My Computer Tutor | Home computer tuition in Hereford

Long month

2012-01-31T15:30:00.001Z

by Colin MY COMPUTER TUTOR

This month has seemed interminable. But I shouldn't complain about the passage of time. I have managed to get a lot done on the work and home fronts. It all started early, of course, with New Year over I was back to work on the 3rd Jan, although the first two weeks were very patchy. But over the third weekend emails came in and the phone rang and I ended up with 11 sessions for the following week.

For the last three years, January has been a really good month for this business. In fact, January to March and September to December appear to be the best seasons. So it was a bit worrying to have two thin weeks to start this year. Phrases like "recession" and "economic cutbacks" echoed round my head. But here we are at the end of January and it's turned out fairly well - a good mix of new and returning clients and some website maintenance work added up to a viable income.

Oh yes....that word "income". Play word association with that and most people would say 'TAX', would they not? I set aside a whole day to completing my return online last week but had it all done in a morning. And I mean all done! Online submissions to HMRC are scary, because you get The Answer straight back...and then it says "Pay Now". But The Answer was tolerable enough for me to pay and still leave something in the business. I felt good about having done it - nothing's certain except death and taxes, someone said. Not much of a choice, is it?

Two things made my tax return easier this year:

I invested in a three-drawer filing cabinet to celebrate the start of my fourth business year last November, and after spending a morning labelling suspension files and putting all my records into them I now find it much easier to scoot my chair over to the cabinet and pick things out, rather than rummaging through wallet files which I kept in those 'magazine holders'. I should say I spent a painful couple of weeks recovering from single-manhandling the filing cabinet up the stairs....but it was worth it!
Back in October - when I knew I'd missed the paper return and would have to do it online - I set up running totals for my business expenditure on the spreadsheet where I record all transactions. So when the Evil Day came I would have ready-to-hand the separate totals I'd spent on advertising, office materials, travel etc. etc.

I set these up at the bottom of the sheet. The column headings - 'Supplier', 'Invoice No.' etc. don't apply here!

This is an Excel spreadsheet, by the way.

You use the function SUMIF so that you add the money IF it was for "Travel", for example:

So when it came to filling in detailed allowable expenses this saved me a lot of time.

I'm was so pleased with this idea, that I've set up running totals for each category for my 2011-2012 spreadsheet, so that at any time I can tell myself how much I've spent on advertising or office supplies etc. etc. to date.

Next year's return should be a doddle!

Colin

New Year 2012

2012-01-02T21:07:00.000Z

by Colin MY COMPUTER TUTOR

Well...never mind Bank Holiday! My phone was ringing at 9am today and I have clients booked for this week. Not a full week, but it's a start.

And I've found this to be the way it goes at this time of the year(s). December of course fizzles out on the 22nd/23rd and no-one wants lessons for the rest of the month. But come January and I've been very busy. In fact, January, February and March seem to be the best months for computer tuition demand. Perhaps people are still getting computers for Christmas, or maybe it's the New Year Resolution Syndrome.

So Happy New Year everybody! I've had a spasm of New Year Resolution Syndrome myself. It's not a matter of formally promising myself anything, just the natural feeling of turning the years - putting one year behind you and making a fresh start. Having got all the singing and the family visits out of the way I realised that I had 5 or 6 days in which I could DO THINGS without feeling that I ought to be teaching or advertising.

So I'm redesigning my kitchen....and as soon as I finished I have all those Seville oranges to turn into marmalade!

December Charity

One thing leads to another.....I needed to get a shoe repaired so went to a local repairer, expecting to book it in and pick it up a few days later. But the guy mended the shoe on the spot. When I asked how much I owed him he said "Oh it's nothing, only a dab of glue - just put something in the charity box". The charity he supports is the Air Ambulance, which is something I've been meaning to contribute to for some time, so there it is...December's charity. So I put some coins in the box, but there's a cheque in the post as well.

Goodbye to Joe

About a month ago I popped in to see my friend Joe who has run PC Retail in Hereford for many years. I recommend - and rely on - two 'techies' in my local area: Joe for repairs and sales, and Will for technical on-the-spot troubleshooting. But Joe had a sad tale to tell: he moved his shop only a year ago, because of ever-increasing rent and rates, to a better site - on a main road, more visible, customer parking - and yet he's had to wind it all up. He's got himself work in a different line of retail up in Yorkshire, which is good for him. But it's a shame that he's gone. He provided a very good service. All the best Joe!

Colin

A Very Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T00:43:00.000Z

by Colin MY COMPUTER TUTOR

Here we are again. Christmas Day and 7 more days to 2012.

I've spent Christmas Eve doing final bits of shopping (yup, a man's Christmas Eve!) and cooking. I've done two carol services this week and Christmas Day is a full working singing day, so I had my Christmas Dinner on Christmas Eve. Very civilised - and cooked for me, too!

Computer tuition kept going up to Thursday - I've had a couple of appreciative presents from clients, which was very gratifying.

Family time now, which involves some travelling with a bootful of presents. (That's a 'trunkful' for my US readers!)

Hope you all have a peaceful Christmas - don't forget there are 12 days to spread peace, goodwill and humbugs around. When I come back home I must sort out my December charity.....

Labels

2011-12-15T21:57:00.000Z

by Colin MY COMPUTER TUTOR

Shouldn't you be blogging? ...someone reminded me yesterday!
Well yes, I should. And a month has flown by since the last post.

The Last Post would have been played on 11/11/11, I suppose.

And this picture reminds me of my last trip to London, although this pic isn't in London, as you'll see if you point to it.

Hereford Cathedral Choir was invited again to sing at the Royal Military Chapel for their Advent service - and very fine it all was.

The last time I went to London was exactly a year before, for the same event! I really must get out more - it's ages since I explored London.

But then I haven't "got out much" because the work has been flowing steadily, which of course is a good thing. It's my living, after all.

And late November/December is the Season of Address Labels for computer tutors! My clients start talking about all the Christmas cards they're going to send...and it gives me an opening to suggest that they could put their computer and printer to good use: make an address database and then merge it with labels on a 'Word' document. This ensures at least two more lessons - one to show them how to set up a spreadsheet and another to create the merge.

Most of my clients have Word 2007 - if they have Word at all. But you can do a mail merge with the Microsoft Works suite too, and that's free. I've recently helped a client to do this successfully with Word 2000, whose user interface looks really ancient now!

Still no camera. Longing to show you all the car!

I'll save Christmas greetings for nearer the season - it will make sure I blog again before too long!

Colin

One link leads to another

2011-11-14T21:28:00.001Z

by Colin MY COMPUTER TUTOR

After a lean couple of months things are really picking up in November. This week is going to be a busy one with 11 lessons and an "exploratory" session as well. So while I have the chance I'd better sort out this month's charity.

This arose through one of my clients. It's always the best way, I think. The lady's daughter sent her an email, telling her mother to "look at the pictures and read the article". The lady didn't understand how she could see any pictures or read an article, until I explained that her daughter had pasted an Internet link into the email.

I always make a Big Thing about clicking on anything in an email - there are so many scams out there - and I always teach my clients to think about whether they know and trust the sender. Having been so cautioned, and having completed the vetting process on her daughter, the lady opened a webpage from the link:

The Children's Trust

Her daughter is a consultant who refers children to this trust. So there it was staring me in the face, and I immediately said to my client "Well, that solves my charity donation for November". The Children's Trust is based at Tadworth in Surrey, which is very near where I was brought up, so it all ties in very neatly!

A further mention for the charity Shelter who were campaigning again in Hereford High Town last week. I was bounced up to by Laura. I assured her that I had already made her charity mine, as it were, in October. I gave her my business card so she could find my website and from there perhaps this blog.

So if you're reading this, Laura: Hello! Keep up the good work.

Colin

Three Years of Business!

2011-11-04T00:14:00.001Z

by Colin MY COMPUTER TUTOR

Some time ago I heard someone say that if you had started up a business, you'd be doing well if you broke even after three years. Well, at the end of each of my three years as "My Computer Tutor" I've made a profit.

Of course, the comment about breaking even after three years is a general one applied across all types of business, and the home computer tuition business is something of an exception to the general rule. In effect, it's a "cottage industry". You run it from home, so you have no separate business premises to buy or rent, heat, light etc. etc.

Then the equipment is minimal:

I already had a desktop computer and a printer, but I bought a bog-standard laptop so I could empathise with my clients experiencing Microsoft's OS Vista. "Sympathise" would be a better word, wouldn't it!
I intended to provide manuals for any returning clients so I purchased a laminator, 90gsm A4 paper, laminating pouches and hardback presentation files.
You need to keep records of everything so I ordered wallet files, NCR duplicating notebooks, receipt books and sheets of labels.
Above all, I needed to advertise, so I sought out parish magazines and local community magazines, both of which are comparatively cheap to advertise in - cheaper than newspapers. And I had 3000 A5 leaflets printed.

And that was it for the first few months.

Since then, I've backed off from the local magazines and concentrated on the local freebie newspaper, which gets around the county. So that I too can get around the county I've invested in a car. I made a mistake about one form of advertising (see last month's post!) but I've given myself a lot of healthy exercise in delivering 20 000 leaflets through doors.

Here is a graphic showing the fruits of my labours over three years:

Red marks the starts of my business years in November, and green marks the calendar years.

The dark red line is the general linear trend over three years. The hummocky blue line is the average over each four months, which gives a truer picture of the ups and downs. Click on the chart and it will open in a new window.

The amounts are the values of the lessons I have given, which is the bulk of the income. I have made a bit out of website and spreadsheet design:

2008 - 2009.........£ 400
2009 - 2010.........£ 635
2010 - 2011.........£1335

Most of this is website design....and the ensuing update work, which partly explains the upward trend. The other part of the explanation is that I've grown in confidence with websites and am now charging more!

I've kept my lesson rates the same over three years! How many of you have done that? You can find mine on my website. Instead of increasing the rates, I'm phasing out my discounts! Originally I gave very generous discounts after 4 lessons - I thought that this would encourage business and I made a point of telling prospective clients when they phoned. But no longer!

The average values of sessions (1hr, 1.5 hrs and 2hr) has been:

2008-9...............£31.72
2009-10.............£32.83
2010-11.............£33.77

This trend is partly because of success in pushing more 1.5 hour sessions (not many people want 2hr sessions, but I have done 3hr sessions!) and partly because of my phasing out of the discounts since April this year.

Well there we are. It's now November 4th (just turned!) and at sunset I will have completed my third business year. I have broken the £15 000 turnover target I set myself and my expenditure has been nearly £5000.

Is this good, bad or indifferent for what we do? Get back to me and let me know.......................

Colin

Final warning

2011-10-12T22:48:00.007+01:00

by Colin MY COMPUTER TUTOR

I talked about this last year and I posted these same pictures too, so this is the last time I'm going to mention advertising by business cards in Sainsbury's. To be fair, it's not just Sainsbury's because there is a similar display of these business cards in my local Tesco.

And to be absolutely fair all round, I'm not blaming anyone for my experience because, as I said last year, it seems like a good idea...

I paid ADC £600 for two years' advertising in Sainsbury's.

My business cards were displayed on a board, with 20 other sets of cards, which is by the checkouts, near the café and the toilets. A great position, you would think.

And yet, over these two years I have had only three enquiries directly attributable to this advertising, one of which developed into a course of 12 lessons which earned me £360.

So I lost on the deal.

The ADC salesman assured me that I'd get 3-4 enquiries a week. This time last year I collected other cards from the stand and followed up some phone numbers and email addresses to ask the other businesses how successful this advertising had been for them. Some had paid much more than £600! And I couldn't find anyone who'd had any leads from it.

ADC is a subsidiary of WRT Group. If you are approached by them, be polite but I'd advise you to say 'No'.

They keep your cards stocked up - in fact they stuff so many cards in it's very hard to get one out! They are selling what sounds like a good idea but it didn't work for me and I have yet to meet someone for whom it did work.

There are other companies offering this form of advertising. I was phoned up last summer by one whose idea was to put my business information and logo on beer mats in the local golf clubs. Two years ago I would have thought it a good idea. Now I know better.

Colin

One thousand!

2011-10-10T21:09:00.002+01:00

by Colin MY COMPUTER TUTOR

I have just taught my 1000th session since starting this business on 5th November 2008.

Some of my clients have had only one session, some of them have had more than 40. The raw average is a little over 5 sessions per client. As I've recently started keeping a record of the number of male clients, I can tell you that there is no significant difference between the ladies and the gentlemen; the gents average at 5 sessions.

I'm coming up to the end of my third business year. It looks as though the turnover will clear £15000.

I'm quite happy to come clean with my figures, in fact I'm proud of them. I have no idea how this compares with other one-to-one home computer tutors. Do let me know how things are going for you................

Colin

Holiday snaps

2011-10-09T21:43:00.006+01:00

by Colin MY COMPUTER TUTOR

Just an apology that I haven't been able to include any pictures recently. I was advised many months ago by a seasoned blogger friend that you really should break up your wodges of text with a picture or two.

And I really do intend to include pictures - but the simple fact is that I'm waiting for my camera to come back from the repairers. I took myself on a holiday at the very end of August - just 5 days on the West Welsh coast. It wasn't a brilliant August, was it? But one day was warm enough for me to go on the beach. (I've just worked out that it was 1st September!) And I slipped on a rock and dropped my camera.

I inspected it closely and it continued to take photos for the next couple of weeks. But one day I turned it on, it made a painful whistling noise and reported a "lens error". My friendly local camera shop reckons that a grain of sand is in there and has worked its way into an uncompromising position. So the camera is being professionally dismantled and cleaned as I write

At least I can show you a picture of the beach where it happened! This is Clarach Bay near Aberystwyth.

Actually, the beach is behind you (as you look at this) and I should have stayed there. I clambered over the rocks to get to this little cove to eat my lunch. Never climb over rocks in flip-flops!

Here's a nice sunset. Good night!

Colin

October Charity

2011-10-09T20:42:00.006+01:00

by Colin MY COMPUTER TUTOR

Yes, I got caught again in Hereford High Town and her name's Michelle. She flattered me outrageously - said I stood out miles away as the most handsome man she'd seen all her life blah-dy blah-dy blag...and she was trying to get people to sign up for Shelter.

So, gentle reader, what could I do? At my age, you've gotta take any flattery you can get! Michelle was far too young to remember the TV play "Cathy, Come Home", but I told her a bit about it and how it had first brought homelessness and the organization "Shelter" to my attention.
Here's the Wikipedia reference for "Cathy, come home". I always thought that Shelter sprang directly from the reaction to this TV play in 1966, but it was already established. However, it thrust the organization into the conscience of the British public - 12 million of them watched it!

I was brought up in well-heeled Surrey. My parents' house wasn't quite "stockbroker belt" but we never went short of a two-week summer holiday and life was generally plentiful. "Cathy Come Home" made a big impact on my sister and I - certainly my sister anyway, because she persuaded me to come with her around the neighbourhood collecting door-to-door for Shelter.

I remember knocking at one door of a house in a leafier lane than mine and a boy of my own age answering. He and I were still at school - the same boys' grammar school - but he was in the Arts Sixth and I was in the Science Sixth, so of course he didn't recognise me! (I know, my school was hardly out of the P'tang yang kipperbang era!) He curtly told me that he hadn't heard of the charity and they didn't give at the door anyway.

I remember his name to this day. He's probably a merchant banker now. He certainly was then....

Colin

September Charity

2011-09-11T21:44:00.002+01:00

by Colin MY COMPUTER TUTOR

A quick post to say that I'm determined to make my charity donation for the month of September in the month of September. So often I let it drift and then have to do a frantic catch-up.

So, as promised last month, this month's donation goes to the NSPCC

The reason is that I was approached on my doorstep last month by the RSPCA, and this reminded me that there's a Royal society for animals but only a National society for children.

Next month is already spoken for. Yes, I've been "chugged" again in town - "charmingly chugged", I should say! Story to follow....

Colin

Ladies and Gents

2011-09-05T15:17:00.004+01:00

by Colin MY COMPUTER TUTOR

Each September I always feel as though I'm making a new start - a left-over from school-teaching days - and as the end of my 3rd business year approaches I'm very much in "review" and facts-and-figures mode.

I've met a few people recently who, for one reason or another, asked me what I do for a living. And when I say "I teach people how to use their home computers" I often get this response:

You must be very good with old ladies...

...often followed by a chuckle. I go on to say that I do have quite a lot of men clients too.

But I hadn't calculated what the proportion of men to women has been so far, so this weekend I totted it all up. I keep records of my clients and all the sessions they've had on an Access database. I'm quite proud of this, as I've managed to cross-reference it and can make structured queries on it.

So I got Access to count all the clients whose title was "Mr", and out of the 186 clients I've had to date 69 of them are male. That's 37%.

This isn't necessarily a good picture of the split, so I then asked how many of the lessons I'd given had been to male clients. This called for some serious revision of my SQL, which I hadn't used for 4 years! But I got the answer - 337 out of 972 sessions to date, which is 35%

So 37% of my clients are male and they had 35% of the sessions.

I'm not quite sure what to do with that information, other than produce it when someone assumes that I spend my time teaching old ladies! Age is something that I don't record, although clients often tell me anyway. Many times I've had phonecalls that start "I'm umpty-seven you know, am I too old?" But I'd say that the average age of my male clients is lower than the average age of the females.

More fascinating figures will follow - I'm quite prepared to publish my turnover, for example. Why not? I'm proud of this business!

How's yours?

Colin

Requests

2011-08-09T16:12:00.008+01:00

by Colin MY COMPUTER TUTOR

Would you believe it? I've actually had a request for a posting! Just goes to show that you never know who's out there. I'm taking it as a timely reminder to update this blog....

August's Charity

This also was a surprise request. I've got used to gangs of "chuggers" in town but this one walked up my garden path and knocked on the door. Full marks for initiative, Christie. I foot-slog along streets too, doing the leaflets, so I have some sympathy for people who make that effort. She was canvassing for the RSPCA and seemed genuinely surprised that I knew what it stood for.

So I told her how it is with me and the business and a charity every month and because I've always liked other animals as well as most humans I said that the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals would be my August charity.

I now remember someone pointing out that in Britain we have a Royal society for protecting animals but only a National society for protecting children....Perhaps the NSPCC should be my next charity.

