* How Strong Is Your Website? *

Posted on May 17, 2017 by traveljunkies

This is Website Grader’s analysis of traveljunkies.com

How strong is your website?

Your website is the window to your business and like everything, first impressions count. Without a website, you don’t exist, and it’s the same if nobody can find your site.

But it’s more than that.

We help by sending traffic to your website using your free advert, but it’s your website that actually does your selling, and your success is down to three main factors.

1. Performance.

An optimized website’s is crucial to its performance, increasing traffic, improving conversion rates, generating more leads, and increasing revenue.

Page Size. The heavier the site page, the slower it loads. For optimal performance, page sizes should be below 3MB
Page Requests. The more HTTP requests your website makes, the slower it becomes.
Page Speed. Webpages should load within 3 seconds. Any slower and visitors will abandon your site, reducing conversions and sales.

2. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Your website must be easy for users to discover—and easy for search bots to understand—with better page titles, headings, and descriptions.

This might sound technical but can be broken down into four simple parts.

Page Titles. Page titles should be no longer than 70 characters in length and not repeat keywords.
Heading tags distinguish headings from core page content.
Meta Descriptions. Meta descriptions should be no longer than 155 characters in length and should be relevant to the page.
Site Map. Site maps help users navigate your site quickly and easily.

3. Mobile

In today’s world this is the most important factor.

Various reports give varying percentages of searches made by mobile devices but the simple fact is more than half of all searches are made on mobile devices and growing fast.

For some time now Google penalises websites that aren’t optimised for mobile.

What Does Website Grader Do?

Hubspots Website Grader analyses your website and gives you an overall score out of 100, plus individual scores for each of the above factors plus a score for Security.

It makes recommendations on what to do next to increase your sites ratings and improve your website’s performance.

It’s completely free, takes just a few minutes and doesn’t require you to enter your email address or any personal information.

Go to http://websitegrader.com and enter your website URL and in a few minutes your results will be displayed on the screen.

What you decide to do next is entirely up to you and will obviously depend on the rating your site gets and the recommendations the report makes.

A side bonus is that you can enter any website URL even to see how your competitor’s sites are performing.

Please contact us and drop us a quick reply if you have found this useful.

Thank you

Cliff & Alison
Traveljunkies

PS. Get your website graded here

Please pass this on to any colleagues, friends or even competitors.

* Who are Bamboo? *

Posted on May 13, 2017 by traveljunkies

ABOUT US

Bamboo was built on a cornerstone of a combined experience of almost 40 years in international travel and global volunteering. The three co–founders; Colin, Steve and Mark, each share the same visions and agree it’s essential that travel in developing countries must be giving–back to the communities that it visits. This, combined with having the most fun possible, is the priority of all Bamboo’s tours. Each tour is designed around the positive impact that creates, the legacy that it leaves behind and the way that travelers and communities work together. This is as much about a cultural experience as it is a holiday.

The history of Bamboo is as interesting as the tours that we now operate. Colin is the real trailblazer having launched Global Volunteer Network almost 15 years ago. GVN, as they were known, was the first of its kind, paving the way for other volunteer travel companies to follow suit.

Mark and Steve met in 2009 whilst working for a small volunteer–travel company. They quickly became friends and realized that the only way to ensure that what they had their name on was operating honestly and with the very best of intentions was to do it themselves. They took a huge leap of faith and launched the now world–famous, Bamboo Project.

GVN and The Bamboo Projects worlds’ collided in 2015 when the three founders met up in Thailand. It wasn’t long in to that first meeting they realized that by working together, with the principles on which Bamboo is founded, they could effectively begin to change the face of international travel. Bamboo was born.

GVN is one of the oldest and most well–respected volunteer placement organizations on the planet. They became and held that position to become a trusted brand because of the commitment they have shown to their volunteers and their projects. The Bamboo Project reached incredible heights in a very short space of time due to being different, being fun and taking every step with a huge smile on its face. This was recognized in 2015, after operating for just 16 months, when they were awarded the much coveted ‘Worlds Best Volunteer–Tour’ by Tour Radar!

