Between April 2009 and May, the percentage of internet users 50 and up who said they use social-networking sites has risen from 22 percent to 42 percent, according to the survey by the Pew Research Center.

Respondents 65 and older reported a 100 percent increase, while those between 50 and 64 jumped 88 percent.

By comparison, the number of users from 18-29 who said they use networking sites rose a much more meager 13 percent.

So while you may of thought that your potential new customers were to old to be found on socail networking sites, think again. Even if these figures ae coming from the US, do you really think UK and Europe will be far behind?

Why should you be be concerned? I have already mentioned why…

Our September event on the 25th at the Manoir de Longeveau dept 16 is fast approaching and we still have some stands for sale so if you haven’t already booked then please do. Places are limited so hurry!!. You can register on-line at www.angeltraders.net.

They also provide details for future events…

Stands are now being sold for our event in Saint Jean d’Angély on Saturday the 9th of October dept 17. Following the success for last years fair we wanted to return to this wonderful market town and help people to find the trade or service that they are looking for.

Business talk and bubbles of fun at “tee” time when we return to Souillac Golf and Country Club Dept 46

On Saturday October 9th and 10th we will also be at Souillac at the Golf and Country Club.

We have been invited back to have a fair on Sunday 10th October. Souillac Golf and Country Club will be hosting the “1er Swing Gourmande “. The 1er Swing weekend will be sponsored by Taittenger champagne and this golf competition will take place over two days, 9th and 10th of October. Also over the two days a Marché du pays has been organised together with our “Living in France made easy expo” which will be taking place on Sunday the 10th. Lots of fun and activities have been planned for the whole family for this weekend. So it is important that you don’t miss out.

New for this event, we are organising on the Saturday and the Sunday the Angel Traders Balloon race. Would you like the chance to promote your business to the maximum?. Putting your company name higher than anybody else?. We are looking for companies to sponsor these races. In return your company name will be printed on three hundred balloons which will be released at the end of each day and the big release will be covered by the press. If you want this opportunity to promote your business and have your company name put on cloud nine then please email us today angeltraders79@gmail.com. (We are offering this to everybody and companies will be accepted on a first come first serve basis).

To take part in the 1er Swing golf competition the cost is only 46€ and includes an evening meal and a glass of Taittinger Champagne. Please email Souillac Golf and Country club direct www.golf@souillaccountryclub.com. (Please mention us when booking your place). Limited places are available so hurry if you don’t want to miss out.

Chateau des Vigiers 6th November

We will be at Chateau des Vigiers again on Saturday 6th November for the “Living in France made easy expo”.
This event last year was the best ever and people travelled a long way to be there. With more than 300 visitors on just one day lots of business was made and everybody got the chance to enjoy a day at the Chateau. Due to the success of the fair last year we now only have 10 stands remaining. Remember if you have exhibited with us before you can exhibit for just 120€. Please register on-line to reserve your place.

Our favourite sausage sellers Sausageland will be present and look forward to letting you taste what they have to offer. You can also pre-order your Christmas pork and collect it at the Christmas Fayre on Sunday 12th of December.

Chateau des Vigiers for a Traditional Christmas Fayre

This will be the chance to get all your Christmas goodies !!!.
Stand prices for this event are only 65€ and places are limited.

A message from @HouseAquataine alerted me to an new way of filtering your Twitter messages and making it easier to read. The site paper.li allows you to choose Twitter users, lists or #tags to populate content for your newspaper. I was featured in a recent update of Aquatiane Daily along with some of my friends.

Setting up your own online newspaper takes only a few minutes and seems fairly painless. I created this one, Expat Business In France, which is  based on a Twitter list I maintain.

Try it yourself and leave a comment below with details of your own newspaper.

Article directories contain thousands of articles about hundreds of subjects. Each one contains a tiny description of the author along with a link to his or hers website. This could be great for you, write something connected with your site or activities. So for example, as a Gite or Holiday owner you could write an article about your life in France or perhaps a humorous story that happened. It does not have to be long, in fact I have seen some very short articles published in the directories.

There are many directories available, one I have used before is called GoArticles.com

To give you some idea of what you could do, I submitted an article to the above site. It took me less than 5 minutes to register, edit my details and get the story added to my account.

The article I wrote back in 2008 is called ‘I love my life in France‘  (edited the bio, changed the old site for this one)

Now, I have mentioned that I now have a link to my own site from the GoArticles website. There is a second benefit, if someone republishes the article they have to include all of the article. That includes the bio bit at the bottom that has a link back to your site. If 10 people were to use the article as content for their website, that is 10 new links back to you!

One question you might ask is duplicate content penalties from search engines such as Google. I would suggest you write something unique for each directory you submit to or at least change around something you already have.

Give it a go, write a small article and publish it to an article directory. The first 10 who contact me with the address of the article will get listed here giving you an extra link!

The contact form fails with an error, the quoted email address does not exist.

