When Google Levels The Playing Field (Part Three – The Final One)

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More than 1m sites have been hit by the penguin update. Does that make me feel better? No it doesn’t, and I just hope that others aren’t suffering as badly as we are.
Just three weeks ago we were  selling lots of fantastic holdalls to an enthusiastic audience who offered us testimonials without ever having to be asked. We prided our customer service on being second to none.
It still is, but there are far fewer customers and virtually no holdall buyers, because it would appear that our Penguin ‘penalty’ applies to three key phrases – holdalls, briefcases and messenger bags. Or put another way the very basis of our man bag business.
All those key phrases were on or near where they needed to be – one page one of the Google search listings, but now some of them can’t even be found. When was the last time you searched beyond page one? Two at a push?
The fact that hundreds of tens of thousands of other businesses are up against it and some will have gone already gone to the wall, does not make me feel better. Au contraire my heart goes out to them. I feel for them.
We have worked ridiculous hours to develop the idea that was Blokesbags, and not a day has gone by without a part of it being dedicated to this project – even when thousands of miles away for a snatched holiday. Businesses like these do not run themselves and we are not big enough to hand it over to anyone else. Though until Penguin, we were getting close.
People who know me, know that I play I straight and despite being a former journalist, with all the accusations that fact normally garners, I play fair. I am honest.
That is why whenever we have struggled with any aspect of the Blokesbags web business; we have turned to the experts and followed their (sometimes) expensive advice. But no matter what we paid, it is as nothing compared to the cost we are paying now in lost sales.
There is also the cost of turning once again to ‘experts’ to try an stabilise our position and hopefully get it the business back to where it was before and so far we have consulted no fewer than four Site Engine Optimisation experts and still we can’t find the problem
That is where it all goes wrong. It would be OK if when Google decided to level the playing the field, they told us what game we were playing. But no, we have to somehow work that out for ourselves.
Others have at least been told why they have been penalised via Google’s own webmaster tools website that most of us subscribe to, but not Blokesbags. As a result we have been left fighting a battle, not just blind but with our hands tied behind our backs.
The SEO experts have told us that our home page may have had too many key words on it. It was, of course one of them that told us to put them there.
They are gone now, but it has made no difference.
Another of our SEO experts has told us that we had too many PR Links with the same anchor text. Guess what?  We paid one of them to put them there to the tune of £150 a month.
They too have gone, but it has made no difference.
We have rewritten meta-descriptions, re-ordered key words and changed page titles on the retrospective advice of the experts. We have also written press releases and articles to try and redress the balance.
It has made no difference.
In closing, there remains just one thing that needs to be stressed. Blokesbags is not a mega company, it is not even a medium company, it is a one man band operating with the help of that one man’s wife. All the work has been done, where possible, in house, which makes it very hard, and very time consuming.
But we are up against the big boys, the Marks and Spencer, the Argos, the John Lewis’s of this world and they have huge departments to do all this for them. They have an unfair advantage from the start because they also have huge publicity machines. They have the funds and as you would expect they use them.
Ironically Blokesbags was there specializing exclusively in men’s bags before they even came into the marketplace and we took them on with our unique offering and first class customer service.
Then Google came along and ‘leveled’ the playing field, pushing us out of the game, without even a rule book to refer to.
We are about to appeal against Google’s decision, though the jury of four SEO companies are split on whether we should or not. Then again we have nothing to lose. Wish us well.

When Google Levels The Playing Field (Part Two – Feel The Pain)

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Another 48 hours, most of them spent working on why? Why has our site been penalised? Why can’t we do anything about it? Why does Google insist on penalising the little guys?
I note with interest that during this latest levelling of the playing field that the big boys remain at the top of the Google tree and that cannot be right, because the likes of John Lewis and Marks and Spencer are not scoring because they sell briefcases, they are scoring because they are who they are.
By default they acquire thousands of backlinks from the very top sources, just by publishing their profits or their Christmas sales, but a press release to the BBC, ITV or any of the mainstream media outlets about Blokesbags, will not create so much as a ripple in the pond.
Not fair. I could work for years to try and whip up a media frenzy, but would be lucky to score one back link. For the likes of Argos and the aforementioned M&S and John Lewis the press interest is already there. But it has little or nothing to do with our core subject, men’s bags.
Google are keen to stress that it is all about relevant content. You can’t get much more relevant than a web-store dedicated exclusively to selling men’s bags. You can’t get more relevant than the very first on the web to specialise in only selling bags for men. Can you?
But merely going about our business, with the help of so called experts in the field, makes no impression on Google. Not when they are busy levelling the playing field.
At this stage I would pause to bite my nails, if I had any left to bite, or have another drink to numb the pain, if it weren’t so early in the morning. But I can still pull out what little bit of hair I have left.
Relevance, say Google. OK, point taken. Now put the word briefcase into your Google search engine and see what you get back.
Page One – mostly relevant information about briefcases – a series of adverts,  pulling in serious, serious money for you know who, then a handful of the big boys, the inevitable Amazon listing, a helpful definition from Wikipedia, lots of price comparison website and then another couple of pages of relevance. There follows, dozens of decreasingly relevant listings.
For the record our entry now appears on page eight and yet in terms of relevance we sell nearly 40 different bags, considerably more than many of our competitors.
Dealing with Google is bit like opening a shop in down town Kabul and then discovering after the car bomb goes off outside that your insurance company forgot to tell you that they were longer insuring you and no, you can’t appeal.
As one SEO specialist said to me this week: “I monitor 400 websites and I can see patterns on sites that have been hit.
“Google’s new algorithm requires high quality links to really make a difference and this plays into the hands of the big corporate sites. All the old rules have gone out the window.”

