Global Tech Products

Use Virtual Assistants To Eliminate SEO Chores

Ramon Polanco — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 00:03:59 +0000

It may not be possible to automate all of SEO (or other business processes) with software, but that doesn’t mean you can’t avoid the chores in SEO. If you can document the processes, you can delegate them to virtual assistants (VA). (A virtual assistant is an assistant you work with online rather than in person. VAs [...]

Here are the download links for my:
Internal Link Building, a Wordpress plugin. It optimizes your internal navigation so that you can rank like Wikipedia. More info is available on the Internal Link Building page. SEO ROI Calculator spreadsheet. Backlink Analysis With Majestic SEO's Data

How To Use Virtual Assistants To Eliminate SEO Chores

SES SJ: Beyond Googling: Where will Customers be Searching in 5 years?

Jolina — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 12:18:19 +0000

Beyond Google. Where will customers be searching in 5 years? Dixon Jones of Receptional asks the audience: Who doubts life after Google? About half the audience raises their hand. According to Dixon, there will be life after Google and we are already there. He cites Facebook as an example of a site that is growing links more quickly than Google. He then goes on to discuss the Trust/Convenience Contract. This contract is illustrated when searchers trust Google to give them data, as opposed to going around knocking on neighbor’s doors to find the answer. However, Google isn’t the only choice anymore. Users can and do go to blogs, Facebook, Twitter to retrieve information often removing Google from the equation. What this means for companies is that topping the search engines will soon not be enough. Rather, marketing across channels will become increasingly important. As more people use Google less, it will be up to savvy online marketers to identify where their audience is consuming information and to become a member (note – I said member not marketer) of that same destination. In summary, we are already in ‘Life after Google’. We are changing who we trust and posing questions back to the community we have developed, as opposed to relying on dominant media sites/search engines. The New Socialism is next with Frank Watson from Kangamurra Media. Twittering, Tweeple and Twilly creates an environment which is about: fun and social interactions ego stroking info sharing pic sharing trusted communication Twitter allows you to search real-time about natural disasters, serious local alerts, find immediate responses or advice, niche information and online customer service. At the end of the day, Twitter is super convenient. How Google loses: Real time search seen as better Ask friends instead of search engines Momentum can cause change Greater Twitter traffic sources How Google wins: Twitter becomes too spammy Google buys Twitter Next Anne Kennedy, from Beyond Ink, steps up to talk about Video. Online video advertising, from eMarketer.com, is expected to steadily increase year over year. A drop in the bucket compared to TV, but speaks to human nature and our interest in the visual. Small screen video, Anne predicts, is the next big thing. It’s easy to create, easy to share and easy to consume. Pauline Ores at IBM shares with the audience information about the deep Web or the majority of content on the web that is not crawled by the search engines. Next generation search will do more than the existing model and understand intent, reflect current events and support insight creation. Q: As an agency, how can we start approaching clients with solid information about social and where to start? Frank: Start with Twitter alerts to find out who is talking and what is being said about the niche. Show the client the conversation and see where they want to fit in. Is it for customer relationships, competitive intelligence, etc? Dixon: Use a URL shortening service that allows you to track metrics. See how many people clicked, etc. Parting words from Pauline, and an emerging theme of the conference, is that humans are social creatures. Provide them with a way to connect and they will. Provide them with a way to exchange information within communities, and place aside authoritarian sources of content, and they will gravitate toward peers. Panel Overview Moderator: John Marshall, SES Advisory Board & CTO, Market Motive Speakers: Dixon Jones, Managing Director, Receptional LTD Anne F. Kennedy, SES Advisory Board, Founder Partner and CMO and Managing Partner & Founder, Beyond Ink Frank Watson, CEO, Kangamurra Media Pauline Ores, SES Advisory Board & Senior Marketing Manager, Social Media Engagement, IBM Corporation

How Google Calendar Can Screw Up Appointments When Changing Timezones

Michael Gray — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 08:46:51 +0000

While I don’t make my use of Google products like Google Apps and Google Reader secret it still continues to amuse some people when I do. However a few weeks ago when I went to SES San Jose, I encountered a new “feature” that occurs when you change time zones, and it didn’t do me any favors. Before SES San Jose I got emails from Vanessa Zamora of WebmasterWorld and Abby Prince of Web Pro News to schedule some interviews, and I set them up for local time on the west coast. When I got to the west coast Google Calendar recognized this and asked me if I wanted to adjust my calendar, I said yes and it went and adjusted all my appointments. Since I wasn’t prepared for this I didn’t screen shot the behavior, however now that I’m back I did. Here’s a screen shot asking me if I want to change the time zones (note the time’s of the appointments) Here’s the screen shot after the change to east coast time, notice the appointments moved I only had a few appointments scheduled so it was easy to move stuff back to where it should be, but I don’t think this behavior is what any users want.

