The following business' listed their websites on our Facebook Page for you to check out.  Please feel free to leave a comment below and let us know if you found something to share on their site.  It helps spread the word and help improve their Search Engine Rankings.

Thanks!

 

Facebook Members & their links; 

~Walkabout Wellness ~Angels for the forgotten (caring for kids in care) ~Ambience Candles ~Wahm Connect ~Bright Star Kids Agent - Lisa Sorensen ~Chez Creations ~Suncast Printing & Office Supplies  ~Studio Dragonfly~www.heavenboundgifts.com ~Vanessa Bell - Bright Star Kids Agent (new)~Eternal Impressions  ~The Stationery Boutique Australia ~Nattyjane Designs ~Seasprite Photography ~Belly Bumps to Baby Hugs ~Cheeky Junior ~Glamourchids ~Daniel Abela Graphic Design ~Heart2heart Ceremonies Marriage Celebrant ~Bibska Bibs for Baby ~Rainbow Farm Photography ~The Little Red Poppy Handmade Accessories ~Brad's Planet Landscaping ~Intense Lashes

http://www.walkaboutwellness.com.au/

http://www.angelsfortheforgotten.org/

http://www.ambiencecandles.net/

http://www.wahmconnect.webs.com/

http://www.brightstarkids.com.au/index.cfm?myAgent=55388

http://www.chezcreations.com.au/

http://www.suncast.com.au/ 

http://www.studio-dragonfly.net/ 

 www.heavenboundgifts.com

 www.vanessab.brightstarkids.com.au

www.eternalimpressions.com.au

 http://thestationeryboutique.com.au/

www.nattyjanedesigns.com.au

 

 

 

www.seasprite.com.au

 

www.bellybumpstobabyhugs.com.au

www.cheekyjunior.com.au

www.glamourchids.com.au

http://www.danielabela.com

 

http://www.heart2heartceremonies.com/

www.bibska.com.au

http://www.rainbowfarmphotography.com.au/ 

www.thelittleredpoppy.etsy.com

Http://www.bradsplanet.com.au/

http://www.facebook.com/Intense.Lashes

 

 

 

 

The following business' listed their websites on our Facebook Page for you to check out.  Please feel free to leave a comment below and let us know if you found something to share on their site.  It helps spread the word and help improve their Search Engine Rankings.

Thanks!

• Crazy Kids Shoes - (www.crazykidsshoes.com)

• Rainbow Farm Photography - (www.rainbowfarmphotography.com.au)

• Lilies & Pretty Things - (www.liliesandprettythings.com.au)

• Zimmer & Jee - (www.zimmerjee.com.au)

• Living Eco - (www.livingeco.com.au)

• Creating Health - (www.creatinghealth.com.au)

• Adorable Bowtique - {http://www.adorablebowtique.com/}

• Bright Star Kids - Rachael Thomas, agent - {http://www.brightstarkids.com.au/index.cfm?myAgent=93265} 

• Little Indigo - {http://www.littleindigo.com.au/} 

• Glamourchids -{http://www.glamourchids.com.au/}

• Machiko Baby - {www.machikobaby.com.au}

• my-boutique.com.au - {www.my-boutique.com.au}

• Matthew Evans Podiatry and Sport Services - {www.matthewevanspodiatry.com.au}

• Jamie Leigh Photography - {www.jamieleighphotography.net} 

• Daniel Abela Graphic Design - {http://www.danielabela.com/}

 

It's been a busy month releasing a number of websites and meeting with new clients to plan their projects. 

May began with the launch of Amanda Riley invitations and Graphic Design, followed by Twinsane  and then Australian Certified Website last week. All of which were customised and very different designs.  In amoungst these we also released our first Our Corner packaged website for Appletini Weddings since Our Corner went live this year.

We want to thank everyone for the wonderful complients on these designs, especially those on Facebook.  Most of our work comes from referrals and seeing our websites, so we appreciate the positive feedback!

We listed Guy Designs in the Womens Business Australia Directory and have been posting about our services on various Facebook pages, where we've offered a couple of specials. 

We've also been busy with adding features and fine tuning others on Our Corner, with advertising & Call Out sections being added to the forums, additional categories to the Directory to promote our clients, other online directories and others requested by new members.

Our latested addition to the site is a list of participants from our Tell Us Tuesday on Facebook each week in the community tab.  A trend we're seeing more of is the deletion of pages by the Facebook team and where some have been for running competitions others have been for various complaints. 
Although social media sites are great for getting the word out;
- Do you ever wonder how much time we all spend keeping our pages running? - Do you keep a copy of what you post? - Do you take the time to look at the insites as to how many fans you've gained or lost and how many have hidden your feeds?
- Have your fans ventured off these sites onto your actual website? - Do they know how to find you and could they if these social media sites disappeared today or your page/account was deleted?

