Elaine’s Space

I’m shouting at myself here - not you!

I’ve spent so much time this past year, especially with the arrival of Twitter, reading, perusing, digesting the writings and blogs of numerous SEO gurus and wannabes, that I’ve not actually done much work.

Not only do I spend an inordinate amount of time reading these worthy blogs etc, but I then spend a disproportionate amount of time worrying which, or any, of the excellent tips and advice I should implement.

• Should I search the ethernet for PR4+ blog posts, which don’t implement the ‘no follow’ and then try and figure out how to, sneakily, get my link in, so it looks oh so natural?
• Should I be making fan pages on Facebook, My Space, Bebo, Sqidoo and Wikipedia?
• Should I be creating numerous twitter accounts to cater for the wide range of products I could twit to unsuspecting followers?
• Should I be writing numerous blog posts to my various alter-ego blogs and inter connecting them all?
• Should I be creating more niche websites on the WP platform?
• Should I be searching out different hosts so that I don’t host my sites on the same IP address?
• Should I be signing up for the latest SEO/Affiliate conference, although they cost a fortune?
• If I sign up for the latest SEO/Affiliate conference will I make myself ill worrying about networking?
• Should I be writing dozens of articles for article sites
• Should I be writing concise articles, inserting just the one link to my site, for other complimentary sites?
• Should I be spending most of my time finding those ‘impossible’ PR8 one way links which will lift my site up to Nirvana Link Heaven?
• Should I just concentrate on good content and bugger the SEO side of stuff?
• Should I forget about good content and concentrate on the on-page stuff?
• Should I  use ‘no follow’ to sculpt my site into the silo effect? (no I haven’t got a clue, either!)
• Should I start using pivot tables to analyse my data from Google Analytics?
• Should I start actually analysing my data from Google Analytics?
• Should I be concentrating on  the long tail keywords and not the short tail ones?
• Should I be using Linkscape or Majestic - or both?
• Should I start buying links? (that’s a rhetorical question Matt, I’m a Yorkshire lass!)
• Should I start selling links? (another one of those rhetorical jobbies!)
• Should I start interlinking my pages with the relevant anchor text (don’t forget to alter it, though) from within the content on similar pages?
• Should I ‘no follow’ all my affiliate links?
• Should I ‘no follow’ all my outbound links?
• Should I bother with recriprocal links?
• Should I bother with backlinks from sites with PR1 or less?
• Should I submit to directory sites?
• Should my main content be moved to the top of the page with the help of CSS?
• Should I start following all  the Twitterartis mentioned on the latest top 500 worldwide SEOists
• Should I stop salivating each morning at the thought of the little pearls of wisdom which might have appeared in my Twitter timeline overnight from SEOists with strange names?

And all the while my Nursery Furniture page is going AWOL, there’s dust bunnies blowing through various empty pages, merchants have changed networks, my best selling products are out of stock, my husband, child and dog are heading out the door, my rear end is taking on a black leathery patina - a large black leathery patina - my head is so full of nonsense that I can’t think straight - and I missed Christmas!

The end result - I’ve hardly done any of ‘em, a few comments on obscure blogs, submitted to a few directories, started downloading competitor sites into Linkscape and produced some extensive excel spreadsheets and erm, that’s it really ….

But thank heavens, the work I’ve done for years on the website - updating, removing and adding products, writing concise descriptions with relevant keywords and ensuring good descriptive (but not over the top) urls is still paying off and the majority of the pages are still ranking high and producing a healthy return.

THE CONCLUSION - JUST BLEEDIN’ GET ON WITH IT

One of the great things about Christmas is all the lovely toys and games that Santa brings - with not one thought as to how parents are going to find the space for all these extras.

Which is why I’m furiously working first thing on Boxing day whilst Dave and Ollie are still tucked up in bed.

Today is the start of the big clean up, parents have managed to clear all the wrapping paper, boxes, bubble wrap and  that ubiquitous polystyrene foam which will still be lurking under the sofa come July and realize they are still left with a huge pile of junk toys - and nowhere to store them - FANTASTIC.

Toy storage, toy box, somewhere to store all the bloody toys - are just some of the phrases that Google will be hunting for today and it’s even better when the sales really kick in and we get some good bargains from the kids furniture merchants.  Parents will be looking for combi wardrobes, storage beds, bookcases and toy boxes - anything that will alleviate the chaos and mayhem which can be transferred from the living room to the children’s bedrooms.

Back to work now.

Happy New Year everyone

Christmas is over - well it will be in a day or so and then it’s back to the grindstone and the mayhem which is the online January Sales.

Some of the sales have started already, getting rid of their Christmas baubles, decorations and gifts and will only run until the beginning of January - and then, maybe, start another one in late January to make way for their summer stock.

Marks and Spencer started their winter sale at 12.01 midnight Christmas day last year - will they do the same this year? I’m expecting the larger department stores to enter the New Year with a bang and for those with the fastest fingers there will be some massive savings and winter bargains.

