SEO 2.0 » Independence http://seo2.0.onreact.com Search & Social Media Survival Guide Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:30:40 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.4 Pinterest or How to Evaluate Social Media Opportunities http://seo2.0.onreact.com/pinterest-or-how-to-evaluate-social-media-opportunities http://seo2.0.onreact.com/pinterest-or-how-to-evaluate-social-media-opportunities#comments Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:42:03 +0000 Tadeusz Szewczyk http://seo2.0.onreact.com/?p=2400

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

by Tadeusz Szewczyk
©2012 SEO 2.0. All Rights Reserved.Copyright SEO 2.0 at onreact.com
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
]]>

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

]]> http://seo2.0.onreact.com/pinterest-or-how-to-evaluate-social-media-opportunities/feed 1 How Does Google+ Add to Your Social Media Strategy? http://seo2.0.onreact.com/how-does-google-add-to-your-social-media-strategy http://seo2.0.onreact.com/how-does-google-add-to-your-social-media-strategy#comments Mon, 11 Jul 2011 15:47:37 +0000 Tadeusz Szewczyk http://seo2.0.onreact.com/?p=2116 *

Wow. Awesome! After just a dozen of tries I could sign up for Google+! Sadly it happened on late Friday so that I ended up trying it out on the weekend. You know I hate working on the weekend but after a while I had the impression that this is what I do on Google+.

You may already know that after a few years of social media enthusiasm I grew more and more critical of the whole hype.

Why do I have to work for free to make Mark Zuckerberg the youngest billionaire? This is one of the questions I asked myself when joining Facebook in 2008 (shortly after they entered the German market). I asked it myself again when I finally decided to actually use Facebook in 2010.

I test a lot of new tools but these days I don’t do it just for the sake of it anymore.

Just because a tool is free as in beer doesn’t mean it doesn’t cost me money to use. I could spend the time working on my won Web real estate so there must be a compelling reason to use a tool. Otherwise it’s a waste of time and money.

I still use plenty of social media sites, services and tools. I use

  1. Delicious
  2. Twitter
  3. Tumblr

every day. I even use this forgotten social browsing tool called Browzmi almost daily because there is a rational reason to do so. Facebook and LinkedIn also have a role in my overall social media strategy but I use them only occasionally when I have a concrete task to accomplish (LinkedIn) or some time left (Facebook).

I use Tumblr and Browzmi only privately in the sense that I don’t earn money using them but it still makes some sense for inspiration or organizational purposes.

So here comes Google+ and requires a significant time investment on my side.

I schedule just 30 minutes a day for social media use, the same amount I schedule for sorting and answering emails that are not part of my projects. The only tool I used throughout the day until now was Delicious, I was bookmarking everything I’ve found of some interest in the SEO, social media and blogging sphere. Occasional off topic saves included. Later I use them for my blog posts.

When Google launched the +1 button I started adding +1 votes to all kinds of sites I appreciate. I +1 a lot, even more than I use Delicious, Twitter, Facebook together. I just vote for everything I appreciate no matter the language or topic.

Google+ doesn’t automatically display these +1 votes like Facebook does with likes.

So my Google+ stream is a different one than the +1 stream. That’s good because I don’t flood my SEO followers with off topic stuff from all over the Web but when I’d like to share something on G+ as well I don’t have an option to do so.

Instead I noticed that Google+ works a lot like Google Buzz, it encourages discussions. That’s great if you want to start one but I rarely do and when I do people don’t contribute. People like to discuss about stuff that doesn’t matter much. They like to discuss opinions.

I’m interested in opinions but not in discussing them.

Every opinion, even the “wrong” one has some value as it shows that some people think in a certain manner. You can adapt then once you know. You can’t argue with people’s opinion much though. It costs lots of effort to even make a point that contradicts someone elses’ opinion. You could argue all day and starve in the meantime.

So how does Google+ add to my social media strategy? It adds a place where I can discuss stuff, whether Google+ is this or that and whether it should add this or that feature, or whether Facebook is better or not. That’s great for Google+ engineers, they can learn a lot from these discussions. To me it’s just working for free for Google.

Why should I? To push my own properties there? Maybe. I will still have to find out. Maybe next weekend. Until them I consider switching of these notifications that follow me when logged in into Google. There is Greasemonkey script for that. I’ll have to find the link.

Also it took lots of work to organize just a few dozens of people into circles. I will have to plan this time investment. As I socialize mostly with the same people I am connected with on Twitter, Facebook and the likes I have to find more reasons to do so beyond just discussing opinions. I may create circles for all of my different blogs so that I can serve all my audiences, but that’s also additional workload.

How does Google+ add to your social media strategy? Does it only add more work to your todo list? What are your actual use cases? What does the “plus” actually stand for?

 

* Image by Akane Yamada.

 

Related posts:

  1. 7 Social Sites Every Business and Professional Should Use
  2. What the Numerous Digg Bans Can Teach Us about Social Media (Companies)
  3. Stop Social Media Hopping Now to Save Your Business Later

by Tadeusz Szewczyk
©2012 SEO 2.0. All Rights Reserved.Copyright SEO 2.0 at onreact.com
Related posts:
  1. 7 Social Sites Every Business and Professional Should Use
  2. What the Numerous Digg Bans Can Teach Us about Social Media (Companies)
  3. Stop Social Media Hopping Now to Save Your Business Later
]]> *

Wow. Awesome! After just a dozen of tries I could sign up for Google+! Sadly it happened on late Friday so that I ended up trying it out on the weekend. You know I hate working on the weekend but after a while I had the impression that this is what I do on Google+.

You may already know that after a few years of social media enthusiasm I grew more and more critical of the whole hype.

Why do I have to work for free to make Mark Zuckerberg the youngest billionaire? This is one of the questions I asked myself when joining Facebook in 2008 (shortly after they entered the German market). I asked it myself again when I finally decided to actually use Facebook in 2010.

I test a lot of new tools but these days I don’t do it just for the sake of it anymore.

Just because a tool is free as in beer doesn’t mean it doesn’t cost me money to use. I could spend the time working on my won Web real estate so there must be a compelling reason to use a tool. Otherwise it’s a waste of time and money.

I still use plenty of social media sites, services and tools. I use

  1. Delicious
  2. Twitter
  3. Tumblr

every day. I even use this forgotten social browsing tool called Browzmi almost daily because there is a rational reason to do so. Facebook and LinkedIn also have a role in my overall social media strategy but I use them only occasionally when I have a concrete task to accomplish (LinkedIn) or some time left (Facebook).

I use Tumblr and Browzmi only privately in the sense that I don’t earn money using them but it still makes some sense for inspiration or organizational purposes.

So here comes Google+ and requires a significant time investment on my side.

I schedule just 30 minutes a day for social media use, the same amount I schedule for sorting and answering emails that are not part of my projects. The only tool I used throughout the day until now was Delicious, I was bookmarking everything I’ve found of some interest in the SEO, social media and blogging sphere. Occasional off topic saves included. Later I use them for my blog posts.

When Google launched the +1 button I started adding +1 votes to all kinds of sites I appreciate. I +1 a lot, even more than I use Delicious, Twitter, Facebook together. I just vote for everything I appreciate no matter the language or topic.

Google+ doesn’t automatically display these +1 votes like Facebook does with likes.

So my Google+ stream is a different one than the +1 stream. That’s good because I don’t flood my SEO followers with off topic stuff from all over the Web but when I’d like to share something on G+ as well I don’t have an option to do so.

