Three years ago I boldly predicted that social browsing services like StumbleUpon will kill Digg and SEO 1.0. Did they? No. I was wrong. Social networking did though. Let me explain.

StumbleUpon was the first and only to succeed big time with social browsing. Nevertheless it still is a mix of conventional social bookmarking and real social browsing services: Services that monitor your online activity and match it with your own and others’ patterns automatically. With StumbleUpon you still have to “stumble” manually.

There were other more automated services that just watched your moves. They guessed and suggested the next website you might like based on what you like. They worked like Last FM but for websites not music. Most of them did not succeed though. Instead

social networking and link sharing sites like Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr succeed.

They have replaced SEO 1.0 known for keyword rich but poorly readable copy with high quality SEO 2.0 flagship content.

StumbleUpon, a “missing link” service and the new wave of social networking sites rendered both old school SEO “1.0″ and first wave social news media like Digg useless. At Digg you still have to sift through piles of irrelevant and untartegeted information to find something. The “top news” are still the lowest common denominator (crap). In version 4 Digg got better by following the lead of Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr but it’s still difficult to get the right stuff in “my news”. You have to find decent people to follow an there aren’t enough on Digg.

Conventional SEO 1.0 that sticks to link building using links that barely anyone clicks fail in an environment where social networking is the benchmark of popularity. Digg dies as there are many and more effective ways to find what you look after without being served the same type of main stream low value content geared towards a mass audience.

Social networking works for all niches and at the same time is better at reflecting overall trends. So you do both: You can communicate with your community on Facebook, Twitter or Tumblr and still use services like Topsy to find out what most people deem worthy to be shared. It’s not one size fit all. It’s a collection of all sizes and colors where each one of them has a chance to become popular.

On Digg V4 this still doesn’t work. The obsolete frontpage metaphor only allows content to succeed that offers what the predominantly disgruntled, male, geeky and white middle class aka the average Digg user wants. That’s why I’m on Twitter most of the time. Here every niche can thrive and sometimes you can get traction even outside of it depending on the circumstances.

So I was right about Digg and SEO being replaced by something better but it wasn’t social browsing. I erred here almost completely.

SEO 2.0 is today almost the norm though. It’s still called SEO but it’s something quite different these days. It’s social media outreach, blogger relations and killer content creation.

There is still SEO 1.0 out there but it’s more and more spammy while the real SEO has evolved and is social to the core by now. StumbleUpon is still around but it’s stagnating for years, in spite of the PR the company propagates. Just watch the Google Trends for Websites stats to see how Tumblr has outpaced SU and Digg. Facebook and Twitter are another league altogether. They are huge in contrast to the tiny SU and Digg.

I have removed the list of 7 social browsing services this post contained originally. I admit I was wrong. I’m glad the the more advanced model of personalized social networking and link sharing with followers and friends has taken over. The one size fits all social news model has never really worked in the first place. Also SEO today is much better than the SEO of the old days before Twitter and Facebook went prime time. Your followers won’t retweet crap and even if they will people won’t follow them in future as much.

First published on August 14th, 2007. Republished an last updated on October 5th, 2010.

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After 13 years of online publishing, 7 years of blogging for a plethora of blogs, being an SEO for six years and being paid for blogging for five years by now I finally am convinced that I know how it works.

What I learned about online publishing, blogging, SEO in more than 10 years you can now read in 10 minutes.

This is my list of 101 ways to make your blog more popular and successful. Most of it I tried myself, other measures have been taken by numerous other bloggers with success so I have to catch up on them myself.

1 – 5: Twitter

1. Get social on Twitter, the people on Twitter will support your blog if you do it right

2. Follow some people on Twitter who share your interests but not too many

3. Reward people tweeting and retweeting you, or say “thanks” at least

4. Tweet only good stuff, so people get interested in you and visit your blog

5. Add a retweet button like the one above to your blog posts or web pages

6 – 10: Niche social news sites

6. Target niche social news sites like SERPd, Earners Club or BizSugar

7. Become a power user at the one that fits you most

8. Tweet good articles from the niche social news communities

9. Use a striking avatar like the sombrero guy image I use

10. Socialize with other (power) users and add them as friends at Facebook or LinkedIn

11 – 20: Your blog

11. Add an unforgettable image or huge headline in your blog header

12. Use WordPress, as it’s the most widely used blogging platform and makes socializing with pingbacks easier

13. Use a great design or customize a great WordPress theme

14. Allow pings, trackbacks and real links in comments (dofollow)

15. Reply to your genuine commenters who add value in the comments

16. Link to other bloggers, most notably your peers, not only the well known ones

17. Create pillar or flagship content like huge lists, thorough tutorials, breaking or unique news

18. Be the first to say something: break news, uncover scams, debunk myths

19. Review and address other bloggers

20. Create a blogroll of blogs that are similar to yours and/or a good supplement

21 – 30: Other blogs:

