Kimota
See my comments in the main thread. Obvious bogus comments trying to help a terrible post attacking a member of the community
You;ve got to be kidding me if this is anything but an exploitation of charitable people.
Okay, I take that back, Someone must have done something because it just updated - although not above I notice...
Still can’t get my avatar to change. I browse and select the file, hit upload and nothing happens. Cleared cache, tried in different browsers, tearing my hair out...
Thanks - sometimes the best way to get a point across is with satire and comedy. Too many times lately I’ve decided some of the online evangelists I see on the net, like the emperor, have no clothes and I needed to get it off my chest.
Applaud until my hands are raw! Brilliant post.There should be a line in the sand, despite the people who continue with the ’all’s fair’ argument. This is a perfectly good line to draw and for the industry to get behind. Whether it will make a difference isn’t really the point. People thought that marching against apartheid wasn’t going to make a difference but they did and it did. If the voices are loud enough, an entire community (such as Sphinn) can be galvanised into action - even if it is only to quickly stamp out spam in our own circles, such as here.
Some of us may already know this already but it bears repeating, again and again, because so many still don’t seem to get it. Saw a scary exchange on Twitter the other day when a big name in SEO blogging argued repeatedly for why spelling and grammar don’t matter (I guess because it would be admitting a personal weakness if it did).So while this post presents nothing new, it is a topic that deserves revisiting. We’re not anal pedants for insisting on good spelling and grammar any more than a mechanic is a pedant for making sure the parts of an engine are bolted together correctly. The car might still run, but it may not run as well or as safely.
Story: Addicted to Social Media?
Only 60% - I’m not trying hard enough!I need LESS real life dammit. I’m obviously getting out too much
Story: StumbleUpon’s Updated Algo
Now this is a hugely useful post. Some of the changes were certainly predictable and most of us already knew not to discover our own domains. But some of the inferences here indicate exactly how the algorithm is tracking SU behaviour and wiehgting it accordingly.Great post.
Story: Ethics on Twitter
The immediacy of social media tools like Twitter is producing such new questions about appropriate journalism and reporting that this is bound to be a hot topic for a bit.Without the retrospective context allowed by traditional journalism, and even to a certain extent by blogging, Twitter and other microblogging or instant messaging services are obviously going make many journalists uncomfortable until we all become more familiar with instantaneous information gathering.
I never considered before how online misinformation could become a feedback loop with mainstream media. Wikipedia has some major issues if this is the case.
Story: When Blackhat SEO IS Ethical
Yup, I’m with Nick and Halfdeck. Lines have become blurred because there is blackhat (ie; related directly to Google guidelines) and then there’s unethical conduct (such as was claimed by a few SEOs in the case of Lyndon’s fake linkbait).It became common to describe any controversial SEO tactic as black hat, whereas I agree it should be reserved purely for guideline violations.Whether some guideline violations are also unethical is a different debate, and certainly doesn’t imply that all, or even most, violations are. In fact, it is possible to be entirely white hat and also be unethical. If I were to post a webpage describing torture techniques and/or inciting riots, my content would be unethical and probably even illegal, even though there is nothing in the Google guidelines that prevents me uploading such content.There does need to be an ethical standard in SEO and discussion of online ethics are welcome, but it isn’t WH/BH.
True true. Social media bookmarking has had the side-effect of some webmasters taking their eyes of the ball when it comes to what their actual goals are. Success shouldn’t be measured in Digg front pages but in what that content actually achieved for the long-term benefit of your site.
I love this article - so true. The ’call to action’ is so often missing from webpages that I can’t believe they are trying to sell something. And it has nothing to do with not using plain english or jargon. It is about getting the message across in a way that illicits an action, not merely the reader’s interest.
A little harsh, seeing as most things on SEO have been said before somewhere.
Very, very true. The articles beginning with "How To..." on my site are invariably among the most popular I have, despite being satirical or plainly ridiculous pastiches - such as "How to Win Arguments Online" or "How to Become a Superhero".The keyword phrase ’how to become a superhero’ is now one of my biggest drivers of search engine traffic, believe it or not! It’s amazing what people look for with the phrase ’how to...’
How is it not spammy? It’s designed purely for the search engines and not the visitor. It provides no useful relevance to the visitor’s query, despite claiming it does by making claims that are just plain untrue (offering a discount on taxdiscs). It relies on tricking users into detouring through Patrick’s site while gaining no value on the way (unless their shopping list that morning was "replace tax disc, find new SEO services").As far as SEO goes, I’m the novice and many of you are the experts, and I’m a big fan of Patrick’s stuff. But if it smells like bacon and carves like a loaf, I’m guessing its spam without waiting for Matt Cutts to show me the tin.Happy to hear why it isn’t, cause otherwise it’s brilliantly clever.
Just seems a little too spammy for my tastes. Anything that takes SERP spots away from more relevant results seems exploitative to me. How many of the visitors thought it was a worthwhile click?Sphunn for making me think.
Give that girl a prize.What I find funny is that most spelling or grammar mistakes are merely symptomatic of posting in a rush and not showing enough attention to detail. Now, whether you believe you need to display a higher attention to detail or not within a blog post, most of the bloggers on Sphinn would also hope to attract customers through their online presence. Would you hire an SEO professional who let simple mistakes slip through?Best example; I’m currently advertising for a writer to work with me. I received an application on Friday with the wonderful line... " I also have excellent proofreading skills and attention to deal..."Immediately put her resume on the ’no’ pile.
@graywolf,"I’m going to go out ona limb but I’ll say the people who get accused of bad spelling and grammar (like myself and shoemoney) don’t consider ourselves writers."But you are using the same tools to write, hence the point. I’m not talking in professional terms, but in purely descriptive ones. Otherwise, following your point, because I’m not a mechanic, I should be able to assume that I can mend my car with a banana and still expect it to work. Just as a banana isn’t the right tool, failure to use the correct writing ’tools’ the way they are intended can also mean your blog post doesn’t work. ;-)
Story: Case Study: Ignoring Customer Feedback Can Be Dangerous