NComp@ss e-Cafe

Getting better results from your Website

2012-05-17T23:13:00.000+02:00

I don't often branch out into this realm of trying to dictate to your what you should and shouldn't put onto your website. But you do want the website to perform better - right?

Let's pick the title of this article apart a little - 'Getting better results from your website' - The key is I'm not going to fuss about how many visitors, or what your marketing, your aims and your aspirations are for your website. Want I want to stress is how you might get better results from what visitors you're already getting.

The key with any page on any website is to give the visitor enough information to satisfy them. You might ask them to buy something, contact you or just inform them. But ultimately you want to satisfy their need whatever it is.

Therefore this leave one metric that is cast iron every time to getting a better result. It's called the 'Bounce Rate' - the Bounce Rate measure the number of people who visit a web page and leave... 9 tenths of the time unsatisfied. It followers therefore the lower your bounce rate the more satisfied visitors you will have. If 2 in 10 people are leaving before they have read your page - that would be better than 4 or 6.

All web pages have a Bounce Rate and the target varies depending on the content of the page, but you might say 20% was good, 40% acceptable and 60% worrisome, there are plenty of ways to find this out on your website.

So back to my title - Getting better results from you Website - the goal is to reduce the bounce rate and the main way that is done is by improving the page they are bounce from... But you need to put that in context with who and why they are landing on the page in the first place.

Examples - if you have a web about 'Holidays in France' and people and it announces information and facts about holidays you offer - that's great - but you might find that Bounce Rate is at 60%... working backwards you can analyse that 300 of your 500 visitors to the page typed in the keyword 'Ski Holidays' - you'd know that people were arriving on your website because they want to know about 'skiing holidays'.

The obvious thing to do is to make sure that 'Skiing Holidays' is prominently featured on your website. This would mean those 300 people would see information about what they are looking forward to most prominently. This would reduce the chance of a Bounce. A big notice on your Home Page saying 'Click Here for Skiing Holidays' is what is needed.

Now you can take this all a few steps further - if you had Summer Holiday Cottages and Ski Chalets on the website - and your visitors were using a mix of keywords related to these two different activities, you should set up two pages - one for Summer and one for Winter.

Now you can take it further - if you get more people looking for 'short break holidays', 'two bedroom chalets', 'august French villas' You can see you are going to start building specific pages for all these eventualities - the goal is always the same - to make sure you give people the information they actually want.

These sorts of pages are called Landing Pages and you can usually fill them with more direct information. 'We have two bedroom Villas for rent' - this leaves the visitor with little room to manoeuvre - they looked up the keyword and you've given them exactly the information they want... the chances are your website will get better results.

What can we draw from this?
I recommend setting a few rules. If you get traffic from an keyword above a certain amount (say 500 visitors) they you absolutely should build a specific page on your website for this traffic.

Secondly, you'd be wise to look for theme from your top 20-50 keywords and include these keywords in your normal website, this is a compounding thing, the more you include these keywords in your website they more people will be satisfied with the bonus the more Google will promote these pages.

And lastly most importantly, in my opinion, you are starting to give the visitor what they want, rather than you dictating to them... If they are looking to you for answering what better service can you given than the answers.

Visual Website Design

2012-05-14T13:51:00.000+02:00

Design is everything and this article is geared towards my clients and my regular tip of the month series of articles.

You may have noticed with the abundance of iPhones, iPads and visual effects on websites more than ever the emphasis on the design, look and feel of your website is becoming increasingly important. We've moved on from the 'professional, efficient' design of last years websites to simply put must have slickness.

Web design is moving in leaps and bounds these days and the heart of the movement is in the design. It's a bit like IKEA out there, design is everything, even it if means it breaks quite quickly. But what is the route through all this emphasis. Let me outline just a few design concepts.

Design for mobile - the future has arrived and you really must have a website that works on an iPhone, iPad and any other device you can think of.

Also you need to consider email marketing campaigns, email signatures and branding. It is extremely likely that people will open your email on their mobile device.
Responsive Design - this is the concept that your website will flow no matter how it is looked at, chunks or boxes of content will change position depending on the viewing requirements. So video might take a back seat on an iPhone, but will show prominently on a desktop.

Responsive Design is about having one website (less work) to meet all your needs
Cross Browser - your website has to work on all browsers the main ones are Internet Explore (40-50%), Chrome (25%), Firefox (20%), Safari and Opera (5%) and many others. The only browser that can be ignored is IE6, which Microsoft has officially stopped supporting.

Would you turn down 10% of your customers for any reason... then why do so on your website, because your website failing to work on some peoples computers is precisely the as hanging a closed for business sign on your website.
Photography - the next big thing - look around you and by far the most common thing people are sharing or promoting or looking at is Photograph, Video is not far behind. But seriously think about your website and the photos you are using on it and then rethink your use of photography.

Great design is very much coupled with great photography and peoples awareness of your business is completely associated with the photos you use. Get the photos right and much of the rest will follow.
Social Media - we're being led down this garden path still further - it won't end - in cased you hoped it would - so use it. Any website that does not put social media at it's core from the starts risks virtually zero interest from the start.

Social Media is not just about a few logos on your website - it is about taking part in the world out there to promote your business, you need to be involved.

At the hart of all this is simply Great Design. Making your website look fabulous is a significant part of the criteria you need to make your website stand out from the crowd.

It's worth every minute you spend searching for inspiration and every penny you spend investing on your website.

Cookie Law - coming your way!

2012-05-09T18:47:00.001+02:00

Very quick note to highlight the fact that by 31st May under EU regulations all websites that use Cookies need to notify their users when they arrive.

Much has been written about this law and can be read on SilkTides excellent Blog (http://blog.silktide.com/tag/cookie-law/) also you can see more on http://nocookielaw.com/. I've embedded their excellent Video here as well.

Most of our websites use at the very least Google Analytics, the worlds foremost website statistics tool. And this website uses Cookies and so unless you add the relevant updates to your website technically you will be breaking the law.

The Solution

Without too finer a point the solution is to start complying with the law and that means updating your website making your customers aware that you're using Cookies. But I would like to stress there is no hurry yet... these updates can be done when you're ready... It is simply the point of this post to make you aware of what you should be doing and then doing it when you can.

Costs - A number of solutions have presented themselves from free to paid, it all depends how big your website is and whether you would like a hosted solution or something specific to your website. We're happy to quote, but it is important to understand that if we can do this for free we will.

