The Buzz!
I am a relative newbie to the sport of building websites. It is very much like golf to me, both exhilarating and frustrating at the same time. I am sure that it is the same to many of you. Part of my excitement is that of new discoveries, and this sport is a never ending source of twists and turns, that can keep the wayward sportsman occupied for days on end. Unlike most sports, in this one, the rules are constantly changing, and that, in itself, is enough to keep the mind occupied.
Some of this will just be so much drivel to those of you advanced in the sport, who know all the techniques, and have mastered them. Some of it would seem astonishing to someone who had never practiced the art. The one thing, that I think really drives my interest, is the very real practice, and possibility of thinking "outside the box", and the fact that it is entirely possible for a neophyte, to score, because of the fact that he or she, is not embedded in the system. Sometimes we all get so close to our situation, to notice the obvious, and a new pair of eyes may be just the thing to shake things up. While everyone else, is speaking the same language, following the same training patterns, reading from the same rule book, a new person can come along, question everything, and lead the whole pack. I will probably never be one of those people, but it is something to think about.
I have seen many different methods of getting people to a web site. The first, and most obvious I suppose, is:
1. Optimize the meta information, and key words. I have spent a great deal of time doing this, and have had mixed results. When I go to Alexa, and check my seo by their method on some of my sites, I have a score of 95% or better, with 100% keyword relevance.
2. Advertising, which can be both on the Internet, and in the older forms of media. One of the popular ways it is done in my area, is to put up small yard signs with a pithy little saying, and the URL in bright letters, newspapers, magazines, TV, and radio are other means. On the Internet, there is direct advertising through email, which is the tech version of mail out fliers, advertising on other sites, and links. Buying links, looks very much like advertising to me, and the links are often used as an artificial means of increasing page rank, because of the way that some top search engines use to rank pages. Google is now moving to change this.
3. Buzz. Buzz is sort of, the unknown, or variable in the equation. An event that is capitalized on by a webmaster, or something of that nature. It can be naturally occurring, or the result of a well thought out plan. Boring, non creative neophytes such as me, can create a little, by writing on subjects of our expertise, and publishing this material in blogs and ezines. So far, this seems to be my best method.
When I write a story on pruning a tree, or lawncare, or pest control, or my experiences as a neophyte, Internet outsider, those pieces of my brain, are picked up by others who are trying to provide information to their customers, and they in turn make money from the adds placed on their sites, and my URL gets noticed a bit. Then people come to my site. I have noticed a lot of my stuff, when I search my keywords these days. For me, maxing out my meta and keywords, and advertising, are way back on the list, and my traffic is on a steady rise.
Have you ever checked the seo score and keyword relevance of Google, Yahoo, or any other major search engine? Try it. You will find it to be pretty low. What drives traffic to them, is the service they provide, and the buzz!
James Burns is a licensed pest control professional, has been a Certified Professional Turfgrass Manager for more than 16 years, has a lifetime of experience in horticulture and agriculture, and is the owner of Rational Environmental Solutions, an IPM based pest control company in East Texas. He also has many helpful gardening tips at http://www.texpest.com, and also has a web site on Internet topics, www.dotcomrevolt.com
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Domain Names and Original Thought
I suppose we all spend a good deal of mental energy in pursuit of useless, well, for lack of a better word, pursuits. One of my favorites is to trace the steps back to the source of what made that idea come to my mind.
I was driving along near my hometown one day, and happened upon a Taxidermy shop. The words Taxidermy Cafe, came to mind! Strange. My brain ran around in circles trying to find something to connect to, and finally, it came to me. Every time I see the word Taxidermy, it reminds me of a friend who was a Taxidermist, and had the strange habit, of chopping off little slivers of meat from the projects he was working on, as a snack during the project.
I thought, "Taxidermy Cafe". When I got home, I searched "Who Is" for the name www.taxidermycafe.com. Unsurprisingly, it was available, so I got it and the info version as well. OK, it just needed a home! I still haven't developed it, I have it on a free hosting page with some vulture vomit jokes, and the words "Eat Here, Get Gas" now, but haven't had time to work on much else. That is just a little insight into my sick mind.
I am always integrating what goes on around me, into some strange symbiotic relationship or another. My registrar, sometimes offers "dot info's"for a dollar, I told a friend, that I could build a short website for a buck, and then went online, registered builtforabuck.info, and proceeded to do it. Actually, I didn't get it for a buck, it cost me a buck and a quarter, but builtforabuckandaquarter.info just doesn't have the same ring to it.
Why am I telling you this? Well, it is my guess, that your mind works in a similar fashion, probably not as sick as mine, but at least in some of the same patterns. If you are looking for a really cool domain, following that instinct, might be a good idea, since there will be others who are thinking along the same lines.
I admit, I have what might be considered, some odd domains, but I have to think that some of them are relevant to others besides me. Otherwise, I might be accused of being an original thinker, and I don't believe any of us are all that original. Most of the time when I come up with what I think was an original thought, It turns out that Socrates, Plato, or Aristotle, stole it from me!
James Burns writes on internet and social issues from a different perspective, from his home in Tyler, Texas, and his home page can be seen at ,WWW.DOTCOMREVOLT.COM
I was driving along near my hometown one day, and happened upon a Taxidermy shop. The words Taxidermy Cafe, came to mind! Strange. My brain ran around in circles trying to find something to connect to, and finally, it came to me. Every time I see the word Taxidermy, it reminds me of a friend who was a Taxidermist, and had the strange habit, of chopping off little slivers of meat from the projects he was working on, as a snack during the project.
I thought, "Taxidermy Cafe". When I got home, I searched "Who Is" for the name www.taxidermycafe.com. Unsurprisingly, it was available, so I got it and the info version as well. OK, it just needed a home! I still haven't developed it, I have it on a free hosting page with some vulture vomit jokes, and the words "Eat Here, Get Gas" now, but haven't had time to work on much else. That is just a little insight into my sick mind.
