Thanks to the work of hundreds of contributors to Wordpress, plug-ins can address a lot of these drawbacks.

So here is a top ten list of some of the ones we use. No doubt we’ll do a part two to this post if it’s useful to anyone!

1. Customising The “Read More” Tag.

A small problem I faced was when someone clicked “More” or “Read More…” to read the rest of a blog post, It would scroll the article down to where the more tag is. This plug-in prevents this and starts the post properly from the beginning.

Search “More To the Top” when adding a plugin.

2. Adding Custom External Hyper-links to your Navigational Menu

Normally Wordpress only allows internal pages to be added to your navigational menu.

With the plugin below all you have to do is: create a new page, give it a title, and right at the bottom you’ll see the “Page Links To” box. Next to “Point to this URL” type in your link url.

Search “Page Links To” when adding a plugin.

3. Re-arrange your Posts (For Bands and Clubs etc.)

If for example your posts are “events” for a band, or a club, you may want to have posts show up that are a date in the future.
Normally when you set the date of a post to the future, it won’t show it until that date, however once the plugin is installed and active you can set the date of your post to the date of your event. It’ll show the events in date order.

Search “No Future Posts” when adding a plugin.

4. Re-arranging your Pages (For Sidebar Vertical Menus)

If you don’t want your pages to arrange themselves in date order, having to go through each one and giving them an Order number can be a pain.
With the help of this plugin it becomes as easy as “drag and drop”.

Search “My Page Order” when adding a plugin.

5. How to Duplicate Posts Easily

Once installed, the plug-in will add a “duplicate” option next to edit, quick edit etc.

Search “Duplicate Post” when adding a plugin.

6. Check Blog Visitor Stats within Wordpress

The visitor stats will appear in your dashboard, and in the dropdown menu for “dashboard”.

Search “WordPress.com Stats” when adding a plugin.

7. A Better Meta Widget

Once installed you’ll get an extra widget named “Enhanced Meta”. It allows you to have a whole list of links in your sidebar for example, a login box, or new post etc. Pretty useful.

Search “Enhanced Meta Widget“ when adding a plugin.

8. Maintenance Mode

This plug-in allows you to put a temporary maintenance page up, whilst you work on new major updates for your website. Useful for websites under construction.

Search for “Maintenance Mode” when adding a plugin.

9. Change Wordpress Navigation to Horizontal

This is one of my favourite plugins. It moves all the navigation for wordpress to the top of the screen, saving ALOT of screen space for editing posts etc.

Search “Ozh’ Admin Drop Down Menu”when adding a plugin.

10. Enhanced Wordpress Code Editor

This is a favourite too, it completely changes the code editor to give you numbered lines, and colour coding for tags, properties and comments etc.

Search “Wordpress Code Editor” when adding a plugin.

Well that wraps it up, I hope i’ve shown you some gems that some of you may not have known about. I know without these plugins the wordpress experience wouldn’t be quite so appealing

Peace.

Some common symptoms of Spyware are:

• Website Redirections: Upon visiting a website it sometimes re-directs to a different advert filled website.
• Slower Computer: Your computer takes a long time to boot up and load programs.
• Regular Blue Screens: Often during boot up.

This guide will not only teach you how to remove Spyware, but every other kind of nasty “threat” you may find. These include:- Adware, Malware, Trojans, Keyloggers, Dialers, Hi-jackers and worms.

You don’t need to get too caught up in what all these things are, all you need to know is you don’t want them on your computer!

Unfortunately there isn’t one piece of software out there that can catch it all. Therefore I will recommend various different applications that you will need to cleanse your computer of the above filth.

SUPERAntiSpyware – Free Version

Direct Download: SuperAntiSpyware Official Website

SUPERAntiSpyware picks up the nasty things that Spybot does not, to put it plain and simple.

First of all you’ll want to go into “Preferences” and make sure it looks like this:

This will avoid the program bugging you in future.

Now, you are able to…

1. Search your computer for problems

Step 1:- Scan Your Computer

Step 2:- I'd recommend a "Complete Scan" the first time around.

Step 3:- This was my result after the scan.

Step 4:- Make sure everything is ticked, and click next.

Step 5:- It should of worked its magic and removed all the infections.

Spybot – Search & Destroy – Free

Direct Download: Filehippo.com

Spybot is not only very good for removing Spyware it’s also good at preventing you from ever picking it up in future.