For an example please see my website www.ncompass.co.uk/

Designing for Mobile

2012-04-20T16:36:00.000+02:00

My company motto is "putting business on the 'net" and I think it is important that I start this article with that in mind.

My motto is not - cutting edge technology now - not is it - latest gadgets for the future - I believe that for my clients it is better to use tried and tested technologies when they've been tried and tested and not before.

We all like to 'jump onto a bandwagon', but I'd like to assure you that every time I recommend you jump onto a bank wagon, it's not just a whim. It fact it is quite a serious recommendation.

What is the Mobile Web and what does it mean to you?

Essentially, all the predictions are that people will use their computers less and their mobiles more, whereas we've just gotten used to sitting at our computers to check email, now people want to check their email in the train and on the move. All this is almost being forced upon us by the likes of the iPhone, so it's now a reality and no longer a minority techie thing.

Mobile has arrived and it is changing how we do things.

A typical example from a real client of mine (Mobile Traffic)

This will effect us all because it means our websites will be accessed via Mobile and if we give the wrong impression that will effect how our customers and clients see us. If our competitors do this better than us, they will get the business and not us.

Let's think hypothetically for a moment. We've brought the latest Eco-Friendly car we can, it's fully connected to the Internet and has GPS and all the gizmo's, but we're low on Petrol (or whatever it is we will be fuelling the car with). The on-board computer will tell us where to buy the cheapest petrol and it will tell us how to get there. We will follow it's instructions. Now if your petrol station is all hooked up, that's great customers will come your way. But if now... how will people find you.

Real day examples are everywhere, if a person considers using your services or buying your products, he'll subconsciously compare your website to another, he'll see colour, words, photos, price and so on. If he does that on a Mobile Phone - where will you stand? How will you rate?

It's a big question and the simple answer is you need to get organised so that you can answer people when they try to see your website on their Mobile Phones.

Top 10 Tips for Mobile

These suggestions can be taken individually, but the idea is to get you thinking:

People have different needs on their iPhone, they usually want to contact you, so put your telephone number on prominently;
People often want directions - so make them clear on your mobile website;
Don't just repeat you main website on an iPhone it will be too small, it's also unreliable on the many other types of phones people have, (Nokia, Samsung, Android etc);
If selling products - narrow down the information, make it easier for people to buy it, they probably already know what they are looking for;
If offering a Service - make it compelling the likelihood is that people will have less time to read your website;
Navigation - put this at the bottom - make it rock simple, forget drop down menus, or anything fancy;
Avoid animation or anything moving, respect peoples bandwidth, they do not want to download a Movie on their iPhone, it would be cripplingly expensive;
News can take a back seat - unless your news is central to your service, people are less worried about frequent updates - people want specific information, not general;
Embrace Sharing - make everything you offer shareable - people often want to look something up for someone else and they need to be able to share that information;
Design for Mobile - if you're going to do it then do it properly;

These are purely my own recommendations, but as you the client think about your own Mobile experience with your own Mobile - think how you can be useful for your customers and clients. That is the key. A Mobile website is not about you giving information, it is about your customers getting that they need.

Mobile has arrived in the mainstream, it is time to plan for it and act.

Trafalgar - The People Business: Invoices, being paid, not being paid and all that ...

2012-04-13T17:38:00.001+02:00

Trafalgar - The People Business: Invoices, being paid, not being paid and all that ...: So often the main priority in a business is to gain clients and gain work. This is all well and good and crucial for the success of the bus...

Link Building for SEO

2012-04-11T11:06:00.002+02:00

I think it is about time I wrote something about Link Building for my clients and what value it brings our websites and how you should go about it.

I have always maintained that Google likes three things Content, Links and Good Design. Content is straight-forward enough, you write it and I'll publish it, Good Design is largely down to me as your website designer, and indeed I always try to make a website as search engine friendly as possible.

That leaves Links - by definition Google ranks your website based on the authority it thinks your website has on it's chosen subject. As a principal indicator Google looks to see how many websites 'agree' and place links to your website. And that's where the plot thickens.

Google is looking for recommendation of your website - you recommending other websites serves little purpose.
Google is looking for relevant websites - you having a link on a Baseball website when you sell DIY tools has no effect the subject matter has to be related
Google is looking for authoritative links - being recommended on the well respected BBC is going to be way more powerful than having a link on a website that no-one has heard of.

This all makes the situation much much tougher... you have to find high quality websites, willing to give their traffic to you at little or no cost on the same subject matter as they are trying to concentrate on to the same target audience.

It's a bit like MacDonald's selling Burger King Whoppers.

And it gets worst - Here are a few of the types of links you should be trying to target:

Competitor websites - if you have a link on a competitors website - Google will take it as a sign that your competitors think your offering is better. This would be extremely highly valued by Google.
Trade Websites - find your industry trade websites and try t target these, these act as centres of information for your industry and should be open to pointing interested parties in your direction. But beware of the cost.
Journalistic or News - The domain of PR, getting articles or content from leading journalistic websites would be highly ranked by Google, the problem is by their nature these are quite short lived affairs and you need to keep the pressure on Journalists to keep writing about you.
Blogging - another albeit lesser area is to get others to write about you on their Blogs. Google however takes into account the source (a Blog) and a lot depends on the quality and respect the source has within your industry.
Social Media - having other write about you on Facebook and Twitter with links back to your website is also highly important and often effective. Google realise that real people recommending real products and service is important.
Article websites - a newer source of links, a new breed of 'How to' websites offer articles on any subject and often allow publishes to place a link back to the their website. Google currently allow a fair amount of leeway on these sites, but as they get abused so Google will tighten up.
Directories - in terms of Google value Directories are low on the list - you can easily list your website in hundreds of Directories or secondary search engines, but who uses these?

So what is the solution - all this is rather negative, yet Link Building is probably one of the best and most important ways to build your websites popularity, not only do you open your door to traffic from many other websites, but Google rank you higher based on the quality and quantity of the links.

The role of the expert - all things cost money or require actual work.

Briefly you need to build and manage a profile of websites you think would help you.

You need to contact as many trade bodies as you can and request links to your website. Partner and supplier business also need to be contacts and requests made to list your website link on their websites.
Press Releases - you need to ensure that your website address is printed at every opportunity on and off line.
Articles - should and can be written and then submitted 'How to' websites.
You need to comment and contribute not only on your own Blog, but on other peoples blogs to. Volunteer yourself to write for others
Journalists & Awards and Case Studies - always encourage your company to partake in investigative journalism, apply for awards and allow yourself to be used in other peoples advertising.
Social Media - provide the right content that people will share on Social Media, so that your message travels far and very wide.

