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Sorry Michelle, actually had this post open to answer it earlier then got sidetracked 

Yup I'd deffo disavow any parked domains. It may well be that the link was actually on a previous website before the domain became parked and is just showing as a false positive, but disavowing won't do any harm.

Saw this on Facebook and thought it might be appreciated here

Hi Lou, we have a couple of Small Biz Sat threads, so moved you post to this one.

Do we have any Glasgow Businesses that would like to take part in Lou's video? 

Good sound advice. 

Once recent one which I thought was initially a good idea until you read the small print was the Business Growth Vouchers.

Spinning it, it made more sense to try and be able to be part of the scheme, then inflate your prices and let people claim half back  If you could sleep soundly at night...

There is so much free advice from various sources, sifting through the contradictory and rubbish can be half the problem. Asking 3 people the same question is good advice, plus you start to realise a lot of people out there are genuinely happy to help.

According to the Guardian, Citizen UK leader, Rev Graham Hunter is going to turn up to the Associated British Food’s annual shareholder meeting on Friday dressed as Scrooge

They own the Primark Chain and Citizen UK want to make the point about not paying employees the living wage. I imagine this will get some more publicity as the week goes on!

Great story on the Daily Mail

Disgruntled jihadists who travelled to Iraq and Syria to join the Islamic State are begging to be allowed back home after complaining they were forced to do menial tasks and had to suffer without their creature comforts. 

Foreign recruits have been writing to their parents with feeble excuses that range from having to clean toilets and doing the washing up to the fact their iPod was no longer working or that it was getting too cold.

Full Story on the Daily Mail

It's good to see ISIS have a nice structured training program, no wonder so many youngsters are put off!

The minute any disgruntled youth, nutcase or radicalised extremist nails his colours to the ISIS mast, then it's a one way trip and you cease to be British. If they want to come back, let them come back Stateless and plead political asylum ans sit in the system. Rather than drop their rifle, put a pair of jeans on, fly into Heathrow and wave their passport.

Or do you think people should be given a second chance?

In this post imported Black Friday chaos, saw a great question on the Beeb. Is it stealing if you grab a product off another person while still in the store?

The consensus seems to be that no actual legal offence has been committed as the property is owned by the store until it is paid for. Bad manners is another question!

But what about if the product is damaged in the melee? If you were the store owner and your display of HD Tellys or clothing is getting rampaged, with customers fighting each other and some of your products are caught in the crossfire and get damaged, who is liable?

Is it just a case of claiming of your insurance and taking a hit on renewal premiums, or would you try and claim damages from individuals if possible? Is that even allowed?

Looking at some of the carnage and this odd pack mentality a certain (chav) section of our society have embraced, who would own an inner city store! If they're not nicking your stuff under the pretence of a riot, they're clubbing each other to death because you've got a sale on 

Did make me smile to see a report of reduced price tellys had appeared on ebay but were showing little bidding interest. Some interesting shopper tried flogging his empty TV cardboard box, as a genuine Black Friday purchase, complete with polystyrene...

I think it's time to emigrate to Australia or maybe the Isle of White...

Saw a post from Local Search Guru Mike Blumenthal that Google has updated it's guidelines on Google My Business again.

One interesting point is around Virtual Offices, according to Mike:

"Virtual Offices are NOT allowed unless staffed. (If they are staffed then they aren't virtual are they?"

Google already doesn't allow PO boxes, and one work around was seen to be the use of Virtual Addresses, but it looks like they are getting wise to that.

Good point raised by our man Clive, how does Google know if your address is virtual or if it is staffed? Our address is a business centre which is a mix of staffed offices, a hot desk area and is also used as a virtual office and mail point centre.

The new Google Guidelines are below:

Guidelines for representing your business on Google

Be interesting to get your take Skyler, particularly to virtual offices as this could potentially impact a lot of people. Is it something smaller businesses need to worry about or not?

Courtesy of themetapicture.com

So if you managed to get to the end of that, what do you think?

I love the humour and sarcasm, but is that the right tactic to come over on a review site? We all know the customer isn't always right, and thanks to those pesky review websites  the power seems to be firmly in the hands of the consumer.

How would or do you deal with negative reviews? Or do you think this was a fair one?

Interesting to see how the review has been received (although the review in question seems to have been taken down). Following comments give the impression of decent food, but smug and patronising service.

Seen in that light does the reply come over as more prickly than the owner really wanted?

I've previously been quite vocal about blogging and blogging for blogging sake

I had a blog, had bursts of enthusiasm, then left it unloved and withering on the vine for months at a time before just shutting it down. No blog is better than a dead blog.

What is the actual point of a blog? Other than being a place to put down random thoughts, normally related in some shape or form to your main subject. Most of us do it for marketing, in the old days as a cheeky link dump for SEO or more recently to get eyeballs on a post and follow a author bio nofollow link back, as you will be considered a subject matter expert.

But why put a blog on blogger? Why not have all that lovely content on your site and let your audience interact. Or if the subject matter is more unrelated, then maybe consider other avenues, eg social media groups and communities. I think these are slowly becoming the new blogs, as they tend to be shorter, which suits our short attention spans as we flit all over this inter web.

I'd also include forums as part of the social media mix  Forum Blog

But a lot of people still love them and swear by them. Guess it comes down to the old adage, if it works, use it, if it doesn't, lose it.