SEO - introduction

There is a lot of whaffle talked about search engine optimisation, but when you look at it, there are only two types of optimisation:

1. ON-SITE optimisation - the stuff you build into your own website to make them search-engine friendly..
2. OFF-SITE optimisation - the links that you get for your site to make the search engine think that your site has 'authority'.

There is nothing more to it than that, the devil is in the detail of course, and how you achieve the above can lead you down some interesting avenues, however because Google keeps stumm, no-one knows whether the more off-the-wall solutions will work either short-term or if they do, there's no guarantee they will work long-term - especially if Google get wind of what you are up to...!

In this series, we are going to look at both types of optimisation, and the regular things that anyone can do that will enhance search engine results for your website. We will be looking at legitimate ways to promote your site in an organic way, I am not one to indulge in certain black-hat techniques that give impressive results in the short-term.

You won't do any harm carrying out the simple steps that we will be looking at, these techniques probably cover about 80% of what you can do to enhance your site, and each step is easy to carry out with no experience or special software whatsoever.

Fresh Linen

There is nothing like the feel of fresh bed linen especially if you have sensitive skin like I have. I cannot sleep on anything that has polyester in the mix, and even have to take bed linen with me if we are staying somewhere.

This means that I have to buy quality bedding such as the products you might find at matouk. It's not that I have particularly good taste in bedding, it is actually a necessity for me to have a good nights sleep. My wife on the other hand suffers from allergies, so we have a combination of hypo-allergenic and 100% cotton bedding so that all our needs can be met - Fortunately Matouk have a very comprehensive range including hypo-allergenic pillows.

Domain Registration bonus

I had my first affiliate sale for 1and1 domain registration this week, quite a surprise because although I had done some work to promote this affiliate, I tend to have low expectations of affiliates as a rule.

Affiliates are tricky because often you know you are not promoting the best possible deal, but with 1and1 internet, they genuinely do offer a good competitive service and decent commission at the same time. I have yet to find out the details of the sale, but am pleased to report this small success with a view to having (hopefully) more in the future.

Affiliate sales are something I have only really dabbled with so far, but nonetheless I am aware that opportunities in this area are real and profitable if pursued properly. There is a recent article written on livewyre.NET, that gives a small insight into the world of affiliate marketing.

New series coming up...

I have enjoyed the two recent series that I wrote for Munny4Hunny, having just completed 'getting organic traffic' and 'making money online', I am considering expounding my thoughts on Search Engine Optimisation, that mythical and mysterious holy grail of the internet entrepreneur.

I recently wrote a detailed email for a friend in which I attempted to address the subject of SEO in the most simple terms possible. My intention is now to turn this into a series which you will see rolled out on Munny4Hunny in the next week or so.

To give a brief introduction, the central theme is that there are SEO techniques that can be done by anyone - you don't need to be a guru to be able to optimise your site, the majority of what a professional SEO expert will tell you, is stuff that you can easily resolve yourself - though they are naturally unlikely to tell you as much...

It is easy to optimise a site for a niche, that's the market I like to operate in - if you have found your niche, then my new series may have some useful tips for you.

Spring Loaded

Whether you are looking for spring plungers, handles, wheels or knobs... Reid supply have been supplying products for more than sixty years locally, nationally and internationally.

Not only do they have a huge stock of every little (or even large) component that you might require, they also have a machine shop that can customise the products to suit your precise needs.

Their product range extends to include safety equipment, clothing and packaging equipment, a true one-stop online shop for all the requirements of your business. All this is backed up by a company that are highly-rated suppliers to the US government.

