Unless you’ve been hiding in a cage for a few months you have heard the news: Pinterest is the best thing since sliced bread.

I don’t want to join the myriads of opportunistic writers and hail the new hype. Instead I want you to pause a bit and to try to learn how to evaluate social media opportunities and risks. I will use Pinterest as an example although I might use Quora or Foursquare as well.

Btw. do you remember Foursquare? It was the hype of 2010. You might still know what Quora is, it was the hype of last year. So here we are and this year Pinterest is the next big thing as everybody seems to agree.

I’m sure that Pinterest is a great site, don’t get me wrong. In case you or your wife, sister or mother use it, don’t get offended. There is nothing wrong with it. I rather address my audience of search and social media professionals who seem to flock to Pinterest these days as well. People from outside might even call them marketers but I personally don’t like this epithet.

Remember than I am business blogger, SEO and social media user most of the time. I’m not a marketing person in the sense that I sell products on social media. I don’t. These days you might call me a content strategist because I create and curate content others want to find on social media and search engines. I also teach people how to create and curate such content. I might teach you next time what kind of content you can use to appeal to the Pinterest crowd. Not today though.

Today I want to ask you: Why do you want to join Pinterest?

You are probably on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, maybe also on Quora and Foursquare. This is quite a lot. It needs also quite a lot of work to maintain. Just consider this: Let’s assume you’re not very well paid. You get 50$ an hour as a freelancer. Then think or better track the time you spend on social sites per day. Is it one hour? Or two? Or just half an hour?

Personally I schedule 30 minutes for social media each day.

That’s just for using it, no marketing or optimization or anything just simple participation. Just looking up what’s going on, keeping up and engaging with no particular goal other than informing myself and sharing. That’s 2,5h a week. 10h a month. So the cost of social media is an investment of 500$ a month or rather every four weeks.

What other things do you spend 500$ or more a month on?

Your car, rent, education? Now think of it, realistically I use social media more than the scheduled 30 minutes a day. On some days I assign half an hour for social media optimization, or more specifically social media outreach. I have a clear goal then, looking up and contacting influencers for example, or spreading the word about new content I created etc. Also I tend to use social media whenever I pause between tasks for a minute but not long enough to get up to do something else.

So let’s assume more realistically that I already spend 5 hours a week on social media. Additionally let’s assume I earn a bit more per hour, let’s say 100$. I know that many consultants in the search and social media marketing industry earn more than this. So let’s see, we have 20h a month worth 2000$. That’s already 24k a year you spend on social media. That doesn’t even include the tools you pay for when using social media or other investments to get traction there.

Now here comes the next big thing, Pinterest. Everybody is shouting how awesome the site and the traffic is, which is probably even true. Then they advise you to just “engage in the conversation” or here rather in pinning images there.

How much time do you assign a day or a week to engage?

Half an hour a day? An hour a week? I think it will be more like an hour a day as it’s a new site. It’s because you have to befriend all your social media friends from elsewhere anew, you have to share the content you shared elsewhere again, or you have to find new friends and content specific for this site. Creating social relations and UGC is crucial to get attention on a new social site. So you will spend probably around 20h the first month on Pinterest. Either you will add these 20h to your current social media budget or instead of it. Ask yourself though:

Will you really like less on Facebook?

Will you really tweet less? Or plus one less? Probably not. You will spend 40h this month on social media instead of 20h.

So unless you don’t have much other work, or you’re not a freelancer like I am, you have a time and effort problem here.

Thus I advise you not to jump in on the latest hype but instead think twice about it and consider your other social media obligations.

Ask yourself the following questions as well in order to know whether you have to engage on Pinterest or any other new site, be it Quora, Foursquare or whatever:

How much time do I have to spend on this site for it to work for me? Make  a schedule for a week or month. Or at least add the time you spend on it to your time tracking or to-do list.

Hint: How much will you earn after half a year of using the site from just using it? In case you get customers how make you more than the 2k you invest a month in it, great!

What direct use has the site for me?

Hint: Delicious for example has the use of having easily manageable and findable bookmarks for later use independently of the computer you are using.

Does the audience I usually address reside on that site?

Hint: Back in the days everybody wanted to submit my SEO 2.0 postings to Digg in spite of me not even having a Digg it button here. They all ignored the fact that Digg users hated SEO. I never engaged on Digg for the purpose of pushing this blog. It would be like running against walls.

Do I get more visitors on my blog or site due to using the service?

Hintz: Many sources exclaim how much traffic Pinterest is yielding. I can’t confirm that. I have sites that have been pinned a lot but the traffic is almost non-existent.

Can I get my submissions and connections out of the system once the site goes pay only or change in such a away that it won’t appeal to me anymore?

Just consider the case of Ning. It was a free site where you could create a niche community. Then one day it went premium out of the blue. You couldn’t just export your community. You would have to start a new one elsewhere.

In order to make this example even clearer I’d like to answer the questions for myself in a simplified manner and a hypothetical persona.

I’m a blogger and SEO using social media to spread the word on several topics like SEO.

• I’d need 20h a month to make Pinterest work for me. I’d need consulting jobs worth at least 12k after half a year to get even.
• My direct use of the site would be organizing the images I like on SEO.
• The audience I usually address (webmaster interested in SEO) isn’t yet on Pinterest but now if flocks to it in significant numbers.
• Judged from the tiny trickle I get from Pinterest pins on other site I assume that only every 20th visitor of Pinterest who can see my content over there would visit my site.
• I don’t know yet but I assume that there is no way to take out my content and network out of Pinterest and recreate it elsewhere without major effort.

Now the persona, I chose one for whom Pinterest might actually work. John is a real estate agent from the US.

• I’d need 20h a month to make Pinterest work for me. I’d need to sell a flat worth at least 12k after half a year to get even.
• My direct use of the site would be organizing the images I like on architecture.
• The audience I usually address (middle class Americans interested in modern architecture) is already prominent on Pinterest .
• Judged from the popularity of some architecture sites on Pinterest I assume that I will get 1k visitors from Pinterest  a month. These people might even share my images elsewhere as well.
• I don’t know yet but I assume that there is no way to take out my content and network out of Pinterest and recreate it elsewhere without major effort but I have all the images I’ll pin on my site already.

To find out whether people have already pinned images for your site type this in your browser URL bar: http://pinterest.com/source/seo2.0.onreact.com/ but instead of suing my domain name use yours.

So you use Pinterest might work for some but not for others. It’s a matter of strategic planning and evaluation. It may or may not be an opportunity. It depends on who you are, where you live and your business model. Does Pinterest already work you? Tell us how and why in the comment section please.

