|
|
January 28 by Jennifer Laycock Iwas sitting around this afternoon thinking about how we approach so many areas of our lives and how many things I'm having to teach my four year old and two year old on a daily basis. In the spirit of "All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten," I'm offering up the first in a series of posts for online marketing. Leading off is the most obvious comparison to life as a child...social media. You Need to Take a Nap!  My kids wake up around 7:30 each morning and immediately go into non-stop movement mode. They may pause every now and then to watch a bit of Jack's Big Music Show or Little Bill, but for the most part, they're little buckets of energy. They want nothing more than to explore the world, make new friends, and see everything there is to see.
The problem comes in around 1:30 or 2:00 in the afternoon. That's when exhaustion kicks in. They could keep going...but if they do, we're going to see a melt down of Pompeii proportions somewhere around 4:30. Why? Because they're simply burned out. They need to take a break and recharge if they're going to have a shot of enjoying the afternoon. The same thing holds true in social media. Social media burn-out is all too common. In fact, most everyone I know in the industry experiences it on a fairly regular basis. It's so easy to get sucked in to the nonstop conversation of Twitter or the continuous updates and photo uploading at Facebook or the endless business connections of Flickr. That doesn't even count the amount of time you can spend reading and commenting on blogs. What ends up happening is you go into complete system overload. You try to absorb so much information without a break that your head asplodes and you cease being productive. Every small business owner needs to schedule a social media nap. Whether it's a few hours a day where you swear off any interaction with social media sites or a day of the week when you go social media free...you simply have to give yourself a break to recharge. It's Important to Share  The single hardest thing for a child to get used to when they start making friends (or little siblings start showing up) is sharing. It's really not all that different for adults. After all, we work hard for the things we have and we're often not keen on handing them over to other people for fear they'll get broken, lost or misused.
The same holds true in a social media environment. The search marketing and social media marketing industries have been built on the backs of innovative and generous practioners who share their thought processes, successes and mistakes with others. Sharing has allowed our industries to flourish. Sharing has also allowed many within the industry to build up reputations that attract enough clients to create lucrative consulting businesses. Nearly every industry benefits from sharing on some level. Peer to peer networking and brainstorming helps people advance professionally. Sharing works on the consumer level as well. Companies that share products, tools and resources with their customers build up brand loyalty, gather valuable feedback and learn how to make better decisions about the direction of their business. Social media simply does not work without a healthy spirit of sharing. Mind Your P's and Q's  Another challenge my kids have had is learning how to abide by the different rules that pop up in the different houses they visit. At my house, they're allowed to stand on the couch. At my parents' house, they are not. At my house, the dog is not allowed on the furniture. When they visit their other set of grandparents, the dog is allowed on the furniture. The rules change depending on where they are and they are expected to respect them.
Learning not only how to abide by different rules, but how to ask and learn what those rules are is a challenge to kids. It boils down to a basic understanding that there is no set way things are done, but rather that you must adapt to your environment. Once again, it's a lesson we adults must learn as well if we wish to explore the world of social media. Every forum, every blog, every social media clique has it's rules. Acceptable behavior varies both by social media tool and by the subculture of people you associate with on each tool. This is why it's essential to do more listening than talking when you first get involved. Observe the rules of behavior and if you aren't sure...ask. You'll Have More Fun if You Make Friends  My kids are generally pretty independent. They keep themselves entertained, they have very active imaginations and they mostly play with each other without fighting. Nonetheless, they adore making friends and having new people to play with. I have any number of friends with young children and any time they stop by, my kids make a bee line to theirs, drag them off to their rooms and find things to play with.
Should an adult show up with no kids, my children quickly work to befriend the adult. They're not shy and generally, they understand you need to talk to people, spend time with them and be nice to them in order to make friends. They also know they have far more fun with a new person to bounce ideas off of and to play with than they do on their own. Social media is the same way. While you can certainly make use of tools like Flickr, LinkedIn and Facebook in a vacuum, you won't find near the enjoyment or payoff you would if you got invested and made some connections. Flickr is far more fun if you join some groups, share your photos with others, leave comments and respond to comments. Twitter is a bore until you build up a network of followers and decide to follow people yourself. Facebook and LinkedIn are practically worthless if you don't take the time to build connections. Social media, like life, is far more valuable if you have someone to share with. Photos courtesy of Creative Commons licenses from Flickr users John-Morgan, Andrew Mc_D, Strocchi and Lili Vieira de Carvalho. Check out our small business news site.          
