Our school newsletter is now available, but it’s all in Chinese!

Anyway, you can download it here and have a look at a short newsletter that I made for my business. You can also do this kind of short newsletter, it’s quick to produce (using an adapted format from Publisher 97) in Word or in Publisher. The design doesn’t need to take much time, but as the biggest time sink in doing that is getting the content right, be prepared to spend considerable effort publishing the content. And remember, it’s not just a flyer!

However, it’s quite an achievement to get it done! And it is always exciting to see someone walk into our business with an issue in their hand!

I’m finding it a powerful way to reach customers. In fact, I believe it’s an effective marketing tool for a number of reasons:

• it’s self-targeting: customers pick it up if they are interested (so it’s efficient and effective);
• it reaches past, present and future customers as well as those who are not actively customers;
• it informs with its column, it flatters with its positive news, and it entices with the vision it presents customers.
• it’s cheap to produce, cheap to distribute and, although it is photocopied, the quality isn’t at all bad compared with flyers from other businesses in the area.

We’ll still be using more traditional flyers and posters, but there’s no doubt in my mind that the newsletter format really works.

These days, downsizing or termination or being fired can happen more quickly and more easily than ever before except if you work for yourself. Recent large companies downsizing include all the big three car companies… What if you were a CIA agent and you got downsized? What could you do?

Here’s how it might go:

My name’s Weston. Michael Weston. ‘W’ to my friends. And here’s my problem – I’ve been fired. As a special operative for the CIA, I regularly take part in covert operations in friendly and unfriendly nations. Intelligence gathering is my remit.

Last week, we were attending a conference for Blogging in London. Naturally, I went undercover as an ace technology intelligence gathering expert for a private company. Using complex statistical software, we were able to gather, refine and produce top-secret intelligence reports for the CIA.

Unfortunately, my cover was blown wide open. On my blog, I had placed a link to my personal Twitter account (a front for the blog!), but it included a link to one of my ‘personal’ pages. Visiting that page, a visitor found that it was linked to my other site on Facebook, and boom! I was blown. These ‘other’ pages aren’t indexed at all. But still… A rather dumb mistake for an intelligence operative!

Now I’m out looking for a job… perhaps I’ll be the first blogger to blog about the CIA – the inside story. Of course, I’ll have to do it ‘undercover’.

Of course, this is fiction, but what if…? If you are interested in finding out how Michael Weston was fired on the new TV series, Burn Notice, visit USA Network’s Burn Notice.

Thanks for everyone who has entered this little ‘buzz’ promotion in June already! I have had four submissions so far, plus one from May! If you are interested in finding out more about it, you can read about my buzz competition!

I’ve been slow on the buzzes the last few days! After losing one, and finding it then doing a charity buzz! Well, now I’m behind schedule!

CyberPartyGal asked me to buzz her blog, so I chose this one (she has SO many it’s unreal! She’s pretty prolific!). So I chose Ramblings of an E-trader . I hope this is the one she mentioned!

Check out the blog, will you! CyberPartyGal offers her collected wisdom garnered from her experience with E-Commerce and her many blogs! Her store is interesting in the choice of items she retails – underwear, shirts, babywear, etc. Generally, these items are easy to ship, light, desirable and profitable, I’m sure!

Just wish her categories were easier to find! Good luck on your bloggings, and do drop by to see us here at InvestorBlogger.com.