The Energy Cost Calculator has now moved back to the JustLocal site.

For a while the Energy Cost Calculator which is a web app I wrote, has lived under its own domain. I've decided to cull domains that aren't paying for themselves and as a result the Energy Cost Calculator now lives on the JustLocal site.

You can find the Energy Cost Calculator at www.JustLocal.com.au/clients/energy-cost/.

The Energy Cost Calculator is a great too to help you save money on electricity. You can enter the wattage of an appliance, the number of hours a day you use the appliance, and using your current electricity supplier's rate, you can determine how much an appliance is costing you. This calculator has helped me reduce my energy usage to around half, which is quite a saving each year.

The second part of the calculator enables you to determine the payback period of replacing an older less energy efficient device with a new more efficient device. It isn't always obvious whether or not you'll save money by simply throwing out an older appliance and replacing it with a new appliance. Remember you have to buy the new appliance and sometimes that will cost much more than the energy used. In those cases it's best to wait until the appliance reaches its end-of-life and then replace it. A good example of how you can save money is an old TV and set-top box I was using. I worked out by buying a new LCD TV the TV would pay for itself over six years. It makes sense to then dispose of the old TV/set-top box and purchase the more efficient, and I have to say better spec'd TV.

An example of when it isn't worthwhile to replace an old appliance with a new one is when it is rarely used. For example we have a couple of lights which are rarely used, and then only for a few minutes at a time. For example in an storage area. The old light doesn't use much energy since it is rarely used. The new low energy light would never pay for itself in that situation.

The Energy Cost Calculator has enabled me to put a cost against each appliance and in doing so has enabled me to be better informed. Being better informed allows me to make better financial decisions with the use and purchase of appliances. I hope others find the calculator as useful as I have.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 for IT support.

Alert: Bunnings Giftcard/OralB Testpanel - You have received a giftcard/Wanted: Oral B Tests

This morning I received a number of Bunnings GiftCard and OralB Testpanel emails. The emails were sent to email addresses harvested from the internet, some of which aren't visible but embedded in code.

The emails are certainly scams and you should delete them.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 for IT support.

Alert: Google Adwords: Ads soon stopping - Money almost depleted.

I received this message this morning and thought is this a scam, or is it a legitimate message.

Here's the situation. I haven't used Google Adwords for advertising since 2013. All the campaigns were paused. The only advertising I did was as part of my testing and I didn't find Google Adwords worked for me. I spent more than the work I received. All campaigns were paused.

This morning I received this message and when I went into Google Adwords, there was a campaign that was running. I paused the campaign and again made sure all campaigns were paused.

I then checked my statement and I can see there's been no activity since the period 1/8/2013-31/8/2013 and there was closing balance of $0.00 Yet today there's activity.

This really doesn't make sense and is a concern. I'm always concerned there's a possibility of an error on Google's part and charges could be incurred. I've now deleted all campaigns and removed the expired credit card details. I still prefer to have access to the tools in Google Adwords as I find them useful, but if I find an issue, it will probably be best to delete the account. The real concern is I've seen others rack up quite substantial bills unexpectedly in other online services. That makes me wary of any online service where you provide a mechanism for them to receive payment.

If you get messages from Google Adwords you should check your account and make sure everything is as you expect it to be.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

As a small business, can you handle the comments you'll receive from the public on online forums?

The internet provides many open online forums and over time, the forums I've participated in and the sites where comments are enabled, I've noticed one thing. The comments can become quite vitriolic much more frequently than I see in our normal interactions in society. Just visit any media site and start reading the comments. The comments will generally start out fine but before long they will often become quite vitriolic.

In 2003-2006 in the open source forums I participated in, I noticed it was only a matter of time before people would leave as they end up being attacked by another. It just seems to be the way of open forums online.

The problem is as businesses we're now encouraged to be very public on social media and that creates an exposure that most of us may find hard to handle. Recently I decided to disable comments across all my public sites. Most comments are spam, the next group tend to be negative people having a go at you, and rarely, there's valuable feedback that can help others.

