Posted by Chris on April 13, 2010
Too often I’ve seen people get a bee in their bonnet about a product or website they want to promote and just head off and start spending thousands on developing the idea. Once they start marketing their product or idea online, they soon realise there was is no market for the product. The end result is time and money down the drain.
There is an easy way for you to test your product or idea without having to waste months and spend a lot of money first. By making use of Google Adwords you will be able to quickly see if there is:
- A market for your product
- What keywords are getting people to your site
If you’re going to start a website, you’ve no doubt started by researching keywords and what type of search volume these keywords have each month. Remember that keyword tools do come with their flaws. I have a website that is ranked at the number 1 spot for a keyword phrase that is supposed to get about 2,800,000 searches a month, yet I only get about 400 visitors a day to my website. That is a click through rate of 0.004%. Fortunately for me I didn’t build a big website and spend lots of time with the hope of getting at least 0.5% click through rate, because I would’ve been very disappointed.
I could’ve spent some time with a Google Adwords campaign and easily saw that the 2,800,000 searches a month is definitely not right. The campaign would show me how many times my ad was displayed for someone searching for the keyword and then how many people clicked on my advert.
For a few minutes of work, I would be able to get a very accurate idea of what the market is like for this specific product. I could then make the call about whether to proceed with the website (if it was getting a lot of traffic) or to just can it (if I wasn’t getting nearly enough traffic).
The other important thing that I would’ve been able to determine is what keywords brings the most visitors to my website. This can help with further research for which keywords the website needs to be optimized for.
Posted by Chris on April 12, 2010
It’s official, from now on the speed of your site will affect your search engine rankings in Google.
What does this mean?
Simple actually. Just like Google takes into consideration your meta tags, page content, websites who link to you and many more factors to determine how well you are ranked in their search engine index, it will now also look at how fast your website loads.
According to studies they’ve done, the speed of your site affects the users of your site either in a bad way (when it’s slow) or in a good way (when it’s nice and fast). Further to this, they’ve also determined that a faster website actually brings down operating costs for the website.
There are various tools to test how fast your website loads, of which I developed a simple one at Web Speed Test.
Does it really matter that much?
In terms of ranking in Google’s Search Index, I don’t think it really matters that much. If you read their official post you’ll see that they mention it will only count a small part towards your ranking. Where it does matter though, is in the experience your users have when they use your site.
How can I speed up my website?
It doesn’t mean that you need to go out and spend a lot of money for better hosting. In most cases a few small changes to your website can improve the speed of the website considerably, without really costing you much.
Things to try:
- Use smaller (as in file size) images
- If you’re using any scripting language, such as PHP, make sure the code has been well written to make use of as little memory as possible
- Make use of CDN (Content Delivery Networks) to host your big files
- Check if your web server software can provide a caching option, and enable it
- Optimize your website for a specific task if it only serves one purpose
- Contact CM Computer Services for a free consulation or reach me on Skype Chris Meistre
Read the official announcement
Posted by Chris on March 25, 2010
FNB released a FAQ list for Paypal SA users. I’m just highlighting a few that were important for me:
What is Paypal?
Paypal is a payment system used throughout the world. It is used to either pay for items or services or receive payment for items and services. It makes a transaction saver because it puts a system between you and your credit card.
You use your credit card, or any other bank account, to Topup your Paypal account. Using this credit you can then purchase items over the Internet without anyone ever knowing your credit card details. You can then also use Paypal’s Resolution Centre to dispute any items or receive refunds if you do not receive the items as advertised.
By using it as a Merchant, you can accept payment into your Paypal account from your clients, and then Withdraw the funds at a later stage.
FNB has a Topup and Withdraw service that is available within their Online Banking
This allowed you to either Topup your Paypal SA account from one of your FNB accounts, or Withdraw money from your Paypal SA account to one of your FNB accounts.
NOTE that it is ONLY available through FNB Online Banking.
How to you link FNB accounts to Paypal?
First off, you need a cheque, savings or transmissions account with FNB.
You also need to be registered with FNB’s Online Banking service.
Before you can link your accounts to your Paypal account, you obviously need a Paypal SA account.
Once you log into your Online Banking, you’ll see there is a link on your left hand side for Paypal under Accounts. Click this and just simply follow the prompts.
Business and/or Personal
You can use Paypal SA for either your business and/or personal use.
FNB Bank Charges
Besides your normal monthly charges on your account, FNB will also take 1.5% of the value you Topup or Withdraw. According to their website, this is calculated on the Rand equivalent of the transaction.
FNB has a Terms and Condition Document that all Paypal SA transactions must adhere to.
Complete FNB FAQ List
The complete FNB Paypal SA FAQ List
Posted by Chris on March 25, 2010
For a long time we in South Africa have struggled to get ways for people from all over the world to pay us for our products or services we sell online. I do a lot of freelance software development for people outside of South Africa, and there has always been the problem of getting paid. Not because they didn’t want to pay, but because getting money into my account has always been so damn difficult.
The most popular and safest payment system in the world is Paypal. South Africans could always register a Paypal account, link their credit card to it, and then purchase items with it. However, you could not receive money to your Paypal account.
Most of the time it was just easier handling the project through RentACoder, but that meant paying them a commission on the money I received. There have been times when I couldn’t sign up for certain affiliate systems because they only supported Paypal.
A couple of weeks ago I read about FNB deciding to launch Paypal SA. I have been waiting in anticipation. Today, Paypal SA was finally launched. A few minutes after it being official, I logged into my FNB account and linked my account to Paypal. Within a few minutes my Paypal SA account was up and running.
Now I just need people to pay money into my account 
A few things worry me about this Paypal SA & FNB situation we find ourselves in. As with Eskom, Telkom, and various other monopolies we’ve seen in South Africa, having FNB with a monopoly of Paypal SA at this point in time can only lead to problems. Already FNB is running a campaign to get people to switch over to them by using this form. I have nothing against FNB, because for the most time I’ve had good service over the last 11 years, but it does make you wonder.
The official FNB Paypal Announcement
Posted by Chris on March 1, 2010
I don’t check the stats of this website very often, but when I do there is usually something that triggers me to laugh. It’s strange which search terms Google associates with my website and then drives people here.
The most visitors for a day this website has had was on 6 February 2010 at 3189 vists. This is strange to me because there were no new posts on that day. It outranks the next most popular day with over 500 visits.
The most popular operating system of visitors to this site is Windows XP at 64.55%!
The most popular web browser is Firefox 3 with 36.52%. Internet Explorer 6 is second with 23.2%.
Now here is where it gets funny. Strange keyword phrases people search for to reach this website:
As you can see, loads of porn searches reaching me. Must be related to Lexis Nexis Porn and Self Improvement is Masturbation posts 