Further development and site function

Sometimes during the course of any project, you can feel the enthusiasm wain slightly. Not that I am any less enthusiastic, just that I have hit a brick wall. The (brilliant) developer is working on the site this week and has had some really amazing ideas on how to progress the site further. Coupled with the implementation of the new phone number system we will be a site to be reckoned with.

The phone number system will automatically convert phone numbers to a personalised 070 number. This is not a premium rate number, although it is more expensive than conventional numbers. Revenue generated will go towards running the website. Clearly these costs will be paid by the buyer as opposed to the seller. Business will be able to compensate the buyers as their over heads will be less and they can be more competitive. This is a win win situation.

It will also mean that we will be able to offer free business hosting as well as free personal classifieds and also entire shop listing for the foreseable future.

YapYapOK free classified offers all the great functionality of the most popular selling sites and more.

PS this is a bottle of Faberge Vodka. Just listed on YapYapOK

Information forums on YapYapOK

The forum is eating a vast amount of my time.  Clearly it is not worth tweeting an empty forum for too long as sooner or later despite the hugely gratifying hits, the browsers will get bored.  Now I am adding information to the forums in order to make it worth Yapping about.

We have a recipe forum.  I can do this ish.  My mother is a trained chef and has always kept up to date with techniques and ingredients, it rubs off.  Whilst they may not rank well in the mitchelin kitchen they are tasty and simple enough for most people to follow. 

Our gardening forum is looking well frankly empty.  My gardening knowledge amounts to planting seeds for herbs and some basic vegetable planting.  Care etc is not my forte.  If they grow, then great.  I can cope with minor infestations of some pests such as mealy bug.  Beyond that I am hopeless.  My mum on the other hand is an excellent gardener.  Not only does she successfully look after a complex array of bi annuals, perennials, herbs and vegetables.  She also has a qualification in horticulture and knows most plants by their Latin name.  Clearly for this forum to take off, it needs some input from her.

We have also started a forum on household tips.  This was inspired after my husband came in with half of his new white stone island jumper covered in black engine oil.  I have been washing clothes long enough to know that this needed more than a Dr Beckman or Stain Devil application.  Hopefully in time our new forum will be such a great source of useful information it will be used as a one stop shop with information flowing freely.

We are lucky to have secured a talented investment banker who will drop hints and tips on the stockmarket.  So watch this Investment forum,  he will be a constant presence on the site in case you are in need of his services!

Our hit rate is a little stagnant as it is difficult to spread myself so thinly.  Most of this will grow with time, but I want it all now.  So if your reading this and you are a budding chef, gardener, or if you like to review books, films or games, then register now, "knowledge is of no value unless you put it into practise"

Ultimately the forum is there for fun, interaction& information.  It will support the advertisers and the browsers who choose to utilise the YapYapOK free classified website

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I have started the YapYapOK Classified forums. The recipe forum was clearly worth tweeting about as the views were hugely gratifying and instant.

I have decided to start an informative forum with household hints as well as investment tips aimed at creating a knowledge base from those better informed. The forum will enable users to interact & ask questions from experts and novices from all over.

Apart from Investments, reviews and recipes, I have been asked to include household tips, gardening advice and a lost and found forum.

My job now requires some investigation into who to ask to input on the forum and see if I can access some key personnel. Should not be too hard with Blogger!

YapYapOK a new class of classifieds

The advantage of Forums on webbsites

Today I started a new forum group on YapYapOK classified site Since Yapping is what we do best. That is we Yap about the site on Social media. We Yap about ads placed. We even have a forum enabling advertisers to Yap about their own classified and link to it to encourage visitors to that advert.

So today we started a forum for fun. So far it includes jokes, riddles, rants and even a recipe thread. Forums are a great way to  instantly see how many visits your getting.   I added  a joke, I Tweeted the link and was instantly rewarded with hits.

Apart from selling,  Amazon provide valuable information to site visitors.  By providing a forum we aim to invite interaction and give visitors what they want.  Since I fancy myself as a bit of a whiz in the kitchen, and since cooking is so popular, I decided a recipe thread may provide a great resource for website browsers.  Please feel free to add your own informative thread or suggest a new one!

