I am removing entrecard from my site. When I joined I was told that I would have approval of any adverts that appear on my sites. Suddenly adverts are appearing that I have not approved. Not going to happen.

Besides that my bounce rate from entrecard traffic is so high that it is my feeling that the bandwidth spent serving those visitors is not worth it.

So Waar as wraggies dis wonderlik, Guy vertel dit soos dit is. “Willem Hekke”

It has come to my attention that everyone wants something for free, so I am going to give you something free. In fact AOL, Microsoft, INTEL, Google, Bill Gates, Richard Branson and I are all joining forces to bring you this free thing. If you send this email to 10 or more of your friends you will get this free stuff. They don’t even have to be real friends. In fact some of you that I am sending this to are not real friends we have just happened to have communicated via the net but because of that we are now lifelong best mates.

This has never been in the news but I know its true because Jane sent this to 109 of her closest friends and got lots of free stuff. I know this happened because Janet told me and Kim told her and I think either Brad or Angelina told her. Microsoft and Bill Gates sent her loads of free updates for her computer, but  be warned some of these updates made other stuff stop working but then nothing is really for nothing is it?

This email is not being tracked by AOL or INTEL, well I bloody hope not because that would just tick me off. Its a private communication between you, my closest friends and me and I would hate for them to be reading this stuff unless you actually sent it to them and they also want all this great FREE STUFF. In fact if anybody is tracking this email please stop. I don’t want it tracked anymore. That is just not cricket you know.

If you don’t send this to all your friends nothing is going to happen, seriously absolutely nothing, No camels will die on your driveway, God won’t send angels to beat you up and I definitely won’t be showering curses down on the next 56 generations of your family. I can pretty much guarantee though that some politician somewhere will say something damned stupid, Thabo Mbeki will speak to Rob Mugabe and nothing else will happen. Jacob Zuma will still try and sleep with the justice lady to get his case thrown out of court. But thats gonna happen if you forward this email or not.

I am guessing you are getting bored because we havent got to the FREE STUFF yet, Ok I will get to it but this email needs to be just a little longer to make it look really legit. Have you noticed that all of these emails that you get have comments attached saying how this works so I am just gonna make up a few for you.

“ITS REAL, I DIDNT SEND THIS TO ANYONE AND NOT ONE CAMEL DIED ON MY DRIVEWAY”  Gus

“I spoke to Fred and he told me its real, He sent this on and Thabo Mbeki had a meeting with Bob Mugabe.” Jimmy Abbot

“I just can’t believe this, Guy is a genius and the free stuff is keeping me alive” Gerrie Coetzee

“If I had read this before I would never have tried to eat Evanders ear.” Mike Tyson

FREE STUFF
You can look at photos of South Africa here <http://justsouthafrica.co.za> and its FREE
You can read Guys blog <http://guymclaren.com> here and thats also FREE
Step outside and look at some flowers. Thats also FREE
Walk down the road and breath some of that FREE oxygen unless of course you are in Jo’burg then the Carbon monoxide is FREE

Oh yes if you really my friend you will not send this back to me, I never want to see it again. Please use BCC when you forward this so that you are not sending spamming gits a list of email addresses to add to their lists.

I wrote on guymclaren.com

Yesterday we talked about backlinks from forums. Today I want to tell you how to get backlinks by blogging. There are many free blogging sites on the web. Today I want to talk to you about Tumblr.com Tumblr is a micro blogging site. You can use Tumblr as a full blog but I would not do that. Tumblr do not like spammers be warned. If they deem you to be a spammer they will delete first and ask questions later.

Read it all here. 7 blogging sites to use for backlinks

Marketing a website is not rocket science. There are very specific things to be done. With the neccessary skills and time anyone can optimise their own website. There are a lot of factors in play and overwhelmed is not an unknown emotion when tackling a task like this.

Whether you have the skills or not, is not a question I can answer. So I thought I would  create a checklist for you. OK admittedly this is not everything that needs doing but that would not leave any reason for me to be available to assist you. So in all fairness I am going to keep a few things to myself. I do after all want you to hire me for the job.

What I am going to do is tell you about 20 things you can do to Market your website more effectively. Much of what I am including in this missive is based on my own preferences and experience. Some of it may not be essential or even neccessary.

