You may want to read Part I of this series which is the overview of Marketing a website in the UK - Click to ViewÂ
Every link that you can get on a reputable site will boost your overall search engine rankings. It is also another possible signpost out there in the vast world wide web pointing towards your site. These are the sites that we have submitted to while building our empire in the UK
http://dmoz.org/ which is a directory of many websites throughout the world. www.gumtree.com Gumtree allows you to place a business service advert free for 7 days. It then drops off and you have to resubmit it. http://www.freeukstuff.com/links-review.html This is a site where as long as you are offering something for free and don’t mind posting a reciprocal link they will list your site.
What I do in regards to sites like this as I don’t want to litter my front page with links is to place a link on a links page or on the Blog that is associated with the site.
German Web Directory This site lets you either place a reciprocal link or alternatively you can pay a small fee to be listed in their directory.
This is just beginning you need to do this on a daily or weekly basis, continually adding links will gradually increase the traffic and ranking of your sites.
In the next article we will look back at how these links have helped us increase traffice to the sites.
How often have you struggled when trying to write an article for your site? It happens to all of us however if a clear plan is followed it should not become to much of a problem.
Clear Title and Beginning Every article needs a clear beginning, most readers will read the first few lines of an article and if you haven’t hooked them, unfortunately they are going to move on. Start with a quick overview about the rest of the article, so they will immediately know whether or not the article will interest them. The title also has a large part to play in this initial scan of the content.
Solid Middle Once you have hooked the reader you need to start laying out the facts, make it clear, simple and write it as if you were talking to the person - this is what Blogs are about - communication from one person to another.
Stay on topic along with what you mentioned that the article was about at the beginning, it is easy to get distracted and move off target but that will only annoy readers and make them feel a little annoyed that the promised content has not been delivered.
If you have an opinion about something don’t be afraid to give it - you will not always be right and that’s O.K. Just make sure you don’t insult or offend anyone in the process unless you are really sure they deserve it! If you are flaming about something sometimes it is better to write it down, save it as a draft and then decide in a couple of days if it really needs to be broadcast to the Blogging World.
Summary and Conclusion This is the part where you may need to lay it on the line - you had mentioned what you wanted to discuss, you have clearly and honestly laid out the facts - now you need to analyze that information and let the world know what conclusion you have reached.
It is important not to leave the conclusion hanging out there in cyberspace, by the time a reader has made it this far they want to know what you think… really. So this is not the time to sit on the fence - explain what conclusions you have reached and why you made them. Don’t make excuses just say it like it is - hopefully your readers will give you some feedback on their thoughts as well.
I read with interest an article about a drunk Australian that jumped into the water and “Attacked” a Bronze Whaler Shark! From what I understand he climbed down a ladder from the jetty, silently crept up behind the shark and grabbed it by the tail - backing off only when the Shark attempted to bite him. The Aussie escaped unscathed from his experience, what a pity noone caught it on camera! Read the Full article… Liquid Courage Nets Shark
“It’s not something I’d recommend to do. When I sobered up I thought about it and I said, ‘I’m a bit of an idiot doing it’,” he said.
There is a product on the market for all you surfers out there that you can purchase that claims to help protect you from Sharks. I first came across this product on the SurferMag Message Board.
The Shark Shield SURF generates an electrical field that is detected by the shark through its sensory receptors, known as the Ampullae of Lorenzini, found on the snouts of sharks. Once detected by the shark’s sensors, the field causes muscular spasms that result in the shark being deterred from the area. The field is projected from electrodes in the tail of the unit that trail off the back of the surfboard, much like a legrope. This creates an elliptical field that surrounds the user with a shark safe zone that is up to eight meters in diameter.
There is more information to be found on Shark Shields Website however from what I understand it emits a kind of electromagnetic field that makes the Shark feel uncomfortable when within it. How this stops a Shark from barging in at 50 miles an hour and chewing your leg off I am not sure, however I would certainly use the product if I was surfing in Shark infested waters.
You can view more about the shark shield on the video below. Be safe out there - Rob
This series of posts explores the non cost marketing opportunities that exist in the UK - it appears to be quite difficult to break into the UK web market so this will be approached as a mini project to try and document the process. This way it will be easier for others to simply follow or adapt the process to suit their requirements.
The sites we will be working with are www.eurojobhunters.co.uk and www.curryfocus.co.uk . The jobhunters site has been around for approximately 4 months and has a Google page rank of 3/10, the Curry Focus website has only been running for a month however should cater to a much wider audience.
Both sites have blogs attached to them, however the EuroJobhunters Blog is untouched to date, the home page currently provides links through to the traffic busy NZ Jobhunters Blog. The CurryFocus Blog is used for the recipe reviews with appropriate links.
In the next article we will list all the sites, directories etc that we can submit the websites to and we will track the referrals from these links in the weeks to come. We will also post weekly traffic updates on the sites, and compare them with earlier results.
I first read about this on Problogger and wonder if Blogs that have used these types of memes will get the links from these memes blocked or not. The article discussing this from the Technorati view point is called breaking the chains.
Personally I think the whole concept of how Technorati appears to rate sites is flawed. If a Blogger goes crazy swapping links with other Blogs they will gradually rise the Technorati ladder - yet another Blog that spends there time creating quality content may get a similar amount of links, or more or less - yet the ranking of the Blog is not rated on the content, its rated on the links from what I can tell anyway - seems to be how Technorati describe it to.