January 27  There is one important factor to remember whenever you are involved in improving the organic rankings of a website, and that factor is time. One of the most common questions I receive as an SEO is “How long till I start to see results?” This article is dedicated to anyone who has ever asked that question.
Itdoesn’t matter what industry you are involved in, or what techniques you follow, in all cases you will be a prisoner of time. In the vast majority of cases search engine rankings don’t come over night. Regardlessof the scope of the SEO campaign you are undertaking, you will have to wait for results. It doesn’t matter if you are undertaking a massive link building & social media campaign combined with extreme content development - you will still have to wait for those results. Just how long you need to wait however, will depend on a large number of factors. Inthis article I will discuss some of these factors and give a few scenarios to help you gauge how long you may need to wait to start seeing results. Factorsto Consider
How long it will take for rankings starts with a few key factors: Howoptimized is your site before SEO? Ifyour established site has no optimization in place at all, and has navigation that is blocking search engine spiders, sometimes opening the site up can result in a rather quick turn-around for results. Howmany inbound links does your site have?
If you have an old site with no links this will add to the time you need to wait. If you have a number of links already, Google will probably be in to check out things within a week or so of updating. Hownew is your website? A brand new site with no links has to wait. Google may find you, but probably not. If you do nothing, your site may never be indexed - you must get a few links, and an XML sitemap if you want to stand a chance with a new site. Click here for info on how to install and set up an XML site map. Howflexible is your site? If your site utilizes a content management system, how flexible is this system for customization? If your current back end will not allow for SEO based changes, this will drastically slow down your ranking progress. Howcompetitive is your target phrase? This is huge. The more competitive a target phrase is, the longer you will likely have to wait, and the more links, pages, and fresh content you will probably need. Picking a target phrase that has searches, but modest competition is your best bet to get started. As long as your “dream phrase” is relevant, you can go after the bigger fish once your site has some links, content, and has started to find its place on the map. Isyour site positioned to be able to compete? Take a look at the top 10 sites for your target phrase. If on average the ranking sites have 10,000 inbound links and 1000 plus pages, and your site has 7 links and 12 pages, you’re likely doomed. You don’t need to match the numbers of the top 10, but you do need to be in the ball park. If the top 10 is littered with all the big guys like Amazon, eBay, and the dreaded Wikipedia, you might just want to consider reevaluating your goals. If your site is not in a comparable position with the rest of the top 10 then you need to either step up your efforts in order to compete, or plan on waiting a very long time. GetGoogle to Visit Your Site How long it takes to start seeing results starts with Google. Once Google spiders your site you will still have to wait for the updated cache to appear in Google’s index, and in most cases, you will have to wait longer still to see any impact in the search rankings. Inmost cases getting Google to your site is relatively easy, but it can sometimes take a month or longer. Even a site with some inbound links and an XML sitemap, may have to wait a while. Typicallyan established active website will seldom have to wait more than a month to get Google’s eyes; however if your site has been sitting stagnant for several years, it may take longer. HowLong Will it Take For Rankings? You now know some of the determining factors, but how long will it take for your site to see an improvement in its organic rankings? I really wish there was a solid answer to this question, but with such a vast array of variables there is no way to know for sure. I can say however, that from experience, the timelines below are fairly accurate. NicheIndustry A niche industry is represented by phrases that are relatively specific, such as “widgets Bellingham”. While they don’t require a geographic modifier, phrases focused on a very specific area often are considered niche. Phrases used for a niche site will also often return less than 100,000 results in a Google search. The top 10 ranking sites will also often have less than 100 inbound links each. Timeline:
- Brand New Site: Possibly as little as a few months
- Established Site: Potentially it could literally be over night, but most likely around 6 weeks.
