Archive for April, 2007

I am curious to know if anyone else noticed the Page Rank change last Friday? As I was home surfing the web, I noticed a PR increase for one of my sites. I then assumed that the awaited PR change had taken place and I went to several sites and noticed a host of PR changes – some for the better, and some that I would have rather not seen.

Probably within an hour or so, all of the previous Page Rank had returned. Overall, I am glad that what I saw didn’t actually take place because one site had totally lost its PR.

Perhaps Matt has some insight here?

So this blog just hasn’t developed feet on its own yet, and that is because I am just overwhelmingly busy these days with work and family (I know that’s not what you are looking for). At my old company, we used to ask ourselves where people found time to blog – and I still ask that question.

Anyhow, in response to Matt McGee’s Search Engine Land article on Hiring an Evanglist I propose that companies take a different approach and that is to instill company loyalty such that every employee becomes an evangelist. I know it won’t work simply in every industry, but we are in an information age where people talk, email, blog, use Social media and the like and if they are passionate about what they do or who they work for, that can create more buzz for the company. Of course, you may have to hold a few informal sessions on training people how to think like a corporate evangelist, and you will only get participation if you have their loyalty (which comes from creating a great work environment).

Few people enjoy what they do for work, and I think that is where the real problem lies. If every company did their best to make their employees truly feel part of a team, or that they held a valuable and desired position, I think the results would be amazing. I happen to work for such a company; I work with amazing people (smart, hard working, and genuinely nice people) and a great management team. I recall one time as I was leaving for the day, one of the VP’s thanked me – my response was (he just thanked me for doing my job). That may seem simple, but it says a lot about a person, management, and a corporate culture – and you would be surprised at how many people feel that they are unappreciated.

Employers & Managers, try doing something nice for your employees, try just being nice, smiling, or thanking them (for starters). You may get interesting responses, as many will think something is wrong with you at first because they aren’t used to seeing that kind of gesture. It will cost you far less than hiring someone to put on a good face for your company and will energize a team of ready, willing, and able evangelists.

One of the best investments a company can make is in its people and creating a great work environment – given that we spend most of our time working.

Feel free to send this to your boss as either motivation or appreciation

So lets say you are at SES NY and you want to go to London. So you ask your trusty Google Map how to get there. Well, I hope you are in better shape than I am because they suggest (at step #23) swimming 3,462 miles to bridge the continental gap. Maybe Big G should invest in a travel agency and sell tickets at Step 23 instead?

An article by Todd Mintz made me realize that it’s not Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, or the others commonly known Social Marketing sites that sounded the first alarms of Social Networking, but rather the 80′s ban REO Speedwagon with the famous song Take it on the run. He starts his article with the famous lyrics “Heard it from a friend who, heard it from a friend who, heard it from another. That’s pretty much the essence of making social networking work; its that same old approach, just online. It’s not just “posting and praying” but contacting your network of connected social networkers so they can “tell two friends, who tell two friends, who tell two friends, and so on, and so on” (you old timers remember that shampoo commercial right). So was it really REO Speedwagon then or Breck that was on to this early on?

On an SEM related note, Todd also links to Thomas Dolby’s blog. This is an example of how not to set up a blog (the links are not optimized, and the hot category for that blog is “misc”). Some would call that site bashing, I call it free consulting. I am sure he does just fine with his name recognition and all, but to have a year worth of non optimized blog post… yikes! Perhaps he will see this blog post and contact me about optimizing and monetizing his blog, or maybe his royalties are treating him well enough. BTW Mr. Dolby, it’s seo @ oldschoolseo.com.

I just received this email from Microsoft. I have not had a chance to do much research into what is going on here, but from what I did read, the listings that are there will remain and I don’t think Bill & Co. know what to do about a replacement (which is why its a good decision to shut this one down) – sarcasm intended

You can update your current listing until May 11, 2007 (not sure about new submissions) and if you are so inclined (not sure why you would be), you can remove your listing.

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Microsoft retiring Submit It!

On May 18th 2007 Microsoft will retire its Submit It! service. The service’s site preparation, directory submittal, and reporting tools will be decommissioned. To help you transition away from the service, we are giving you a limited period of free access to Submit It!’s site preparation, submittal, and reporting tools. In addition, existing Submit It! customers are being offered a way to retain their Small Business Directory listings, for free, through 2008. Please read below for more detail and when you can expect to see changes.

Directory submittal, site preparation and reporting tools ending – Effective 3:00pm Pacific Daylight Time on May 18th 2007, you will no longer be able to log into and access the Submit It! service. The service’s site preparation and optimization tools, directory submittal, and reporting services will be decommissioned and any data associated with these service components will be permanently deleted from Microsoft servers. If you want to preserve any reporting information please log into the Member Center to do so before the service end date. Additional instructions can be found in our Submit It! Customer FAQ.

Continued listing on the Microsoft Small Business Directory – Also effective May 18th 2007 at 3:00pm Pacific Daylight Time, the bCentralâ„¢ Small Business Directory will be retired. In its place, we are offering existing Submit It! customers and others who currently have bCentral Small Business Directory listings a free, grandfathered listing in the new Microsoft Small Business Directory. While we will be preserving the present directory’s link friendliness and search ranking value, slight changes will be made in the way the directory appears to the public and how you may alter your listing. Please read below and see more details about these changes in our Small Business Directory Customer FAQ.

Automatically reserving your Microsoft Small Business Directory Listing – On May 18th 2007 when the Submit It! service ends, the bCentral Small Business Directory will be converted to a read-only online business directory. This means that while the public will still be able to browse, search and view directory contents, you will not have access to the listings in order to edit your information. Other than requests by you to remove your listing, after May 18th 2007 changes may not be made to the directory’s contents.

The process of converting the bCentral Small Business Directory to the Microsoft Small Business directory will happen some time between May 18th and June 30th 2007. During the conversion there should not be any impact to your listed sites. The current directory will remain viewable to visitors until the new directory is in place. As was the case with bCentral Small Business Directory, you will continue to be bound by Microsoft’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy if you use the new, free Microsoft Small Business Directory service.

Update or remove your current listings by May 11th 2007 – If you want to continue your listing on the new Microsoft Small Business Directory through 2008, you may want to log into the Member Center to see that your listing includes current information about your business or organization. Any new information you submit to the directory must adhere to our listing guidelines and must be completed by 3:00pm Pacific Daylight Time on Friday, May 11th 2007 to allow us time to review and process any new listing information you might supply.

If you do NOT want to continue your listing service on the new Microsoft Small Business Directory through 2008, please log into the Member Center and delete your current listings no later than 3:00pm PDT on Friday May 11th 2007. You’ll find detailed instructions for updating or deleting your information in our Small Business Directory Customer FAQ.

How your account is affected – Effective April 1st 2007 you will no longer be billed for Submit It!. If you purchased Submit It! on an annual basis through Microsoft, we will refund your subscription fee on a pro-rated basis by crediting the credit card to which the service was billed. This refund will be based on the number of months remaining on your annual service subscription as of April 1st 2007 and will be processed early in April 2007.

If you would like to review your Microsoft billing and account information you can do so online through the Microsoft billing and account management tools . If you have any other questions, please contact a bCentral Support Agent by logging into the Member Center.

We at Microsoft appreciate your business and look forward to serving you with free listings on the new Microsoft Small Business Directory.

Sincerely,

Your Microsoft bCentral Support Team