Yes, the saga of the site that 'must be live in 7 days' gets better. Actually, they got the date of the magazine advert wrong, they needed it live that day! But we've had to continue aiming for the end of this week.
Except, the customer is now adding more complications into the project. For example - "What do we do when there aren't enough products in a sub category? Can you fill the page with something else?"
The obvious answer is not to have such 'elite' sub categories. Easy and simple answer. At this stage in the project, when they are desperate to go live (and before that they need to load products) then I really don't think it's time to start adding complications such as adding a random number of space fillers.
I blame the account manager for letting go of the reigns, yet again. Every project he does this and doesn't keep the customer focused on getting the site live for the same day that the advertising is going live. He seems to think that every question is a chance of making more cash, although the price stays fixed, so no idea what he's on.
Hopefully with time I'll teach him the right ways, but when time is not on my side and he's asking silly questions, the answers he gets are brief, to the point and probably not the sort of answers he is expecting!
Thursday, 10 July 2008
Wednesday, 9 July 2008
Popunders - Waste of time???
Well, I'm very disappointed in the popunders campaign I tested. Very disappointed.
I had hoped for a little success, but near enough nothing. Not even my money back, which at the cost of the traffic, is very surprising. I suppose it's my old answer - if it was that easy, these guys wouldn't be selling the traffic they would be putting up their own affiliate pages and earning the commissions themselves.
I didn't think at first that all of the adverts had been used. Looking at Google, the special page I'd created had only been shown 2,106 times (in a campaign of 5,000) popunders. And some of those were me viewing the page. So I was surprised to logon to the provider's stats and see that all 5,000 had been delived in about 2½ days.
So far, no sign of any commissions earned and hardly a click generated. 1 click through the Google adsense scheme got me back about 2% of my outlay. Not worth bothering with.
And looking at the huge variation in the number of displays of each advert, from 1962 to 2119 displays across adverts from one network, most screens are being closed before they even open.
There were around 10 clicks to the advertisers - so there's still a remote chance of commission. But I'm not keeping up any hope!
I had hoped for a little success, but near enough nothing. Not even my money back, which at the cost of the traffic, is very surprising. I suppose it's my old answer - if it was that easy, these guys wouldn't be selling the traffic they would be putting up their own affiliate pages and earning the commissions themselves.
I didn't think at first that all of the adverts had been used. Looking at Google, the special page I'd created had only been shown 2,106 times (in a campaign of 5,000) popunders. And some of those were me viewing the page. So I was surprised to logon to the provider's stats and see that all 5,000 had been delived in about 2½ days.
So far, no sign of any commissions earned and hardly a click generated. 1 click through the Google adsense scheme got me back about 2% of my outlay. Not worth bothering with.
And looking at the huge variation in the number of displays of each advert, from 1962 to 2119 displays across adverts from one network, most screens are being closed before they even open.
There were around 10 clicks to the advertisers - so there's still a remote chance of commission. But I'm not keeping up any hope!
Tuesday, 8 July 2008
Listed again in Google
Not sure what was going on when I noticed that my home page had vanished from Google, but the CompareMortgageRates home page is back on the 6th page of the search results. Now I've got to work at moving it up!
I was looking at the site and I noticed that all links to the home page state the website address, not index.html. This could be very useful - it should mean that changing the page to a PHP page isn't as painful. At the very least, I don't need to change every page. At best, Google will still page rank it the same...
Why do I want to change it from HTML to PHP? Quite simple - I've introduced a news feature, a bit like a blog. Ideally, I'd like to include the latest news snippets onto the site's home page, but I can't do that in HTML, without having to manually update the home pagee each time. And I'll never manage that! Unfortunately, my hosts don't allow me to change the htaccess file to treat HTML as PHP.
What I intend to do, with time, is to just display the first paragraph of each recent news item on the home page, leading to the page with the full news item on it. This not only helps to build up a large network of pages but also helps to keep the home page fresh and constantly updated. What else must I do to regain my page 1 listing of last summer!
