Jamesq

Got a wicked surprise on getting home from work tonight. I’d forgotten I’d followed a link somewhere online to get some free tea a little while ago (I think it might have been twitter) and today it arrived! Two tea bags from Twinings. I’m a bit of a stickler when it comes to tea and pretty much just go for English Breakfast or PG but as it was free I thought I’d try something new so have gone for Ceylon and Lady Grey.

With the tea bags came a little fold out booklet with the different teas and how to have them. Apparently some teas you have lemon with and no milk. Fancy hey!

They also sent a letter telling me to post them a blog at www.twinings.co.uk…. Not sure whether they want me to go and comment on their blog or link to them from my blog, strange wording… Anyway, I’ve done both. But, very cool that they are blogging. Each post seems to get a good number of comments and they are running competitions for the best comment which is ace. Real engagement. I’ve been on and left my comment, I’ve got two new teas to try and I’m a pretty happy bunny. I’ll be even happier if I win the prize but all this from a tweet about getting a free tea bag! I guess the real test will be if it converts me from PG to Twinings which I don’t think it will. However, for the odd different brew I’ll definitely be drawn to Twinings in the future. Every now and then I feel a little experimental and end up buying a green tea or something fruity, brand is never all that important to me on alternative teas as I have no loyalty… until now

Somehow I’d managed to scramble my files on the server which left me locked out but finally I got round to sorting it and I’m back online..

In the mean time I’ve been updating Isle of Man News, Jersey News and Guernsey News; Queenie Festival has come and gone for this year and the summer’s nearly over so probably wouldn’t have found much time for blogging.

A strange post maybe to find on a blog read by only a few people (Unless that’s just my visits then it’s none!) but actually it’s not advice but something I read that struck a chord.

I guess the same as everything it’s easy to look for quick fixes or shortcuts to success but the truth is usually the same. There aren’t many shortcuts that work in the long run. I just read Matt Dickman’s post and it really puts into perspective the effort required to maintain a top blog. Guess it really comes down to defining what your blog’s objectives are, what the focus is and putting in lots of hard work and effort. And even then I guess it might not come off.

Matt’s blog is a good example of a really well focussed blog and is well worth subscribing to. I think it’s high time I found the focus for chewing the cud!

Just found this really great site all about local blogging. Well worth checking out. Plenty of cool tips and just an interesting look at blogging for a local market. US focussed but the principals can be applied anywhere.

It’s also inspired me to take a look at this blog when I find some spare time. Desperately in need of a face lift and a refocus I think!

I’ve just signed up for IZEA’s Pay per post blog advertising. I met up with the guys from IZEA (Who kindly gave me a can cooler as a freebie!) and spoke to them about Payperpost. Basically bloggers get paid to talk about something relevant to them. So from a company point of view bloggers, who hopefully blog around a topic relevant to their product, include a post around their brand and in return get paid.

I thought this sounded a good idea in principal providing that relevance is a factor so I’ve signed up to see what it’s all about and if it all looks good and not spammy will keep it going. I’m getting about $20 for this post which is great as I’m trialling their product and talking about my experience. I’m only going to write good things if my experience is good which I guess is a risk for any company advertising on the network but again maybe the companies using the network have products and services worth talking about. Let’s hope so.

One good ruling in the T&Cs is that bloggers must be actively blogging outside of payperpost blogs so a spammy site that purely is making money out of IZEA should be sidelined.

I’ll keep you posted on how it goes, whether I get paid, what opportunities are about but so far all seems good and a great idea. Would be really interesting to try this from the other side of the fence as well.

The battles for the Isle of Man Steam Packet seem to be continuing with not only the loss of jobs in its Belfast Office but also the “Use it or lose it” comment made in respect of the second fast craft, Snaefell. It’s a shame that in all the negativity that has surrounded services and decisions recently, no matter whether it has been justified or not, has been met with equally negative retorts from the Steam Packet itself. I was even more surprised by the Steam packets refusal to comment over the redundancies in Belfast.

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