What is really the best Broadband offer at the moment?

With so many competing offers on Broadband at present it can be confusing picking the right one, and, as you could get tied in for 18 months or more, if you don't pick the right one you could regret it. I recently reviewed my own service provision AND set up a new broadband supply for my parents, so here are my recommendations, based on what I found out:-

Number 1. O2 Broadband

I switched to O2 Broadband because it offers high quality, fast broadband at less than half the price I was paying previously, plus it is backed up by O2, who in my opinion, are currently the best mobile phone service providers and who I've been delighted with. I also called O2 Broadband to query something and a) answered the phone in a couple of rings and b) were very helpful. The same call to BT Broadband took over half an hour.

O2 Broadband offer 3 packages from £7.50 per month for an 8 Meg connection, £10 for a 16 Meg service and £15 for a 20 Meg download speed. There's a free Wireless Box included and Free Connection until the 31st January. These prices are for O2 customers (they're £5 more for non O2 subscribers) but if that's a problem you can always sign up for a free mobile and connection from The Mobile Outlet for a year.

Click Here to visit O2 Broadband and see which package is best for you.

Number 2. Talk Talk - Free Broadband

You can't ignore Talk Talk's Free Broadband Offer. Just £16.89 covers you for your BT line rental, unlimited weekend and evening calls, plus international calls and you get a Free 8 Meg Broadband connection. They're also quick(ish) to answer the phone and reasonably helpful. I signed up my parents for this package.

Click Here for More Information from Talk Talk Free Broadband

Number 3. BT Total Broadband

Despite them being a nightmare to try to speak to, BT Total Broadband are very good, reliable and provide an excellent service, provided you don't need or want to speak to anyone. They also provide the best deal for light usage at just £8.95 per month for 6 months and have some great offers and technology, like Broadband Talk, BT Vision, the Home Hub and so on.

Click Here for more Information on BT Total Broadband and the deals on offer

Here’s some more recommended Broadband providers (and what they say about themselves)

Peter Van Zelst is the principal of SpecialistOnlineMarketing.com, Online Marketing Specialists who deliver cost effective results for their clients

Online Marketing - Focus on the Business First Not the Tricks

Being involved in online marketing I read, hear and see a lot about various tricks and tools to get you to the top of the search engines, bring you untold riches and lead you to eternal happiness.

The truth is, that like a lot of quick fixes, get rich quick schemes and teach yourself/how to guides, the basic principles will mostly work, however unless the foundations are there, the value of such schemes is largely futile.

Put it like this, if I could show you a quick way to run faster wouldn’t that be great? Well, it would be if you knew you were running in the right direction, but what if you didn’t know where you were going or worse still were heading in completely the wrong direction? It would just mean that you got to the wrong place quicker or further away from where you should be.

If I could show you a way to tune up your engine to get an extra 10% performance, that would be fantastic, provided the wheels hadn’t come off your 15 year old Ford Escort.

Fancy tricks, tweaks and tunes are great provided you know where you’re going and it’s the place where you want to go, you’ve got all your wheels on and your bodywork’s sound! But if they’re not, at the very least, you could be wasting your time.

Unfortunately focusing on the fundamentals is the difficult bit, one that not everyone can do and something that a lot look to avoid, hoping fancy tricks will overcome. If you want genuine, lasting and sustainable success, however, focus on the business first not the tricks.

Peter van Zelst is the Principle of Inovative Internet Marketing, a practical online marketing company. If you want practical help to make your business or e-commerce venture fly visit http://www.innovative-internet-marketing.com/

Solving summer water shortages with a new type of mulch

With hot, dry days and hose pipe bans now a regular feature of summer here in the UK, we are all having to change the way we garden – choosing different types of plants and conserving water whenever we can.

Biologist Dr Geoff Whiteley has come up with one answer to the problem of water shortages in the garden – Strulch - a revolutionary mineralised garden mulch made from wheat straw treated with iron minerals that has been proven to retain moisture in the soil.

Called Strulch, it is an environmentally-friendly, sweet smelling light brown mulch that saves water by providing a barrier to evaporation, thus protecting the soil from drying out during periods of drought or low rainfall.

In addition to enabling water retention in herbaceous borders, raised beds, fruit and vegetable plots, Strulch also provides long-lasting weed control and is effective in breaking down heavy clay soils. Having a neutral pH, Strulch can be used throughout the garden so reducing the need to purchase different mulches for different applications.

Perfect for use as a preventative measure against slugs, snails and other pests, Strulch is lightweight and easy to apply around delicate seedlings in early spring yet is equally successful in promoting healthy growth in vegetables, herbs, seasonal fruits and a wide range of plants later in the season. It is also certified for use in organic growing systems so is wild-life – and pet – friendly.

