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Visiting London And Looking For A Different Kind Of Travel Guide?

28 Mar

So you are on your way to London and you want to visit some of the best places, but don’t want to be the average kind of tourist? Several visitors from the USA in particular are turning the clock back 100 years and following in the footsteps of the world’s most famous detective – Sherlock Holmes. Holmes historian Alistair Duncan came up with the brilliant idea of basing a guide around the places that appear in Holmes stories, but that were also dear to the author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

‘Close To Holmes’ takes us around the main locations and includes some of my particular favourites as well. The British Museum was featured in several stories and was a particular favourite of Conan Doyle’s. Alistair combines a light and friendly commentary with pictures from the late 1800s and the modern day.

Regent Street c1880

Regent Street c1880

“Reading it, we feel that we’re in the company of a knowledgeable, enthusiastic and witty friend. The book is both valuable and a pleasure to read. As much a historical and literary exploration as a travel guide” The Sherlock Holmes Society of London

There are several of London’s oldest hotels in the book including the Savoy and The Langham along with very famous streets such as Pall Mall, Charing Cross Road, The Strand and of course the home of Sherlock Holmes himself Baker Street.

Also worth a visit are Covent Garden and Scotland Yard that have their own chapters in the book.

There is a growing Facebook group of those that have used the book as a guide with their own comments and pictures – Close To Holmes Photo Stories.

For those lucky people with an Amazon Kindle the book has been recently launched on Kindle and its the perfect way to take the guide with you – Close To Holmes on Kindle.

Close To Holmes

Close To Holmes

 
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Posted by on March 28, 2010 in Sherlock Holmes and Arthur Conan Doyle

 

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Book Depository Launches Free Delivery On All Books Worldwide – Amazing for Authors and Publishers

27 Mar

We’re excited to report that The Book Depository is now offering free worldwide delivery on all the books that they carry including our NLP books like Seeing Spells Achieving for literacy, You Too Can Do Health for the law of attraction, Recover Your Energy for chronic fatigue and Stop Bedwetting in 7 Days.

Even better news is that they have launched an affiliate program where you can recommend books and get a commission every time someone buys something.

You can sign up here http://affiliates.bookdepository.co.uk/affiliates/signup.php?a_aid=b4db7151 – there is no cost to sign up.

What we really like about the program is that there is the genuinely exciting message of free delivery anywhere in the world – we have people as far away as Australia using their service now and it means access to our books that we never had before.

We’d appreciate your feedback on the scheme and how it works for you.

 
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Posted by on March 27, 2010 in Book Launches, Publishing

 

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Disabled lady with Arthrogryposis attempts to be first wheelchair bound person to tackle the bobsleigh

26 Mar

Ruth Merry was born disabled with Arthrogryposis and has spent her life in a wheelchair. An avid swimmer and skier Ruth’s dream, was to one day tackle the Bobsleigh. She knew of course that it was impossible and not only did you have to be able bodied, but physically fit as well. No way someone with a disability like hers could attempt that – or was there?

A chance joke with a friend at work suggesting that instead of organising sponsored runs and swims, something more exciting could be organised and her friend decided to contact all the bobsleigh tracks in the world

This is the incredible true story of how a chance comment to a friend led to the olympic Bobsleigh track in Innsbruck in Austria. This story is told from two perspectives – Ruth as the disabled traveller and her friend Steve who made the trip with her. Fascinating and worrying insights into the challenges facing those in wheelchairs. This thought provoking and heartwarming story shows how the human spirit can overcome the incredible odds.

The book also includes the amazing story of Amar Latif the blind person that won the Disabled Entrepreneur of the Year Award and founded the travel company Traveleyes.

Enabled

Enabled

The book is available with free delivery worldwide from Book Depository and all other good bookstores across the UK and USA.

All royalties from the book are paid to the UK’s leading mobility disability charity Leonard Cheshire Disability.

 
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Posted by on March 26, 2010 in Disability

 

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Creating Engaging Lesson Plans That Build Student and Children’s Confidence

20 Mar

Creating engaging lesson plans is a challenge for any teacher, and in today’s society where many children’s confidence is limited by an over-exposure to computers and the pressures of a media driven existence, finding innovative ways to build their confidence is key.