We've also been described as a "nation of pet-lovers" (as well as "a nation of shopkeepers") and you can indeed see plenty of pictures of cuddly bunnies, cute cats and sorrowful dogs on the RSPCA website. But the RSPCA do support wild animals and farm animals too, and as I always try to include a picture in these posts, here are some swans.

Mute Swans - someone has to speak for them!

These were photographed at Worcester and this sort of group is not uncommon on the River Severn at Worcester. There are often 100+ swans on the stretch of river between the bridge and the cathedral.

As for the computer tutoring work in August - it's better than April/May! I'm reconciled to the fact that Easter is a bit of a thin time, but August is much better than I expected - what with it being the traditional "going away" holiday season. But I'm holding back with the leaflet deliveries nonetheless. With a well-timed blitz in early September I could have a storming finish to Business Year 3.

Colin

Microsoft in the head

2011-07-05T23:00:00.006+01:00

by Colin MY COMPUTER TUTOR

I really hope this is the last rant I have against Microsoft for many weeks to come. It probably won't be - but there's hope!

Yes, it's email again. I have lost all love for Windows Mail over the last few weeks. I explained one reason in my last post - the severe limit on the "autocomplete" facility. Well, another failing has manifest itself; this time it's a great example of Microsoft's left hand not being totally aware of Microsoft's right hand.

If you are a Windows user - and I'm told that 93% of the computer-using world are - then you will be aware of the numerous 'updates' that Microsoft issue over the Internet. These updates are rarely described - you're just told that they are 'important'. But one of the latest updates is to Internet Explorer - Microsoft's web browser. Internet Explorer has now reached version 9 and this one promises you a much faster and safer 'browsing experience'...or was it 'environment'? So a wodge of updates comes in and then a window appears announcing the brave new world of Internet Explorer 9 and please click on Install.

So you install it...and then think 'so what?'. Is it all that different from Internet Explorer 8? Probably not....but then you open your Windows Mail. And you'll find that if someone has sent you an attachment, you can no longer see the helpful paper-clip symbol at the top of the Reading Pane. This is because Internet Explorer 9.....how can I put this politely?.....let's say IE9 doesn't allow Windows Mail to show the attachment. The Reading Pane is now so wide that its right-hand edge is way off the screen.

I solved this problem for a client today by downloading Windows Live Essentials, making sure we didn't lumber ourselves with the Bing bar or Windows Messenger, in fact making sure we only downloaded and installed Windows Live Mail.

And to be fair, I was impressed that Windows Live Mail automatically imported all the mails and contacts from bad ol' Windows Mail. So that process was easy.

Attachments show up really clearly in Windows Live Mail, even if you have IE9, so I would now recommend Windows Live Mail if you still insist on a Microsoft mail client on Vista or Windows 7 operating systems.

But...don't forget to click on that Inbox before closing!

Colin

Mail menopause

2011-06-30T12:52:00.012+01:00

by Colin MY COMPUTER TUTOR

Time was when I found email very straightforward. I set up my very first 'Windows' computer in 2000, obeying instructions - because I would have been totally lost without them. And when a message appeared asking me if I wanted Outlook Express to be my email client, I said 'Yes'. The only word I recognised in the message was 'email'...and I wanted it!

I went through the next five years using Outlook Express - and thinking that everyone else used Outlook Express - before I started work on an Internet provider helpdesk. I had to use Outlook for work and only then did I realise that other people were using 'webmail' or "Eudora" or "Thunderbird" or "Pegasus" or.....

So when I started the tutoring business I was ready to face a variety of email systems on my pupils' computers. (It's going to get confusing if I say 'clients', isn't it?)

What I wasn't prepared for was the need to explain the Mind of Microsoft and, still more, apologise on its behalf!

So here we go...

If you're using Windows XP, you can use Outlook Express or Outlook. These are still the best mail clients that Microsoft have produced, so stick with them.

If you are using Windows Vista....oh dear!

No seriously, all is not lost - apart from Outlook Express. Microsoft in its wisdom made sure that Outlook Express wouldn't work with Vista. Instead, they brought out Windows Mail.

Now I thought Windows Mail was OK...until one of my pupils struggled to use "autocomplete" when creating a new mail. "Autocomplete" is the very useful feature in the To: box of the email. You should be able to start typing a name in your email Address Book - say you type a 'c' - and all the names beginning with 'C' appear in a drop-down. You just click on the one you want and the name and address are automatically entered for you. It saves having to type email addresses.

Microsoft in its obtuseness made sure that the Windows Mail autocomplete only works for the last 29 contacts that you've written to. So if you have 50 contacts in the address book they won't all show up in Windows Mail "autocomplete".
Another niggle...

Good ol' Outlook Express has a nice big button on the toolbar labelled "Addresses". It says what it is! You know where it is!

Outlook calls the address book 'Contacts', but it's easy to find in the bottom left corner:

Windows Mail has a silly little icon, which, if you find it and point to it, produces a tooltip label 'Contacts'. So you've got to know where it is before you can find it...!

If you're using Windows 7....
...you can't use Outlook Express or Windows Mail. You have the privilege of using Windows Live Mail. As far as I know, autocomplete works in Windows Live Mail.
But... Microsoft - in their cussedness or forgetfulness or just indecent haste to get the thing on the market - failed to ensure that Windows Live Mail opens each time in the Inbox! So if you were last looking at the Sent Items folder or your Junk folder, and you then close Windows Live Mail, the next time you open Windows Live Mail it will open in the Sent Items, or the Junk, or whatever you last used!
So I spend a lot of time training my pupils to get into the habit of clicking on Inbox before they close WLM.
But why, O Microsoft, should they have to?

I think in the future I shall steer new pupils towards Mozilla Thunderbird. I've had a little play with it and imported my Outlook Express Address Book into it to test "autocomplete"....and it works!

I imagine any Mac user reading this would be laughing her head off.

Colin

PS Anyone for Lotus Notes?

Charity catch-up

2011-06-28T21:16:00.004+01:00

by Colin MY COMPUTER TUTOR

Well, "Hello, World!" as every computer programming textbook forces you to say. It's been a long absence, but rest assured that I have been nagging myself all these weeks to update the My Computer Tutor blog.

Let's say it again: what's the point of a blog if you don't keep on blogging?

First, I must catch up with my charities. It's now the end of June and I still need to do May's charity. I met my brother-in-law in May and his treatment from the Royal Marsden is now every 4 months rather than every 6 weeks, so that's cause for celebration and I'm making The Royal Marsden Cancer Campaign my May charity. They were my birthday charity last year - but I probably will repeat "my charities" as circumstances arise.

Two sad pieces of news:

A lady who had three lessons with me earlier this year was postponing any more until after she'd had heart surgery. I heard a couple of weeks back that she didn't survive the operation.

A lady whom I helped two years ago to produce labels and invitations for her 70th birthday party has recently developed motor neurone disease. 'Developed' isn't really the right word....

Diana is now being cared for in our local hospice. It's frightening to think how quickly MND can strike, and The Motor Neurone Disease Association is my June charity.

Now...how about this?

I have my July charity all sorted! I was bounced up to last week by Rose...you know, one of those bouncy young people who ambush you in town by smiling at you and waving at you and....well, just bouncing around!

The newspapers refer to them as "Chuggers" - charity muggers - but that's a bit unkind. After all, you can always ignore them...even if they start dancing like the young man in the picture. But I didn't ignore Rose. Her piercings couldn't be ignored for one thing, and for another these people always seem to catch me on the way to the bank!

But I had my patter ready too. So I quickly promised Rose that her Amnesty International would be my July charity and she'd get a mention on the blog - and to make up for all my tardiness in posting blogs and donations - and because I can't think of any reason to put it off - I won't wait for Friday but I'll do it NOW!

Colin

The Web's Wonders

2011-06-02T00:24:00.007+01:00

by Colin MY COMPUTER TUTOR

It's half-term, which means that I have the week off from singing and don't have to keep looking at my watch as 5 o'clock approaches. It also gives me the opportunity to do the family visits, so I went way down South to see my mother, sister and brother-in-law.

I've given up trying to persuade mother to get a computer, but I can usually rely on my sister and her husband to buttonhole me about their website. This time, they were worried that they had slipped down the Google rankings, and could I do something about it.

Now I'm not an expert on Search Engine Optimization or SEO, but some people run businesses totally devoted to it, and you can buy some very fat books on the subject too. It's a game between all the websites out there and the search engines like Google and Yahoo! The search engine computers "crawl" the websites, inspecting and assessing them and awarding points. What do points mean?

The more the "web-crawlers", "spiders" or "bots" like your website, the higher up the search-engine rankings it will appear in response to the keywords entered by the surfing user, like you or me. (Do we still say "surfing" or am I old-fashioned?)

But what do the bots like? The answer to that question is constantly changing, because the bots want to keep the web-designers guessing. It reminds me of biology and evolution studies I did some years ago, when someone came up with "The Red Queen's Hypothesis". This is taken from "Alice Through The Looking-Glass" in which Alice meets The Red Queen, who tells her that "you have to run as fast as you can to stay in the same place". There is a continual "arms race" among organisms so that an equilibrium is maintained. Well, it's the same with websites - they have to be constantly 'tweaked' to keep up with the inspection of the search engines.

Each of your web pages should have a title. The title is what appears on the 'tab' at the top of the webpage. This title should be relevant to the content of that page. I know that sounds obvious...but you'd be amazed how many times you can find a webpage with the title 'Untitled' because it started life as a Notepad and the designer didn't bother to give it a meaningful name.

You used to be able to stuff 'keywords' into a list in the metadata of the HTML markup, but this was seriously abused and the bots now don't like it. It's much better to include 'keywords' - the words that you think will be searched for - as part of the content of the page. Incorporate them into the sentences you are writing.

The bots like well-designed webpages. Good design has been a matter of much debate over the years but some guidelines are now established by the World-Wide Web Consortium, commonly known as W3C. The main principle is that of separation of content and styling. You should have the bare HTML content or 'markup' in the body of the script, and its styling kept entirely separate in a 'stylesheet'. There are numerous books written about this - make sure you find a book that goes into HTML and CSS (Cascading StyleSheets)

You may have noticed the Recommended Links over there on the right. If you're thinking of trying web-design, I really do recommend HTML Dog. I've no idea what the dog has to do with it, but the site has some excellent no-nonsense advice and examples. And WebPagesThatSuck is just what it says - a collection of the worst websites known to Man - but the editor does pass some very helpful comments about why the sites are so bad and so you learn what to avoid!

Colin

Never a dull moment

2011-05-22T18:33:00.009+01:00

by Colin MY COMPUTER TUTOR

A thin couple of weeks on the computer tuition business. It's taking some time to pick up again after Easter - only eight lessons last week and a record low of three the week before.

To put that into perspective, I averaged 7.5 lessons per week throughout 2010 - that's a raw average over the 52 weeks despite the fact that I actually teach only 46 complete weeks in a year. I've been maintaining an average of 10 lessons per week this year up to Easter, and that's including a halfterm break that I had.

So it's been a bit sparse lately - but am I downhearted? Of course not! Non-contact time (you can tell I was a teacher!) is an opportunity to get out there and advertise....spread the word....stick leaflets through doors!

I'm letting the local Hereford freebie paper carry my advert now, so when I go a-leafletting I target the further-flung villages. I've mentioned before what I look for in a village or street and since then I've developed a shameless research technique! Rather than cast around "in the field" as it were, driving up and around areas to see if they look likely, I first go to one of those websites where you can search for properties for sale. I put in the name of the village or town and ask it to search for houses for sale between £250,000 and £450,000. From the results I can get a hint of the streets to concentrate on!
You can find the postcode for the street, put this into Google and it will give you a map. Drag the little 'street-level man' onto the street and you can literally see the style of houses before you leave the office!

Shameless? Nosey? Yes! But it does save a lot of driving around. The price bracket represents the sort of householders who take my services.

Houses above half-a-million tend to have larger acreages, longer drives, and the occupants have paid that sort of money for seclusion anyway, so you have to consider whether it's worth walking all that way.

And to bring back another aspect of leaflets I was bitten by a dog last week! I was blitzing a well-known town in Shropshire. Things had gone well - I'd not been rained on too much, I'd had a good coffee and cake and discovered the best chocolate shop in the country. And on my way back to the car I thought I might as well put leaflets through the doors I passed.

So I was criss-crossing a street - to save having to walk up and down it - and remembered a dog barking as I put a leaflet through a door. I crossed over to do a couple of doors....and when I crossed back I couldn't remember if I'd done no.27 or 29 last. So I thrust a leaflet through the letterbox....and teeth closed on my fingers! Yes, I'd done the house two minutes before. The wretched dog was alerted by the first leaflet and had obviously been waiting in hope. It seemed OK for a minute but then the fingers started bleeding and I had to complete that street left-handed. Who wants a bloody leaflet?

Some people do have the courtesy to put notices on the gate or the door "Beware of the dog". One thoughtful person provided a bag, hung from the door-knocker, and an explanatory note "Please put mail in the bag. Dog will eat it". For my part, I always make sure that my leaflets don't poke out of the letterbox, and I often see notices asking for mail to be pushed right through.

I haven't yet seen it yet, but it will make me laugh if ever I do:

"Beware of the dog" and "Please push all papers right through" on the same door!

The other notice that used to make me pause is "No Junk Mail". I now ignore this...and am longing for someone to challenge me about it! I'd love the chance to retort that I don't deliver 'mail' and that I make a lot of effort to deliver information in person to your door....etc. etc.

Indeed, I have received one answer-phone message about this last year and I must admit that I enjoyed writing an apologetic letter, enclosing a stamped addressed envelope and requesting that he send the leaflet back to me. Heaps of coals of fire!!!

I'm also waiting for "Can you read?" so that I can come back with "Oh sorry, yes. I'll go slowly - it says My Computer Tutor, one-to-one tuition..."

Colin

Emailing Photos

2011-05-08T23:16:00.004+01:00

by Colin MY COMPUTER TUTOR

Oh dear! I said in my last post that I'd comment more on photos in emails, but I didn't realise that I'd have to go into this quite so soon. But there's no time like the present and anyway, events have forced me into it.

I sent my brother some of the photos I took of his house last week - on reflection it seems a strange thing to do, sending someone pictures of his own house, reminiscent of "coals to Newcastle". Now I use a mail client - Outlook Express - and yes I'm still using Windows XP because...well, it works and I've got used to it! When I send pictures as attachments to an email, I start from the picture(s) - not from the email - and make use of the Windows re-sizing facility.

I select the pictures and then right-click on one of them for the context menu. Pointing to the 'Send To' option opens a sub-menu, and from there I click on 'Mail Recipient'. (You might find 'Email this file' in the Folder Options panel if you have it open)

Windows then takes over and a little dialog box opens, asking if you want Windows to make the pictures smaller.

Yes, I do!

If you're trying to email pictures which you took on a digital camera, the photos are likely to be in the order of 1-6 MB in size. I wanted to send my brother 11 photographs and they added up to about 40 MB, which for an email attachment is enormous! But taking the Windows re-sizing option reduced each picture to something between 40 and 100 kB, so the total was about 700 - 800 kB. That's still less than one Megabyte!

And off they went - the email spent about 5-6 seconds in the Outbox...and was gone!

I know my brother received them because I eventually managed to read his reply, thanking me for the pictures. I say 'eventually' because I checked my mails this afternoon.....and waited....and waited...and waited as Outlook Express informed me that it was 'Receiving mail...' After 15 minutes I realised that something was causing some trouble, so I stopped Outlook Express and went directly to my mail server. (It's always helpful to be able to use webmail even if, like me, you don't normally like it!) Sure enough, my brother had written me an email - and attached three photos for me to see. They added up to more than 10 MB, and that was what was taking so much time to download.

So I'm writing to him to thank him for the email. But I've had to delete the email from the mail server so that it doesn't block any other mails I might get tomorrow. And of course that means that I haven't managed to download his photos, although I have managed to see the 'thumbnails'.

And perhaps I'd better send him a few tactful instructions as to how to send photos by email.

I'm not sure if there is an easy solution to this problem if you use webmail. There are pros and cons for using webmail and for using mail clients, and a definite pro for mail clients is that you can easily re-size photos before you send them. Other popular 'mail clients' are Outlook, Windows Mail, Windows Live Mail, Thunderbird, Eudora and Pegasus. I play with Thunderbird for practice but I haven't tried Eudora or Pegasus. I've recently come to the conclusion that Windows Live Mail is better than Windows Mail - although I can immediately think of serious errors in both of those. But, as I'm learning to say in these posts, that will have to be another story!

Colin

A Week of Bank Holidays

2011-05-01T13:24:00.016+01:00

by Colin MY COMPUTER TUTOR

It's good to have a break, so I went away on Easter Monday to see my brother in the North of Scotland. Andrew lives in two interesting places - Findhorn, East of Inverness, and Scoraig, which is West of Ullapool. They are about 100 miles apart, and the last 3 miles to Scoraig he has to do on foot!

You can read about the Findhorn Community here.

April Charity

It was my first visit to the Highlands and I was impressed by the grandeur of it all. There were several names that I found I already knew - Dalwhinnie, Ardbeg, Glenlivet, Glenfiddich - yes, I have long had a taste for the Highlands! Which is why a notice in the Findhorn shop caught my eye. It was advertising a Whisky Tasting session in support of John Farrington's fundraising for Child Reach and as yet again I was looking for a charity to support, I made the decision that this would be My Computer Tutor's April Charity.

So there you are...three links to follow if you're interested!

The Bird Spot

Of course the first thing I pack when I go away is a pair of binoculars. I'm not a twitcher or lister - I don't go chasing all over the country after rare vagrants like some do - I just enjoy seeing what's there. I'd always thought that as soon as you cross the border you'll see Hooded Crows. Well, I did see them but I had to go well North of the Border. Perhaps my bird book is out of date...here's a 'hoodie' I photographed at Findhorn:

This is actually a 'crop' of my original picture, taken from about 30 yards away with my digital camera. The pictures it takes come out at about 5-6 MB so there's a lot of definition and I've found that I can take pictures of birds at some distance and then crop them using Microsoft Paint.

I took this picture of a Great Black-backed Gull at Scoraig - just for fun really, the bird isn't that unusual and certainly not limited to Scotland - but I wanted to use this long-distance technique. This shot was at about 60-70 yards and shows that you can pick up some 'extras'.

