Marketing Pilgrim Published: "Own Your Own Content Farm! [CARTOON]" plus 5 more |
- Own Your Own Content Farm! [CARTOON]
- SEO's Continue to Respond To Perceived Google Slight
- Google Improves Search for Tablets
- MakeMyChoice Goes Offline for Online Promotion
- Human Twitter: High Tech Meets Low Tech at the X-Games
- Calling All SEO's! You Be The Judge and the Jury
| Own Your Own Content Farm! [CARTOON] Posted: 30 Jul 2011 06:32 AM PDT This great comic about content farms was brought to my attention via Maria Popova and Timothy Hughes via Twitter. The comic was created by Brian McFadden and appeared in the New York Times Sunday Review's Opinion Pages a little while back. It pretty much says it all about content farms, doesn't it? Enjoy.
|
| SEO's Continue to Respond To Perceived Google Slight Posted: 29 Jul 2011 09:53 PM PDT
Instead of trying to put something together to "entertain" you, we have decided to point you to a post from yesterday that took on a very interesting life of its own. In short, the post had to do with a network of web sites involving legal representation because they perceived that they were slighted by Google. We could have simply given our "analysis" of the situation (I was actually contacted for a quote for the article but did not give one) but decided to do something a bit different. We opened up the question to our community of SEO experts to examine the sites and give their own verdict as to whether the sites were given short shrift by none other than Google. Needless to say it was a lively discussion that is still going on and it needs your input. So take a look at the post from yesterday and please add to the conversation. We have seen all kinds of information pass through the comments including involvement from the co-founder of the network. Thanks for coming by and checking us out on a Saturday. Don't worry, Joe will be back like I said. Well, he better be
|
| Google Improves Search for Tablets Posted: 29 Jul 2011 02:27 PM PDT
Google took a stab at it this week with a fresh, new look for their search pages. The upgrade revolves around a cleaner layout that is bigger where it counts. Because we use our fingers and not a mouse to click and navigate on a tablet, Google has added larger buttons with more white space. Now people with chubby fingers like me, can get the right command on the first try, every time. They've also made it easier to define your results with a set of clear category tags across the top. Images, Video, News — it's one click and you're there. Google improved the image results with larger thumbnails and continuous scrolling and they say the load times will be much faster. The upgrade will be available shortly for iPad and Android 3.1. Overall, the changes they've made are small, but they're going to make a big difference for the end user. Tablets aren't replacing computers anytime soon, but it's not too early to begin thinking about how your website looks and handles when viewed on a smaller, hands-on, highly portable screen.
|
| MakeMyChoice Goes Offline for Online Promotion Posted: 29 Jul 2011 12:32 PM PDT
Advertising your online business in the offline world maybe old-school and low-tech, but in today's world, where so many people walk around with web-connected devices, it could be worth the effort. Dominic Kelly is using flyers and postcards to promote the release of his new website MakeMyChoice.com. The site a combination of a Q&A and a recommendation engine. A user posts a life question, often with a finite number of options and a community of strangers gives their opinion — informed or otherwise. What college should I attend? Should I get a tattoo? iPhone or Android? If you have a choice to make, this is the place to do it. Dominic and I talked this week about the choices he made in regard to marketing the site and I'm going to share those words of wisdom with you, because I'm that kind of person. Why did you decide to use flyers and postcards to promote the site? I decided to use flyers and postcards to promote my site because I noticed there were a lot of places to legally post flyers around town. Places included coffee houses, Starbucks, universities, and community bulletin boards. I thought it would be a great way to alert people in local communities to find out more about my project. Tracking is important in a marketing campaign. Are you doing anything to track the success of flyers? I am just monitoring the amount of new sign-ups, and where they are coming from. Also, I have the people who are putting up flyers also creating new groups, and getting people involved on the site. So I can monitor their progress behind the scenes. Are you doing any other offline promotion? The only other offline promotion I am doing right now is meeting with different businesses and organizations to assist them in setting up group pages for their clients and members. For instance, I am helping a real estate company set up a group page for all their clients and perspective clients. With a group homepage, they can answer any questions people may have, create surveys instantly, and post any links and resources that may assist their clients in making the best decisions possible. Some schools have started setting up groups for their classes and/or entire campuses. Also fraternities and sororities have started using it for creating surveys, making group decisions, and posting links. What about online promotion? I have a Microsoft Advertising