Father's Day in November?

It was Father's Day today! Honest! Well it was at the Little Jogs Day Nursery in Hungerford - a rather clever invention to give the many Dads whose children attened the popular private nursery the chance to see what they get up to.

Morgan PR handles both the public relations and web presence of Little Jogs and were on hand to capture images for both the website and what should be a slam dunk press release considering the originality of the idea.

It was great talking to the Dad's to discover just how thrilled they were to be there. One was so busy with work that they rarely even dropped off or collected their son from the nursery, so it provided a rare opportunity to see how he flourishes within the purpose designed environment.

Other Dads had simply taken the opportunity to spend more time at the nursery where their child seems so happy during the week.

Hungerford day nursery Little Jogs now online with launch of new website

Little Jogs Day Nursery has unveiled a new website designed to keep parents up to date with activities at the nursery and to inform prospective parents about what it has to offer.

Morgan PR designed the website: www.littlejogsnursery.co.uk which has just gone live and already is catching the attention of people searching for nursery care in the Hungerford area through effective search engine optimisation.

The nursery’s owner, Sandra Fell, explained: “We enjoy a good reputation among our parents and many of them refer their friends to us. However we would never take for granted the people who move to this area who might not realise we are here.

“Also, with the slowdown in the economy we have been getting more enquiries from mothers and fathers who are finding they have to go back to work; hopefully the website will help parents facing that difficult decision. Indeed, one of the pages is specifically aimed at helping parents ask the right questions of any childcare provider.

“There are pages on each of our three rooms: baby, toddler and pre-school together with explanations of the provision and approach in each of those.

“We also aim to publish news on the site regularly to keep everyone up to date with all the exciting things we do here at Little Jogs.”

The new website was designed by Diane Morgan of Morgan PR, whose own daughter Beth used to go to Little Jogs. She comments: “We’ve always know what a terrific nursery Little Jogs is, so it was lovely to have the opportunity to reflect that on the world wide web. The team at Little Jogs are a really warm and friendly bunch and all the children are so cheerful - hopefully this website reflects that.”

Incidentally, news of the new website is spreading and it has already been published online at Newbury Today.

Talking PR with leading chartered building surveyors Easton Bevins

Morgan PR provides public relations and web services to Chartered Building Surveyors Easton Bevins and has done for almost a year now; so it was a delight to be given the opportunity to address the whole company earlier today at a team training day.

How many businesses would have the courage and foresight to take the entire staff - and I mean everyone - for an away day? Easton Bevins had closed its offices in Bristol, Cheltenham, Swindon and Newbury and brough everyone to the Tortworth Court Hotel and just speaking in the morning it was clear how much of a team atmosphere there was and how comfortable everyone felt with one another. I mean Morgan PR is doing much the same later this week, but there were 30 there from Easton Bevins, there'll be a few less at our team day at Sheepdrove on Thursday.

We were talking about the importance of good public relations and the contribution that the team at Easton Bevins can make by helping to identify the stories and opportunities that they will be encountering simply by delivering their professional services.

We also spoke about how successful the flooding advice website Floodadvice.org had been and that traffic had spiked recently when we had more localised flooding, showing it still has relevance.

There was some lively discussion over blogging with quite a few people in the room curious as to how it would work for a company like theirs. Where to start? With such a big and geographically and professionally diverse team they could spread the challenge of maintaining a blog, allocate people to their specialisms and very quickly would create a context rich database of article that Google would rush to.

The speaker before Morgan PR was talking about sustainability, which did instill some guilt at stomping a ruddy great carbon footprint on the 130 mile round trip to the venue. However, on the bright side, looking at the Fair Shares Fair Choice website we were directed to, it would seem my own footprint is already respectably low - even I 'must try harder'.

Click-Rate.co.uk a winning domain name

No sooner do I mention the rarity of finding a really good generic domain name that Google will love (see yesterday's blog entry) than I am reminded of the recently launched Click-Rate.co.uk a new website offering a host of web solutions courtesy of talented and charming web guru Charlie Brockis.

Charlie is a fellow member of the Profit Club run by Action Coach Sally Rainbow-Ockwell and was canny enough to discover the stunningly descriptive domain name was not only available, but he snapped it up and designed this site.

With search engine optimisation key to the success of any online business it is the 'click rate' that measures how many people are following links to your site. To borrow a tag from a well know product, it does what it says on the tin.

