With Freshers Week on the horizon, we’re reminding our landlords with pubs near campuses that the students’ return could bring in lots of extra custom.

The Morning Advertiser has put together a great guide for landlords on attracting students without alienating other customers. Tips include offering real ale - surprisingly popular with the student market- goodie bags and coffee and running open mic nights to attract this lucrative customer base.

Read the article for more tips on preparing your pub for the influx.

With autumn fast approaching, our landlords need to start thinking about indoor based activities that will keep their customers coming back on a regular basis.

Play The Gamer, the UK's first national live console gaming league, offers landlords the opportunity to host gaming nights at their pub in order to boost drinks sales.

The gaming nights will be promoted in GAME stores, and could bring in a whole new customer base to your pub.

To find out more or sign up, visit the Play The Gamer website.

With the ninth annual British Food Fortnight getting underway from 18 September, we’re encouraging our landlords whose pubs serve food to think about getting involved.

For pubs that don’t have a local food offer, it’s a great time to start; for those that already do, the two week celebration of British cuisine is a good time to shout about it.

Think about running promotional offers or featuring special dishes made with local produce to boost sales, increase footfall and attract new customers.

Visit the Love British food website for more information and tips on making the most of British Food Fortnight.

Pub landlords can now get some top tips on running their businesses.

Nectar Business has joined forces with entrepreneur James Caan and government advice network Business Link to launch an online guide for small businesses.

It contains 25 top tips including advice, hints, tips and resources to help small firms, including pubs.Visitors to the site can also submit their own business tips to be in with a chance of winning 50,000 Nectar points.

View the guide to find out more.

Admiral Taverns landlord Egil Johansen of The Kenton in Hackney has been celebrating after receiving two award honours.

Egil has been given an Admiral Taverns Achievement Award for all his hard work at the pub and he was also named Best Newcomer of the London region in the Morning Advertiser’s Great British Pub Awards 2010.

Egil has given The Kenton a complete refit and created a welcoming and youthful feel at the pub. Customers can enjoy a varied calendar of events including movie nights, pub quizzes, jumble sales and club nights, and the back room of the pub is given over to exhibits from upcoming artists.

Egil is now set to go on to compete for the Best Newcomer in the UK at the Morning Advertiser award ceremony on 9th September – we wish him the best of luck. 

Licensees can now keep customers up to speed on the sporting events being shown in their pubs by sending text alerts through Sky’s new website PreviewLive.

The Text Manager service helps licensees to build a customer database online and send customers texts inviting them to events in the pub – a great way to ensure a packed pub during the upcoming football season.

The website also includes an up-to-date fixtures and events section and licensees can log in to access marketing support and promotional material. They will also be able to view special videos, including training modules developed in conjunction with the BII, on the Pub Channel section.

Visit the PreviewLive website to find out more.  

Licensees looking for business advice can now use the Pub Assist website for free.

Following a successful first year, the site has scrapped its membership fee and will now provide free advice on everything from health and safety and stock-taking, to calculating gross profits, negotiating supplier deals and employment advice.

Landlords looking for a helping hand can also download free pub quizzes and explore a range of business guides.

Visit the Pub Assist website to find out more, and don’t forget to check out the 'Licensee Support' section on our website for further hints and tips.

A landlord from Stevenage is celebrating after becoming the latest recipient of our Admiral Taverns Achievement Award.

Harry Stokes and his wife Glynis have been at the Saint Nicholas pub in Stevenage for two years after Harry chose to leave behind his job running a chauffeur company to work in the pub trade.

One of the main changes the couple made was to turn the former pool room into a breakfast café, utilising this underused space to create extra income and provide a much needed service to the community.

If you’d like to swap sides of the bar like Harry, you can check out our pubs to let and also apply to become a licensee.

The Morning Advertiser has recently highlighted the fact that serving coffee could boost pub takings during quieter periods of the day.

They’ve also come up with some top tips for serving the perfect caffeine fix, from running special food offers alongside your coffee offerings to veering far away from the ‘carafe on a hotplate’ option.

We’d encourage landlords to think about expanding their drinks offerings if they haven’t already done so – after all, we do seem to be turning into a nation of coffee lovers.

For the full article and more tips of serving the perfect cup of coffee, visit the Morning Advertiser website.

October might seem like a long way away right now, but landlords are already preparing for British Pub Week.

The aim of the week long celebration, which takes place between 30 October and 6 November, is to encourage more people to visit pubs over the Halloween and Bonfire Night period.

Organisers have come up with a list of suggested activities that pubs can stage each day, including pub games nights, quiz nights and real ale festival.

If landlords would like to get involved, the full list of activities suggestions can be found on the Morning Advertiser website.