Medium Industry Medium Industry terms are slightly more general, but still include some kind of modifier, such as a state or color; “Washington Widgets” or “Blue Widgets”. These phrases often represent no more than a few million results in a typical Google search with the top 10 ranking sites having between 100-1000 inbound links. Timeline:
- Brand New Site: 6 months to a year
- Established Site: 2-4 months
Highly Competitive Industry These pages are those with phrases that are rather broad and seldom have any modifiers, such as simply “widgets”. You will often find tens or even hundreds of millions of competing pages in Google for your target phrase. Often the links required for the top 10 will be in the thousands, or tens or thousands (sometimes even in the millions). Timeline: - Brand New Site: Anywhere from 1 to 5 years
- Established Site: Could be as long as a year or more
For a brand new site, starting with nothing, in most cases you will be looking at around a year before you start to see significant ranking changes. You may get the odd ranking here and there, and start to see some traffic, but for any phrases that are remotely competitive, it can take quite a while. Unless you have a very tight niche, expect to wait at least 6 months before you see any movement at all. This is not to say that you can’t get quick results, but in the majority of cases it is quite rare. Formore established sites, rankings tend to come much more quickly. One significant factor in determining time is links. If your established site has lots, but the site itself is simply lacking fundamental SEO or proper navigation, then you can sometimes see results rather quickly. If you have no links and need to build them, it significantly increases the wait time. Even for an established site, achieving links in a competitive industry can still take some time. RankingsAre Taking Forever There are a number of reasons why your site may never achieve results. If you find that your campaign has been going on for a long time and you have seen no movement what-so-ever, it is possible that one of the following is hindering your efforts. Spamming& Penalties In some cases your site may take forever to achieve rankings, or the rankings may never come at all. If your site has been previously penalized for spamming, you absolutely must clean up all traces of the past dirtiness. Oncethe site is entirely cleaned up, then you can apply for re-inclusion. This is certainly no guarantee that Google will ever pay your site any attention again, but it’s the first step to the land of maybe. DuplicateContent If your site has utilized mass amounts of duplicate content, chances are you will not ever see rankings until you replace it all with something original and meaningful. There is no “duplicate content” penalty per-se, but you are essentially penalizing yourself if you copy content. Google tends to look at the first instance it finds online for a piece of content as the official source (not always the case). Ifyou copy content that is already out there and indexed by Google, they will discount your content as it is already indexed somewhere else, and your site or page will simply not get any rankings for it - and rightfully so. Links(or lack thereof) If your site has no links, you probably will not get any rankings, even after you are fully indexed. This is not always the case, I have seen sites rank well for various phrases with zero inbound links - but it is rare, and should not be relied on. Build up your links - period. Onthe flip side of this, let’s say your site has thousands of links, but they are from free for all sites, link farms, or “bad neighborhoods”, and so on - they won’t help you. These links won’t necessarily hurt you, but will be essentially ignored. You need quality, relevant links. Competition You just may be out of your league. If you have a small operation, and are competing for a major ultra competitive term, chances are you will never see the light of day. Not to say it is not possible, but if you are competing in a well established industry where literally 10’s of thousands of links are required, and your target phrase is experiencing millions of searches a month, you need to weigh your targets. Chances are your keywords need to be re-evaluated as your chances of success are slim. NotListening If your SEO gives you actionable recommendations, follow them. Recommendations are given for a reason, to help you achieve rankings. If you are not willing to implement what is suggested, then your campaign may go nowhere. I have seen websites fail to rank simply because clients ignored recommendations. Your SEO will not be able to help you if you refuse to implement their advice. A Little Success Story I have seen rankings come literally within hours. It is very rare but it happens. In one specific example a blog post was put up on a very specific niche topic that had almost no coverage online. Google coincidently spidered the blog within an hour or so of posting, and within an hour from that, the blog post was #1 in the organic results for the most relevant phrase. The site saw a giant spike in traffic for the next couple days while the phrase was a hot topic. (The search phrase was very specific and localized: ” election results”). This shows that for a site with an established link base, and a good reputation in Google, rankings can sometimes come extremely quickly. Regardlessof industry and target phrases, you will have to wait for your search results. Just how long you will wait varies on far too many factors to give a solid number, but expect to wait for results anywhere from a few days to several years. It’s the best time frame I can give without knowing specific details of your site and project. Labels:Scott Van Achte, SEO Tips Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources SEO Results Take Time January 25 Hunger and fear are good for your business. Not abject hunger and despairing panic, mind you. That’s too much. But a little touch of hunger and fear is very useful. I know there are many people out there who would prefer that not to be the case. And I’m one of them. I wish inspiration and love were big enough motivators for action. But for us humans who aren’t yet enlightened, they don’t seem to work so well. The problem is complacency. We most often don’t do things until we absolutely have to. I’ve watched it happen–a client’s savings account dwindles down over time while they are stuck in fear or uncertainty about what to do or how to do it. Perfectionism has it’s tight grip on them.
