the-brunlea-blog

The Brunlea Blog is closing for now

2011-06-13T12:51:00.000Z

For the time being the Brunlea Blog is shutting down.

It will still be live on the web with its old posts, but this activity is now transferring to my new AdMastery.biz InfoBlog.

My BrunleaWeb sites will in future take a different direction, and this blog may return with a fresh type of content in a few months' time.

Still more changes at BrunleaWeb

2008-07-08T20:59:00.004Z

It's amazing how time passes. This past month we've been working on a number of fronts to upgrade our older sites, and also to make progress with some of the newer initiatives.

Some people argue that in building an internet business you should do one thing at a time, finishing one project before starting another. Well that may work for some people. Personally I prefer multi-tasking. I've lived my entire business life that way, juggling many balls in the air simultaneously, and am not likely to change at this stage.

One of these balls has now come down to rest. It's the hotel search and booking service at inBritain.biz. We'll be linking to this service from many our sites, but you can also go direct from here - not only for hotels but also for rail journeys and car hire.

There's much more to come. Keep watching.

- David Murray -

Changes imminent

2008-06-06T08:29:00.002Z

Look out for changes at the BrunleaWeb.

We've been adding a portfolio of sites and services, and in the near future (no date announced yet, but I hope very soon) will be making major changes to our hub site, The BrunleaWeb, followed by a further expansion of BrunleaBooks.

Meanwhile, have you looked yet at our site devoted to the English Lake District and other lakes around England? Not only does it provide good information about this most beautiful corner of England, but it points to great places to stay and things to do - as well as how to get there.

Finally, just over a year ago I became interested in alpacas, those gorgeous animals from the Andes which look like a cross between a sheep and a camel - smaller than llamas, and increasingly popular both as farming livestock and as pets. I went to the 2007 British national alpaca show and was hooked, so started a web site about them. The site has not been developed much until recently, but I've now added some more content and have still more in process of writing. It's a hobby as much as a business for me. Take a look at fine-alpaca.co.uk.

That's all for today. I can't decide now whether to stay at my computer or get the lawn mower out of the shed and cut the grass at the front of the house. A cup of coffee might help me decide.

- David -

Lake District Books ... and more

2008-05-02T16:30:00.005Z

I still have not managed to get back to serious work on our main bookselling site, but today I have added book pages to two of our other specialist sites.

England's Lakes
Firstly, I've added a books module to our Lake District site, including links not only to both Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk (so as to meet the needs of readers on both sides of the Atlantic) but also links into two of the major international networks of independent booksellers, Biblio and Alibris. Click here to see our selections and for access to wider ranges of both new and out of print books about the Lake District.

Alpacas
I don't think I've mentioned this site before on the blog. Until early this morning it consisted only of one page. There's still a lot of work to do on it. However, I've now tidied it and added a page of books about alpacas. These gorgeous animals deserve more attention than they get. I was totally smitten by them when I saw several hundred in the same place at last year's local agricultural show, which was also hosting the national alpaca show. Watch out for more. Meanwhile, here are some alpaca books.

OK, then. That's some of today's progress. I've now got to do something about a domain name I'm selling through Sedo.

If you're in the UK, enjoy your long holiday weekend. Maybe it won't rain.

Wishing you success,

- David Murray -

I'm back! ... and something about England's Lakes

2008-04-29T21:21:00.004Z

It's disgraceful how long I've allowed this blog to go unattended. Months have passed since my last post. The explanation is that I've been struggling against poor health and exhaustion. However, I'm now feeling much improved and recently have managed to concentrate a little on writing - something I've found very difficult for quite a while.

Anyway, to get back into writing practice I've been writing short pieces about an area of the country that I know well, near to where I was born ... the English Lake District, in Cumbria, up at the northwest corner of the country just below the border with Scotland.

This beautiful area of England has stimulated the pens of far greater writers than myself, not least William Wordsworth and his friends the Lake Poets. I'll not pretend to similar quality of style, but at least my content will be 150-200 years more up to date!