That's a lot of work for someone... and will seem daunting, but it should not be so. And actually it's extremely easy. A big chunk can be done once off, more can be outsourced to the likes of myself and another chunk can be automated. Once you have the core parts implemented the rest can follow.

Quality link building takes time, work and money, luckily however, linking building needn't take all three, it can be divided up quite happily. Contact me if you want to discuss this more.

The Kindle

2012-04-02T20:37:00.000+02:00

I'm going to go off-beat for a little bit and write about a new gift I was given for my Birthday a few months ago. The Kindle.

Nothing special, just the standard model, but I have to say I was deeply impressed. I had somewhat dismissed the Kindle, I didn't think I'd like the limited functionality of just reading books, the association with Amazon, the narrowly defined definition of what a Kindle does. I'd even seen and played on one before... but now I wouldn't swap it for the world. It simple fantastic.

There's no doubt that if you want a book reader then this does the job extremely well for an exceptional price.

The day to day use, rather than go through all the various things it can and can't do, I'm not interested - I just want to spell out how I use it, so that you might relate that to your own criteria.

In a nutshell it's a book... I read it last thing at night, sometimes in the morning, sometime during the day. I flick it on and it's remember exactly where I've left off. I did subscribe to the Daily Telegraph for the two free weeks you get and I found that excellent, however not good enough to spend £9.99 per month. I can get my News elsewhere.

I also checked out my email (that worked fine, but I do use Gmail so that made it easier) I have also hooked into Twitter and Facebook, both nice touches. Now I can easily rate the book I am reading. However, I'd only use the email functionality in an emergency, when I didn't have other way. And that makes it quite a good back up system, especially given the fact that the battery lasts about a month (or at least I'd imagine most of your three week holiday if you remember to turn off the wi-fi).

I also have now synced the Windows Desktop Programme to my Amazon account, brilliant, I now have my books in more than one place and Amazon also remember all my purchases. So I really do recommend you download the Windows program for Kindle. The iPad App is also good and I use that as well (no need to re-purchase all those books in iBooks).

The other point of the Windows Software is that it allows you to research your purchases a bit before you commit, you can do all this on the Kindle itself of course, but I quite like reviewing something on the big screen first.

I've only brought one book, it was extremely easy, no need to enter credit card information, just click, download and it's done. But I've also downloaded five years worth of free books, some of them current, others out of print, Amazon are always doing special offers, or perhaps authors are forgoing their profits to get read, whatever the situation I was truly amazed by the sheer quantity of free material available... no need to go to the Gutenberg thing, Amazon has thousands of free titles already.

The future - this is definitely now the 'book' I pick up when I want to read something. I am sure that in time I'll want to read something a little more current than Arthur Conan Doyle or Rudyard Kipling, but these books are great. Sadly my view of the future of real books has taken a hit. My shelves will slow clear of books over time. You can lend Kindle Books, and finally I think in the long term this will all work out for authors and publishers alike. More will be read than ever before, because it's all so easy.

The Future of Search & Google

2012-03-22T09:02:00.001+01:00

For the last few years we've been typing key words and key phases into Google to find what we want, but now big changes are on the way and many of them should worry us.

The fundamental cause is a Year Long revamping of Google, from it's social media effort on Google+ to it's privacy policy - Google is continuing change like no company has ever done before. I've already questions Google's 'Do No Evil' Mantra and found it wanting, but more is on the way and we are only learning about it incrementally.

Google has two fundamental issues; Advertising, almost all of it's 37billion dollar income comes from Advertising and secondly it's worried by the likes of Facebook and Apple's Siri Search for mobile. We also know that Google likes our data is is collecting it like fury.

So what's the end game? Ultimately Google is a place we visit, find what we want and move on. No more says Google, what they want is a place we visit and find out what we want without leaving. Now that's a big difference.

Google knows our websites, but now following a recent update it wants to start showing us answers. If we want to know the highest peak in Britain - why should Google send us to the Ben Nevis website - why doesn't it just give us the answer? In the future it will.

I don't think we should underestimate Google in this area - what it means for us website owners is when people search for our products - they will now have to battle through Google's own database of answers. If you compare the old Google with the new one, already our websites are listed in a far smaller corner near the bottom as Google offer us, images, maps, videos, news and of course advertising.

The bottom line is that the impact we are able to make on Google is diminishing all the time. Frustrating as that is, it remains the case, and Google in their quest to keep Facebook at bay don't seem to mind. And Google also knows that people will continue to use them if they provide the answers to peoples search queries. People don't actually mind what website they are looking at so long as it is trustworthy and gives them the answers they want.

Repercussions:
There are going to be two huge repercussions in my view

People will use search less, as soon as people find a supplier for their need they will be less likely to deviate. If you fly EasyJet - you'll be less likely to look for alternatives because it will be harder to find.

If Google's trying to tell you the distance between London and Rome - when you want the cheapest flight you can get - you can see things are going to get tricky. In fact we may even find Google does deals with the airlines to sell the flights direct to you.

In effect Google wants just one massive website all of it's own.
You need to start taking social media seriously - if you want to continue to be found it just going to get harder and harder on Google as your listing gets squashed further into a small corner.

Instead the strategy I have advocated for a while now is that your website should contain the bare bones facts about your business - and then you should go to where your customers are. On Facebook. If you're and eCommerce website you need to get listed with Amazon - if you're services based - make use of LinkedIn, if you're local - get onto your local Blogs and so.

Pick your advertising channel by all means - but the time will come when your website will be of significantly less importance as these giant companies try to take over the Internet.

I would like to finish with an apologise, I don't mean to sound all doom and gloom, but I would say that all the major tech companies eventually move in a direction that isn't always in the interests of their customers, it's usually in a bid to ward off competition or to appease shareholders, whatever the reason another company will at some point take the lead. We just haven't reached that point yet.

Have a read of this article: Google gives search a refresh

Advertising on your Blog

2012-03-16T12:29:00.000+01:00

Beefing up your Blog is a good idea and here's why.

You've probably branded your Blog to suit your website and requirements. But have you thought this through properly. Think of your industry and what you're trying to achieve. Are you still stuck in the corporate Branding game?

When's the last time you visited a companies Blog? When's the last time you visited a website for a service, BT, Vodaphone, BBC, Amazon - and thought - hey I wonder what their Blog says.

