Posts

Should I have one or more sites? 15th December 2013 11:47 PM

With Sandra on this, go for Country Level domains.

Our directory is .co.uk for here, and .com in the states. We were .us until I finally managed to get hold of the .com.

Advantage of country level code is Google knows straight away who your content is targeted at, regardless where the physical hosting is. eg we used to host our UK site in the States. This means until a site is really viable, you can keep your hosting costs down and run them all from the same box, as long as your transaction times are ok.

Is there a need to launch 3 at once and make loads of work and expense for yourself? Can you not get one going, profitable and let that launch the second site?

After our UK and US sites were running, we originally planned to launch across Ireland, Canada, Oz, NZ, South Africa and India (long story). But didn't appreciate the demands and costs of 1 overseas site, from customer service, lack of local support, lack of local knowledge, culture differences, timezones etc. So we stopped at the States, and in hindsight it was a good move, as it means we have more budget to spend on our current sites, rather than being watered down across a multitude of sites.

Where to advertise for less? 12th December 2013 5:29 PM

Originally Posted by Erico

“Last month i have dropped 20000 leaflets around the city”

Good feedback, and proves leaflets are still a very effective form of advertising.

Dominoes Boss wants to bring in unskilled immigrants 11th December 2013 3:07 PM

Not often I'm on the same frequency as a Government Minister, but Mark Harper the Immigration Minister gets my vote

Dominoes British Franchise CEO Lance Batchelor

“...appealed to the government to allow his firm to bring in unskilled workers from outside the EU, saying Domino's could hire 1,000 workers immediately...

"He should perhaps pay his staff a little more and then he might find it easier to recruit them ... He runs a profitable business, he should pay what the market demands,"

"I don't think that we should import relatively unskilled labour from outside the European Union just so that he (Batchelor) can keep his wages low," Harper told a parliamentary committee on Tuesday.
UK minister tells Domino's to pay higher wages to attract staff | Reuters”

That's just what we needed, another 1000 unskilled immigrant workers on a lower than living wage, being topped up by the tax payer!

Lloyds fined 11th December 2013 2:55 PM

Good old Lloyds caught red handed again...

“Lloyds Banking Group has been fined

The Cold Calling Poll 11th December 2013 1:56 PM

Originally Posted by focusedlife

“B2C, in the states, its very touchy, and quite damned illegal if you're on the do not call list.

What i really hate are the robo calls with the push 3 if you want to be annoyed by a real human ones.”

In the UK, it's supposed to be an offence if the homeowner has registered themselves on the Telephone Preference Service, ie opted out of cold calls. But from what I've seen it's a toothless agency, hard work to make a complaint, and only slows down the number of calls, doesn't stop them.

I think robo calls should be outlawed. The worst offenders seem to be missold insurance ambulance chasing type calls

Google Page Rank Update!! 10th December 2013 4:27 PM

Well blow me down! Never saw that.

Was just reading it on seroundtable, according to Matt Cutts "Team was fixing a different backend service and did a PR update along the way."

Just checked the forum, we dropped from a 3 to a 2

Directory stayed the same.

Do wish they would stop blowing hot and cold about Pagerank. Either its a valid tool or it isn't. Come on Google make your mind up...

What is a digital business? 6th December 2013 5:28 PM

Originally Posted by Suraj_AM

“...in the coming years the bifurcation of 'digital' and 'business' would be nil and every business would be in some form or other be a digital one.”

Holy cow, I had to google that one!! bifurcation! Loving it, I shall start throwing that in some conversatons.

I retract my earlier comment Suraj, you're a born blogger

My cuurent all time favourite is CLADOSPORIUM RESINAE which is a fungus that grows in aviation fuel. Can never find the right conversation to chuck it in, until now of course

The best way to promote on Pinterest 6th December 2013 2:29 PM

Originally Posted by The Cue Store

“I've been thinking of using Pinterest for my business after seeing one of my competition on it.

So I signed up, but now I don't have a clue what to do with it.”

lol you're as bad as me

I'll confess to not even logging into pinterest for about 6 months. I get occasional emails telling me someones liked my pin or whatever they do, but after spending some time initially to set it up, see minimal to zero traffic from it, and can't attribute a single sign up let alone a sale.

I think with a lot of social media, you simply need to prioritise. Try things, but if they don't generate results move on. There is so much choice now, and different things work for different people.

I still like forums because there is genuine interaction. Facebook is a simple "like me and I'll like you" strategy, although we do get quite a lot of traffic, and a few signups. Google+ I'm still tinkering with, mainly because it's Google and I know sooner or later it's going to be a benefit!

Then I have masses of other ones I've signed up with like Quora or Foursquare which are now collecting dust in the "must have a play when I have some time" folder

Google Site Speed - have you tested your site? 6th December 2013 2:14 PM

It's been known for a while now site speed and page loading times are now a big factor in Googles ever complex algorithm, and most of us are familiar with slow loading websites, and normally vote with our mice..

But at least this is something you can resolve yourself or via your web designer/developer.

A lot of site/page speed issues are simply down to cheap hosting. So if you are only getting a trickle of visitors and website conversions or performance aren't a priority, then

Charity Clothing Scam 6th December 2013 1:14 PM

Beware of Scams/Hoaxes claiming to be charities

Charitable Clothing/Items Collections - Unfortunately this is an age old problem, but lots of people still fall for it, especially during the season of good will, and there are various versions of this across the country.

Action Fraud has some great tips on how to spot bogus charities and how to protect yourself, but help or advise elderly relatives if they don't understand. Charity donation fraud | Action Fraud

This particular leaflet is doing the rounds in Warwickshire, although the number is now dead, and the Genuine Air Ambulance Service are in talks with Police and Trading Standards.

Don't stop giving, just be a little more cautious of who you are giving to.