Then the account hits zero, or whatever feels like “zero” to the person in question. And suddenly they leap into action. Sounds familiar? This is the mother of all feast-or-famine cycles. If you stay in that kind of a cycle, then your business can’t ever move much higher than the ground floor. But before we go about seeking a fix, let’s take a look at the Sufi teaching that explains why this can be a good thing.
Lashed With Hunger and Thirst
There’s a Sufi story that goes like this: Source, aka God, aka The Divine, was talking to the ego, asking it to leave off injuring itself with various addictive behaviors and surrender to Source. “Am I not Your Lord?” The Divine asked in its inimitable Divine fashion. The ego responded. “I am what I am, and you are what you are,” continuing right on with what it was doing. The Divine then plunged the ego into fire in order to purify it – kind of like putting metal into fire to burn away impurities. The result? Nada. Twelve thousand years of fire and the ego is still clinging to its self-destroying patterns. The Divine then plunged the ego back into the fire adding just a touch of hunger and thirst. Immediately the ego released its grip and allowed itself to be purified. Yes, I’m talking about us.
TheDifference Between Pain and Survival
What this short Sufi story outlines is the difference between pain and survival. Humans have an almost unfathomable capacity to deal with pain and suffering, but we have very little capacity to risk our own survival. This is one of the reasons that I think this financial crisis is actually going to be healthy for us in the long run; by threatening our survival, it’s making people take actions that could’ve been done gracefully awhile ago. It’s painful, it’s scary, and a lot of people will end up being hurt. Yet apparently it’s necessary. And some of the actions we’re forced to take now may serve us well over the long term. But that’s a far larger topic than I want to delve into, so I’ll just say that and move on. Move on? Now you know complacency is a normal human state of being until hunger and thirst are added. So instead of just living with it, let’s move on to how to get your business fanny in gear without your bank account or some other survival button being pushed.
Keys to Hunger-Motivated Business
Whatelse besides (lack of) money threatens your survival? One of the reasons it works so well to declare goals before witnesses is because your identity as someone with integrity is threatened if you don’t follow through, and your ego sees this as akin to survival. It can be a bullying approach, so I recommend some measure of compassion in it, but it can also be very effective. Take a moment in your heart to identify what qualities are core for you, such as integrity, generosity, or love. Now put them in play, usually with others’ help, by setting goals your ego will fight for.
It’s a little tricky, but then, so is the ego, and it’s okay to push the ego a bit, if the deeper intention is truly from your heart. Here’s an example: In the recent Path to Profitability Retreat, we prided ourselves on holding a spiritual container that allowed participants to go deep into their processes. In order to provide that, we needed to double up on our own spiritual practices. So we did. It just so happens that both Holly and I have had a commitment to deepen our spiritual practices, and this goal helped get us there.
Use actual hunger or thirst to weaken your ego.
One of the key spiritual practices in nearly any tradition is the ascetic practice of fasting–avoiding food or water or both for a set amount of time. Fastingweakens the ego. Whether it’s Ramadan, Yom Kippur, or Lent, devoted followers often report a purity of heart after fasting. The benefit of this purity of heart means that the ego’s grip is looser, and the heart’s intention and inspiration is more available. Trytaking a single day and, if it’s not dangerous for you medically, fast. Don’t eat or drink for twelve hours. Keep up your meditation and prayer practices during this time to support the process, and notice how you feel afterwards. Itseems like an impractical business suggestion, but spiritual traditions around the globe have recommended fasting and prayer before big projects or decisions. It creates that sense of purity and resolve that can get you moving forward clearly and in a big way.
Choose the middle path.
While fear of survival can get you moving, too much can paralyze you or make you sick. Don’t fast too much. Don’t let your bank account go too low. Don’t set goals you don’t have a chance of reaching. The ego has all kinds of built-in mechanisms that can support you in your business, and fear of survival is one of them. You don’t have to think it’s wrong as a motivator, it’s actually very holy. But be conscious of how it works, and use survival with love and intention. The best to you and your business, Mark Silver Mark Silver is the author of Unveiling the Heart of Your Business: How Money, Marketing and Sales can Deepen Your Heart, Heal the World, and Still Add to Your Bottom Line. He has helped hundreds of small business owners around the globe succeed in business without losing their hearts. Get three free chapters of the book online: http://www.heartofbusiness.com Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources The Role of Hunger in Your Business January 22 Fonte: http://www.sitepronews.com/2009/01/21/4-reasons-why-most-internet-marketers-fail-miserably/
An often-quoted statistic is that that 95% of all Internet businesses fail. The reality is that the vast majority of businesses in the offline world fail too, so the picture is not bleaker online. In-fact, it’s better online since most aspiring Internet marketers could never even find sufficient capital to start a business in the offline world.
