although ongoing Search Engine Optimization has meant the klever kloggs website currently appears on the first or second page of Google's search results for 51% of the 72 most logical keyword phrases, it's still important to invest in online marketing. In order to support, maintain and improve the 'first page status' of the site for appropriate keyword phrases I have initiated a pay per click campaign on Google this month. I have been pleased with the results so far but it's important to tread cautiously with 'Pay Per Click' as there are many examples of people throwing a lot of money at it with very little return on their investment.

the time has flown by since the last blog entry and already it's now July!  June was a busy month on several fronts including, making contact with potential retail outlets, processing orders and particularly heavy online marketing. Many of the pages on the site are now displaying a Google Pagerank as a result of the hours of search engine optimisation (SEO) and the site itself is now present in many different areas of the internet.

the first sweat tops in the klever kloggs collection have arrived and they look even better than the initial images and pre-production samples. The production time was much longer than first expected and there have been many hurdles encountered along the way but the end product has proved that it has been worthwhile.

the production and delivery of the first clothng in the klever kloggs range is taking longer than first expected. The unforeseen issues in the manufacturing process has resulted in the launch of the brand being delayed. It's been a very frustrating time but the signs are that the wait will not be for too much longer and will be well worth it.

the wait for the first delivery of sweat tops continues but hopefully this should not be for too much longer! In the meantime the constant website development goes on daily with the klever kloggs site going from strength to strength in terms of content and unique hits.

it's been a testing time recently, once again, the delivery of the initial klever kloggs collection has been further delayed at the eleventh hour! We should have taken delivery in the past week but a hold-up with some of the fabric has put this back to late April. Aside from this everything else is going well, the website is being updated and added to daily, the traffic to the site is growing each day and the marketing of the brand continues.

for the past couple of weeks I've been raising the website's profile by including it in relevant online directories, gaining backlinks and adding new, and updating existing, content. I've also included the site's monthly competition on a number of external online competition sites which has provoked a great response. The manufacture of the first items in the collection has been delayed slightly, they should now arrive at the end of March when we will fulfill online orders to date and send the prizes to the winners of the monthly competitions.

as well as adding content on a daily basis I have also spent the past week or so backlinking the klever kloggs website. To help improve a websites visibility in internet search engines it's important to have 'backlinks' (links from an external site to your own site) and the better the quality of these links the better position a site is likely to achieve in search engines (the link quality is defined by the sites popularity).

it goes without saying that businesses that are partially or fully dependant on people buying online rely on potential customers being able to find their websites.  There are numerous marketing options to help the promotion of websites but one of the most important things is to ensure the site contains a healthy amount of written content that is both relevant to the products and contains phrases that customers are most likely to enter into the search engines. To this end I've spent the past week or so increasing the content on this site.

the interest in the klever kloggs products so far has been very encouraging, with a healthy amount of daily hits to the site and a lot of people entering the online monthly competitions to win one of the tops.  With this in mind, and the final samples signed off and production process underway, the first set of tops in the klever kloggs collection have today been made available to pre-order with delivery being mid to late March.

today is a milestone for the klever kloggs brand as the pre-production samples arrived and, with some minor adjustments to the applique, I've been able to give the go ahead for the manufacture of the first pieces in the klever kloggs collection.  The approximate delivery date is mid March when the first designs will then be available.

search engine optimisation of the site has been the main focus for the past few weeks, however, some progress has also been made in the marketing of the brand in a more unconventional way!  Watch this blog for more details soon!

each time erroneous product samples are sent and corrections needed the production process is further delayed by the wait for the receipt of the next set of samples.  The norm is for two or three rounds of sampling before clothing items are ready to go into production, however, we are now awaiting the sixth set of samples.  For this reason the estimated delivery of the first products in the brand is early March 2008.

the guy who redesigned the klever kloggs website lives on the other side of the world and, for the past two weeks, we have been in constant contact whilst the site has been reformatted, rejigged, tweaked and uploaded.  To say the look and functionality of the finished item is pleasing would be an understatement!  The site now has the original, professional look that it has been crying out for.  Now the focus is on optimisation.

the reconstruction of this website continues and the results are very pleasing. My focus now is on optimising the website so that it is recognised by the internet's most important search engines in order to increase traffic.  I'm following instruction on this taken from an excellent book on the subject.  Once the site is complete the next task will be to obtain links to it from external sites which is all part of the optimisation process.  The product sampling process is ongoing...

after a very enjoyable family holiday in the north of England where the cottage we stayed had no mobile phone signal or internet access it's time to immerse myself back into the business of building a credible clothing brand.  Apart from receiving the final samples the priority now is to arrange for the new web design to be applied to the site.

