Dave September 5th, 2009
The next Soho Connect West Cork meeting will take place Wednesday, 9th September 2009, at 12:30pm, at the Kingfisher Bar of the Celtic Ross Hotel in Rosscarbery. The meeting format will be informal as usual but the focus will be on the future direction of the group and the potential of our networks.
Admission free. Refreshments are available at the venue.
Please do come along. Hope to see you there.
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Dave August 21st, 2009
Hi
A few of the people who have been involved in SSWC were talking on Twitter yesterday. Mostly @ann_donnelly@paraic @calvin141170 and myself, @deepspin and the consensus seemed to be that we should have another planning meeting in early September with a view to setting up another West Cork Network focusing on rural Cork starting with a tech/geeky/entrepreneur leadership group but eventually reaching out probably via Open Coffee style meetings (?) to any home based and small business people and entrepreneurs.
It will necessarily be self organising and funded at least to start. If you you interested in being in on the first planning meeting, probably at the start of September and probably somewhere within the Bantry/Clon/Dunmanway triangle add you name here by adding a comment.
I think it would be useful for us all to spend a few minutes considering this like any start up business would and maybe do a SWOT analysis, business pitch etc. This may seem a bit grand but I think it would be sensible to know what we are offering and looking at answering the question; What’s in it for me. when asked by a prospective new member.
I know I was asked this when I asked friends if they wanted to come along to meetings and apart from a vague and rather lame ‘It’ll be good for networking’. I was never very clear myself what the main ‘product’ was.
If we take, as a start, the marketing adage that ‘the money is in the list’ we are basically trying to build a member base of users who have opted in to a West Cork networking group and that needs to be as broad based and easy to access as possible. If that includes Facebook, email newsletters, events or whatever is for the future.
I think it probably needs not to include sales pitching as such but provide benefits of itself. Even if the ‘our reach meeting where to include a very basic introduction to the web for example, we could maybe draw in a wider public.
These are just a few of my musings. If you have any, please add comments below.
All the best Dave
Dave Spathaky writes about and produces web sites from a secret location deep under ground in old copper mines near Allihies in West Cork. He uses teams of under-paid pixel hobbits to hand craft sparkling and wondrous images from recycled electrons. He holds the world record for plate spinning, once worked for one of the world biggest publishing software companies and was also the model for a statue of Oscar Wilde in Merrion Square in Dublin.
Sometimes he gets to forge his own biographies.
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Calvin August 17th, 2009
Benchmark Email Marketing is offering a fantastic “Free For Life” offer on their acclaimed e-mail marketing software as a service account. Simply sign up using this form, and enter the code “Free4Life” in the “Promo Code” field.
That’s it — a free e-mail marketing account forever. The only restriction seems to be on importing lists — for that you’ll have to upgrade to a paid account — but if you’re building your marketing list from scratch, or just want to give e-mail marketing a whirl it’s a great option.
But hurry… the offer only runs until 31 August — get your free account NOW!
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omahonydonnelly August 5th, 2009
Have you been wondering if you should be on Twitter or how you can use Facebook to promote you business?
There are still places left for Friday’s workshop “Hands On: Your Own Site PR Campaign”. If you already have a website, this workshop will help you get more business through the site using methods that you can do yourself, if you have basic skills in using the internet.
I’ll be take you step by step through:
- identifying your target market and where these people go on the internet
- setting up a Link Building ‘campaign’ (including how to update your own Links page)
- setting up accounts on Social Networking sites and learning how to best use them to promote your business
- identifying potential partnerships with other sites for guest posts and articles to promote your business and your website.
- how to measure the success of your campaign
Please note that you will need to bring your own laptop to participate in the workshop. Click here for requirements.
Due to the great response with these first two workshops we are planning to continue on a monthly basis. the next workshops scheduled are:
- Your Email Marketing Campaign, 4th September
- Your PPC Campaign, 2nd October
- Your Own Blog (date to be determined in September)
Click here to read more about “Hands on: Your Site PR Campaign” or contact me if you want to book or would like further information: 023 8835287 or email ebusiness4@omahonydonnelly.ie.
You can also see more about the topic on my blog: Link Buiding: more than just Link Exchanges
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Tags: Internet marketing, Networking, publicity, Small Business, Technology, Training, Twitter
- Events , Marketing , Networking , Resources , Small Business , Social Media , Training , Twitter , Web , West Cork , internet , online marketing
omahonydonnelly July 15th, 2009
SohoSolo member Caroline Jennings did. Well, she thought she did. She received a call today from a company that was offering to set up a Google AdWords campaign. She was suspicious and told them they’d have to talk to her web developer, me. Luckily I had heard about this company and that they were targeting Irish businesses.