Meanwhile I am off to promote my new fun forum via Digg, Stumble, Bleetbox and Buzz!

Watch this space

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Yapping about YapYapOK

Today I started a new forum group on YapYapOK classified site Since Yapping is what we do best. That is, we Yap about the site on Social media. We Yap about ads placed. We even have a forum enabling advertisers to Yap about their own classified and link to it to encourage visitors to that advert.

So today we started a forum for fun. So far it includes jokes, riddles, rants and even a recipe thread. Forums are a great way to instantly see how many visits your getting. I added a joke, I Tweeted the link and was instantly rewarded with hits.

Now I am off to promote my new fun forum via Digg, Stumble, Bleetbox and Buzz!

Watch this space

Ads wanted!

Yesterday I posted that I was procrastinating on Facebook.  I was so busy with social media that I just kept putting off updating some key meta data content.  We have got a crazy amount of pages on the site and updating it will be a long process.The rewards are coming.  Not only, as I reported yesterday are the Alexa rankings up but... we have more ads.  Today I have been procrastinating on everything!  Oh I have redone some key meta data, & I have done most of my other social sites only in very slow motion!  Kind of between ironing and cooking.  I cooked prawn pakoras just to walk away from the computer.  We weren't even hungry!  Not bad seeing as I am in a constant battle of watching my weight.  Deep fried - but very few carbs!  Worse they are so morish that there have been constant visits to the kitchen to eat more.

I digress amongst our new ads are 2 bronzes from world reknown artist and sculture Tim Cotterill aka Frogman.  One is Blue Boy.  The other is Flipper

More ads means that I have more to Tweet.  More to Buzz, Bleet and Stumble thus increasing online exposure not only for the advert but also for the site.  This is full time!

However we need more ads.  If you have a house or houses, a flat, a car, a tv, games music or anything and you want your classified item, business or service Buzzed and Bleeted, Stumbled and Tweeted by YapYapOK then list now!  

Yapping is what we do best!

YapYapOK the nations newest Free classified

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Upwards in the Rankings

I have been increasingly frustrated in the sudden steady daily drops in my Alexa rankings. I have been working tirelessly with the meta data and social media. The developer assured me that many of her clients and herself were also experiencing problems. This has been going on for about 2 weeks
No sooner have we decided that we needed a meeting to discuss the possible changes in the Google algorythm then it all changed back again. I can report an upward movement in Alexa by 140000. Woop Woop!  As I speak we are up to 2399000.  This is a record!

I have been Twittering several times a day and discovered another cheat in getting followers!  TweetLarge.com.  This sends followers direct, I received over 100 yesterday.  Clearly this is a case of quantity over quality.  Having said that, the more followers you have the less Tweeting is necessary to get your click throughs.  I also think that you create a crowd following with a reasonable number of followers.  For a start people join you so that they can attract your followers to their Tweets.  Tomorrow I am going to try some unrelated quality Tweets with a link through to see if that helps with my following.  

Bleetbox has also featured heavily this week. I have Bleeted on a couple of occasions but not realised that I could also Digg and Stumble via Bleetbox. This creates greater interlinking for my web lines. Maybe this is why my Alexa ranks are growing!

YapYapOk free UK classifieds is firmly on the map!

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Website Project Management

My new role is keepimg me quite busy.  Bizarrely I had expected it to detract from my role in marketing our internal Free UK classified website.  What has actually happened is that it has made me tune in and refocus my own web marketing ideas

I am actually advising customers to utilise things that I  not doing.  That may sound as if I am particularly stupid, but it is a consequence of using the knowlegde that I have and then asking if we can push it further.  I am seeing that I can more or less dream up an idea using existing web tools to find that it IS possible to implement.

My developer ofcourse, is a genius and I am finding that it is not our ideas that are limited but resources.  I have had a very busy couple of days working on other peoples sites and getting myself familiar with actually talking to people again.  Its ironic how anti social it can be devoting your time to social media.  

Today I will devote some time to getting more Twitter followers, Tweet via bit.ly, My Space, Dig and Stumble upon.  Time allowing I may also Bleet.