That's a lot of dough for a domain name

Clients who are venturing into cyberspace for the very first time are often frustrated by the scarcity of Google-friendly domain names. The value of truly generic domains has been illustrated with the news that www.pizza.com has just sold for US$2.6 million an online auction.

The Baltimore Sun has perhaps the best interview with the somewhat amazed former owner of the domain who had registered it way back in 1994 when he was trying to win business with a pizza firm. He dutifully paid $20 each year and has just cashed in with the record price at auction.

It neatly highlights the scarcity and value of generic domain names and for many of the clients we work with it can be a real challenge to find a Google friendly domain name for their business; most options will be clumsy and look awful written down - and will never be worth as much as pizza.com!

Pebbles Unisex Hair & Beauty Salon Opens

Together with public relations in West Berkshire, Morgan PR also provides web solutions and we pride ourselves on offering first class web design too.

A project we started work on before Christmas that came to fruition earlier today was a website for a brand new venture in Newbury: Pebbles Unisex Hair & Beauty Salon is set to buck the trend for such salons to be in the High Street and instead offers spacious facilities, positively huge treatment rooms and plenty of free parking from a prime spot just away from the town centre in Faraday Road, Newbury.

We have had great fun working with owners Steve and Theresa Fish and have seen their vision emerge from running Harpers Hair & Beauty in Market Street, Newbury - which was small and had limited potential - to realising the dream of creating Pebbles in empty space adjacent to the One Stop service centre that Steve also runs.

We were shown around cold empty rooms as he animatedly said what would go here and how this area would be transformed. Well, the result is astounding and testimony to what can be achieved when someone puts their mind to it.

Pebbles is now, without doubt, one of the finest hair and beauty salons in West Berkshire and we are delighted to have created a website worthy of this new venture. A site which reflects its values and approach to customer service.

Please do visit the Pebbles website, but also you absolutely must visit the salon too - whether for a haircut, colouring or massage.

Las Vegas Reunion Tour

Graham and Karen Chapple, respectively of Garden4you and Irun (the website company formerly known as Web Build Pro) joined us in Hungerford for dinner last night – and their first taste of the ActionCoach game Leverage.

It was only our second game – you’ll recall we wrote about it here – but it was Graham & Karen’s first taste of the game they, like us, had heard Brad Sugars rave about as the ‘fun way to learn business’. It was actually the first time the four of us have been together since we attended the Entrepreneur's MasterClass in the States so it was good to catch up on the meteoric rise of our respective businesses.

Well, it was definitely more straightforward this time round and I do not mean just understanding the rules; there were nuances and probably trademarked blinding flashes of the obvious as principles dawned on us.

Less fun was the disarmingly named ‘Oops’ cards. We never got one of these last time we played and Graham – or ‘Lucky Graham’ as we shall ironically refer to him, picked the first and a few more ‘Oops’ cards. In fact we all did and learned a valuable lesson about those sneaky little problems that can thwart the most careful of business plans, from losing staff to a client going bankrupt and taking your unpaid invoices with them.

It was good fun – not least as I am far from convinced any of us imagine our dashing entrepreneur lifestyles involving Friday night board room sessions!

Learn to Create Raving Fans at Profit Club

Learn to Create Raving Fans at Profit Club

We are still fizzing with entrepreneurial energy after Vegas (at least we are when the jet lag isn’t try to tempt us with a goose down escape strategy) and today’s trip to the fortnightly Profit Club provided ample evidence.

For those not familiar with Action Coach’s Profit Clubs I can best describe them as a fortnightly networking meeting – with generous levels of business coaching included. It is even more than that because so much more than simply selling to the people your fellow attendees know, you swap advice and experiences and grow together. Because let’s not forget, as good as we are at delivering Morgan PR’s core offerings of public relations, photography, web design and mystery shopping, we are still learning the mechanics of running a successful business. Anyone who says they are not is quite possibly in denial!


The Profit Club, run in Faringdon by award winning Action Coach Sally Rainbow-Ockwell, has always been exceptional value and leaving aside the invaluable business coaching, the referred business has been fabulous.

However, today everything seemed to have even more resonance than normal; clearly motivated by the Entrepreneur’s MasterClass in Las Vegas we are redoubling our efforts and making the most of this investment.