21. Accept and support authorities in your field

22. Make a list of the top 10 blogs in your field and try being like them and better

23. Contribute guest posts on other blogs

24. Notify other bloggers if they have “Page not found” errors or their design is broken is some browser

25. Get inspired by other bloggers

26. Comment on other blogs, out of interest, not only for marketing purposes

27. Meet other bloggers in real life and connect

28. Submit other’s blog posts to your favorite social media or vote there for them

29. Do not expect other bloggers to like you just because you’re there, actively befriend them

30. Do not annoy other bloggers with IM, email or other means, only contact them if it really matters

31 – 40: Copy writing

31. Write about popular topics but not those everybody else already covered

32. Find a new angle to a story instead of mere repeating or linking

33. Use striking, funny, easy to remember post headlines like “The Day I was reborn, twice”, “I ate my iPod“, “10 Ways to become a Millionaire in 5 Weeks”

34. Do not write too short or too long posts

35. Write timeless blog postings not just yesterday’s news

36. Know your audience and offer it what it wants, not only what you think is appropriate

37. Be yourself, do not write like you would write for an employer, write as if you write a letter to a friend

38. Offend offenders

39. Do not offend people weaker than you

40. Ask questions and incite discussions

41 – 50: X/HTML and CSS

41. Use clean, lean HTML and CSS for website speed

42. Use headings, lists, bold, italic and other means of making a text readable

43. Use large headlines

44. Use the h2 tag for post headlines (h1 is for the blog name)

45. Use image replacement to make your headlines look better

46. Do not use fonts for headlines which are not meant for them and look ugly (Verdana)

47. Make your font size readable in your posts but not too big, your readers are not half blind

48. Use colors that contrast but not too much and not too many of them, black on white is still king

49. Be original but let people recognize that your blog is a blog, by using some well known elements

50. Use compatible CSS rather than CSS 3 tricks only newer browsers support

51 – 60: Images

51. Use images in posts

52. Use striking images in your posts, like collages, bright colors, images that metaphorically illustrate your point

53. Be original, do not just display the Google logo when you write about Google

54. Do not steal images without proper attribution

55. Use a list of images to attract large audiences, but don’t forget #54

56. Use .png screen shots or parts of them as images for your blog posts

57. Use pictures of beautiful women

58. Do not use pictures as the only content of a post if it’s not a list

59. Do not use images that are bigger than 100 kb, not everybody in the world has a fast connection

60. Use thumbnails for bigger images

61 – 70: Topics

61. Cover the most important things in life: Love, peace, happiness, community, freedom

62. Do not write about SEO (it’s too late for me)

63. If you write about SEO call it blogging tips

64. Write about how you feel

65. Interview interesting and well known people

66. Write about stars, people love stars: Angelina Jolie I love you!

67. Write about what you know first hand, what you have experienced

68. Concentrate on positive topics, do not just write how bad everything is

69. Do not write about your wife, kids, where you live, how much you earn or what you bought unless you’re properly armed or live in Sweden

70. Write you earned thousands of dollars by blogging to get known

71 – 80: Blog SEO and promotion

71. Contribute to blog communities like the ones on LinkedIn or BlogCatalog

72. Tweet your blog posts

73. Ping Technorati and Google Blog Search (default in English WordPress)

74. Use WordPress 3.+ as it’s already SEOed to the max out of the box

75. Link out to others to get linked, do not engage in link exchange, link buying or selling or any automated link schemes

