Christian

Your Input Needed For Guardian Newspaper Article On Ex-Pats

Christian — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 16:23:00 GMT

Hi,

I was contacted today by Joanna Moorhead who writes for the Guardian Newspaper in England. Joanna is preparing a feature in the family section of the Guardian which is going to be all about what it’s really like to move abroad from the UK.

What Joanna would like to do is talk to families who did it 20+ years ago, and hear about how it’s been through the years for them. How does it feel to raise a family without your extended family; how easy is it to keep in touch with your relatives back home? How do children fit into their new community; and how British do they feel when they’ve been raised almost entirely in Spain?.

On timescale, she is hoping to talk to people this week, at the weekend, or early next week. It’s just a chat on the phone – and as I said, the perspectives of as many family members as possible would be good although if someone isn’t keen to talk and someone else is, she will be happy just to talk to those who are willing!

I have put Joanna's contact details at the end of this post; best thing would probably be for anyone who is kind enough to be willing to help to send her an email, and she'll then call you if you include your telephone number.

Also, feel free to ask any questions here. I hope some of our members can help.

Joanna's Details:

Joanna Moorhead

On +44 (0) 20 8675 3423; mobile +44(0)7745 569043

jmoorhead@dial.pipex.com or Joanna.moorhead@guardian.co.uk

Thanks

Christian

Advertise On YourMarbella.com - 5 Slots Available

Christian — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 00:06:00 GMT

We have together built a very attractive community site which will attract local advertisers and are seeing a healthy level of growth now week on week.

This month so far we've had 7,280 UNIQUE visits and 86,729 Page views, mainly from The UK and Spain. We hope to break 10,000 and 100,000 respectively in January and this puts us firmly in the driving seat as the most visited site in Marbella (see Alexa rankings below). Although still relatively a small community, now is a great time to advertise your business (or business profile). We are happy to negotiate our rates in order to gain our first paying advertisers so make us a sensible offer and we'll go from there!

We will limit the number of advertisers to five initially with an equal share of all the available the media. We'll create banner adverts for you too, free of charge for our pilot campaigns. Anyone with a local business whether its in real estate, fitness, finance or food can benefit hugely from advertising to the YourMarbella.com community. Our ads are not intrusive or obstructive to the user experience and must all be relevant and offer value to residents or visitors to Marbella.

Please send me a message if you are interested in talking with us at this stage.

For added transparemcy, our Google statistics are available on the following page: http://www.yourmarbella.com/forums/thread/26485.aspx

Alexa rankings for Marbella sites (24th Jan '08)

The chart below represents the sites rank in the geographic location. The lower the number, the more traffic a site has, so in effect a site with a score of 1 would be the busiest site in the country. (Yahoo / Google) etc

Spain UK

YourMarbella.com    9,626     21,447
Marbella.com            26,629     124,491
Marbellainfo.com       28,192    181,352
Marbellas.com          55,328    214,564

Almost 200........

Christian — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 15:41:00 GMT

Someone sent me a message earlier congratulating me on YourMarbella.com reaching nearly 200 users in such a short period of time, so I thought it was a great time to update my blog!

It seems everyone is enjoying using the website which is great news for us, as it means our 6 months of hard work has started to show some benefit. Every time I log in (around 16-17 hours of the day at present!) we seem to have new users and new business, most of which are getting really involved with the features on the website, which is great and has helped develop a friendly and interesting community after only around 3 weeks of activity !.

Some users have been sending me emails with features they would like to see on YourMarbella.com and these have been taken on board and some will be going live in the next 2 weeks with the exciting release of YourMarbella v1.6 !. Keep sending me the ideas and we will do what we can to bring them onto here! . With the great development team we have, almost anything is possible !

It has been really interesting to see which businesses have risen to the top of our Most Popular list, with a great mix of businesses aimed at both the tourist and local sectors being rewarded by our community. If any YourMarbella members visit any of the businesses on our business section, please take a few moments to voice your thoughts on their profile page. If a business that you visit isn't currently listed on YourMarbella.com, please drop me an email at christian@yourmarbella.com and I will get them on here asap (or even better, give us a mention to the business owner!).

We believe that YourMarbella's open and honest review and recommendation system brings a lot more value to the customer and business owner than the old fashioned way of a Restaurant, Bar, Hotel etc paying someone a fee to 'Review' their business. After all, if someone wrote a bad review of your business, would you pay them for it?, I doubt it!. If I was to take advice from a website which reviewed business itself, I would sincerely hope that the cars were reviewed by the likes of Jeremy Clarkson, food by Gordon Ramsey and hotel's by Philippe Starck !.

YourMarbella.com aims to create a level playing field for all the businesses on the Costa Del Sol, where businesses get internet exposure based on the quality of their products and service, rather than the size of their marketing budget. We will take care of the technology, search engine optimisation and community growth as that is what we do well. I am sure many of you have heard us on the radio, seen us on Google, or had your picture taken by our Snaparazzi in and around Marbella!

Let's hope that the growth of YourMarbella continues and we eventually become the online source for everyone and everything Marbella !

Right, I think that's about all for now, I am off for a swim! will blog again soon though!

Christian

Countdown To The Launch Of YourMarbella.com

Christian — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 09:25:00 GMT

Only one month from now, YourMarbella.com will be going live to the public. You will be able to create profiles of yourself and/or your business, post photo's, video's and music and connect with anyine else from around the world who has an interest in Marbella. You will also be able to sell your car, house, or anything else you want to sell using YourMarbella.com Classifieds. If you are looking for a job or looking to employ new staff you can post in our extensive Jobs section. So, roll on summer 2007 and lets get ready for the revolution !

Launch Weekend

Christian — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 05:04:00 GMT

So, everyone is getting ready for the big summer to start in Marbella. I am hearing whispers that most places will kick off their summer events at the bank holiday at the end of May. This is usually when Sintillate, Pangaea, Ocean Club really get going. Here is hoping that YourMarbella.com is ready and working and having a part of the action ! . Our 'YM Snapparazzi' girls will be regular fixtures at the best places in Puerto Banus, armed with their lenses catching all the action as it happens !