Take a look at it. My new "England's Lakes" web site now has more than a dozen pages and is growing each day. I've also created a short Squidoo lens with somewhat different content. Visit our beautiful country through your screen even if you can't be there in person.

That's it for now,

- David Murray -

A New Blog on our New Site

2007-11-05T19:40:00.000Z

A few days ago I announced the launch of our new gardening site. Now we've added a new blog to it, specifically focused on gardens and gardening. Whilst this blog is hosted on "The Blogger" the new one is independently hosted on our own web domain using WordPress technology which will give increased flexibility in design as we proceed with its development.

Do join us there. We already have a first upload on the subject of preparing for winter.

Gardening-Notes.com - our new site

2007-11-02T21:36:00.000Z

For some time we've been considering whether to put helpful gardening articles on the bookselling site in the gardens pages, or to create a separate gardening site. We experimented with the former solution by uploading a few articles on fuchsias, but after a lot of thought we eventually chose the latter course.

www.gardening-notes.com is now launched.

The central core of the site is a steadily expanding collection of gardening articles, and with each article come links to books relevant to the theme of the page. And not only books, but gardening supplies and equipment in wide variety - available to be delivered from selected suppliers both in the UK and the USA (with more countries following shortly).

The second main stream of the site is an on-line garden shop. At present this caters primarily to UK-based customers, but in the margins you will find links to suppliers elsewhere in the world.

We'll be monitoring it very carefully and are committed to its continual improvement as we discover what our site visitors find most interesting.

Wishing you well,

- David Murray -
www.brunleabooks.com

It's here at last !!!

2007-10-22T14:57:00.000Z

After a great deal of restructuring and redesign, at last we've launched our "First Anniversary" relaunch of the BrunleaBooks site.

We now have a solid base from which to build into the future, and there's much to come in printed books (both new and used), e-books, audio-books, magazines, art-prints, posters, historic newspapers, etc., etc., etc..

To keep up-to-date go to BrunleaBooks.com now and subscribe to our newsletter

Yours bookishly,

- David Murray -

Our new audio-book service - Take a look now

2007-07-20T18:57:00.000Z

In my last BrunleaBlog entry I was ranting on about the problems we were having with an incredibly customer-insensitive affiliate marketing scheme supplier. Well, at least in one area the dark cloud has proved to have a silver lining.

In the process of changing the links and banners on the front page of our main site I came across a new source of audio-books. Having investigated it, joined up with them and started to promote them on our site I'm genuinely excited.

First of all, the products are great; there's a huge selection of topics relating to virtually any niche you can think of... all delivered in licensed .wma or Real format. Anyone with a computer, an iPod, or mp3 player can instantly enjoy these fine audio books, at their leisure...

Secondly, in addition to offering the audio-books by referring people to our new site in Leisure Audio Books format, we can (and shortly will be) integrating the sale of individual titles into our own pages.

Thirdly, we are able not only to sell the books but also to point people to the Leisure Audio Books affiliate scheme under which they can themselves set up their own bookselling sites - possibly focused on a niche market of particular interest to them. (Don't worry, we're not going to do that out of total altruism; there's something in it for us as well if you follow the links below!) By the way, the training provided including videos is of very good quality. and not merely full of excitable hype.

Fourthly, we don't have any of the order filling problems that come with offering a physical product, Leisure Audio Books handles it all electronically.

These are high quality, high fidelity products and the diversity of the almost 7,000 titles is quite astounding! They are even sorted meticulously into 160 categories in a feature- packed store.

If you want to explore the world of audio-books as a reader (or should I say listener?) click here to go to our new audio-books store.

On the other hand, if you have a specialist interest in some particularly fascinating topic, why not check out the catalogue to see what there is on your favourite theme. I would not be surprised if there were enough for you to develop a niche audio-book store and to start making some money from it yourself. This link will take you to details of the Leisure Audio Books affiliate scheme.

Wishing you well,

- David Murray -

Temporary withdrawal of our Churchill site

2007-07-11T08:40:00.000Z

Regrettably we have had to withdraw for a while most of our site specialising in books about Sir Winston Churchill: www.the-churchill-file.co.uk

The purpose of this site was to provide a series of short articles about many aspects of Churchill's life and to list books both by him and about him.

