Linkedin  is the world’s largest professional network with over 120 million members and growing rapidly. You can use LinkedIn as an on line CV but why not also use it to manage your career or boost your business? LinkedIn is a great way of keeping in touch with colleagues, keeping up to date with professional developments, job hunting, generating business, recruiting and it is also a great source of advice and support.

To make the best use first decide what you want from it so that you can focus your efforts effectively. If you plan to use it as just on online CV it will not take much effort, however, if you want to actively manage your career or generate business you need to put more time and effort to see the benefits.

Here are a few tips

1)    Think about what you want to achieve so that you put your efforts into the right activities!

2)    Fill in your profile and keep it up to date. Thinking about how you want to use LinkedIn tailor your profile accordingly i.e. think about your ‘target audience’ e.g. colleagues, clients, employers, recruiters etc. If you get this right you will get more opportunities and introductions.

3)    Settings – privacy and notifications. You can have different settings for your connections and your public profile. Also ensure that you are not overwhelmed with updates.

4)    Upload your photo. It is important not to underestimate the value of a photograph and also remember that LinkedIn is a PROFFESSIONAL network, so don’t use holiday snaps or avatars and dress appropriately for your profession.

5)    The more ‘active’ you are the more visible you will be to others. Posting status updates will mean that you will appear in the newsfeed of you connections. Many people on LinkedIn check daily so if you will need to update regularly

If you would like more help using LinkedIn contact me for information about training available Catherine Jones

Making loose covers can be a daunting prospect. Come and learn how and where to start making a cover for your chair or sofa: – Designing acover – Measuring up and fabric requirements – Cutting and pin-fitting – Making and applying piping – Inserting zips and other closures – Skirts and bottom edges.

Then make a sample cover on half a chair, before embarking on the real thing!

The cost for the 2 days is £180, including all materials, tea, coffee and lunch. For further details, or to book a place call 01584 781255 or email pen@collybrook.co.uk. More details can be found at www.collybrook.co.uk.

e64 has been managing AdWords accounts for their customers for many years and currently we manage in excess of £2.8m advertising spend per year through the Google AdWords program.

In recognition of this, and the skills and expertise we have developed during this time, we have gone through the accreditation process with Google and are now Google AdWords Certified Partners. As part of this one of our team, Kyle Williams has become individually qualified in Search Marketing.

Although our existing customers already know our expertise with AdWords, this means we have been certified by Google as a professional online marketing agency who can effectively manage, analyse and optimise AdWords campaigns to be the most effective they can be.

Google AdWords Certified Partners must demonstrate an in-depth understanding of AdWords by passing exams, and must meet all Google’s own qualification requirements. These requirements ensure we demonstrate not just our understanding of the Google AdWords system, but also how to best use AdWords to achieve any given set of goals.

If you would like more information about using Google AdWords to extend your reach, or any other aspect of Search Engine Marketing call us on 01299 400797, visit www.e64.co.uk or email adwords@e64.co.uk.

eLink64 System

Over the years we have developed a wealth of experience in building links and connections to help boost websites on the Search Engines. Using our experience we have developed our innovative and effective link building system, eLink64.

eLink64 allows us to generate a powerful link profile for your website that search engines like Google pick up and use to raise your site’s authority, and so rank it higher for the search terms that matter.

Link Diversity

We use a combination of site types to build this profile, gaining links from established Blogs, Web 2.0 (interactive sites like Facebook and MySpace), Article Directories, Social Media Links (Twitter, Wiki sites etc.) and Social Bookmarking sites (e.g. Delicious and Digg). The graphic below represents how we use each type of site to either link directly to your website, or link to those links and boost their strength. The diversity of links strengthens the profile of your site.

Three Tier Linking

To really make these links work for your website, we make them work for each other in a three tier structure (as shown in the previous diagram). We use links from the established blogs, social bookmarking and social media sites as tier 1 links that link directly to your website.