PPC: Small Budgets. Big Conversions.

90octane — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 14:24:08 +0000

Posted by: Shannon Anderson, Project Manager Are you strapped for cash but under pressure to perform? Pay-Per-Click (PPC) campaigns offer a cost-effective way of driving qualified traffic, and conversions, to your website? To get the most bang for your PPC buck, follow these four simple steps when setting up and optimizing your campaign. Focus on Targeted Keywords: [...]

SES SJ: Charlene Li Keynote – Preparing For The Future Of Search

Ramon Polanco — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 17:22:56 +0000

Charlene Li is co-author of the business best-seller, Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies and gave the keynote on day 3 of SES San Jose. She spoke on the intersection of search and social and discussed how to prepare for the future of search. Read on for the highlights of her presentation: How [...]

SES SJ: Google on Converting Visitors To Customers

Ramon Polanco — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 11:00:04 +0000

Nitin Mangtani, Lead Product Manager at Google presented a sponsored session on converting your visitors to customers, specifically through the use of internal site searches. Businesses spend a tremendous amount of time, resources, and capital on website development and online marketing initiatives. Getting people to a site is a challenge in itself, but another key aspect [...]

FACEBOOK FAIL: How to Use Facebook Privacy Settings and Avoid Disaster

Ramon Polanco — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 02:07:28 +0000

Facebook provides users with the opportunity to share just about everything: photos, links, videos, virtual gifts and random musings in the form of status updates. Under the guise of “being social” and “maintaining transparency,” FacebookFacebook fiends post anything and everything about themselves on this now omnipresent social network. This begs the question, how much is too much? Younger generations have no problem sharing nearly every detail of their lives, but is publicly posting all this minutiae really such a good idea? Knowing what you had for lunch is hardly ever going to be interesting, unless you’re a chef, and seeing your drunken antics very well may get you fired. So where do we draw the line, and for whom? The beauty of Facebook’s many features is that now you can choose what you show and to what type of people. By using friend lists and playing with your privacy settings, you can create different views for each segment of your life.

Segmenting your friends into lists

Facebook Friend Lists can be utilized for a variety of purposes, but the biggest draw for the average user is that they can label their friends for easy adjustment of Profile Privacy Settings. Creating Friend Lists may sound harsh or judgmental, but this categorization happens every day in real life; Facebook just allows you to put it to good use. The names or types of Facebook Friend Lists you create will depend on your use of Facebook and the overall purpose of your Profile. If it’s personal, I suggest “People You Don’t Know,” “Real (offline) Friends,” “Work People,” and “Online Buddies” for effective tweaking of privacy settings to control each list’s level of profile access. There is no limit to how large a Friend List can or should be when discussing Privacy Settings; however, if you want to use lists to batch invite, message or tag people, you will need to create smaller, more targeted lists. But for privacy purposes, you can make each list as large as you’d like. You can create a list from the Friends page, or choose them individually by name while working on the Privacy Settings page. Simply choose a feature you want to limit, like your Wall, and select “Customize” from the drop down. Then enter the name of the person or list you want to keep from seeing that feature. You will be prompted to create a list if you enter multiple names by hand. Privacy settings can be adjusted by hovering over “Settings” in the upper right corner of Facebook and clicking on “Privacy Settings.”

What’s safe to share?

How much you’re inclined to disclose on Facebook depends on a lot of factors, and can change based on what you did last weekend, who has recently joined the network, and what your overall goals and use of the site are. But a basic breakdown looks like this: 1. People you don’t know (your public profile listing) First, adjust how someone you aren’t connected to views your profile. Allow them to view a bit of personal information, in case a potential employer, networking contact or old friend is looking for you. To do this, make your profile available to “My Networks and Friends” and your search visibility to “Everyone.” You should also make sure that the “Public Search Listing” box is checked off so your profile can be indexed. Now decide what you don’t want non-friends to see and change these settings, allowing “Only Friends” to see that information. This also sets up the all-access version of your profile for your friends. “Safe” stuff typically includes Basic Info, Personal Info (depending on how much detail you provide), Education Info and Work Info. That means no photos, no videos, no wall. Applications with a more professional focus, like your blog or LinkedIn profile, are also okay. 2. Your “real” friends You may or may not consider online-only acquaintance to be “real” friends; if so, put them in this list. Either way, these are the people who get the full version of your profile. Things reserved exclusively for actual friends might be Photos Tagged of Me, Photo Albums you upload, Videos Tagged of Me, Wall Posts and the ability to post on your wall. You also might want to limit “fun” applications to this list as well. 3. Online buddies In the old days, people would recommend hiding indentifying details from this group of friends, but that goes against the nature of Facebook. However, if you have children you may want to block these friends from viewing photos of your kids. Decide what works for you; you can switch your settings at any time. 4. Coworkers Sometimes coworkers are friends, sometimes they are a kind of in-between friend. If it’s the latter, you may want to shield them from some of your Photos, Status Updates and Wall Posts. People have been caught lying about “sick” days on Facebook and fired for it, so think long and hard about how friendly you get with your coworkers. 5. Family Yes, Facebook is finally popular enough that you might need a separate list for your family members. Depending on how cool your family is, or how out of control your photos and various Facebook antics are, adjust your settings accordingly.