Instead I noticed that Google+ works a lot like Google Buzz, it encourages discussions. That’s great if you want to start one but I rarely do and when I do people don’t contribute. People like to discuss about stuff that doesn’t matter much. They like to discuss opinions.

I’m interested in opinions but not in discussing them.

Every opinion, even the “wrong” one has some value as it shows that some people think in a certain manner. You can adapt then once you know. You can’t argue with people’s opinion much though. It costs lots of effort to even make a point that contradicts someone elses’ opinion. You could argue all day and starve in the meantime.

So how does Google+ add to my social media strategy? It adds a place where I can discuss stuff, whether Google+ is this or that and whether it should add this or that feature, or whether Facebook is better or not. That’s great for Google+ engineers, they can learn a lot from these discussions. To me it’s just working for free for Google.

Why should I? To push my own properties there? Maybe. I will still have to find out. Maybe next weekend. Until them I consider switching of these notifications that follow me when logged in into Google. There is Greasemonkey script for that. I’ll have to find the link.

Also it took lots of work to organize just a few dozens of people into circles. I will have to plan this time investment. As I socialize mostly with the same people I am connected with on Twitter, Facebook and the likes I have to find more reasons to do so beyond just discussing opinions. I may create circles for all of my different blogs so that I can serve all my audiences, but that’s also additional workload.

How does Google+ add to your social media strategy? Does it only add more work to your todo list? What are your actual use cases? What does the “plus” actually stand for?

 

* Image by Akane Yamada.

 

Related posts:

  1. 7 Social Sites Every Business and Professional Should Use
  2. What the Numerous Digg Bans Can Teach Us about Social Media (Companies)
  3. Stop Social Media Hopping Now to Save Your Business Later

]]> http://seo2.0.onreact.com/how-does-google-add-to-your-social-media-strategy/feed 19 How to Fight Big Business in Google and Beyond with Smart Mob SEO http://seo2.0.onreact.com/how-to-fight-big-business-in-google-and-beyond-with-smart-mob-seo http://seo2.0.onreact.com/how-to-fight-big-business-in-google-and-beyond-with-smart-mob-seo#comments Thu, 19 May 2011 13:17:00 +0000 Tadeusz Szewczyk http://seo2.0.onreact.com/?p=2031 Sumo wrestler vs kid*

Over the years I’ve been outranking big businesses, well known brands and major news media. I’ve been successfully competing with whole SEO teams. I’ve even managed to surpass spammers and black hat SEOs in some cases.

Your competition on the Web is more overwhelming than ever these days.

Some SEO pundits already advise you to give up and try to offer something different than the big guys. I don’t. There are still ways to fight big business in Google and beyond.

 

Corporations have some vulnerabilities you can use against them.

IMHO the only true free market business is small business. Big business is often just about monopolies and market dominance. Just think Google, Microsoft or Apple. They always try to own a certain market and kill off competition using proprietary technology, law enforcement and media hype. Of course once they own the market they can dictate the prices.

In SEO we deal with a similar situation these days as you can’t spend the same amount of time and money on SEO a corporation or mews media outlet can. Even though many brands fail at SEO from the technical point of view Google favors large brands over no name small businesses so that your site can be technically better equipped, have better content and be more dedicated to customers and you will still lose against the behemoths.

 

What weaknesses do corporations have?

Corporations commit corporate crime on a seemingly daily basis but the people have no choice but to stay with them. Google might breach your privacy, Apple might make their workers commit suicide and Microsoft might abuse their monopoly but most people will still buy and use their products and services. The same is true with major media, they copy stories, can spread lies and propaganda and get away with it.

Corporations are too big to move quickly. I’ve worked for corporations myself. You can’t do anything by yourself. You have to ask several bosses above you, you might not even know who they are so you can’t ask them at all. In other cases you might have to wrestle with several departments, every one o them throwing their guidelines on you. Until you move several days, weeks or months might go by without any significant change.

Corporations do not care about anything or anybody, they are just looking at their bottom line. Even though sensible individuals work fort hem they are not allowed to follow their human instincts. They have to maximize profits and stick to corporate rules. In many cases they are not even allowed to mention their competitors or link out to them. At the same time each corporation has at least several websites if not dozens or hundreds of them so they are heavily interlinked.

 

Rebel with a cause

When there is a righteous cause like attacking a corporate criminal people can get angry and act together. The era of smart mobs has finally arrived with the Anonymous phenomenon. A “group” of people from all over the world congregating virtually to perform an action on behalf of a common goal. Their most apparent action was to the long term support of Wikileaks. Their most feared tactic is the hacking of websites by entities the group perceives as the target of their wrath.

Even before Anonymous people on the Web have used similar techniques to exert pressure on the powerful. In the SEO industry the most well known of these tactics was Google bombing. While Google has tried to limit the success of this technique you can still band together to push a website in the search results.

Sometimes it just takes a few dedicated bloggers and social media users to push a certain topic or post to the top of search results. The more abusive an entity the easier it is to make people contribute to such a campaign. I did that a few years back for a very spammy medical term after I got spammed too often by spammers selling it. So I put up a post that warned consumers of the side effects for it and many bloggers joined in after I asked them. I ranked at #1/top 10 for years.

 

Be faster

When Samsung introduced its first iPhone competitor to the German market I happened to be the first person to report about it. Google then ranked me on #1 as the original source for months. I even outranked Samsung itself who were awfully slow to put up a webpage about the particular smartphone. They learned their SEO lessons ever since but still this SEO episode shows how a fast blogger can take advantage of the corporate dinosaurs.

 

Be generous

Have you ever seen CNN link out the BBC or to Al Jazeera? They rarely do. Big media either try not to link out at all or they limit themselves to sources. Sometimes they just “forget” to mention the source or the mention it without a link. Here comes the blogger who does not have to abide by corporate no link policies. When you provide a resource with links to several news media outlets you will rank highly in Google as a hub. This works for a site like Drudge Report which ranks #3 for [news] in the US but also on an article level.

Currently I rank at #4 to #6 for [motorola xoom test] in Germany. Did I test it? No. I just provided links to articles from big media outlets who do. I am the only resource where readers can get a quick overview most test results right now. Of course the major media outlets do not link out to other test results. I got just one authority link for that post so it wasn’t really difficult. I outrank some of the biggest publishing German publishing houses.

I could have linked out to other bloggers to get pingbacks an in that case I would gain even more ground.


So you see you don’t have to give up yet. You need a blog though obviously and you have to band together with like minded individuals. it might not be activism but it’s certainly a just cause to survive in the face of competition by huge corporate conglomerates.

 

* Anonymous kid vs. Troy Collins, US national middleweight sumo champion. Image by John Watson.

Related posts:

  1. 10 Commandments of Business Blogging
  2. Platform Independent SEO & SEO 2.0
  3. Google Indexes Twitter Links

by Tadeusz Szewczyk
©2012 SEO 2.0. All Rights Reserved.Copyright SEO 2.0 at onreact.com
Related posts:
  1. 10 Commandments of Business Blogging
  2. Platform Independent SEO & SEO 2.0
  3. Google Indexes Twitter Links
]]> Sumo wrestler vs kid*

Over the years I’ve been outranking big businesses, well known brands and major news media. I’ve been successfully competing with whole SEO teams. I’ve even managed to surpass spammers and black hat SEOs in some cases.

Your competition on the Web is more overwhelming than ever these days.