The 100 litre bag sells for around £6.99. It can be purchased from major garden centres nationwide and from www.harrodhorticultural.com or www.wigglywigglers.co.uk or direct from the Strulch Website for professional gardeners, landscapers or consumers with larger gardens.

Further horticultural information and a list of national retail stockists are available on the Strulch website - http://www.strulch.co.uk

Peter Van Zelst is the principal of innovative-internet-marketing.com, Online Marketing Specialists.

I didn’t get to Chelsea this year but at least my friends at Strulch did!

Pressure of work and a prior engagement with Girls Aloud meant we weren’t able to visit Chelsea this year. We booked to see the Girls at Sheffield for my middle daughters birthday present not realising the clash of dates. Aw well, more of that later…..

I was able to keep abreast of what was going on however as my friends at Strulch – makers of the revolutionary mineralised mulch – had their product shown at the Flower Show for the first time, on the stand of their key stockist Harrod Horticultural.

Dr Geoff, the incredibly intelligent biologist Inventor, was at the Harrrod stand, on hand to explain in detail the unique features that make Strulch such a valuable resource for gardeners in the battle against water evaporation, weeds and pests such as slugs and snails. Geoff met a lot of people that had used Strulch and was blown over with the feedback he got.

Strulch is also effective in breaking down heavy clay soils, which is why I especially love it, having to contend with ground which is more slightly soily clay than clay soil, as I do. Because it has a neutral pH, it can be used throughout the garden so it means you don’t have to buy different mulches for different things.

It’s also an answer to the problem of water shortages in the garden. Being made from wheat straw treated with iron minerals, it has been proven to retain moisture in the soil so enabling water retention in herbaceous borders, raised beds, fruit and vegetable plots. The environmentally-friendly, sweet smelling brown mulch saves water by providing a barrier to evaporation, thus protecting the soil from drying out during periods of drought or low rainfall.

Strulch is lightweight and easy to apply around delicate seedlings in early spring yet is equally successful in promoting healthy growth in vegetables, herbs, seasonal fruits and a wide range of plants later in the season. It is also certified for use in organic growing systems so is wild-life – and pet – friendly.

You can pick up a 100 litre bag for around £6.99. It can be bought from major garden centres nationwide, from www.harrodhorticultural.com or direct from Strulch for larger quantities.

Right back to see how the duckling’s getting on (more of that later as well….).

Peter Van Zelst is the principal of innovative-internet-marketing.com, Online Marketing Specialists.

Rain, Rain, don’t go away, come again another day…..

What an amazing thing rain is!

All of a sudden my grass, which had previously thought it was the middle of August and apparently gone on holiday, has suddenly sprung into life and started to grow like there’s no tomorrow. Which is all good news for my composting efforts! I’ve just been looking at some fantastic new wooden composting bins to replace my rather tacky and very ugly black plastic ones. There’s a superb 470 litre wooden one which I really fancy but I may have to go for something a little cheaper, such as the Hazel box which costs less than £45.

Now that the lawn has got some moisture on it, I’m thinking about giving it a feed. The Wormcast Organic Lawn Reviver looks an excellent product, given the suffering my grass has had recently. I suppose I’ll also need to edge. My efforts with a strimmer, though highly entertaining, were not met with unanimous acclamation by Mrs VZ, who has informed me, in no uncertain terms that a better edge will be achieved by using an Edger. Ho hum..

Virtually all of our free time in April, including the entire Easter period was spent weeding and removing the curse of our garden, Bindweed, from the beds. The much needed rain, though bringing much joy to all of our plants is also bringing untold benefits to those pesky weeds. We used all of our composted mulch on a relatively small, OK TINY, area so now we need to buy in Mulch for the rest of it. Being unimpressed with woodchip & bark, we came across Strulch, an organic mineralised straw based Mulch, at our recent visit to Alnwick. Aside from it being eco-friendly, it also looks great (side by side with the other mulches in the Alnwick Gardens it’s head and shoulders above) and its only 6 quid a bag, which certainly makes it competitive compared to a lot of inferior products.

Also need to do something about those pesky slugs and snails which also come out in the rain. I thought this Slug and Snail Trapper was great, that’ll teach the blighters.

Ah, well, back to work for now.

Peter Van Zelst is the principal of innovative-internet-marketing.com, Online Marketing Specialists.