I am always integrating what goes on around me, into some strange symbiotic relationship or another. My registrar, sometimes offers "dot info's"for a dollar, I told a friend, that I could build a short website for a buck, and then went online, registered builtforabuck.info, and proceeded to do it. Actually, I didn't get it for a buck, it cost me a buck and a quarter, but builtforabuckandaquarter.info just doesn't have the same ring to it.
Why am I telling you this? Well, it is my guess, that your mind works in a similar fashion, probably not as sick as mine, but at least in some of the same patterns. If you are looking for a really cool domain, following that instinct, might be a good idea, since there will be others who are thinking along the same lines.
I admit, I have what might be considered, some odd domains, but I have to think that some of them are relevant to others besides me. Otherwise, I might be accused of being an original thinker, and I don't believe any of us are all that original. Most of the time when I come up with what I think was an original thought, It turns out that Socrates, Plato, or Aristotle, stole it from me!
James Burns writes on internet and social issues from a different perspective, from his home in Tyler, Texas, and his home page can be seen at ,WWW.DOTCOMREVOLT.COM
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Google and the linkmongers
Google sent out a pretty clear message to the internet community concerning the purchase of links for the purpose of page rank, and as you might imagine it set off a lot of heat, but very little light. I blogged almost all night, and was amazed at the numbers of people who agreed that something should be done about linkmongoring. It has turned into page rank to the highest bidder on the web, and there are a lot of unhappy people out there right now!
As I wrote earlier in an article on the subject, something needs to be done, and apparently now, it will be done!
This should give a lot of you who have something interesting and content filled to say, a chance to have it read, until they figure out how to manipulate some other part of SEO!
Hey, by the way, check out my new site at www.dotcomrevolt.com.
As I wrote earlier in an article on the subject, something needs to be done, and apparently now, it will be done!
This should give a lot of you who have something interesting and content filled to say, a chance to have it read, until they figure out how to manipulate some other part of SEO!
Hey, by the way, check out my new site at www.dotcomrevolt.com.
Choosing Domain Names:avoidlongunreasonabledomainnames
Choosing a domain name can be a challenging and frustrating experience. It can also be a fun filled and rewarding experience, a test of your creative skills, and self revealing on a lot of different levels!
My business name is Rational Environmental Solutions, I had tried several different variations, such as replacing solutions, with services, or just calling it solutions, so that I could later add more divisions, but what finaly settled me on this variation, was that it said what I wanted it to say, and the domain, www.rationalenvironmentalsolutions.com, was available. As you have already guessed, that was not a good choice for a domain name, although as a business name, it seems to work just fine. It says what I want it to say, and it gets a good look from my home states various agencies when they are looking for eco friendly companies to do jobs for the state. It just doesn't work well as a domain name, because of it's length, and the very good chance, that it will be misspelled when typing it into a browser.
So, I went looking for another domain name, that would at least offer some idea and association to what I do. Most were just as long and unruly as the original, so I thought that since the business name said what I wanted it to say, that the domain didn't necessarily have to completely describe the business. I found the domain name TEXPEST, that describes where I am and what I do, (not, as I am sure some of you are thinking, what I am.) So TEXPEST, became my domain name. While I was searching, I ran across several others that I liked as well. Let me explain a little bit about why I did not choose them for my primary domain, but registered them anyway.
I came across my home town version of the name I chose, TYLERPEST, Since my hometown is one of the largest rose growing areas in the country, and because it has the largest Municipal rose garden in the country, it is sometimes called, the "Rose City". ROSECITYPEST was available. I live in the Eastern part of the state of Texas, so since EASTTEXASPEST, is both long and difficult, and has the double letters to contend with, I decided against that. I did however find that ETEXPEST. ETEX, being a in common use in the area, was much more appealing, but was rejected because it "could be" confusing. TYLERLAWN, was also available, but didn't say what I wanted to say. I settled on TEXPEST, because it was broad enough to cover work in the entire state, and short enough to be easily remembered and typed.
I registered the reasonably good other choices as well, to keep the competition from encroaching, and to protect my "branding". I also wanted to use them to cover a lot of other bases. When someone types a service need into a browser, they often, out of habit, type .com at the end, so if they are looking for info on a Tyler pest, and type it in as, tylerpest.com, they will go directly to a very short page that I have done, that ends something like this: : "If this is your problem, don't push the panic button, push the solution button." Bellow, or even in the sentence, the word SOLUTIONS is highlighted, because I typed the "meta" information into the html, that points to my texpest site. I did this with several of the variations, and the rest I "forwarded", using a 301 redirect, to the main website. If you want, you are of course, welcome to try it out, and see for yourself. It allowed me to say some things, in a little less of a professional tone than I would have on my website proper. (Look at www.etexpest.com, for a chuckle or two, particularly, if you live in a rural area!)
Now, when I search some of my keywords, I run across all sorts of little variations, that when clicked, will send people directly to me! When it was all said and done, I did a lot of good advertising for my business, and had a lot of fun doing it.
James Burns writes on internet and social issues from a different perspective, from his home in Tyler, Texas, and his home page can be seen at http://www.dotcomrevolt.com
My business name is Rational Environmental Solutions, I had tried several different variations, such as replacing solutions, with services, or just calling it solutions, so that I could later add more divisions, but what finaly settled me on this variation, was that it said what I wanted it to say, and the domain, www.rationalenvironmentalsolutions.com, was available. As you have already guessed, that was not a good choice for a domain name, although as a business name, it seems to work just fine. It says what I want it to say, and it gets a good look from my home states various agencies when they are looking for eco friendly companies to do jobs for the state. It just doesn't work well as a domain name, because of it's length, and the very good chance, that it will be misspelled when typing it into a browser.