1. Domain Names
Lets start off with the domain name. I know I hate typing despite doing so much of it so shorter is better. Memorable is important. Use it for your email as well. The more it gets seen the better. Your webhost doesn’t offer email, Just ask me.

2. Directory names
Categorise everything and use keywords in your directory names. Always have multiple pages per directory.

3. Browser issues
OK most web designers hate Internet Explorer, well those that have a clue anyway but make sure your website displays in all browsers. Starting with Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari. I note that there is now a Google Browser but I won’t be too concerned untill they actually achieve some market share.

4. Site logo
Your site logo should display the site name clearly and when clicked link back to the home page. Use something unique and original. Don’t copy your oppositions website. Be a leader not a follower

5. Site consistency
Every page should look like the one preceding it, Make the site easy to identify. Keep it simple and clean. Too much clutter is disturbing. Ease of navigation is essential.

6. Contact Details
Have a contact page with every contact in the business immediately apparent. Remember to make it easy for customers to not only find you but also to complain.

7. Flash and animation
Use sparingly. These are not guaranteed to impress your visitors, They want information not ego masturbation from your design team. Flash has its uses but using it as a website design strategy has too many downsides to list.

8. Robots.txt
Ensure you know where the Search engines are spidering, A good robots.txt file will keep certain parts of your website non searchable.

9. Link Colours
Ensure that your links are a different colour to your text. It makes them easy to spot.

10. No Follow advertising links
In fact no follow any links you don’t want the search engines to spider. Advertisements that are not no followed can lead to Google disliking your site. Be warned.

11. Unique Titles on all pages.
Its actually quite scary how many sites have a generic title throughout their website. If every page is different surely they all deserve a unique title. In fact the title seems to be a major component of the indexing by the search engines. Just changing this has made vast difference for many of my websites.

12. Alt tags on images
This is an opportunity to get some mileage out of your keywords, Make sure your images are all added with alt tags. Describe the image at worst.

13. Bloated Code
Using software like Frontpage adds excess code, Don’t even talk about Word or Publisher. These are not web design tools, they are tools to allow the uninitiated to build invisible websites and use about 5x as much code as is essential.
Architectural issues

14. Check Broken links
I am totally convinced there is no need for me to tell you about this until I start clicking broken links on websites.

15. Content
Good content is not only essential, It needs to get to the point, Answer Whats in it for me and tie needs to benefits.

16. Jargon
Industry specific jargon is bad, repeat after me Industry specific jargon is bad. We are not all rocket scientists or plumbers. I may know what a monkey wrench is but I may not have a clue what a S Trap is. You should be writing for 16 year olds. In fact if a 12 year old can understand what you have written it’s safe to assume most of humanity can. Remove the jargon.

17. Unsubstantiated statements
How many sites have you seen that say make a million in 3 months. I know from my exposure to Network or Multi Level Marketing that most people trying to convince me to join the quick rich schemes are worse of financially than me and that takes some doing after the last year or so. If it can’t be proven don’t say it.

18. Splash page
NO NO NO. This is not in your interest, It is not in the users interest. I don’t for the life of me understand why you would want to add yet another step between your customer and the information.

19. Product Pages
Product pages need to have details, Don’t skimp, be clear in the purpose of the page. In fact even give me the pricing. Make it easy for the customer to make a decision and then show them how to buy.

20. Links
Limit the amount of outgoing links on each page. Backlinks are the key to your success. Get backlinks and lots of them

I am not listing these sites in any particular order

StumbleUpon.com
Every Article I post to stumbleupon.com gets at least 110 visitors in 24 hours. I have had as many as 600 and the best of all is my bounce rate from Stumble upon is very low. This means that most of my stumbleupon traffic sticks for at least two articles. See the Tumblr Article to see why you should stumble other peoples stuff as well.

Muti.co.za
Muti is for South African traffic. The traffic from MUTI is not as plentiful as from Stumble upon but is very South African focused. You are not likely to get a whole lot of foreign traffic from MUTI. MUTI is a community and they don’t like you submitting your own stuff. In fact it’s a big no no. Why the submitter is of importance I have no idea. If you are not submitting your own stuff its easy enough to get a friend to submit your articles. But heres the thing its a good idea to get more than one friend to share this responsibility with so that they don’t get accused of spamming the board with your stuff.