Btw.: I’m not really active on Quora, I’m not a member of Foursquare. I’m on Google+ though most of time.

I almost forgot it: What exactly is Pinterest? It’s an image bookmarking site. There are lots of other image bookmarking sites. I use some of them to promote on of my other blogs. They yield more traffic than Pinterest from engagement of years ago.

More on Pinterest:

1. The Marketer’s Guide to Pinterest
2. 6 Ways Brands Can Rock Pinterest
3. 7 Examples of Brands That Pop on Pinterest
4. Pinterest Referral Traffic Statistics | Shareaholic
5. Why I Chose Pinterest for the Content Creation Curation
6. What is Pinterest & Why You Should Optimize For It
7. Pinterest Gaining Traction For External SEO

Related posts:

1. How Can Websites about Boring Topics Succeed on Social Media?
2. Top 10 Most Awesomely Amazing Creative & Funny Reasons Why Blogging for Social Media Sucks
3. Productivity: 8 Ways to Save Time for Excessive Social Media Overuse

1. How Can Websites about Boring Topics Succeed on Social Media?
2. Top 10 Most Awesomely Amazing Creative & Funny Reasons Why Blogging for Social Media Sucks
3. Productivity: 8 Ways to Save Time for Excessive Social Media Overuse

Social Media: Paradise or prison?

Are you social media hopping? Have you been on Friendster 5 years ago, on MySpace 3 years ago, on Facebook for a year or more and already planning to move on to Diaspora? Have you left Digg and tried Propeller to end up on Mixx where more or less 10 people read your submissions? Did you try Pownce and Friendfeed just to end up on Twitter but already consider moving on to Foursquare?

I’ve been there, done that. Maybe not exactly as described above but in very similar ways. I truly believed in these social media sites. I developed my networks, submitted quality content, I was friendly to everybody who deserved it and I fought spammers, trolls and racists who mess up social networks.

No matter how much time and effort I invested I have been disappointed in the end.

Most social media sites end up nowhere.

Either the community moves on by itself because of the next big thing, the site dies by itself or gets sold to someone who more or less kills it. What’s very common as well is that you get evicted out of your community. Or the community gets so ugly that you prefer to leave or you fight back and then you get banned for fighting back.

I left Mixx because of racism. I left StumbleUpon because of content theft and I left Hacker News because of my disagreeable opinions. Each of the social media sites have silenced me in one way or other. Mixx banned me for two weeks after I talked back at a racist. I was flagged at StumbleUpon by trolls and content thieves alike.

On Hacker News I have been called “idiotic” because I dared to criticize banks on a page populated by die hard capitalists. Then I cited the TOS which says don’t say “idiotic” and my account was set to invisible. I was a very prolific “power user” on all these sites before that. That didn’t help though.

This post is not meant to complain or whine. Also I have already written about the Mixx and StumbleUpon fiascos in greater detail. My short intermezzo at Hacker News was not even worth a post. In most cases I was a suspected criminal from day one because I admitted to do SEO or rather I wrote about SEO.

I’m now on Twitter and Sphinn mainly plus on Google Buzz, LinkedIn and Facebook halfheartedly.

I could easily become a Google Buzz, LinkedIn or Facebook pro with the right amount of time and effort. By now I’m an social media skeptic though.

Most social media sites turn ugly sooner or later. Facebook and LinkedIn already are in a way. They sell your private data to others or your social network back to you. You have to be there but you always need to remember that both sites are already useful as channels leading back to your website and business. Social medai sites do not make sense as a long time investment or time, effort and money. Sooner or later, or rather sooner they all deteriorate and you have to build up your network from scratch elsewhere.

You need to take control back and network with people directly.

Cut out the middleman. You don’t need to friend your mother on Facebook to know what she’s up to. You can call her. It takes less time. You have to invest the time and effort into your won website and business.

there are many ways to do that. You can set up an email list of subscribers and broadcast newsletters to them. This is very SEO 1.0 but it works when you use the correct tools. Most people suggest Aweber. That’s not my style though. You can use CRM tools but there are dozens of them and they don’t seem to have standards. For instance you can’t use Salesforce plugins for other CRM tools and vice versa.

CRM is very SEO 2.0 but I have checked so many CRM tools by now and I don’t like and trust any one of them to invest my time and effort. Also most of them cost money on a regular basis so you’re depend like on social media sites but you have to pay as well and you’re still locked in more or less.

The answer is much simpler: Most people who are freelancing one man shows like I am should simply keep address books and add not only email addresses there but also the website and blog URLs, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn names/URLs and so on. Your open source Thunderbird email client offers an address book with an “other” tab. There you can add 4 custom fields and notes (see screen shot above).

That’s your best best bet for your personal social network. That’s the best CRM tool. It’s open source, simple to use, easy to backup and move. That’s better than social media hopping. It can save your business when once a again a social site turns ugly, bans you and tries to sell your content, relations or data back to you or to others. Think Ning, think Facebook, heck, even Geocities. All you effort goes down the drain.

Many people have often suggested that SEO 2.0 is just another word for social media marketing. Well it isn’t. SEO 2.0 is still there even without social media.

SEO 2.0 is not about social media. It’s about being social.

It’s about the relationships not the tools. The most important thing when it comes to SEO 2.0 tools is that they don’t interfere with your socializing like social media sites do.

So stop social media hopping and now to save your business later. From now on I will add you to my own personal open source social network on Thunderbird. I will add your Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Sphinn user names and I will be happy. Maybe I will even notify you about being added to my own social site on my computer. I won’t send you newsletters and such. I’m here for the long term relationships not the quick buck.

In 10 years from now most of the hot social sites will be obsolete but I will have the best relationships around as I will follow you no matter where you go. I will always stay here though.

Related posts:

1. 7 Social Sites Every Business and Professional Should Use
2. Social Media Refocus: What Site is Next?
3. What Social Media Benefits for Business Can You Expect?

1. 7 Social Sites Every Business and Professional Should Use
2. Social Media Refocus: What Site is Next?
3. What Social Media Benefits for Business Can You Expect?

Steven Snell is a professional blogger who also runs a design business. He is the man behind Vandelay Design, DesignM.ag and Traffikd. Especially his two flagship design blogs have been very succesful in the past both by the sheer numbers as well as financially.

A few days ago he has sold one of his design blogs, DesignM.ag. I asked Steven a few questions about the blog, the sale, his overall business and blogging of course. The interview was conducted by email.

Tad Chef of SEO 2.0: Hello Steven, congratulations on your recent blog sale. You sold Designm.ag for 50k US $. Are you satisfied with the outcome of the auction?