I was looking at the site and I noticed that all links to the home page state the website address, not index.html. This could be very useful - it should mean that changing the page to a PHP page isn't as painful. At the very least, I don't need to change every page. At best, Google will still page rank it the same...
Why do I want to change it from HTML to PHP? Quite simple - I've introduced a news feature, a bit like a blog. Ideally, I'd like to include the latest news snippets onto the site's home page, but I can't do that in HTML, without having to manually update the home pagee each time. And I'll never manage that! Unfortunately, my hosts don't allow me to change the htaccess file to treat HTML as PHP.
What I intend to do, with time, is to just display the first paragraph of each recent news item on the home page, leading to the page with the full news item on it. This not only helps to build up a large network of pages but also helps to keep the home page fresh and constantly updated. What else must I do to regain my page 1 listing of last summer!
Monday, 7 July 2008
Testing Popunders
One of my customers swears by popunders. I know the site he used to buy them from - I recommended him to use them. But I know he's now using someone else. Maybe I should have asked him where he's using now before I tried a campaign!
I set up a page on my mortgages website full of car insurance banners - the company I'm buying the popunders from have a car insurance category, so I thought "great match".
I set up a campaign with my "old favourite" supplier and it's kicked off. Early days, but I've been looking at my affiliate stats....
There's been around 250 displays of some of the adverts, but some of the adverts have only shown aroun 230 displays. So these have probably suffered the recipients closing down the page before it's finished loading.
To be honest, with the cost of the popunders I only need to achieve 1 sale from the 5,000 popunders I've bought. I thought if I could get 0.1% success rate then I'd be pleased, but with 250 impressions and not even 1 click yet, that's very much in doubt! My very optimisitic 1conversion rate is very much in doubt!
I'll post back another day when the campaign is over, here's hoping I get at least my cash back!
I set up a page on my mortgages website full of car insurance banners - the company I'm buying the popunders from have a car insurance category, so I thought "great match".
I set up a campaign with my "old favourite" supplier and it's kicked off. Early days, but I've been looking at my affiliate stats....
There's been around 250 displays of some of the adverts, but some of the adverts have only shown aroun 230 displays. So these have probably suffered the recipients closing down the page before it's finished loading.
To be honest, with the cost of the popunders I only need to achieve 1 sale from the 5,000 popunders I've bought. I thought if I could get 0.1% success rate then I'd be pleased, but with 250 impressions and not even 1 click yet, that's very much in doubt! My very optimisitic 1conversion rate is very much in doubt!
I'll post back another day when the campaign is over, here's hoping I get at least my cash back!
Sunday, 6 July 2008
A complete fall from grace?
Well, I noticed that the traffic on my Compare Mortgage Rates website was down so I took a look at its position on my favourite keywords - "Compare Mortgage Rates". Up until late October 2007 my site was first or second in google on this term. Sometime in mid Octover it dropped from favour and the home page has hovered between pages 5, 6 and 7 of Google for those terms since then.
But today, it's vanished! Compeltely gone. Not there. No where to be found! The page is still cached - a copy taken 7 days ago, so not sure what has happened or for how long it's been vanished.
Around page 15 of the results I did find the Mortgage Products page, so the site hasn't been dropped. And I was surprised that the page did appear in the results anyway.
WHat do I think is wrong? Well, I've negelected the site recently. Prior to its October fall I was putting news on weekly, at least. Not I've only put news on once last month and we're almost a week into this month.
I'm the first to shout that websites need plenty of content to stay up top, so why don't I listen?
Well, I'm moving my mortgage news blog to the site itself - I've written a custom blog to do this for someone else so I might as well also use it!
Here's hoping my preaching works - with my sales guy unable to collect cash (where do I get them?) I need an income from somewhere!
But today, it's vanished! Compeltely gone. Not there. No where to be found! The page is still cached - a copy taken 7 days ago, so not sure what has happened or for how long it's been vanished.
Around page 15 of the results I did find the Mortgage Products page, so the site hasn't been dropped. And I was surprised that the page did appear in the results anyway.
