Blogging

September 25, 2007

Which Bloggers Do You Read That No One Else Does?

If you were paying attention to the blogosphere or the conversation going on over at Sphinn this past weekend, you probably heard the rumbling regarding search engine optimization bloggers. There was some heated debate as to what their responsibilities may or may not be to the outlying community, and what their audience has a right to demand from them.

There are plenty of obvious answers to this. Search bloggers have a responsibility to be fair, to get the facts right, to note their sources, to link out to opposing viewpoints, lots of stuff. I think most of us recognize this.

For me, though, there’s one biggie that doesn’t get touched on nearly enough, and it’s this: If you’re an SEO blogger, it is absolutely your responsibility to highlight new voices. To help bring attention to the people who are saying important things but are getting talked over. It is so important to the success and growth of our industry.

This is something that, truthfully, has been on my mind for awhile now. Not so long ago, a thread was started on Sphinn asking that when users submit something to the site, that they identify early on in the description who the author is. The common consensus was that doing this would help readers connect with authors or blogs that they respected. It helps expert content get noticed.

I remember commenting to Susan that the whole idea of this made me very uncomfortable.

I understand lots of things. I understand that there are some authors out there who have reputations stronger than others. I understand that we all have people that we’re naturally inclined to agree (and disagree) with. I understand that people don’t want to “waste their time” on writers with bad priors. I get that, I do. I just wonder if we’re not doing a great disservice to all the new voices out there. I wonder how many great articles are getting ignored because their names weren’t instantly recognizable.

You can argue that, in the case of Sphinn, by putting the names in the descriptions that, over time, new voices are found. If each one of Danielle James’ blog entries is submitted as “Danielle James wrote”, then after a while she will gain a reputation for writing great stuff. And that’s true, but in order for that to work, someone has to be submitting it. Someone has to go out there and find that great content and submit it for her. She could do it herself, but unless you have someone like Tamar or Chris submitting things for you, trying to go “hot” is an uphill battle.

As search bloggers, are we doing enough of that? Are we going out and finding the rare pieces or are we relying too heavily on the A-listers? Do you leave your feed reader and hunt for new voices or do you just spend your entire day in there?

I know that I try and find new eggs. And when I do find them, I link to them. Perhaps I could be doing more of that.

And I’m not knocking the system or pretending that I’m doing everything in my power to help others gain more attention, but as search bloggers, I really feel finding new voices is one of our most important responsibilities to our community.

Tell me: Who do you read that no one else does? Who do you think is the best new voice out there is? How did you find them?

Posted by Lisa Barone on 09/25/07 at 4:28 PM | Comments (9)
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September 21, 2007

Friday Recap

Hey guys. If I sound a wee bit sad today it’s because Susan is back in the office after being out for a glorious 5 work days. It’s taking me some time to get used to her again. To welcome her back, though, I was thoughtful enough to leave her a photo on her desk.

I think she knows which Tech Writer is which bird, don’t you, Susan? [I put it on my bulletin board as a permanent reminder of how much better my life is going to be when firing you finally works. --Susan] Yikes, time to up the meds, killer.

I have a new obsession. It’s called LOLSecretz and it’s a beautiful hybrid of LOLCats and Post Secret. No, it has nothing to do with anything, I just felt like sharing. Moving on then.

Greensboring.com helped me to discover the #1 FireFox extension in the universe. What does it do, you ask? Whenever you hit Stop in your browser, it sings the phrase “Stop. Hammer Time”, and yes, it is just as awesome as you would imagine it to be. [It slows down productivity like woah because you stop every page from loading about four times. --Susan] Did you just say “like woah”? And Bruce still employs you?

Also from Greensboring.com: The Scooby Doo Mystery Machine is for sale! Score.

Coming back to search for a bit, there’s lots of speculation that tiny, little Vanessa Fox is worth $30 million. That’s pretty impressive. I think I’m worth 7 Fruit Loops. Five if the Fruit Loops in question are red or blue. [In case people are about to claim that I should pay her more, I'd like to point out that I gave Lisa a bag of Fruit Loops. By her own estimation, she's now overpaid. --Susan] But I already ates them. Now I need more fundz!

Greg Boser is calling for SEOs to put on their thinking caps and decipher 50 SEO-inspired vanity plates. Greg will announce the winner next week and the lucky individual gets an all expense paid trip to Pubcon in December.

Andy Beal is paying people to read his blog again. I mean, he’s offering a “prize” if you tell everyone why you love Marketing Pilgrim so much. I don’t have $500, but if you write a blog entry telling the world why you love the Bruce Clay blog, I’ll keep you in my prayers at night. I hear He pays a lot better than Andy. Or at least the benefits are higher.

Philipp Lenssen posted a video depicting what would happen If YouTube Comments Met Real Life. Basically, we’d all suddenly be inflicted with Tourettes.

Bulletin Board Forum gave users instant access to their favorite pop videos of the greatest decade of them all – the ‘80s. Today needs more New Kids On The Block, don’t you think? Hang tough!

The crazy people over at How To Wake Up Early gave us 9 reasons why you should wake up early (go figure). In response, I give you one reason why you should sleep in – all that extra sleep!

According to Yahoo, the most in demand baby Halloween costume for 2007 (so far) is the baby frog Halloween costume. Baby frogs! [The second most popular are baby fairy costumes. Look at the baby face! --Susan]

The Wall Street Journal reported that those trendy little tattoos females have been getting on their lower back may actually kill you. Okay, I lied, they won’t kill you, but they do make getting an epidural quite risky.

Anyone who knows me knows that I. Love. French Fries, but even I wouldn't eat Applebee’s French fries. So many ews.

Things I Learned From Boing Boing This Week:

• Alaska Airlines will soon offer inflight wireless Internet. Score! Sadly, it won’t be ready in time for my flight with them in December. Darn.
• Transparent frogs, transparent frogs! You can see what’s in their bellies!
• Those crazy Japanese people have come up with yet another wacky invention – an electronic bubble wrap toy. I have officially added it to my Christmas list (along with this new Seatbelt bag! Hi Mom.).
• Urban cup holders come in handy for when you’re standing next to a street post with your cup of coffee and you suddenly realize that you need both your hands. Because, you know, that happens a lot. Especially here in Simi Valley, CA.
• Rugs made of (fake) leaves help New England girls to feel at home even when they’re living in Southern California. Sigh.
• A man woke up during an autopsy because the pain was “unbearable”. Ohmygod.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 09/21/07 at 5:14 PM | Comments (2)
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September 20, 2007

The day I broke up with Bloglines

Dear Bloglines,

Hi, it’s Lisa again. How are you? I’m just going to get to the point. I think it’s time for us to see other people. We just don’t “work” together the way we used to. It's time for me to move on.

Let’s face it; we’ve been having problems for awhile. I’d go to you and you wouldn’t be there. You’re just so unresponsive and unreliable these days. I can’t count on you anymore. I mean, sometimes you’re there for me and sometimes you’re not. Sometimes you’re timely in telling me what I need to know and other times you just leave me hanging. I have to hear from Barry or Andy or Danny what I should be hearing from you. How can you be in a relationship without communication or trust? You can’t!

Last month, you promised me you were going to be better. You gave me new viewing options and advanced features and I fell in love with you all over again. But now I realize I was just allowing you to sweep our problems under the rug. You haven’t changed; we were both just pretending.

But I was willing to forgive you and keep believing that, in time, things would get better on their own. But then today happened. Today you just took my heart and smashed it into a million, billion tiny little pieces. I came to visit you after I returned from lunch (I had to go home and get my wool socks) and when I came back, I saw this:

Where are my feeds? You stole them from me. All of them!

I’m sorry, but I can’t do this anymore. I think it’s time for us to see other people. I’m going to spend some time with that other guy, maybe even some of his friends, and I think you should take this time to work on yourself, too. You’re not living up to your full potential. You can be better, I know it.

So, I guess that’s it. The past two years have been great but we just don’t fit together the way we once did. Take care of yourself, okay? Good luck in the future.

All my love,

Lisa Barone
Former Bloglines enthusiast

PS

All my feeds are gone. What are you subscribed to? Send me your list.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 09/20/07 at 3:41 PM | Comments (9)
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September 18, 2007

Bruce Clay, Inc. Blog Marks Its 1,000th Entry

Hey!