Steven Snell of Designm.ag: Thanks Tad. First, for clarification, the winning bidder on Flippa actually wasn’t able to buy the site for personal reasons, but I was able to find another buyer at almost exactly the same price. I have mixed feelings about the outcome of the auction. I don’t have experience buying or selling established sites, so when I was planning to sell I reached out to some friends that I know are pretty active in that field. The feedback I got was that it could sell for a good bit more than what it did, but of course it all just depends on finding the right buyer. So honestly,

I wasn’t that excited about the price, but I’m confident that it was the fair market value

because I had about 4 people who were seriously interested and all were right around the same price. I’m really excited to be able to move on and have some time in my schedule now to be able to do some different things, but it will be weird not to be working on DesignM.ag anymore.

Tad Chef: You own/ed and lead/led at least 3 flagship blogs Designm.ag, the Vandelay Design Blog and Traffikd. Did I miss one? How did you choose which blog to sell?

Steven Snell: I have a few gallery sites, but yes, those are my three blogs. The decision to sell DesignM.ag was made because it took a significant portion of my time to manage on a continual basis and because I thought it had some value and would be of interest to buyers.

Tad Chef: It took you two years to sell Designm.ag – How long does it take for a blog to make sense financially in your opinion? Are 6 months of daily work enough?

Steven Snell: I think the amount of time it would take depends on the type of blog. For small niche blogs that are mostly set up to make money with AdSense or affiliate products you could probably sell at any point, assuming your able to make money with it. For the first year of DesignM.ag’s existence it really wasn’t monetized very aggressively,

my focus was on establishing a reputation and sustainable traffic.

A few months ago once those things had been accomplished I started to pursue some new monetization methods to increase the value of the site. For a blog that takes a similar approach (I guess you could call it an “authority blog”), it seems to me that you would want to wait at least a year before selling. I’m sure you could sell it earlier, but the early days of establishing a blog like this take a lot of work and usually generate only small amounts of income. So if you sell early I don’t think you’ll be maximizing what you can get for it.

Tad Chef: Of course not all blogs succeed inspite of the time (and money) invested. What were the most important factors for your business blogging success? Can you name them?

Steven Snell: I think one of the keys to DesignM.ag’s growth over the past two years was consistency. There were no gaps of more than a couple of days without new content and I was always working on new posts and new ideas.

I approached the site as a business and was willing to invest time without making much money in the early months.

The other big factor is the community aspect. When I launched the site I wanted it to be more than just a blog. The community news section has always been of interest to a lot of people, especially other design bloggers that are looking for some exposure. At the time I launched the site I thought that feature would be somewhat unique (CSS Globe and Noupe had news sections at that time) but in the past two years countless design blogs have added news sections, so it’s really not unique at all.

Tad Chef: Traffikd seems to be for some reason the least popular of your blogs. Why is that the case? Or is it just the obvious numbers and it earns much money behind the scenes?

Steven Snell: Traffikd is definitely the least popular, I think for a few reasons. First, it gets almost no attention. When I launched Traffikd I had been blogging actively at Vandelay Design for about six months and I’d learned a lot about blogging and social media. I was very active with social media at that point and I wanted to have a place to share some of the things I was learning.

Over time I’ve become less active with social media and now my efforts for promoting my blogs is just to focus on content.

So that leaves me with less ideas to write about and less interest in the topics covered at Traffikd. I removed ads from the site a while ago so that I won’t have the need to publish new content at any particular frequency.

Tad Chef: Working on so many high quality blogs wasn’t the only thing you do, you also have a design business and client work. How do you manage to do all of this? 80h work week? Employees?

Steven Snell: My client work is pretty limited right now, that may change after selling DesignM.ag. I have a few clients that I manage on an on-going basis and I take new projects when there is a really good fit. I have been working really long hours for 2 or 3 years (not really sure about numbers of hours) but I’m hoping to cut back a little bit and get a better work/life balance. I have no employees and outsource very little. At this point I don’t really have any desire to manage employees or deal with all that comes with it.

Tad Chef: Do you still have time to read other blogs and participate in social media beyond blogs? If yes, what bogs do you read, where are you most active on social media?

Steven Snell: I check a lot of blogs in my feed reader and on Twitter, but I mostly scan and wouldn’t say that I spend a lot of time reading blogs. I stay up-to-date with other design blogs so I know what is going on in the industry, but I don’t do as much reading as I would like. My activity with social media is also very limited. I get a lot of requests for votes on various sites, I post links on Twitter, and sometimes I submit my own posts to niche social media sites. A few years ago I used to spend much more time on social media sites, but now my voting is usually done from the blogs/sites I’m visiting, such as clicking on a Digg button or a Tweetmeme button.

Tad Chef: You are one of those bloggers who use lists/listicles extensively. It seems to have worked for you. On the other hand I notice that the Web is full f lists nobody can digest anymore. Are the days of successful lists over? What are the alternatives?

Steven Snell: You hear a lot of people say that they don’t like lists, but if you have a good list that really is helpful you will get overwhelmingly positive comments. There are so many design blogs now, and most of them publish lists. It’s definitely a challenge to keep the content original, but in my opinion there is still a place for lists.

There’s a big difference between a list for the sake of having a list and a list that is well-researched and helpful to readers.

One of the reasons I’ve used more lists on Vandelay Design in the past year is because of the time that I was spending on DesignM.ag. Now that I’ll have more time available I plan to diversify the posts a little more, although lists and inspiration posts will not be going away.

Tad Chef: I’ve noticed that you focus on church websites with your design agency. Are you a religious person? If yes, does being religious help you with being determined to succeed in the sense of the protestant work ethic? If not, why churches, accidentally or did you seek out a special niche like that?

Steven Snell: Yes, I am a Christian. I chose to focus on churches because it was an area of interest for me, and because there is a large market for church websites. I’m sure that my faith impacts my work ethic, I think it impacts all aspects of my life. Also, I’m a pretty competitive and stubborn person, so if I want to accomplish something I’ll usually keep working at it even after failures and setbacks.

I’m certainly not the most talented person in the world, but I do work hard and I’m commited to being successful with my business,

and I hope to be able to do it in a way that pleases God.

Tad Chef: Do you have something to add, something you want the SEO 2.0 readers to know?

Steven Snell: I had a few people ask me if it was my plan all along to sell DesignM.ag. The answer to that is no, I planned to keep it for the foreseeable future and make it a major part of my business. However, in recent months I really wanted to make some changes in my daily work (managing two active design blogs can lead to burnout!) and also wanted to free up some time for other things. I did start DesignM.ag with the intent of making money, but honestly I thought I would sell my other sites before selling DesignM.ag. I chose not to sell Vandelay Design because it’s really more of a business, whereas DesignM.ag is just a blog.

