Windows Woes and SEM

Well the idea was to keep things moving, develop content progressively over time and add my own observations on the SEO world.

But as we all know the best-laid plans of mice and men...

I'm writing on my trusty Acer notebook. NOT on my Dell workstation. Why? Because Windows automatically installed an update that causes the PC to freeze after about 5 minutes. I have been patiently securing all my data and carrying out an obscene number of diagnostic tests since Thursday.

Am I the only person in the world able to jam a dual processor workstation with everyday work applications?

The worst thing is that system restore doesn't work as the PC freezes up while uninstalling the first of six upgrades...

The joy of letdowns.

On a lighter note, I was watching a video by Leslie Rhode from Optilink who mentioned SEM for the first time. Once the definition had been given (Search Engine Marketing), I then hopped over to Wikipedia for an explanation.

I had never given much thought to PPC advertising but it seems to me that a healthy combination of the two could work wonders. Sure enough, that seems to be what the world's top SEO experts also recommend.

I can see the short-term advantages of PPC advertising when trying to sell an offer (i.e. Buy before) but if there's just brand awareness going on, I think the equation would shift away from PPC. I mean what sort of return do you get from it (in terms of brand name bulding) and how can that be measured?

Still, SEM a fascinating addition to this SEO journey.

It's just a jigsaw

What a week-end.

It's all coming together now. Keyword density, proximity and prominence, Wordtracker, SEO Elite, rotating banners, merchant accounts... this stuff's a nightmare!

But the book's just too exciting to put down.

The thing about SEO is that it's the most complex thing I've ever come across, spanning everything from graphics to site structure.

And like everything I've done before, SEO has its own, specific set of instruments.

Right now I'm sifting through the myriad of programs available online to add what I hope are the right ones to my arsenal.

Next up is to draw an operational to-do list that works for each and every project I do from day 1.

Once I've done that, I might just be able to get started with those 10 projects that brought me here in the first place.

Here's to late nights then...

SEO Course update

My absence from this blog is painfully embarassing.

My excuse is honourable though - I'm learning.

I'm learning everything about split testing, adsense, content, deep linking and I haven't even got to html yet..

I've listened to Brad Fallon, Andy Jenkins, Nancy Andrews, Dave Taylor, Tim Carter and the late, great Ken Giddens and my brain is beginning to boil.

My (white) hat goes off to these guys. They're all electrifyingly brilliant.

Sailing in Second Life

Man time is really becoming the new gold.

It's been a busy busy week but there is definitely light in this tunnel. I'm not sure whether it's coming through cracks in the wall or there really is an end but it's definitely light.

I have spent the best part of this week exploring Second Life, and have to admit I'm not sure I'm any wiser now than when I started.

It's a magical place, filled with intelligent, polite avatars alongside some real fruitcakes.

I had a wonderful sandwich at my local "real" bar while my avatar gyrated on a dancefloor for $LIN2 every 15 minutes.

But that aside, I'm beginning to see the potential, and there's certainly plenty of that. Like any unexplored world, the opportunities are limited only by our own imagination.

Yet in the world of corporate missions, Second Life really rocks the boat.

If only there were 48 hours in a day, then my own personal second life would stand a chance.

Swicki's up

If you look down on the right you'll see a new addition to the toolbar..

It's called a Swiki and the aim, according to its creators, is to fine tune searches within a specific community. SEO copywriters in my case.

Essentially it's a "new kind of search engine that allows anyone to create deep, focused searches on topics you care about. Unlike other search engines, you and your community have total control over the results and it uses the wisdom of crowds to improve search results".

I'm still tweaking it (RTM) but it should be interesting to see how it develops.

Breaking through the fog of SEO

It's been a while, and I apologize to myself for lacking the discipline (spelt: energy) to keep the thoughts flowing.

There's quite a lot in the air at the moment.

More than anything else, I've discovered there's a back-end to copywriting. And like an iceberg, there's more to what you don't see than what you do.

I'm speaking about search engine optimization, and it's fascinating. I'm learning terms like latent semantic indexing, prominence, proximity and stop words.

I had no idea...

I'm learning a language that goes beyond selling content, it changes the position of sites that speak it in a way that actively brings them closer to the people looking for them.

I apologize if this sounds lame, but like I said I had no idea. The world was flat before this, now it can bent anyway I want it.

Some call it maturity.

I have been slowly drawn into this argument to the point where I can no longer sit and watch.

It's an age thing. When you're young you live and learn but now it feels live I'm learning and hardly living. At least my wife knows where I am, even if we go to bed a vastly different hours.

Change is definitely not for the weak-hearted. The way it opens your mind while at the same time numbing your senses is really quite unique. I can see why companies are reluctant.

