Marketing

What you have to offer the two-stroke community

Moderators: oldjapanesebikes, H2RICK, Suzsmokeyallan

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tz375
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Marketing

Post by tz375 »

Allan has the gauge thing in hand and John is making great looking racks, and we all like a nice rack, so how can they best market their services?

In addition to this site of course, what other places could they be spreading the word. Classic mechanics is one possibility and so are the US based retro magazine and Old bike Journal in Australia.

What about other Suzuki or triple or two stroke sites that have resource listings.

Do either of you have web sites that people can get to, without you having to incur huge monthly costs? I could create those but there is probably a better way.

Just thinking out loud here guys.
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Suzsmokeyallan
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Post by Suzsmokeyallan »

I made one recently but its a simple little site and its got its own issues since its a free build service. I've been fiddling with it for a while now since it is limited in what you can do and i only recently added it to my profile page.
At present i am doing this for 50% the fun of working on restoring these gauges so persons can have a proper looking instrument and the other 50% is that its nice to get some money back in return.
Tell me what you can do Richard with your services and i'd be happy to hear or see your ideas about making it better or even making a new one,
Honestly,,, i'm a bit surprised that no one from the site here has asked me to have a look at any gauges they have for an estimate, or perform work on any of their gauges.
Ok guys heres the deal ,,,im not going to keep them,, i have enough of my own,,,LOLOLOLOL.
I have sent info to various people around the world i know but not much came of it. I also posted on the Kawi triple board and sent a message to the Kettle Club in the UK, but ive been told by a few persons who know about them that if youre not IN there your services are not considered.
Its just crazy to force all visitors to be a paying member of a site when there will be a lot who dont live in that location, cant go to the events, or have no way to be directly connected to them in the UK.
Two strokes, its just that simple.

69 Suz U70
69 Suz T500
72 Suz GT750 cafe
74 Suz TS250
74 Suz GTXVR project
75 Suz RE5
75 Suz GT750
76 Suz TS400
76 Suz GT750
81 Suz GSX1100
86 Suz RG500x2
88 Hon CR500
93 Hon CBR900RR
98 Suz GSF1200x3
15 Kaw Ninja H2
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tz375
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Post by tz375 »

Allan,

I should have been a little clearer (again). I'm not touting our web design services, though I'm happy to talk to you off line about your site if you send me the URL.

I was trying to offer encouragement to the two of you and perhaps some ideas as to how to get some business out of the Suzuki community.

Posting here is good, and on other sites too. One benefit of this and similar sites is that if you can create links to your own site from this and other well visited sites, it improves your google and yahoo ranking and is more likely to get you noticed by people who are not on this board.

Example: Pinkpossum.com is my fun/hobby site and I keep it far from anything related to work. I post things there that I think might be of interest, or came up in discussion. I do nothing to publicize it because I'm not selling anything and I really don't want/need the traffic. I put things there usually to add to what I post here. And here's the point. When I search for many combinations of GT750 and something else, I often find the pinkpossum site in one of the first 3 spots. That came as a surprise to me, but it makes sense.

If I could do the same with my business sites that would be wonderful, but that's another story. The point here is that the linkage could help to drive people to your site and then possibly to give you business leads.

Now imagine if everytime you make a reference to a service you offer, that you also include a link to your website, that could become a quite a lot of links and therefore you could improve your ranking.

I'm not offering a commercial service here, but you are offering a service to our community and I was just thinking out loud that maybe some of the SEO (search engine optimization) techniques might work for you and others like Eric (Zooke) etc.

I would not recommend that we all start to flood the board with our web site URLs just to create a sort of link farm, but it's a valid way to add value for people with something to post that we could benefit from and that's relevant to our hobby here.

If you contact me off line I'll be happy to look at your site for you.

Cheers
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Suzsmokeyallan
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Post by Suzsmokeyallan »

Oh i thank you for your letter Richard and its all understood,, i thought you saw the link to the URL which is there at the bottom of every post i make (www)
Two strokes, its just that simple.

69 Suz U70
69 Suz T500
72 Suz GT750 cafe
74 Suz TS250
74 Suz GTXVR project
75 Suz RE5
75 Suz GT750
76 Suz TS400
76 Suz GT750
81 Suz GSX1100
86 Suz RG500x2
88 Hon CR500
93 Hon CBR900RR
98 Suz GSF1200x3
15 Kaw Ninja H2
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oldjapanesebikes
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Post by oldjapanesebikes »

tz375 wrote:Allan,

I was trying to offer encouragement to the two of you and perhaps some ideas as to how to get some business out of the Suzuki community.
Good points Richard, and as you know I included a link to your Pink Possum site on my own personal site some time ago. I've now added a link to Allan's as well on this page . Happy to do so for others if they are interested - I will be adding a resources page to our vintage motorcycle club site that I'm maintaining, and may include Allan's site there also.

