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Zarr’s June 2006 Online Insider
Local Businesses Succeed Online
Welcome to our June newsletter, this issue focuses on why and when to blog. If you find this newsletter useful please pass it on to friends and colleagues or encourage them to subscribe.
Blogging for Business
The Blog seems to be the latest on-line gimmick – you hear radio DJs talking about their own blogs and discussing other peoples – but what are blogs all about and do they really have a purpose in a business environment? Zarr’s Mark Reynolds explores the world of blogs.
What is a Blog?
A blog, or web log, is an online diary. People can use it to write about their thoughts and experiences. Blogs cover a wide range of subject matter. Each site containing blogs has thousands of ideas, arguments and points of view. Interaction between people is allowed, producing in effect an online community but has the benefit of complete control without the need for validation or monitoring content. Importantly, blogging can also be a means of providing valuable objective advice, readily shared on the Internet.
Blogs are personal. Individuals are writing down their genuine experiences and beliefs. Mistrust of the integrity of the press seems to be on the increase, and so more and more people are taking to blogging as a means of putting across various points of view and reading those of others.
Why and When to Blog?
Blogs can be an excellent way to raise the credibility of your business – you can share experience and demonstrate your expertise. Adding web logs, known as blogs, to a website will enhance your search engines rankings and give visitors to the site a reason to return.
These electronic diaries can bring financial rewards - you can charge people to access the blogs to view your advice and guidance. You can provide a source of knowledge which can be used in the same way as a reference book to give the answers to questions. However, the blogs have the advantage of being online and as such, easily accessible. They also reduce the need for paper.
Your blogs can enhance the level of customer service you give by allowing customers and suppliers access to useful information to better understand your services. A consultant could write a blog about a particular project – to help clients understand the process involved and potential pitfalls along the way.
They make your website "sticky" in other words - they give people a reason.
One of our clients, U-fit, manufacturers of doors, windows and conservatories use blogs quite extensively as a way of driving traffic to their website and to create a dialogue with customers. Purchasers are able to write diaries detailing what had happened when they were constructing the U-Fit conservatory. It means the U-fit conservatories website is regularly updated without the company having to spend its own time on it. You can read the blog here.
And of course search engines love regularly updated websites - so blogs are an effective way of improving your website’s search engine rankings.
Find Out More
To see an example of a blog visit www.zarrblog.com. Contact Hannah on 01788 820900 or email Hannah@zarr.com to see whether blogging could benefit for your organisation.
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Internet Insider:
Disney to Sell Films via the Web
Disney has followed rivals in offering download-to-own films over the internet via CinemaNow, including new films on the day they come out.
Disney's home video arm, Buena Vista Home Entertainment, will make the films available on a download-to-own basis.
To read the full story click here.
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Cherished Family Memories Brought to Life on Small Screen
A Warwickshire company is using internet innovation to help families bring their treasured photo memories to life on the small screen.
Bubbenhall-based MyPhotoMemoriesDVD.com has teamed up with Zarr to develop a website where people can order unique DVDs of their cherished pictures set to music and visual effects.
The custom-made DVDs are the brainchild of experienced photographer Lawrence Friel, who along with partner Jeanette, runs audio-visual company AV Media Projects. They approached Rugby-based Zarr to help them create a website where people could order their innovative DVDs online.
The My Photo Memories DVD uses the latest technology to bring to life old pictures of milestone events, from birthdays and christenings to graduations and childhood memories. Photos are placed against a musical backdrop and move, pan and zoom across the screen. The DVDs can also be used by businesses for corporate promotions.
Mr Friel said: “Advances in technology have made it possible to do amazing things with old photos, almost bringing them back to life again. I started with a few of my own DVDs and was amazed at people’s reactions; they loved seeing old friends and family as large as life on their television screens. Since then we have produced DVDs for many people.”
“Our website is an important tool where people can not only view examples of how effective our DVDs can be but can also order online to bring their own special memories to life.”
Hannah Reynolds, of Zarr, added: “We are delighted to have worked with MyPhotoMemoriesDVD.com on such a unique project. Niche retailers such as myphotomemoriesdvd.com benefit from the tremendous results of trading online and I’m confident the website we have developed will serve to support the company in its future success.”
If you have an innovative business idea you’d like to take on line contact Zarr.
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Coming Soon
Zarr’s July Newsletter will feature using the web to improve and track the quality of your leads.
Contact Zarr
If you are interested in finding out how your business can benefit from the latest web technology or if you need help with your online business strategy contact Zarr Internet Services on 01788 820900.
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