If you watch the news on any channel today, you’re bound to hear all about the credit crunch and the turmoil on the financial markets. Well, it’s a sad situation and it makes sense for everyone to put some pennies aside for that rainy day. You never know, it might come in useful at some point.

We don’t tend to be super-frugal but it’s good to know where your money is going. We watch what we buy and don’t have any problem buying supermarket branded products, espeically if there’s no difference from the branded stuff (seriously .. how is branded salt any better from Tesco salt?) And it’s not just the little purchase you need to look at. But you can also remember that you can always get a better deal on the Web.

For example, if you pop down to ZenniOptical, you can find great deals on eyeglasses in a whole variety of shapes and sizes. You wouldn’t believe it, but you can get glasses from them from $8. Seriously, where else can you buy glasses at that price? They do all sorts of glasses from tinted glasses, bifocal glasses, progressive lenses and anything you might be after. Check them out.

Personally, I have signed up to HomePages Friends (previously known as My Search Funds - which I think is a more apt name), and this means that I do an online search which gives me results. It uses a search engine to do this. Previously it used to use Google but currently uses Yahoo! Now besides the search engine results, it also targets the advertising. If for example I searched the word Joke, it would bring up a list of websites. Now if say The Joke Shop decided on PPC advertising, the search engine would realise that I was the target market and show the advert. If I ignored the advert, then The Joke Shop would not pay for that advert. If on the other hand, I clicked on it, then The Joke Shop would pay for that click. It would also mean that the person who visited was really interested. There is a negative side. If I wanted to read a Joke, then The Joke Shop would have paid for me to visit without it turning to a sale. At least it would mean that I have become aware of the site, so I may go to it in the future. In Marketing, familiarity helps. But not being there is a disadvantage.

I digress, so places like MySearchFunds want you to click on their adverts shown, so they can keep up their high ratings and keep earning money. So they actually pay you a part of their revenue for clicking on their sponsored links. The truth is that you were doing the search anyway and you are the target market which means everyone is happy. But it can be open to abuse, where people keep doing searches just to earn money. In the long run, this won’t work as you would be spotted abusing the system and your account would be closed. You would also lose any earnings you would have made.

But it does make you wonder about whether PPC really works or not. As for offline advertising, I think it could be helpful but you do need

• A memorable website name eg www.thejokeshop.com
• An easy telephone number eg 0800 000000000000 (obviously not a real number but you get the point)

However, people do tend to forget about the adverts unless it is really on their mind, or if they have been able to cut out and keep the advert eg from a newspaper / flyer.

Talking of newspapers… my experience with them is horrific. When running The Joke Shop, I placed an advert in the local paper. It cost £550 + VAT and hit 80,000 homes. I received less orders than 1 had fingers. I tried this twice. Needless to say, I did not do it again.

I personally feel that the best is to keep your clients happy and they will spread the word. Displease your customers and they will also spread the word. The saying a bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush is a true saying. It also costs less to keep a customer happy than to find a new one!

You want your customers to constantly keep you in mind, so giving away promotional items like engravable gifts, printed balloons and pens, stickers, mouse mats, etc all contributes to keeping you as a business foremost in their minds.

I must say, I learnt a lot from The Joke Shop and really miss it!

First and foremost, if you want only the very best and nothing but the very best… develop your own! But as this is not realistic in most people’s cases and we do live in a day and age where digital is prevalant… lets speak digital.

The advantages of digital are numerous. You have the here and now factor. You can print directly from your camera and/or pc. You have the internet and its competition at your feet.

I find that printing your own on your printer actually tends to work out more expensive and unless you have a really good dedicated photographic printer… not very good prints. They can do for school projects or maybe a purse photo… but not much else.

The difference between one printer and the other is actually negligible. Unless you are really fussy, most people will not be able to tell the difference between one printer and another. Printers are all vying for your business and will encourage you to use them by offering you Free Prints. I personally believe that if they are being offered, then why refuse?

So below, I listed a range of photo printers offering free prints or special offers. You need to click on the adverts below to get the Free prints and / or special offers. Also note if they tell you to input a code in the advert (or you may end up not being given the prints). I have not listed the codes as they are subject to change. All the adverts are automatically updated, so all the codes will be valid.

Currently, if you apply for each of the adverts you can get yourselves 235 FREE Prints!! Aside from other offers.

Hope this helps!! If you have any questions… I will be glad to help you out if I can… just leave a comment!

If you head to Owen‘s website, you will see more fantastic Cregneash Scenery Photos.

It is such a pity that I have not found a Ballet class for adults here in IOM.