ChaChing

I have had a few discussions with different people about the usefulness of twitter. Alot of people have a negative view of twitter and can’t see any point to it.

Statements such as “I don’t care what somebody has had for breakfast” spring to mind when people give reasons as to why using twitter is pointless.

I have only recently joined twitter and so far have found it pretty useful. Firstly Fort Technologies found ChaChing via twitter and signed up. Secondly I found out about Christiano Ronaldo’s move to Real Madrid, thanks to Tom Doyle of 2bscene – @2bscene.

Without twitter ChaChing would not have a listing from Fort Technologies and I would have never have found out that Ronaldo had gone to Real! (Well maybe the second half of that sentence isn’t entirely true I maight have found out about Ronaldo eventually, considering I don’t live under a rock and all…)

When moving blog.chaching.ie to www.chaching.ie/blog we used a 301 redirect. The old site was hosted on Apache which allowed for use of htaccess files. A 301 redirect allows for a website to be moved from one domain name to a new domain name without getting penalised on SEO by search engines such as google. So to move an entire website from one domain to a new domain place the following in your htaccess:

redirect 301 / http://www.chaching.ie/blog/

The Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre, University College Cork, ran a one day event –  ”Entrepreneurship – How to create a technology start-up” which I attended on Tuesday. I didn’t get a chance to post about it earlier, I did mention it on twitter earlier (@chaching_ie). Anyhow, I really enjoyed Chris Horn’s presentation, one thing he showed is just what is possible without any VC funding, and before the existence of Enterprise Ireland, IONA Technologies was started with £3,000 in 1991, with £1000 from each of the founders. They did consultancy in the early years to help pay the bills while growing their business until they could be product focused, a real example of bootstrapping and also of great resourcefulness. Instead of just giving up because they had no funding they just did it. Also Chris pointed out that because of the small and open nature of our economy that technology focused companies need to think globally from the start, which is both an advantage and a disadvantage. IONA were selling into the US well before they had any presence there, also Chris believes that the US are far earlier adopters of new technology and it is a key place for tech start ups to focus. Chris’ presentation is available online at his blog and its well worth taking the time to read.

While there were many good speakers another one that stood out for me was the talk by Dr Carl Jackson, on a personal level I understood alot of where he was coming from. Before forming SensL Carl had his own company working by himself in the company, I had a similar experience and it can sometimes get very lonely, also it really is not scaleable in that form. We both went on to start new ventures leaving the old ventures behind. Hopefully in a few years I can be giving a talk from the point of view of having a successful company just like Chris was!

I also ran into a couple of people I had not seen in a while, one of them was Tim O’Leary that I had not seen in quite a while, Tim is a sales ninja, really! He has a new venture BKD Consulting. Best of luck with it Tim!

The Breakfast Show on Newstalk run a Breakfast Bargains newsletter which gives people information on various special offers and discounts available on different products and services around the country. It gets sent out a couple of times a week and every time has different offers listed.

They have listed ChaChing in todays newsletter! Check it the newsletter for great offers!

If you have your own business try and give them an offer from your business, it is a great way to connect with potential clients!

You can sign up for the newsletter here: www.newstalk.ie/newstalk/breakfast-show/mailing-list.html

Our blog has moved and is now live in its new home within www.chaching.ie rather than on its on domain at blog.chaching.ie. 

I had posted to the Enterprise Ireland mailling list to ask the resident SEO experts which would be better, hosting a blog on its own domain (as I had been doing – blog.chaching.ie) or as part of the main website domain (as it is now – www.chaching.ie/blog ). As you can already imagine the majority recommended that the blog be hosted within the main website itself rather than on a subdomain. The main reason for this would be that any inbound link to your blog would be a link to your website rather than being an inbound link to a site that links to your site – still with me ?

Ivan from seoconsultant.ie, was the first to recommend having it on the main website domain because of the inbound links it may generate.

Maurice, Fresh Web Consulting, echoed the above and also mentioned that a blog could generate alot of unique and regularly updated content – which is something search engines look for.

Ann, e-business.ie, mentioned the fact that having an external blog can get you some inbound links early on, which for ChaChing would be useful as its early days! She has used this with some success in the past, and thinks an external domain could be good for this. Maria, date-for-free.com, agrees with her but mentions that you should be wary of mass linking to the main website all over the blog as this could appear to be blog spam to search engines. On the topic of using external domains Mick Wright, VooDoo, recommended using third party online services such as twitter, facebook, myspace and linkedin for promotion rather than just having a blog on a separate domain.