I was concentrating on the gull, but when I came to edit it I discovered that I'd also photographed a Wheatear - over to the right.

I was really thrilled to see this bird while we were eating lunch at a pub overlooking Findhorn Bay. I once saw an Osprey on the River Wye at Hereford and I've seen loads in Florida, often with a fish in their claws, but I'd never before seen an osprey fishing.

And this is what they look like as they try to hover before they dive. The one I saw made two attempts at catching something but he was being pestered by a bunch of gulls at the time so I'm not sure if he had lunch at the same time I did!

I didn't realise that they dived so steeply - the films I've seen give the impression that they make a shallow 'glide and grab'. But there you are...I'm always prepared to learn!

Photos and Email

Just to make a tutor-y sort of comment in case you think that this blog is drifting off with the birds (Oh yes! I heard my first cuckoo of 2011 at Scoraig last week!)...
Many of my clients want to send photos by email, and still more clients receive photos via email from well-meaning friends and family. This is fraught with difficulty, especially if you're using web-mail. I am doing my best to advise clients not to send pictures "straight off the camera" because, as an email attachment, a digital picture can be enormous. I tell them that as a general rule, anything over 1000kB (1 MB) is going to cause problems.

But it's still holiday time in UK, so I'll save the techy stuff for later.

Colin

Easter

2011-04-20T22:48:00.006+01:00

by Colin MY COMPUTER TUTOR

This is the third Spring for my business, and I'm coming to the conclusion that April is the most difficult month of the year. I suppose it's a combination of Easter and improving weather. For a start, I get tied up with other commitments in Holy Week - rehearsals and services in the very middle of the day - so that eats into my teaching time. So tomorrow, Maundy Thursday, the morning is completely taken up with singing. Then the middle of Good Friday is also devoted to a service - and anyway a lot of my clients observe Good Friday as a holy day rather than a holiday, so I wouldn't expect them to book lessons.

And with the weather improving, people are more prepared to travel and visit...so my clients either go away or stay home and entertain family. On top of that, the grass is growing, the gardens are burgeoning (I love that word!) and it gets more tempting to venture out there rather than stay indoors at the computer.

I expected Christmas and New Year to be the difficult time of the year, but I've found that people want lessons right the way up to 23rd December and then things pick up again straight after New Year, with January always being a good month.

So April's a bit of a dip in the turnover. But that's the way it goes, and I have to accommodate it. Ah yes...talking of 'dip', here's an interlude:

This month's bird

Saw a dipper last week - and thought how smart he looked, bobbing up and down in the middle of a stream.

A very dapper dipper!

Yes, Easter's a little unpredictable with the clients. I've had a few drop out this week - illness, builders(!) and families the main excuses. But they've all re-booked for May, so all is not lost.

And I need a break too, so I'm visiting bonny Scotland for a few days as soon as Easter Day is over and sung. We have three Bank Holidays in the space of eight days, so why fight it? Give yourself a break!

Colin

March Charity

2011-04-14T19:00:00.008+01:00

by Colin MY COMPUTER TUTOR

I know this post is a bit late, considering March is 15 days ago, but I did actually get March's charity sorted out in March. It's just that I'm late in telling you about it...

A letter came through my door, announcing that a Hereford postman was going to run a marathon for The Haven. This is a charity that supports people who suffer from breast cancer - I say 'people' because not all of them are women.

The postman is Mike Chandler and you can read all about his efforts and the text of the letter that his colleagues posted through doors by clicking on the link. He and his mate Glyn Jones have raised thousands and thousands of pounds in the last few years.

I must put in a word for postmen and women generally. They turn out in all weathers to deliver the mail and I feel so sorry for them when I realise that a major proportion of the weight they have to lug around must be junk mail!

More on email...

We all suffer from 'junk' emails. Some of my friends say that they receive "hundreds of emails a week...most of it junk"

I do my best to advise my clients about junk email. A lot of it is bona fide advertising from organisations that they have subscribed to: online shopping, for example.

I do tell them that when they first sign-up for anything, they should watch out for those little check-boxes that offer to "keep you informed" by email or ask you whether you're willing to receive garbage from "third-party organisations". (They don't say 'garbage' of course....but it will be!)

You do have to watch these checkboxes. Sometimes they are already 'ticked'...and you have to read carefully to see whether a ticked box means Yes or No.

I also point out that a bona fide advertiser should provide the opportunity to 'unsubscribe' from all their emails. You have to scroll right down to the bottom of the email - and the unsubscribe link is usually very small - but it should be there.

Colin

Rogue Mail

2011-04-10T23:11:00.004+01:00

by Colin MY COMPUTER TUTOR

I've had a few new clients recently to whom I've promised notes on using email. I did this quite confidently because I have 25+ pages already prepared, and it's just a matter of printing out copies, laminating them and putting them into a presentation folder.

Or so I thought...

These new clients have recently bought computers - Windows computers with the Windows 7 operating system. Now, if you're in the computer tuition business, you'll know that you meet all kinds of computer systems as well as all kinds of people. And it's the variety of systems that cause far more trouble than the variety of people!

Microsoft had two 'mail client' programs in the Good Old Days - Outlook and Outlook Express. Fine! They worked on Windows 98 (RIP) and they worked on Windows XP, which I still use on my desktop PC. Then Microsoft brought out Windows Vista with much trumpeting. They also brought out Office 2007 which causes all kinds of problems of its own. Further to their policy of "If it ain't broke...fiddle with it" Microsoft made sure that Outlook Express wouldn't work with Vista and brought out 'Windows Mail' instead. Actually, Windows Mail is very similar to Outlook Express, so the changeover was pretty smooth, but Vista was a disaster and Microsoft hurriedly put a few things right (like a Shut Down button, for example!) and called the whole thing 'Windows 7'.

Hey! Guess what? Windows Mail won't work on Windows 7! Microsoft brought out a thing called "Windows Live Mail" instead.

So let's pause for breath and review what we have out there: There's Windows Mail and Windows Live Mail, which are mail clients, and there's Microsoft's webmail service which used to be called Hotmail but now they prefer you to call it Live Mail - not to be confused with Windows Live Mail, of course.

Now I've done my best to keep up with all these. I've prepared exhaustive illustrated (screenshots) notes on Outlook 2003, Outlook Express, Outlook 2007, Hotmail, Windows Mail, Windows Live Mail and Live Mail (not to be confused with Windows Live Mail) Well, of course not. I mean - how could anyone get confused?

But now...Microsoft have updated Windows Live Mail. That's the mail client Windows Live Mail, not Live Mail like Hotmail....clear? Yes, they've updated it so that instead of the relatively friendly menus it used to have, it's now got that Ribbon-thing that they introduced with Office 2007

Which means that I have to get down to work yet again on a Microsoft mail system. The most time-consuming thing is taking and editing the screenshots. And I can see that I'll need even more pictures to demonstrate to users that you can get rid of that default 'Calendar' and you can get your Contacts if you make some effort on the 'View tab'. That's all before we start actually looking at the Inbox and how to send a mail etc. etc.

But the most embarrassing thing that I have to explain - on Microsoft's behalf - is that my new clients have to get in the habit of clicking on 'Inbox' before they close Windows Live Mail. This is the only way to make sure that when you open Windows Live Mail again, you go to the Inbox. As it is, Windows Live Mail returns to whatever folder you were last using.

Starting at the mail Inbox seems such a basic design requirement - and Microsoft just plain forgot!

Colin

February Charity

2011-03-07T23:36:00.006Z

by Colin MY COMPUTER TUTOR

I know it's March now, but nothing "presented itself" as a charity last month. I keep a Big Book of Excuses, so here's one I've turned up at random:

February's a short month, so I didn't have enough time to think of a charity.

But that doesn't mean to say that I miss February out. I remember last summer I got seriously behind with charities and made three donations in the one month to catch up! So today the sun was shining in Hereford, one client had postponed a lesson and suddenly I had the afternoon free to drift into town. The place was staked out by young people wearing Concern Universal bibs and sure enough one of them sidled over to me in that engaging way they cultivate as part of the training. Lucy had run a half marathon yesterday for Concern Universal, which shows real dedication. And she bounced around telling me about Malawi and Brazil and community self-help etc. etc....you can read more in the link above. I never let them get to the standing order bit - so I launched into my tale of my monthly quest for a charity and how I'd failed to find one for February....but hers was going to be it!

And so it shall be. I gave her my business card and said that I would be writing this blog, so - if you're reading it Lucy - HELLO!

I'd gone no more than 50 yards across Hereford High Town and another young lady blocked my path. (I know, it's always happening to me!) So I explained to her that I'd already promised to donate, and she said I could do that at the office round the corner. So the UK branch of Concern Universal is in Hereford! And now I know where, I realise that I walk past it most days!!

So I gave Dani my business card too, and if she's reading this blog....HELLO!

Colin

Of Mice and...'Human Interface Devices'

2011-02-11T13:13:00.005Z

by Colin MY COMPUTER TUTOR

I meet so many laptops in my travels. Well, of course, the modern laptop is ten times faster, larger in memory and more powerful than the lumpy PC I first had back at the turn of the century.

Ten times? At least......!

And I suspect fewer and fewer are actually carried around on the train now. More and more are "the home computer" - you don't need a dedicated desk or table and they're easy to stow away in a drawer.

But...oh dear, the touch-pad. I'm sure that most of the frustration experienced by my clients, those new to computers, is caused by the touch-pad.

It is so "touchy"!

If you're beginning to find your way around a laptop, you are understandably cautious, tentative...dare I say nervous? So I find that my beginners are tickling the touch-pad to move the pointer - effectively tapping on it. And if you're not sure where the pointer is at the time...and you're gently tickling/tapping the touchy touch-pad...ANYTHING can happen!

A tap on the pad can be interpreted as a left click and this causes all kinds of unintended interruptions. So on Tuesday I sold a mouse to a client. I've been carrying a mouse around with me in my bag for many months now, and it's been very useful to plug it in and give the client the opportunity to try it. This time, the lady was so pleased with it I said she could keep it. I'd bought it from a very well-known PC emporium when it was just under £10 and she was happy to re-imburse me for it.

So I came home mouse-less, but determined to have one with me at all times - a travelling mouse. I have now placed an order with another well-known company (named after a South American river) for three mice. Suffice to say that this company is a lot cheaper than the one up the road....and free P&P too.

You can pay ridiculous prices for mices but I give my clients these recommendations:

Get a mouse that's big enough to fit your hand. Small might be beautiful but it's not always comfortable!

Get a mouse with a "tail". A wireless mouse is cause for one more frustration, apart from the extra expense - the battery always runs out when you're in the middle of something really important!

Make sure that it has a scroll-wheel. Scrolling is fiddly on a touch-pad and demands two hands - unless you're very dextrous (or sinister!!).

Make sure that it has a right button, a left button, the aforementioned scroll-wheel....and nothing else! You can get all kinds of extra things to squeeze and push, but it's all unnecessary clutter unless you're a manic gamer.

Price for a simple mouse?

Up the road now: ~£15
Online: £6-7

Colin

HMRC

2011-02-06T23:03:00.006Z

by Colin MY COMPUTER TUTOR

Forgot to mention that January ended with a frantic dash against the clock to get my tax return in. I was quite happy to watch October 31st come and go - the deadline for your return "on paper" - because, I told myself, I'm a computer guy and quite capable of doing my return online, for which the date is 31st January. And of course I told myself I had plenty of time....

But then Christmas comes upon us and then New Year....and suddenly you realise that you've only got the month of January to get all those figures together. Actually, I did tot things up a bit at a time over the New Year. I keep accounts on an Excel spreadsheet and itemise expenses throughout the year as "Advertising", "Travel", "Office" etc. etc. so it was quite easy to add these up. But the HMRC form is so long, and few of their categories match up with mine, so I spend a disproportionate amount of time wondering where to put my totals.

My friendly accountant solved the problem for me at the eleventh hour! She advised me that it's best - for a small business - to lump all your expenses together. The HMRC people have a good idea what your reasonable expenses would be, so as long as you have a breakdown of the expenses on your own records (just in case you get investigated!) it's quite OK to stick it all down as one lump. So I did.

The scary thing about an online submission is that "The Answer" - how much you owe them - is instantaneous! There's no settling back in your chair, swigging the last of the cocoa before flopping exhausted into bed. There's no period of time in which you can prepare yourself for the bill to arrive a few days later. You click on Send or Submit or whatever...and there's the bill:

YOU OWE US £££

It's amazing how much we still need to pay to cover the cost of the Napoleonic Wars! I think that was the original reason for the Income Tax, introduced as "a temporary measure". Hey ho!

Birds Stop Press!

On my way back from work today I noticed a small group of birds eating berries. Thought they were starlings at first glance, then fieldfares...but not big enough for that...then noticed crests...and realised that these were waxwings.

They were only just round the corner from my home, so came back with the binos to have a better look. Very pleased to see them - my first.

Colin

January

2011-02-03T00:58:00.009Z

by Colin MY COMPUTER TUTOR

January has been and gone - just like that! And what a busy month it's been. One of the best months I've had, with 42 teaching sessions, some updating work on a client's website and now a new website design commission to keep me busy through February

And it's February now - the clock is ticking, since I promised to have the website at least "blocked out" by 1st March. This is going to be another website for a group of musicians who want it to include samples of their music. That's going to be a new technique for me to learn.

Up until now, my work on website design has been sporadic, so each time I have to do some web-work I need a lot of revision. But over Christmas I met two people - both artists - who each expressed an interest in having a website, so if I chased them up over the next couple of months I could keep myself busy with web design to the extent that all the HTML and CSS stuff might sink in and stick more permanently. When I say keep myself busy I mean fill up my evenings and weekends, of course!

January is the Month of Marmalade, and after two attempts to get the stuff to set I now have 7 jars of it. Not nearly enough to last me the year, so I managed to get the last net of Seville oranges from my local supermarket - you know, the orange one! - and am currently chopping up the peel ready for yet another boil-up.

Incidentally, a currently popular topic for my clients is 'How To Print Labels'...for marmalade! Main problem is identifying the correct size of label; there is a vast selection of 'Avery' and other types of labels. I now carry a pack of A4 7x2 for addresses and 7x3 for jam-pots!

Charity for the Month

I waited and waited for a charity to suggest itself for January, and, right at the very end of the month, one did. One of my colleagues, Tim, has MS and so the Multiple Sclerosis Trust is my charity for January.

Colin

Start the Year

2011-01-07T16:11:00.006Z

by Colin MY COMPUTER TUTOR

Happy New Year!

I've made a fairly good start despite the first week of the year beginning with a Bank Holiday. Scotland started with TWO bank holidays!

Many of my clients are "of riper years" and my first of 2011 told me that Bank Holidays didn't mean anything to her, so could she have a lesson on Monday 3rd?
And so she did!

I already had several bookings for January, made back in December, so I was looking forward to a busy week. But it's the season of coughs 'n' sneezes and - sure enough - a couple of clients cancelled this week. Or rather, postponed until over their colds. On the positive side though, the phone has been ringing and I've taken 5-6 new bookings already, so January holds some promise for the computer tuition business.

I've adjusted my local paper advert slightly to offer gift vouchers over Christmas and the New Year...and had one taker! Gift vouchers are available all round the year of course, and I think in future I shall push them a little in my advertising. Take that as a New Year's Resolution if you like!

How's yours going? Business or resolutions, I mean........

Guest Bloggers

Please be a guest blogger if you like! It would be good to have a few of you posting some experiences here. Bear in mind that I'm running a blog for computer tutors where we can compare notes and perhaps help each other out. Let me know if this appeals!

The Birds...

I'm doing my best to help the birds through this winter. There seem to be a lot of blue tits in my garden - I think they must be the family that hatched and fledged somewhere near by last summer. I have a visiting blackcap (male) too.

Blackcaps are warblers and should be summer visitors, but about 20 years ago someone noticed that they were 'overwintering' in UK. They are a bit more robust than other insect-eating warblers and perhaps more adaptable in their food.

Long-tailed tits forage through the trees sometimes and today a grey wagtail visited too. I expect he was disappointed to find the pond frozen!

In the bleak...

2010-12-20T23:33:00.005Z

by Colin MY COMPUTER TUTOR

I find it surprising that so many people are saying "Oooh isn't this weather awful..."

It's Britain, it's December, it's the winter solstice...what do you expect?

Next time I hear someone complain about the snow I'm going to ask them to think about all the Christmas cards they've sent and tell me how many have featured snow. And whether they've sprayed that imitation snow on their windows.

And just listen to yourself humming "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas"!

We're just not used to it over here in England - we don't get enough of it regularly enough to make it economically worthwhile to have all the kit that Canada or Norway roll out to deal with it and keep their national scenes operating. In fact, we English are a little embarrassed about winning in general, whether it's taking on Malta at football or the Aussies at cricket or a few inches of snow at Gatwick.

So far, I've kept my show on the road and have bookings up to Thursday 23rd. And to be fair to other parts of the country, Hereford City seems to have had it very easy with the snow, although the temperature has been down to -10°C even in the day.

I managed to get a month out of sync with my charity donations - but I'm determined to make sure that my December charity gets done before the turn of the year. I always hope that something will suggest itself - and sure enough it has! Last week I started a gentleman who is my oldest client to date - 88 - and he's one of the people insisting on a lesson on this Thursday. He's told me something of his life and background. He was orphaned at an early age and was brought up in a Dr. Barnardo's home. During the war he was a "Bevin Boy", sent down the mines to dig coal for victory.

So there we are! My charity for December is Barnardo's, as it's called nowadays. Seems very apt for Christmas...children, gifts etc.

Busy week for singing, of course. Two carol services Wednesday and Thursday, then Christmas Eve, then three services on The Day. Christmas lunch??? Are you kidding?

"Snow had fallen snow on snow,
Sno-ow o-on Sno---w...."

(Get the picture?)

Colin

November's Charity

2010-12-07T20:50:00.003Z

by Colin MY COMPUTER TUTOR

I was rushing to the bank at 4.55pm - it shuts at 5 - when one of those lively young people bounced up to me in the centre of Hereford. "Sorry", I said, "Can't stop but I will come back after I've been to the bank..."

