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5 Questions to ask yourself if you are thinking of publishing an ebook (a guest post by author Margaret Webster)

Friday, February 3rd, 2012

E-books - what to ask before you start?

We asked our client Margaret Webster from London Microguides to give us her insight into writing and publishing an e-book – following her recent experiences of doing this.
Here is what she says:

eBooks are big, big news.

You’ve probably heard the headlines:

Amazon is selling 105 ebooks for every 100 print books
e-readers are the most gifted Christmas present in history
Self-published authors, Jock Locke and Amanda Hocking, have both sold over 1 million ebooks.

The world of book publishing is being turned upside down. Authors no longer need to seek permission and sponsorship from traditional publishing companies. They can format their own book and upload it directly to online book stores, including Amazon.

If you want to publish a book, you can. But should you? (more…)

Tags: advice on e-books, amazon, e-book
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Leadership secrets from Conan the Barbarian

Friday, July 15th, 2011

As some of you may know – if you are looking at my tweets – my brother Yariv Lerner has finally entered the world of social media and blogging. He even tweets now! I asked him to write a blog about our dad’s latest movie Conan the Barbarian (starring Jason Momoa coming out this summer to a theatre near you) so he could practice – and it was so GOOD I had to include it here. Enjoy!

Here is what Yariv wrote:

I remember reading the original secrets from Atilla the Hun and thought that it was about time that Conan wrote his own book.

I live - Remember to live in the present. Its all you can live for. People truly appreciate it when you are there. I know it sounds redundant but be present – truly present when you are with people. How many times have you seen people out at dinner together both on their cell phones talking to others. How about people taking the time to see each other and then texting other people elsewhere. Why bother meeting up with them in the first place – why not meet the person you want to text or call?

I love - People love you if you love them. The Beatles aptly put it when they sang “In the end the love you get is the love you make.” There are people who follow out of fear and then there are people who follow out of love. When the s**t hits the fan – as it so often does – who do you want to take the brunt of the initial onslaught? Someone who fears you or someone who loves you.

I slay – Yes this does sound harsh at first but sometimes you need to be the heavy. There are times in life when the warrior mentality is necessary and the people you lead are going to respect and demand that you are willing to do what it takes. No one follows the meek – it is true that they will one day inherit the earth but they are going to have to fight for it.

Tags: Conan the Barbarian, Jason Momoa, live, love, movie, slay, tweet, Twitter, Yariv Lerner
Posted in Interviews and Guest Blog Posts | No Comments »

Sunshine on a rainy day: eleven essential questions about cloud computing

Monday, April 18th, 2011

This guest blog post was written by Francesca Geens from IT Consultancy Digital Dragonfly.

When I mention cloud computing to some people they say they don’t know what I am talking about– well they are in good company – recent research has shown that nearly half of those not using cloud computing don’t know what it means.

In this blog post I’ll address those common questions which people ask me about cloud computing:

(more…)

Tags: Accounting/Invoicing packages, Cloud Computing, Cloud storage, Mailing list management, productivity, project management and document sharing, SaaS, The Cloud
Posted in Interviews and Guest Blog Posts | 5 Comments »

Cheltenham – where Café Society meets Social Media – a guest blog by Betti Moser

Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011

We asked our friend Betti Moser to blog about her recent move to Cheltenham. I noticed that when she got there she kept talking about all the local people she had met through Twitter! I thought – networking, social media – this is a worth blogging about! Here is her story – from now on in Betti’s words!

Cake at Pepper Crescent

When I moved to Cheltenham in April last year, I expected to find a genteel town on the edge of the Cotswolds, perhaps a bit touristy, perhaps a bit countrified, maybe even a bit fuddy-duddy. So, I was surprised when what I did find was urban buzz and a hotbed of creative talent, web designers, PR folks and social media aficionados…

It all started with a few friends on Twitter asking me how the move went, and what life was like in my new home town. So I tweeted back, saying how lovely Cheltenham was and how glad I was we had moved here.

Having mentioned the word “Cheltenham” in my tweet, I suddenly found my Twitter following swelled by lots of people from the local area. Every time I went on Twitter, I had been added to another couple of lists called “Cotswold business”, “Gloucestershire people”, “Chelt-Soc”, “Gloucestershire Tweeps” and similar.

“Oh, cool,” I thought, “I can get to know people in my new neighbourhood without even having to leave my desk!”
(more…)

Tags: cheltenham, cheltenham twitterati, Twitter
Posted in Interviews and Guest Blog Posts | 1 Comment »

Keren gets interviewed

Friday, August 20th, 2010

It’s always a good idea to mention it to the world if you get a mention in the press – could be online, could be offline.

