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Thanks Indizine, it's nice having an explanation .... even makes me feel less thick!

Best wishes, Linda

Tomsk and MagnifyB - THANKS! I'd got myself into a real hissy fit over this one.

I followed MagnifyB's advice in the end because it was simpler for all of us; however, I've downloaded teamweaver just in case I need to ask for help again!

I've restricted myself to the two site pages, sacrificing the Careers advice for teenagers page because I couldn't squeeze it in (it would have taken me over the signature limit - my page "titles" are very long).

Thanks again. I'm sure this will help ... and I'm also grateful to be rescued from my battles with the computer (it always wins!).

Best wishes, Linda

I really have tried to follow instructions exactly and get past whatever I've misunderstood to insert the new signature correctly. I know I'm doing something silly but can't work out what it is - so HELP please!!!

I've tried out variations of present and absent " "s, giving up entirely and seeing whether I could just insert a hyperlink to my career counselling text, going through to see whether I'd inadvertently put in a space that shouldn't be there....

What I'm trying to do is to have a signature that says:-

Career counselling (linked to the page Career Counselling, Career Management, Human Resources Outsourcing, Redundancy Counselling | Careers Partnership (UK))

Graduate careers advice (linked to the page Graduate careers advice,graduate career uk,career what to do | Careers Partnership (UK))

Careers advice for teenagers (linked to the page Careers for teens, career advice for teenagers,careers for teenagers | Careers Partnership (UK))

Yours hopefully from a very baffled me. Best wishes, Linda

So plse should I be copying the signatures practices you and Indizine follow as best as I can? I can see that if I click on the anchor links(?) of your signatures, it takes me through to the relevant Home pages of your sites ...

... so if I replace my own current signature with (say) career counselling linked to my Home Page and graduate careers advice linked to the appropriate page of my site, then I'd be following the better pattern you've both set out?

Will wait for you to say "Yes, you've understood" (or "[I]No Linda - try it this way"!!!) before I make the changes.

Thanks to MLF advice, I'm now actively trying to achieve more anchor links for the main pages of my site through article marketing. A moderately ranking student site's just agreed to publish one of my articles on its Home Page and I've tentative agreement from a very popular teenager careers site to take another article. It'll be interesting to see what difference these schemes make to the number of site visits - I feel fairly hopeful.

If poss, I'd appreciate advice on whether I should use the generic anchor link careers for these sites or the separate terms graduate careers advice and careers for teens respectively, plse.

Thanks again, Linda

Tomsk and Indizine, just wanted to thank you both again.

My Home Page is now sorted out. Dunno whether the sorting out of the code problem is entirely responsible for the Google improvements but you'll rejoice with me, I'm sure.

The key words included on the Home page - career counselling, career management, redundancy counselling - are now back on GoogleUK pge 1; and the Human Reources outsourcing is on page 2!!

Thanks again, Linda

What a lovely kind offer!

I'm still using a Hewlett Packard Deskjet 520 (c.1995) would you believe! Touch wood, it's never let me down.

Interested in your dog grooming business. If you have a poodle, you have to get it clipped every 6 weeks or so don't you?

Other breeds are less good customers, presumably? I own a "pin wire" wire-haired standard dachshund whose coat seems to grow incredibly slowly.

Best wishes, Linda

Hi

Could well be the fear factor - it's hit many "non essentials" businesses and even the "essentials" businesses (eg supermarkets) are having to stock "right price" basics. I feel people are bracing themselves for the impact of the cuts and may not recover their confidence until the Spring.

All this doesn't help you, though.

I'd suggest you design a market research survey, looking at all angles of your business from the perspective(s) of your targeted customer groups, to provide you with the answers to your questions.

Then get a sensible friend / relative to stand in a busy area close to your shop and grab suitable passers-by for their comments.

As a thank you to these passers-by, you could offer a discount offer (eg 25% on products retailing at

I'm a relatively new blogger myself and the only reason I feel it's OK to put in my 2p worth here is that old quote "In the valley of the blind, the one-eyed man is king". So here goes:-

My blogging approach has been to start with the site-relevant key words I want to put over and then try to build blog items round them.

I go to the free Google key word tool, checking for both popularity of the term (within the UK market) and its competitiveness. Deciding which terms are too competitive or just about achievable is something I'm finding difficult - eg the key word tool may identify the term as middling rank competitive but when you look at the highest ranking sites for that keyword they're huge government sites with a PR of 6 or 7 (plus lots of links to them).

I always aim to get on Google page 1 (for UK,Blogs or for UK,Everything) but of course don't get there a lot of the time.

You'll know the news / issues that are hot in your sector and the information you want to promote.

It's worth asking friends, family, business contacts etc to contribute to any comments section because 0 comments looks so bad! However, I haven't found much enthusiasm for responding to blog items - and my specialities (careers guidance, employment matters and job search techniques) are topics on which most people might be assumed to have views!

Good luck, Linda

Try getting some advice from CareersAdviceDirect -0800 100 900 (I think - it's that or 0800 900 100!!). Ask to speak to a Careers Advisor (because I think you need help sorting out your objectives as well as the right course). The service is free and operates 7 days a week.

Best wishes, Linda

Same idea, slightly tweaked .... landlords, letting agents (inc estate agents) especially those catering for students and short-term lets?

Environmental Health Officers deal with property that tenants allege to be unfit for letting. While they have to be seen as impartial, would it be of any use to show them how you can sort out mould problems and enquire of them how you can best reach those landlords (in the locality) that may be faced with a mould problem at one time or another?