APRIL 2012
THE COMPOSER 'SURVEYS'

After a hectic start to the year, April has been quiet. Oh yes, we had the flurry of excitement around Easter, guests arriving for the 2 weeks around the Easter holiday, and beyond that a steady trickle of new and returning guests, taking advantage of possibly the most perfect weather by comparison with many other parts of the UK. Here in Northumberland we have escaped the worst of the weather, had a fairly clear month, some nice warm days and no threats of hose pipe bans! Surveying the weather on TV proves one thing - it's rarely right!! Countryfile gets close but the day to day BBC weather seems to have a habit of generalising 'the North' as anywhere from Aberdeen to Hull,with a wave of the hand.

In fact, the lawn mowers have been doing sterling work, as grass cutting has proceeded almost every week. The grounds are taking on quite a 'green' feel and a quick survey of the tubs and troughs showed we needed to visit our local garden centre to acquire plants to replenish the stock. A quick survey here shows that prices (like everywhere else) are rising as quickly as young bulbs and shrubs grow!

Surveys in the first 3months of 2012 indicate that tourism is sluggish - the STAY-CATION - a word we used 2 years ago in a news letter - is with us and Brits are flocking to stay at home. If that survey is correct then this year will see us working harder than ever as we fill our properties. We will wait and see!!

The surveys the 'Compose' hates most is the raft that arrive on our e-mail week in and week out. Having a Tesco Club card or being a Homebase customer, shopping on line with eBay or internet shopping at Maplins makes you prey to on line surveys. Quite honestly the title used by many of organisations "Survey Monkey" sums them up perfectly!! They think consumers are monkeys who will spend time ticking boxes and placing marks in orders of preference from 1 to 10. Wow - what a boring life!!

Right now the 'Composer' is off to do his own survey - just surveying the view across the fields with a delicious cup of coffee in hand, gazing across a wispy blue sky to the sea and thinking " I don't give a monkey's for surveys!!"
New offers, Self Catering Berwick upon Tweed from Composers at Woodlands

Video

New video stream - faster and clearer

have a look
http://www.composers-woodlands.co.uk/

as always have a look at our special offers
http://www.composers-woodlands.co.uk/special-offers.html

Updated every month

Thanks for reading this

March

March 2012


OH WHAT GLORIOUS MORNINGS!

Indeed, not just mornings, but afternoons and evenings as well. The month of March has been glorious from start to finish. Today, the last day of the month dawned like all the rest - more summer than spring, and with the exception of a couple of mornings when the sea mist has dowsed us until lunchtime, we count ourselves fortunate that Northumberland continues its 'lower than average' rainfall but without the threat of hose pipe bans and water rationing.
Inevitably, the 'Composer' and his staff have been outside quite a lot this month. Apart from copious grass cutting sessions we have been busy painting and preparing the grounds for our next groups of guests. The Play Paddock is spruced up with a fresh layer of top bark on the play section, extra coats of paint on the various pieces of the equipment, followed by cleaning and re-setting the trampoline and making sure that all our patios are pristine for those lazy early morning breakfasts watching the sun rise over the fields whilst sipping a favourite 'cuppa', maybe nibbling on a fresh baked croissant.
Oh boy, there's just one down side to all our 'sunshine' labours - the backbreaking work of laying 3 tons of stone gravel to the drive and guest car park. Over the past year, cars seem to have 'eaten' the layer of gravel and as bare patches emerged we set about re-laying the stone - having picked the warmest day of the past week in which to do it ! Well, now its done so guests can once again crunch their cars over our freshly laid stone and we can take a rest until next year when we will, no doubt, have to do it all again.

As spring moves on so we also start to look at the coming weeks and months with great excitement. Easter, Spring Bank and then a long weekend celebrating the Queen's Diamond Jubilee makes for more and more guests taking the now famously stated "STAYCATION". Let's face it, with weather like we have now, who wants to go abroad? If you fancy gold, sandy (near deserted) beaches, miles of unspoiled countryside and coastline and glorious mornings, afternoons and evenings, then its all here in NORTHUMBERLAND! Best of all, no airport queues, euro/£ transfers,and long tiring journeys to dubious hotels in cash-strapped countries. We also seem to have enough fuel to go round!! Now that is a bonus. Ah well, must pop out now and catch the rest of this glorious morning and top up the tan!!

where does it all go? time too!