If you have some time allowing, please become a fan on Facebook Yap Yap OK.  Better still check us out and place a free classified ad

So untill next time xx

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SEO on minimal resources!

I have been given more responsibilities.  This means one of 2 things, either I am succeeding in fulfilling my role to such an extent that I can work less on SEO and more on alternative product management, OR my role does not justify a full time position.  I favour the first!

I have inherited some new clients at the start of their web development as well as some very difficult existing ones.  It has been suggested that a fresh new approach to some tainted relations may help to create a healthier bond with our clients.  To facilitate this new arrangement, I have emailed all clients introducing myself and requesting settlement of accounts in order to move forward.  I cleverly ignored any outstanding issues and although each letter was tailored to the client,  I  also cleverly made it look standard, requesting monies on over due accounts where applicable.  I also suggested that these accounts may be subject to developmental delays.  This has meant that the client ( who we are all scared of) and who has not paid his bill  for many months will not have his request actioned untill he does so.  

Yes I know its a cop out,  but this one of our customers treats everyone with aggression and is prone to temper tantrums and threats.  I am hoping that by pointing out the new improved policy I can illustrate the benefits to the business which will enable a more efficient team working on his behalf.  Whew!  

So I digress.  Yap Yap OK is still my passion.  As an internal project I can commit (part time) to my online marketing campaign.  So in summary.  Yap Yap Ok is the only free Uk classifid site with 6 picture gallery, embed video and an interactive forum enabling the vendor to channel traffic to his ad.  We also have an easy editor which identifies you as the member who placed the ad allowing front end editing!

Join now to sell for free.  YapYapOK the UKs best free classified ad site

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Just a quickie

It has been a mad week. Our site is gaining in popularity. My Twittor followers are up, thankyou, my Facebook Followers are very slowly going in the right direction and the site now has some real advertisers on board.

I am back to square one with some of my meta data implementation having decided to use my new found knowledge, courtesy of Peter Kent the author of SEO for Dummies.

I have found some of the data analytics very absorbing. Of particular note is the keyword anaysis used by the customer to reach your site. One customer actually had "men seeking animal" as a search phrase. Even more bizarre then that he arrived at our site.

Not quite so mysterious really, considering that zoophilia is illegal ( in fact it is one offence which still carries the death penalty in the UK) and there must be very few, if any websites with the phrase "man seeking animal" actually in them.

We have in our personals, among others, "men seeking woman". In the pet section there are many keywords and phrases containing the word or meta data "animal".

When google failed to find a website with the exact phrase "men seeking animal" in the meta data, it simply looked for them contained within the confines of the website, simply put of course!

Anyway, since I am not in the business of misleading customers, I have decided not to add this obscure meta data to the website and proserve a modicom of decency for all our web visitors.

I hope you find that useful!

YapYapOK Free UK classified ads

Friends appeal

I have been Tweeting via bit ly and I am now emailing posturous to blog.  My post will be delivered to Linkedin, Blogger, Twitter, Facebook, and a couple of others whose names escape me.  From there I will get retweets and echo tweets.  RSS feeds will deliver news tweets to other sites and so the web spins!

Any one reading from the beginning will know how this cross linking helps to reinforce the data picked up by the bots and push you up the rankings.  I am very interested in rankings since 2 of my close friends run very viable established businesses online which are ranked poorly, but are there only means of marketing and the businesses are hugely successful.  Yap Yap Ok has only been live for a matter of weeks and we rank very much better.  Our main tools being Social Media.

Imagine how disturbed I was to learn that a couple with a "crap" (ok subjective) record had managed to beat the X Factor marketing machine by persuading people via Facebook alone to buy their subjectively crap record and be the UK number 1 for Christmas.  

Instantly I began searching the web for the names of these obviously powerful & influential couple.  Immediately I saw that whilst my mothers opinion of Rage against The Machine may not be that of general appeal, but also this was not some unheard of silly song produced by an unheard of couple in Acrington Stanley.

My Social experiment is doing well considering I have on PR company or record company working the scene.  I urgently want more Facebook fans & love to see that my blog gets read.  So if you reached this because of some recent Tweets, then please join up.