Amatomu.com
Amatomu is another South African site. I love Amatomu for one main reason. I submit my site and Amatomu grabs the feed and updates automatically. You don’t need to submit your articles manually as Amatomu is an aggregator. It spiders every site in its list and adds any new stuff. Amatomu also has some basic statistics, allowing you to compare your sites results with others in South Africa.

Afrigator.com
Like Amatomu, Afrigator is an aggregator. I don’t use it myself because I disagree with one or two of their policies. I know it definitely brought traffic when I tested it but not in such numbers that I regret not adding my sites. If things have change feel free to tell me.

EntreCard
Entrecard allows you to advertise on others blogs in exchange for them advertising on yours. They also have a visit websites in the system thing going to earn entrecard points with which to advertise. I get lots of traffic but very little sticks. The bounce rate is very high(80% plus). See they allow you to accrue credits and you may visit 300 blogs a day.

I know that If I visit 100 a day, I have enough time to scroll through the latest article and drop my entrecard. That also takes out a good 2 hours out of my day. The rewards are not worth the input im my opinion. The guys doing 300 a day must be hitting, dropping and running. In fact I have seen complaints from these big droppers about drop spots below the line.

Twitter.com
Twitter is maximicro blogging, say what you have to say in 140 characters or less. I get a good amount of traffic from my followers. I in fact am going to spend more time mining twitter for better results. Join Twitter now and follow me. Guy McLaren Twitter.

Digg.com
DIGG, like MUTI is a community, but much more cosmopolitan. Ther are DIGGers from all corners of the world. I have had minimal traffic from DIGG as I have yet to write an article that gets enough votes to gain traction. DIGG has a friends system, It may pay you to make many friends that you can use to help you gain traction. I have not put much effort into DIGG as yet. Beware of the DIGG bury squad.

REDDIT.com
Very Similar to Digg, Reddit can add traffic but recently I have seen more articles about the bury squads and that Reddit has been usurped by angry political people.

Guy McLaren is an SEO and web design fundi. He has been doing this since 1996. If you need help with your website visit his website about Search engine optimisation here.

Do you really need one? The thing is I would suggest many companies waste money on their websites. Most waste money having email because they don’t see these tools as communication tools. Email is for writing letters and the website is an advert.

Email as a communication tool.

Life without a website is possible, I grant you, BUT If all you do is answer emails promptly, respond to queries and communicate via email, You are achieving more in a day than most websites will achieve in a year. People communicated by writing long before we had the first website. Email allows you to do this so much faster.

Why have email if you only check it once a week?

You are losing business and teaching your clients not to use email for their queries if you don’t respond timeously. Seriously you want to answer the query before the customer has forgotten you asked the question. You need to answer the query before the customer moves on and finds someone else who will.

Using email to devastating effect.

The key to being a power email user is having a customer database in the first place. Not just any database. My database is no good for you unless you are competing with me. You need people who have worked with you, Secondly you need permission to send emails to the list.

JUST REMEMBER!

People don’t care what you are selling, all they care about is themselves. If your email is not helping them in any way, giving them something to improve their existance, they will read it once and bin it. You may never get a second chance. You see its really easy to be added to a spam list. Getting back onto their whitelist is a hell of a lot less easy.

Can my business use E-mail?

The only business I can think of that I would not suggest use an email mailing list is a funeral director, but even then it was pointed out to me that some people may be interested in finding hout who they have outlived, or what the latest is in coffin fashion.

On line brochures have no value

Your website allows you to explain what your business does. It gives you space to add those newsletters for people who are not on your mailing list. There must be a thousand ways to harness the power of the web and increase your business. Don’t panic if you are without a website. Use email and build your website tomorrow.

Call today for advice on creating your own mailing list. We can help

Bolton DeVenter was an imaginary person made up by a marketing “genius” who failed to take credit for his work. In less than a month Bolton was known to most people in the South African Blogosphere. The memory of Bolton was awoken by Lohmann social marketing guru for News 24.

Richard Catto immediately accused me of being DeVenter. I just wish I had thought of that before the other chap did. I would have taken credit for one of the best viral marketing gigs to hit the street. In fact I would probably still be making money from Boltons website.

