Woohoo! We’re back!!!!
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Hot donkey!!!! We are back in business!!!!
By some miracle, the blog move seems to have worked. Not quite sure how that happened, but hey ho, no complaints from me. A big thanks to Jamie for spending time with me doing the move - we couldn’t get it working on the night, but something must have happened, and bingo!
So, blogging will be returning to my normal day’s routine. I’m looking forward to getting back into the swing of things, and look forward to your comments - please don’t be shy, it’s great to get interaction and create a conversation.
The really big news (drum roll …….) is that finally, my Marketing Consultancy / Company site is now live, LIVE baby!!! Please do check it out >>> click!
It is 95% done, need to integrate the blog and change some copy, but we are pretty much there. I am delighted and a huge thanks to my good friend Anand, whom without, nothing would have happened. Thanks dood!
Right, time for a good night’s sleep - I had a busy day with a client, and have a very early morning on Sunday (down to Silverstone to shoot the Time Attack Series - fingers crossed for some sunshine!).
Long time no blog
Well, howdy everyone!!!
What can I say!? It has been an age since I blogged, and that has been getting me D O W N, in a big way, so we are back at it from now on!
The reason for not blogging
This time, it is not because I lost my mojo for a while, it is all due to the fact that my grey matter has been completely scrambled with trying to move this blog from one host to my new VPS. Problematic? Yes. Troublesome? Yes, that too. Exasperating. Got it in one. It is a nightmare, and I still haven’t done it!
Preparing to move the blog means backing up the mysql database and also the contents of the blog folder residing on the current server. This takes a little bit of time, and I have not wanted to add any new posts in case I got lucky and managed to get the transition going (no such luck). I am hoping to get it all sorted out this week (please Anand, you are my only hope) 
So, a few things that have caught my eye… first of all, a blockbuster embracing video social media!
Seesmic is one of the better social video services, and has a clever video comments plugin for Wordpress. There have been a few issues recently, but this was brought on by a huge demand generated by the stars of Indiana Jones 4 - The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull using Seesmic itself. This is a rare and impressive display of using new social media effectively. I wonder who actually recommended doing this? Kudos!
Buying a Mac - the new rules
Richard, my good friend in the US blogged about this a few days. He links to an excellent article which walks you through the choice of Macs and what could potentially suit you. If I was buying one Mac, and one only today, I would have to go with the latest MBP. If I could buy two, it would be a MacBook Air and a MacPro with Dual 30’s - my 23 and 30″ screens just don’t match. (Lets hope to see some new screens at WWDC!).
Search for Jon Moss on Google (vain, I know)
Have a look at this search query on Google here >> click…. look who comes up in the top image search! Yes, it’s me arriving in Connecticut to see Richard! Thanks for the photo mate!
My Marketing Consultancy website
Finally, it looks like we may be able to go live on my site in the next few days, and it is looking awesome! You can have a sneak peek below… watch this space for when it goes live!
Photography
I’ve been shooting a load more motorsport over the past week or so, all at Cadwell Park. Firstly there was the GTI Challenge, part of the 750MC event, and I had been invited by Jabbasport to shoot their two cars. Both Luke and Kevin did brilliantly, and even better, both cars ran perfectly with no major work to be done after the event! Here are a couple of pics from the day:
Lastly, I shot a bike trackday for Nick and his friends, and we managed to get some great shots!
That’s about it for now folks. Look forward to getting back into the blogging mode, and have a great week!
Technorati Tags: cadwell, google, hull marketing consultant, indianajones, seesmic, wordpress
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Good weather
What a difference some decent weather makes. You are not limited by the rain, or cold and you get to enjoy a cycle ride, a cup of coffee outside whilst reading the paper…..
We had a visitor in the garden this morning who also thought it was a nice time for breakfast.
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Boris Wins Mayor of London
Well, it is always nice to wake up and get some good news and this for me, is very good news.
Yes, he has had a lot of critics and has let himself down on more than one occasion. However, I really don’t mind, in fact I don’t care at all. Why?
- He comes across as human
- He comes across as someone who is passionate and cares about what he does
- He is very engaging and people listen to him and talk about him
- He is a born leader
The big one for me though is this : he is not afraid to say what he thinks and doesn’t pander to the frankly debilitating political correctness that has blighted our country for so long. Come on Boris!!!
Technorati Tags: borisjohnson, borisjohnson, mayoroflondon
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Starting Freelancing - learnings and challenges
As most of you know, I started freelancing late last year as a Marketing Consultant, and also started my own photography business. It’s been 6 months now, which seem to have gone by in an instant, and I have learnt a huge amount. Learning can be fun, but you tend to learn the biggest and most important things the hard way.
Going from the corporate world to the freelance world has some huge benefits as I am sure you can imagine, but it does present many new, and different challenges. I’ve been thinking about this post for a while, and I hope I can pass on some of my top tips and also the things to watch out for, as well as the challenges.
Top Tips
- Have a very, very clear idea what you are going to do and what you are going to offer your clients. For me, with theappleofmyi, I help all sizes of businesses with their marketing to improve their results, focusing specifically with online marketing, customer engagement and leveraging their web-presence.
- Have a good name for your company and make sure you own the domain - it needs to be easily typed and also memorable.
- Own your own name online, for example, www.jonnymoss.com
- Embrace social media, so people can find you easily, and you can tell people about what you do. For example, my Linkedin profile here.
- Spend some money on getting a good brand identity - believe me, there is no excuse to look shoddy and unprofessional. Make sure your identity is consistent across all your materials.
- Get a website up immediately telling the world what you do - I need a right good slap for this one, as mine is still in development (my fault to be honest), but not far off. However, I have had this blog running for over 2 years which has provided somewhere for people to read about me and what I do.
- Use your friends - word of mouth is the BEST form of advertising - people trust the opinions of friends and this form of advertising is free!
- Always have your business cards handy, and make sure they are of good quality. Don’t be caught out without one (I did, and it was not pretty).
- Plan your expenses and make sure you have some money in reserve to cover the vital bills and mortgage. I would really watch out with spending on things that you don’t need.
- Make sure you are using a Mac - you will save time and money in the long run!
- Make sure you backup any client work - burn DVDs of client’s work, store it online and if you want to be really careful, dump files to an external hard drive and give it to a friend to look after - you can get it back and add files when you want.
- Use every means possible to get people to check out your website - url car stickers, Google ads, blogging, sending out press releases, and get a decent e newsletter set up, where you can give tips and help.
- Above all, underpromise and over deliver.
Challenges
- Making sure you meet your client’s expectations - be very, very clear what you are going to do for them.
- Make sure you get clients to sign off on stages of work - you will then both be on the same page and have no reason for confusion.
- Keeping to deadlines - get things in writing, when things are going to be done, even when working with people you know well
- Working at home - you will likely be working from home and a HUGE challenge is being able to focus on your work, and not on all the small household chores which always need doing. I am hoping to have a garden office at some point, but this is a long way off!
- Finding new clients - make sure you have lots of ideas to get your name in front of people who may be in need of your services. I have a wealth of ideas ready to go, but I need my website up and running first!
- Keeping track of all the info and communication you get from clients and also possible new clients. If you want something simple, that works, try 37 Signals’ online offerings, Highrise, for contact management and also Basecamp (project management). They are superb, great value and the feedback I have had for Basecamp from clients, has been really good. They love having everything to do with the project online, in one place and available at all times.
I hope this post will be of use to anyone who is starting out on their own. The rewards are huge, but there are also many new challenges to overcome. I am sure I have left off quite a few things I had planned to write about, so I will be writing some more posts in the future - there is still a lot for me to learn!
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