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SWeCS NEWSLETTER - 9 February 2004

In this issue...

- An Important Directory For Western Australian Tourism Businesses
- Who's Linking To You?
- SWeCS News Competitions - Can You Offer A Prize?
- New Web Site Hosting Service
- Resources For Small Business

We now have Live Support available from our web site. If you have any questions about anything in this newsletter, simply click on the Live Support button below:

DIRECTORY FOR TOURISM BASED BUSINESSES

If you're a tourism based business in the south west, there's a popular directory that you need to know about.

We provide search engine ranking services for a number of businesses in the south west. One of our tourism based customers, before they had signed up with us, had arranged for a listing in the www.West-Oz.com directory. We noticed that every month when we provided them with a report on their web site traffic, the www.West-Oz.com web site was always in the top 5 sites that referred the most traffic to their site.

We checked out their site to find out why.

West-Oz.com is a directory of tourism based businesses in Western Australia. It contains links to accommodation, activities, events, maps, information about local towns, and so on. Over time it has become a very popular web site for tourists who want to get information to help them plan their trips. As a result, the West-Oz web site now gets over 1000 visitors every day!

The benefits of getting a listing in the West-Oz.com directory include a description, photo, logo, and contact information, including your web site and email links. It's no wonder that it has been able to attract a range of tourism based businesses across the state, including many big businesses such as Burswood Resort, Europcar Vehicle Rentals, and others.

As you are probably aware by now, we are only interested in telling you about services that actually get results. So when we found that some of our own customers were getting regular high levels of traffic from a West-Oz.com listing, we knew we wanted to mention it in SWeCS News.

A listing in West-Oz.com costs $275 per annum, which includes GST and set up fees. Check out the full benefits of the package here.

WHO's LINKING TO YOU?

Ever wanted to know what web sites are linking to yours?

It's very easy to find out. Simply visit a search engine, such as www.altavista.com.au, and in the search box type in link:www.yourwebsite.com.au. The results page will then show all of the web sites that search engine knows of that have a link to your web site.

With some search engines, the command to type in is slightly different, but the one above should work for most of the major search engines.

Increasing the amount of relevant and quality links pointing to your web site is essential for higher search engine ranking and web site traffic.

SWeCS COMPETITIONS - CAN YOU OFFER A PRIZE?

We're interested in running a competition in the SWeCS Newsletter every now and then.

If you or your business is able to provide a prize, we will provide advertising in return. The prize could simply be vouchers, samples, or discounts on your services. In return, we will provide advertising for you in the SWeCS Newsletter, along with the promotion you'll receive when people enter the competition.

Just email us at admin@southwestecommerce.com if you're interested.

NEW WEB SITE HOSTING SERVICE

Not satisfied with your current hosting company?

South West eCommerce Strategies now provides web site hosting, with a huge range of features, and at the lowest rate in the south west!

At only $19.99 per month, you not only get all the "standard" features such as unlimited email addresses, web site statistics, and so on, but you also get all the services that others charge you extra for, such as shopping cart facilities, PHP, mySQL, Chat room facilities, search engine facility, and much more.

To find out more, visit our new hosting web site at www.southwestecommerce.net (Note, .net, not .com).

RESOURCES FOR SMALL BUSINESS

Ecommerce Library

Browse through the SWeCS Ecommerce Library, full of FREE information about getting more out of the Internet. Sections include Web Site Development, Web Site Promotion & Internet Marketing, Online Commerce, Computer & Technical Issues, and Miscellaneous.

Newsletter Archives

The SWeCS Newsletter archives provides a wealth of FREE information on small business and the Internet. Browse through the main topics or search for your particular query.

SWeCS Affiliate Program

Start up another income stream, by earning $60 for each referral who signs up for our search engine ranking package. Also earn $50 for each referral who signs up for our web site package.

Affiliate Directory

Browse through a list of reviewed Affiliate programs. Let us do the work of testing it out for you!

Do you know of a resource that should be added here? Email us and let us know. There is only one condition - it must be free.

OTHER EMAIL NEWSLETTERS

Here's some other email newsletters you might like:

www.southwestlife.com.au

www.dunsboroughbayvillageresort.com/news/newsindex.htm

www.west-oz.com/newsletter/newsletter.asp