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?

Do you want to give your visitors a new toy to play with?

And do you want to make it easy for them to bring over all their friends to do the same thing?

Well, soon you will be able to, read on:

Google Press Release just announced “FriendConnect” and basically it is going to give webmasters the ability, by adding a simple piece of code to their website (any kind of website) to allow their visitors to interact even more with your website and more importantly, bring over their friends easily as well.

For the visitor it means they get to do all kinds of things on your website AND takes away the boring task of continually filling out registration and profile forms, so less work for them, that’s gotta be a plus right there in my book.

I am sure most webmasters can see endless possibilities with this new application from Google, I certainly can but I would love to hear from you so please do comment and add your thoughts on this Google Press Release.

Below are some quotes from the press release and then a link to go read all of it for yourself:

“Websites that are not social networks may still want to be social — and now they can be, easily. With Google Friend Connect.”

“Google Friend Connect has been developed to lower two barriers to the spread of social features across the web. First, many website owners want to add features that enable their visitors to do things with their friends, but the technology and resource hurdles have been too high. Second, people are tiring of needing to create new logins and profiles and recreate their friends lists wherever they go on the web. Google Friend Connect offers a solution to both these issues.”

“Any website owner can add a snippet of code to his or her site and get social features up and running immediately without programming — picking and choosing from built-in functionality like user registration, invitations, members gallery, message posting, and reviews, as well as third-party applications built by the OpenSocial developer community.”

“Google FriendConnect” Press Release

The Osmonds, all of them, arrive in the UK next week to start their sell out 50th Anniversary Tour  and my darling fiancee bought me the most wonderful Christmas present, one of the VIP packages to the Cardiff Tour Date on Wednesday 28th May – which includes among other things, access to the Sound Check, Question & Answer session and Meet and Greet.. so The Osmonds finally get to meet me, sure hope they are as excited about that as I am!! LOL

Actually as you can see below I have been very lucky in recent years to fulfill my teenage dream of one day meeting Donny – yep I am one of his “Puppy Lovers” as he affectionately calls us and that means, if it’s not obvious, any fan of his from the 70’s – I saw The Osmonds twice in concert back in those teeney bopper days but was never lucky enough to meet any of them, let alone Donny (who of course, like a gazzillion other girls, I was going to marry but you know what, he never asked me, what was that all about LOL).

I first met Donny in 2004 and chose to subject the poor guy to my “statue” impression, yep, couldn’t move or talk, could barely breath! since then I have met him lots of other times and now I can actually form sentences when around him, really!

I have now found though that as you get to know Donny for the lovely down to earth bloke he is, you stop putting him up on that pedestal and you can start being human again when your around him.

Now for the rest of the family, I have been up close to Jay and Jimmy but not to chat to.  Merrill, now with our dear ‘Bear’ a few years ago, I decided that as I was not allowed to go hanging around airports, hotels and stage doors in the 70’s by my parents (I was so held back, no fair) anywho, that now as an adult, I needed to experience what that was like and headed on over to Heathrow on one of Merrill’s trips here and got some lovely pictures, a chat and a “walk with me” arm over my shoulder kind of hug.

So that leaves Wayne, Alan and Marie.

Marie, have not seen her since the 70’s – loved her on “Dancing with the Stars” recently as I love to dance as well, so I cannot wait to meet her (and she is just 4 months older than me).

Wayne is such a joker so I understand and an absolute sweetheart, cant wait to meet him.

And Alan again, never met him, so want to. 

I was lucky enough to go to The Osmonds concert and Londons Hammersmith Apollo in March of 2006 (line up was Jay, Merrill, Wayne and Jimmy) and we were told that if Alan was well enough, he may put in a guest appearance (Alan suffers with MS and has not been able to perform with his brothers for some time).  Well he did, I had a front row seat – not that you use your seat at an Osmond Concert – and when he walked onto the stage to the resounding chorus of the entire venue shouting “We Want the Osmonds” and then you stamp with your feet and repeat, over and over, well his face was an absolute picture.  I think the idea was that Jimmy would introduce him and then – allow a bit of applause then got on with one or two songs if Alan could cope – now remember Alan had not performed for years and the last time he would have seen a reaction like he got was back in the 70’s.

Well they did not get to do that, we fans had other ideas and everyone there seemed to know that WE were going to treat Alan to reliving a memory and the stomping and chanting went on for at least five minutes – yep, the Apollo full of 40 somethings women and you were transformed back to the 70’s.

Alan just stood there and took it all in and you saw the tears roll down his cheeks, I have chills now just thinking about it, I am so very proud to have been a part of that moment, of giving Alan that memory back and I so want to tell him as well and give him a hug, hopefully I will now get to do it.

The picture below is one from that concert in 2006 and we got more than one song with Alan.  That concert was not like a concert, it was like some huge family reunion.. so now with all of them, together for this 50th Anniversary Tour I simply cannot imagine what the atmosphere is going to be like.

The picture shows from left to right, Jay, Alan, Merrill and just a little bit of Wayne.

And this picture shows that an Osmond concert is the same as it was in the 70’s, just look at all those adoring hands all wanting to touch an Osmond, this is Jay running along the front of the stage and grabbing as many as he can, yep I got a quick hand hold.  I don’t know who enjoyed that concert more, us or The Osmonds LOL

Now as this blog has got very long, I had better get to my other point of it.