These are thoughts that are constantly in our discussions as well as providing more than a shout to all those who join Tell Us Tuesday each week.  So, from this week rather than filling our fans' news feed with shouting back, we'll be adding all the links to our website and encouraging fans there to see *Facebook page links * website links & *those who are offering specials.  This will not only give us opportunities to help improve your SEOs by having another place for the search engines to find links to your site, but also allow us to post other topics including useful tips on our FB page.

We always welcome feedback and are keen to see more businesses including their website links during their blurbs so we can add this to weekly update here.

A big thank you for those who braved the weather yesterday to join our networking afternoon at Oscars at Hunter Valley Gardens.  Friday night we were asking to borrow a boat to get out there.  However, the clouds parted with some help from the wind and we had a sunny afternoon to enjoy a great afternoon together.  The next one will be planned for Spring when the weather warms up!

Lastly, congratulations to Jes from Australian Certified & Gina from Ceremonies D'Vine & their families on the newest additions!!!

Happy Winter everyone!!!!!

Is it just me or has this year been flying for everyone?

Yesterday Andrew & I celebrated our 5th Wedding anniversary and are actually taking a long weekend.  I know, it's a shock to some and soon as I can't sleep, I decided to jump on (yes, we never go anywhere without a PC) and blog whilst admiring the view from our hotel suite.  Tomorrow (being Anzac Day) however, out of respect to our service men and women we will not be working, blogging or posting!

As I mentioned in my last blog, we've been busy working on some new and exciting web sites & I'm happy to announce we've added more to the list!  In between these, we've release a new version of the Our Corner Noticeboard, which is much more user friendly.  We've also added links to our front page to guide you to your destination quicker.  Other upgrades & changes are going on behind the scenes, which makes the site run alot smoother & of course new projects are always being planned.

Our biggest project has been focused on Facebook. We launched "Tell Us Tuesday" on 15th March  & in just a short period of time we have over 95 businesses participating, and we're absolutely delighted.  Our Corner is all about supporting businesses in being successful & this is just one way to increase their profiles at no cost.  It's been really exciting to see how much talent is out there. We'd love to see photos, links & customer feedback so keep those posts coming!

While Facebook is still highly successful for main stream internet users, Twitter has it's own demographic & plays a very important part of getting our brand out there.  We have FB & twitter linked, which means everything we add to our FB newsfeeds is added to our Tweets, saving alot of time.  I've also added tweet deck to my desktop allowing me to monitor FB & Twitter on one screen, which is another timesaver. Not only have alot of new entries in our directory have come from twitter, but so have a number of those "liking" on FB.

We'd like to thank Jes from Australian Certified Websites for her in-depth article in our forums Jessica’s Top 10 Business Networking Etiquette via Social Media & hope to see many more from Jes!  Also, thanks to Jenni from Sweetsediments for her introductions in our forums!

Drop in and say hello! We want to hear your suggestions for the site too!!!  If there's something you'd like to see added or enhanced, please add it to our forums!  There are way too many to welcome to our directory mention individually, but we recommend you take a look at all the businesses who have joined OC as there is some real talent out there!!  If you know a business who is not listed in our directory, give them a nudge as it won't stay free forever!!!

On a final note.....

In an interesting twist late last month, Andrew was involved in an accident that saw our car being written off.  Luckily, he and all the other drivers walked away with minor injuries (mainly bruising & whiplash)!  However, we spent the next couple of weeks with the gruesome & often painful task of purchasing another car.  Although it was something we were contemplating later this year or maybe next, we hadn't put much thought into it.  So, to add to the inconvenience of dealing with insurance companies, sharing/renting cars, etc, we then had to face car sales reps.  In this day, I can't believe that a woman can still be ignored or that a sales guy would tell a customer that their feeling or opinion is wrong!  It just reminded me how important it is to listen to our customers & not assume that we know what is best.  I know we need to make the sale, but I hope that we all take time to put ourselves in our customer's shoes often enough to keep our products current, interesting & stop to hear what they want!

I can hardly believe that it's been a month since I've had a chance to blog, being so busy with the web designing.