That is simply not how it works. The Blogs you visit are precisely that Blogs - full of information, articles and topics you recognise. Invariably these Blogs 'appear' not to favour any one company, they favour themselves more than anyone else and is there a reason for that.

Yes customers/clients/users want to hear about your latest and greatest offerings, but no they don't want you to tell them... They'd much rather hear about it from a neutral source.

From a marketing perspective that brings us to an interesting question. What role should the Blog take for our organisation?

The answer is - Yes it's fine to have a fully branded and company orientated Blog - putting out press releases and other boring stuff. But to get the best out of a Blog - decouple it from you company and make it Industry Leading. Make it truly useful to your clients and users.

And then whack on a load of Advertising, whether you make money out of it or not is not so important, because it's the impression you're giving that counts.

If you have a standard corporate branded blog, that says to people... hey - we're advertising ourselves. Equally if you have an Industry Blog that just looks good, people will say - nice, good thank you very much.

But if you go the extra mile and pep things up with some adverts and other cringe making stuff. People will say... wow - these guys must be making money, others must be reading their articles for them to justify all this advertising.

Psychological - Yes - but then isn't that what marketing is all about?

Collaboration - what others can do for you

2012-03-12T10:50:00.001+01:00

Reading my industry magazine .Net (yes I still read proper printer material), the power of collaboration and how essential this is to your website and offering.

Every month there's a showcase section where specific people are invited to recommend their most impressive websites on a given topic... These people have committed to this magazine to provide three or four example every month on their chosen topic - month after month... no doubt this changes from time to time. But it is still extremely telling.

A quick examination of my favourite magazine and probably 25% of the content is farmed out in this way, that's 25% fewer things for the editor to think about and 25% of his job reduced to a mere email (have you done it?).

There is every reason to suppose that these contributors are also unpaid, they are doing it either to promote themselves, because they want to or because they are industry leaders and it's in their interest. That then will be 25% less costs (for content etc).

This is a perfect example of what we should all be doing. We are glad and proud when we put out a new Case Study or have a guest Blogger write produce something for our Blog. But we need to go much further than this.

Let's make a list:

Company News - we have to produce this ourselves - Press Releases and Company News - straightforward enough
Industry Comment - to be authoritative in your industry you need to talk/write about - this can be produced in-house. But why not collaborate as well... get the real industry leaders to help you. Get the people who actually make you the best to help.
Staff Comment - there is no harm in asking various staff members to contribute regularly or occasionally and their topics can be a bit more off beat and provide real interest for people looking at your services
Referral - there is no harm in recommending other websites - follow another Blog, engage outside your own website and participate within your industry. Refer your audience to what you read. It all adds up to making you more authoritative.

I've touched on three key elements here, firstly involve your staff/employees - their knowledge is what makes your company, I see no harm in letting them share in it all; secondly try to get an industry leader or recognised persons within your industry to contribute a regular column, it may be a customer of yours (free publicity) or a supplier, or someone you just like the sound of... point is their credence gives you a huge about of weight and finally thirdly make use of the thousands of others that are writing diligently on the web, it might be BBC News article, an industry spotlight, a how to guide or even a competitor website, your customers will thank you for pointing them in the right direction and that adds up to good service.

What you waiting for!

You want feedback - No you really do!

2012-03-07T10:50:00.001+01:00

Are you worried about getting complaints, do you worry if people like or dislike your services, products or company. Because you should and you should also have your answers ready. Or rather you should be prepared to defend yourself. the Internet is an open place and people can write about you anywhere they like. You need to take control of that.

How? you say - the answer is simple... give people a route for feedback, build into your website a way for people to complain or praise, and always answer people truthfully and properly.

Examples:
A client wrote a Blog post of a fairly technical nature which depended on the good use of English, obviously he was had up for Typo's and his grammar. The answer is not to just correct the mistakes and hide the comments. A better solution is to thank the person who notified him and explain what he was doing. Also it is a good idea to try and stretch the conversation on.

Another eCommerce client has product reviews on their website, the worry is that customers can complain live on the website... the correct answer is to counter the complaint listing the precise action taken to rectify the problem. This simple shows people that you are a company that responds to their clients and that is a much more powerful force for positive thoughts than negative. Finally it also make complainers think twice before complaining, because they know they might be exposed.

So rather than trying to hide feedback, answer it and turn the game around so that you're in control... here's some warnings if you don't:

People will complain by word of mouth - that will hurt sales
People will write on Facebook or other networks if they want to complain
Bad news travels faster than good news
People are more likely to complain than praise

So a note on Facebook: If you can control any method of Feedback then Facebook is probably the one to go for, because it's all public... what you say you share with all your contacts and what the customer/client says he shares between his contacts, this means a double whammy of people ready the discourse and if you are able to display superb customer service you are likely to win new business.

At the end of the day - bad news is better than no news - so long as you handle it correctly - feedback should be welcomed.

What's all the fuss about the 'Cloud'?

2012-02-29T10:16:00.001+01:00

I live in a techie bubble and you (my clients) know that, but the rest of the world (my clients and their clients) don't live my my Internet bubble. Most people live in a normal world where the Internet and also it's intricacies probably make up less than 5% of their time. This is probably partly why I build website for other techie companies. Even they may not use the internet that much.

The reason for this article is that I forget to bring key important topics to your attention. Some of the biggest benefits, in saving money, being more efficient and more professional... keeping up with the times and making your business function better, faster and more profitable.

In today's case, have I explained the 'Cloud' to you - no not the thing you see in the sky when Rain is imminent, but the much more techie thing that you might have read about in the news paper or noticed your iPhone hassling you about. So what is it?

The 'Cloud' is a technology that allows a vast network of computers to join up and form one even bigger computer. In it's simplest form think of it this way... if one computer breaks you won't notice because dozens of others will take it's place.