I found the following on the The Registrar site and thought it was worth sharing. In particular the final comment, "That's why you never read the comments, Ellen. Take it from us.".

As a business it is important to know whether or not you can handle the vitriol you'll receive from the general public on public online forums. Most people are decent, but there are a few who seem far more active on open forums that are quite vitriolic and can impact you or your business quite a bit. You need to think carefully whether or not such activity will benefit or harm your business.

I know one group I participate in, since there's such a large number of vocal vitriolic people, it actually makes me feel like the whole group consists of such people and I'd be hesitant to use any of the services from the group. One section of the group tarnishes the whole group. So even if you're a decent person, being part of such groups can affect your reputation and ability to gain business.

When participating in public online forums make sure you know the benefits and the costs to your business from your participation.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

Alert: Referral spam sites 4webmasters.org, webmonitizer.net, dailyrank.net, sitevaluation.org, success-seo.com

On the 22nd of June I wrote a post about the referral spam sites I was seeing in the stats. Referral spam is when you look at your stats and notice traffic coming from sites but there's really not actual visitor traffic coming from the sites. The sites have specifically targeted your site so you see their site and visit them. Being curious many people will check out the site they're seeing in their stats. They're using the stats to advertise their sites.

The sites in my stats today showing some traffic are: 4webmasters.org, webmonitizer.net, dailyrank.net, sitevaluation.org, success-seo.com.

If you see sites in your stats you're not sure of, keep in mind they may simply be spamming you. If sites are spamming you then I always suggest not using their services. Do you really want to give business to businesses using less honourable techniques to promote their businesses?

Sometimes curiosity will get to you. Not much you can do about that. Just be aware of why they are appearing in your stats.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

Alasdair Wilkins lost 45 kg in weight by walking.

The headline to a story I read was "How Alasdair Wilkins lost 45kg just by walking".

www.news.com.au/lifestyle/fitness/how-alasdair-wilkins-lost-45kg-just-by-walking/story-fnlsuulf-1227434091460

The problem with this type of article is it is very misleading to people and then people wonder why they can't lose weight.

Here's the problem. This article emphasises walking only and quotes "Basically, I just went to the gym and I walked. On a treadmill, uphill, at a brisk pace, for about an hour every day — and I do mean every day". It is only down further in the article there's a one line sentence "Alasdair wrote that he didn’t adjust his diet — just ate smaller portions." He didn't adjust his diet. Yes he did. He dieted as well. That is what eating smaller portions is.

Let's look at the maths behind what Alasdair Wilkins did. Alasdair initially weighed 285 pounds (129.5 kg). He walked for one hour per day for a year. That's 365 hours or 21,900 minutes. The Energy Exercise Calculator (www.justlocal.com.au/clients/dieting/exercise.php) enables us to calculate how much energy we use for particular exercises given a weight and the time taken. However since Alasdair's weight changes over time so does the energy used. To help us estimate we'll use his average weight for the period which is 129.5 kg less half of 45 kg giving us 107 kg. We now enter 107 kg, a time of 21,900 minutes, select fast walking (7 km/h) and that gives us energy usage of  768.895 kJ. If we divide this by 33,000 (the energy equivalent of 1 kg of fat) we get an expected weight loss of around 23 kg.

That's roughly half the weight that Alasdair lost. How was the remaining weight lost? It was those smaller portions. Half of the weight loss was from exercise and half from dieting, even though Alasdair didn't think he was dieting.

If Alasdair had simply continued to eat at his usual level, which was more than his body needed, there's a good chance he may not have lost any weight at all. Only when his energy intake comes below what his body requires would we expect to see a reduction in weight. At roughly 2,000 kJs per day for fast walking, it is very easy to counter the exercise with food or drinks.

Alasdair's story is a great story and I think it is inspiring. It shows if you increase your exercise and reduce your energy intake you can achieve a massive result. Keep in mind Alasdair did this seven days a week. You can't expect the same result doing it just 2 or 3 days a week.