We're excited to be welcoming Jes from Australian Certified Websites to not only Guy Designs, but Our Corner as well.  Jes has asked us to re-design her website but has also kindly accepted our invitation to write articles, which we look forward to reading as she finds time.  Jes' concept of providing a location where you can confirm you are shopping and supporting Australian businesses is brilliant as so many companies out there look like they are located here and are really based in a country that don't support fair wages or privacy of your details (opening you up to credit card fraud & so much more....)  For a very small fee you receive the certification logo that you can add to your site, a full write up on http://www.australiancertified.com.au/, which includes links to your site, logo, etc, plus a write up on her facebook page (currently 214 fans) to encourage fans back to your FB page, that also transfers to her twitter page (currently 379 followers), also a listing on her partner site Ozvert - So not only are you being promoted as Australian, but look at all the free advertising you receive.

We're proud to announce the launch of Kids Learning is Fun's new website & shop this week. Their very talented owner, Jodie has provided lots of information and guides on the site to help parents assist their children's learning from the very basics, as well as products you can purchase in your journey.  I can't get over just how much I hadn't used or just didn't realise we use in our day-to-day lives and really enjoyed my education whilst creating her new site - THANKS JODIE!!!

Last Friday Jodie joined the live chat on Connect to Mums & was in-undated in sales after the event.  Congrats!!!  We wish you bigger and better success as the word gets out there!

Speaking of talented people, one of the projects close to our hearts is the School Of St Jude (mentioned in previous blogs). Gemma who is the founder, has been very busy touring Australia drumming up support for the school and the word from the school is her efforts are making a difference, but they still need help!  You can choose to child, a teacher, a dorm room, or one off donations such as furniture, buses, books & equipment.  Our hearts go out to Gemma at this time, who had to fly back home after losing her father-in-law last week.  There's nothing worse than getting that news when you're so far away.  However, Gemma is now back and will continue her tour this week, speaking at International Woman's Day at NSW Parliament House. What a woman!!!

The other project we're proud to be part of is Backpacks for Aussie Kids!  Despina is a hardworking foster mum who decided that all foster kids need something to call their own when they are ripped away from not only their family but everything they own.  She creates backpacks with toys and necessities to give to these kids and has created a variety of ways you can help.  From online auctions, purchasing a song to EBAY & Cash donations .

We're in the process of helping Despina create her new website as part of our donations to charity program and hope to have the website ready for launch very soon.  In the meantime, check out their current site or their Facebook Fan Page & Twitter page.

Another very talented person we're excited to be working with is Asher Christophers from Next Step Music.  Asher supports the music industry by providing a one-stop-shop for artists to advertise their work and get it out across the industry.  The site is in the beta testing phase and is almost ready to launch.  Become a fan of his Facebook page to see more about his project and the launch of his site.

We'd also like to welcome Creating Health, Bombonieres from the Heart, Amanda Riley Invitations & Graphic Design & Twinsane who we've begun working with on their new websites.  As you can see, not really anytime for any of the major plans for Our Corner, but they will happen in good time...

In the meantime, we'd like to welcome all the new members to Our Corner and there are lots of new listings in the directory & Noticeboard to check out!!!

Two last mentions!!!

Congrats to a very brave Linda from Family Capers who shaved her hair in the name of charity on Saturday.  Clive had his hair coloured to support the cause and the colours looked great.  See the photos on their Facebook page.

For all of those in the Hunter, The Critter Sitter is sponsoring 4th Annual Pets Picnic at Speers Point Park on Sunday March 21st.  Join us and Kayla (our gorgeous pooch) for a fun day and support the work of Hunter Animal Rescue.

I read a very interesting article by Maggie McGarry http://ow.ly/16O18 today and thought it's a topic worth discussing further.

As part of our web design service, I work with clients to create Facebook & Twitter accounts, link them and if they are not familiar with either service, work with them to use them to promote their website & business further.

Unaware that it would be a problem, their fan pages were created & linked to my profile & it was only when I went to participate in their pages by adding comments (& therefore generating traffic) did I discover; Any comments were appearing as the company &; when I went to remove myself as an admin so I could add comments, it wasn't possible

So we then spent ages researching the help pages & forums only to discover that the person who creates the account cannot remove themselves as an admin or transfer the main admin to someone else.

Now, where that's not a problem for our clients (we notified them immediately), you've only got to spend 5 mins on the forums to read the horror stories of how it can all go sour and Facebook doesn't want to know!

There's a couple of options to prevent this; the owner creates the page (only works if they never plan to sell) or create a business account. Of course it looks like the choice is easy.... Not so!

You are only entitled to a personal OR business account!! Facebook states that they check and will delete BOTH accounts if they find you have both. Some people are happy to take the risk, but you plan to invest alot of time, energy & possibly even money into promoting your business only to risk having it all deleted. One of the comments related to the article says that their account was suspended (for mis-use) & when they finally got it back functions were missing.

I think it's important to remember a few things.