Now in case you're thinking I'm going to start getting technical - I'm not, instead I am just going to touch on a few things for you:

Your computer - you need a new one every few years, that's normal and it's not going to change much in the future, you'll always want a new computer and get the latest whatever's on offer, but what about all your stuff. Over the years you are bound to have lost stuff. Photos, musics, work documents. The 'Cloud' ends all this... if all your stuff is in the 'Cloud' - even as computers change your stuff remains there.
Mobile Phones - going back to the start of this Post - the truth is, though you might not be aware of it, your iPhone, Smartphone or indeed any old phone is probably accessing the Internet far more than you realise, annoying marketing SMS's, playing a game, updating the phones software - it's all done through the Internet. Now consider how much time you spend with the phone and compare to your computer - the difference is not much. The 'Cloud' means that your stuff - as I keep calling it - is always available. Need a number, want to see an email, look at a document, play a song. The 'Cloud' makes that happen.
Security - I'm constantly bashed by this and most of us simply don't care or don't care enough... A thief comes along, raids your house... he steals the telly, hifi and maybe a mobile (plus whatever else)... either which way you look at it, the most galling thing he's done is invade your personal space... the second most galling thing he's done is nick your digital photo collection, or movie collection... The 'Cloud' negates this problem completely and in fact can help track down your thief. All your stuff is still available to you and while it's a pain to buy a new TV your movie collection is fully retrievable.

I'm not going to lie to you - things are not quite so straightforward and decisions are required as to how it all works, but you can see the benefits to normal people, people that don't understand computers, people that prefer to be out doing sport, making things and being down the pub rather than like me sat in front of my computer (you get the gist).

Lastly where do you start - well follow this Blog - I'm always banging on about some good idea or other. Otherwise think to yourself - what stuff on your computer is valuable to you, work, photos, music, movies, etc... and then drop me a comment (below) and I'll reply with a few suggestions.

The End of Google's 'Do No Evil' Mantra

2012-02-24T10:43:00.001+01:00

In a few days Google will change all it's 64 privacy policies into a single big one. I am no expert in the legal affairs of these giant corporation, but these are my comments for what they are worth.

We as Google users, whether we are using Search, Gmail, or any of Google plethora of services, we actually have very little choice. If we want to carry on benefiting from Google, they we have to agree. If we do not agree, we will not get the full benefit of Google. It's pretty black and white.

So what do you do if you don't agree with this. And what's it all about anyway.

Google's made no secret they have stated that the purpose of a single privacy policy is to make things easier for us, we can use all Google's services without having to agree to any extra demands on our Data (we've already agreed to give that away). Secondly, Google have stated that they plan to share our data across their services. If we're searching for a digital camera to buy, then we might want to see photos of it, or perhaps get emailed about digital cameras. Certainly we would be announcing the fact we're interested in a digital camera to our connections on Google.

So Google's plan is use our data to benefit ourselves and our friends, this of course appeals to advertisers because Google will share some of our data with them too... (That digital camera). But it does raise massive questions about intrusive Google plans to be.

What can you do - very little in my opinion... sign up and don't worry about it. If you want to carry on using Gmail, Google Apps, Blogger, Picasa you'll have to agree to it anyway. So live with it.

But the caveat is this... support those that are fighting your corner. There is a growing industry of user-awareness groups that are examining every angle of these privacy policies, the same goes for all the Mega Corporations, Apple, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, Amazon and so on. These user-awareness groups set out to protect our rights and ensure that the Googles of the world don't actually take over our lives.

Spare some time for these people, because they need our support, the WikiLeaks, Anonymous, and other so called 'cyber-terrorists' might actually be on our side.

I do now believe that Google's Mantra to 'Do No Evil' is now officially dead, Eric Schmidt's reorganisation of the Google top management in the middle of 2011 is not truly coming to light, Google has hugely high aspirations and it would appear there is little we can do to stop them.

Keeping Up -How to stay on top of things

2012-02-18T12:54:00.001+01:00

The idea of 'keeping on top of things' is an incredibly important concept in terms of the Internet. I cannot stress it enough. Once you've started a project you just have to keep going and going and going.

It's a flaw in the Internet or perhaps is a flaw in Google's algorithms, if you want to stay on top you have to keep on top of things. This is both urgent and all to often under estimated.

Some examples:

Blogging - I did a series of articles between mid December (6) and January (11) - never has my Blog been more popular, 1500 visitors in January. Having relaxed a bit in February, I've lost a third of that traffic.

Client Haxnicks - I can identify a consistent trend between Sales and Blogging, the more blogging the more sales we get - it's as simple as that.
Social Media - The new measurement for good or bad in Social Media is called Influence. How influential you are matters, when I do lots of Tweeting and Facebook updates - it is noticeable that my Twitter Followers expand, people notice, maybe just a few, but they notice, but if I relax and take a few days off. Pow, I lose that influence.

Client X - We did a huge SMO campaign around September-November - plenty of interaction and activity generating decent buzz - now that it's stopped the activity has been reduced massively. The core component for this client was Sales - these did not materialise in the form required. But had things been kept going, the question is what would have happened.
SEO - The two core activities that are needed to keep on top are article submissions and link building, these are ongoing month after month jobs, - stop and after just a month or two you can see the results as you drop down the search engines.

Client Skyschool UK - We've worked on and off with Skyschool regularly boosting their SEO, we drive it up the Google rankings then pause, it falls and the client returns for a bit more SEO. It's fine to do this in a patchy on/off way, but it would be better to just keep going.

So how do you 'keep on top of things'. The core is the Marketing Plan, I now seen others writing about this very subject. If you have even a basic Marketing Plan, then you have something to refer to. It's a good base to work from. Set your goals, perhaps a timeline and work to that.

For myself I also set reminder, or tasks, use any software you like, a Calendar, Task Tool, Outlook, it does not matter, so long as it sends you an email about doing something. Then leave that email in your Inbox until you've done something.

That's exactly how I write this Blog, I set myself a reminder task for 2 weeks post my last article. That means I have a annoying email in my Inbox that's reminding me to write something.

Task lists and Reminders are the key method for 'keeping on top of things'. They make you do it and you have to persevere.

The next most important part is to allocate a time period, it can be as little as 10 minutes, or a full hour. But set yourself a minimum and then allow yourself to overshoot. It should be daily as well. Time is what most people lack, so you have to set yourself time and then make good use of it.

Now before I get off my high horse, I'd like to put out that my own marketing is a shambles... all I am trying to do is make clients consider their own positions and to see what may or may not work for them. If you have ideas that are simple to implement and easy to stay on top, then I'm all ears. Let me know, because there has to be a way to make this easy.

Copyright Law is the future for Piracy

2012-02-03T11:02:00.000+01:00

Few things get me more uptight than Piracy and the invasion of our freedoms by the authorities. Recently we've had two laws attempt to pass the the US Congress, 20+ Euro countries have signed up to some EU law, we've a cookie law on it's way, a UK student is being extradited under US Terrorism laws for creating a dodgy website and we've closed down a quasi New Zealand/German/Indonesian website for running 14% of the Internet.