So, I went looking for another domain name, that would at least offer some idea and association to what I do. Most were just as long and unruly as the original, so I thought that since the business name said what I wanted it to say, that the domain didn't necessarily have to completely describe the business. I found the domain name TEXPEST, that describes where I am and what I do, (not, as I am sure some of you are thinking, what I am.) So TEXPEST, became my domain name. While I was searching, I ran across several others that I liked as well. Let me explain a little bit about why I did not choose them for my primary domain, but registered them anyway.
I came across my home town version of the name I chose, TYLERPEST, Since my hometown is one of the largest rose growing areas in the country, and because it has the largest Municipal rose garden in the country, it is sometimes called, the "Rose City". ROSECITYPEST was available. I live in the Eastern part of the state of Texas, so since EASTTEXASPEST, is both long and difficult, and has the double letters to contend with, I decided against that. I did however find that ETEXPEST. ETEX, being a in common use in the area, was much more appealing, but was rejected because it "could be" confusing. TYLERLAWN, was also available, but didn't say what I wanted to say. I settled on TEXPEST, because it was broad enough to cover work in the entire state, and short enough to be easily remembered and typed.
I registered the reasonably good other choices as well, to keep the competition from encroaching, and to protect my "branding". I also wanted to use them to cover a lot of other bases. When someone types a service need into a browser, they often, out of habit, type .com at the end, so if they are looking for info on a Tyler pest, and type it in as, tylerpest.com, they will go directly to a very short page that I have done, that ends something like this: : "If this is your problem, don't push the panic button, push the solution button." Bellow, or even in the sentence, the word SOLUTIONS is highlighted, because I typed the "meta" information into the html, that points to my texpest site. I did this with several of the variations, and the rest I "forwarded", using a 301 redirect, to the main website. If you want, you are of course, welcome to try it out, and see for yourself. It allowed me to say some things, in a little less of a professional tone than I would have on my website proper. (Look at www.etexpest.com, for a chuckle or two, particularly, if you live in a rural area!)
Now, when I search some of my keywords, I run across all sorts of little variations, that when clicked, will send people directly to me! When it was all said and done, I did a lot of good advertising for my business, and had a lot of fun doing it.
James Burns writes on internet and social issues from a different perspective, from his home in Tyler, Texas, and his home page can be seen at http://www.dotcomrevolt.com
KISS Are You Guys In Sales Listening?
The new computer came with a very nice software package, and a lot of trial packages already installed. Some of it was virtually useless to me for my purposes, but one in particular was very helpful, so we decided to buy it. My wife, who teaches computer technology locally, sat down at the computer to do this. Thirty frustrating minutes later, she stood up, and said, "I am going to Bxxx Xxy, and I will just buy the disk!"
The problem was not the installation, nor the checkout, the difficulty that drove her to drive off to the tech shop, was maneuvering through the software companies website! The irony is utterly overwhelming to me!
We have a well educated, intelligent, well trained, multi lingual woman, having difficulty getting to the right page of a software manufacturer, which specializes in making it easier, to build and move through web pages!
I had a similar experience earlier in the week, dealing with a hosting company. The idea was to buy a short term hosting package to play with, and decide on whether or not I liked the way it worked before signing on for the long haul. I had already been burned by one company who promised the world, but only gave me a piece of it at a time, in the form of mud balls. I wanted to be more cautious before making the plunge. I bought a month of hosting.
I had a test page built up, and started trying to download, I tried the hosts provided ftp, I tried cute ftp, I tried netscape communicator, I tried others. I switched browsers, and did it over again. I did this with four browsers. I called there help line, and sat for thirty minutes listening and typing, still nothing. My wife tried, nothing!
I decided that the package was not what I needed! The company graciously offered a refund. I accepted. At first I thought it was me, then maybe the computer, or the browser, or the ftp program. I was wrong. I talked to others, on and off line, who have met with similar trouble. It is apparently widespread. Systems so convoluted, and confusing that people give up and walk away. Customer service so bad, that it seems the goal is to drive you away, and websites devised so poorly, that people leave in frustration before buying the product.
Are you guys in sales hearing this? Your products and services are becoming so difficult, that you are losing customers! The automation is great, I know it helps you sell your products more cheaply, but if it begins to drive consumers away from your goods and services, you might want to give that "live talk" program a little re thinking.
The really ironic part, was what happened after I canceled the hosting package, and went back to check on the status of my domain. I typed it into the browser, clicked the mouse, and there before my eyes, was the page I had been trying to transfer!
James Burns writes on internet and social issues from a different perspective, from his home in Tyler, Texas, and his home page can be seen at http://www.dotcomrevolt.com
The problem was not the installation, nor the checkout, the difficulty that drove her to drive off to the tech shop, was maneuvering through the software companies website! The irony is utterly overwhelming to me!
We have a well educated, intelligent, well trained, multi lingual woman, having difficulty getting to the right page of a software manufacturer, which specializes in making it easier, to build and move through web pages!
I had a similar experience earlier in the week, dealing with a hosting company. The idea was to buy a short term hosting package to play with, and decide on whether or not I liked the way it worked before signing on for the long haul. I had already been burned by one company who promised the world, but only gave me a piece of it at a time, in the form of mud balls. I wanted to be more cautious before making the plunge. I bought a month of hosting.
I had a test page built up, and started trying to download, I tried the hosts provided ftp, I tried cute ftp, I tried netscape communicator, I tried others. I switched browsers, and did it over again. I did this with four browsers. I called there help line, and sat for thirty minutes listening and typing, still nothing. My wife tried, nothing!
I decided that the package was not what I needed! The company graciously offered a refund. I accepted. At first I thought it was me, then maybe the computer, or the browser, or the ftp program. I was wrong. I talked to others, on and off line, who have met with similar trouble. It is apparently widespread. Systems so convoluted, and confusing that people give up and walk away. Customer service so bad, that it seems the goal is to drive you away, and websites devised so poorly, that people leave in frustration before buying the product.
