Blogs and the snow

Gosh what a week in the UK. Yes this is my obligatory snow post :)



Earlier this year we had snow and I blogged and video'd a few snow posts. Driving in the snow is here



You can see Ken talking about his snow tyres here.



Jackie Walker shares the seduction of snow here and how she has prepared for it in Scotland.



Are you prepared for the snow?



Sarah



Sameday couriers

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5 Ways to Win More Business with Google Places

Interesting - are you using Google places?

Amplify’d from www.toprankblog.com

With the rise of smart phone use in the US, (Google Android and iPhone are currently reporting roughly 500,000 activations a day ) it’s more important than ever to have your Google places listing up to speed because when people use voice search on  Android phones, the first results they see are from Google local.

With the recent Google launch of Hotpot, Google is entering the local recommendation space.   Hotpot combines Google Places, the places you like and the places your friends like making it even easier for people to make decisions about which local businesses to patronize. Read more at www.toprankblog.com

 

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Do you have an interest in Africa?

If you do, have you met Ida Horner?



Over at Birds on the Blog, we adopted twin African girls through one of Ida's charities. Ida helps African women generate business through her site Ethnic Supplies. The women make the products and Ida sells them, and the women get paid a sustainable income.



Ida never asks for herself, she has only ever asked for the women in Africa who depend on her.



Well, one of Ida's customers went bust owing her a lot of money. That puts her December trip to Uganda in jeopardy.



If she doesn't go, there will be no more work for the women involved in her projects. Communities will be affected. Families affected. Children affected. Ok, I guess it's not as big as Bono pulling our of Africa :), but people need her help, she's their hand up.



Ida blogged about it and the African community have rallied and tried to help her, they even have their own hash tag (which came about as a bit of humour in a tough situation). It's #AfricanCyberBegging. Her request is here - Airmiles to Africa



So I will ask you, do you have any airmiles, points from loyalty cards that can become airmiles. Can you help us to send Ida to Africa, so she can continue her work.



Would you consider buying one gift from her site as a Christmas present if you don't have airmiles to donate?



Please click the Airmiles to Africa link and tweet it out.



Together we can help someone, it doesn't take a lot if we work together.



Sarah

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A week on the road

This week we have blogged mainly on road safety.



We got Kevin in front of the Flip and started filming the first in a series of videos. I am sooo not impressed by the hat, and see if you notice a small change around half way through.







In the article there is mention of a handy iPhone app that can help you find the accurate pressure of your tyres! No more under-inflating and lots of fuel saved! It's a great post to check out -http://arrowlighthaulage.co.uk/arrowblog/1807/check-your-tyres/



We also talked about a dangerously more common  drugged driving. Not illegal drugs but over the counter prescriptions. You can read more here - http://arrowlighthaulage.co.uk/arrowblog/1796/are-you-drugged-driving/



Doug Jenner gets creative in his writing and tells us the tale of jealousy and misery, and for the record our other woman is called Mrs Hawkins :)



http://www.blokesontheblog.co.uk/dear-mum-and-dad/



Kev also wrote briefly on shed delivery... yeah sheds :)



So that is our week on the road, in blogs.



Sarah



Same day couriers

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Should you work with a writing coach?

URL:  http://www.birdsontheblog.co.uk/working-with-a-writing-...

If you are a budding novelist, writer or blogger... should you work with a writing coach?

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Blogging and twitter whirl....

This week I felt terrible. I realised I had been neglecting my newly resurrected Amplify blog :(



So an update is in order...



Last weekend I wrote on my sandpit blog about stealing other peoples blogs. It got good traffic but no comments (I can live with that ;) )

The other day, by accident I came across a courier company who had taken one of my ezine articles and stripped my links out of it, then posted it as their own work.



So I pinged over a ‘cease and desist’ email and got a hugely patronising response back…



No need for threats here …. I’m VERY, VERY sorry and I will more careful in the future … I was just worried about who I was linking to and was lazy not to check it out … I used an article once that pointed my visitors to porn …



So Laura … could you send me the html that you would like me to add to my article and I will get it up ASAP …. or would you rather me remove the article?



Awaiting your reply …



Bruce



Well, I tore Bruce a new backside for stealing my work. The annoying thing is, he could have used it correctly and linked back and no damage would have been done. Right now I know a few things about Bruce that he thinks I don’t... Stealing other people's blog posts

So, he gets your name wrong, big deal you may think. Well this guy is trying to make a living delivering things, he should have an eye for detail or he'll collect the wrong cargo!



Over at Business on Twitter (owned by the lovely Nikki Pilkington, who lets me have a weekly column to write about twittery things) I wrote about Carol Vorderman and how she is giving away her shoes on twitter... yes really. She has kipper feet ;) (only teasing).

Is there something business related that you can give away via twitter that would benefit many?



Remember, this isn’t just Carol Vorderman giving away her shoes, she has to package them and send them, so it’s costing her money to do this. So if you are planning a series of giveaways for physical products then you need to factor in all the costs.



Does a physical product giveaway work better on twitter?



If you have an exclusive product that would benefit from great ‘Word of Mouth’ then a physical giveaway is a great idea. If it’s portable, then people will show it to other people and talk about the product. It may lead them to searching you out on twitter or searching for the product.



That doesn’t work quite so well for a generic product as the search may not lead back to you and your business.

I also wrote about twitter turning us into a nation of whingers. It seems like we have ceased to use a complaints procedure and gone full bent on moaning about companies using social media tools.

There is something utterly repellent about someone who whines all the time. Lately when I look on twitter, someone whom I am following is whining about something, if it’s not #Barclays it’s #BT, if it’s not them it’s some other big name being berated for not doing something for one of their customers.



Let’s be honest with each other here, if you were the boss of BT, how likely would you be to go on twitter? If it was me, I’d say no way, I get nagged enough at work. Does Engagement really mean answering a never ending stream of gripes from customers?



Is twitter turning us into a nation of whingers

I have wrote over at blogmistress too, my usual column about the love involved in a multi author blog :) Will make that tomorrow's Amplify! :)



I shall leave you with Chainsaws...

Getting social media - yes people who 'get it' and acting like smug marrieds have been winding me up this week. So I took a chainsaw to them. I don't get social media is here

Let's not be strangers :)



Sarah

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Prepping for Christmas deliveries

Working for a sameday courier company means a lot of the work is ad hoc, and because it is left to the last minute it becomes a premium service. 11 months a the year that works perfectly. Except for December.



In December time seems to get shorter. As an ethical business we will not take work if we cannot complete it, although there are many national parcel companies that will take the packages and do their best, even if that means the parcel sits in the warehouse over Christmas.



We also have watched vans go out overloaded and understaffed, that also means you don't get your goods in time for Christmas. It also means when stores are cutting costs that you don't always get the service you require-

So the courier company will give the shop/warehouse several prices -

• Two man team, dedicated delivery



• Two man team, no fixed time



• Delivery on a dedicated vehicle



• Delivery on a specific schedule, a working driver

Guess which one is the cheapest? Did you say the last one? Given the choice of the 4 options, and the store knowing you have disabilities / no parking / no one home until lunch, they always go for the cheapest.



Just blame the delivery guy

As a consumer there are things you can do to prevent Christmas presents being stuck in a depot...



Get things prepped early.



Ask if there is terminology that you don't understand.



Ask if there are any expected delays



Be prepared that if you leave things to the last minute you have two options - cheap and it risks non delivery, expensive but guaranteed delivery with a same day courier. Same day couriers are the only courier services that have a 100% effective guarantee. Don't believe me? check the small print of the guaranteed deliveries...



Sarah

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