All in the name of stopping piracy. When will it stop and how many of our freedoms have to go before Governments start taxing our internet use to pay for all the laws we're creating.

The truth is the horse has left the stable and no amount of door closing is going to induce it to return... The Internet is changing the world before our very eyes and new ideas need to be looked at.

My idea (as yet I've not read anything about this) - my idea - is that Copyright Law need to be looked at in much greater detail and updated accordingly. Who says spending 30 minutes writing a best selling song should earn you millions. Sometimes it can take a musician 30 years to write that magical song. Authors, Screen Writers, Actors, all creative people spend a lot of time climbing to the top - all most all of it is unrewarded and as any artist will tell you for every success story there are plenty of artist who work all their lives unrewarded.

In what other walks of life does the situation exist whereby you slave day in day out for often years and then in five minutes you get your break and that's it, you're on the front cover of every magazine.

No - in almost every other profession you work diligently earning as you go a suitable sum for your endeavours and always towards an incrementally larger goal. You don't walk into being the CEO of a multi-national company - you work your whole life towards.

The difference is you're paid all the way up to the top... Not so in an artist profession, not so in an actor career where the top paid success stories vastly out weigh the slave labour at the bottom.

All of this hinges on one thing alone - Copyright Law - the right of the individual to be paid for their conceptual idea ever after. And in huge amounts.

Now I hear a few defences of the current situation - but it's no good - the Steve Jobs or James Dyson's worked hard - but still they were grossly over-paid for their contribution to humanity.

What we need is a new system that pays our copyright holders more fairly (rewarding the creators themselves and not those around them) - we need a system that pays out over time, small amounts to encourage these geniuses to produce more good ideas and we need those surrounding copyright holders to be severely curtailed in their rights to bits of the pie.

Only then will the costs of the material be reduced to an acceptable level that people will be prepared to pay - And when you manage to get things down to that level then and only then will you succeed in combating piracy. You have to make it meaningless for the pirate to bother.

I reckon a track of music should cost no more than 4p, a digital book less than 20p, a photograph pennies.

So how does this affect you - ask yourself what action you would take if someone copied your idea, song, story... would it matter, do you feel honoured, put out - I suspect you'll only ever feel miffed is that someone made money out of your idea - and that's not a very noble thought.

Google Adwords Revisited

2012-02-01T10:11:00.003+01:00

I am going to write this even though I'm on shaky ground with the flurry of changes Google brings us this winter.

I have compiled data on clients performance on Google Adwords over the last 4 years and two things I have known are happening have been proven:

1) The cost of Google Adwords is going up
There is no doubt in my mind that the cost per click is being driven upwards - this is what Google wants obviously and there are numerous factors contributing to it.

Google's own desire to get more out of us
Increased competition between advertisers
Google 'quality score' through which they charge more if an advert is deemed unsuitable.

What this means for us advertisers is simple - we're paying either more money for the same number of clicks or the same money for fewer clicks.

Example (the data is real):
Client A in 2008 was operating a budget of £100 per month and getting 590 clicks. In 2011 this same budget brought them just 434 clicks - a drop of 35%.

You easily say that's actually a price hike of 35% in four years... wow.

2) The cost of Conversions is going down.

The truth is clicks don't matter - what matters is the cost of Conversions - getting someone to do want you want them to do on your website - be that buying something, enquiring about something, requesting something. Google Adwords in this area is proving remarkably resilient. But only if you know what you're doing.

Big updates in Google Adwords make it much more complicated to use and get the most from
Your keywords and Adverts matter more than ever - they are what drive conversions
Your website landing pages have to match a users expectations to increase the likelihood of a Conversion

The bottom line is the Conversion matter and it is the cost of conversions that counts.

Example (the data is real):

Client B in 2008 was operating a £300 monthly budget and we managed to get 1046 'Conversions' in 12 months. In 2011 that number went up to 2043... a 49% rise in Conversions - this lead to a reduction is cost per conversion of 57% - from £1.76 to £1.02 per conversion.

For this client Google Adwords has been a success story - their website and budget remained virtually the same through out the period and the Advertising has paid off again and again.

Another Client C has had a Budget of about £300 per month and has seen the cost of clicks rise from £0.52 to £0.72 (38%) - but their cost of conversion has fallen from £90.69 to £49.42 (down 54%). So even though Google costs more - it's very much worth it because the results are costing less.

This all matters to you - because it means Google Adwords is still have very effect way to advertise. At the moment Google are getting bad press and people are thinking about leaving the system, perhaps spending more on SEO and other techniques to get their websites up on the search engines. But Google Adwords still offers one of the fastest and most cost effective ways to advertise on the web.

My maxine holds true - if you are in any doubt about any advertising service compare it to Google Adwords and decide which one your money would be better spent on - Google Adwords wins every time in my book.

SEO Reports for Free - Limited Offer

2012-01-30T19:33:00.000+01:00

I don't normally plug my services on this Blog - but we're doing such a good job on SEO for clients at the moment that I thought I'd rattle this out.

Basically, for whatever reason I can rattle out two comprehensive and separate full SEO reports for any website you like. These reports will give you enough information to really work out what you need to do next. They are full professional and one offers a complete guide on what to do next.

Because they're free I am only offering this service until Friday 5th February.

Conditions - you must supply me with 10 keywords that you think are relevant to your website. Send an email to guyh@ncompass.co.uk.

Is there still life in Google Adwords

2012-01-26T15:00:00.000+01:00

Google missing an earnings expectation this week (www.wsj.com) and from my prospective Google Adwords is becoming a lot more complicated. I have Chris however to help out and in our weekly reviews of all the accounts we run I am often astounded by the amount of work we have to do to keep to budget and stay on top of things.

The Very Very Old Days
Google Adwords built it's strength on the idea that the more you pay the higher up the listing you went. A simple auction system... who ever pays the most gets to the top... easy.

The Very Old Days
But - said many advertisers - I don't want to pay at the weekend, or after 8pm or for France/another country, so Google gradually introduced more functionality to allow people to set their own criteria... That was awesome - because now you could advertise only between the hours of 9am and 2pm, Monday, Tuesdays and Fridays and only in the UK, and later London and later still SW19.

That power for the Advertiser was truly magnificent.

The Old Days
Google however weren't quite so happy - rather I might say Google 'big-spenders' weren't quite so happy... Now real spenders like eBay, Amazon and Walmart had to compete with every Tom Dick and Harry pays much higher prices depending on when and where there were advertising.