And so I did, much to her surprise, I think! I went straight into my spiel about how I run a one-man business and I do one charity each month and hers was going to be the lucky one for November. This saves them having to go through all that rigmarole of explaining their particular charity and then trying to persuade me to sign a direct debit.

She'd been enthusing all day about Guide Dogs and I hope she believed me when I said I would contribute. So Faybie, here I am as promised.

I don't know why I hadn't thought of it earlier, because Hereford has a higher proportion of blind and partially-sighted people than most towns and cities. For the last 30 years Hereford has been the home of the Royal National College (for the Blind)

Colin

So that was November!

2010-12-06T23:07:00.006Z

by Colin MY COMPUTER TUTOR

I really do intend to write this blog at least once a week, but it's been such a busy month. And I feel well into my third business year now. The last posting promised you more stats 'n' stuff but I'm just going to display the monthly takings for you to inspect...and you can draw your own conclusions...inferences...speculations etc.

Things are on the up! This really is a business which is helping me survive. In fact it is now the major source of my income and teaching clients occupies all my daylight hours 5 days a week.

Well, perhaps not all those hours are actually face-to-face, but including the travelling in between I reckon it's a full-time job. Then there are the hours I spend most nights preparing material or researching things. And what with the 'twilight' singing job at the Cathedral, it all adds up to a busy week.

Once again I'm late in doing my charity for the month - I still need to do November's and I'll announce that tomorrow. That will ensure there's another posting this week!

Had a day out in London last Tuesday with the Cathedral Choir. We were invited to sing Advent carols at the Royal Military Chapel, better known as "The Guards' Chapel". Haven't been to London for ages, even though I'm sort of 'from' there. Great privilege to sing at the chapel and we were very well fed in the Grenadier Guard Officers' Mess. Not many people get in there for supper!

Colin

New business year!

2010-11-10T22:54:00.004Z

by Colin MY COMPUTER TUTOR

Straight back to work on the 2nd Nov after my trip away to Southern climes...and completely forgot to mark the end of my 2009-2010 business year on the 4th.

Last year we launched a big rocket and one of those Chinese lanterns on the 5th, to mark the start of the 'new year'. But because November 5th was so drizzly miserable this year I stayed in the pub (Friday night ritual) and forgot to celebrate business, the deliverance of King James and everything else!

But I did remember to do the necessary mundane things, like start a new spreadsheet for my 2010-2011 accounts and label some new folders for all the receipts and invoices etc. etc.

Hardly a celebration, though!

A few figures for comparison:

No. of new clients 2008-2009 was 61. In 2009-2010 it was 64.

Taught sessions 2008-2009 was 240. In 2009-2010 it was 400

Turnover 2008-2009 was £8406. In 2009-2010 it was £13391

In my first year the average number of lessons each client had was 4. Over two years it's been just over 5. Not sure what that shows...or even if it's significant! Could show that my teaching is so good that they tend to want more lessons, or that they need more lessons because my teaching is getting worse!

How's it going for you?

Colin

October Charity

2010-11-03T22:13:00.008Z

My October charity is the Ubuntu Education Fund.

Ubuntu is a Bantu word implying "community spirit". It's been more elegantly paraphrased as "I am what I am because of who we all are"

So guess where I've been for the last ten days...

Yes...South Africa!

Hereford Cathedral Choir has just returned from its first tour of South Africa. The very South of South Africa, actually. Cape Town, George and Port Elizabeth with a brief visit to Grahamstown...and then all too soon we flew back for Monday 1st Nov.

I say all too soon - but to be honest, long enough for singing a concert four times...and four church services...with a lot of miles by coach in between. But I'd love to go back and spend more time to take in the country.

What I saw there made me think a lot about where South Africa has come from and where it's going.........so that's my charity for the month.

I said 'Ubuntu' is a Bantu word, but we weren't in the Bantu part of SA. The indigenous language is Xhosa, which is a 'click' language - the 'X' represents the click - and I've been trying to say 'Xhosa' ever since!

Ubuntu is also the name given to a freeware operating system - free to the community, so hence the name. So there's a sort of computery link, not to mention all the clicking that computer users do!

Colin

Doggone it!

2010-10-12T23:45:00.007+01:00

by Colin MYCOMPUTER TUTOR

I showed you the tattered remains of a leaflet I tried to deliver last week through a door guarded by an over-zealous dog. At least, I presumed it was a dog - it certainly had teeth - but you never know what strange pets some people keep.

Anyway, later that same week I was called by the lady who has the little EeePC to say that she couldn't get email and the battery light was on all the time... So I paid her a visit to see what was what. Her tiny Asus PC couldn't connect to the Internet, and every time I checked the battery level it was a little lower - down to 16%.

The lights on the router were as they should be and the mains power switch was on. The power lead from the adaptor/plug and the network 'patch cable' were wrapped together in one of those plastic 'cable tidy' sheaths, and at first glance all seemed well. But when I unpeeled the sheath, I found that both the power lead and the Internet cable had been chewed through! The lady has three 'resident' dogs and several others in kennels.

The smallest dog had obviously been very frustrated when the lady had gone out at some time, and had chewed the cable tidy repeatedly!

So, mystery solved! I managed to mend the power lead with electrician's tape. Luckily, I carry a spare patch cable with me so I fitted that...and all was mended. But the place is totally devoted to all things 'dog' and I just wonder how long it will be before I have to repeat this rescue. Good thing for doggy that he chose the 12v end. The adaptor's plugged into a trailing socket with 250v coming out of the wall!

I've just 'met' two more computer tutors, John in Lincolnshire and Rosie in Surrey. There are links to them over there on the right - have a look at their websites - say hello - compare notes etc.

Colin

Zen...and the etiquette of delivering leaflets

2010-10-08T22:53:00.005+01:00

by Colin MY COMPUTER TUTOR

I always leave the gate as I find it.
If there's a notice that says "Dogs loose" or similar, I close the gate as I go in. The gate's there to keep the dog in.
I let dogs come to me and make friends. No-one would be so stupid as to let a vicious dog out...would they?
I never walk across the grass.
I never walk across the front room window, even if the two houses share the drive. That's an invasion of privacy.
I never climb or even step over a dividing wall, but I will go straight from one door to the next if I can, bearing in mind rule 5.
I always walk away down the path/drive holding the next leaflet. If I've disturbed the occupier, he will see my retreating back, a sheaf of paper in my one hand and an ostentatiously-flapping leaflet in the other. He can then identify me as a bona fide deliverer of leaflets rather than a pikey who's been scared off by the dog.
I always push the leaflet right through the letterbox - as least as far as I can so that it doesn't show outside. This has become a standard common-sense security measure.

On occasions I do meet the occupier. Often in the garden or unloading the shopping from the car, or sometimes just on the way out. My standard line is

"Good morning/afternoon...I'm just delivering leaflets...it might be of interest"

On a few occasions, someone has looked at the leaflet heading and said:

"Ahhh....yes....this could be just what I want..."

or made similar noises.

So I turn back and we start talking about what they've got and what they want to do...I can recall at least a dozen occasions over two years where this has happened. And I get home later, fully expecting the phone to ring and a booking to be made.

And yet NONE of these people has ever followed it up with a phonecall. Perhaps it's best if I don't stop and talk to them!

I regret that I haven't kept a rigorous record of the number of my clients who have responded to a leaflet delivered through the door. I have registered my 118^th client this week - that's after 23 months of business - and I'd say that 80% have come through the leaflets.

Colin

Delivering Leaflets - Part 3 - Survival

2010-10-06T23:40:00.007+01:00

by Colin MY COMPUTER TUTOR

We are a nation of pet-lovers and I meet lots of dogs and cats on my leaflet deliveries.

The cats I meet are of three types:

Friendly cat
Snooty cat
Scaredy cat

Which type do you think this one is?

Hard to tell isn't it? Cats don't give much away...

Dogs are more straightforward:

Friendly
Vicious

Now then...which one do you think this is?

The relationship's pretty clear, isn't it? The trouble is that I rarely get such a clear view of Deputy Dawg. If I'm lucky, I'll hear the barking as I approach, or I will have seen him jump down from the sofa.

But then there's the mechanics of the letterbox to deal with (see Part 2 for an exhaustive critique of those!) And on a few occasions - just a very few - you encounter the Stealth Psycho Dog who won't make a sound...but he waits.....

So there you are, lifting the letterbox flap with one hand and pushing the other hand right through because, yes, it's one of those vile bristly boxes and you don't want to leave a leaflet half out of the door (see Delivering Leaflets Part 4 - Etiquette tomorrow) And then....well, here are the remains of a near miss I had yesterday!

I was left holding this fragment while the Stealth Psycho Dog was reading, marking, learning and inwardly digesting the rest!

Grrrrr!

Colin

Delivering Leaflets - Part 2

2010-10-04T21:30:00.012+01:00

by Colin MY COMPUTER TUTOR

Hereford's an old town and I put leaflets through a wide variety of doorways. Many of the residential streets are Victorian or Edwardian, many others are 1930's and there has been a lot of housing put up within the last 20 years too.

My own street has some three storey Georgian houses at one end and late 20th century houses at the other. The houses in between, including mine, are mid-19th century, built for the railway station staff. The stationmaster's house really is a cut above the rest - that post had a high status in 1860!

I walk up to lots of different doorways when I'm out with the leaflets and I make a quick assessment of the letterbox as I approach. This door on the right is close to being perfect. It's right up my street...literally! No, seriously, it has a decent-sized letterbox and a step up to it. It's one of the Georgian houses. Pity that the fittings aren't original Georgian but perhaps the colour is a close attempt!

The step is good because as I turn away I get a good spring off it and on to the next house...

The letterbox is good because it's a good size, there's no flap to lift and this style rarely has those horrible bristles beyond them! (I know they're supposed to keep the draught out, but they can mangle my leaflets something terrible!)

This fine door is Edwardian, I think. Set in a porch with a proper coir doormat.

As I approach along the driveway I have time to fold the leaflet (without creasing it) because I can see that this style of letterbox is smaller - probably original.

Shame about the glass, though!

Now this is a horror - I hate them.

This mimsy little letterbox has a flap that pushes back and up, which needs two hands! So you tuck the wodge of leaflets under your armpit, fold the leaflet, push the flap back with one hand and then squeeze the leaflet either left or right of the flap.

Then you find those wretched bristles in the way too!

Original '30s glass, though....

And these!

Who designed these?

Not a postman, or anyone who has ever put anything through a letterbox, that's for sure!

This is the

BreakBack Door...

...at least you would see the waiting dog through the glass!

Delivering leaflets - Part 1

2010-10-03T20:05:00.004+01:00

by Colin MY COMPUTER TUTOR

I started a new batch of my A5 leaflets at the beginning of September - 5000 of them - and I decided to deliver them around Hereford City again. I did pretty well all the streets within walking distance of my home back in November 2008 up to August 2009, when I got the car and was able to get out further into the County. When I say 'walking distance of my home', I mean a radius of about four miles. I like walking! So I covered a lot of Hereford.

This time around, though, I'm going to be a little more selective. Now call me a snob if you will, but some areas, some streets are more worthwhile than others. There are a few pointers I follow in deciding whether to leaflet an area or not:

Are they well-kept houses?
Are the gardens cared for?
How old are the cars?

One of my guiding principles is "Does it look as though this household would pay for private tuition?"

Tatty-looking curtains (worse if they are closed), a garden that shows evidence of recycled dog's dinners and a car registered last century are not good indications.

I don't offer a cut-price service (although I do discounts!)

My other guiding principle is "You never know...."

This is the "You can't judge a book by its cover" principle coupled with the "What If" principle. I have passed by whole estates of houses in Hereford where, from my experience and their reputation, I think it just wouldn't be worth the time and effort. And yet, there could be someone in there desperate to get started with a computer and My Computer Tutor could be just the thing they need.....

There's lots more to follow about leaflets - this is Part 1 of..........well, I want to tell you all about letter-boxes, and dogs...and cats....and...so much more!

Colin

September Charity

2010-09-28T00:12:00.011+01:00

by Colin MY COMPUTER TUTOR

My September charity is The British Heart Foundation.

Three reasons at least:

JB who welcomed me to his home in California four years ago and who started this month with a heart attack. The medical team were brilliant.
MC whom I teach. An old soldier with a wicked sense of humour, he has a "dicky ticker", as he puts it.
My dad 1916-1997

You can probably think of some too...

Today I have no clients - people don't seem to want Tuesdays! - but I have loads of support material to produce for clients' manuals, so shall spend a busy morning with screenshots, OpenOffice.org Writer, my excruciatingly slow printer and a hot laminator.

Oh yes...I know how to have fun!

Colin

P.S....Bullet Points

I wondered why the bullet points above didn't show up, so I took a deep breath and explored the template HTML.

So now I feel very pleased with myself....and just had to tell you!

"...one of Nature's little kings"

2010-09-15T23:13:00.005+01:00

by Colin MY COMPUTER TUTOR

Just thought you'd like to see what I saw this afternoon.

I'd just spent a couple of hours delivering my new improved leaflets. I've decided to re-do Hereford City because it's at least a year since I last hit the city's streets with leaflets. More of that story later...

I was walking back along a busy street in town when I saw a small group of people staring and pointing at something on the steps of a financial adviser's - you know the kind of building, with that air of exclusivity and smoky glass. As I approached I thought it was a leaf, or maybe a butterfly that they were so interested in, but when I got close I saw it was a goldcrest! There are some birch trees along the road and an old cemetery nearby with other trees and bushes, but this little fella must have got a bit confused and flown into one of the windows and stunned himself.

This isn't my hand, nor the same bird - I've borrowed this photograph courtesy of The Western Isles website.

There were three women there looking, one of whom I recognised as an ex-school pupil. She had her daughter with her in a push-chair - it was 'school home-time' - and she said she'd nearly run the bird over with the push-chair.

The bird was just standing there, the eyes bright, but I easily picked it up. Wild birds won't normally let you do that! When a bird is stunned, the best thing to do is keep it warm and calm - i.e. in the dark - so a tiny bird like a goldcrest can easily fit in the warmth of two cupped hands.

And sure enough - or maybe I should say luckily - after a couple of minutes he started to perk up and then flutter...and off he flew up into a birch tree

Goldcrests are actually the smallest British bird. They are common but not many people are aware of them because they are so small and like to poke around in hedgerows or up in birch and larch trees. Their Latin scientific classification name is Regulus, which means 'little king'. The Americans call them kinglets!

I've featured several pictures of birds in my posts. That's because I've always been fascinated by them and I'm always looking out for them!

New Season

2010-09-11T10:35:00.011+01:00

By Colin MY COMPUTER TUTOR

September always feels like a fresh start. It's the end of the holiday season for most people - back to school for many - and having been a teacher for 25 years I still get that "start-of-a-new-year" feeling in September. So although my business year doesn't start for another two months I'm already in "review mode"!

Now I'm free of the monthly payments to ADC, for advertising in my local Sainsbury's, I've decided to invest in more leaflets and also use my local freebie newspaper. Leaflets have given me the best return of clients so far. Local parish and community magazines have been worthwhile too, so I think it's going to be worth paying that bit more to get a decent size advert in the local freebie each week.

Here's the revised leaflet - this is its 4th incarnation!

The printers said that they could do the logo in shades of blue rather than full 4-colour, which would have been horrendously expensive.

The top two blues came out a little darker than the ones you see here, but there's still good definition and I think it looks much more professional to have your logo in its colours rather than 'grayscale'.

I've had 5000 of these done - they work out at a little under 3p each - and they will be hitting the neighbourhood as from this weekend!

I tried the local newspaper last year for 4 weeks and did get some response from that, so I'm prepared to try it again up to the middle of December. There's little point in advertising in the week before Christmas, so I shall have another review in the New Year.

One of the local papers charges double if you include any colour, so I'm advertising in the other one!

Luckily, the paper with advertising at the cheaper rate features news and articles, so it's more likely to be read.

The other one is totally dedicated to adverts, so if you're not looking for something to buy you're likely to throw it away without even opening it...I do!

This will go in the 'Professionals' section, which is chockerful of display adverts. Most of them are single column and the few that catch my eye

(i) have a logo and/or (ii) are three columns wide.

So that's what I've gone for here. It costs more but should catch the eye, which is the first step in advertising:

Attention, Interest, Desire, Action...

I seem to remember from somewhere...so I hope I've got some of those right!

Colin

Long Distance Information...

2010-09-02T23:23:00.007+01:00

by Colin MY COMPUTER TUTOR

I'm now travelling an 80-mile round trip once a week to teach a gentleman in Builth Wells in mid-Wales. We've agreed that I'll do a three-hour session and take him through "the basics". We start off with coffee...then do an hour or so...then there's a coffee-break...and then another stretch until he feels he's had enough. Information and coffee, that is.

What do you consider to be "the basics"?

In my experience, as far as that goes, people have a home computer for communication and finding information, which usually means learning how to do email and how to find things on the Web. So my first sessions are about email - which is a big topic - and then how to search for information.

I am a great fan of "email clients" - Outlook Express, Windows Mail, Windows Live Mail ... and recently Mozilla Thunderbird. One or two clients are using Outlook, but they'd already been introduced to it by their children.

I really do my utmost to discourage people from using web-mail unless they are already set in their ways. I hate it!

I hate the way AOL mail announces "You have email...."

I hate the way BT fills up every mail folder with an advert as soon as you empty it...

I hate all the distracting flashing flickering adverts that generally surround webmail...

I hate having to enter my email address and password every time I want to see my emails, even the old ones!

Yeuk!

Just a personal opinion...but everyone is entitled to my opinion!

So, rest assured that I have got my new client off to a good start with a mail client!

The other thing that annoys me is the way that various agents clutter up your browser with toolbars. I reckon the only toolbar worth having is Google's - so you can always carry out a Google search however many webpages you have open.

That's all I have - and I always make sure my clients have the Menu Bar available too.

Of course, the more toolbars you have in the browser the less space there is on the screen for the webpage.

I could rant on......................and probably will in ensuing posts! But to end, here's a little tale about communication:

I received an email through my website last week from a lady in Manchester, who wanted help with her laptop and also to know how much I charged. I'm always pleased when I get feedback from my website - it shows it's working! - but sorry that I couldn't help the lady. Manchester is 145 miles away from me and that really is too much of a round trip.

