We’ve been working on the SEO for our new cruise deals site, bonvoyage.co.uk .
When we bought this domain back in 2008 we knew there was a USA holiday specialist bon-voyage.co.uk based in Southampton, but we were happy to use the domain as it’s a very different vertical within travel.
Studying the backlinks for bonvoyage.co.uk we discovered that we had incoming links from various sites that were meant for the hyphenated site. Here’s a few examples -
Another amazing weekend in Leeds at Think Visibility, sparkly gold hats off to Dom and the team! Despite growing in size every time, the conference still maintains a great atmosphere, with lots of clever people passionate about what they do. One of the best things Dom ever did was to have ThinkVis on Saturdays, meaning you have to be there in your own time (unless you’re on overtime, which is very #winning).
Most of the posts you’ll read after a conference concentrate on the sessions and speakers and all that sort of stuff. I’ll add a bunch of links at the bottom of the post if that’s what you’re after. This post is going to take you on a journey, a very different journey. A group of us from just North of North England decided we’d all travel down together by train, with a quick trip to Illegal Jacks in Edinburgh for a BeerSpongeBuritto.
Yes, this is a rant. I read something SO annoying I dusted down the blog. Here’s a bit of background before I start.
CCS (Complete Cruise Solutions) is the trade supplier for P&O, Cunard and Princess Cruises. If you want to sell these cruise lines as an agent, you go through CCS who supply you with all you need.
It’s being reported that they are about to drop agent’s commission levels from 15% to 5% to stop “heavy discounting”, where some agents are allegedly giving away 10% discounts, sometimes more. OK, it’s a silly reason to cover up a commission cut, but that’s not the reason for the rant.
With just over a week until Travel Blog Camp 2010, I thought I’d put into a post something that’s niggled at me for a few months. One of the most common discussions I see on twitter and on travel blogs is about how difficult it is to make money being a “travel blogger”. Some of the most Re-Tweeted items within this group are from other travel bloggers claiming to show you “how to make money” doing it, or more often bemoaning the fact it’s near impossible to make a living as one.
So here’s some advice. Stop being a travel blogger and start being a holiday blogger. Read the rest of this entry »
Well actually SERPs domination is what we’re really after.
We’ve been acquiring geo domains for sunshine.co.uk for a year or so now, I’d like to say we’re finished buying but as many of you know it’s a highly addictive (and expensive) past-time, as well as being a great investment.
The geos are being launched as sub-brands of sunshine.co.uk, the main hook being we use local writers who actually live in the area, assuring a level of knowledge hard to find elsewhere. To that end, this post is partly a job advert for any of the domains we don’t have writers for yet and also a handy list to monitor the progress of our geo domains.
| Crete | crete.co.uk | Writer Required |
| Cyprus | cyprus.co.uk | Writer Required |
| Dominica | dominica.co.uk | Writer Required |
| El Hierro | elhierro.co.uk | Writer Required |
| Fuerteventura | fuerteventura.co.uk | Writer Required |
| Gran Canaria | grancanaria.co.uk | Site Live |
| Hawaii | hawaii.co.uk | Writer Required |
| Lanzarote | lanzarote.co.uk | Site Live |
| La Palma | lapalma.co.uk | Site Live |
| Majorca | majorca.co.uk | Site Live |
| Menorca & Minorca | menorca.co.uk | Site Live |
| Spain | spain.co.uk | Writers Required |
| Tenerife | tenerife.co.uk | Site Live |
| Tunisia | tunisia.co.uk | Writer Required |
| Turkey | turkey.co.uk | Writer Required |
If you’re a writer / blogger based in one of the areas we’re looking for, please get in touch via comments form below. The “job description” is well explained by Andy on the Tenerife homepage. I’ll keep the list up to date as and when we find new experts!
If you’re a domainer who owns a geo domain that you think we’d be interested in feel free to get in touch too.
Name: Chris Clarkson
Location: Strathaven, Scotland
Occupation: Marketing Director for sunshine.co.uk
Why This Blog?: Sometimes I have thoughts,
opinions and general ramblings that aren't really suitable for the company blog.
Why pfft?: Mostly because meh wasn't available.
Experience: In 2003 I built this with him
and then we did this with it. Now I mostly
do this and that and buy lots of these.
