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Welcome to the ineedhits Search Engine Marketing blog, where we share the latest search engine and online marketing news, releases, industry trends and great DIY tips and advice.

We encourage you to get involved in our blog community - so share your opinions and experiences by leaving comments on our posts.

If you're looking for help with promoting your website - check out our range of affordable search engine marketing services.

Tuesday, May 30

Need to Get into MSN Fast? Try M-Boost!

MSN has had a firm grip on the number three spot amongst the search engine giants for a long time. As of March 2006, MSN Search held a 13.2% share of searches in the US market (comScore Media Metrix Ratings). More recently, MSN Search has stepped up its efforts and become more aggressive in chasing market share.

In May, it was announced that MSN Search (or "Windows Live Search", as it is now called) would succeed Google in providing search results on amazon.com and amazon's search engine A9. MSN search results are also being syndicated to meta search engine Dogpile and the government portal FirstGov.gov.

In addition, MSN Search is the default search provider for the Internet Explorer 7 toolbar search box, providing MSN with a headstart in gaining market share amongst IE7 users.

So being listed in MSN is more important than ever. And if you need to get into MSN quickly, ineedhits has a new service for you: M-Boost. With M-Boost, you can get included in MSN within 7 days of service completion, and we extend a money back guarantee to you in the unlikely case that we can't get you included within 7 days (some terms and conditions apply).

M-Boost also contains a linkbuilding campaign element - if you subscribe to M-Boost we will submit your URL to three different good quality directories each month. This will help you to increase the number of incoming links over time (in a gradual and natural, non-spammy way), improve your link popularity and help improve your search engine rankings. M-Boost only costs $19.95, so give it a try and see your URL in MSN within days!

U.K. Search Market Soaring to New Heights

The U.K. search engine marketing industry is growing at a phenomenal rate, and is estimated to be worth £1.41 billion ($2.6 billion) by the end of 2006, according to new findings released by E-consultancy.

This expected minimum growth of 65 percent for both paid and organic search comes after an incredible year in 2005, where £855 million ($1.7 billion) was spent on search engine marketing in the U.K, equal to a 100 percent growth rate from 2004 figures.

The Paid Search market, which comprises approximately 90 percent of the total market share, is anticipated to grow to £1.26 billion ($2.4 billion) by the end of this year, up 67 percent from 2005 (£757 million).

It is also predicted that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) will grow by approximately 50 percent from £98 million to£147 million ($276 million).

Along with this surge in search marketing spending, E-consultancy has also noted some interesting trends within the U.K. search market:

Growth in the market for SEO services will continue to accelerate during 2006 as marketers increasingly realize the importance and value of organic listings.
Marketers are becoming more savvy about Paid Search ROI.
Search is increasingly being built into overall marketing plans as it becomes more strategic.
There is increased awareness about the need for ethical SEO.

Source: E-consultancy, Search Marketing Buyer's Guide 2006

Monday, May 29

Google's Deal with Dell a Blow to Microsoft

While Yahoo! was busy putting the finishing touches to its new co-operation with eBay, Google has not been idle, but has clinched a spectacular deal of its own.

As announced last Thursday, Google and Dell have agreed to a trial that will see Dell pre-install a suite of Google software onto each PC before it leaves their factories. The software package will include the Google toolbar, a pre-set Dell-Google co-branded homepage and search applications for desktop and email search.

Google's CEO Eric Schmidt indicated that this was only the start of the co-operation between Dell and Google, with more agreements still to come.

For Microsoft, this could be a significant blow. The company knows exactly how effective pre-installation of software is in increasing market share - they did exactly the same when they bundled Internet Explorer with the Microsoft Office packages and crushed Netscape in the now legendary browser wars. The strategy is effective because computer users tend to be fairly passive and leave pre-installed desktop preferences exactly as they are when they unpack their new computer or laptop.

The Dell deal means that Google is able to influence user habits even before they go online for the first time, which is something they haven't been able to do up to now. And with how many users can Google get a foot in the door early? Well, industry speculation has it that the deal could cover up to 100 million computers!

Business Blogs: Boosting Your Website Traffic

Everyone seems to be blogging these days (ourselves included) - are you?

The concept of blogging works for one simple reason - people like to be heard, and blogs give them a soapbox to stand on. The only difference being that the audience isn't the local community; it's worldwide and that's the benefit for business bloggers.

