Tuesday, February 20, 2007

New Directory!

As we should all know by now, the success or not of our efforts on the web depends upon how well we can get our results read by the search engines. Get a decent result, high on the listings, and you can make money. Even if money isn't the aim, visibility still matters, otherwise why are we bothering to do this?

In order to gain that visibility some form of marketing is necessary and the old methods really have been tried to death. Which is why this new directory looks so interesting. Based upon Wordpress software they've been very clever in turning the advantages of blogging software into a benefit to a directory. In effect, a Wordpress Directory.

For example, blogging software includes automatic (or semi- at least) pings, which are what tell the search engines that there's new content for them to spider. The traditional directories don't so this, they are simply static and don't tell anyone at all when the underlying sites have changed.

It looks like a very interesting approach and at a mere $3 per entry into the directory I have a feeling that they will be flooded with applications. Might be worth getting your's in now.

Monday, February 05, 2007

.EU domains

Those companies that have one think they're lovely, yet a majority of companies don't know what they are.

A large majority of British businesses with a .eu domain name believe it to be an effective business tool in a recent survey, while a separate survey found that half of UK businesses do not even know what the .eu domain stands for.

The surveys were both carried out by domain registration and hosting company 1&1 Internet, and found that business sentiment for .eu addresses across Europe was surprisingly positive.

...

The research, though, suggests that the businesses which have adopted European addresses have found it a useful experience. It found that 68 per cent of UK businesses which use a .eu domain thought it was effective, while half of users said that the domain enhanced their business's image. Around 43 per cent said it increased accessibility to vital European markets.

French companies were the most enthusiastic about the addresses, with 88 per cent of them willing to recommend using an address, 75 per cent believing them to be effective and 72 per cent saying that it enhanced their image.

Not surprising that the French companies love them. Have you heard about the bureaucratic hassle you have to go through to get a .FR?

 

Technorati tags: ,