In case you weren’t keeping track, I thought it’d be fun to note that this here blog entry, the one that you are reading at this very moment, is the 1,000th post to ever hit the Bruce Clay, Inc. blog. Pretty sweet, eh?

I’m far too cool and sophisticated to get excited over such a silly milestone (quiet, you), but if I had my way, the Tech Writing office would be filled with balloons and puppies and cupcakes to commemorate the occasion, and everyone would have to wear their The Lisa shirts to work!

But that’s not happening. The only prize I get today is that Susan is out of the office until Thursday. I guess that’s good enough, because as we’ve established over the last 800 entries or so, Susan is evil.

The blog has seen a lot of change since Susan started it back in 2004. It went from being updated every third Monday of every other month, to being updated several times a day. Sometimes we even stop talking about puppies and babies and Luck Dragons long enough to stay on topic. And when we do, people actually read what we’re saying and (sometimes) leave comments. It’s all quite exhilarating and we’re having a lot of fun, in case you couldn’t tell by all the “huzzahs”.

Because today is kind of a big deal for us me, I thought I’d take a second to say two things:

1. Thanks! For reading the blog, for commenting and for supporting us. We realize that without you there would be no Bruce Clay, Inc. blog.
2. If there’s something you want to see in the blog, let us know! We’re always looking for ways to improve things around here. What do you want to read about and what can you live without? How can we make the blog better? Its okay, you can tell me, I’m asking. And if the thing you can live without is Susan, then don’t worry; I’ve already started a petition to get that ball in motion.

Seriously, this is a fun milestone for us and we realize it’s less about us and more about you. So, thanks for sticking with us through 1,000 blog entries. Here’s to a few thousand more, huzzah!

Posted by Lisa Barone on 09/18/07 at 9:55 AM | Comments (9)
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September 17, 2007

Google Is Evil, Bloglines, Free Pass To SMX Local

Google Is Evil. Again. Yawn.

Cory Doctorow had all the conspiracy theorists worked up today with Scroogled, a fiction piece he wrote for Radar Online about the Google of the future. In the story (and that’s all it is, people, a story), Cory writes about what the world would look like if Google was nefariously working with the DHS and in control of your entire life. Muahaha!

To honest, the whole story is kind of frightening. It shows a world in which citizens disappear for no reason and the security people at the airport can question you about the things you’ve searched for online and the contents of your email. They can’t actually see your search data or read your emails, of course (that would be illegal), but they do have access to the ads you were shown. It’s up to you to explain why Google thought you would be interested in ads for model rocketry. And you better be able to…

I read Cory’s story and giggled, but of course there were others who read more into it and got out the tin foil. To that I say: We’ve already had this discussion! Google is not evil. They’re not too powerful. They are not Big Brother. Michael Gray just needs more hobbies.

Bloglines Takes The Morning Off

So how did you spend your Monday morning, the morning that’s arguably the busiest of the whole week? I spent mine visiting each one of my blog feeds individually. Fun, right? Actually, no, it’s not, but I had no other choice since Bloglines decided to take the morning off, as it does periodically. I’m sorry, guys, but this is really unacceptable.

I think I’ve been pretty vocal about my Bloglines love. I have not switched over to Google Reader like Susan, Barry Schwartz and other sane people have. I heart Bloglines and I’m sticking with it. For me, the UI is better, the shortcuts are better and it just feels like home. But then it dies and makes me want to hurt it. Hard.

Bloglines, I live and breathe on my ability to access my RSS feeds. Being informed is my job. When you go down, my morning pretty much stops because it means I have to navigate to each of my blogs individually. That takes A. Lot. Of. Time. Time, that on a Monday morning, I don’t have. Your new beta version is great. It’s probably a little more than I need, but others love it, so I can forgive all the new features that I’ll never use. There are, however, two things that I absolutely must have from you if we’re going to be BFFs.

1. I need Bloglines to work. Always.
2. I need it to be quick to update.

They are the only two things that I need and yet they’re the two things Bloglines seems to have the most trouble with. Sort it out, guys. I’m begging you.

[/end rant]

FREE Pass to SMX Local and Mobile!

Pat Sexton is offering up a free pass to next month’s SMX Local and Mobile show in Denver, Colorado. All you have to do is leave a comment or drop him an email explaining why you deserve the ticket more than anyone else in the whole entire world. Your answer can be humorous, clever, and/or serious, just make sure it’s compelling. And, since we’re talking about Pat, I’d say that mentioning alcohol or alluding to how much alcohol you’re going to enjoy while in Denver may not hurt your chances, it may actually help. Good luck!

And while we’re talking about SMX shows, it’s worth noting that SMX Social Media Marketing is taking place in NYC on Oct. 16-17 and tickets are going fast. There are some great speakers in line for this one so you better act soon!

Fun Finds

TechCrunch shows you how to follow the TechCrunch40 conference online if you’re not lucky enough to be there in person.

Muhammed Saleem authored 4 Reasons To Write On The Weekend and 4 Posts To Do It With in case you’re not blog-obsessed enough.

And bloggers should also check out Performancing’s 27 Tips for Building a Kick-Ass blog.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 09/17/07 at 4:03 PM | Comments (1)
See more entries in Blogging, Branding, Google, SEM Events

September 6, 2007

De-Blog your Blog and Increase Readers

Today’s the day you’re going to make that big pitch to your boss. The one that will get him to sign off a new project you’re spearheading and will hopefully earn you a big, big raise. Huzzah!

Now do you deliver the presentation using fancy visuals and a professional looking PowerPoint? Or do you hand him the scrunched up napkin you scratched your initial ideas on and let him decipher on his own what’s a graphic and what’s just the remnants of that yummy chocolate dessert you sinfully enjoyed? My guess is that you’d opt for the first. Why? Because presentation matters. It’s why those pretty people get all the good jobs, after all.

Performancing had a post the other day about How to Attract Readers Who Don’t Read Blogs. They talked about things like implementing good search engine optimization, commenting on other sites, issuing press releases, visiting forums and other stuff along those lines. Those are all great suggestions, and I’d recommend them as well, but part of me feels like they really missed the number one factor responsible for converting mainstream blog haters into loyal blog readers.

Do you want to know what it is?

If you want non-bloggers to read your blog, you have to de-blog your blog. Remove all those tacky buttons, nonsensical categories and ugly widgets and make it look like them. There is no blogging commandment that says your blog has to look like a fifth grader's English project. Step away from the pastels and bubble themes. Declare death on the clever Yahoo avatar. [Please. --Susan]

I’m sure that turning down the flashing neon This-Is-A-Blog lights you’re currently sporting probably sounds trivial, but it really does make a world of difference, especially to those predisposed to turn their arrogant little noses up at blogs. If your blog is using some god awful template from 2001, or worse, even looks like it should be hosted on blogspot.com, well then you’ve just lost any credibility you were hoping to establish.

And you know what I’m talking about here. We’ve all seen those white text on a lavender background blogs. The ones that are guaranteed to have some really hideous centered box with a super clever title, such as “Johnny’s Web Log” or “Joey’s World of Ramblings”. They’re pretty, right? Sure, they are. I’d totally buy what they’re selling.

Avoiding the temptation to “blog-up” your blog is crucial to attracting mainstream readers. There are plenty of people out there who have been trained to ignore blogs simply because it’s a blog. After all, what do a bunch of bloggers know? Obviously, nothing. If they had any sort of actual insight or talent they’d have a real job, they’d be like, journalists or something.

Your blog should seamlessly fit into your audience’s online neighborhood. You want it to look and feel like them. Design it with the sites they typically frequent fresh in your mind so that your blog appears trustworthy and reliable. Make them feel confident that your blog will still be there in the morning. You don’t want it to look like you set it up in the middle of the night and decided to add-on every horrible Web 2.0 element that was offered to you.

