{!date dayname+0}, {!date long+0} Dear {!firstname_fix} Gosh, it's been a busy day. This afternoon was our "Village Show" and my son entered a "dressed duck" in the children's competition - he won second prize and got himself £15..! The yellow plastic duck was dressed up in an assortment of female finery, including a feather boa, beads, a handbag and so on - but had a small plastic champagne bottle (actually a cake decoration) under her wing..! She was named "Duck's Fizz"...! Oh the joys of a childhood imagination - why do so many adults give it up and become rather staid and boring...? One of the reasons why companies like Google and Apple are so successful is because they encourage that childhood imagination in their staff. How much imagination do you allow yourself or your workers? Just a thought. YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED: How do I get more links for my website? Links are an important aspect of website success. But simply having "any old" link is not good enough. You need "quality" links. And these are going to become even more important in the future; Google has just filed a Patent Application for a system that calculates the quality of the links your website receives. You can bet your last fiver that they will use this technique in deciding which websites get the highest ranking in search results. In other words, if your website does not have several, good quality links, Google will not like you as much as you want...! So, what is a "quality" link? Essentially, it is a link that a human being would expect. For instance, let's imagine you are looking for some double glazing. If you found a link to a double glazing company on a windows manufacturer's site you may well click on it because it is on the subject you are interested in. But if you found a double glazing link on a site for scientific calculators you might not be that bothered...! In other words, your best link is going to be from companies and organisations in the "same space" as you - where people are most likely to expect to see it. In fact, the absolute best link you could get would be on your main competitor's site...! So, how should you go about getting links? Firstly, forget the concept of "reciprocal" links, where you give someone a link in return for them giving you a link. That's not what Google wants because, in reality it's not what we want as people. If I recommend a service to you merely because they recommend me to other people, that devalues the recommendation. Links are viewed by Google in the same way as people do - we expect the benefit to be one-way. What you want, therefore, are one-way links - links from organisations in the same business sector as you and who are willing to give you those links simply because they realise their visitors will appreciate your website. What you therefore need to do is search out companies and organisations who will be willing to link to you. Approach them directly - forget automated links systems - and ask if they will link to you. Explain how their visitors will benefit from knowing about your website and give them the link code you want them to use. If you want to find companies who can link to you, obviously you need to locate the ones that use your keywords. There are two ways of doing that. One is to use a new tool from WordTracker, called LinkBuilder or to use Internet Business Promoter. Both can help you find web pages and websites which will be useful in giving you quality links. You can then contact the site owners to try and get as many links as possible. Remember, you cannot have enough quality links...! Remember, you can always ask your question and get it answered in this newsletter by going to: http://www.grahamjones.co.uk/questions WHAT I LEARNED THIS WEEK: Revamping a website can bring benefits For a while now I have had an "old" website on flip charts - Using Flip Charts. It was something I built several years ago to answer a question I was once asked - will flip charts ever die now that PowerPoint is so ubiquitous? Well, as you probably know, flip charts are still with us - indeed, they remain highly valuable and popular in spite of newer technologies. The informality and interactive nature of the flip chart means it will be with us for a whole while longer too. Anyway, this website was floundering, had almost no traffic and had an Alexa ranking so low, they couldn't be bothered to measure it....! But, I thought - let's rebuild it and see what happens. So, I created a new site, using WordPress - the story of my day doing that was on my website last week. But in the few days that I revamped the site, some things have happened which are worth noting. Simply by changing and adding new content on flip charts, my Alexa ranking has shot up - a 400% increase in web reach within three days, taking me from "unknown" to within the top 2.5m sites in the world. Not high, but a dramatic shift in just a few days. Plus, I've sold several items, including a £368 flip chart system on castors. Heartened by the success with the flip chart site, I have started to revamp other sites. In one day, The Credibility Pyramid shot up the Alexa rankings and started to sell products within hours. Not bad for a previously invisible site. So, what does it all mean? It suggests that we could all have "dormant" products, services and websites which would all start to attract people, if only we did a bit of a revamp. What do you have lurking in your past that could be brushed off and given a new lease of life? If you want to check out what else I've been doing for the past week, you can always look at: http://www.grahamjones.co.uk/week THIS WEEK'S "MUST BUY": The Academy for Online Business - Listen Up...! This week, I'm suggesting you don't actually buy anything. Instead, I want you to listen...to me...! On Wednesday my interview with The Academy for Online Business goes "live" and you can hear me explain how you can convert your website visitors into paying customers. Simply sign up for the free teleseminar series, which actually starts on Monday. You will be able to hear interviews with some of the best experts in online business, covering all sorts of topics from creating information products, to using Twitter, to managing your online time and to generating PR. The seminar series lasts all week and, best of all, it is free of charge. Sign up and download the podcasts and learn. Simple. You can sign up for the teleseminars at http://GJurl.com/academy. So, that's it for this week - see you in seven days...! Kind Regards
Graham Jones Web: grahamjones.co.uk Tel: +44 118 336 9710 If you no longer wish to receive this newsletter than you can delete your name from the mailing list by clicking this link: {!remove_web} Affiliate Links: Some of the links in this newsletter are affiliate links providing me with a small commission when you purchase the item. However, I only use affiliate links for products which I personally value. |