Googles response was to introduce a Quality Score system - this effectively and very largely handed a lot of control back to Google. Quality Score takes into account, who you are, how much you spend, the quality of your keywords, brand and adverts and defines the cost you'll pay based on this.

You can see that if Google decide they like eBay or Amazon (because they spend a lot) then there Adverts would take precedence over yours.

Today
These days Google Adwords is a complex and gigantic beast of a machine... many people would feel daunted to start using it and Google have a scaled down version for beginners, the result is beginners often pay more faster and with less result.

Meanwhile big organisations have Google employees to help them out, doing a lot of the day to day work... but they also have to employee dedicated people or commonly specialist agencies to do the actual work. Imagine your Marks and Spencers doing your Christmas Specials - Google Adwords becomes a huge undertaking very quickly.

And that leaves us middle men - we know that to get the best from Google Adwords, we know you need to run a lean and efficient account, we also know how to do it (at least I assume Chris am not alone in this respect). But we know there is much work to be done.

The question is who does Google think is doing the work and how does Google think they are going to be paid. So I leave you with the following thoughts:

For your website - you could do it yourself - but that would be daunting, complicated and take too much time potentially without result
If you have the money and are big enough you could employ a proper agency to do it... but the starting budget for this is probably £5,000 per month...
You could use your website designer - but is it worth it for the work they have to do (and be paid for)

If there is anything to learnt from this analysis it's this... What does Google think it's doing? I'm going to be watching Google Adwords carefully over the next few months, this isn't the last you'll have heard from me.

10 Biggest Brands in the UK

2012-01-23T09:43:00.000+01:00

There is something daunting about working in the Web Design industry. That well know brand the Daily Telegraph announced the UK's 10 top brands.

10) Microsoft

9) Facebook

6) Twitter

4) Amazon

3) Google

1) Apple

Others in the list include Marks & Spencers, The Co-Op, John Lewis and oddly Innocent Drinks... However there's a major lesson to be learnt here. (list source: Telegraph.co.uk)

Daunting at the Internet might be - it is the future of your business. Many clients of ours still think if they have a website that will do - it won't and it doesn't - when's the last time you checked your stats and not only looked at the numbers but also considered the question 'What can I do to get more visitors'.

When I see a list of Brands like this - my anger spills as I think of all the lost opportunities clients of mine have had. This should be a wake up call to anyone running any business anywhere. You need to put your website at the centre of everything you do.

Lastly, just a small note - Marks & Spencers, Co-Op, John Lewis and Innocent all put major emphasis on their website/internet presence...When's the last time you thought of visiting Kodak's website?

Price Hikes 2012 - e-Newsletters

2012-01-16T13:36:00.001+01:00

This is the traditional time of year for price hikes and unfortunately 2012 must be no different from previous years.

Each year we only increase prices in a single area of our services, so one year it might be Hosting, the next it might be Website Maintenance, the next PPC services (Google Adwords) and so on.

This year I have chosen e-Newsletters... The theory is excellent, a regular, effective and simple way for you to keep your customers up to date with your latest news, special offers and promotions. All customers should enjoy hearing from you and take note of what you have to say.

The truth is not rosy, most newsletters are considered Spam, customers don't want to hear from you, but would rather find you when they need you and for me the biggest issue of all is the work involved to get that newsletter out on time and in a professional manner.

The result is that prices will now be:

£120 per email for the first 2000 names.
£20 per '000 names there after.

For big senders this will actually better value as the old flat rate of £80 per '000 names is gone...

Moving on, I thought I'd give a brief defence against these prices, first the key to e-Newsletters is:

Regular - the success rate is dramatic if the newsletter is sent at specific intervals, your customers will respond far better if they know when it is coming
Brief - a Newsletter needs one core message and perhaps two sideline messages... the aim is not to give them news, but to make them go to the websites and 'do' something like buying product
Personal - You need to know who you're sending to and address them personally. The chances of them responding will increase dramatically

All these issues have to be taken into account... Now consider the maths a little bit - you need to come up with the theme or message for the mailer it might take 15 minutes, but if you write the content you might spend an hour or two on it, costs money!

I then have to create the email in some 'programme' that we will have signed up, www.mailchimp.com, www.madmimi.com are my current favourites... having spent 1 or 2 hours creating the newsletter, we have to go through the database - adding all the new names, maybe another hour... then we have to fully test it and make sure it looks good on iPhones, Macs, PC's and Gmail before we can schedule the best time to send it.

You're looking at a realistic time frame of between 5 and 6 hours work (yours or mine) to get this ready... Now look at the response rates... The industry average is around a 20% open rate. If your list is 3000 names that is 600 reading it, and if the industry average is 10% clicks then you're looking at 60 people actually visiting your website... and if you use your website conversion rate of say 5% of the original 3000 people you aimed the newsletter at - you're looking at 3 conversions.

The numbers just do not add up... often which ever way you look at it.

Our View

Newsletter have their place and we're happy to send them, but proper evaluation of their work involved verses the result achieved is hugely important... we need to raise my prices for the work that goes into Newsletters - clients need to evaluate their worth - otherwise we're just subsiding your losses.

Thank you and comments welcome.

The Google Plus Bandwagon

2012-01-12T10:09:00.001+01:00

Well I wondered how far Google Plus would go and it's going all the way... you better get aboard and fast, I can't put it simpler.

Click on the above image to see it all - but you can clearly see what Google has done... You get a new personal search tool bar, with images and personal results. Then you get lots of info on 'me' and then you get some search results.

That's if you looking your self up... Now if you look someone else you 'know' up...

You're going to find out a lot more about that person activities pretty quickly... whether a personal or business contact you're going to see a lot about them.

Now if you look up a Google Plus Company...

So what does all this mean you to... well we should re-cap and get acquainted with Google's core values once again. They simply want to provide the fast way to get you the information you want.

Google Plus is their way of organising data that is most relevant to you personally and that is the key here. Their thinking is simply if you like Cheese then you are more likely to want to; a) find out more about it and b) respond to your friends and contacts opinions about it.

The Google Plus Button
Now we can start to see why the Google Plus Button matters so much... On your website you need a way for people interested in your products and services to show that interest. On the old fashioned Internet they'd do that by calling you up, sending an enquiry or email or even booking marking your websites.

These days - they click a button - a Plus button... done, easy simple. Now all their 'friends' know they liked your website, there's no quibbling, no depth to the interest, just a simple statement that they showed an interest.

