Successful Blog

Personalised? Potential Problems? Perhaps …

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A Guest Post on Personalised Search by Christopher Angus

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Anyone that’s been in any branch of internet marketing such as Search, SEO, Social Media Marketing and the like will fully understand what I mean when I say that Google is always changing. The animal we seek to master is impossible to tame, if merely for the fact that the algorithm behind the Google search engine is never really still. Stable, arguably so, but the fact remains that engineer upon engineer, programmer after programmer are spending their time constantly tweaking the code and structure of Google, often leading to unexpected twists in the SEO trail.

The point that I’m getting at is that as a marketing expert, Search professional, or SEO company, one must be prepared to change with the times. Resistant to change some of us may well be, but change we must, if we are to survive. Of course, some changes are easier to accommodate for than others, some are small, some are large, the difficulty to change with the times sometimes – but not always – scales with the size of the change.

However, once in a while comes a change that is just incredibly awkward to deal with. A change that is so downright frustrating that it makes you wonder why you ever got into this business. A change like that has happened in recent days and continues to still happen. That change is typically referred to as “personalised search”, the process via which a Google search can become “personalised” or “unique” for a given user, particularly when logged in to one’s own Gmail/Google account.

It works by giving alarming priority to popular branded sites (presumably ones that Google thinks has a high amount of “trust” built up) and pushes these to the top of related search results, so you end up being more likely to find these branded sites in a better position than other, smaller, “less trusted” websites. This also has a literal knock-on effect of pushing the websites that were previously ranking well for related keywords (the smaller sites) out of the way entirely, as they’re moved to one side to make room for the “big ones”. From an SEO point of view, I’m sure you can understand the frustration here.

The popular stuff is getting clicked on all the time, which then subsequently becomes personalised and then you’ll continue to keep seeing those same websites every time you search for those related keywords. Search is rapidly becoming a popularity contest instead of a relativity contest, or at least whatever you want to call it: it’s not that anymore.

Another hurdle on the path to success @ Search has arisen and so we must deal with it, or it will deal with us.

How are YOU dealing with the idea of personalised search?

—–
Christopher Angus is a successful internet marketer and SEO, having been rated the 26th most influential marketer in the world in 2009. His company is Warlock Media and he can be reached via email at info@warlockmedia.com

Thanks, Chris. I love learning about new tech … 🙂

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

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Social Media Book List: Writing for your Business & The Power of Twitter

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A Weekly Series by Teresa Morrow

I’m Teresa Morrow, Founder of Key Business Partners, LLC and I work with authors and writers by managing their online promotion. As part of my job I read a lot of books (and I love to read anyway!). I am here to offer a weekly post about one book I am working with and one book I have put on my reading list. The books will cover topics such as social media (Facebook and Twitter), organization, career building, networking, writing and self development and inspiration.

The Customizable Style Guide for Coaches who Write by Linda Dessau

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This week I would like to start off with a book I have read and worked with the author entitled Customizable Style Guide for Coaches who Write.

The coaching industry is increasing every day. The International Coach Federation has over 13,000 members in more than 90 countries. Coaches have discovered success by sharing their guidance through books and e-products, expanding from the traditional one-on-one or group coaching methods. And since coaching is a global industry, most coaches rely heavily on the Internet as a marketing tool. Professional, concise writing is crucial for success.

Whether they’re writing to earn passive revenue or to market to new or existing contacts, this book will help coaches to write without fear. No more false starts or procrastination, no more puzzling over why something just doesn’t look or sound right, and best of all, no more pouring their heart and soul into their writing, but failing to make that crucial connection with their readers or to get the results they hoped for.

About the Author

Linda Dessau, MTA, CPCC, is an editor, writer, accredited music therapist and certified life coach. She has been writing for the web since 2003 and her articles about self-care and creativity have been widely acclaimed and reprinted.

