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Saturday, January 23, 2010
Google Search tips
Google Search engines are responsible for 85% of the on line searches, of this approximately 65% were for people wanting to buy something; the other 20% were classed as research.
We give you some tips on how to use Google as the professionals do, and find what you are looking for quicker.
Be Specific with Google Searches
1 Lets say you want to find a ‘Courier’ firm. If you enter the word :- ‘Couriers’ you will come up with millions of courier firms, and finding the one you want will take a long time
2 You can clarify your search by specifying an area:- ‘Yorkshire Couriers’, or narrow it down a little more by using the term ‘Yorkshire Parcel Couriers’
3 If you are looking for a specialised courier, most specialised couriers will have optimised their site for phrases people will type in for that particular specialised market, such as :- ‘ Hanging Garment Deliveries’. Or more specific:-‘Hanging Garment Deliveries UK and Europe’
The more specific your search is, the easier it is to find what you are looking for.
You can use the ‘This Or That’
All search terms are usually not case sensitive. This term is case sensitive, the ‘OR’ must be in uppercase.:- for example ‘hanging garment deliveries europe OR pallet deliveries uk and europe’
Similar Words
If you are searching for a specific word, and you want to include similar words or synonyms. Use ‘~’ between the words. :- for example ‘ Courires~transport’
Exclude Words
If you want to exclude words from the Google search use ‘-‘ between the words. :- for example ‘Couriers – Transport’
Site search
If you want to search a site, such as this one for a particular phrase, use site:www.rftexpresscouriers.co.uk:- for example “1p per mile” site:www.rftexpresscouriers.co.uk
Numerical Range search
To find results that contains any of a range of numbers. Use this ‘..’ search parameter for example :- Births 1967..2010 or laptop £200..£300
Calculator
You can type your expression direct into the Google search box. Example 35% of 17. More examples on http://www.google.com/help/cheatsheet.html
Converter
Convert currency, GBP to US Dollars ,sizes from metric to inches, litres to gallons, Example 1 metre=?inches
Weather
Check the weather where you are or where you are going. Example:- weather London
Definitions
Look up the definition of word quickly: Example :- define:austerity
Lyrics
Typing the name of a song followed by :lyric will generate the lyrics for that song for example :- dancing queen:lyric
Google Cell Phone Search
search Google from your cell phone by sending your search query to 466-45 (goo-gl) You get the results as a text message.
Hope you find these interesting, if you know any more, email me. These will probably work on other search engines.
Coming shortly Twitter Tips and Tools.
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Sunday, January 17, 2010
RFT Express News
2009 was a good year for RFT Express Couriers, with a 34% increase in business during 2009, from the previous year. The majority of new accounts gained in 2009, have resulted in repeat business with 45% of the total number of new accounts resulted in being contract work. Contract work is regular runs repeated daily, weekly or monthly, which makes it easier to manage the increase. European runs contributed 25% of the total increase, with Italy now taking the number one spot from Germany.
For 2010 the target increase is 35% on the 2009 figures. RFT Express Couriers have identified 150 plus companies who will be able to benefit from RFT ‘s expertise in our niche market of ’Hanging garment deliveries UK and Europe.’
Google contributed a considerable amount of visitors, with this search term, coming at no 1&2 in most European searches, with enquiries from North Africa, and as far away as China.
Bing the Microsoft owned search engine didn’t list us in the UK searches on the first page, but they did put us at no 1 in the world search.
Over the Christmas / New Year break, we had the statisticians analyse our databases and records, as well as the web stats, to enable them to come up with cost savings. Part of the brief was to analyse the transport industry as a whole, and spot future trends within this sector, as well as the clothing manufacturing, wholesale, and retailing sector, as well as the print industry, and advise RFT how we could take advantage of these trends.
From the statisticians’ findings, several recommendations were made in order to secure the 35% increase in turnover planned for 2010 :-
• Promote the RFT Express brand through internet channels, newspaper articles, press releases.
• The planned expansion into Europe would gain extra momentum, by appointing ‘agents’ with local knowledge and expertise in European countries.
• More emphasis will be placed on securing ‘back loads’ to eliminate, where possible vehicles travelling empty.
• Cultivate more contacts both in the UK and Europe, who are able to generate extra business for RFT Express.
• rftexpresscouriers.com will be launched shortly as a multi-language site.
• A more aggressive pricing structure for ‘contract work’
• Restructure working patterns for subcontract couriers, to increase efficiency.