Using screenshots I’ll show you how to:

1. Update Spybot to keep up with the latest threats

Step 1: Click either of these options

Step 2:- Some of these servers don't work, choose the one I picked.

Step 3:- Make sure everything is ticked, and click continue.

Step 4:- Everything will download, and apply. Click Exit when its done.

2. Immunise your system from picking up problems in the future

Step 1:- Click Immunize

Step 2:-

3. Search your computer for problems

Step 1:- Clicking "Check for Problems" will start the search immediately.

Step 2:- Instructions in screenshot

Some Problems you may be experiencing:

• Constant slowdowns during peak times
• Regular disconnections (More than say three times a day)
• Slow downloads

Step 1: Check Your Internet Speed

You can test the internet speed you’re getting by going to speedtest.net.

Make sure you have nothing running in the background that may be using the internet. Then put your mouse over the yellow star, and click the nearest city to you.

If you find you’re getting an extremely terrible result, something like less than 1.00 MB/s or even 2.00MB/s, I advise you put in a complaint with your ISP (Internet Service Provider), there is likely something wrong with your telephone line, or something going on at their end.

Step 2: Complain to your ISP (Internet Service Provider)

Give them a call and explain you’ve done a speed test, let them know what the result was, and explain that you’re very unhappy with your broadband performance. They should then run a “line test” and see if theres anything wrong.

If your problem is constant disconnections, obviously explain this problem too.

Here are some ISP Broadband helplines and their respective Broadband Web pages:
BT Broadband: 0800 111 4567 – Weblink
Orange Broadband: 0844 873 8586 – Weblink
AOL Broadband: 0844 499 5555 – Weblink
Virgin Broadband: 0845 454 1111 – Weblink
Sky Broadband – 08442 410 515 – Weblink

Step 3: If Your ISP don’t seem to be Helping

If your ISP insists on being useless and fails to improve your speed or reliability, explain to them that you’re extremely unhappy with their service and you’d like a MAC code. You are within your rights to ask for this whether you’re in a contract or not, since they’re not delivering a satisfactory service.
A MAC code is needed to change broadband providers.

Step 4: Change ISPs (My Recommendation is Be Broadband)

I used to use BT Broadband and we were with them for over four years, to our detriment. They provided a god awful service, constant slowdowns during peak times (below 0.5mb/s) and frequent disconnections. We’d had enough, rang up BT and asked to cancel our broadband, and wanted a MAC Code. They begged us to stay and offered a discount per month. We refused and since then we’ve used various other ISPs.

We’re now using Be Broadband, who are by far the best ISP we’ve experienced. The price is reasonable for “up to 24MB” and there’s pretty much no download limit. I have downloaded ALOT and have yet to recieve a warning. Click the animated Link above to check out their website.

Step 4a: Alternatively Try O2 Broadband

Be is owned by O2 broadband, and therefore provide a very similar service. I advise you give them a try.
Link: http://broadband.o2.co.uk/home/index.jsp

You’ll need to sign up, and then login with a username and password. This allows you to be able to access your account on anyone elses spotify and use your saved playlists.

Heres a quick rundown of its features and downsides:

Spotify’s features include:-

• Newly released albums are added to Spotify, impressively quickly.
• You can share songs you like with your friends who also have Spotify, and they can be listening to it right away.
• You can also share entire playlists with your friends in the same way.
• It doesn’t lag, songs play immediately as you click play.

The Downsides:-

• Music can’t be put onto your MP3 player…but did you really expect that feature for free!
• You have to put up with usually quite annoying, thankfully short adverts every 6-8 songs.
• Spotify doesn’t have EVERYTHING in its catalogue. It depends on if the artist’s label has agreed for the music to be made available via Spotify. Artists such as AC/DC and Metallica aren’t on there.

Useful Link: http://www.sharemyplaylists.com/
This website allows you to download other people’s playlists into Spotify, they’re sorted in genre, great to discover new music in your favourite genre’s.

Make sure you’re barking up the right tree!

Aimed at business managers and entrepreneurs – this post is just to start you thinking about ways to improve your marketing efforts in 2009 and beyond.

New Economic Era – New Marketing Plan, The Customer Experience, Pain Points, Behavioural Data, Online-Shopping, Marketing in a Recession, Generation X, Y, Baby Boomers and Traditionalists. Predicting the Future.

How has the recession affected your target market?

