My friend Morag posted this onto Facebook, and I like the idea immensely; not sure I'll have the gumption to use it, but you never know...

(email from company to client)

Dear Fred

My name is MAISY and I’m the Bloggins & Co software.

I’ve got some good news, some really good news and some even better news for you.

The good news is that, at the moment, only you and I know that your invoice for £XX (ref: XX, date) is overdue. 

The really good news is that I am not programmed to tell [insert partner’s name] about it for another seven days.

And the even better news is that I’ve discovered a way for us to sort it out between ourselves without involving him.

All you need to is send me cheque in the next seven days and I will erase the overdue record from my hard drive. That way no-one else need ever know.

Yours etc

MAISY

Having just seen a cartoon posted by @andylopata "Twitter relationship warning http://bit.ly/N7Ymq and indeed having a wry chuckle at this, I did also wonder if perhaps Twitter or Facebook could be used in a helpful way with relationships. 

In the last year or several of my marriage I spent more and more time online of an evening, usually interacting with my friends and following social interests - having young children, and indeed my friends not being local to me, it was the simplest and most accessible way of socialising - albeit in a virtual sense, but the friendships no less for that.  But seeing your other half at her laptop/blackberry/iphone/whatever all the time, chatting, updating and tweeting with other people does not encourage discussion, I'm sure - especially when you don't really understand what she's doing, never mind why.

Obviously we should disengage from so much online activity and spend more time with our partners - but in the real world we may be trying to build a business and the evening tweeting is the same as the "other half" working late at the office, or perhaps there's nothing to say to each other, or we become so used to filling our time with something that we don't quite know what to do when we do "switch off". Whatever it is, it seems to me that rather than railing against whatever is claiming your partner's time, take a look yourself and even engage in the social places that your partner hangs out. 

I can see that I did end up shutting out my husband, not intentionally - he worked very long hours and would be gone before the kids woke up and frequently get home late - way past their bedtime (and usually just at the time when I was looking forward to a little "me" time).  His career and work did not include a need to embrace this online social stuff, so he hasn't - but that's where I was (and still am) spending my time - not only for my business but also for the company, being honest.  And yes it would be nice to go out with friends - that will come, however since Kent has been my home there's been little time for going out and meeting new friends - in my day you kind of did that together, and of course my husband was working late or knackered, and is not the most sociable of chaps anyway. It's easy to slip into such ways, especially when you have kids, I think.  Of course I could go out on my own, and did - using my business as a reason - networking!  But that's not really social - it can be, but it's not the primary reason and so not quite so relaxed as simply going out with chums for a good natter.  And I've yet to pin down a good babysitter!

Anyway - I'm wittering all over the place here - the point I'm sort of trying to make is that if your other half is online and socialising, then you may be welcome to join her - I'll bet you learn more about her than you expect.  Just a thought...  Perhaps my friend Jackie has some thoughts on this..

Also - we do need to switch off more.  It is shutting your partner out and that may be what you want to do, but it's not likely to improve things - do we need to agree evenings when we don't "go out online" and spend that with our other half.  I am certain that if my ex and I had set aside even just one evening a week, a fortnight, we would have stood a much greater chance of working things out than we did.  That is one marriage that should not have broken down and could have grown and grown - and perhaps I should have shut down the laptop more often, even if that did not result in conversation, it would have been more obviously open to it.

Enough - I've work to do... (and will start crying if I carry on - do excuse such meanderings)

One of the reasons I've not done many workshops before is that I really want them to be useful - for those attending to go away feeling that they've had more than their money's worth - and to take action and do what they've been taught.  Now that takes some putting together but I hear of too many people going to workshops, loving them but not actually then following on to do what they went to learn.  I'm sure I shouldn't worry so about this - horses to water and all that - but it bothers me.

The time has come, however, for me to put more workshops together so that people can put together their own WordPress website and also feel comfortable doing their own Internet marketing.

First thing to arrange is the venue. Now do you want computers provided (so hiking the cost) or to bring your own laptop?  Do you want a small group with very individual attention, or a larger group (at a lower cost)?

What do you, or do you think you would, prefer?

Thanks for your feedback in advance - it will be really useful.

Babs

I'm helping a couple of chums who are looking for high-level jobs.  Obviously not the best time to be doing such, and neither are youthful chaps (in years, that is), so any extra support that the web can offer them will be welcome.

Now if I was looking for a job I would have my CV on a website (using Wordpress, of course) as well as the paper copy.  But that's me, and something that would be expected. 

But what of other business areas - for director and/or senior management.  To me it would be somewhere to demonstrate an understanding on both topical and the basics of the area of expertise, I suggest.  So blogging a couple of times each week, or more often if something arises in the news, plus some case studies, perhaps, and generally having somewhere to expand on the various areas of your CV.

What do you think?  Have you done this - did it work or was it a waste of your time? What do you think could be useful?

Thanks again on a day full of asking for your comments...

We all get them - emails from SEO companies that tell us that your keywords are wrong for your website and that they can do a much better job and achieve great things.

Are they right?

Not a week goes by without one of my clients forwarding such an email to me asking if they are right, even those that know and trust that I know what I'm doing. Being constantly emailed to say that you've got it wrong is going to create a doubt.

From my point of view, when a client raises their doubts with me, it offers a good opportunity to review what their website is really doing for them.  The Internet marketing side of things moves so fast now - if you really want the web to be bringing you more - business, visitors, subscribers, whatever - then you do need to be reviewing this often - monthly as a minimum, I'd say.  And indeed I take care of that for those of my clients that included this with their project - so long as I can get hold of them (but that's for another blog!).

I'd like to know what you think of those emails - do they make you want to sign up to whatever they are offering, do they raise doubts - and if so, what do you do with those doubts?  I'll be writing an article on what to do and want to base that on your experiences and on what you want to know.  So please add below your thoughts,  etc...

Thank you

Babs

During my regular browse of what's going on for my keywords and those of a few clients, I took a look at Bing last week and loved the results for some of the searches that are nowhere to be found on Google.

So later today I'm going to have a good look at how useful Bing could be - not just from a search results point of view, but also to see how many people go to a website as a result of a Bing search.

Let's see how useful Bing might be able to be for us - do we take it seriously and give it more attention than we might perhaps have done so far?

Thoughts and feedback welcome - all will be credited in the Blogmistress blog later...