Friday 20 November 2009

A coffee stall you may see on my Ning Profiles:

Note in the this coffee lounge Zara is 'LemonCakes' and it is a public chat room:

 

My UK Coffee Shop | My USA Coffee Shop

 

Get your own Chat Box! Go Large!

 

1 – IncomeClubPro coffee venue no.1

2 – Ning Nomads – coffee venue no.2

3 – Google Groups – coffee venue no.3

4 – Healthy Coffee Downline Club

5 – CoffeeCupping Group YouTube

6 -healthy Coffee Club on Face Book

7 – Friendfeed Ganoderma

8 – Apsense Coffee Club

9 – TweetJunction Coffee Venue

10 – Social Median Coffee Drinker

11 – Ecademy Coffee Lounge

12 Coffee Group Blog

13 – CoffeeDrinker.org on Facebook

14 – SpicyPage Coffee Club

15 – BuzzHerd Coffee Venue

16 – Gather coffee venue

17 – Hi5 – The Coffee venue

18 – NetLog Coffee Venue

19 – Coffee Forums coffee venue

20 – Mixx Coffee Venue

21 – Zorpia Coffee venue

22 -Multiply coffee venue

23 – Koottam 23 coffee venue

24 - Net Millionaires coffee venue

25 – Plaxo coffee Venue

26 – Yahoo coffee venue

27 – Friendster – Coffee venue

28 – Vox Coffee Venue

 

Income Club Pro

GDI

Web Media ToolKit

3CashMachine

Google Nomads

ICP Web Hosting

The Second Tier

Traffic Swarm

Yuwie

Rich Jerk

Instant squeeze

DragonSurf

ZenZuu

David Gale

Ganobrand

AdlandPro

FaceBook

Marlon Sanders

E-mailPaysU

ClickCrazy

Ecademy

John Thornhill

PageSwirl

TS25

Betternetworker

Mike Dillard

Start Exchange

iloveHits

Keyword tracker

MyHelpHub

TrafficSplash

easyHits4u

PicApp

Healthy Coffee

TrafficG

Hit Gusher

Xat Chat Room

Ganoderma

Mermaid Traffic

ClickVoyager

 

 

 

Posted via web from Zara Lockwood's Posterous Blog

Monday 16 November 2009

The Wonderful Demise of Benjamin Arnold Guppy: Book signing - Weston-super-Mare

Monday, 12 October 2009

Book signing - Weston-super-Mare


On November 19th, Waterstone's booksellers will be helping to launch late-night shopping at The Sovereign Centre in Weston-super-Mare by holding a book signing event. I've been invited to take part, so I will be there between 3:30 and 8:30pm to sign copies of 'The Wonderful Demise of Benjamin Arnold Guppy' (and 'Utamaro Revealed', if you have an interest in Japanese art as well as murdering your neighbours in cold blood). Do come along and say 'ho ho ho' if you're in the area.

Waterstone's Booksellers,
Unit 21-23,
The Sovereign Centre,
High Street,
Weston-super-Mare,
BS23 1HL.
Tel: 01934 642 588

Posted via web from Zara Lockwood's Posterous Blog

Tuesday 10 November 2009

some coffee pictures and update

As you may have noticed by now, I am using a gadget to blog that means I can blog items of interest as I surf - the current trend I am following is the trend of cleaning up adverts, nobody wants to be lumbered with a mobile subscription they can't switch off except by changing phone number for example - but this is what is happening - so I am following it.

here is some coffee stuff - there are loads of coffee pictures on flickr well over a Million - so we can share :-)

 

Some random coffee pics:

 

coffee art

 

It's Coffee Time copy

 

Coffee & Splash

Posted via web from Zara Lockwood's Posterous Blog

zwinkies and winkies

This is a new blog just showing random thrashy adverts I find on networks - the type Techcrunch /Michael Arrington are trying to remove from games like Mafia Wars and farm ville on facebook.

