OVBlogger: Blogging and SEO

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So, I’m here sitting at Michael Penland’s JV & Internet Marketing Super Conference listening to Howie Schwartz. I remember him from GDI days when I didn’t know what an upline sponsor was. He’s come a long way.

But what’s making me pleased right now is that he’s talking about what I do. SEO, Web 2.0 and such. Here’s something I already knew… Page Rank means bupkiss.

Here’s something else I already knew… Web 2.0 is where it’s at. He says that someday Google traffic will be Bonus traffic, meaning Web 2.0 will rule, and search is just gravy. Hmm… What I’ve been saying for the past 6 months or so.

Content sites, bookmarking sites, Facebook, Twitter… It’s all good, people.

But here’s something interesting. He says that duplicate content doesn’t matter. That’s new. And I’m guessing he’s right because of something I saw on Social Marketing Central  a few weeks ago. Someone said that he’s been putting dupe content on like 10 blogs and all of them are being ranked.

What’s that say?

Only matters if it’s on your own website. I know that’s true because our position dropped like a stone on one site because someone had posted the same articles I was writing on the blog to the front page. BOOM! Gone in sixty seconds, and as soon as I nuked the dupe stuff, we came back to #3.

Interesting. Very interesting.

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I saw a rumor in Facebook that says Google is dancing.

(For the non-SEO folks, that means they’re brewing up a new algorithm.)

Hmm…

That could be good.

That could be bad.

It may have something to do with the social aspects of the web these days, which I think is pretty smart. I’ve said it here before (and elsewhere) that it will one day become more about what the people think is good and want more of than what the spiders think.

Maybe Google will become like a Nielsen’s rating kind of company. You know, it’s a staid marketing tactic, right?

FIGURE OUT WHAT THE PEOPLE WANT AND THEN, GIVE IT TO THEM.

Interesting to speculate on what will happen, but of course, it’s all just speculation. We’ll have to see what Google’s change will bring.

I’m hoping it’s something that leans toward sites that are legitimately involved with social marketing. That would be cool. I love that end of things, and have been working in that milieu for about three years now.

‘course I was late to the game. Web 2.0 was really coined in 2004 by Tim O’Reilly of O’Reilly Media. But I remember having a Del.icio.us account wow… about three years ago, I guess.

Anyway, as I’ve been saying, social marketing is going to play a huge roll in search. I can’t wait to see how it all plays out.

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Signed up for a cool new site today–Social Marketing Central, which comes from the Friday Traffic Report’s Jack Humphrey, where else? So, yeah… I really enjoy his kind of stuff, and it’s always top notch.

So, Social Marketing Central is really a Ning network site, which is pretty cool, but it connects you with other Social Marketing buffs. You can check it out and join at:

http://socialauthority.ning.com/

You’ll get your own page, and you can add videos, and photos, invite friends, and all the other stuff you like to do at social sites around the ‘Net. This group also has a forum and a direct link to Jack’s Blog Talk Radio. If you like Web 2.0, you’ll enjoy this site, no doubt about it.

I’m going to hang out there for a while. I’m hoping to meet other Web 2.0-aphiles and learn some tips and tricks… oh, and maybe give some away while I’m at it. Let you know how it does for social marketing in about a month or so, after I learn whether it has potential for business or it’s just a fun place to be. I figure I can’t lose, right?

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Can you tell? I mean, I’m just enthralled with all the cool things you can do, right? You can bookmark, network, Tweet, Tumbl, or blog and if you work them all together, they become a powerful traffic machine!

About three or four months ago, for a hoot, I set up a bunch of sites about cats. I love ‘em. I have two and have always had them around and thought it would be a lot of fun gathering material for them. Well, I was right! It was fun setting the stuff up. And it was like a test. I wanted to see if I could make Web 2.0 work for me in a niche.

I have a hub at HubPages, a Squidoo Lens, a couple of blogs about cats, and even a wiki. All full of fun content and information about the different cat breeds. Check out Captivating Cat Breeds, if you’re curious.

