An introduction to new guest

Hello, my name is Amanda, I am currently a apprentice at Pink Nik Designs, And I will be doing some guest Blogging to talk about various topics within the job. A little bit about me! I left school not really knowing what I wanted to do for a future job, I knew I either wanted to do something along the lines of art or something with chemistry, two completely different subjects. So to get a better idea of what I wanted to do with myself I joined a Falkirk Council employment and training course. I spent six months within the unit learning about interview skills and techniques, and various other things such as behaviour in the work places. Near the end I realised I wanted to do more along the lines of art, though I will always be crazy about science, BOOOM! I also enjoy doing photography and photo editing so in the near future I hope to go to College and learn more about techniques, tip and tricks on how to do great things.

Recommended Reading

I love reading blogs, in fact i think i even have about 4 for myself!! Not that i have lots to say, mind you my husband might not agree with that statement, lol! But i'd like to start a new feature of recommending a blog to read, now this will definitely vary month to month from the bizarre to business, but i think there should be something for everyone eventually!!

So i'm gonna start with a favourite:

The Pack Dog Walking

Dogs don't use computers - It is written by local dog walking service The Pack. Who, while i'm writing this, i have found have just won an award for their blog, so big congrats to Erin on that.

Why have a blog?

I was at the latest Blabit Networking meeting in Linlithgow and the discussion rolled around to businesses and blogging. One of the women present was a Herbalist and she was talking about ways to market her business, we chatted about various things but blogging seemed to be something that would really suit her business. We discussed the advantages of a business having a blog and it got me thinking on how businesses including myself could use blogging to their advantage.

If you think about your favourite website..... what makes it your favourite? For me it's regularly updated content. New articles, products and so on. So that should be the aim for your business. A blog gives you an easy oppertunity to do this.

For example the Herbalist could post quarterly blogs about seasonal pick me ups, advice etc., for my business i should be highlighting products, new products and special offers.

Blog aren't hard to work either, you don't need any special skills to run one. Sites like Blogger are very straight forward to use. If you want to add to it and expand the blog by adding gadgets, links, polls, ads and so on then you can but it's not manditory.

A blog would give you something to connect to your customers and give a more personal insight into you and your business. Blogs don't need to be super lengthy, 200 words to give people some thing to quickly read, add extra bonuses by finding links to other sites that maybe of inerest or back up what your saying. Can you post a picture to help make it look interesting? These all help and are easy to do. On Blogger it's just like editing a Word document.

Please reccomend blogs you know for us to check out.

some free blog sites:

Blogger.com

WordPress.com

LiveJournal.com

Yay

I'm feeling really encouraged just now, i've had a few folks mention this blog and so far no bad feed back! I don't really do this thinking people need to know this (although maybe you do :D ) because i know a lot of the things i talk about are out there already, but i like to share what i'm learning being a new business owner and this logs my thoughts on that journey, but if it can help someone else then that is a nice bonus!

THANKS FOR READING! :D