.. and why the hell would you want one?

How do blogs work?

Is it better to have my own domain or use a free hosting service?

How to buy and host your own domain

What specifications do I need?

What’s next?

How to view your blog

How to edit your blog

Changes you might want to make

From your dashboard, you can make all sorts of changes and modifications:

How to post

Mind the spam!

Marketing your blog

Earn money from your blog

Finally..

Follow your competitors’ moves in real time!

Today, one of our school’s primary competitors introduced a 15% discount for anyone enrolling over the next 3 months. That means they’re undercutting our prices: our “list” prices are very similar, and my maximum discount is currently zero for “normal” customers (young ones and very old ones get 10%).

In the past, we matched each other’s discounts and had a bit of a price war going on, but these days I’m positioning my school as the highest-priced in the local market, in order to capture the more well-off clients who are less interested in price and more in quality. Not a bad position to be in.

But how did I know that they’d introduced a new discount today?

Of course you DO monitor your competitors’ websites. If not, start now. They’re an invaluable sources of information on your local market and on what your clients are thinking when they make their buying decision.

One of my OTHER competitors claims she never checks what other schools are doing. If true, it’s very foolish. Information is power, and leaving any stone unturned in your search for a competitive advantage when you are responsible for a company and people’s livelihoods, cannot be justified on the basis of hubris alone.

Of course, it’s cool to SAY you don’t care what the others are doing.

But checking out three, four, ten competing schools regularly, especially if you’re NOT the market leader, can be at best depressing and at worst paranoia-inducing. Will I ever be able to compete with these guys? What sort of marketing budget do they have that lets them do THAT!

So, here’s a tip: work out which pages on which websites your REALLY NEED TO KNOW ABOUT when they change, and get your “robot spies” to do the work for you. There’s an excellent, free service, which will let you know each time the pages your are interested in change.

Want to know when your competitors put their prices up? Fed up of checking the website of your local Cambridge ESOL centre in the hope that they have FINALLY put up the next exam dates? Your robot spy will check the relevant pages each day, and send you an e-mail when something new happens.

I honestly don’t know who the hell these people are, or what they get out of it, but you should check them out. It’s an essential tool for any school owner, manager or marketeer: http://blog.imparareinglese.co.uk/wp-admin/edit.php

Anyway, the discounting competitor? What does this tell me? Should I worry? Need we rush out my own competing discount?

I once read something that said that the best positions in any market are that of lowest-priced provider, and highest priced-provider. But that the latter is the easiest to defend. So in a crisis, when everyone’s pushing their prices down, or discounting, and when the highest-priced provider is panicking and keen to introduce “value” or “discounted” products in order to shore up revenues, that could just be the time for the second or third placed school to move out of the “deadly middle” and learn to fill the top niche.

Everyone’s reducing prices, so we INCREASE them. Suddenly, we’ll be perceived as the top quality provider, at least on price. Or go broke quickly.

Check back here in a year to see if I made the right decision.

There’s so much to do, I don’t have time to look at my “to do” list!

Post It notes, “to do” lists, calendars, timetables, action plans, and so on.

Organising your work-load is a major job by itself!

So much to do, so little time. It’s natural that every now and then, you’ll feel it’s getting on top of you…

Even re-writing your “to do” list (or “lists”, in my case) takes more time than you have available, and the situation just gets worse and worse, until the weekend (or the Christmas/New Year holidays), when you have time to start working through the backlog.

But where to start?

Here are two tools to help you. Both FREE!

http://www.rememberthemilk.com/

Basic, free, “to do” list software. Create an account, then create as many lists as you want. Prioritise the jobs on your list by colour-coding them, delete the ones you’ve done, create new lists whenever you want. You can’t go wrong with this! (And if you’re REALLY old-fashioned, don’t worry! You can even print your lists!)

For over a year now, I’ve used this software for nearly all of my organising. I have an office, but it’s just a place to sit. The work is all in the cloud, accessible in equal manner from work or home.

Obviously you need to be constantly online, or this is not going to work for you, but with WIFI at school and WIFI at home, it’s not an issue for me.

And computerised “to do” lists save SO much re-writing!

http://www.xmind.net/

Got this idea from a business course I bought over the holidays: the guy recommended this software for organising your thoughts, and it really is great!

This “mind map” creation tool is a more visual alternative to list-making, but has the same effect: making you better organised! It’s the only thing I’ve found that has tempted me away from Remember The Milk, partly because it’s so easy to use, and partly because of the way it lets me put “angry face” emoticons next to the jobs that are really pissing me off!

So, feeling overwhelmed?

Then take some time out to think about HOW you organise your work.

