They are likely to fall into one of two categories.

1. They have their own agenda about what your site should look like. or

2. They charge a fortune just for turning up. OR worse

3. 1 & 2 combined….

Unfortunately, people have “consumer level expectations.” If you have a website – then you are playing on the same playing field as amazon, ebay and the like. THAT’S who you are compare with.

If you don’t employ a web designer – you do one of two things.

1. Try to do it yourself.

2. Rely on a friend, boyfriends mate, next door neighbour, former work colleague, whatever.

Either way – If you don’t pay, or aren’t 100% sure of what you are doing, you can have serious problems down the line.

So helpfully we have produced two videos which are available for free.

These are
1. An interview with a new start up virtual assistant. We discuss the problems she faced and how she approached them and what site she was left with.

2. A site critique by usability expert Chris Hodgson on the site which looks at the site that came before Barbarysolutions. (Chris has worked for ebuyer, onetel and Wren Kitchens – so it’s fair to say he knows his stuff…)

To sign up – just drop your email below.

The course launches on Monday next week (6th September 2010).

The course walks the user through the entire steps of building a site using wordpress.

Actual video tutorials allow them to follow along every step of the way.

From the very first stages of buying a domain suitable to their business name and objectives, buying wordpress suitable hosting right through to setting up wordpress.

The wordpress “expert” is Chris Hodgson.

Chris has massive experience in web design and usability and has worked on tech development for ebuyer.com, onetel and other high street names.

In addition, there are two downloadable podcasts from UK business coach Heather Townsend. If you don’t know, Heather is building her coaching practice right their in front of your very eyes online.

She is the author of the forthcoming “Financial Times guide to business networking.”

These two podcasts will walk new business owners through the steps she actually took in setting up a website in a weekend using wordpress.

Instead of sending people straight to a sales page.

We have produced two videos which are available for free.
These are
1. An interview with a new start up virtual assistant. We discuss the problems she faced and how she approached them and what site she was left with.
2. A site critique by Chris Hodgson on the site which looks at the site that came before Barbarysolutions.

Users registering for the free video are then “educated” before asked to buy anything.

PS – If you or your friends or colleagues are interested in promoting this – you can sign up as an affiliate for 40% of the revenue.

Here is the link

PPS – Product is competitively priced at £37 / US$56 / $AUS62 / $SD76

Recently, Head of Sharp End Training UK, Jonathan Senior, Head of Sharp End Training USA, Pat Weber and Head of mentorsquare.co.uk Richard Baker met up online to chew the fat and discuss networking tactics and strategies.

The result?

A fascinating 38 minutes which highlights both the similarities and the differences in networking in the US and the UK.

You can access this recording TOTALLY FREE

“10 things happen that (probably) happen to you at networking events whether you like it or not”

–>

Why we need you…
We are looking for partners to be our representative in your country specialising in business & management training for British English speakers & those wanting to learn British English.
Working to certain guidelines – you will be our department in your country. Experience of traffic generating tactics would be a strong advantage. Enthusiasm & web savvy would be better…
Successful candidates would receive a ready built website – ready to promote Sharp End Training courses.
Other than that you are free to market your business how ever you like.
We will meet with our international representatives at least weekly via skype to share tactics and successes and failures.

Why should you partner with us?
Tap into our experience and READY MADE products/training courses.
Tap into our 6 year old domain with quality backlinks.
YOUR blog posts twittered to over 4000 followers (twitter.com/sharpendtrain) from day 1.
YOUR blog posted to our facebook fanpage with more than 500 members.
YOUR video upload to our youtube channel with almost 100 subscribers.
Get a business in a box – immediately
We deal with support

What we expect from you
We are looking for BRIGHT people who know about training & people management and also about web marketing & how to generate traffic. You will be the face of Sharp End Training in your country – you you shouldn’t be worried about showing your face online.
You should be quite happy writing blog posts 3 or 4 times a week about all aspects of technology related business & management.
(Note – sorry but the world doesn’t need another batch of “social media consultants” – so if all you can write about is how to get more followers on twitter – then please don’t apply.

What we need from you
In the first instance – please fill in the short form below and send it to us.
Please include links of articles you have written so we can see your writing style.
[contact-form]

“English for business”

This course is ONLY for INDIAN residents and costs £1 for UNLIMITED ACCESS.

All customers receive FREE ACCESS to our PRIVATE facebook community support area.

In this area, you can ask questions and get answers.

Is your subject matter knowledge in one or more of the following areas?

• Job employment issues including: staff, HR, training, coaching
• Business development: sales, financial management, marketing, managing, business strategy.
• Business (UK) legislative issues: health and safety, financial control
• Business in the English speaking world: cultural issues, international development and cooperation.
• Business infrastructure: IT and work flow.

Then we would like to speak to you about possible joint ventures.

You provide the content, we productise it then we jointly promote.

What is a Product?
We class a ‘product’ as information (in any format) that someone would potentially want to pay for, to find out or learn more about, to improve themselves or their business.

How do you use what I know?
We take your material in almost any electronic format and convert it, using sophisticated software, into an easily accessible format.

How is content delivered?
We use membership software to handle collection and restricted access to content.
Access can be ‘drip fed’ automatically so a person can receive training material every week of every day depending on what you specify.
We can also handle reoccurring billing.

Won’t people just share a password around and steal all the training information?

We can remove access rights to any individual at any time and put measures in place to protect content.

Why should I work with you?
Our team has access to the most sophisticated software and our Director has the highest level of management qualifications.
You would be dealing with us as a fair and ethical equal.
We would take the role of enthusiastic newcomer to help you explain your subject matter.

How can you help with promotion?
We can issue vouchers (limited number required) to help with drumming up interest.
We have a series of country specific sites. These countries have exclusive rights to deliver our courses within their countries geographic regions.

They have distribution channels of their own. (NOTE: not all training is suitable for all sites)
We have e-mail circulation lists, Facebook friends, facebook fan page (are you a fan yet?), twitter followers and affiliate resellers.

What raw materials can I use?
We can use anything you have created or own the intellectual property to. This can include: word documents, PowerPoint presentations, photographs, diagrams and the spoken word.

What is a typical product?
We would suggest that training material is customised to fit the following formats.

A £1 / $1/€1 trial – could be a recorded phone conversation or other content to “whet the appetite” and prove the work
3 – 6 weeks/ months of ‘drip fed’ content ensures ongoing learning for the customer and stable revenue streams for the vendor.

A short demonstration course will be available in the next few days.