Steven started his blogging career around the same time I’ve started SEO 2.0 so I was able to watch him closely. We’ve been on he same social sites as well for a while. While I have focused on blogging for clients Steven has followed the path of independent flagship blogs. I think say it wasn’t a bad move. What do you think?

• Was it worth it?
• Did he sell below market value?
• Is this a success story others can repeat?

Add your thoughts in the comment section below.

Related posts:

1. Common Blog Business Models: What Works What Not?
2. 7 SEO 2.0 Lessons: SEO for Humans Instead of Spiders is Not About Google and “Content is King”
3. 3 Phases of Flagship Blog Growth or How to Fall in Love with Blogging

1. Common Blog Business Models: What Works What Not?
2. 7 SEO 2.0 Lessons: SEO for Humans Instead of Spiders is Not About Google and “Content is King”
3. 3 Phases of Flagship Blog Growth or How to Fall in Love with Blogging

Construction Worker by Saad Akhtar

Recently it dawned on me what the biggest roadblock to my financial success is. I started my freelance career as a worker and I’ve remained one ever since. I sensed it in the past as well but the realization came only recently when I was able to put it in words.

Roughly 10 years ago I got a great web agency job during the new economy boom. It was a well paid and it was easy. I got paid by the hour and after work I still had enough time for sports, partying or whatever. Then the tide changed and the new economy broke down within a few weeks. I kept my job for a while but soon enough someone who was cheaper has replaced myself. He was a nice guy and I even showed him everything before it became apparent that he’d replace me.

In a way I was lucky. The company went bankrupt a year later in spite of the lay offs. The management has been replaced as well but they were just cold blooded capitalists. They were all about cutting costs no matter what happened with the people. So soon enough nobody cared for the company anymore, the employees cared only for themselves and even fought each other not to get laid off first.

Long story short I was quite happy to leave early after I overcame the humiliation and feelings of failure. I was trying to find a new job for a while but wasn’t really serious about it. I didn’t want to live through all that again.

In a company where you’re just an employee it doesn’t matter who you are or what you like doing.

At the end of the day only the money you earn matters. So you have to do things you hate, sit all day in a crowded room (aka office) with people you often despise and your boss or employer decides about your fate. I’ve described this as wage slavery in the past and I haven’t changed my mind since. Wage slavery hasn’t been abolished along slavery although the Abolitionists meant to end both kinds of slavery.

Today you can abolish wage slavery yourself. The most common and often easiest way to do so is to try to freelance. Of course freelancing is not easy but once you’re established it’s OK. There is one problem though with freelancing. Freelancing, at least done the way I did it, is not really the end of wage slavery. It’s just a different, more subtle way of wage slavery as long as you remain a wage slave in your head. To simplify the matters and to make this article less provocative I’d like to call the wage slave “worker” as everybody else does.

Even as a freelancer you remain a worker. You become “your own boss” as the saying goes. This is “truer” than you think. As your own boss you are the person who has to exploit you.

You have to force yourself to wake up early, to work hard and to work long hours, after all you get paid by the hour, just like a worker. You have only a finite number of hours to sell so you can make your clients pay more but “the invisible hand” of the market will slap you once you become too expensive.

The problem is your mindset. It’s the mindset of the worker from the nineteenth century. Someone who toils al day and is still dirty and hungry. Think about it: We’re in 2010, automation is not just about the manufacturing process. With computers and the Internet you can automate almost everything. At least you have tools to make everything easier.

As a worker you are serving the tools not the other way around. You have to keep them running like the assembly line in the factory.

It’s not the tools that assist you, you assist the tools. For web designers Photoshop is the assembly line. For bloggers WordPress is the assembly line. For SEO people Google Analytics is the assembly line.

Now let’s compare it to the entrepreneur. I don’t mean the already rich lazy capitalist living off the fortune made in the distant past. Imagine an entrepreneur like yourself. Somebody who has no money yet to multiply by itself. S/he has a different mindset.

An entrepreneur has an idea. S/he then invests time to put in practice. S/he may borrow money but let’s assume s/he does not for the sake of simplicity of understanding. This person won’t get paid from the start in many cases. So an entrepreneur has to invest time and work without being paid at first or not much. Then later the entrepreneur expects that the investment will pay off. The investment pays off once the product the entrepreneur has developed get sold.

The product can’t be time of the entrepreneur. Remember, a worker would sell time but not the entrepreneur. The entrepreneur strives to sell something, be it a product or service that is scalable and can be automated. Today we can automate production with ease.

Any digital product can be reproduced endlessly without a major effort.

Even services can be automated to some extent as repetitive tasks do not have to be performed over and over, think of templates etc.

To become an entrepreneur you have to to think like one. Your mindset is more important than having capital. A worker would spend the money after a while and stay a worker. An entrepreneur would invest it. You don’t have to read Marx (I never had) to know that today we, the workers, own the means of production. The desk, the computer, even pencil and paper are all means of production. In the West everybody can afford a desk, a computer or pencil and paper.

Most of us stay workers, even as freelancers. We keep our assembly lines going and we tend our tools, we care for our Photoshop, our WordPress, our Google. We buy new versions of Photoshop, we keep on updating and securing our WordPress, we hug our search engine the cute Google monster.

It’s the entrepreneurs behind Photoshop, WordPress and Google who make the money off your work.

They don’t force anybody like the capitalists of the nineteenth century. We’re just too dumb to earn money like they do. They automate, they scale, they sell self replicating products and services but not time. You can’t fight them like the workers did hundred years ago. You have to join them and I don’t mean working for them as your employers.

Change your mind. Become an entrepreneur like them. You don’t need capital, you don’t even need workers. You mainly need a different mindset. The means of production are already yours. So I ask you again, like I asked myself these days: Hey Freelancer, are you a worker or an entrepreneur?

Related posts:

1. 20 Ways to Survive as a Freelancer Working on the Web
2. SEO 2.0 Services 3.5$/h
3. Why Social Media are Like Slavery and SMO Equals Abolitionism

1. 20 Ways to Survive as a Freelancer Working on the Web
2. SEO 2.0 Services 3.5$/h
3. Why Social Media are Like Slavery and SMO Equals Abolitionism

This week SEO industry veterans Patrick Gavin, most known for launching Text Link Ads a few years ago, and Andy Hagans have launched a new major project. It’s called DIYSEO and is a new kind of SEO software or actually

a web app that enables small business owners to optimize their sites themselves.