Google Levels The Playing Field (Part One)

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Just over two weeks ago, Google updated their algorithms and as a result Blokesbags has been wiped off the internet selling map for some search terms.
We have fallen victim to something insultingly cutely called Penguin.
What effectively has happened is that Google have penalised us very heavily for something, and there lies the rub, we have no idea what it is. No idea at all.
Over the last few weeks I have spent (literally) sleepless nights going through all our Site Engine Optimisation (SEO) to work out where we have overstepped the mark – which is ironic, because all we have ever done is follow the advice of the ‘experts’.
There are literally tens of thousands of companies that claim they can get you to the top of tree on the Google – the top of the tree being, page one for any given search term – and I believed in one of them.
Around three years ago, yes right back at the beginning we turned to one of these companies to help us get to the top of the tree for key search terms such as messenger bags, briefcases and holdalls.
We have invested tens of thousands of pounds in stock since then and have one of the best ranges of mens bags on the web, but because of we know not what, we are not selling certain types.
The fact is, we have gone from that magical page one down to …well it doesn’t matter because if you are not on page one, you might as well not exist (a check this morning revealed that for messenger bags we are in position six, on page 15. Page 15! When was the last time you worked your way that far down the listings? Sometime never, that’s when.
So for now, at least we are not selling any messenger bags. None at all. Zilch, nada, niet, nuffink. We are selling in certain categories, but not in the ones we have spent so much time building up.
Google say they have leveled the playing field. Well they have certainly ploughed it up and we can’t play on it anymore. But what have we done? We are not guilty of keyword stuffing, we know that (heinous crime, quite rightly in Google’s eyes) and our back links have been around for years, without attracting attention.
As of this morning there was a ray of sunshine, in as much as someone has spotted that our PR links might be the problem. Those will be the ones we paid someone every single month to provide for us, because they are the experts and they made more than £5m last year doing just that.
Yes those. But that is the problem with being the little guy – unlike the big boys where they do it all in house, you have to rely on someone else’s expertise.
So is that what Google mean’s by leveling the playing field? Don’t make me laugh. We don’t stand a chance.
I will keep you posted. Hopefully.

A brief history of..

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Messenger bags have come a long way from their humble beginnings.
Invented originally to allow the delivery of goods and paperwork over huge distances, often carried on foot, they have evolved down the years into the fashion icons that they are today.
According to Wikipedia (so we will err on the side of caution, when assuming it to be fact) the modern design of the bag can traced back to the utility linemen of the 1950′s and a bag made for them by the De Martini Globe Canvas Company established by Frank De Martini and his two daughters, Kathleen and Marge in Little Italy, New York.
The fundamental of the design of a messenger bag is that it can be worn across the body from one shoulder to the opposite side, where it rests on the waist, leaving the hands free.
Postmen and women used them extensively in Great Britain, though the design of their bags was more basic than that used more recently by bike couriers in congested towns to speed up same day deliveries.
In London as traffic ground to a halt towards the end of the last century, more and more bikes, both motorised and pedal, took to the streets to keep communications flowing across the city.
But it was the introduction of a succession of gadgets from the 1980′s onwards that saw the modern day model of bag come into its own. No longer could someone be expected to carry all daily needed goods in their pockets.
Nowadays the messenger bag is not necessarily carried across the body, and many people prefer to carry theirs on one shoulder, but other than that the fundamentals remain the same – most have one big flap for access and pockets to accommodate everything.
They were slow to take off in this country, but now many men would simply be lost without them.