Once in a while I’ll add something, but I really haven’t done much to the sites, as you’ll see. But here’s the cool thing: I just realized that the system is getting traffic! And they’re just sitting there.

I didn’t do much about monetization because that wasn’t really my intent. I just wanted to have fun and so… Duh. I never realized that any of these sites would become popular. I mean, they’re not tearing up the track yet, but if I build them out, I can see that they will.

Next thing on Pat’s agenda: Find cat products that pay. Ha! Are there such things? Yes. I’m thinking a brass kitty bed or an automatic litter box that never smells might do the trick. (Is there such a thing?) LOL I’ll find something.

The point is, don’t rule out Web 2.0 when you’re marketing. If you’re not using it, you’re nuts! You don’t have to do a lot for the content sites like HubPages or Squidoo or any of them. If you don’t want to write articles, get someone to do it for you. I did, and I’m a writer! But who has time for fun like that? Har.

Create a whole new set of domains for what you want to do, and then, set up a systematic circle of sites so that you’ll get traffic and visitors. Like, link your Hubs to your blogs and to the wiki, for example. Here’s the thing… Most of the traffic is coming from organic search! I’m not paying a dime and like I said, I’m not really doing a whole lot about these.

Maybe I should huh? I’m on a new mission to be Cat Woman.

What? Someone already did that? Sheesh.

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Not me!

Really.

I mean, I totally love Twitter and enjoy seeing what other folks are up to all day with the Firefox plugin TwitterFox. It’s rad because I can quickly see it just by turning my attention (not even my whole head) for a split second and then, it’s over. Or, I can reply with a snarky “me” (yes, I’m a snark in real life) comment or whatever.

Generally, I only comment on other people’s Tweets throughout the day, though they have to be important. I mean, I’m picky. Really. John Reese was in a car accident in Greece! Worth a Tweet? I think so. “Hope you’re OK.” Simple. He had to make a “get the heck off the road fast move,” says he. And on with my day.

But I usually reserve my Tweets for blog posts or something cool like being interviewed by Early to Rise (which I was for the second time last week, BTW). And I don’t spend a lot of time messing with Twitter, really, because I have too much work to do.

Here’s the thing, though, and it really fries my bananas…

Some people Tweet about every stupid thing under the sun. I mean, I really don’t give a hoot what you ate for breakfast unless it’s something totally, incredibly funny or awesome. I mean, if you’re in Kawabunga and eat a tarantula or some monkey brains… Hey, that’s worth a Tweet.

But if you had cereal. Keep it to yourself, K?

So, don’t be a Twitter Whore. (I didn’t make that up, but the Friday Traffic Report had a cute video about that that I went to watch at: http://www.jackhumphrey.com/fridaytrafficreport/blog-marketing-videos/how-not-to-use-twitter-to-generate-traffic/. (Whew! Hey, Jack… That’s one long-ass URL, BTW)

Totally cracked me up, and then it dawned on me that people like that make me nuts. If you don’t have something really, really cool to Tweet about… tell your mom or your cat or someone who really wants to know this stuff, K?

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Wow! I just finished watching a video at StomperNet about Hello.txt by Paul Colligan. What a time saver! If you belong to as many social sites as I do, it totally rocks.

You can post your snippets to Twitter, Pownce, MySpace, Facebook, LinkdIn, Plaxo, and a host of other social sites all at the same time.

So, for example, I’m going to post to these sites about this blog post so that folks can check it out.

In the olden days… like, um, yesterday… I had to tweet at Twitter, then go to Facebook and post there, then go to Pownce, etc. Now, I can just go to Hello.txt and have it posted at all my favorite social sites all at the same time.

Love it!

Web 2.0 is really cool, and a whole lot of fun. I feel that the Web is leaning toward these sites that people want in a very big way. So, how will this affect search?

I’m thinking a LOT. Look at Google. What can you type into the search bar that doesn’t come back with Wikipedia in the first position? Well, I know there are keywords that don’t, but you know what I mean. Wikipedia gets a huge nod from Google, and nothing says that everything IN Wikipedia is 100% fact. I mean, kids are basing term papers on that kind of research, and it kind of scares me because it’s very dangerous to the truth.