Final tips

No one will know you’ve changed settings, either for them or in general; these updates will not show up in your news feed, so block people with abandon. Also note that photo albums settings must be changed individually, either when you set up a new album or by going to the Photos section of the Privacy page. However, any photo you use as a profile picture goes in a separate album called “Profile Pictures” which the settings cannot be changed for. So don’t make an inappropriate photo your profile pic. But you knew that.

It’s a Deal: Q&A from Microsoft Yahoo! Call

Lee Odden — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 13:53:18 +0000

Amid all the speculation this week, it’s official that Microsoft and Yahoo! have made a deal: ”Microsoft will now power Yahoo! search while Yahoo! will become the exclusive worldwide relationship sales force for both companies’ premium search advertisers.” Microsoft-Yahoo Deal History on Dipity. The Search Marketing Industry news sites have covered this completely and a joint web site has been setup my Microsoft Yahoo. I also took a little time to listen in on the investor relations conference call with Steve Ballmer of Microsoft and Carol Bartz of Yahoo! and live tweeted some of the Q and A: MSFT YAHOO conf call Q: Why no display ad component to the deal? Bartz: To keep the deal straightforward as possible MSFT YAHOO conf call Q: Why no up-front fee to Yahoo? Bartz: Big cash payment up front doesn’t help Yahoo ongoing operating costs MSFT YAHOO conf call Q: What impact on jobs? Bartz: Many Yahoos w/be asked to work @ Microsoft, work elsewhere @ Yahoo, some redundancy MSFT YAHOO conf call Q: How much does deal affect areas where MSFT & YHOO compete? Ballmer: Innovate & need privacy disclosures MSFT YAHOO conf call Q: What does it mean for MSFT to license Yahoo search? Why not all Bing? Ballmer: We can benefit from Yahoo search tech MSFT YAHOO conf call Q: Examples of innovation from deal? Ballmer: UI, algos for search relevance, scale provides feedback loop to innovate MSFT YAHOO conf call Q: Why is this deal better than last year’s? Bartz: Current deal is longer term, more of a partnership, skin in game MSFT YAHOO conf call Q: Why is this deal better than last year’s? Ballmer: This deal is not better, it’s different. Last MSFT YAHOO conf call Q from @dannysullivan: What happens to Yahoo news, directory, paid inclusion, Delicious? Bartz: Decide on paid inclusion later. Ballmer: Yahoo has full flexibility & how that pans out is up to Yahoo

45 Creative, Clever And Effective Blog Taglines

Ramon Polanco — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 13:31:15 +0000