This all means that Affiliates will be working hard for the next few weeks updating their sites - will we have time to take advantage of this year’s bargains, or will we be first in the queue

Have fun everyone - and I wish you all a very Happy, Prosperous and Healthy New Year

Google has been having fun and games with my Nursery Furniture page and turned it into a virtual yoyo.

Historically this is one of my pages that has enjoyed first page listings for many years, even occasionally hitting that coveted No1 spot.  It gets changed twice a year when the merchants change their ranges and I need to remove old ones and install new ones - but that usually involves changing the image and the actual range name - there’s not many ways to describe white cotbeds, junior wardrobes and baby dressers!! - so the content doesn’t actually change that much.

This page normally chugs along nicely - all that changed in mid October when apparently it plummeted down the listings. I didn’t notice immediately and when I did realise the sales had dried up I, foolishly, attributed it to the season and assumed nursery furniture buying was on the back burner until the January Sales started.

Totally wrong.  I started investigating last week and discovered that although I was ranking quite well for some long tail associated keywords eg white nursery furniture - I had disappeared completely for the main term - nowhere to be found in the listings at all.  This isn’t unusual some times this happens and pages will suddenly reappear for the correct term in, or around, the usual spot after a few days.
I checked again a few days later and there it was - at No 311. Mmm, maybe the algo had changed and I’d triggered some type of penalty - like I said there’s only so many ways to describe white nursery furniture - so I tweaked a few headings and rearranged some of the keywords and waited, and waited - no change.
On Friday I needed to add another merchant and had my lunch and then checked again - what the heck it had fallen to 700+, in the space of a few hours and without it being cached!!

Over  the weekend it has bounced from 300+ to 700+ down to 250ish, back to around 400 and this morning we’re down/up to 130!!

I don’t have any spammy backlinks, in fact there’s only a couple from this blog, one from Bronco who created the site, and the necessary internal ones - I don’t seriously think it’s keyword stuffed - so I haven’t got a clue.

The next step is a reinclusion request to Google, but that’s difficult as you have to ’swear’ you’ve corrected the misdemeanour before they’ll even look at it, which is crazy when you don’t know what’s gone wrong.

So I’m Stumped.

ps it’s no 2 in Bing - yeah!

CALL OFF THE BLOOD HOUNDS - Today 22nd December, 09.18 this page is now at No 12! - this is without being recached and doesn’t include the latest range which I included on Friday - be interesting to see where it goes when it is recached - life’s not dull

My dad used to sing this every Christmas - although not as good as Nat King Cole’s verstion - The Little Boy That Santa Claus Forget - and every year I’d be reduced to a blubbering mess, and made me appreciate the few Christmas presents we did find every Christmas morning, even though times were tough in the early 1950’s.

Today it still brings a lump to my throat, even though most kids have a fabulous Christmas and get far too much, there are still children whose parents or carers are unable or simply don’t care to provide them with Christmas - this is where Kids Company comes in ..

Kids Company was founded by Camila Batmanghelidjh in 1996, to provide practical, emotional and educational support to vulnerable inner-city children and young people.

I’ve donated to this wonderful charity for the last few years and Jason Baker, from CJ, raised £1265.00 by biking from Liverpool to Lowestoft - (there’s a lovely picture of his very sore bum somewhere:)

And although Kids Company work tirelessly all year to provide this help,  at Christmas they go that extra yard and create a Christmas Day Party for hundreds of these children, who have nowhere else to go on Christmas Day.

You can make an online donation or buy a Christmas Present from John Lewis, through their  online gift list- gift list number 384415, or,  if you can, why not lend a hand and volunteer - you could make a big difference by showing one child that someone does care.

It’s not often a site tickles my funny bone - and it’s not often I blog about something totally unrelated to Allkids and Children’s Rooms and Affiliate Marketing …. (and without a link!)

http://www.simonpanrucker.com/beans.html  is funny - enjoy

I’ve given Graham a bit of stick over the years because of the bias towards BoysToys Christmas incentive and, I know, that this years is Monaco - Playboy Weekend - but you know what - I quite fancy this one. I’m sure I could tailor this to my own requirements

3 nights at a 4 star hotel in Monte Carlo - yep
helicoptor transfer - I might have to wear a scarf and big designer glasses , but - yep
Karting Grand Prix - possibly, I’m quite happy to watch though
Full Day Offshore in a Powerboat - I’m sure I can drape myself across the hull, or even the pointy bit - yep
Nightclubs - yep and without falling over - fingers crossed
Full day in Mini Cooper over the Alps  - gulp ! - might just have to forgo that one and indulge in some shopping

So I’ve set my stall out - created a couple of site wide banners and this page aimed at Christmas Experience Gifts for Kids, which is doing quite well and appearing on the first page of google for some quite nice terms.

I think that grandparents, aunties and uncles are the type to go for unusual christmas gifts for either boys or girls, I mean, most kids get everything they need/want during the year - the downside of carboots and ebay!! So a day driving a ferrari, or indulging in a photo shoot or pop video, being a zoo keeper and tons of other future memories is going to go down extremely well on Christmas morning.