76. Do not use keywords like “california real estate” as your name when commenting unless it’s your blog’s name

77. Don’t overdo conventional SEO on your blog, it’s in most cases counter productive

78. Do not write content – write articles, reviews, interviews

79. SEO is not Spam, Blog SEO is not trackback spam

80. Do not automate your blogging efforts

81 – 85: Getting Subscribers

81. Display a (big) orange feed icon where everybody can see it

82. Use Feedburner to enhance your RSS feed

83. Let people subscribe by email via Aweber or Mailchimp

84. Offer a full feed not just excerpts

85. Explain what RSS is for people new to the concept and offer a choice of the best RSS readers

86 – 90: Branding

86. Create a personal brand. Don’t blog as “admin”

87. Get a unique and remarkable name for your blog

88. Get a short and easy to remember name for yourself, Tadeusz Szewczyk = Tad Chef

89. Use your blog URL and/or avatar throughout the Web

90. Trademark your blog name

91 – 101: Miscellaneous

91. Do not offend people for being different than you

92. Be open minded, let anything and everything inspire you

93. Treat your readers and other bloggers like real people, with respect and compassion

94. Explain stuff that you know, there are always some people who don’t know

95. Be different but stay true to yourself, do not pose as somebody else

96. Do not overload your blog with ads

97. Do not use Google Adsense or Text Link Ads unless you have to or depend on it

98. Become an expert in your trade, be a specialist for your topic, don’t try everything at the same time

99. Do not try to do everything or be everywhere, concentrate on the stuff you like, prefer and are good at

100. Cooperate with others, altruism is the best egoism

101. In short: Practice SEO 2.0

I want to thank five bloggers who have inspired me to write this post: Smashing Magazine, Vandelay Design, Skellie, Social Networking Articles and this SEO blogger.

Originally published October 29th, 2007. V2 republished August 14th, 2010. Last updated July 3rd, 2011.

* Image: Spreng Ben.

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The Search Marketing Standard is not only the oldest search marketing print publication I know of, it’s also the most focused and probably most popular one. Over the years I’ve enjoyed reading numerous issues of the magazine.

Recently I had the opportunity to conduct an email interview with Frances Mary Krug, associate editor of Search Marketing Standard magazine about

the past, present and future of SMS, print publications, SEO and search marketing.

I have added emphasis on some passages in the replies I personally think are important.

Tad of SEO 2.0: Hello Frances, it’s almost two years since Search Marketing Standard (SMS from now on) has been acquired in summer 2008. You are still here so it seems to have worked out. Tell us a bit more about how your magazine has developed since then.

Frances Mary Krug: It’s certainly been an interesting last two years. Moving from a small office in New York to being part of a much larger business was a big step. We had some turnover in staff, including our editor-in-chief, who completed his college degree and left to pursue other goals. But we’ve managed to make the transition successfully, even in the midst of a huge, continuing economic crisis.

SEO 2.0: It seems everybody out there is bemoaning year after year the agony of print journalism. SMS started out as a print magazine in the middle of the ongoing print crisis and it seems to fare quite well, what’s your secret? Are the subscriber numbers stable, rising or rather stagnating?

Frances: It’s kind of funny, actually. Right after the acquisition, we decided to transition from an advertising-based model to a paid subscription base, which certainly turned out to be the right move given the general collapse of print advertising through 2009. It has enabled us to get by even though advertisers choose to increasingly put their ad dollars into online.

As far as our subscriber numbers, we are moving away from the “free subscription” model to the “paid model”, which entails some flux in the subscriber count. Our paid subscriptions are growing steadily, which is an encouraging sign when you see print magazines failing daily. Giving away magazines is a lot easier that charging for them, but paid subscribers provide a better picture of what’s really important to readers, since they are willing to pay for the content. That’s helped SMS focus on what’s really important to readers in the industry.

SEO 2.0: I’ve noticed a significant change in the last issue of SMS. For the first time I remember you have a “cover girl” or rather boy. It’s analytics guru Avinash Kaushik. How come? Do you plan to focus more on people than tools and techniques?

Frances: The change in design for the cover page isn’t meant to indicate a shift in focus of the magazine content, though we do want to recognize key industry contributors by providing attribution on the cover of our magazine. We’ve even had non-subscribers who are fans of Avinash purchase individual copies of the Summer issue of the magazine to add to their collection of Avinash material.

SEO 2.0: You told me beforehand that there are some changes to come up in the near future at SMS. What are they? Have you already introduced them in the current issue? My impression is that you don’t focus on one topic anymore as much as you did in the past.

Frances: One of the biggest changes will be the debut of a digital edition of the magazine with our upcoming Fall issue. Even though our primary purpose and selling point is the fact that we are a print magazine,

there is no doubt that digitization of the magazine format is inevitable.