In case you missed it, yes, I am absolutely telling you that in order to convert readers and reach that high pinnacle of blogging success, it may mean leaving the lollipop theme and giant font size behind. I know, it’s tough, but we’re talking about the value of your blog here. Sacrifices must be made. When visitors land on your blog you want them to feel like they’re at home. Like they have just found that special part of the Web that looks and feels just like them. You can’t do that with animated monkey’s dancing across your screen. Unless, you’re Rhea Drysdale. Then monkeys are totally acceptable, expected even.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 09/ 6/07 at 5:18 PM | Comments (3)
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September 4, 2007

Has Your Blog Replaced Your Company Newsletter?

Okay, so you have this Web site thing. It’s that place where you publish lots of information about the goods or services you offer and sometimes people come by and actually buy stuff. Then you have your blog. Your blog is the place where you author opinion, point to interesting news or maybe just whine about what a bad day you’re having. However you use it, your blog gives you that direct line of communication with those that are important to you and your business.

Now that you have all these new online mediums that you’re using to communicate with potential customers, do you really need a company newsletter on top of that or have blogs replaced the traditional e-newsletter? That’s the question Dawud Miracle is asking.

For me, no, a company blog does not replace an email newsletter. You can argue that if you started your newsletter as a way to generate conversation or to get people talking about your brand, then yeah, maybe those goals are now being met by your blog. But even so, there’s still room for an email newsletter in your Internet marketing campaign.

There are plenty of people who still think RSS is some sort of flesh-eating disease. Plenty of people who don’t know what a blog is, but do grasp email. Emails are those things that appear in their inbox and tell them stuff. Sometimes there are even those blue links that they can click on that take them to new and exciting worlds. My mother loves email. Sometimes when she finds an interesting site or a funny photo she even saves it to her AOL Favorite Places. She’s super savvy.

And even if your audience does grasp blogging and RSS, that monthly or bi-monthly newsletter is still a good way to reinforce your brand and keep yourself at their top of mind. ResourceShelf is a great example of this. Gary Price and crew have a great blog at RS, with lots of valuable information that you won’t find anywhere else. I subscribe to Gary’s blog and I read his feed as it comes in, but sometimes my brain is so swamped with SEO news, that I miss a good nugget or two. It’s not until I get his weekly newsletter on Thursday that I think, hey, maybe I should spend some additional time over there and see if I missed anything. And when I do head over, I’m usually guaranteed to find a valuable post that I skipped over in my hurry to empty my feed reader. With Gary’s weekly newsletter, I’d be missing out on a lot of good information

At Bruce Clay, we have both an SEO blog and an SEO newsletter. They’re two completely different entities. The styles are different, the voice is different, and the intent is different. Our blog is where Lisa gets a little mouthy and gives you her opinion even though you never asked for it; our newsletter is where we publish articles related to Internet marketing. It’s where we give you an intelligent recap of the past two weeks in search, keep you up-to-date on upcoming events, tell you who just got a new job, pass on industry rumors, etc. It’s geared towards education.

We keep the newsletter around because it really does serve an entirely different purpose than the blog. We also realize that far more people read our SEO newsletter than they do our blog. Susan says this is because some people want their SEO news sans Lisa. That’s just crazy talk to me.

Dawud says he’s beginning to question his need for an email list. He mentions the backlash that’s occurring against interruption marketing and how users are becoming less and less tolerant to spam. And he’s not wrong. People hate spam and are becoming increasingly hostile towards it. This is why your email newsletter should not come even remotely close to resembling an email from that Nigerian cousin you never knew you had. If your newsletter is primarily targeted towards selling, then yeah, you may want to drop it. Focus on educating and providing valuable information instead. You’ll win far more friends and customers that way.

If you’re out there wondering if your newly popular blog means you can throw away that email template, my answer would be no. I think that when used in tandem, blogs and newsletters are actually really great complements to one another. Why weaken your Internet marketing message by using only one?

Posted by Lisa Barone on 09/ 4/07 at 3:03 PM | Comments (6)
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August 28, 2007

Yahoo, The Value of About Pages, Bloglines & Fun Stuff

Yahoo and Jailed Dissidents

Yahoo has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit being brought against them by those two Chinese journalists that they helped jail by turning over their search information to Chinese authorities. The two men have since been sentenced to 10 years in jail in an institution known for abusing its inmates. The wife of one of the jailed men is also alleging that she was forced to endure "severe psychological and emotional suffering" as a result of Yahoo’s actions. How very Western of her.

Though sympathetic, Yahoo is asking for the suit to be dismissed, arguing that it has no merit and does not belong in an American court room:

"This is a lawsuit by citizens of China imprisoned for using the Internet in China to express political views in violation of China law. It is a political case challenging the laws and actions of the Chinese government. It has no place in the American courts”

Truthfully, I’m not sure where I sit on this one. In my perfect little world where ponies graze on sunflowers all day, I want Yahoo to be held accountable. I feel like turning in your users for completing an action you allowed them to take is wrong. At the same time, I can appreciate the difficulty that entities like Google and Yahoo face having to respect local customs. Really, I don’t know where I ultimately sit; the journalism kid in me who was taught to respect anonymity is clashing with the SEO blogger-type who knows it’s not up to the search engines to challenge established laws. I just don’t like the idea of Yahoo giving up private information about its users. I feel like Google would have fought harder.

What do you think? Do you think Yahoo should be held responsible for turning over information that caused two innocent-by-Western-standards journalists to be jailed?

Will Adding Photos On the About Page Increase Conversions?

An interesting question popped up over at LED Digest. Site owner Carol Moore wondered if adding a photo to her site’s About page would help potential clients “trust” her site more and therefore be more inclined to do business with her.

I think it’s worth doing. There are definitely users out there who are still wary of conducting any kind of transaction online. Offering up a picture and showing users that there are actual, real live people behind your Web site will make some feel a whole lot more comfortable doing business you. You may have noticed we started adding some photos to our Authors Page (I know, I look like a psychotic poodle, what do you want me to do about it?).

That reminds me, who thinks Susan should be forced to put up a picture? Anyone? Anyone? [Leave me alone. I'm not photogenic. --Susan]

New Beta Version of Bloglines: Love it or Hate It?

So Bloglines went ahead and debuted a new beta version of their site this week. I’ve been reluctant to say anything so far because while I really love Bloglines and am a loyal, loyal user, I’m still not completely sold on the new format. I like the three reading views (though I’ll probably never use anything but the full view), I like the customizable start page and I love that stories aren’t marked read until you actually read them, but the UI is going to take some getting used to. It just feels different. I spend almost my entire day in Bloglines and suddenly I’m having trouble being able to focus in and read a given post, my subscription numbers are gone, and it’s still not updating fast enough for me.

I’m sure at some point Bloglines will require me to make the switch, but for now I’m sticking with the old version.

Fun Finds

I know Susan will give me crap for mentioning Facebook again (hey, check it out, Susan decided to come to work today!), but change is coming. Be aware. [No, I mean it, this time you really are fired. --Susan] Kbye.

I’m sure my BFF Tamar Weinberg will want me to point out that Digg has prettied up its home page, allowing users to see both news and video on a single page. Ooo.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 08/28/07 at 4:03 PM | Comments (1)
See more entries in Blogging, Branding, Fun Stuff, Search Engine Optimization

August 27, 2007

Would People Notice If You Disappeared?

The question posed by Copyblogger’s Ryan Imel is: If Your Blog Disappeared, Who Would Miss It?

It really is an excellent question and something that extends to your entire Internet marketing campaign. I mean, think back a few months or a few years or however long it has been since you established your Web presence. You launched a Web site because you believed you offered some kind of product or service that people needed and you wanted to help them find it. You created a site from scratch, wrote content for it and tried your best to form a community and connect with users. Now that it’s established, ask yourself, would anyone notice if you suddenly disappeared? Would they care or would they just head over to one of your competitors’ sites? Are you filling the void you set out to fill?

I’m sure this is just my narcissism kicking in, but I actually wonder about this a lot. I wonder if I got in a car accident on my way up to SES San Jose and couldn’t blog if anyone would notice there was coverage missing. If we took a week off from blogging with no explanation would our readers notice our absence? Would readers care if Bruce up and fired me one day or would they just head over to one of the other ten million SEO blogs they read daily?*

I think it’s good to give yourself a reality check every once in awhile. To ask yourself if your site or your blog is as unique and valuable to users as you think it is. What is it that keeps users coming back to your site? Or perhaps, what is it that’s driving them away?

