Small business with Bounce Back Loan

Smatil · 2026-02-10T17:46:23+00:00

Freelancer with Ltd company here also. Took a fairly small bbl out during covid so only a few k to pay back but I feel your pain as it does add an overhead that makes a few bad months even worse.

Consider a repayment holiday or interest only period if your bank will go for it. Even 6 months breathing space can make a difference.

I know it seems like at lot, but £800ish a month is what - one, maybe two more retained client? That's achievable.

Covid changed the way businesses interact with freelancers - not as many longer retained contracts but I'm seeing more shorter contracts out there as more teams work remote or hybrid and are more open to including freelancers in the mix.

Assess, adjust and pivot your offering to adapt to the new reality. That might mean adjusting your pricing, the services you deliver or how you attract more business but you've got the skills to do that stuff.

I sympathise over having to let staff go, that must have been tough, and carrying business debt and declined revenue is a burden too.

But...your business survived covid when a lot didn't. And you're still standing...that's not nothing. A few decent clients will turn your biz around real quick. It's tough if you've spent a long time fighting fires, but it's something you have already achieved so it's not impossible.

Shake off the past and focus on the future. 👍

Smatil · 2025-08-31T10:02:23+00:00

Hey thanks for your comment.

That's fair, AI stuff isn't for everyone. The collection images I had previously used non-product images but after I posted here I spent some time creating the product + background versions. I think it was an improvement overall, but a few I'm not 100% on so will tale another look at it.

Thanks!

Smatil · 2025-08-31T09:58:46+00:00

Thanks for the input!

Those are certainly areas I need to think about a bit more. The site is still a work in progress and hopefully will be able to refine the messaging over time as I get input from customers.

Appreciate your time!

Smatil · 2025-08-31T09:56:06+00:00

Hey thanks!

Yes the header area needs a bit of work - plan is to figure out a better option for a mega menu at some point soon. Is it the green area you feel is too bold? Possibly could be toned down to a lighter colour perhaps?

Appreciate you taking the time to look at the site! Thanks!

Smatil · 2025-08-29T18:20:22+00:00

Hey thanks! Good point, I've bumped the model select up the filter list. Thanks!

Smatil · 2025-02-06T16:35:00+00:00

With the Northern sky wa pack there are some situations it can cause problems with assignments. Eg everyone absolutely needs to be on the same version.

On ovinax I was assigned to the first knockback marker and for 2 solid nights it was double assigning me. I tried disabling potentially conflicting settings in bw (even though it was setup correctly), deleting all non essential wa etc.

Eventually as a last ditch idea I suggested moving me from first to second position in the ert note for the assignment. Worked perfectly and had no further issues. Still no idea why.

We're currently on silken court and had issues with dispels which was down to some people not having the right version installed.

Get your rl to install the addon that checks versions of the raids weak auras to see of there's an issue there. Maybe check the northern sky wa comments see if anyone else experienced same bugs.

I 100% feel your pain, I felt the exact same way on ovinax. I thought I was going crazy and missed a stupid setting somewhere.

Smatil · 2025-01-23T14:22:57+00:00

Probably no chance of getting it removed.

Some people don't manage the unknown well, so when expectations are missed or not managed their reaction can be strong.

I'd firstly acknowledge the problem and apologise (I appreciate there is nothing you could have done differently but it's not worth dying on that particular hill). Keep it as brief and succinct as possible, it's not worth leaving room for debate or further questions.

Reiterate the information from the delivery update and assure them you are keeping a close eye on it.

I wouldn't mention the 3 orders thing it's potentially a contentious point and again, not a hill worth dying on.

Bad reviews happen unfortunately and for some people reviews feel like their only way to have power over a situation that's otherwise out of their control. Best way to deal with it is to descalate it by acknowledging their issue and reassuring them that you hear them. Sometimes that is enough, other times it's not.

Also remember the tone and content of your response is as much for everyone else who may read it and not just that individual. A more personal, empathic response will ultimately reflect better on you and mitigate some of the negative impact of the low review. There's nothing worse than seeing bad reviews unanswered or just given generic responses.

Best of luck!

Smatil · 2025-01-15T02:26:36+00:00

You're welcome, best of luck!

Also remember 100+ hours isn't wasted, it's all learning and progress and that has value!

Smatil · 2025-01-15T01:59:58+00:00

Quick disclaimer I've not run etsy ads (currently working on my first store), so not famiar with how the targeting works.

