Clarihon blog

• Welcome to Clarihon Web Service’s blog

At last the constant stream of frightening and depressing business/economic stories has slowed to a trickle so perhaps we can now just be worried rather than suicidal? Well, I hope it’s the same for you but we’re not seeing any sign of a slow-down. Granted, we’re not in a high-tech or manufacturing town or city but Plymouth is only 15 miles away.

Along with a steadily growing stream of enquiries and new clients, most of the businesses we speak to don’t seem to be struggling. Sure, there’s the exception but they’re just that – the exception. The business club we belong to (Business League, Saltash (link here)) started off with about 10 members a year ago and we’ve just recruited 3 more to take us to 25.

The truth is that any business that delivers good, honest services or products and markets itself effectively will be OK. As long as you do the basics right, keep your profile high and retain a positive outlook business will continue to come in.

If you want to see how great blogs can look and what they can be used for, have a look at some of these:

The wedding photography blog: http://weddingphotographyblog.com/

Behind the sofa: http://tachyontv.typepad.com/waiting_for_christopher/

New music strategies: http://newmusicstrategies.com/

Grain edit: http://grainedit.com/

Boagworld – http://www.boagworld.com/

Bear in mind that most, if not all of these, required a high degree of customisation. What they illustrate though is that, like all areas of the Internet, anything is possible if you have the time – and the money!

In the article What is a blog? we made reference to search engines (Google, Yahoo etc.) adding more weight to their ranking of your site with the addition of a blog.

Factors that seem to have some bearing on this are:

- blogs are written in a conversational style with each posting relating to a single topic which is likely to be rich in keywords and phrases

- blogs can be set up so that the page name is the title of the blog posting which is something search engines like

- many blogs use a template supplied with the programme so the code is “clean” and well structured

- there are usually plenty of links with blogs – another aspect that search engines take into account

- blogs usually have a simple structure in terms of the pages so it’s easy for them to be explored and indexed by search engines

If you’ve thought about adding a blog to your site but not sure where to start then why not give us a call today on 01579 342360.

We have added a blog to our own web site which we have found is a good way to link with our newsletter.  Rather than including lengthy articles if readers are interested they can access the main article on the blog.  We also use it to let people know about our latest projects and general news that might be of interest.

A few weeks ago we sent notice of the Good News Blog we helped create.  This is non-commercial and aims to counteract some of the gloomy stories that the media seem determined to bombard us with.  Don’t forget, if you come across good business or economic stories that would be nice to share, then use the link on the web site to send to us … and always look on the bright side (of life).

In the last newsletter we mentioned a site we were developing for a CV writing company -  SPP CV.  They wanted to be able to edit it for themselves so the site was developed in Word Press and is an example of how Word Press can be customised to fit a specific look and purpose.

You could be blogging too!

If you’ve thought about adding a blog to your site but not sure where to start then why not give us a call today on 01579 342360.

Fed up of hearing only bad (economic and business) news?

A friend, client and business colleague of ours decided that he’d had enough of the sort of news that the BBC was routinely broadcasting – especially at the height of the banking crisis and as it was becoming official that Britain was entering a recession.

Being desperate, and totally devoid of alternatives (obviously!), he approached us for help. His idea was to create a web site or Blog presenting the balancing view of the doom and gloom being purveyed.

Calling upon friends and colleagues for help to provide the design and graphics, we created a new Blog. If you’d like to read about good economic and business news, with the odd ‘human interest’ story for good measure, pop along to www.goodnewsblog.org.uk

If you come across any stories that you think we should feature (excluding any obvious business self-promotion), please e-mail details to us. The address to reach us with us is at the bottom of the right-hand sidebar. If you could send this on to any of your friends, relatives and business contacts that you think might be interested, perhaps we can help many more people to “Always look on the bright side of life……”