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Traveljunkies For Businesses

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Traveljunkies For Businesses

When Google Doesn’t Find You.

You know how you feel when you’re searching for something on Google and it’s not on page 1.
And you know how frustrating it is when you scroll down the next 3 or 4 pages and you still can’t find it, so you settle for the best option you’ve found.

This is disastrous when you run a small business and you’re on Page 17.

Getting found, keeping attention and being remembered is now harder than ever, and doing what everyone else does isn’t going to help.

You know that big businesses post adverts relentlessly to brainwash us to remember them. And it works. But what small business has the time and money to do the same?

So what can you do when you don’t get found?

One trick is to use a business that’s already on Page 1.

And that’s where Traveljunkies comes in.

We’ve been connecting travellers and small businesses since 2006 and Google’s algorithm recognises our value. That’s why Traveljunkies Adventure Travel Directory is on Page 1 of Google, and just about every other search engine.

So give it a try and see what we can do for you.

Get your free listing in Traveljunkies here.

It takes 5 mins, it’s simple to do and you only need your business name and web address. We do the rest.

Cliff Chapman
Traveljunkies Adventure Travel Directory 

PS. If you don’t have a website you can now use your blog, your social media account or somewhere else where you advertise your business.

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Stand Out & Get Found

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Getting found isn’t difficult.

It isn’t hard to find something if you search for the right keywords.
So why is it you sometimes can’t find what you’re looking for?

This happens when whoever wrote what you’re looking for didn’t include the keywords you would use. And it happens a lot.
Take the word travel. A Google search for travel finds 9.6 Billion results.
Not much use is it?

In Traveljunkies we think we’ve overcome the problem of not being found and it’s quite simple, but for it to work for you, it’s when you write an advert.

In your advert use relevant words that describe what you offer. Use your Tagline and create a unique keyword or code.

It works in Traveljunkies because every word is a keyword in Premium Adverts.
So when someone searches for a word, or even a part of a word that’s in your advert, you will be found even when they aren’t looking for you.
And it works the other way. You’ll be surprised at what interesting things you’ll find.

This unique search method is what makes Traveljunkies different and helps people find you because it stands out. It used to be called your USP.

But a word of warning.
Don’t stuff your advert with irrelevant words and lots of tags. People will recognise what you’re doing and you’ll be seen as a spammer.

Free Advert

Start with a free advert (also called a listing) to see how it works and decide if it’s for you.  It only takes 5 minutes and your free listing will be displayed 24/7 in Traveljunkies.com without you having to do anything more.

This isn’t a one-month free trial at the end of which you get charged.
It’s completely free for as long as you want.
Only when you’re completely happy and you want to grow should you think about buying a Premium Advert.

So pop over to www.traveljunkies.com and get your free advert now.

Cliff Chapman
Traveljunkies 

Get found with your free advert in Traveljunkies

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Welcome to Traveljunkies

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Welcome to our newest clients in Traveljunkies

December 2023

Writes of Passage Retreats – Katoomba, Australia
Oasis Eco Camp Lake Elementaita – Kenya, Nakuru county, Lake Elementaita
Cheap Rwanda Safaris – God Is Able Building, Airport Road, Rwanda.
MACCOP – Nairobi, Kenya
Fethiye Tours – Fethiye, Turkey
Yakky Tours – Kathmandu, Nepal
Leisure Travel Holidays Tanzania – Moshi, Tanzania
Peru for Travel – Peru, Cusco & Machu Picchu
Traveling In Morocco Tours – Casablanca, Morocco
Delight Rose Safaris – Nairobi Kenya
Resplendent Ceylon – Sri Lanka
Encalm – India
Africa Safari Tours – Kampala
True Uganda safaris – Kampala
Alphadean Tours and Safaris – Nairobi
Thompson Gazelle Safaris – Kenya
Kili Tanzanita Caminos – Kilimanjaro
Travel & Culture Services – Karachi, Pakistan
Kilimanjaro Safari Holidays Trips – Moshi, Tanzania

View these here

Cliff  & the Traveljunkies Team
www.traveljunkies.com

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Is Your Blog A Business Or A Hobby?