Some SEO pundits already advise you to give up and try to offer something different than the big guys. I don’t. There are still ways to fight big business in Google and beyond.

 

Corporations have some vulnerabilities you can use against them.

IMHO the only true free market business is small business. Big business is often just about monopolies and market dominance. Just think Google, Microsoft or Apple. They always try to own a certain market and kill off competition using proprietary technology, law enforcement and media hype. Of course once they own the market they can dictate the prices.

In SEO we deal with a similar situation these days as you can’t spend the same amount of time and money on SEO a corporation or mews media outlet can. Even though many brands fail at SEO from the technical point of view Google favors large brands over no name small businesses so that your site can be technically better equipped, have better content and be more dedicated to customers and you will still lose against the behemoths.

 

What weaknesses do corporations have?

Corporations commit corporate crime on a seemingly daily basis but the people have no choice but to stay with them. Google might breach your privacy, Apple might make their workers commit suicide and Microsoft might abuse their monopoly but most people will still buy and use their products and services. The same is true with major media, they copy stories, can spread lies and propaganda and get away with it.

Corporations are too big to move quickly. I’ve worked for corporations myself. You can’t do anything by yourself. You have to ask several bosses above you, you might not even know who they are so you can’t ask them at all. In other cases you might have to wrestle with several departments, every one o them throwing their guidelines on you. Until you move several days, weeks or months might go by without any significant change.

Corporations do not care about anything or anybody, they are just looking at their bottom line. Even though sensible individuals work fort hem they are not allowed to follow their human instincts. They have to maximize profits and stick to corporate rules. In many cases they are not even allowed to mention their competitors or link out to them. At the same time each corporation has at least several websites if not dozens or hundreds of them so they are heavily interlinked.

 

Rebel with a cause

When there is a righteous cause like attacking a corporate criminal people can get angry and act together. The era of smart mobs has finally arrived with the Anonymous phenomenon. A “group” of people from all over the world congregating virtually to perform an action on behalf of a common goal. Their most apparent action was to the long term support of Wikileaks. Their most feared tactic is the hacking of websites by entities the group perceives as the target of their wrath.

Even before Anonymous people on the Web have used similar techniques to exert pressure on the powerful. In the SEO industry the most well known of these tactics was Google bombing. While Google has tried to limit the success of this technique you can still band together to push a website in the search results.

Sometimes it just takes a few dedicated bloggers and social media users to push a certain topic or post to the top of search results. The more abusive an entity the easier it is to make people contribute to such a campaign. I did that a few years back for a very spammy medical term after I got spammed too often by spammers selling it. So I put up a post that warned consumers of the side effects for it and many bloggers joined in after I asked them. I ranked at #1/top 10 for years.

 

Be faster

When Samsung introduced its first iPhone competitor to the German market I happened to be the first person to report about it. Google then ranked me on #1 as the original source for months. I even outranked Samsung itself who were awfully slow to put up a webpage about the particular smartphone. They learned their SEO lessons ever since but still this SEO episode shows how a fast blogger can take advantage of the corporate dinosaurs.

 

Be generous

Have you ever seen CNN link out the BBC or to Al Jazeera? They rarely do. Big media either try not to link out at all or they limit themselves to sources. Sometimes they just “forget” to mention the source or the mention it without a link. Here comes the blogger who does not have to abide by corporate no link policies. When you provide a resource with links to several news media outlets you will rank highly in Google as a hub. This works for a site like Drudge Report which ranks #3 for [news] in the US but also on an article level.

Currently I rank at #4 to #6 for [motorola xoom test] in Germany. Did I test it? No. I just provided links to articles from big media outlets who do. I am the only resource where readers can get a quick overview most test results right now. Of course the major media outlets do not link out to other test results. I got just one authority link for that post so it wasn’t really difficult. I outrank some of the biggest publishing German publishing houses.

I could have linked out to other bloggers to get pingbacks an in that case I would gain even more ground.


So you see you don’t have to give up yet. You need a blog though obviously and you have to band together with like minded individuals. it might not be activism but it’s certainly a just cause to survive in the face of competition by huge corporate conglomerates.

 

* Anonymous kid vs. Troy Collins, US national middleweight sumo champion. Image by John Watson.

Related posts:

  1. 10 Commandments of Business Blogging
  2. Platform Independent SEO & SEO 2.0
  3. Google Indexes Twitter Links

]]> http://seo2.0.onreact.com/how-to-fight-big-business-in-google-and-beyond-with-smart-mob-seo/feed 14 What Are the Core Values of Your Blog? What Do You Stand for? http://seo2.0.onreact.com/what-are-the-core-values-of-your-blog-what-do-you-stand-for http://seo2.0.onreact.com/what-are-the-core-values-of-your-blog-what-do-you-stand-for#comments Tue, 22 Mar 2011 16:04:45 +0000 Tadeusz Szewczyk http://seo2.0.onreact.com/?p=1867 *

A business blog is not only a blog it’s also obviously a business. A business has to have some core values to be able to succeed in the long term. The market is volatile so that you need some stability.

A business blog often does not sell products and services or at least not directly, it provides first and foremost value.

What kind of value do you offer? To provide value you have to know what your core values are in the first place.

Today I considered my core values on this blog. As my regular readers know I write for several business blogs by now. They differ significantly, by topic, by language and by business model.

On the other hand the core values I represent on all of them are very similar and only the focus changes a bit. So ultimately it’s not just about your blog but the question also is: what do you stand for as a blogger and a person?

 

Empowerment

The most important core value of this blog is to empower people. I want my readers to learn how they can make their websites earn more money, make the people happy and save the world. Thus it attracts not only readers from the SEO industry but also self improvement experts or green activists. I even considered to redefine the SEO acronym as Social Empowerment Online.

 

Progress

Also I’m a firm believer in progress. I don’t accept everything that is new, especially in technology, as progress but I know that humanity can move forward in the right direction. Sometimes it’s back to the roots, when it comes to environment, sometimes it’s up to the stars when it comes to science. On a personal level I want that someone who has never been on my blog before can improve his website and search + social strategy in the long term in such a way that s/he can see the progress.

 

Ethics

I’m grounded in ethics as in its truest sense. I don’t mean white hat SEO as in “not cheating search engines”. Ethics in business and beyond is much more than that. I use renewable energy sources, buy organic food, even dink Fair Trade tea. I have a bank account with a small ethical bank that focuses on investment in sustainable projects instead of weapons manufacturing and nuclear energy like most other banks do.

 

Cooperation

Altruism is the best egoism. Even Darwin meant that the only the strongest (species) survive. By that he meant those that cooperate in the most effective way. He gets misquote all the time by egotists who who want to explain their selfishness. On the Web it’s so much easier to cooperate. It only takes a few clicks in many cases. the more you share the more you get. It’s like Jesus feeding thousands of people with two leafs of bread.

 

Freedom

I grew up in a dictatorship as a kid and then I had to flee my country of birth at ten. Thus freedom is one of the most important things to this day for me. Many people in the US or the other old democracies take freedom for granted but  I don’t. I know that you have to vigilant all the time and sometimes fight back those who want to limit your freedom. It’s one of the reasons why I’m not a Google fan boy.

 

Honesty

Honesty is very important to me, it’s already part of the ethics mentioned above. Still I want to point it out separately as bloggers must be even more honest than other people. You can’t be honest beyond a certain line though. It hurts people. Thus honest is not the first thing I care for while at the same time it’s crucial. Also you have to protect yourself and your privacy on the Web. You can’t give away too much.