So I did some research through Google with "computer lessons manchester" etc. etc. and managed to find a couple of references to computer tutors in that area. I then emailed her, apologizing that I couldn't teach her but offering her these local contacts.

One of them is Pete, who specializes in teaching digital photography and website design. We've now exchanged a couple of emails and I've put a link to his website in the UK Tutors list...

Colin

August Charity

2010-08-30T23:52:00.007+01:00

by Colin MY COMPUTER TUTOR

I drove over to Bromyard last week to meet two new clients. Bromyard's about 14 miles from me and I was pleased to be able to organise these two clients on the same morning. Things don't always work out so well!

One gentleman is recovering from a stroke. He's been using a computer for years but now wants to get back into it again. He was obviously very competent before the stroke and I can see the frustration he's having in trying to explain to me what he wants to do. He says that he knows what he wants to say but has to think very carefully to make sure that the right words come out.

As each month begins I sometimes have an idea for a charity to support, but on occasions I just have to wait until something presents itself - and this month's charity has been like that. So it's the Stroke Association for August.

My two Bromyard clients live just a quarter of a mile away from each other and if they will agree to have their lessons on the same morning it will make it a very worthwhile weekly trip.

On the way home, in a rare spell of bright sunshine, I saw a red kite hovering like a large kestrel! They have spread from Wales into Herefordshire over the last few years. If you're in the Buckinghamshire/Oxfordshire area you'll know this bird well - they were successfully introduced there in 1995.

Advertising

2010-08-22T17:07:00.006+01:00

by Colin MY COMPUTER TUTOR

A few months ago I talked about my advertising in Sainsbury's. I was so glad that I'd paid the last (6th) instalment for this advertising, which cost me in total £600.

As I said in that post, the idea seemed like such a good one. Here's the sort of thing - well, the actual thing in my local Sainsbury's:

It's about halfway down the store at the end of the checkouts, near the toilets and near the cafe...it couldn't really be better positioned. And yet, it just doesn't work!

I forgot to mention it's right by the telephone and next door to the customer advertising board...but it doesn't work!

I've stood in the checkout queue many times and watched people go by. Quite a few people show interest in the customer advertising - you know, the cards you can fill out and post for a couple of weeks when you want to sell a car/bunk beds/sandpit/parrot etc. etc. - they stop and have a good look at those. And others stop by the phone and call a taxi...and the business card adverts are right in front of them...but I've never seen anyone take one of these cards.

I've paid the company - ADC "Associated Discount Cards" and a subsidiary of WRT Group - to display my business cards here for two years. They promise to keep them topped up during that time. And they do - I know - because a few weeks ago I took a great wodge of my own cards out and soon afterwards my slot was filled again. The trouble is that they do cram in as many cards as they can, so if you do try to take one out it's very difficult!

Look closely - or click on the picture to enlarge it - and you'll see that Golden Valley Dog & Cat Grooming has been along and pulled out one card to try to make it easier for any curious passerby...but we've all tried that trick over the months! It just doesn't work... Sooner or later, ADC comes along and straightens it all up again!

I worked hard at designing my own business card - a special one for this board, not my usual business card - and took ADC's advice about making it stand out and offering a discount. ADC offer to design a card for you, but it would cost an extra £99 (2009 price)

£600!

And that was at a discount! The salesman first told me it would cost about £12 a week, but when I said I couldn't pay that he immediately offered this discount. And at about £5 per week it sounded reasonable - it seemed a great location, a great idea. If it got me a client each month it would pay for itself!

But what a big IF....

I'm leaving it all up there, of course. After all, I've paid for two years...but I really think that after nine months I should have got some response from it.

£600!

That would get me 30,000 leaflets or, more practically, about 20 weeks in the local paper (a decent 3-column block advert!) And leaflets and local papers and parish magazines do work!

Anyone else out there who's had experience of this? Had any success with it?

Picking up...

2010-08-17T23:26:00.007+01:00

by Colin MY COMPUTER TUTOR

Just a quick post because suddenly things are busy.

When I returned from a weekend family birthday party ( mother - 90) on Sunday I had 7 pupils booked for this week, which, considering it's August, I thought was pretty good. After catching up with emails and returning phone messages, by Monday morning I had 11 booked for this week, which is really busy!

And my fame seems to be spreading: although I say that my operational radius is 20 miles as the crow flies

(that's probably 25 miles allowing for rural wiggles) I went well the far side of Ludlow today to a new pupil. Ludlow's a place I haven't leafletted yet but I shall - oh yes!

And this evening I've picked up a phone message from Builth Wells, which is 40+ miles deep into Wild Wales. Now that seems too far....but then the gentleman wants a crash course in using a computer, so if he can take a whole morning session, or perhaps a whole day with a good lunch-break of course....hmmmmm, I'll have to think carefully about this one.

Do any of you offer whole days one-to-one? Most people can't take more than two hours at a stretch, but I suppose a day could be broken up into manageable chunks?

Success with LINUX

2010-08-11T20:18:00.008+01:00

by Colin MY COMPUTER TUTOR

I've spent most of the day preparing a manual for my lady with the tiny Eee PC. We had a successful morning last week after I'd got her connected to her ISP and set up email for her, spending the rest of the lesson practising sending emails.

The Eee PC is produced by Asus and this particular one runs Linux Xandros. OpenOffice.org, Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird email client are installed. I've come to prefer OpenOffice Writer over MS Word, especially for producing my manuals where I use lots of screenshot pictures and Firefox I've used when I design my websites.

Here's the screenshot of the Eee PC in 'webcam mode'. Yes, I still look bemused!

I thought I'd better install Thunderbird on my own computer so that I could reproduce the screenshots for this client's manual. I was amazed to see that once I had it installed it was showing about 100 emails of mine, all dated 2007. Now I remember, I did briefly play with Thunderbird a few years ago...so it was fascinating to 'catch up' on some old news! But it's good that there are some mails there - I was thinking that I would have to send a few to it, just to make it look used.

So the rest of this evening will be spent in creating some more pages on basic use of the Eee PC.
The 3 'e's stand for elegant, exceptional and easy....no.....extraordinary, embracing and epicureal...no...oh, you make something up!

Mrs PC

2010-08-10T12:12:00.006+01:00

by Colin MY COMPUTER TUTOR

One of my clients said that she'd been in contact with a friend in Bristol over the weekend and was telling this friend about the computer lessons she was having with me. Friend was very interested...and asked my client if I would be prepared to go to Bristol and teach her. So my client very sensibly suggested that if her friend could get a few others together, it would make a worthwhile "day out" for me!

Which is why I came home yesterday and went straight onto the Web to see if there were any computer tutors in Bristol. It did seem strange to me that the lady was looking so far afield - Hereford's 55 miles from Bristol. And as far as I could see - that is, several pages of Google results - there is only one in the Bristol area:

"Mrs PC"

Great name, I thought, and immediately emailed Lou to introduce myself and ask how things were going. She started earlier this year and runs a blog too. I've added her to my list of 'Tuition Around the UK' over there on the right.

Have a look at her website...make encouraging noises...remember what starting out was like?

Start Menu

2010-08-08T10:08:00.007+01:00

BY GUEST BLOGGER Carol

I'm sure this wasn't meant as a competition - but Colin's assertion that no-one needs the Snipping Tool was just a red rag to a bull! So here's a screenshot of my own start menu. Yes - complete with snipping tool, which I use all the time. I use it a lot when I'm making websites.

Notice also the Carbonite Backup Drive. Anyone that knows me will know that I am totally paranoid about backups.

I have lost count of the number of clients that phone me up because their computers have ground to a halt/crashed because they are riddled with malware. My first question is always - do you have a backup of the documents/emails? Most say no. Some I can backup before starting the rescue attempts. Some I can't.

So:

Do your backups!!!

That is what Carbonite does. It is an online backup service that performs a constant, running backup. The instant I save/add something new to my computer, Carbonite backs it up. There is another, similar service called Mozy - which you can sign up for here

I also use an external hard-drive and once a week or so back-up to there as well. For my websites, I pay my webhost for weekly, offsite backups.

Why am I so paranoid? Bitter experience. Have I ever lost everything? No (and I always say that with my fingers crossed and touching large amounts of wood)

What's on YOUR Start Menu?

2010-08-06T16:09:00.012+01:00

by Colin MY COMPUTER TUTOR

Since 'Windows 7' came out I've set up several new computers - mostly laptops - for clients. It's significantly better than 'Vista', and I've set up many of those too! Thank heavens Microsoft got rid of the ghastly Gadgets and made sure that the computer actually 'Shuts Down' now. I've lost count of the times that I arrived at a client's house to find that the laptop battery had run down, because for some strange reason - or maybe just through carelessness - Microsoft had set the Vista 'Shut Down' button to default 'Sleep'.

But why oh why is the Win 7 Start Menu cluttered up with default stuff?

I mean...who needs the 'Snipping Tool'?

My clients are quite new to computers, otherwise they'd set up their own. They make a lot of mistakes with clicking here and there inadvertently, so because Microsoft have 'helpfully' set the Start Menu to show 'Your Recently-Opened Programs' the Start Menu soon gets cluttered up with the most bizarre collection of things!

One of the first things I do is to dive into Control Panel and clean up the Start Menu for my client. I'm not a great user of the Desktop, simply because the Desktop is soon covered up by other windows. But the Start Menu is always available 'on top' and so I encourage my clients to have all their really important things here:

Internet browser

A blank 'document'

A letterhead template

Google

etc.

Here's my Windows XP Start Menu with stuff that I regularly use. It's a little like baring your soul, isn't it?

But I have nothing to hide!!

One thing I think is very handy - and I advise my clients to do this - is to put your web Favorites on the menu.

I use Paint a lot for simple editing of screenshots that I use in my manuals. Character Map is good for those simple fractions that you often need, like half, quarter etc. as well as 'daggers' and other symbols you could use for footnotes...

What's on your Start Menu? How do you organize it - what would you recommend?

More Cash Flow

2010-08-05T15:00:00.002+01:00

BY GUEST BLOGGER Carol

In this business cash flow is mostly one way in July/August. Out. My clients are taking their well earned holidays so I'm - not earning. That's not entirely true as I do a lot of work online these days, but I understand where Colin's coming from!

Like Colin, I rarely get a reluctant payer. I had one a few years ago who owned a garage. After a few weeks of excuses and flannel I turned up on the premises one day complete with (now ex) boyfriend. Big bloke - ex Royal Marines. Instant payment.

Clearly Colin has had the same experience of setting up computers/broadband as I have. If someone rings and asks me how long will it take to set up their broadband my answer is usually something like this - "half an hour if everything plays nicely - 3 hours if it fights back". You'd be surprised how many fight back. The router won't turn on at all (happened once). The router only works plugged into the main telephone socket, which is in the hall of a heavily beamed farmhouse and the other end of the building from the office, which contains a telephone socket that was wired in by Uncle Fred who ran the wire round the outside of the house and through the ivy. No, sorry, I'm not a telecoms engineer and I'm afraid I can't install another socket for you. Actually, I could write a book about setting up wireless routers - but it would be terribly boring, so I probably won't bother.

Which leads me to a digression - I arrived at one client's house a year or so ago to do some maintenance work on their ailing laptop. The broadband had always been slooooowwwww, even after several visits by BT with lots of excuses and notwithstanding the fact that the house next door had a good connection . That day it was working when I arrived - just. The engineer from BT arrived while I was there. He fiddled about for a bit, after which the broadband didn't work at all. The engineer left. BT rang to ask if my client was happy with their work. His admirable restraint in his use of language still amazes me.

Cash Flow

2010-08-02T22:29:00.004+01:00

Hmmmm...

July ended with two people owing me money. I know they will pay eventually - in fact, one of them paid me today, just like he said he would.

But the trouble is that August starts with the mortgage, the gas bill, the electricity bill, the Internet bill and the water rates ALL going out on the same day. In fact, every month starts like that! So this month has got off to a particularly precarious financial start...

I do make it clear that I expect payment on the day for a lesson. I encourage people to pay in advance by giving very generous discounts for blocks of lessons. And the great majority of them do pay "on the nail".

But on odd occasions....well, it usually goes like this:

Someone phones up and asks me to help him set up a computer. Having checked that he has got the broadband equipment, I fix a date to set it up.

I go round to the house intending to set up the router, set up an email client (I HATE webmail!), install some antivirus for him (either the one that PCWorld persuaded him to buy or AVG Free), make sure he's got a useful homepage (like Google), clear the start menu of all the clutter and make sure he can find 'Internet' and 'Mail' easily.

After an hour and a half - job done - one happy client who now is keen to have some lessons. At least, that's my fervent hope and desire!

What happens on these odd occasions is that I get there to find he has a 'Netbook'/he's opted for some ISP and their phone service/he's opted for some ISP and is still trying to change his phone service....

Whatever the reason, the setup isn't going to work. In case you're wondering why I mentioned Netbooks, it's because I have found out that Netbooks are so small that they don't have room for a disc drive. So how do I play the setup CD?

So I spend two hours there, a good proportion of that spent on the phone to the ISP trying to find out exactly what has or has not been going on. Client doesn't understand about discs, filters, passwords, dots, underscores etc. etc. so I end up apologising on behalf of the ISP, myself, the telephone company, myself, the world-wide web, myself and the whole monstrous regiment of geeks everywhere.

But mainly on behalf of myself! So I retreat, promising to return and set it up again. And I haven't the heart to ask for payment! At least, not until I've done the job to my satisfaction.

I know - I should be harder.
I'm not paid by results, I'm paid for my time.

And although 90% of my setups have gone without a hitch and although most people recognise that 'time is money', one or two of the remainder have left me out of pocket. They do pay me next time, when I succeed in setting it up....

The worst case I've had is where a client had been using a spreadsheet to keep business records. He phoned me up asking if I could help him with this spreadsheet, because it didn't work. On arriving there, I find it's a complete mess with no structure to it. He knows what it means and what the headings are of course but because he's just been adding formulae to it "on the fly" (as we geeks say) he's ended up with so many bad references and general inconsistencies that the poor spreadsheet has turned its toes up and said "I just can't go on like this!"

I spent over an hour with him, then took it home for further analysis and spent at least two hours that night, reconstructing one of the sheets completely so that it worked, with clear 'frozen' headings so that it scrolled efficiently etc. etc. Then I took it back and went through the problems with him for another hour.

"Oh well, I've always done it like this..." he said.

Well yes, I thought, but wasn't that why he called me in the first place?

Then suddenly he was called away, so I said "I'll submit an invoice....bye....."

That was three weeks and two invoices ago...

Gosh, what a long post. And no pictures! But then I'd have to blank out the faces!!!

Have you any stories of reluctant payers?

Oh...I now carry a USB CD/DVD Drive everywhere I go on business!

Colin

A day in the life of an IT Teacher

2010-08-01T18:11:00.004+01:00

BY GUEST BLOGGER Carol

Colin invited me to be a "guest blogger" - I hope he knows what he's getting himself into.

I've been an IT teacher for 12 years. I don't do much teaching these days, most of my time is spent designing websites for myself or my clients.

Being an IT teacher was fun (mostly), largely due to the amazing variety of lovely people that I met. I only ever had one "client from hell" - and no, wild horses wouldn't make me tell you who it was.

I've had a few funny incidents along the way, and I thought maybe I'd share a few with you. In this post, I'll leave you with the story of the elderly gentleman who rang me one day. No - I have no idea who he was.

Him - "I don't seem to be getting any of those email thingies"

Me - "are you sure you are connecting to the internet before you check your email" (this was in the good old days of dial-up internet)

Him = "I don't know what you mean"

Me - "Are you making sure that your computer is dialling and connecting to the internet?"

Him - "I don't have the internet"

Me - "Oh. Errrrrrr - errrrrm - what's your email address"

Him - " I don't have an email address"

Carol Smith - guest blogger

Whole new experience

2010-07-27T23:12:00.007+01:00

A lady phoned me up last week to tell me that her son had given her "a little computer" and could I get her started with email and finding things on the Internet.

Well, that's what most people want to do, but I've learned to check a few things at these early stages of negotiations. So I questioned her gently on what sort of computer it was and whether she had an ISP etc. etc.

She said that she didn't yet have an Internet connection and the computer was an "EEPC"... at least, that's what it sounded like over the phone. So, as I often do, I volunteered to pay her a 'no obligation' visit so that I could talk to her in more detail about setting up a broadband provider and she could see if she liked me. Last Friday, I turned up at her house and met her "little computer".

It was little all right! Just about 9" overall width. And it's called an Eee PC.

We turned it on and I waited for the desktop to appear.......

I was so bemused - and she could see I was bemused - that she offered it to me for the weekend so that I could investigate it. She hadn't used it at all, so luckily she knew nothing about it! And over the weekend I realised that the 'desktop' was before my very eyes, only it was 'tabbed', like this:

If only I'd looked more carefully on the box I would have seen straightaway the word

Linux

Now I have seen the word before - and heard it - do you say 'linn-ux' or 'lyne-ux'? But I'd never met a computer using Linux before. I knew that web servers use/prefer Linux but I was quite happy to leave all that end of things to the geeks!

There is more to life than Microsoft!! I have had mild success with Macs - on both occasions! - and so could feel a little more confident in taking on a Mac client. Here I have a great opportunity to learn about Linux and the neat little Eee PC.

All I have to do is keep a page ahead of my new client!

Have any of you met this OS? Any opinions about it?

The July Charity

2010-07-25T23:31:00.006+01:00

I rely on something presenting itself for my charity each month, and sure enough something turned up earlier this month. Terry appeared on the doorstep, clutching a sponsor form for his sky-dive. It's in aid of the Alzheimer's Society and I was impressed by Terry's determination. He's never jumped out of an aeroplane before and he's a few years older than me so he really should know better!

So I said that My Computer Tutor would sponsor his jump...and then just last week he knocked on the door again. He'd done it! He went up 12000 feet in a tiny aeroplane, strapped himself to his instructor Jez...and then Jez pushed him out!

Here's Terry in the plane, looking a little apprehensive, I think. The cool confident dude behind him is Jez.

Here are Terry and Jez in flight. Jez has done this countless times - Terry still looks apprehensive...Terryfied??? No, he's enjoying it!!!!

