Great writers have different styles and different methods. However, when writing for the internet (especially when starting out) there are some standards you should aim to follow to improve the quality of your content and increase readership. Famous authors may be able to get away with a very personal style and a dependence on alcohol but your blog isn’t going to last very long if you don’t make it internet friendly. If you are serious about starting a popular blog then we recommend our Blogging & Content Marketing course to get you started. We also have WordPress courses if you would like to delve deeper into creating blog sites and SEO training and Social Media training to ensure your blog posts are searchable and shareable.

This article is written by McKinley Plowman, accountants in Perth, who provide business and personal financial advice.

Written communication remains one of the most important skills for a person to possess. Writing has allowed us to communicate precise ideas that are able to be digested by the reader at their own pace. Most importantly, writing has given man the ability to communicate outside of their mortal life. It has, in a way, pushed mankind into a post-human state.

With this said it is disturbing that a lot of the population write poorly. I’ll run through some ways you can improve your writing and will focus specifically on writing in a business setting.

Use smaller words if possible

Large words sap energy from a piece of writing. Many people believe that using a big word will make them appear more intelligent to the reader and hence improve their status. This is partly true but influence doesn’t come from convincing people you are smart, it comes from making people like you. Read the rest of "How to Improve Yourself as a Writer"

Posted by Guest Author in Blogging, Guest Blogs, News, Personal Development on February 8th, 2012| 1 Comment »

In this guest post, James Christie of Social Media agency No Pork Pies looks at how Twitter has become so influential in today’s society, even having a say into the planning of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. 

The Royal Yacht Britannia: now permanently moored in Edinburgh. Picture by Ian Mackay

In April 2009, it was announced that the British public would now be allowed to follow the Royal Family on Twitter at @BritishMonarchy (it now has 280,790 followers).

Commenting on the development, a Buckingham Palace spokesman said: “The Queen has been advised that it’s up and running but there won’t be any members of the Royal Family tweeting.”

A year later, the Queen ‘joined’ Facebook. “The Queen has approved the decision – she knows all about Facebook,” an aide assured us.

With this supposed knowledge of social media and micro-blogging sites, our sovereign is sure to be aware of how social network communities have reacted to the idea that a new royal yacht should be built to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

The idea was first floated by the Daily Mail; the newspaper launched a campaign to build a luxurious new yacht in October 2011. The Mail backed the campaign with several lengthy articles and an impressive artist’s impression of what the yacht might look like (complete with a theatre and a deep sea submersible). However, the campaign sank without trace until 16^th January 2012 when The Guardian published a leaked letter from Education Secretary from Michael Gove. Read the rest of "Will Twitter finally sink the idea of a new luxury ship fit for a Queen?"

Posted by Guest Author in Facebook Tips and Tricks, Guest Blogs, Internet, Social Media on February 1st, 2012| No Comments »

The great Top SEO Trumps Blog Off has begun!

Please note we have added to the prize pot a new top prize! Not only will 35 of you win one of our 35 limited edition packs of SEO Trump cards you will now have the chance to land  a place on a scheduled training course (two days max). That’s a prize with a value of up to £708.

Not only that you still get your SEO Top Trumps!

ENTER TO WIN £708 worth of training courses

Your prize can be either TWO single day courses, such as our Mobile Web Design Training, SEO Training, Time Management Training, Introduction to Project Management,  HTML5 Training, CSS3 Course,  or one of our two day courses, for example Photoshop Training, Management Skills for New Managers Training or Leadership Training courses. We have a great selection so there is sure to be something for everyone, take a look.

For those of you not from the UK, you could book yourself a city break. Brighton is one of the best places in the UK to visit, or you could give it away and enjoy your SEO Top Trumps and all of the links and publicity we will lavish upon you.

Please note that the winner must pay for all travel and accommodation when attending the course.

Here’s a preview of how the cards look:

Simply write a blog post that meets the conditions below to be in for a chance to win.

There are 46 Top SEO Faces from the SEO world, each ranked by:

• Popularity on the web
• Twitter followers
• Google+ contacts
• Fanciablility (we are keeping our judges a secret for this category)
• Geek Cred

Can you guess who is hiding behind Danny Sullivan? If you can’t guess or want to see the other 45 Top SEOs then you can follow all those who made it into to pack by creating your own SEO circle from this one we made earlier, just click on the image to view or add this circle in Google+:

35 Limited Edition Top SEO Trumps packs are up for grabs.

Anyone can enter:  SEOs, marketing people, social media specialists, bloggers, content marketers, and students, anyone who thinks they can write a good blog.

There are so many ways of winning that the playing field is wide open, there is a really good chance of winning so it’s worth a go. As all great SEO’s and Content marketers know, generating great content is just par for the course anyway. What have you got to lose?