Getting organic traffic - part 6

Yes Part six!!! who would have thought it?
Well I am pretty sure that this is the last of my traffic-building tactics, and it is one that is fairly obvious since the whole point of these services is that they drive traffic to your site. I am, of course, talking about 'digg it', 'stumble upon' and all those services that are just waiting to promote your stories and posts.
Personally I use these services sparingly, but if I think I have written a particularly topical, poignant or pithy post, I will blatantly plug it by submitting to these types of sites. After all, I would wait an age for someone to randomly do it for me, I am merely speeding up the process...
Timing is of the essence, it's like trying to catch a wave when surfing - you may find yourself uncovering hundreds of visitors, just a few or barely any at all. Nevertheless it takes a few seconds to submit, and at least half the time I find a well-written report on the post I have just written, will bring in a significant amount of traffic even if just briefly.
These services are being constantly updated of course, and you are only 'current' for a very small window, so the impact is often swift and impressive - a day later, any effects will have all but disappeared..
I use them equally for website stuff as well as for blog posts. I have some web pages which I feel provide decent information that I want to get 'out there'. These services work for us in two ways, firstly by providing a platform to submit our own stuff to get initial visitors, secondly (if you provide a 'submit' widget in the page) for visitors to 'vote' for our content and thus promote it once more in the community. For the website pages, I expect to see the votes grow to a decent level over time, whereas for the blog posts, I am just looking for an 'instant' return...
This concludes the latest mini-series on Munny4Hunny, if you have any comments, please leave them and I promise to respond...

Others in this series:
Part One - Introduction 'what NOT to do...'
Part Two - Having the right content
Part Three - You Must get your head around RSS
Part Four - You must engage with social networks
Part Five - Seeking out traffic

Getting organic traffic - part 5

I am mildly surprised that I have managed five posts in this series, I guess there was more to this than I thought at first....and I haven't finished yet!
This post concerns the tactics that I usually think of as the traditional ways to build blog traffic although these tactics are my no means limited to blog promotion.

1. Reciprocal visits: This is a kind of hard foot-slogging way of getting traffic (which is maybe why I have left it 'til the last installment..), but effective nonetheless. Visiting blog that are within the same broad topic as your own blog or website, and leaving relevant comments (and your URL) are effective ways of attracting visits from a like-minded audience. First off - only do this if commenting allows you to leave your URL in the comment or as part of your 'signature'. Secondly, don't ever spam! Leave concise well-thought out comments that might inspire readers to click on the link and find out more. You are probably wasting your time if you comment on older posts, the more recent they are, the more effective your commenting will be. At the very least, the post-writer will visit your blog (I know I always do...) and you may even attract other commenters to visit your blog/site too.
2. Forums: There are forums for every topic under the sun, it should not take too long to uncover a forum that deals with topics close to your own. Join the forum, and like the commenting above, make good suggestions and leave your URL in your signature. You should find that even idle curiosity will force some visitors to come to your site if nothing else...

I have one last installment to add to this series, and this is probably the most effective method that I have discovered for sending decent amounts of traffic.

Others in this series:
Part One - Introduction 'what NOT to do...'
Part Two - Having the right content
Part Three - You Must get your head around RSS
Part Four - You must engage with social networks
Part Six - Using bookmarking sites

Living in the garden

It has certainly NOT been the weather for breaking out the outdoor electric grill and throwing some steaks on to sizzle! We have had the odd decent day, but Summer seems to be passing the UK by as the season progresses towards the Autumn. This is a great shame as I love to 'live' outdoors in the Summertime - not only is it easier to keep outdoors 'clean', it doesn't need decorating and is basically the most low-maintenance part of our house...

Due to the ease of maintenance in the garden, it also just happens that the garden is the nicest 'room' in our house and one of the few that we are not ashamed to invite guests into...
I hope we have a a prolonged period of sunshine at some point as we have done NO outdoor cooking at all this year so far, and we all know how much better food tastes when it has been cooked outdoors...!