The site was in the process of development. We had decided to release it slowly and allow it to grow gradually, rather than wait until it was large before making anything available. In line with this approach we had not yet promoted it heavily; traffic through it was very light, and although people had used it as a route into our main site no-one had bought books from the site itself. At the present stage we were not worried by this, but it turns out that we should have been!

Most of the links to books for sale were not to our own stock but to the listings of thousands of booksellers around the world on the AbeBooks service. Now AbeBooks is a very good company with which we have a good relationship in other areas of our business. On this site, however, we were not selling our own books via their excellent listing service; we were using their affiliate programme which unfortunately they do not manage themselves but use a company called Commission Junction.

Commission Junction decided that as we had not sold anything through their system they would consider our account to be dormant and close it down. Now I suppose it is understandable that they would not want a long list of businesses generating no income for them. Sadly, however, they decided to cancel our account without telling us that they were about to do so or, indeed, informing us that they had done it.

We are, we believe, righteously angry! It is true that they were acting in accordance with the fine print of their contract but the arrogant, high-handed, unilateral manner in which they did so was, in our view, unconscionable. There is little or nothing we can do about it apart from saying that we shall not be seeking to reinstate that arrangement and could never again trust a company that behaves in such a manner toward its customers.

When the site is relaunched it will have links to Churchill books on the Biblio.com listing service. Meanwhile, just the front page of the-churchill-file is still in place with links to our own secondhand shelf stock, and to new Churchill books on our main BrunleaBooks site. It also has a link to a wide variety of high-grade posters, art prints and photographs of Churchill at many stages of his life.

Yours bookishly,

- David Murray -

Launch of the Brunlea-Web

2007-06-26T10:51:00.000Z

For several weeks we have referred here and there to the "Brunlea-Web family of useful web sites". It is now becoming more of a reality rather than merely a dream.

Following on time-for-more a couple of weeks back, the latest addition to the family is Brunlea-Web.com. This is a mini-site on which we will periodically promote four or five selected products or services associated with the building of business on the internet, the selection changing every few weeks.

My experience of the past year in establishing BrunleaBooks on the web, both for used books and new books, has been both fascinating and disturbing. It has taught me much about the vital importance of avoiding the hype of "get-rich-quick" merchants, furiously promoting one another's products as the best thing since sliced bread, and milking the gullible of their cash.

I decided to avoid like the plague this dangerous vortex of "internet marketing" scams, but of course the web is a valid place in which to do business and there are products, services and advice to be had from reputable organisations, large and small. My aim is to identify some of the the best and to promote them without exaggeration. I do not and probably never will myself merit the title "marketing guru", but having spent much of my life in other fields working with many of the world's top specialists in their respective subjects, I'm now looking out for those genuine experts in this area of business who really do deserve to be listened to and learned from.

On this first edition of the site you will find only a few product banners with no associated text other than sectional subtitles. Subsequently, however, I aim to provide links to reliable, well-written advisory papers (and, of course, books) on e-commerce topics. There are many, but they need to be sifted out from those written chiefly to suck their readers into the maelstrom of viral affiliate links.

We will, of course, be using affiliate links ourselves but will try to be completely transparent about this and give a promise that we will under no circumstances promote a product simply because it carries a high commission rate.

The Brunlea-Web - take a first look at it now.

More soon,

Yours bookishly,

- David -

Launch of "www.time-for-more.com"

2007-06-04T23:55:00.000Z

For some months we've been thinking of launching a new section of the BrunleaBooks site promoting products which we ourselves actively use on a regular basis. The first of these product promotions is live as of an hour or so ago, but not in the main web site. We have launched it instead as a separate, but related entity, www.time-for-more.com.

Why? Because over the next week or so it will be joined by other products and services designed to help us all to manage our time to best effect. Watch out for more.

