The Village Websmith - Web Design & Development in Your Area

Holidays were great, back to business!

With a number of members being away on holiday or enjoying the dubious delights of the NHS, last month's meeting was cancelled. Enough of such idleness, it is time to start laying the foundations for next year in business now, so many of us are rushing back to work. Networking now can send out feelers for the new prospects all businesses need to thrive and profit through autumn and into the new year.

The next meeting at the Haywain is scheduled for Wedensday, August 26th at 7am. As always, the meetings are free to attend, and there is no annual membership fee. Just turn up with a story to tell, some business cards to hand out and join in. All it costs is your choice from the Haywain menu.

The address is: The Haywain, High Rd, Stanford-le-Hope, Basildon, Essex SS17 9NR. See you there!

There will be a Village Websmith Website Analysis & Report Surgery immediately after the meeting, free to all attendees. If you would like to know how your website performs against the latest measures for getting found, getting your message across and getting a response, stay on for a while and find out.

Abenhall is a tiny, ancient village in a secluded quiet valley near Mitcheldean. The parish includes the settlement of Plump Hill, on the Mitcheldean to Cinderford Road as it climbs into the high Forest.

Once part of the Westbury Hundred (which was known as Dene at the time of the 1086 Doomsday book) Abenhall is on the Flaxley to Mitcheldean Road. Originally a mining and iron making centre, it is notable for its 14th century Church of St Michael, which is built of local red sandstone and has excellent contemporary carvings relating to the Forest of Dean's industries. These include a shield bearing the arms of the Freeminers on the west wall and the fabulous mid -15th century octagonal font, that has tools of miners and metalworkers incised on its St Michaels at Abenhall sides.

St. Michael's Church - originally built as a chapel of ease, the church was expanded in the 14th century to include nave, south aisle and tower. The arms of the Freeminers can be seen on the south side of the tower and on the 18th century font. St. Michael's Church - Abenhall is 1.5 km south of Mitcheldean and is set in beautiful surroundings on the edge of the Forest. Old Parish baptism, marriage and burial registers, from 1596, are stored at the Gloucestershire Record Office. For more information, please call us on the number shown, or click in the header of any page to email Abenhall-forest-of-dean@villagewebsmith.co.uk.

  Show list of services, towns and postcode districts

  Hide list of services, towns and postcode districts

Home page for Abenhall,, Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire

Welcome to Stunning Saturday - Keep it local

The day of Saturn, Roman god of agriculture, a day for growing your business. As in agriculture, sometimes growing something different can bring better results. The success of arable agriculture is influenced by planting the right seeds in the right ground. The same applies to all businesses.

In Japanese business circles, there is a phrase commonly used: "If you want to be truly global, first you must be truly local". But what if you only want to be local? Exactly the same applies.

The key is to define exactly what 'local' means in your business, then target your promotional activity in that area. There is little enough time in any small business, so the last thing that anybody wants it to use this precious resource fending off enquiries from customers that are too far away to serve profitably.

In many businesses, the deifinition of 'local' can very according to the value of a particular job. For example, if you are a plumber, it is not worthwhile travelling 30 miles to change a leaky washer, but that distance is well within profitable range for fitting a new boiler or refurbishing a bathroom.

So, how to go about managing the area in which you promote? In some cases, such as press advertising or mail campaigns, this is easy. You simply choose a publication that goes out to the area in question, or use a mailing list for chosen postcode areas. As the web is a global resourcem, anybody, anywhere can see your information.

Pinpointing the right areas is easy with Webinthebox® from the Village Websmith. The areas served function strongly ties what you do to where you wish to do it and for whom, with different information available to different geographical areas and market sectors. Targeting your promotion via the web this way is a very cost effective method of making sure you don't have to climb down a ladder to explain to someone hundreds of miles away that you can't just 'pop round' and give them an estimate. Call us on 0203 239 0350 or click in the header of any page to send an email.

Abercraf is well known for these attractions: Waterfalls caves and close by the National Red Kite Centre.

Abercraf is also close to our headquarters in Shirenewton, Monmouthshire, which helps us to maintain our policy of only working face to face with customers to make sure they get the best results quickly when writing the content for their web sites. This is a much quicker method of establishing what aspects of a business are the most promotable and getting the order of things. So, if you have a small business in Abercraf, just get in touch with the Village Websmith and experience the difference of truly personal web design for yourself. For more information, please call us on the number shown, or click in the header of any page to email Abercraf-s-wales@villagewebsmith.co.uk.

  Show list of services, towns and postcode districts

  Hide list of services, towns and postcode districts

Home page for Abercraf, Brecknockshire, South Wales

And we will finish the job

Every job is easier when you use the right tools. Managing web sites isn't rocket science but itcan be made difficult by using inappropriate applications like word processors or DTP to make copy, or using images directly from camera.

There is a wealth of great, free tools that take care of not only the writing of copy and the manipulation of images, but also working in batches, re-sizing and re-naming miultiple files to save time.

At the workshops we will share the fruits of dozens of years trial and error to come up with the ultimate toolkit.

Aberdare is well known for these attractions: Country park fabulous indoor market and Aberdare Park home of historic motorcycle road races.

Aberdare is also close to our headquarters in Shirenewton, Monmouthshire, which helps us to maintain our policy of only working face to face with customers to make sure they get the best results quickly when writing the content for their web sites. This is a much quicker method of establishing what aspects of a business are the most promotable and getting the order of things. So, if you have a small business in Aberdare, just get in touch with the Village Websmith and experience the difference of truly personal web design for yourself. For more information, please call us on the number shown, or click in the header of any page to email Aberdare-s-wales@villagewebsmith.co.uk.

  Show list of services, towns and postcode districts

  Hide list of services, towns and postcode districts

Home page for Aberdare, Rhondda Cynon Taff, South Wales