My 9 year old son would also like some fans to his new page of the Evian Baby swimming page

Unfortunately his friend started the one of babies on skates which lets face it is fantastic, but he has done well with friends and poor Henry only has 3 fans on his group!

So if your out there, your reading this, show some compassion, make this a yes day and make this my sons day!

.....OOh and mine.  Yap Yap OK Free UK classified ads

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The price of SEO

Professional SEO is so expensive. I have read books and paid for SEO expertise in the past with seemingly unmeasurable results.

Time is a big factor in search engine recognition. Any new meta data added via the experts is unlikely to yield instant results which begs the question "Does it work?"

Clearly the more meta data and keywords has to be better than none. But is this something that you need to pay a stranger to your business?

There are 6 key areas of SEO

1 Content

2 Keywords

3 Page Optimisation

4 Submissions

5  Links

6  Time

Clearly the first 2 are going to be understood by the business owner far more than any SEO expert. At one time there were many tricks used by experts to get the search engines to see them first. Now however writing reams of non sensical garbage will not only not work. It may also get you un-indexed. Therefore as long as you relate your keywords to your content with some ( but not too much) repetition then that will be far more valuable. Good information for your customers may mean that they index you as a good web source.

Page optimisation can be a little more complex as there are certain programs,features etc that search engines hate or can't read such as java, framed sites and pictures. I don't have the time to write a book but I can recommend one by Peter Kent from the Dummies series called wait for it SEO for Dummies!

Submissions is what it says it is and can be done manually with little pain to the major ones and you can allow organic recognition from the smaller ones. It depends on your resources!

Links. This can be misunderstood but both internal and external links are valuable. A sitemap is a very good internal link mechanism which search engines can see easily. External links attached to good keywords are also highly valuable. Click here is not a good keyword.

Anyone reading my blogs will know that I am a big user of social media and implement links across them all with links to various pages of my site. If you look on recent blogs, I rarely miss an opportunity to link UK FREE Classified to my home page! Click here (will take you to Facebook) but clearly does not tell Google et al anything!

Lastly, time, which we have no contrl over but having all the other key seo tools in place should reward you with higher rankings.

OK I have simplified this with a subject which is actually not that simple, not clearly understood but must be logical. After all we are talking about algorithyms which is just a posh word for mathamatical formula.  

Having read my book, done some good keyword anaysis, added some content and dabbled with social media, I am ready to implement some of my findings, as soon as my developer talks me through it.

In a moment of overwhelment ( it fits but I don't think its a word), I thought I would email a couple of SEO experts. It just so happens that my 10 week old site ranked better than theres, now I'm no expert but.....................

Posted via email from Yap Yap OK. Daily Blog of the UKs superior FREE classified site

The Price of SEO

Professional SEO is so expensive. I have read books and paid for SEO expertise in the past with seemingly unmeasurable results.

Time is a big factor in search engine recognition. Any new meta data added via the experts is unlikely to yield instant results which begs the question "Does it work?"

Clearly the more meta data and keywords has to be better than none. But is this something that you need to pay a stranger to your business?

There are 6 key areas of SEO

1 Content

2 Keywords

3 Page Optimisation

4 Submissions

5 Links

6 Time

Clearly the first 2 are going to be understood by the business owner far more than any SEO expert. At one time there were many tricks used by experts to get the search engines to see them first. Now however writing reams of non sensical garbage will not only not work. It may also get you un-indexed. Therefore as long as you relate your keywords to your content with some ( but not too much) repetition then that will be far more valuable. Good information for your customers may mean that they index you as a good web source.

Page optimisation can be a little more complex as there are certain programs,features etc that search engines hate or can't read such as java, framed sites and pictures. I don't have the time to write a book but I can recommend one by Peter Kent from the Dummies series called wait for it SEO for Dummies!

Submissions is what it says it is and can be done manually with little pain to the major ones and you can allow organic recognition from the smaller ones. It depends on your resources!

Links. This can be misunderstood but both internal and external links are valuable. A sitemap is a very good internal link mechanism which search engines can see easily. External links attached to good keywords are also highly valuable. Click here is not a good keyword.

