Tasmania is often referred to as “Tassie” because of its natural beauty. It is a land untouched by too much activity and you can drive past kilometres of pristine ploughland or wilderness without any sign of human presence. In other words you can have Tasmania all to yourself to relax from whatever was driving you mad.

The state is affected with the highest jobless rate in Australia. It is as well the land of an acrimonous dispute between the conservationists and anyone else who earns a living from the land - be it timber logging, under ground resources, agriculture even fish farms… The local government subsidises the ferry service from the mainland. It is a much needed link for the island for tourism but also the downfall of local industries slaughtered by competition.

The capital Hobart has each Saturday morning a thriving open market at Salamanca. Vendors have to reserve a spot way in advance and spread from the harbour all the way up the steps of the Parliament House. It’s like Tasmanians have turned themselves into homecraft artisans producing all manner of merchandise from wooden products to knitting, preserves, and clothing.

Launceston and Hobart are unique cities - no gridlock and no modern tall buildings. The local councils have a tight grip on what style of architecture is permitted there. To the point - there are hardly any new structures especially in the central business district.

The local radio broadcast is your best connection to the grapevine and an insight to the affairs the Tasmanian folks deal with. Agriculture is a wide sector. Instead of competing with large concerns producing grain, small farmers concentrate in niche segments like herbaceous plants or flowers. Plants used for producing drugs are also harvested here. Sadly Tasmania lost its only export shipping service and now the Port of Melbourne slaps a high harbour fee on all goods in transit.

If you are touring the state to relax and take stock on what to do with your life bear in mind that young Tasmanians are migrating in the opposite direction to find prosperity in Victoria or New South Wales. As a tourist, be prepared for the harsh nature of the weather. Scores of tourists have to be rescued each season from Cradle Mountain or Lake St Clair - heading off with singlet and light footwear in the sunny morning only to be trapped in a snow storm the very same day.

I was staying in a place called Poatina smack bang in the middle of the island. You can drive 2 hours and be at any location for a day outing.

When you put together the components of volunteerism, community and public relations you get an surprising pudding: a local community radio!

Initiated in the mid 1990s, Heart FM community radio station still rolls on today in the heart of Tasmania.

The programming style of “easy listening” runs classic pop hits of the 1980s with syndicated newscast, weather forecast and some talk back shows.

One unique show is Mouldy Oldies by presenter Les McSweeney. Les has an extensive collection of 78 rpm records dating back to the 1930s. it is a delight to listen to those sounds from yesteryear together with Les introductions.

The radio license curtails severely the geographical cover of the broadcast yet a survey indicates some 2500 faithful listeners tune-in to the station. The local area is mostly a farming community in this northern central area of Tasmania. They obviously like to hum along those old hits while riding their harvester all day across the countryside.

Fusion is a Christian ministry using the village of Poatina as a rehabilitation centre for people in need of rebuilding their lives. The radio broadcast originally located there has now a studio in downtown Longford - the nearest township, to muster local community involvement.

Sponsors are a rare breed and are much needed to balance the cashflow of a not-for-profit organisation.

Outside broadcast is a way to be seen and connect with the listeners. Opportunities include the local butcher store official opening (a station sponsor) and celebrations such as Australia Day or the local agricultural show. These are run along the format of open crowd festivals perfected by Fusion International. The concept is to coordinate entertainment and activities to get a local community to interact with each other. Suddenly folks encounter their neighbours after living in the area for a while but lacking the chance to participate into anything together.

It looks like in our advanced 21st century world people have to be reminded again how to socialise with each other and be conscious that not everybody is a religious fanatic or a child molester.

The Tasmanian Midlands Community Radio mandate fits nicely with the Fusion order of business in social welfare. In fact several Poatina residents serve as volunteers at the radio station and have their own late night program - Captain Midnight.

More recently Heart FM indulged in a website to offer Fusion supporters a taste of the programming by allowing the download of selected mp3 files.

Social media relates to a variety of things to different people but is there scope for diversity? If you want to bookmark some web pages regarding your project, photos of your recent travel and summaries on your endeavours where do you go? Evidently facebook comes loud and clear to fulfil those points but are they trying to be all things to all people? Remeber they are now a public listed company and shareholders want to rake in their claim from advertising receipts.