starting your own business can be an incredibly long drawn out process fraught with numerous unforeseen issues and problems some large and some not so large!  The klever kloggs clothing brand has been approximately seven months in the making and at this point we have still not signed off final samples for production and the website is about to undergo a complete facelift,  it's time for a short holiday!

having had about eight different designers enter the web design competition online I was today in a position to choose the winner and so closed the competition a day early to enable payment to the winner before I go off on a family holiday over christmas.  The competition was an excellent way of reaching a cross section of designers, with differing ideas, across the globe and I'd highly reccomend it.

the initial response to the competition web design competition have been very encouraging with some strong entries coming in already.

it's time to give the klever kloggs website a more professional look and feel so today I set up a contest online inviting entrants to submit their ideas with a cash prize for the winning design.

having now seen the first klever kloggs sweat top samples in the real, I think the wording across the chest needs to be bigger.  I reworked the text on the jpegs I have and sent them through to the manufacturing company.

the 4th set of samples arrived today but were still incorrect!  A combination of not being surprised, of being hardened to this scenario and the fact that the tops are at least taking some shape has oddly dampened down my frustration.

this evening I discovered that after less than three weeks the klever kloggs website is appearing on the first page of the google search engine for the generic clothing phrases, 'Manchester sweat tops', 'Newcastle sweat tops, 'Cambridge sweat tops' and 'Colchester sweat tops', and on other pages for 'Liverpool sweat tops' and 'sweat tops'.  I'm not getting too carried away but it's proof that the work put in so far is showing some results.

the klever kloggs home page has been in need of something extra to give it a more appealing look.  I have been working on additions to the existing design and arranged to meet the web designer to upload the new design to the site.  We also discussed back linking and optimisation ideas for me to work on.

when starting a business it's so important to draw on people's experience and seek, and be open to, differing opinions.  With this in mind I've been reading an interesting book regarding online business which has sound advice.  As a result of this I joined an online forum today and immediately saw the benefits with information received from like minded people.

to commemorate the website going live this week I decided to run a competition.  Five prizes will be given and each of these will be chosen by the competition winners from the first batch of tops produced.  I spent much of the day setting up the competition page and links and writing out the rules of the contest.

today the klever kloggs website has gone live.  Although there is material yet to be added and amendments to be made it makes sense to switch the website on sooner rather than later. This allows people like yourselves to view and comment on the site and at the same time should start to give it some recognition on the numerous internet search engines.

i've been chasing the delivery of the second sweat top production samples for some days.  This morning I received a return call with assurances that they should arrive by the end of this week?  In the meantime I'm looking at possible affiliate links to the klever kloggs website.

it's a strange irony that there are so many different forms of instant communication today yet so few people in business seem to communicate effectively!  A new business relies on communication and I'm finding the lack of it amongst some suppliers very time consuming and irritating.

in today's stressful business world physically speaking to anybody by phone is less possible, this tends to leave the unsatisfactory options of voice mail and e mail!  Choosing the second option I've had a frustrating morning on my laptop but have at least established that the second sweat top samples should arrive around the 10th November.

although I am some distance from the first delivery of the collection I think it's prudent to consider the second phase.  I've started looking at some of the designs that will be added in spring 2008.

the VAT registration number arrived but still no sign of the second production samples?  After a few phone calls and e mails I learned that the samples arrived from the factory overseas but were returned by the manufacturer's UK office with some comments.  The fabric and design features were incorrect?  It's a trying time and I imagine it's only going to get worse.

i've spent this week exploring the 'marketing' jungle further.  Reading comments and works of 'experts' it seems adwords and pay-per-click on search engines is one of the more effective forms of advertising today.  As regards the second production samples, the manufacturers now say these will arrive on Friday.

today is the first day back from a 10 day break in China and the second set of sweat top production samples I was expecting have still not arrived.  Apart from the exasperation of chasing delivery of these it's disappointing as this will put back the launch of the initial collection.

i'm off to China tomorrow and spent the last few days chasing the the second set of sweat top production samples before I leave.  These were expected late last week but so far I've heard nothing.

i designed a new home page for the website and met the web designer to upload the page and run through other amendments.  Further modifications are needed but overall I'm pleased with the look and feel of the site.

i designed a magnetic vehicle sign based on the klever kloggs logo for local marketing purposes.  Having sent the design out and obtained quotes I was reminded that the door panels on my car are fibreglass!!

i've been thinking about having the publicity photos for the collection taken in Malta as my girlfriend has friends and family who would willingly model the clothing.  I've contacted a number of professional photograpers in Malta, some of whom seem to quote prices based on the brand being foreign?

i logged on to the H.M. revenue & customs website and completed the '30 minute' application for vat registration.