In a recent post entitled "The Future of Thanet" in "The Big Blog" Adem raises some interesting questions. Prime among them is what can we actually do about the decline Thanet is facing.

"Most of the local blogs or the newspaper articles I read point towards an area in steep decline but surely there is something we can do? On face value it appears that there is nothing we can do, but that is me being pessemistic, and just because the council are happy for the towns to die doesn’t mean that we should be."
"The Future of Thanet", Adem, 14th February 2008

I mentioned in the comments something I have said before - we bloggers hold a lot of power (by which I mean influence) if only we allowed ourselves to discover how to use it. The only person I can be sure to influence is myself. This is true for everyone.

So rather than moan about the state of the area I intend to take action and this is what I prose to do

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» Continue Reading: I'm giving away £50 in resources

Although Thanet Star has announced the One Pound Advert offer I will be running a series of additional offers and bonuses shortly. Before that I want to look at some of the issues involved in running an on-line advertising campaign. Specifically I want to look at what your website will need in order to make sales in any economic environment.

I do not think it matters if you have heard some of these common sense basics of online business before because we can all do with a refresher. Selling, especially in an economically depressed area like Thanet, is never easy. To close that sale you need to show how you and your product meet a need and frankly most business websites fail totally to even be in the right ball park.

I don't want to just sell you a few adverts I want to help you to use those adverts to make sales. This is something I can do reasonably for you but it is something that you will do best. I want to help you get the best from advertising on Thanet Star.

To do this we are going to look at the needs of the "average" Thanet resident and how you can meet this to create sales and leads through your website. I want to help you to boost the communication, sales planning, market knowledge, appeal, visibility and, of course, consumer confidence in and of your online marketing effort.

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» Continue Reading: Building a website that sells