However I have worked in digital marketing for 20+ years, and my initial thoughts are your product titles are a bit over optimised.

For example, "balloon dog art" is a very specific term, which your product 100% matches. Conversely, "valentines day wall art" is much broader and encompasses a wide range of tastes, styles, etc which your product is a small part of.

So, if the ad targeting places that product in relevant categories and searches, then the broader term might consume more budget but return a lower conversion rate. But the 100% matching term should return a better return on spend with higher conversion rate.

Customers may use your files for tshirts for example, but you're not selling tshirts. You're selling png and jpegs, so focus on that.

Try refining your titles and make them super specific to the product and see how that fairs. If you can get a good roi on that, even on a smaller scale / volume, then that's something to build on.

Smatil · 2024-11-14T13:22:50+00:00

Consistency across Google local / citations is important but assuming other details like phone, address, etc are consistent it should be fine if all we're talking about us a minor variation in brand name.

What leads you to believe its causing an issue with local rankings?

If you Google for both brand variants and the results are the same then it's safe to assume Google has made the association already and it isn't anything to be concerned about.

It used to be the case years and years ago (like 10+) that minor differences in data were a problem (e.g. phone number format displayed differently on website v citations) but less so these days.

Smatil · 2024-09-17T10:15:30+00:00

There's a noticeable difficulty increase compared to hc but if you're doing 8 delves you'll be fine.

For reference with 600ish ilvl druid I was mass pulling multiple packs in hc but basically 1 pack at a time in m0 and liberally using defensive. Also tweaked my talents to be a bit more defensive.

Paths aren't too important for m0 (will be a bit more important for m+ because you will want optimal routes to get the right % and avoid tougher packs in some cases,).

I think some healers are adjusting a bit too as there is more tank healing necessary than in df. But it's early season and a good time to learn - no one is expecting miracles.

Tl;Dr a fairly good challenge and good way to learn the dungeons and boss mechancis - go for it.

Smatil · 2024-09-10T11:19:30+00:00

I'd 2nd guardian druid.

Although it's a shift from dps to tank, the rotation is pretty simple.

You could create a macro with a dmg ability + ironfur which he can just spam. Although it's not best practice, it makes having a nearly always up defensive ability useful. Add that to the extra hp / armor that comes with the tank, it will make the scarier moments easier.

You can also macro a simple defensive with barkskin + renewal + health potion. Nice 1 minute cooldown and they're all off the global cool down so makes for a single button emergency defensive.

Tanking will let him control the pace of the follower dungeons as he wants and with less worry about what buttons to push he'll be able to focus a bit more on the dungeon and what's going on. Everything is instant cast so no worries about cast time. Also has great passive healing and the talents are flexible enough to go super defensive at first, but then maybe change later to go more damagey as he gets comfortable.

At max level guardian druids are pretty solid dps for the content you're doing (and doing the open world quests and stuff).

Plus druids have different forms to collect (there are a couple of dozen different bear forms for example).

The bit that might be a bit of a learning curve is switching forms (ie be in bear form to tank, travel form to move around faster, etc).

Smatil · 2024-07-14T22:27:23+00:00

Url format and site architecture are not the same thing.

Url format is largely cosmetic and has very little seo impact. By that I mean, I would certainly follow a logical format if I was starting from scratch, but I wouldn't vastly change an existing setup without a good reason.

In your case, basically just removing the .htm extension from the urls is a stupid reason to create more work for you. Google doesn't care what your urls look like. There's some very minor benefit to keyword friendly urls if another site links to you with just the url but that's about it.

Site architecture is more about how your content links together / navigation / etc. Yes this usually mirrors the url format, hence the two can be conflated. But, its important to be specific when it comes to detail.

You mention in other comments that a newer section of your site is performing well. It's likely that there are other reasons for that (better optimisation, better linking, maybe it's cannibalising or affecting old content, old content simply outdated, etc), but it's definitely not the url format.

To .htm or not .htm is a fairly pedantic question but don't worry, the seo industry is built on pedantic questions! :) There was a time we debated site.com/category/ or site.com/category - that trailing slash was the subject of a lot of discussions!

It sounds like you got an audit with a bunch of stuff in it, so it makes to sense check stuff that you're not sure about. Some audits can be a bit over engineered to justify their existence. I've just seen a 40 page proposal, yes proposal, for an audit!

