And this one is of our customer reviews page.

Note: A word cloud is a  a visualization of the word frequency in a given text with the more frequestly occuring words appearing in larger font than the less frequestly occuring ones.

Thanks Michelle for the lovely photos. We hope Hugh will have loads more opportunities to have fun in his wetsuit.

If you’d like your children to be featured in the next “PuddleDuckers Out and About” please email us at info@puddleducks.ie.

We’d love to hear from you.

As an online retailer we are always interested in finding new ways to show off and sell our products. I recently read a piece in Practical Ecommerce about different ways of selling  your products from your Facebook page. I feel it is too early and currently too unsecure to sell directly on the Facebook page but I do feel that there is a great opportunity to “show off your wares” to your Facebook fans and route them through to your website. After doing a bit of reaseach I selected Shop Tab as the Facebook application we would use.

When installed it shows your products on a new “Shop” tab on your page. Clicking on a products takes the customer to the appropriate page on the website where the secure purchase can (hopefully!) take place.

The installation of the application is really easy. The pricing plan I selected included a free 7 day trial and a charge of $10 per month after that. You just sign up through Facebook, add your page details and then upload a CSV file of your products to ShopTab. The format of this file is defined by Shop Tab and it includes, Product Name, Description, Category, Price, Product url and Image url. Upload the file and the products appear on a new Shop tab on your Facebook page.

So far, I have only included a subset of our products on the Shop tab. More will be added more as we go along. I will also be keeping a close eye on Google Analytics to see how much extra traffic comes from our new Facebook shop window.

With the First Step programme, we are trying to help those who are currently unemployed and are interested in setting up their own business.  The aim is to help those who are seriously interested in getting their business up and running within 90 days.  This  programme is funded through the Labour Market Activation Fund and is a great opportunity for people who wish to set up their own business as it will give them access to finance, mentoring, coaching and ongoing support.  At QEDtraining.ie we are one of the network of providers of this programme for First Step and we are actively looking to recruit participants for the programme so that we can support businesses in launching – ideally in September (we will take another intake in October/November).

20 potential start-ups will be able to access the support of specialist trainers, coaches, mentors and a panel of experts who will work with them to assess their strengths and weaknesses and provide them with practical, tailored and one-to-one assistance to get them up and started in business.

The programme of coaching/mentoring/support will last approximately 15-20 weeks and during this time there will be an entire suite of workshops, networking events and coaching sessions, tailored to each individual participant.  The coaching will be intensive, utterly practical and very hands on.

Importantly, access to start up loans will be provided through First Step -  and there will be a rigorous selection process in place as the programme has limited places.

For further information or to apply for participation on the network contact Joanne on 087 2882688 (joanne@QEDtraining.ie) or Steve on 085 1175452 (steve@QEDtraining.ie)

Participant profile:  The ideal candidate must satisfy 3 criteria.  They must be unemployed for the past 3months (in receipt of unemployment benefit or unemployment assistance), and they must require funding support and have a business idea that they are driven and hungry enough to set up in 2010 (with a business plan started or completed).

First Step: First-Step was set up in 1991 as a not for profit organisation by Norma Smurfit and a group of like minded individuals. The objective of First-Step is to provide microfinance loans (i.e. loans less than €25,000) to start up or expanding small and medium enterprises for job creation or protection.  Loans are targeted at people who have difficulty securing finance from traditional banking sources. To date First-Step has assisted 1,500 projects. It is estimated these projects have created in excess of 3,000 employment opportunities.

Click here to enter the competition.

We’ve now added some new short wetsuits for the younger kids. They come in 2 striking colours, red and yellow and in two sizes – age 2-3 years and age 4-5 years. Manufactured by kids wetsuit specialists Konfidence, the new wetsuit is  priced at €24.99. Get more details here.

Our Sun and Beach range includes children’s wetsuits, UV tops, UV suits, UV hats and beach shoes. Check them all out here.

Our new summer range includes kids wetsuits, UV suits, tops & hats and beach shoes. You can see the full range here. 

To enter the art competition let your little artists have fun drawing or painting their favourite beach scene. Send us the drawing and be in with a chance to win a bumper set of beach toys.

There are a number of ways to enter:

• Send the entry to us at the address below
• Photograph the entry and email it to us at info@puddleducks.ie
• Photograph the entry and post it to our Facebook page

Competition Rules:

• Children aged 11 years and under are eligible to enter
• The closing date for entries is Saturday 18th July
• If posting the address for entries is PuddleDucks, Beechwood, Ferney Road, Carrigaline, Co. Cork
• We may display the entries on our Facebook page or on photo sharing sites. Acknowledgement will be made to the artists.

Ans what’s more! The good folks at Indie’Go are currently running a children’s competition to win a 3 day family ticket to the festival. The idea is for the kids to get creative with a digital camera (or just paper and crayons ) and post their entry to the Indie’Go Facebook page. Apart from tickets, the winning images will also be featured (and credited!) on Indie’Go’s promotional materials – from the  website and social networks to printed leaflets, programmes, posters and even in set decoration. The closing date for entries is July 2nd.

Get the full competition details here.