Hugh Cooke has worked with thousands of children using a fascinating method. He has adapted the traditional form of performance art – pantomime or ‘panto’. Far removed from the stresses of performing plays and playlets, the pantomime is rooted in having fun and in particular laughing at the characters.

Many teachers have taken Hugh’s methods over the years and he has finally put them into a book (under some peer pressure from fellow teachers to do so) so that teachers everywhere can use the technique – which is blindingly simple. Find subjects and characters that the children can relate to and find fun, and let them get on with it and improvise where appropriate.

Hugh has included in the book several ready-made stories that can be easily updated to suit your needs so this is much more than a ‘how to’ book – it gets you most of the way there. Whether you are looking to put on a simple play inside the classroom to create an engaging and empowering lesson for children, or whether you actually want to prepare one to perform in front of others, Hugh Cooke’s simple and witty layout makes it easy.

These pantomimes/plays have developed a long tradition in schools and theatres over the years – the names of the characters may have been changed, and there have been plot twists and dialogue added, but the participants are all looking for the same thing – to get to the fun bit of practising and performing quickly instead of spending hours learning by trial and error.

Just When You Thought It Was Safe To Go Back Into The Theatre will allow you all the excitement and joy of the pantomime without the pain and frustration.

Panto For Beginners

Panto For Beginners

 
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Posted by on March 20, 2010 in Book Launches

 

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eCommerce For Independent Fashion Retailers Fully Within Reach

12 Mar

There is now no barrier for small independent fashion retailers to have an eCommerce store. Take a moment to visit small independent Selendari’s Secrects new website, have a look at the stunning multiple images on their dresses and have a guess at what the site costs them a month to maintain.

Under £50. That’s not a typo, the site has been created using the open design toolkit available free to web designers on the Venda eCommerce platform and the ongoing license for the site is £49.99 including VAT. As the toolkit is freely available to designers who join the Venda developer community there are now hundreds of agencies that will produce you a lovely customised design for a fraction of what a bespoke site would cost.

Selandaris Italian Collection

Selandaris Italian Collection

What’s so different about the model that enables this? Firstly there is a clear separation of roles between the platform provider, in this case Venda, and the designer. Venda’s job is to host, support, keep secure, etc the underlying platform and keep enhancing it (they release new functionality to retailers every 6-8 weeks). The designer is then left to purely work on the CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) using a simple to use Firefox Plug-in toolkit. The content management system on Venda has been designed to empower the shop owner to run the store themselves – zero technical skill required – so that the web designer doesn’t get any support calls around how to use the system. There is full support including live-chat for the retailers too so designers have found that they can concentrate on what they do best, design.

Lucy Whittington from one of the design companies using Venda comments:

Ibson Mens Fashion

Ibson Mens Fashion

“Ecommerce and online selling can be hard to get right — you need have a robust, well tested, and well designed ‘engine’ managing your web shop. You need to be able to easily manage stock, your catalogue, pricing, new products, offers, brands, the buying process — in fact all aspects of online sales. Venda SBS does all this, so we don’t have to worry about it. What we can then concentrate on is making an online store ‘look good’ and work well for sales.

We offer a creative service that sits on top of Venda — and can make your Venda site bespoke in terms of design. We can also assist with catalogue uploads, ongoing maintenance, and all associated marketing (online and offline) as required”

So the cost barrier has been removed, what about generating sales? Well, the savvy designers building on the platform are also providing value added services like blogs (see the Ibson Men’s Blog which links back to their site), Twitter accounts, email marketing and more. These services not only drive sales for the retailers but keep the relationship between designer and retailer going – all the while the new functionality on Venda handles the eCommerce basics like keyword intelligent page addresses (URLs), strong integration into Google Shopping, promotion codes, discounts etc.

With a full integration into Google Analytics out of the box the designers are armed with performance information for the sites so can recommend new tactics and changes to the retailers. Adding images, changing texts, updating featured products and promotions can all be done by the retailer themselves which is vital as it means that money spent with the designers is not on admin, but on value add.