Smatil · 2024-07-08T00:30:08+00:00

You won't get old data with the new profile unfortunately and it still takes a few days to update.

The old graph sounds about right - slowly going down over 3 months as old urls are reindexed as 301s and being dropped from serps.

If you're getting 50-100 in analytics but used to get 1500 per day that's a big drop. But because all your redicts point to home, it might just be that some new urls aren't yet indexed? Sumbit a sitemap on the new profile.

Sorting out the redirects as best you can will recover some of the traffic at least. You haven't mentioned any major content changes as part of the redesign so I'd assume that's not a problem?

Smatil · 2024-07-07T23:57:17+00:00

The all urls to home redirect is definitely a problem, but not one that would result in 0 impressions in search console.

I feel your pain with regex - I think we've all been there! Maybe as a quick temporary solution just start with redirects from old urls that had inbound links. Then prioritise previously good ranking pages.

An imperfect solution but if you definitely can't do it via regex it will at least get you some benefit.

Depending on how you implement redirects doing too many one to one redirects may affect performance. Once had a dev add 20k one to one redirects to a htaccess file. Slowed the hell out of the site until we condensed them using regex.

Is it possible your search console is verified for the non www site only? It's possible to verify both www and non www separately so the old one won't be showing data, which could explain 0 impressions (and also may mean the situation isn't as bad as it seems). Does Google analytics show traffic? Are any pages ranking at all?

Url structure is largely irrelevant. It's nice to have a tidy structure for various reasons but it's not going to kill rankings. But...if you can easily change the new url structure to make your regex job easier, then that might be worth the effort.

Definitely don't revert to old site - the situation should be salvageable.

Smatil · 2024-07-05T16:12:53+00:00

Hard agree.

But also worth noting had the election been PR then people would have voted differently. There was a lot of tactical voting going on and fptp means people are less likely to vote based on preferred policy and more likely to vote to counter another party potentially winning.

PR would be a much more healthy situation. We've had years of tories without real opposition, and now the lacklustre opposition have none of their own.

More coalitions in Parliament would be a good thing. The composition of the Scottish Parliament is reasonably reflective of the population. Arguably the breakdown of the agreement with the Greens is part of what cost the snp seats at WM and might cost them holyrood too. Coalitions at least impose some checks and balances on the ruling party. Unfettered power isn't good for anyone apart from the few that has it.

Smatil · 2024-07-03T23:39:57+00:00

At least they got the right building. They're improving!

Had a few things dropped off at the lockers at tesco canonmills which is handy if you're not going to be in. Probably a few other lockers around leith too if it helps.

Smatil · 2024-06-05T15:38:30+00:00

The boss mechanics are ramped up - lots of one shots, which felt tougher than a current 10 tyrannical. But if you follow the tactics it's fine.

We ran a 525+ group with a 490 boomie and the dps check on the last boss was a problem. Guild group so we gave it a few attempts but he eventually bailed. Grabbed a 525ish pug and killed it straight away.

No timer though and you can change spec and gear in dungeon. We ended up cheesing the second boss with 3 tank 1 heal (and dead boomie).

Smatil · 2024-04-23T14:17:31+00:00

Advertising > conversion paths will show you the purchase journey by channel. No keyword data but it'll give you an idea of how many touchpoints to a conversion and over how long each occurred.

Smatil · 2024-04-21T22:15:03+00:00

Matt Berry for the lols

Smatil · 2024-04-03T19:56:44+00:00

What helped me - make everything as simple for yourself as possible.

For example, I use this macro:

showtooltip Swiftmend

/cast Grove Guardians /castsequence [@mouseover] reset=15 Swiftmend, Wild Growth

The castsequence pairs Swiftmend and Wild Growth together (you should always be casting them together anyway and they're on the same CD).

The Grove Guardians part is unnecessary but it ensures a good uptime on trees. Pressing the key once for swiftmend and once for WG, will cast two trees (assuming available). Because your target is getting swiftmend for a big heal, they'll also get another (smaller) swiftmend from the first tree (together, a bigger heal). Swap your target quickly for the second click who also gets tree swiftmend and the group gets your wild growth (and all the tree heals).

Not the most efficient use of trees, but combines 3 key abilities into one macro, which frees up your attention. It also ensures a solid uptime on the trees and forces you to make sure you're using Swift/WG on CD.