I've tested losing weight by dieting alone (this worked very well), exercise alone (this didn't work), so my next test will be to diet and exercise using an approach similar to Alasdair's by doing one hour of walking per day, along with a 2,000 kJ reduction in energy intake. I'll share the results on my site www.WeightLossMaths.com.au. I provide links to all my weight-loss calculators on that page as well as on JustLocal.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

Alert: Incoming Fax. Incoming Fax Report and Internal Only

This morning I've received four emails with various email accounts with the subject "Incoming Fax". All have a zipped attachment, but the service I use to scan the attachments (which tests using up to 55 of the commonly used anti-virus programs),  shows none of the anti-virus programs most people use will detect any malware.

The body of the email contains something like the following.

*********************************************************
INCOMING FAX REPORT
*********************************************************

Date/Time: Mon, 6 Jul 2015 14:01:59 -0800
Speed: 4945bps
Connection time: 06:07
Pages: 4
Resolution: Normal
Remote ID: 868-776-6359
Line number: 7
DTMF/DID:
Description: Internal only

To download / view please download attached file

*********************************************************

These emails and their attachments are very suspicious and if they do contain malware, at this point people are generally not protected. You should delete them immediately.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 for IT support.

Update: This post has a published on time of 8:53 am. It's now 11:36 am and I've rechecked. Seven out of 55 anti-virus programs now identify the attachment as malware. The only popular anti-virus program to identify the malware now is McAfee. This isn't an endorsement of McAfee as the next malware may have a different order of the anti-virus software being updated. What is important to realise is we're now well into the normal morning for a typical office and the majority of users will not be protected. Their only defence is common sense. Do take care with emails. 

Catch Up Coffee has again moved out under its own domain (and now back to Mapz)

A while ago I created the Catch Up Coffee site to make it easier for myself and others to meet to catch up for a coffee, network and discuss business.

Over the years I'd found attending informal networking meetings like those run in conjunction with councils had no result. I even decided to join BNI as I thought a professional group may produce better results. Whilst I gave a lot of business to others, and received a lesser amount in return, after 8 months I'd made just $300 above costs and put in at least 5 hours a week. I've tried others networking groups in between, but really the cost at around $20-$25 each time adds up and gives very little return.

Now all us smaller businesses are in the same boat and we don't want to be wasting thousands of dollars a year networking. In addition going to networking groups that are all over Melbourne often means the likelihood of staying connect is quite remote.

Catch Up Coffee on the other hand is an approach where anyone can organise a group of local business people and the only cost need be a coffee. I like this approach and I find others like the approach as well. Now as to whether it generates any more business or not, the jury is still out on that one, but at least it's reduced the cost of connecting with others. I do know others who have attended the Catch Up Coffees I've organised have made connections and I've even referred a few people to those who attended.

A little while ago I decided to move Catch Up Coffee under the Mapz site. Google appears to give no value to domains that are redirected, so having the .com.au domain redirected is really a waste. I decided rather than let the domain go to waste that it would be better to use the domain and move the content out from under Mapz. In the end if really made no difference so I've decided to let the domain go and return to having the site under Mapz at www.mapz.com.au/catchupcoffee/.

As I attend cafes, if I find there's some reason the venue isn't suitable  for a network meeting, then I remove the cafe from the map. For example one I removed because it was far too noisy, another because it was too cramped, very difficult to find, and the parking might have been an issue. As I check out additional cafes in the list, or find other suitable cafes, I'll adjust the list.

I suggest to others don't wait for me to organise a Catch Up Coffee in your area. Just grab a contact you'd like to catch up with and then invite others. At worst you still get to catch up with one person, but equally, you may find others who would also like to connect.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.mapz.com.au/catchupcoffee/
Helping local businesses to connect.

Prices can vary quite a lot for a simply petrol siphon.

I purchased the following siphon the other day to drain some liquid from a fish tank. The irony is I wanted to buy it from Supercheap Auto previous Friday, but arrived one minute to 8pm after being at the shopping centre. Never thought they'd have different hours so decided to wait another day.