Thesad part is that many of these failing online businesses fail for readily identifiable reasons. Often the business owners are even aware of the reasons but do nothing about them.
Let’s look very briefly at four of these reasons:
1)Selling The Wrong Products
Once you have identified a profitable niche, one in which customers happily spend money to solve their problems, then the next step is to identify what is it that they really, really want. Ifyou offer your customers what they tell you that they want, and what they are already buying, then they will buy it from you. Ifyou try to convince your customers that they want something that they’ve already told you that they DON’T want, then you’ll soon be out of business. Manyfailing marketers simply need to drop “a loser,” and start marketing something that is WANTED!
2) Trying To Do Everything Yourself
In “Think And Grow Rich,” Napoleon Hill taught nearly a century ago that “specialized knowledge” is a success essential. You need to find one or two things that you do really well, and that people are willing to pay for, and then you need to do only those things. Everythingelse involved in operating your business should be done by someone better at doing those tasks. Thedisconnect we run into there is that, as a business owner, your job is to grow and manage the business. So what if that’s not what you’re good at? Then you may need to find a way to market whatever it is that you ARE good at. You may also need to hire a business or operations manager! Ina recent mastermind call with Rich Schefren, where he interviewed a dozen top Internet marketers, most earning over $1 million a year online, we all shared that our greatest business growth started when we stopped trying to do everything ourselves. Ifyou’re still trying to do all of your own programming, copywriting, graphics, customer service, database management, script installations, article writing, video creation, traffic generation, product creation, audio/video editing, pay-per-click management, etc., then you are so bogged down in the minutiae of “working in your business” that it’s impossible for you to even identify which things are essential for “working on your business.”
Thisis a tough decision for many of us, but you absolutely have to identify the things that you MUST do, and then you need to outsource most of the rest. As an example, my talent seems to be copywriting, so copywriting is really the only thing that I focus on aside from planning and managing business growth. Ido plan product launches for client, but that still falls under planning and managing business growth.
3) Very Poor Time Management
Dan Kennedy once observed “You will never finish all of the things on your to do list.” That tells me that I shouldn’t try to, but should instead frequently ask which things I personally need to do, which things I need to get others to do, and which things don’t really need doing at all. Forthe online marketer, good time management is really just establishing some new habits, and breaking some old bad ones. Common habits that need changing include: - Don’t let email dominate your time. Many online marketers spend many hours each day just digging out from under the deluge of email. For help in that area, I highly recommend that you checkout http://TamingTheEmailMonster.com
- I spend about 30 minutes per day on email. The course at the url above is what allowed me to take back control of my life.
- Turn off the television during work hours. If you were working for someone else, say in an office, I’m sure that you wouldn’t expect to be allowed to sit in front of the television all day with your laptop perched on your lap.
- Unless you are VERY different from me, you cannot focus on your work while watching television. Not only that, but watching a lot of negative programs (news included) will completely zap your energy and shift you out of a productive mindset.
- Establish work hours. Tell your family and friends when you’ll be working, and let them know that when you’re really focused on work, you shouldn’t be disturbed any more than you’d expect to be disturbed if you worked at a regular job.
- Explain to them that you can get more done in one hour if you really concentrate that you can in five hours with frequent interruptions. Explain that letting you really focus at designated times gives you MORE free time to spend with them… and you’ll have more money to spend on them too.
4) Too Many Projects That Are Never Completed.
My friend Mike Filsaime likes to point out during seminar presentations that if you have a dozen projects started but not completed, you’ll make less money that having just ONE project completed and on the market.
CHOOSEone project that you want to get completed and on the market. Focus exclusively on that one until it is finished before doing anything else. Sinceyou are an entrepreneur, and probably come up with a new idea “once every five minutes,” keep a note pad handy to jot down new ideas. When you get a new idea, jot it down on the note pad, and then knowing that it won’t be lost, go back to what you were working on previously.
Anotheroption if you’re an idea person, or great at starting projects, is to partner with “finishers.” Instead of letting projects bog down, and never reach the market, partner with someone who will push it through to completion, splitting the profits with them.
