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Actually, I think there's an English-as-a-second-language issue going on here. So I'll cut the writer some slack due to that.
Good article. However, I am amazed that he is in great physical shape after working at home. For most people it's just the opposite -- all that sedentary time in front of your computer adds 30 pounds.
This article might have been a helpful learning exercise. Unfortunately, the underlying article it referred to has now been taken down. So I couldn't get any educational insight. Maybe someone will better explain what it was all about??
Danny, congratulations. I've been with Federated Media for a couple of years and it's given me the freedom to try quite a few new approaches and ways to serve the community of small business owners.
The funding I earn has enabled me to hire numerous contractors from the small business community to help with my sites -- everything from writing and editing to online marketing to SEO advice -- as I believe in spreading the wealth around. That's been the most rewarding part. A rising tide raises all ships.
Good luck with the arrangement.
Anita
I won a Twitter business plan contest. At 140 characters, it you sure makes you focus on how you plan to make money :)
Speaking as a small business owner: the challenge with large search conferences is that you're plopped down into the midst of topics you know little about, with little context given. It feels like everyone is talking a foreign language. Instead of walking away empowered, you walk away feeling insecure and stupider than when you arrived.
Plus, large conferences leave outsiders feeling like outsiders. I've gone to a couple of large search events and hardly met anyone, because it felt like everyone there already knew one another. Many weren't too interested in meeting new people unless you were a mover and shaker in the search field.
It seemed that the SEO firms were there to snag big clients and few would even bother to make eye contact unless your name tag had a big company name attached to it. While I can certainly understand wanting to get large clients if you are an SEO trying to build a business, it still doesn't help the small business owner.
A small conference designed for small business people is definitely much better.
Matt, you and everyone else did a fabulous job -- highly practical information. It was great meeting you and so many others I've known online. I will be recommending the Unleashed conferences to my readers.
Anita
Well, we're definitely speaking to the early adopters when we talk about Twitter, Facebook, etc.
Still, I can remember when barely any small biz owners had heard of blogs. Now at least they have heard of blogs, even though blogs, too, are not for everyone.
I'd go so far as to say, Twitter is a lot easier to do than a blog and *might* get greater uptake, simply because it's faster. The time commitment of a blog is a deal breaker for many small businesses, unless the owner or a key manager happens to be in online marketing or is silver tongued or a Web junkie.
Best line: "See that little thing on your desk with a number pad and a handset? That's a phone. Pick it up once in a while and speak to people. They love that." Something to remember in this day and age of email, Twitter and other electronic messaging.
Story: Help! SEOs Hacked my Blog!
Yes, I agree with Barry, this has been happening for almost a year now. After one of my sites got hacked on Christmas Eve, I researched and found evidence of similar activity on a wide scale going back to early summer 2007. Probably happening before that in smaller numbers, too.
It's not legitimate SEOs doing this, either. Check your logs -- most likely coming from China or South Korea.
More evidence that the standards for reviewing applications at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office are completely outdated for the modern world.
If you think trademark is bad, you should see what goes on with patent applications.
I sphunn it, and think it is good as a "Blogging for business 101" type of article.
But I will say these 8 points are general and pretty basic. Just consider them a starting point, not a true roadmap for how to turn your blog into a meaningful revenue-generator.
Outstanding roundup of quality articles. Lots of detail in each of the articles, something I find valuable. I've bookmarked it.
Oh what a joyful surprise on a Monday morning! Thanks for the shout out.
Anita
Not long ago I judged a technology awards. One of the categories was "Best SEM/SEO Firm".
Of all the categories, that turned out to be the hardest to judge -- by far. All the finalists were top-notch. The most difficult part for the judging panel was just figuring out WHAT to measure.
I think businesses have a very very confusing time trying to figure out how to hire SEM/SEO firms, for that very same reason: WHAT, exactly, do you measure? That point may be obvious to SEO/SEM pros, but it's baffling to those who don't know the discipline.
Reading the reviews on SEM Compare was somewhat helpful in giving clues as to what to look for, what to watch out for, and so on. However, what would be more helpful is if the site also included some kind of checklist for each category, to use as a baseline.
Bill, this is excellent.
I have to say that I look at things like privacy policies, copyright notices, About pages and similar information. If I do not find such information on a site, that site has much less credibility with me. Even if it's an information site -- I trust the information more if I know the source and know that they care enough to write a privacy policy.
Good find, Barry.
FYI: Super cache can actually cause problems -- caching an older version of the site and displaying that to certain visitors.
Nice, Barry -- very detailed. You actually explain what to do, rather than generalities.
Similar activity has been going on with earlier versions of WP dating back to at least the summer of 2007. The hackers may use different directories, such as the tmp directory.
But this is the first I've seen of similar activity with 2.3.3.
Another way to spot this activity (after the fact) is through Technorati. Often the hackers create splog rings, i.e, spam blogs for the purpose of pointing to the illicit HTML files on your site You could end up with 200 spam HTML files created on your blog, and then 10 made-for-hacking spam blogs each linking to every single one of the illicit URLs on your blog. The result: 2000 (10 x 200) new Technorati links overnight.
What a great inspiring story! I don't even know Kim but already I like her.
A lot of B2B companies are smaller businesses. With limited time and money to spend, smaller businesses do tend to get focused on direct response activity. They love measuring whether a sale came from this action or that action, because then they have justification that their time and money is well spent. If they can't measure it, they tend not to spend time or money on it -- both being in short supply at most small businesses.
Also, many are conditioned to think that branding is a B2C exercise. And in a way, it is -- when you think of big mass-market branding campaigns. Most smaller B2B providers can't afford a traditional branding campaign -- much too expensive to pull off.
I think the trick is showing smaller B2B companies how they can inexpensively brand using various techniques and vehicles over the Web.
Hopefully the author's next article will show some of these practical and inexpensive branding activities.
This is a crucially important observation made in this article.
And here's one implication: universal search makes it harder for smaller businesses and smaller sites to be found in Google. Because not only are you competing against bigger companies, but you are now competing against Google, too, which is pitching its own properties at searchers.
Hmm, It's good advice, but super-generic.
More detail would be helpful, especially to those who are more advanced.
Another question: are the visits sustainable? You can have big jumps in traffic, but does any meaningful percentage "stick" following the surge? That would also be helpful to learn from the author's experience. I'll be waiting to read the next installment.
Story: Top 10 Benefits of Speaking at Search Engine Conferences