The price at Supercheap Auto was $6.99

I decided to check the internet over the weekend and found the same item at BCF for $4.99. When I was on the road I was near a BCF so dropped in. Next door was an Autobarn so decided to check the price there and found the price was $9.96. This isn't a plug for BCF as one of the items I'd noticed in Autobarn for $3.99 was $7.99 in BCF. But it does show quite a price variance from $4.99 to $9.96.

This really is also a reminder that just because a business has cheap in their name, doesn't make it so. You really do need to shop around. Although at the same time do keep in mind driving around costs money too and researching on the internet takes time. I was once at the local Bunnings store and they'd run out of the length of curtain wire I wanted and only had the more expensive longer length. I was about to go to the another Bunnings store but first decided to do a quick check of the fuel cost using my web app the Petrol Cost Calculator (www.petrolcostcalculator.com.au). I quickly realised the cost of petrol alone (let alone the wear and tear on the car) would have exceeded the extra cost of buying the longer length curtain wire, so I went back into the store and made the purchase. I found this was a very useful and enlightening lesson.

You really do have to shop around to make sure you're getting a good price, but you also need to keep in mind travel and time costs if you make a specific trip. I built JustLocal to make it easier for people to shop locally, but also with the belief that people shouldn't have to pay more to support local. Sometimes however it's important to not just look at the straight out price, but also consider any other costs you may incur from shopping around.

As a side note I found this particular siphon wasn't very good. The secondary tube is not much longer than the main tube and I believe this resulted in the siphon not working as it should. Quite frustrating really.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

Alert: Spam from Gerry Pencer, Priya and

We all receive spam every day.

This one from Gerry Pencer.

Hi onlineconnections.com.au Team,

 Hope you are doing well.

We went through your website onlineconnections.com.au and got to know few key points, which needs your attention on priority to transform your SEO efforts.

From Pencer Priya.

Hi,

Hope this email finds you well.

I am Priya Ray, SEO-Consultant.

I went through your website “www.onlineconnections.com.au”checked it for a few keywords on Google. Unfortunately, it was not ranking on any of those. It was not ranking on any of the search engines as per the keywords pertaining to your domain.

From .

Good morning,

I’m , a professional writer and best-selling author.

I am a regular Huffington Post contributor with one of my blogs generating 8.2k Facebook Likes and over 5k re-tweets on Twitter. I’ve also been published in The Age, The Business Woman Media, Rare Birds, Women in Focus, Blog Society and so on.

What I found particularly interesting pattern is how each of these used Hotmail or Gmail accounts to send their spam. You would think if they're promoting a business they'd use a business email address.

The best thing you can do with spam is hit the delete key. If a business is using spam to promote themselves that's not a business I'd want to to deal with. If you want to go the extra step report the spam to the email service provider. You'll find information on reporting spam on their sites.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

Google to reduce the amount of accidental clicks on ads.

When using the mobile phone I've clicked on a lot of ads over time. The problem is I've never once wanted to click on the ads on my mobile device. Perhaps you've done it too.

The problem for me it's an annoyance in terms of user experience, but the bigger problem I think is for the advertiser. Clicking on ads can cost them real money and if sites are placing ads where they're more easily accidentally clicked for the site to generate income, the ads probably aren't going to convert for the advertiser. If this article is correct, then up to 50% of ads are being clicked on accidentally and that's a huge cost to businesses for no return.

http://betanews.com/2015/06/27/google-will-eliminate-accidental-mobile-ad-clicks/

I do place ads on my pages for revenue generation, but only text ads which means the links need to be clicked meaning it is more difficult to accidentally click on an ad. Image based ads however mean you can click anywhere in the ad and that makes it much easier to click on an ad accidentally.

When visiting sites such as news sites I often see those ads that that pop up on the mobile taking up the full screen. Quite often I click on the small X in the corner to find I'm now thrown across to a page advertising something I never wanted to visit, which of course means quickly closing the page.

For businesses this is one more thing to think about when buying online ad space. So far I've not found paying for clicks to be worthwhile, but the mileage for others may be vary. I do place ads on my pages for revenue generation, but only text ads, which means the links need to be clicked making it more difficult to accidentally click on an ad. Image based ads however mean you can click anywhere in the ad making to accidentally click.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au
Single click access to local businesses.