Ifyou don’t like that idea, consider how much those unfinished projects are making you. Would you prefer 50% of whatever that finished project makes, or 100% of nothing (which is exactly what most of your unfinished projects earn).
We’vejust looked very briefly at four reasons why most Internet marketers fail miserably. Now that you have acknowledged that these ARE problem areas for you, the question becomes what are you going to do about them.
Sadly,many people will read this article and then choose to do absolutely nothing about these problems. Nothing will change! However, you’re different, and therefore destined for online success. WillieCrawford is founder of The Internet Marketing Inner Circle a membership site where he frequently brainstorms solutions to problems such as those discussed in this article on the discussion forum. Join that discussion now http://TIMIC.ORG Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources 4 Reasons Why Most Internet Marketers Fail Miserably September 10 Vou omitir o nome do serviço de social bookmarking porque, na prática, o que digo abaixo serve para todos. Quem quiser saber qual é o destinatário, basta procurar no Google. / I will omit the service's name because everything I wrote below fits every nofollowed social bookmarking service on the web. If you want to know to which service I sent the e-mail, all you have to do is ask Google!
"Hi!
Pardon me if I don't get the point but you contradict yourself. At the home-page, you say:
"SERVICE NAME is a social bookmarking service that allows YOU to save YOUR favorite links online and access them from any computer, wherever YOU are.
Organize YOUR bookmarks in folders and tag each bookmark with keywords. Access them quickly on YOUR own personalized bookmarks page.
Share YOUR bookmarks with others or password protect them for YOUR own privacy."
You repeat the words YOU and YOURS 7 times at the home-page. Then, you tell me that:
"We are currently doing housekeeping of our bookmark database and removing accounts used by bookmark spammers, self-promoters, and others who do not comply with our Terms of use. During this time the self-registration will be disabled. Existing members are not affected and can use all features of Netvouz unrestricted. When finished (this is gonna take us a few weeks...) we will re-open the registration again."
Come on. Are the bookmarks MINE (the user's) or YOURS? What is the the great deal about using a bookmark service for saving whatever link I like? Why don't you just live and let live, instead of playing Google Cops?
Yes. I know you are doing this because you think Google is going to do this and that.
Nonsense. Social bookmarking is not social news. Social News Services, like DIGG, require some community control to prevent spam but... Bookmarking??? The bookmarks belong to the user, as you say at your home-page, to allow ME to access MY bookmarks from any computer wherever I AM, to help me organize MY bookmarks in folders and access them quickly at MY personal bookmarks page, and so on.
You won't see such a message in delicious, because they understand this and simply nofollow every bookmark added to the service.
Also, I miss the point in most nofollowed bookmarking service, because it surely is NOT your problem if Google does not do their homework and improve their so easily spammed algorithm. Are you doing this just to help Matt Cutts earn an extra Christmas bonus while you do his work for him? Come on.
And also, if everyone nofollows every link on the web, their so highly overrated "Page-Rank algo" will crash under its own weight.
Now, tell me: if services like SERVICE NAME are not good for link popularity creation, what are they good for?
Come on again, let's talk business: why should I want the whole world to see my bookmarks unless I had a perspective of gaining something in the process?
Come on once again: this final "benefit" - "SERVICE NAME is a great way to discover new interesting web sites" - is completely false. When I want to find a great, new, interesting web site I go to Google or Yahoo, not to Delicious, Simpy, Netvous, Magnolia, Connectedy, Sincone, Buddymarks, A1-Webmarks, Bibsonomy, you name it.
And I am not talking about "me" but about more than 90% of the web users.
So, what's so good about a nofollowed SERVICE NAME that I can't find at Seachles, Yahoo Bookmarks, Spotback, LinkVault, Jamespot...?
Anyway, I didn't write this e-mail because I am eager to join SERVICE NAME, but because I felt your contradiction was a slap in my face. Feel free to stay closed, nofollowed or whatever you like... And help Matt Cutts buy a Ferrari on New Years Eve.