I only stand an outside chance of winning one of the 6 places, but at least this year, I’m giving it a go and hat tip to Graham for suggesting this trip - maybe next year a stay at a 5 star spa break with a personal shopper thrown in?

The Toy Retailers Association have announced their forecast for the top selling toys for Christmas 2009.

From a list of 72 toys, in 6 categories, they have announced the top 12, the ones they consider will be flying off the shelves.

Here is the full list:

Bakugan Battle Pack, Spin Master (RRP £19.99)

Battle Strikers starter Set, Mega Brands (RRP £9.99)

Ben 10 Alien Force Kevins DX Action Cruiser, Bandai (RRP £29.99)

Bendaroos Mega Pack, Spin Master (RRP £19.99)

GO GO Pets Hamsters, Character Options (RRP £9.99)

GX Racers Tightrope Terror, Flair (RRP £22.99)

Kidizoom Multimedia Digital Camera, V-Tech (RRP £49.99)

LEGO Games Minotaurus, Lego (RRP £17.99)

Monopoly City, Hasbro (RRP £24.99)

Princess Peppa’s Palace, Character Options (RRP £39.99)

Sylvanian Families Caravan, Flair (RRP £44.99)

Transformers Movie 2 Voyagers Figures, Hasbro (RRP £22.99)

Full details with prices and a choice of retailers will be posted here  Top Christmas Toys 2009

This post is a bit presumptious ‘cos I’m up early Sunday morning to get ready for the second one - SEOmoz London Event, and I’ve not yet recovered from the legendary A4UExpo.

Looking at the bare bones of both confereneces, there’s not much to choose between them - both deal with making the best use of your time to get the most out of your chosen business.

SEOmoz promises to concentrates on the search engines and rankings, whereas A4U covered the whole spectrum of affiliate marketing.  They’ve both arranged ‘networking’ parties for each night of the conference, where, I’m pretty certain, there’ll be more drinking, socialising and catching up with old buddies than cold networking.

The A4UExpo was a bit of a mixed bag for me. I sorely missed some of the old gang - Jules, Paul, Shane and Frostie - and what’s happened to KBudden! I found the actual seminars more interesting than informative this year - although I couldn’t wait to get my hands on Judith’s Pie Chart, and I have scribbled a few notes down, but nowhere near as many as in previous years.

There were so many interesting talks and great presentations, that I just didn’t have time to visit more than 2 stands - Existem’s (obviously) and Shopzilla, with a view to partnering with them with our merchant site - Children’s Rooms.

Where the Expo scores with me is the sheer friendliness of the place. I’m lucky that I do know many, many great affiliates - too many to mention here incase I upset someone by missing them out - but everytime I turned round I could see another friendly face to say Hi to, who introduced me to a new ‘friendly’ face and vice versa - me introducing great folk who all have something in common - I think that’s what has driven this industry - most people are hell bent on driving it forward and creating a professional industry we can all be proud of- and yet retain our ‘roots’.

SEOmoz promises much more informative presentations which I am SOOOOOO looking forward to - 2 days of intensive Search Engine shannanigans, I’ll be in SEO heaven - the downside is - the networking and after hours parties !!

I don’t think I’ll know many folk at all and I am attending this one on my own - Children’s Rooms is far too busy for Dave to get away again, so I think I might struggle and find them more arduous than enjoyable.

My inclination is to ‘hide’ in my hotel room, but that’s copping out, especially as I’ve always urged newbie affiliates to come along to the Affiliate G2Gers and join in, as we’re such a friendly bunch - will hardened SEOers by as friendly!!

Will I be singing Leeds United ‘Marching On Together’  with a new found BF, be serenaded by someone who’s wearing reverse beer goggles and mistakes me for his granny, officially adopt another child - ‘ourdom’, get a couple of mentions by industry giants in different presentations - I don’t think so.

But, in a few years time and several more of these ‘do’s’, I might - so I’ll bite the bullet, slap on the ‘glamour’ and the smile and try to approach complete strangers with the standard ‘and what do you do?’…….

I’ll let you all know how I got on.

Children’s Rooms have now moved into supplying toddler beds and toddler bedding - but not just any old toddler beds, but fantastic, super duper character beds, with matching junior duvets.

We’ve started off with four of the most popular characters:

Disney Princess
Peppa Pig
Thomas The Tank Engine
Toy Story

These great looking toddler beds are made from sturdy plastic and a tubular steel frame, are low to the floor for little legs and have attached side rails for safety and the head and foot board are imprinted with images of their favourite characters.

And the best bit - they are one of the cheapest on the market at £89.95 and the matching toddler duvet sets are only £14.95

To go with the beds and bedding we also have a toddler mattress and the smaller size duvet inserts and pillows.

These beds should sell well all year long, but especially at Christmas as they are a great gift for any toddler - well any toddler who likes one of the characters.

Children’s Rooms are certainly going places - watch out for more bargains negotiated by Dave and ourkev.