SEO and Writing News Worth Reading
January 13, 2010
Looking for something worthwhile to read on the Net? Aren’t we all. I found a few little gems tucked away in the folds of the Internet this week and thought I would pass them along.
- Ten Search Engines Powered by Twitter from Search Engine Guide, shows that even your Tweets matter to SEO.
- 80 Ways to Use twitter as a Small Business Owner by Lisa Barone has some good tips for getting the most out of your TwitterTime.
- Dragon Slaying 101: How to Use Heroic Language to Battle Boring Copy by Ali Hale made me smile and made a good point, even the most boring drivel can be perked up by a little creative copy.
- In Creative Block #1: I’m Not Creative , Mark McGuinness tells us, ” Forget about ‘Being Creative’- Start Creating“
- Find something to blog about with 100+ SMB Blogging Ideas to Kick Start 2010 by Lisa Barone
- The Launch Coach tells us to stop fussing and start doing business in The Big Secret to Success? Run with What You Have.
- “You can write blog posts from now until doomsday, and if no one reads them, you might as well be picking your nose.” from Jonathan Morrow at Copybloggger.
and… last but not least, I found a nice little video from Chris Lumpkin about landing pages:
Oh, and in case you’re wondering, yes, I do write landing page content. 
No Honor Among Thieves
February 11, 2009
Don your ten gallons and dust off (or de-mud) your favorite cowboy boots partner, cause we’ve got a song for you. I’m not actually brave enough to post an audio for a country music song on this blog, just the printed lyrics. My brother would harass me endlessly about being a “hilljack” if I resorted to country music, but I have to admit, some of the songs are true works of art, even if they are an aquired taste.
No Honor Among Thieves, by Toby Keith
This world’s a jungle there ain’t no justice
Laws of nature rule this land
Better hide your horses, bury your whiskey
Hold your woman any way you can
Cause there ain’t no right or wrong, nothing’s carved in stone
It ain’t cheating if you don’t get caught
Jokers laugh and losers grieve
Cause out here, there’s no honor among thieves
That woman you’ve been loving, she was another man’s
You stole her heart while his back was turned
On every corner there’s an outlaw waiting
Who wants to teach you what you never learned
Cause there ain’t no right or wrong, nothing’s carved in stone
It ain’t cheating if you don’t get caught
Jokers laugh and losers grieve
Cause out here there’s no honor among thieves
This world’s a jungle there ain’t no justice
Laws of nature rule this land
So don’t go crying when her love goes flying to
The thieving arms of another man
There ain’t no right or wrong, nothing’s carved in stone
It ain’t cheating if you don’t get caught
Love’s a deck of cards read them and weep
Cause out here there’s no honor among thieves
Yeah
There ain’t no right or wrong
Nothing’s carved in stone
“There ain’t no right or wrong, nothing’s carved in stone.” The only rule is there are no rules, all’s fair in love and war (and business), there’s no honor among thieves…. right? Life’s just a free ride, do whatever it takes, look out for number one, make your own dreams come true. It’s the American way.
I know, 50% of my home health patients were on Medicaid and loving it. (The poor suckers paying insurance premiums and copays generally didn’t qualify for home health, it’s too expensive.) I’ve seen people turn down paying jobs because it would interfere with their ability to collect welfare or disability. Working for a living didn’t line up with their current lifestyle of choice. Things were pretty cozy for them, there was no motivation for change- no reason to think about anyone but themselves.
Then, I would return to the nursing office where the company wanted to know where I’d been and why I wasn’t done sooner. “What do you mean you can’t change a five-layer compression dressing on bilateral legs, do a head to toe assessment, and fill a med tray in 30 minutes! You don’t need to actually care about the patient, don’t ask how they are doing! Just do the skills and get out! We don’t make money unless you see more patients in a day and chart every move you make, for Pete’s sake! What? Do you think healthcare is actually about caring? It’s about money, baby!”
So I quit. I wasn’t trained to treat “clients” like a herd of cattle, I was trained to treat “patients”. I’m not programmed that way and it felt dirty, wrong. I started freelancing after two months of catching up on sleep and family time. It felt good.
Out in the Cold, Cruel Online World
Contrary to popular belief, I’m not as naive as I look. I didn’t expect the Internet business world to be much different from corporate America. If anything, it’s worse. Don’t believe me? Let me illustrate:
- *Business professionals take your money and fail to keep their promises
- *Bloggers present an image online that doesn’t jive with their real-life personas
- *Clients fail to pay for work completed, and fail to answer the phone and emails
- *You pay for services, only to find that instead of booking an hour, you get 40 minutes and a promise to finish later (that never materializes)
- *Other bloggers steal your work, without asking, and don’t care if you find out, because what are you going to do? Tell his mom?
