Starting A New Business The Right Way – Intro

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It’s easier and simpler to set up a new business in the UK than you might imagine, so if you’ve been considering getting a startup off the ground in the past, now could be the right time to make the leap. With people finding it harder and harder to find full-time work it can make sense to go it alone if you’ve got an idea that you think could be prosperous. Once you’ve decided to go ahead, the first thing that you’ll need to do is to register with HMRC as a self-employed sole trader. You’ll need a business name and a business bank account, and it’s always wise to find an insurance package, too.

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ccTLDS Now Being Treated As Generic Top Level Domains

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Google has made changes to its algorithms to improve rankings for Country Code Top Level Domains. ccTLDS are essentially domains that imply that a website is operating from a certain country, with that region’s population in mind. Anyone running a website is free to pick a domain of their choice, but companies must prove that they are operating in the country associated with that domain if they are to avoid being penalised by the search giant. However, companies could run into problems if a user searching outside of the country was using the service. For example, a French person searching in France might find a company ranking highly in the search results but the same website is nowhere to be seen if the search took place outside of the country.

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Historical Places of North East England #10: Newcastle-upon-Tyne

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Newcastle Brown Ale

What is there to say about the history of the settlement of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, the home of Geordies, Newcastle United FC and “Newkie Brown”? Well, quite a lot, as you can probably imagine. In fact, there’s far more than could possibly be squeezed into the mere approximate five hundred words of this blog post, but we can still cover the main bases here. And, through reading this blog post, you might get a better idea of why Newcastle has developed the highly prestigious reputation that it enjoys today.

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What the Facebook changes mean for businesses

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The new changes to the Facebook desktop interface should be an eye-opener for any business using social networking platforms to connect with the public. It’s said that the revamped news feed has been designed in order to emulate the stripped-down Facebook app interface, as enjoyed by smartphone and tablet users. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the new look had been constructed in order to provide laptop and PC Facebook users with a less cluttered approach, with the ticker being given less prominence and relocated to subtle black sidebar, whilst photos and videos that appear on the news feed are now allocated more screen space. Whilst Zuckerberg has played down rumours that the refresh has been adopted purely with business in mind, the fact remains that the benefits to business promoting themselves via Facebook would seem vast.

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Historical Places of North East England #9: Barnard Castle

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Barney. It’s the name of a purple fictional dinosaur, Fred Flintstone’s best mate and, believe it or not, a small town in County Durham. Seriously? Well, yes… sort of. In truth, ‘Barney’ is the nickname often used by locals for the market town of Barnard Castle, the proper name of which was taken from the ancient castle around which the town developed. Despite being home to only a few thousand people, the town, which is located in Teesdale and on the north bank of the River Tees, remains a popular tourist destination – which can largely be attributed to its fascinating history.

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How to write meta tags

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Meta data may no longer be used to optimise Google rankings, but in order to entice web users to your website; it’s wise not to ignore them. Regardless of the rankings, your meta titles and descriptions can nonetheless play a pivotal role in leading visitors to your site. Title tags, meta descriptions and keywords are all used in the process of producing title tags. The title tag is the label that you may see at the top of a web page in a browser. In a title tag, you’ll see a brief, well-summarised description of what the page is about. You’ll also see title tags appear when a page appears in search results. It is important that title tags are put together carefully as they can help a person decide whether a page is worth visiting or not.

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How to write web copy that sells

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Web copy has to be informative, engaging and unique for it to be effective. Online copy has to be punchy, with short paragraphs that keep maintain the attentions of the reader. As online readers are known for paying the majority of their attention to the opening paragraphs of a webpage, the tasks for the web copywriter is to persuade them to continue to read until the end of a webpage. Online attention spans tend to be short, so the copy must be engaging enough to prevent the focus of readers from moving elsewhere.

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How to write blog posts for SEO

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SEO is not just about keywords – the search engines are intelligent enough to use to a number of factors to determine your search engine rankings. Updating your blog regularly is a great move to make when you want to impress the search engines. Google in particular loves fresh, informative content, and regular blog posts help you to convince your customers and the search engines that you are truly engaged with the products that you sell and the field in which you work.

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Did you see the Game of Thrones food truck?

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On the way home from the PE office in Central London I came across this food truck promoting the new Game of Thrones DVD. Unfortunately there was no special guest, I imagine whoever it was had decided to go home by the time the truck reached Finsbury Circus.

Did you manage to see the special guest elsewhere in London? I would love to know who it was!

Game of Thrones

“Tastier than a Lannister feast, you can enjoy specially created dishes inspired by the TV series for free!”

Historical Places of North East England #8: Whitley Bay

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The North Tyneside coastal town of Whitley Bay has garnered a fame that belies its relatively small size. Indeed, it has become known for a funfair called the Spanish City, seen big name musicians like Oasis, The Stone Roses and Pet Shop Boys perform at its ice rink and even appeared on 1990s comedy sketch TV show The Fast Show. However, none of this touches upon the true length of the town’s history, which dates back centuries and has even seen the town undergo a notable change of name during the early twentieth century. Just read on to find out more…

Spanish City

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