Archive for February, 2008

While I’d like to get the kind of face lift that would remove my extra chin, I have (for now) done a face life on the OldSchoolSEO.com website. I wasn’t married to the “Matt Cutts” theme, I just had other more pressing priorities. I have to say, I am really happy with this selection because while it’s not the custom template that I’d like it was priced right at “free ninety nine”.

Even since I decided to get serious about blogging this year, I looked into custom designs, and really had a hard time spending real money on a site that doesn’t bring in money directly. Of course, this is the year to change that as I will highlight the services offered by my company, Web Traffic Team a bit more on the blog (and that site is getting a “real” face lift).

I would like to not only thank Performancing for the free WordPress template, but will credit Matt Keegan for prompting me to use it (without even knowing).

As for the other face lift? I missed the SEO’s Fight Fat For Charity Competition and couldn’t join late (Go Simon!), so I am on my own trying to eat healthy and exercise. I am not off to a good start either, and the fact that I am in Las Vegas this weekend won’t help much, although my hotel allegedly has a gym — mt wife said it does, but I haven’t seen it yet. Hopefully, I will be in shape before the next SEO Fat Fight, but if not, maybe I can lose weight for a good cause.

Happy Friday and wish me luck at the tables!

Today I read a press release which grossly understated a websites statistics and referenced Compete.com as the source. Journalists, please note – this is not a credible source. How do I know the numbers are off? I am the one who actually tracks them for the site mentioned.

I decided to check it out using my blog, and I was encouraged to see that I got over 20,000 visitors in January. The only problem is that I really didn’t get that many visits. At the risk of full disclosure, lets just say, they are (way) off — the site, while growing, did not see even 10,000 visitors in January — or December of February for those that are thinking it may be off by a month.

So what’s the moral of the story? Trying to speculate a site traffic is not a good thing, and I imagine could get you in trouble if you are a journalist.

As for Compete.com – I don’t think that is a great way to demo analytics software, but that’s just my opinion. If customers notice this kind of discrepancy, it may alter their perception of the paid versions of the software.

NOTE: I regret that I am unable to disclose the exact reference or website due to my relationship with the company.

I was chatting with Social Media guru Brian Reeder today and the term “Over-Social Syndrome” (OSS) came up. He coined the phrase and I coined the acronym – so we can share this to-be-trademarked Social Media term

OSS is the phenomenon that occurs when you spend much of your work day Digging, Stumbling, Sphinning, Mixxing, you know – doing Social Media Acrobatics. My wife often wonders how I come up with so many random websites and YouTube videos. She now even kids about Digging and Sphinning just because she hears me talking about it — but I can’t her to do it (would that be gaming?)

So here is my question? What part of your work day is consumed by OSS? (don’t worry it’s anonymous, so your boss will never know – unless they walk in while your taking the poll)

The reason these features are missing is because they don’t yet exist. Perhaps, someone will correct me and show me that there is a mysterious way to access these features, but I don’t think so. Here are three features that I believe could help make StumbleUpon an even better Social Networking site.

1. IM History. Have you ever sent an article to someone and then not remembered who you sent it to? I would like to be able to see an IM history so that I can see what I have sent to others and what others have sent to me.

2. Ability to Organize Friends by Interest. For example, you may have friends that you connect with on real estate issues, others on marketing issues, and others on babies & pregnancy. Wouldn’t it be great to not only be able to view those friends based on interest, but also to be able to send pages to groups of friends with similar interests instead of having to select each one individually. Some may say it will lead to spam, but if you don’t want to receive recommendations from anyone, you can remove them from your friends list (I’ve done it myself).

3. The Ability To Add More Friends. Why not allow successful stumblers to build their networks beyond 200 friends? It could be based on their activity or the amount of mutual friends that they have, to prevent mass friending which could lead to abuse. I believe that would provide a benefit to the site by allowing top stumblers to have larger mutually beneficial contacts.

Do you agree? Disagree? Are there any features you’d like to see on StumbleUpon?

Here is where you can connect with me on StumbleUpon.

So what is the number one Internet Marketing skill? Writing. Why is writing is so important to Internet Marketing? Primarily it’s because search engines crave written content. It’s no secret; we’ve all heard that content is king, but it’s not limited to content on your website. Here are some of the ways you can write your way to Internet Marketing success:

1. Optimizing Web Copy. Always a great starting point and copywriting is also a valuable and marketable skill.

2. Blogging. Create lots of content on the fly and as often as you like. An extra bonus is having it promoted in Social Media circles.

3. Writing Articles. Article marketing still has lots of pull and when done right, helps in the link building process.

4. Writing Press Releases. Similar to articles, a well distributed press release can provide inbound links, but done well, press release can lead to interviews and other opportunities for exposure.

5. Viral Marketing. Have you written an ebook yet? If not, I challenge you to make it a priority to get writing. I have written several ebooks for several markets and for the most part they have done well for me. They are key to helping you build an email list to market your product or service to.

6. Publish a book. How does this help you in Internet Marketing? It gives you credibility in your field, which usually results in web traffic. It will also give you some income, but for the most part that should not be the focus of publishing a book (if it is, you may really be let down).

7. Writing Ads. If you get good at writing ads, you can produce excellent results in Pay Per Click search by having compelling calls to action.

8. Email Marketing. Once you’ve built your list, the simplest way (although maybe not the most effective) to reach your prospects is through email marketing. Who wants to read a poorly written email pitch? (no one).

If you are not writing, I hope this motivates you to start. If you think of any other ways that writing plays a role in effective Internet Marketing, feel free to comment. Also, I would like to invite you to subscribe to this blog if you have not already, to keep up with the latest search marketing musings.