Snow? In Scotland?? - I know many folks expect Scotland to be covered in a blanket of snow for much of the year. The truth is different, of course. Scotland benefits from the warmth of the Gulf stream for most of the time - and it's only occasionally that we seem to have a cold winter.
While the forecasters were predicting a severe winter for the UK, it's only in the last few days that we have seen much snow in the west of Scotland. It never lasts long. We had a snowfall of about 8" last Sunday and it had all but disappeared on Tuesday in the low-lying areas. What we have now is a cold easterly wind with occasional flurries of snow blowing around - but again, the general temperature is above freezing point, so the snow is melting quickly.
I'm loving it! This is reminiscent of many winters when I was a kid in the 50s. The quality of the daylight seems much better and I've hardly needed an umbrella at all this winter. (Shiver me timbers, that's bound to bring on a deluge!) The trick to this kind of weather is to wear layers of lightweight clothing so that you can be comfortable outside and when you come back indoors.
I'm away to rediscover the joys of wearing lip salve - and I'm going to walk in the woods later on and find some lovely spring catkins!
Later
M
Thursday, March 16, 2006
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
Link Popularity
Free Link Popularity Checker
Publish your web site and you'll be inundated with more business than you can handle?? Well, maybe not. You can ask yourself (and your web designer) why you're not making money from your web site - and here is some of the information that you need to know to make your web site appear in the top of the search engine results for your chosen key phrase.
The internet is a brilliant tool for marketing your offline business or for making a living entirely online. Countless companies have mastered the art of ecommerce and now receive a substantial portion of their income from the web. But as a start-up company on the internet, that effectively means that the competition is ferocious and getting to the top of the search engines for any keyphrase or word takes a lot of work. Ask yourself how many times you click on a link in the first page of results on one of the search engines - and how infrequently you surf to the results on page 20 or 31 or further.
Publishing your web site is just the start of the strategy of making a living online. I heard someone recently recommend that you choose to spend less money on the design of your web site, leaving more money in your web marketing kitty to promote your web site effectively. I think that this is a masterful piece of advice. The internet is only going to pay dividends for you if you understand that you must get your web site to the top of the results, beating your competition. To do this might take six or more months - so you can not afford to delay taking action.
Search engines "spider" links. In other words, a search engine will read a page of your text (not your images, flash, etc.) and, when they come to a hyperlink to another page or another web site, they will go and read that information as well. If you have links on many other web sites which lead back to YOUR site, then the search engines will consider your site is more important and you will start to improve your rankings in the search engine results.
You should
Now, I promised you a free tool to check your "Link Popularity" - this software runs on PCs. I use it to check and see how many links there are to my web sites - and I can also use it to check on the link popularity of my major competitors. This is REALLY USEFUL!!!! - and is helping me get my sites to the top for my chosen key words.
Margaret
Publish your web site and you'll be inundated with more business than you can handle?? Well, maybe not. You can ask yourself (and your web designer) why you're not making money from your web site - and here is some of the information that you need to know to make your web site appear in the top of the search engine results for your chosen key phrase.
The internet is a brilliant tool for marketing your offline business or for making a living entirely online. Countless companies have mastered the art of ecommerce and now receive a substantial portion of their income from the web. But as a start-up company on the internet, that effectively means that the competition is ferocious and getting to the top of the search engines for any keyphrase or word takes a lot of work. Ask yourself how many times you click on a link in the first page of results on one of the search engines - and how infrequently you surf to the results on page 20 or 31 or further.
Publishing your web site is just the start of the strategy of making a living online. I heard someone recently recommend that you choose to spend less money on the design of your web site, leaving more money in your web marketing kitty to promote your web site effectively. I think that this is a masterful piece of advice. The internet is only going to pay dividends for you if you understand that you must get your web site to the top of the results, beating your competition. To do this might take six or more months - so you can not afford to delay taking action.
What can you do to improve your results?
Search engines "spider" links. In other words, a search engine will read a page of your text (not your images, flash, etc.) and, when they come to a hyperlink to another page or another web site, they will go and read that information as well. If you have links on many other web sites which lead back to YOUR site, then the search engines will consider your site is more important and you will start to improve your rankings in the search engine results.
You should
- Add your web url and your best keyword search terms into web directories.
- Publish articles about your business in article directories - and you will be allowed to leave a link back to your web site in the "resource box" - a profile of you, the author.
- Take part in discussion forums and, depending on the site, edit your signature block in EACH site, so that there is a live hyperlink back to your web site.
- If you arrange a link exchange with another site, you must be aware that linking to a bad web site can hurt you considerably. So try to choose only reputable companies or web sites when you are trying to arrange a link exchange.
- Use Pay-per-click search engines to bring traffic to your web site (this can work very well when you are selling products or services.
Now, I promised you a free tool to check your "Link Popularity" - this software runs on PCs. I use it to check and see how many links there are to my web sites - and I can also use it to check on the link popularity of my major competitors. This is REALLY USEFUL!!!! - and is helping me get my sites to the top for my chosen key words.