Offline – The Guardian Digital Business Supplement

Recently I was interviewed by Digital Business supplement of the Guardian for an article by Peter Bartram (from New Venture Publishing) about building personalised features into websites.

Here is an excerpt of the interview!

Online – One Xtra Pixel

I was also recently interviewed by Krishna Solanki (a website designer in Cambridge) for the On Xtra Pixel blog about Women in Website Design

Have a read of this interview here

All comments are of course very welcome!

Tags: Guardian, interviews, One Xtra Pixel, Website Design
Posted in Interviews and Guest Blog Posts, Press | No Comments »

Not Just Food – an interview with Jane Milton

Thursday, February 11th, 2010

We have been working a lot with food related clients – at the moment we are working on websites for a restaurant property manager, a detox smoothie/food delivery company, two catering companies, and a restaurant. We will be sure to keep you posted when these sites are launched, but the designs are looking really great!

On a related note, I recently met with Jane Milton from The Food Network and Not Just Food. The Food Network is an online social network for food related businesses (anything from wine makers to caterers to cupcake businesses to manufacturers of food and catering related packaging and goods). We met via Linkedin and Twitter and then in real life. The Food Network is a membership social site which allows members access to premium content. This is all available at a very affordable rate of £120+VAT a year.

Jane herself is an active blogger and regularly participates on Linkedin, Twitter and “real life” networking groups such as The Athena Network. Anyone who meets her will see she is a “force to be reckoned with”. I was so impressed I decided I owed it to the world to interview her and put this onto our blog for other food businesses to read – as we seem to be coming across quite a lot of these people in our networking and client circles.

Jane also provides specialist consultancy services within her business “Not Just Food” for those in the food industry, and runs a monthly networking event, ‘The Tea Break’ held on the first Tuesday of each month at Waterstones in Piccadilly. I would recommend that anyone in a food related business who would like to meet Jane and learn more, you attend one of these events.

Free Food Networking
10 to midday
First Tuesday of Every Month
5th View, Waterstones Piccadilly 5th Floor
(just look for the Food Network sign)

As we regularly get requests from potential clients who want to start a new social network themselves, we thought it would be useful to ask Jane some questions about how she managed to create one which is so successful. Below are some questions we asked – and Jane’s answers. We would like to thank Jane for sharing! We also have some pictures showcasing Jane’s work as well.

Jane’s Interview

How long have you been running the Food Network? It started about 11 years ago with me connecting clients and people I met on an Intranet and it mushroomed, so we added a website so we could place info about event, pdf’s on topics people often need help with, industry news and where members could have their own sites too to let people know more about their businesses.

What does this encompass?The Network is an online membership organisation, though we do offer quite a few features free to non-members, which helps food businesses connect and grow their business more effectively than they could without The Food Network supporting them.

Who is it for? Anybody who works within the food and drink industry, produces ingredients, products or retails products, caterers, and people offering services for food businesses eg distributors. We have producers, ingredient manufacturers, packaging companies, caterers, printers dealing in food labelling, legal experts with food knowledge, refrigeration experts and many more groups represented.

What type of information do members get? Members have their own site on the site, there are several forums to give them help and advice including one which comes direct to me so they can ask me questions and receive support directly. We connect members where we can see mutual benefit and post up the latest industry news, support for food businesses and run an events calendar. We also run events in conjunction with other groups on subjects that are useful to/requested by our members – these are most often free, and our members get the first opportunity to attend.

What advice would you give someone starting their own social network? that it takes a lot of work, people imagine you just put the site up and money comes in but it needs marketing, improving, developing etc all the time – in fact I think it needs more marketing than a physical business as otherwise people just forget about it. It has taken a long time to make it profitable but I still see it more as a marketing tool for my consultancy – a way to build relationships with businesses, rather than a big income generator.

An innovative kit with a meal in a baby pumpkin delivered on Halloween to journalists to promote Merchant Gourmet Beluga Lentils.

The less glamorous side of TV work- behind the scenes on a GMTV shoot in Tunisia – making sure all the food is organised for a chef to cook live on Lorraine Kelly morning show

The less glamorous side of TV work – behind the scenes on a GMTV shoot in Tunisia – making sure all the food is organised for a chef to cook live on Lorraine Kelly morning show.

Fresh veg at Grand Cayman Farmers Market on recent trip to Cayman Islands to look at the food and learn about local dishes