Want a new car - try an old car from Tristar

Met up with John Knight, an old business colleague today, and found the perfect solution for those "don't want want of those boring new car" blues.

John, who is a serial entrepreneur, has set up Tristar Modern Classics to offer close to classic Mercedes cars at very affordable prices.  He specialises in 80's and early 90's vehicles at a time when Mercedes quality was at its peak.  Some of the vehicles he stocks are pretty high mileage but they have a reputation for going on and on and on.

So you get a pretty decent car for not much money - how about £5,495 for a 230 TE estate!  They don't depreciate and actually if you are lucky you might get more than you paid.  The car tax is much lower than for an equivalent engine size on a new car and you even get a discount on labour from Mercedes.

As someone who was likely to buy yet another Vectra it sounds pretty tempting.


Gareth
Arrowsmith Marketing

Has anyone else noticed that it has suddenly got hard to find things on Google?

I know that Google has made some changes recently most obviosly in the layout of its main search page.  But something else seems to have happened in the way it determines what search results it brings back.

I have noticed that when I have done searches on some specific companies or organisations it seems to have trouble bring me back a reference to the home page of those sites.  So for instance I did a search for "ACCA" (Association for Chartered Certified Accountants) and most of the results were for press releases by other organisations mentioning ACCA.  I did the same thing this morning for "David Linney Photography" and the results consisted of various references but not the businesses website.

Strangely just as I was writing this blog I did the search for both of these terms again and Hey Presto the search changed to what I would have expected with the top search reference pointing to the prime websites.  It's a bit odd.

Can anyone tell me what's going on?


Gareth
Arrowsmith Marketing Limited

Lewis Smith & Co. - Hard Rock Accountants

Arrowsmith client Lewis Smith & Co. dropped a major bombshell in the world of rock 'n' roll today.

They announced that company director Andrew Smith has been living a dual life as a guitar god with Stourbridge band MaDads.

Andrew told us that "pretending to be a fan of Keane, Paolo Nuttini and, I am sorry, Lilly Allen has been really difficult over the past 5 years.  I am glad it is all in the open now."

Check out the full news release on the Lewis Smith & Co. website, which includes a link to MaDads infamous "Tarka Daal" video.

Gareth


Arrowsmith Marketing

Denis Pelych's High Andes Tour Blog

If you want thrills, spills and excitement then you need to read Denis Pelych's High Andes Tour blog today.

Friend and VHQ Solutions co-director, Denis is doing his mid-life thing by going across the Andes by frog (sorry that's a poor recollection of a "Ripping Yarns" sketch) or in his case BMW motorbike with a group of fellow loonies.

Judging by his commentary and photos they are having an exciting time.  I just hope they don't have to go across the road of death featured in the Top Gear.

Check the blog out - it's very good.

Gareth

Beware SEO hucksters promising page 1 in Google - using Pay Per Click

A number of clients have highlighted a new twist in the world of SEO snake oil salesmen.

The promise is a miracle way to get high listings in Google rankings.  Now that isn't anything you haven't heard before.  What's different is they don't tell you that they'll acheive this using Google AdWords.

Now I think that pay per click advertising can be a very powerful tool in the right circumstances and used in the right way.  However when a company contacted me to see if a client wanted to spend £300 over 6 months to "get front page listing" I figured this was the wrong tool used in the wrong way. 

For a start they already had front page listing for all of the relevant keywords (so poor research there).  The second thing was that if a client had run the pay per click campaign themselves with no knowledge at all, or even if they had some help from me, it would have cost them a fraction of the charge of this so-called SEO company.

If any of this is confusing then I wrote an article for the National B2B Centre about choosing an SEO supplier that you might want to take a look at.


Gareth

Arrowsmith Marketing

Do your own Success Audit. Remember all of the great things you have done

I have mentioned in the past the "Success Audit" technique that we used at the National B2B Centre.

It was designed as a way to get people thinking about their business so that they could generate content for use in Social Media.  However it works in other situations too. 

The Arrowsmith website has needed a bit of a boost for a while (but when you have got client requirements to satisfy...) so I used the process to think about what new things I could say.  Interestingly the main thing that it helped me with was to remind me just how many people Arrowsmith has helped over the years either directly or through the B2B Centre.  I hadn't exactly forgotten but those experiences weren't exactly front and centre.

So now I busy developing some new client pages and also re-examining those different assignments to pull-out the nuggets that other people are going to be interested in.  What did Arrowsmith do that can be replicated by other people to achieve success?

Gareth

Arrowsmith Marketing














 

Farmhouse gite in Midi Pyrenees - France

My friends Gill and Mark have renovated an old French farmhouse to a fantastic level of style and comfort.

Not sure whether it is too big to be described as a gite but Barrusclet, located in the Midi Pyrenees region near the town of Condom, has space for 12-16, a pool, games room and extensive grounds.

Looking forward to the opportunity to visit, but it's very popular and has had some rave reviews.

Check out http://www.fabulousfrance.co.uk

Gareth