She is the author of several e-books, including Ten Ways to Thrive as a Creative Artist, and e-courses, including Roadblocks to Creativity.

She created “You Talk, I’ll Write” in July 2005 to combine her passion for coaching with her gift for writing. Her client roster of coaches and speakers rely on her to collaborate with them and bring clarity, structure and greater impact to their ideas. She has a clear and warm writing style that immediately connects with the intended audience.

Linda Dessau is a member of the Editors’ Association of Canada and lives in Toronto.

You can pick up your copy at Coaches who Write.

Twitter Power

Now is time for me to showcase a book I have not read but it is on my reading list. This week my choice is Twitter Power by Joel Comm.

Do you know what Twitter is? You should–if you’re in the business of promoting your business. This is just what I say ABSOLUTELY! Social media is so important to all business owners who are looking to increase the marketing of their business. It is a great way to make incredible connections and joint partnerships with others.

Twitter Power shows you how to leverage the power of Twitter for instant business results–like reaching new markets and increasing sales.

In Twitter Power, Internet marketing and Web innovation expert Joel Comm shows businesses and marketers how to integrate Twitter into their existing marketing strategies to build a loyal following among Twitter members, expand awareness for their product or service, and even handle negative publicity due to angry or disappointed consumers.

The book also presents case studies of companies on the forefront of the Twitter movement, to help you develop your own social networking strategies. Twitter Power is the result of extensive testing and participation in the social networking community and is a must-have for any business that wants to keep up with the social media movement. Twitter Power features a foreword by Tony Robbins.


About the Author:
Joel Comm is one of the world’s leading expert on strategies for making money online. He is an in demand speaker of conferences on internet marketing and business, and also the author of The AdSense Code and Click Here to Order.
You can pick up your copy of Twitter Power on Amazon

Have the BIG Idea for the Next Twitter? What’s that Worth?

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A Guest Post by Carol Roth

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What if you had the BIG IDEA that trumps Twitter — the one that could get everyone to leave the Fail Whale for your newly imagined super-site? Or maybe your idea is for the next VitaminWater or Under Armour – what would that be worth?

You may know someone who came up with a great idea, or maybe you came up with one yourself – an idea that someone else pursued and made major money from. If you could just find a way to get paid for thinking of the next big business idea, you would be set for life. .

The problem is, you can’t.

The biggest bummer about business is that the ideas behind them aren’t worth anything. As Chris Brogan says, “I could totally do that doesn’t mean anything if you don’t.”

A penny for your thoughts … if you’re lucky

Nobody whose head is screwed on straight will buy a business idea from you (or anyone else) because any value related to a business idea is in its implementation. Maybe if you give someone a business idea they will one day send you a coupon for a free product, but that is about it.

The further something gets away from an idea, the more value that exists. Things like

  • customers
  • profits
  • innovative technology
  • competitive barriers to entry

create value.

The reality of the lack of value in business ideas is a shock and a disappointment to many people who want to get compensated for thinking of “the next big thing.”

Sure, the idea kicks off setting the business in motion, but coming up with an idea is a one-time thing that isn’t particularly difficult, doesn’t require much risk and doesn’t take a lot of work. Even if you laid in your bed fine-tuning the idea every night before you went to sleep for six months, this work pales in comparison to the amount of work required to get the business started and to make it successful. The more action you take and the greater the results that you achieve from that action, the more value you will create.

That BIG Idea for the next Twitter, Vitamin Water or Under Armour really isn’t worth anything at all.

All of the other facets of starting and running the business, of which there are many, are quite difficult to do. They require a lot of risk to do and to do well. They aren’t done once, but have to be attended to on pretty much a daily basis. They take a lot of hard work. So, in looking at this whole thing we call a business, would you place a lot of value on a one-time idea that took no risk to produce, or on the other myriad tasks that have to be done indefinitely, day-in and day-out, that take a ton of risk and hard work?

Bottom line: It’s not the idea; it’s the execution over time that counts.