Today I used my abolutely brilliant website builder XSitePro to build my first ever website. Once I had finished the tutorial site, I realized I was missing graphics, layout, backgrounds, even copy! I downloaded this handy header tool, and the journey got a little bit shorter.

This is all very exciting, but with age comes the little alarm bell that sounds when you just ain't gonna make it. I now know how Lance Armstrong felt when he decided to break three hours in the NY Marathon.

So at what point does age transform you into a manager? Ever since I decided to open three blogs in two languages on the same day. When does my brain reach the level of maturity to know when I'm exaggerating? I'll let you know if and when it does.

We've got it all wrong

I've just had a thought.

It came to me while reading the December 2006 CAR magazine.

In the bulletin section there was a pretty alarming article about the envoronmental impact that undoes just about everything I've ever understood about eco-friendly automobiles.

I can't find the report on the magazine's website but I did find it here.

Normally, we're led to believe that a car is green by looking at it's fuel consumption and emissions. However, Oregon-based CNW Marketing Research took a step back and looked at it globally. What they discovered was in my mind astonishing in its obviousness.

If you look beyond fuel consumption and take into consideration a car's "dust to dust" environmental impact, factoring in fuel consumption, factory manufacturing costs, parts manufacturing costs, plus the energy used in R&D, the energy used by the workers communiting to the factories, the car's recylability and it's durability, the traditional references are turned on their heads.

By way of illustration, the greenest car available in the UK is, according the Greenpeace, the automotive incarnation of Beelzebub, the Jeep Wrangler 4x4.

The previous envoronmental champion, the hybrid Toyota Prius, has a "dust to dust" energy cost five times higher than the second-place Toyota Yaris.

Art Spinella, president of CNW, sums it up quite nicely. "If a consumer is concerned about fuel economy, it is perfectly logical to consider buying high fuel economy vehicles such as hybrids, but if the concern is the broader issues such as environmental impact of energy usage, some vehicles with good economy actually cost society more than conventional or even larger models over their lifetime. Basing purchasing decisions solely on fuel economy does not get to the heart of the energy usage issue".

How painfully obvious is all this?

How much does discovering a truth that exposes our short-sightedness for what it is burn our pride and uproot our intelligence?

Couldn't see the woods for the trees?

Winning the battle but losing the war?

Taking an even bigger step backwards, it made me wonder if this oversight also applies to marketing.

For example, how often consumers fed solutions that resolve the problem but neglect the cause? How many products and ideas (and remedies for that matter) have been introduced that do nothing more than smear away the stains left by the previous mistake?

In my own little world of IT solutions, I can't help thinking if there's a bigger picture we're missing.

The fact that Greenpeace is putting pressure on electronics manufacturers into making their products more environmentally friendly is a case in point.

How much of the efficiency comes from the machine itself?
- If manufacturers busy making computers work faster forget that humans have to live with the consequences.

Does the pursuit of increased efficiency/performance in one area damage another?
- I'm thinking of the Sony battery disaster but I'm sure there are other more distant relationships.

How much human-involvement is missing from the equation?
- Is technology improving yet becoming so complicated in the process that we as humans are being blinded by it? If SatNavs and GPS phones take away our ability to "see" where we're going, and SMS text-messaging is undoing one of civilised man's key qualities (literacy), just how much is technology driving us towards a catatonic state of high-tech dependency?

Breaking down the barriers between people and technology might not be a bad thing, as long as we don't put up others along the way.

Embryo-blog

You've seen the little widget on the right no?

Very clever thing created by Hugh Macleod over on his Gaping Void site. Sort of like daily guidance for geeks :-D

I'm sort of in need of guidance myself right now. I'm just about ready to call a meeting and bring in the big boys to discuss their corporate blog.

It's been a long journey helped no end by Richard@Dell (you've gotta love that surname!). I have already thanked him in an earlier post but as one of the (public) driving forces behind our single biggest "competitor", his generosity and openness puts him (and Dell for that matter) at the very top of the social tree. Maximum respect.

I've got 2 brochures and a whitepaper to deliver by Monday (fat chance), and then it's full speed ahead with the blog preparations. Now or never..

Role model

There's something that's been bothering me for a while and I've only just understood what it is.

Has anyone noticed that when IT companies start blogging, they start promoting themselves on various levels? Product, Business, Channel, Service and even Market Position...

This is all very well and I don't want to criticise proven practices, but I think IT companies should make a very clear division between the interests of its customers and those of its shareholders when talking to the public at large.

When you write body copy for brochures, flyers or any other "collateral" used to promote a company's product, your audience is the buying public. Whether they buy it from the manufacturer/vendor directly or from their favourite tech store is largely irrelevant. If the product fits, they'll buy it.