Personally, I can think of number of blogs or Web sites that I would be heartbroken over if they disappeared. I mean, seriously, if Heather B. Armstrong ever stopped updating me on the activities of Chuck and Leta…well, I think I might lose all reason for living. There are absolutely sites that are part of my online community. Sites that if they disappeared I wouldn’t just be able to replace them. These sites are unique in that I’ve already formed an attachment to them. Try to take them away from me and I swear to God I will throw a computer monitor at your head.

Ryan offered up a couple of tips on how bloggers (and site owners) can ensure that people miss them should they ever go missing. I’ll simply summarize them here:

• Target Your Audience
• Be Unique
• Interact with your readers (audience) on a personal level
• Create content that can’t be duplicated

Obviously, all four of those tips are very important to the success of your brand, but I think it’s that third one that’s really going to ensure that your readers notice when you’ve been eaten by a bear. Unless your audience has formed an attachment to your brand, you are completely replaceable. It’s that personal interaction factor that will keep customers coming back and keep them aware of your presence.

Here’s an idea. Fall is right around the corner, right? Start the season off by taking a step back and reexamining the legacy you’ve been creating online. Have you allowed your site or your blog to become replaceable? Have you been engaging and communicating with your audience or are you just talking at them? Are you providing a service that is useful or are you just like everyone else? If you don’t like the answers you’re coming up with, it’s time to follow Ryan’s advice – Re-target your audience, be unique, interact with your audience and create content that can’t be duplicated. Start now.

*Please do not take this as your cue to tell me how wonderful/funny/pretty this blog is. Susan already accused me of using my Is Mixing Humor and Blogging a Bad Idea post as a way to fish for compliments. I promise that is not the purpose of this post. Honest.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 08/27/07 at 3:39 PM | Comments (3)
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Blog Monitoring, Google Australia, Facebook & Fun Finds

Hey, search folk. Here’s a collection of nuggets for you to snack on while I’m still getting caught up on my feeds. I know, it’s Monday and I should be recovered from SES San Jose by now, but I’m not. And this weekend was the annual Bruce Clay, Inc. BBQ (with babies, puppies and jolly jumpers!) so that delayed me even more. And then I spent the rest of the weekend sick.

No, I’m not whining. Stop judging me.

The UK Starts Monitoring Blogs

ResourceShelf had an interesting find last week, pointing out that the UK’s Central Office of Information is going to start monitoring blogs in order to brief government departments on where people sit on current issues. It basically sounds like they’re creating a formal Google Alert system for all those stiff government types.

I like the initial idea, assuming it is used for good (understanding the conversation) and not evil (censoring dissent). It’s vital for officials to be aware of what is being said on blogs and tuned into the conversation in order to better serve those they’re supposed to be speaking on behalf of. You have to wonder why they didn’t start something like this sooner. Have government officials been ignoring the conversation happening online all this time? Surely, this had to have been an issue before? Better late than never, I suppose.

Personalized Ad Program Coming to Facebook

The Wall Street Journal broke the news last week revealing that Facebook will soon feature an ad program that targets ads based on personal preferences (favorite activities, music, religion, family, etc), not just by demographics. In case you’re starting to get a little nervous, the targeting will be done via defined user category groups, not by the individual, so it’s not nearly as scary as you may have feared.

Or, maybe it is.

The article states that Facebook’s long term objective is to perfect the system so that it will be able to “predict what products and services users might be interested in even before they have specifically mentioned an area”. How very Google of them.

Seriously, though, a lot of people are getting freaked out over this, but I personally don’t have a problem with Facebook targeting ads based on information I have voluntarily entered into their system. If they want to look at my user groups, or my blog feeds, or the fact that I am a raging New England Patriots fan in order to better serve me ads, then so be it. If you are freaked out about ad targeting, perhaps you shouldn’t be entering your deepest, darkest secrets into your Facebook profile. Actually, maybe you shouldn’t be using social networks in general. Go sit in your closet. The bad people can’t get you there.

Google and Australia Make Nice…For Now

Don’t get too excited but there’s actually a news story today that mentions Google and Australia and it isn’t about a new lawsuit. Huzzah!

Yes, today’s big Aussie news is that Google Australia has signed a multi-year deal with the Australia media conglomerate News Digital Media to put AdSense contextual advertising and paid search AdWords advertising on the NDM’s host of sites, including The Daily Telegraph, The Herald Sun, The Australian and FoxSports.com.au. Under the deal, Google will also replace Yahoo as the search results provider on NDM Web sites. Well played, Google. Well played.

Fun Finds

This is more an Awesome Find than a Fun Find, but Andy Beal outlined 26 Free Tools for Buzz Monitoring. I recommend you bookmark that post. Andy maybe buy Andy lunch.

Gemme gets us caught up on what’s been happening in China’s world of search over the past month. Definitely worth a read.

If you find yourself overly bored at work today, practice switching off the colors in the Google logo. No, I don’t know why this is interesting but Google Blogoscoped mentioned it and, darn it, I want to be as cool as Phillipp.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 08/27/07 at 12:13 PM | Comments (3)
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August 9, 2007

Promoting Yourself Using Other Brands

Funny thing. I just mentioned Nick Stamoulis this morning and then I head over to my friend Simon Heseltine’s Search Engine Tigers blog and what do I see – a post about Nick Stamoulis. Darn, this guy is popular lately.

Simon was doing a routine Google search for his company, RedBoots Consulting, when he discovered a PPC ad hanging out on the right hand side. The ad was for a man named Nick Stamoulis. Thinking the name sounded familiar, Simon queried his old company, and sure enough, there was Nick’s ad hanging out on the right hand side again. Pattern, anyone?

Simon writes:

“My first thought was that both were SEMPO members, so to test this theory I went over to the SEMPO membership list and did some more searches - Bruce Clay, Fathom SEO, Ingenio, 360i, Flying Point Media, G3 Group, Kinetic Results, JumpFly, Performics, Sitelab International, The Search Agency, TopRank Online Marketing - each one had the exact same ad from Mr. Stamoulis displayed.

Nick Stamoulis has decided the way he’s going to brand himself is by bidding on the names of well known search marketers. That’s cool, I guess. I’m certainly not going to chastise his marketing habits; I just wonder if it’s the most effective way to brand yourself.

From what I can discover about Nick, he’s a professional search marketer. This tells me that Nick likely has all sorts of experience, knowledge and prowess in this area. So why isn’t he using it more? What is the philosophy behind bidding on competitor's brand names? I just feel like using the names of popular search engine optimization companies as a launch pad isn’t the way to get that name recognition you’re looking for. Not because it’s unethical or because it’s “bad” but because it does nothing to separate you from them, aka your competition. If I’m doing a search looking for Bruce Clay, it means I’m already somewhat committed to that company. Just showing up in the sponsored links section for that query doesn’t tell me that you’re better than BC. It just tells me that you, too, recognize Bruce as being an optimization expert. Wow, I should really call this Bruce guy!

You can make the argument that aligning yourself with respected companies gets you noticed, and yeah, that has obviously worked for Nick to some degree. But are they are going to remember you as being a search engine optimization company or are they going to only remember that you showed up next to Bruce Clay or RedBoots Consulting when they weren’t looking for you. You don’t want to be remembered for being annoying.

We’ll look at it another way. One of the reasons ranking for the phrase [search engine optimization] is so sought after is that SEOs know clients view it as a testament to their optimizing ability. If you’re charging thousands of dollars for search engine optimization services and yet you can’t even get your own site to rank, what does that say about your ability to practice what you preach? Why should I trust that you’re going to be able to get my site to rank?

Something else to consider before heading down the path of bidding on trademarked terms is that you’re not winning yourself any goodwill with the search marketers whose names you’re bidding on. Sure, some people don’t care, others may even be flattered, but there will always be those that are offended, and vocal about it. Those that feel like you’re trying to use their good name to make a buck. If you read the comments over on Simon’s blog or on Sphinn, you’ll see that not everyone is happy about Nick’s marketing techniques.

