~SusanneUK~ Sues Digest

Back in June I decided to start targeting offline bricks and mortar businesses in my local area of Ammanford, South Wales. I decided it was about time I put an update on how it is all going and I can’t believe it was in June that I made this decision and last posted here, boy have I been busy!

I have not been able to post for a couple of other reasons as well, holiday, moving house (so without internet connection for a few weeks) but apart from that I have been busily putting together the framework for my new business.

It has been a huge amount of work which is still not all done but I am getting there. I decided I wanted to offer my local Amman Valley businesses a full Internet Service if you like with 3 different elements:

Marketing (including making them a website)
Hosting
Advertising on my marketing site and my Directory

Further explanation of that is that I can offer them hosting if they already have a website (or free as part of a web design package). I can offer marketing and a website tailored to their business and ranked well locally in google. And I can offer advertising as well in my local business and community directory (portal as they are more often know online).

Not all of those three elements are complete yet, still work to do but it has been fun (and hard work) - in recent weeks I have been concentrating my efforts solely on the Business and Community Directory, by adding listings to it and trying also to make it a fun and informative place for local people because you need to get repeat visitors locally to make it attractive for local businesses to advertise on.

For a sneak peek at some of what has been going on you can visit the directory here if you have a mind to:

Amman Valley Business and Community Directory

But please remember this is still a work in progress. I mentioned in my previous post about outsourcing some work that you may not be so good at and more to save me some time I am outsourcing my logo work for the header of the directory and at the moment, still waiting on that.

The other thing I wanted to mention for anyone who is interested in tackling their local area is that I have got pretty much most of my help and advise from a great bunch of people who are members of “Local Biz Builders” and in particular the “special forces” section of that forum. I also mentioned Andrew Cavanagh, in my last post, here is a member there and regularly answers lots of questions - it is a great place to get help and learn your trade, also to give help as well.

If you want to check that out, then please click the button size banner in the right hand sidebar, the button at the top.

Right back to work for me and I will try and report back a little bit sooner next time.

Something I realized just a few short weeks ago and have been cramming information into my poor little brain since then is one very simple fact that I am absolutely sure is going to help me start earning a wonderful and steadily growing income.

That simple fact, which probably applies to most Internet Marketers (yes even you new to the game guys and gals) is that, everything you have learnt to help you build your business online is most probably an absolute goldmine of information to an “offline business”.

I know that in my little area of the world in South Wales, UK that most people barely know how to switch their computer on, let alone how to use it to increase business to their offline interests BUT and this is the important bit, a lot of those very same people are now realizing that they NEED an online presence but yikes! they have no idea how to go about it, nor the time it would take to learn what to do.  Well can you see where you come in?

Are you a copywriter and can you put a site online, e.g. a self hosted wordpress site?

If you can’t put a site online but you know a little about online marketing then you can outsource the other work.

If your an SEO expert this is perfect for you as well.

In fact, all you really need is enough online marketing knowledge to get a business owners attention.

Well I have, what I thought was a little bit of knowledge in each of the above areas (after a bit of offline research I am now realizing, it’s a fair bit of knowledge compare to offline business owners) and with the contacts I have made online, I know I can, if I want or need to, outsource some of the work at very reasonable costs.

You are probably thinking, well that’s going to cost me a lot to get this business set up if I have to outsource some of it.. well no actually.

You see, offline businesses are used to spending way more on Marketing than we online people are used to, so you simply include the outsource into the quote you will give them, they invariably are still getting marketing cheaper than they normally pay and you are left to do the part of the business that you are good at, or perhaps just love more than the other bits, whatever your personal reason would be to outsource.

OK so before I go off on another tangent, which I am apt to do, sorry LOL let me give you this link to a pdf I found that is going to help me set about doing this because if this idea interests you at all, well I reckon you want me to stop blabbing and get to the point LOL.

This is by “Andrew Cavanagh” who is a member of the marvellous Warrior Forum and it’s called “Offline Gold for the Online Marketer” and yes there is a price tag, at the moment that is $19.99 and I am told, that price will go up - take a look and see if you think it’s something you could do, oh and wish me luck as I embark on this endeavor which I am very excited about.