What tactics within your marketing strategy do you NOW need to change, if you haven’t already?

Is it your prices or your target market? Do you work on efficiency, cheaper suppliers, etc ?

In today’s dynamic environment, where the consumer has a wealth of choice  and loves brands – you need to focus more on the customer’s ‘experience’ of your service, products, outlets, staff, website, etc.

What do they think? Ask them what they want. Collect email address to find out what they want, and then offer it… and stay in touch.

What is it that you are actually solving for people? The need to wear something nice that makes them feel better? The need for a cold beer? A hassle free way to sort out their tax or legal affairs?

Do they mainly want  the feeling of comfort or pride? Or mainly avoid hassle and pain?

Does what you provide as a business alleviate their fear, or increase their happiness?

You need to be aware of their pain points and explain in your marketing literature and website how you can solve their problems or increase their happiness.

Collect and analyse your customers/clients behavioural data and be aware of how consumers have changed in the digital information age – online shopping is is getting more and more popular for example. Should you go online if you’re not already? Does your website need an over-haul?

Be aware of how different generations think and react.

• Generation-Y (born 1978-2001 or so – aged below 30),
• Generation-X (1966-1977 31-42),
• Baby Boomers (1947-1965 age 43-61) and
• Traditionalists (pre 1947 age 61+)

They all have different buying decision processes. For example Generation Y are used to getting things quickly and probably don’t have mortgages or spouses yet.  Generation X – young families, overspending, disposables and materialism.  Traditionalists need a fair amount of trust, will take time in their decisions and prefer to buy things of quality that last. Baby Boomers – have half inherited their traditionalist parents principles but are loaded with Generation X aspirations and family responsibilities.

Which are your target market?   Approach and communicate with them appropriately.

The current economic downturn presents some very challenging issues and decisions for businesses.

More than ever it’s about the survival of the fittest. You cannot run your business like you did in 2007 or 2008. Flexible workforces – freelance can work for all roles – why not? Rather than cut prices – how about selling the benefits a bit better, or add some more. If it’s your business – get the family involved even more – an 8 year old can stuff envelopes!

There is much to be made from predicting the future – trends in consumer needs, behaviours and attitudes, enforced conditions. As a business manager or entrepreneur – your empirical skills and knowledge are made very much more powerful when you also use PREDICTION. Try it when you lie awake at night.

Surviving or even thriving in the recession starts with some great ideas and some well researched and applied business and marketing strategies.

Thinking positive isn’t enough – you need to work smart, be pro-active and get things done too.

It doesn’t matter how hard you bark – if the cat’s in a different tree you better stop and find the right one.

If you need some help with marketing – give us a call – see what we can do for you.

Alexander Bullivant, Roxbourne Ltd  Marketing Consultants

Let’s use the analogy of custom building a desirable house……

If you wanted an impressive and desirable custom designed home – you’d hire an Architect to design and manage the project.

• You would need to set out a realistic financial budget capable of producing the desired results
• You would have to decide on and provide an extensive project brief and get involved in ongoing discussions.
• Realise that there’s plenty to do – crucial research, comparison, compromises and decisions over cost, quality, practicality, efficiency and improvements.
• Understand that some things cannot be controlled by either you or the Architect/Manager e.g. the weather, 3rd party contractor reliability, availability, etc – so you should be prepared for delays and re-adjusted costs, consider and deal with amendments and corrections.

So if you have high expectations for your website -

1. Hire a capable dynamic web designer/manager
2. Provide detailed, effective and ongoing briefing
3. And have a realistic budget

Alexander Bullivant

Roxbourne Online Marketing Services – Web Design, Search Engine Optimisation SEO, Web Site Graphics, Web Videos and Internet Promotion

www.roxbourne.com 01543-415423

• Out of date.
• Encourage you to purchase unneeded software.
• Tend to be very basic, and don’t cover everything.

So we thought we’d take a stab at it here at Roxbourne, and provide you with 10 tips that cover all basics to speed up your computer.

I will recommend you download some software within my tips; however there’s no need to worry – they are all absolutely FREE.

I will also be referring you to other articles which I think explain some of my recommendations better than I can. If it’s already out there, there’s little point re-writing it!

1. Cleaning out temporary files (XP/Vista/Windows 7)

First of all, download yourself ‘CCleaner Slim’ from CCleaner.com. If you’re running low on disk space, this is a sure fire application to free some up! As an example, I was working on a friends laptop recently that was running very slowly, I noticed it only had 0.5GB free…I ran CCleaner and freed up 5GB. So a big help there, and a noticeable speed increase was achieved straight away.

