Doing business online?

If you do business online, why not share your thoughts and experiences in a survey? Quick and easy to complete, this survey is finding out how small  business uses the internet in Australia – will the results support the MYOB survey results posted a few months ago?

As well as the survey, we’d love to read your comments here – why did you start an online business (or part of your business)? Do you think it is good or bad, or something in between, that is is so relatively easy to start a business now the Internet is readily available to many of us?

SEO games

SEO (Search engine optimisation) is time consuming but very effective for building the popularity of your website.

We came across a blog post that lists some SEO gamesto play – we haven’t tried them yet, but thought we’d share them anyway. We figure if you’re going to spend some time playing a computer game, why not make it on a topic that is useful and may teach you something? And the whole point of us saving you some time online is so you can choose to play games if that’s what you enjoy doing.

Back from the conference

As mentioned in May Madness, we both attended the Business Mums Conference over the weekend and had an awesome time.

We’d like to congratulate Karen (Time Well Spent) and Simone (Wellness, Fertility & Balance) on winning a door prize of a feature listing on Save Time Online for a year – we’ll post links to their pages once they have provided the information to go on their pages.

There were many great presentations over the weekend, including a session on web 2.0 and social media, and Tash’s presentation on promotional articles. Ally also shared her story in a forum, along with the Founders Award winner, Amanda Cox, Glenys Gijsbers and Bernadette Huysing.

We’d like to thank Melissa and her team for a great weekend, and highly recommend you diarise it for next year! And we may just offer another advertising deal if you mention us when booking (and we hope those people who took advantage of it this year benefit from their upcoming newsletter ads.)

Great deals

Our May newsletter has been sent out to subscribers and included a few special deals on top of May Madness so we thought we’d share them here, too…

Run a business as a sole trader? Then you need to be at THE small business conference of the year! Covering many topics relevant for running a small business, the Business Mums Conference (and Dads are welcome, too!) is in Melbourne on 20 – 21 June. We’ll both be there, and Tash is presenting on promotional articles, so make sure you say hello! Unlike most business events, this one costs  less than $500 – and if you mention Save Time Online when you book, we’ll throw in a newsletter ad for you (half day bookings excluded.)

Cleaning Mum Tee Light BlueReal mums is selling some fun ‘living the dream’ t-shirts for only $12 which is pretty cheap for a practical piece of clothing that is also funny! Or why not grab 5 t-shirts for a measly $50 – we think it’s a great opportunity to save time & money by starting your Christmas shopping early!


 Book Bargains offer massive savings on all titles – so much so that people usually save more than they spend! How cool is that!

 

If you would like to hear about deals like this first, plus see what’s new on our site and enter our competitions, why not subscribe? It doesn’t cost anything and you never know what it could save or win you!

Save time with less spam

Spam actually refers to unsolicited commercial emails – so ads that come to you via email without you having a (direct or indirect) relationship with the advertiser. In general use, it also applies to those emails that include a virus or spyware or try to trick information/money out of you (commonly referred to as phishing.)

It is a huge time waster when you’re online, even with spam filters that stop the majority of it reaching our inboxes. So you can really save yourself some time by reducing the chances of being spammed.

Here are some tips to help you:

  • if you don’t trust a website, don’t give them your email address
  • have a secondary email address to use for subscribing to newsletters and websites you aren’t sure of. That way, if you get spammed by them, you can stop that address without having to change yor main email. It can also save you time by having your newsletters separate to your important emails
  • if you have a website, don’t put your email address on the site as text – spammers have software that can scan the net for email addresses (called harvesting.) Use a contact form or show your email address as a graphic or in a way only humans understand (e.g. myname @ savetimeonline.com.au or myname@NOTTHISBITsavetimeonline.com.au)
  • don’t respond to any spam as that tells them your email address is real – and that even includes not clicking on links in their email
  • choose a complex email address that is not so easy to guess – for example, susan.brown@ and sbrown@ are harder to guess than susan@ or sue@

The Word Constructions blog gave more tips on reduing your spam and tips on keeping your emails away from spam filters.