WHat do I think is wrong? Well, I've negelected the site recently. Prior to its October fall I was putting news on weekly, at least. Not I've only put news on once last month and we're almost a week into this month.
I'm the first to shout that websites need plenty of content to stay up top, so why don't I listen?
Well, I'm moving my mortgage news blog to the site itself - I've written a custom blog to do this for someone else so I might as well also use it!
Here's hoping my preaching works - with my sales guy unable to collect cash (where do I get them?) I need an income from somewhere!
Saturday, 5 July 2008
I don't always like my sites...
I wish I could say that 100% of the sites that I've produced I'm proud of. OK, the early sites were nothing compared to what I do now, but even if I could say that 100% of the sites in the last 12 months I'm proud of would be a good thing.
Problem is, I'm not. There are 2 or 3 that I'd rather hide and not have my name against than put on my portfolio. There's probably a handful more also from the last 12 months that aren't what I would consider my best work.
Why do I do that? Why give customers what I'm not proud of - in fact sites that embarass me?
Quite simply - they have been so involved in the design process that I've not been able to steer them around to what I think looks good. They have passed me sample sites that look cheap and colour schemes that just don't work together. Take the site that has a different colour scheme on every page - it's disgusting. But the customer insisted on it - in fact she has a CMS to enable her to change the individual page colours and that's what she has set them to. The present colours are nothing to do with me.
Why's this on my mind? Well 2 new pieces of work this week have both brought this home. The first provided links to two websites they really love. One of these, their favourite, looks like a child has produced it! Over use of mis-matching colours. Too many fancy tricks here and there and the rating of the site shows it.
For the second the customer has approved the sample, saying that he "loves it". My comments, after passing the sample to his account manager, was that it was produced to spec but I didn't think the colours were quite there. It's almost good, just not enough colours and the wrong shades where they are there - there's a lot of pale blue everywhere and little contrast.
But, in all my work the customer is always right. Just so long as 3 months down the line they don't return asking why they have a horrible looking site!
Problem is, I'm not. There are 2 or 3 that I'd rather hide and not have my name against than put on my portfolio. There's probably a handful more also from the last 12 months that aren't what I would consider my best work.
Why do I do that? Why give customers what I'm not proud of - in fact sites that embarass me?
Quite simply - they have been so involved in the design process that I've not been able to steer them around to what I think looks good. They have passed me sample sites that look cheap and colour schemes that just don't work together. Take the site that has a different colour scheme on every page - it's disgusting. But the customer insisted on it - in fact she has a CMS to enable her to change the individual page colours and that's what she has set them to. The present colours are nothing to do with me.
Why's this on my mind? Well 2 new pieces of work this week have both brought this home. The first provided links to two websites they really love. One of these, their favourite, looks like a child has produced it! Over use of mis-matching colours. Too many fancy tricks here and there and the rating of the site shows it.
For the second the customer has approved the sample, saying that he "loves it". My comments, after passing the sample to his account manager, was that it was produced to spec but I didn't think the colours were quite there. It's almost good, just not enough colours and the wrong shades where they are there - there's a lot of pale blue everywhere and little contrast.
But, in all my work the customer is always right. Just so long as 3 months down the line they don't return asking why they have a horrible looking site!
Friday, 4 July 2008
I need the site live - in 7 days
Now a request such as "I need the site live in 7 days - I've paid for the advertising in a national magazine" isn't necessarily a problem. Work with your web designer; answer emails and phone calls; tell him (or her) what you want and generally get on with the project and as long as there aren't huge complications then it shouldn't be a problem.
But when the project has stumbled along for 3 months already and the customer has changed their mind several times not only about the look and colour scheme but also the content, then the task starts to get more difficult.
Then when I hand over draft versions of the page and I hear nothing back for 2 working days (and still waiting) then the task is becoming more complicated - we have to be live this time next week and I have to build the database still and the customer has to load the products...
Also, ask for "That thing that Amazon does with other products". Erm, what? 2 days later the answer comes back "You know, show products people also bought". Not a problem, usually, but the clock is ticking and we still haven't had an agreement on what the pages will look like. 3 months in and I'm still producing new versions. At least there haven't been any major re-writes for a week.
