It is not always easy to remember all the places one needs to visit on a holiday, or all the details of one’s own city, hence why it is sometimes helpful to have a useful tool to assist. Google maps is just such a tool. On TalkMunich.com the Google map API is utilised to allow users to log in and set place markers with descriptions for any location in Munich. This can be useful to remember where certain buildings are located for both those who live in the city and those who wish to follow the tourist route and explore.
Check out the map on Talk Munich and use it to save your favourite and important locations in Munich.
Will munich
It is easy to dismiss blogging and blog comments as nothing more than a passing fad that Google will eliminate as a source of quality in-bound links in due course, however, for the moment it is a valid and useful way to build traffic.
An SEO colleague of mine recently based a successful campaign on comments on other peoples blogs and forums. He did not spam these forums, but instead added small snippets of valuable, relevant content. Everyday he gathered about 10-20 inbound links. Within 2 months his campaign was paying dividends in terms of a 100% increase in traffic and Adsense revenue. Google saw fit to acknowledge the links and list them in it’s Webmaster Tools for the account in question.
By regularly posting on others’ forums and blogs and sticking to this strategy for a few months, it seems that it is indeed possible to dramitically improve your site exposure in the SERP’s (Search Engine Results Page) . Blog and forum comments are not dead yet, so make use of this technique whilst the window is still open.
Will website_technology
A sitemap generator is a much needed tool for a website with a lot of content. Getting this right is actually more important than many people think as Google follows the sitemap and omits anything not included in it. For TalkMunich I will require such a tool but need to create it myself as I do not like trusting other companies’ software. Being able to tweak your own code is a big advantage and allows a level of flexibility that you would not normally get with code written by others. I suspect that writing your own sitemap generator is a useful process as it allows you to nicely parse those files which contain the links you really want to follow as opposed to unimportant links. I am aware of course that some sitemap generator tools allow you to use regular expressions to produce an exclude filter, but nevertheless, creating your own software tool means yo need to increase your understanding to a significantly more illuminating depth.
I can make my tool available for free to anyone who wishes to use it.
Will munich, website_technology
It is nearly that time of year again, when the big tents go up at the Wiesn and millions of people descend on Munich for just over two weeks of festival fun, i.e. drinking. The Oktoberfest, so-called due to the traditional start date of the festival in October, actually now always begins in September; the date was brought forward to utilise the better weather.
What can you expect from this festival? Beer. Loads of it. It is not known as the Munich Beer festival for nothing. However, there is lots to gain from attending even if you are not a big drinker. The fairground is absolutely massive and a big crowd pleaser, which makes the event family friendly. The traditional clothing worn by many locals and non-locals alike can be very beautiful and adds to the traditional atmosphere. In the beer tents, which can house thousands of people each, you will find live entertainment, food (usually roast chicken and bread are the favourites), dancing (usually on the seats after a few drinks) and good conversation. Anti-social behaviour is rare and dealt with very quickly, so a relaxed atmosphere is guaranteed.
At the opening ceremony at the start of the Oktoberfest, the 12 local breweries who partake (only Munich breweries are allowed to take part in the festival) all form a horse-drawn procession from their individual premises to the Wiesn, carrying huge casks of their beer on wagons. Once the first keg is opened by the Munich Lord Mayor, the beerfest begins. Just over two weeks later the festivities are capped off with a fireworks display. In-between, the stats are impressive; check out how many chickens are eaten, beer drunk, women impregnated, people too drunk to find their way back to their hotel, etc. Very interesting indeed.
All in all, well worth the effort to visit Munich during this period. Be aware though that hotel prices and travel over these weeks is very expensive, so book well in advance. Alternatively, bring some camping gear. Check out www.talkmunich.com for more information and discussions on the Oktoberfest, cheap accommodation, local advice etc. One last piece of advice… the beer is served in 1 litre glasses called a Mass and the alcohol content is a lot higher than normal beer, usually about 2 times the amount. So be careful as it goes down far too easily… before you know it you will be sleeping on a park bench wondering where your hotel is.
Will munich
At certain times of the year it is very difficult to get a hotel in Munich. One of the reasons is that Munich punches above it’s weight as a city of international reputation. With only 1.3 Million inhabitants, it still enjoys status as one of the best places to live in the world, as well as hosting some of the biggest festivals and events to be found anywhere on the planet. Not every city can claim to have hosted the Olympics and even fewer of these select cities have had such a small population.
The combination of having such a relatively small population and hosting massive events like the Oktoberfest (the Munich Beer Festival) means that what little accommodation available is quickly snapped up. So if you are planning to come to Munich, be sure to plan in advance and book your hotel. There are large festivals other than the Oktoberfest, so don’t be surprised if, when you try to book during an off-peak period, that hotels are still unavailable. Give yourself plenty of time and you stand a better chance of not being disappointed when you try to book accommodation.
If you find there are no hotels or hostels available when you wish to travel to Munich, then consult the www.talkmunich.com forum and post a request there for people renting out rooms or apartments. Often at busy times of the year, local ex-pats see the shortage of accommodation as a means to earn a little extra cash, so you may get a good deal if you post what you are looking for on talkmunich.
Will munich
Getting content on your site is critical (on average) to helping your site rank well. However, this usually involves a lot of work. One way to ease the workload, is to allow user-generated content on your web site. This can take the form of a blog which you write, but which can be commented on by others, or maybe even a forum. Both these examples (and there are many more such technicuqes) offer advantages as well as challenges. Two main areas of concern are spammers and illegal/offensive content. If you allow user-generated content, then you must make sure that you adequately moderate what is posted on your site. The last thing you need is a lawsuit on your hands or your customers being barraged with offensive material.
Both blogs and forums can be enabled with free software. For forum software try SMF or phpBB; for blogging try Wordpress.
Will website_technology
There is a serious lack of English-language forums for ex-pats in Munich. Perhaps it is time to supplement the dating site with a sister-site in Munich for ex-pats. I shall call it TalkMunich. The problem with the sites which currently exist is that they are hopelessly moderated and fail to provide anything other than advice and chat. Whilst Chatting and advice are the cornerstone of any forum, there should be other things as well. For instance, TalkMunich has a translator on the front page which defaults to German to English translations. It also has a currency convertor, defaulting to Euro to Dollar. A map, centred on Munich, where you can save your favourite locations is on the site. A calandar of events is available, which shows public holidays (in English), as well as forum-specific events and local festivals etc (hard to get this information in English). Another handy feature is that there is Munich news on the front page, also in English and updated daily!!!! That is a great feature and one which is very useful. Not enough to tempt the ex-pat community to visit, then it also provides Munich weather reports. Now add to all these front page features, links to the latest forum posts and you have a winning recipe.
The forum itself is better than most other competitor forum software and has the advantage of supporting Karma, i.e. the ability of users to rate other users’ posts. This helps to self-moderate and reduce the likelihood of unpleasant posters ruining the atmosphere on the site. I think TalkMunich.com stands a good chance of becoming a serious resource for the Munich English-speaking ex-pat community.
Will munich
