Quality is the New Quantity
“Omit needless words.” – E.B. White, “The Elements of Style“ Answer these three questions: What determines the difficulty of a school writing assignment? What kinds of books are you likely to brag about reading? What is the basis on which a writer should charge for his or her work? If any of your answers involve [...]
NumberNeal Responds to Digg Bans: Insights in Community-Based Website Strategy
Earlier this month, popular social news site Digg banned a number of its users, citing script abuse. This sparked an outcry from the Digg community, including the following video letter from power Digg Neal “NumberNeal” Rodriguez (the same Neal to whom I recently offered some SEO career advice): I only started using Digg recently, so [...]
SEO Career Advice for Power Digger Neal Rodriguez
A few weeks ago, my good friend Simon Owens introduced me via email to noted Power Digger Neal Rodriguez. As it turned out, Neal was interested in a career in SEO, and I was more than happy to weigh in with the following advice. Don’t just be an SEO specialist; be an online marketer. SEO [...]
Social Media Experiment Update, Week Six
If you’ve been reading awhile, you may remember the social media experiment I started a few weeks ago. Well, after a month and a half, I figured it was about time to check on my Frankenstein monster and see how it was progressing. So far, most of the readings are negative. It’s not lurching around. [...]
A Crash Course in the Streisand Effect
Picture yourself standing in your kitchen. You shake the last bit of broomed-up crumbs from your dust pan into the trash. It’s taken awhile to clean up for the party, but you made it just in time. Your guests should be arriving soon to enjoy a pleasant evening in your spotless home. As you wipe [...]
Explaining Social Media Optimization to the Uninformed
One of the major challenges of online marketing is communicating the value of new techniques such as corporate blogging, SEO, or social media optimization. Uninformed superiors are often wary of marketing tactics they don’t understand. If you think you’re ready to ride the wild wave of social media optimization but your boss is still skeptical, [...]
Don’t Attack Your Critics; Empower Your Advocates
“If you have no critics you’ll likely have no success.” – Malcolm X It’s a fact of life. The more successful your website, the more likely it is to receive criticism. As Malcolm X points out, this can almost be regarded as a good thing. After all, nobody would feel the need to criticize unless [...]
My Social Media Frankenstein Monster
Since the dawn of search, SEO professionals have dreamed of controlling brand-related search results. Through the power of social media, I intend to do just that. I will wrest my name from the whims of the algorithms and take control of my own destiny. The Hypothesis By linking them together, social media profiles can be [...]
Launching a Successful Website, Step Five: 3, 2, 1… Lift Off!
Every step so far has led up to this: Launching your website. Of course, the technical bits should already be taken care of, leaving only the launch itself. If your site is small, this can be as simple as turning the key and hoping for the best. More than likely, though, you’ll need to spread [...]