I asked Patrick Gavin of DIYSEO a few questions about this new SEO tool. The interview has been conducted by email. I added emphasis in bold here and there.

SEO 2.0: Hello Patrick, congratulations on your new project, DIYSEO. Was it difficult to raise money for an SEO project like this? My impression is that SEO is going truly mainstream in 2010.

Patrick Gavin, DIYSEO: Thanks Tad. It was a lot of hard work by our team to get DIYSEO to market and we are very happy with our product at launch and now look forward to building on the foundation. On the funding side it is definitely not an easy market to raise money although I do think it is thawing out a bit. There is great data around SEO and the disproportionate spend on PPC versus SEO that make for a great pitch to investors and its a pitch we fully believe in.

SEO 2.0: Your target market are small business owners according to your own blog post. How small or how big? Freelancers or also businesses with 30 employees?

PG: Yes our target market is small business owners. We think the smaller the better. We envision and are seeing a lot of local businesses on our platform, ie businesses looking to rank for “san francisco divorce attorney” or “Iowa City party planner” etc.

SEO 2.0: What websites are supported by your system, static HTML ones or dynamic database driven websites like blogs and e-commerce sites as well?

PG: All of the above. With our initial product the “on page” tasks are done by the site owner so there is no limit in the platform type that we can service. We are working on strategic partnerships that would bring a tighter integration with specific platforms for each of use for our clients.

SEO 2.0: Does DIYSEO also work for non-US and non-English sites?

PG: Today’s DIYSEO is for US based sites only. The technology and tasks are designed to help US based sites in the US search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc). We envision non US versions of DIYSEO but not in 2010.

SEO 2.0: Who should not use DIYSEO?

PG: For starters I would say the “Fortune 10,000″. We are not an enterprise solution for large businesses with large websites. I would also say if your business can afford a $5,000/mo+ SEO consultant, this product is probably not for you. We are really looking to service the small business owner with a limited budget but wants exposure in the organic search results.

SEO 2.0: What parts of search engine optimization does DIYSEO actually automate, keyword research, on site optimization or link building or all of them? Can you really automate those?

PG: DIYSEO helps automate the keyword research, on page optimization and link building aspects of SEO. There is always going to be work to be done by the site owner. It will never be 100% automated, hence the “do it yourself” nature of the software. It is designed to take you as far as software can take you but it will still require some sweat by the user.

SEO 2.0: Who are your real competitors, I think the Techcrunch article got it wrong mentioning “Conductor, Marin Software and Kenshoo.”

PG: We don’t think there is currently any products on the market that take the same approach as DIYSEO. We think we service a different segment of the market: the SMB space and approach it in a task based system that is unique to the market.

SEO 2.0: How do measure success for DIYSEO from the user perspective? Higher rankings, more visitors or more conversions/ROI?

PG:

Success should be measured by higher rankings that drive more qualified traffic to our client site that in turn drives more sales/conversions.

SEO 2.0: Imagine a DIYSEO user after a few weeks or months who claims that DIYSEO hasn’t helped to optimize your her or his site. How do you reply? By offering a refund?

PG: We offer users a 7 day free trial and after that it is a month to month service so the user has a very limited investment if they wish to cancel at any time.

SEO 2.0: Your last big venture Text Link Ads has been very successful until it was basically killed off over night by Google. Aren’t you afraid that Big Google will go after you again? Why or why not?

PG: DIYSEO is a 100% white hat solution. Because of that we have no reason to worry about Google and think they would agree with the SEO course we are sending clients down.

SEO 2.0: Do you have something to add I haven’t asked you about?

PG: Thanks again for the opportunity Tad!

Thank you Patrick. Good luck for you and DIYSEO! In my opinion DIYSEO is a good choice for many webmasters who don’t have enough money to pay a reputable SEO company or enough time to learn SEO by themselves.

Also the SEO arena is still full of often ludicrous “autopilot” SEO solutions that in most cases are simply a rip off or violate the Google Webmaster Guidelines.

Thus I’m glad that well known industry insiders like Patrick Gavin and Andy Hagans offer a non-bullshit solution like DIYSEO. Have you tested DIYSEO already? Tell us about it in the comments.

Related posts:

1. Software for SEO: Tools, Why & How to Track Rankings in a Personalized Search World
2. Freemium for Blogs
3. Authority and Trustrank

1. Software for SEO: Tools, Why & How to Track Rankings in a Personalized Search World
2. Freemium for Blogs
3. Authority and Trustrank

Guiding Light by jurvetson

Patrick Altoft of Blogstorm recently wrote a piece about succeeding as an SEO freelancer. While I like Patrick very much, I even got my writring job at SEOptimise with his help, I partly do not agree with his advice. Patrick’s way is often the hard way. Also he suggests that working for big corporate clients is the way to go. It’s the most annoying way IMHO. Thus I’d like to present the simple guide to freelance SEO the succesful way. This way works for me.

I’ve been doing freelance SEO and business blogging for 6 years now. Before that I was a freelancing web developer. So I’m not new to the in and outs of freelancing. I started out working in a web agency back then in the so called New economy so I also know about that.

OK, here is te actual advice in a somehow chronological order. I begin with the things you have to know and do when you start freelancing in SEO and beyond.

Rank first offer SEO services later
As an SEO you simply have to rank either for SEO related terms or at least for other keywords you’ve been optimizing before you offer SEO services. I the good old days you would try to rank for SEO or search engine optimization itself but nowadays it’s too hard for starters. You could try to rank for your local SEO market, something like SEO oxford as a keyphrase. You need to rank first before you talk with people about SEO services. You have to show them something you’ve done already.

Do not aproach potential clients, let them approach you
In case you already rank for some relevant keyphrases you might already get some people calling you up or emailing you. Then you’re already on the way. Do not cold call. You only annoy people and get frustrated. Cold calling is simply rude. Also try not to reply to freelance job offers like “200 links for $19″ needed. These people have no clue what quality SEO is and you can earn more money flipping burgers. You’re better of optimizing your own site until you get enough people contacting you.

Get a name brand for yourself instead of being generic
I pity all those nameless drones from India and elsewhere who have to optimize for SEO india. Only a few people or rather companies can rank on top and everybody else doesn’t get any significant visibility. By now it’s far easier to get attention if you have a name, a personal brand or any kind of brand. There are a few SEO bloggers from India who have already outrun millions of nameless Indians. Branding is the way to go. Become a keyphrase yourself people search for.

