New Zealand domain name survey

The New Zealand Domain Name Commission recently surveyed online participants about their domain name knowledge. Here's some interesting results:
- 67% of participants prefer to use .NZ for a website over .com
- trademe.co.nz is New Zealand's top domain name for awareness.
- 10% of participants who already own or manage a domain name don't know what a domain name is.
- 52% of participants would prefer to drop domain.co.nz for something smaller like domain.nz

What do you think about a new extension like .KIWI?
- 14% of participants who do not own or manage a domain name would prefer to use .KIWI over .NZ or .COM

Read the full Colmar Brunton survey results at the DNC website at http://dnc.org.nz/content/Survey_results_2011.pdf

The Readability Test Tool

Writing good copy which is easy to read is an important part of connecting with prospective customers.

I came across this great website that provides a quick and easy way to test the readability of your website, proposal, brochure or other written material. It is the most flexible readability software for assessing readability formulas.

Go to www.read-able.com.

My website has the following result: "Has an average grade level of about 8. It should be easily understood by 13 to 14 year olds".

That's encouraging.

Pure SEO offers the best in search engine ranking

When Richard Conway arrived in Auckland to start a new life he asked us to develop a website for his new website search engine optimization business Pure SEO. With many years experience in this field in the UK, he was hoping to help Kiwis improve their search engine rankings.

When Creative Embroidery asked if I could help improve their search engine ranking, I put the 2 parties together and the rest is history.

The NZ Herald recently ran an article on Richard’s company and it makes interesting reading. Go to www.nzherald.co.nz.

Your Trade Me listings on your website

In September 2010 the first edition of the Trade Me API was released.

API is short for “application programming interface” and, in a nutshell, it’s a language and message format that will let a program or application that someone has built talk to information sitting in Trade Me’s database.

We have developed a PHP program that reads an XML file of all the Trade Me listings for Gelaskins and displays them on their website.

Check this out at http://www.gelaskins.co.nz/.

Click on each image to be taken to the Trade Me listing.

Bizlinks is 10 years old

Who would have thought when I started Bizlinks in April 2001 that the company would survive 10 years on.

I would like to thank all those early customers who had faith in what I was doing and especially those customers who are still with me today. I must be doing something right.

Bizlinks will continue to work at it's core business - creating affordable websites using tried and true software while offering a personalised service.

Ferrari Car Collection for sale website goes viral

We are delighted to have developed a website advertising over 34 cars totalling $NZ15,000,000 that has been the subject of much forum chatter and speculation.

An Asian car collector is selling a number of Ferraris (25), Lamborghinis (3), Porsches (2) and other cars. With this huge collection of some rare and exotic vehicles all owned by 1 person, the number of website visits has gone ballistic.

An advert in the NZ Herald on Saturday resulted in 627 visitors to the website. But during the week adverts were placed on Craig's List and as forum discussions took off, visitor numbers started to skyrocket to 1093 on the 10th November to an incredible 8301 on the 11th. Then 8903 on the 12th and 9422 on the 13th. But the 14th saw only 3517 - still an incredible number of hits. But on the 19th it hit an all time high of 16847.

We look forward to see if this momentum continues.

Check out the cars at http://www.ferraricollectionforsale.com/. An early Christmas present maybe?

And yes, the seller has a number of serious buyers.

Trade Me has launched a new category to allow businesses to advertise their services

The cost of listing your business on Trade Me (www.trademe.co.nz) is just $19 for 90 days. You can set this to stop after this period or automatically renew.

There is plenty of room for text plus they allow you a maximum of 20 photos.

Clients can leave their comments too.

To see the categories and to list your business, go to www.trademe.co.nz/Services/index.htm.

You will need to have an account set up with Trade Me first.

Maybe worth a trial run to see if you get any response. And since this is a new facility it will become more popular over time.

The Rugby World Cup and marketing rules

Businesses must be aware of the rules contained in the Major Events Management Act 2007 which restrict the use of unauthorised or ambush marketing relating to this event.

During the protection period from 11 September 2008 to 21 November 2011 you must not make a representation suggesting you, your business or your brand have an association with the RWC when you are not an official authorised sponsor. You will be presumed to have made an infringing representation if you use a major event emblem or word in your advertising unless you have authority to do so.

You must not use the RWC and IRB (International Rugby Board) logos and images of the cup.

You must not use words including:

• Rugby World Cup
• RWC
• RNZ 2011
• International Rugby Board
• Spirit of Rugby
• The World in Union
• Total Rugby
• Webb Ellis Cup
• World Cup 2011
• Rugby New Zealand 2011
• Rugby Football World Cup

and variations of these words.

If you would like to mention this event on your website, please contact me. One client has managed to word their RWC advert in accordance to RWC rulings and with their blessing. So it can be done.

Google Places

Google's Local Business Centre has been re-branded as Google Places with lots of nice features. If you market locally, as a majority of businesses do, then this is an important part of your marketing mix.

The map and business names appear in many Google search results directly after the AdWords listings but before the organic search listings.

Google provide statistics showing impressions and actions that viewers have taken. Sign up at www.google.com/local/add.

One interesting idea is that you can create coupons that visitors can print out and redeem. This maybe an incentive discount or extra service at no charge.

Create a website for mobile phones

Mobile web browsing is gaining popularity and acceptance thanks to the extensive proliferation of iPhones and other mobile appliances with surf-friendly interfaces. As a result it is becoming more and more important to offer a mobile-friendly alternative to your current website.

The mobile website must be very simple, images reduced to a minimum and load as quickly as possible.

One of the main issues is checking that the web visitor is using a mobile device and if so, redirecting them to the mobile version of the website. This task isn't easy and it took a lot of time to discover how it was done.

I created a web version at www.bizlinks.co.nz/mobile.

Contact me if you would like a mobile version of your website.