God bless you,
May 14 According to Alexa Ranks, my main website, ran by my wife Géssica Hellmann, is one of the world's most popular websites among Kyrgyzstan's internet users... We thank all of you people of Kyrgyzstan for your preference and, if any of you read this message, please don't hesitate to keep in touch! We love to love people who love us!  May 09 It's been several weeks since the "link:URL" command stopped working at MSN/Live Search, which is a problem for those concerned about their site's link popularity - especially if you paid for a link-building campaign. I stumbled today with a possible solution for this problem that is worth a test. Just try the following syntax at the search field: URL -domain:URL This syntax seems to reveal every site that links to a URL, except the internal link-pages... Exactly what people use to refer to as "link popularity". I tried it with two websites I manage: www.ipra.org.br -domain:www.ipra.org.br www.gehspace.com -domain:www.gehspace.comThe results achieved were consistent with my knowledge with the link-building campaign I promote for both sites and with the results I used to get with the old "link:URL" syntax. Hope it also works for your website! April 28 This is old news, but it's great to know that Yahoo has gone green as well as PicSearch. As it is innevitable within internet's democratic environment, there were a few criticisms but, overall, the official announcement generated positive repercussion. One critic, though, made me stop to think about this issue from a marketing standpoint. He complained that Yahoo! was throwing money away while not fulfilling their promises in terms of return on investment. That's an interesting point, because Yahoo! can also eliminate their potential environmental damage by simply going broke and, therefore, stop consuming natural resources...  So, I've written the comment below on Yodel's, which is still waiting for moderation, after deeply thinking about my relation with Yahoo! In summary, I use a few of their services, but always as a second option, which reminded of Avis's classic advertising campaign, " We are only #2, so why go with us"? This lead me to the following line of thought: "That’s really good news!
Congrats to Yahoo and PicSearch - a company I didn’t know to this day
and has earned my preference in image search.
But I understand the few criticisms above from your shareholders.
Let me explain what it is, from a consumer (internet user)
point-of-view.
There’s something I’ve been wondering about for a while because I am
really fed up with Google’s increasing arrogance and mess-ups.
I’ve been studying, working with and teaching marketing for a while
now - 21 years, to be precise. As so, I am always asking this “already
old before I was born” question:
“Yahoo! Search is only #2. So, why go with us? We…”
(a) try harder?
(b) are a carbon neutral company?”
As for Internet - I use it since 1995 - I know why I first went with…
Altavista - “I spend less time searching there than browsing Yahoo’s directory listings”.
Google - “DEFINITELY gives me superior search results”.
Skype - “DEFINITELY superior for voice and video communications”.
Yahoo Messenger 8 - “Communicates with all those MSN messenger people without the inconveniences of every Microsoft product”.
Firefox - “Offers the most flexible internet experience to date”.
Opera (2nd browser) - “When aesthetics matters”.
Multiply - “The network with brains”.
Yahoo 360 (2nd network and blogging option) - “I meet many cool people there”.
PicSearch - “Offer as good (or bad) image search as Google’s, but it
is specialized and probably will get better with and, as a bonus, is a
carbon neutral image search engine”.
Since I spend lots of my time searching for image and text content,
I’ve been using Yahoo Search as a “second opinion” search engine for
about a year or so but… Why go with Yahoo Search?
I still haven’t found a straight answer. Although Google’s SERPs are
getting increasingly spoiled by all those MFA websites, Yahoo
SERPs are not yet DEFINITELY superior to Google’s. I still spend less
time searching in Google than in Yahoo Search. This gap has not yet
been bridged… So, why go with Yahoo!, if it’s only #2?"What I am really asking myself is that if there actually is a place for a #2 in Search Market. From a consumer standpoint, a search engine is a means to reach an end. The faster you leave the Search Pages to go straight to the website you were originally looking for, the better you will evaluate the Search Engine.
Where's Yahoo Search Unique Selling Proposition? What can they do for me that other services (Google, for search; Skype, for Messaging; etc) don't?
As the Big Y! dives deep into diversification, trying to mean everything for everybody, they progressively lose their focus and are beaten market by market, by a specialized competitor, confusing customers as they not provide a strong motivation to change.
For example, is it that difficult to eliminate all those repeated results in their SERP? Like, if I am looking for a site which sells "non-existing-product", it's natural that "www.non-existing-products.com" tops the SERP. But, if I go to this site and don't really like their offer, or if want to compare prices for "non-existing-products" in different retail websites, I surely don't need to stumble on "www.non-existing-products.com" a dozen times throughout the SERPs.
In reality, that is what really ties me (and, probably, millions of internet users) to Google Search. Google shows a website only once within their results, along with one or a few more inner pages threaded on the SERP. If that website does not contain what you were looking for, or if you want more resources, you can easily move to the next result to find different content. With Yahoo!, MSN and almost every other SE, you have to go through endless repeating results for the same search string.