When you write a corporate brochure, press release or conference presentation your audience is entirely different, and the tone of language used changes accordingly.

Lately I've been monitoring IT blogs from as many component manufacturers and big brand vendors as possible and I've noticed that "the message" is often blurred by other issues such as market share or the direct/indirect model argument.

This is great if you're an investor, but gives a confused message to the buying public. At what point is the difference between direct and indirect business models relevant to them?

There are moments when best practice, channel strategy and product development are necessarily aggregated but surely this shouldn't become a "standard", unless of course you are prepared to get on the blogosphere at a corporate level, but leave the customer behind.

Margin of error

I've learnt a lesson today: Respect the margin of error.

When UPS says they will deliver anytime between 9 am and 12pm, do not, under any circumstances, leave your house till 12.30pm at least.

Margin of error. We're all guilty of it. UPS is no different. They found that 10 minute window in which I wasn't around and turned up. All I have to show for my lack of respect is a slip of paper and a 48 hour wait (tomorrow's a bank holiday).

Stifling the Italian Start Up

I had a look round SecondLife this week - it's extremely disorientating for a complete beginner so I'm holding judgement 'till I've had my guided tour.

I have just posted a similar article to this over on my Italian blog. The reason being that I am wondering just how far a newcomer can or even must travel down the long tail before his or her e-commerce site becomes financially sustainable.

I doubt very much that newcomers could take on short tail champions like Amazon or iTunes, but having said that, too far down the tail would see so little activity that any ROI would be neglibible at best.

I am fascinated by Internet Marketing at the moment. I honestly cannot see the point of having an Internet site for the sake of having one. In every situation, given a little thought, there is a whole lot more to be gained from Web 2.0

I see that blogs are taking over the role of static websites - once static information zones that do nothing more than identify who the person or company is. Blogs are changing all this. Through a blog you can get to know someone's thoughts, their personality and also their reputation. A static website gives you a fraction of that.

Yet a working website can offer just so much more. Ever since Google Adsense arrived, there has been a definite switch towards optimizing websites in order to rank higher in the search engines. But why would you waste your time chasing a front-page result if your website offered no more than your phone number?

Working websites can advertise, promote and, even better, sell. They provide the perfect opportunity to capture new clients and keep them informed about the latest developments. The goal of the website is to turn as many of those customers into clients and it's very easy to measure how effective they are at this.

Newsletters, blog posts and even video logs give such a strong message of customer commitment, it's hard to imagine why anyone would consider doing it any differently.

Streamlining this process for maximum CTR is what fascinates me and here's the rub. When you study, research and apply these SEO techniques, you do so in an ideal envoronment: America.

Here in Italy, there are no fulfillment agencies, back-end offices for rent and cheap web hosting businesses. What's worse, when you decide to sell something physical over the web, you have to get special permission from the Chamber of Commerce before you print out your first receipt.

It's a sign of just how sorry the Italian market is when the government has to stifle free market growth by filtering out all the irreputable sites that would otherwise spring up like mushrooms.

It's also sad that before you can even think about entering the still-lucrative web business market, you have to go 5 rounds with the government.

It would also be nice if we competing businesses had similar taxation requirements but there again, all things are anything but equal.

The answer lies in meticulous research, shrewed determination and blind faith.

Extreme socializing tours

While we're all discovering how to navigate in the land of the social, some clever people have come up with a site designed to show newbies around the increasingly popular virtual worlds, like World of Warcraft and Second Life.

"Synthravels is the first organization to offer a complete guide service to all the people who want to make a tour in virtual worlds without knowing these new realities, even if they have never put their feet in these strange, synthetic grounds." says their site.

I don't mind admitting that these virtual communities scare the bejesus out of me. It's bad enopugh convincing clients to embrace social media. Virtual communities is pushing it waaay beyond credible.

Second Life recently got a credibility boost after Reuters opened an agency and IBM started holding corporate meetings there.

Having said that, it is a fascinating transformation in the way we represent ourselves. I'm not sure I've fully grasped the point of the original names requirement. I mean getting major personalities like, I don't know, Carlos Ghosn - CEO of Renault Nissan, to go online under the name of Bungo Kaloterakis seems to me the wrong side of lunacy, although having said that Renault does build some looney cars...

Sorry, can't stop now, I've got a virtual tour bus to catch.

Can you copyright Web 2.0?

This is a good one.

There was a lot of speculation over copyright infringement at YouTube before Google took over the reins. Now it's gaining momentum and all the copyright lawyers have started dusting their suits off.

As it turns out, YouTube doesn't carry a direct responsibility for the content that appears on its site. They even say so on their guidlines page. I read a post by Mark Cuban over at CNet.