It’s probably important to point out that everything Nick is doing (besides placing his telephone number in the display URL, which he’s since fixed) is 100 percent legal and within bounds. The courts have ruled that it is totally okay for companies to bid on trademarked terms (they’ve also ruled it's okay for the owner of the trademark to sue you). I just wonder if it’s the best plan of action. I have no doubt that Nick is a talented search marketer; he’s clearly got the linkbait down. My fear is that by heading down the path where you piggyback off others success may make you more enemies than you gain clients. If you’re a good search marketer, why not get attention by showing off your skills?

Posted by Lisa Barone on 08/ 9/07 at 5:51 PM | Comments (4)
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Is Mixing Humor and Blogging A Bad Idea?

Okay, so I have this problem when it comes to blogging. Basically, it’s that I think I’m funny. Actually, I think I’m hilarious. Often I’ll write something or respond to an unwelcome Susan blog comment and I will immediately burst into giggles over my own creation. It actually scares Susan which, in turn, makes the entire thing that much funnier to me. But as Copyblogger’s Brian Clark remind me today, sometimes humor is dangerous and bloggers should decide if it’s absolutely necessary to their posts.

I think it’s a tough call. Am I writing my blog posts around the next punch line? Of course not, I’m trying to tell you a story, but I do like to throw a little quip in there every now and then to make sure the lot of you are paying attention. Sometimes I also do it to make sure I’m still paying attention.

One of the greatest differences between a blog and a newspaper is that blogs get to take on the personality of their author. They’re personable and it’s the being personable that helps readers develop an attachment. The best way to bond with someone is to make them laugh (or feed them). If you can keep them laughing (or eating), you’ll keep them coming back, and you may even make them fall in love with you (I make a mean meatloaf).

Of course, if you don’t make them laugh, and your attempt at humor, instead, breaks their train of thought while they are reading your entry, that’s bad. When you try to be funny and people don’t get it, they tend to get angry. Ask Brian.

“Sure enough, one reader ridiculed me for my “purple prose,” while another actually chastised me. An especially self-important blogger named Nancy Friedman even wasted 963 words of her life equating me to the end of good writing as we know it. Nancy doesn’t get a link, because trolling for links via attack post is so 2005.”

Heh. That’s the thing, trying to work humor into a blog entry or even onto your Web site really is a tricky thing because not everyone has the same sense of humor. And as funny as your writing is to you, not everyone will get it and you don’t want to alienate your readers or make them feel dumb. Being funny is great and can be a powerful branding device, but if it sacrifices the clarity of your message it’s not worth it.

I think the key to adding humor into blogs or even into your Web site is to understand your reader’s sense of humor. Brian mentioned that the way comics write material is that they’ll try out different variations of their jokes on different crowds to see what works and what flops. I tend to look at blogging in a similar way.

Not that we’re out there trying to come up with silly jokes or one-liners, but I think over time you get to know what your audience responds to and what they roll their eyes at. You can see what makes them comment nicely and what makes them comment that you’re an embarrassment to the English language.

If you’re trying to bring humor to your blog, my initial advice would be to play off your audience’s knowledge base. What topics or bits of humor are specific to them? If you can hit upon their specific geekiness and make them laugh, you’ll have a fan forever. You should have heard all the Windows jokes being thrown out at WordCamp. It was ridiculous.

Personally, unless I’m having a really cheesy moment, I stay away from the blatant jokes. Being sharp or displaying a touch of wit is different from reciting the riddle I just heard from the crazy guy on the street.

And yes, even though it’s hard for me to understand, I realize that not everyone thinks I’m funny. Just ask Nick Stamoulis, he definitely doesn’t think I’m funny. (Hi, Nick!) Hopefully, you don’t find my attempts at humor so distracting that you lose the message of the post, because it really is the message and the story that is important. If the jokes or the sarcasm are getting in the way, tell me. I’ll try and control myself because really the quips are nothing more than the chocolate syrup on the sundae. The sundae of optimization.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 08/ 9/07 at 3:05 PM | Comments (13)
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July 30, 2007

Jim Lanzone, Michael Gray & Cookies. Oh, My!

Hey, everyone. Hope you guys had a good weekend. I did, but then the weekend ended. Now it’s Monday and Susan is back in the office. Judging by the fact that I am still alive, however, it doesn’t look like she read last week’s Friday Recap. Everyone play innocent, okay? [I'm waiting until after we publish the newsletter tomorrow. --Susan]

Three Things You Didn’t Know About Jim Lanzone

Jim Lanzone is featured as today’s Boss in the New York Times profile section. Three things I learned about Jim:

• The best thing Jim got out of his law degree was his wife, whom he met on the first day of classes at Emory.
• He got a three-day stay of execution for a death row inmate after finding a loophole in a law.
• When Jim first got involved with Ask, the stock was selling at 79 cents a share.

Heh, okay so those were just some of my favorite takeaways. You should go read the entire profile both because Jim’s a pretty smart guy and because it serves as a nice warm up for the SES Keynote Recap you’ll be seeing from us in about three weeks.

Would You Pay For Full Feeds?

There’s a small circle of individuals in the SEO community that you really don’t want to upset. Michael Gray is in the center of that circle. You partial feed people are in trouble.

Last week, Michael put partial feed SEO bloggers on notice saying that if they didn’t start offering a full feed option by Aug. 1, he was dropping them from his reader. Ouch. Apparently, Michael doesn’t care about your need to sell advertising, he just wants the goods. He’s not totally unreasonable, however, make full feeds available to him and he’s willing to pay you for your trouble. Hmm.

What say you? Would you pay for a full feeds?

Michael likens it to paying for cable but I’m not sure that’s the best example. Paying for cable allows me to sit on my couch and enjoy fine television program that I would not have been able to view otherwise. We’re talking about three different Lifetime stations! With partial feeds, I still get the content; it’s just more annoying to access.

Personally, I’m not put off enough by partial feeds to volunteer to pay for it. Call me cheap, poor or indifferent, I don’t really care. I’m more interested in your opinion. Are full feeds important enough to you that you’d pony up a few bucks?

(Oh, and Michael, I’d like to remind you that Bruce Clay DOES have a full feed option in case you haven’t been reading it. Don’t drop us. )

Fun Finds

The Guardian names the top 10 dotcoms to watch and I can honestly say that I have never heard of any of them. :) [I've heard of Moo. That's it.--Susan]

WebProNews pointed to an amusing InsightExpress study that found while 60 percent of users thought they were savvy enough to delete their cookies, only 28 percent actually are. Heh. I heart dumb people.

Ten automakers have banded together to create an operating system for automotive electronics. I don’t know why but I found that kind of cute. Ignore me.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 07/30/07 at 2:31 PM | Comments (2)
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July 25, 2007

Don’t Fake It: The Secret to Creating Kickass Content

Or at least that’s what the famous Lorelle VanFossen told an adoring audience on Saturday.

Lorelle said the problem with most blog posts is that they look like they were written in 10 minutes by people who can’t type, can’t think and who make you think they were released for the day or the institution got computers (hee!). Lorelle says this is how most people have come to associate blogging.

I think Lorelle’s definition of the typical blog is both horribly sad and frighteningly accurate. Most blogs out there aren’t worth the time it takes to read them. Frankly, a lot of the content out there in the blogosphere kinda sucks.

But it doesn’t have to.

The secret to creating kick ass content is to show your audience something they’ve never seen before. If you can’t do that, then show them something in a way they’ve never seen before. It’s shock and awe time, people.

The best way to do that is to look for the missing subjects. There are holes everywhere in content. Not everything can be said and even if it has been said it can be said better and cleaner.

Need an example? Go do a search for [install Wordpress]. There are more than 35 million results! Do we really need another? Maybe we do, maybe we don’t. Do you know something those other 35 million+ people didn’t? If not, look between the lines and find what’s missing. Are people talking about the problem or are they merely describing the symptoms?

Lorelle said something during her presentation that really hit home with me. She said that in school we’re trained not to ask why, but as bloggers there will always be that little part of us that demands to know the why. And once we know the why we’ll blog about it so that everyone else knows too. We’re kind of annoying that way.

Another way to create great content is to look at the whole calendar. This is something we’re starting to look at more at Bruce Clay. We’re creating sort of a blog/newsletter site map to see what we’ve written about before and what we just thought we’ve written about before. There’s nothing worse than looking through the blog trying to track down that entry I just know I wrote about social media to find out that I never actually wrote. We’re looking for the holes.

