Welcome to Let's Fix Britain. First and foremost, we need members who can spread the word and do the work of Fixing Britain.

So, please do all you can to attract new members.

Here are some ideas:

Sig File

This one's almost magic. Add mention of us to the signature file of you e-mail program. The power of this is that - with no effort from you - our name gets out there with every e-mail you send - and every e-mail which you sent that's forwarded. You'll forget it's there, but it will be working for us.

Mentioning us in your SIG file may also lend you some clout.

I've been interacting with many people in setting us up, and our web logs show that people do click that link, and visit us. It works!

If you're e-mailing from work in an official capacity, please do not add us to your SIG file without permission from your employer.

What signature should you choose?

Well, whatever you feel comfortable with should be OK, but please don't use anything which would put us in a bad light. Pick something that suits your style and the environment you're e-mailing from.

Here are some examples:

Notice you can use initial capitals, which improves readability and doesn't affect the URL. Also note that our url can end in .org, .org.uk, .com or .co.uk.

Don't forget that you can add a sig file to your Usenet news group posts too, and these are many times more powerful because of the huge potential audience.

Tell Everyone

Well, maybe not everyone. But certainly your friends, family and colleagues.
Tell them when you see them or when you phone them or when you e-mail them.
Tell them down the pub, at the bowling green, after footie, over coffee, and when shopping.

If you can give them our URL on paper you'll be far more effective.
They'll pocket or purse it, they'll find it later - you get more bites of the cherry.
You just need the URL. You could easily make up a sheet of slips using a word processor and print them off.

If it feels comfortable, and if you're unlikely to offend anyone, why not start a broadcast e-mail, insert your whole address book, then remove those you don't want to send to. Ruling out, rather than ruling in, has a way of dramatically increasing your list size. You might rekindle some old friendships this way!

Please consider making notes now, about who you'll tell, how, and when, and then follow through.

Send People Your LFB Newsletters

I hope they'll find it entertaining and inspiring, and it will provide them with an opportunity to visit our website and join us. If each member sends the newsletter to ten friends - that's a lot of people! And if you know someone who would be interested but they are not online - you might print & post a copy instead. The links won't work, of course, but it may spur their interest.

Use your existing involvements

If you are involved in any existing groups, consider mentioning us to them.
These might be news groups you contribute to, other organisations online or offline.
Please be sensitive though; if your mentions are relevant and well-targeted they'll go down well, but SPAMming in our name won't do us any favours.

Set up links to us from other web sites

If you own a home page, why not add a link?

If you know someone who owns a web site, please consider asking them to link to us. They can say they're sponsoring us, because a link from a busy website to ours is a real asset from which we'll derive real value in the shape of publicity and new members.

If you don't own a home page - why not make one? Seriously! Your ISP almost certainly gave you free web space when you opened your account, and this is a good way to use a tiny part of it.

And if you find yourself signing someone's web-based guest book, you'll often be asked to give your favourite website address. Consider putting the LFB website address in the guest book.

Why bother? Well, one of the ways search engines rank web sites is to count the number of links from other sites which point to it. So if we had one additional link to us from every member, we'd be happy bunnies. You just need to upload a single page with a link pointing to our site.

Display Posters

We have a basic poster design available. Displaying these in places where people go is a powerful way to attract interest. Possibilities include:

We have a flyer and a poster for you to download in Microsoft Word format.

If your browser displays the document directly, you can print as many copies as you like - and you're done.

If your browser asks you if you wan to open or download the file, select download. Pick a place, and when it's there, open it & print it from Word.

Please do not modify this poster, except to adjust margins to suit your printer.

If you're a little uncomfortable approaching shops etc. with posters, consider posting them instead, but do include a covering letter with your contact information.

What else?

If you have other ideas, please contact us.

The trouble with most of us is that we sometimes confuse thinking about doing something with actually doing something. I spend much of my life thinking about eating more green vegetables, but the poundage which actually finds its way down my gullet is depressingly small.

The important thing here is to actually get out and do something, so please make a date with yourself and your PC to send out that broadcast, tie a knot in your hanky to remind you to tell your chums, and list the places you can approach to display posters.

We'll get there is we work at it. Members are everything to us.