Margaret
Saturday, March 04, 2006
Focus on Imaging
Well, Sandy and I escaped for three days; we visited my little sister who lives in Derby. Isn't it strange how taking a three day break can make you feel as if you've been away from home for much longer!
Anyway, Joan is in the honours year in her photography course at Nottingham Trent University; she keeps her finger on the pulse of all things photographic and, consequently, on Tuesday, we found ourselves going to the Focus on Imaging exhibition at the NEC, Birmingham.
I find that I have to work hard to get the best out of exhibitions and trade shows. There are so many stands with such a lot of useful information that a day simply isn't long enough to learn about all new products and to filter the new bits which apply particularly to us.
On several stands, manufacturers have come up with new automatic booths for people wanting to print digital images directly from their camera or cell phone. They look really smart. We're tempted to put one into our shop, but we're not quite sure that we have enough users (the blue rinse brigade, for goodness sake!) who know how to use digital cameras. The customer would end up paying between 20p and 49p per print. Is there enough demand to make the purchase of such a machine profitable??? We're considering it.
More later .....
Margaret
Anyway, Joan is in the honours year in her photography course at Nottingham Trent University; she keeps her finger on the pulse of all things photographic and, consequently, on Tuesday, we found ourselves going to the Focus on Imaging exhibition at the NEC, Birmingham.
I find that I have to work hard to get the best out of exhibitions and trade shows. There are so many stands with such a lot of useful information that a day simply isn't long enough to learn about all new products and to filter the new bits which apply particularly to us.
On several stands, manufacturers have come up with new automatic booths for people wanting to print digital images directly from their camera or cell phone. They look really smart. We're tempted to put one into our shop, but we're not quite sure that we have enough users (the blue rinse brigade, for goodness sake!) who know how to use digital cameras. The customer would end up paying between 20p and 49p per print. Is there enough demand to make the purchase of such a machine profitable??? We're considering it.
More later .....
Margaret
Monday, February 20, 2006
Mulch my lettuce leaves, why don't you?!!
OK, this is a rant! - It's Monday morning, I haven't had breakfast, and my blood pressure's gone through the roof.
.... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH
For those of you who don't know me, (probably don't care, I hear you say!), I run a small shop in Helensburgh with my husband, Sandy. Helensburgh's a lovely old Victorian town, a genteel sort of place like one of the towns on the south coast of England. Plenty of good folks visit the town, walk along the promenade on a lovely day; visit the shops, visit the Hill House, just spend a few hours relaxing away from the hustle and bustle of daily life in the city. Like many other tourist destinations, there are huge chunks of the year which are quiet and, recognising this, I decided to put up a MacGillivray's web site and to test an eBay shop as well.
Great Idea! - both virtual stores make sales. I love it. I've put a lot of effort over the years into promoting my own web site - it took weeks of dedicated work to get good search engine placement and to get the web site looking good enough so that people felt confident about purchasing. So, imagine my surprise when I paid my subscription to eBay (ok, I'd better put in the usual eBay disclaimers Copyright © 1995-2006 eBay Inc. All Rights Reserved.) - and then I found that, because I do have an eBay store, eBay is marketing my products for me. Wow! - talk about value for money.
What is the consequence of this for me. Well, if I want to promote candles, celtic jewellery, soaps, etc, then my eBay store can quite often get much faster results than my own shop. (Not always true, but there isn't a perfect system out there.) So, imagine my horror when I received complaints from not one but TWO of my suppliers that their products are being sold on eBay.
They are claiming that their brand is being devalued by me selling their stuff on eBay. ..... in one instance, one of the major British stores complained directly to the manufacturer and I can no longer get his products. HMMM
Well, to all manufacturers out there, I would recommend the following thoughts:
RANT OVER! .... my blood pressure's getting back to normal and I had better get on with some of the chores - I'll take the rest of my frustration out on the ironing!
Meantime, I am uploading an article about eBay buyers which I hope you will find valuable. It's a free pdf file and you can find it at http://www.macgillivrays.co.uk/ebaybuyers.pdf - I hope you enjoy it.
Till next time!
Margaret
.... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH
For those of you who don't know me, (probably don't care, I hear you say!), I run a small shop in Helensburgh with my husband, Sandy. Helensburgh's a lovely old Victorian town, a genteel sort of place like one of the towns on the south coast of England. Plenty of good folks visit the town, walk along the promenade on a lovely day; visit the shops, visit the Hill House, just spend a few hours relaxing away from the hustle and bustle of daily life in the city. Like many other tourist destinations, there are huge chunks of the year which are quiet and, recognising this, I decided to put up a MacGillivray's web site and to test an eBay shop as well.
Great Idea! - both virtual stores make sales. I love it. I've put a lot of effort over the years into promoting my own web site - it took weeks of dedicated work to get good search engine placement and to get the web site looking good enough so that people felt confident about purchasing. So, imagine my surprise when I paid my subscription to eBay (ok, I'd better put in the usual eBay disclaimers Copyright © 1995-2006 eBay Inc. All Rights Reserved.) - and then I found that, because I do have an eBay store, eBay is marketing my products for me. Wow! - talk about value for money.
