Getting niche videos into the universal search

192cottages

The planning of 192 cottages is still going strong, I have managed to write the PHP script that will handle the creation of all my images at the various sizes required, e.g. thumbnails, and then crushes the images using pngcrush. However, the more I plan these new features, the more I want to roll them back into k9directory, and get the benefit from them sooner. So 192cottages might be delayed, while I upgrade k9directory ready for the start of the 2010 holiday season.

I have been looking at potential CSS navigation schemes, and quite like the scalable CSS based breadcrumbs idea developed by Veerle Pieters.

Light boxes have become a really useful way of displaying larger images in a pop-up window, after clicking a thumbnail, and I have been looking at ways to integrate one into the site. I quite like the leightbox code created by Simon de Haan of the Netherlands.

Niche Videos

Six months ago I created a short video which I uploaded to YouTube titled How to install gufw on Ubuntu 8.10 to enable the Linux Firewall. It took me less than a minute to record using recordMyDesktop, and I just added a default song from YouTube's collection of songs after uploading it. The video was intended as an experiment in using the recordMyDesktop software, and I had largely forgot about it, until I noticed this month that if you search Google for "install gufw", the video is shown in the universal results as number four in the search results.

I find this really fascinating for something that I knocked together with no real planning, and it's interesting to see the growth of the video over time.

While the video has not quite reached a 1,000 views yet, and this is nothing in the grand scheme of things, it has made me wonder if a more detailed thought out how-to video which is practiced and includes a voice over describing the actions taken, would actually do better and prove to be a valuable way of getting targeted traffic to your blog.

With Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala coming out at the end of this month, I have decided to try and produce a series of short how-to videos for various aspects of this new operating system. I'll share the first video next month.

k9directory

It's been a reasonable month for k9directory with 4 new properties signing up to be listed :-

Coed Mawr Cottages - 3 cottages which are set on a mountainside with woodlands as a backdrop. They are positioned centrally for the coast, countryside and the mountains, ideal for long walks with your dog.
Springwood Guest House - luxury 4 star bed and breakfast with sea views on the stunning Northumberland coast, near Seahouses.
Southover Beach Apartments - have 8 self catering apartments, some are reserved for pet owners. Southover Apartments are ideally situated for dog owners who like to explore North Devon's coastline.
The Old Farm - two cottages set in 8 acres of beautiful Gloucestershire, a short walk from the peak of The May Hill National Trust Reserve where the views are amongst the best in the country.

The site has produced £31,450 worth of actual bookings so far this year that I can verify, the actual figure is probably much higher than this, as many hotels and cottages take their own bookings directly. I am hoping to break the £35k barrier before the end of the year.

I have never really bothered with social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, until I joined Facebook about 3 months ago and got totally hooked on it. As an experiment I wanted to see if I could utilise the Fan Page feature of Facebook, to spread the word of k9directory. Users can now join the k9directory Fan Page and get instant updates about new pet friendly properties added to the site, and links to interesting dog related articles. I am hoping to get around 100 fans by Christmas, so that I can start promoting special Christmas breaks for the festive season.

Bradley Media

Wrote a couple of short tech articles this month, showing you how to use function keys to activate command buttons in Visual Basic 2005; and how to programmatically set the language of a word document using Word's object modal.

Set-up web site BradleyMedia.co.uk to handle all my advertising and credit card transactions, and to publish a couple of ebook reports, the first of which I hope to have ready next month.

Domains For Sale:
I have decided to sell a couple of my domain names, if anyone is interested in owning either go4skills.com or 192travel.com then please get in touch.

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