Makes you wonder who cares for the site and when they last checked it over. They might of paid a lot of money to have it created for them but if no one can make contact, a waste of money?

Depending on your business, your website could be your shop window to the world. Gite and holiday rental owners rely on email for new clienets to make enquiries. When was the last time you checked the contacts page?

Go now to your website and click for the contacts page. Fill in the form and send yourself a message. Did it work? Turn this in to a routine. Check weekly, make sure everything is working and ensure the email is coming through. If you rely on email for your business, think for a minute on what would happen if emails stopped…

Many who I have talked to about starting a blog for their business all seems to say the same sort of thing…

• I just don’t have the time
• I do not know how to write (even though they write their own leaflets etc)
• Setting up a blog is complicated
• How do I get started?

So here are some tips that should help

Time management

Blogs like WordPress allow you to set a date and time when your blog post will be published. Set asside some time during the week, say about an hour or so. Close the doors and get comfy in front of the computer. Aim to write a few posts, short ones about new products or services. They don’t have to be big essay’s or even sales pitches (which I would avoid anyway, at least to start with), talk about products, upcoming events etc.

Each post can be set to appear during the rest of the week. Space them apart by a few days each and it will appear that your blog is updated on a regular basis.

Writing for your blog

Many think they can’t write for their business blog even though they created all their own marketing materials. Things like handouts, posters, product details etc. If you have done that yourself then you may already have 3 or 4 blog posts ready to go!

Take your sales leaflet, the one you created for your business. Split it up in to sections and each one can form the basis for a blog post. For example…

• ‘Services we provide…’
• Details about your products, post per product perhaps
• About yourself and your business

Future posts can expand on previous ones, updates to products and changes in the sevices you provide. Once you get the hang of it, it will get easier.

Setting up your blog

Getting you blog setup and published online is not as difficult as you think. Many choose to outsource because of a lack of time and some because they would just rather let someone else handle it. If you choose to do it yourself then have no fear,  WordPress for example is fairly simple and only requires some basic information (database etc).

Getting started

So you blog is ready to go and you are looking at the compose screen. Waiting for your creative thoughts but…what to write?

Write something…anything!

You are not creating a work of art, you are not writing a book, you are not up for writing prize. Take your sales leaflet, read through it and writing it in to your blog. Change it, rewrite it, read it out loud, make it sound like you are telling a friend. And when it seems ok – hit publish!

Basically – just do it! Until you tell the world that your blog is there, you can change it around until you feel it is right. Get about 5 or 6 posts written and tell a few friends or customers. Get some feed back, it helps to ensure you are giving your readers what they want.

How did you start?

Have you got a blog for your business? How did you get started? Leave a comment below with your hints and tips

”LIVING IN FRANCE MADE EASY EXHIBITION”

Yes it is time for change. We are always looking for ways to make each event better and better each time.

We will be having another event in September and since the beginning of Angel Traders back in April 2009 we have learnt so much and have listened to both our visitors and exhibitors.
We feel now that it is time for change.

Future events will be called “Living in France made easy”. We feel that the name of the fairs puts our message across to everybody that is looking for a trade or service that is able to speak English making their life that bit easier whilst living in France.

With an excellent range of different services offering a life line to many expatriates this exhibition will offer everything you could possibly need when living your life in France.

They have also announced future dates..

• Saturday 25th September – Manoir de Longeveau Golf and Tennis club, 16390 Pillac Bordering departments 16 and 24. (Close to Aubeterre Sur Dronne).
• Saturday 9th October – Salle Aliénor d’Aquitaine- Saint Jean D’Angely Dept 17
• Saturday 6th November- Chateau des Vigiers Golf and Country club. Monestier Nr Bergerac dept 24.

From Slashdot news (Is AOL Finally Crashing and Burning?)

“AOL’s disastrous quarterly report showed cash from continuing operations was down 44% from a year ago (adjusted operating income was down 37%), as it continues a rocky transition from monthly subscription fees to advertising. (Their quarterly report also notes ‘the cessation of large-scale access subscriber acquisition campaigns’ — investor-speak for the fact that AOL will finally stop mass mailings of free trial accounts.)

Written by Denise Wakeman at Social Media Examiner…

There are a lot of ways to promote a new blog and I’m sharing 14 tactics to help you get the word out about your new baby. Heck, you could use these tactics for an established blog as well if you want a boost in traffic and subscribers.

From the about page on Normandy Networking…

Normandy Networking the business to business website. Many of us working in Normandy can’t fail to have noticed – especially in today’s business climate – the extra effort we have to make to find clients and reliable business services or partners. The usual ‘word of mouth’ approach isn’t quite as effective here, and there is no real equivalent to the Business Link groups we know from the UK. The Chambres de Commerce and the Chambres de Métiers, and the MSA all provide official advice – but they fail to understand fully or appreciate adequately the Anglophone culture.

Glad to see there are more groups out there getting businesses talking to each other.

Hopefully you have read about our own efforts to get a local networking event running…