What is the consequence of this for me. Well, if I want to promote candles, celtic jewellery, soaps, etc, then my eBay store can quite often get much faster results than my own shop. (Not always true, but there isn't a perfect system out there.) So, imagine my horror when I received complaints from not one but TWO of my suppliers that their products are being sold on eBay.
They are claiming that their brand is being devalued by me selling their stuff on eBay. ..... in one instance, one of the major British stores complained directly to the manufacturer and I can no longer get his products. HMMM
Well, to all manufacturers out there, I would recommend the following thoughts:
- eBay has a huge market of registered users, more are joining every single day.
- eBay markets products for its eBay store owners - I couldn't afford the advertising budget which eBay has.
- I'm reasonably sure that there are laws in the UK which are supposed to prevent restrictive trade practices.
- It's not a cheap option for people to run an eBay store - but there are great benefits.
- If I wanted to launch a product quickly and effectively worldwide, I could do MUCH WORSE than do so using an eBay shop.
RANT OVER! .... my blood pressure's getting back to normal and I had better get on with some of the chores
Meantime, I am uploading an article about eBay buyers which I hope you will find valuable. It's a free pdf file and you can find it at http://www.macgillivrays.co.uk/ebaybuyers.pdf - I hope you enjoy it.
Till next time!
Margaret
Saturday, February 18, 2006
There are a couple of Clickbank alternatives
... they work in slightly different ways.
and
I'll discuss these two quite different affiliate program managers in more detail shortly.
... I wonder how many Limp Lettuce awards????
M
and
I'll discuss these two quite different affiliate program managers in more detail shortly.
... I wonder how many Limp Lettuce awards????
M
Friday, February 17, 2006
A Clickbank Alternative??
I always used to dream of creating a recipe eBook and selling it online using Clickbank. I've got the Clickbank account in place - all I need to do now is finish the eBook . I'd better hit myself across the shoulders with a couple of limp lettuce leaves, then! That should gee me up a bit.
Clickbank offers some great features -
Like any organisation, there are times when their system could do with a bit of sharpening up. I see that they've just announced a new "Searchable" marketplace, so that you can readily find products which complement your web site, so that you can choose new products to promote in your newsletters, ezines, web sites, blogs, etc. One thing which I would like to see, especially when I am promoting someone else's products, is tracking on how I make sales of these products. Hopefully that is going to appear sometime soon.
Hmmm - the more I write about Clickbank, the more I feel that it will suit me very well indeed to use it to sell my eBook - bring out the limp lettuce leaves again - I need something to spur me into action and get this book published!
Clickbank offers some great features -
- It has a bank of ready-made affiliates waiting for the next hot product to promote.
- When you sell a digital product, Clickbank tracking lets you know if it was an affiliate who sold it for you or your own marketing! Clickbank calculates any commission due to the affiliate and handles the payments for you. (Suits my very lazy style!)
- Clickbank makes it easy for your affiliates to discover the correct code to use to promote your products
- Clickbank sends you checks every two weeks (although they do hold back a percentage of the monies due till your sales are clear of the refund period. Sensible!)
Like any organisation, there are times when their system could do with a bit of sharpening up. I see that they've just announced a new "Searchable" marketplace, so that you can readily find products which complement your web site, so that you can choose new products to promote in your newsletters, ezines, web sites, blogs, etc. One thing which I would like to see, especially when I am promoting someone else's products, is tracking on how I make sales of these products. Hopefully that is going to appear sometime soon.
Hmmm - the more I write about Clickbank, the more I feel that it will suit me very well indeed to use it to sell my eBook - bring out the limp lettuce leaves again - I need something to spur me into action and get this book published!
Soggy Sandwiches??
Well, what better topic could there be for a Limp Lettuce review than a SOGGY SANDWICH - for goodness sake!
... the very idea that someone could find a soggy sandwich appealing completely fries my brain.
HIT ME With a WET NOODLE!!
and how on earth did a soggy sandwich get in here anyway???
Some time ago, I came across an article by Janeice V Smith -
... well, I get the "overworked" bit; but I thought she ought to be able to do better than a soggy sandwich! Hmm, looks like an outrageous claim about her income as well.
A pitch for an ebook, I hear you say.
Right on.
OK, I admit it, I'm a sucker for a sob story. I bought the bleeding book. What did I think about it???
Tell ya later! I'm off to figure out how many limp lettuces I'm going to award it!
Margaret
... the very idea that someone could find a soggy sandwich appealing completely fries my brain.
HIT ME With a WET NOODLE!!
and how on earth did a soggy sandwich get in here anyway???
Some time ago, I came across an article by Janeice V Smith -
If you want to make more money AND live the life you only dream about today…"How an Overworked, Traveling, Soggy Sandwich Eating Dental Hygienist Made $11,212 a Month Online" … is the roadmap you need to get there.
... well, I get the "overworked" bit; but I thought she ought to be able to do better than a soggy sandwich! Hmm, looks like an outrageous claim about her income as well.
A pitch for an ebook, I hear you say.
Right on.
OK, I admit it, I'm a sucker for a sob story. I bought the bleeding book. What did I think about it???
Tell ya later! I'm off to figure out how many limp lettuces I'm going to award it!
Margaret
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