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Trying to get a small business to actively pursue reviews has been difficult. This offers me some hope :)
This a great interview... there are a bunch of takeaways for small businesses; especially the flickr/thumbnail thing for any business where there is a visual aspect. I am going to spend some on this site tonite... and who knows maybe buy a cake... as this is right in my neck of the woods!
Has Google entered a business yet, without significantly changing it? If nothing else, it will be intereresting to see what they do.
In the interest of full disclosure... Local.com contacted me indicating that their were some inaccuracies in this post regarding their site. I am waiting to here specifics from them and will update this post accordingly.
I agree the conversation is worth having... but I'm not sure the ratio is the answer. I've seen posts, that I feel sure would've been moderated off sphinn if not for Deshpinn... But they had NO Desphinns!! In this situation, a more powerful ratio would not have done the trick.
The desphinn button has shifted the accountability for good content on sphinn from the moderators to the sphinn community and I've seen some examples where that is not working... IMHO.
I think much of Lyndon's success must come from his writing talent... another great example in this post:
"I dont need the 3 million diggers with Dorito stained T Shirts shuffling though my blog..."
It seems like this technique is going mainstream. yellowpages.com has carved up half of its homepage with no follow links.
I tend to agree with Aaron Wall, when he reviewd Dan Thies free seo book (that jumpstarted this debate"):
"I think excessive use of nofollow carves up the web, leaving scars in it and making it more wounded for those who use it."
An example of this is 2 of the links yellowpages.com carved out were to Amacai and Acxiom, whom they use as content providers. If actually using them as content providers for a site like this doesn't merit an editorial citation, I don't know what does.
Its over use will warp the search relults
It's interesting... I dont think 'desphinn' is working, and it's the reason its not working that I find interesting. I think most of us were afraid of the community turning ugly with the ability to desphinn; to organize into angry mobs and parade through the community with torches and pitchforks. But I think the opposite has happened.
Because everyone is a marketer here and because there is no angle or advantage to desphinning; no one does it.
With due respect; this post is purely promotional in nature and as such, I believe, would have been removed by moderators in the past. But now the moderators could simply say that the community has the desphinn button and thus has the power to control the content. (Don't mean to put words in any one's mouth).
And they would be right... as long as the desphinn button is available; sphinners need to use it. Otherwise we will spend a lot more time reading about cool tools like this one... that we can't have unless we pay.
I deshpunn this post... I wasn't angry, its not intended to be malicious. I just believe the desphinn button makes the active sphinner the moderator; but only if we use it.
Make sure to read the follow up to this story
http://gesterling.wordpress.com/2008/03/03/do-ratings-matter-part-deux/
Read this post from GrayWolf and rest easy...
www.wolf-howl.com/seo/seo-plugins-for-wordpress
I didn't think it could get worse than a dentist on the content network who provided in-line braces, served up on a HTML tutor page for inline images... I could be wrong, huh?
These are the kinds of stories that always seem to crop up on weekends and make sphinn a fun place on a Saturday night... Oh my God, I need to get a life.
Also, may need to think about changing the color of my avatar... all this talk about spam and green avatars is getting me a little paranoid. :)
I agree tonyp... I even read it so I must fall into the 16% category. Great to find a veteran of YP successful in this space. Cheers Jeff!
Tnash... I just re-read my comment. Sorry, I didn't mean to come off that way. I actually did mean it as a compliment... I sphunn this post.
Great interview Miriam... I was glad to be reminded to read Mike's 10 ranking factors in google maps post again.
I read 2 books (not including the time spent learning HTML)and between them got a very good idea of the basics. (I'm certainly not an expert, which is why I hang out on Sphinn a lot) but when combined with some actual experience it's a good start. And nothing beats hitting the first page and seeing revenue generated as a result of your efforts!
I knew there was a reason I was blogging... but I would read these "what are your goals for your blog posts" and I never could articulate exactly the reason. It's positioning!
Maybe, I'm weird but I liked Tim's site.
I also think search engines shaped the web. If not for search I think the web would all be photoshopped images and flash and HTML would be thought of the code needed to insert those things.
Teaching with humor is very effective... this just went on my to-do list!
Web design is going liquid... and not just for mobile. I just got a laptop with a larger screen and when stumbling found myself spending more time on sites that filled the screen. It got me thinking...
I think this is a good discussion. I believe there is a difference between self promotion and sphinning your own good content.
My understanding is that self promotion is when you use Sphinn to try and sell your own product. . I don't think submitting one's good articles is self promotion. In fact, I think we are encouraged to do so in the submission guidelines. I'd have to read again to confirm.
Story: LeaveFeedback.org, Connecting Offline Businesses with Online Customer Reviews