Bmycharity blog

Playing with search

We've been busy exploring Search Engine Marketing (SEM)...  Last week I was at a SEM conference where Seamus from Find 50 Marketing gave a great presentation - it's available for download on his site  There's a lot to learn, but we've already doubled the share of our traffic coming from search engines, and there's more to come.

Meanwhile I'm experimenting with Google's Adsense customised search - here's an example:

     

But where to put it?  Research suggests that the best results come from search boxes at the top or right side of a page - hmmm - not much space available there at the moment, but any suggestions welcome...

Putting in the miles, and getting to the church

My training programme is in full swing now - only 2 months to go before tackling the Etape du Tour's 102 miles with 10,000ft of climb in the Pyrenees.  I've still got 95kg to drag up the hills, but training's going well, so I'm beginning to look forward to it.  I've repaired the relationship with my heart rate monitor, and I'm enjoying tracking the steady improvement in my fitness that it is reporting...

So - now I've received an invitation to Will's wedding the day before the race - and I'm going to try to make it to that too.  It'll be tight - Al can register me in France on the Saturday while I toast the bride and groom in Surrey, then race for Gatwick and the last flight to Toulouse.  Not ideal race-prep, but at least I won't have to spend Saturday hanging around Pau with 7,000 other cyclists!

Overtraining

Two problems at the moment:

1. My new heart rate monitor is telling me I'm overdoing it
2. Hill training last weekend showed the value of losing some weight - maybe 10kg!

First of all the HRM - which by the way measures heart rate, breathing rate, VO2, altitude, speed and recovery rate - is telling me that I'm deep in "overtraining" territory.  On Sunday night I spent 1hr 40 on a turbo trainer and my HRM told me that I was in the red for the last 70 minutes - while I was reading (The Past is Myself, Christabel Bielenberg - excellent).  I talked to a friend who is training for 6 months in Helmand with 3 Commando Brigade, and he had a similar problem.  In fact his HRM had told him to run so slowly he'd got siatica!

Meanwhile my weekend outing to some hills near Oxford revealed another alarming truth.  I've got plenty of stamina and power on the flat, but my power to weight ratio ain't so hot!  Wobbling up a hill out of Wantage at walking pace I began to wonder if 10,000ft of Pyrenee will be feasible with 95kg of Brabyn to haul.

So should I overtrain or undereat?  Or both?

It's April fools day - but I got started early:

On Saturday I received a random text message which read "Hey simon its hugo, just wondering if tomorrow is still on as its a holiday?  Let me know on my number (...)".  I replied "Hi hugo - tomorrow still on but fancy dress (theme - pirates)."

I'm hoping that Hugo turned up to a cabinet meeting or job interview with parrot and patch!  If you know Hugo, please pass him my regards - and if you've any April fool stories to share and inspire, please comment below...

Flugtag is coming

Do you have wings?  The 2008 Red Bull Flugtag is coming up on 7 June - find out more and register for tickets from 0900 on April Fools Day at www.redbullflugtag.co.uk!

Hello again!

We're back!  It's been a busy morning "caught with the bonnet open", but thanks to Matt's herculean overnight efforts (though he's in New Zealand so at least he had beautiful views and daylight outside the window) - we are now back online.

We're sorry to all those whose fundraising was delayed - but there's a silver lining: several people have been in touch to ask about virtualisation, so with luck we'll be helping them make their computing greener too!

Thursday morning spring clean

Good morning - if you're reading this you're probably wondering where Bmycharity has gone.  We're still here, but we're hiding the site for a few hours while we make some major system improvements - more below on what's going on behind the scenes...

In the meantime, if you're wanting to fundraise or sponsor a friend, we're sorry not to be on hand to help at the moment, but we will be back as soon as possible.  If you'd like us to email you when we are ready to welcome you back to the site, please post a comment below and we'll let you know right away.

We're in the process of virtualising our system - this means we're moving everything into a massive 1,000+ server virtual computer.  The good news is that this means that all our sites will be faster, and because virtual computers are much more efficient, our carbon footprint gets smaller too!  The bad news is that transferring is pretty complex, so we've overrun a bit this morning - sorry!

Ben and the team at Bmycharity

How not to train...

Just 4 months now until the Etape du Tour, and my training has suffered some setbacks.  The good news is that I have now finally received my bike, but

1. I've only ridden it once
2. I fell off after 300 yards
3. I haven't eaten for 4 days

But this means that things can only get better :)  The fall was on the way back from the bike shop - it was the first time I had ever ridden with clips, so when a taxi stopped suddenly in front of me I was too slow to release a foot and fell from a standstill - no harm done.  The main challenge now is the lurgy which has laid me low for the last 4 days - no fun.

Meanwhile I've found my leggings, so training rides will be much more colourful.  Watch out for these around London - detail above!

Still no bike - but a neat new banner...

The bike is due to arrive next week, and I've been putting off doing any exercise until it arrives.  Great news from Al - I heard today that he hasn't got a bike yet either, but he'll have it by the weekend and he's warming up with a ride to Chichester and back to London...

Meanwhile we've been busy helping people set up London Marathon pages and groups, and there's the usual flurry of new year charities wanting to set up sites - so we're looking forward to Sacha getting back from maternity leave to help out!

And Matt and Paul have been busy with design development which means we've now got a banner for our partner charities, and event operators to encourage people to get started with their online fundraising - what do you think?

Full cycle

This is the route of the 2008 Etape du Tour - on 6 July 2008 7,000 of us will start on the left side of the graph and try to make it to the right, 165km and and 10,000ft of climbing later - and in temperatures of 40C...

I agreed to take part when challenged by Al, a veteran of the Marathon des Sables and countless other endurance events.  Trouble is I don't own a bike.  I've spent some time in my local Evans Cycles, and they've been guiding me towards Specialized bikes - I'm looking for something that will be light enough to minimise my regrets on the way towards Col du Tourmalet...

While I continue my research into bikes, I'm getting started with some light fitness training - mostly running and bodyweight exercises - but very low intensity at this stage.  The serious stuff begins on Boxing Day when my two wheeled Christmas present goes for its first spin.

If you'd like to join the Bmycharity Etape du Tour team, email me or call us on 0845 0580549 - we've managed to secure some prized extra places, complete with accommodation and transport.

36% increase in donation rates!

Four weeks on and the response to our new look has been fantastic!  Donation rates are up 36% - in other words every visitor to our site is 36% more likely to make a donation.  We watch this stat carefully because we care just as much about the people who decide not to donate as the ones who do - we want everyone who visits one of our sites to like what the find, and even if they don't make a donation right away we hope they'll have a favourable impression of the charity - and of Bmycharity too.

So the great news is that many more of the visitors to our site are liking what they find, and more than ever are prepared to put their money where their mouse is :)