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Some of you use your Blog like a journal or a diary or a newsletter where you post about your travels, and other things, to pass on or exchange information.

Others use it to market or promote something. Blogging is a great way to help market or promote yourself or your business, product, or service. This means you can sell something online through your blog as well as using it for informative purposes.

These two distinctions determine whether your Blog is a hobby or a business.

Here are a few rules about using your Blog for business purposes.

The Rules Of Business or more accurately The Facts Of Business

  • You’re in business to make money. If you’re not, you’ve got a hobby not a business.
  • That means having customers.
  • You will have a website or a blog. Actually they’re the same thing.
  • Your website must be found. It’s completely useless if nobody sees it.
  • That means getting traffic to your site.
  • Your website must contain the words and phrases people search for.
  • One of the most effective way of doing this is by using hashtags #.

And of course there are other things you’ll see everywhere such as “You must have a list” and “Response time must be within 3 seconds” and “Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)” etc. etc.

What Does This Tell You?

First and foremost, your blog or website must be found, because that’s where it all starts.

This means three things:

  1. It must be relevant for your target audience
  2. It must contain the words and phrases people search for
  3. You must advertise and promote it in some way

The first two are down to you. Make sure you have a clear view of who your target audience is and that what you post is relevant to them. Aim to provide help, address and solve problems, save time or save money.

  • The third can be a little more difficult especially if you have  tight budget.
  • Post on Social Media, especially on Facebook and Instagram
  • Post on other peoples’s blogs.
  • Comment on other peoples blogs.
  • Join groups & forums
  • Pay to advertise on Social Media and Google.

But first get a free advert in the popular Traveljunkies website. It’s been going since 2002 and is completely free.
More about this here https://www.traveljunkies.com/free

Cliff Chapman
Traveljunkies

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No 1 Adventure Travel Directory Worldwide

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Welcome to Traveljunkies – The Global Adventure Travel Directory.
Visit us to find everything you need for your travel adventures.
Trusted by Travelers and Businesses since 2002. 


You’re looking for Accommodation whether it’s Hostels, B&B, Camping or Guest Houses, and the greatest range of Adventure Activities Worldwide, you’ll find it here in Traveljunkies.

Our clients in UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada , USA, Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America offer Accommodation,  Family and Leisure Holidays, Tours and Cruises, and Outdoor Activities including Scuba Diving, Skydiving, Skiing, Water Sports, Trekking, Climbing and Lots More.

Trusted by Travelers and Businesses since 2002.

Travel Businesses and Travel Bloggers, Get More Visitors 

Add Your Travel Business Or Travel Blog To The Traveljunkies Adventure Travel Directory For Free 

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HOW TO START A VIRTUAL BUSINESS SO YOU CAN TRAVEL FULL TIME

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This lady runs her own business and travels full time with 4 kids and  a dog.

Bryanna has successfully done that with her Virtual Powerhouse business.

Here’s how …
 
When we decided to hit the road full time with our family we had no idea we would start a virtual business to fund our travels. At the time my husband had a 9 to 5 job he could do remotely.
We quickly learned we didn’t like the restraints of a 9 to 5 on the road. Instead we wanted the freedom to set our own schedule and to sleep in in the morning and go exploring on a Monday.

Hence the idea of starting our own Virtual Business.
We had no entrepreneur background yet we knew people were out there doing it so we just had to figure out how to do it. That was a little over a year and half ago.
Our business has since grown, changed and evolved which is part of the process of living a life of freedom.

Things can change and change is good.

See more 

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Want To Run Your Own Business?

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 10 INVALUABLE THINGS TO REMEMBER.

1. ENTREPRENEURSHIP IS COMMON SENSE
…but common sense isn’t always common practice.  Never forget this simple statement.

2. YOUR IDEA IS WORTH NOTHING AND CUSTOMER SERVICE IS EVERYTHING
This is so important. Your idea, no matter how innovative you think it is, no matter how interesting it sounds, no matter how much research you have  done, it is worth nothing.
If you don’t understand your customer’s needs, if your execution is not close to perfect, and if you don’t have a great team, the idea is worth nothing.