Are you guys in sales hearing this? Your products and services are becoming so difficult, that you are losing customers! The automation is great, I know it helps you sell your products more cheaply, but if it begins to drive consumers away from your goods and services, you might want to give that "live talk" program a little re thinking.
The really ironic part, was what happened after I canceled the hosting package, and went back to check on the status of my domain. I typed it into the browser, clicked the mouse, and there before my eyes, was the page I had been trying to transfer!
James Burns writes on internet and social issues from a different perspective, from his home in Tyler, Texas, and his home page can be seen at http://www.dotcomrevolt.com
An Untapped Market
I once managed a large athletic park. It was a difficult job, fraught with all the troubles that any oversight job has, probably much like yours. From time to time, I would have the chance to give a tour of the place to someone who had never been there before. I always loved the opportunity. Being able to have a fresh set of eyes looking at your work, can be very revealing.
I would tour them around, watching their reactions, listening to their comments, and asking them questions about what they were seeing, then attempting to act on this new information to improve our service. What they saw was different from what I saw, because I was there every day, and my focus had become limited as a result. Try it at your job sometimes, you would be amazed, at what a different perspective can do to sharpen, and broaden your own focus.
The internet entities, who provide services for web users, could learn from this model. I took a tour through one of the major services, of their local small business listings, it took nine clicks, just to find my listing, and I knew where it was! I was not surprised that I had gotten no contacts through them.
A far worse plight awaits those who are not familiar, with all the technical jargon that has become so wide spread among internet based companies and their avid users. An outsider has no idea what is being said, and learning the stuff is worse than any language that I have ever tackled, and I know several!
With all the talk of domain names, "URL's", "ISP", "SE", "SEO", "Nameservers", "ftp", "html", "java script", etc (those are the easy ones) anyone wanting to build a family website is left to find a company with a nice set of templates, and even then, much explanation is in order.
What I propose, is that providers of internet services, work on making the language a little easier to understand. Call one of your neighbors over and have them shop your business services. Find the most low tech human being you can find, and build your services around them! I really believe, that if this was done, many companies would be surprised at just how far from the reality of day to day life, that they have slipped.
There are many people who do not venture onto the internet, because of this gap in information. There are many more, who are interested, and may use their computers for e mail, or some searching, who would love to venture in further, but who will not do so, because of the language barrier.
Why should this be of interest to you if you are inside the business? Simple. You are missing out on an untapped market, thousands of potential customers, because you are speaking a different language!
I would tour them around, watching their reactions, listening to their comments, and asking them questions about what they were seeing, then attempting to act on this new information to improve our service. What they saw was different from what I saw, because I was there every day, and my focus had become limited as a result. Try it at your job sometimes, you would be amazed, at what a different perspective can do to sharpen, and broaden your own focus.
The internet entities, who provide services for web users, could learn from this model. I took a tour through one of the major services, of their local small business listings, it took nine clicks, just to find my listing, and I knew where it was! I was not surprised that I had gotten no contacts through them.
A far worse plight awaits those who are not familiar, with all the technical jargon that has become so wide spread among internet based companies and their avid users. An outsider has no idea what is being said, and learning the stuff is worse than any language that I have ever tackled, and I know several!
With all the talk of domain names, "URL's", "ISP", "SE", "SEO", "Nameservers", "ftp", "html", "java script", etc (those are the easy ones) anyone wanting to build a family website is left to find a company with a nice set of templates, and even then, much explanation is in order.
What I propose, is that providers of internet services, work on making the language a little easier to understand. Call one of your neighbors over and have them shop your business services. Find the most low tech human being you can find, and build your services around them! I really believe, that if this was done, many companies would be surprised at just how far from the reality of day to day life, that they have slipped.
There are many people who do not venture onto the internet, because of this gap in information. There are many more, who are interested, and may use their computers for e mail, or some searching, who would love to venture in further, but who will not do so, because of the language barrier.
Why should this be of interest to you if you are inside the business? Simple. You are missing out on an untapped market, thousands of potential customers, because you are speaking a different language!
Some Good News From the Front
I had been bemoaning the fact that many search engines seem to give high rank to pages with little content, many ads, lots of paid links, and some obvious to readers, but not to bots, paid ads cleverly disguised as information links, while many deserving sites, full of good info, but not as seo savy, went virtually unnoticed, and then, a bit of information popped up in an seo newsletter that cheered me up a little. They are taking notice! There is some sanity in the search engine world after all!
This should really come as no surprise, since most of us think very similarly, either as a result of our Aristotelian thought training, or just a general sense of fair play, which seems to pervade much human thought in an open society. In other words, if I am thinking about it, there must be others doing the same.
Comments made to Rand Fishkin, by Vanesa Fox of Google, seem to indicate that Google is trying to pay more attention to at least one, and it looks like more, of the concerns many of us share. In particular, the issue of paid links. Paid links, seem to be a part of what looks a lot like "paid page rank", and this is not always a cash exchange, it may come in the form of mutual back scratching, or what used to be called the "Old Boy" or "Good Old Boy" network or system.
In the system as it is at the moment, a website may be penalized for linking to it's own, or other informational sites which might share certain key information content, or even appear to be link farms, while pages with little relevant information, might be ranked higher due to having great links. I understand the need to do this in the current "algorithm" structure since a pages importance is ranked by it's perceived popularity, and hence, it's usefulness, but if popularity can be bought, or faked, as it obviously is, then the system needs adjusting.
This seems to be what Google is doing.
Here is another thing that the bots inside my head tell me that there is a need to look into. If someone writes a useful article on a given subject, which is then picked up by other publishers, or is quoted from extensively, in very short order, it may propagate itself throughout the Internet, and become a liability to publishers, and the original writer, because of "duplicate content", and could eventually become a problem, for writers, ezines, and news aggregators as well. This may encourage new content, or newly redesigned content, but not necessarily relevant or important content.