 

Talking of which - here's a screen grab from a facebook app I joined this evening - complete with a naked man playing with his genitals and a zwinky advert (aimed at kids ? )

 

Image Hosted by ImageShack.us

Posted via web from Dodgy Stuff on the web

Friday 6 November 2009

Zynga CEO Mark Pincus: “I Did Every Horrible Thing In The Book Just To Get Revenues”

Zara's Note: - here is a story from techcrunch about the latest scam going on within Facebook - note that facebook are usually pretty quick to hit these scams on the head but if they are get 6 Million Dollars off them on a regular basis for advertising - they might not suspend the games - dispite doing this with Slide.com's top friends and a number of the dodgy dating websites back in 2007. Also note I am a facebook fan, and I like the games Zynga make - it will be a real shame if they don't really kick butt and clean up their act - I am boycotting their games by blocking their facebook apps, this might seem hypocritical seeing as I use Yuwie as a place to meet people and blog - BUT at least at Yuwie you know for sure they are in it for greed, whereas Zynga are making out to be some kind of social marketing break through - when they are not

Zynga CEO Mark Pincus said earlier this week that he intends to make sure his company’s games don’t include scammy offers in the future. Our full background on this story is here.

But what he didn’t say in that blog post is that Zynga has been scamming users from the beginning quite intentionally as part of their revenue model. Rather, he pointed much of the blame at middlemen offer companies: “We need to be more aggressive and have revised our service level agreements with these providers requiring them to filter and police offers prior to posting on their networks.”

Last spring, though, he gave a much clearer explanation to an audience at a Startup@Berkeley mixer, admitting that scamming users was part of Zynga’s business model from the start. And it was all caught on video. I think everyone sort of knew that this was exactly Zynga’s gameplan. But to hear it said so directly is just shocking.

The full 30ish minute video is here. We’ve taken the relevant section of the video, roughly starting at around the 10:40 mark, and embed it below. From the video:

I knew that i wanted to control my destiny, so I knew I needed revenues, right, fucking, now. Like I needed revenues now. So I funded the company myself but I did every horrible thing in the book to, just to get revenues right away. I mean we gave our users poker chips if they downloaded this zwinky toolbar which was like, I dont know, I downloaded it once and couldn’t get rid of it. *laughs* We did anything possible just to just get revenues so that we could grow and be a real business…So control your destiny. So that was a big lesson, controlling your business. So by the time we raised money we were profitable.

Posted via web from Zara Lockwood's Posterous Blog

5 Ways To Boost Coffee Shop Sales: Part 1 – Social Media

Twitter and FacebookIn this article I am going to break down 5 Ways you can Boost Coffee Shop sales with actual examples on how to go about implementing them. I have broken this article up into 5 parts and included a quick index at the top of every post for easy navigation. All of the examples I give in this article are great ideas but they are really meant to be spring boards to get your own creative  juices flowing.

Way #1:  Social Media – Twitter and Facebook

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

By now I think most everyone is on board with the idea that social media is an important element in their overall business strategy. But I don’t think most people  really grasp that this is not just a peripheral element. It can and ultimately will be one of the biggest factors that the everyday consumer will use in deciding where they are going to spend their hard earned money. If you don’t believe me then just do a twitter search on one of your favorite brands or t.v shows. You will see a stream of real time information about that particular brand and what people are thinking or feeling about it in that moment. I think so many people are making the mistake of writing this off as a “Twitter Thing” when in actuality it will ultimately change the way people search and surf the web forever.

Now I don’t want to limit you’re exposure or thinking to just Twitter and Facebook but right now they are easily the two biggest players in real time Social Media. So if you don’t have an account at both of these sites please STOP reading this article and get one immediately. Now that you have an account on these sites how do you use them? Well this is going to depend on your overall strategy and later I am going to go into more detail of what that might look like for you. The important thing to remember is to stay active, communicate, be available, be genuine, provide valuable information, remain approachable and do not abuse these streams to over sell or as a glorified RSS feed. Below I will walk you through three examples of how to use these tools by interacting with customers at the store level. (Note: There is also a huge use for these streams at the corporate level.)

3 Ideas for Your Store

Idea #1: Facebook Fan Page Giveaway

Let your customers know you have a Facebook Fan Page. Once you have over 100 fans turn your url into a vanity url. (http://www.facebook.com/MyCoffeeShop – If you do not have a fan page Spencer at Tutorial Blog has a simple How To on getting it set up.) Once you have the vanity url it makes it a lot easier to market that page to your customers. Now that you have the fan page let’s get started with the giveaway. On your fan page update your status by saying something like, “Come in to the store for the next 60 minutes and say you saw this message and receive ANY small beverage for FREE!” Even if you don’t have all or any of your fans come in for the giveaway many of them will most assuredly tell their friends or family about it. By the end of the day you will have many more Facebook Fans and loyal customers watching your every move, waiting for the next big surprise!

