View Full Version : Feature request - Special Offers Forum
Two reasons for this request:-
1) It would be good to buy from other BP users.
2) It would be a really good way to get a product spidered quickly if we can link to it specifically from the forum. If we had a special offers / new product launch forum maybe you could restrict it to two forum posts a week or something so that it doesn't become overrun with masses of new posts but it would be helpful in terms of SEO to have a forum like that on here.
Many thanks.
little-linguist
23-08-2010, 14:00
Yes - sounds like a good idea.
If you have an offer that has a code and it gets indexed, what is to stop all and sundry using it or do you not mean to give fellow BP users an extra special offer?
I'm sure nobody would object if a link to the odd product was inserted in a post now and then as long as there were some relevance and it didn't lead to spamming.
Something like "can everyone take a look at my new stocking fillers section and let me know if there are any errors showing up in your browsers?" but with a link in of course!
If you want to give an extra special offer to BP users, the right place would seem to be the Private forum, although that won't help SEO.
I'm sure nobody would object if a link to the odd product was inserted in a post now and then as long as there were some relevance and it didn't lead to spamming.
How would "use this code to get x% off your purchase" or "this product on x% off when buying Y" be spamming?
How would "use this code to get x% off your purchase" or "this product on x% off when buying Y" be spamming?
Down boy!
John, the idea is really to help get new products spidered - something I am sure we could all do with a hand with occasionally. With regards to special vouchers - I'm quite happy to have say 90% off something rather than 100% of nothing - even if the voucher gets used by people that are not from BP. There are other sites that have a members special offer section and it rarely gets abused.
Red Devil
23-08-2010, 15:30
You would have to limit the adding of listings on the board to BP'ers only to prevent spammers. If you made the area "private" it would be counter productive as the search engines would not be able to visit.
Down boy!
:( sorry mum.... only asking.
The problem in making offers on an open forum is that it will soon be in the public domain and everyone will be able to see that you offer discounts, this will mean to them that your prices are artificially too high.
If you have affiliates, they will feel alienated that they haven't been given the offer first, its a minefield of possible problems.
The problem in making offers on an open forum is that it will soon be in the public domain and everyone will be able to see that you offer discounts, this will mean to them that your prices are artificially too high.
If you have affiliates, they will feel alienated that they haven't been given the offer first, its a minefield of possible problems.
In all 10 years I have been trading on the internet and posting offers on forums we haven't had this issue ...
It wouldn't be compulsary to post on there, nor would it be compulsary to read on there. As I said in my initial post, the point of the forum on the whole is to get new products spidered quickly.
If it is the term "special offer" that you object to, the forum could be called "showcase" or "BP Offers" or "How do you fancy ..." etc etc etc!
Slight variation on the initial question / suggestion - but in terms of getting your new products indexed, do you have a blog? This can be a great way of announcing new products and getting them indexed quite quickly. We have a blog via blogger, which although we don't update so frequently have found new products posted about and linked to on website get indexed in google quite quickly.
Putting an announcement and direct link from your homepage would also be a good option. Of course an additional link from forum would provide added help to spidering. Would posting that kind of offer and link in a relevant market / industry forum for your products not be even more relevant - and gain more customers? Your reason 1 - offering something to other BPers seems to me the better justification.
Red Devil
24-08-2010, 06:48
Google and the like will only visit and index webpages on sites outside of the normal daily Google crawl if it knows that the content on that site may be changing more frequently.
One way of encouraging Google is to create an RSS feed. This forum for instance has one. See the orange icon in the top right of the toolbar in IE or as part of the URL line in Firefox.
Twitter and Blogs work in this way, so does the BBC news.
In Bluepark you too can have an RSS feed by creating News Articles. So it makes sense to use this facility to announce new products if you want them indexing quickly and is an ideal place for visitors to look for announcements (other than having a blog). Any links on the search engines to these pages will obviously bring people direct to your site (and not to an external blog).
Added: In saying that, I'm just trying to work out how to switch the RSS feed icon on (on the actual page). I have seen it on some BP sites. Does it require any extra coding?
Red Devil
24-08-2010, 07:04
You can even add blocks to your News Article pages, so for example you could add the Latest Products block. If the RSS feed was active on the News Article page, would that block be picked up and indexed quicker?
One way of encouraging Google is to create an RSS feed.
Does this still work if no-one has subscribed to your RSS feed?
Red Devil
24-08-2010, 09:34
The RSS feed icon is activated in Configuration / News Options - "Display RSS link".
Every BP site has the potential of using an RSS feed. If you look you will already have one (be it empty) http://www.yourwebsite.co.uk/rss.xml
I've been checking on the time taken for our new products to appear in the Google Index and it seems to be about 24 hours, items which were put on during yesterday are on page 1 for the exact name today, I don't think that this is slow and can't imagine any way of speeding it up.
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