account. That is the pay-per-click program that Yahoo and Microsoft offers. I find that this program gives much more exposure for much less money than Google Adwords. Google Adwords has become ridiculously expensive for each click through to your website. There may still be ways to find inexpensive key words, but I have not been able to create a reasonable campaign there for quite some time, and I am a 10+ year web development veteran. I have used pay-per-post services like SponsoredReviews.com. Services like these create a marketplace where bloggers offer to write about your product or service for a small fee. The fee depends on the amount of traffic their blog receives. What are your thoughts in general on launching a new website and getting that initial run of traffic? If you can get a good pay-per-click program running that is giving you a good amount of sign-ups but not breaking the bank that is a good start. You also must test your website with friends and family, and make sure you are ready to launch. Many times you need feedback about how things work before getting the public on there. Most of all, be patient, traffic takes time to build, through lots of different avenues. But if you have a high-quality product or service, that really gives people something they want or need, the traffic will come. Are We Ever Really Offline?Less than five years ago, for an offline campaign to work, people had to pick up the postcards to take home or write down the URL they saw on a flyer. Then, you had to hope that they would make the big leap from URL to computer once they got home, hours or even days later. Now, all of that has changed. With a smartphone or laptop, a person can go from seeing your flyer to logging on to your site in a matter of minutes. The biggest downsides to offline marketing is that it is location specific and it requires more manpower than sending out a Tweet online. But if you've built a great website, that single flyer could turn into a hundred visitors when the initial contact posts about it on Facebook. Do you use offline marketing for your online business?
|
| Human Twitter: High Tech Meets Low Tech at the X-Games Posted: 29 Jul 2011 11:30 AM PDT Here's a little something fun for Friday. The X-Games has set up a Human Twitter message board in the stands at the Moto X event which is currently happening at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Each of the 160 people seated in Section 112, Rows 6-12 has a set of alphabet cards and when the time is right, they raise the proper card to spell out a message. The tweets come in via the hashtag #humantwitter and our sent out via the Jumbotron and the TV cameras. Here's one message:
Other potential messages include get well wishes for Travis Patrana who broke parts of his body in yesterday's trials and shout-outs like Navajo Nation Loves X-Games. Think you could find a way to secretly work in a marketing message without ESPN realizing it? Then again, this whole Human Twitter board is only one distracted letter-turner away from an embarrassing message. Where's Vanna White when you need her. "I'd like an X, please!" Pilgrim's Partners: SponsoredReviews.com – Bloggers earn cash, Advertisers build buzz!
|
| Calling All SEO's! You Be The Judge and the Jury Posted: 29 Jul 2011 08:23 AM PDT
An article that was run at SiliconValley.com (which is part of the Mercury News) has opened up the latest can of worms of a website (and in this case a large network of websites) feeling mistreated by Google. Their cause has been picked up by antitrust attorney Gary Reback (hmm, I see a dotted line connection here, what about you?). The initial site in question is ShopPaloAlto.com along with a few others and there are claims that it has been unfairly judged by Google in the SERP's.
First of all, just because a chamber of commerce is involved it doesn't give a business a free pass on quality. I have seen a lot of bad chambers and even worse chamber members in my time. Secondly, I am not quite sure when having a search result show up in Bing and Yahoo (the same search engine, by the way) is any indicator that it should be number 1 in Google as well. Aren't the engines trying to differentiate themselves in order to get more people to use them because their results are better etc, etc? But hey, what do I know?
Here's what we are proposing for you, our expert SEO readers, to consider. Rather than let lawyers and just one search engine expert (Danny Sullivan is the only industry voice in the article) determine whether these sites have anything to complain about, we wondered if our experts, our readers, would make the case for or against ShopPaloAlto.com and the over 8,100 sites that are just like in this network. Here's what we would like you to do:
We are finding that more and more, SEO battles are being played out in the courtroom rather than in the SEO community. The value of these sites and their arguments for whether they are treated fairly are often determined without the input of true experts, SEO's. We would like for you, the experts, to put your two cents into this discussion, if for no other reason than to have a forum for your own expertise. So what do you say? Interested in giving your two cents worth regarding why or why not a site should be treated as it is in Google? Now's your chance. I bet more people are waiting for your opinion than you might think.
|
.
| Email delivery powered by Google | |
No comments:
Post a Comment