3. IF SOMEONE TELLS YOU THAT BRANDING ISN’T IMPORTANT, RUN AWAY
People on the Internet have said if your product or service is great, your branding doesn’t matter.
This is wrong and dangerous. When someone tells you that, they are either ignorant or poor business people

4. NETWORKING IS PROBABLY 50% OF SUCCESS
You will hear a lot of people stress out the importance of networking in business success, but you can’t really understand that importance if you don’t experience it first hand.

5. WORK ONLY WITH PEOPLE WHO ARE PROFESSIONAL
Professionalism and delivery will help you stand out. It is absurd how many businesses are leaving money on the table because of their inability to exude professionalism.

6. WHEN HIRING PEOPLE, DO THE BEER TEST
Ask yourself. If you go out for a beer with this person, will you have a good time?
Does this person show empathy? Can they listen? Can they contribute? Are they open minded? How do they handle criticism? Are they eager to learn? Can they stay cool under pressure?

7. THE BEGINNING IS THE MOST DIFFICULT PART AND PREPARATION WILL SAVE YOU TIME
Your beginning will difficult. You will be really enthusiastic but once you realize how overwhelming the processes of entrepreneurship can be, you will start having second thoughts.
Running your business professionally is everything. That’s why you should invest some time upfront in studying the subject. There are a ton of online courses on entrepreneurship, marketing, sales, management, etc. out there. Make use of so much free knowledge..

8. SHARE YOUR JOURNEY BECAUSE THAT INCREASES ENGAGEMENT
This is a pro tip and something that has helped companies enjoy tremendous growth.
Sharing your journey allows your customers to get an insider’s view of your business. It demonstrates that you are transparent and confident about your product or service and it makes you look interesting and approachable.

9. DON’T WASTE TIME ON IRRELEVANT STUFF .
There is usually a huge confusion when people start. There are many things to be done and it’s easy to lose track of what really matters.
There are usually two methods that can determine a great start to your business.

The Japanese Method
Japanese people are notorious for their proactivity and preparation. The Japanese method is inspired by the Japanese mentality and suggests that before your launch you should spend significant time making sure everything is perfect.

The Beta Method
If your idea is something quite innovative, test it in a small segment of the market first.
Find a group of people who might be interested in the idea and pitch it to them.

10. IT WILL BE THE MOST DIFFICULT THING YOU WILL EVER DO IN YOUR LIFE
It includes risk. It includes losing money. It includes losing friends. It includes losing your mind.
A lot of people will question you, a lot of people will envy you and a lot of people will admire you.
At the end of the day, none of that matters.

Andrian Iliopoulos
http://thequintessentialmind.com

Read the full article here …
https://hackernoon.com/so-you-want-to-start-your-own-business-10-invaluable-things-people-never-tell-you-db66fc1862f6

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Why Pictures Work And What You Can Easily Do

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How effective is a simple picture like this?

The brain

A short while ago I posted this and had a lot of positve comments saying how effective a simple picture like this is.
So I asked these three questions

1.  Are you using your pictures to help grow the number of visitors to your website?
2.  Do you include a picture in all your Tweets?
3.  Do you have the pictures you need to include in your advertising in the social media you use?

And the answers I got were mostly YES to question 1 and NO to questions 2 and 3.
The solution for question 2 is simple – just do it, but number 3 isn’t quite so easy.
But there’s help from SproutSocial here …

If a picture is worth 1,000 words, and the average length of a word is 5 letters, it would take you 8 months worth of Tweets to tell the same story you could with one shared image on social media. So why not just include an image?

There are lots of tools for different types of images and many of these have free and paid versions, and all are listed in this document.

I recommend you start at the top and look at two Image Design Tools, CANVA and PICMONKEY (Nos 1 & 2 in the list) to see what suits you best.
Both have free versions which enable you to design and edit images for your social media posts.
There are many free image editing tools for you to start altering, touching up, or creating your own social images, and these are two of the simplest ones to use.

So click on the link below and get started.

36 Free Tools for Creating Unique Images
By Michael Patterson on 

http://sproutsocial.com/insights/free-image-creation-tools/

Cliff Chapman
traveljunkies

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*** How Strong Is Your Website? ***

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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.

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*** How To Get Found On The Internet ***

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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

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