 

Respect

Respect is the reason why you have to limit your honesty. Over the years I have attacked quite a few people personally on this blog. When Jaamit died I had to rethink this. I decided to add one more core value to my list, it’s respect. Sometimes respect requires you to limit your honesty. You don’t have to lie. You can refrain from saying something that might hurt a person. Always remember, this person could die the next day and then the last thing you said and s/he remembers is the vicious attack you launched.

 

What are your core values? I didn’t consicioulsy know until I considered writing this post here. You have to slow down a bit and listen to your heart to find out but then the words apear by itself in your head. Don’t forget: it’s not just business and blogging, it’s about you. What do you stand for?

 

* Image: Stand your Ground by Akshay Moon.

Related posts:

  1. 10 Commandments of Business Blogging
  2. Platform Independent SEO & SEO 2.0
  3. Blog vs Dog 0:1

by Tadeusz Szewczyk
©2012 SEO 2.0. All Rights Reserved.Copyright SEO 2.0 at onreact.com
Related posts:
  1. 10 Commandments of Business Blogging
  2. Platform Independent SEO & SEO 2.0
  3. Blog vs Dog 0:1
]]> *

A business blog is not only a blog it’s also obviously a business. A business has to have some core values to be able to succeed in the long term. The market is volatile so that you need some stability.

A business blog often does not sell products and services or at least not directly, it provides first and foremost value.

What kind of value do you offer? To provide value you have to know what your core values are in the first place.

Today I considered my core values on this blog. As my regular readers know I write for several business blogs by now. They differ significantly, by topic, by language and by business model.

On the other hand the core values I represent on all of them are very similar and only the focus changes a bit. So ultimately it’s not just about your blog but the question also is: what do you stand for as a blogger and a person?

 

Empowerment

The most important core value of this blog is to empower people. I want my readers to learn how they can make their websites earn more money, make the people happy and save the world. Thus it attracts not only readers from the SEO industry but also self improvement experts or green activists. I even considered to redefine the SEO acronym as Social Empowerment Online.

 

Progress

Also I’m a firm believer in progress. I don’t accept everything that is new, especially in technology, as progress but I know that humanity can move forward in the right direction. Sometimes it’s back to the roots, when it comes to environment, sometimes it’s up to the stars when it comes to science. On a personal level I want that someone who has never been on my blog before can improve his website and search + social strategy in the long term in such a way that s/he can see the progress.

 

Ethics

I’m grounded in ethics as in its truest sense. I don’t mean white hat SEO as in “not cheating search engines”. Ethics in business and beyond is much more than that. I use renewable energy sources, buy organic food, even dink Fair Trade tea. I have a bank account with a small ethical bank that focuses on investment in sustainable projects instead of weapons manufacturing and nuclear energy like most other banks do.

 

Cooperation

Altruism is the best egoism. Even Darwin meant that the only the strongest (species) survive. By that he meant those that cooperate in the most effective way. He gets misquote all the time by egotists who who want to explain their selfishness. On the Web it’s so much easier to cooperate. It only takes a few clicks in many cases. the more you share the more you get. It’s like Jesus feeding thousands of people with two leafs of bread.

 

Freedom

I grew up in a dictatorship as a kid and then I had to flee my country of birth at ten. Thus freedom is one of the most important things to this day for me. Many people in the US or the other old democracies take freedom for granted but  I don’t. I know that you have to vigilant all the time and sometimes fight back those who want to limit your freedom. It’s one of the reasons why I’m not a Google fan boy.

 

Honesty

Honesty is very important to me, it’s already part of the ethics mentioned above. Still I want to point it out separately as bloggers must be even more honest than other people. You can’t be honest beyond a certain line though. It hurts people. Thus honest is not the first thing I care for while at the same time it’s crucial. Also you have to protect yourself and your privacy on the Web. You can’t give away too much.

 

Respect

Respect is the reason why you have to limit your honesty. Over the years I have attacked quite a few people personally on this blog. When Jaamit died I had to rethink this. I decided to add one more core value to my list, it’s respect. Sometimes respect requires you to limit your honesty. You don’t have to lie. You can refrain from saying something that might hurt a person. Always remember, this person could die the next day and then the last thing you said and s/he remembers is the vicious attack you launched.

 

What are your core values? I didn’t consicioulsy know until I considered writing this post here. You have to slow down a bit and listen to your heart to find out but then the words apear by itself in your head. Don’t forget: it’s not just business and blogging, it’s about you. What do you stand for?

 

* Image: Stand your Ground by Akshay Moon.

Related posts:

  1. 10 Commandments of Business Blogging
  2. Platform Independent SEO & SEO 2.0
  3. Blog vs Dog 0:1

]]> http://seo2.0.onreact.com/what-are-the-core-values-of-your-blog-what-do-you-stand-for/feed 7 Can You Keep Up with the Joneses? http://seo2.0.onreact.com/can-you-keep-up-with-the-joneses http://seo2.0.onreact.com/can-you-keep-up-with-the-joneses#comments Mon, 28 Feb 2011 10:19:29 +0000 Tadeusz Szewczyk http://seo2.0.onreact.com/?p=1824

A few days ago I’ve watched a very intriguing movie called The Joneses. It’s about a seemingly happy family who is moving to a new city. Their main motive is to sell products though. How do they do it? They meet a lot of people and they sell by example, they use the newest gadgets they have to advertise and simply talk about them.

The stealth marketing of the Joneses reminded me of large parts of the blogosphere these days.

It’s not the just the obvious parallel I mean here. Yes, there are lots of bloggers who sell you the one and only WordPress theme, a web hosting package they use and some software you have to use. Indeed I almost made the mistake to behave like this as well. A few scattered affiliate links can still be found in the archives here.

No, I mean the bigger picture. In the movie it’s about keeping up with the Joneses money-wise. They don’t have to pay for the latest sports cars, flat-screen tv sets or smartphones. Everybody else has to though. On the Web it’s also about time. Web celebs like Robert Scoble or SEO industry icons like Rand Fishkin always use and write about the latest social site you have to be on (OMG, Quora is the best thing since the water toilet!), they visit lots of expensive conferences all over the place or better speak there.

I have spoken at the local SES twice as well but second time was awful.

Two speakers were scheduled, me and a guy from Mister Wong, but then the organizer decided to add three more speakers beacuse he thought we’re not attractive enough probably. So when finally my presentation came there was no time left and he interrupted me after a few minutes so that I couldn’t finish it. I was quite angry an decided not to speak at SES ever again but they haven’t invited me anyways a year later as it’s their policy not to invite people who need too long for their presentation.

So you see it’s not all glamour in the shiny SEO world. You get treated without respect even by people you work for without pay.

It’s not just the conferences though. It’s the latest hype as well you have to invest your time in. People who earn 500$ or even 1000$ an hour and have dozens of wage slaves who do their low level work can afford to spend half the day to hang out on the latest no ROI yet but in two years probably social sites.

Can you keep up with them? No, of course not. You can’t keep with the Joneses. You don’t have to. Why? Let me come back to the get rich quick make money bloggers again. They are the worst kind of bloggers I have mentioned at the beginning of this post.

There were several projects out there that sounded quite similar so I can’t even remember their domain right. They were called the million dollar blog project or the likes. They wanted to make a six figure income from blogging in one year etc.

You know what? I’ve recently started to monitor my broken links more closely. What did I find? Hundreds of comment links were broken. I checked many of them manually to find out what happened and amazingly many sites and blogs have disappeared. Some blogs after just a few months. Several of the million dollar blogs were among them while most of the lay low solid SEO blogs were still there.