Our own publishing business has been transformed since we added a designed Venda site. eCommerce sales are up, both in the UK and USA and critically for us new author enquiries as our site looks fresh and professional.

MX Book Publishing Website

MX Book Publishing Website

Designers who want to join the growing developer community on Venda can email them at support@venda-sbs.com.

 
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Posted by on March 12, 2010 in Independent Retail

 

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Buying property on The Algarve in Portugal

06 Mar

So you are thinking of buying a property in Portugal? We are into our sixth year as property owners in The Algarve and while there have been challenges it’s proved to be one of the best things we’ve ever done.

One key thing to be 100% clear about is why you are buying the place. Is it purely an investment or like us, is it a place that you would eventually like to retire to. Will you be using the place yourself and renting the other times, renting completely or not renting at all? Cameira Law’s ‘Portuguese Property Guide‘ was an extremely useful resource and we’re pleased to see it’s second edition coming out as the regualtions around renting have changed.

The banking market has really opened up as well. We have remortgaged our place once already and made big savings moving across – we used a local agent for that Algarve  Mortgages which made the process quicker and simpler.

Our story I’m sure is unremarkable, but worth a read for those considering buying somewhere to retire to.  Having visited Portugal on business many times I was already familiar with the friendly people, great climate and good food, but it was a long weekend in Faro with my wife when we realised this is where we would like to come regularly for holidays and eventually end up. It’s not that we haven’t travelled – we’ve lived in Australia, visited Asia, Africa and the USA but the attraction of The Algarve is the combination of clsoeness to friends and family (2.5 hrs from London) without sacrificing the climate.

Back to the process. Make a list of the key things that you want from your property and always come back to the age old principle of location, location, location. We’ve ended up with a quiet village (we wanted quiet) but just 2km from one of the Eastern Algarve’s large fishing towns Olhao. We chose the East for a host of reasons, not least that the Ria Formosa National Park runs along most of the coast through to Spain so the chance of it getting ‘built up’ in the next few decades is highly unlikely.

We have 3 restaurants/bars within walking distance, and a local shop with the basics a short 3 minute walk. Yes, we are quite able to jump into a car now in our late 30s but what about in 20 years time? We checked out the development plans for the two major towns Olhao and Tavira and found that they both had regeneration and expansion plans which are all good for the future.

In terms of the house itself we were very careful in terms of the privacy and ‘overlook’ from neighbouring properties.

Getting a decent lawyer and good rental company are vital if you are renting out. We’re using East Algarve Rentals for the renting and we have our own website Villa Amarelo which was very easy to set up with one of the rental companies Rentalsystems who have a good package where there are no setup costs and you pay them 10% for rentals they get, but you can drive your own traffic to your own site and you only pay a small % to process the payments. The best site for bookings for us has been theirs, closely followed by Owners Direct.

Communications have improved no end. We don’t bother with a phone at the house as everyone has mobiles and we have a mobile broadband dongle loaded and in the house for guests who invariably bring their own laptops. We filled the house with furniture from our house in the UK which gave us a chance to de-clutter in the UK and makes the house down there feel like home too.

Here’s to ten years time when we will be running a family business down there.

Villa Amarelo
Villa Amarelo
 
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Posted by on March 6, 2010 in Property Investment

 

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95%+ Success Rate for NLP and Hypnotherapy Solution to Bedwetting

26 Feb

A few months after launch and the excellent reviews of Alicia Eaton’s groundbreaking NLP and Hypnotherapy book ‘Stop Bedwetting in 7 days’ keep flowing in. Alicia is one of the UK’s leading child psychologists and had found that by combing the two disciplines she was achieving a phenomenal success rate in 1-2-1 sessions in her London practice and wanted to get the methodology out to the masses by writing the book.