If only they could incorporate to their search algo this common-sense assumption - "if this result was not useful on the first result page, it most probably will not become suddenly useful on the tenth" - THEN their "carbon free" flank attack approach could give them an edge and, possibly, force Google and other SE's to follow their steps.
March 06
In a previous post elsewhere, I've presented an example of intelligent use of flash animation for webmarketing purposes.
Today, I've found another example which is amazing in its simplicity, this time with flash video.
If you have a commercial website you surely could copy this ingenious
idea: a short and fast-loading flash video in which a real salesman
guides your visit throughout your online store! Pay attention to how
cheap and effective is the video production. February 21
We at géh are always looking for partner-sites
that may offer useful content to web surfers. Sometimes, they exchange
links with us, other times, they don't. It doesn't matter. Our goal at
our "partner-sites" pages is to offer useful site links for web
surfers, not "page-rank building".
If users don't find what they want at my site, I want to be the site
that offers them a pathway out to what they were originally looking for.But, from times ro times, we get answers like these:"-----Mensagem original-----De: [mailto:service@...] Enviada em: domingo, 18 de fevereiro de 2007 06:32Para: leh@gehspace.comAssunto: Re: Link exchangeSorry, it has sexual content so we can't link to you.Please do not hesitate to write with questions, or if I can be of further assistance.Thank you and best regards,"Confusion reigns on the web when it relates to what "sexual content" is, so I answered the webmaster:"De: ---------------------- [mailto:leh@gehspace.com] Enviada em: domingo, 18 de fevereiro de 2007 10:12Para: '----------------'Assunto: RES: Link exchangeHi, D.!Thank you for your feedback. Could you please point-out what you define as "sexual content" in my site? I can't guess, bacause the "Sexualidade" (Sexuality) section refers to "sexology studies", not to pornography. Currently, we are publishing a series on the works of psychanalist Wilhelm Reich and an strategic alliance with a non-profitable organization on behalf of fighting AIDS.
"Poesias" mean "Poetry". "Amores" mean "Love Short Stories". "Arte"
means "Art". "Galeria Géh" means "Géh's (Géssica Hellmann's nickname)
Gallery". "Corporalidade" means "Corporality" or "Body Expression", if
you prefer. It is devoted to Body Art, including fitness as a way of
creating beauty.As for the nude paintings and artistic representations of human sexuality, they are everywhere around Vatican city, and also in the works of Picasso, Dali, and almost any art master you may think of.So, if you could define "sexual content" as far as my site is concerned, we would be glad to delete any "sinful content" that may prevent your site from linking to us.Also,
if you just send the link information for your site (Title - URL -
Description) we will be glad to add it to our linkpages and we will not ask you to reciprocate, if that is what concerns you.Generosity often pays well in the long-range. :-)We wish the best for you and your loved ones,Thank you again for your kind feedback,"I
think it's ok to refuse a link to a site that displeases you - I myself
did it many times. But it seems that, these days, we are living under
some kind of collective paranoia concerning any website that contains the preffix "sex" in its title or contents, turning many good people into self-nominated censors. Sad but true.The saddest side of this story is D's final argument to deny the exchange: "we can't link back to you because Google does not like sites with words which have anything to do with sex. If its AIDS or erotic images or whatever, we just don't want to take the risk".Google doesn't like sex? How come the guys below were born in the first place?
   Do these guys look like sons of robot-spiders? They look pretty human to me... It is rare to see in the web good examplos of intelligent use of Flash,
to which I like to refer to as a powerful solution in search of a problem.
About 99,9% of the flash animations
we see around are plain programming skills boasting. You see it once, say "oh, how cute!" and never again returns to the site. If you do return, you immediately click on skip intro.
Animation without information makes anyone sick after a few repetitions.
The challenge is to create an informative, memorable, attention capturing flash animation which makes the user feel like coming back to your site, agreggating
value to your brand and expressing your targeted meanings.
This webdesign firm asks before anything:: what's your mood? If you feel factual, you will get a factual page. If you feel creative, that's where you will witness Flash's full value-creating, informative and enchanting power! The page loads fast and you will find a pleasant surprise in every corner. A must visit.
|
|
|
|
Tools 
Send a private message
Tell a friend
Add to My MSN
Add to your network
Sign up for alerts