 

Men’s totes – the better way to shop

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Here at Blokesbags we have observed a new fashion that is sweeping, not just the catwalks, but the High Street as well.
Men are suddenly carrying bespoke shopping bags, not that they would call them as such of course, instead they call them totes.
They are practical, they are stylish and they are coming to a High Street near you now.
It could well be an off-shoot of the bags for life campaigns that have quite rightly put the unsustainable use of plastic bags under the spotlight, with most supermarkets now offering their own version of the use again shopping bag.
It could also be because, put simply, men shop! Always have done, but now they also take part in weekly grocery shopping and just because it has to be done doesn’t mean it has to be done in anything but a stylish way.
Holdalls used to be a useful alternative to the heavily branded (think bright orange, think neon, thank you Sainsburys), but they never made great shoppers.
Enter the tote. Simply styled and of course easily accessible they have come off the catwalk and into the hands of the average guy in the street in a remarkably short time.
The transition has been helped by some big names in the marketplace, not least Wolsey and Dunlop, the former have a beautifully crafted leather tote, a snip at £249 and the latter a great checked entry level model at just £42.99.
Interestingly the word tote has been used in a much more general sense in the United States and is more often than not attributed to a syle of holdall.
But no more, the tote has come into its own. It is a shopping bag (shout it loud and proud, guys) and it is here to stay. What is the more it is environmentally friendly and beats the humble offering from your local Tesco’s hands down. What is more, it isn’t a holdall.

 

 

 

The briefcase is dead – long live the briefcase

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Until recently if you carried a bag to the office, you carried a briefcase, but no longer.
I know that when I started work (oh all of 30 years ago) I honestly believed that carrying one added a certain gravitas.
(Cue stifled laughter and under-the-breath comments along the lines of ‘jumped up little so and so…’)
But these days sales of traditional briefcases are falling and are being replaced in the main by messenger bags.
Over the last decade or so messenger bags have developed  from bags worn across the body and therefore favoured by bicycle messengers (which is where the trend started, out of necessity) to purpose built laptop carriers.
They have also begun to replace the traditional school satchel, but that is another story for another day.
They come in a variety of materials including leather, hemp, cotton and man-made materials, but they all have one purpose – to carry around an ever increasing number of must-have-with-you-at-all-times-gadgets.
Messenger bags have developed quickly to accommodate not just laptops, but mobile phones, I-pods (or MP3 players), cameras and other assorted gadgetry, in the same way as iPad bags are now developing to accommodate the smaller but just as necessary machine from Apple.
They have come into their own because there is nothing worse than seeing a man in a well cut suit with bulges in all the wrong places.
Before gadgets became popular briefcases were the solution, but now an increasing number of people, particularly younger people appreciate the convenience of the messenger bag.
Customers of all ages and occupations have switched to using casual rustic functional messenger bags from the historical tailored structured briefcases. Black has been replaced by dark brown as the colour of choice and bright coloured linings give added value.
The adaptations of these new messenger bags to embrace new shapes and sizes of technology products and the functionality of being able to wear the bags across the body mean that the classic briefcase is officially dead!
Messenger bags can be worn across the body or on the shoulder and are typically rectangular in shape with a large flap over which is secured more often than not by magnetic poppers. Inside there are numerous pockets and compartments each designed with a gadget in mind.
The similarity to the briefcase can also be striking, but the messenger bag always comes with a shoulder strap, not necessarily a handle (though again this is changing as the lines begin to blur)
Some manufacturers have added shoulder straps to their briefcases, but the true messenger is the one that is winning out with sales increasing across all sectors. Let’s face it when you see them for sale in Marks and Spencers as well as on line here:http://www.blokesbags.co.uk/acatalog/messenger-bags.html then you know that times they are a changing!
After all who wants to carry a bag like their Dad’s?

