Well perhaps one place is within the marketing industry. Printed material still has a lot going for it. People like to hold something tangible; it makes them trust the company that they are buying from – something which a website or an email does not inspire. Even putting trust aside for a moment, depending on what you are marketing you may still be more successful “off line” as it were. Take banner stands and exhibition graphics for example. If you are trying to sell printed material, of course you can bring people to your website, and of course you can do mail shots to people on your mailing lists. These are all good marketing activities. However, if you trying to offer something like banner stands, people are really going to want to be able to flick through a catalogue or a magazine. They are going to want to see examples of your skill as printers, and more than anything else they are going to want to see the product itself – the actual banner stand – before spending large amounts of money on it. Backing things up with emails, using the web to your best advantage can increase your potential customers exponentially, but making them into actual clients will require more than just a good online presence.

On the flip side of this take a different business model completely – let’s talk about insurance. If you were selling horse insurance for example, again you could use emails and good web presence in just as effective a way as if you were selling banner stands. You could use good email marketing software to send out multiple targeted mail shots out, and you could make sure that your site converted well. This is the same as above. Would you need paper though… in this case perhaps not. If you are selling horse insurance, that is all people want, insurance. It is not something they see, it is not something they have to handle. Customers are used to buying it over the phone and online directly, and do not need to have something in their hands before handing their money over to you. Yes, having actual physical mail outs to send to people may help, but you would have to look at the cost of doing this verses the profit you would make from the extra customers.

So, yes email does rule supreme, but in some cases it is still well worth remembering where the post office is.

The Impro Jam is cool, basically for the first half a hour a guest impro troupe comes in a performs some of their best stuff. Then in the second half they pick some member from the audience and they are put into scenes with the guest imrpo troupe all under the watchful eye of the directors. Ben was the star of the last show, he did this fantasic scene where he was a Gangster on the blind date. It was f*!*ing brilliant. The only thing that let it down was the room, which was a pub room with a dodgy looking back drop, hopefully the Miller will be far better.

We have been wroking mega hard here to catch up from the long weekend. So far all we have finished is the Omnilux and
botox for migraine sections.

There needs to be a complete overhaul of the planes that fill our skies nowadays.  Many of them are older than anyone would probably like to admit, and no-one really knows what the lifespan of a plane really is.  The major airlines need to have a couple of replacement planes that they use and systematically ground each plane in turn, strip it down and check for wear and tear damage – starting with the oldest planes in their respective fleet.  Even if air travel isn’t as dangerous as the news reports are showing, there’s still no need for airlines to rest on the laurels of statistics, they need to be proactively ensuring that passenger safety is put above profit margins.

What is more worrying is that the current administration plans to spend around £5 billion on the National ID card scheme.  With the recent scandals involved with losing a third of the countries tax details, the potential for rising costs and ultimately a disaster of massive proportions lurks ominously.  However, the government seems keen in spite of all the public opposition to carry forward with this scheme.  In many other countries, the shouts of ‘corruption’ would be heralded from the rooftops.  But in Britain, we merely shrug our shoulders and carry on. Finally we seem to be progressing with the site.Mick has finally redesigned the thread veins treatments part

But there is something at stake here.  The writers are the base of the creative industry.  No matter how many great actors or super directors there are out there, it is the writer that gets the ball rolling.  That amazing film started off in the mind of someone attached to a computer screen.  It went through countless rejections and then finally got picked up.  Months, even years later it is on the screen.  Usually by now the writer has been factored out of the equation, but everyone else is getting their share of the cake.

I hope the writers win the terms of their strike.  However, as big business has the deeper pockets, I do not hold out much hope for them.

1.It should be useful and/or informative for the reader

2.It should give something of value in terms of promotional offer on your product/services

3.It should low-sell your product/services

You can create the articles yourself, using themes that match up with the products you sell (without mentioning them), and which deal with issues that the people who buy your products/services are concerned with.  There are also a number of places where you can get free articles that you could use as content for your email marketing campaign.  These aren’t original but often you can use them as long as the writer’s name remains on them.  Read any small print regarding usage of the articles before sending them out in your email so that you know you’re not breaking any copyright laws.  Another idea would be to pay a writer to produce some of these for you.  This is an email newsletter so you could keep them short – perhaps a couple of 100 word tips and a 250 word short article, or one slightly longer article of 400 words and a tip.  By offering this useful information that’s related to your business area, but not selling anything, you are telling your client that you’re not just out to take their money, but you’re interested enough in them to spend the resources compiling a newsletter that they’ll find interesting.  You’re also lowering the possibility that they’re going to unsubscribe from your mailing list! 

Put all of the tip and some of the article in the email, and link back to your website so that you can get subscribers to visit the site.  You should also put a linked line that says “for more tips click here” and for more articles click here” and have these linked up to the tips and articles pages in your website.  Having an area for these (that’s not linked anywhere from the homepage or it wouldn’t be a subscriber only feature) not only means that you can get your subscribers to visit the site, but also that the search engines will recognize the content exists and that seldom hurts any site!

Each newsletter you send out ought to have some promotion attached to it that’s not given to anyone but your subscribers.  It’s like a loyalty bonus.  The thing about this is that it should only be available for a limited period of time, or be valid for only the first x number of subscribers.  The reason for this is that it creates “shortage” and people are more likely to react earlier if they think it will run out, and also your next newsletter will contain a new subscriber only offer. 

