Princess Katie’s Magical Dress up Costumes

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Carnival-Cupcake-Dress-by-Travis-DesignsThere’s no doubt that every little girl dreams of becoming a princess, and with Katie’s fantastic collection of girls’ princess dresses, we have everything you could need to make her dream come true!

Katie’s Princess Dresses has the most diverse and exciting collection of girls’ princess dresses, all exquisitely designed to make your little girl feel truly special. Whether it’s for a fancy dress party or simply to wear for fun around the house, you can feed her imagination and fulfill her biggest wish by choosing one of our gorgeous gowns.

Help her step into the role of her favourite girls Disney princess with our beautiful Frozen or Cinderella costumes, or unleash her more adventurous side with a pirate princess or witch princess dress. She could be pretty in pink with a Candy Cloud, Carnival Cupcake or Frilly Milly gown, or elegant and regal with a sumptuously detailed historical dress inspired by the Tudor or Medieval period.

All specially designed for children aged three to 11 years of age, these divine girls’ princess dresses will turn her dreams into reality and help her to become the fairytale princess she has always longed to be.

Katies-Princess-Dresses

Carpenters are behind any successful retail outlet refit

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You may live in a town that has recently had a shop re-fit or a new shop outlet has appeared, but it’s the planning and organisation that leads to a successful looking shop that attracts and keeps it’s customers.

Now here’s the interesting part, when you think of the new store that appears in local town or village, imagine the weeks of work building that store and making it safe for the new customers to visit. It took architects and designers weeks or months to figure out and design the store to suit its needs. But also think about the trades, from painters of who make it look bright and beautiful to the floor layers that fit the flooring or maybe the interior designers that finish off any project to make it ready for the potential new customer.

We recently spoke to a local carpenter who worked on a local shop re-fit to fully explain what they have completed. Based in the suburbs of Portsmouth in Waterlooville, they have over 10 years experience in carpentry services, we quoted and won a small contract to build 5 different display stands using MDF and soft wood, we also built and fitted all the doors and locks to the changing areas, along with the back and front entrance doors. We found working with the EF Group a brilliant experience from start to finish!

From a work point of view, think about it… Whether you have doors, flooring, new ceilings or simply a new front desk, carpentry at some point will come into play. From start to finish carpenters from all over the world will be at work building your new store. Not forgetting any online shop will also have a store area or garage building for stock or computers, so next time you go shopping think and look around you, and you may find some secrets!

Why Content is Underestimated

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Content is sometimes underestimated especially when it comes to websites, but why? Many businesses or bloggers sometimes believe that a paragraph or two of poorly written content with suffice, with a chucked in image or two to make it look good to the eye.

Imagine the scenario you run a retail shop and want to attract more business, and you go to write a letter and maybe as the business you forget the obvious and every line has how good you are and maybe the companies you have worked for. Forgetting the obvious, but yes this is great, but does it read well? the answer is probably no! It can be much better to write to persuade the reader to buy from your company, by keeping it readable and friendly.

Another scenario may be from a website point of view, the business owner might have a business in the sweets market and sweets can sell themselves, but maybe a paragraph of high quality and juicy written content would really sell the product. Especially if it was a brand new type of chocolate or taste that wasn’t recognized across the world.

To remember that professionally written content can make a massive difference across websites, letters, blogs, marketing material or even product materials. Never underestimate the importance, and always give the experts a chance, if you can’t afford a content writer then maybe see if you can find help from a teacher or student that would want some work experience.

Check back soon to find out what Bird Trading has in stall in the next blog online!

The Funny Side of Trading

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We thought that we’d write a funny kind of blog that talks about trading and what it means, in general we all think about the classic English sitcom ‘Only Fools and Horses’ by the late David Sullivan, and starring the lovable rogues in ‘Delboy and Rodney’.

When we think about the Trotters, what springs to mind? The yellow 3 wheeled van, Delboy falling through the bar top or even when Rodney got a red face after the tanning machine! But both characters are and were based on real life London and the street markets, and the traders fighting to make a pound or two.

Buying products at low cost and selling at low cost is still a major part of business trading not only in the UK, but worldwide. The UK is more about market stalls, selling groceries, clothes, flowers and even sweet treats bought from wholesalers and manufacturers. The similar kind of trading happens in the USA as well, with flea markets all the rage. On a larger scale to the UK with anything from clothes, bags, shoes and even electricals sold from traders to the general public.