Not only that, if you are one of our 35 finalists we will publicise your fine post using our many social media accounts, and link to it from all of our resources and blogs, as well as on our own well ranked site, so it would be good for your SEO too.

All you have to do is what you do best: write a great blog post.

How to win

1. Write a blog post that contains a link either to one of these links
   http://www.siliconbeachtraining.co.uk/blog/seo-top-trumps OR http://www.siliconbeachtraining.co.uk/seo/
2. Email us with your entry at info@siliconbeachtraining.co.uk or tweet a link to your post to @sbttraining with the message: “My SEO Trumps entry” and the Hashtag #seotoptrumps

It’s as easy as that!

You can publish your blog post anywhere (not necessarily on your own blog) as long as you identify yourself as the author somewhere in the post and tweet the link with hashtag as above.

After the closing date April 30th 2012

Votes will be counted and verified and prizes will go to the authors of the winners of the following categories:

• The 5 funniest posts
• The 5 most original posts
• The 5 most useful posts
• The top 5 posts that drive the most traffic to the destination link.
• The 5 top most liked posts on Facebook – where that information is available
• The 5 most +1’s on Google Plus
• The 5 most tweeted posts – where that information is available

Good luck and get blogging!

Become a future top SEO trump with our many SEO related courses. SEO training will provide you with the best practice approach to optimising websites and content for higher rankings, you can then use the knowledge learnt on our Social Media course to market your website and build strong brand identity. If you want to measure how your site is doing (and your social media efforts) then Google Analytics training is essential, while Advanced Google Analytics training is available for those who already use it on a regular basis. Don’t forget, we also now provide Content Marketing training – great for building brand and author identity whilst gaining valuable backlinks!

Top SEO Trumps Competition Terms & Conditions

Please read the competition terms and conditions before entering.

Posted by Heather Buckley in Brighton, Competitions, Facebook Tips and Tricks, Google+, Guest Blogs, News, Offers, SEO, Social Media on January 25th, 2012| 3 Comments »

We have now added Content Marketing to our Blogging Training course to create the mighty Blogging and Content Marketing Training course, so you can get a head start on your internet marketing endeavours.

It can be tough to get your brand, company or website noticed on the big World Wide Web. Fierce competition for search engine rankings and SEO dominance is rife between websites gunning for the same keywords and with the same general target audience; so what can you do to get yourself to stand out from the crowd?

Currently, one of the most effective methods of generating interest from users and building up back links to appease the search engine lords is content marketing. This form of marketing has many advantages and uses which should be explored by anyone looking to extend their website’s visibility, outreach and exposure.

Why should I do it myself?

The internet is made of content. It’s what people use it for; to find useful information, tips and entertainment. By creating your own content you can write about the topics your website, blog or company specialise in from as many angles as you can think of. Doing this not only gives you more searchable content to be found via search engines it also gives you the opportunity to stamp your authority on a subject, working your way into becoming an expert in your field that people will look to for knowledge, answers and cutting edge info.

However, if you aren’t ready to put yourself forward as an expert just yet, content marketing still has some valuable other uses which when used properly will help improve your site’s traffic and exposure to new users.

If you would like to find out more about content marketing then have to look at our post on Guest Blogging and Great Places to Post Your Content, or read on to find out more about how blogging and content marketing can benefit you. Read the rest of "Why Should You Start Content Marketing?"

Posted by Aaron Charlie in Facebook Tips and Tricks, Google+, Guest Blogs, Internet, News, SEO, Web Design, Web Design Training on January 23rd, 2012| No Comments »

Christmas Cards – the first form of mass communication?

Sir Henry Cole commissioned the first Christmas card in London in 1843. He was a busy and rich businessman who had tired of the practice of writing letters to friends and family every festive season (which was traditional then for those who could afford postage costs).

He came up with the idea and commissioned illustrator John Callcott Horsley to design it. The illustration of a family with a child drinking wine proved controversial but turned out to be a phenomenal success. How many business ideas still remain popular after 100 years?

First Christmas card

So what has that got to do with Social Media?

Well, Cole had helped introduce the Penny Post three years earlier. This allowed people living in Great Britain and Ireland to send letters weighing 1/2 ounce or less to anywhere within the kingdom for one penny.  Sir Henry Cole had played a leading role in pushing for the Penny Post, believing cheap and easy communication was needed for the growth of business. The masses took advantage of this to send Christmas cards; it was no longer only for the rich and aristocratic. So you see the Christmas card was the first commercial mass communication system, designed as a way to offer seasonal greetings without having to write out hundreds of personal messages.

Make something special and original

How do you feel when someone makes something just for you? A homemade Christmas card, a hand knitted scarf, a Christmas bouquet made from hand picked holly tied with a crimson satin ribbon. You feel special. Successful social media marketing is all about making people feel special, it’s about appealing to what makes us human, it’s about personalisation, connectivity and conversation. Read the rest of "Social Media Marketing, It’s Christmas Every Day"

Posted by Heather Buckley in News, Social Media on December 20th, 2011| No Comments »

Image by gnuckx on flickr

If you are regularly guest blogging and publishing content in order to get quality back-links and provide fresh content for your website, then we think you are doing a great service for your SEO and Social Media strategy.