The duplicate content issue needs to be revisited, and revised. It can be skirted by the linguistically clever. Content can be manipulated by being professorial on one hand and doing the old "fatback and grits" routine on the other. True, it may appeal to different audiences, and therefore may be valid in some respects, which only serves to strengthen the above stated opinions. If it is relevant, it is relevant, and it may be relevant to different people, in different ways, so why punish it's author, and publishers for disseminating it widely in it's original form?
If an article on irrigation is relevant to the contractor who does installations, it may also be relevant to the home owner having the system installed, who will look for the information in a different place. Why is it bad for this information to be both in the "Irrigation Contractors Weekly" and in the "Wary Home Owners Corner"? It may be relevant to both, but they will search for it in different ways.
Well, at least, Google seems to be taking some steps to level at least part of the playing field, and the system is always in a state of flux, so there is always hope that the changes will be good ones.
This should really come as no surprise, since most of us think very similarly, either as a result of our Aristotelian thought training, or just a general sense of fair play, which seems to pervade much human thought in an open society. In other words, if I am thinking about it, there must be others doing the same.
Comments made to Rand Fishkin, by Vanesa Fox of Google, seem to indicate that Google is trying to pay more attention to at least one, and it looks like more, of the concerns many of us share. In particular, the issue of paid links. Paid links, seem to be a part of what looks a lot like "paid page rank", and this is not always a cash exchange, it may come in the form of mutual back scratching, or what used to be called the "Old Boy" or "Good Old Boy" network or system.
In the system as it is at the moment, a website may be penalized for linking to it's own, or other informational sites which might share certain key information content, or even appear to be link farms, while pages with little relevant information, might be ranked higher due to having great links. I understand the need to do this in the current "algorithm" structure since a pages importance is ranked by it's perceived popularity, and hence, it's usefulness, but if popularity can be bought, or faked, as it obviously is, then the system needs adjusting.
This seems to be what Google is doing.
Here is another thing that the bots inside my head tell me that there is a need to look into. If someone writes a useful article on a given subject, which is then picked up by other publishers, or is quoted from extensively, in very short order, it may propagate itself throughout the Internet, and become a liability to publishers, and the original writer, because of "duplicate content", and could eventually become a problem, for writers, ezines, and news aggregators as well. This may encourage new content, or newly redesigned content, but not necessarily relevant or important content.
The duplicate content issue needs to be revisited, and revised. It can be skirted by the linguistically clever. Content can be manipulated by being professorial on one hand and doing the old "fatback and grits" routine on the other. True, it may appeal to different audiences, and therefore may be valid in some respects, which only serves to strengthen the above stated opinions. If it is relevant, it is relevant, and it may be relevant to different people, in different ways, so why punish it's author, and publishers for disseminating it widely in it's original form?
If an article on irrigation is relevant to the contractor who does installations, it may also be relevant to the home owner having the system installed, who will look for the information in a different place. Why is it bad for this information to be both in the "Irrigation Contractors Weekly" and in the "Wary Home Owners Corner"? It may be relevant to both, but they will search for it in different ways.
Well, at least, Google seems to be taking some steps to level at least part of the playing field, and the system is always in a state of flux, so there is always hope that the changes will be good ones.
Friday, April 13, 2007
An Untapped Market!
I once managed a large athletic park. It was a difficult job, fraught with all the troubles that any oversight job has, probably much like yours. From time to time, I would have the chance to give a tour of the place to someone who had never been there before. I always loved the opportunity. Being able to have a fresh set of eyes looking at your work, can be very revealing.
I would tour them around, watching their reactions, listening to their comments, and asking them questions about what they were seeing, then attempting to act on this new information to improve our service. What they saw was different from what I saw, because I was there every day, and my focus had become limited as a result. Try it at your job sometimes, you would be amazed, at what a different perspective can do to sharpen, and broaden your own focus.
The internet entities, who provide services for web users, could learn from this model. I took a tour through one of the major services, of their local small business listings, it took nine clicks, just to find my listing, and I knew where it was! I was not surprised that I had gotten no contacts through them.
A far worse plight awaits those who are not familiar, with all the technical jargon that has become so wide spread among internet based companies and their avid users. An outsider has no idea what is being said, and learning the stuff is worse than any language that I have ever tackled, and I know several!
With all the talk of domain names, "URL's", "ISP", "SE", "SEO", "Nameservers", "ftp", "html", "java script", etc (those are the easy ones) anyone wanting to build a family website is left to find a company with a nice set of templates, and even then, much explanation is in order.
What I propose, is that providers of internet services, work on making the language a little easier to understand. Call one of your neighbors over and have them shop your business services. Find the most low tech human being you can find, and build your services around them! I really believe, that if this was done, many companies would be surprised at just how far from the reality of day to day life, that they have slipped.
There are many people who do not venture onto the internet, because of this gap in information. There are many more, who are interested, and may use their computers for e mail, or some searching, who would love to venture in further, but who will not do so, because of the language barrier.
Why should this be of interest to you if you are inside the business? Simple. You are missing out on an untapped market, thousands of potential customers, because you are speaking a different language!
I would tour them around, watching their reactions, listening to their comments, and asking them questions about what they were seeing, then attempting to act on this new information to improve our service. What they saw was different from what I saw, because I was there every day, and my focus had become limited as a result. Try it at your job sometimes, you would be amazed, at what a different perspective can do to sharpen, and broaden your own focus.
The internet entities, who provide services for web users, could learn from this model. I took a tour through one of the major services, of their local small business listings, it took nine clicks, just to find my listing, and I knew where it was! I was not surprised that I had gotten no contacts through them.