You may be wondering why I didn’t liveblog WordCamp 2007. That’s kind of my thing, right? Being thrown into conferences, attending the sessions and typing so fast that I don’t even remember being there? Well, I didn’t want to do that this time. This time around the conference was more for personal fulfillment than for business obligation and I wanted to really enjoy it. Taking notes during the session and then thinking about them gave me time to be what Lorelle called “the sensible blogger”. Instead of blogging in the moment and trying to get the information out there in a panic, I took a day or two to process what I was hearing.

You come across this a lot in the blogosphere – bloggers who are in a race to be first out of the gate. It’s great getting the scoop, don’t get me wrong, but when you write in a hurry you set a frantic tone for readers. Everything you write gets a panicky feeling. By the time readers make it through your entry they’re jazzed up enough that they could run through a brick wall. I mean, sure, it’s funny to watch them try but every now and then someone gets hurt.

Use your blog to start a conversation.

Stop writing for your 8th grade teacher. Yes, I know you were taught to write in complete sentences, so was I, but stop giving away the whole idea. Blogging incomplete ideas leaves room for your readers to complete them. Yes, you can write 101 Tricks to Search Engine Optimization, but then what’s left for readers to bring to the conversation? Nothing. You’ve said it all.

Something Lorelle said that particularly interested me was the idea that as a blogger you blog for one person – you.

She said that a successful blog is one that you land on with an intention of looking for info and when you arrive it immediately feels familiar and safe. It looks like you. You know what you need, what you need to say and that you want your readers to feel the same way. In essence, you want your readers to be you.

I was somewhat taken aback by that statement because that’s never how I’ve looked at this blog, perhaps because it’s of the corporate variety and not my personal blog. However, I’ve always tried to write for the Bruce Clay audience, not for myself. Was that a misstep? Maybe it was. Lorelle says to blog for you and to you because people want to do business with others who are like them and who meet their expectations. Do you agree? Do you want more Lisa with your Bruce Clay?

One last tip from Lorelle that I absolutely loved (somewhat paraphrased as I was typing this in the moment):

Preserve your story…blog well. Write for the future. Write for your children. Put your entire body inside your blog. What I build today is not for me, it is not for my children, it is not for my grandchildren, it’s for my great, great, great, great grandchildren. They will have the benefits of what I do today.

Admit it; you aw’d.

Whatever you do, don’t fake it. It’s never been difficult to tell when a blogger is faking it. And, as Lorelle said, these people bore the snot out of all of us. Don’t bore me. And don’t lie! If you’re an old person and you want to revisit what it was like to be 14 (why you would I don’t know, but to each is own), that’s fine, but tell the world what you’re doing. Don’t lie about it, okay?

Now go blog something kickass!

Posted by Lisa Barone on 07/25/07 at 3:53 PM | Comments (4)
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July 24, 2007

Search Engine Optimization Tricks for WordPress

If you missed Matt Cutts performance at San Francisco’s WordCamp 2007, you should totally kick yourself because it was awesome. And yes, it was a performance and believe me, the WordCampers Ate. It. Up.

Matt was on hand Saturday afternoon to give some whitehat search engine optimization tips for bloggers. I joked with him during lunch (cause we’re like, totally friends now) that there would only be a handful of people in his session because no one knew what search engine optimization was, but I was wrong. The room was packed and Matt was arguably Day 1’s MVP because he was both informative and hysterically adorable.

The tip shared by Matt that’s getting the biggest amount of coverage was the news that Google is very close to being able to interpret underscores as word separators the way hyphens have been in the past. This should make SEOs and bloggers alike very excited because it means the benefit of their keyword-rich URLs won’t be negated when their blog software automatically inserts underscores and not hyphens. This is also smart for Google because it should go a long way to strengthening their blog search, which at the moment is good, but not quite as good as Technorati.

Matt gave several other WordPress and blogging-related search engine optimization tricks, including:

• Don’t put your blog at the root page of your domain. What if down the line you want to do something else besides a blog? Also, people will typically link to your main page and to your main blog page so it’s a good way to gain extra links.
• Name your directory “blog” not “Wordpress”.
• Use category names that are good keywords.
• Use Stephan Spencer’s SEO Title plug-in which swaps the name of your blog with the name of your post to make your keywords more prevalent.
• If you want any hope of getting your blog into Google News, make sure there are multiple authors. Hey, that reminds me, have you seen our new Authors Page? It’s pretty, except that I look psychotic in my photo.
• The type of file extension used in your URL won't affect your rankings, unless it’s “exe”. If each one of your blog entries is its own program, you likely have a problem.

In terms of including question marks or hash marks in your URL, Matt noted that Google will truncate the URL at the hash marks and that question marks typically signify a dynamic URL. Matt claims that dynamic URLs are treated the same as static URLs.

Beyond just the tips, Matt also discussed some optimization stuff that was really just common sense. In terms of keywords, Matt advised doing keyword research and/or thinking about the keywords users are most likely to use before writing (duh), naturally working in keyword synonyms to make yourself more well-rounded (Use this knowledge only for good, never for evil, pleads Matt), and using ALT tags on all forms of media content. This includes not only images, but video, audio and other forms as well. This is only going to get more important.

Matt says if you’re not sure if you should do a podcast or vidcast, head over to the site hotornot.com and submit your photo. If you’re a 7 or above, do a video. If you’re a 6 or below, stick to podcasts. Heh, nice.

Also noteworthy was that somehow during the session PageRank and Google’s supplemental index was brought into the conversation. (See, Matt, it’s not just us optimization folk who are obsessed). I giggled but Matt told the blogging audience that supplemental results are determined mainly by PageRank. The only way to get them out of the index is so get them more links. There may or may not have been some cringing by me when he said this. I don’t think Matt noticed, nor did my fellow WordCampers.

To create an optimization-friendly blog, bloggers should also:

• Make sure your site is crawlable.
• Make post creation dates easy to find. Anyone remember Sicko?
• If you’re worried that adding the date with put more slashes into your URL, don’t worry. Matt says this isn’t a problem for Google.
• Check your blog on a cell phone/iPhone, as more and more users are going to be looking at your site this way.
• Use full text RSS feeds to get loyal users. Partial feeds get more page views, but not as much love.
• Your blog should do standard pings.

Matt ended the session noting that Google really wants to be a reflection of the Web. The best thing you can do for your site and ensure that Google knows about you is to get noticed. Create compelling content and users and Google will find out about your blog naturally. Create fun tools (LOLcat builder), controversy (Dvorak!), mention Robert Scoble (hiss!) or go the linkbait route and sell your mustache on eBay (Oh, Dax…).

Matt offered a lot of great blog optimization tips, but for me, the good thing about WordPress and most other blogging software is that it’s really search engine optimization friendly right out of the box. I’ve played around with a lot of blog software over the years, WP included, and it does a good job of handling most of the technical things for you. All you have to do is provide compelling keyword-rich content in a way that people want to read and link to. That’s not so hard, right?

Okay, ducking now.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 07/24/07 at 4:33 PM | Comments (16)
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July 18, 2007

How Do You Judge A Blog Post’s Success?

For Lorelle VanFossen’s blog challenge this week she asked: How do you judge a blog post as a success?

The question is a good one and her community has offered a combination of different answers, citing metrics like traffic spikes, an increased number in blog subscribers, number of quality comments, links coming into the entry, etc. They’re all valuable metrics to consider, but is that really how you determine whether or not you’ve been successful? By if your traffic goes up? I hope not.

I was asked in an interview recently how many unique visitors we get to the Bruce Clay blog each week. To be honest, I didn’t have the slightest idea. In fact, I had to trot myself down over to IT and bug the Simpsons nerd to find out. Now that I know I don’t feel any better or worse about myself. It doesn’t change anything. I’m still going to write about optimization and branding and sometimes puppies and how much I hate Susan. In fact, I told my kitties how much traffic the blog gets and I’m pretty sure they feel the same level of indifferent towards me as they did yesterday. (Swat did mention, however, that she’s jealous that younger Jack Jack gets all the blog attention.)

For me, numbers have nothing to do with declaring a blog post successful or not. A blog post is successful when it evokes response.

