The BCL Business Blog is a place to share ideas about the challenges and joys of building and running a business.
You are welcome to adapt or dismiss these ideas according to your own situation, comment on articles, submit questions or topics for discussion and give feedback.
 Latest Entries
Promotion of retail sites on BCL uses the affiliate marketing model. That means that payment is on percentage of sales. For advertisers, it means that they only pay for advertising when sales are made. Great! But that means that we look at their website and assess how well they will convert potential customers into sales. If we're not convinced their websites are up to it, we won't promote them. How well would your site stand up? Here are some of the common errors we see...
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Having a popular website means I get lots of spam. I get some other odd messages too - which can easily be mistaken as spam. They are from businesses, usually small businesses, and their attempts to use email to promote their businesses is working against them. Here are 10 basic rules for all businesses that send email.
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A couple of years ago I was involved in overseeing a government-funded study on home-businesses. It was an interesting time and we met with all sorts of people who fit under the broad umbrella of running a business at home...
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Every so often I have coffee with some of my competitors. We also contact each other by email frequently about matters that affect us both. Yet most people in our industry avoid contact and try to keep their activities hidden. But are they missing out on something more important...
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The start page is the web page that comes up when you load your browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox) etc. It often comes set up to your ISP or computer supplier but you can change it to something far more useful. Here's how...
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At various points in your business, you will look at getting or changing business premises. For businesses that need an office environment, the choices range from leasing a bare office and kitting it out yourself to using a serviced office.
Some people dismiss the idea of serviced offices too quickly because...
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Getting the right people to your website is not easy. There are several models for online advertising, many of which offer the opportunity to spend a lot of money for varying returns....
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A web site is easy. A web site that works is much harder. You need someone with the right range of skills to get it right for you. Here are some tips on finding a good web designer....
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Many people will find your web site by following links from other pages or search engines. When this happens, the domain name is not very important.
However, your choice of domain name will be important when:
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Hobby web developers, with little knowledge or scant regard for copyright laws, can cost you dearly if they breach copyright on your pages.
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