This was a sales record for online retail in the UK, according to Experian Hitwise.

Kindle in more women's hands

Sales of Kindles and iPads were the most searched-for items:

• According to YouGov stats, roughly 1.2m Kindles were given as gifts in the UK this Christmas, meaning 1 in 40 adults either gave or received the e-readers as a gift.
• In total 1.33m e-readers were given away, with Kindles swallowing up 92% of the market share.
• 61% of Kindles were received by women, with over 55 year olds twice as likely as 18-24 year olds to receive one.
• 640,000 tablets were given as gifts to adults, with the iPad dominating the market with 72% of sales.

What does this mean for your business?  If ipads and Kindles are being bought in large quantities there must be money available.  The second question is what is being read and are you in a position to benefit?

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Keep a record of your passwords on a spreadsheet, or in a notebook.  It can be very easy to forget them and sometimes the hassle of generating a new password not worth the effort.

If it is the password of a product or service you have bought it is an even better idea to record what you paid, when you bought it etc all in the same place.  You need this information for your taxes, but having it to hand easily helps you to get a return on your investment and put in the work needed.

Image via Wikipedia

Choose passwords that are “strong” ie 8 characters long and include some letters and some numbers. Very often you will be told about the strength of your password by the software, but it is better to have a default plan.

Weak passwords include the word “password” as well as straightforward sequences of numbers.  If any of your passwords are in the Top Ten of weak passwords change them!

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WordPress release 3.1 Reinhardt

I am about to check out the latest WordPress release but have been distracted by the fact that it is called Reinhardt.  How wonderful that the people at wordpress like music!

I am so delighted that it is called Reinhardt (after Django Reinhardt) that I have spent some happy time on You Tube and found video of Django and Stephane Grapelli playing in 1939 in the Hot Club of Paris / Hot Club of France days.  Wonderful stuff and exciting to see them in action (with cigarette in mouth.)

As well as playing wonderful music Django Reinhardt had a disability with his left hand which you can see in the picture which just makes his choice of career a complete inspiration. He was assumed to be French in fact he was Belgian by birth. He came in for a lot of criticism from many quarters at the time because of his gypsy background although now – 102 years after his birth, it can be hard to understand.

Back to WordPress….

Why would you need to update WordPress?

Only if you have your blog on your own domain name on WordPress.org.  As a precaution it is better to take a back up, and I do know people who always wait until the latest release is bedded down.  The thing to remember about wordpress is that it is open source (free) software contributed to by volunteers. This latest release from WordPress follows hot on the heels of the previous update which improved security.

How do I update?

It is simple.  Just click “update” and follow the screen status updates until it is done.

Update to WordPress 3.1

If your blog name is followed by the words “wordpress.com” you do not need to update as you are simply taking space and your blog is being looked after (hosted) on the wordpress.com site.

Which is better? WordPress.org or wordpress.com?

WordPress.org is superior because you have your own domain name. Because it is your own property you could sell it at some point.  Ultimately you are more a master of your destiny. However you do need a 1. choose a domain name, 2. buy it 3. have it hosted.

Which is quicker and slightly easier? WordPress.org or wordpress.com?

WordPress.com. If you operate in a defined niche and already have status this may be fine.  Your audience may not know the difference anyway.  You don’t have to do updates and site statistics are included.  If technology is likely to hold you back go with the simpler option so you get going. You can upgade later but readers will have to make the transition with you. Renowned marketing thinker and guru Seth Godin does not have his blog on his own domain.

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Are you a book lover?  Does the smell, the feel of the book in your hand, the joy of just looking at the covers  please you even before you have read a word?  If yes, you are definitely a book lover. Me too.

Have you bought a Kindle? Or have decided against one on principle?

As a book lover I am reluctant to spend even more time in front of a screen.  Computers and TV’s seem to take up far too much of my time, so I have not – so far – been persuaded to get a Kindle or one of its alternatives.

However many of my book loving friends are enjoying theirs – and say they are easy to read.  Of course as a reader it is always a problem to know what or how many books to pack to go on holiday – and whether they justify their weight.

I was at my neighbours’ house when they had the “book talk” before their recent three week holiday.  After a big discussion she (a non-reader) felt that 8 was the maximum number of books it was fair for her husband to take in their baggage.  He  (voracious reader) thought that was reasonable, but had real difficulty prioritising.  Another point of negotiation was what to do with the books once read.  She was keen that he simply left them behind once he had read them, but he as a book lover could not bear to be parted from the book itself, and argued passionately that he had to bring them home.

I followed this up when they got back, and apparently 8 was the perfect number, and yes he brought them all home, and their holiday was a great success!  I am not sure that a Kindle would have made life easier in their case as the books were important in themselves.  But we can all change and maybe a Kindle could solve the issue next time.

E books outsold physical books in the last quarter of last year on Amazon, so many people are changing their reading habits – and not just for holidays.  E readers are far more commonly seen on commuter trains and the Tube, and likely to become even more popular.

Many ebooks are information products which have been sold on the web at a far higher price than is possible with a printed book.  The big change may be cheaper fiction ebooks, and shorter stories.