A far worse plight awaits those who are not familiar, with all the technical jargon that has become so wide spread among internet based companies and their avid users. An outsider has no idea what is being said, and learning the stuff is worse than any language that I have ever tackled, and I know several!
With all the talk of domain names, "URL's", "ISP", "SE", "SEO", "Nameservers", "ftp", "html", "java script", etc (those are the easy ones) anyone wanting to build a family website is left to find a company with a nice set of templates, and even then, much explanation is in order.
What I propose, is that providers of internet services, work on making the language a little easier to understand. Call one of your neighbors over and have them shop your business services. Find the most low tech human being you can find, and build your services around them! I really believe, that if this was done, many companies would be surprised at just how far from the reality of day to day life, that they have slipped.
There are many people who do not venture onto the internet, because of this gap in information. There are many more, who are interested, and may use their computers for e mail, or some searching, who would love to venture in further, but who will not do so, because of the language barrier.
Why should this be of interest to you if you are inside the business? Simple. You are missing out on an untapped market, thousands of potential customers, because you are speaking a different language!
The Bots In My Head
I had been bemoaning the fact that many search engines seem to rank pages with little content, many ads, lots of paid links, and some obvious to readers, but not to bots, paid ads cleverly disguised as information links were getting great "page rank" while many deserving sites, full of good info, but not as seo savy, went virtually unnoticed, and then, a bit of information popped up in an seo newsletter that cheered me up a little. They are taking notice! There is some sanity in the search engine world after all!
This should really come as no surprise, since most of us think very similarly, either as a result of our Aristotelian thought training, or just a general sense of fair play, which seems to pervade much human thought in an open society. In other words, if I am thinking about it, there must be others doing the same.
Comments made to Rand Fishkin, by Vanesa Fox of Google, seem to indicate that Google is trying to pay more attention to at least one, and it looks like more, of the concerns many of us share. In particular, the issue of paid links. Paid links, seem to be a part of what looks a lot like "paid page rank", and this is not always a cash exchange, it may come in the form of mutual back scratching, or what used to be called the "Old Boy" or "Good Old Boy" network or system.
In the system as it is at the moment, a website may be penalized for linking to it's own, or other informational sites which might share certain key information content, or even appear to be link farms, while pages with little relevant information, might be ranked higher due to having great links. I understand the need to do this in the current "algorithm" structure since a pages importance is ranked by it's perceived popularity, and hence, it's usefulness, but if popularity can be bought, or faked, as it obviously is, then the system needs adjusting.
This seems to be what Google is doing.
Here is another thing that the bots inside my head tell me that there is a need to look into. If someone writes a useful article on a given subject, which is then picked up by other publishers, or is quoted from extensively, in very short order, it may propagate itself throughout the Internet, and become a liability to publishers, and the original writer, because of "duplicate content", and could eventually become a problem, for writers, ezines, and news aggregators as well. This may encourage new content, or newly redesigned content, but not necessarily relevant or important content.
The duplicate content issue needs to be revisited, and revised. It can be skirted by the linguistically clever. Content can be manipulated by being professorial on one hand and doing the old "fatback and grits" routine on the other. True, it may appeal to different audiences, and therefore may be valid in some respects, which only serves to strengthen the above stated opinions. If it is relevant, it is relevant, and it may be relevant to different people, in different ways, so why punish it's author, and publishers for disseminating it widely in it's original form?
If an article on irrigation is relevant to the contractor who does installations, it may also be relevant to the home owner having the system installed, who will look for the information in a different place. Why is it bad for this information to be both in the "Irrigation Contractors Weekly" and in the "Wary Home Owners Corner"? It may be relevant to both, but they will search for it in different ways.
Well, at least, Google seems to be taking some steps to level at least part of the playing field, and the system is always in a state of flux, so there is always hope that the changes will be good ones.
This should really come as no surprise, since most of us think very similarly, either as a result of our Aristotelian thought training, or just a general sense of fair play, which seems to pervade much human thought in an open society. In other words, if I am thinking about it, there must be others doing the same.
Comments made to Rand Fishkin, by Vanesa Fox of Google, seem to indicate that Google is trying to pay more attention to at least one, and it looks like more, of the concerns many of us share. In particular, the issue of paid links. Paid links, seem to be a part of what looks a lot like "paid page rank", and this is not always a cash exchange, it may come in the form of mutual back scratching, or what used to be called the "Old Boy" or "Good Old Boy" network or system.
In the system as it is at the moment, a website may be penalized for linking to it's own, or other informational sites which might share certain key information content, or even appear to be link farms, while pages with little relevant information, might be ranked higher due to having great links. I understand the need to do this in the current "algorithm" structure since a pages importance is ranked by it's perceived popularity, and hence, it's usefulness, but if popularity can be bought, or faked, as it obviously is, then the system needs adjusting.
This seems to be what Google is doing.
Here is another thing that the bots inside my head tell me that there is a need to look into. If someone writes a useful article on a given subject, which is then picked up by other publishers, or is quoted from extensively, in very short order, it may propagate itself throughout the Internet, and become a liability to publishers, and the original writer, because of "duplicate content", and could eventually become a problem, for writers, ezines, and news aggregators as well. This may encourage new content, or newly redesigned content, but not necessarily relevant or important content.
The duplicate content issue needs to be revisited, and revised. It can be skirted by the linguistically clever. Content can be manipulated by being professorial on one hand and doing the old "fatback and grits" routine on the other. True, it may appeal to different audiences, and therefore may be valid in some respects, which only serves to strengthen the above stated opinions. If it is relevant, it is relevant, and it may be relevant to different people, in different ways, so why punish it's author, and publishers for disseminating it widely in it's original form?
If an article on irrigation is relevant to the contractor who does installations, it may also be relevant to the home owner having the system installed, who will look for the information in a different place. Why is it bad for this information to be both in the "Irrigation Contractors Weekly" and in the "Wary Home Owners Corner"? It may be relevant to both, but they will search for it in different ways.