Getting organic traffic - part 4

In this day and age, it is a serious mistake to underestimate the power of twitter, facebook and the like for driving traffic to your site, however harnessing all these different resources takes a little thought.
Using RSS feeds between sites such as your blog, twitter and Facebook would be a good way of linking the three together to make sense of the relationship. One way would be to start a 'page' in FB (rather than a personal entry) and use the feeds from twitter and a blog to populate the page with content. This way, you are using twitter and a blog independently, yet using them to create more content on a third platform (FB). Added to this, you could have a widget on your blog which gives a read-out of your last (for example) 6 twitter messages. It is possible to link these all up and have two sites updated from one feed - whatever tactics you decide on, you must come up with a strategy that best suits your needs. Whatever you do, you are missing a trick if you are not using these or similar resources to drive traffic to your site.
Having said that I have not yet finalised my own strategy for promotion for a site that I have been working on for a while (amongst other projects), but rest-assured all future projects will be built with social networking sites in mind- the issue should never be 'shall I use Facebook/twitter/Friends reunited etc...' but HOW shall I use them...

Others in this series:
Part One - Introduction 'what NOT to do...'
Part Two - Having the right content
Part Three - You Must get your head around RSS
Part Five - Seeking out traffic
Part Six - Using bookmarking sites

Mens Clothing

Admittedly as part of the last few years of using frugal tactics to balance the household budget, men's clothing has not figured highly in the household priorities. Especially since I am fairly reluctant to throw out clothes as long as I can find a use for them. It was this thinking process which saw me having a large proportion of my clothes designated as 'gardening' or 'DIY' clothes even though I wasn't even doing any gardening or DIY.
Despite the 'cloud' of frugality hanging over us for so long, it is a blessed relief to actually allow yourself to occasionally indulge in purchases of a personal nature every so often. I am a true believer in the therapeutic properties of shopping even though I am male...

Getting organic traffic - part 3

Moving on from 'on-page' work such as content, all other traffic building ideas as strictly 'off-page' and so will demand some of your time to get browsing around the 'net.
As promised in the previous installment, this post will address RSS feeds. Really Simple Syndication is a way of getting your blog posts or site 'feed' automatically sent to any number of sources across the world wide web. Individuals may sign up so that they get your latest content as it comes online, or services that you are affiliated with may use this feed to publicly display your content - the best example I can think of is 'Zimbio', a service that publishes your content and will even automatically categorise it for you.
RSS can even carry advertising along with regular content and therefore can be used as a monetising tool. I happily admit that I was not a first-adopter when it came to RSS as I didn't understand how it could help me. I now understand it and can see that I seriously under-estimated it's uses. If you are not sure how to get started with RSS, you can access 'feedburner' directly from your Google account (you HAVE a Google account - right??), fill in a form and feedburner will provide you with a URL that contains your RSS feed, use this URL place your feed in to 'Zimbio' or any other place you can find that will take it!
One tactic that I have used is to take a 'twitter' RSS feed and have it displayed on the front page of an associated website. As long as you are regularly updating on twitter, this provides some interactive and current content on a page that otherwise may be fairly static. The same may be done with a feed from a blog or even facebook.
This brings me nicely on to the next topic that will be the theme of the very next installment...

Others in this series:
Part One - Introduction 'what NOT to do...'
Part Two - Having the right content
Part Four - You must engage with social networks
Part Five - Seeking out traffic
Part Six - Using bookmarking sites

Safety gear

Having the right gear for the job is the mantra of any workman or DIY enthusiast. This is learned quickly when one does not have the right tool for the job, if you eventually find the right tool you wish you had found it a lot earlier!
The right tool does the job more effectively, more efficiently and safely!
As it happens, I have just removed my safety gloves because I am sanding some woodwork in the doorway to my office. Safety equipment should always be the first thought when thinking about any new tools or machinery. Over the years I have built up a good stock of gloves, goggles and face-masks for dusty jobs. Nevertheless, these things need replacing and the safety gear that is appropriate for one job may not be appropriate for the next. For instance, there are a range of gloves with different uses depending on the material being handled, similarly face masks are job-specific, a dust-mask is not effective against chemical fumes any more than gardening gloves are suitable for handling corrosive liquids.
Having the right tool for the job applies to safety gear every bit as much as it applies to hand or power tools.