We still believe, however, that a print version will remain as a preferred format for a significant group of people, and we intend to continue offering a print edition. A digital edition will also help mitigate the increasing problems we’ve seen with mail delivery to some international destinations, which are a large part of our subscription base. We can’t speed up delivery of the mail, but we can offer an alternate way to access the magazine if an issue goes astray or is continually chewed up by the machinery.

Another big change is a redesign of our website. The main goal of the redesign is to organize and present our content in a more logical fashion that better reflects the topics and subject areas that our readers are interested in. For example, if you are interested in seeing all the posts written by a specific author, you will quickly and easily be able to get to a listing.

The past few issues have had a more generalized approach in content. What we want to avoid is having readers glance at the cover of their issue, see that everything seems to be focused on one general topic (be it International Search, Mobile Search, Social Media, etc.) and feel that there is nothing in the issue to interest them if they have no wish to read about that topic. In reality, even in issues where we have focused on one topic, we still have articles and columns about other topics, and we don’t want to give the impression that it is otherwise. Since we are only a quarterly publication, a subscriber certainly wants to feel that in each and every issue there will be something of interest to them.

SEO 2.0: You have covered the search marketing landscape for a few years now. What are the most significant changes lately?

Frances: Wow, that’s a very tough question because there is so much that could fit into that category. I think, however, that the changes to the Google SERPs are both a symptom of the ongoing change in the industry, as well as a factor in that change.

The days of being on the first page of Google results and ranking first for a keyword on Google are gone.

Universal search and so many different kinds of results (not just web pages) competing for the attention of searchers has led to an overcrowded, visually unappealing results page. Real-time results, while providing relevancy, have the power to change the entire approach toward SEO.

Another enormous factor, I think, is the local/mobile search powerhouse. Technology has finally hit the nail on the head and although there will be winners and losers among app builders and developers, the real winners will be searchers. The battlefield is going to be bloody, however, and even Google is realizing that if they provide a less-than-perfect solution for too long, a competitor may find something to exploit.

SEO 2.0: Do we still have standalone SEO these days or is it always part of the bigger picture as in “search marketing”?

Frances: I think it has to be part of a larger picture. It’s no longer enough to make sure the mechanics of a site are working and the necessary tags have been optimized. Ranking on the first page of Google is no longer the gold standard in the same way as it used to be.

It used to be that we didn’t really consider it “search marketing” unless you were actively advertising online via AdWords or more traditional display advertising.

Now, however, in order to compete, you need to be involved in social media marketing, email marketing, etc. We’re not just in the business of optimizing websites so that search engines can read them and judge relevancy to specific search queries – although that is certainly still a vital part of the business. Now, we need to ensure that all parts of the equation are covered and tracked. What will be interesting is to see how some SEOs adapt (or fail to adapt) to some of the skills needed to succeed in areas like social media.

SEO 2.0: How do you combine online and print efforts? Your business model is still selling the magazine isn’t it? Does the website actually sell subscriptions? Or do you get new subscribers via the print issue itself?

Frances: Juggling online and print efforts is a huge challenge, especially with the general downturn in the economy through 2009 and the resultant advertising crisis. Because of the subject matter of our magazine – the search marketing industry – we feel that our website cannot just be a place for people to manage their subscriptions. We need to have a site that offers more than that – that’s why we have a number of contributors who write informative blog posts, a twice-monthly newsletter, an extensive online events calendar, we have put together webinars, white papers, etc.

New subscribers come from all different sources.

We exhibit at some conferences and distribute free sample copies at others, which helps get the word out. Others see the magazine on a coffee table at their web designer’s office or read commentary about an article in a current issue on a blog.

SEO 2.0: When will I be able to buy SMS at my newsstand along Newsweek and Wired here in Germany?

Frances: Tad, I’m sorry, but there are no plans to take SMS to the newsstands in Germany or any other country for that matter. I think that would be a tough business model to sell in the current challenging market for print.

SEO 2.0: How would you define SEO 2.0? Does it mean something to you more than this blog’s name?

Frances: Well, it certainly IS a clever name for a blog, but SEO 2.0 is much more than that. It’s really the next logical step in the development of the industry. SEO is no longer just a set of “rules” that you can follow and put in place and expect to see concrete results from.

SEO 2.0 is about optimizing Web 2.0 content, and as such, includes an emphasis on creativity and social behavior

and how to use the new tools available (such as Twitter) to optimize and boost visibility within search engines and other online destinations.