The Origin of the Holdall

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Holdalls are where it all started for most men.
The first man bag they ever owned was probably a large two handled bag for carrying their gym equipment into school.
Also known as a sports bag is generally a relatively large bag that is made of cloth, leather or PU that features a flat base with a zippered opening on the top.
Designs vary with recent fashion favouring either a cylindrical or rectangular shape with two handles at the top which allow the bag to be carried, a strap that is generally removable, that allows the bag to be carried on the shoulder
However the it can in addition sometimes feature a handle and possibly a telescopic handle which allows it to be used as luggage.
Men often use them in the place of luggage or in the place of any other man bag as well as for carrying gym equipment and they have the advantage of being compressible when empty.
In India boarding school pupils were issued a ‘hold-all’ to carry their blankets, quilts and clothes. It is a flat bag when unravelled and once filled it is more like a sleeping bag held together by straps.
But they do  also come in many other forms and bear different names according the design. Dr Gladstone made one famous when he carried a bag that eventually bore his name.
Originally they were known as handbags – literally a bag, nearly always carried by a man by two handles in the hand. These days they are also known as kit bags duffels, sports bags and carpet bags.
Early Europeans originally carried or wore purses for one purpose and for one purpose only, to carry coins. They were made of cloth or leather, and were carried by men as often as ladies; the Scottish sporran is a survival of this custom.
However by the late 18th century, fashions in Europe were moving towards a slender shape, inspired by the silhouettes of Ancient Greece and Rome. Women moved towards the type of purses that would not be bulky or untidy in appearance, so the first reticules were designed. These were made of fine fabrics like silk and velvet, and had wrist straps.
As the name suggests, Reticules (or as they were to become, handbags) were originally popular in France, and they came across the Channel crossed over into Britain, where they became known as “indispensables”. Men, however, did not at the time follow the trend and continued to use purses and pockets, which were becoming popular in men’s trousers.
The true origin of the modern purse, pouch or handbag came about in England during the Industrial Revolution as a direct result of the increase in travelling done in particular by railway. In 1841 the Doncaster industrialist and confectionery entrepreneur Samuel Parkinson (the producer of butterscotch) ordered a set of travelling cases and trunks, and insisted on an extra travelling case or bag for his wife.
Parkinson had noticed his wife’s purse was too small for purpose and made from lightweight materials that would not stand up to the journey. He insisted instead that he wanted various hand bags for his wife, in different sizes to suit different occasions, and asked that they be made from the same leather that was being used for his cases and trunks; this would distinguish them from the then-familiar carpetbag and other travellers’ cloth bags used by members of other social classes.
H. J. Cave (London) was the man that Parkinson turned and he produced the what we would now consider to be the first set of luxury handbags, including a clutch and a tote, called then, a ladies travelling case. These are now on display in the handbag museum (yes there is one!) in Amsterdam.
H. J. Cave continued to sell and advertise the handbags, but many critics said that women did not need them, and that bags of such size and heavy material would ‘break the backs of ladies which is why they generally remained the domain of the men who carried them for their women.
Thus the handbag and the holdall as we know them today were born.
For a great range click here

Hello and Welcome to Blokesbags Blog!

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Blokesbags are a small company operated by a husband and wife team in the beautiful city of Bath in the UK.
The company was formed out of a long standing passion for men’s bags crystallized a few years ago when David realised that people had stopped taking the mickey out of him for carrying a man bag and had started asking where he had bought it from.
In October 2008 we launched the first version of Blokesbags – an altogether much smaller afffair, but it was still the only one on the web to deal exclusively in a range of bags for men.
Since then the range has grown massively and this version of the store was launched on March 26th 2011.
We hope you like it.

Blokesbags have now got a fantastic range of designer bags and complementary products for men these include:-

  • Wallets: A range of beautifully designed wallets which look great and are functional, fantastic designs in Italian leather to more budget style wallets all with free delivery.
  • Wash Bags: We have got the very best in wash bags with all the top brands including Storm, who used to be famous for their watches and are now bringing the very same style and quality to mens wash bags.

 

Get the Country Gent look

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The Glorious 12th is only a few weeks away and the country set are gearing up for the season.
But it is not only the die hard country folk who dusting down their favourite outfits, tweed and leather is in this Autumn and the look for men is Country Gent.
Ashwood Leather were one of the first to spot the fashion and they have brought out  handsome new holdalls, a messenger bag, a shoulder bag as well as a couple of wash bags, all in tweed and brown leather.
The Duccani tweed holdall (£136.99) is is casual, yet stylish, rough and ready but luxurious. In distressed soft brown cow’s leather and tweed with soft canvas carry straps that can be extended to go snugly over the shoulder. There are zip pockets front and back with another inside the main cotton lined compartment. The fittings are in brushed antique brass effect. Superb. It should also be good to carry it on, even the budget airlines would struggle to turn you back with this one over your shoulder! Or if you more mobility, there is the same bag with extendable handle and wheels for £175.99.
Measures 56 x 37 x 16.5 cms (22 x 14.5 x 6.5 ins)

If that isn’t the one to carry to country retreat before the shoot then check out the Gladstone tweed (£154.99), two great traditions come together in this bag – the Gladstone design and the material, tweed.
Made from grained brown leather and tweed this hinged bag featues a zip pocket front along with antique brass effect clasps. The zip top folds out to a generous 30cms access revealing the luxurious striped brown on brown lining with a zipped pocket to the rear. Carrying is a choice of either the twin handles with leather press stud lock or an adjustable leather shoulder strap with comfort pad. Measures 48 x 36 x 24cms (18 x 14 x 9.5ins) giving it a 41 litre capacity.There are two great matching wash bags for your stay – with the Ashwood Game wash bag (£49.99) 

