All posts by Karen Blakeman

I have worked in the information profession for over twenty years and have been a freelance consultant since 1989. My company (RBA Information Services) provides training and consultancy on the use of the Internet, and on accessing and managing information resources. Prior to setting up RBA I worked at the Colindale Central Public Health Laboratory, and then spent ten years in the Pharmaceutical and Health Care industry before moving to the International management consultancy group Strategic Planning Associates. I edit and publish an electronic newsletter called Tales from the Terminal Room. Other publications include Search Strategies for the Internet. I am a Fellow of CILIP: The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, a member of the UK eInformation Group (UKeiG).
Google, RSS

Google Reader tracks web page changes

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So you are an RSS addict but your favourite news page does not have an RSS feed. There are plenty of tools that will monitor a web page and notify you of changes by email or RSS (see my list Monitoring Web Page Changes at http://www.rba.co.uk/sources/monitor.htm) but now Google Reader also has an option that will allow you to monitor changes to most web pages. All you need to do is log  in to Google and open Google Reader, click on Add a subscription, and then enter the URL of the page you want to monitor. That’s it.

I am testing it out on 3 web pages and comparing the results with Page2RSS and the desktop program Website Watcher. My comparison has only been running for 12 hours but already there are differences between Google Reader and Page2RSS. Google Reader is picking up more changes than Page2RSS, which is not surprising because Page2RSS checks a page just once a day and Google checks pages more frequently. But what I did not expect was that Google would miss a major change that Page2RSS picked up. Had I bothered to look at the web page when Google Reader had told me it had changed I would have spotted the new text that it had missed but the temptation is to just view the reported change in Google Reader. Website Watcher, though, has come up trumps every time and picked up all changes to the pages, probably because I told it to check the pages in question every 10 minutes.

The initial stages of my trial suggest that Google Reader is a good way to track changes to web pages as long as you only need to know if a web page has changed in some way and as long as you go to the live web page to view the changes. It seems that if a web page changes frequently throughout the day it will not pick up and report every single change. Google Reader checks pages at pre-determined time intervals but I expected it report on all of the changes since it’s last report. It doesn’t and that puzzles me.

If you really need to know about web page changes as soon as possible then a desktop tool such as Website Watcher is the bees knees. You can choose how often it checks the pages and you can also tell it look for specific keywords  – useful if you are waiting for a product launch announcement for example.  Website Watcher can also easily monitor whole directories of pages. It is not free – prices start at 29.95 euros  (see http://www.aignes.com/shop.htm for details) – but it gives you far more options and control than Google Reader.

SMEs

Guest Post: Top 10 Tips for Marketing a Small Business Online

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Guest post by Joseph Eitan founder of Photo Paper Direct.

If your small business depends on Internet traffic for its revenue or if growing your small business during 2010 has to be done hand in hand with the Internet, you’ll need to know how to market it online. If money is no object you could hire an agency to create your online marketing strategy, but for most of us as small business owners it’s a luxury we cannot afford. Here are 10 tips for marketing a small business online.

Free is the magic word – There are a few online marketing activities which are both free and worthy of your time. Be sure to use them.

1. Register with Google Maps – Google allows local businesses (big or small) a chance to register their business address and phone number in its local listings. If for example someone searches for a keyword together with a location e.g. ‘nw11 plumber’, the search results will include listings from Google Local displayed on a map next to the normal search results.

2.  Upload products to Google Product Search – To start selling your products on Google Products all you need is to prepare a data feed and a Google user account. Also known as Google Base, this free service from Google allows businesses to list products or services on its first page results. In most cases these will appear just below the paid results and will include an image, title, price and direct link to the product or service

3. Get a voucher for AdWords – Google’s AdWords is by far the biggest paid ads medium. If you search hard enough you may come across a free voucher which will charge your account and let you use Adwords at no cost until the funds run out. Your bank might offer such voucher when you open an account or when you attend a Google university course (which is free and managed by Google).

4. Use social marketing – The key to dominating the social landscape is to become an authority in your industry. To achieve this status consider using services such as Twitter to share relevant information, Yahoo Answers to answer industry questions and so on.

5. Create a blog – Blogging can go hand in hand with a social marketing strategy and is considered very effective. There are a few blogging platform which are free such as WordPress and the key is to integrate the blog within your website so it looks and feels apart of the brand, for example www.rba.co.uk/wordpress/.
Consider paid services – Most online marketing activities are unfortunately not free, however most could be executed within a small budget so you are able to test the waters and quickly stop or pause.

6. Register with niche directories – Most industries have a few directories which will drive qualified web traffic to your site. Try not to register with directories which offer little value or are unrelated to your industry because you really want to generate web traffic which is likely interested in your products or services.

7. Start an affiliate program – Affiliate Marketing is an Internet-based marketing practice in which a business rewards another for each sale which the other business generated. You can either self manage the program by buying an off the shelf affiliate tracking software or use a type of middleman service to link between you the affiliate. Each has it’s pros and cons, and each case is different.

