Entries from December 2009 ↓

I’d just like to take a second to say a Happy New year to everyone who’s supported me over the past 12 months and to tell 2010 to watch out because I have big plans for next year

2009 was a year of excess for me with my new years resolution to be ‘to get out more and have more storys to tell’ … well i guess i need tutoring on how to tell these storys as ive got loads of them

I think for 2010 my resolution is ‘everything in moderation’ which hopefully will see me having more balance in my life with things being less tiring and frantic… but dont worry I still plan to have some stors to tell this next year lol.

Distinctive Chesterfields (where I work) is having a massive sofa sale, offering 10% off any of our high quality leather chesterfield sofas, club chairs and wing chairs.

Marketing mumbo jumbo follows…

Distinctive Chesterfields hand made high quality, traditional English Chesterfield sofas for sale around the world. As a manufacturer of the original Chesterfield, our sale sofas represent great value for money. Created in our UK based workshops by our skilled team of frame makers, upholsterers and leather worksers, your chesterfield sofa is hand made to order and dispatched by our global courier service.

In our sofa sale you can get 10% off any sofa or chair including the popular queen anne chair, derby sofa and range of chaise longue. Simply find the item you want from our online catalogue www.distinctivechesterfields.co.uk, pick the colour and style of leather required and call us on +44(0)1484 663294 to place your order.

I’ve been getting back to my roots lately with some directory submission and have noticed how unfair many websites submission criteria are. Several directories require a reciprocal link in order to be listed (not that I’d condone exchanging links with a directory) whats worse is that in exchange for a link burried deep on a PR -1 page with no mozRank, no Alexa rank etc they want a link back from your home page! Some even state that your site must have a pagerank of 4 or something. C’mon directory owners, if you want subscribers then play fair and give those who do reciprocal link a decent wodge of juice for their link.

Secondly, it’s a directory owners duty to catalogue and list websites where as it’s not a site owners nature to market a directory?

While I’m chuntering on heres a great way to get the best out of directory submission.

Use the SEOChat PR search tool with the google site:www.domain.com query and order by PageRank to find the juiciest pages on a site and go for links on these. You might need to stretch the truth about your sites content to get in some sections i.e. I’ve submitted links to Antiques sections even though our Chesterfield sofas are newly made and played on the antique nature of the original design but it seems to work.

Simples!

We’re having to let go of some people which is not plesent as theyre good people the banks are just arseholes! One of which is Adam Williams, a really great PHP developer so if you’re in or around Leeds and need a new PHP guy for long-term or short term projects then give him a call 07595120137 or visit his website http://www.awdigital.com/

Adam is a great php developer, really up for a challenge and all round nice guy.

So once again, just for Google – Freelance PHP developer Leeds

I love music and posted in the past about supporting Rage Against the Machine in their online campaign to bump Joe McElderry off his almost certain Christmas no1 spot… and I’m glad to say that they did!

I’m sure there will be some indepth analysis on how social media marketing played a key role in this outcome and contributed to the worlds first no1 hit based 100% on downloads and look forwards to reading it all.

…and before you have a go, yes I know theyre both property of SonyBMG so in the end Sony gets a boat load of cash extra!

Some dude named Evan Carmichael has featured my post on squeezing more than 1000 back links out of Yahoo Site Explorer as one of his top 50 SEO posts of 2009.

/evancarmichael.com/Tools/Top-50-SEO-Posts-Of-The-Year-2009.htm

Thanks Evan – It’s nice to get some fame and glory at last lol.

As part of my general link building activities I’ve been cataloging sites that have stolen our photography for their own use. More often than not these are blog owners or worse magazine writers who need something quick to drop into a post to support the content. As ive developed a sizeable list ive decided to go back through and address each site requesting that we be credited for the use of our image which over a short period of time will turn into some nice linkage from authorative sources.

There are some free sites out there that offer to match your images with stolen ones on 3rd party servers however their indexes are too small to be of any real use.

Get trawling people!

At Click 4 Beds and Distinctive Chesterfields we’re rapidly approching the cut off time for deliveries to arrive in time for Christmas its time to think about the next big sales period, the January Sales. Even though most retailers have pre-christmas sales, January’s offerings are still a big draw for many customers seeking to fill the post Christmas void with some bargains… And we all want a healthy slice of that Pie.

So, how can this be achieved? Well, some quick tinkering with your sites title tags and a few well placed blog posts are a good place to start and if you act now you should be indexed in time for the Janrary sale season. Heres a few tips to optimise your site for this season:

• Add in motivators such as the terms ‘January sale’ and ‘January sales’ into your title tag
• Change your Meta Description to reference January
• Get new voucher codes distributed to your coupon network
• Create a nice splash banner highlighting some of your more prominent deals
• Blog post about key deals
• Send out PR highlighting key deals
• Update your prices
• Contact your affiliates and provide new banners and other materials

All in all this should help you optimise your potential (if you can do such a thing) and get the most out of january sale sales.

I understand the need to show people relevant results. I understand the need for this to reflect relevant new materials, but I just dont get Google Perosnalised search and its for one reason only.

Bookmarks.

If I like a site I Bookmark it, If I want to shop at Amazon, I go to amazon.co.uk or a host of other brand names I already trust. What I dont want is for Google to make surfing the Internet more insular… its a worrying trend.

If you searched in 2001, your results reflected the World.

In 2005 it reflects your country.

In 2010 it will reflect the 10 or so websites you’ve already visit.

I thought the whole purpose of search engines was to help us discover new and exciting things… not coral us into an ever decreasing number of results.

*sigh*

Well, I have to say that the Xfactor final was a foregone conclusion and I for one think that Olly Murs had a close escape from the curse that is Xfactor rubbish singles/albums, you know that Joe McElderry is going to tank after the first album… but good luck to the guy.

If like me you’re loathing to hear Joe McElderry’s single throughout Christmas then you have an alternative… and its quite a feat of viral marketing that has put this opportunity out there and that is…

Get Rage Against The Machine to Xmas number 1

This anti-xfactor campaign has run around Facebook and a host of other social media. It’s even backed by other artists including the Prodigy who all seek to give Simon Cowel a kick in the nadgers by trying to bump the Joe McElderry single off the top spot. Its not a feat for the faint hearted as with 10′000 vites on last nights final and an army of women over 50 all rushing out to buy little joe’s single its going to be a mamoth effort to get Rage Against the Machne to number 1.

So if you’re up for a bit of fun ive stuck a couple of Amazon links below where you can spent a couple of pence and buy either single. I for one am stumping up the cash and backing Rage Against the Machine!

Rock on!

Places to buy the singles:

Joe McElderry

• Buy ‘The Climb’, by Joe McElderry from Amazon for 30p
• Joe McElderry’s Debut Album (title unknown)

Rage Against the Machine

• Facebook Group for RATM
• iTUNES http://bit.ly/ratm-itunes
• PLAY.COM http://bit.ly/ratm-play
• 7DIGITAL http://bit.ly/ratm-7digital
• HMV.COM http://bit.ly/ratm-hmv
• TUNETRIBE http://bit.ly/ratm-tunetribe
• TESCO DIGITAL http://bit.ly/ratm-tesco
• WE7 http://bit.ly/ratm-we7