Well, at least, Google seems to be taking some steps to level at least part of the playing field, and the system is always in a state of flux, so there is always hope that the changes will be good ones.
Thursday, April 5, 2007
SEO, Webolitics, and Link Lodges
I got another lesson in SEO today, It wasn't meant to be, it was a rejection of sorts, I think that it was more of a lesson in webolitics.
My main site for my business is a paid site, but I had been writing a lot of stuff on landscaping, lawn and garden, things of that nature quite frankly, because I get a lot of questions and that provided the topics. It is something akin to an online form letter or FAQ. How do I do this? "Well, Mary, you first need to..."
I bought some extra domains, that I had forwarded to my main site, and thought since I get free ad supported hosting, I can just put the articles on some of those pages, dress them up the same, and link to them by a series of buttons: Lawn, Garden, IPM, Landscape, etc. My Main site space is limited, so it seemed like a good Idea.
Today I got a message from a guy, who said that he wouldn't list my business site on his "link lodge"(my term) because it was X0 XXXXY ad supported, and it was a link farm. I found that to be pretty ironic!
Now, this dosesn't really affect my business. That is the main thing. It did however bother me, and I spent the rest of the evening thinking about why it did.
As I was browsing the net using some of my keywords to see what condition my condition was in, I ran across a lot of pages with my main URL featured prominently, and snooped around a bit.
I was mildly surprised to find that many of the links were to either articles I had written on a variety of subjects, quotations directly from some of my hobby sites, (which are ad supported), and sections from one or the other of my blogs, almost all being used on pages with pretty high page rank, full of ads, using my content, and the content of others to sell ad space. This is how business is done on the internet, and it is beneficial to all of us. I get a little name recognition and some links to my home page from people who are interested in what I do and write about, because it helps them sell ads or products, they get to target ads related to what I have to say, the customer gets information for free, and a chance to browse products from advertisers, that suit their area of interest, and everyone is happy! The arrangement is good for all.
In the course of doing this, I discovered the source of my irritation.
I write the content that helps my customers, and others, to know how to plant a tree, or prune a tree, or save money on fertilizer, or anything else, publish it on an ad supported site, free of charge, and it is looked down upon by many internet purist snobs because of the ad support, while someone else can take the material that I have written, build a page around it, and fill it up with ads, for their reasonable, personal gain, and that is considered ok. Isn't it actually the same thing?
It was my sense of fair play that was insulted.
There may have been a hint of something else within the guys email. He chose to mention my registrar and host pretty prominently in his letter. As I read it, I could almost see the sneer on his face as he typed in my registrars name. If, as I suspect, some sites are down graded, because of a companies dislike for another, that would seem to be unfair to the site owner. I personally love the way my host does business, they offer a lot of free stuff, which makes it possible for some people, who's valid thoughts might otherwise be left out of the mix, to have a voice!
dotcomrevolt.com
My main site for my business is a paid site, but I had been writing a lot of stuff on landscaping, lawn and garden, things of that nature quite frankly, because I get a lot of questions and that provided the topics. It is something akin to an online form letter or FAQ. How do I do this? "Well, Mary, you first need to..."
I bought some extra domains, that I had forwarded to my main site, and thought since I get free ad supported hosting, I can just put the articles on some of those pages, dress them up the same, and link to them by a series of buttons: Lawn, Garden, IPM, Landscape, etc. My Main site space is limited, so it seemed like a good Idea.
Today I got a message from a guy, who said that he wouldn't list my business site on his "link lodge"(my term) because it was X0 XXXXY ad supported, and it was a link farm. I found that to be pretty ironic!
Now, this dosesn't really affect my business. That is the main thing. It did however bother me, and I spent the rest of the evening thinking about why it did.
As I was browsing the net using some of my keywords to see what condition my condition was in, I ran across a lot of pages with my main URL featured prominently, and snooped around a bit.
I was mildly surprised to find that many of the links were to either articles I had written on a variety of subjects, quotations directly from some of my hobby sites, (which are ad supported), and sections from one or the other of my blogs, almost all being used on pages with pretty high page rank, full of ads, using my content, and the content of others to sell ad space. This is how business is done on the internet, and it is beneficial to all of us. I get a little name recognition and some links to my home page from people who are interested in what I do and write about, because it helps them sell ads or products, they get to target ads related to what I have to say, the customer gets information for free, and a chance to browse products from advertisers, that suit their area of interest, and everyone is happy! The arrangement is good for all.
In the course of doing this, I discovered the source of my irritation.
I write the content that helps my customers, and others, to know how to plant a tree, or prune a tree, or save money on fertilizer, or anything else, publish it on an ad supported site, free of charge, and it is looked down upon by many internet purist snobs because of the ad support, while someone else can take the material that I have written, build a page around it, and fill it up with ads, for their reasonable, personal gain, and that is considered ok. Isn't it actually the same thing?
It was my sense of fair play that was insulted.
There may have been a hint of something else within the guys email. He chose to mention my registrar and host pretty prominently in his letter. As I read it, I could almost see the sneer on his face as he typed in my registrars name. If, as I suspect, some sites are down graded, because of a companies dislike for another, that would seem to be unfair to the site owner. I personally love the way my host does business, they offer a lot of free stuff, which makes it possible for some people, who's valid thoughts might otherwise be left out of the mix, to have a voice!
dotcomrevolt.com
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
A Trip Down the Rabbit Hole
When I built my first website it was for the purpose of having a place for my customers, both potential and actual to go to check out my services. I was not seeking to make any ad money, or to max out my SEO, just an online catalogue of what I do for the public to earn my daily bread.