SEO 2.0: Thank you very much Frances for taking the time to inform the SEO 2.0
readers.

Frances: Tad, thanks for inviting me to speak and letting me share some of my thoughts about why the online marketing world needs a print publication!

SEO 2.0: As you see there is still a way to earn money with print publications in a quite small niche like ours. I’m very impressed. Take note for full disclosure: I was both a contributor (once) and an affiliate of Search Marketing Standard some time ago.

What are your thought on the future of our industry and print media?

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2. New Search Marketing Standard Issue Out: International Search Markets
3. Google Suggest Effects on SEO, Search Usage and Business Predictions

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This is an updated post. To enhance your StumbleUpon experience there are great third party StumbleUpon resources. Resources made not by or outside of StumbleUpon itself. Here are the best:

• StumbleUpon Search is a Google Custom search engine that allows you to search StumbleUpon
• StumbleUpon Add-ons is a site that collects SU add ons, plug ins and scripts
• Userscripts.org offers more than 20 different user scripts for the popular GreaseMonkey Firefox plug in. These scripts allow you to customize any web page, here the StumbleUpon site ;-)

I’ve explained the ins and outs of StumbleUpon optimization numerous times. More such resources can be found here:

• StumbleUpon Etiquette Faux Pas, Tips & Resources – Kikolani

Does it still make sense to use StumbleUpon in 2010 from a SEO or social media optimization point of view? Not really. It’s OK for wasting time stumbling random sites privately but business users are better off with Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn which encourage business usage.

StumbleUpon does not allow using its platform for business purposes.

Promoting your own content on a blog is even forbidden. So it does not make sense to use SU for that purpose because sooner or later your account gets banned.

It’s OK to offer ways to stumble your site for SU users though. You may still get some traffic from the site.

Trying to become a part of the SU community is useless though. That’s not the way StumbleUpon works. Bizarrely the votes of your friends don’t count so it’s better to not have any friends there.

For inspiration I’d recommend Tumblr and image bookmarking sites. SU is just like a US TV station on the Web, you get only the American main stream there.

Originally published on October 1, 2007. Last updated on June 19, 2010.

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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.

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Refresh Monday is back. This time I revisit the 5 Twitter social news mashups that kick Digg’s ass as two of them were obsolete by now. Plus I have added a new one, a personalized Twitter social news service. So we have 6 of them.

Wisdom of crowds has proven very useful in organizing the information overflow of the Web. Sadly though the first wave of social news sites like Digg and Reddit are broken to the point where some topics (like SEO) are banned for good while the second wave, Mixx or Social|Median never reached a meaningful size.

There is a social site that has huge success currently though that has changed the face of social news, Twitter.

How that, isn’t Twitter just social networking and one to a few communications?

Well, yes, but that’s not the whole truth. Several sites have sprung up that analyze Twitter wisdom of crowds to organize and highlight the most important news and trends on the Web.

Some of these social news mashups, interfaces or tools have already disappeared again but a few of them grow while others, new ones appear. My favorite is the “Twitter newspaper” Twitter Times that collects links tweeted by your friends and their friends.

What are the 6 Twitter social news mashups that kick Digg’s ass?

Twitter Times
The Twitter Tim.es is the best social news mashup I’ve seen so far. It not only finds the most popular stories or links it also personalizes them. You can view the stories linked by people a particular user follows. Just check mine to understand that. Also you can check out the most linked stories from renowned sources like the NYT or widely known groups of people from certain areas of expertise. I read my Twitter Times daily.

Topsy
While TweetMeme is more popular by the numbers it seems Topsy is better at collecting Twitter links. It’s more a Twitter search engine but it has an excellent “trending” section in several languages. The German one works perfectly. I use Topsy daily as well both as a Twitter search alternative and as a social news interface. You can search for the most popular links or tweets for a given query. The screen shot above shows the most tweeted SEO links last month.

TweetMeme
TweetMeme is probably the most popular Twitter social news mashup but it’s not perfect. Sometimes it’s down. Some websites aren’t listed at all, this very blog, SEO 2.0, has been ignored for a while. The best thing about TweetMeme is the topical categorization of Twitter links.

Twitturly
This very Digg-like social news interface for Twitter was amazingly popular long before Tweetmeme and Topsy, it has been almost overwhelmed with its success and was later sold by the developer. It’s still works fine. It’s very easy to use and allows to get a quick overview on what’s going on at Twitter and thus also what’s hot on the Web right now. It also has a killer feature, the language filter, which shows you the most popular tweets in more than a dozen languages. Sadly these filters are not very accurate (e.g. German) or find many tweets (Persian, Russian).