Over the last 15 years, GVN and The Bamboo Project have placed 26,769 volunteers on projects around the world and opened the eyes of international travelers to new cultures and customs globally. They’ve raised almost $2.5 million in project donations and have generated tens of thousands of volunteer hours for needy and worthwhile projects.

Since GVN and The Bamboo Project have joined forces the effect has been incredible. As one, in the first six months, they’ve signed up over 3,000 new and returning volunteers and travelers. In the first full year, they will have signed up over 5,000 new volunteers!

* Forgot Your Password? *

Posted on May 1, 2017 by traveljunkies

Do you want an easy way to remember your passwords?

Our second tip is a tool we use to manage our passwords.

How frustrating when you need to access a website or use a service you’ve signed up to only to find the password you thought was correct isn’t the right one. This frequently happens when you need to do smething quickly and time is a constraint.
And even more infuriating when you’ve tried a few other passwords and access is then locked.

Well all this can be a thing of the past due to a great service called Dashlane.

Once set up you only have to remember your Dashlane password and the rest is simple.

Click here to go to Dashlane and download the free version. Once you start using it you’ll wonder how you managed without it.

Cliff & Alison
www.traveljunkies.com
If nobody knows about you, how do you get new customers?
If you want a quiet life – don’t advertise.

#Tips #Password

* Is Your Website Down? – How Do You Know? *

Posted on April 20, 2017 by traveljunkies

Do you know when visitors to your website or blog see this?

—————————————————
404 Error: File Not Found
The URL you requested was not found
—————————————————

You have invested time and money in your website and it must work for you.

But what if it isn’t there?
What if nobody can find it?
And how do you know when it’s down?

When our previous website stopped delivering the traffic we expected we carried out a lot of tests to discover why and it was only when we installed Uptime Robot we found the hosting server kept dropping out, sometimes for hours at a time, due to testing they were doing which had nothing to do with us.

Uptime Robot pinged our website every few minutes and sent us an email whenever our site went down and another email when it came back up so we knew how often and for how long our site was down.

Your hosting company isn’t likely to tell you they’re not providing the service you expect, and pay for, so getting an alert when your website is down is very much in your own interest so you can do something about it.

The sad truth is that if visitors see your website is down, they most likely won’t visit you again, and worse, may well spread the word your site was down when they visited.

We highly recommend installing Uptime Robot – and it’s free.

It takes just a few minutes to set up and immediately gives you the comfort of knowing how reliable your website is.

Cliff & Alison
Traveljunkies

PS. We installed our new Traveljunkies website in January using a different host and Uptime Robot is now showing 100% availability.

* Too Much Information *

Posted on April 16, 2017 by traveljunkies

TOO MUCH INFORMATION ON THE INTERNET

So much information

We know the Internet is full of information that could help small businesses if only we had the time to look for it.
But many of us we have our business to run.

Over the next few weeks we’ll post tips we’ve used which could help you.
They’re quick and easy to use and they are free.

So please keep watching

Cliff & Alison
www.traveljunkies.com
If nobody knows about you, how do you get new customers?
If you want a quiet life – don’t advertise.

———————————————————————————

* Lifestyle *

Posted on February 28, 2017 by traveljunkies

Travel and work anywhere in the world.

Don’t tie yourself down doing a job you hate. Free yourself to travel and work anywhere in the world you choose.

Let’s face it … you hear this all the time

A few months ago some guy was living in his car and now he’s driving around in a limousine and living in a mansion. And all because he’s discovered a new way of making money nobody’s thought of before, and he wants to share it with you.

Yeah, right!

But now and again, someone comes along who really is making a life changing income and showing others how to do the same thing. They are totally different to other people out there on the Internet.