8.  Email marketing – Newsletters, product updates and email promotions are fantastic to keep in touch with customers and ease to manage. The key is to communicate relevant messages, at the right time and at the right frequency. There are a number of web based email software providers, some such as Mail Chimp even offer a free plan.

9.  Improve search engine ranking – The most cost effective marketing channel with the lowest cost per acquisition is the natural traffic channel also known as seo. By optimising your website in accordance with the search engine guidelines you will notice that with time organic traffic will find its way to your site. Although this channel is technically ‘free’, it does require a lot of your time, hence similar to a paid service. For more on search engine optimisation, head to Google.

10. Use 3rd party sites – Sites such as eBay, Amazon, and Play.com will allow you to list your products for a small charge.  Because they already have high levels of quality traffic and you don’t (yet) you are able to put your offers in front of the right target market quickly.

What are your online marketing tips for small businesses?

Joseph Eitan is founder of Photo Paper Direct. Joseph started the business a few years ago which now sells a selection of Inkjet media from large format paper to cartridges.

Business Information

Cayman Islands company registry

The General Registry Cayman Islands (http://www.ciregistry.gov.ky/) enables you to order birth, marriage and death certificates and now has a company search option. To gain access to the company search you first have to register (free of charge).  To view records you have to set up an account and deposit US$ 73.18, which is the cost of two company records. You can revisit the results of a search, free of charge, up to 24 hours after performing the search. Results include Company name, File number, Formation date, Registration date, Entity type, Registered Office, Status & Status date.

Many thanks to Suzanne Bartlett for the information and feedback on the service.

Local Government, mashups

Potholes.co.uk

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The snow has started to clear in Caversham and the lower half of the road on Donkin Hill looks as though it has been repeatedly bombed. Major cracks, huge potholes and an alarming amount of subsidence are now in evidence. It is a scene that is going to be repeated over the whole of the UK in the next few days as the snow and ice retreat to reveal the damage caused by the freezing weather. I shall be out with my camera and reporting the state of the road to the council via FixMyStreet (see my earlier posting on this excellent service). I am sure our local Council will be inundated with similar reports from around Reading.

Potholes.co.uk is run by Warranty Direct who specialise in used car warranty, new car warranty and extended warranty. It is a “Campaign website to highlight poor state of British roads and help motorists seek compensation from Councils”. Type in the first part of a postcode or the name of a town to view a Google map showing the location of any potholes in the area. Click on a marker to see a more detailed description of the problem.

Potholes UK

To report a pothole you need to register and sign in. First enter a title and description and then the street name and town. A Google map should appear with a marker and you can then drag the marker to the exact location of the pothole(s). You can also upload a photo. Once you have submitted your report you are taken to a page where you are encouraged to report the problem to the local council.

There is a blog at http://www.potholes.co.uk/oursays where they talk about pothole issues and highlight news stories. Potholes.co.uk is also on Twitter at http://twitter.com/potholesuk/

I am not sure how useful this site really is for motorists as it is dependent on people reporting potholes to the web site, so it is not comprehensive. It is also not clear who marks the potholes as filled when the repairs are made. Feedback on both of those points would be welcomed.

Thanks to @cllrdaisybenson for the tweet that alerted me to the site.

Business Information, Statistics

Switzerland in Figures

This is a very useful three page PDF summary of Swiss statistics from UBS. It contains more than 1,600 facts and figures on the Swiss economy and each of the cantons, and an international overview of key data. Data includes population, employment, the financial situation, indebtedness, tax levels, and figures on the economy and living standards. This is the 2009 edition.

UBS Switzerland in Figures

Thanks to Gary Price for the alert (http://www.resourceshelf.com/2010/01/10/switzerland-in-figures/)

Local Government, mashups

Fix My Street

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FixMyStreet is another service from those excellent people at Mysociety.org. So you’ve got a problem in your neighbourhood that you thought your local council would have dealt with by now. Road drains not clearing? Broken man-hole cover? Industrial waste dumped in your street? Your council may not know about it so this is your opportunity to tell them or chase up an ongoing problem.

All you have to do is enter the postcode, street name or area. You should then see a map showing existing and previous problems.

FixMystreet

To report a new problem, click on the location of the problem on the map. A purple flag will appear and then you fill in the boxes: category (drop down menu), details of the problem, upload a photo if available, and email address and telephone number. Then Submit. FixMyStreet will send your report to the council on your behalf. “Simples”!

You can also subscribe to problem alerts. These can be delivered by RSS feeds or emails alerting you to problems within 7.3 km of your post code (the default), or 2, 5,10 or 20 km. Alternatively you can choose to receive all alerts in the area covered by your council or ward.

