Archive for the ‘Rants and Raves’ Category
Saturday, August 2nd, 2008
Google Knols are making an impact very quickly. In some cases “duplicate” content on a Knol outranks the original source content. This becomes a big issue if someone deliberately attempts to undermine you by doing the following:
- Maliciously posting your content to their Knol and
- Getting a couple of decent inbound links.
That’s it, these two actions alone can get you filtered out of the search results for your own authority content and web site! Take pre-emptive action and get writing your Knol’s. Alternatively consider hiring a professional and simply say “James, Make My Knol.”
Remember, Knols are a now one more element in the process of defending and developing your online brand and reputation and cannot (and should not) be ignored.
*Inspired by a post from Aaron Wall
Posted in Internet Marketing, Rants and Raves, SEO, Social Media, Strategic Content | No Comments »
Friday, July 18th, 2008
Dance 2008: Where The Hell is Matt?
Dancing 2008: It started as a lark, a goof, a joke, but this video (created by Matt Harding) is nothing of the sort. It’s now a bona fide feel good, shot-in-the-arm dose of hope and inspiration. At 4m29s in duration, the haunting sound track and video collage of Matt Harding dancing his goofy jig around the world has touched a chord and the hearts of millions.
This wasn’t what I’d planned to write today, but after sipping my morning coffee and watching this video (thanks to Ken for sending me the link) I felt I should share it too. Not so much for it’s artistic merit - but for the impact and implications I see. Consider this…
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Posted in Rants and Raves, Social Media | No Comments »
Friday, July 4th, 2008
SEO Scoundrels and how to spot them…
If you’ve been reading this site for a while you will know I advise clients on various forms of internet marketing including SEO and SEM. And from time to time I cross paths with self-proclaimed SEO/SEM experts who make no bones about the fact they don’t like my approach to this subject. Why is this? Mostly because I am open about the industry, have no secrets and tell people the facts about the current state of SEO and SEM.
So how do you tell if you are dealing with an unethical SEO/SEM expert? According to Google there are few clear signs, and these are as follows:
[Continue reading...]
Posted in Internet Marketing, Rants and Raves, SEO | No Comments »
Tuesday, July 1st, 2008
Seriously folks… I understand it’s confusing - I do. But for the love of all things technical, the Web is NOT the Internet! The Internet was invented by Al Gore… sorry, wrong history. The Internet was invented around the same time my mother surprised my father with those immortal words “Honey, you’re going to be a Daddy!” … Ahh the late 60’s, odd music, liberal social norms and the birth of James and the Internet.
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Posted in Internet Marketing, Rants and Raves, SEO | 2 Comments »
Friday, June 27th, 2008
There’s no arguing this, your Unique Sales Proposition (USP) is one of the most important marketing messages you can share. Fortunes have been made on these apparently simple slogans:
- “When it absolutely and positively has to be there overnight.” - Fedex
- “Hot, fresh pizza delivered within 30 minutes - guaranteed - or it’s free!” - Domino’s Pizza
So what do you get when you miss the mark or wort still, you borrow from someone else’s USP, you get a weak and potentially damaging USP like this…
(more…)
Posted in Classical Marketing, Rants and Raves | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, June 18th, 2008
When is a hosting company not a hosting company? When it’s a VAR.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with being a VAR (value added reseller) - I’ve been one many times in the past, and surely will be again.
It’s just that people typically don’t understand what a web hosting company is - or does - and when it comes to their online business they make some questionable decisions because of it.
For instance…
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Posted in Internet Marketing, Rants and Raves, SEO | 5 Comments »
Monday, June 16th, 2008
Why? How? Because they’re involved in software development. And before you start wondering what I’m talking about, I’d like to remind you that your web site (although cool) is nothing more than a software program running on a computer. And ever since people started writing software there have been very well defined roles and skill sets.
Now don’t worry, I’m not going to bore you with roles and skills definitions for software development, however I am going to make it easy for you to figure out the type of web resources you may have at your disposal and whether they are helping your business - or unknowingly harming it (just in case you were wondering.)
[Read the rest of this article from the archives...]
Posted in Internet Marketing, Rants and Raves | No Comments »
Thursday, June 5th, 2008
Seriously… what’s with these bizarre names? Plurk is another micro-blogging slash twitter site that has a really cool feature: it shows your “plurks” on a time line with your friends.
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Posted in Internet Marketing, Rants and Raves | 1 Comment »
Monday, June 2nd, 2008
Just kidding about #217, but here’s a tip you should take seriously.
Create a shortlist of all the major (and minor) social media sites. Then surf over to them and make sure your name, brand name — and any other important “names” you want protected — are registered and signed up.
You need to make that preemptive strike — take your names before some outsider decides to take them for a ride and damages your reputation…
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Posted in Internet Marketing, Rants and Raves | 1 Comment »
Thursday, May 29th, 2008
Queen belts out “Who wants to live forever?” in the movie Highlander and Connor MacLeod (I think that was his name…) demonstrates repeatedly that immortality is not only a cool way to win over the ladies (???) but it’s highly profitable too.
In one scene, MacLeod’s paramour is exploring his home and marvels at the vast array of priceless historical items he has on display. Of course if you’d been creeping around for hundreds of years your home would have some interesting artifacts too.
So what has this got to do with the Internet?
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Posted in Internet Marketing, Rants and Raves, Strategic Content | No Comments »
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