Perhaps try one or both of these new tools.

Who knows? One or the other may change your working life!

Discover the irresistable logic of permission-based, content marketing!

Work in  marketing? You probably know this alread. Go find something more interesting to read.

Small business owner or manager? Ambitious teacher? Pay attention: this is good.

How to get loads of people who are INTERESTED in your product or service to GIVE YOU PERMISSION to send them e-mails.

1. Sign up for an account with e-mail marketing experts AWeber (I think they have a one-month free offer. After that it costs something like 20 dollars a month. Which is the best advertising money that I ever spend!)
2. Use their really easy, user-friendly interface to create a list, or lists, and a sign-up form, or forms, to put on your website or blog
3. Offer something free to those who sign up: an e-book, a trial lesson, a discount voucher. Whatever.
4. Your list starts to grow
5. Keep adding value for your list members (invites to social events? last minute offers? free material created by your staff?), and they will recommend you to their friends
6. Hey presto! You have a list you can market your school or courses to

Not convinced? Check out the examples on two sites I run, here:

http://www.imparareinglese.co.uk/esercizi_inglese.htm

and here:

http://www.madrelinguaitaliano.com/free_italian_exercises.html

Obviously, you’ll have to sign up if you want to see the free materials.

But hey, did you notice the sign up boxes for free material on THIS BLOG? Look over there —->

There’s an e-book on marketing (for managers, school owners and ambitious teachers) and a book of conversation lessons that I normally sell for €9.99!

All you have to do to get them is… yes, you guessed. Sign up to my list.

(P.S. This stuff is really easy: you can definitely do it yourself. But you could probably save a lot of time getting someone who knows how to do it for you! For €100, I’ll set up your e-mail marketing system and get the form on your website. In a day or two, you’ll be building your list too! Contact me on daniel@madrelingua.biz to get started!)

Only idiots pay their bills before they have to…

I’ve been paying bills this morning. I detest paying bills; it’s a lot less fun than writing blog posts.

And the ones I hate paying most are those for which I have the most generous payment terms: 3 months have passed since we did that poster campaign / received that book order. You can’t really want me to PAY, after all that time???

It’s well known in the business world that only idiots pay their bills before they have to. That’s because credit, from suppliers, staff (in the form of salaries not yet paid), and customers (courses paid for up front), means greater “working capital”, the life-blood of any enterprise, whether micro or global.

Paying your bills early, say the day they pop through your letter box, simply diminishes the amount of working capital you have, and consequently increases your financing costs (bank interest on the overdraft, for example) and the risk of going out of business because of an unforseen liquidity crisis.

So, only idiots bay their bills before they have to. But the key words here are: “have to”.

Your “payment terms” are what you agree with your supplier regarding when you have to pay. Anybody giving you less than 30 days credit is taking the piss. 60 days is reasonable, 90 is good, 120 is great, and so on. Obviously, you have to pay your staff monthly, but you could push it back a few days, maybe. After all, the monthly salary bill is one of the biggest out-goings and can empty your bank account in an instant!

“Have to” then is, in part, subject to the contract, written or implied, that you have with your supplier or employee. But you then need to ask yourself how enforceable those contracts  may be. Are the suppliers who are desperate for your business REALLY going to do anything if you’re a few weeks / a month / two months late with your payment? Possibly not. Probably not. It depends really.

And your staff? Well, they can moan, but it depends a lot on where they’re from. Italians, for example, are quite used to not getting paid until the middle of the month after. If you know this, wouldn’t you be an idiot not to take advantage of it to give your working capital a bit of a boost?

When all is said and done, “Don’t pay your bills before you have to” is a pretty good rule of thumb for a beginning manager or new business owner.

But there is an alternative point of view:

Reasons to be an idiot

• maybe you don’t need the working capital? There’s only so much point to having cash in the bank. Could you trade it for:
• goodwill and trust? Paying your staff promptly is a strong sign of your competence and reliability. Wouldn’t it be nice to have people FIGHTING TO WORK FOR YOU because you’re such a great employer? And suppliers? Well, if you pay regularly on time, perhaps you could persuade them to give you more generous payment terms? Or lower prices?
• save yourself a lot of hassle: every phone call you or your staff have to take from an angry supplier is time wasted and blood pressure raised. Is it REALLY worth it?
• your bills getting paid regularly, in a predictable way, is sort of  like the heartbeat of your business. If there’s any doubt at all about your company’s financial health, its pulse will be felt for signs of illness or possible early death. Skip a few beats and you’ll be in trouble!
• build up credit in case of emergencies. Be a good guy, don’t mess people around. Then, if you have problems, hope they’ll cut you a little slack, rather than setting their lawyers on you.
• peace of mind. Get in the habit of paying on time, you won’t have to worry about unpaid bills, will you?