We then create links from Web 2.0 sites, Article Directories and Forums to link to those pages on the tier 1 websites where we have placed the links to your website. In doing this we are building the strength of those links to your site. We then further build the weight of the tier 2 links by using a third tier which link to the pages where the tier 2 links were placed.

This creates a network of links, and interlinks where the most powerful type of sites link directly to your website, which are boosted in strength by links we have created in a network of cross‑linking from a diverse and wide range of website styles and content. The result is a flow of links that gain strength and power from each other and so boost your website’s ranking for the chosen targeted keywords on the search engines. With eLink64, these links are generated each month, every month.

eLink64 Link Network

The diagram below represents the link network eLink64 generates, and shows how the interlinking strategy of this system generates a highly effective link profile for your website.

RSS Feeds and Site Pinging

An important element of eLink64 is that it not just creates the links, it uses a combination of RSS feeds and ‘ping’ services, as provided by Google and other search engines.

The search engines provide ping services to allow websites to alert them of new website and pages so they can index the content quicker. eLink64 uses these services to ensure that each link created is found quickly by the search engines, and so starts to benefit your website sooner rather than later.

Monthly Reporting

Each month we provide you with a spreadsheet of all the links eLink64 has generated, each link will be live so you can check them out and see how your link profile is growing each month.

You should note though that on its own eLink64 will not have the full desired effect, and your website will also need to be fully search engine optimised for the same terms that eLink64 targets.

Search Engine Optimisation

As mentioned in the previous section, to make sure your site gains the maximum benefits from eLink64 your site needs to be fully optimised for the chosen search terms. Our Website Promotion service, often called Search Engine Optimisation, looks at building your website’s ranking and visibility on the main listings with the major Search Engines.

To make sure your website gains the maximum benefit from eLink64, there are two activities we would complete, which are explained in more detail later in this document.

• Keyword Research and Competitive Analysis
• Web Page Optimisation

The overall aim for your website is to achieve great rankings in the free listings on the main Search Engines. By presenting your website in a certain way, tweaking your pages’ content as well as managing other activities, we can ensure your website will rank well for the chosen search terms. The benefit of using e64 is that we only research and recommend terms that will have a direct benefit to your bottom line. The two specific activities we recommend to compliment eLink64 are:

Keyword Research and Competitive Analysis

We can conduct comprehensive keyword research and analysis to identify the main search phrases the website should target. By analysing the search terms actually being used in over 350 million recent live searches this ensures the website is targeted to attract high numbers of suitable visitors.

During this stage we also assess how competitive each keyword is by looking at how many other web pages are specifically targeting them. This allows us to recommend the most appropriate keywords to use in the website and supply a report showing the predicated number of visitors you could receive if you were in the top three to five websites listed for each particular search term.

Web Page Optimisation

Once the most effective and popular keywords for the website have been selected, suitable pages should be worded to reflect them. Not all pages of a website need to be optimised and the overall number selected is dependent on the results from the keyword research and discussions about those results with the client.

As part of this stage, both the technical and visual design of the site is also reviewed as these help gain higher rankings and more importantly, higher conversion rates for your site.

Pages from the site are then selected and recommended for optimisation, once it has been agreed which pages will be optimised we will optimise the existing copy and submit the changes for your review. If new pages are to be optimised we would require the initial copy for us to optimise.

Here we will be looking at the physical risks that need to be accounted for within any business planning, but hopefully will cover the general areas necessary to give you an idea of what to look out for.

Before we move on let’s be clear what we are talking about.

   What is Risk?                                           

“Risk is the likelihood of a body or event to cause harm.”

This should not be  confused with Hazard.         

 What is Hazard?            

“Hazard is the ability of a body or event to cause harm.”

From this we can see that in order to reduce the risks to our businesses we need to remove, reduce or protect against the hazards we come across. The way we do this is by carrying out a Risk Assessment

 There are five steps to carrying out any risk assessment.