“Stop buying shares in the Huggie corporation folks. We appear to have had success with this book as our child has had no wet nights since about 12 days after starting the program. Our child was a constant bed wetter so it’s a complete turnaround. There is no extra charge for the audio file and the book is reasonably priced. Why didn’t someone come up with this sooner!!!” Jonathan, Bristol (5* Review, Amazon UK)

Stop Bedwetting in 7 Days

Stop Bedwetting in 7 Days

Within weeks of the book’s launch Alicia was asked onto BBC Radio 2 as part of their ‘parenting series’ as the bedwetting expert and has had a host of press coverage since.

This further illustrates how powerful NLP can be when applied to specific areas and challenges. The first time we saw this was with Seeing Spells Achieving which is an NLP book applied to literacy and learning issues such as dyslexia, ADD, ADHD and others. It was first published in 2006 and is still the top NLP book in its field and has helped thousands of children turn around their learning issues. Recover Your Energy covers the application of NLP for chronic fatigue and ME and You Too Can Do Health covers the use of NLP for those going through critical trauma such as cancer patients.

 
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Posted by on February 26, 2010 in NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming)

 

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Being Honest With Yourself For Money Management – Needs Versus Wants Can Help You Manage Your Finances

21 Feb

One of the key techniques to managing your finances in these difficult times is to clearly identify your ‘needs’ versus your ‘wants’. In a fascinating interview on BBC Radio, five times British archery champion Jackie Wilkinson explains how she tackled being skint herself.

You can listen to the interview on BBC iPlayer – fast forward to 2hrs 8minutes 50 seconds.

Jackie Wilkinson has been skint and has survived and her book ‘Survival Guide For The Skint‘ has been welcomed as a money management book with a difference as it is jargon free, simple advice from someone who has been there.

Some of the areas covered in the interview:

  • Be honest with yourself on what your needs and wants really are
  • Buy real food – buy fresh ingredients and cook real food
  • Always go shopping after you have eaten – if you go to the shops on an empty stomach you are much more likely to impulse buy bad (and more expensive) foods you don’t really need
  • Use a shopping list – you know what you need in the house and you have to have the basics
  • Bills – Turn the central heating down a couple of degrees if you are able
  • Clothing – fashion is the easiest way in the world to waste money. Look for value for money – weigh up between quality and fashion – buy cheap high fashion items if they are likely to go out of fashion, but things that you can keep ongoing its worth buying quality
  • Try and make lunches rather than ‘paying for your own private chef’ by buying ready-made sandwiches and getting things from vending machines
  • If its ‘every day’ then even a few pounds saved can add up to hundreds over the year

Knowledge is power – when people estimate they get it wrong. When she was skint Jackie kept an exact record for 4-6 weeks what she was spending money on, and it was a real surprise – she had got her guesses wrong. Understanding where the money went meant that Jackie could start to control her finances.

Survival Guide For The Skint

Survival Guide For The Skint

 
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Posted by on February 21, 2010 in Managing Finances

 

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Cancer Patients’ Books Inspire Sufferers

20 Feb

Olive Hickmott and Keith Hern have several things in common. Both have suffered with cancer (Keith now for the 2nd time), both have written inspiring books that are giving hope to other sufferers, and both have a strong respect for the role NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) has taken on the mental side of battling their cancer.

Keith Hern has throat cancer and his book ‘Bangers and Mash’ charts his first battle, through the chemotherapy and radiotherapy and with the help of an NLP coach. Keith is a photographer so the book includes some amazing photos of the process and his subsequent fundraising efforts. Leading chef Nigella Lawson was touched by Keith’s bravery and commented – “I admire Keith Hern’s spirit and his honesty”. Recent reviews on Amazon refer to how the book is helping:

“A captivating read of one individual’s experince of cancer treatment that could be helpful to people newly diagnosed with cancer or for those supporting loved ones through the process”.

Olive Hickmott is an NLP Master practitioner and her book ‘You Too Can Do Health‘ is an uplifting book for all those suffering critical trauma. Written with fellow cancer patient and NLP practitioner Sarah Kniighton (who sadly lost her personal battle shortly after the book was published) the book has generated endorsements from leading NLP guru Art Giser:

“It takes what is often dry information and makes it come alive in a story that will teach your conscious and your unconscious mind simple, powerful, and doable ways to enhance your health. This is one of those rare books that will change your life while still managing to be easy and compelling to read.”

