April Meeting
Another good attendance of 14 eager online marketers contributing to a lively and packed meeting.
Yours truly went first (for a change!) to tell the group about NicheMarketingBlogger.com where I am setting out to demonstrate the process of earning at least a reasonable income from blogging on your chosen subject. While the niche market in this case is blogging itself the process can be applied equally well to whatever your chosen niche market might be.
Though still in its early stages and slowed down by the necessity to document the process in detail everyone is till invited to visit, sign up and follow along with progress.
Michael Richards' taichiteambuilding.co.uk was next up. With the tai-chi site up already for recruiting corporate work Michael is considering how to adapt his product and maximise his income with online sales through different channels. His mind/body health approach together with being unique in the UK with the Four Minute Fitness programme has considerable potential.
Brian Gibson's StepIntoInternetMarketing.com already shows signs of adaptation to the landing page following his last visit to the group. StepIntoInternetMarketing.com provides 3 day training courses for beginners to internet marketing.
So it was very interesting to hear Brian report on his experience after buying the Semiologic Wordpress blogging package after his last visit. Having given it a thorough once over himself he is now changing his recommendations for website building on his courses away from html and solely to Semiologic due to it's power and ease of use.
Gerard Marcel's favoured subject is healthy aging and he reported progress since the last meeting that he now has his blog up at LouisMarcel.com. Some advice on cleaning up the superfluous default links was provided. A great example of progress being made.
Websites-uk.com is the work of Arthur Stoller who travelled down from Nottingham for his first visit. Arthur has an existing business at websites-uk dealing mostly in Search Engine Optimisation and brought some useful experience and contributions to the group. As well as his existing business Arthur is interested in moving into affiliate marketing. We also racked up a success for the group by solving a specific problem on Google indexing that Arthur was experiencing. Two heads (well, fourteen in this case) are always better than one!
Likewise, Gren Bingham's wise head and experience made contributions to everyone else's issues though I am at fault for managing to miss his report out of the discussions. You can still find him at http://win-with.us.
Laurie Dalton's Web Booking Form is still occupying back burner position in his life but he remains interested in all feedback from members on usability and improvements. With a senior technical position at Reuters for many years he is now working on developing websites for others as well as a new software project on optimising the presentation of multiple, large image files on the web page.
Linda reported on developments with her ecommerce site at ShiftDress.co.ukand got some advice on presentation and copy.
Copywriter Sian Murphy is working on developing a website review service while partner Mark has been absorbing the contents of PPC Classroom with the intention of starting into affiliate marketing of Clickbank products.
Following the intention he expressed at the last meeting, Frank Piazza has launched his blog on Web 2.0 at Web2Diary.com. Following his enthusiasm for the subject we are hopeful that Frank will soon be providing good advice to the group on social networking issues.
Loran has run into a few technical questions with her blog on how to Control Depression which were sorted out. The relevant tips on changing header images in basic Wordpress themes will appear shortly on NicheMarketBlogger.com
Some useful tools that emerged from the discussion:
For producing fancy images of text and shapes: http://www.quickwebcreations.com/ - Just decline the OTO (one-time-offer) and you will be given access as a free member. The paid for version is intended for graphic designers who are using it all the time. As a free member - which is good enough for occasional use you can use the tools but cannot save the image settings.
Use the images produced by QuickWebCreations in XHeader, free from XHeader.com.
Interested in producing computer based training? Try Moodles, a free software tool within Fantastico on your cPanel. Find it here: http://screencast.com/t/XtSJX5oUU0
Membership site revenue calculator: http://www.scottboulch.com/calc.html
Hope to see you all again at the next meeting currently scheduled for 23rd May.
Bruce Bird is an information publisher and online marketer specialising in helping individual entrepreneurs, small and medium size companies to get online quickly, easily and effectively. Visit his blog and signup free to get marketing strategies, insights and response-boosting tips! Go now to http://BruceBird.com