After the lastest Google freshness update, content marketing has become the most powerful weapon in your artillery, the most respected authorities in the world of SEO are all agreed on this one. Looking for the best and most popular posts on the web is a must if you want to keep up with what’s hot and what’s popular (this is all important for those vital media shares) but what is acceptable and what amounts to simple plagiarism? It’s not just a moral dilema, Google will penalise duplicate content.

If you need more help with your SEO and social media then we offer some great deals on SEO Training, Google Analytics courses and social media training. Below Christopher Fielden, a published author, offers his opinions on the subject of plagiarism  - all in his own words!

Plagiarism Definition

If you nick someone else’s idea and pretend it is your own, that’s plagiarism.

Inspiration Definition

If you see something which tickles your imagination enough to write an original story, that’s inspiration.

Examples of the Differences Between Plagiarism & Inspiration

If you went to see Lord of the Rings in the cinema and then decided it ‘inspired’ you to write a book about Rodeo Shaggins and his landscape designer, Jan-Flys Ganges, who discover a magical toe ring which has been imbued with the wrath of the dark lord Flower-on and will bring an end to all that is peaceful by covering the land with the unholy stench of ghastly garlic gases unless the ring is transported across Middle Birth and thrown into the fiery belly of Mount Bloom, that is stealing someone else’s ideas. That is plagiarism.

Read the rest of "Why Inspiration Should Never Party With Plagiarism"

Posted by Heather Buckley in New Free Resources, News, SEO, Social Media on November 21st, 2011| No Comments »

UPDATE: Facebook Timeline has now gone live! Use our Complete Guide to Facebook Timeline to change your privacy settings so that you don’t unwittingly show off some embarrassing antics from the past! We’ve also included a free Cover Photo Photoshop Template Download and a guide to the new features.

While the infographic doesn’t address issues with default sharing settings that could potential lead to embarrassing info going public, it does reveal a number of methods Facebook does to protect your privacy that you won’t be aware of, charting the security measures you go through from logging in to going offline.

These measures are all focused on reducing spam – Facebook claims less than 4% of shared content on the platform is spam – and protecting your account from hackers. Personal favourites include LinkScanner which automatically checks links for spam when they’re posted on Facebook and the Trusted Friends feature to help you log in to your account when you forget your password or have had your account hacked.

The Trusted Friends feature involves picking some close friends (remember they will be responsible for helping you log in so pick wisely!) who can send you a unique code when you’re locked out – a bit like handing a spare house key to a trusted neighbour just in case. Although this key they can’t use to access your Facebook so it’s not like handing out your password.

We’ll have to see how well Facebook’s security holds up on Saturday if the Anonymous threat to Facebook turns out to be real. Interestingly the reason behind the attack is due to Facebook’s privacy issues!

The only feature we think is missing is a way to address public chain posts which are remarkably similar to the old chain emails, with messages such as ‘If you don’t pass this on to 7 people you will die’ and ‘pass this on 6 friends and you’ll meet the love of your life at midnight’. Read the rest of "Facebook Security Issues Addressed"

Posted by Craig Charley in News, Social Media on November 1st, 2011| 2 Comments »

Social Media Networks provide effective tools for Project Managers

“Did you know that we provide some of the best PRINCE2 training courses in the UK? Don’t forget to ask your provider about class sizes before booking. We pride ourselves on quality, we’ll never pack you in! “

As a Project manager you need to keep in touch with messages from clients, stakeholders, developers and team members, arranging meetings, keeping up with project updates. This takes a lot of time, in fact you could say that this makes up most of your job. There are emails to check and send, phone calls to make, meetings to attend, information and reports to chase.

Having done all the above, you then need to update your project plan, communicate the updates to senior managers and stakeholders, creating reports, communicate the progress of the project. Knowing the importance of personal relations, you probably wish you had more time to talk face to face with important clients, but your time gets eaten away with endless e-mails, phone calls and meetings. Not only that, you will need to keep on top of being able to locate and distribute the latest updates of documents for yourself and for your team.

This will not only eat up your time, all the emails and updates need to be read by your team members and it will subsequently eat up their time too. If they are unsure about whether they have the latest updates they must contact you directly, probably by email again to make sure they are up to date with project changes and deadlines. They may lose emails or miss them in the ocean of updates. This will keep you even busier as you may feel the need to check receipt of messages. Read the rest of "Using Social Media for Project Management"

Posted by Andy Trainer in News, PRINCE2, Project Management, Social Media on October 24th, 2011| 2 Comments »