Idea #2: Twitter Contest

This one is super simple. Tweet out a message that saying something like, “Who is enjoying their YourCompanyHere beverage this morning? Send me a pic and you could win a $20 gift card.” Then when some time has past and you have some pics announce the winner. This will draw people to you on Twitter and ultimate increase your companies visibility on this very important medium.

Idea #3: Coupons on Your Blog

Do a blog post the day before a big sale with a coupon in it. Tell everyone they can get an additional 20% off. Include a field where they can input their email address to receive their coupon. This not only gets you more sales but also increases your base of contacts.

Next Page >>>>> Part Two – Giveaways

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These tips are useful for a variety of niches

Posted via web from Zara Lockwood's Posterous Blog

Tuesday 3 November 2009

50 FREE Ways To Market Your Business - Ecademy

Business : 50 FREE Ways To Market Your Business

by Lilach BullockBlackStar

Verified SafeNetworking

on 3-Nov-09 1:07pm

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So, who said marketing was expensive? Who said paid marketing was the best way? Below are 50 of my favourite FREE methods to market my business. I try and use them all and have had very successful results with each and every one of them. Which methods will you use? Don't forget to let me know how you get on and which results work well for you.

1. Networking
2. http://www.youtube.com
3. http://www.viddler.com
4. http://www.facebook.com
5. http://www.ecademy.com
6. http://www.linkedn.com
7. http://www.trafficswarm.com
8. http://www.craigslist.org
9. Forums
10. http://www.bttradespace.com/
11. http://www.twitter.com
12. http://hubpages.com/
13. http://www.squidoo.com/
14. http://www.myspace.com
15. Ezines
16. http://www.bebo.com
17. http://www.ezinearticles.com/
18. http://www.wordpress.com
19. http://www.blogger.com
20. http://www.thearticledirectory.org/
21. http://www.digg.com
22. http://www.jumptags.com/
23. http://www.vivastreet.co.uk
24. http://www.ebay.com
25. http://www.usenet.org/
26. http://www.problogger.com
27. http://www.affiliateshowcase.com/
28. http://www.prweb.com/
29. http://www.prleap.com/
30. http://www.clickbank.com
31. http://www.trafficexchangelist.com/
32. http://www.hitvortex.com/
33. Postcards
34. Flyers
35. Back of Car Bumper
36. Testimonials
37. Article Submission Sites
38. Free Classified Ads
39. http://www.socialmarker.com/
40. http://www.uniquearticlewizard.com/
41. http://www.weebly.com/
42. http://www.mybloglog.com/
43. http://www.ping.fm
44. http://www.nrg-networks.com/
45. http://www.business-scene.com/
46. http://betternetworking.co.uk/
47. http://technorati.com/
48. http://www.gumtree.com
49. http://www.onlinemarketingtoday.com/software/link-management-assistant/
50. Network with your family, friends, colleagues and wider circle


I hope the above tips help you. There are many more free places to promote your business, but these are just a few to get you started! It's important to remember that effective marketing doesn't always equal big budget.


www.whoislilachbullock.com

Tel: UK 07590 554292 or US 001 209 251 2906


"If you want to be successful, find someone who has achieved the results you want and copy what they do and you'll achieve the same results." Tony Robbins



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50 FREE Ways To Market Your Business

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by Norman FeinerPowerNetworker

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on 3-Nov-09 3:19pm : Message


Nice list - albeit, some are no longer 'free' for business promotion/advertising/offers, i.e. Gumtree now say:
"Posting an ad for 30 days in any of these categories will cost £4.95 (excl. VAT). "


Norman

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50 FREE Ways To Market Your Business

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by Zara LockwoodPowerNetworker

Verified SafeNetworking

on 4-Nov-09 12:15am

A traditional business advert might cost, but there are still ways you could market for free in the gumtree classifieds ads without paying with creative use of words and ideas about what you want to achieve - that doesn't involve deception or unethical behaviour smile

Zara Lockwood | Create your badge

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I belong to most of these sites myself.

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