The site works pretty well for this, I drop off some of my cards at local, related businesses, and they are handed out to people needing my service, they go to the site, and if they like what they see, they call or email me, and I give them a bid. Standard business practices. I needed the site to explain a little about my philosophy, since my business is a little out of the ordinary for this industry. A nice arrangement for all.
Winter is a slow time for me, so I found myself in front of the computer screen a lot, working out details, laying the groundwork for the springtime. I picked up some domains related to my main site, and started down the rabbit hole. I put together a site or two for information that I thought my customers could use, Thinking it would be helpful and promotional at the same time. Then someone suggested "monitizing" my sites, so I figured out how to add, adsense. In a few weeks, I was making enough to help pay for my little winter time project.
I built some more sites. I found some affiliates, I began to put ads on for my friends, and their businesses. I built more sites. To promote the sites, I began to write more. More writing meant more content, so, you guessed it, I built more sites!
It hasn't gone too far, only about a hundred domains, and something over thirty sites, (Hi, I am James, and I am a webaholic.) but it all takes time, and I will soon be running short on that, and am now scrambling to get them into good shape, and make them easy to maintain, so that I can manage them properly when the time gets short.
The thing that really amazes me, is that while my sites, and other sites rich in content, get some traffic, and may even get to number one on specific key words, they still have no page rank. I know that some of my keywords are a little out of the ordinary, but they are honest. I am not complaining, just observing.
I can say most of this as a novice, and an "almost" disinterested bystander, as I said, my sites are doing what I need them to do and more. I never expected to use the sites for advertising my business, or to make advertising money. To me, they are more like books than billboards.
The current trend of link buying and selling, which reminds me of junior high school and the kid who was always trying to leverage friendship with money, the use of surgically accurate advertising, come very close, to buying page rank, and I think it actually crosses the line sometimes. I see a huge number of sites, with links which are obviously placed there for remuneration, purporting to be directories of one type or another, with two or three lines of dubious text, then a line of ads, more links, and a few lines of text, which max out my google page rank bar, while other, truly informative and instructional sites, don't even break the white.
Perhaps we need separate ranking systems for the two types of pages, but apparently the bots can't tell the difference. I was lead to believe that the search engines ranked sites based on content relevance, looked with an evil eye, upon pages loaded with outgoing links, looked for keyword relevance in the text, and looked down on duplicate content, but I suppose you can say the same thing over and over, if you say it with different words. You can say that they get better ranking than other sites, because they get more traffic, I counter, that without the page rank, some of them would be unknown!
I have a lot of sites, which share some basic content, but it doesn't worry me, because my goal is to get the information to my customers, who will in all likelihood be typing in the information from a business card. I have already noticed that some of the smaller search engines favor one site, over another, this is fine, both sites will get some traffic, my customers will get what they need.
It is comforting to know, that I am getting what I need from the sites, without having to stoop to deceptive practices. If all goes the way that the search engines say that it will, my sites will eventually pick up, and the rank will do the same. Time and content are great equalizers.
The site works pretty well for this, I drop off some of my cards at local, related businesses, and they are handed out to people needing my service, they go to the site, and if they like what they see, they call or email me, and I give them a bid. Standard business practices. I needed the site to explain a little about my philosophy, since my business is a little out of the ordinary for this industry. A nice arrangement for all.
Winter is a slow time for me, so I found myself in front of the computer screen a lot, working out details, laying the groundwork for the springtime. I picked up some domains related to my main site, and started down the rabbit hole. I put together a site or two for information that I thought my customers could use, Thinking it would be helpful and promotional at the same time. Then someone suggested "monitizing" my sites, so I figured out how to add, adsense. In a few weeks, I was making enough to help pay for my little winter time project.
I built some more sites. I found some affiliates, I began to put ads on for my friends, and their businesses. I built more sites. To promote the sites, I began to write more. More writing meant more content, so, you guessed it, I built more sites!
It hasn't gone too far, only about a hundred domains, and something over thirty sites, (Hi, I am James, and I am a webaholic.) but it all takes time, and I will soon be running short on that, and am now scrambling to get them into good shape, and make them easy to maintain, so that I can manage them properly when the time gets short.
The thing that really amazes me, is that while my sites, and other sites rich in content, get some traffic, and may even get to number one on specific key words, they still have no page rank. I know that some of my keywords are a little out of the ordinary, but they are honest. I am not complaining, just observing.
I can say most of this as a novice, and an "almost" disinterested bystander, as I said, my sites are doing what I need them to do and more. I never expected to use the sites for advertising my business, or to make advertising money. To me, they are more like books than billboards.
The current trend of link buying and selling, which reminds me of junior high school and the kid who was always trying to leverage friendship with money, the use of surgically accurate advertising, come very close, to buying page rank, and I think it actually crosses the line sometimes. I see a huge number of sites, with links which are obviously placed there for remuneration, purporting to be directories of one type or another, with two or three lines of dubious text, then a line of ads, more links, and a few lines of text, which max out my google page rank bar, while other, truly informative and instructional sites, don't even break the white.
Perhaps we need separate ranking systems for the two types of pages, but apparently the bots can't tell the difference. I was lead to believe that the search engines ranked sites based on content relevance, looked with an evil eye, upon pages loaded with outgoing links, looked for keyword relevance in the text, and looked down on duplicate content, but I suppose you can say the same thing over and over, if you say it with different words. You can say that they get better ranking than other sites, because they get more traffic, I counter, that without the page rank, some of them would be unknown!
I have a lot of sites, which share some basic content, but it doesn't worry me, because my goal is to get the information to my customers, who will in all likelihood be typing in the information from a business card. I have already noticed that some of the smaller search engines favor one site, over another, this is fine, both sites will get some traffic, my customers will get what they need.
It is comforting to know, that I am getting what I need from the sites, without having to stoop to deceptive practices. If all goes the way that the search engines say that it will, my sites will eventually pick up, and the rank will do the same. Time and content are great equalizers.
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