Aldi car socket adaptor at an excellent price, but you can't tell what the mA rating is for the USB ports.

Over the years I've purchased a number of 12V USB adaptors thinking they were a great bargain. I soon came to realise some of those bargain USB adaptors may be a waste of money. The problem is for devices such as an iPhone, some of the adaptors can't deliver enough power and won't work.

When looking at the adaptors make sure you check the mA rating. There's 1,000 milliamps to an amp, so if you see the rating as 500mA that's 0.5 amps or half an amp.

The 12V USB adaptor I use has two ports one with 1A and the other with 2A and it works great.

The problem isn't that the good ones aren't inexpensive, the problem is often you're not aware of what is important so the companies sell you equipment which really isn't suitable to your needs.

If only Aldi provided a clear picture showing the rating it would be much easier to make a decision. At $4.99 if the rating is 1A I'd be very happy to buy one, or perhaps two of the units. I'm using 12V power now for more of my energy needs so these adaptors can come in handy.

With the 12V sockets, do be careful not to try to use too much power. I'm often reluctant to use some 12V devices in the car because one device (a scrolling LED sign) ended up damaging the electronics in the car and to get that fixed, wasn't a bill I was looking forward to. Luckily or unluckily, the car was in an accident and didn't need to be repaired. Make sure you understand the power limitations of your devices and your car's wiring.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.EnergyCostCalculator.com.au

UPDATE: 1 July 2015
The USB ports on this device are 1A and 2.1A. This is the power level of another adaptor I have which works well, so I was happy to purchase two of these from Aldi.

How Melburnians got to work on census day in 2011.

I find facts and figures to be very interesting and thought the figures on the mode of transport on how Melburnians got to work could be interesting for others.

http://profile.id.com.au/australia/travel-to-work?WebID=260

The first thing I thought was strange about the figures was the headline. Unless they're trying to market the idea that walking and riding a bike are somehow connected, it really doesn't make a great deal of sense to group them together. It is a good way to grab attention and make it appear that one of the groups is much larger than people think. I suspect many people read headlines and don't bother to check the underlying figures.

Now if it is about what's good for the environment, there's an even more interesting figure. The number of people working from home exceeded those who cycled or those who walked.

I shudder when I see all the roadworks and the huge cost focused on bike riders. Where there was once two lanes many of those have been reduced to one. So many roads now being strangled for car users. So many roads with two lanes have been reduced to one.

An interesting change that caught my eye is the percentage reduction in the number car passengers from 2006 to 2011. That's not a particularly good trend.

JustLocal is about making it easier to find people who work from home and really, there's no more efficient form of transport than not having to use transport at all. Whilst the number has increased, it is again not a good trend that percentage wise the change is less.

I hope others find the figures as interesting as I do.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

Qantas Movies discount vouchers

Just received an email from Qantas promoting their new Qantas Movies movie voucher offer. I get more advertising from Qantas now for products other than flights, so whilst I didn't see movie vouchers coming, it isn't unexpected. I decided to check out the offer.

From my quick review you need to purchase four tickets at a time. The cost is $12 per ticket. As far as discount tickets go this isn't a bad price, but with the requirement to purchase 4, you may be spending more money than you want. I'm not a fan of tying money up in this way as often discount movies tickets for us can sit in the draw for months. Sometimes we need to actually plan a movie night just so we use the tickets and that's not the best value. Effectively we've spent money we wouldn't have used in our normal activities and when that happens, it's not a bargain at all.

How does this compare with other offers? We currently get two discount tickets for $24.95 and Telstra seem to offer movies tickets for Village for $11. Sometimes we don't use the tickets because there's better offers on the day. For example on Sundays if I recall correctly, at Greensborough the price of a ticket is $9.95.

Overall much better than paying full price but keep in mind there's many places now you can buy discount tickets. Make sure you check the terms and conditions and in particular restrictions.