Truth is that Lord Alan Sugar started from a market stall, and Delboy might be a fictional character but the idea is very true to life in the world of wheelers and dealers, the aim really is all about sell, sell, sell to make profit and money for your family or business and the same goes for the trading team at Bird Trading.

How Products get on Shops Shelves

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Trading online and trading off-line comes in different variations, from the likes of Asda selling their groceries to the general public to the small independent shops that may sell meat or simply one off gifts. But how does all the goods arrive in store to be sold? Simple answer is either by car, van, truck, railway or even plane.

Delivery drivers across the UK pickup their deliveries and take them to the destination, haulage companies are most used for the shear size of their vehicles and how many pallets they can carry at any one time, some even have a forklift attached the back of their long articulated lorry. Whereas smaller courier firms will still deliver there deliveries on a small time basis. Some smaller firms even deliver across the UK, or smaller areas such as county by county, town by town.

The actual network of commercial vehicles delivering foods, drinks and other products are actually massive. Lets take bananas for example, bananas get picked by hand abroad and then packaged up in boxes and shipped to the UK in huge containers every week. When they arrive in the UK they usually get checked and then delivered in huge Arctic lorries to the large supermarkets and smaller independents. Getting to the larger premises is easy, as they have the space to deliver, but when it comes smaller deliveries it comes down to the ‘man in a van’ delivering to small towns and tiny villages ready for the empty shelves.

With commercial vehicles centres across the UK, selling small vehicles, there seem to be loads of vans for sale and sell generally to the smaller businesses in need of a vehicle. Having various vans that are reasonably priced from £1000 to £7000 make it perfect for the small business to afford, and the courier companies to be able to buy a cheap van to use within their company. The complete system is complete and ever turning around, from delivering to premises, to having products on the shelves of every shop or supermarket.

 

How to Social Media

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How to Social Media

How to Social MediaWith most businesses feeling terrified in not only being online, but also to choose the very best social media platforms around. We ask what are the best to choose from and what can benefit each business, from the highest in Facebook and Twitter to the newest from Pinterest and Instagram.

So here we look at what can benefit each business, our suggestion is that if you are an online marketing company like Web Find, then Facebook, Twitter are the very best starts. But maybe if you are a budding young photographer then we should hugely suggest Facebook, Pinterest, Instragram and even Flickr mainly because these great social media platforms are great for showing off imagery at it’s very best.

But if you want to keep it simple and find it hard to keep up with things online, we at bird trading online suggest keeping to one or two in that you can use on the go. When we say this we simply mean that you can add an app on your iPhone or similar device and use social media on the go, especially to keep your followers up to date with your goings on.

So our top tips..

  1. Open a Facebook account and get started. It can make your business look upto date, and fresh.
  2. Start with Twitter to network, what we mean is that in the year 2000 many businesses used to get up a 6.30am and get to a business breakfast and to showcase off the business. Nowadays Twitter does this much better, just tweet, re tweet and talk with businesses online.
  3. Lastly keep your website clean, fresh and upto date. No one likes seeing an old looking and unfresh website.

The true key to any business succeeding online really depends on being modern and up to date, or at late in the modern world.

 

Mobile optimisation: is your website costing your business?

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Mobile optimisation

Mobile optimisationIt’s never been easier to set up a website, with companies having the choice of hiring someone to complete the task for them or undertaking the job themselves. There are solutions that involve ready-made templates, with businesses simply needing to customise the space with their own copy, images and logos.

In fact, the majority of businesses will find themselves struggling without the presence of a website, due to the huge number of people who now research and buy online. Commissioning web design work is a small price to pay when a lack of website could lose huge numbers of potential customers.

However, it seems that simply having an online presence now isn’t enough. People’s research and shopping habits are changing, and the internet is no longer just about laptops and desktops, it’s also about smartphones and tablets.

This is where mobile optimisation comes in; essentially, creating an additional version of a website that is designed to look its best on tablet and smartphone screens. Many websites are mobile compatible, but a mobile optimised site is one that is designed specifically for mobile internet users. Its design solutions include text that can be read without the need to pinch and zoom, with the site optimised for speedy loading of media, fast navigation and content that is to the point.

Why is this important? Well, if using the internet on a smartphone/tablet – especially when out and about – a consumer will want speed and efficiency. They’ll want to be able to get to where they want to be in a short time and with little effort. If they can’t… you may just find that they choose to use your mobile optimised competitors instead. There’s no denying the importance of web design for any business – but a lack of mobile optimisation in particular may be more costly to your business than you think.