Hopefully, one of the variations of buttons on show will be satisfactory, else it's back to the drawing board for them. To be honest, I don't like any of the buttons I've been given to work with - but if the customer loves them then so be it.
But when the project has stumbled along for 3 months already and the customer has changed their mind several times not only about the look and colour scheme but also the content, then the task starts to get more difficult.
Then when I hand over draft versions of the page and I hear nothing back for 2 working days (and still waiting) then the task is becoming more complicated - we have to be live this time next week and I have to build the database still and the customer has to load the products...
Also, ask for "That thing that Amazon does with other products". Erm, what? 2 days later the answer comes back "You know, show products people also bought". Not a problem, usually, but the clock is ticking and we still haven't had an agreement on what the pages will look like. 3 months in and I'm still producing new versions. At least there haven't been any major re-writes for a week.
Hopefully, one of the variations of buttons on show will be satisfactory, else it's back to the drawing board for them. To be honest, I don't like any of the buttons I've been given to work with - but if the customer loves them then so be it.
Thursday, 3 July 2008
June Benchmark
Should be starting to see some results soon, if I'm going to see any! So comparing against the May benchmark.
First, the bookings. Up this month to 6 bookings, with 4 confirmed, bringing in £65.28. This compares well to the 1 of 4 worth £26 in May, but not as good as April, which had 5 of 7, worth £90.48.
How are the traffic levels? Well, they were up on both sites - 5,146 and 1,927 on the changed site. That's about 90% more traffic on the changed site against not quite 5% on the unchanged site.
The earnings - $181.74 and $24.46 - just over 7.5% up on the unchanged site - good - but down by 30% on the changed site - very disappointing with the traffic levels up so much.
My only consolation is the hope that a lot of the extra traffic is because the site has generated more interest in its link exchange - so hopefully there will be lot's more inbound links and the site will become more popular.
Because, between the 2 sites, an income of under £170 isn't that great!
First, the bookings. Up this month to 6 bookings, with 4 confirmed, bringing in £65.28. This compares well to the 1 of 4 worth £26 in May, but not as good as April, which had 5 of 7, worth £90.48.
How are the traffic levels? Well, they were up on both sites - 5,146 and 1,927 on the changed site. That's about 90% more traffic on the changed site against not quite 5% on the unchanged site.
The earnings - $181.74 and $24.46 - just over 7.5% up on the unchanged site - good - but down by 30% on the changed site - very disappointing with the traffic levels up so much.
My only consolation is the hope that a lot of the extra traffic is because the site has generated more interest in its link exchange - so hopefully there will be lot's more inbound links and the site will become more popular.
Because, between the 2 sites, an income of under £170 isn't that great!
Wednesday, 2 July 2008
Trademark Infringement Investigation
I received an email with the subject "Trademark Infringement Investigation" last night. At first I was just about to bin it - I don't ever remember receiving a digitally signed email before and thought it was spam!
I eventually clicked on the 'continue' button and read the email. One part states 'This notice is being sent to you as a courtesy to inform you that a fraudulent business impersonator may have involved you in the unlawful act of Trademark infringement, as we feel you may be unaware that the use of our Trademark and Trade-names was not authorized.'
Erm, what? It continues: 'Please, remove any and all of our Trademarks and/or Trade-names, which are the exclusive property of Emerald Passport, Inc., from every web property (e.g. websites, PPC ads, link exchange, etc.) that you own and/or operate and kindly provide us with information as to how you came to use our Trademark as a link advertisement on your website (e.g. copy of a request to partner with you using our Trademark/Trade-names, name of link exchange provider, method by which you were contacted: email, telephone call, etc.)'. So what dreadful act had I taken part in to infringe the trademark of this company (if, indeed, it is infringement - I'm no legal expert)?
I'd accepted a link exchange! The link was probably accepted when I first set up the site - in early 2006. Maybe even before that. And they are demanding that I tell them where I got the link exchange from. I think that would be fairly obvious - the affiliate or reseller that I was linking to.