Lastly it shouldn’t be a “Buy me!  Buy me!  Buy me!” publication.  If it is, you aren’t likely to get your subscribers to read it, and any that do are likely to unsubscribe because there’s nothing of value in it.  It’s just junk mail that they signed up for, and they can soon stop that.  Your email is there to promote your products/services, but it must be in a low key way.  It’s a great way to advertising new products and link to where the subscribers can go and find out more information, but don’t use up 1000 words describing it – just give the main features and the link.  Highlight one product as your “product of the month” or product of the week” and write the key features about that product – you could even link a promotion to that buy 2 get 1 free for example.   Keep all self-promotion to a minimum – a “This email is sent to you by the friendly helpful folk at XXX” and a link to your site is enough, especially if you’re also highlighting a specific product within the email.

Email newsletters are a great marketing tool but make sure that they follow the three guidelines above and avoid becoming written infomercials that subscribers will tune out.

The call for Victoria to gain weight in the time leading up to the much awaited Spice Girl reunion tour on the grounds that her current weight isn’t healthy enough to sustain the stresses she will put on it during the tour is evidence that the >  Whilst being overweight isn’t good for you, looking like your addicted to liposuction isn't either.  What a wonderful message to send out to the youngsters who will once again use the Spice Girls as role models.

Botox and too many bones visible isn’t what’s required to be healthy, that’s the message that’s being sent out here.  Looking good is only part of it, you also have to look healthy and eat enough to create the energy you need to live a normal life.  That means that you eat nutritionally correct and not just pick at bits of lettuce with a hint of extra virgin olive oil.  You need to eat some fats – OK so careful on the saturated fats and definitely no trans fats, but your body does require a little fat.  You need protein.  You need carbs.  You need fresh fruit and veggies.  You also need to enjoy what you eat, just not too much! 

Everything should be in moderation and now that the word is out that Victoria Beckham isn’t currently at a weight that’s healthy enough  for her body to sustain the demands of the tour, this is a great time for other role models to start rethinking their public diet plans, and showing how they can become better ambassadors for healthy living.  I’m sure most of them get a kick out of the photos in the magazines, but I’m also sure they’d get a much longer thrill from knowing they have paved the way for a generation of healthy girls who know how to eat nutritiously as well as look good.

There ought to be a way of sheltering residential areas from the dangers associated with motorway vehicles, whether it is by financing additional security measures so block off the major roads from the nearby homes so that children aren’t able to just wander out into the road.  The amount of financial resource that this would take is likely to be as great as the amount of time it would take to assess which areas of the busiest motorways need to be isolated from the residential areas first, but as little Guy’s death has proved, it’s something that’s needing to be looked at.

Serious crimes are being increasingly carried out by kids in this age bracket and it’s time that the law was changed so that anyone who is convicted of a crime that takes a life is liable to be punished by more than a slap on the hand.  

Many MPs as well as the central political parties have been starting their own video channels on the popular website YouTube. The site is already eating into the market share of more traditional forms of media and young people especially can spend more time each week watching videos on there than watching television.

This presents a tremendous opportunity for politicians. They can now quickly produce a simple video with a clear message and make it available people to see. If this is done well and updated regularly and integrated into every aspect of their campaign it could be an extremely powerful tool and best of all it can cost next to nothing. However, it is very unlike more traditional forms of media in that it is two way. Just as easily as the politicians can post videos saying why their constituents should vote for them. Their constituents can respond by saying why they won't vote for them and what they really think of them.

On the whole politicians have been very slow to embrace what looks like a perfect tool for them, and I think the two way element is he reason. The Labour party have for years kept their image 'clean' through spin. Manipulating the media and only allowing certain stories to be told while brushing others under the carpet. David Cameron's Torys have embraced this like it is the only way to beat Labour. David Cameron set up his own site for posting videos called WebCameron. I think he has really missed the point here. It is as if he learnt that you people are using video on the internet to communicate and he thought he would have a go, but he did not want people to be able to post comments or responses which might make him look like dishonest. So instead of putting videos on YouTube he started his own site. Well by doing this he has ensured that the only people who see his videos are those that either love him or hate him. The swing voters who have not made up their mind who he really should be targeting will stay on YouTube and why shouldn't they. He has effectively cut himself off from those needs to reach the most.

One MP called Tom Watson posted a video on YouTube entitled 'Tom's Challenge to Dave'. In it he criticises David Cameron for posting videos away from YouTube suggesting that David is scared of opening himself up to response. He bets David Cameron £100 that within a year he will have stopped posting videos. Ironically that was almost a year ago now and it was the last video that Tom Watson posted, also when you try to post a comment to the video it tells you that the comment has to be approved before it will appear under the video. He could not have been more hypocritical if he had tried. This was spotted by a YouTube user called Colin Munro who posted a video response to Tom Watson's video exposing the situation and holding him to the bet he made. Politicians may not keep their promises but they should honor their bets.

There are millions of YouTube users who could start making videos about their politicians around election time and politicians would be fools to ignore them, effectively saying they are not interested in what the public have to say. So gone are the days when politicians an paint themselves in whatever light they like and expect the public to believe it. Never before have politicians had to deal with such a volume of response, those that do will have an big impact and those that treat it as just a place to broadcast videos like more traditional forms of media just look silly and disinterested.

YouTube could be very good for UK politics. If you are hypocritical and dishonest then you will be exposed on YouTube. So if there are any good honest politicians out there there is a massive opportunity for them to stand out without having to spend a lot of money on PR. I hope that by the time the election comes enough good MPs will be on YouTube challenging the bad ones. Those that refuse to use YouTube will effectivley be admitting sleeze and the sleeze that do use it will be exposed for what they are.

This ebeded you tube video was made by Colin Munro. Colin runs a Guru account on youtube called Giving it a go as well as being producer over at a stretham based television production company called Quirky motion. He is particularly happy right now with his purchase of a Tria, the new laser hair removal device from Japan.