As a side not I found when I was buying discount tickets I'd buy based on my past buying habits and the brand I preferred. I put together a map of the cinemas and using the mobile version which shows the closest cinemas to me, I was quite surprised that four out of the five closest cinemas to me were Hoyts and not Village. I had more choice by buying a Hoyts. You can find the mobile map at www.mapz.com.au/nearestcinema/mobile/.

The other issue I've found if you do buy tickets to a particular cinema chain, or worse a specific cinema, that movies showing and the times for the movies you want to see may not suit you. Often we've had to decide on a movie based on when it was showing, even if that meant paying full price. A reason discount tickets can end up sitting in the draw longer than expected.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au 

Coles weekly specials can save you 50% with their half price specials.

Occasionally I decide to save a bit of money by checking out the Coles' weekly specials. The specials I'm interested in are the half price specials and more specifically, those that I could buy a small quantity that I could then store for future use. That way I'm not just saving money on one packet, but saving the money times the quantity. That type of saving can make it worthwhile when I'm close to a Coles store.

A couple of things I keep in mind. Don't buy what you won't normally use. What I'm doing is replacing our normal purchases with discounted purchases saving us money. Don't get tricked by specials as often items on special, even at half price, may still cost more than the regular item you purchase. A special can easily trick you. Don't buy too much. No point tying your money up for long periods of time as there's often another special down the track. Really be careful with those items that can tempt you like confectionary. Yes they're on special but would you normally buy them?

The good thing about specials is you can quickly check them online. The price of specials online is the same as they are in-store. I notice some stores allow you to order online and collect in-store, which may save some shopping time. If you can get free delivery (I don't know if that's available) then that may be an option, but do remember delivery fees can often make a large impact on your savings. I simply drop in if I have time when I'm near a Coles. A special trip in terms of time and travel cost can eat into any savings quite quickly.

Let's see how this works. Using the following link we can quickly get to the current Coles' catalogue.

www.coles.com.au/catalogues-and-specials/view-all-available-catalogues

All the half price items are well marked so they can be checked quickly. Sometimes there's nothing that catches my attention. Let's say however the 5 kg rice from this week's catalogue suits. The price is $6.80, a saving of $6.80. In our case two packets would be enough as that's a lot of rice for us. The saving would be $13.60. There's a couple of other items in the catalogue that we'd also be interested in so we could easily make a saving of $20-$30 for a small detour in our daily activities. Over a year that type of saving can really add up.

It really is a good feeling when you save $20-$30 for a few minutes of effort and see that saving on the receipt. The main things to keep in mind is to minimise the time involved and only buy what you need and what you'd normally use. The majors are excellent markets and you can easily get seduced into buying more expensive products, products you don't need, or products just to spoil yourself, and that could mean at worst case, your spend more than you normally would. Bargain hunters are known to spend more money than other consumers so yes whilst things may be cheap, you don't want to end up spending more.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

Alert: Receiving spam about the TrackR and TrackR Bravo device.

I received a couple of spam emails today promoting the TrackR device. The emails strangely enough were sent from France, yet the address on the emails was Santa Barbara California in America.

My approach is if businesses spam to get attention then it's best to disregard the company's products. If they're not prepared to use ethical marketing practices then what else will they be prepared to do or not do. Certainly not worth the risk.

The best thing to do with spam emails is to hit the delete key.

Kelvin Eldridge

The sharing economy, Uber, AirBnB, now looks to be joined by Ford.

When I read about the sharing economy I tend to shudder. Whilst I think there are some great opportunities, the real problem is there's a lot of media coverage, but in most pro type articles it's all about spreading the word. The general public starts thinking of this sharing stuff is OK. It must be because the media tells me so.

The reality is far from it. If you're thinking about participating or using any of these services, you really need to check out your rights and obligations. When you get into a UberX vehicle in Australia the driver is often not obeying the law and that means you probably don't know where you stand if there's a problem. That AirBnB property you're about to stay in. Are they breaking the law? What's the insurance cover? Is there any? I honestly don't know and I suspect most people won't as well. Even my own home insurance policy has a clause it doesn't cover workmanship and who doesn't do some work around the home.