One small point I'd offer to you Allan is no where do you include contact information on your site, other than a somewhat anonymous email address - if a potential client is going to send you their only set of gauges then I expect they would like the (small) reassurance of having a physical address, phone and fax number as well as your actual name. Just a suggestion. :D
Ian

If at first you don't succeed, just get a bigger hammer !
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tz375
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Post by tz375 »

Allan,

For some reason I can't see the URL on any of your recent posts. Did you change your signature and delete it or is my Firefox browser hiding it?

I checked teh HTML code for this page and it doesn't appear to be there. :!:
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oldjapanesebikes
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Post by oldjapanesebikes »

tz375 wrote:Allan,

For some reason I can't see the URL on any of your recent posts. Did you change your signature and delete it or is my Firefox browser hiding it?

I checked teh HTML code for this page and it doesn't appear to be there. :!:
Its not a link as such, but actually the 'www' icon in the footer of each of his posts.
Ian

If at first you don't succeed, just get a bigger hammer !
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johnakay
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Post by johnakay »

the trouble is I can't set up a Webb or any kind of advert due to tax here.I don't make much as it is with out having to pay tax.
I have to be very careful how often I put my things on EBay.
there are 15 million UK EBayers the tax man is watching every one of us.
for instance grab rail..........£45.00
EBay/paypal charges £8.00?
materials etc £10.00 (this inc wrapping), profit of £27.00 so I'm not gonna be able to retire on that.sure I would love to get more but folks will only pay so much.
Kawasaki are even worse. Bending the rails so far is ok but its them threaded barrels that are time consuming and a pain in the arse.
I had to sell a job lot to Rick Brett as no one was interested in them.
and these were just standard rails for the H2 750 B,C models.
ok they weren't perfect but good enough.
Suzuki rails that I make aren't perfect either but so far no complaint except one and I will be seeing that F**ker this week end too at lotherton vjmc. he wanted me to pay for triple chroming and he also got my other rail which he never sent back.depending on the outcome(if turns out to be an arse hole his bike wont be going back home in the condition it came in)
as far as business go its no can do.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6354003.stm
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working with the mentally retarded I would
have opened a Harley Davidson Dealership
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Suzukidave
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Post by Suzukidave »

John , it sounds like you need a middle man that works cheap :roll:
the older i get the faster i was
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tz375
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Post by tz375 »

Ah so, Thanks Ian, I managed to miss that one completely. Duh!

:oops: :oops: :oops:
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Suzsmokeyallan
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Post by Suzsmokeyallan »

Ok, i just added info and revised the website a bit more,,, i'm still not sure if its going to make a wonderful difference. Heres the link to the site.

http://gaugerestore.webs.com/
Two strokes, its just that simple.

69 Suz U70
69 Suz T500
72 Suz GT750 cafe
74 Suz TS250
74 Suz GTXVR project
75 Suz RE5
75 Suz GT750
76 Suz TS400
76 Suz GT750
81 Suz GSX1100
86 Suz RG500x2
88 Hon CR500
93 Hon CBR900RR
98 Suz GSF1200x3
15 Kaw Ninja H2
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johnakay
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Suzuki 2-Strokes: bike

Post by johnakay »

I think some of the kawasaki guys on the new forum( Brad/Maggy and Rick Brett,he's been helpfull to) are taking note of my rails as some are asking me to make the racks for them.not a lot but it is a start.
that is how I got started on suzuki.. in time folks will have confident in what I make.
I could do with some money now that I'm not working and no money is coming in.
I wont be able to work for any one till january at the earliest.
never mind we'll get by. john
If I wanted to make a life-long career out of
working with the mentally retarded I would
have opened a Harley Davidson Dealership
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johnakay
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Post by johnakay »

you know guys since I've been well enough to work in my shed.
I've been practically working 6 days week.
doing very well at the moment.
things are beginning to slow a little now so I can get on with the proto types and we'll see how these sells.
also got a couple of others that I've not even made yet namely the Honda CB400F and the kz650 .
the CB400F they never sold the grab rails to the European or American market.I manage to get one from Japan.

Image
If I wanted to make a life-long career out of
working with the mentally retarded I would
have opened a Harley Davidson Dealership
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