Now doesn't this innovation ring bells of deja vu! I remember when people were saying the same thing about websites. It was a chance for anyone to communicate with everyone - all over the world, a genuinely international audience. So really the idea of blogging isn't revolutionary. What it has done, is significantly simplify the process.

If you're in business - especially online, do yourself a favor and really investigate starting you own blog (if you've already got one - read on to ensure you're making the most of it).

So why are blogs so powerful?

They are sources of information. As we can see from the meteoric success of search engines, information is powerful, so blogs give you the chance to harness that need for information.

Harnessing Blog Power for Your Business

For people who are genuinely undertaking business online or via the internet, generally your industry will have specific news, stats, product releases, gossip and whatever else, not to mention news about your own business, which will all be relevant to your target market. Now starting your own blog and providing this information gives your potential customers a reason to visit your site outside of the purchase process - this is Gold!

Imagine potential customers visiting your site daily or even weekly without you having to spend ridiculous amounts of money on advertising and promotion. Give them valuable relevant information and they will come. Once they're there, the job of converting them into buyers is a whole different story - which we cover elsewhere.

The real challenge lies in keeping the momentum going. Many new blogs are started (look at the latest stats from Technorati below) but continuing to update content and provide new information is the key to their success for your business. So when you do set one up, ensure you schedule time to continually update it - even if it is only a new article every fortnight. Remember search engines thrive on new content. The more new content you provide, the more likely search engines are going to visit your blog and share it with the world.

The blogosphere is doubling in size every 6 months
It is now over 60 times bigger than it was 3 years ago
On average, a new weblog is created every second of every day
19.4 million bloggers (55%) are still posting 3 months after their blogs are created
Technorati tracks about 1.2 Million new blog posts each day, about 50,000 per hour

Technorati Stats - April 2006

So You've Started your Blog - Now you Need Readers

A blog like a website needs visitors to ensure it's successful, and they are gained in the same manner as traditional website marketing. Search engines are a great primary source of readers!

Whilst the conversion on blogs might not justify paid advertising, the use of organic search engine marketing such as submission and optimization is a more affordable way to drive traffic to your blog. While there are several blog based search engines available, the 3 major search engines; Google, Yahoo! and MSN are still the main sources of web traffic and should be your initial inclusion goal.

So before you go out and start submitting your blog URL to all the major search engines, it's important to ensure your blog is optimized for high rankings beforehand (or "NOW" if you've already started). Just like your main website, top rankings = traffic.

While there are many things you can do once your blog is already up and running, the great optimization ideas listed below (courtesy of Lee Odden from TopRank) are worth exploring before you start your blogging journey.

DIY Blog Optimization

Keywords are Key:
Just like normal website search engine marketing, strong use of relevant keywords is vital to your high ranking. While your content shouldn't necessarily be driven by keywords, effective use of popular keyword terms and phrases definitely helps.

Tweak Your Template:
As blogs are essentially Content Management Systems, they use templates to standardise the process. Take the time to review your template and ensure that your blog title is attached to all post titles in the title tag. Ensure the standard text found throughout your blog is keyword rich (avoid spamming: blantant keyword listing without purpose).

Optimize Your Permalinks:
Blogs will list your posts titles as permalinks, so strong keyword usage will provide on-page link benefits.

Feed your Readers Desire for Information:
One of the greatest innovations to come from blogs is the syndication of content via RSS and more recently email. Syndication is the ability to subscribe to your blog and have updates delivered automatically (RSS: Real Simple Syndication). By ensuring you have an RSS feed, visitors can get automatic updates whenever you provide new content.

Keyword Based Categories:
Most blog software offers the ability to categorize your articles. Choose keyword rich categories, which will not only make your blog more user friendly, but also make the content more search engine rank friendly.

Let Them Bookmark Easily:
Social bookmarking sites are becoming important sources of traffic, with peer referral sometimes having more value than search results. There are many core bookmarking sites that you should offer simple linking to from your blog posts. The top ones include Del.icio.us, Furl, Digg to name but a few. Simple code within your template will automatically provide links to these social bookmarking sites.

These are just some of many DIY techniques you should be using to make the most of your business blog. For the effort you place in creating a valuable blog resource, you might as well optimize it now so that the search engines can do the hard work of delivering you traffic and potential customers. Stay tuned for more blogging tips in the coming weeks.

