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Me sir, me sir, I've been positive


You give us a sport where we can sit down, and we've got it in the bag

Hope you don't think I mean Qype Our site is My Local Services.


Don't get me wrong, me personally I hate making coldcalls, and I'm not a fan of receiving them either, but if it grows the business...

We used to make a lot of outbound sales calls, and had an inhouse sales team. I didn't like, and tried to make it less aggressive, but the overhead of a sales team wasn't worth the associated hassle. We then went down a professional call centre route, but hearing the aggressive sales pitches from professionally trained staff didn't sit well with us, and decided to scrap all outbound sales calls, and concentrate on converting inbound enquires. Done that ever since, and works well for us

But horses for courses and different things work for different companies. I'm not against cold selling as a business concept, but in hindsight, I'm glad we no longer do it.

Not sure I understand you? PageRank is a Google marketing term, specific only to them.

Do you mean Bing or Yahoo equivalents? No doubt someone will correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think there is a Bing or Yahoo comparison?

Yup agreed.

This thread was recently bumped, but I stand by what I said this time last year, which was pre Penguin and Panda was causing a flap.

Steps into the lions den....

As a 3rd party local business review site, we will certainly mention once or twice <ahem> about an upgraded listing But only via email and never by coldcalling. Personally I don't think it's unreasonable if someone's taking out one of our free listings, and they can unsubscribe easily from any mail at any time. If they get the hump, we simply delete their free listing, so no skin off our nose.

Likewise to other providers like Qype. I'm personally not a fan of the full on sales pitch, or cold calling, but if you take up one of their free listings, then I don't think it's that unreasonable to get a sales call. If it's not for you, just simply say "no thanks". If you are really anti getting any upsells, via mail or phone, then don't sign up for any free listings.

Obviously if you decide to take out a paid listing with any directory, don't agree from a cold call and go and do some research. If you perceive some value, go for it, if you don't, then.. don't

When it comes to having a rant and getting things off your chest, I think Stuart Lovatt does it pretty well!

An open letter to the next generation we have let down so badly.

Dear son

If you are reading this, then that must indicate the internet is still up and running and the big energy crisis predicted by many including myself has not yet occurred.


Time for changes or time for consequences?
I write this letter to you in the year you were born 2012.
This is the year which has shown the true extent of problems which face us all. The real problems and utter suffering caused to the average person in the street brought upon by the 2008 financial failure is only just beginning to bite. Unbelievably, still no one has been called to account or faced justice for this yet....
Full Letter...

Can't say I agree with all of it (as a 4x4 driver) but powerful sobering stuff..

My mum and sister (both horsey people) have gone down to see the Equestrian stuff and had no problems getting tickets. Prob more of a niche sport and not that mainstream popular, but with the success the 4 legged trotting community are having, I've no doubt they are having a ball

Awww we don't hate you

So how long before the term SEO gets dropped completely and is replaced with SEM I reckon we will still need a good supply of sacrificial goats though....

Google released 2 stage authentication some time ago, but many people seem suspicious or don't appreciate the risk of not using it.

The reality is now most people will use google tools in some shape or form, from webmaster tools to google analytics, or monetize with adsense or promote with adwords.

Whatever you use, no doubt they are all using the same google account.. so protect it!

2 stage authentication involves logging in as normal with your username and password, but also entering a pin which you will receive via sms. So if your password becomes compromised, then unless they also have your phone, you are safe!

Its not the hassle it sounds, as it will remember your pin for 30 days on your machine (or apparently longer now for trusted computers) but any new device, it will automatically request a pin.

I set it up ages ago, and its painless. After getting my hotmail account hacked twice, it was only a matter of time before my gmail account got knobbled, and business wise, it's become critical.

To switch it on go to this google post:
Setup - Accounts Help

To hear more about it, as well as myths debunked, see this blog post from Matt Cutts:
Please turn on two-factor authentication

Unless Google suddenly loses world wide search engine dominance, then it's inevitable that Google Plus local will work in some shape or form. But I think its current inception is clunky, messy and duplicated with business pages and now the absorbed former places pages.

Once the big brands start marketing it for Google, then no doubt the rest of us will plod along after them, but I hope they rethink the current layout and make it more logical.

Maybe recruit Mark Zuckerberg to give it all a makeover