So unlike the movie were the the neighbor who can’t keep up with the Joneses finally commits suicide on the Web the Joneses disappear much faster. Not only you don’t have to keep up with the Joneses you shouldn’t even try! Look at me instead. I make a quite modest income by blogging but I’m almost a full time blogger for a few years by now. I have to do some SEO consulting or other SEO work as well but my dream of business blogging for a living has come true and it lasts.

I don’t mean to tell you that you can’t become a millionaire by blogging. There were cases where blogs have been sold for millions of dollars and I don’t even mean the sell out of Huffington Post to AOL.

You don’t have to everywhere and follow the latest hype. You don’t have to spend hours and hours on social sites nobody outside of the Web geek circles even knows.

I’ve learned the hard way in some cases. I wasted time on a few sites where I either got banned, where they vanished or got sold out and abandoned by most of the cool kids.

Make small steps that makes sense, earn enough money and don’t try to get rich quick or even rich at all. This way you may be around next year as well. Don’ try to keep up with the Joneses of Web.

You can even blog less to succeed.

Most of my blogs don’t need more than two posts per week and they earn money anyways. Here on SEO 2.0 I don’t even need to earn money with the blog directly unlike other SEO bloggers who remove blog comments and substitute them with ads.

Related posts:

  1. Does Blogging for Money Work or Not? 6 Noob Mistakes
  2. Top 10 Blogging Trends
  3. Interview with Business Blogger Steven Snell on His Recent 50k Blog Sale

by Tadeusz Szewczyk
©2012 SEO 2.0. All Rights Reserved.Copyright SEO 2.0 at onreact.com
Related posts:
  1. Does Blogging for Money Work or Not? 6 Noob Mistakes
  2. Top 10 Blogging Trends
  3. Interview with Business Blogger Steven Snell on His Recent 50k Blog Sale
]]>

A few days ago I’ve watched a very intriguing movie called The Joneses. It’s about a seemingly happy family who is moving to a new city. Their main motive is to sell products though. How do they do it? They meet a lot of people and they sell by example, they use the newest gadgets they have to advertise and simply talk about them.

The stealth marketing of the Joneses reminded me of large parts of the blogosphere these days.

It’s not the just the obvious parallel I mean here. Yes, there are lots of bloggers who sell you the one and only WordPress theme, a web hosting package they use and some software you have to use. Indeed I almost made the mistake to behave like this as well. A few scattered affiliate links can still be found in the archives here.

No, I mean the bigger picture. In the movie it’s about keeping up with the Joneses money-wise. They don’t have to pay for the latest sports cars, flat-screen tv sets or smartphones. Everybody else has to though. On the Web it’s also about time. Web celebs like Robert Scoble or SEO industry icons like Rand Fishkin always use and write about the latest social site you have to be on (OMG, Quora is the best thing since the water toilet!), they visit lots of expensive conferences all over the place or better speak there.

I have spoken at the local SES twice as well but second time was awful.

Two speakers were scheduled, me and a guy from Mister Wong, but then the organizer decided to add three more speakers beacuse he thought we’re not attractive enough probably. So when finally my presentation came there was no time left and he interrupted me after a few minutes so that I couldn’t finish it. I was quite angry an decided not to speak at SES ever again but they haven’t invited me anyways a year later as it’s their policy not to invite people who need too long for their presentation.

So you see it’s not all glamour in the shiny SEO world. You get treated without respect even by people you work for without pay.

It’s not just the conferences though. It’s the latest hype as well you have to invest your time in. People who earn 500$ or even 1000$ an hour and have dozens of wage slaves who do their low level work can afford to spend half the day to hang out on the latest no ROI yet but in two years probably social sites.

Can you keep up with them? No, of course not. You can’t keep with the Joneses. You don’t have to. Why? Let me come back to the get rich quick make money bloggers again. They are the worst kind of bloggers I have mentioned at the beginning of this post.

There were several projects out there that sounded quite similar so I can’t even remember their domain right. They were called the million dollar blog project or the likes. They wanted to make a six figure income from blogging in one year etc.

You know what? I’ve recently started to monitor my broken links more closely. What did I find? Hundreds of comment links were broken. I checked many of them manually to find out what happened and amazingly many sites and blogs have disappeared. Some blogs after just a few months. Several of the million dollar blogs were among them while most of the lay low solid SEO blogs were still there.

So unlike the movie were the the neighbor who can’t keep up with the Joneses finally commits suicide on the Web the Joneses disappear much faster. Not only you don’t have to keep up with the Joneses you shouldn’t even try! Look at me instead. I make a quite modest income by blogging but I’m almost a full time blogger for a few years by now. I have to do some SEO consulting or other SEO work as well but my dream of business blogging for a living has come true and it lasts.

I don’t mean to tell you that you can’t become a millionaire by blogging. There were cases where blogs have been sold for millions of dollars and I don’t even mean the sell out of Huffington Post to AOL.

You don’t have to everywhere and follow the latest hype. You don’t have to spend hours and hours on social sites nobody outside of the Web geek circles even knows.

I’ve learned the hard way in some cases. I wasted time on a few sites where I either got banned, where they vanished or got sold out and abandoned by most of the cool kids.

Make small steps that makes sense, earn enough money and don’t try to get rich quick or even rich at all. This way you may be around next year as well. Don’ try to keep up with the Joneses of Web.

You can even blog less to succeed.

Most of my blogs don’t need more than two posts per week and they earn money anyways. Here on SEO 2.0 I don’t even need to earn money with the blog directly unlike other SEO bloggers who remove blog comments and substitute them with ads.

Related posts:

  1. Does Blogging for Money Work or Not? 6 Noob Mistakes
  2. Top 10 Blogging Trends
  3. Interview with Business Blogger Steven Snell on His Recent 50k Blog Sale

]]> http://seo2.0.onreact.com/can-you-keep-up-with-the-joneses/feed 4 10 Ways Piwik is Better Than Google Analytics http://seo2.0.onreact.com/10-ways-piwik-is-better-than-google-analytics http://seo2.0.onreact.com/10-ways-piwik-is-better-than-google-analytics#comments Mon, 31 Jan 2011 09:30:07 +0000 Tadeusz Szewczyk http://seo2.0.onreact.com/?p=1802


Piwik is is better than Google Analytics in many ways, at least 10 of them. It’s:

Free, really free, you don’t pay with your data. Once you use Google Analytics you’ll get Adwords ads via mail both electronic and in real life.


Open Source – Do I need to say more? No big Google like corporation behind it or small business that could go bankrupt out of the blue.


Respects privacy while Google Analytics does send your data to the US where at least 40 different secret government agencies can access it.


Easy to use once it’s installed. GA is way to complex by now. You have to click several times to find some crucial reports.


Simple goal tracking. I have explained that in a recent how to post on SEOptimise. The way Piwik organizes goal tracking is easy to grasp and implement.


Customizable. While GA is also customizable you can make your Piwik dashboard show anything and everything you want.


Self hosted, so that you control your data and they stay i the same country you’re in and nobody else can view them, not even Google employees.


Tracks Google Image Search. While GA, sham on them, doesn’t properly track Google Image search traffic Piwik does with ease.​


Full referers: you have to perform bizarre workarounds to see the actual referers people come from to your site in GA. Once you have them you have to click several times just to see them. Piwik simply shows them after one click.


