer engagement! Your practical tips are a game-changer. Looking forward to implementing them. Thanks for sharing!
Check out this blog as well:
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Pinnedin
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Leland Harper Drake
Let me know what type of content you’d like to see more of in the future!
factgasm
Here in Indonesia, we designers frequently embed important text in images. This means it can’t be translated to other languages on the fly.
Here’s a classic example:
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Jasa digital marketing
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