Are you ready to put the work into that BIG Idea of yours?

—–
Carol Roth writes Unsolicited Business Advice (TM) or aspiring entrepreneurs, solopreneurs and other small business owners, at CarolRoth.com You can find her on Twitter as @CaroJSRoth

Thanks, Carol. Ideas are everywhere. Execution is not.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
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How Experts Can Really Help Beginners

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A Guest Post by Amanda Markham

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My Story:

I wanted to take my blog, Desert Book Chick, from its place on WordPress.com to a self hosted WordPress.org site. I signed up with a webhost, got my shiny new domain name, got in the driver’s seat, and off I went. It took two painful weeks before I finally had my site looking vaguely like I wanted it to look. Along the way I learned a lot. Being an anthropologist, I’m always looking for hidden cultural ‘memes’ and understandings. In the course of reflecting on my experiences, I found I wasn’t alone – and this conversation was born.

The Trouble With Beginners:

In our mind’s eye, we beginners have ‘the picture’. It’s the biggest, best, most eye-popping blog or website you’ve ever seen. It’s our baby, part of us, and we want to get it happening as soon as we can. Even worse, we desperately want to do it ourselves. Yet, lurking just beneath the surface of our shiny new websites are various shady characters like code, blogging platforms and flashy custom themes. Pretty soon, we beginners are stumbling around in the dark, losing weeks as we ogle tutorials, cut and paste code like mad cows, and trawl forums for answers.

And it’s a jungle out there! There are hundreds of thousands of sites offering tutorials and help, and the forums are like labyrinths, complete with the occasional cranky, biting creature that leaps at you from out of a dark corner.

Most of the time, (a nod in the direction of Donald Rumsfeld) we beginners simply don’t know what we don’t know. We don’t know that it’s not etiquette to ask for help in the comments sections of expert’s blogs (I’m not sure why this is), nor we do know that the same question we’re asking might have been asked 1000 times before in seven different ways. To be blunt, we just want to get on with creating our blogs and adding content.

A Few Words on Experts:

Whilst I can’t speak about setting up a blog from the point of view of an expert, I can speak about the characteristics of experts. They’re experts at writing code, plugins, tweaking the intestines of SQL databases, and other even more arcane and mysterious rituals that I can’t begin to imagine. Expert at things that make my mind go blank – in the same way the phrase patrilineal exogamous moieties probably looks like incomprehensible dribble to you. But I’m an expert in my field, I hang out with other anthropologists, chat online with them, read journals and ethnographies. Not for a moment is the phrase ‘patrilineal exogamous moieties’ strange or meaningless to me or my ‘tribe’.

The Anthropologist’s Gaze:

Beginners and experts are two very different ‘tribes’, speaking very different languages. I’m not telling you anything here that you don’t already know. What I’m highlighting though is the importance of listening and learning to speak each other’s language. After all, the ultimate purpose of tutorials and other resources written by experts for beginners is plain old communication and education – in other words, a conversation aimed a imparting knowledge.

Sometimes, however, the language barrier gets in the way: beginners can’t really hear what experts are saying. Other times, the way in which beginners work gets in the way, using both blogging platforms and tutorials in very different ways to which experts do.

That’s where some anthropological fieldwork -some user-based ethnography- comes in handy. Microsoft, Xerox and IBM employ ethnographers and anthropologists to go into homes, observe and understand just how people are using their products. They then use this information to improve existing or create new products. But rather than hire an anthropologist to start such a conversation, I’m going to suggest that beginners and experts get together and start a ‘conversation’.

One way to overcome the language barrier and really get into the minds of beginners is to get a group of them together and say:go for it guys! Give them your tutorial and get them to record step-by-step what they do and what it is they have in mind to achieve at each step of the process. Get them to write down the problems they had in understanding instructions. Ask: What do they do? How do they do it? Why are they doing these things? From this, you’d really be surprised what you’ll learn.