Saturday, May 27

Google Offers Dayparting and Scheduling Controls on AdWords

Google has announced plans to enhance their AdWords advertising platform with the introduction of Dayparting and Scheduling controls. Under enormous pressure surrounding click fraud allegations, these latest improvements to the AdWords platform should help quell some advertiser's concerns.

The essence behind the Dayparting and Ad Scheduling enhancements is to give advertisers more control over the AdWords campaigns. Advertisers can use previous ad performance to set the optimal time or day for their ads to be displayed with the aim of improving their campaign conversion rates.

This will also assist advertisers with controlling bid rates. Remember AdWords uses bids and previous CTR (click through rate) history to determine their priority for ad displays. With advertisers being able to set when the ads are displayed, they should be able to improve the CTR on their ads and hopefully remove some pressure from bid prices.

The downside to the new scheduling controls is that certain time periods will be more competitive than others and accordingly bid prices for these times or days will be driven up potentially pricing some advertisers out of the market.

The new initiatives are not only beneficial for Google's advertisers, but Google should see significant revenue improvements also. When advertisers see better CTR and conversion on their advertising campaigns, they are more likely to increase they advertising spend. I am sure this will make Google executives extremely happy, as we know that AdWords is already a significant contributor to Google's revenue stream.

The increased demand for certain time slots will also give Google more opportunities to leverage important internet events. Imagine AdWords timeslots like the Superbowl half time slot with big corporates vying for the opportunity to have their ads displayed, especially with the advent of Video AdSense, but that's another article in itself.

While the improvements are welcomed by advertisers, Google still has some way to go before they offer the demographic and behavioural targeting that the other search engines like Yahoo! and MSN are promising - or do they have a trump card up their sleeve...time will tell.

Yahoo! and eBay Join Forces

Speculation has been rife for months that the world's largest online shopping website eBay was going to forge a partnership with one of the major search engines. After rumors have been rampant, a formal announcement was made recently that Yahoo! has secured the illustrious deal which is sure to cause some concern for the other major players Google and MSN.

When you consider the strategic direction that the other two players have taken recently with the emergence of Google Base and Google Wallet, and MSN's release of the new Windows Live Shopping portal, the result isn't that surprising really.

In a point that was made very clear at the time of the announcement, this deal is not an acquisition, but rather a partnership around advertising, e-commerce and search. As Terry Semel, CEO of Yahoo! put it: "The deal offers great opportunities for both companies to share great assets with each other...It's all about creating more value and a better experience for users as well as for advertisers."

So what does the deal really mean:

1. Yahoo! becomes sole provider of advertising on eBay site
2. Paypal becomes Yahoo!'s main payment gateway
3. Co-branded Toolbars
4. Collaborated research into Click-to-Call advertising

1. The main short term gain for Yahoo! is the ability to offer their graphical and text advertising across the eBay website, which means increased exposure to the 75 million eBay users. This is the first time Yahoo! ads will be featured outside their network, but considering the active nature of eBay users, this a great expansion of their advertising reach.

2. Yahoo! will now use PayPal as the main payment gateway for all their customers, merchants and publishers. This removes the need for them to explore other payment options like Google did with Google Wallet, and with the high awareness and adoption of PayPal already, why reinvent the wheel.

3. The two companies will be featured on each others existing toolbars, with eBay already having 4 million users in place. This will probably mean that Yahoo! search will be offered on the eBay toolbar, while eBay sites will be searchable via the Yahoo! version.

4. In a move that could really enhance the existing search advertising models, both companies will leverage their VoIP services to push the Click-to-Call model across their networks. I am a strong supporter of the click-to-Call model, especially for small to medium sized businesses due to the direct nature of the response. Considering the market penetration of eBay's recent free VoIP acquisition Skype, and the existing capabilities of Yahoo! messenger, their efforts could really drive forward the Click-to-Call advertising model.

It is obvious that this new partnership will place enormous pressure on Google and MSN alike. Whilst it was surely not unforeseen, the deal will make eBay's e-commerce mega store even more powerful, creating greater barriers to success for both Google and MSN's efforts.

eBay will still be heavily reliant on Google for traffic, as almost all web sites are, but the partnership with Yahoo! is a better strategic move in the long term. Considering the Yahoo! portal's existing traffic and usage volumes and their efforts to innovate (or at least follow quickly) in areas such as social networking and web 2.0 development, their direction is more closely aligned to eBay's path.

Wednesday, May 24

Ask.com Sponsors English Cricket Team

Ask.com had no qualms about firing the very English butler Jeeves from his job as the search engine's figurehead, but the company has now ventured into a new area that embodies quintessential Britishness: cricket.