I am very tempted to say I will give a progress report here BUT I also realize I might be to damn busy! Hey let’s see how that goes, perhaps a monthly update will be a doable thing and we can all compare notes.

OK lets do the shameless plug first, get it out of the way I say LOL

I have a new blog called “Osmonds Galore” which I am getting “stuff” including content onto as fast as my little pinkies and people knocking at the door with flippin leaflets! will let me, why, well just because! lol

Real reasons:

I find I am blogging more and more on this blog about The Osmonds nowadays and not much else, so I think that needs it’s own home/blog.

The timing is right as far as I am concerned with The Osmonds 50th Anniversary Tour kicking off just a few days ago in Belfast.

I have my own ‘Meet and Greet’ with all of the Osmonds to attend next week on the 28th and yup! I am gonna do a blog about that because it will be so much fun.

So people who want to subscribe to something about the Osmonds can do so WITHOUT getting email updates about Internet Marketing, which, if they subscribe here, they will get.. I am sure they are not interested in those, so this way, they can subscribe to “Osmonds Galore” and only get what they are interested in.

Some more reasons which I forget right now.

I hope to make “Osmonds Galore” into a bit more than a blog and add things like chat facilities, a forum, a place to locate Osmond Memorabilia, other Osmond fan guest blogging, other competitions, raise money for Marie Osmonds Childrens Miracle Network, all kinds of other ideas too. 

One of my first posts over there is called “Marie Osmond on floor again” and includes video from Entertainment Tonight (amusing, not nasty) if you would like to read that, please hop on over and also don’t forget to subscribe via the feedburner email subscription in the sidebar so that you will get emailed any time I make a post over there and more importantly, if you are an Osmond fan, you will also get entered into the competition I will run after the tour to win a photo or photos (presuming I get some good ones from the Meet and Greet), details of that will be on the blog when I have it more finalized, however, just subscribe and your entered.

Here is the link if the ones in the text above do not work for you: http://osmondsgalore.co.uk/

Thanks for reading and if you know anyone who loves The Osmonds, please pass the link on.

Sue

Just a quick update today on the upcoming Osmonds 50th Anniversary UK Tour - all the Osmonds are over here now doing various promotional work before the actual tour begins.

With them they have Jeremy Hall who is the official photographer for the tour.  Jeremy always manages not just to get really wonderful photos but also to get really unusual ones, not your standard Celebrity ones.  I guess it must help being along for the ride for the whole tour to get those unusual snaps but still he has done some wonderful work with Donny Osmond in recent tours both here and in the US.

I can’t wait to see what he comes up with now he has the chance to get to know and photograph the whole Osmond family, not just Donny.

Here is an example of just such a photo of Donny, taken during their travels over to the UK, it’s on Jeremy’s own blog called “What’s Gotta Stay” and I love this one, simply because it’s not “posed” and I know most Osmond fans will also lap up this kind of photo, so kudos Jeremy.

Just a reminder (or perhaps you didn’t read my previous post on the upcoming tour), if you would be interested in reading my experience of a Meet and Greet for The Osmonds Cardiff concert and/or if you have a burning question you would like to “Ask an Osmond”, or perhaps you would like a free photo emailed to you from the tour (if I get any good ones LOL) then please read the following snippet from that post and/or click to go read it to see what you need to do and don’t worry, it’s not going to cost you anything.

Click Here to go to the previous post

Thanks

Sue

Snippet:

I have decided that I will be blogging about the whole experience of the 28th May, with photos and so if that would interest you, then please do register (top left under my photo) to receive blog updates via newsletter - then you won’t miss anything and for those of you who do, IF I manage to take any good photos then I will select a few to send to you. You don’t need to accept the current free download gift that goes with subscription to “Sue’s Digest” but what you will need to do is, go to my contact page, either before or after subscribing, and send me a quick email with OSMOND in the subject, then I can put you in a separate list from my other subscribers and make sure you get a photo.

Now lastly, I would love to know what any of you would want to “Ask an Osmond” at a question and answer session, so please do leave me a comment and tell me what you would ask.. and perhaps let me know via comments if you would like me to blog and show some other photos from all the recent Donny tours I have been on?