• Anything you do on any of these sites may NOT your property. You may pay for advertising & therefore (rightly) feel that you're paying to use their services, but that's the point - It's theirs and they have the right to delete, suspend or re-produce anything you add to their sites. They also can close down altogether and you've got no comeback!
  
• They all have rules! You can't play dumb and say you didn't know. However, tt's your responsibility to know their rules & check back n a regular basis to make sure nothing has changed. They have the right to punish you as they see fit, so basically, if you don't like it, don't use it!
  
• Your fans have the right to complain that you are spamming them, so think about how often you'd want to receive messages before constantly bombarding people. They can just remove themselves as a fan, but they can take it so much further. Is it worth losing your page, even for a short period???

I know alot of people & businesses are not happy with this. I'd hope that Facebook sees the opportunities available to it, even if they charged for the usage. One of the best tips in this article was to always have more than one Admin.

I don't know about anyone else, but a few functions I'd like to see on FB are;

• The ability to contact the owners of the fan page without leaving it on the newsfeed.
• Allowing people & other businesses to promote to the pages that they are fans of.
• Business accounts that are not personal and what I mean by that is that you should be entitled to have a professional & personal life, allowing your personal opinions & actions to be totally separate to that of your business.

I hope as business owners start discussing these topics more, Facebook will start to listen. Afterall, they'd be silly not to. Let's hope it's sooner rather than later.

What do you think??

It's hard to believe that it's February already!  It feels like last week we were rushing around organising Christmas...

The glitch causing issues with creating memberships has been fixed (thanks to my tallented Husband), so welcome to our new members beautifully balanced, FutureAgeCare & new directory businesses House of Distinction, Idoby2Celebrants & Autocraft Newcastle!

The noticeboard had a busy week with School of St Jude’s Charity Dinner, Valentine's Day Discount from Ceremonies D'Vine, 4th Annual Pets Picnic & Win $20,000 Wedding Package! all listed.

We've now included the latest notices, forum topics & blogs at the bottom of each page so you can see what's been happening recently...

Instant Chat & the online shop are our newest features, with a range of products such as Google & Facebook Ad campaigns, websites from $99 & SEO packages.  We're currently working on adding more, so watch this space....

What a busy week on Our Corner!

Although we haven't officially launched yet, we needed to go live so that google & other search engines could begin trawling to index the site and the google ads could be activated.  We created Facebook & Twitter pages and have begun encouraging fans/followings in both.

 We'd like to thank those who have visited & welcome our new members;  Idoby2, Polymer Innovations & House of Distinction  who have joined us from Twitter, plus all of our webdesign clients & my ever so patient mum (who's been testing various components & giving feedback) Thanks so much mum!  What would we do without you!!!

As you may have noticed (maybe even while you've been visiting) that there's been some changes and additions to Our Corner.  We've still got a fair bit of work to do, but it will be a work in progress for a while yet. 

Check out "Community" for  our noticeboard, where we hope that you'll add any sales, activities, announcements and events for your business or community group (such as sporting teams). You can share any notice here on Facebook, email, etc....

Over the coming weeks I'll be sharing some of our personal experiences with various advertising & networking strategies.  Both Andrew and I believe in practising what we preach so we want to share what has and hasn't worked for us.  We'd love you to share yours with everyone here as well.  Our goal is to help improve your online business success!

A special plug close to our heart is The School of St Jude where our sponsored child Dina attends.  After watching an episode of ABC's Australian Story about Gemma who moved from Aus to Tanzania and started a school to "fight poverty through education", we signed up to sponsor Dina immediately and have enjoyed the experience ever since.  As Gemma is on her way back home to gain more support we thought it was a great opportunity to spread the word.

 We hope that you'll take time to have a look at their web site and spread the word as well.

We're getting close to our official launch of Our Corner, so emails have gone out to our existing customers with their usernames and passwords for the site today!

We're also excited to welcome our new members who have registered in the last couple of days! Welcome! We hope to get to know you all more in the coming months!

Our first official newsletter was sent today as well. We'll be adding an option to subscribe to newsletters very soon. In the meantime, copies of all newsletters can be found at newsletters

Happy Australia Day!

Today has been a special day in the history of Our Corner with the introduction of our Facebook and Twitter accounts. It's been such a busy few months with the initial concept being a place where we could not only promote our web design services but where our clients could advertise and network with others to share overall business ideas and improve Search Engine Rankings.

Of course, like everything else we take on, the Our Corner plans have taken on a life of their own. However, there's too much to tell about each section in just one blog...

While the site is live, the plans for the official launch are still to be confirmed...

In the meantime, please register & add your business to the directory. Let your customers know that they can review your business & rave about your business in the forums.

There's so much more to come!!!