Two fascinating perspectives of how addressing the mental aspects of battling cancer can make a huge difference and how NLP can applied. Our profound best wishes go to Keith who as we write this is tackling another bout of cancer and indeed writing another book as he found that the process of writing was also a great help.

Bangers and Mash

Bangers and Mash

You Too Can 'Do' Health

You Too Can 'Do' Health


 
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Posted by on February 20, 2010 in NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming)

 

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eCommerce for the masses – building an online shop without any technical skills has finally arrived

20 Feb

On Christmas day in 2009 a staggering £138 million pounds was spent by UK shoppers [Internet Retailling] with online retail stores and while the high street saw a tough January, online continued to flourish. Online shopping represents around 5% of UK retail sales, but in the peak period it goes much higher and recent research from Kelkoo predicted that online sales will bypass high street sales at Christmas 2015 – just five years time.

So who are the winners? Well, unsurprisingly it is the large retailers that are making the most of the online growth. Amazing figures from one eCommerce provider just released showed that retailers on their platform grew their online sales on average 84% year on year for the critical 4th quarter (2008 to 2009). So it is possible to adapt retail to the post broadband world.

But what does the smaller retailer do? Recent coverage across the UK media with headlines such as the Guardian ‘Ghost town threat as UK shops fall empty‘ paint a grim picture with claims that in some areas around 25% of independent retailers have closed down in the last 2 years. The fundamental issue is that there are huge myths out there that trading online is;

a) technically difficult

b) expensive

c) out of reach of the small independent

Five years ago, yes to all three. Back then (pre-broadband) the eCommerce platforms were complex, difficult to set up and more importantly difficult to run. If you wanted to make changes you had to go back to your service provider who would charge you hundreds of pounds to change text or images.

2010 is a very different time. Broadband has arrived and customers’ demands from their online stores have accelerated and the eCommerce industry has responded. One of the heavyweights unveiled a new platform in January that looks like the first that truly brings eCommerce to the masses – with zero technical skill required. Don’t believe the hype? This week they released an incredible video showing the building of a clothing store from zero to trading in under 10 minutes – conveniently enabling it to be loaded onto YouTube.

The big differences with these new platforms from previous attempts to bring eCommerce to independents are that in addition to the ease of use there are some interesting elements of this new breed that are brought straight from the big retailer world:

a) the platforms are fully hosted and can be accessed from any internet connection. Previous attempts at opening up to the masses using open-source have the fundamental challenge of having to get the shops set up and hosted securely.

b) they are software as a service, and as such upgraded centrally on a regular basis – all stores get upgraded to the latest version at the same time as part of the monthly license

c) The design layers are open to any design agency that wants to build a design for one of their customers so as a retailer you are completely in control of your own destiny

Enterprising regional governments have been quick to utilise this new technology. The Shop Isle of Man program aims to get 100 retailers up and running online and within a few months of launch has over 30 stores up and running delivering lots of footfall and interestingly quite a lot of export sales for the independents involved.

There are plenty of support organisations out there as well helping special interest groups like homeworkers for instance – Enterprise Nation champions the cause of homeworkers including those running businesses 5-9 alongside their day jobs.

So its’ easy for small independents to trade online then? If they know these myths have been blown away then yes, but the reality in the UK so far is actually sadly no. All the technical and cost barriers have been removed but a critical barrier remains. The way we go about communicating to and about our retailers.

Tens of thousands of column inches in recent weeks have been handed over to the doom and gloom of ‘ghost towns and streets’ but how many news reports and articles have you seen showcasing those independents that are changing and adapting to the new world and expanding their business? Less than 1% is the answer.

Five years ago we had a clunky and difficult to use website that cost us a small fortune to maintain – now we can update our online store in minutes ourselves and receive orders from all over the world including the USA, Japan and Australia – and it costs us under £50 a month to maintain. eCommerce for the masses is here, we just need to let the masses know.

host town threat as UK shops fall empty

 
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Posted by on February 20, 2010 in Independent Retail, Publishing

 

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