Joe Molloy, hyper-typer.com, mentioned that managing your website and your blog via would be easier with them both in the same place and again echoed Ivan on having the blog within your main domain for inbound links. He also gave the very useful piece of information that when moving a blog the best thing to do is to use a 301 redirects from the old url to the new one for search engines.

Richard, Red Cardinal, again agreed with Ivan, Joe & Maurice

Michele, blacknight, made the good point that a sub domain can be hosted on a separate server which can be beneficial.

Lastly Tom, 2bescene, gave good reasons for both sides saying that having the blog as a subdirectory of your main website allows the blog to generate traffic to your website and also if your domain has a good PageRank it will pass on to your blog, and reiterated Ann & Maria saying that having your blog on an external domain will allow you to get some inbound links.

In the end, as you can see from the beginning of the post and also the url, I decided to move the blog into a subdirectory of the main website. By updating the blog regularly I hope it can get more inbound links to the www.chaching.ie domain and give more unique content to the domain. 

I will put a 301 redirect on the blog.chaching.ie domain to www.chaching.ie/blog, just have not gotten round to it just yet!

Thanks to everybody who gave their opinions based on their specialist knowledge it was much appreciated!

Here is a big ChaChing welcome to the new companies who want to give people the chance to earn some extra cash! The new companies are Feng Shui Design Consultancy, Holistic Interior Designs, OnTap.ie, SortMyBooks.ie, The Bookkeeping Bureau, Colour Glass and finally Irish Web Developers.

Feng Shui Design Consultancy – The No Nonsense Feng Shui Consultant – www.feng-shui-design-consultancy.com

The Feng Shui Design Consultancy, based in Dublin, Ireland providing Classical Feng Shui surveys to homes & businesses nationwide. The practical approach to land form, orientation, location and human interactions.

Holistic Interior Designs – www.holistic-interior-designs.com

Holistic interior designs creates spaces that care for your health, wellbeing & the natural environment. With holistic interior design your interior can be stylish, functional, practical, healthy, comfortable & environmentally friendly. Help lower your carbon footprint and protect the long term health of your family.

OnTap.ie – Mobile Bar Hire & Drinks Services – www.ontap.ie

Complete Mobile Bar Hire & Drinks Service. We specialise in draught beer services and cater for home parties, Birthday Parties, BBQ’s, Christmas Parties, Corporate Events, Outdoor Events and much more. Purchase kegs, wines and spirits at great wholesale prices on a sale or return basis.

SortMyBooks.ie – Do it yourself 100% Irish Accounting Software – www.sortmybooks.ie

Accounts Software, training and support to enable Irish business owners to manage their own accounts including invoicing, VAT and profit tracking.

The Bookkeeping Bureau – The Outsourcing Specialist – www.thebookkeepingbureau.ie

The Bookkeeping Bureau is a new pro-active company offering online accountancy and online bookkeeping services to small and medium sized businesses. We focus on supporting you and your business on a regular and ongoing basis ensuring that you know how your business is performing today, and helping you make the right planning decisions for tomorrow.

Colour Glass – Living colour for glass – www.colourglass.ie

Colour Glass have made a significant impact on the architectural and interior design world in terms of innovative alternatives to stainless steel, grouting, tiles and granite, and the company has become a household name in quality glass splashbacks. By offering excellent professional service underpinned with approved ISO 9001:2000 quality standards, Colour Glass has been awarded commissions by reputable kitchen companies and renowned architects and designers alike, with a diverse range of current projects from large scale architectural installations to smaller scale residential projects.

Irish Web Developers – Increasing your business potential – www.irishwebdevelopers.com

IrishWebDevelopers.ie – Have been building professional websites and delivering professional web services since 1998. We provide a full range of services: website design, Website Development, Internet Marketing, Google Adwords, Search Engine Optimisation, Training, Consultancy, Website Maintenance, Translation, Video to Web, Email Marketing, Logo design, Stationary Design, Website Hosting, Domain Name Registration, eCommerce Systems & Online Stores, Content Management Systems, Online Appointment Booking Systems, Tour Operator Management & Booking Systems and Online Backup Solutions. We have over 200 clients and have built some of the most successful Irish websites.