They fell for about 20 seconds, slowed up a little by a small parachute so that the cameraman could get these shots. Then Jez deployed the main 'shute - one of those steerable ones - and they landed safely on their feet. Terry came away with loads of photographs, a souvenir video of the event, and I hope lots of money for Alzheimer's Society.

On the occasions that I've thought about parachuting - and that's as near as I've come so far - I've thought it must be wonderful to hang there and have such a wonderful panoramic view. But then there's the all-important landing bit...so you probably spend all your time looking for the right field and don't have much opportunity for sight-seeing!

Well done, Terry!

Blog on!

2010-07-23T23:29:00.006+01:00

It's been a long long time for various reasons, but I must admit that the main one has been inadequacy! When I first started blogging, a friend told me to break up my posts with some pictures - or at least a picture. So I tried to make sure that I included a relevant picture with each post. But then I just ran out of pictures to illustrate the points I was trying to make...or the stories I had to tell.

So now...I'm back and I intend to post a picture every time, whether it's relevant or not. You might have to think of them as The Interlude - get yourself an ice-cream or something.

This is where I went last weekend. It's a long story...
I was delivering my leaflets around a likely-looking village. Two blokes were loading stuff into a van in one driveway and I was just about to cough discreetly and say my usual "Just a leaflet...might be of interest..." when one of them said "HeLLO Colin!" And then the banter picked up - as though it was only yesterday instead of 8 years since I last saw John and his son Adam. "My word you do look grey...you got that tenner you owe me...etc. etc." John is a gunsmith and loves mucking about with blackpowder. A few years ago he hit on the idea of providing REAL cannon and mortars for the 1812 Overture and now he runs The Battle Proms, a full-blown open-air picnic/concert featuring Tchaikovsky's '1812' and Beethoven's 'Battle Symphony', which John and Adam and Co. take around the country all summer.

It's brilliant!
And loud!!
And such FUN!!!

Make sure you go if one's within 100 miles of you. My nearest was Blenheim Palace and that was 80 miles for me - but well worth it!

7,500 people can't be wrong.

May's (late) Charity!

2010-06-09T23:51:00.003+01:00

I always meant to do it, but I got a little behind last month. Then today I saw people in town collecting for Arthritis Research UK and it reminded me that I hadn't done my charity for May.

Two or three of my clients have mentioned arthritis over the last few months and when I met a client who told me she was the secretary of the local ARC branch...well, it made the decision for me. This was definitely going to be one of my charities.

I have no idea what the next one will be, but in the course of my teaching and general meeting and talking to people I just know that something will crop up in time for the end of June!

Catch up time

2010-05-31T22:37:00.006+01:00

Didn't I say last posting "Why have a blog if you don't write it regularly?"?

Or something similar.

And immediately I'm in trouble with my punctuation because I 'm quoting a question within my question!! Hence the two question marks.

But enough of semantics...or pedantics...it's time for the excuses:

I've been busy...but not as busy as I'd have liked to have been
ermmmm....

I can't think of any more excuses. But the excuse I've given needs a little explanation:

May has been an up-and-down month for me. Main achievement was finishing a website for a local choir and getting paid promptly for it. In fact, I was paid so promptly that perhaps I ought to have asked more for it! And having the money is good, because time is money and I do spend a lot of time on producing a website, but the main thing is the sense of achievement in seeing the thing work and the appreciative feedback I get from the customers.

Pupils have been a little sporadic - I didn't quite do £1000 worth of lessons in May and I set myself that figure as my target now. So there have been some gaps in the teaching weeks and you'd think that I could have filled each gap with a posting on this blog. But we've had some really good weather throughout May and it seemed such a shame to be sitting up here in the office...

So now you're thinking I've been sunbathing? Wrong! When you're running a one-man business there's always something profitable to do. It might not be immediately 'profitable' but there's always something that needs to be done to benefit the business and when the weather's good and I feel I need the exercise, I go out leafletting.

I'm on my fourth batch of leaflets since starting on November 5th 2008. I thought batches of 3000 would be manageable, both on my pocket and in carrying them home from the printer's. But having got through 9000 in 9 months I thought I'd up the tempo and order 5000 last August. I carried them home in the newly-acquired car. And from last Autumn things got busier - much busier- with pupils. So now, delivering leaflets is more of a pleasure and less of a chore than it was - almost a welcome relief!

I'm down to my last 500 now, so I've almost done 14 000 leaflets in 20 months - mostly through individual letter-boxes but I have left a few small stacks in various community centres.

And now it's school half-term, which means I get the week off from the singing job, so it's an opportunity to give myself a break. Family time!

So I suppose that makes two Excuses For Not Blogging after all:

I had to fill the time with business-related activity
I had to make time to get away from business-related activity

Back to work tomorrow...a manual to prepare and then print six copies for new pupils, mock-up some specimen web-pages for a prospective client, tax the car, drop off some business cards at my friendly local PC retailer, return phone calls to THREE enquirers....but no actual teaching til Wednesday.

Still, as you see, there's always something to do!

Ill winds and silver linings

2010-05-06T23:24:00.005+01:00

It's been two weeks of mixed fortune for My Computer Tutor. Last week was "a bit thin" - that's how I described it to friends who asked.

I had three clients cancel lessons through illness and another postpone because she was on holiday. Fair enough - we all get ill at some time, and we all need a holiday.
But then one session turned into a ignominious retreat because although I thought I'd managed to burn a DVD disc of photographs successfully, the wretched thing wouldn't play all the way through on my client's DVD player. I won't bore you with the technical details - or rather my lack of the grasp of the technical details - but I took it home again promising to investigate fully. And didn't count that as a lesson.

Then on Friday I arrived for my first pupil...to find her opening the door in her pyjamas (pink) to explain that she'd completely forgotten... "No matter", I said breezily, "These things happen....see you next Friday". I'm a softy, I suppose. I should charge for the session - and I see on some tutors' websites that they say they do. But then ultimately how can you enforce it? And is it worth all the bad feeling? And anyway, this lady's had at least 20 lessons and shows every sign of wanting more.
But I used her lesson time to deliver some leaflets before going on to my next pupil.

So I was 5 lessons down last week - and Monday was the May Day Bank Holiday so I was going to be another 3 lessons short this week. But over the weekend the phone rang a few times, with the result that I have a new pupil who has booked 4 lessons starting in the middle of May and another who starts next week. In the "spare" time I had last week I managed to publish a website for a male voice choir and will submit the invoice this weekend. I finished a spreadsheet for a local business and now he wants his website upgraded too.

There's always something profitable to do, even if I'm not actually teaching a client. I always have 'homework' to do for someone - sometimes it seems like everyone! And there are still areas of the county that I can leaflet....so never a dull moment....clouds and silver linings etc. etc.

And my DVD lady is happy with the disk...it plays on the laptop OK as a slideshow, after all...and I rescued her printer and sorted out all kinds of stuff for her this morning - so that was good - especially as she paid me for the last four lessons, so April's figures now look a little better!

How's work for you?

Colin

April Charity

2010-04-26T22:58:00.004+01:00

I've just received an email from The Royal Marsden Cancer Campaign telling me that my birthday party raised...

£491.00

I am thrilled - and so grateful to all the people who chipped in. Some people couldn't make it to the party but sent contributions anyway!

The Royal Marsden's Supporter Relations Executive, Lucy, who was so helpful with providing balloons and collection boxes and T-shirts etc. etc., took time to look at my blog entry for 12th April and now has taken a fancy to

Big Glyn

Spring is in the air!

Thanks to my mother for providing me with this party, to Jacky for organising it all, to Lucy for all the help, to Glyn for his advice and support on the night, to Ed for photographing it all and to everyone who supported the Royal Marsden and comforted me in my old age!!

The Time Has Come

2010-04-21T23:23:00.007+01:00

I've been holding back for a few months but now it's time to confess. I've made a mistake - an error of judgement.

I think that's the fairest way to put it. I don't consider that I've been deliberately cheated - the decision was mine - it seemed like a good idea - but so far it just hasn't worked.

Here's the story:

Back in September 2009 I was phoned up by a salesman who suggested that my business would benefit from advertising within a local supermarket. It sounded like a good idea. The supermarket (national and orange) is just ten minutes walk away from my home. Lots of people go there - lots of people should see my adverts.

Salesman came round, had coffee, told me the details, knocked the price down significantly and I signed up to 2 years of advertising.

I paid £150 up front and agreed to pay 6 monthly instalments of £75.

Total for 2 years advertising: £600

One new client per month would cover it.

I designed my own business card (otherwise it would have cost me another £99) and I took their advice and included a 10% discount: "Bring this card with you..."

Well, I've paid the last instalment. It's been running for 6 months.

Number of enquiries: 1 (one)

Number of clients gained: 0 (zero)

I'm not the only advertiser. There are 20 other local businesses there on the board.

You could say it's early days yet...but if nothing's happened over these 6 months, is it likely to improve over the next 18 months?

I think I've given it a fair chance. And it seemed like such a good idea!!

Of course I'll leave my business cards up there - after all, I've paid for 2 years advertising space. But soon I'm going to collect a card from the 20 other advertisers, bring them home and go through them all, phoning or emailing to compare notes!

I wonder what success rate the others have had...

Has anyone else had any experience of this advertising?

Colin

Milestone

2010-04-12T22:09:00.010+01:00

What's a birthday, huh? Just another day marking just another year. But anyway, I thought I'd make a bit of a thing about this one and follow my friend Tim's lead. Tim had a 'milestone' party earlier this year and asked for no presents but donations to a charity.

Here's Tim, shaking his fist at someone. He's from New Jersey, so we have to make excuses for him...

I thought I'd do the same - shake my fist at people and demand donations to a charity! And so lots of people came to my birthday party and stuffed 'folding donations' into collection boxes for the Royal Marsden Cancer Campaign. That's my April charity, because the Royal Marsden has been so good treating my brother-in-law Barry.

Here's Barry with my sister Mary.

Barry's undergone intensive radiotherapy for 6 weeks, travelling up to London from Dorset for consultations and check-ups and fittings., as well as the actual treatment.

I bet we all know someone - or of someone - who has some form of cancer. The Royal Marsden has been brilliant to Barry and I'm sure they are just as brilliant with everyone they treat.

Now some pics of some of the 'party animals' - they were brilliant too with their contributions. I have no idea how much we collected but I shall let you know asap.

John, my back, Jeremy, (another)Mary, Jacky, Liz and Geoff's ear.

Big Glyn, who made sure everybody filled in a Gift Aid form. You wouldn't want to argue!

Geoff, me and Sue.

Duncan, Stephen and Tracy. Look in those eyes! The camera does not lie!

Ed's girlfriend Laura - pretty as a picture.

One person who didn't appear in the pics was my cameraman son Ed. He was brilliant too.

So I've taken a whole week off from work - amazing! But back to it now with a full week ahead of me. One guy's just phoned to book up all the Mondays in June! How's that for enthusiasm?

Busiest month ever!

2010-04-01T23:47:00.009+01:00

...or have I said that before?
But it must have been, because it's three weeks since I last posted something here. I have new pupils - and some old ones returning - and two commissions! One is a website for a choir and the other is a spreadsheet for a local business.

I really haven't had any spare time to write here, which in a way is good because it shows that this computer tutoring has become my full-time job. And also it's bad because everyone needs some "down time" - and what's the point of keeping a blog if you don't make time to keep it going?

I expected an easy time today. I had one lesson booked at 2.30 with a lovely lady who always gives me tea - and I mean real genteel tea with biscuits and cake and milk-in-a-jug an' all. Very civilised.

But by 5pm yesterday I had Maundy Thursday all booked up. The morning was taken up with a Cathedral service - long, tedious but y' gotta be there 'cos that's the job - and then a lunchtime dash out of town for an emergency retrieval of lost letters for a new pupil, back into town for my 'tea lady' and then straight on to a gentleman who was so impressed by yesterday's lesson that he booked another one for today!

So no time for tea - but my lady wouldn't let me leave without taking some cake!!

But "down time" starts now and will continue for ten whole days! I have a landmark birthday to celebrate and I have cleared all of next week and two weekends. Phew!

My charity for March

One pupil I've been seeing since well before Christmas has photosensitive epilepsy. She told me something about it when we first met, listing some of the things that can 'set her off'. I make sure that I don't wear stripey shirts - I'm not a 'loud stripe' person anyway. Her home has brass or gold-colour fittings - door handles, taps, even the carpet joiners - she lives in a cul-de-sac so there aren't many cars going by, and the windows have vertical blinds instead of horizontal ones to reduce any flickering.

I had no idea about this before I met her. We've all heard the warnings about strobe lighting, which can cause epileptic seizures, but there are so many things out there in the world that photosensitive people are susceptible to. My pupil tells me that when she was looking for a house to buy, she went to view one she saw advertised...and found it was fitted with brass, brown sinks, horizontal blinds etc. etc. The vendor also had photosensitive epilepsy! And that's the house where my client lives now!

So Epilepsy Action is my charity for March.

April's is already fixed - news of that when I get back from my break!

And I've met two other pupils with links to a charity which I shall support in May.

Happy Easter!

Colin

The Patience of St Colin

2010-03-11T19:58:00.005Z

More than one of my friends and colleagues have said to me "You must have the patience of a saint!" when I explain my computer tuition work to them. Now I recall that a couple of tutors also advised me - or warned me - that I'd need "the patience of a saint".

And I suppose I am very patient with many of my pupils, although a very few do try me sorely! You're just getting into the topic that the client says he wants to do...when he clicks - he doesn't know where because he's looking somewhere else - and things disappear...or appear...it doesn't matter which, you can bet your boots that whatever happens has no bearing on the topic in hand. Client learnt in the first lesson that 'clicking' is involved, so now if in doubt he just has a good click!
And then you spend the next half hour trying to find what exactly he's done.

Computers themselves don't help. Unexpected windows pop up, announcing that "Your McNorsky antivirus is out of date...update NOW before you crash 'n' burn" or "There are important updates for your computer" and my client says "Ooh that keeps on coming and I didn't know what to do..." Or Microsoft Office suddenly announces that you've only got 13 more goes before it all packs up. This happens a lot with new computers and I have to explain about 60-day trials and "Product Keys" and generally how greedy Microsoft have become.

And there we were in the middle of some word-processing and it's all interrupted while I explain that unless he pays £100+ to Microsoft it might be better if we downloaded OpenOffice - and before we do that perhaps we better update the McNorsky.

Which eventually leads to the question "Why do I have to restart?".

Well...............a good question!

In a contemplative moment yesterday I wondered why I'd never heard of a St. Colin. Put thy trust in Google, I said to myself and so I had a look.

Behold St Colin the Dude!

This really is the only reference to a St. Colin on Google...and therefore, the whole world!

This reminded me of a lovely incident 18 months ago when the Cathedral Choir went on a tour of Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. On these tours we have local families host us for a couple of nights before we move on to the next gig. My hosts in Philadelphia had two sons of 10 and 8. Mother and the 10-year-old came to meet me and take me to their home. Elder brother announced my arrival to the rest of the family with "Hey guys, the singin' dude is here".

And ever after I have thought of myself as not so much a "Lay Clerk", more a singin' dude.

All I need now is a beard and a surfboard...........

Promises...

2010-02-25T20:13:00.005Z

It's getting near the end of the month and it's time for me to think about my February charity. It's easy on this occasion, because I made a promise some time back in January that it would be Amnesty International.

I don't know what it is about me but these young women seem to home in when they see me in Hereford City centre "High Town". She'd bounced up to me like they seem trained to do and had told me all about it...and I'd told her about my idea to give something every month and that I'd already promised January's donation to some other organisation.

But I did promise her that Amnesty International would be February's - and so it shall be!

I dunno...they always seem to catch me when I'm on the way to the bank. It happened again today! A young woman with hair tied in knots like tow-rope but with a face that got away with it shimmied up to me and started talking about Concern International. It sounded very similar to Amnesty...

So I told her all my plans and I trust she believed me.

It's very pleasant talking to these young women - they must recognise a softy when they see one - perhaps that's part of the training too - but I hope to find other ways of coming across charities for my monthly donation. My sister's told me a little about CAF Charity Accounts. Anyone have experience/opinions of this?

Colin

The Financial story so far...

2010-02-21T17:40:00.010Z

I've been analysing a few figures.

I have a full week booked to finish off February and - God willing, weather permitting and health allowing - I will have taught just over £1200-worth of lessons by the end of this month. Last February was my record month until October, which made a good end to my first year in business.

November 2009 is still the all-time record, which made a great start to my second year. "All-time" sounds rather too dramatic - I should say "the record so far". Then again, ALL records are 'so far', aren't they!

Here's the chart showing the value of the lessons I've taught for the last 16 months:

As my pupils pay per lesson or for a block in advance, this represents my turnover.

Expenditure shows some enormous 'blips'! That's because I had a lot of outlay when I first set up: insurance, a laptop, a laminator, advertising leaflets and office stationery...

After that it was fairly steady until I decided to go mobile in August, when I bought half a car and insured it. I paid another chunk of the car in November, when I also had to renew insurance for public liability and professional indemnity. I'm very grateful to Juliet for her advice about insurance - among other things. Several of my clients offer me tea and coffee and I feel a lot happier about spilling it over their computers now!
Juliet produces a very good book about How To Set Up A Computer Tuition Business...well worth a look!

How's it going for you?

Colin

Time Out

2010-02-16T23:51:00.008Z

It's half-term.

Not that it affects my clientele, but I get nine days off from singing.

The eighteen boys in the Cathedral Choir need a break - they work very hard all term with rehearsals each day before school, then a full 'school day', then another rehearsal and Evensong which finishes about 6.15 p.m. And after that they have homework to do! Then there's the weekend singing as well...

The six men also need a break. Two of them are school teachers so they get 'half-term' anyway but the other four of us have to fit in leave with school holidays if we are going to give ourselves a complete rest from work.

It's so easy to tell myself that I can't afford to stop work - I might lose pupils if I miss a week - and that's how I felt last year. But it's nonsense. I need to take a breather - and everyone understands, especially when I say I need to visit my mother. After all, some of my clients are almost as old as she is!

So I drove straight off on Friday evening (having just started a new pupil!) and spent a long weekend in Dorset doing a lot of gardening. You know what they say: "A change is as good as a rest!"