Selling Touchy Feely Stuff Online

Two interesting occurrences coincided yesterday afternoon. One of my newest clients Lovingthatgift.com was telling me that she’d taken along some of her site's products to a presentation at a local women’s group meeting. She said that once people could see, touch and feel the stuff they commented how lovely and different they was. She realised that not being able to do this on the internet is what she needed to overcome if she was to make her site a success. Shortly afterwards I read a news story about online fashion sales last year reaching £1 billion. It reminded me of the early days of e-commerce when it was widely believed that clothes sales online would never catch on, because people had to feel, touch and try them on. So what happened?

In short things and people have moved on, consumers and retailers have both become more sophisticated.

So what do you need to do to successfully sell Touchy Feely Stuff Online? Here are a few pointers.

Products.

Choose your products carefully. If you’re selling clothes, a very fitted garment will look completely different on people of different sizes and shapes and is probably going to be a hard thing to sell over the internet. A baggy jumper, on the other hand, will fit a wider variety of people and won’t be so difficult.

Pictures.

Good images help sell products. Poor images will stop sales. And no images is an absolute no-no. I was shopping online with my 9 year old daughter yesterday for a new webcam and was amazed by the number of items we saw that either had no image or were ‘awaiting images’. My daughter wouldn’t even consider those products. If the image was poor or product badly displayed there was a similar reaction.

Make sure the image is representative and realistic. If a product (like a person) has a good side and a bad side show both. If you just show the bad side you won’t sell anything. If you just show the good side you’ll have disappointed customers.

Where possible, show as many pictures as possible, from different angles and distances, so that the customer can really see what they are buying

Scale. Size is important - try to emphasise it in the product image. People tend to see what they want to see. You don’t want people discovering its much bigger or smaller than they imagined once they’ve bought it.

Colours. Be wary that everyone’s monitor is different and represents colours differently.

Style. Try to follow a consistent theme with your product photography. A mish-mash of different image sizes, layouts, backgrounds, etc., will confuse people and will detract from the shopping experience.

Words or ‘Content’

If you’re familiar with the concept of NLP you’ll recognise that people place different emphasis on images, words and feelings. If your site is to be successful it needs to have a good balance of images and words. Some people will focus more on the images, whilst others will concentrate on the words and some will study both. The words need to describe, in as much detail as possible, the product and its benefits to your customers. You need to write these words in the language of your target customers. If your target ‘demographic’ is teenage girls you need to use a completely different language to that if your target market is 50-60 year old men.

Focus on the benefits of your products not the features. Simple but you’d be amazed how few people do!

Don’t over promise – Do over deliver. You want delighted customers whose expectations you’ve exceeded, not disappointed ex-customers who will tell all and sundry how you let them down.

Add as much background and stories behind your brand as possible. You want to establish credibility and trust with your customers and potential customers, so that they believe what you’re telling them and want to do business with you.

Guarantees and Returns.

A Guarantee and a straightforward, no-nonsense returns policy are vital. People don’t want to be conned and they don’t want to be stuck with something they’re not happy with. Few people do return items or enforce guarantees but they don’t want to risk trying new things or suppliers if they haven’t got the option, so you’ll tend to gain more than you lose. If you’re selling clothes returns are a given and you need to build that into your pricing.

In short, you have to make your online shopping experience as comparably enjoyable to visiting a shop as possible, with all the added benefits of e-commerce. You must look to give your potential customer as interactive experience as you can and look to engage them wherever possible in the benefits of your brand. And you need to give your customers as much information as they need to allow them to buy your products.

For further information or assistance with your e-commerce business visit the innovative-internet-marketing.com website.

Peter Van Zelst is the principal of innovative-internet-marketing.com, an Online Marketing Specialist.

Frustrated Artists Who Want to Show Their Work to a Wider Auidence Rejoice!

Are you an artist or do you know an artist? Would you like to show your art to a wider audience? Would you like to expose your art to buyers and make money from your work?

One of my clients, Loveyourart.com, is an online art gallery where artists can show their work to other art lovers and buyers too. Artists run their own galleries and deal directly with buyers through the site. Loveyourart.com charge absolutely no commission or charges on sales. There’s no stuffy vetting or approval of work so you can let genuine art lovers decide what they think of your work.

Right now there’s a Free 10 day trial so you can try out the site and show your art to the world for absolutely nothing. It’s a really easy sign up process so you could literally have your own online art gallery within 15 minutes. The link to the free trial is as follows:-
http://www.loveyourart.com/art_application2.php

If your not an artist but enjoy art, or if you’re a buyer or collector its also a great place to buy art from new or unheard of artists. You might just pick up a masterpiece of the future!

Have fun and enjoy the site.

Peter Van Zelst is the principal of innovative-internet-marketing.com, an Internet Marketing Specialist.