We meet fortnightly on the second and fourth Tuesday of the month from 8am to 9.30am and you would certainly be welcome to join me as a guest, however more specifically I thought your curiosity might be piqued by this month’s training session: ‘Creating Raving Fans’. The two hour session, from 10am to midday on the 13th November at the Gateway Business Centre in Faringdon (more info on the venue, which is just over the downs!) and will be delivered by Sally. Normally for non Profit Clubbers the charge is £49.50, but this event will be free to celebrate our first birthday.

So, spaces are limited, but if you would like to come along just let me know pronto. Naturally, if anyone wants to come as a guest to the 8am Profit Club immediately before the training session, they are more than welcome.

New Website for the Madagascan Gin Palace

One of Newbury most original and yet longest established restaurants has just launched a new website worthy of the high regard that generations have for the Madagascan Gin Palace.

Designed and delivered by Darin Brockman and his talented team at BCL NuMedia the site neatly captures the essence of the Gin Palace, but at the same time delivers the slick accessibility that is so important to online visitors.

Spot the mouthwatering food on the website? We did that! Not the cooking, the photography! Morgan PR took them for an article on the restaurant a few months ago and we were happy to oblige when erstwhile charmer and Gin Palace founder Richard Hayman asked if he might use them.

One word of warning, the same music that runs through the soul of the Gin Palace is still likely to burst into life as you log on to the site - so if you are reading this at work and about to pay a visit... turn down the sound or everyone will know! Then again, crank the sound up and party!

Oh yes, and Richard has launched a competion on the site to test visitors' geography... what ever could be the 4th largest island in the world...? Enter here!

Web Build Pro offers web design solution

New visitors to this thrilling blog may not know that Morgan PR also excels in providing web solutions – naturally web content is easy when you journalistic skills can make our delightful language sit up and beg for attention, but we also can provide web design too.

When we receive a web enquiry we will ensure that we match our best web people with your requirements, whether you seek a simple site to establish that essential virtual presence for a business, through to e-commerce. And of course whatever your website requirements, we have the know how to ensure that web optimisation will lead people to your site.

Today we have been working with two businesses that both need cost effective web solutions and both will initially be an online presence of two very real and impressive companies.

By a fortunate coincidence of scheduling both Sew Write Embroidery and FC Cummins and Sons are within a few metres of one another at Rookery Farm, Curridge, and we met with them in successive and successful meetings today and very soon both will have brand new websites.

I say we, I should elaborate – I was teamed up with Karen Chapple of The Best of Newbury fame, and increasingly well know for Web Build Pro, an extremely cost effective template based solution for web design solutions. It is straightforward enough for most people inclined to build their own site to do so and many do; however, even more choose to have us complete their site using the system.

Morgan PR launches new website

Welcome to the all new Morgan PR website!

Well, really this is just the blog, but above is a screengrab of the new Morgan PR website, so ably created by David Fullstone and his team at FC Online.

What started as an idea to tweak my old site a little over a week ago rapidly evolved into a full re-design project and gave me the high pressured chance to review our online offering.

Fortunately, the work we have been doing with Sally Rainbow-Ockwell from Action Coach has helped the company grow and focus on its future which in turn has given a firm direction to the website.

It does feel like a collabrative effort. David did the hard work with the coding, but the photographs are by Neale James at Breathe Pictures - except the champagne one, which was kindly provided by the Newbury Weekly News. Key clients also responded to my request for fresh testimonials. All these have combined to give the site a professional feel.

Go and have a look! And do try out the slickest contact form known to man!

The Importance of Updating Websites

As my web guru David Fullstone of FCOnline has so often told me it is vital to keep your website looking fresh and even more important that it tempt that likes of Google to visit.

So with a hefty nudge from the aforementioned master of web trickery I found my website in the process of evolution and have been writing some 25 pages of web copy today - all fresh and bursting with honest to goodness key words.

They will be thrust into the crucible that is web programming as an artform and my new website will take shape this weekend. It is being based on a fine looking site FCOnline is writing for another client - after all, the wheel is round and works pretty well.

It has been a fun exercise prompted by the knowledge I needed to tweak the aging site here and there ahead of the web address being promoted next week when a feature on Morgan PR appears in the Newbury Business News. The tweak turned into a complete revision and I am indebted to David for his committment to this project.

And if you are quick you can watch the maestro at work this weekend!