Conclusion: I recommend keeping at least 10% of your Hard drive space free for the computer. Running CCleaner around once a week will help you achieve this.

2a. Increasing hard drive performance (XP/Vista/Windows 7)

First of all, make sure the ‘indexing service’ is turned off. You can do this by going into ‘My Computer’ via your start menu, or desktop icon. Right click your main hard drive and click properties.
At the bottom of the dialogue box untick ‘Allow indexing service to index the disk for fast file searching’. It will then apply this to all your files and you will soon receive a warning that it cannot be applied to a file, just click ignore all.

2b. Are your IDE Channels running in ‘PIO Mode’? (Applies to IDE Devices, NOT SATA)

This causes your hard drives to run at a fraction of their potential speed. Your IDE Channels should be running in ‘Ultra DMA Mode’. To check this, right click ‘My Computer’, go to Properties > Hardware > Device Manager. Double click ‘IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers’ to expand. Then double click ‘Primary IDE Channel’ and click the ‘Advanced Settings’ tab. If for ‘Device 0′ in the Current Transfer Mode box it says ‘PIO Mode’ then you need to set ‘Transfer mode’ to ‘DMA if available’, and click okay, and then right click Primary IDE Channel and click ‘Uninstall’ and then ‘OK’. Repeat the process for the ‘Secondary IDE Channel’ too. Then reset your computer. This should fix your problem, and you’ll notice a HUGE speed increase.

2c. Defrag your hard drives (XP/Vista/Windows 7)

Download a program called ‘Smart Defrag‘ by Iobit from download.com. Once installed I advise you to change a few things within the options on the left hand side. For a desktop, I have everything UNTICKED. Now go to ‘Auto Defrag’ and un-tick ‘enable Auto Defrag’. It’s much better to set your computer to defrag when you’re not doing anything with it, than have it constantly running in the background slowing things down.

Now go to ‘Defrag Now’, select your main hard drive and click ‘Analyse’. It will then work its magic, and you’ll get a dialogue box appear, with a suggestion on the bottom. I was given ‘Fast Optimise’. Click close and next to the ‘Start’ button click the drop down box and pick the suggestion that you were given. Then click ‘Start’, and go and make yourself a cup of tea, it WILL take a while if you’ve never defragged before.

3. Clean your computer of all Spyware/Adware etc. (XP/Vista/Windows 7)

Download ‘Spybot Search and Destroy‘ from download.com. During installation when you get to ‘Select Components’ click the dropdown box and click ‘Compact Installation’. Keep going, once you get to ‘Select Additional Tasks’ untick everything.

Once you’ve installed, fire it up, and go straight to ‘Immunize’ on the left, wait a second while it scans and then click ‘Immunize’ at the top left. This prevents spyware getting onto your computer in the first place.
Now that you’ve done that go to ‘Search & Destroy’ on the left and click ‘Check for Problems’. Again, this process may take a while, anywhere between 5 and 30 minutes.

Unfortunately spybot isn’t good enough on its own. I recommend downloading ‘SUPERantispyware‘ from download.com. Once installed, make sure you ‘Check for updates…’. Then click ‘Scan Your Computer’. Depending on how much time you have perform either a ‘Quick Scan’ or a ‘Complete Scan’.

4. Controlling how many running processes you have (XP/Vista/Windows 7)

Depending on how much Memory your system has you should be limiting your background processes or “tasks”. Unfortunately some software and drivers can add unnecessary processes to your boot-up. You should never really need more than 40 background tasks, if you’re using over 50 and you only have 1GB of ram, the system will start to struggle. You should seriously think about disabling some of those processes to free up some RAM and speed up your boot up time.

To try and distinguish which of your processes are unnecessary PC Pitstop’s “Quick Program Scan” can help. You will need to use Internet Explorer and click the ‘Scan Now’ button. Pay attention to the colour codes.

Now that you’ve installed CCleaner from step 1, open it up and click ‘tools’ then click the ’start-up’ button. This will show you everything that’s set to start at boot-up. Click the processes that aren’t necessary and click disable.

Here’s a list of some common tasks that might give you an idea: PC Pitstop Top 100 Unwanted Processes.