Check out Andrew Reynolds here, he’s the man I’m talking about

Andrew Reynolds is not your typical rags to riches story. The fact is he had a decent job before he started making millions online every year…

The only problem was he hated his job, and maybe you do too?

He hated the commute every day, stuck in traffic every morning and evening.
Working himself to the bone.
Barely making enough to get by

Do you recognise this or perhaps your circumstances are different. Maybe you haven’t got a job, or it doesn’t pay enough or you just want a change.

Andrew decided to take action and create a different life for himself, and you can do the same.

Now he has a thriving home business that practically runs on autopilot from his laptop and if this sounds good to you …

Go here now to see how he did it and check out what he is giving away for free.

It can be absolutely life changing

Cliff Chapman
Traveljunkies

PS: Check out what Andrew is giving away for free in this short video

Please Note – this offer is only available in UK.

———————————————————————————————–

* How To Get Found On The Internet *

Posted on January 30, 2017 by traveljunkies

Getting found on the Internet is often a matter of luck that someone happens to search for a word you have on your site that few others use.

It’s a fact that the more popular relevant words are used by most sites and those with the deepest pockets dominate.

And the same applies to advertising.

So how do small business owners compete? How do you get found on the Internet?

We have owned the domain traveljunkies.com since 2002 which is why a Google search for traveljunkies or travel junkies produces a quarter of a million results and we are at the top of page 1. And the same applies for searches on Bing, Yahoo and even the top Chinese site Baidu.com.

When we advertise we use this tactic to get more people interested.

Imagine Being Found Even When People Aren’t Looking For You

For Example: If you run a hostel, B&B or Hotel and there are activities in your area, your advert could look something like this.

Friendly quality hostel accommodation, 10 mins beach, 20 mins city centre, dorm, single and double rooms, pool, transport, full facilities, great value hostel. Prices from $20 per night. Water Sports and many other Outdoor Activities can be arranged nearby Tel: xxxxxxxxxx

ooo

It’s all about using the keywords people search for.

Adding a short sentence in your advert (see Italics) that has some connection to your business, greatly increases the range of your advert at no extra cost.

Just make sure it’s relevant for the people making the search.

You don’t want to be a spammer.

And finally – don’t advertise where you are just listed with everybody else.
Advertise where a search will find all your key words in your advert.

Please note – Premium Adverts in Traveljunkies are suspended due to Coronavirus

——————————————————————————————–

Family Holidays in Sydney on a Budget.

Posted on January 14, 2017 by traveljunkies

We’ve just come across this great article about holidaying around the Sydney area.

We all know how expensive it can be visiting Sydney but it doesn’t have to be and one of the many ways to spend a family holiday is camping. There are many holiday parks in Sydney and this article gives the lowdown on 21 sites in and around the city.

http://www.webuycaravans.com.au/campgrounds-caravan-parks-sydney/

Enjoy your holiday visiting this fabulous city.

Cliff

What Do Your Customers Want?

Posted on January 6, 2017 by traveljunkies

Hey – we’ve done it.

After asking our clients and visitors what they would like, we launched our new website on 4 January 2017.

Take a look here and tell us what you think.

Thank you

Why Are We Changing?

To help small adventure and travel businesses in an industry dominated by big business.

Focus on what customers want in this fast growing mobile world.
Assure our visitors they are dealing with a reputable business that is a recognised authority in promoting adventure travel.
Promote ourselves for our customer’s benefit. We didn’t get to the top of page 1 in Google by hiding ourselves away.

Too often we hear about big businesses squeezing smaller businesses with their financial and advertising power.
No matter how much you spend on advertising, attending events, SEO etc. small businesses can’t compete with big businesses to get to the top of Google. So why try?

But there is a market where big businesses are missing out and it’s where you have an advantage.

A website is not the best place for someone using a mobile phone.
People on the move want things fast, and these are your target customers.
Big businesses can’t react like you can.

A question. What does someone want to do when they find you?

