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Thanks for keeping your eyes open, Steve, I hadn't spotted the inconsistency

You'd better not alert your insurer to the risks of earthquakes in the UK and of flash floods in the London Basin .....

Before you do anything else, do some research.

Talk to contacts who're already working as contractors - what do they like and dislike about it, over the last 2 years have they improved their annual income or not, how do they see the situation going forward.

Talk to some employers / employers associations who're located somewhere you wouldn't want to work - over the next year or so will they be increasing or reducing the number of contractors they "employ"?

Then of course you need to look at what Inland Revenue rules say (eg they don't much like freelances who always work for the same "client" and to think about whether self-employment would suit you.

It's be interesting for us if you could share the results of your research!

Getting in touch with her "competitors"and agreeing a "scratch my back and I'll scratch yours" relationship might help .

Childcare businesses (where the staffing ratios are tightly regulated) often have to turn away enquirers who come along at a time when they're already operating at maximum capacity. You irritate enquirers a lot less if you can find them an acceptable substitute supplier.

Musing related to the topic ....

If your laptop dies on you, can a techie get the data on it back for you? I'd got the impression (from the PC Clinic shop in my village) (s)he could.

Equally well, I've been told that PCs are less vulnerable than laptops because the programs can be stored on your C drive and all your data on the D, E and F drives ... therefore if the C drive programs go down, you've still got the data safe. Is this advice accurate please?

Grrr Steve - on several grounds!

For good social and economic reasons, we need as near full employment for all sectors of the population as we can get. I'm all in favour of upskilling but not everyone's capable of doing highly skilled work - there should be room in the workforce for those that aren't, as well as for those that are.

I also think the minimum pay levels for any full-time job should be set at the level where essential bills can be met on one income, with a small surplus for savings and just having some fun.

If we told governments their job was to sort out how we could get full employment sustainably (all jobs paying decent rates) in a globalised market, they'd be following very different policies from the ones they currently are. For starters, they'd have to start thinking and doing some decent business / market / social research instead of just mouthing the usual party platitudes.

Following this thread made me curious enough to go and check out our results.

The home page was 5 many moons ago, then it went down (to 3???). It's now up to 5 again and some of the inner pages and individual blog pages are 3.

It seems to me these changes are almost exclusively driven by inbound anchor text and other links, from MLF amongst others. I'm writing comments on other sites' blogs, writing ezine articles, trying (but failing) to keep up blogging rates etc.

I'm chuffed at any sign of progress but agree with Steve "what really counts is targeted traffic, user experience and conversion rates".. PR doesn't pay bills!

garde - shop with a trusted neighbour (or neighbours) and share the petrol savings with them!

Neighborly collaboration works wonders with plant-swapping if anyone here's a gardener.

There's a disconnect in the thinking isn't there? If you make it cheaper and easier for the richer part of the population (those able to afford cars) to shop in a retail park rather than the High St, that's where they'll go (all things being equal). Then you leave the High St to the leisure visitors (people going to the theatre, cinemas etc) and to the less mobile and less well off ... and surprisingly, they spend less money in the shops.

Yahoo's popular with students,isn't it? I seem to remember it made a special effort to market itself to them.