5. Disable unnecessary services (XP Only)

If any part of this step scares you, just skip it and move onto the next one.

Okay lets get started, type “services.msc” in the Run… box in your start menu. Then visit this page over at ‘Black Viper‘. Scroll down to the table of services. Pay attention to the ‘Safe’ column and and go through making sure they match with your list of services.

6. Defrag your pagefile (XP/Vista/Windows 7)

Its easier to refer you to this Article over at HowToGeek.com.

7. Defrag & compact your registry (XP/Vista/Windows 7)

Registry compacting optimises your registry by removing gaps and wasted space, this improves the whole system performance.

Download Free Registry Defrag from registry-clean.net. It’s straight forward to use, just click the ‘Anaylze Registry’ button, it’ll take a few minutes and advise you on what to do next. You will need to restart your computer once its done.

8. Tune & Optimise your Internet Connection in Windows (XP/Vista/Windows 7)

Download TCP Optimiser (Direct Link) from speedguide.net. You don’t need to install anything, it runs straight from the .exe.
First of all, select your connection speed with the slider. Most people in the UK should have either 2,000kbps (2mb) or up to 8,000kbps (8mb). Then select the correct network adapter that you’re using for your internet. Then click the ‘Optimal Settings’ button and click ‘Apply changes’. It’ll let you know what changes it’s making click OK and then restart your computer.

9. Tweak your registry (XP/Vista/Windows 7)

Its time to download another program! It’s free, don’t worry! It’s called ‘Tweak Now! WinSecret Professional‘.  That’s a direct download link to it, install it and run it. Click ‘Windows Core‘, Click the ‘Windows Time Out’ tab and click the ‘Recommended’ button. Now go to the ‘Cache‘ tab. Tick ‘Improve Core System Performance’ if you have at least 1.00GB of ram. Then click ‘Try to detect your processor’s L2 cache size’ and click ok. Now click the ‘miscellaneous tab‘ and tick ‘Disable NTFS Last access time’ and ‘Automatically restart explorer (Windows Desktop)’. Make sure everything else is UNTICKED on that tab.

Now click save on the top left of the dialogue box. It’ll tell you, you need to reset. Go ahead and do so.

10. Disable some useless Windows Visual Effects (Screenshots apply to XP, however works on Vista/Windows 7)

First of all, make sure your Control Panel is displaying in classic mode. It’s a lot easier for future use as well.

Go to Start Menu > Control Panel > System > Advanced Tab > Performance (Settings) > Visual Effects Tab.
Untick everything apart from:

• Show smooth edges of screen fonts
• Use Common tasks in folders
• Use drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop
• Use visual styles on windows and buttons

Then click apply and OK. You should notice a pretty decent increase in response as you go around Windows.

That’s it, I hope you enjoyed my tips! Leave your comments if you had any trouble with all the above instructions.
Peace.

Sean Bullivant - Roxbourne Ltd – Web Design, Marketing and SEO Consultants – Lichfield Staffordshire Birmingham Midlands

This blog is for any firm or individual that has clients and a client base, rather than customers. It follows on from our other blogs on Referral Marketing and from info on our main website. Referral Marketing is the best business development strategy there is for Service Providers…

Simple is best – it’s easier to ask with just one sentence, it’s clearly faster and efficient and less likely to be left out of a meeting than a long rehearsed speech on why you want referrals and how the system benefits the client, etc. However, you need to memorise a longer set of effective phrases when you come up against resistance to referral giving.

I have a 300 word speech from years ago written by an American referral marketing guru – it’s over the top but the core principles contained within it can hardly be argued with. When resistance occurs a better set of phrases is needed based on the core principles, just asking is NOT  insufficient.

Clients need to know why you work a referral system and how it benefits them in many ways, and why you would like them to refer people they know to you. Learning stock phrases and how to handle objections in a non-confrontational way is the key. This needs to be learnt, it should be embedded, tested and analysed on an on-going basis. The benefits will soon be realised. Those that become good at it will inspire and coach others eventually.

Thanking Clients for Every Referral

Remember a nice bottle of something as a thank you for each referral. How about posting some of your branded merchandise to the client’s place of work too. A great idea is a coffee mug with your company name, what you do well, your web address and phone number on it and importantly the words THANK YOU written on the other side – just an idea. Point is, their work colleagues will see it and it will not be thrown away.

Remember the attributes discussed in previous posts – KNOW, TRUST AND LIKE – if these are in place objections and hesitations will rarely happen.