- *PLR writers scrape your posts (they “re-write” your original content to pass plagiarism checks, but fail to give the original author credit- or payment) and junk bloggs steal your hard work through automated feed aggregators
- *Your online friends and co-workers ignore you when there’s a Bigger Fish to talk to or a shiny bauble to chase, but never fail to ask when they need a favor
- *Branding becomes more important the relationships
- *Bloggers act like chickens fighting for a pecking order behind the scenes, but smile sweetly in the comment’s section of your favorite blog
- *Folks get on Twitter to self-promote, but never stop to read Tweets of their “friends and followers”. Plus they never fail to announce when they hit a new milestone in followers (as if anyone really cares when they don’t take time to build relationships)
- *Social media turns ugly over inflated egos and misunderstandings
- *Everyone and their brother wants to sell you the latest secret, the newest product, or the all-time best information product available- at a discounted price for the next
week,3 days, two hours.
The Internet is filled with outlaws and bandits hiding behind fluffy avatars and professionally designed headers. They’ll steal your money and your heart without a second thought. They’re only taking care of business.
But every once and awhile, a new kid moves into town. He mostly looks like everyone else, but there’s something different about him. He actually cares about what he does. He cares about his clients- and the little guy. He teaches others what he knows, with the knowledge that those protegees will someday steal his business. He gives away freebie services and goods for struggling businesses and long standing clients. He stays up late to answer just one more email from a fellow blogger.
Does he write any better than the average bear? Nope, but he writes with heart. His passion for helping others and producing a quality experience for his clients drives him to read one more book, write one more email, and pray for another five minutes to keep from feeling disenchanted with the failings of old friends.
You can be that new kid.
Online business is rough, it’s ruthless, and it will eat you alive if you let it. The difference between you and that other guy is honor, integrity, passion… caring. Money comes and goes, but a broken relationship will haunt you for the rest of your life. Don’t buy into the standards of the rest of the world. Create your own set of standards and make a difference. Honor among thieves exists if even one person cares enough to do business differently.
Are you that person?
Farewell Toasts and Warm Wishes
February 9, 2009
The Internet may be a vast and impersonal place, but the blogging community is often a close-knit group. We share life stories, troubleshoot each others’ blogs, encourage each other, and sometimes develop friendships that extend beyond the virtual world. This sense of community is one of the perks of blogging. It also makes it difficult when one of own experiences hardship.
Recently, Dave Fowler shared his struggles over balancing an enriching home life with making money online. As Dave so eloquently illustrates, eking out a living on the Net is harder than most people think. It takes hard work, dedication, and hours upon hours of staring at a computer screen while the world goes on around you. It’s tough.
I put in more hours working from home than I ever did when I worked as a nurse. But that doesn’t mean that I’m crazy for choosing this lifestyle. It fits my needs for this stage in my life, and I’m having a great time. I’ve met some terrific people, I’ve learned new skills, and I get to set my own rules. It’s kinda like building your own treehouse when you were little. You create the floor plan, decorate it in your favorite colors, and decide who gets to climb the ladder to play.
Dave announced last week that he will be leaving Blogopolis. He’s returning to the land of corporate business, or in his case, public service. He wants to take his last few weeks to make up for lost time with his family.
While I am sad to see him go, I am glad he is doing what’s right for him. I wanted to take this opportunity to say thanks to Dave for all the laughs and entertainment he’s churned out over the last year or so. He’s brightened many days for me and for countless others. I hope he finds a few minutes here and there, in between throwing bad guys into jail, to drop in and Tweet or comment on a few blogs. The absence of his unique sense of humor will make the Internet a little duller.
Here’s to you Dave. Thanks for gracing us with your wit and charm. And if I ever make across the Big Pond, look for me and plate of cookies on your doorstep.
Error on Line 155
January 19, 2009
Ok, if you haven’t noticed, and you might not have, I broke the blog over the weekend. I wrote a seemingly harmless piece of html for a linked graphic and tried to place it in the sidebar as a widget. It immediately sent strips of error messages about arrays and headers across every page of the website and my Wordpress panel. Cool, but bad cool.
Remember that steaming hot cup of coffee you got with the email subscription button? Gone. My favorite books list? Gone, too.
It seems I broke the executable php widget somehow. And yes, I tried uninstalling it from my server and reinstalling a fresh copy, but I still get error messages. Alas, I must be php widget free for awhile until some coding night in shining armor comes to slay the “error on line 155″ dragon and sets the Blue Duck free.