They want to contact you and because they have a phone in their hand they most likely want to call you
This is your opportunity.

Make contact, build trust
Tell them you’ve got what they want
Tell them the deal you can offer
Make the sale.

If they trust you and like you, they aren’t likely to go through the process again unneccessarily.
Big businesses can rarely do this.

Target your customers with a carefully worded advert
Include keywords to help search engines find you.
Give customers what they want and the easy way to get it.

If you need help to do that we have the skills and resources to help you. I’ll tell you more about how we can help you increase your business when we launch our new site in a few months.

One more question. Are big businesses putting the squeeze on your business?

This may be familiar because we’ve asked this question before.

We had an excellent reply from Nick Marshall who owns holiday homes in Cairns, Australia in which he explained the problems he has competing with bigger businesses with deeper pockets.

You can see Nick’s report here together with comments from other small business owners suffering the same problems.

We have taken notice of what Nick and others have said which convinced us to concentrate on promoting small businessess.
In fact, we will restrict adverts to small and medium size businesses although we won’t eliminate Booking Agencies because many small businesses rely on them.

So please take a few minutes to see what other small business owners have told us here. We think you will recognise similar problems and we’d very much like to hear your story.

Keep watching for more details when we launch our new website

Best wishes

Cliff Chapman
http://www.traveljunkies.com

I recently received this email from one of our clients with some very sad news.

Hello Cliff

The information is correct although we have sad news. Tyll’s Dive will close down begin may this year.

Our small business could just not survive and compete against new dive businesses with a good money back up.

As of now we have no one interested in buying the name and the permit owner of building is not interested in new tenents, which makes it difficult to sell the business as a whole package.

After we close down we will take a couple of weeks to relax and enjoy the island again, then most likely going back to Denmark for a while and find out what will happen from there and what options we have.

Thank you for your support over the years.

Dorte
Tyll’s Dive
Roatan

It’s A Visual World.

Posted on December 14, 2016 by traveljunkies

Why You Should Use Pinterest For Your Business

The brain processes pictures 60,000 times faster than it processes text.

FACT: The life of a Pinterest pin is 1600 times longer than a Facebook post.

FACT: The average Pinterest user spends 14.2 minutes every time they log in.

FACT: Pinterest was the fastest growing social network in 2014, growing by a whopping 97 percent!

With numbers like this, you can see what a powerhouse Pinterest has become.

Things you may have heard about Pinterest:

Only women use Pinterest.

Not true any more, but not a bad thing for the travel business. It’s a well known fact that women are more involved than men in planning holidays and often make the final decision.

People only pin pictures about food, fashion, weddings & lifestyle.

Again this isn’t true, but aren’t holidays part of lifestyle anyway.

Your target audience isn’t on Pinterest

Oh yes they are because almost everybody is your target audience.

It’s too time consuming and you don’t have time for another social network.

But shouldn’t you be spending your time on where your customers are looking for what you sell.

If you have a business to advertise and want to reach out to a whole new audience, then Pinterest must be for you.

Compared with a Facebook Post that might only be seen for a day or two by your Likers, or a Tweet that will flash by in seconds, pictures on Pinterest get pinned and repinned often for months afterwards to an ever increasing audience, because every repin is somebody helping to promote your business.

AND ANOTHER FACT: 80% of all pictures on Pinterest are Repins.

There are thousands of articles on the Internet about Pinterest tips and techniques but it’s very important to know how Pinterest works otherwise you will spend time posting pictures and wondering why nothing is happening.

There are many beginners guides but the one we used and I highly recommend is Melanie Duncan’s excellent program, Power of Pinning, which takes you through the steps to be very successful using Pinterest.

Click on this banner to see how Pinterest can help grow your business.

There’s a full 60 Days Money Back Guarantee with no questions asked so you really have nothing to lose.

Make the most of your pictures to grow your business.

Please leave a reply & tell me what you think, thanks

Best wishes.

Cliff Chapman
traveljunkies

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