It was great! I had a wonderful bonfire which lasted two days - my family loves bonfires - it's in my genes. It also gets in my hair and in every item of clothing. I shovelled tons of leaf mould and compost and it did me a power of good, not to mention the garden!

I always take the camera with me, intending to take lots of shots...but then the workload takes over. My mother's eyesight is failing so we got her one of those digital picture-frames last Christmas and a memory stick to go with it. I take my laptop down as well and show her photos on that but it's easier for her if we leave the memory stick plugged into the frame. I keep offering to give her computer lessons but she shoos me away. Perhaps it's just as well, otherwise I would never get a break!

The famous visiting Dorset Badgers come every night, but recently they've been coming very very late, so mother hasn't seen them for weeks - but the food disappears by morning! But by day a new friend has appeared and I managed to photograph him - through the glass door, so it's a bit hazy:

All jokes about computer tutors and mice gratefully received.

Returned to Hereford on Monday night and had a teaching-free day today, Tuesday. But not quite free of 'work' - as I prepared a few pages to add to a pupil's manual and I went out and 'blitzed' three villages with flyers!

All in a day's rest!

Hope you give yourselves a break...

Colin

Busiest ever

2010-02-09T23:19:00.004Z

I'm pleased to say that I'm quite rushed off my feet with this business. At least, I feel busy since I started for this new year on January 4th.

I go out to all my clients and I only teach one-to-one. The earliest I have started a session is 9a.m. but the earliest most of my clients and I generally agree is 9.30....more like 10 a.m! I teach a minimum of one hour as "a session" and I have to stop by 4.30 p.m. so I can get to my 'twilight' job.

I give myself a minimum of half an hour between sessions to allow for payment, fixing a date for the next session and a general civilised farewell and exit before travelling to the next appointment, although as I spread myself around the county I often find I have to allow more like an hour between clients.

Over these last 5 weeks I've averaged just over 10 sessions per week.
The average session length was 1 hour 20 mins.

I haven't kept a count of the hours I spend producing manuals or doing other homework and research but it is a lot! I treat all that as 'part of the service' that I provide.

I have undercharged ludicrously for 'project work' - stuff that I do at home on behalf of clients, like video editing and website design - but this was because it was all new to me and I was learning as I went along. With more confidence now I must draw up some sort of rate for the homework I undertake.

So how does that compare with you? I know some of you do tuition as a sideline to repairs, installations, web design, consultancy etc. But are there any others out there who are doing mainly out-and-about tutoring? How busy is busy?

Good to hear from you

2010-01-24T14:41:00.002Z

Back in September, when I started this blog, I sent out several emails to various tutors around the country. These were the people who had replied to me - all making encouraging noises - when I first made cautious enquiries about the computer tutoring business, so they were the first to know that my website and blog were up and running.

And as they replied, I added links to their websites on this blog...you can see them over there on the right.

Well, it's been some time since I heard from a tutor, but yesterday I had an email from Jane in Buckinghamshire.

Jane says she's top of the Google rankings for "computer tuition" ...and it's true, it's true! She also says that she gets hits from US, Australia and other faraway places. Happy travels, Jane!

On the same search criteria, I'm Google page 6 at the moment. But I fare better when people search for "computer tuition Hereford" and since I'm restricting myself to a 25-mile radius around Hereford city I'm pretty happy with that.

The last two posts were bereft of pictures so I've put together a collage of your websites. Notice that Juliet has a new one - very swish!

It's always good to hear from any of you out there. Do email me, or chip in here with comments.

Colin

Resolution

2010-01-18T22:17:00.004Z

I know it's halfway through January and you might think it's a little late to make New Year's resolutions, but I've had this one planned since before Christmas.

I've been contributing to two charities, one for many years and the other for just about a year. This latest one was charmed onto me by a lovely young lady in the centre of Hereford. You know the sort of people - they're trained or chosen to be bouncy and happy - and they spend all day bouncing up and down in a city centre persuading people to sign a banker's draft for monthly donations to a worthy cause. Clic Sargent, Amnesty International, Save the Children...

Well, Amy saw me coming last year...and I saw her....and there were two people between us, so I hid behind these two...and Amy peered round one side of them, so I dodged to hide...and then she peered round the other side....and then we both laughed and it was the best flirtation I'd had for ages! And I admitted to her that I'd just come from banking some money for my new business - and I felt good about the way things were going - and I signed up for a monthly donation...and she gave me a wonderful hug!

So having got round my first year in November, and what with the 'turn of the year' when we all tend to review things, I thought it would be good for the business to make a regular contribution to some charity each month.

Trouble is, there are so many worthy causes to support. It's no good asking for suggestions because I know I'd get hundreds and it would just confuse me! But one has already appeared for this month. My friend Tim who sings with me each weekend is celebrating his 50th birthday this Saturday and has commandeered the local pub's bowling alley for the evening. He wants "no presents other than your presence" but would be grateful for donations to Acorns Children's Hospice

So that's where I'm starting...and I'll just let others suggest themselves as life goes on.

Colin

Snowed out!

2010-01-08T12:41:00.005Z

Here in town I'm not exactly snowed in - but some of my country clients are! And that's making it tough for income...but there's always something profitable to do and so I take these snowy days as an opportunity. My Friday afternoon client phoned at 8 this morning to postpone today's lesson - he's a busy man with thousands of animals to feed and today he's got to do it all.

I've been preparing him one of my famous manuals of screenshots, explanations and directions - this one's about email, files and folders, memory sticks and that recurring problem of sending pictures by email - so the printer is grinding away as I write...and then there's the laminating to do. Oh yes, my manuals are all top quality!

Which reminds me...

Word & OpenOffice

For years I've been using MS Office 2003. As I met more and more clients with Vista and Word 2007 I had to get a laptop to practise these.

A couple of my clients have Open Office installed - I should say "OpenOffice.org" - and because they've needed help with it I've installed it for myself. Of course I had to get used to this as well...and I've started to like it!

It's quirky...
...but then so is Word 2003. What about that stupid 'Drawing Canvas'?
...and as for Word 2007, does anyone like that 'Ribbon'?

OpenOffice Writer has quirky text boxes - you have to write something immediately or else your text box evaporates! But I like the way you can Insert a picture straight onto the page and immediately resize and move it around.

I've now got to the stage where I'm producing manuals on 'How to Use Word 2007' but I'm using OpenOffice to do it!

Psst! Don't tell Microsoft!

Colin

PS OpenOffice.org is a free download. MS have got very greedy about their Office software.

As our US cousins would say..."Go figure!"

Snowed in?

2010-01-05T23:36:00.005Z

Pretty, innit?

The snow...not the car!

But then again...it's a good little car and is doing very well for me.

Yesterday the temperature was -5°C as I drove off to Ross-on-Wye, but no snow on the roads. Luckily today my appointments were in Hereford within walking distance but tomorrow evening I shall have to brave a country lane.

And that's the nature of the business: if I don't make the effort to get to my clients, I don't get paid! As I said before, Herefordshire is a rural county and I bought the car to enable me to reach further into the county, so when you gotta go...you gotta go!

It's January, it's winter and this is when we should expect snow. Why are the British always so surprised by snow? "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas" and all those shop windows dressed with cotton wool and spray-on snowflakes etc. etc. and yet the country grinds to a halt when we get an inch of snow!

I'm pleased that the New Year has got off to such a prompt start for lessons and I'm certainly going to make every effort to get to them whatever the weather.

"Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!"

Hang on, I'll just brush some off the car...

That's better!

Colin

A Merry Christmas

2009-12-25T01:03:00.004Z

I've just sung two carol services, one on Tuesday and one on Wednesday. On Wednesday afternoon here in Hereford it snowed - real snow - for about an hour - just enough for complete strangers to smile at each other and kids to start throwing snowballs.

I was sent this clip last year and I laughed and smiled and sang along when I first watched it...and I'd love to do it with some friends! I can't sing bass like Santa and I can't go falsetto like the lead reindeer, but I could be one of those three 'backing vocals'! Hope you like it:

I've given a few lessons this week up to the 23rd, which pleasantly surprised me, and I'm starting again on Jan 4th 2010. I was worried that business would drop off well before this week and be slow in picking up again in January, so I'm really pleased that things are looking promising.

I hope you all have a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

Colin

Windows 7

2009-12-15T00:22:00.004Z

Just a quick comment on Windows 7 - my experience of it so far. I've set up three new computers in the last fortnight and of course they are running Windows 7. Very similar to Vista but without those stupid 'Gadgets'. Hooray! What a waste of space they were! And - really important, this - it's so much easier to 'shut down'. Microsoft have now put a button on the Start menu that actually says 'Shut Down'...and it does!

Vista has a red button that looks as though it will shut down the computer. But for some weird reason, Microsoft's default setting for this button was/is 'Sleep'. So I would turn up for someone's lesson to find that the laptop's battery was run right down and I would then sympathise and try to explain this annoying state of affairs. Every Vista computer I meet now, I make sure I go into Control Panel and set the Start Menu power button to 'shut down'.

So the message got through to Microsoft, I'm pleased to see.

But I spent some time on my first Windows 7 experience looking for the resident mail client. It used to be Outlook Express and then Vista introduced Windows Mail which was very similar. But now you have to use Windows Live Mail on 7, which you can set up as a client. Took me some time to find out, though!

Anyone else got comments on Windows 7 - or anything else in the tutoring line?

Colin

Gift vouchers

2009-11-24T23:25:00.004Z

A couple of weeks before Christmas last year, a friend asked me if I would produce a computer lesson gift voucher as a present for his father-in-law. The business was very new then and I was pleased to get any 'lead' I could. I was also pleased to be given this gift voucher idea, so I set to and produced one for him. I rather suspect that it was a little dig at father-in-law to do something about his computer skills - I think my friend and his wife wanted to 'pass the buck' to a professional!

But with Christmas coming round again I thought I'd have a few vouchers ready. And since two pupils had postponed today's lessons through illness I suddenly had a bit of spare time to produce half a dozen...here's one!

I'll put an ID number on the back - hey! I could produce a GUID with guidgen.exe - that would be really scarily geeky!

Then all I have to do is advertise them...tricky! Any ideas? Anyone else doing lesson vouchers?

Colin

Attached to email

2009-11-19T11:36:00.005Z

I think the biggest topic I teach my clients is email. It's certainly one of the most important for them, up there with 'looking up things on the Internet'. Most of my clients are 60+ and their children have grown up and left home. The children have persuaded the parents that they need a computer. The best-case scenario is that the parents go out and buy themselves a new one. The worst-case is where the children hand over an old one...and I have plenty of stories about that!

So using the Internet is the main thing - and using email is a regular topic for my lessons. I could go off into the topic right now - webmail vs. mail clients, spam, deleting, saving, creating/composing (why can't they just describe it as 'writing'?) - but this would make a very long posting!

When a client is very new to email I always send a mail just before the lesson to make sure that there is something in the Inbox. I sometimes send a 'spoof' too - just to illustrate that there are people out there who mimic 'banking' emails. My harmless spoof usually comes from a well-known senior politician...he's been very useful in helping me teach about emails!

Here are two other guys who continue to help me out:

I always use this picture to illustrate email 'attachments'. It always fascinates my pupils and many of them want to save the picture, which leads conveniently into another topic!

Each night for the last 8 or 9 years badgers have been coming right up to my mother's window where she lives in Dorset. Sometimes as many as four pay a visit. I took this photo with a film camera and flash, just by holding the camera right up against the glass. The badgers didn't flinch - they just kept right on chomping away. They know they're on to a good thing!

Thanks, guys - keep on coming. You've no idea how many people are so attached to you!

Colin

A week has flown

2009-11-17T00:02:00.002Z

Well just look at the time! Gone midnight - and this is early for me! It's a full week since I last 'blogged', so this is just to say that I am really busy! Not quite as busy with lessons as I was two weeks ago, but extremely busy fulfilling all the promises I have made to several pupils about preparing 'manuals' for them.
It reflects the stage that they have got to, because after 3-4 lessons - certainly after 4 lessons - I feel that I ought to produce something better than the hand-written notes that I take during the lessons. So I turn the notes into illustrated A4 pages, either in MS "Word" or OpenOffice.org "Writer", laminate them and present them in a hard-back personalised binder. It's all 'part of the service' and I hope it reinforces my principle of selling my service on quality rather than price.

But it does take time! Every pupil is different, not to mention their computers! Eventually I hope to have built up a bank of units so that all I need to do is select the various units, put them together and present them. But while there are now likely to be at least three different MS operating systems around and heaven knows how many different webmail boxes in addition to Outlook, Outlook Express and Windows Mail...well, it's all keeping me very busy.

So now, at sixteen minutes past Tuesday, I'm off to a well-earned rest.

Colin

Aaaarrrgh! Stop Press!!!

2009-11-09T22:50:00.002Z

I went into my local supermarket on Saturday morning and saw my first Christmas tree (since January 2009, that is!)
I have already seen the odd 'Santa' and reindeer in a few shop windows but this was the first Tree. It's eight feet high and totally synthetic.

I'm just a Grumpy Old Man, I suppose. I know that shops have to sell stuff and that they've had Festive Cards available since September - not to mention the mountains of 'Quality Street' etc. but...but...harrumph!!

And then it got worse. I went out that afternoon, to a village a few miles out of Hereford, to put some leaflets through doors...and I saw my first domestic Christmas tree! 7th November and someone already had the Christmas tree up.

Trouble is, we've done Hallowe'en and we've done Bonfire Night and now there's nothing to celebrate until C-----mas. The Americans have got Thanksgiving yet to come, so I suppose they don't make such a fuss about X--s until it's a bit nearer December?

Anyone else enjoy a good harrumph???

Colin

Pimp my ride!

2009-11-08T13:30:00.007Z

I've been waiting to show you this since Wednesday, but what with an exceptionally busy week and then the English November weather it's taken me til now to make this post.

Here she is...

My wild garden/car park does look a little scruffy at this time of year, so I was determined to find a better backdrop for these portraits. These are taken just around the corner from a new client.

Perhaps the white outlining is a little heavy, but I'm generally happy that I've had it done.

My son says I won't need to lock the car now...no-one would steal it. Thanks, son!

Now I need a sharper photograph to go on the website - the website needs another picture or two.

Mind how you go on the roads...I have to make sure I'm always super-polite now everyone can identify me!

Colin

The Explorers

2009-11-01T23:02:00.009Z

Two topics that I find I'm always introducing to my clients are

making an Address Book or Contact List for their email
making 'Favorites' (as Internet Explorer calls them) or 'Bookmarks' as in Firefox.

They're similar in that they both save you the bother of having to type addresses - email adresses or URLs - which can be long and complicated. My clients are always very grateful for these discoveries and we spend some time practising and making sure they know how to do it. Favourite 'Favorites' - if you see what I mean - are Google, Ebay, Amazon, BBC, budget airlines etc. And if my client uses webmail I make sure that their email inbox - or as near as we can get to it - is a favourite too.

I must admit that I've been a little sneaky just recently. I've been adding my own website to their Favorites/Bookmarks...as an example of the technique, you understand... but OK, also as a brazen publicity 'plug'! Last week I tried to add my URL to a gentleman's newly-discovered list of Favorites by the usual method - type the URL into the browser address window / hit Return / Favorites menu / Add to Favorites etc. etc... but was horrified then to see my website's 'Home' page looking a right mess! The pictures and the navigation bar were overflowing in various directions and I just quickly closed it all before he'd had a chance to look!

My client is using Windows ME on a PC which must be 9-10 years old with one of those old monitors which are twice as deep as the screen is wide. It's only a 13" screen and the gentleman has to scroll across as well as down for most of the webpages he looks at - very frustrating and difficult. So he's seriously thinking of upgrading. He's fairly new to using the Web and I think I managed to excuse myself to him.

But as I drove home I certainly hadn't excused myself to myself! All that advice I'd read about testing testing testing. I could only suppose that I'd just seen my website on Internet Explorer 6 and it didn't take me long to realise that there must be several other people who had similarly old computers who might try to visit my website. After all, I am about to feature my website address on my car - and it already features on my business cards in Sainsbury's. (But THAT'S another blog-story!)

So this weekend I tried to get myself Internet Explorer 6. I wondered if I could download it without affecting my current browser and I did find some download that said you could install 'legacy browsers' without compromise. But it didn't work - or I couldn't get it to work - and I'm always very cagey about downloads anyway, so I deleted it.

And then I remembered that I still had my daughter's old 'Time' computer, which she started using in 1997 and kept as her PC until at least 2004. It's still running Windows 98 and I was pretty sure that the browser would be IE 6. So I cranked it up today, copied my website files onto a floppy disk (remember those?) and transferred the files to her computer. Sure enough, the browser is Internet Explorer 6 so I took a deep breath and opened up the index file, expecting the worst.

It was perfect! I was so pleased, because IE6 is reckoned to be the 'bugbear' of the common browsers but one that you should still try to allow for in your web design. So now I know that my site works OK in Firefox, Opera, Internet Explorers 6-8, Google Chrome and Safari.

The only question remaining is: what has my client got? My daughter's PC is older than his but she probably updated her original browser at some stage. I think my client still has IE5.5 or something even earlier!

So when I see him again I shall update his browser as far as it will go...and then add my website to his Favorites!

And, as a budding web designer with plenty yet to learn, I'm grateful to those web gurus who very pragmatically advise that one can only go so far back in the browser minefield.

I see some of you design your own and other people's websites. Any advice about websites, browsers, 'hacks' etc?

Colin

Taking stock

2009-10-27T12:53:00.011Z

Just got back from a 'long weekend' paying respects to family. Mother, cat and visiting badgers, sister and brother-in-law...I expect you've all got some of them! Before I left, the helpful guys at Fusion-MX sent me a first draft of how my car could look:

So I took the picture with me for second and third opinions. Mother just thinks it would spoil the car. I reminded her it's the only reason I bought the car! Business-minded and arty brother-in-law agreed with me that it's an excellent advertising idea but needs the phone number, the name should be bigger and not overlapping the logo.

So this morning I went back to Fusion and the guy tweaked it very quickly - using Adobe Illustrator - to how I wanted it. And it's all booked for next Wednesday, which is great because that day marks the end of my business year. The 'new year' kicks off with the BlueTutorMobile buzzing around the Herefordshire roads.