Some May Madness…

The annual Save Time Online May Madness celebration is underway, but here are a few of the specials you can grab this month…

Save Time Online feature listings booked during May and quoting “May Madness” will get a 15% discount on the listing fee and any other advertising booked at the same time.
Precious Water will give a 10% discount for all custom-made water tanks sold to people mentioning May Madness when ordering. Offer ends 31 May 2009.
Every new project booked with Word Constructions during May 2009 will receive a free edit of the content of one webpage.
Business Mums Guides is offering the Easy Peasy Straight Forward Guide to Business Planning for only $5 instead of $12.50. Available via paypal only until the end of May.
The Business Mums Magazine is offering 35 word classified ads for only $5 if booked (enter the code MM-2009) by 31 May 2009.
Baubles, Bubbles & Bags is offering a $5 voucher to spend on our site.  Code to enter is BMNMAY. 
Just us kids is offering FREE delivery – enter the code BMNMAY at the check out.
Vista Print is offering 50% off various printed items – that is MAD!
Lifetime Health is offering a free Wombat Baby Snooze Mate when you place an order over $250 placed before 31 May 2009

 

More listings will be added throughout the month so keep checking for bargains! And if you run a business, you can join the madness*, too, as the more we offer, the more fun it is for everyone!

* Want to join May Madness? All family-friendly Australian businesses and websites are welcome to participate if they meet the following criteria:

  • make a genuine offer to people throughout the month of May

  • promote the May Madness promotion by linking to this page as often as possible 

The Persimon Tree

The Persimmon Tree

by Bryce Courtney
Penguin Books, Australia, 2007

A very different book on World War II in the Pacific, The Persimmon Tree is interesting look at relationships and standards.

Seventeen year old Nick falls in love with Anna in a matter of days and then is separated from her by the war. Nick narrates the story for us, starting with his point of view then giving us Anna’s story (based on what she has told him) and finishing with his own point of view again.

There are a number of relationships developed through the book, beyond the love between Nick and Anna. Courtney shows that stereotypes may exist but within each group people are individuals. For instance Anna has very different relationships with the two Japanese commanders of her town, and with her father and father figure.

The book shows different standards between the japanese and western army comamnds, and between the genders. While Nick has a number of lovers while in Australia, Anna however risks her life to let Nick be her first. Although Anna sets herself this standard, and women around her suggest she gives in, there is an unstated agreement from Nick that she should act that way.

Nick is a likable young bloke, but he becomes a bit too good to be true – he can speak English and Japanese and Pidgin, he undertsands life in the west, Japan and the islands, he is a perfect shot and a top cadet, he’s a loner who gets long well with people, and so on. Courtney stop short of Nick being sickly perfect, but he was less enjoyable as his character developed – Anna became more endearing throughout her story under Japanese rule.

Overall, it is a light and enjoyable read (although not a small or light book!) that gives a number of perspectives on WWII and on Indonesia’s Dutch history. It is very  human and has moments of greatness and suspense, and forms a pleasant way to spend a few winter hours in front of a cracklin fire.

May Madness!

Yes, It is the first of May and that means the annualMay Madness Save Time Online May Madness Mayhem!  

Every year, Save Time Online bring you offers from a collection of businesses so you can save money and time from one place.

To find out about the offers and specials, just visit our May Madness page. Find the specials that will save you time and money, and follow the link to that site to start saving.

Keep coming back as we add offers throughout May as more and more businesses join in the madness.

If you run a business, you can join in, too. Simply make a genuine offer to people during May, add it to your website with a link back to our May Madness feature, then we’ll add your offer to the collection.

Enjoy May!

Mothers Day

Yes, it’s almost Mothers Day again – have you thought about how to thank your Mum for everything she has done for you?

As always, we have a mothers day page brimming with ideas  for you, but thought we’d give you a few extras here as well…