Never call yourself an expert or company (when you’re not)
It’s funny how most SEO noobs with no name attempt to optimize for SEO expert. That’s ridiculous. Either you already are an expert and people call you an expert and by then you don’t need to optimize for that phrase or you are not expert and try to rank for this generic phrase. You have to understand that calling yourself an expert makes actually a noob.

I also doubt that you ever get a good client this way. Those who mistake you for a real SEO expert do not have a clue what SEO is about. Also don’t pretend that you’re a company when you a freelancer. i don’t buy the fake it til you make it thing. You’ll always encounter problems when you fake it. You even may have legal problems with this approach.

Focus on niches not everybody covers
SEO is a thousand things today. It may be local SEO, mobile SEO, multilingual SEO, AJAX SEO, ecommerce SEO. Plus usability, information architecture, PPC advertising and a plethora of other disciplines. You can’t do everything and you can’t compete against too many people.  You have to specialize. In case you start out these days you have to focus on a niche to survive.

Aim high
While you focus on a niche you still have to aim high. I aimed to become one of the most important SEO bloggers worldwide and I made it. I’ll probably never match the likes of Rand Fishkin, Aaron Wall or Michael Gray but for being late and not even speaking perfect English it’s huge. I would have never reached that goal without trying. Also I’ve seen people starting later, being younger but still getting even better results even in more competitive niches. So aim high, don’t limit yourself.

Blog about yourself and what you do
A blog is the best SEO tool these days. Maybe video or something else will be soon but without a blog you’re like a store without a store front. Some people claim that being a SEO superstar for the sake of it is no goal for itself. They may be right but in the attention economy only those few get attention we already trust. Or at least those who get trusted by others. Without a blog people don’t know you. How can they trust a complete stranger?

Get acquainted with your peers
As a freelancer you can’t compete against millions of others. It’s impossible. Your peers, even those in the same business selling exactly the same services are your friends by design. Thus I was never afraid to link out to other SEOs. In fact linking out to my peers in the SEO industry helped a lot more than everything else. I even got clients through them. Get acquainted with your peers. Your peers are those who are almost the same as you. Industry leaders can’t answer your emails or socialize with others all the time. Freelancers similar to you can.

Support your supporters
On the Web it’s all give an take like in real life. I never think about how often a person linked to me before I link to her or him. I just know this person and perceive her as a supporter. I know s/he will give attention, votes on social sites or links. So I may link this person 10 times and it’s OK. Other people act like that as well. Once you are virtual supporters of each other this goes for years and both of us succeed. I always wonder why so few people try this way. I’s so obvious and natural. Support your supporters and they will support you and so on.

Follow your role models
I admire people in the SEO industry and beyond who are often younger than myself. I even admire some of peers who made it faster and better than me. I admire people for their traits. I may disagree with them but still I look up to those role models. I follow them not just on Twitter. When you have no idea how you wan to be like you’re blindly following an insecure path. Follow your role models. They ways they have paved for you are better than those noob has gone before. I have many role modes in the international SEO community and I don’t simply copy somebody. Make sure you stay yourself and not parrot somebody else.

Find your own way of doing business
You can follow your role models only to a certain degree. What worked for them won’t necessarily for you. It was another time, another person with another skill-set. You have to identify your own strengths and weaknesses to determine what’s best for you. for instance I noticed early that I’m not a perfect web developer. I taught everything myself when I was already 20 and older. My brain just couldn’t get used to very complex programming. I tried object oriented programming again and again but I never fully grasped it. Also I knew very early that I love to write so tried to go the content way as an SEO. Back in the days it was rather the exception. to this day many people in SEO are more technically savvy than able to write.

Do not work for everybody
Freelancing means also to say “no”. At the beginning I tried to get every client but it simply doesn’t work that way. You have to choose your clients wisely. Also you have to shun huge and tiny clients. In German we don’t say small business, we say middle-sized business. Also there is an even smaller business below that. As a freelance you should work for middle-sized business, not big business and not other other tiny businesses or freelancers.

You can cooperate with other freelancers but working for them won’t pay the bills. Unless you work for their clients or something. Big business is awful to work for. You have to sign 10 NDAs before you even start to talk and then you have to compromise everything you do. You simply can’t work the way you do usually because corporations limit everything to fit dozens of their departments. Also you’re just a pawn in the game. Nobody cares for who you are and you won’t even know who you work for.

At the end of the day they may not even pay you and you can’t do anything about it because their lawyers will crush you. Always try to keep your integrity. For instance I never work for gambling companies and porn providers. That was particularly difficult sometimes when the cash flow was slow. It helped to get best clients I could imagine though. Right now I work my few clients for years already and they’re perfect business partners.

Charge more than others instead of less
When I was new to freelancing, I did web design back then I did some websites for free for friends to have a portfolio. Later I was charging student rates for my first SEO clients. In each and every case I did this I was appalled by the way these people would treat me. They expected not only higher quality (because I was a friend) they didn’t even say thank you. Instead they would complain more often then clients who paid more. I learned the hard way that money is a measure of respect. When you charge only a few bucks people will always disrespect you and treat you like some servant. Charge more from the start or do your own projects. Also don’t compete with SEO India providers. Compete by quality not quantity.

Venture beyond freelancing
Inherently freelancing is a bad business model. Sometimes you have work overload, sometimes you starve. You sell only your time so you can’t scale. Don’t get me wrong. Freelancing is far better than having a job. Wage slavery is what it is, slavery. Still as a freelancer you can get sick, you need to have time for your family or social life and you can’t work 70 – 80h like in a Chinese sweatshop without burning out. So you need to venture beyond freelancing and offering services as early as you can. Selling a product, a book for example is a great way to do that. Affiliate marketing may work you. Any kind of your own project that earns money and work for themselves even when you don’t attend them for a few days are key to overcome the otherwise never ending work cycle.

Of course in many cases Patrick is right. After all you need to find our own way of being a freelancer. Pick what works for you but keep in mind that you can fare better by avoiding the issues many thers faced before you. SEO freelancing is similar to other subjects for that matter.

This is a really simple guide for SEO freelancers but I have written about freelancing before and I most probably will again in the future so stay tuned.

Related posts:

1. 20 Ways to Survive as a Freelancer Working on the Web
2. 3 Traits of True Social Media Experts
3. What Easter Can Teach Us About Web 2.0, Social Media and Blogging

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Dad and Baby by PedroCancion

Last time I wrote about SEO and parenting I stressed that you need to be proud of what you do to be able to talk with your kids about it. That’s not just about SEO.

You need to have real reasons to work beyond money and a work ethos beyond just “working hard”.

It’s what you do and how you do it. Even if you are proud and you know how you do it most people, even other grown ups don’t. A few years ago people would ask whether you work for Google when you said search engine optimization. These days many will rather assume you are one of the dark alley magicians who “manipulate Google search results”.