If a reader heard and understood the message I was trying to get out and felt something, then I have done Bruce proud and earned my cookie for the day. It has nothing to do with how many new Bloglines or Google Reader subscribers we have or if we got 20 comments compared to our normal zero. At the end of the day, I just want to know you heard me and that you felt something. You don’t even have to agree with me, Susan rarely does.

If you’re a site owner with a corporate blog, I would hope that it’s the response and the connection that you’re looking for too, not the numbers. You want to be writing posts that people will respond to. That should be your goal. That’s how you build your brand.

You can argue that comments and new subscribers and traffic and all that good stuff are signs that you have evoked a response, and there’s truth to that. Those are all signals that you’re doing something, but that shouldn’t be your goal. The purpose of your blog should not be to become famous.

It’s possible you’re now looking at me like I’m crazy (stop it), saying if evoking a response leads to all those good metrics, then what does it matter which one you focus on?

Well, there’s actually a huge difference. If all you want is for your blog to be famous then you’re likely to do anything to achieve that and collect the high traffic. To hell with your company’s reputation, the integrity of your blog or acknowledging the intelligence of your audience, you’re just trying to bait users into visiting. It’s the difference between creating link-worthy content and linkbait-able content.

The problem with a lot of the blogs out there is that their sole goal is become famous. They want to satisfy their own ego or reach a certain number of unique visitors so they can sell more ad space; they don’t care about their readers. The trick to writing a successful blog is to make the blog about your audience, not about yourself. Write for them. Make them think, make them laugh, make them angry. That’s what makes a blog or a blog post successful.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 07/18/07 at 4:51 PM | Comments (4)
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July 10, 2007

Your Blog Is Your Baby, Don't Leave It With Strangers

Bear with me; The Lisa’s mad.

So, you decided to start the New Year by creating a new blog. Your head was overflowing with great blog topics, you were happy about joining the community and you were excited about giving either yourself or your company a more public voice. You created your blog and promised to love and cherish it through the good times and the flame wars, to update it, moderate it and to be an all-around good blogosphere citizen for as long as you both shall live.

But that was six months ago.

Now you’ve either run out of blog topics, you’ve made enemies in your space, you’re on to the next fad, or you’ve decided to spend July hanging out at the beach (and really, who can blame you on that last one?). So what do you do? You decided to phone it in and hire others to do your work for you. What are “ethics”, anyway?

I don’t know if I should be sad, upset or offended by all the services popping up lately aimed at helping people become sucky bloggers who insult their audiences, but last night I was very glad I didn’t have a puppy. If I did have one, I may have kicked it. I found myself in a dismal blogging mood yesterday for two annoying reasons: Guest-Blogger and Buy Blog Comments.

The first offender was brought to my attention while I was reading the new Authority Blogger Forum. I came across a post about a new service called Guest-Blogger that is designed to “facilitate introductions among bloggers”. Basically, if you’re going out of town or are too busy to blog, you can look up a blogger who writes about your topic and solicit them to pinch hit.

The mere idea of this is completely frustrating to me. No doubt this service includes some veiled way for bloggers to screen candidates before the deal is finalized, but even so, you’re still trusting your blog and your audience to someone you don’t know. Is this how you treat things you care about? The only people I can see benefiting from a service like this are people pushing out spammy Made For AdSense sites and labeling them “blogs”. Giving your blog to someone you don’t know is like asking the bum on the street to baby-sit your children. Don’t expect your children don’t look at you the same when you get them back. Try to ignore that crushed looked beaming out of their little eyes.

I understand that people take vacations and people have lives, but if you’re a good blogger and a trusted member in your space, it should not be difficult for you to find someone that you know and trust to lend you a hand with your blogging. If there was ever a community that looked out for one another, it is the blogging community. Just ask Rae Hoffman. People were tripping over themselves offering to blog for her, including yours truly.

The second service that got my blood boiling was Buy Blog Comments. The company lets bloggers do exactly what it sounds like it does – buy blog comments. This could be one of the worst ideas I have ever heard and I can feel my head getting ready to explode just thinking about it.

Isn’t there enough automated blog spam out there without hiring real people to contribute to it? I think so.

And have you read the content on their home page? I don’t know which line was more horrifying – listening to them tout how they specialize in selling blog comments for “blackhatters”, watching them promise you better search engine rankings, or this grammatically incorrect gem:

“We dont use people who can't even speak English. It is important to have well written blog comments so that they will not get deleted by the blogger. All of our trained staff are currently from the USA and Canada and speak English very well.”

I don’t want to give the site too much attention, but I think the fact that the 20-year-old founder of the site has a testimonial from himself on the home page speaks wonders.

There’s value in using blogs for link building and search engine optimization purposes, but this is so not the way to go about it. Loren Baker had an excellent post yesterday about SEO & Link Building via Blog Comments. If you don’t know why you should be commenting on other people’s blogs yourself, go read his entry. You’ll learning something.

In the end, by participating in these kinds of spammy services you’re hurting everyone involved – you, your blog, your readers, and the community as a whole. You should care enough about your blog to not leave it with strangers or muddy its reputation through these kinds of programs. And if you don’t respect your blog enough, it’s time to get out of the space. We don’t want you.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 07/10/07 at 5:48 PM | Comments (12)
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July 2, 2007

Lessons In Corporate Blogging

Google’s Lauren Turner learned a hard lesson in blogging this weekend: Be careful of what you say on a corporate blog. People are listening and they do react when poked.

In case you missed it, our new friend Lauren helped break in Google’s Health Advertising Blog on Friday morning by referencing, and somewhat attacking Michael Moore’s new documentary Sicko. She blasted the film and then encouraged health care companies (aka deep pocketed customers) to fight back against the film by advertising on Google. What was the response once the blogosphere got wind of Google beating down a film in an attempt to sell more ads?

Predictable outrage, mostly.

Lauren bravely returned to the scene of the crime less than 24 hours and offered up a follow-up post entitled My opinion and Google’s explaining that the opinion expressed was her own, not Google’s. Wisely or not, she also took the opportunity to defend her stance that using advertising is “a very democratic and effective way to participate in a public dialogue”. So, like, if you don’t agree with the film, buy more ads on Google!

Oye, she should have stopped while she was ahead.

Both Lauren and Google have suffered an onslaught of attacks since the two blog posts were published. An agitated blogosphere cried for Google to stay unbiased, for Google’s lawyers to screen blog posts more carefully, and some even wanted Lauren’s keys to the blog taken away.

Why? Because she expressed her opinion and perhaps a case of bad judgment? Dude, someone just dissected a $600 iPhone on purpose. Go burn that guy at the stake, not her.

Lauren’s only crime here was not realizing that when you post something on a corporate blog, you’re speaking for that company. As much as you just want to be speaking for only yourself, you’re not. You can disclaimer that post up and down, but if your words appear under a Google logo, that disclaimer means nothing. You are Google. You are Google’s voice, and as Neil Patel blogged last week, there is such a thing as bad PR.

My fear is that corporations will take this situation and overreact. They’ll start censoring who can blog and they’ll begin nitpicking which entries can be published and which need a re-write. I don’t think Google would ever subscribe to this idea of blogging, but it worries me that people are even asking for it.

A corporate blog is meant to be opinionated. If you’re not going to be expressing unique opinion, why are you blogging in the first place? To restate the events of the day? Wow, that’s…totally exciting. The objective a corporate blog is to let customers and potential customers know where you stand on an issue and what you believe as a company. It’s about attracting visitors with a common belief set, finding an engaged audience, leveraging that passion and that energy, and showing visitors that you’re the kind of company they want to associate themselves with. To do that you have to expose some of yourself and suffer the occasional misstep. .

Lauren sure did that this weekend.

You can’t blog safe. Successful bloggers are the ones who are willing to put themselves out there. Should Lauren have blasted Michael Moore’s film while hinting that you should advertise more with Google? No, but she shouldn’t be afraid of stating Google opinion either and the lot of you shouldn’t try to make her. Blogging entails taking a calculated risk every now and then and saying something your boss would probably rather you keep in your pretty little head. There’s a different between blogging smart and blogging restrained.

