3. February 2012 by Frank Goad.

That title sounds oh, so very scintillating, doesn’t it? It comes under the heading of, “Made you look.” What is the secret? You don’t have to be Hemmingway or Ayn Rand to be a good blogger. Surprise!! The most unlikely folks have created popular blogs that have enhanced their career and expanded their world.

The secret to blogging is to: A. Go with your strengths, and; B. Write only as much as it takes. One of the things that making a living entails for me is writing, and it comes naturally. I love to play with words, ideas, a clever turn of phrase, but, to many, that’s like walking with glass shards in their shoes.

I had a manager at Lexmark by the name of Ellen Fernandez. She was a great manager: Smart, organized, able to grasp goals and make things happen. Best of all, she is a wonderful person who believes that everyone has greatness in them and working for her was a joy. One day she said, “I’m betting I could lock you in a room with instructions to write all day, and you’d be very happy.” I agreed. She said, “That would be a day of torture for me. Ask me to spend the day analyzing spreadsheets and I’d love it. I see patterns in the numbers and trends many people miss.” Nevertheless, she was a good writer and her memos were clean, to the point and well structured.

My point is, you don’t have to create a masterpiece to share quality information. Writing is like anything else: The more you do it, the more proficient you become. You exercise the language part of the brain and it gets stronger. As the saying goes, “Begun is half done.”

If you believe you are good at what you do, and it’s something you like, then share your knowledge. Someone might live a better life after learning something you shared in a blog. Don’t worry if it’s blue ribbon prose because, if your information is accurate and understandable, people will be very forgiving. Be as brief as possible, use pictures and illustrations if you have them and, if grammar is a problem, get some help. There are plenty of services online that will critique your blog and help you eliminate any errors.

Besides sharing information, blogs also help you build a body of work that can become a reference for you and others. As time goes by, you’ll see a pattern develop and it can help you think more deeply about your career and profession. So, now the secret is out, and you have something new to share.

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Posted in Social Media, FrankyGee3, Google, blogs, blogging, Frank Goad, Frank Communications, building business, The Long Tail, writing, creativity, search, Frank | Print | No Comments »

15. December 2011 by Frank Goad.

My answering machine let me know I got a call after I left last night (it’s very considerate like that). It was from “Ashley” who claims to be “… the data service provider in (my) area for Google, Yahoo and Bing … ” and that she has ” … industry openings in my area.” Of course, I need to call quickly or they’ll disappear. Oh my! I’d better jump on that. … Not.

First, it was obviously a robo call because of the stutter-start where her name was repeated twice in exactly the same way, complete with recording noises. But that’s the least insidious thing about this.

Google, Yahoo and Bing don’t have a “data service provider” (?) in my area - especially for advertising - and that is a bogus claim anyway because no one agent officially handles all three search engine companies’ advertising sales. They are competitors and in no mood to share sales. This isn’t like a car dealer who can offer multiple manufacturer’s products; search engine companies don’t sell franchises. You can become certified as an expert with their products and services, but not a franchisee.

Next, she promised ” … front page placement on all three.” That’s pretty much what the search engines promise, too, and on every other page behind it when you buy from them due to their rotation system. If she could promise that on every search without having to put a huge bid figure on my ads, then I’d be interested.

To do that requires a gigantic ad budget and probably the use of black hat techniques that, if the search engine company finds out are being employed (and they usually do - they’re way smarter than 90% of the black hat folks out there), they ban you from advertising and often scrub other valuable accounts like Google Places or Yahoo Local and often delete your account. That means whatever progress you’d made on the web with search rankings is set back; sometimes, folks find themselves back at ground zero. In reality, you can place the ads yourself very easily and certainly without the markup “Ashley” is going to tack on to your bill, should you be crazy enough to use them. Worse, they might well be trolling for credit card numbers, ready to blow up your credit.

In the end, though, buying advertising without a strategy gives results that are far below what you could get if you have a strategy. Search engine ads are only one small part of the territory you have to cover these days. Knowing which things are most likely to work for you and how to employ them the right way is where I come in. Be assured, though, this isn’t an ad for me (well, maybe a little) but, instead, a plea for you to approach advertising in a planned way. The results are much better and you’ll get a far higher return from your investment.

I’ve placed a call to “Ashley” and went into “her” voice mail. I’m betting she won’t be the one calling back. I’ll continue this saga should anyone call back. I have a lot of questions for these folks and have every suspicion they’re completely bogus. Stay tuned, crime fighters!

Posted in Google, fraud, Yahoo, Bing, black hat, Internet crime, scams, building business, business, search, search engines, cyber security, Advertising | Print | No Comments »

1. June 2011 by Frank Goad.

Your Website And Smart “Spiders”

Not too long ago, to keep your search engine rankings for your website up there, you merely had to put some content up and add a few links or a video. Not so much anymore because the spiders have been getting smarter with every passing month.

First, let’s assume you don’t know what a spider (or bot) is in search engine terms. Google, Yahoo, Bing (Microsoft) and all other search engines send out little programs that, in effect, roam the web and “crawl” over every single website they can find all over the world, and then send info on what they find back “home.” How many web pages is that?

Hold on to your hat: Google has indexed over 40 Billion web pages (not sites, but all website pages). Your site is in there, too. Google will re-index all those pages every 30-90 days, too, so, yes, you are being watched … sort of. How do they do it?

First, Google has over 1,000,000 servers! Mind boggling, and they can find anything on them almost instantly so that you can have it when you do a search. Millions of spiders are coursing over pages and sending a constant stream of info back to the servers where every jot and tittle is cataloged and made ready for search.

As if this wasn’t enough, the spiders are getting smarter every day. One of the things they “measure” is relevancy, which is based on (among other things): The sources you quote; whether it looks, sounds or “smells” like another article (meaning it might be nothing more than a copy); how reliable your sources are (popular? oft quoted?), and; how many sources you have used. Bewildered? Discouraged?

Well, don’t be. It simply means that, when you put articles and content up there, you write shorter pieces on which you do more synthesis. Having longer articles isn’t always better because the spiders are looking “into” your pieces and judging the relevancy and originality. Step up your creativity a bit, cast a bit wider net for sources and you might wind up better than before.

Posted in search engines, search, Frank Communications, Frank Goad, FrankyGee3, writing, Branding, convent, Advertising, Frank, The Long Tail, building business, Marketing | Print | No Comments »