• Further expansion of the ‘M1 Shuttle’ with vehicles leaving Yorkshire during the day as well as the current ‘night runs’.
• Actively promote Yorkshire Courier.com. The current promotional and hosting contract we inherited, finishes in April, and will then come ‘in house’
• Retain vehicles with less than 125,000 miles coming to the end of their contracts on the ‘Our Van- Your Livery’ programme. Thereby reducing the cost of expansion.
Sponsorship Programme
RFT Express Couriers sponsor Tiger Karate.net, this will continue during 2010. Apart from a few local charities we have helped with free transport; there will be no further expansion during 2010 of the sponsorship programme.
RFT Express to Help Companies Generate Extra Business
During 2010, RFT Express will compile a directory of the companies in the industries where RFT Express operates. This will benefit the companies who are selected for the directory by RFT supplying a link for all the search engines to index, as well as giving an easy reference to other companies within the industry. The directory will be posted on all RFT sites, and will generate extra business for the companies in the directory; there will be no charge to the companies selected for inclusion.
The initial directory industries will be the fashion/ clothing industry and the print industry. The directory will be compiled from our customer records, and other sources.
Help for Newly Established Businesses.
In addition to helping established companies to gain more links, and extra orders, RFT Express are considering offering new businesses free web sites; the sites will be built free of charge by the RFT web team. The web team will also supply SEO services at a reduced cost.
During 2009 RFT Express established itself as an article and information provider for the Courier industry. This will continue into 2010, particularly the free software programmes, which have proved very popular with small to medium sized businesses.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Free Microsoft Office 2010
RFT Express promised exciting things for 2010, well if you are a Microsoft fan, here is something really exciting
Microsoft has released the beta version of the new Office 2010, and you can download this for free. Several versions are available, Home and business, Professional, and Professional Plus. Included are new versions of Word, Excel, Access, Powerpoint, One note, Outlook, Publisher, Sharepoint Workspace, Communicator, and Info Path.
What is helpful is the fact that all these programmes ‘Talk to each other’, an ideal solution for the small to medium sized business, and students.
Additional downloads include:- Microsoft Visio 2010 and Project 2010.
Microsoft state they have had 2 million downloads in the first seven weeks. Prices for the US have now been published on their site.
More information and download link from Microsoft.
Open Office
Open Office is a totally free open source office suite a good alternative, check it out on RFT Express / Downloads
Twitter Rankings
You can now get your Twitter account graded courtesy of Hubspot. This is a free service provided by Hubspot, and will tell you how influential your twitter site is. Tip :- don’t bother trying to see what grade my twitter account is, I simply haven’t had the time to use it this year, this will alter as one of the blogs is now linked to twitter. The RFT Express facebook also picks up the my blog, or you can subscribe to the feed on the blog. As I said before we have been extremely busy during 2009, but many of the office applications have now been automated, and will give me more time to write.
For your convenience we have added a share button on this blog, and on every page on the website, please feel free to use it.
Vic Farron RFT Express couriers
Saturday, January 02, 2010
2009 – The Year of Opportunity
RFT Express wish all their Customers and Clients, Staff, Contract Couriers and Readers a Happy and Prosperous 2010.
It has been some time since I have managed to write a blog, due entirely to pressure of work, please accept my apologies for this.
The planned expansion during 2009, exceeded all parameters and goals we had set, and resulted in everybody taking to the road to fulfil our obligations to our customers and clients, including at times office staff. This was very much appreciated.
We expected the pressure to ease during the Christmas and New year break, when a lot of firms close for a the festive season, but true to form this wasn’t to be, with two new contracts starting, one two days before Christmas, and the other just after Christmas.
RFT had request for help from 4 major companies, to take up their extra work loads at Christmas, unfortunately we had to decline. These companies were experiencing a similar growth to that we had experienced since April, but had failed to plan for it.
Our planned expansion during 2009 came from two major sources, firstly new customers finding us on the internet. Our niche market, ‘Hanging Garment Deliveries UK and Europe’ was continually coming top in the organic searches on Google in the UK and all the European Google search engines. Our core business ‘Pallet Deliveries UK and Europe’ also featured high in these searches. The other major source for the increase came from recommendations from our customers and clients, for which we give them a special ‘Thank You.’
RFT Express have a lot of exciting plans for 2010, more news on these will follow shortly.