I'd taken Monday off to make a long weekend but while I was eating supper last night the phone rang - twice - with new clients, so that made up for the 'missed' day. October will be my best month so far, just beating February which, surprisingly, was the best until now.

Going into the months' figures reminded me that HMRC is looming so I have hurriedly registered to do my tax return online, which gives me until January 2010. But it would be sense to tot it all up by next week to give myself a fair idea of how this computer tutor enterprise has gone so far... I'll let you know the verdict.

Colin

www.mycomputertutor.co.uk

2009-10-23T00:00:00.003+01:00

is now up and running, 0001 Friday 23rd October and I'm off to bed!

Later today (I nearly wrote 'tomorrow'!) I shall test it on Firefox, Safari, Chrome and Opera. As if I haven't already!

But I just can't face it tonight so..........

Good night

Fruits of my labours

2009-10-22T18:53:00.004+01:00

Hereford's a rural county. I live right in the middle of the city but I only have to go a mile or so and I'm out in "the countryside". The cider maker Bulmer is still a big industry in this area and we are surrounded by apple orchards. Soon, lorry-loads of apples will be arriving at Bulmers and all through November the smell of baking apples will be all over the city. I moved here in a November - far back in the last century! - and it was comforting to have that homely smell wherever I went.

And on Monday I was given a punnet of tomatoes - including some 'plum tomatoes' - which I made into barbecue sauce. Today, I've been given a large bag of apples and pears - russets and Cox's, Comice and Conference. Not in lieu of payment, of course, but it's nice to have clients who know that I'll appreciate the fruits of the season.

Colin

I gotta new car...

2009-10-17T15:31:00.007+01:00

When I started My Computer Tutor almost a year ago I was advertising the business mainly by delivering flyers through letter-boxes. This involves a lot of walking, but I like walking anyway. I thought that if I can walk to deliver the flyers then I could walk to my clients. I also followed the good advice I'd had from a couple of you about parish magazines. So I'd posted a display advert in half a dozen Hereford City parish magazines, forgetting how large some parishes are nowadays. I hadn't allowed for 'word of mouth' either, so despite my attempts at keeping my business within walking distance I took several bookings from clients 3-4 miles away and further.

I realised that some form of transport would be a good business investment for my kind of work and so, two months ago, I bought this car. I knew it well - I'd borrowed it on several occasions before! - and I knew it had been very well cared for. The fact that it was blue was a happy coincidence for my business logo.

Of course I still walk to my local clients. I'd walk everywhere if only I had the time. So the car does spend a lot of the day outside on the 'wild' part of my garden - the cultivated bit is out of shot to the left! And as I'm always looking for advertising opportunities, I make sure that I display an A4 poster in the window and the windscreen. (The pavement is just out of shot to the right) In fact, if I drive to a client I always stick the posters up while the car is parked. Now, I'm advertising further afield and getting some good response. The transport really is a good investment.

But then, whilst browsing around other tutors' websites, I found this:

...and I thought "Hey! That's advertising!" This is how Jackie Raines uses her car for her business in the Thanet area of Kent. You can find this striking picture on one of her webpages.

Inspired by that, I'm making enquiries as to costs and designs...

Any other computer tutors out there advertising on wheels? Let us know - show us the pics!

Colin

Show and Tell?

2009-10-11T14:29:00.006+01:00

A few days ago I showed you a screenshot of 'work in progress' on a page of the My Computer Tutor website. Here it is as I showed it:

The question is: Do you put a picture of yourself on your website or not?

I see that some of you do.

If I'm going to post a self-portrait on a webpage, what do I hope it would say?

I should explain that the one you can see here I just stuck there 'for fun', to see how a picture would look in the sidebar of the page. It truly is a self-portrait! I held the camera at arm's length, tried to look 'neutral' - and clicked, fully aware that the background was a shelf of geeky books.

It was my little joke to myself, a reminder that perhaps the most cliched portrait of teachers, writers and people who consider themselves educated - and want to show it - features a backdrop of a bookcase. Oh yes, and you mustn't forget the pen - and generally to give the impression that you've just been disturbed at your studies by the photographer!

I haven't found a computer tutor website with a picture like that, so I think I'm safe in poking fun - I'm sure you've all seen pictures - and TV interviews - like that! But seriously, we want our websites to give some good impression of ourselves. We want to encourage people to contact us, make enquiries and ultimately book loads of lessons. Our advertising should allay all fears of engaging a 'geek' or 'nerd'.

So should we try to look serious, studious, older than we really are, younger than we really are, happy-go-lucky or just happy? Should we just trust the photographer to catch us in a typical pose, showing our 'best side'?

And then what should we write about ourselves? Professional qualifications, marital status, hobbies, complete CV? I think we need to give some information about ourselves, especially as we are offering to visit clients in their homes.

So....any advice out there? Have you looked at those About Me pages? I'm planning one - but what would you want to know about me before you booked a lesson?

Colin

Taking in Washing

2009-10-08T22:02:00.004+01:00

Someone has already pointed out to me that the link to my website (over there on the right-hand panel) doesn't work. I really am spending every spare minute on the website and it really will be up and running really soon.

Really really.

Of course, I have a good excuse. I am rushed off my feet with doing stuff for other people. And most of it paid 'homework' which suddenly is coming in. Just when I wanted to get down to finishing the website, I'm getting several requests to help with various projects.

One client has been having fun with a little 'Disgo' video camera - a tiny thing that records sound as well as film. He's asking for help with putting this onto disc, but the main thing will be editing out lots of shots of walls, ceilings and floors etc. Rather than try to do all this in the course of his lessons, I said I'd take it all home and edit it for him. When I say 'all', I mean three videos to be untangled, edited and reconstructed.

Then a lady phoned up last night asking for help with designing a certificate template for her bowls club - and I've ended up taking that home as well. Now I remember, there's a letterhead to update for a gentleman who runs a musical instrument business. He's a world authority in his field - I do meet some interesting people in this job.

So part of the job is rather like 'taking in washing'! And I enjoy that too, not only for the challenge of the project itself, but also for the more practical reasons that I can work at home on my own equipment, knowing (usually) where everything is. The client is always pleased to get the job done and I can give a further session on exactly how I solved it - and how to do it in future.

There's a whole page on my 'Other Services' on the website.....which is on the way.

Really!

Best endeavours

2009-10-06T12:54:00.009+01:00

It doesn't happen so often now, but over my first months of computer tutoring I had several phone-calls that went something like this:

"Hello my computer isn't working I can't get on the net it's all gone phut what do I do can you come now............"

And typically just blurted out like that, with no introductions or anything. No "Oh good evening, I wonder if you could help me...."

So far, I've delivered about 10 000 flyers through letterboxes all around the Hereford City area and a little beyond; presumably these people had seen my flyer or poster somewhere.

The poster is basically an A4 version of the A5 flyer. And in designing these, I thought I'd emphasised the fact that I'm offering TUITION.

You can see I start off by trying to make the point......"Tutor", "tuition", "I teach..."

I have been known to set up a new computer and a broadband modem, but usually in the fervent hope that a block of lessons will follow. I often have to face up to some 'trouble-shooting' in the course of a lesson, the most common one being the discovery that the antivirus software has expired - sometimes years ago! But I see that as a natural part of my general computer educational service.

I can understand the challenge of a technical problem to be solved - good grief, I studied computer programming for three years...and that had plenty of problems - and 'grief'. But I refuse to do PC call-outs. There is so much that could go wrong with people's computers - and it's not always the computer!

I am not too proud to tell people that I'm not a 'techie', and I make sure that I always have to hand the names and phone numbers of a few local professionals who delight in that sort of work.

Colin

Website on the way

2009-10-02T00:06:00.011+01:00

Yes, I am about to join you out there on the web. This is not the finished article but it will give you some idea of the general style.

I was determined to devise my own site so I started teaching myself HTML about a year ago, just by looking at online tutorials and a library book or two. I liked the idea of CSS - it struck a chord with my programming experience.

I compared what I'd read with what I saw in other people's sites, just by right-clicking on a webpage and then 'View Source'. I noticed that loads of people were using tables for layout and so I thought that I'd better gen up on tables. Then, not long after, I started reading about 'Web Standards' - and dropped my study of 'tables' like a hot brick! I had been barking up the right tree after all. The World Wide Web Consortium likes CSS/HTML separation and winces at tables for page layout.

But it's still all very confusing, what with the different browsers people are using and the width of their monitors, whether or not they've enabled 'scripts' - whatever they are! - not to mention the allowances we should be making for the partially-sighted/blind/colour-blind and whether users prefer a mouse or keyboard shortcuts...

So I do my websites from scratch and try to keep them absolutely under control. The result is that they are pretty simple - no gizmos, no slideshows, no quirky rollover effects - and although the real reason is that I haven't devoted time to studying the techniques for these, I'm pleased that the official W3C view of these things is that one should avoid them anyway. Hooray!

Have you created your own website for your tutor business? How did you learn about web design? Any handy hints?

Colin

"One computer, two computer, three computer, four..."

2009-09-28T23:34:00.004+01:00

...you're a tutor, I'm a tutor - are there any more?

Well yes, there are lots of us dotted around the UK - and probably more scattered throughout the world. I looked at loads of computer tuition websites last year to get some ideas before I set up on my own here in Hereford. I was trying to think of a name for my business, and so I was also checking websites to see what your names were so that I didn't clash with anybody.

I'd already realised that the words 'computer' or 'PC' and 'tuition' or 'tutor' ought to feature pretty prominently and it wasn't long afterwards that the poet in me managed to put 'computer tutor' together. But in our line of business that's not enough. Our unique selling point - unique to each of us in our own areas - is that we offer individual tuition at home. And the business name has to reflect something of the personal attention that we provide.

And between you all, you seem to have covered most of the permutations and combinations of
home, tutor, one-to-one, computer, 1-2-1, PC, one2one, tuition....
with of course that most important word: 'you'

I thought I'd cracked it with "Your Computer Tutor" and leapt into Network Solutions to check that the domain was available. It wasn't. It's already taken by Robin in Somerset - and a very good choice too! Damn!

But then I hit on the idea of prospective clients reading the business name. If they saw and read and said to themselves "MY Computer Tutor"...well, I was almost theirs already!

Someone in USA has the .com domain but I have been the proud owner of www.mycomputertutor.co.uk for a year now and, as far as I know, my only rival for the business name couldn't be much further away - in Australia. We're unlikely to tread on each other's toes!

(Any day now the My Computer Tutor website will be launched. I shall welcome your comments.)

What process did you go through to devise the name for your business and domain? Post a comment to let us know.

Colin

A picture says a thousand words...

2009-09-24T20:19:00.016+01:00

Over the last 12 months I've looked at lots of computer tuition webpages, gleaning ideas about what to offer in my own home tuition service and how to present it. Some pages really caught my eye - not with flashing gizmos or lengthy-loading 'intros' - but with a well-chosen picture that summed up an aspect of the business.

Here are a few that really spoke to me:

This one is on Colin's site (another Colin) He's in the Leeds area.

Just look at that expression - haven't we ALL felt like that at some time or other?

I wouldn't want to be that laptop!

Here's a lovely cartoon from Richard's site that says it all. He uses other cartoons (by Randy Glasbergen) just as good - but this is up the top and made me read on.

Again...who'd be a laptop? More like a slaptop!

I bet she's typing a document in Word 2007 and the cursor keeps jumping into the middle of a line she typed 30 seconds earlier.

I share your frustration, madam. I can almost hear you, even though you're in Norfolk.......Aaaaaaaaarrrgh!

But now let's calm things down. Take a look at this. A mug of coffee - a pair of spectacles - ready and waiting.

Or perhaps all finished - job done?

Roger's picture speaks to people like me. We like our coffee, we have a pair of glasses that we keep by the computer, because they're useless for anything else! We don't panic - we have a good think about things and then, if we still can't work it out, we pour some more coffee and call a computer tutor.

Have you seen a webpage picture that gets the message across? Are you already using one to good effect on your website?

Colin

Websites for tutors

2009-09-22T16:34:00.008+01:00

I've had two replies already from tutors who gave me lots of sound advice last year. ComputerTutor4You in Derbyshire and Swintec in Buckinghamshire/Oxfordshire are running computer tuition services, so if you're in either of those areas and you're looking for help with computery things - or if you know of someone who would need it - have a look at their websites and get in touch with them.

And that's prompted me to think about getting my own website up and running. I have been thinking about it for many months now, although I didn't see it as a priority a year ago. After all, many of my clients want to learn how to use the Internet, so why have a website advertising your computer tutor business when your target market doesn't know how to find websites?

But my helpful friends persuaded me. For a start, a computer tutor should acknowledge the importance of the Web - and how better to show it than by being on the Web yourself? And then I've already met several people who tell me that they don't need any help with their computer but they "know someone who does!"

So all things considered, I am determined to produce a professional-looking website that will prompt the web-savvy generation to sign up a parent, grandparent or maybe a neighbour to a course of lessons.

Colin

Encouraging noises

2009-09-20T18:02:00.000+01:00

For these first few postings I'll be looking back to a year ago, when I was persuading myself to start this business and planning all the things that I thought I'd need. And the first thing I needed was some encouragement from people who were already offering the same sort of service, so I typed "home computer tuition" into Google, hit 'return' and spent the next couple of hours going through several pages of results.

There was a wide variety of websites offering all kinds of 'computer tuition' all around the UK. Some people, like me, were totally dedicated to tuition; others advertised tuition as one of many services - such as computer sales, repairs and servicing etc. and some were offering online courses. I picked out a dozen or so who seemed to be concentrating on one-to-one tuition and emailed them. I'd kept my eye on the local advertising and was convinced that no-one in the Hereford area was offering computer tuition, so I was sure that I wouldn't be treading on anyone else's toes if I started my own business here. I asked what sort of response they got in their area, what topics usually came up, and generally whether they would advise anyone else to go into this business.

Within a day I had my first response and within three days I'd had nine replies, all encouraging me to 'go for it'. Some of them sent me quite lengthy emails with lots of good hints and one kind lady offered me her manual specifically written for setting up a home computer tuition business. Not just 'how to set up a business' - there are loads of books that purport to do that - but 'How To Set Up a Home Computer Tuition Business'!

Brilliant! Bang on the nail....thank you JL, you know who you are!

And thank you, all you kind people who responded with tips and advice and, above all, encouragement that there is a market out there. I hope you pick up the emails I've sent you and I hope you take a look at this blog, chip in with comments and - best of all - give me your blog links so we can compare notes and support each other.

Colin

The all-important logo

2009-09-18T16:09:00.000+01:00

This time last year I was doing loads of research into what I needed to start this business. Of course the main thing was to get an advertising campaign rolling, and I looked at countless adverts in local papers and magazines as well as notice-boards to try to capture the essence of what makes an effective advert. I already knew the basic pit-falls about mixing too many fonts, 'shouting' at people in capital letters and leaving the text alignment on 'centre' so that your copy ends up looking like a Christmas tree. I needed to identify 'good' advertising, and what always caught my eye - and catching the eye is what it's about - what caught my eye was a logo.

I don't know how many hours I spent in total on my logo. I was going to be working sometimes with laptops...in people's houses...and I was intending to enlighten my clients in the ways of computers. So I knew I wanted the idea of something opening like a laptop and light dawning! I won't bore you with all the prototypes; my first idea featured grey and orange as a crude representation of a house (roof and brick walls...?) which opened like a laptop.....or so I hoped. It was two rectangles and two parallelograms, which implied an arrow shape but the rectangles looked rather blocky. That, of course, is the nature of rectangles!

But the hint-of-arrow encouraged me. Perhaps I could use that as a hint of "progress" and illustrating that "I come to you". Why I chose blues I really don't know. I had to get started on the campaign and I had to have a logo that I was happy with, because that's how people would get to know the business name.

So here it is. Or rather, there it is at the top of this blog. Perhaps I've spoiled a good game by telling you all the answers, but it goes from dark to light, points like an arrow, opens like a laptop and ticks all my boxes.

Dare I ask this question?

Yes, I shall....

What do you think?

Colin

In business

2009-09-16T23:49:00.000+01:00

This is my first blog and I was momentarily tempted to write the title "Hello world!" But if that greeting annoys you one tenth as much as it has annoyed me on the opening pages of countless geeky text books, I know you'll thank me for avoiding it.

I run a one-man home tuition business in the Hereford area. I go to people's homes and teach them how to use their PCs and laptops, one-to-one and on their own computer. I've done this for almost a year after a lot of planning and weighing things up - I've never done any sort of business before and I'm a cautious sort of bloke - and I thought now would be a good time to set up a website and start a blog. Well, the website's on the way and in the meantime here's the blog.

This is where I'll be posting all my thoughts on the My Computer Tutor business, so anyone who wants to know all the inner details will get them here! I'll also be seeking advice so feel free to comment.

Colin

My Computer Tutor | Home computer tuition in Hereford

Long month

New Year 2012

A Very Merry Christmas

Labels

One link leads to another

Three Years of Business!

Final warning

One thousand!

Holiday snaps

October Charity

September Charity

Ladies and Gents

Requests

August's Charity

Microsoft in the head

Mail menopause

So here we go...

Another niggle...

Charity catch-up

Now...how about this?

The Web's Wonders

Never a dull moment

Emailing Photos

A Week of Bank Holidays

April Charity

The Bird Spot

Photos and Email

Easter

This month's bird

March Charity

More on email...

Rogue Mail

February Charity

Of Mice and...'Human Interface Devices'

HMRC

Birds Stop Press!

January

Charity for the Month

Start the Year

Guest Bloggers

The Birds...

In the bleak...

November's Charity

So that was November!

New business year!

October Charity

Doggone it!

Zen...and the etiquette of delivering leaflets

Delivering Leaflets - Part 3 - Survival

Delivering Leaflets - Part 2

Delivering leaflets - Part 1

September Charity

P.S....Bullet Points

"...one of Nature's little kings"

New Season

Long Distance Information...

August Charity

Advertising

Picking up...

Success with LINUX

Mrs PC

Start Menu

What's on YOUR Start Menu?

More Cash Flow

Cash Flow

A day in the life of an IT Teacher

Whole new experience

The July Charity

Blog on!

May's (late) Charity!

Catch up time

Ill winds and silver linings

April Charity

The Time Has Come

Milestone

Busiest month ever!

My charity for March

The Patience of St Colin

Promises...