Almost real time – While Google Analytics data appears with sometimes a substantial delay​ Piwik shows your visitors right away.​




Did I overlook something? I bet Piwik has even more advantages. I’ve been playing around with it for roughly two weeks now. Add them in the comments. I also have to ​admit that Google Analytics has some advantages over Piwik. I’d miss advanced segments for instance.

So I won’t quit GA just yet but may in the future. Piwik gets developed fast. Last time I tested it they were Beta 0.4 or something, right now the current version is 1.1.1

Also

and other entry level paid web analytics tools have to look out.​ I use all of them except Chartbeat but I almost stopped after I started using Piwik.

Related posts:

  1. Software for SEO: Tools, Why & How to Track Rankings in a Personalized Search World
  2. Keyword Research: SEO 2.0 on the Rise – Says Google “Insights”
  3. 7 Reasons Why Google Chrome, the New Google Browser is a Bad Idea

by Tadeusz Szewczyk
©2012 SEO 2.0. All Rights Reserved.Copyright SEO 2.0 at onreact.com
Related posts:
  1. Software for SEO: Tools, Why & How to Track Rankings in a Personalized Search World
  2. Keyword Research: SEO 2.0 on the Rise – Says Google “Insights”
  3. 7 Reasons Why Google Chrome, the New Google Browser is a Bad Idea
]]>


Piwik is is better than Google Analytics in many ways, at least 10 of them. It’s:

Free, really free, you don’t pay with your data. Once you use Google Analytics you’ll get Adwords ads via mail both electronic and in real life.


Open Source – Do I need to say more? No big Google like corporation behind it or small business that could go bankrupt out of the blue.


Respects privacy while Google Analytics does send your data to the US where at least 40 different secret government agencies can access it.


Easy to use once it’s installed. GA is way to complex by now. You have to click several times to find some crucial reports.


Simple goal tracking. I have explained that in a recent how to post on SEOptimise. The way Piwik organizes goal tracking is easy to grasp and implement.


Customizable. While GA is also customizable you can make your Piwik dashboard show anything and everything you want.


Self hosted, so that you control your data and they stay i the same country you’re in and nobody else can view them, not even Google employees.


Tracks Google Image Search. While GA, sham on them, doesn’t properly track Google Image search traffic Piwik does with ease.​


Full referers: you have to perform bizarre workarounds to see the actual referers people come from to your site in GA. Once you have them you have to click several times just to see them. Piwik simply shows them after one click.


Almost real time – While Google Analytics data appears with sometimes a substantial delay​ Piwik shows your visitors right away.​




Did I overlook something? I bet Piwik has even more advantages. I’ve been playing around with it for roughly two weeks now. Add them in the comments. I also have to ​admit that Google Analytics has some advantages over Piwik. I’d miss advanced segments for instance.

So I won’t quit GA just yet but may in the future. Piwik gets developed fast. Last time I tested it they were Beta 0.4 or something, right now the current version is 1.1.1

Also

and other entry level paid web analytics tools have to look out.​ I use all of them except Chartbeat but I almost stopped after I started using Piwik.

Related posts:

  1. Software for SEO: Tools, Why & How to Track Rankings in a Personalized Search World
  2. Keyword Research: SEO 2.0 on the Rise – Says Google “Insights”
  3. 7 Reasons Why Google Chrome, the New Google Browser is a Bad Idea

]]> http://seo2.0.onreact.com/10-ways-piwik-is-better-than-google-analytics/feed 26 Blogging vs Writing http://seo2.0.onreact.com/blogging-vs-writing http://seo2.0.onreact.com/blogging-vs-writing#comments Thu, 05 Aug 2010 09:33:45 +0000 Tadeusz Szewczyk http://seo2.0.onreact.com/?p=1188

Image: Timeless Books by Lin Pernille.

Is there a difference between blogging and writing? Yes, there is. I’ve been blogging for several years now and I’m increasingly aware of the difference. Think about

what makes us read books by authors who have written them decades or even centuries ago.

Surely they’ve been writing not blogging when it comes to novels. Fiction seems to be written for longevity. At least good, great or rather outstanding fiction.

On the other hand there are newspapers. Who cares for yesterday’s news? This is a common idiom that shows the main difference. Blogging tends to be like reporting. It’s only relevant at a certain point in time.

We also tend to read letters or diaries by famous dead people. Isn’t writing letters or diaries more like blogging? Or do we read them just due to historical curiosity?

The main difference is not simply timelessness or quality but something else then.

When we blog we describe. When we write we create.

By writing like acclaimed authors do we try to be original. We want to say some unique. We attempt to offer an insight that stems from our own point of view. We do not try to describe the world, we try to explain it.

Why does it matter? After all it’s a blog here not a novel. So why don’t we need to write not to blog or at least partially write like novelists do? It’s the longevity from the first paragraph.

In modern literature theory we have the idea of intertextuality. Intertextuality basically means that everything has been said or written before. So trying to be original is a hopeless endeavor.

Whether you agree with this theory or not it’s certainly difficult like hell to write something original. What you can do instead is to add your own unique take on things. You can recontextualize what has been written in the past. You can add your two cents. If your lucky it will be more than two.

The SEO 2.0 just recently turned three. Already many articles are completely outdated. For example I have deleted a post lately about a service long gone. Even postings about services that still exist like StumbleUpon tend be obsolete by now. At the same time some posts from 2007 are still valid or more apt than ever.

You have to ask yourself: Do you want to write for the quick buck? Then blogging is OK. Do you want to be able to capitalize on your blog next year, five years or a decade from now? Then you have to start writing instead.

Don’t focus on services that come and go. Don’t cover trends and hypes. Write about universal values. Write about your own take on things that don’t change. The websites might change but the underlying techniques won’t.

I’m glad that most of the postings that deal with the philosophy of SEO 2.0 still ring true. The SEO 2.0 approach is still valid even after the 2.0 hype subsided because it was my own take on things. It was my own interpretation of ages old wisdom of human relations. SEO 2.0 was just a new context for what people have known for centuries. Cooperation is the key.

So try to adapt old wisdom to current times instead of adapting to hypes and tools.

The tools are just the tools, whether you use a hammer or a robot, you are trying to build something that lasts. The tools may change but the goals are the same. Likewise blogging is just a new tool for writing. Imagine Thoreau, Hemingway or Bellow blogging. Then write like them but not fiction. Reality is often stranger than fiction and offers daily inspiration. Your original writing stems from the time you live in but your take on it makes it timeless or universal when you apply it to timeless values.

Are you still blogging or already writing?


Related posts:

  1. How to Blog: 7 Writing for Blogs Guidelines that Define Blogging
  2. How to Write for Subscribers: 10 Rules of Advanced Blogging
  3. 7* Writing for Subscriber Heaven: More of the Same but Better

by Tadeusz Szewczyk
©2012 SEO 2.0. All Rights Reserved.Copyright SEO 2.0 at onreact.com
Related posts:
  1. How to Blog: 7 Writing for Blogs Guidelines that Define Blogging
  2. How to Write for Subscribers: 10 Rules of Advanced Blogging
  3. 7* Writing for Subscriber Heaven: More of the Same but Better
]]>

Image: Timeless Books by Lin Pernille.

Is there a difference between blogging and writing? Yes, there is. I’ve been blogging for several years now and I’m increasingly aware of the difference. Think about

what makes us read books by authors who have written them decades or even centuries ago.

Surely they’ve been writing not blogging when it comes to novels. Fiction seems to be written for longevity. At least good, great or rather outstanding fiction.