Ereaders are encouraging reading of the short story.  One publisher, Fourth Estate, has teamed up with the Sunday Times to produce Fast Fiction – a downloadable short story for 99p.  The market for print short stories has never been strong in the UK, although more economically viable in the US so this could be a great way to revive the genre.  It fits, of course with our shorter attention span and need for immediacy.

There are some wonderful short stories by well-known writers which are not so well known as their major works, but could be a fantastic introduction.  “The Signal-Man” by Charles Dickens is one that I particularly enjoy. Once you have the Kindle you have access to many classics and digitised out of print books completely for free. I think I am talking myself into getting a Kindle.

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The trouble is that jobs often drag on, and change shape without having a sense of completion.  In fact your customers may not really know whether you have done a good job or not, but they will certainly be able to tell if the project is not completed.

I was reminded of this recently as I discovered a leak in a radiator and needed to call a plumber urgently.

My normal plumber did not reply, so I called another who had been recommended as good value and reliable. He came promptly, and all seemed to be well, and I was thinking that I could use this new plumber in future as he is much more local.  The carpets were getting soaked, and water was pouring down walls so I didn’t get comparison quotes – I needed quick action.

After the new radiator was installed, and the plumber had gone I glanced outside and noticed the old radiator propped up against a wall.  Now I may not be an expert on plumbing but I certainly know customer service when I see it.

I expected the old radiator to have been taken away.  It is extremely heavy, and I have no way of disposing of it at all.  So I had to phone the plumber up and ask him to take it away.  He did so, but without an apology and rather grudgingly.

Dirty old radiator not taken away at the end of the job

I have no reason to believe the plumbing is not first class, but I am not capable of judging it fully.  The leak has stopped.  However I can judge  customer service, and in my opinion it fell short of what I expected.  So he did not wow me.  The next day my original plumber returned my call as he had been away on holiday and apologised.  Next time he will – yet again – be my first phone call.

Even if we are not plumbers we still have radiator-removal in our business, so we finish the job cleanly.

The final parts of a project are in many ways even more important than the beginning.  Where things have gone wrong it is a chance to get back on track, and where they have gone right you can look back together knowing the work has been completed well.

The final assessment, or even a thank you helps to cleanly finish one scope of work, and tidy up.  It brings a sense of completeness and helps you to look good in your customer’s eyes.  Doing it really well brings that wow factor which is the best marketing in the world.

Mmm perhaps I’ll retrain as a plumber!

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I have just done a gentle purge of last month’s inbox and discovered a few that I had not read, including one person who is keen to come to my blogging workshop on International Women’s Day.

The email does seem to come in rather erratically so this is a good double check.  Luckily nothing was more than a day or two over, but even so, I am surprised that I missed them.  It is not the kind of thing that should have with a well-run business!

I am talking about my computer not Iphone, and of course the computer can cope with any size of read or unread emails, there is no problem about storage of data.  What is far more important is the clearing of clutter from my mind, and reducing any overwhelm.  Thousands and thousands of unread emails in fact slow down both computer and business owner.  When the unneccessary stuff is cleared away, we feel clearer, more in control, ready for new opportunities and the spark has a chance to shine!

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It has got to be good for SEO as real words are being used now.

An added bonus is that it is easier to see how many posts attract views in my hosting statistics. This was completely unexpected and makes life much easier. I will add Google analytics when I have found the plug in, but this is good for now.

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You pick from your prescribed themes and off you go. This is true for WordPress.com. At WordPress.com your blog is hosted on the WordPress.com site so effectively you have the benefit of the masses of traffic that goes to the site, it is extremely quick to set up but you don’t get your own domain name, and you are not building your own business asset.

Then it transpired that the place to go is WordPress.org where you can sign up for a blog under your own domain name. So off I went, did it all, and have got juicy statistics about 2 weeks later of 13,000 hits. If I had been on the .com site they would all have gone to the greater WordPress site not to my domain specifically.

Having got the .com / .org division clear in my mind at last I was completely bemused by the instruction to get an API key from WordPress.com. Not being naturally technical I felt rather exhausted by the whole thing and procrastinated. I had separated the two WordPress sites and couldn’t put them back together again. I thought I was going to be forcefully swept into some blog vault from which I would never appear… and my blog would be torn apart by ravening wolves.

I so completely didn’t trust the instruction that I put a comment on twitter and asked for help but none appeared. So a week later I decided to believe the instruction and obey it. I have just been over to WordPress.com, filled out the profile and signed up, and now am the proud owner of an API key.

Wordpress.com - get the key

The point of the API key is to help remove spam from your blog. I am glad to say I have had no spam yet, but know that the client blogs I work on get a lot. So spammers I am ready for you. Bring it on. Let’s test this API key – and make sure it is worth it!

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Technorati Profile

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Beautiful countryside, good food, good conversations, visiting places I knew as a child, connecting with where I have come from.   Great memory: sitting in the sunshine on the day before Easter in the company of about 25 relatives (not including my own family who had gone with me!).

Inspirational, relaxing and very satisfying to the soul.  Plus so lovely to see wild country and stone houses built to withstand the weather.  Six hundred miles of driving but I am remarkably relaxed! Why?

1. I took time off!  (and genuinely had a break)

2. My blog posts written while I was in work mode went out while I was away.

3. Website statistics have gone up.

Note to self:

Can take more time off – it is fun and I work better afterwards!

Plan and group activities

More blogging!

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