But without that button - you'd never know and nor would their friends and nor would their friends friends and so on. The power of the 'reach' is massive... it only takes one friends friend to take a modicum of interest and the whole snowball starts again.

Your Opinion Matters
The concept goes further - if you show your interest in something you tell your friends automatically, and when they want to look up their holiday snaps in Turkey they see your name, your photos, your holiday in Turkey and your opinion.

This goes well beyond Facebook's closed loop sharing of content and data... If you've plus'ed a Holiday Brochure website, you put that website in the hands of your friends for whenever they look up Holidays.

So what next:
It fairly obvious you need two things urgently:

1) You need to complete and fill out your Google Profile as much as possible... Personal or Business it needs to be done and done properly. Give people the Information they need to contact you, your website, your Blog and your business.

Go the extra distance and ensure your company has a full Google Page like mine... get on the bandwagon.

2) Get a Google Plus button onto every page of your website - give the power of sharing to your users quickly and immediately and encourage them to make use of it.

Remember - when searching Google people will see their friends activities first. Before your company's.

I think that is about it - I haven't even touched on the social media concepts of Google Plus, this Blog is about the effects the latest changes at Google Search will have on your website and business.

Repost.us: Website Hosting

2012-01-10T10:28:00.001+01:00

Website Hosting (via Online Marketing)

Flowchart for Social Media

2012-01-09T16:00:00.000+01:00

Click to Enlarge

A Twitter Strategy for 2012

2012-01-07T20:08:00.000+01:00

In early 2011 I realised I had been using Twitter for FOUR whole years! Yikes, I had well under 100 followers (I think it was about 60) and here I was propounding the brilliance of Twitter (See Blogs posts in Jan, Feb, Mar and April 2011)... Twitter for this and Twitter for that, customer services, news, customers and all the rest.

I set about getting more followers, my realistic aim was to follow two people for every person that followed me... I would go to that a new followers account and manually follow two of their followers... (having read quickly a small amount about them)... This believe it on not work well... by February I had 700 followers, it was exponential, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 and so on... it was working...

I would also say that during this time I signed up for every Twitter program I could find from the brilliant www.manageflitter.com to the less impressive www.hubspot.com. You can see the remnants of this work on my LinkedIn Group 'Twitter Tools' and to be fair much of this group remains valid today.

When I reached about 900 followers I stopped my strategy of adding two for one follower... I was inundated and indeed I have today 2356 new Twitter followers that I have not responded to. So I stopped... In the course of April, May, June, I let things flow and they did I was gaining lots of followers and through using a site like www.twittercounter.com I was able to monitor my growth... by July I was about 1600 up.

Then I went through a period of 'what's it all for' - call it my mid-life Twitter crisis, I certainly wasn't gaining any new business and looking at my stream just bored me to tears... it seemed Twitter consisted of millions of stall holders in a giant marketplace with no customers. I tweeted 'Twitter - one giant marketing place where everyones a stall holder and there are no customers'. Zero response was naturally achieved.

And now for the crux of the matter, I of course was not really alone and plenty of my customers experienced the same sort of thing. Very little response. The ROI on using something like Twitter and Social Media seems further away then ever, I wrote about how you might measure ROI, but all to no response, from anyone, my clients or my followers.

Then along came www.klout.com (Don't worry I'm not going to say anything nice about them), and the whole web marketing community suddenly had a measuring stick. A Yard stick that you could say x was doing better than Y... there was/is still not the remotest concept of an actual ROI within all this, but people were now able to say I moved your scrore from 11 out of 100 to 32... result...

But, it's not the case is it... it means nothing, being influential does not equal sales, plenty of companies get by just fine without any influence and in this case the measuring tools can only be described flaky at the very best... But I'm going off subject here, what we need is a Twitter Strategy.

I strongly believe I had the right basics in place. Follow your followers followers. It's easy, if manual, but you can vet every person you follow and through the exponential rule of 2, 4, 8, 16 you will quickly form a following of about 1000 people...

The next 1000 people will be slower, but more naturally, people will follow you largely for the sake of it and not because they are interested... However when you have around 2000 people you need to start (or rather for that ROI in question) you can start to take Twitter a little bit more seriously. it starts becoming worth you effort to make something out of it.

So one year on and now that I have been on Twitter for FIVE years - my next strategy is to improve the quality of my Twitter Following... I need to remove the trash and beef up the quality people that are useful to me... whereas I started following news and media Twitters and minor celebs I need to move on and follow people that effect me... largely that is suppliers, journalists, people I read about, website designers, clients, and people that I think will have a positive contribution to make to my day and my Twitter Stream.

Things have changed and 2012 will see an even greater take up of Twitter in general, it's going to grow, so my recommendation now is - get a decent sized account, 2000, or even 4000, followers should be about right, and then go for quality... remove the blatant marketeers and spammers and make sure when ever you read a news story, or articles, or blog or website - add that person to Twitter... Because they will be very likely to follow you back and then their 'followers' will see you news.

Sound good? Comments welcome!

Bloggers - take heart

2012-01-06T14:09:00.000+01:00

Do you slightly wonder whose reading your hard work... who is actually looking at your Blog and investigating and even taking things to the next step. Let's not forget a primary reason for having a Blog is to engage with your customer base.

Fact is most customers won't be reading your Blog, fact is even those that are subscribed to the Blog won't read it or the email that was sent or the RSS feed they are following.

I suspect the only two groups who will be reading your Blog are:

Search Engines and therefore for SEO purposes your Blog is very valuable and
Random customers/user - people who see the Blog on the home page of your website or newsletter or some other place.

This is very exciting and presents a big challenge to you, firstly though the target is always to gain more subscribers, because even if most don't read it - at least you'll be on call if they do want to know more.

However the next opportunity is to get your content read elsewhere. The key difference between a Blog and say the 'news' page of your website is that with a Blog you can actually do something with it. That is a massive difference because it means others can feed off your expertise and you can actively go out and get people to talk about it.

Do not think people will come along and say - oh you're writing some great articles - it's like waiting for the number 73 - you'll be lucky if it comes at all.

Instead think how you can republish your news in other places. An example:

www.repost.us - this website syndicates your Blog to other publishers. Even big news websites are looking for content - they need to see and find yours...

Finding these websites that allow syndication of your content is hard to do... and at first might seem daunting a little, but if you can get your articles on 10, 20, 30 other websites - that would be a significant amount of extra coverage you would receive.