The bottom unzips to reveal two bottle pockets and elasticated stays for your razor, toothbrush etc. as well as a zip net pocket. There’s another zip net pocket in the main compartment. There are also grab handles on one end and one side.
Measures 28 x 16 x 15cms (11 x 6.25 x 6ins)

Alternatively there is the Game fold out wash bag (£49.99) with its own hook to hang on the back of the bathroom door. Open the press stud secured flap (which is adjustable depending on how much you are carrying) to reveal a toothpaste/toothbrush sized zip pocket at the top, a velcro secured pocket and bottle pockets in the middle and a large zip compartment across the bottom. Folded up it measures 26 x 16 and folded out 50 x 26cms (10.25 x 6.25 and 19.75 x 6.25ins)
But what to carry during the day? There is a fantastic Game messenger bag (£112.99) that really does look the part. Sam Brown studs hold down the cotton stripe lined flap which lifts to reveal two popper secured pockets on the front. Inside there is a full width leather piped drop pocket and drop pockets in the main compartment for you mobile and iPod. There is also a zip pocket inside across the back. On the back of the bag is another full width zip pocket. The brown canvas shoulder strap with soft leather comfort pad extends to 150cms. Measures 43 x 30 x 11cms (17 x 11.75 x 4.5ins)
Or if you want smaller then go for the Ashwood Game shoulder bag (£69.99)  that for all the world looks as if it should be packing shotgun cartridges. A quick release buckle opens the leather cotton striped lined flap. The same lining goes throughout the main compartment which features a leather piped drop pocket in the front. There’s another one across the back of the bag. The brown canvas strap is 120cms long Measures 24 x 23 x 10cms (9.5 x 9 x 4ins)
Finally if it is the look you want, but definitely not the animal carcases then go for the Matt and Nat  Faithless tweed effect holdall (£199). The Matt and Nat range is devoid of any animal products (fur, leather, silk and wool) which means this holdall is made of faux ‘vegan’ leather which ages in much the same way as other leather bags.

The sky blue interior is made of 21 recycled plastic bottles and has a zip pocket and drop pockets for your mobile, ipod and pens Neat. The shoulder strap is removable making it great for a weekend away or for taking to the gym. Measures 47 x 27 x 20cms (18.5 x 10.5 x 8ins)

If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.

Flying the flag with mens bags

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AN interesting trend is coming to the fore this year – the use of the Union Jack on men’s bags.
Perhaps it is an increased patriotism based on the Royal Wedding, next year’s Diamond Jubilee or more likely a national fervour whipped up by the pending London Olympics in 2012.
We have introduced several new bags from wash bags to holdalls at Blokesbags all featuring the Union Jack, loud and proud.

Both Storm UK and Dunlop have come out with a messenger bag and Culinary Concepts have gone one further with a day bag, laptop cover, wash bag and holdall all made from 100% recycled materials.
In fact Culinary Concepts don’t just recycle, they re-use and reclaim using old military canvas tents as their core material. No two of these bags are alike as each piece has its own character, patched and mended where necessary. It’s a make and mend ethos using natural dyes on reclaimed canvas.
The day bag, wash bag and laptop bag each feature the Union Jack on the exterior, whilst the holdall is lined with it.
I can only think that some people are always looking for different ways of showing their pride in being British and these bags tick all the boxes whilst being practical for day to day use
The Vintage Flag day bag which retails for £84.99 measures 31 x 38 x 12cms; the Vintage Flag laptop sleeve (£75), 38 x 28 cm ( up to a 15inch laptop); the Vintage Flag wash bag (£69.99), 30 x 20 x 18 and the Vintage Flag holdall (£154.99) a generous 70 x 40 x 28cms.
The Storm Union Flag messenger bag which retails at £42.99 is made of black/grey PU, lift the half flap bearing its black and grey version of the Union Jack, and there is a full width velcro secured drop pocket below the singular Storm logo. And that is not all. The lining in the main compartment is a combination of red, white and blue. It measures 34 x 34 x 12cms (13.5 x 13.5 x 4.75ins).
The Dunlop flag shoulder bag retails at just £28.99. Made of PU, a  distressed Union Jack Flag adorns this iconic shoulder bag from Dunlop which also features a metal Dunlop logo . Fully lined in grey fabric with the Dunlop logo printed on it. The blue shoulder strap expands to 170cms. Measures 36 x 28 x 13cms (14 x 11 x 5.5ins)