On the other hand there are newspapers. Who cares for yesterday’s news? This is a common idiom that shows the main difference. Blogging tends to be like reporting. It’s only relevant at a certain point in time.

We also tend to read letters or diaries by famous dead people. Isn’t writing letters or diaries more like blogging? Or do we read them just due to historical curiosity?

The main difference is not simply timelessness or quality but something else then.

When we blog we describe. When we write we create.

By writing like acclaimed authors do we try to be original. We want to say some unique. We attempt to offer an insight that stems from our own point of view. We do not try to describe the world, we try to explain it.

Why does it matter? After all it’s a blog here not a novel. So why don’t we need to write not to blog or at least partially write like novelists do? It’s the longevity from the first paragraph.

In modern literature theory we have the idea of intertextuality. Intertextuality basically means that everything has been said or written before. So trying to be original is a hopeless endeavor.

Whether you agree with this theory or not it’s certainly difficult like hell to write something original. What you can do instead is to add your own unique take on things. You can recontextualize what has been written in the past. You can add your two cents. If your lucky it will be more than two.

The SEO 2.0 just recently turned three. Already many articles are completely outdated. For example I have deleted a post lately about a service long gone. Even postings about services that still exist like StumbleUpon tend be obsolete by now. At the same time some posts from 2007 are still valid or more apt than ever.

You have to ask yourself: Do you want to write for the quick buck? Then blogging is OK. Do you want to be able to capitalize on your blog next year, five years or a decade from now? Then you have to start writing instead.

Don’t focus on services that come and go. Don’t cover trends and hypes. Write about universal values. Write about your own take on things that don’t change. The websites might change but the underlying techniques won’t.

I’m glad that most of the postings that deal with the philosophy of SEO 2.0 still ring true. The SEO 2.0 approach is still valid even after the 2.0 hype subsided because it was my own take on things. It was my own interpretation of ages old wisdom of human relations. SEO 2.0 was just a new context for what people have known for centuries. Cooperation is the key.

So try to adapt old wisdom to current times instead of adapting to hypes and tools.

The tools are just the tools, whether you use a hammer or a robot, you are trying to build something that lasts. The tools may change but the goals are the same. Likewise blogging is just a new tool for writing. Imagine Thoreau, Hemingway or Bellow blogging. Then write like them but not fiction. Reality is often stranger than fiction and offers daily inspiration. Your original writing stems from the time you live in but your take on it makes it timeless or universal when you apply it to timeless values.

Are you still blogging or already writing?


Related posts:

  1. How to Blog: 7 Writing for Blogs Guidelines that Define Blogging
  2. How to Write for Subscribers: 10 Rules of Advanced Blogging
  3. 7* Writing for Subscriber Heaven: More of the Same but Better

]]> http://seo2.0.onreact.com/blogging-vs-writing/feed 9 SEO is a Craft not a Science http://seo2.0.onreact.com/seo-is-a-craft-not-a-science http://seo2.0.onreact.com/seo-is-a-craft-not-a-science#comments Mon, 14 Jun 2010 11:14:54 +0000 Tadeusz Szewczyk http://seo2.0.onreact.com/?p=1114

Running Bumblebee by wwarby

Recently there has been a backlash in the SEO industry against what is deemed to be a non-scientific approach when it comes to SEO testing or collecting statistical data. Some people argue that you have to treat SEO as part of computer science and be very strict about it. Following this logic you are basically forbidden to do any SEO testing yourself unless you have some actual scientists doing the research.

While I am not sure why some people attempt to push in this direction I can only say it won’t work. SEO is a craft not a science. First off there are far too many variables to determine in SEO to be able to treat it scientifically. Also, if anything, SEO would have to be a social science as most things in SEO depend on human behavior. People writing algorithms, people linking, people creating content.

Also what is the subject of this science? It’s a black box company not telling what is below the hood of it’s magical engine. We know by now that there are at least 200+ signals aka ranking factors that determine whether you end up on number 1 or not. These are shifting permanently.

Matt Cutts tells us that there are hundreds of tweaks to these algorithms per year. So even if you would be able to single out one of the ranking factors to test without interference of all the others you still can’t assume the situation yout test stays unchanged during the test. It’s like a weather forecast: Science can compute what it wants and tell you that you will have sunshine tomorrow but I strongly advise you to look out of your window before going out. Otherwise you might get wet.

In case it rains you have to rely on your own eyes and react, wear a rain jacket and rubber boots.

That’s how SEO works. No matter what pope Matt Cutts tells you or what some computer scientists have computed.

Last but not least science always serves a purpose. Depending on who pays for a study you get different results. Different expectations, even different backgrounds of the scientists lead to bias. Scientists were trying to prove the existence of God for ages. Now they look for a God particle at CERN/LHC. Science is more similar to religion than you think.

Of course I love the scientists and geeks in the SEO industry.

The people who can prove that something works or doesn’t work or even better tell me why. On the other hand I don’t care what others tell me as long I see results. When I do SEO testing in a DIY manner and I notice that something works or not I don’t care for it being scientific. The results in rankings, visitors, conversions and sales are proof enough. Likewise I don’t believe Matt Cutts when what he says “is not working” in reality works.

The purpose of SEO testing is finding out what works

not proving you are right it front of some kind of scientific authority. The people who try to tell us that we have to be scientific are in many cases self proclaimed authorities or do not even practice SEO. The purpose of publishing your SEO test results is not peer review in the sense of being bashed for not being scientific, it’s finding out what works for others.

SEO these days is not about computing. It’s about soft skills. You can’t compute human behavior. You can just to some extent, just like the weather. Doing SEO is like knitting, baking bread or writing poetry: When people love it it works.  Also remember the scientist who stated that the bumblebee can’t fly due to poor aerodynamics. He later found out that he erred. He forgot to take the wing movement into account assuming bumblebees behave like airplanes.

SEO is not just computing.

Scientists should keep to trying to explain the world not telling the world how it should behave. That’s exactly what some SEO science advocates are trying to achieve now: “Don’t do this, don’t do that it’s not scientific.”

Your task is to explain why something works or not. You are not entitled to give me orders. SEO is a craft not a science so please don’t try to tell the bumblebee it can’t fly.

Related posts:

  1. Science vs Reality: Do Not Obey Scientists – Practice What Works in SEO & Beyond
  2. 10 Reasons Why You Don’t Need to Read Matt Cutts’ Blog
  3. How I Outranked Matt Cutts for the Term SEO in 7 Easy Steps

by Tadeusz Szewczyk
©2012 SEO 2.0. All Rights Reserved.Copyright SEO 2.0 at onreact.com
Related posts:
  1. Science vs Reality: Do Not Obey Scientists – Practice What Works in SEO & Beyond
  2. 10 Reasons Why You Don’t Need to Read Matt Cutts’ Blog
  3. How I Outranked Matt Cutts for the Term SEO in 7 Easy Steps
]]>

Running Bumblebee by wwarby

Recently there has been a backlash in the SEO industry against what is deemed to be a non-scientific approach when it comes to SEO testing or collecting statistical data. Some people argue that you have to treat SEO as part of computer science and be very strict about it. Following this logic you are basically forbidden to do any SEO testing yourself unless you have some actual scientists doing the research.

While I am not sure why some people attempt to push in this direction I can only say it won’t work. SEO is a craft not a science. First off there are far too many variables to determine in SEO to be able to treat it scientifically. Also, if anything, SEO would have to be a social science as most things in SEO depend on human behavior. People writing algorithms, people linking, people creating content.

