Hi everyone!
I'm very new here - just joined today.
I live in London, UK, which is probably irrelevant, but just in case...
I'm a PRIVATE one-to-one tutor of English as a Foreign Language here in London and I'm desperate to find more students. I've got a website, and I also advertise on the library noticeboard. However, I'm convinced there must be better, and preferably free, internet-based ways of advertising. I've heard of email newsletters but how do I know how to do them and where to send them? I DON'T want to be a "spammer", so what's the legal and acceptable way to do this?
I'd be VERY VERY grateful for anyone with expertise in this area who can advise me.
Many thanks and best wishes,
Martin :-)
ps. Simply to show you more about what I do, please visit:
www.privateenglishlessonslondon.com

Wow UK Cool!

I just looked at your site and 1st of all I think you could make it a little easier to read. There is a lot of great information but it reads more like a resume and I think if the key items, hours, locations etc where towards the top you would not lose as much interest as quick.

If you can bare with me a few days I will take a look and see what I can suggest. I am a Marketing Consult for a living so I am sure I can come up with some ideas.

Can you answer the following?

1) Where have you posted info about your tutoring services?
2) For your website do you have the option to change the look? IE who is it run through/provider? I think an online newsletter would be safer than an e-mailed one. But we can discuss that later.

Thanks
Joanna Swank

Jswank Marketable Concepts
www.jswank.com
info@jswank.com

You don't need to "spam" in order to make your mark in the online world.

I would suggest you first get your website rebuilt by a professional. It doesn't have to be expensive or full of bells and whistles but your online image is just as important as your offline image.

Secondly I would suggest having the ability for people to signup for a promotional mailing list on your website. Not a newsletter...a mailing list. The difference is a newsletter has to be informative to be effective, you also have to be able to commit to sending it out regularly. A mailing list by comparison you can send out promotional material anytime you wish...especially in times like this where you're "desperate to find more students"

I think I've got some amazing solutions for you...they're not free unfortunately but they're extremely affordable and will be much more effective in your attempts at generating more students.

I would also be happy to connect you with some colleagues who might be able to help you with finding more students immediately.

Please contact me at craig@holibyte.com and we can discuss this in greater detail.

I agree with Joanna and Craig, you should definitely spice up the look of your site, even just some tables, color, and bold letters would help it stand out better.
You could find another educational website that has a newsletter and see about adding your info/link in that.
Also reciprocal ads have worked well for our retail business.

Leah Oviedo
Mercado del Mundo

And improve your SEO. Right now, Private English Tutor doesn't list you on the front page... nobody can find you.

Your metatags need to be targeted.

I asked Reg to pop in here and comment, he does my SEO.

T

Tina Brooks, VP Marketing
Brooks Pepperfire Foods, Inc.
Makers of Peppermaster Hot Sauces
http://www.peppermaster.com

Eat more peppers!

Hey Martin.

I have to agree with previous posts on getting professional help.
It does not have to be all that expensive.

The key in working online is to get your site listed on the first search page and ideally in the top 3

A Google search shows your PRIVATE ENGLISH LESSONS IN LONDON phrase to list you in 73rd spot on the main Google database and it is not in the top 100 in the UK search. You might want to think about going to a co.uk domain to take advantage of local search.

You might want to rethink your page content. *Might*? Heck you BETTER rethink your page content. As it is it looks like it has been written for the search engines. How many times does a visitor need to be told PRIVATE ENGLISH LESSONS IN LONDON? You have it at 11. Google might interpret this as spammy.

If you want an idea of what works check http://latelierart.com/ which is one of my creations for an Art school in Florida.
This site is only a couple of months old and here are some of the latest search engine queries for them http://regcharie.com/-latelierart-serps-apr-4-08.htm

Give me a shout in IM Martin and let us see what can be done.
http://dotcom-productions.com/cms/contact_us.php
I am in the Pacific Time Zone. GMT-8

Reg