Basically, while it was starting up, no-body cared. Now it's a suit-wearing mega-site with the keys to millions of amateur/pro videos, it's washing its hands of all and any responsibility to the people that made it what it is.

Napster took us there a few years back and they were shut down with aggression. I don't see how YouTube can "host" copyright material and not be hung, drawn and quartered as Shawn Fanning was.

The safe alternative is Revver. But until I read Mark's mail this morning, I will admit this site had passed beneath the radar, which gives you some idea to its viral limitations over YouTube's.

I am wondering if the same applies to blog content. If you host a site which uses and/or refers to material written by others, and you give credits, links and all the rest, are you promoting them, or ripping them off?

In social networks, we are all footholds for each other. If I'm not allowed to use yours, do we both slip?

Marketing Secrets

I saw an absolutely brilliant post by Seth Godin today. These top ten marketing tips account for nine of the obstacles I'm dealing with right now. The tenth - budget - fortunately isn't my problem on this one, although I am going to be looking out for those bright coloured alarm bells.

I'm trying to decide whether the image of a company, its history, its values and ambition are best represented by a mission statement or by a human being.

It's easier to follow a guideline as they are not the moving targets CEOs invariably are, but I can't help feeling it's much more human to follow a leader.

Also what happens when the PR agency comes up with the mission statement? Who gets the identity-kudos then? I might be wrong here, but my gut feeling is that a physical point of reference is easier to focus on than a slick slogan.

Now all that's left to do is convince "them"......

Last night a filter saved my life...

I'm having trouble with Gator news.

Learning to navigate through a new program or service is bad enough, cramming all that information into a single day is asking too much of myself.

My eyes are bigger than my mind.

Is St. Francis online??

I'm still in awe over my Umbria trip. There's always going to be a natural affinity between a Brit and that region of Italy. Hey, I'm no different the the next guy!

This week has been a sort of awakening. Seth repeats Nike's Mantra and he's right. When you do start something, the rest just can't stop itself from falling on you.

On the one hand I'm still finding my way around the blogosphere, carefully tiptoeing from blog to blog in a vain attempt to see life from the outside. On the other I have learnt that sometimes, people you are taught to fear are often your greatest allies.

High profile social media is like the main event at a Las Vegas a boxing event. Yet for every testosterone-filled thug bulldozing his (so far not her) way through other people's reputations, there are just as many willing to stick their own necks out for you.

Umbria was magical, but the blogosphere is even more surprising.

Umbria and the long tail of tourism

Assisi 10,
originally uploaded by lingolook.

Shel gets his baggage sent to Azerbaijan, we get to bask in the fabulous Italian Indian Summer in Umbria.

Umbria is just south of Tuscany, and shares quite a bit with its famous neighbour.

Yet as it isn't Tuscany, there are far, far fewer tourists (although we did have to wade through thousands of American and German faithful in Assisi).

Which got us thinking. OR me at any rate. If I were looking for somewhere to escape to, somewhere to take my wife when we've had enough, I would choose the long tail of Italian tourism every time. It worked this week-end, why wouldn't it work again?

But as there isn't an aggregator, a collective, personal view of long tail tourism for runaway parents, maybe we just stumbled on an idea...

Anything to get out of Milan really ;-)

Scratching the surface

I'm impressed. I never imagined blogging could be the new realm of like-minded professionals but this social medium has uprooted and tossed aside my fear of identifying myself and has, once and for all, demonstrated that even someone as far out on the long tail as me can add considerable weight to the debate.

I am a ghost writer. More than simply writing in someone else's shadow, for the majority of my clients, I simply do not exist. I've been hidden away for so long I almost forgot my identity. But then along came a spider, sat down beside her, and scared my fear away.

There is something magical about the moment something clicks. The instant it dawns on you that what you have been doing so far was just scratching the surface, and that if you push a little harder, you can actually overcome obstacles you'd become so used to they have become part of your scenery.

Call it inspiration, call it discovery but from where I stand, that moment is happening right now. What's really strange, is that the biggest encouragement has come from one of my client's single largest competitors.

This form of encouragment is, I believe, a clear demonstration of just how important mutual professional respect is for healthier comptetition and, ultimately, a better relationship with the market as a whole.

So many thanks to Richard for his unexpected yet thoroughly appreciated comments both on and off the beaten track.

Starting from scratch

The ongoing discussion over at Shel Israel's blog is keeping me up at night.

Not only because it's the single most interesting thing I have participated in professionally for years, there is also a serious time lag between my input and everybody else.

I don't know where Shel is at the moment but I assume Richard Binhammer is in Texas, meaning he's on the ball when I'm tucked up in bed...

Still, it's a fascinating development, and one I am going to stay up for every step of the way.