I emailed Harry and he found a double “http” in my code (can you say DUH?), and was very patient and helpful with all my squawking. (Thank you Mr. McLeod. Your generosity is not unrecognized.) I saw James on Twitter and told him I broke the blog, and he wasn’t the least bit surprised. I think he was amazed it took me so long. Well, Sir James, I fully intent to restore the Duck to its original splendor, and I promise to experiment only on my other blogs from now on. The Blue Duck and it’s amazing Men with Pens design will remain pristine. 
I guess my days of poking it with a stick before I read the owner’s manual are over. It’s time for a crash course in coding.
This led me to a string of useless ponderings. I was wondering why coders can’t use regular words in their script? Words that actually can be edited for error by the average person? All those abbreviations just beg for typos! Writing a page of code must be exhausting!
They should make a special keyboard for coders with little “http//:” and “a href=” buttons! It would make a coder’s life easier and keep people (like me) from breaking things with simple typos. 
So, your Coming Soon sequel is delayed by technical difficulties today. (Plus, I am waiting on a little surprise in my inbox to go with it.)
As an aside to this rambling useless post, I just received a New Year’s pile of SEO goodies to pour over. Once I have digested the contents, I’ll begin a new SEO series for all you serious website owners.
Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. everyone. I’m off to Circuit City, or what remains of it, to find out where to take my Toshiba for repairs since the blasted Circuit City people are bankrupt! (I feel the need to insert an “I have a dream” pun here, but that seems tasteless, and I have more respect for Dr, King than that.)
So have a cup of coffee, and head over to Everyday Thoughts from Life for a little storytelling fun for today compliments of Sal and Jess.
3 Super Easy Steps to Attract More Readers
October 31, 2008
Everyone wants to know how to get more blog traffic. After all, what good is writing brilliant and articulate blog posts if no one is around to appreciate them? Well, here’s the solution:
1. Visit Chuck Westbrook’s blog.
2. Leave a comment.
3. Subscribe to his feed.
Sound too easy? It’s not. It’s the power of the Internet, baby! Bloggers are joining together to help spread the word about new blogs with quality content. Every two weeks, a new blog will be featured and everyone visits the site, reads the posts, and hopefully sticks around if they like what they see.
This is an opportunity to significantly increase your readership, so dust off the good china, make your favorite cookies, and put your best content forward. I’m pleased with my readership for such a relatively new blog, but there’s always room at the table for those who are hungry. I’m excited to discover some terrific bloggers, make new friends, and grow through the experience. See ‘ya in my feed reader.
Blogging for Dollars: Cutting the Crap
October 28, 2008
If you missed yesterday’s post, no worries. Our Blogging for Dollars mini-series contains three stand alone yet related posts for the professional blogger looking to build a solid online business. Now, on to Part Two: Cutting the Crap
What Reputable SEO Execs Know
A good SEO company knows that quality counts. Building relationships with customers is important. And your business must be trustworthy to survive. (With the current economy concerns, many disreputable online companies will be closing their websites. Consumers want to hire a company they can trust. They are being more careful how they spend each dime.)
Busting Myths
“Outsmart the Search Engines with Keyword Saturation”
Many get rich quick bloggers claim to be able to outsmart search engines. While this may have been possible 6-12 months ago, search engines are getting smarter by the day. Google employs a whole team of geniuses who work night and day to improve algorithms and improve the validity of SERPS. If your website contains quality, relevant content search engines will value your website over keyword stuffed websites.
“Long Posts Increase Relevance”
When I first started writing SEO content creation projects, it was commonplace to write single articles of 1200-1600 words. Those articles were great for improving search engine ranking, but were awful for attracting regular traffic. No one reads a five page article online, no one. Web surfers are fickle with their time. They expect immediate gratification. They begin to skim the second a post loses their attention. Online content is more effective in bite-sized chunks of 200-400 words.
“Article Banks Draw Traffic”
Providing a smorgasbord of information for readers may seem like a good idea, and many bloggers claim to have made money using article banks and content carnivals. Consider this, the last time you needed quick information from the Net (good quality content and trusted facts) where did you point your Web browser? The number one answer is Wikipedia.
The chances are slim that you browsed through 800 pages of content topics on some website that ranked 150 on a SERPS. On-topic content is best. If your company sells pink flip flops, blog about flip flops, sandals, pedicures, and foot fetishes if you like, but don’t blog about snow shoes, hiking boots, or fan socks just because those keywords are ranking high this month.
Tomorrow’s post concludes this Blogging for Dollars mini-series. (Sorry, there’s no free iPod or tales of a sordid love triangle.) Read one, read two, or read them all~ Blogging for Dollars provides solid information for the serious professional blogger.