Getting organic traffic - part 2

First off - I have to say that there is no way to keep your traffic unless your content is compelling. There is no point working away at getting visitors to visit your site if there is very little for them to look at.
So my first piece of advice is to say you need to make sure that you have good original content, regularly updated and ideally that it is laid our in a way that is easy to follow and easy on the eye. Whilst you may think that this is not a traffic building hint - it has at least two functions:

• It keeps your visitors coming back - If the valuable traffic that arrives on your site finds your style and your content appealing, there is a good chance that they will bookmark it, sign up for your RSS feed and come back to read again.
• It will help you to get search results - Applying SEO tactics such as regular updates and good use of keywords using niche/topical keywords will bring you organic search results. Using a service such as Google 'Webmaster tools' and 'Analytics' will help you understand the search terms that people are using to arrive at your site.

If at this point, you are wondering what RSS is, then keep reading this series and we will address RSS in the next installment...

Others in this series:
Part One - Introduction 'what NOT to do...'
Part Three - You Must get your head around RSS
Part Four - You must engage with social networks
Part Five - Seeking out traffic
Part Six - Using bookmarking sites

Web shopping

So many of our transactions now take place online, it is a wonder how we ever coped without online purchases. Even when we aren't actually looking to make any purchases, how many of us can resist the emails that drop into our inbox from our favorite retailers like buy.com with all the lastest deals and bargains.
I have weekly emails from a few 'techno' type retailers giving the bargain prices for PC hard-drives, DVDR's or even complete PC systems. The fascinating thing is that prices for these products are always getting keener and keener as new technology is introduced and previous products improved.
The one product that interests me at the moment are the SSD hard-drives for computers. These Solid State Drives are the latest technology and were frankly too expensive to contemplate when first introduced, but like USB drives (same technology) they are becoming both bigger and cheaper. The knock-on effect of this is that the established technology becomes cheaper in order to compete with the newer products.

Getting organic traffic - part 1

A question I often see posted in forums is 'how can I drive traffic to my site'. This is a very valid question, but the answer will vary depending on exactly what you are trying to achieve.
If visitor 'stats' is what you need regardless of 'quality' or a targeted 'audience' then you can do traffic exchanges or even 'buy' traffic via a 'pay to click' service. However, if you are looking for visitors who will read your content or interact with your site on a longer-term basis, then 'organic' is the only way to go, there is no quick fix, but there are short-cuts. I should also add that if you are hosting Google contextual adverts (Adsense) on your site, then any non-organic form of gaining traffic is likely to result in your Adsense account being disabled.

I 'innocently' tried traffic exchanging once until Google warned me that my account was in danger of termination - I quickly stopped the traffic exchange, and although Google wouldn't tell me exactly what I had done to contravene the TOS, stopping the traffic exchange seemed to do the trick. Fortunately I had only done it for a few days so no further action was taken. If you are wondering why this would be the case, some ads on adsense are actually paid per 100 or 1000 displays etc... therefore in theory, using a traffic exchange program or 'buying' traffic would result in payments being triggered for these ads even though the traffic was not completely legitimate (organic) traffic.

That's the introduction done, you will have to follow the series to get all my thoughts on getting traffic to your site. I have to admit right at the start that I have never devoted myself to driving huge amounts of traffic to my sites, but nonetheless, over the years I have built up some ideas on things that can bring traffic, and have even occasionally had the odd success here and there...

Others in this series:
Part Two - Having the right content
Part Three - You Must get your head around RSS
Part Four - You must engage with social networks
Part Five - Seeking out traffic
Part Six - Using bookmarking sites

Pulse Oximeters

I had never heard of an oximeter before today, but some online research has taught me that pulse oximeters are small devices that can measure not only your pulse rate, but the oxygen saturation level of your haemoglobin (which apparently should ideally be over 95%).
Haemoglobin levels are traditionally measured via a tiny blood sample taken by a pin-prick to the ear or finger, the oximeter measures via a non-invasive optical method using LED's and measuring the rate of light absorption. The technology has been in existence since the 1940's although not widely adopted until more recently.
The advantage of the oximeter is that it can constantly monitor over a fixed period whereas a spot sample can only give you a single result unless you want to turn the patients ear or finger into a pin-cushion.