Talking about revenue bring in cash but also your profile. Yes you read correctly marketing companies are constantly on the prowl for ways to measure your buying pattern and social media portals are the main source of information for that. So for a fee you can buy a snapshot on the geo-tagged demographic footprint that fits your favourite keyword.

Indeed the issue of security is the one that gets targeted most often against the social media juggernaut. But is it a fad or is it to stay? It is one scenario to have a presence towards your family and friends but what about if your former partner, your boss, someone across the street starts to keep tabs on you? Introducing Social Buzz a facebook look-alike without the heavy footprint.

The desires of an online community are fairly simple. Post an article, bookmark a web page, upload an bunch of collated images or a clip, follow a discussion or an event through keywords and that’s basically it. Certain social media platforms are growing through invites only - some allow any person to sign-up. Some entice you to rummage through your inbox and blast an invite to any email at hand - a bad spamming technique if there was one.

The next problem with facebook is the ever increasing growth of apps that try to tag on the immense pool of connected friends and weave a web of intrigue. It began with entertainment, then birthday reminders now career search networks and whatever will come next. No wonder we all have someone we would dearly connect with but cannot because they run away for good reasons from the social media scene.

Just like in the past you would continue a conversation off the record now you can do that offline. No I don’t mean going back to the time worn mail service. I mean switching to a less oft used social media system off the beaten track.

Adults just like children need to be taught the wonders of giving thanks. Or is it past any hope of change by then? Taking things and people for granted is a troublesome development these days and I dare say it would account for much of the strife in our community.

As always it is as a result of a setback that you tend to come to appreciate the things that you have left. As human beings we are by default self-centred. On the other side of the coin people are craving for recognition and acceptance. So if you build the habit of uttering a well thought of and deserved “thank you” in your conversation, the rewards are manifold. You have heard the phrase: “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” When we meet a new person an instant recollection occurs in our thoughts to discern friend from foe.

Compliments from someone you don’t know always seems phoney because they don’t have any common experience with you to qualify giving any report on your character - good or bad. Salespeople of all types have learned the good one-liners from Dale Carnegie’s book “how to win friends and influence people”. In today’s world of rampant divorce and distrust in the workplace the catch phrase is akin to “how to alienate strangers and bust your marriage”…

If something is going to budge it might as well be you. To give is better than to receive. Following up on that, you will discover more long lasting satisfaction in empowering an associate to be their best than in focusing on your short term comfort.

Amazing isn’t it? Would altruistic motives be the cure for a decaying society? Philosophers have dreamed about that one for centuries but the reality is that we live in a spiritual world as well as a physical world. Unless you acknowledge the forces at work which pull your attitude one way or the other you will keep being indecisive not knowing who to obey.

Take note I use the world obey here. You thought you were a mature person - in control of your own destiny. Just check your past and you will find this is not so. You find it impossible to connect with God? You’d rather not relate to God at all, hoping you don’t have to report to anybody for your life? You are pinning away trying to find value and purpose in a world that’s going nowhere fast? Why don’t you start giving thanks that someone dared to tell you about Jesus Christ - the Saviour of our soul

Looking after yourself is a reflex we barely need to learn. But an easy life can also be known by another name: selfishness.

Just like you see avid runners jogging on a brisk windy morning just to get physical you may be curious if some individuals really set themselves out to be stretched in the area of finance, education or family.

Do you know somebody who is reeling from a marriage split-up? Have you opened your home to offer a suitable setup for recovery?

Do you follow emerging changes in your profession so that you may steer your vocation where new opportunities will be? Or do you wait to be made redundant to do something about it with the view of receiving a termination package or some government pension?

Is the spare room in your home cluttered with junk, broken furniture and other obstructions or it is kept in shape so that you can provide for an unforseen visitor?

Do you earn just enough money to support your necessities because you do not want to pay too much taxes or do you plan at having sufficient resources to carry out acting on the issue you feel strongly about?

Do you go the extra mile to be reconciled with a disenfranchised family member or do you ignore their plight?

Have you saved aside some funds for a rainy day? Would you be willing to use it to stand in the gap for a person in need of redemption?

If you run your own company do you shy away from hiring staff - cruising along nicely just by yourself, or do you see your potential to instruct and generate work for others?