Information on other MySociety.org projects such as they “They Work For You” (details of your MP and their activities and “What do they Know ” (Freedom of Information) are available at http://www.mysociety.org/projects/

Local Government, Twitter

UK’s Tweeting Councillors

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Heavy snow hit us overnight in Caversham and as I write the fluffy white stuff is still falling. From my office window I can see through a gap in the houses opposite the traffic on Briants Avenue and there have been no buses, or indeed any traffic at all. Our local radio stations provide good general information and updates on the weather, roads and public services but #rdg in Twitter is by far the best source of detailed local news. So today I was paying extra attention to the #rdg column in my Tweetdeck and spotted that one of Reading Borough’s councillors, @CllrDaisyBenson, is on Twitter. A couple of tweets later she informed me that three of her Lib Dem colleagues are on Twitter and about the same time I found the CllrTweeps web site – Finding and following the UK’s Tweeting councillors at http://www.cllrtweeps.com/.

The list was started by @CllrTweeps who is @JamesCousins. The project is currently being developed by James Cousins and @DafyddBach. Not surprisingly the wonderful @Liz_Azyan has been involved with the list and is credited with identifying a lot of the councillors.

You can search the list by council, party and “tweeps” – an alphabetical list of tweeting councillors.If you are a tweeting UK councillor and not on the list details of how to add your user name are at http://www.cllrtweeps.com/about/

UK Tweeting Councillors

Business Information

GBRDirect – search the European Business Register

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If you want to check the credentials of a company then the first port of call has to be the official company register of the country in which the company is based. Many of the registers are on the web and allow you to search and view some of the information free of charge.  (See my own list at http://www.rba.co.uk/sources/registers.htm. Also Company registration around the world and Worldwide registries). This approach does not always yield results and often proves to be more difficult than anticipated. It assumes that the company or organisation is required or has volunteered to register, which is not always the case. For example, in the UK, sole traders do not have to register and therefore will not be found at Companies House. Then there is the problem of navigating a company registry web site that may be in a language other than your own. Even if you manage to work your way through the navigation and search options you will usually find that the data is in the local language. And this all assumes that you know where the company is based; if you don’t you have to trawl through possible registries one by one.

There are many services that provide you with easy search options and access to translated official company information but these can be expensive, and there are occasions when you need to see the original registration documents and filings. One partial solution for Europe is the European Business Register (http://www.ebr.org/). This is a network of many of the European company registers offering a “one-stop-shop” for company information. Access to the register is via “partners” – you can identify the partner for your country at http://www.ebr.org/partners.htm. For the UK and Ireland the partner is the Global Business Register (http://www.globalbusinessregister.co.uk/) or GBRDirect.

Currently GBRDirect connects to the national corporate registries in:

Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece,Ireland, Jersey, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Republic of Macedonia, Netherlands, Norway, Serbia, Spain, Slovenia, Sweden, Ukraine, United Kingdom.

In order to use GBRDirect you first have to register and also “top-up” your account using a debit or credit card. All documents are priced and so is a successful search, which costs £1.50. You are not charged for a list of results but as soon as you click on an entry in the list your search is deemed to be successful and you are charged for it. Once on the ‘company’ screen, available documents and their prices are listed. 

GBR Direct Company Documents Screen

Prices vary depending on the type of document you wish to view and the country. A price list and the type of documents available for each country can be found at http://www.gbrdirect.co.uk/GBRDirect%20Pricelist.pdf

As well as a company search you can also carry out a search for company officials in Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Sweden and the UK.

On the plus side this service enables you to quickly search many of the European registers through a single interface. On the down side you still have to know the country in which the company is based and the documents will be in the local language. You may also end up paying for information that is available free of charge direct from the national registry and the European Business Register seems to go down with alarming regularity. About half of my searches failed because “The EBR Service is not available at the moment” and I am finding the down time increasingly frustrating. When it works GBRDirect is an excellent way of searching the EBR but you still need to know the location of the individual country registries in case the service is down and you need documents urgently.

SMEs

Flexible Support for Business to become “supersite”

In February 2010 the Welsh Assembly Government’s Flexible Support for Business (http://fs4b.wales.gov.uk/) will become a “supersite”.  The aim is to provide Wales’s businesses with “an unprecedented level of tailored online information and support”. The site will supersede the current FS4B web site but will remain at the current web address.

According to the press release:

“The FS4B Supersite is designed to be integrated with the Assembly Government’s other business support services to enable businesses and citizens to move as smoothly as possible between online and offline support.

The Site will also provide a raft of guidance, tools and directories which professional advisors, relationship managers and customer service staff can use to enhance the support they offer to their clients.”

The supersite will provide information and advice on investment funding, doing VAT online, and local government (e.g. applying for licences). There will also be news of start up events, free information and advice for small businesses, and access to investment and specialist support for larger companies.

I’m intrigued by this so-called supersite. The existing FS4B web site is excellent and appears to already do much of what it is claimed the new one will offer. I assume more “seamless”  integration with online services for business  – for example VAT – and perhaps personalization options. My main worry is that super-sizing the site might make it more difficult to find relevant resources and help.  I look forward to the launch with interest.