I just checked Google for Bolton DeVenter and my name and found 344 sites.The top 40 only being relevant. Ok I did not do an advanced search, but still my name and Boltons were linked no less than 40 times. You see I have a marketing method I uses and some people don’t approve of commercialism in the social marketing arena. Bolton followed much of the stuff I had previously posted on trafficdepartment.co.za.

Much of the interesting stuff has been lost because I deleted trafficdepartment because it was more trouble than it was worth. I learned much from the Bolton saga. A few people were accused of being Bolton including yours truly, Vincent Maher, Justin Hartman and a few others.

Bolton contact me, Your secret is safe with me. I would love to know who the real influential blogger is in this part of the world.

Yes we now have a way of paying for goods on line, transferring funds and all the other goodies that people from foreign climes take for granted.

Most surprising is the rates. They are reasonable if not almost cheap.

I believe this is one of the most exciting ventures to hit the South African web ever.

Payfast

1. Bounce rates are determined site wide and right down to very specific keywords and pages. Your site wide bounce rate tells you what percentage of people are coming, puking and leaving.

2. The overall bounce rate can tell you if you are improving or falling deeper in the hole with your articles. Watching the overall bounce rate can give you an indication of whether your site is improving in terms of content offered.

3. Bounce rate by country can tell you where you are gaining the most traction. If you are trying to gain traction in South Africa but your bounce rate in South Africa is higher than in the UK, its possible you need to spend more time identifying with the South African target market.

4. Checking bounce rates by article can tell you which articles are more successful at getting people to continue reading the information available on your website. If you analyse the article bounce rates you can concentrate on more of that which works and less of the articles that are not gaining and keeping traffic.

5. Bounce Rate by keyword can tell you which keywords to focus on. Imagine you are a plumbing supplier and you find that writing articles about “aquila taps” gets a 30% bounce rate but writing about “brass bib cocks” gets you an 90% bounce rate. Where do you focus your efforts?

6. Bounce rate by referrer. This one I adore. You see I know I get a 30% bounce rate from Stumble upon and a 80% bounce rate from entrecard. I know where to expend my efforts. I can focus my social bookmarking on the sites that give me the desired results.

7. Checking out the bounce rate by connection type gives me an indication of whether my site is well enough optimised for speed. For instance we have a 80% bounce rate from dial up connections yet only a 46% bounce rate on DSL connections. The dial up connections comprise 2% of my visitors. The question is do I optimise for more speed or not?

8.Looking at the bounce rate per browser can tell me if I may have a problem with a specific browser not seeing the full picture. There are really two possibilities here. Lets say we have a 30% bounce rate from FireFox and a 75% bounce rate from IE, we have one of two things happening. Either the more technically aware Firefox users are finding more value than the less technically aware IE users or Microsoft is destroying your website and more testing is needed.

9.Bounces by new visitor and returning visitor can tell you whether you are adding to your readership. Is most of your content aimed at existing visitors or are you attracting new custom?

10. The tenth is whether to call me or not. If you need help working out where you are going wrong just ask me.

In my 40 years and a few on this planet I missed spotting the first one I took part in, In fact my parents took part in that one not me. I saw the second coming and bit hook line and sinker. Back in the eighties I lost my shirt because I panicked. I saw the nineties one arriving and decided not to take part.

Here is my economic theory. Every decade there is a boom and bust cycle. The bust cycles normally last a couple of years, People get excited, people go bust. Shit happens really. But I got taught the following in the eighties just too late, Just after I lost my shirt.

When people are selling its time to buy. When business becomes slow its time to be more visible. So right now people are selling, its time to buy. Its time to buy advertising, Its time to get your website more visible. Its time to make a noise.

Oh yes, I almost forgot to tell you the story about the steam engine running across the plains at 100 miles an hour. If you step in front of it, Its gonna run you over. If its travelling at 80 mile an hour will the results differ much? Now see the steam train as the economy. People are still doing business just maybe with a little more caution, but they are still buying and selling. There is just a little less buying right now and thus a little less selling.

The cake has become a little smaller, so you may need to trim some of the icing, or you need to make sure that you are more visible than the others wanting a slice of that cake.

Get your website opened up, Get rid of the cloaking shields. Just ask me how.