New Year and New goals will be in the form of a marketing service that weirdly enough rolls all the things I have been doing for the past 2 years into one! SEO, Domains, mini sites, Video, Photos, Content writing etc They goals will be having a ques of businesses wanting to get involved.
First stop will be to create 3-5 example showcases of how it looks and works as everyone likes to see examples of anything they are buying into. FACT!
On the domain front I am letting a lot of them drop if I think they are way too much effort to even start to gain any revenue or are not gems. I would say 5% are niche domains / Websites like PlayParachutes.co.uk (not dev yet) that will become cash cows for advertising rev or actual e commerce sites selling products on stock. The other 95% are the GEO domains like my HullBeds.co.uk which will be slowly moved over from the BIG ‘G’ to REAL – LOCAL companies where they will be featuring on other sites I have.
3 Words I hated since I started out in business in early 2008 is VAT, TAX and Books. If I could give anyone any advice in starting up a business, it’s “Get an accountant ASAP”. You may think £100-£200 a month to do ALL your accounts is steep but boy is it worth it in the end. It frees you up to do other work YOU get paid for and is one less stressful thing in your life.
Be careful (as I have found out) you do get shocking accountants that just don’t talk to you and you get some FAB ones.
Other Goals and plans that I do hope will help Humber TV are ones with local groups or business. I can offer News and video coverage to help promote their services and they can offer me the use of the facilities there. Maybe the use of a Board room, meeting rooms, Gym, etc it’s a little bit of back scratching that costs both parties no cash.
So April is here and I need a kick up the arse to get ideas focused!
I’ve been running around like a mad man this past 2-3 weeks juggling work, new projects and my little girl been in hospital. I just need to take stock.
Humber.TV is really doing well, considering I should be putting more hours in a week and now has a page rank of 2. The last webcast / podcast we recorded (still to edit the HD copy) was Cottingham Springboard and just loved the idea of musicians coming along who are in the 3 day music event and letting rip with some tunes. Bring it on people…
Ok about this “Recycle old magazine content”. I had a HTC Touch Diamond spare after an upgrade to a Iphone 3GS and gave it to my son to use but just stopped charging, even with a new battery. Today (Sunday) is our local carboot day in Northcave and know theirs a guy who deals with mobiles. Got there, thought the phone was in the car but had left it at home – not to worry. 🙁
So we’re wondering around, Jo my Mrs buying books she’d wanted, me looking bemused by all the VHS cassettes people are STILL trying to sell and a round trip and I saw a mag stall. Geoff Anderson of Goole (01405-769574) was the pitch holder with 100’s of magazines, mainly cars ones that I could see but was told he has 1000’s of different ones at home!
A selection of Kit Car ones (a good pile of around 50+) caught my eye as I’d just finished a Kit Car Insurance mini site for a mate. The idea instantly popped into my head of reading really old content in mags from as far back as 1985, 1986, 1987 etc and then in my own words (helped by some creative use of the mags) write articles on a new domain I had bought especially for this idea.
How much Geoff? ……….. £3 the box! Wow I’ll take them.
So got home registered the below domain and another project was born ;o).
Kit-Car.org.uk isn’t yet designed or really started but does have a rough text flesh holding page for quick SEO and listings.
My guess is that these old mags will have content, ideas, wording and internet unpublished text in which it will give anyone who reads them great ideas! These mags are 25 years old and maybe out dated but have probably been long forgeotten about and never even heard of SEO.
My first trial is with as mentioned above with Kit-Car.org.uk and will see if it has any impact on rankings for the main phrase “Kit Car” but would expect long tail phrases to be it’s freind like “Cobra kit car replacement lights”.
Another 2 mini sites started today StainlessSteelBBQ.org.uk and GardenHeater.org.uk
I registered PriceCrunch.net to develop a discount code and affiliation site, but have never got round to it. ( no longer own this domain)
Although it’s a .NET it is a catchy domain and a great one to own and develop as we intend to soon.
Along with Anti Virals, and many other commonly used phrases nowadays we have a few others like PricesCompared.co.uk which would make a FAB comparison site if fully branded and developed.
If would give Money Super Market a run for their money I bet ;o)
Big sites that compare lots of items and products are so much harder to get earning for you compared to a niche area such as a Wormeries site. I do know of a few people that have made the bigger sites work and are earning £xxxx’s a month from natural traffic and not paid for clicks.
I feel a head ache coming on so screen rest and brew me thinks!
This post is a bit of a moan and a blatant plug for the best advertising money you’ll spend within Hull!
Formed our limited company around April 08 and submitted the company details to many directories and other sites alike for free.
From that day on (un-ticking the box I wish to receive news letters etc) we have had nothing but a constant bombardment of phone calls and spam emails from most of them. I know they have to make money and to follow up listings but the annoying thing is when they try and sell us a listing and then when we decline SEO or a new website. They clearly have no idea,
That’s what we do!
Two points that bug me –
Really isn’t right that is it?
This got more and more grinding as the months went on. I asked clients and businesses at networking events, do you get these calls and confirmed –
“All the time! Bloody annoying”
Knowing how people generally do searches online using Google, Yahoo, BING and other search engines using a Geo location and service or product required. We decided to start buying up all Hull related domains, Services, products e.g. HullBeds.co.uk, you get the idea where we were going by covering all angles.
We had a solid network of domains and a main directory they all interact with in some way- Hull Local.
We have found people like to speak to faces and real people, not some guy or voices at the end of the phone. We didn’t want to try and create a national directory but kept it a local one just to Hull which also made sense for travel and getting to know businesses. We don’t just expose your business from one website/directory which limits how many times you can be shown in search results but a whole spread of websites.
An example, If your company sells blinds, you can be listed under our Blinds, Conservatory, and Windows categories. All of which focus on been in Hull and then on our specific mini websites again all focused on been in Hull – Hull-Blinds.co.uk, HullConservatories.co.uk and HullWindows.co.uk This gives your company 8 shots at any one search when people perform a search instead of the usual 2 shots. If you need this explaining a little better please do contact me.
I could write a book on how the network of websites would benefit your business. I’ll leave it there and just ask you to take a look, see how it works and if you do want a chat let me come and show you how it could work for your company!
I thank you ;o)