What this all adds up to is the simple idea that your prospects in business and your reputation go hand-in-hand. Build your reputation, enhance your prospects.  Growing your business while busily destroying your reputation as a reliable partner is NOT a good idea in the long term.

So yes, there’s a cost to being an idiot, but there are benefits too.

And now, it’s back to paying bills (on average, around a week late!)

You’ve asked your clients if they were satisfied: NOW, what do you do?

First, shout at your teachers, make your receptionist cry, and argue with your business partners. Next…

Nah, only joking! Don’t make the receptionist cry: she’s important, and it’s probably illegal anyway.

Seriously, what DO you do when you get feedback from your clients, whether positive or negative? There ain’t much point in asking for it if you’re not going to DO anything with it, is there?

Sometimes client feedback contains useful suggestions or things you didn’t know. But often, there’s not a lot in it that will surprise you (“Your computers are slow”) or that would be really useful in improving the service for the majority of clients (“Facilties for making tea would be nice”).

File and forget? No, there are invaluable MARKETING uses for client feedback, which can be exploited.  The most obvious way to do this is to selectively pick out the best comments and statistics and plaster them all  over your publicity material i.e.

“99% of clients” (who studied between April 17th and April 20th) were “very satisfied” with their level improvement. Mario, from Bologna, thinks “Madrelingua is the best school” (near his house).

However, potential clients are not stupid and are quick to doubt anything that doesn’t really ring true.

How to add credibility to your marketing? The “warts and all” approach, which simply involves publishing both good AND bad comments.

Here’s what I do (in fact, spent the morning doing!):

http://www.madrelinguaitaliano.com/comments_home.html

You’ll notice I included a few “bad” comments too?  That’s for the credibility, man. And to stress out the teachers, so they know I’ve got my eye on ‘em!

So, does it work? With this approach, we get comments saying: “I chose you because of the comments on your website”, “Your school seemed really transparent”, and so on. It’s also a technique that I feel personally comfortable with: there’s no need to feel guilty about just picking out the good bits.

There’s only one problem: what if you’re SO good that you don’t get any negative comments? Shit, we need some bad feedback!

Be your own film director, and the star too, if you like!

Why would I want to make videos for Youtube?

Equipment needed

How to create your video

How to edit your video

How to upload your video to Youtube

How to get people to watch your video!

Done all that? Leave a comment below with the link to your new video. It would be great to see what you’ve created!!

It’s finally out!  Get it, before it gets you!

“What your competitors know that you don’t”

25 pages of invaluable advice and absolutely FREE!

All managers, school owners, and groovy people in general will need to read this stuff..

To get it, just fill in the form over there –>

Then, if you hate it, you can take your name off the mailing list right away, and you’ll have lost nothing.

But if you like it, you’ll be on your way to becoming an internet marketing genius!!

Happy 2nd of January (just missed New Year by 15 minutes!)

So, will these free e-books change your 2011? Or your whole life, maybe?

Could signing up to the list and downloading one or both be the ONE, DECISIVE ACTION that you will take this New Year’s day?

Teachers: get your FREE E-BOOK of conversation lessons today!  30 Hot Conversation Lessons sells for €9.99 normally, but by signing up for our mailing list and becoming a special friend, you can get it FREE!

All you have to do is fill in the form on the bottom right of the page.. over there  -> ->

Managers, School owners, marketeers: sign up to the list and be the first to receive the FREE E-BOOK, “What your competitors know that you don’t” when it’s (finally) ready, hopefully on Monday…

“This revolutionary book will teach you EVERYTHING your competitors know, that  you REALLY NEED TO KNOW, about zebras and how to market your language school to survive the next 10 years!”

(O.K, I made this quote up, but hey, it’s FREE. What do you have to lose?)

All you have to do is fill in the form on the top right of the page.. over there  -> -> and up a bit ___/\

Among other things, the FREE E-BOOK will tell you how and why to create groovy signup forms like that one!

But note, it won’t be ready until Monday 3rd January, so a little patience, huh?

Happy New Year!

Daniel

(So did you get the book? Did you? Like it? Hate it? Leave a comment!!! We authors are very insecure.. We need to be reassured!)

Hands up who’d like to be the boss!

10 reasons why running a language school sucks

(Why DOES WordPress hate the number 10???)

Just out of curiosity: would you rather:

a. be one of your own employees?

b. run some other kind of business? (a pub? a dog-washing salon?)

c. be retired or too rich to work?

d. be running a language school?

Leave a comment!