My question quite simply is - is sending threatening legal demands via email the most efficient way of dealing with this problem? Surely it would be more efficient to tell their affiliates / resellers to sort their act in the first place. I suppose that if some have arranged hundreds, or thousands, of link exchanges, some might not have the documentation to follow up and request the changes. But why ask me to potentially break the Data Protection Act and pass my exchange's contact details? If it's a link to their affiliate's site - do they not know who the affiliate was?
I looked on the link exchange directory and there were at least another 3 or 4 sites using similar anchor text, so they must have quite a task on their hands. I was just amazed they found the page - what search engine actually has that ancient page cached?
I eventually clicked on the 'continue' button and read the email. One part states 'This notice is being sent to you as a courtesy to inform you that a fraudulent business impersonator may have involved you in the unlawful act of Trademark infringement, as we feel you may be unaware that the use of our Trademark and Trade-names was not authorized.'
Erm, what? It continues: 'Please, remove any and all of our Trademarks and/or Trade-names, which are the exclusive property of Emerald Passport, Inc., from every web property (e.g. websites, PPC ads, link exchange, etc.) that you own and/or operate and kindly provide us with information as to how you came to use our Trademark as a link advertisement on your website (e.g. copy of a request to partner with you using our Trademark/Trade-names, name of link exchange provider, method by which you were contacted: email, telephone call, etc.)'. So what dreadful act had I taken part in to infringe the trademark of this company (if, indeed, it is infringement - I'm no legal expert)?
I'd accepted a link exchange! The link was probably accepted when I first set up the site - in early 2006. Maybe even before that. And they are demanding that I tell them where I got the link exchange from. I think that would be fairly obvious - the affiliate or reseller that I was linking to.
My question quite simply is - is sending threatening legal demands via email the most efficient way of dealing with this problem? Surely it would be more efficient to tell their affiliates / resellers to sort their act in the first place. I suppose that if some have arranged hundreds, or thousands, of link exchanges, some might not have the documentation to follow up and request the changes. But why ask me to potentially break the Data Protection Act and pass my exchange's contact details? If it's a link to their affiliate's site - do they not know who the affiliate was?
I looked on the link exchange directory and there were at least another 3 or 4 sites using similar anchor text, so they must have quite a task on their hands. I was just amazed they found the page - what search engine actually has that ancient page cached?
Tuesday, 1 July 2008
A Turkish Translation
Quite an interesting twist on a new site that I'm building - it's going to be my first site that has a foreign version. I've built the English version of the site and now I've got to pull together all of the phrases used and get the customer to provide the translations for me.
How will I do the other language? I've not decided yet how I will handle the dual languages. On the surface, a copy of the site with everything translated seems easiest, but that means duplicate pages. The alternative is to set a cookie that swaps the text to Turkish if set.
Either way is simple, but I'm coming around to the first way as being easier to run - the button with the Turkish flag will just link to the home page of the Turkish version and vice versa. Now, is that done as a subdomain or a sub directory???
Another customer mentioned months ago about having a Polish translation for his potential rentors, but that would just be a page. And another has talked about French and Spanish translations of her website - but that was months back that she was talking about getting a friend to write the translations and I've not heard back. Maybe I should ask her about the progress.
Anyway, multi-lingual websites seems to be a popular feature at the moment.
How will I do the other language? I've not decided yet how I will handle the dual languages. On the surface, a copy of the site with everything translated seems easiest, but that means duplicate pages. The alternative is to set a cookie that swaps the text to Turkish if set.
Either way is simple, but I'm coming around to the first way as being easier to run - the button with the Turkish flag will just link to the home page of the Turkish version and vice versa. Now, is that done as a subdomain or a sub directory???
Another customer mentioned months ago about having a Polish translation for his potential rentors, but that would just be a page. And another has talked about French and Spanish translations of her website - but that was months back that she was talking about getting a friend to write the translations and I've not heard back. Maybe I should ask her about the progress.
Anyway, multi-lingual websites seems to be a popular feature at the moment.
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