Ford have just announced trials of car sharing and you'd expect Ford will have covered all the issues, won't they?

http://www.cnet.com/news/ford-rents-out-your-ride-in-new-peer-to-peer-car-rental-scheme/

Legal and insurance issues really are major issues. As an example Telsla appears to be handling the issue of autonomous cars by making them semi-autonomous.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/tesla-electric-cars-soon-to-sport-autopilot-functions-such-as-passing-other-vehicles-1431532720

So when you're thinking about the sharing economy make sure you look after your own interests. Whether you're a provider or a user of the services the only person who will look after you, is you. The large companies need to look after themselves first and foremost and their interests may not always be the same as yours.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

Are you paying more buying on the internet instead of buying from a local store? Here's an example for Marc Newson unbreakable drinkware.

I found this rather interesting. I popped into Facebook this morning (not a regular user of Facebook) because I wanted to check an old message from last year. At the right I noticed this ad.

I'd been searching for an unbreakable tumbler and I'd previously found the local David Jones in Doncaster stocked this item for $8.95. Wow I thought, $39.80 that's quite a difference, but let's see what it's for. It turned out the $39.80 was for four tumblers, which is $9.95 per tumbler. Delivery is free. Shipping is 3-7 days but the site has no contact details should there be an issue.

The requirement was for one tumbler, or perhaps two if they were difficult to get. Buying online via this ad would have ended up costing more and getting more tumblers than required.

Interestingly all the leg work had been done and the product found at David Jones. The Facebook ad piggy backed on my previous search effort using a technique known as remarketing. That's when ads follow you on the internet and you keep seeing the ads. In this case the ad was for a competitor to David Jones. If you're not aware of the advertising techniques used on the internet, you may end up being "remarketed" to and end up paying more than you need. Make sure if you click on the ads you then do further research.

For those interested, the online search time to find a suitable tumbler was quite a while. Yes I didn't have to leave the comfort of my chair, but it did get frustrating as finding a suitable product online wasn't as easy as expected. A trip to the local shopping centre provided three options quite quickly with prices of $2, $6 and the $8.95 product mentioned.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

SEO Company Melbourne test by reverting to a previous version of the main page.

I thought I'd share this test without first knowing the outcome. With the SEO Company Melbourne site I continue to make changes and test the outcome. Recently I changed the main page of the www.SEO-Company-Melbourne.com.au site, but unfortunately for a search for "SEO Company Melbourne", the page went from position 8-10 to position 18. I suggest to others that if they make a change and the change has a negative impact in Google ranking, they should consider reverting to the previous version.

Now of course the problem may not be the page at all. Google may have decided to change the importance of external factors, so really it is just a matter of test and see. The SEO Company Melbourne site is a test site so changes have no real business impact. As always you should consider the overall effect on your business of any changes.

Tests like this usually take around one to two weeks. Once the result is known I'm happy to share the result with clients.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 for IT support.

Alert: Referral spam sites best-seo-offer.com, 100dollars-seo.com, buttons-for-your-website.com, semaltmedia.com.

You're checking your logs and you notice some traffic hitting your site which pleases you. It's great to see someone referring to your site. You decide to check out the source of the referrals out of curiosity. Yep. You've just fallen for referral spam.

Sites such as best-seo-offer.com, 100dollars-seo.com, buttons-for-your-website.com and semaltmedia.com now appear in the analytics for a number of my sites and they don't excite me at all. They're simply referral spam designed to promote the sites. Whilst I'm not exactly sure of the mechanism used, I suspect it's simply a robot reaching my sites. No real value at all and designed to trick me and other webmasters. Hopefully the likes of Google and other search engines are onto them (I'm sure they are) and don't credit the sites with activity from this less than desirable activity.

If you see any of these sites just ignore them. You can filter them in your analytics but that doesn't mean the sites are gone, just not seen. I've read you can use the .htaccess file on your site to block or redirect the requests, but it's hard to say if it's worth the effort.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 for IT support.