Twitturls
This site is somewhat similar to Twitturly but it focuses more on the most recent tweets which also are popular, an interface that confuses me a little. It has an advantage though, it displays popular images and videos as well. Unlike other Twitter image search engines it seem to be safe for work.

MicroBlogBuzz
While MicroBlogBuzz resembles both Twitturly and Twitturls it also shows an overview of two of the other Twitter-like microblogging sites namely Jaiku and Identica. Google has discontinued Jaiku but soon after the platform has been resurrected as an open source version. The best thing about this MicroBlogBuzz are the several time frame options. You can check out what’s popular in the last hour, today etc.

These sites are at the forefront of the Twitter social news trend. In contrast highly biased social news sites where marauding troll groups censor topics that don’t fit their world view lose ground.

Twitter is the number one place for social news by now.

You just have to know how to find the most popular news there. These tools are more than enough to achieve that.

Last updated April 26, 2010. First published: January 19, 2009.

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I’m still not entirely convinced that Facebook is useful for business and not only vanity but I’m sure some of you might point out case studies where FB made real sense. I have seen only a few of them until now.

Facebook is the most used channel when it comes to sharing online so it must make some business sense as well.

Many marketers lately argue that there is no single social media to go after for businesses trying to join the conversation. I disagree. There are 7 of them you have to join and use.

The 7 social sites every business and professional should use are:

1. Twitter
2. Facebook
3. LinkedIn
4. Delicious
5. Yahoo Answers
6. A niche social site for your industry (Sphinn for me)
7. FriendFeed

It’s true that you have to find out where you fit in best. Maybe it’s even YouTube, Flickr or StumbleUpon instead of Delicious but those 7 sites are indispensable at first to find out. You’ll never even know what’s going on when you’re not there.

These 7 sites enable you to

• join social media on a business and professional level
• meet and connect with industry peers there
• find out about industry trends and what’s popular outside your niche

More than that you’ll find out what’s popular from your niche outside of it.

I was a big proponent of StumbleUpon a year ago and I’m still active there but it’s a site which is very difficult to use for business purposes other than actually reading about business. By now I think that it’s far better to get stumbled by others “accidentally” than actually engage yourself there.

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Links is a Creative Commons image by Ravages.

After Matt Cutts’ disclosure that PageRank sculpting support has been discontinued many SEO practitioners struggle with the issue of links in comments or from User Generated Content (UGC) in general draining their PageRank again.

Matt Cutts says that good (non-spammy) outgoing links are a positive ranking factor but few people notice or care.

SEOs are still stuck in the past.

Moreover they focus on technology not conversation. It should be the other way around:

To succeed in a post Web 2.0 environment, where the social web is all-encompassing, self-evident and taken for granted you need to focus on the human factor of SEO.

Some people already argue that the E in SEO stands for experience not engine anymore. Face the facts:

• SEO is about humans not robots.
• SEO is about humans not tools.
• SEO is about users not Google.

SEO is about conversation not technology. It’s even more than that, it’s about relationships. Soon this blog will be two years old. The people I “met” online back then when I started are mostly still around and I’m part of their virtual sphere. I can be silent for a while or they might have stopped blogging in the meantime but all the time the number of my friends online is growing. Having a link means having a relationship with another human being who edits a website.

Web 2.0 allows everybody to link in a plethora of ways. You can bookmark, vote, tweet whatever, you spread the news and good resources via a myriad of channels. The channels change, it’s Friendster one day MySpace the next and Facebook a day later. The relationships stay and the links to other people stay as well. Unless you think robots, tools and Google. They can dump or ban you anytime. People can as well, but they usually don’t out of the blue. Even if they do on the Web you won’t lose 2/3 of your revenue over night.

So make sure you listen to the right people in the conversation. Then make sure to connect with them, forge a relationship, create a link.

The HTML link that shows up on your website is just a manifestation of the real link between two individuals, the person who links and the person who is linked to.

What does this mean for blog comments? I don’t care if you just link your microsite which is unrelated to my blog as long as the link between us is a real and valuable one. It will pay off for both of us, sooner or later, no matter what the robots, tools or Google have to “say”.