Anyone reading my blogs will know that I am a big user of social media and implement links across them all with links to various pages of my site. If you look on recent blogs, I rarely miss an opportunity to link UK FREE Classified to my home page! Click here (will take you to Facebook) but clearly does not tell Google et al anything!

Lastly, time, which we have no contrl over but having all the other key seo tools in place should reward you with higher rankings.

OK I have simplified this with a subject which is actually not that simple, not clearly understood but must be logical. After all we are talking about algorithyms which is just a posh word for mathamatical formula.

Having read my book, done some good keyword anaysis, added some content and dabbled with social media, I am ready to implement some of my findings, as soon as my developer talks me through it.

In a moment of overwhelment ( it fits but I don't think its a word), I thought I would email a couple of SEO experts. It just so happens that my 10 week old site ranked better than theres, now I'm no expert but.....................

Does SEX sell?

Exciting things are happening and the website is attracting customers wishing to take advantage of the Yap Yap OK free classified listings.  

The last 4 adverts are listed on the frontpage which creates a perpetually changing home page which is good for rankings and of course visitor interest.  One of the last 4 ads however was a very grown up DVD.  

The picture on the home page is a little small since the dvd cover is made up of  small x rated images.  If you go in to the actual ad and concentrate your focus, you can just make out some of the pornographic images.   At first I was confused over the apparent mixed content untill I realised actor with the red hat was indeed an actress!

Paul from Leeds has 2 of these DVDs listed for the bargain price of £1.50 each with free p&p.  Check them out under dvds sub category adult dvds.

So I am off to have some fun with this and social media, lets prey I don't get banned from Twitter.  Meanwhile in the name of decency can some one list some more items to side line this from the home page please!

Untitled

I am not sure yet if it is a blessing or a curse but.....

All new classified items listed on Yap Yap Ok are listed on the front page as the newest items.  Today we have had a very grown up DVD with some very graphic images listed on the site.  Since the site is new, then adverts can be on the front page for a little while.  Clearly this is going to be something that I need to address and somehow have some reprograming of the site to disable all adult content from appearing on the home page of a family friendly website. Meanwhile I could have a little fun with it. So now we will have some fun with Twitter and lets see if sex really does sell!

Toodles

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Yap Yap OK 2010

I am preparing myself for the new year, some new responsibilities with work and some more SEO learning.

I have discovered that Social Media is a very powerful tool that with some dedication can massively increase your visibility and rankings.  However one person working the social network with limited knowledge is not enough to bring about the kind of rankings that we are after.

So with the new year comes some new knowledge with my new library on SEO.  The subject is dull enough to cure the most steadfast insomniac but fortunately it is not, as I had expected it to be, rocket science.

In many ways it is very logical and really relies on application and implementation of this new tool.  Not that I have done badly.  I have compared our rankings with some friends of mine who are either in senior management and another who owns his own marketing company.  The marketing company, established in 1989 are responsible for only blue chip companies, has an Alexa ranking of over 8 million and the other one, established 2 years, has an Alexa Ranking of over 5 million.  We launched in october and now have an Alexa ranking of 2.5 million.  We climbed from 23 million to 3.5 million in about 4 weeks purely with social media tools.  Getting below this however is proving difficult, hence the need to utilise some of the more traditional seo tools are to be enforced.

Today is Saurday & I have much to do if I am to enjoy the afternoon with my family.  In the spirit of self promotion and implementing some of my new SEO knowledge, login to the UKs new classified website.  Its free to advertise.  You can buy and sell 4x4s cars, houses, pets, cats, dogs, horses and all household items.  Advertise franchises, businesses FREE and even jobs.  You can even find love & friendship or other adult services.  Maybe you are looking for some alternative health products for a healthier, happier approach to 2010!

So if you need a clear out, sell of the old and have a richer start to the year register now!  Its fast, uploading is quick and easy and its the best looking Free UK classified ads with picture gallery and free optional embed video eg Life in Cold blood.

This is showcased using the BBC promo video on You tube. Simply copy the embed link into the easy Yap Yap OK editor.  No time?  Leave it out or add it later!

Happy New Year

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