With all good intentions our monthly blog was due for writing within a couple of days of the month end, and we failed to meet the deadline! Time, it seems, has just rushed by and the best of intentions went with it. We assumed that once the main holiday season was past with the last Bank Holiday, life would slow down. How wrong we were! Bookings in September began at a frantic pace as past and new guests decided to take advantage of special tariffs, good weather and (maybe) a sense of resignation that no matter what the financial woes of the UK and Europe, it was a safer bet to stay in the UK! So guests simply kept booking and we simply kept saying 'YES'.

self catering

Watch this space
Composers at Woodlands are working on a patial self catering / catered package for 2011.
I'm really excited about this
keep an eye on http://www.composers-woodlands.co.uk/presto.html
or
http://www.composers-woodlands.co.uk/special-offers.html
Ther are even some royal wedding deals
No comment from me is required here
Dear world lock me up that month....
So i commented anyway- ask anyone who knows me I'm like that!
have a look at self catering Northumberland on Facebook
new links and content
http://www.facebook.com/posted.php?id=150710641624829
If your looking for an engineering and fabrication company
check out
http://www.glendaleengineering.co.uk/
there portfolio of clients includes ASDA Tesco etc
Ps the NCN website will get a face lift over the festive season.
so please check http://www.ncn-it.net/ after christmas.
blog blog blag

is this really me?

Lunchtime and i'm writting a blog!
Ok so maybe theres no one else in the office and i dont want to sleep- well i do but better not to!
I think it's really amusing that this competition between designers and google is so compelling.
I even checked the ratings of
http://www.composers-woodlands.co.uk
and
http://www.wooler-skiphire.co.uk
before I ate my lunch

So now lunch is over and i have some other work to do i feel almost compelled to find a way to keep checking them.
So the synic in me asks this...
Is Google feeding off our obsessive tendencies as humans by changing the goal posts
so we allways try to keep up.
or do i need locked up for loosing le plot- mmmm!
answers on a post card to http://www.composers-woodlands.co.uk/special-offers.html.

PPS if i've lost it and you find it my email address is at
http://www.ncn-it.net!!

pagerank for skips

I think it has to be one of the hardest sites i've ever had to try to promote
Holiday cottages are easier
http://www.composers-woodlands.co.uk/accommodation.html

but how do you actively encourage people to search for... wait for it... skips!
Yep
skip hire berwick
or
berwick skip hire
http://www.berwick-skiphire.co.uk/

and then theres
eyemouth skip hire
http://www.eyemouth-skiphire.co.uk/

and wooler skip hire
http://www.wooler-skiphire.co.uk/
ill mention the rest later but no offence to the client it's essential but not ....well.... sexy!
you cant use words like luxury (luxury 5 star self catering northumberland http://www.composers-woodlands.co.uk/)

or Holiday or relaxing or even incredible scenery
(http://www.self-catering-northumberland.co.uk/)
your left wondering if fast and efficient service really cuts the mustard
http://www.berwick-skiphire.co.uk/
a fast and efficient service

We have youtube videos so we can help the rankings too
search on google places for skip hire berwick
if your a designer or maintain a site you'll know that feeling.... the one thats -
are we doing anything wrong- does google hate us?#
are we spamming?
This must be one of the only industries where the rules can change daily
no real rulebook only guidance and you need a lot of patience in developing an seo strategy that can work for clients
each ones different
Imagine id optimised http://www.kelso-skiphire.co.uk/ for sexy skip hire!
or http://www.hawick-skiphire.co.uk/ for breathtaking service
or http://www.alnwick-skiphire.co.uk/ for Alnwick essentials

Yep the van would be taking me away (again!)

so as a final note in my randomly spouting blog
i think the worst would probably be to optimise
http://www.galashiels-skiphire.co.uk/ for scottish waste
I think Galashiels deserves so much more than that
Dont you
Keep at it
PDD