More stuff...

So there are a number of things that have been going on of late that I haven't written about yet.  I got my backpack yesterday, and am expecting the Hammock today.  I got this specific backpack pretty much strictly because it had the special airflow back and it was the one of that style that fit best.  As a result, I have no idea what all these pockets and straps are for!!  lol.  Actually, a lot is pretty self explanatory, and makes complete sense given my experience, but still I was going through it last night... so many little intricacies.  Very amusing...

I checked google analytics today and saw that we have officially gotten our first visit to the website from someone actually in Sierra Leone.  May not seem like much, but is still a good step.  I have specifically been holding off on doing much of the marketing until I get closer to actually leaving.  I figure its easier to have people maintain interest in the actual trip once I am there or about to leave, rather than the less exciting build up to it.  So to get visits that seem to just be coming of their own accord is positive.

I have continued to email with Cyril at Zain telecom, and he said that I could very easily just use a modem to plug into the computer and use the internet.  $70-75 for the modem and then $10 for 100mb.  I'm asking him for a full rate card for more usage.  But it is pay as you go so that is positive, no contract or anything.  With this I wouldn't have to buy a $400 smart phone, which would REALLY help my budget.  But I still need to get a phone and I need it to double as a descent camera, so still not out of the woods yet.  But it could give me more flexibility.  I tried calling Nokia yesterday and asking, but think I got hung up on... I'll have to find out more of the technical aspects to it and go from there.  It may be more worth while to do the full-on smart phone given the $75 modem, the cost of another phone with good camera, and future considerations but time will tell.

I have been working on flash cards for Krio, but I must admit am not getting far.  I just can't seem to be too successful without being in country and listening and learning right there on the spot.  This brings me to another thought that has been slowly growing in my mind given multiple conversations I've been having with people associated with the country.  Maybe it would be worth it to spend the beginning of the trip a bit more settled.  Yeah, I know not a new idea, I was already thinking to spend a week in Freetown getting acclimated.  But Kaps with Child Help and I have been talking about some project ideas and with others people about security and not getting taken advantage of - basically involving getting to know my way around the people and language.  This makes perfect sense given all my other time abroad, some places and people will try to take you for all you're worth as a foreigner 'with money'.    I am going to put together an entire post on this in a little bit though that will get into the possible project and these other considerations.  For now though, I just thought I'd put up another update...  

Experimentation

So over the last few days I have been experimenting with a system that automatically sends emails to people when a post is published on the website.  I know that some of these people have read the posts, yet it does not appear that this automatic feed is showing up as visits to the website.  Via google analytics I can see what the traffic to the site is, where it comes from, and a host of other things.  But my traffic has plummeted from almost nothing to nothing but me!!  LOL.  As most all of the people that might read my posts are on that email list, it would seem that it does not bring people to the site but rather just emails them the post.  Of course a main goal is to get people to read the posts, but it is also to get traffic to the site.  If I can't generate traffic to the site I will not raise up the search engines and get others that i don't know to see the site.

Sigh...  So I guess that I will have to find another way to keep people informed of new posts that will also generate quantifiable traffic numbers for the site.  Ideally there would be an email with a teaser and link.  Say the first paragraph of the post and a link for "more" if they want to read on.  This would allow for notification to go to those interested with a brief intro.  People would then have a choice as to whether they want to read further and it would generate traffic for the site if they did open the link.  Now where to find this...  Tricky business this website stuff...  ;)      

Search Engine Optimization

Just spent a little more time on Google analytics and webmasters.  I am starting to get some decent key word generation for "Sierra" and  "Leone".  In order to have a site show up in a google search, google has to index the pages and see what words it finds often enough to think of as keywords for your site.  For a while there it was random stuff like 'initial' or 'introduction', nothing that was directly pertinent to the site or that would bring traffic.  But as of this morning 'Sierra' and 'Leone' are at the top the list for the site.  I also tried to get the googlebots to index each page - but I don't know that this happened, only that I fetched the page as a googlebot would see it (which I would think they'd have to go there to do it).  Anyway, the keywords themselves are starting to be a bit more indicative of my own project.

I also did a search for "walking lion" and I seem to be number four on the list.  Nice.  I am not having much of any increase in traffic, but I was solely having direct traffic for the most part - meaning someone typed www.walkinglion.org into the address bar -, then I started getting a decent amount of referring traffic from facebook and blogger (where the site is hosted), but now I am starting to get search engine traffic.  This is of course a good sign, people other than my friends/acquaintances may be starting to see the site.  What I need though is to get on the "Sierra Leone" key word list.  This is going to be extremely difficult, but things like "Sierra Leone hiking", "Sierra Leone non-profit", or other such things may not be to far fetched.  This however will take time, especially with the hiking part, as I will have to do an awful lot more writing on the hiking part of my trip.  Anyway, its all a step in the right direction...  enjoy...