As an aside, I’ve used this method when consulting with Aboriginal Elders about all kinds of major works projects (like phosphate mines!) -trialling posters, 3D presentations and 3D storylines set up in creek beds and dusty tracks in the Australian outback. The process of asking people whether the story I tell is one they can understand, and their gentle advice on how to improve the stories I tell, has helped me learn how to speak their language and do my ‘thing’ better. It’s been an invaluable lesson that I’ve taken into every aspect of my life.

So think about it. Conversations, storytelling and listening: hardly rocket science, but the foundation of speaking each other’s languages.

—–
Amanda Markham writes at Desert Book Chick about books and the people who write them. You also find her on Twitter as Amanda467

Thanks, Amanda. We all need reminders like this one. Talking inside a fishbowl is a real social web problem for all of us!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

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Thanks to Week 229 SOBs

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Successful and Outstanding Bloggers

Let me introduce the bloggers
who have earned this official badge of achievement,

and the right to call themselves
Successful Blog SOBs.

I invite them to take a badge home to display on their blogs.

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gypsy-bandito
kymlee-is-awesome
regular-geek
the-whistling-duck

They take the conversation to their readers,
contribute great ideas, challenge us, make us better, and make our businesses stronger.

I thank all of our SOBs for thinking what we say is worth passing on.
Good conversation shared can only improve the blogging community.

Should anyone question this SOB button’s validity, send him or her to me. Thie award carries a “Liz said so” guarantee, is endorsed by Kings of the Hemispheres, Martin and Michael, and is backed by my brothers, Angelo and Pasquale.

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Want to become an SOB?

If you’re an SO-Wanna-B, you can see the whole list of SOBs and learn how to be one by visiting the SOB Hall of Fame– A-Z Directory . Click the link or visit the What IS an SOB?! page in the sidebar.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

SOB Business Cafe 03-12-10

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SB Cafe

Welcome to the SOB Cafe

We offer the best in thinking — articles, books, podcasts, and videos about business online written by the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers of Successful Blog. Click on the titles to enjoy each selection.

The Specials this Week are

Chris Brogan
Someone else took your idea. You’ve been talking about it for years. That’s your thing. I can’t believe she said what I’ve been saying for years, and now she’s got a book. I could totally do that.

Saul Colt
Way back in October I put my “money where my mouth is” and challenged someone to come up with a new idea in Social Media because if there ever was something that needs re-invention, this is it …

Tim’s Strategy
And if you listened to my appearance on the Recruiting Animal Radio Show you may have an interesting view of my personality and strengths. Animal has a well-honed way of sweeping your feet out from under you.

But the places I stumbled were not his fault. They were mine. I was not able to answer some pretty basic questions he asked. Ones that, I think, seem pretty straight-forward. Not intentionally deceptive at all.

So now I’m here to answer the big one. In full detail. For the world to evaluate and comment on.

Social Media Marketing News

# Ask for feedback and/or ask questions at the end of a post.
# Comment on other’s blogs.
# Barrier to comments BAD (in other words, don’t make it difficult for people to leave comments).

Barry Moltz
I am horrible on putting things together. So when my son wanted a new basketball hoop I shivered.

I dutifully ordered it from Walmart and it came a few days later in the mail. One night, my son and I embarked on the journey called “Assembly Required.”

Media Buzz
Instant messaging, viral marketing and social networking sites could make his workplace uncomfortable — even scary — for men and women raised in a slower time. Yet Wasiak surrounds himself with 20-somethings and 30-somethings and loves it.

“There’s no rule that says 20-year-olds are better at this than 60-year-olds,” says this cofounder of the creative development company The Concept Farm. “It’s the approach that counts.”

Related ala carte selections include

Lewis Howes
wants to know … does this video entertain or offend you?

Sit back. Enjoy your read. Nachos and drinks will be right over. Stay as long as you like. No tips required. Comments appreciated.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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