We’ve all had our corporate blogging faux pas (I’m still healing from my public lashing), you learn and you move on. I think Lauren learned a tough lesson here and it’s going to make her a better, smarter blogger.

Welcome to the blogosphere, Lauren. We hope you enjoyed your initiation because you officially have an audience!

Posted by Lisa Barone on 07/ 2/07 at 4:21 PM | Comments (0)
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June 21, 2007

Mahalo, Annoying Internet Words, & Conference City Locations

Another Reason Search Engine Optimization is Important

Even if you’re not going to go out and start optimizing a bunch of Web sites, it’s still important to at least understand the principles behind search engine optimization and how the engines work. Why? Because then Michael Gray can’t out you for being clueless and linking to sites you’ve just identified as spammy. At least it was good for a laugh. Mahalo, Jason!

Seriously though, for all the business owners out there, even if you don’t think your site is in need of search engine optimization and you buy into the Jason Calacanis rule of thinking, at least consult someone who knows the basics. If not, you just look silly when you label someone as a spammer and then link to them from your precious new little baby site.

Four Letter Internet Words

Asked what words are most likely to make them “wince, shudder or want to bang [their] head on the keyboard”, more than 2,000 Brits named “folksonomy”, “blogosphere”, “blog”, “netiquette” and “blook” as their top five. “Cookie” and “wiki” helped round out the top ten. So if I were you, I wouldn’t go plugging those words into all of your Web copy. It may turn some users off and leave them with keyboard impressions on their forehead.

The poll is amusing, though I’m not exactly blown away by the results. I, too, find most of those words annoying with the exception of blog and blogosphere. I’m sure this has nothing to do with my profession but I kind of like those two. I also like cookies. They’re delicious. (Two of the boys in this office owe me sugar cookies. You know who you are.)

What Internet words get your blood boiling? Other than Mahalo.

Where Do You Want To Party?

Did I say party? I meant where do you want the next search marketing conference to take place in order to facilitate all the learning?

Lee Odden is back polling readers and asks what’s the best city for a conference? Leading the pack right now are New York, Las Vegas and San Francisco. I think New York is probably the best city in the world to do anything, but I voted for Boston. Mostly because I haven’t been there in a long time and I want someone to organize a conference there so that I can visit. Or maybe I can just get Bruce to open up Bruce Clay New England? Boss?

Anyone going to WordCamp 2007?

WordCamp 2007 takes place in San Francisco July 21-22 and will offer bloggers two days of informative sessions. Scheduled to speak are Om Malik, Loren VanFossen, Matt Cutts, Dave Winer, Liz Danzico, Matt Mullenwag and others. Tickets are only $25, so if you’re interested I’d act fast. They’re probably going to sell out.

If you have plans to attend, drop me a line or leave a comment. I’m thinking of making the trip and I could use some blogging buddies. :)

Fun Finds

David Temple posted a slideshow of fun photos from the China Search Marketing Tour. Raise your hand if you’d be surprised to see Rand in a pink poncho? Yeah, I wasn’t either. Maybe it’s because I’ve seen him dance.

The Blog Herald asks What Should Bloggers Apologize For and How and then answers its own question. Why apologize when I can just blame it on Susan? [We've been over this. Successes are because I'm a great editor. Mistakes are because you're a terrible writer. --Susan] - Every day I leave this office hoping you won’t be here when I return.

Kim Krause-Berg explains how to make AJAX techniques safe for search engines so it doesn’t send your search engine optimization campaign out of control. She also mentions the CSS, AJAX, Web 2.0 and Search Engines session we both covered back in April that made our heads spin in really attractive directions.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 06/21/07 at 3:59 PM | Comments (2)
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June 13, 2007

Blogs and Social Media Forum 2

Marie Howell, UK SEO at Bruce Clay Europe attended last week’s Blogs and Social Media Forum held at The London Marriot Grosvenor Hotel and was kind enough to share her experience. Thanks, Marie!

Although certainly not SMX, nor the dizzy (metaphorically speaking) heights of Seattle, the Blogs and Social Media Forum 2 in London offered a positive day, some concrete ideas, a chance to mull over and consider issues surrounding internal and external social media, such as UK-style to UK businesses, educational establishments and enterprises. There was even a little amusement in the ‘bristling’ by a certain attendee (after one or two interesting comments about Microsoft from Sun Micro Systems!).

Attendees ranged from companies and high pedigree organisations such as legal practices Deloitte & Touche and the Bank of England, through to educational establishments in the form of a Scottish University and governmental bodies like the MOD (Ministry Of Defence) and various councils. Each sector, it seems, has their own social media agenda and is keen to develop their enterprises and interaction using this medium. Some have the objective of internal interaction and information delivery, others are creating blogs to support Web business, others are looking to develop brands and brand management, whilst yet others are keen to monetize this interaction with the wider community at large.

The day kicked off with a welcome from chairman Euan Semple followed by a Keynote conversational panel featuring Ben Edwards (Economist.com), Jem Stone (BBC New Media and Technology), Adriana Lukas (Big Blog Company), Myles Runham (General Manager Europe, Ask.com), and Roo Reynolds (Metaverse Evangelist, IBM). Euan introduced the concept of blogging and social media as an industry tool and then looked to the Social Media line-up for their experiences and reflections.

In general advice from the panel, Myles stressed the importance of setting aside time for blogging. He also advocated how it should be something that you choose to do because it adds value to the company and it is something that you enjoy, primarily. The panel also stressed the need for relinquishing control to employees and the wider community. Social media is, by its own definition, controlled by the community and participants, and their interaction with each other.

Ben Edwards introduced how he has developed ‘community server’ within the Economist to enhance their site. His recommendation was for companies to work closely with their operations director and to give a degree of compulsion to interaction with social media (i.e. 4 “weekly reports” required).

[Aside: but, doesn’t that defeat the object of social media – a wanting / desire to be part of a community and to share your [own] thoughts / reflections with a wiser audience? Should social media be merely an extension of the company newsletter and mission statement? If it were as prescriptive as this, it would concern me greatly! – Marie ]

Other sound bytes included developing confidence and encouraging staff and colleagues to dip a toe in the water. The audience was reminded that in conversations you might say the ‘wrong thing’ but that doesn’t stop you from communicating. With blogging, for instance, you can proofread, edit, spell check and re-edit your work before publishing to lessen the likelihood of getting anything wrong, but one should accept the possibility that sometimes things can go a little awry and it shouldn’t stop you from keeping going. From a managerial point of view, it is definitely about letting go. People need to be free to express themselves. This valuable point was carried further by Adriana Lukas when she stated that managers have to recognise that things are not going to be perfect and they have to resign themselves to that fact. She also encouraged ‘unlearning’ the corporate lingo when working in social media (I like that better!).

The speed networking session (think speed dating – not tried it, only heard about it! – crossed with a networking event) allowed the Brits, slightly more ‘socially reserved’ than our American cousins, have fun and interact within a 3 minute slot. Too much time for some people, but too little for others. Lloyd Davis gamely hosted this session and encouraged participation from everyone with excellent results – bravo Lloyd!

One of the highlights of the day for me was the open session. This was where audience members ventured a topic they would like to discuss and then they hosted that conversation with those participants who chose to attend. There were a number of different huddles covering diverse social media topics such as The Dark Side of SM, Moderation & Spam, Real World SM and Monetizing SM. [You can find photos of the Social Media session on Marie’s personal blog, SEO Biker -- Lisa]. With attendees encouraged to float between topics, it was possible to get a good flavour of each and the concerns and motivations of different verticals.

With various case studies and talks from Motoraddicts, Economist, Sun Microsystems and BUPA, quality presentations abounded and the audience was allowed into the inner recesses of the planning and implementation of the projects of these organisations However, the Economist.com’s Ben Edwards disappointed attendees by only referring to his ‘roadmap’ for the coming months and would not enlarge on the company’s strategy.

A good day’s conference, expertly hosted by a suave, eloquent and ‘cerebral’ Euan Semple, containing ideas and information to get corporate and public bodies dipping that toe into the Social Media and Blogging waters. Highly recommended!

Posted by Lisa Barone on 06/13/07 at 3:41 PM | Comments (0)
See more entries in Blogging, International, SEM Events, Social Media