Matchmaker Marketing, based in the UK, are an online marketing company that sets up and manages Google AdWords campaigns for businesses. They are not Google, nor do they have any special relationship with Google.
See my blog post for more information: Google Will Not Ring You To Advertise On Their Website
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Calvin July 14th, 2009
What’s happening with SOHO Solo?
It’s a question I’ve been asked more and more by members, former members and potential members of the network over recent months, and the truth is I have absolutely no idea.
The last communication I had from SOHO Solo Ireland relating to the future direction of the network was back in March. Since then, nothing, nada, zilch.
At that point the decision was to hold quarterly, rather than monthly facilitated meetings and to encourage informal, member-driven meet-ups on a more regular basis. There was also a proposal to redevelop the SOHO Solo Ireland website to incorporate more social media / networking / community features that would add genuine value for members.
There has been one quarterly session on blogging, but nothing else, and the only development on the SOHO Solo Ireland website seems to be that most of the member profiles have been taken down, including mine… (although I can still log in and edit the details, so the profiles are still in the database).
So essentially I’m asking the same question as every other SOHO Solo out there: what’s happening?
Continue Reading »
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Tags: future, Soho Solo, what next?
Calvin July 6th, 2009
When: 12:30 on Wednesday 08 July
Where: Kingfisher bar, Celtic Ross Hotel, Rosscarbery, Co. Cork
Subject: SOHO Solo West Cork Open Coffee Club… how do we want to move forward? Anything else you’d like to announce, chat about.
See you there on Wednesday to discuss the way forward for SOHO Solos in West Cork and anything else you feel like talking about… see you there 
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Tags: Next Meeting, Soho Solo, West Cork
Dave June 15th, 2009
Tux Paint screenshot
As you are bound to be a computer user if you are reading this I thought I would draw your attention to a great piece of open source software.
As is often the case it is better in many respects than the commercial offerings (certainly if you consider the price!). In addition it can open peoples eyes (young and old) to what is being achieved in the open source world.
In my view open source can and should be the way forward for small and solo busnesses as the size of the community that supports these projects and the very nature of their objectives means that these products are striving for inter connectivity and complience without being tied into any particular operating system or other vested interest.
Tomorrow (June 16, 2009) marks the 7th anniversay of the very first
release of Tux Paint! To celebrate, The developer has decided to name it “Tux Paint Day,” he’s asking for some help.
Despite how much people — even my closest friends — love and enjoy
Tux Paint, they have friends who still have never heard of it.
You can change this! Help me celebrate “Tux Paint Day” tomorrow by
telling just _two_ friends about Tux Paint!
Some things to mention to your friends:
(1) It’s free!
(2) It works with Windows, Mac OS X and Linux
(3) It knows over 80 languages
(4) It’s great for kids ages 3 to 12 years old
(5) It’s easy enough for most adults to use as well (they may need help kids).
and, of course, they can download it right now from:
(5) www.TuxPaint.org
(Oh, and kids: remember to get permission and help installing software unless you are sure you can do it without getting caught!) Continue Reading »
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Tags: kids, Open source, Tux Paint
omahonydonnelly June 12th, 2009
As mentioned at the last two SohoSolo meetings I’ve launched a series of workshops: “Hands On: Online Marketing Workshops” The first takes place on Friday, 3rd July, 9.30am – 1.30pm. I will take you through setting up, customising, adding content and promoting your own blog. Places are limited to 5 participants to ensure individual attention.
For full details on the upcoming workshop – Hands On: Your Own Blog
Future worshops:
- Your Site PR Campaign, 7th August
- Your Email Marketing Campaign, 4th September
- Your PPC Campaign, 2nd October
For details on the entire series: Hands On: Online Marketing Workshops
I am also offering one on one training in Online Marketing and Search Engine Optimisation if that better suits you. Contact me for more information at 023 88 35287 or ebusiness2@omahonydonnelly.ie
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Calvin June 11th, 2009
This just in on the SOHO Solo News Wire. SAGE, the business accounting software behemoth has decided to make its standard TASBooks basic accounting software available for free to small businesses and startup companies. I’ve just grabbed my copy – download yours now from the TAS Books website.
Here’s the SAGE Press Release:
Sage gives Free Accounts and Payroll Software for start-up and small businesses
Sage is giving its software – TAS BOOKS Basic and Quickpay Free to start-up and small businesses Free of Charge.
“We at Sage have been thinking about how we can help in the current recession and it is very clear that there are lots of jobs being lost and hence lots of people that may have ideas about setting up a small business”, explains Liam Mullaney, Managing Director, Sage Ireland. “We think we can help here and we have identified two of our business software applications that could be made available absolutely free to new start-up and small businesses”.
Continue Reading »
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Tags: Accounting, Sage, Software, TASBooks
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