Working at the computer all day, especially at home is both tough on kids and yourself. You’re there but you can’t play with them. You work but it appears as if you are just sitting around all day.

While SEO is difficult to explain to grown ups, it’s even more difficult to grasp for your children.

I’ve found last time the seemingly perfect solution: I help people to find things on the Internet. Also I help other people to get found there.

Nonetheless yesterday my daughter came up to me and said: I know what you do! You help people find search engines! Probably because I just helped her to use Google. I told her it was somewhat the other way around, more the likes of “I help people using search engines to find websites”. You get the point: It’s still too abstract.

All Done by jayceh

I doubt that kids can even distinguish between search engines and other websites. After all they are even right, almost every site has an internal search engine as well.

1. So how do parents explain SEO to kids?
2. What does daddy do all day?
3. Is he he a crook like the bullies in school say?

(In brackets I inserted the translation into SEO terms for grown ups)

Let me give you a few examples how you can tell your kids what you do:

• I help parents to find the cheapest toys around so that they can buy more of them. (shopping search, ecommerce)
• I help people to find places to go on vacation so that they can play around on the beach. (travel SEO)
• I help parents to find stuff faster so that they have more time to play with their kids. (SEO, website speed, usability)
• I help people who sell ice cream to find the kids who want to have some. (local SEO)
• I help people who want to save the trees to tell more people that we have to save the trees. (non profit SEO)

Father & Daughter by albany_tim

You might also want to explain how you do it. These are examples you can use:

• I set up small signs everywhere that say go this way to find the cheapest toys. (link building)
• I write about the most beautiful beaches and show how you get there. (content creation)
• I show the toy stores and beaches on images and on maps so you get there faster. (image optimization and universal search)
• I tell the people who sell ice cream which flavor of ice cream the kids like best. (market and keyword research)
• I ask the people to help save trees with some money. I try to find the best words for that. (conversion rate optimization).

So you see you can even explain to your kids what you do. There is nothing shady or inexplicable about SEO. It’s just a matter of the words and examples you choose. Parents shouldn’t hide what they do. Even in some difficult to explain trades like ours.

Related posts:

1. 10 Christmas No-Nos for SEO Specialists to Avoid at all Costs
2. 7 Rules of Ethical SEO You Ignore Probably as a White Hat
3. Are You Proud of What You Do? I Am. You Should Too.

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I’m furious! That’s surprising as it’s difficult to annoy me these days. I turned 35 this year and I’m a web professional for 10 years now so many things don’t bother me anymore. Still there are things that get me raging. It’s the first time that a tweet managed to get me that angry though.

I monitor mentions of “SEO 2.0″ on Twitter and most of them are not really relevant or intriguing. I ignore most unless Lee Odden, one of the original industry leaders who propagated the term SEO 2.0 himself mentions the term or something similar happens.

Now yesterday I read a tweet from 3 different sources announcing a job offer, or rather a wage slavery offer for SEO 2.0 services

It said:

#blog #writing #job: SEO 2.0 Researcher/Linkbuilder to drive traffic to
www.reside
… ($3.5/hr) -

It contained two broken links. One of them truncated, the other was down yesterday. I could access it today. Let’s cite:

SEO 2.0 Researcher/Linkbuilder to drive traffic to www.residentialcleaningexperts.net

I am looking for someone to help me build a webpresence for www.residentialcleaningexperts.net specifically for the chicago, Illinois area Your duties will consist of posting ads on cl, posting premade post on blogs as well as finding relevant content on the web to post to blog, Must be very proficient in using as well as possibly making pages on the blog, This will be an ongoing position so please be dedicated and hardworking. Keywords: Web Research, Data, Entry, WordPress, SEO, linkbuilding, freelancer
Reward $4/hr

I changed the URL in order not to advertise for this website. The actual address sounds similar to the one shown above. What’s wrong with that?

There are several things wrong with this “offer”. Even for a low paid job like writing for the Web or blogging this is a really badly paid job. I assume that the “residential cleaning experts” actually earn more than that. Nobody who is able to write for the Web or to blog needs such a job no matter how desperate you are:

You can earn more money by setting up a blog and writing for yourself, especially if you sell the right affiliate products.

You can sell anything. Affiliate programs like those by Amazon or Shopping.com cover almost every product conceivable.

Besides the ludicrous amount of money offered here I take offense with the use of the term SEO 2.0 to describe low value services like that.

In SEO 2.0 you don’t build links, you get links.

Also even a SEO 1.0 “linkbuilder” paid only 4$ per hour will never be able build quality links. He’ll spam. The SEO industry is still booming despite the ongoing crisis. It’s one of the future industries that will strive for a long time, especially after struggling old media like print or TV will go bankrupt in many cases.

What is SEO & link building worth? It’s more like 40 – 400$ an hour. Just read the SEOMoz article about SEO pricing. Also Gab Goldenberg makes it very clear why 1h of his SEO consultation costs 200$. In case that’s to expensive you might try an offer like the one from Agent 89 for an SEO audit for 225$. This one is really affordable and I can imagine that it’s mostly automated. A consultant using SEO software to assess your site and get the keyword combinations. Anyways: Quality SEO pays for itself.

Building links for yourself will make you much more than 4$ an hour. Don’t even think about doing for someone else for that money. If you can build links you can set up a website for yourself and build them for your own business. Now when you are bright enough to do even basic SEO you should at least charge double digits per hour. Everything else does not make sense. I repeat: You can earn more by optimizing your own projects. When in doubt how much you should charge just charge more. No joke. The more you charge the more people value you. If you charge a too low price they will assume that your products or services are of low quality.

Try to make a name for yourself. Don’t work as a nameless underground SEO drone. The better your name the more you can charge. In case you live in the US I suggest you join the Freelancers Union to prevent getting ripped off.

OK. Enough said? No, not yet. Let’s take a look at what requirements there are to get the “SEO 2.0 job”:

1. “posting ads on cl” (Craigslist). When I started doing SEO in 2004 full time a German Craigslist clone was a good way to get links easily and rank in Google. I haven’t done it ever since. So it does make some sense, like the ancient “meta tag optimization”. It’s certainly not SEO 2.0
2. “posting premade post on blogs”? Sounds like posting the same comment “Thanks, nice post” all over the place for link building it seems. Spam, not SEO.
3. “finding relevant content on the web to post to blog”. Every content thief does that if I get it right. This is crime not SEO.
4. “proficient in using as well as possibly making pages on the blog”. Sounds like hacking blogs to create “pages” there. Otherwise it’s nonsense.
5. “dedicated and hardworking” – In case you are, skip such offers. You’ll be better off self-employed. Working hard on your own blogs will pay more.