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?

Well I am sure tons of other bloggers have already picked up on this but I just can’t let today go past without wishing Happy Birthday to the World Wide Web and passing on my take on it.

Yep today it’s 15 years old!!

Now when my daughter was 15 she had fully morphed into “teenager from hell” or some kind of visiting alien from another planet who had invaded her body, anyway, needless to say, she was an absolute joy to live with NOT!!! But that’s a whole other blog so I won’t go into that too much here because you came here for some light reading right? not for me to depress you so much you have a crap day.

I have to report that the alien entity that was my daughter has moved on to fresher pastures (I feel for whichever parent got it) and my now 20 year old daughter really is a joy and a great friend.

So what can we expect from our ‘www’ 15 year old? the internet equivalent of acne? tantrums over nothing.. you switch on your computer, go get yourself a spiffy IE page, Firefox page, – insert your browser of choice here, page – and instead get that annoying page telling you it can’t be loaded, you know the one, perhaps it may be slightly different from now on? for instance:

Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage

Seriously, isn’t it amazing, only 15 years old – I am one of those that do not think they could cope without my daily cruise around the internet – I am online for most of the day during the week (I do work online so have some excuse, but still).

Can you remember back to “before”? what did you do with your day/night?

I mean, for instance, almost everything I do is typed – I had to sign for something in a shop the other day, I could barely write let alone remember how my signature goes!

Anyway, join me in wishing WWW a very happy birthday (and please be nice to us LOL).

This morning I was going through my usual Google Alerts, I have a few and one of them is for anything happening in “Swansea, UK” because basically, I live just down the road, well ok, about ten miles away.. anywho… the very last one alerted me to a blog called “A Day in the life of..” by ‘Norbert’.

If you go have a read you will see that Norbert had a right old time of it recently with trying to get something done by his bank via the telephone, he wrote an extremely amusing account of the whole thing.

Anyway, after reading that, it reminded me of an article that was published in the ‘New York Times’.  The articled showed an actual letter that was sent to a bank by a, then, 96 year old woman, the manager of said bank thought it amusing enough to get it published.

Now I found this letter via a forum (I am a member of many so please don’t ask me which one) and unfortunately, I can’t therefore credit a) the person who posted it to the forum or b) the original author of the letter (and indeed, not the bank manager either) but trust me when I say, this is not my work.

I am sure many of you may have come across this before but it is so funny it warrants getting published in this blog and I am sure also that there will be many people who have never seen this.  I am from the UK but I think pretty much most people will be able to sympathise with this wonderful 96 year old woman who deserves a medal and gets deepest respect from this simple blogger.

This is it, enjoy:

Dear Sir,

I am writing to thank you for bouncing my check with which I endeavored to pay my plumber last month. By my calculations, three nano seconds must have elapsed between his presenting the check and the arrival in my account of the funds needed to honor it.

I refer, of course, to the automatic monthly deposit of my entire income, an arrangement which, I admit, has been in place for only eight years. You are to be commended for seizing that brief window of opportunity, and also for debiting my account $30 by way of penalty for the inconvenience caused to your bank.

My thankfulness springs from the manner in which this incident has caused me to rethink my errant financial ways. I noticed that whereas I personally attend to your telephone calls and letters, when I try to contact you, I am confronted by the impersonal, overcharging, pre-recorded, faceless entity which your bank has become.

From now on, I, like you, choose only to deal with a flesh-and-blood person.

My mortgage and loan repayments will therefore and hereafter no longer be automatic, but will arrive at your bank, by check, addressed personally and confidentially to an employee at your bank whom you must nominate.

Be aware that it is an offense under the Postal Act for any other person to open such an envelope. Please find attached an Application Contact Status which I require your chosen employee to complete. I am sorry it runs to eight pages, but in order that I know as much about him or her as your bank knows about me, there is no alternative.

Please note that all copies of his or her medical history must be counter signed by a Notary Public, and the mandatory details of his/her financial situation (income, debts, assets and liabilities) must be accompanied by documented proof. In due course, I will issue your employee with a PIN number which he/she must quote in dealings with me.

I regret that it cannot be shorter than 28 digits but, again, I have modeled it on the number of button presses required of me to access my account balance on your phone bank service.

As they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Let me level the playing field even further.

When you call me, press the buttons as follows:

1. To make an appointment to see me.

2. To query a missing payment.

3. To transfer the call to my living room in case I am there.

4. To transfer the call to my bedroom in case I am sleeping.

5. To transfer the call to my toilet in case I am attending to nature.

6. To transfer the call to my mobile phone if I am not at home.

7. To leave a message on my computer, a password to access my computer is required. Password will be communicated to you at a later date to the Authorized Contact.

8. To return to the main menu and to listen to options 1 through 7.

9. To make a general complaint or inquiry. The contact will then be put on hold, pending the attention of my automated answering service.

While this may, on occasion, involve a lengthy wait, uplifting music will play for the duration of the call.

Regrettably, but again following your example, I must also levy an establishment fee to cover the setting up of this new arrangement.

May I wish you a happy, if ever so slightly less prosperous New Year.

Your Humble Client