Do you volunteer to teach at your local community center or do you waste your spare time following degrading soap operas to ease your lack of fulfilment?

Do you make conversation with the checkout operator when you do the groceries or do you dash home to surf social media - folks you can never see face to face?

Do you know your neighbours by name, do you keep abreast of local issues, do you participate in local politics or are you resigned to think your voice does not count?

The choice is up to you: you may decide to step out of your cozy environment at your own call or at the most impractical time you will be jolted in the deep end because you avoided all the opportunities beforehand.

Bread of Life

If you are billing your expertise and your time for a living you know how confusing it can be for a client when they receive their account due. How will they have the assurance that what they are being charged for is value indeed? How can they feel confident that their invoice is a proper account of work actually executed?

The answer is to let them know what is happening. Instead of waiting for the end of the month and cause them to fall off their chair when they eventually get your bill why not provide them online access to your timesheets? Scary thought? Not really. Either you are fudging the actual time you spent on that assignment or your hourly rate is too high because you don’t want to admit how long you really spent on this assignment.

Customers simply like transparency and if you spent 10 hours on a project and are only charging 5 it ought to be documented. If the senior partner could have done the job in two hours at a top hourly rate but a new recruit took twice as long at bottom price it is proper letting the client in the loop.

Some IT providers are so fidgety about their billing issues that they send their employees to work on location when they might as well have done their task in house with peer review. The idea is that if the client sees our people at their office they will have some good vibes that we are really busy on their project.

Baloney! What is the matter with you? Trust is lacking here. The best way to clarify the situation about explaining your hours and your prices as a company is to be pro-active by providing the logs of all activity taking place. What you need is an online billing application where your customers can see your timelogs. Later they can also see how much time was spent and at what price. They can see if the contract is still under budget or not before all the money is spent. You might have agreed that the job will not cost more than x dollars and that any overtime will be absorbed by you. You may also charge hardware components or software applications as part of your service.

A logo is to a company what attire is to a person. You have to wear it! It is how you are being seen in the marketplace. People say “First impressions last” - so make sure your first impact is a good one.

In the not so distant past corporate symbols used to be specially crafted typefaces often incorporating a graphic element. They were mostly black & white and often played on optical illusions where the white space was itself an element of the design due to its surrounding areas.

Today with the advent of colour, logos are a de-facto corporate effigy rather than a corporate stamped signature. This is a fashion and I suppose you have to tag along with the mood of the day but remember: Do you necessarily have to employ all the colours of the rainbow simply because you have full colour printing?

Can your symbol be used for embroidery on uniforms? How does it come out in black and white when transmitted through a fax machine? Does your logo display the same instant recognition really big as signwriting on a vehicle or shrunk down like a postage stamp for a cassette label?

You can do some logo animation for the web and for videos on DVD?. With such a broad range of applications the task is to keep a similar corporate look across the board. The worst situation is to use one logo somewhere and another somewhere else. It destroys your identity. It gives out a subliminal message that you are unreliable with no well defined business objective. Yes some large banks and telcos have renewedtheir logos recently but they managed it in a concerted effort.

Some business owners make the mistake of having a vote with their employees to choose from a selection of several designs. You will get as many points of view as there are voters. What matters is how the community perceive you out there in the street and how you differenciate from your competitors.

Here are some good Logo Designs ideas.

Being in the wrong neck of the woods in cyberspace can be as detrimental as being unseen. There is no shortcut way to build your backlinks inventory in a hurry.

The internet in only 10 years has become a very complex marketplace. Long behind are the times of the dotcom bust where there was no limit. After the dust has settled down we can take stock of the various trends that passed across our marketing landscape and choose the good ideas from the bad ones.

Advertising Banners
Animated GIFs were the showcase of many graphic artists who did a marvelous job of grabbing the web surfer’s attention but the response rate after a while fell to dismal levels. “In your face” promotion has become an overused technique. People do not want to be side tracked in the event of their web browsing. Over time folks have developed an avoidance to anything that shines and grabs.

Link Directories
Similar to a bookmarking service, web addresses with page after page of links have gone by the wayside. Crawlers no longer report links found there. Users select to do a query instead of going to a favourite portal and then drill down to their area of interest - only to be disappointed with poor quality links not really related to their request.