Also what is the subject of this science? It’s a black box company not telling what is below the hood of it’s magical engine. We know by now that there are at least 200+ signals aka ranking factors that determine whether you end up on number 1 or not. These are shifting permanently.

Matt Cutts tells us that there are hundreds of tweaks to these algorithms per year. So even if you would be able to single out one of the ranking factors to test without interference of all the others you still can’t assume the situation yout test stays unchanged during the test. It’s like a weather forecast: Science can compute what it wants and tell you that you will have sunshine tomorrow but I strongly advise you to look out of your window before going out. Otherwise you might get wet.

In case it rains you have to rely on your own eyes and react, wear a rain jacket and rubber boots.

That’s how SEO works. No matter what pope Matt Cutts tells you or what some computer scientists have computed.

Last but not least science always serves a purpose. Depending on who pays for a study you get different results. Different expectations, even different backgrounds of the scientists lead to bias. Scientists were trying to prove the existence of God for ages. Now they look for a God particle at CERN/LHC. Science is more similar to religion than you think.

Of course I love the scientists and geeks in the SEO industry.

The people who can prove that something works or doesn’t work or even better tell me why. On the other hand I don’t care what others tell me as long I see results. When I do SEO testing in a DIY manner and I notice that something works or not I don’t care for it being scientific. The results in rankings, visitors, conversions and sales are proof enough. Likewise I don’t believe Matt Cutts when what he says “is not working” in reality works.

The purpose of SEO testing is finding out what works

not proving you are right it front of some kind of scientific authority. The people who try to tell us that we have to be scientific are in many cases self proclaimed authorities or do not even practice SEO. The purpose of publishing your SEO test results is not peer review in the sense of being bashed for not being scientific, it’s finding out what works for others.

SEO these days is not about computing. It’s about soft skills. You can’t compute human behavior. You can just to some extent, just like the weather. Doing SEO is like knitting, baking bread or writing poetry: When people love it it works.  Also remember the scientist who stated that the bumblebee can’t fly due to poor aerodynamics. He later found out that he erred. He forgot to take the wing movement into account assuming bumblebees behave like airplanes.

SEO is not just computing.

Scientists should keep to trying to explain the world not telling the world how it should behave. That’s exactly what some SEO science advocates are trying to achieve now: “Don’t do this, don’t do that it’s not scientific.”

Your task is to explain why something works or not. You are not entitled to give me orders. SEO is a craft not a science so please don’t try to tell the bumblebee it can’t fly.

Related posts:

  1. Science vs Reality: Do Not Obey Scientists – Practice What Works in SEO & Beyond
  2. 10 Reasons Why You Don’t Need to Read Matt Cutts’ Blog
  3. How I Outranked Matt Cutts for the Term SEO in 7 Easy Steps

]]> http://seo2.0.onreact.com/seo-is-a-craft-not-a-science/feed 20 Stop Social Media Hopping Now to Save Your Business Later http://seo2.0.onreact.com/stop-social-media-hopping-now-to-save-your-business-later http://seo2.0.onreact.com/stop-social-media-hopping-now-to-save-your-business-later#comments Tue, 18 May 2010 09:41:42 +0000 Tadeusz Szewczyk http://seo2.0.onreact.com/?p=1072

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?

by Tadeusz Szewczyk
©2012 SEO 2.0. All Rights Reserved.Copyright SEO 2.0 at onreact.com
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?
]]>

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?

]]> http://seo2.0.onreact.com/stop-social-media-hopping-now-to-save-your-business-later/feed 10 Arizona SEO Experts Against Racism http://seo2.0.onreact.com/arizona-seo-experts-against-racism http://seo2.0.onreact.com/arizona-seo-experts-against-racism#comments Thu, 13 May 2010 10:19:54 +0000 Tadeusz Szewczyk http://seo2.0.onreact.com/?p=1058 Mexican

Would you stop this guy from entering Arizona?

I don’t read the news. It makes me sick. Sometimes you can’t ignore the bad news though. They creep in from all over the place, Twitter, Facebook etc. One of the ugliest news recently has been the racist policies of Arizona. The aim of racial profiling and other racist measures is to prevent Mexican and other refugees from entering the US and staying there.

I don’t want to argue here about why made up terms like “illegal immigrants” do not make sense and why hunting refugees like animals and imprisoning them or even letting them die is wrong. I live in a city that has a long history of a bloody border, Berlin. The so called 136 wall deaths were just a few though compared to the hundreds of casualties of the inhumane border regime in the US. In Arizona alone people are dying by the hundreds every year.

I know I have many readers from the US including fellow SEO experts from Arizona. I want you, Arizona SEO experts to speak out on behalf of the desperate refugees and against the racist policies of your regional government.

Let the world know that not all people in Arizona hate immigrants.

Let the world know that SEO professionals have a sense of decency and support human rights.

I repeat, I don’t want to discuss those policies or read arguments why the immigrants should die instead of entering the United States. Racism is not an opinion, it’s a crime. I will delete such comments. Spread your hate and petty excuses elsewhere. I want SEO experts to speak out and to make a positive effort.

The whole issue sickens me and I can’t take it no more. In case you work for an SEO company in Arizona or are an independent SEO consultant there voice support for the cause in the comment section. All SEO pros who add their full name and SEO website URL will be added to this post. In other words they get an authority link in this post.

I may be a fake Mexican with a ridiculous sombrero but that doesn’t mean I can ignore the situation in Arizona.

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by Tadeusz Szewczyk
©2012 SEO 2.0. All Rights Reserved.Copyright SEO 2.0 at onreact.com
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]]> Mexican

Would you stop this guy from entering Arizona?

I don’t read the news. It makes me sick. Sometimes you can’t ignore the bad news though. They creep in from all over the place, Twitter, Facebook etc. One of the ugliest news recently has been the racist policies of Arizona. The aim of racial profiling and other racist measures is to prevent Mexican and other refugees from entering the US and staying there.

I don’t want to argue here about why made up terms like “illegal immigrants” do not make sense and why hunting refugees like animals and imprisoning them or even letting them die is wrong. I live in a city that has a long history of a bloody border, Berlin. The so called 136 wall deaths were just a few though compared to the hundreds of casualties of the inhumane border regime in the US. In Arizona alone people are dying by the hundreds every year.

I know I have many readers from the US including fellow SEO experts from Arizona. I want you, Arizona SEO experts to speak out on behalf of the desperate refugees and against the racist policies of your regional government.

Let the world know that not all people in Arizona hate immigrants.

Let the world know that SEO professionals have a sense of decency and support human rights.

I repeat, I don’t want to discuss those policies or read arguments why the immigrants should die instead of entering the United States. Racism is not an opinion, it’s a crime. I will delete such comments. Spread your hate and petty excuses elsewhere. I want SEO experts to speak out and to make a positive effort.

The whole issue sickens me and I can’t take it no more. In case you work for an SEO company in Arizona or are an independent SEO consultant there voice support for the cause in the comment section. All SEO pros who add their full name and SEO website URL will be added to this post. In other words they get an authority link in this post.

I may be a fake Mexican with a ridiculous sombrero but that doesn’t mean I can ignore the situation in Arizona.

Related posts:

  1. Twitter Lists for SEO How to
  2. Global Food Crisis: How Bloggers, Social Media Users and SEO Experts Can Help
  3. 3 Traits of True Social Media Experts

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