Back to the Future

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Back_to_the_Future

Back_to_the_FutureThink back to the times when there was no computer, no television, no tablets and definitely no mobile phones. Yes there was a time that none of these existed, but what did we all do when this was our world? The truth is that we are not quite sure, but put your head in a creative and imaginative mode and perhaps think of the ‘Waltons’.

The biggest problem with today’s world is that when we talk to our friends we don’t knock their door or give them a call; we either message them on a mobile phone or through a social network. Surely though this is a problem being that the interaction between friends is not actually natural, or at least between human-to-human. There is some belief that the human field of interaction is stronger and actually binds people together far easier when speaking in person.

Back to the Future

We all think of ‘Michael J Fox’ playing Marty Mcfly with his crazy scientist and that time forgiving car, but looking back whoever thought this all up actually got it pretty right. Think about it, flying skateboard, cars and trains passing through time, and those wacky Nike shoes, which are pretty close to what, are available right now. As we think of it, time just slowly moves along with whatever is in our minds at the time and what we want to believe that will happen. But back to the future, the past or present is an exciting prospect.

Top tips for wordpress plugins we love­­

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For most businesses building there own website or for young vibrant web design companies knowing the very best plugins for wordpress is crucuial to success, or at least helping with making things easier online. Our top tips are these:

Yoast SEO for wordpress
The truth is that if you want to thoroughly succeed online, no one plugin will the number factor, but having the very best plugins will most definitely help. With yoast SEO it simply makes life easier, from the technical side of adding sitemaps and URL tidying to being able to implement your meta titles and tags.

But always remember that balancing your search engine optimization is better done nataurally and ethically, rather than attempting to cheat your way through online marketing. Being number one in the search engine rankings is possible with hard-work and building a strong brand and website online.

Akismet
As they say it is a plugin “Used by millions”, but it is very likely it is the very best around for protecting your blog or website from comment and/or trackback spam, of which every web owner will get loads of annoying emails from time to time. Especially when your site gets more and more popular!

Contact Form 7
Another great plugin that you can place anywhere on your website, this could be a contact page, about page or even get a quote page. The great thing about adding this plugin is that you can have identical contact forms on multiple pages, but unique to that page. The other bonus is that for tracking purposes you can actually see what each potential customer looks at and what page they fill out the form.

But amongst all else, adding this simply and easy plugin on your website it keeps copies of all ‘saved form submissions’, which also email your chosen email address inserted. Which is also great for SEO’s that want to see what there hard work has done, but also great for the business owner to see what there website has created and the last biggie, is that of never loosing a potential lead as it is on the back end of your WordPress website.

Some of the other handy plugins tools are redirection tools that can redirect one webpage to another, great for older websites changing to newer ones, with the 301 redirect and great starter. Plus also looking at customer review plugins, simple and easy to get your customers to review you and your service.

Online Marketing for Businesses

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Online Marketing for Businesses

Online Marketing for BusinessesSometimes many new businesses forget the importance of simple things like marketing and advertising, the truth is that whether you are an online business or one on the High Street, you simply need a presence or awareness programme to get potential buyers to your door.

So as a new business you have an idea, a thought, and kind of big idea. But, maybe you are scared to find out how you can get it going? The best thing any owner can do is talk to family, friends and most definitely a business in the know-how. Luckily for us is being based in Hampshire, we simply did a Google search for online marketing Hampshire and we found various experts in their field on not only driving new traffic to any given website, but also they understand the importance of being seen offline too.

The funny thing is that 5 years ago, you could have bought an exact match domain, and watch it land directly on page one without the slightest ounce of work. Now in 2014 it is crucial to find a named brand that looks and works great both on and off-line, and to be honest you have to build a great website, get it optimised so the search engines understand what the page or website is all about, and once this is done and only then you should think about building a following through social media channels.

Do’s Build a workable website design, get it optimised through SEO (search engine optimisation)

Don’ts no cheating, or lazy behavior! Get out there a produce the business and don’t wait for it to come to you.

Must’s Build a ethical and natural brand, and get your business talking through social media. Social media is really the modern day way of networking.

Possible’s printed marketing material, but this really depends on the business. For example if you are a carpet cleaner then flyers could help, but if you are a company offering SEO for Hampshire businesses then being seen online works better than flyers.

The truth nowadays is that all of us are online, by way of a mobile device, or at home on our computer. So not believing in what every business should be doing is a way of possibly not moving with the times, don’t get stuck in a rut and source your perfect internet marketing partner.