Ask.com has become an official partner of the English cricket team, with the sponsorship agreement including exclusive cricket content and commentary on an Ask.com microsite, online cricket games, competitions and ticket giveaways. Ask.com will maintain a presence at the Test and one-day international cricket grounds throughout the summer. Fridays at the cricket grounds have been dubbed "Ask.com Fridays", and Ask.com will also sponsor Q&A sessions with players of the English squad.

Rachel Johnson, who is responsible for Ask.com's European marketing, gave the following background information: "For us cricket was a natural choice - both our brand and the sport have recently 're-launched' and are entering new eras, gaining momentum and attracting new audiences. Our sponsorship of the England Cricket Team gives us the chance to use our online expertise to bring something fresh and exciting to fans. As a brand we urge people to Ask.com and Get and we plan to use our sponsorship to really get behind cricket and provide ways for supporters to get more from their love of cricket."

Time will tell if this new partnership will help users get over the loss of butler Jeeves, who is still sorely missed (check out the comments on our blog article about the topic).

You can find Ask.com's microsite at http://www.ask4cricket.com/. If you want to find out more about the game of cricket, wikipedia's entry on the topic is a good place to start. But be prepared to be patient - I've been trying to understand cricket for the past eight years and still don't quite get it (despite the best efforts of my husband!).

Tuesday, May 23

How Much Should You Pay For A Click?

How many clicks do you get for your money?

When you are looking at starting or expanding your paid search marketing campaign, it is great to know that you can get large amounts of qualified traffic for your site quickly. But it is also quite sobering to look at the cost you pay for every single click you get.

Spending several dollars per click can be quite daunting, even if you know with a sufficient amount of certainty that such an expense will still provide you with a positive return on investment. To calm your nerves in such a case, it might be helpful to know what the industry click cost averages are.

According to research by Fathom Online, the average cost per click that advertisers paid on search engines in the first quarter of 2006 was $1.39, which actually was lower than the average of $1.43 per click paid in the fourth quarter of 2005, when the busy holiday shopping season traditionally results in more aggressive keyword bidding online.

How does Fathom Online gather this data? They use their own proprietary data collection and reporting platform and monitor over 20,000 generic keywords covering 12 categories. The categories covered by Fathom Online include automotive, computing, consumer services, electronics, finance - investment, finance -mortgage, health, media and entertainment, retail, telecom - broadband, telecom - wireless and travel and hospitality.

Differences between categories can be quite large. While Fathom Online didn't release any average category click costs for the first quarter of 2006, even the comparison of average click costs for selected categories in November and December 2005 illustrates significant fluctuations based on seasonality and economic trends.

Category	Avg. Click Cost Nov. 2005	Avg. Click Cost Dec. 2005
Telecom - Wireless	$0.95	$1.09
Automotive	$1.38	$1.52
Retail	$0.45	$0.51
Travel + Hospitality	$0.97	n/a
Finance - Investment	$1.80	$1.60
Finance - Mortgage	$3.67	$3.30

(Please note Fathom Online's disclaimer: This data should be only regarded as background and benchmark information, but is not suitable as a basis of financial forecasts of search engine industry revenues.)

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U.S. Search Market Grows to 6.6 Billion

6.6 billion searches were conducted by Americans online in April, up four percent from last month, according to recent search engine rankings released by comScore Networks.

Google continues to dominate online search for the ninth consecutive month, sitting comfortably in first place with 43.1 percent of the market share, a slight increase from 42.7 percent in March.

As expected Yahoo! maintains its second position in the search engine rankings with 28.0 percent followed by MSN with 12.9 percent.

Share of Online Searches by Search Engine
April 2005 vs. April 2006

Search Engine	April 2005 (%)	March 2006 (%)	April 2006 (%)
Google Sites	36.5	42.7	43.1
Yahoo! Sites	30.7	28.0	28.0
MSN-Microsoft Sites	16.1	13.2	12.9
Time Warner Network	9.0	7.6	6.9
Ask Network	6.1	5.9	5.8
MySpace.com Search	N/A	N/A	0.6

Source: comScore qSearch, May 2006

Interestingly, Google held a 6 percent lead in market share ahead of Yahoo! in April 2005, but has since then extended its lead from Yahoo! in the share of searches to almost 15 percent.