Alexander Bullivant Roxbourne Referral Marketing Strategies

Call us about the FREE initial marketing consultation no obligation. 01543415423

Referral Marketing is the best business development strategy there is for Service Providers…

…Accountants, Financial Advisers, Solicitors, Dentists, Designers, Architects, Plastic Surgeons, Builders, Vets, IT Services, Website Designers, Stylists, Trainers, Consultants, Printers, Landscape Gardeners, Brokers, etc.

Other service providers and professions other than your own have clients that may also need your services; your clients might also need their services. So it makes perfect sense to be proactive about it. Working more holistically and referring your clients to other carefully selected providers and professionals will compliment your own offering, bringing ‘added value services’ that your clients will appreciate and remember you for. In return the service providers and professionals are also more inclined to refer their clients to you, which is the main objective.

Whatever service you provide, the backbone of building your business is client acquisition and retention, one way to do this is to understand that there is a growing need to be more holistic. This requires knowledge of some other local service providers and professionals and their respective complimentary expertise. Building relationships and respectful trust with local firms and their individuals, getting to know how they operate and exactly what they can do – will help you spot opportunities for them. In the spirit of reciprocity they will want to refer back in order to keep you referring to them and to stay in ‘the reciprocal team of complimentary services’, with all its benefits.

EXAMPLE :- As an Accountant it makes perfect sense to build up good connections within Law, Financial Services and Risk Management, Banking, etc. And those fellow professionals should clearly seek out Accountants and Tax Advisers to compliment their own services too.

When the relationship with your external complimentary connections is managed properly it will bring new clients your way – either as direct referrals back again or via your clients recommending your more encompassing services. Joint effort projects bring added value services to each profession – building greater client satisfaction and thus greater loyalty, both of which need to be in place for your existing clients to recommend your services to others.

How you find other complimentary service providers depends on where you are now, you may know them and work with them already but maybe you both need to be more proactive. You may wish to be more analytical about it and research all the relevant local firms and their services.

Using a service level agreement (SLA) shows professionalism as it will state how you promise to look after their clients and what they can expect in regard to duty of care, procedures and service, etc. This builds trust also. Keeping a regularly updated database of referred clients and progress is a must. This is used to keep all parties informed and as a discussion document at regular review meetings. Approaching and building relationships with other service providers and professionals must be done carefully, with research, patience, determination and a Win/Win attitude. You have a lot to offer the right firms and in return you have a lot to gain from them, get it wrong and the doors will shut for a long time.

Alexander Bullivant www.roxbourne.com

See our other blogs on Referral Marketing

Those who get a lot of referred business are usually good at their job – AND clients know it.

Their clients KNOW, understand and appreciate the service and its benefits, believe they are given good value for money and they also TRUST and LIKE the person that deals with them or provides the service to the extent that they want to help them.

KNOW, TRUST & LIKE are the attributes that need to be improved in order to get lots of quality referrals. more…

Those that don’t get a lot of referred business EITHER have a low level of KNOW, TRUST AND LIKE, unbelievably don’t ask for referrals, or both. If it’s mainly due to not asking; this is relatively easy to fix, but it must be done properly and consistently as a natural procedure and a culture developed and honed within the firm. Management needs to embrace it as a business system.

Client facing staff need to be aware that in order to gain lots of quality referrals they need to be generally liked, valued and trusted by their clients and thus should WORK on these aspects – with SINCERITY. They also need to CARE about their clients again with sincerity, and clients need to FEEL it.

Asking for referrals is NOT begging and should never be done in desperation. Clients need to be made aware of the benefits to THEM that you use Referral Marketing Systems. They should ultimately feel they WANT to refer quite happily, they should want to see you and your firm continue to prosper.

The best time to ask a client for a referral is just after you’ve concluded some work particularly just after they thank you; at this point they’re feeling very happy with their decision and suitably softened for your appeal.

A referral is only a referral if you have permission to quote the referrer’s name to them and giving thanks for referrals is a must; remembering personal details (write them down somewhere) to chat about will help build rapport each time you talk. A quick note on building rapport – it is not something confined to the first 10 minutes of a meeting; it is something you should do continuously. Business discussion can become tedious and dry and it helps to dilute that with normal human banter.

Alexander Bullivant Roxbourne Marketing Strategies

Also see post on about Referrals From External Connections