 Step 1: Identify and record the hazards that are present, these fall broadly into five categories

Physical: such as pressure, heat, damp, noise, radiation and electricity

Chemical: such as dusts, fumes, chemicals, toxic materials and gases

Biological: such as infections, viruses and contagions

Ergonomic: work conditions, stress, RSI and man-machine interaction

The fifth one we’ll come back to as it’s covered under specific legislation

 Step 2: Identify the people that may be affected by the hazard

Paying particular attention to those groups that may be especially vulnerable such as the elderly, blind, young and disabled.

At this point it is possible to rank the severity of the risk, giving it a more tangible identity

 Step 3: Remove, reduce the severity or Protect against, the Hazard.

The preference here is always to remove the hazard completely (rearrange items to avoid trips and impacts), if this cannot be done then reduce the severity of the hazard (use low voltage equipment or less aggressive chemicals) and as a last resort protect against the hazard (provide warnings or personal protective equipment).

Once again assuming that all the measures have been put into place, it will be possible to rank the severity of the residual risks. You can then establish whether the remaining risks are acceptable or if they need further action.

 Step 4: Record, Plan, Inform and Train            

Record the significant findings from steps 1 to 3 and what actions have or need to be taken as a result.

Prepare any plans or procedures that may be required in order to facilitate the actions

Inform and instruct all relevant people, co-operate with all concerned.

Provide any necessary training that may be required as a result of the assessment.

 Step 5: Review

Having carried out the assessments they must be kept relevant, which means that they should be reviewed on a regular basis or when conditions change (such as work practices, new technology, legislation or results of monitoring)

Remember any revisions to the assessments must be communicated to those that need to know the results of those revisions.

 Why have we gone to the trouble of doing these risk assessments and putting whatever precautions in place, is it because of our genuine concern for our fellow workers safety, is it because it makes financial sense to do it or is it our legal duty?

 The answer is all of the above!

 From a humanitarian and moral point of view, we do not want to cause or allow to be caused, harm to anybody

1. Research shows that investing in risk reduction leads to better company performance.
2. A good working environment is good business.
3. Staff feel that they are valued.
4. Your customers see a company that does it right and cares.
5. You avoid costs associated with disruption, sickness, investigation, down time, compensation claims, increased insurance premiums and loss of goodwill
6. And for those companies that cannot see the benefit, there are legal requirements, with quite hefty penalties for non compliance

 Remember under step 1 of the risk assessment we said there was a fifth hazard, which was covered under its own legislation, this is Fire!

 Potentially this one can be the most destructive, obviously to your staff, the public and visitors, but also to a business and as such should be carried out by a competent person.

 If your stock and premises are all destroyed, how are you going to trade?

 This is why in March 2006 the “Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005” came into force, making it the responsibility of all owners or occupiers of commercial properties, to carry out a Fire Risk Assessment of those premises and put into action any necessary precautions and planning, specific to those risks.

 For the purpose of the legislation “Commercial” means anything non-domestic, so that includes churches, schools, libraries etc. In fact only military and some government buildings are exempt.

 When we carry out our Fire Risk Assessment it’s worth remembering how fire works, for this we use the fire triangle.

  Fire needs 3 elements to exist firstly Fuel (flammable gases, flammable liquids or flammable solids. Secondly Oxygen (The air around us, oxidizing agents and stored oxygen) and finally Ignition (Naked flame, faulty electrical appliances, hot processes and hot machinery)… Remove any one of these and the fire goes out.

 We have seen that there are many types of hazards and therefore risks, surrounding our businesses, it is essential then that we Eliminate these risks, if we cannot do this, then we should Reduce the effect of them, and finally Protect against any residual risk.

 Remember none of this will work if we do not communicate your findings and plans to those who may be affected.

 This way our businesses should be safe environments in which to work, be protected from the disruption and costs that incidents can bring and demonstrate to others that we are responsible and considerate business people.

All of this has to be a cost effective  benefit to all of our businesses, a benefit which you can take to the bank!

If you would like more information, then please contact us via www.anchorhands.co.uk