This is more of SEO 0.2 if at all. You won’t get SEO 2.0 services for 3.5$/h not even SEO services for 4$. You get crap or spam instead.

Related posts:

1. 20 Ways to Survive as a Freelancer Working on the Web
2. 7 Services of SEO 2.0 Companies – Submit Your Site Now!
3. Quick & Dirty SEO or Quality Optimization?

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CC: Apathy? by Dan is awesome.

In recent weeks this blog grew more and more silent for a number of reasons (vacation, rediscovery of a vintage strategy game from the eighties, puppy) that are not related to the blog itself.

I have no bloggers block or something, never had and never will. I have a different problem: The established blogger‘s apathy! What more can you do when

• you have lots of subscribers
• you succeeded in Google
• you became popular on several social media sites numerous times?

Once you succeed repeatedly the motivation to prove that “Yes you can” gets less and less. Also many people want you to write for them, you start new blogs and other projects.

You end up with less time and motivation, unless of course you earn more money by your blog. In my case the other money is easier so the money is not enough to make me blog like I did in the early days of SEO 2.0.

Of course there are ways to reignite your inner fire!

You can write when you’re angry or otherwise very emotional or you can write without much affection by creating a schedule and recurring events.

I tried the first method with success but only few times. You can’ get angry each time a jerk like Jason Calacanis or Kevin Rose messes up the Web a little more. After a while you grow wary of such people and don’t give them the attention they crave but do not deserve in the first place anymore.

Well. I’ve written about ways of engaging your key audience, the subscribers and returning visitors. Also you shouldn’t underestimate the value of your older posts. Now just combine both and there it is your solution how to overcome the established blogger’s apathy:

I’m a regular writer over at SEOptimise twice a week. One post is in most case a well researched pillar content post, the other is the Twitter Friday column. In most cases I write the postings on the same day of the week (Thursday and Friday) using a similar form. As SEOptimise is a respectable SEO company from the UK (Oxford!) I can’t rant too much there though so I’ll have to vent my anger here ;-)

So from next week on I will write 3+ posts again, as 3 posts a week are my measure for a healthy flagship blog.

1. One post will be the “Refresh Monday” column. Each Monday I will take an old valuable post and rewrite it in a way suitable for today’s Web. I have lots of resources that have to be edited. Some services I covered once do not even exist anymore. Other resources simply need an update.
2. The image SEO series will go on for a while I am testing and evaluating my own steps on my blogs.
3. I’m angry at least once a week so I will vent this anger by ridiculing the usual suspects in a rant post.
4. Once a week you’ll get either a list post or a subscriber’s delight post that won’t work on social media probably but will be a follow up to a post I wrote earlier.
5. Moreover I will add some short posts with a review or link. I consider syndicating my Delicious bookmarks too, not sure you’ll like this though. I seldom appreciate the Delicious posts elsewhere.

Doesn’t sound exciting? Well, you know me! I make the boring things exciting. I bet many of you don’t read other more conventional SEO blogs! What do think? Do you like this new approach?

Related posts:

1. Bloggers Block? How about Inspiration Overflow!
2. Feed Stats: Do Your Subscribers Really Read Your Blog? Increase Item Use
3. Would You Pay 10$ a Month for an Enhanced SEO 2.0 Subscription?

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3. Would You Pay 10$ a Month for an Enhanced SEO 2.0 Subscription?

Do not put all your eggs into one basket.

This is an idiom that is used very often on the Net in the realm of SEO or marketing at large. Why? All of them may break at the same time. It can be applied on many different levels:

a) Social media participation
Users who have been banned on Digg for no reason after participating for years can tell you a whole lot about that. Do not contribute solely to one social site because you can lose all your authority any day. A site can even go bankrupt. It can break down, ban you or become otherwise useless. Thus I am actively participating at 3 sites and from time to time at 3 more.

In short it means:

Do not put all your time and effort into just one social medium or UGC site.

Rather use the triangle strategy by combining 3 to 5 social media.


b) Traffic sources
While in Germany most webmasters and worse business owners are often highly dependent on Google traffic in the blogosphere by now lots of people rely on StumbleUpon as the main source of traffic. I quickly found out how this might backfire and from then on concentrated on providing value for regular visitors or those who subscribed to SEO 2.0. If they already know something I won’t write another post about it just to suit the lowest common denominator of StumbleUpon. My posts get nevertheless submitted to SU each and every time but on many days the direct visitors outnumber the casual stumblers. SEO 2.0 has at least 3 to 5 major traffic sources:

1. Core audience coming via type in traffic, Google Reader, Netvibes, Bloglines and the likes
2. Community and niche sites I contribute to like Sphinn, CSS Globe or Mixx.
3. Also I get more and more traffic via blogs and sites that link to me, where I guest posted or even commented. Thus the success of others is also my success.
4. StumbleUpon, where I get submitted by my readers, I rarely review myself (only if I think I have been misrepresented)
5. Oh, yes, Google long tail search queries but I don’t care for these enough.
   

In short it means:

Do not rely on one major traffic source, be it Google search or StumbleUpon.

Diversify your traffic sources and concentrate on a core audience of fans, subscribers and returning visitors.


c) Revenue or income streams
I already mentioned this very important aspect of freelancing or doing business. You need to have several income sources. If you are just working for one client you can end up broke very quickly. I had to learn this the hard way. Also being dependent on client work itself is a mistake. You need to find ways to earn money while you are asleep via selling products, ads or affiliations. If you get sick and you can’t work for clients… The same applies to small businesses and companies. They don’t get sick but they might lose their clients. If the have no profitable side projects that yieldsubstantial revenue they will fail.

In short it means:

Do not depend on one client or client work at all.

Diversify your income. Try to establish your won scalable projects which will run on autopilot if necessary.


All in all, do not let any medium monopolize you. SEO 2.0 is about using Web 2.0, social media and blogging without being enslaved by them. It’s the declaration of independece online.

Related posts:

1. Mob vs Smart Mob: 7 Reasons Why StumbleUpon Traffic Is the Best Social Media Traffic
2. What Social Media Benefits for Business Can You Expect?
3. What the Numerous Digg Bans Can Teach Us about Social Media (Companies)

1. Mob vs Smart Mob: 7 Reasons Why StumbleUpon Traffic Is the Best Social Media Traffic
2. What Social Media Benefits for Business Can You Expect?
3. What the Numerous Digg Bans Can Teach Us about Social Media (Companies)