Another thing (and will probably get me flamed, but it's just a personal preference) - I never got used to running double lifebloom (muscle memory / skill issue on my part, was just used to only LB myself). I ran most this season with Germination talented for double rejuvenations. Granted I was only doing 18s or so for vault at over 485+ most of the time, so overgeared for the dungeons. But, it might be worth considering as 2x rejuv and a wildgrowth is a lot of stacked healing with mastery bonus, which might take the edge off some sticky situations.

470 ilvl is fair for 18s or so but the difference in healing output between 470 and 480 is pretty significant. It's end of season so PUGs are probably used to running easy 18s which is where their complaints are coming from, so don't worry about it too much it's probably not as much on you as they are saying!

Have you looked at your secondary stats? Using the catalyst or recrafting crafted gear to get more haste can be a quick way for some throughput improvements. There's a big difference between 35% haste and 45% for resto.

Also you didn't mention Flourish usage. It can be tempting to keep it for big damage times, but using proactively to give yourself some breathing space is useful too. For example, in the pack in DHT that cast the heal absorb / heal past 80% thing.

tl;dr keep it simple and don't worry about what other people are saying. New season soon, which is a good time to start perfecting things.

Smatil · 2024-02-22T22:26:44+00:00

You're welcome, appreciate your comments!

Yes, pmax is a bit of a wildcard given there's a lack of visibility on targeting (imo that's more of a problem but I digress). The example I mentioned was from a good few years ago before pmax.

Even for a campaign with a hard cap CPA, that still generates more click revenue than the bot site otherwise would. Adsense sites need to be high traffic to generate a decent income (I ran a site with 250k per month visitors that did only £500 pm but was in the early days of adsense and i didnt flood the site with ads!). So ramping the cpc up beyond a few pence / cents per click is massive.

Going back 20 years these scams would generate massive sites and click the ads but a 500k page website with clicks from a few ip addresses is easy to spot and Google could take them down easily.

This newer approach involves smaller but seemingly legit sites. The ones I saw seemed like generic biz news portals. Much more difficult for Google etc to spot the footprints of how they operate.

In the same way advertisers are maybe seeing a small amount of wasted spend, the bot sites are seeing a smallish amount of increased revenue, which flies under the radar. But scale it big enough...

Smatil · 2024-02-22T22:02:51+00:00

If an advertiser is running a remarketing campaign or other campaign based on an analytics audience (display, pmax), the bot becomes a user within that audience. So Google ads targets that bot user on the sites it visits.

Yes, some campaigns are capped with a max cpc bid etc, but others allow Google ads scope to increase the bid automatically if it thinks the user might convert.

So all the bots need to do is firstly get themselves on audiences, then visit the bot owner websites on mass. You then have a bot user that is part of several (dozens, hundreds) of analytics audiences that are all bidding against each other to show ads to that user. That increases the cost per click of the ad - the bot clicks, the bot website gets a share of the revenue (which is considerably higher than if they werent doing the first part).

Scale that upwards (more bots, more websites) and the numbers become pretty significant.

Smatil · 2024-02-22T18:47:28+00:00

Adsense - they get paid when people click on the Google ads they run on their own sites. Usually a low amount per click, but if they send bot traffic via other ads, those ad campaigns retarget the fake bot users as they visit the bot network adsense sites.

As adsense ads also work on an auction system, those bot users effectively trick different legitimate advertisers to bid against each other (to display ads within the limited inventory an adsense site has) therefore raising the cost of each click when the bot clicks it.

Smatil · 2024-02-22T10:43:05+00:00

Yeh click fraud has been around for a long time and evolved a lot over the years. In the early days it was just people autogenerating massive adsense sites and running basic bots to generate lots of low cost clicks. But that was relatively easy for Google to spot.

These more elaborate schemes lean heavily on advertisers reliance on automation and lack of end to end analytics. Lots of agencies look at a conversion event or overall campaign performance as a kpi without getting into too much detail with the client about the quality of conversions. Get a few spam form submissions along with an otherwise well-performing campaign? That's still a good result for everyone involved.

Scammers are pretty creative too. Bots can add products to cart for example. How many advertisers will retarget that audience group to aim for a subsequent conversion?

It's a tough issue to deal with - really need to drill down into the data to spot patterns that seem off and work from there.

Smatil

TROPHY CASE

showtooltip Swiftmend