While I'm here I should also say that we've started steadily to upload more of the catalogue of our shelf stock of mainly secondhand books on a wide variety of subjects. At present there are still only a few hundred listed on the web site, with several thousand more to come.

Yours bookishly,

- David -

Why carry pounds when ounces will do?

2007-05-17T08:49:00.000Z

Much work these days is done away from the office desk on a portable computer. I live in England and, as I'm still involved in the management consultancy business I started in 1991, am often on the inter-city trains to and from London. I see dozens of men and women, young and old, typing away at reports and building spreadsheets on their screens, shoulders still stressed from the weight of their carry cases.

It's now some years since I last joined them in this travelling ritual. Does this mean I don't work on the way home? Not at all.

There's a difference, though. I don't have a dinge in my shoulder from the strap of a 20 pound bag, nor do I have to apologise to the woman opposite for taking up more than my fair share of table space.

Why not? Because my computer is little more than two inches wide by four inches high, and I carry it almost unnoticed in my pocket. I'm writing this on it now. Why carry pounds when a few ounces will do? Oh, and by the way, it's a phone and a camera too.

Ever since we launched BrunleaBooks onto the Web last year we've had in mind to include a "department" on computing and the Internet. We're not quite ready to go for this in a big way, but a day or two ago I put up a page containing my article, "A Handheld Day". Take a look at it. With or without a built-in phone to avoid carrying two separate small items in your pockets, I'm genuinely convinced that an investment in a PalmOne handheld computer or smartphone can improve your productivity as it undoubtedly has mine. I've included some recommended software also, most of which I use myself on a daily basis. Oh, and I mustn't forget, there are some links to books full of advice on using these amazing machines to best advantage.

====

Finally for today, apologies to the gardening enthusiasts who have been waiting for our promised new stock of books on eBay. I'm afraid that the entry of these into the online database was delayed a little. Coming shortly! I promise. We'll have to get it done as our visible-on-line level of book stock is falling; people keep on buying them!

Yours bookishly,

- David -

2007-05-08T07:52:00.000Z

I've been looking at the statistics of our BrunleaBooks eBay shop. We don't, and don't aspire to, display thousands of books in it; there were around 150 as of yesterday, of which about 40% were in the two categories, gardening and science fiction, the rest being quite a variety.

In the nine months since we started the eBay shop (as distinct from eBay auctions) these two categories have proved the most popular there, and we've mailed books to many parts of the world, whereas in our other selling channels history and biography have tended to come top. What people buy where is a never-endingly fascinating study.

Anyway, one consequence of all that is that we now have here a fresh consignment of excellent gardening titles, mostly new along with a few secondhand, which will be appearing in the BrunleaBooks eBay shop in the next day or two.

Yours bookishly,

- David Murray -

From Fuchsias to Beijing

2007-05-07T11:05:00.000Z

Just a quick note today about some recent additions.

In the gardening department, linked to the section on books about fuchsias, we've added a page from which our site visitors can now buy fuchsia plants through our affiliate relationship with the garden supplier, Thompson & Morgan. This first plant-sales page focuses on choosing and buying hardy fuchsias.

We've also radically reshaped our World Affairs department. Whereas before there was one long page displaying books on current affairs in various parts of the world we now have separate pages for China, Africa and the Middle East - plus a specialist section on oil and energy - with more to follow. This will make it easier for us to update the displays with additional books on a country or regional basis.

You'll also notice that from several pages it is now possible to subscribe to the Economist newspaper - a first-class means of keeping up-to-date on world affairs.

- David Murray -

Slave Trade Abolition - National Portrait Gallery visit

2007-04-22T21:07:00.000Z

Just before Easter, having some time free in London, I decided to visit the National Potrait Gallery to take a look at their exhibition on the 1807 abolition of the slave trade. Actually, it isn't an exhibition in the normal sense. The portraits relevant to the history of slavery and abolition are almost all hanging in their usual places, surrounded by others with no connection to the subject. However, additional explanatory information is posted next to the relevant portraits, giving an excellent chronologically arranged overview of how many major historical figures related to the trade and its abolition.

