Can People Find your Website? See our new video tutorial to maximise your business in 2010

Masterclass for Oxford College of Garden Design - Building a Web Presence for Garden Designers from Elspeth on Vimeo.

At the Oxford College of Garden Design we believe good business is as important as good design, so from day one, we start preparing our student to set up and run their own design business (see DG700).

This video, (part of our new interactive online training program), is really useful, for anyone who wants to improve their web page rankings. Called Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) by following these simple steps you can significantly increase your web presence.  We explain why its important to blog, Twitter, and use social media like Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn.  

This is probably the most important video tutorial you will watch this year! so if you have found it useful please tell other people where to find it by clicking on one of the social networking links in the top right corner of this blog.

LiveJournal Tags: Oxford College of Garden Design,Master Class,SEO,Web Marketing,Twitter,LinkedIn,Web Stats,Facebook,MySpace,Flickr

What are Carbon Neutral Publications & Can They Save You Money?

Click to launch the full edition in a new window.

As a designer and teacher I care deeply about all aspect of my course and how I present myself and my school to the world.

We have been printing an annual prospectus for nearly 20 years which I believe serves 3 distinct purposes.

• The prospectus should be is well designed, after all; my students are signing up for a design course and will initially judge us, based on our presentation.
• The information contained is clear, comprehensive and well laid out. Again this demonstrates attributes necessary to make a good designer and so any educational establishment should set a good example.

• Potential students get to feel the weight and quality of the publication, This hopefully reflects the quality of the course itself, however it also probably only gets read a couple of times before being discarded.

This last point has been a concern to me particularly when we as designers, are dealing with environmental issues on a daily basis, but think I have found a solution in carbon neutral publication.

I pride myself on the fact that we as a college have always been a market leader in technology and innovation.

We were the first to introduce CAD and computer modelling into our curriculum and also to embrace internet technology and although not at the forefront, if compared to a .COM industry, we are light years ahead of our competition.

Since 2007 we have been using www.yudo.com an on-line publication service that gives you the look and feel of a magazine or book without the waste of paper and all the associated expenses.

It gives us the freedom to publish and update quickly, while virtually eliminating the need for publication budget.

2010/11 will be the first year we don't offer our customers a hard copy. We still produce a PDF version which is fast to download and hope that our public are ready to accept an electronic only option.

Your comments and thoughts would be much appreciated!
Technorati Tags: Carbon Neutral Publication,Yudu,Oxford College of Garden Design,Garden Design Courses,Online Publishing

Getting Started in Landscape Design

One of the first things students should be doing after graduating, is contact their local Architects.

They are a ready made source of work and because of new planning regulations, many applications now require a planting plan as part of the planning conditions.

As qualified designers, you should be able to offer architects:

1. A full planting service to include specification and 5 year maintenance schedule.
2. A Arboriculture method statement
3. A Tree survey to BS5837 (2005)
4. A RPA plan and APN12 recommendations

In addition to this you can also offer a full 3D perspective and rendering service if you CAD skills are up to scratch

All of the above should be laid out in a letter to the architect having first found out his/her name so you can address it to them personally.

You then follow up this letter with a call a few days later enquiring if they received the information and if you can be of any further help.

Think about it!  If a homeowner builds an extension they will change the footprint of the garden.  As a result the garden will need re-planning.  By offering to assist the architect they can provide a cheep and very lucrative source of work.

Technorati Tags: How to,garden design,Oxford College of Garden Design,Architects,Landscape,Design,Trees,Arbouriculture,APN12,BS5837