News Corp's MySpace.com has entered the rankings for the first time with 43 million searches performed. This may be a sign of things to come according to comScore, who suggest that this less significant competitor in the search engine market may eventually rise in its rankings due to the immense popularity of the site.

In terms of toolbar searches, Google and Yahoo! both continue to have a firm hold on the market share, Google accounting for 48.0 percent of total toolbar searches conducted and Yahoo! following very closely with 47.6 percent of the share. Remarkably, both Google and Yahoo! combined make up just over 95 percent of all toolbar searches conducted in the U.S.

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Artificial Intelligence: Google's Plans for the Future

Artificial Intelligence: It's not a Hollywood movie! - It's Google's vision of the future. Speaking at a conference for their European partners (Zeitgeist '06), Google CEO Eric Schmidt and co-founder Larry Page shared some revelations about Google's ambitious plans for the future.

"The ultimate search engine would understand everything in the world. It would understand everything that you asked it and give you back the exact right thing instantly" suggested Larry Page at the conference.

The one thing that Larry Page has learned since starting up Google eight years ago is that technology develops much faster than expected which is why he feels that AI (Artificial Intelligence) could be a reality within a few years.

Google's company ethos has been the foundation for many rapid developments and launches. Employees are encouraged to work on pet projects with a fifth of their time dedicated to these personal research pursuits. It is this dedication and commitment to innovation that has lead to many rapid releases - but is also the basis for much shareholder concern.

Whilst releases have come thick and fast, few of them contribute directly to the business' core revenue which is search advertising. With ambitions to hold 20% of the global advertising market ($US800 billion), the current focus on integrating past releases more closely with the core search tool will be vital if Larry Page and Eric Schmidt want to achieve their advertising revenue goals.

More important for investors is that Google embarks on releases that are more aligned to the company's revenue goals than innovation for innovation's sake. In the high stakes internet game, the challenge is getting the balance right, but as long as search is the cornerstone to Google's success, they need to continue to push the boundaries of leading edge search technology and AI could be the answer.

If they manage to create a search engine that knows exactly what we're looking for, and understands our information needs better than we do and provides absolutely pinpoint relevant data, then it could be the answer to everyone's problems. As much as I love the vision, the ability to deliver such a revolutionary search engine has one enormous hurdle - humans. We are extremely complex beings, and understanding us is no easy feat...Good luck Google...

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Is Google Really All Conquering?

It's always interesting when the titans of search get put up in the spotlight for comparison and public scrutiny. After demand from the masses, Bill Tancer from Hitwise, a world renowned competitive online intelligence provider, has compiled a comparison table which shows who really is ruling the internet game.

In the pure search domain, the well documented dominance of Google still rings true with Yahoo! and MSN tussling for second and third place but still significantly behind the eight ball.

It does get interesting, when you start comparing the supplementary internet based services each of these companies offer. Take the news category for example. Yahoo! News has a clear lead over Google, with MSN unranked due to its service being included within the core search domain. While they all dominate search, they only make up a measly 3.4% of all internet news visits.

Then the battle for dominant free email service provider. Yahoo! Mail is the clear dominant player, with 42.4% of the market share. MSN and MySpace are the two other significant players...but Google holds a lowly 2.54% - almost off the radar.

And then there were maps. Who would have thought? The much hyped Google Maps and Google Earth take out the 3rd and 5th spots on the title board with Mapquest and Yahoo! taking the top spots respectively - by a long way.

All of them have become household names in the search race, but with the immense traffic volumes (and revenue) that these supplementary services generate, it's no surprise that they are investing heavily in improving their shares of the market. While Yahoo! and MSN struggle to establish themselves as serious search contenders, the real challenge is for Google to increase its portfolio strength. We all know a one trick pony is very vulnerable and considering all the new product hype, these comparisons suggest Google's only real trick is search!

Portal Property Rankings and Market Share by Vertical
RANK	PROPERTY	MARKET SHARE
Search Engines
1	Google	47.4%
2	Yahoo! Search	16.0%
3	MSN Search	11.5%
Email Services
1	Yahoo! Mail	42.4%
2	MSN Hotmail	22.9%
3	MySpace Mail	19.5%
4	Gmail	2.54%
News & Media
1	Yahoo! News	6.3%
5	Google News	1.9%
Travel - Maps
1	Mapquest	56.3%
2	Yahoo! Maps	20.5%
3	Google Maps	7.5%
4	MSN Virtual Earth	4.3%
5	Google Earth	2.0%
source: Hitwise Analyst Weblogs

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Monday, May 22

"Google Suggest" Spawns Another Lawsuit

It's almost a foregone conclusion that a new Google release will bring with it a new lawsuit for Google to contend with and Google Suggest is no exception. This latest tool from Google Labs has already sparked outrage based on the suggestions it provides.