Loving eBay

I tend to treat my online earnings as either money to 'invest' in online projects, hosting, domains etc.. or for acquiring 'toys' from eBay. Occasionally I also sell stuff that works, but I no longer have use for. Recently I sold a couple of 'spare' motherboards of 'historical interest' that were languishing in my loft.
I have probably been through more than 170 transactions online and have found that even when things go wrong, the support from eBay is pretty good even though they may not tell you exactly what they are doing about your problem. I have had a few scenarios that have gone a little awry:
1. Wrong thing delivered, shortly before seller was removed from eBay
In this instance, after having no reply from the seller, I lodged a ticket with eBay/Paypal and they immediately got part of my money back - after a few weeks of silence, the rest of the money appeared - I still had the wrong item and was able to sell it again (this time advertised correctly) - good result
2. Faulty items delivered
Without exception, any time I have had a faulty item delivered (probably on about 4 or 5 occasions) the seller has refunded my payment in full. - great result
3. Non-payment
I had my first experience of this a few weeks ago - no payment was forthcoming for one of the motherboards that I sold - I sent three emails to the buyer (who had annoyingly bid against other potential buyers to 'win' the item) , he did not respond. Eventually, feeling it was too late to try a 'second chance offer', I reported the unpaid item to eBay - Less than a week later, Ebay reported that the item had been paid for - and it had!.... result!

The point I wanted to make is that although things sometimes go wrong, eBay will usually sort things out for you. Today I have been warned by eBay that a seller I have paid, has had their listings withdrawn. I am not panicked (Ok it WAS only £3.20), because I am quite confident that the well-oiled eBay resolution machine will get me my money back if I have a little patience. You hear all sort of stories about eBay, but my experience is that if you stick with the system, the system will look after you.

Get the facts

I have often said that medication that is not prescribed by a health-care professional is a risk. I am not saying that you should not take anything that you see advertised, but I am saying that you need to be sure that you chek a few things out first:
Trustworthy retailer - first of all, you should check that the retailer that you have chosen is reputable, is properly qualified to sell and is registered/licensed to sell products of this nature. Also run a check on the company yourself, look for online reviews and make sure that the contact details are correct - if they are not 'up front' about their street address and phone number, I would say that you should not do business with them.
Trustworthy product - you should also check out reviews for the product such as alli reviews, when doing this, I would advise you to seek out independent reviews. It also pays to find out exactly what the side-effects will be, a reputable retailer will make this information freely available. Any retailer that claims no side effects, probably means that the medication is ineffective at the job it is supposed to do..

July 2010 Earnings

I am declaring the best month of the year and the first significant earnings of this financial term (since April) at nearly £167. As you can tell from the figures, it is an upturn in cassette conversions plus contextual ads on my cassette to CD site, that has driven turnover this month. I am already working on cassette orders for next month, so expect good figures for August too. The Adsense payout is the first since March and accounts for a little over a third of the 'Cass2CD' earnings. I am still working on a project that I hope to launch in about a months time as I have some finishing touches to add and a little research and testing to do.

I have managed to curb 'investments' this month, especially since the NAS system was a bit of a disappointment for the amount of money I spent, but I anticipate some spending on consumables next month to replenish stocks of CD's. I look forward to posting some decent figures for August, which will hopefully exceed this month's.

Wrinkles

Despite the fact that I am undeniably getting older and developing wrinkles, I probably won't be putting prevera wrinkle cream on my shopping list. never mind the fact that I am male, nowadays, men are as much a target for cosmetics as women.
Neither is is because I feel it would be ineffective, after all it is not a particularly expensive product... It is simply because I am not concerned enough about wrinkles for me to take any measures to stop them. I understand that some folks are aghast at seeing wrinkles develop, personally, I embrace my wrinkles - although to be quite frank I am a bit less enamored with some of the other trappings of encroaching old age maturity such as aching bones and tinnitus... wrinkly skin I can live with...