The only thing you must care about now more than ever considering blog comments and likewise UGC elsewhere is the quality of links. With WordPress blogs it’s easy:

• Moderate comments with links
• Moderate all comments on posts older than a week
• Do not allow links to empty pages, deep links (unless they’re relevant) and gambling/NSFW pages

Most of these things are common sense and have been practiced by most bloggers already. Also make sure to use one of the many dofollow plugins until WordPress removes the obsolete “nofollow atribute” from the default WordPress package. Using nofollow you hurt both your site and your commenters sites.

For people who want to switch off comments altogether: Why are you on the Web? The Web is about sharing or at least offering information. Consider this: Everything you publish and share might empower others and hurt you so either you risk that and reap the benefits or you go offline, no need for a website then.

Think relationships not technology and no single tweak, small or big, from Google or any other site can hurt you. Stay connected to your peers throughout the many platforms and using all the upcoming tools and never forget what really counts.

All you need is link love!

Link is a Creative Commons image by fotorita.

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Expert by Pete Prodoehl is a Creative Commons image.

In recent years and months the Web has been flooded by social media experts. They’re everywhere you move, you can’t escape them it seems. There is one problem though: Social media as such exist only for a few years.

How can you consider someone an expert who has just 2 or 3 years of experience or even less?

Some social media in the stricter sense like StumbleUpon exist since 2002 but most people, especially the marketers who refer to themselves as experts joined later on, somewhere around 2005+, in the case of SU more 2007+.

So are there true social media experts at all? Yes, there are. How can you spot them among the plethora of self proclaiming ones? It’s easy. True social media experts display the following 3 traits:

Social media experts don’t call themselves social media experts.
It’s like with every other discipline. You can call yourself specialist, professional, consultant or whatever but you can’t refer to yourself as an expert unless others do, or rather only other people can call you an expert. Otherwise you’re simply boasting. So true social media experts won’t tell you that they are experts actually. They will point of what they accomplished, how long they are using specific social media “channels” etc. They might cite others referring to them as experts in reviews or testimonials.

There is no social media.
Imagine someone calling himself media expert. What media is s/he an expert in? Print media? Radio? TV? “Multimedia”? There are journalists, photographers or scientists studying media but there are no sicla media experts because there are no unified social media. Social media is a huge term basically containing everything you do online communicating unless it’s email. So you can be a Twitter expert, Digg top user or Power-Stumbler but you can’t be possibly in all social media. Mastering even one of those sites or tools requires a huge amount of time and commitment, how do you imagine to master all? I’m a complete Facebook noob. After one year of Twitter, I’m an advanced user of it. After almost 2 years of StumbleUpon I still struggle with it despite more tan 15k stumbles.

Real social media experts don’t reply to emails or answer calls.
You can coment on their blog or reply to their tweets. You can follow them or subscribe to them but they won’t reply via media or phone. Not only because they use other media, the “social media” but also because they are overwhelmed with time consuming social media participation.  Also due to a gigantic boom in social media marketing they have potential clients flocking to them like the gold diggers to Klondike during the gold rush. There are  simply put only a few social media experts out there and the demand by an overwhelming margin surpasses the supply.

Of course I oversimplified, I might even err but I’m no social media expert myself so how can I know? ;-) This post was inspired by this rant.

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That meant more than 2000 visitors just from SU. Besides, I noticed that some people clicked on the SU link from somewhere else: Social news mashup sites like Popurls which collect all hot topics from around the net favoring social media in most cases.

I use such mashups too as they allow you to quickly scan one day’s current news without clicking too much. So I took the mashups from the referers, the mashups I used before and did some research for more. Now I present to you: The top social news mashups:

1. Popurls, the classic overview, quite popular
2. Alltop is like Popurls but for many topics, check out SEO on Alltop to test it
3. JimmyR sports a quite advanced tabbed interface and supports different media types
4. THEWEBLIST, nice design, Popurls functionality
5. Original Signal, best of Web 2.0
6. SEOmash, the only SEO news source you need ;-)
7. Qoogle, japanese Popurls version, I love to click stuff where I have no clue what it is (similar to StumbleUpon in a way)
8. I See News is a collection of global news sources minus the usual suspects (No CNN, BBC etc.)

Well, as you might notice not all of the are social news, Alltop and SEOmash e.g. are more a collection of blogs and news but all of them offer a quick overview what’s going on in the world or a particular discipline.

This post has been first published on Aug 28, 2007. It was last updated on October 15, 2010.

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