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It's an interesting time, obviously worrying for a lot of people, but I wonder if some of the changes we are seeing are here to stay.

With more people working at home, and big corporations looking at making at least a percentage of the workforce homeworkers moving forward, there is a worry that city centres and businesses dependant on lunchtime workers will suffer. But it also means more people are spending more time in their local area, spending money in local shops.

Could this be a lifeline to the local highstreet which has been in decline now since this interweb thingy was born. I think we will see a shift in businesses as companies react and adapt to different markets and requirements. With so many people home working, I can see opportunities that will encourage people out of their houses and be sociable (as much as we're allowed to be!) Maybe clubs, exercise, organised meetings hosted by local coffee houses, homeworkers pasty from Greggs, who knows.

My team are all remote working, it's actually worked out ok with twice weekly zoom calls to keep the team spirit up and have a good catchup and some all important banter. Since March I have an empty office just sat there and now I'm wondering if I actually need it, which I imagine many business owners are thinking similar thoughts.

Not allowed to be called Pork sausages, doesn't bear thinking about 

Shamelessly stolen from twitter...

Started with a Vic20 and progressed to the Commodore 64

Then you look at the functionality and power of the Smartphone in your pocket... where will be in the next 50 years? (well I know where I'll be lol)

I was going to read this but I just don't have the time...  

Great book if you've not read it - Eat that frog

One thing that was pointed out to me in 20/20 hindsight, was that most people give up work to start a business, but in reality end up creating a job, but with little support or missing the departments they used to rely on, eg sales, marketing, HR, IT etc.

They then have the added pressure of having business related responsibilities, most of which will be unfamiliar, and on average work a lot more hours than they ever used to, for a lot less money (if they are lucky enough to pay themselves at all).

When you sit back and analyze it, you wonder why anyone would be mad enough to start their own business! Maybe a level of business naivety at the beginning is actually a good thing

Biggest mistake I made was not asking for help sooner and thinking I could do it all myself. Then employing people proved to be the wrong approach, which compounded the problem.

If I could visit my 2005 self, I'd say get a business coach and don't waste the next 10 years bouncing all over the place trying to stay afloat 

SEO and content for content's sake, as arguments flow back and forth, I think it's an age thing.

The only videos I really watch are niche specific to an interest I have, eg seeing an aircraft take off from an aircraft carrier. But with so many robo voices and quite frankly boring or useless videos, if I want to learn how something is done, I tend to stick to a more trusted site and read a blog/article on the subject.

But I know youngsters now live in Youtube which I still find strange. I think well crafted and interesting content will always capture your interest, and a good example for me is Quora. Although full of noise, if you follow specific authors and select your subjects, it can be an amazing resource, showing text and imagery still have an important part to play.

An interesting halfway house is Facebook Groups. Again like Quora you choose what's interesting to you, and there are some superb and very well-curated groups among the sea of rubbish. But these tend to be a mix of discussions referencing articles or videos, so best of both worlds.

Even contributing on another platform, rather than writing your own blog post, if you are making a concise argument or point, having it well written and informative is going to be far more likely to encourage engagement and further interest into whatever your products or services you might be peddling.

I know I need to get more involved in video, but I think I will be dragged kicking and screaming 

That's my visa to the USA blocked forever

Obviously these scam emails are as old as the hills and I can't believe a single person anywhere in the world still falls for them, so baffled why they even continue. But it's the first time I've had one addressed from Melania Trump 

On a serious note, these scammers need to up their game, employ a decent proofreader and address their grammar. Plus make the scenario a little more realistic. Maybe I could become some kind of scamming coach/consultant?

In fact, send me £100 in tune vouchers and I'll give you loads of advice 

First Lady United State Of America .

I am Mrs. Melania Trump this is to officially inform you that your overdue
payment from United Nations total sum of US$15,500,000.00 (Fifteen Millions, Five Hundred Thousands United States dollars.) is currently here in my office white house Washington and the funds will be delivered to you as soon as you get back to this office and comply with the requirement as needed to deliver your total fund to you as well. Your home address and your cell phone numbers is highly needed to complete this delivering to you as well,

Bear in mind that I have taking my time to be in charge of your fund as instructed by my husband to ensure that you received your fund successfully from the white house to reduce the economy and I’m the only one that has your fund in regard to my husband Mr.Donald Trump II and you will have to pay the sum of $100.00 only buyj iTunes card,  or Steam wallet card before your Bank Cheque Draft will deliver to you , the reason why the fee is required is to have your fund clearance paper from the origin of the fund to avoid any harassment from the authority and you are also expecting to be announce as Beneficiary of the said amount as your fund is delivered to you.

So you are urgent advised to get back to me with your personal information, home address and the payment information today for immediate effect of your delivery. Note that the 100.00 is the only fee and final payment you have my assurance,

Please acknowledge the receipt of this letter via e-mail address:
firstladyofthe111@gmail.com)

Thanks

Regard.
Mrs. Melania Trump
The White House (Official Residence of the President of the US)
First Lady United State Of America .

Hello TyreGuy

Your post doesn't make any sense. The Google Panda algorithm was dumped on us back in 2011, I remember it well because we used to religiously monitor after all the scare stories, and got quite smug because our traffic increased

It had continual updates, which was terrifying every time one was released, then in 2012, we became a Panda victim and our traffic went off a cliff  

The Panda updates carried on being publicised until about 2015, along with the follow on Penguin and they were then just built into the normal search algorithm. So Panda, Penguin and any other furry chums have long been off the public Radar and are just updated automatically along of the 50+ other signals the Google God uses for its search algo.

But all of that is regarding organic search, ie how your website and pages naturally rank in Google.

PPC, (Pay Per Click) is a different animal  and while algorithms may impact auction costs and the price you pay, you can't directly blame it on Panda.

If you are spending money on PPC and it generates 70% of your business, but that is generating high revenue, then invest in some PPC consultancy who will quickly be able to analyse your account and steer you back in the right direction.

If you go into your adwords account, you should get pinged from time to time by a Google adwords specialist. Use them, they're free. They always try to get you to spend more money because that's their job, but they can fine tune your account and spot any problems.

I love PPC, as it's a great tool to play with keywords and is hugely cost-effective because you have instant data allowing you to tweak and adjust. But it can also be very expensive if it is allowed to be inefficient. 

But if I was reliant on 70% of my revenue from adwords, I think I would investigate investing in organic alternatives. If you are bidding for a particular keyword that converts, then work out how much that keyword is worth to you in sales. Then invest some cash into getting that keyword indexed in Google so you show organically rather than as PPC. Longterm, it would be a lot more cost-effective, but obviously depends on the popularity of the keyword/phrase. 

Hope that helps.

I can't unsee that now