Welcome to the redcog.net blog page
This is where we try to keep you up to date with what is going on on planet redcog! If there is anything you particularly want to hear about, or you want us to explain something in more detail, please let us know and we will do all we can to oblige!
Backlogs ...
Written by Phil on 18 May 2008@17:07:35
Perhaps you hadn't realised it but we have been overwhelmed by the number of people signing up to redcog.net. This has led to a severe backlog of listings waiting to be approved.
Obviously, people in the queue have been getting a bit peeved that their listings were not appearing in the redcog.net directory quickly. They were worried that they may have been missing out on the impressive advantages our service offers.
In a Eureka moment, we realised that we would have to do something drastic to turn things around, NO MATTER WHAT THE COST. We have now enaged a consultant to manage the approvals process and she is wading through the large numbers of listings at an impressive rate. Yes, this is costing us money, money we haven't really got, but we do not want to upset any of the redcog.net members any more.
Clare has already reduced the waiting time to 10 days and we are hopeful that she can get this back to the 48 hours we aim for.
Are you a sheep or a goat?
Written by Phil on 29 February 2008@15:30:31
I remember that this question is usually asked of someone who has mindlessly copied someone else with no thought about the consequences of, or reasons for, their actions. Being a sheep, it seems, is not a good thing!
Or is it?
An item, service or activity becomes popular because many people use them, buy them, etc. If the thing that becomes popular is actually a load of rubbish, it quickly loses its following. OK, there are examples that definitely go against this rule, but hopefully, you get the idea!
So what has this got to do with redcog.net, you ask? Well, to better understand who is using redcog.net, we continually monitor the site statistics. We have noticed that people tend to sign up to redcog in batches - people with similar listings tend to sign up together. Sometimes this is due to a particular advertising push or if someone sings our praises on a blog or forum. Other times, seemingly random people looking to advertise, search for similar terms on search engines and find redcog.net and sign up for free advertising.
Are these people sheep or goats? In a way, I think they are both! We all tend to be like that, yes, even me. First of all my sheep mentality will lead me to find out what is popular, what works, what is effective, what satisfies my needs. Then my goat mentality will butt in (sorry) and I may decide to try something new, something exciting, something a bit more cutting edge.
I hope that many of you have joined the growing numbers of people signing up to redcog.net - it is becoming more and more popular, but it is still exciting, it definitely works and, with a little more effort and thought, it will help you in your bid to get noticed online.
Once more ... an apology!
Written by Phil on 01 December 2007@12:36:17
I have neglected this blog for quite some time!
Data protection?
One big issue at the moment is the misplacing of two CDs containing information about half the UK's population. I was speaking to a friend the other day who has been working as a contractor for HMRC and he helped "un-demonise" the people who work there. As someone told him: Many of us are parents as well and our details are on those CDs.
How many of us have sent a mass email with all the email addresses visible in the CC field? I received an email with nearly a 1000 email addresses that I could have sold on or used for a mass spamming exercise. OK, perhaps this is not on the same scale of seriousness, but sometimes the potential impact of what we do is far from our minds when we click on a button or hand a package to a courier.
What is deeply worrying in this case, however, is that an employee of a large Government department can download that number of records onto a CD without any alarm bells ringing. At the very least, the employee should receive a warning about the dangers of doing so, at best, they should not be allowed to do it without various enforcement protocols being activated and complied with.
Hopefully, the CDs are lying in a dark corner of the courier's van and will be found soon, allowing the public, the banks and the Government to heave a collective sigh of relief. However, the shelf-life of this data is quite long, so, if the CDs are not found soon, the likelihood of them ending up in the wrong hands must increase dramatically.
Information about my family is on one of those CDs ...
Organic or artificial?
Written by Phil on 25 July 2007@13:42:49
When creating an online (or offline) directory, one of the major problems is how to make it significant enough that people take it seriously. The worry is that without significant growth early on, one can risk losing momentum and, as a consequence, one's place in the market.
Some directories get around this problem by buying in lists, for example from Thomson Directories, so that they have a significant number of listings from day one. However, these listings suffer from the fact that the business/organisation has not invested any time or thought in their creation. Yes, they may like the fact that they have a free listing, but how much real value is it to them? These free listings tend to offer just the basic information: name, address and telephone number. Often the only way to actually drive people to the door is to pay for an enhanced listing, assuming you know the free listing exists in the first place.
redcog.net relies on organic growth, which we believe is more meaningful because it means people have to make an effort to understand and value what we are offering and to create their search-engine friendly listing. Once they have invested their time, naturally, they are keen to see results. When this happens, they are often keen to recommend the site to friends and colleagues. Also, their redcog.net listing becomes something that has a life of its own. It needs nurturing to keep it fresh and relevant!
Taking the organic growth approach is definitely the slower option when compared to the artificial alternative, but it is more sustainable in the long-run. redcog.net is not just about numbers (although that helps!) - it is about quality, effectiveness and ownership.
Do we always know best?
Written by Phil on 10 June 2007@20:12:03
When people create their redcog.net listing, it has to get approved by us before it can appear on the website. Often we make minor changes to improve the chances of people being liked by the search engines and, therefore, getting more people looking at their listing etc etc …
Sometimes, we have to change listings quite significantly, and it always presents an issue of whether we ought to be changing the listing in such a major way. We believe that we know what works with the search engines and, more specifically, the people who use them, and we genuinely believe that we are changing the listings for the best of all possible motives. However, once we approve the revised listing, we notice that (sometimes) people change their listings back to their original version. What are we to do?
We monitor how quickly Google locates and adds a listing to its databases and, more often than not, those people who have reverted to the original wording of their listings take significantly longer to feature in the search engine results.
Should we just ignore the changes people make or should we carry on "interfering" to make sure they are more successful?
Please let us know!
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