A Technorati Ranking relates to the number of sources that point to a particular weblog relative to other weblogs. The more sources referencing a weblog, the higher the Technorati ranking. The Technorati Ranking for a blog is displaying in URL Search results, Blog search results, and is displayed in the account profile for all claimed blogs.
Because of this seemingly simplistic method of ranking Blogs it is no wonder that meme lists are created and why not, if this system is not accurately representing the true content or value of Blogs it might as well be exploited.
I am interested in how they would filter out or police these kind of lists as well. For example if I happened to write an article about a certain meme list and linked to a couple of other blogs, would the post be blocked if the name of the meme list was mentioned? Or maybe they check the name and the number of links in the post so if the name of the meme is mentioned and the post linked to say over 10 other sites then it should be blocked.
I think that if your post gets blocked because of a meme, try changing the name of the meme in the post or misspelling it slightly and republish it - that should do the trick! Then of course you need to tell all the other bloggers that had linked to you to do the same, however that shouldn’t be to hard once word gets around.
I have often wondered how I would react if I happened to be attacked by a Shark whilst in the water. It is best to be at least mentally prepared for this type of event, especially if you happen to be a regular ocean swimmer, or the most common of human prey for Sharks a surfer. We look at 7 ways that we can avoid Sharks and hopefully escape if attacked by one.
Don’t swim in the ocean at dusk or dawn, this is when sharks feed, if you don’t want to be on the menu keep clear of the ocean at this time.
Don’t swim while bleeding. If cut yourself on a shell or something while in the water - get out fast.
If you notice offal, fish guts, barley or similar in the water it could mean that someone is trying to attract fish - remembers Sharks are fish, very big and nasty fish so clear out of the water fast and find somewhere else to swim - e.g a lake!
If you are attacked by a Shark immediately fight back specifically going for the eyes gills and the nose. Sharks are looking for an easy snack, and probably don’t expect you to fight back - remember your life depends on it.
Try not to thrash about to much in the water - if you do you stand the chance of being mistaken for a wounded or sick Seal - a tasty snack for a hungry Shark.
Avoid areas where sharks commonly feedÂ
Remain calm when faced with a curious shark - don’t make any sudden movements, just swim steadily away.
Remember that Sharks are not the brightest of creatures, they do however have keen senses of sight, hearing and smell - by following the previous Shark aversion and retaliatory methods there is little to no chance that you will ever be eaten by a Shark. If you do get attacked but manage to survive, please share your story.
There are two things that I have realized over the last few months. One is that making money a bit of money online is not very hard at all. The other thing is that to make a living online i.e enough to replace the job that you work at every day is a whole different story altogether. It would be interesting to be able to say take 3 or 4 months off work and actually see where you could take it given the time to work on building your sites and systems.
The biggest thing holding most people back I believe is the state of mind that you can just start up a blog about making money, place a few adverts on it, and then sit back and watch the money come rolling in. Unfortunately that is just not going to happen. A site needs to have something of value first and foremost, i.e you really need to have something that a potential visitor to your site requires, whether that is great content - or alternatively some kind of product or service.
Great Content Choosing to provide great content for the readers/visitors to your site is not as easy as it sounds, firstly you need to be original, you can’t just cut and paste articles from around the web and call them your own. Secondly you need to constantly provide great content - this means posting well informed and researched articles several times a week. This sounds easy enough in theory however if you work full time, have a family and try and have some resemblance of a normal life it becomes extremely difficult.
Products/Services Again, not as easy as it sounds. There are an amazing amount of great products and services on the internet and if you would like to get a share of the pie then you need to do it better than most. The only other alternative is to provide something unique - however remember as soon as you start to make a little bit of progress there will be sites popping up all over the place trying to cash in on your idea.
Once you have decided which path you want to follow, you need to start planning how you are going to do it, then put a website together (or a blog). Fill the site with content and then begin the building regular traffic to your new site. Along the journey you need to network alot, take a lot of time seeing how others are achieving the things you would like to achieve and hopefully learning a tonne of stuff along the way.
The key factor that you may have on your side if you can stick it out is endurance. A lot of your competitors will drop off as you progress and this will be for a variety of reasons - however if you stick it out and continue to build quality content that will interest your visitors eventually you will succeed.
Following on from 2 recent Shark attacks in NSW in recent weeks, a number of sightings of what could well be a 4.5 meter Great White has swimmers and life guards taking extra precautions in Botany Bay - NSW. The below quote is from an article in the Sydney Morning Herald Lifesaver patrols increased after shark spotted
 The shark is believed to have killed a dog and a pelican at Frenchmans Bay, in Sydney’s south, which is now being patrolled by lifesavers in the mornings.
Bondi Beach was actually closed for 15 minutes yesterday morning after a Shark Sighting - it would take a lot more bravery than I have to go swimming 15 minutes after a Shark sighting!
Also at Palm Beach Florida today there was a Sign up Saying…
“No swimming (large fish).”
 This was because of a massive invasion of Sharks that often happens around this time of the year.
 The large fish, to be exact, were hundreds of bull sharks and lemon sharks seen swimming along the surf, the sand bar and farther out in the Atlantic Ocean.
We saw the news about the Florida Shark invasion on the PalmBeachPost.com website. If you have heard of any shark stories that are based on fact, or have any up to date Shark stories, please let us know about them.
There are two things that I have realized over the last few months. One is that making money a bit of money online is not very hard at all. The other thing is that to make a living online i.e enough to replace the job that you work at every day is a whole different story altogether. It would be interesting to be able to say take 3 or 4 months off work and actually see where you could take it given the time to work on building your sites and systems.
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