Resources Pages
Scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours was the motto of roll-your-own webmasters. Since seldom do people write directly in html anymore, there has been a split between the geeks and the promoters resulting in the prevailing of search engine advertising. Reciprocal links were also cause for foul play. People would put up a link for you and remove it soon after you did your part in good faith.

Leaving a Reply
The take off of blogging platforms some years ago witnessed another form of abuse: planting stupid links in every blog opened for replies you could find. The response was drastic. Fast on the heels of counter spam measures people tried to streamline the stamping out of such ill. The no-follow attribute was born. You could click on it but it wouldn’t tally in your website ranking.

Article Marketing
This is the premise of the free economy - attract people with a piece of some value and cause them to return for another piece worth buying. Composing some useful information in order to build your repute as an authoritative source provides you the chance to leave a lead at the end of the article informing people what you do.

Affiliate Programs
Pay per click (PPC) advertising is doomed by fraud. Your opponents might click on your ads to eat up your advertising budget. Greedy website owners might get friends to click on their ads to bump up their revenue (assuming another IP address might cover their tracks). Rather than rewarding people for each click on their link, affiliate marketing schemes pay a fee on each purchase generated by that link. A cookie is set on the visitor’s browser to track the originating referral in case the sale is obtained at a later visit.
Affiliators

If you go abroad who will take care of your home? Previously that was never a problem - couples trusted their neighbours or had family who would keep watch for you. Today things are getting more complex. People are too stressed out and run off their feet to do that sort of favour.

Introducing the house sitting concept. You can come in contact with it appears scores of people, mobile enough to come and live at your home and look after it for you while you are away for an extensive period of time.

An vacated house is never a good thing. You have to care for animals and cats and dogs. You have to mow the lawn, empty the letterbox, and take the garbage out on a weekly basis. Lights turned on at night give the warm feeling that indeed someone lives there. Some have relied on timed switches to flick lighting and radio on and off to give that feeling but it fools no one - especially burglars or nosey neighbours.

How can you leave your most precious possession - your house - to a complete stranger? Landlords have long known that renters are a breed apart and have to be kept at arms length through real-estate agents. Are house sitters any different? While you are having a good time away, can you hide a video camera in the ceiling and from afar check its output across the internet? Will they have wild parties and invite all the undesirables off the street?

Finding the right person will make all the difference. Any relationship is based on trust. What could be the reason for a decent individual to come and stay and care for your home while you are absent? For a start, they might be touring like you and offer their common sense in return for free accommodation. It might be a retiree who adores gardening but lives in a flat and doesn’t have enough space of their own. It could be a school teacher who is available during school breaks. It could be a separated spouse who needs the solace and peace of a new home to regain composure in their life. It could be an animal enthusiast who trains dogs and does some networking.

In a disrupted world you will find there are many people who can match your need while you can also meet their need. Cyberspace is rife with opportunities to connect and this is your turn to offer value and substance to a stranger. You never know - one day it might be you.

Did you ever wanted to know what could make you special in the competitive landscape? Beyond price or product can you think of something to make the customer experience something to brag about?

If customers reach you in cyberspace how can you make their visit a worthwhile experience? A satisfied customer is the best kind of promotion as the saying goes.

There is a plethora of one-size-fits-all website packages on the market claiming to do everything you need for next to nothing. Well, maybe so… but how can you differentiate yourself if your competitors also run the same plain-vanilla website engine?

It will take more than flashy images or a multimedia experience to make your mark. What about if you just overtake the customer expectations?

If you are a mail order operation, free delivery is a sign of good service. You absorb freight charges in your general costs and clients are pleased that they won’t be penalised if they live in such and such postcode.

Taking it one step further - can you integrate your service with some calculating widget to process a profile for each enquiry? Mortgage repayments, dieting plans come to mind. What about an area calculator if you are selling paint or wallpaper?

If you are in the hospitality industry what about featuring a plan of your facility? As you mouse over each room an image reveals how the place is appointed and if you click further on the window the exact vista from that room scrolls on the screen. Click again to see the prices offered for different days and the vacancies.

A custom-made website is what your company deserves and if you have to change your office methods in the process why not. If you consider the expense of driving traffic to your web address why not make the most of thesituation once they get there?

Bruno Deshayes web design