The aim of the tool is to offer predictive suggestions based on the term you start entering. In the same vein as predictive text on your cell phone, the tool is designed to make the process of searching more efficient.

The suggestions presented are based on an algorithm which takes the characters you enter and starts providing possible terms you are looking for based on previous searches with high volumes. Simple really. Chances are you are trying to find information that other people have already tried to locate. Well that is until you start typing ServersCheck.

ServersCheck you ask. Well ServersCheck is a company that markets software and sensors to monitor the availability of your IT systems. The small company out of Leuven is in arms as the new Google Suggest tool provides a veritable smorgasbord of websites offering cracks and other piracy tools to illegally use their software.

The company has requested that Google remove the other suggestions which might lead to such hacks, but when their request was denied, they filed a suit against the search giant in a Belgian court.

Google has stated that the algorithm that powers Google Suggest is not adaptable and hence can't filter out results based on particular terms. ServersCheck are extremely skeptical as they believe Google is already filtering out adult based terms and information.

Such lawsuits are nothing new to Google, with Orkut, Google Talk and
Google Print all presenting Google with a similar legal predicament. Not to mention the all the ongoing issues with US congress and privacy. Herein lays the challenge when your company mission is to serve and share the information of the world. Not everyone wants it shared in a manner you deem suitable.

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Wednesday, May 17

Yahoo's New Homepage Design

Yahoo!'s homepage has a shiny new look:

The page is now wider, and what the page has gained in width it has lost in length;
The search box is bigger;
News headlines have moved down and to the center of the page;
There are fewer boxed sections, but more use of tabs to access more information;
There are more interactive elements (just mouse over the mail, local or weather buttons on the right hand side to see what happens).

The new homepage looks slicker and more up-to-date than the old one, and embraces personalization in the Web 2.0 spirit much more strongly than the previous homepage. This doesn't only apply to how personal and local services are integrated, but also to the overall look: Apart from the bluish-grey color scheme, you even can select from one of four other color schemes that you might prefer.

Of course, the new layout also provides Yahoo! with ample advertising space. And I'm sure the more prominent display of the web search box won't hurt Yahoo!'s pay-per-click advertising revenues!

Without being too revolutionary, you really do notice that a make-over of the Yahoo! homepage was indeed overdue when you compare the new version to the old version of the homepage.

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Tuesday, May 16

Getting Personal - Meet the Contributors

Hi Blog Readers

Following on from the lead of some of my colleagues (Nancy and Rene), I thought it was time to introduce myself - Warren Duff. In my three and a half years at ineedhits, I have held a few different roles. Starting out as Business Development Manager, I regularly attended the SESes (Search Engine Strategies conferences) and PubCons (hosted by WebMaster World) where I got to met many interesting webmasters from all over the world. More recently, I have overseen the running of ineedhits' Operations, Sales and Customer Care Teams, using the knowledge that I had gained early in my career and the knowledge of SEO obtained from listening to some of the best SEOers around.

My passion is technology - not technology for the sake of it however. Rather, I enjoy seeing how various improvements in technology can help make businesses more productive or life easier for individuals. I have seen too many companies invest many thousands of dollars and hours of work into putting in technology, without fully understanding what the benefits would be, only to be disappointed with the end result. In my opinion, technology should not be seen as a silver bullet but rather the foundation for improving business processes to support the needs of the business.

What consumes the vast majority of my leisure time is my chosen sport of Fastpitch Softball - not as a player but as an Umpire and Administrator. In October I will travel to New Zealand to attend a clinic which will hopefully see me achieve my International Softball Federation (ISF). This certification will enable me to umpire at international events around the world, including Test Series, World Championships and potentially, the Olympic Games. In the meantime I am working on refining all parts of my game to ensure that I am going to give it 100%. The challenge of calling pitches in excess of 80 miles/hr (130Km/hr) something so different to work, that I find it relaxing!

When not calling a ball game, I spend time my time exercising my 6 month old Golden Retriever puppy. I am hoping that if I tire her out enough she will stop destroying my garden. No matter how far we walk/run, she still always has enough energy remaining to dig holes in my newly established lawn.