Taglines are perhaps the most underrated and underused elements of personal and business blogs, yet they serve a huge function. The social web has conditioned us to move through content-based sites quickly, and if we reach a site with an unclear thesis we’re likely to click to the next thing. You also can’t count on visitors to read your “about” page. In a world that increasingly moves at 140 characters or less, having a hook such as a clever tagline can make all the difference. Taglines are your brand’s elevator pitch and help people get a quick snapshot of who you are. It’s your opportunity to be descriptive, catchy, memorable and create a unique brand for your blog. They also present a great opportunity for keyword inclusion, but not at the sacrifice of stickiness. Ideally you can combine something catchy and SEO friendly. To help inspire you the next time you launch a blog – or any type of web publication – I pulled together what I think are some of the more creative, clever and effective taglines from around the blogosphere: 1. How To Change The World: A practical blog for impractical people 2. Successful Blog: You’re only a stranger once 3. Conversation Agent: Connecting ideas and people – how talk can change our lives 4. Sugarrae: Never mess with a woman who can pull rank 5. Boing Boing: A directory of wonderful things 6. PR Squared: It may be the future but you still gotta eat 7. The Consumerist: Shoppers bite back 8. Zen Habits: Simple Productivity 9. Yoast: Tweaking Websites 10. PR 2.0: The future of communication starts here 11. CopyBlogger: Copywriting tips for online marketing success 12. /Film: Blogging the reel world 13. Broadcasting Brain: Harvesting cognitive surplus for uncanny content 14. Psyblog: Understand your mind 15. Lifehacker: Tips and downloads for getting things done 16. Think Simple Now: Creativity, Clarity, Happiness 17. Violent Acres: Like you, but with poor impulse control 18. Bacon Today: Daily updates on the world of sweet, sweet bacon 19. Shoemoney: Skills to pay the bills 20. Techno Theory: Technical…Practical…Theoretically Interesting 21. Publishing 2.0: The (r)Evolution of media 22. Geek Sugar: Geek is chic. 23. Smashing Magazine: We smash you with the information that will make your life easier. Really. 24. A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC 25. Steve Pavlina: Personal development for smart people 26. Simply Fired: If you don’t laugh, you’ll cry. 27. So Good: An absurd look at the world of food 28. Get Rich Slowly: Personal finance that makes cents 29. Personal Branding Blog: Navigating YOU to future success 30. SEO Book: Learn. Rank. Dominate. 31. The Impulsive Buy: Putting the “ew” in product reviews 32. PluginID: Plugin to your identity 33. Kottke: Home of fine hypertext products 34. Freakonomics: The hidden side of everything (also a book, but a great tagline none-the-less) 35. Web Worker Daily: Rebooting the workforce 36. Online Marketer Blog: If Copyblogger and JaffeJuice had a bad-ass baby 37. Auto Blog: We obsessively cover the auto industry 38. Advergirl: …yeah, I have an opinion about that 39. TwiTip: Twitter tips in 140 characters or more 40. Duct Tape Marketing: Simple, effective and affordable small business marketing 41. Apartment Therapy: Saving the world, one room at a time 42. TechCult: Technology, Twisted 43. Illuminated Mind: The less boring side of personal development 44. Don’t Drink The Kool-aid: Join the conversations. Just don’t drink the Kool-aid. 45. Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that matters A few quick observations noted while compiling this:

It was easy to get quite a few of these as the catchier taglines are sticky enough to recall without even visiting the site
Only a few of these taglines are conscious of SEO, but it is an opportunity
Many taglines were part of the image instead of as HTML text on the page, so if you’re going to include keywords be sure that they are text-based or at a minimum, include them as alt text to the image
Many blogs have no tagline at all, relying purely on their name to tell the story
Strong taglines make a great first impression
Descriptive taglines work just fine too if they match the content
Taglines can work in conjunction with the name of the blog itself – the two support each other
Simply reading the taglines of sites you already know can provide a mental image of the site
For blogs with non-descriptive names, taglines become even more important

This is of course an incomplete list, so we’ll turn it over you. Share your favorite blog taglines in the comments that you think are creative, clever or effective.

Is Google Liable for Results they promise?

Ramon Polanco — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 13:09:44 +0000

We may not be thrilled all of the time with the search results that Google, or any search engine displays. However, who are we to blame for poor results? What if the pages that are listed reflect poorly on your company or brand? What if the content has the potential to deter customers or prospects? Who should be responsible for this content? Should Google be to blame? A recent case involving London-based Metropolitan International Schools (MIS) may have set the standard for potential cases that arise against search engines in the future. MIS tried to sue Google UK and Google, Inc. for the defamatory comments and complaints posted to an online forum about the company. What is interesting, and very true, is the following statement: “When a snippet is thrown up on the user’s screen in response to his search, it points him in the direction of an entry somewhere on the Web that corresponds, to a greater or lesser extent, to the search terms he has typed in,” Justice David Eady said. “It is for him to access or not, as he chooses. [Google] has merely, by the provision of its search service, played the role of a facilitator.” This instance makes us reflect not only on our online reputation, but also on how the search results truly are simply an amalgamation of content that is relevant to a specific keyword that was searched. So, if Google’s not to blame for the results, who is? The verdict is that if someone feels they have been offended or harmed in some way by content that Google is indexing, they should address their concern to the person who wrote and published the material. Google is not a publisher of content. Google is only a tool to bring a variety of relevant information to the searcher. Keeping online reputation management in mind, there are things that you can do to help maximize the real estate on the search results pages with content that you have greater control over. First, ensure that your website is optimized for search. You want to be able to reserve those top two links for your own website’s listings. Also, look to social media. Social media profiles, including LinkedIn company pages, Twitter accounts, Facebook fan pages, and YouTube channels all have the potential to rank well for brand name search queries. So while you may not be able to control everything that is said on the internet, be sure to maximize the presence of pages where you do have a bit more control. This will enable you to own more space than the listings that one website can cover. This not only helps with branding, but it can also build a positive impression of your brand by providing places for you to host compelling and engaging content for searchers to find.