Here comes Winter

Brittany and Pays de la Loire blogging site Well, what a shocking end to November and start to December with the wintry weather that has hit the region. I hope that this is not a portent for the rest of the season and that it will get milder from here. We were in France earlier in November and, whilst it was just about the wettest 2 weeks we can remember spending there, at least we missed this cold snap. The house is now closed up and secure, with the heating on hors-gel, until we go back in January.

We had another great batch of guest blogger posts during November, with good contributions from Nicola, Philippa, and Stephanie, as well as a few from myself.

Interestingly, we have achieved the No.1 position in Google’s ‘bad holiday websites’. The article that is generating this traffic is one that I posted in mid-October entitled Holiday Rentals – looking forward to 2011, and, whilst I’m happy to get the traffic I’m rather surprised that this search term has achieved the exalted top spot in Google as it isn’t even about bad holiday websites. I know a bit about SEO and so have my own thoughts on how this has happened, but why do you think it has? I may write an article on this and post a link to it on the site later this month if there is interest.

If you would like to keep us updated with your life in France, why not join our guest blogging team? It’s easy and fun and can help you get more traffic for your own website in the process. An interest in Brittany or the Pays de la Loire region of France is all that it takes (even if you don’t live or work there full-time). See ‘Are you English and living or working in France?’ (further down) and ask me to set up your blogging account.

Ask me to set up an account for you here

Are you English and living or working in France?

From helping to vent your issues with French bureaucracy to helping our visitors out with useful advice, to building the trust of like-minded individuals, a regular blogging spot could be for you. As well as enlightening our readers it could help you to do more business – blogging is a great way of developing a passive following from people who could be more inclined to do business with you if they can see that you have a knowledge of, or interest in, a subject relevant to their needs. Social Media is something that is relevant for most businesses these days, and blogging is one aspect of this, so if you haven’t yet dipped your toe in the Social Media World, then this could provide a gentle introduction.

If you already blog on your own website or blogging site then we can help you to get double the coverage and save time by syndicating your blog so that your posts automatically appear on our website!

Find out more about contributing regular posts

Helping English website owners in France

Do you have a website that needs an update? Could you do with more traffic? Would you like more of your visitors to buy from you?

If you answered YES to any of the above then it might be worth talking to me. I have built several sites aimed at ‘English visitors to France’ and ‘English business owners in France’, and can help with issues such as what type of domain name to use, where to host your site, and how to provide multi-language versions of your site. I’m a Francophile web developer, a WordPress expert, and I know a lot about SEO. I love to help website owners get the best out of their web presence – without breaking the bank!

Ask me about your website project

Until next time, wishing you a Merry Christmas and a prosperous 2011…

Martin Jarvis, Blogger, and Website Developer

Oh, and if you are on Twitter or LinkedIn (you should be, you know) then you can follow me on Twitter here and connect with me on LinkedIn here.

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