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GotanRaider
I am pretty erratic. The periodicity of my posting has a lot to do with my work schedule. When I'm busy doing client's work I tend not to post too often.
The irony is that he left a comment in another post in the same blog. I replied saying "hey have you seen my other post? I blogged about you."
He never replied back. I guess I was just another target in his spam marathon. Anchor text he used to comment? "Website Design"
:)
This is a seriously cool article. Stop reading these comments and go read it!
@ onreact - I used the War General metaphor as a means to illustrate the job of an SEO to take command and manage his/her troops (visitors) in the best possible way given a specific objective.
It may not have been the happiest analogy - it certainly wasn't my intention to offend anyone.
I do think mjwalshe makes a good point arguing your concept of social media as a place where everyone comes peacefully together. The reality is that people don't just naturally come together peacefully when they interact socially. Some of them do and some of them have conflicts. Flame wars are not a 2.0 concept. They are as old as the Internet. Maybe as old as humankind.
It's human nature to form social groups and develop friends and enemies, allies and adversaries.
Interesting, considering they created the market originally with the PR toolbar, as the post rightly points out.
Excellent interview Marty. Congratulations. And thanks Todd if you are reading this for allowing Marty to pick on your brains and send some of the wisdom this way.
Story: Exposed! Sphinn, Live, Yahoo, Digg, Seomoz, even Google: All Buying Links From fantomaster! ::
Story: Should Designers Know SEO?
Absolutely NOT. If they do, they will become addicted to SEO and quit Web Design. And then we will run out of designers.
(note to self: quit hinting people that I used to be a designer)
Story: Should Designers Know SEO?
How many times you've been faced with the following:
"Hello, I am interested in your services. This is our website, we've just finished it and now we need to start getting visitors."
Excellent, so you go see the website and you see a big flash file, or a big frameset, or a horrible custom made PHP CMS developed by a college kid with no sensitivity whatsoever to SEO.
This happened to me many times. When I told my potential clients that they wasted all their money and we needed to start all over again, they walked away. Why? Because as I keep saying, humans are not rational, they are rationalizers. And they love to support their decisions and actions.
Thanks for the feedback planetc1. I agree with you. I think the audience will (is already) sick of seeing Britney Spears on SEO blog headlines, and rightly so.
I indulged myself to do it one more time though because I was seduced by the exponential viral success of Chris Crocker, and the way in which viral buzz and search engine marketing are not creating a synergy in this case.
It's almost like it could not have happened otherwise. If Chris Crocker would have been strategising his viral campaign he probably wouldnt have been so spontaneous, reducing drastically the viral effect of his videos.
I find it thrilling.
Story: Why Blogs Suck
Good post. Please read it and don't stick with the thought that Andy really doe think that blogs suck. He doesn't. But he raises good points re usability and monetization.
Eloi, as you say, he is probably not thinking about the Marketing, but he could start monetizing like crazy if he knew what he was on. I think this will bring him good business regardless his original intentions.
Great pointer FR and AimClearBlog - Cheers
Bookmarked and will read when the cup of coffee hits my desk.
Guys I'm honestly interested on your feedback.
Besides the fact that the headline drew your attention to click through and read the post (you DID read the post, didn't you?) : did you get anything actionable out of it? Do you feel you will write better headlines because you have read this post?
If that's not the case. Does any of you feel a bit deceived by the mention of Tom Cruise in the headline and the post not following through that?
I would like to know your take on this since there has been some discussion about it:
http://sphinn.com/story/7870
Thanks for the feedback Sem-Advance. Let me bounce some ideas with you.
-- "write content for people, not search engines", Not sure this post says anything else.
I don't think that is the point of the article. It is one of the premises though. The point of the article in my opinion is the use of cultural cloaking devices in headlines to make a connection with our readers and persuade them to perform an action (click through, read the article, post a comment and hopefully subscribe to our RSS Feeds updates)
-- Who said social sites are where the target market happens to be? Who says that social sites drive a targeted 'buying' customer?
I think that depends on the niche. I'm not trying to sell hearing aids to 80 year old ladies promoting my domains on Digg.
For many niches however engaging in social media communities is a fast track to exposing to the right markets.
Not to mention the additional benefits of connecting with people who are in the business (which can bring more businesses and synergies) and the explosive stream of links you can benefit from with a succesful social media campaign.
Most people consider the latter to be the major benefit of engaging in social media.
I agree. Keep optimizing forever. You shouldn't even be thinking about it in terms of results. It's a way of living. Fighters fight - SEOs optimize.
Story: What Type of Bait You Would Use to Gain an Edge in the Social Media Sites?