I was advised by one of the staff to take the escalator to the top floor and then to work downwards. A folded A4 brochure suggests which portraits to look for in the various rooms. I didn't time my visit precisely but guess that it took around an hour and a half. It was time well spent. A far broader spectrum of people were brought into the abolition picture, although being in a portrait gallery there was obviously an emphasis on the people of whom the gallery has pictures. It was also refreshing to see that the organisers had not adopted the all too common practice of trying to boost the reputation of people who have too often been ignored by seeking to diminish the reputation of Wilberforce.

This visit reminded me that I need to update our BrunleaBooks page on Wilberforce and also my Squidoo lens about him. Hopefully I'll get around to doing this in the next few days.

Fuchsias

2007-04-22T20:51:00.000Z

I first became captivated by fuchsias around fifteen years ago when living in the northwest of England, and gradually got to know which cultivars would survive the local winters, which tended to be damp rather than extremely cold.

Some years back we moved a little further south and, more significantly, across country to the East Midlands - almost in Lincolnshire. Winters are quite different here and I'm currently trying to establish how many plants I've lost this year - largely due to my carelessness, I should add! One way or another I've quite a restocking exercise to go through, so my reference books are again coming down from the shelf.

This has triggered me into putting up a page on the BrunleaBooks web site listing several of the major fuchsia guides - including those which are out of print but, of course, available through our AbeBooks affiliate arrangement.

You can visit this page at "Brunlea Gardens".

the-Churchill-file: recently added pages

2007-03-27T12:32:00.000Z

New pages have been added recently to our Churchill site.

Churchill as Artist - he began to paint in the 1920s when out of political office for a while, and continued for most of the rest of his life. He often submitted paintings anonymously for display in exhibitions, including the immensely prestigious Royal Academy in London where his work was hung in exhibitions repeatedly for many years. Several books on his artistic life are recommended, with links to global booksearches including his own "Painting as a Pastime".
Churchill as Writer - this was the chief method by which he earned his living. As journalist, as novelist (briefly, and not to be confused with the American novelist of the same name), as biographer, and as historian, he wrote prolifically from his twenties to his eighties and in 1953 was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. We now have two pages on this aspect of his life: a general introduction, and also a note on his biographical works. Three more are to follow.

I'm hoping to be able to upload at least one, and ideally two, new pages each week to this biographical site.

Yours bookishly,

- David Murray -

BrunleaBooks - our new blog

2007-03-27T10:31:00.000Z

Welcome to the first post on our new blog, where I hope from time to time to keep you up-to-date with the good things on our network of web sites.

I say "network" of sites, because the structure we are developing involves not only our main bookselling site but also a number of information-rich smaller sites on specific topics - mostly linking back ultimately to books, some of which we hope you will want to read. At this stage these are:

BrunleaBooks main site - in two parts plus an eBay store

New books, of which we do not hold physical stock but display selected titles in convenient groupings, and which you can then buy through our affiliate relationship with Amazon.
Secondhand (and some new) books which we hold in our own physical shelf stock and which you can buy through our own secure checkout process.
Our eBay store, displaying a substantially different selection of books (although there's some overlap with the main site stock list).

the-Churchill-file - On this site we are building a collection of articles about the life and work of Sir Winston Churchill. He is best known as the British leader during World War II, but had many other facets to his life, including his being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Books both by and about Churchill are featured in the-Churchill-file, which is planned to grow to around forty pages, each on a distinct aspect of his life.

Read-the-World is an exercise aimed at bringing together books on many different aspects of countries and regions of the world which in most conventional bookstores are kept apart. For example, if you wanted to know something about China then in a large bookstore you might have to go to several different floors of the building to find the Travel section, then the current affairs shelves, and then maybe the History department. By a series of links on our web pages we now make it easy to move from one to another. Read-the-World is a front lobby for this scheme, and will later in the year be expanded to include more to encourage people to read about places and cultures far distant and widely different from their own, to explore their histories and understand more of their current situation.

Take a look now at some these new developments, and I'll be back with more in the near future.

Yours bookishly,

- David Murray -