No doubt, a big portion of Wikipedia is good, solid information, but as a very experienced researcher, it just isn’t a solid source. I’d never base anything on Wikipedia. I might use it as a quick idea starter, so that I can go to a respected source and get more information, but anyway, my point is, Wikipedia is at the top of Google because people love it. It gets lots of “votes” from people linking to it, good or not-so-factual.

So, what will happen? Do you think that the people-driven sites will take the place of Google? Will we actually be saying, “Hey, Google or whomever, we search in these social sites for news and information instead of yours because we know that other people think highly of them,”? And nothing’s better than good old word-of-mouth recommendation, eh?

I see social sites taking over in a big way, and I’m totally enjoying it, but remember, it just ain’t gospel.

Pass it on.

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So, have you seen the new “social” browser yet?

It’s called Flock and it’s pretty cool, if you spend your life in the trenches of Web 2.0 every day.

I like it, but not for work. It has some cool features. Like, you can see who’s Twittering immediately in your sidebar. Or, what’s happening on Facebook. Or even Pownce or Digg. Pretty sweet. You can also see several different feeds in “My World” which comes up as a single page in your browser window.

But one feature I really like is that you can search for videos on You Tube or stuff on Flickr at the top of your browser window. So, you search for something and get like this whole strip of videos on that topic without actually having to go to You Tube. Pretty cool.

Flock also has some of the same add-ons as Firefox, since it’s built on the same framework.

And you can post to a blog from Flock, but it has to be a hosted blog like Blogger, WordPress.com or LiveJournal. These are great if you’re just goofing around, but we all know (right readers) that WordPress on your own server negates the need for this particular feature.

And while we’re on the topic, even if you are blogging for fun, you’re obviously doing it for a readership, right? Well, why give your blog audience to someone else? Get up off your lazy, cheap butt and get a hosting account and install a WordPress blog on your own server. You never know what you might want to do with that audience. You might want to make some money from all your hard work, and WordPress.com is no place to do that.

Off my soapbox.

Flock also has a photo uploader and a Web clipboard.

But here’s the thing… None of these features will pull me away from Firefox. Just won’t. Flock is too fun and too social for me. If I used Flock as my regular browser, that would be bad.

I’d never get any work done and Tellman would fire me. Har.

But even if that weren’t true, Flock doesn’t have the SEO goodness that Firefox does. No Search Status. No SEOQuake. No S3 add-on and so on. You really can’t do business from Flock.

Now, if there was a meld. A hybrid, Let’s call it FireFlock, then… Well…

Maybe.

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I’ve been living under a bushel basket for the past few months due to the ListBuilding.com launch.  And as I do when I”m busy, I’ll see a piece of mail that I have to read, but… I have no time. So, I flag that puppy in Outlook and wait until I have a down day to go through the messages. I had built up more than 100.

Gawd!

But there’s a message that I always read, and that’s the one that comes in on Fridays or Mondays from Jack Humphrey’s Friday Traffic Report. You know I’m a huge fan and that I’ve mentioned Jack before here, but whoa. He comes across with some of the coolest and most exciting information that (like I’ve said before)… If you aren’t subscribed, what the hell are you waiting for?

Today, work’s a little light for the first time in a while, so I’m going through my stuff and came across a message from Jack from waaaaayyyy back in January. Oh, sure. Tons of people have already seen it and put this great information to task already, but well, I’ve been painfully slow to get things done for myself. I’m running a membership site and a teleseminar series at Blogging4Boomers.com, too, remember. Right?

OK, no excuse.

Here’s the deal: HubPages. Do you know what they are?

HubPages is a Web 2.0 site where you can build “hubs,” which are sort of like Squidoo lenses. You add text modules, video modules, Amazon modules, etc. And just generally build a hub around a topic. It’s totally fun. I have one over there about cats. In fact, I’m a cat junkie and have several Web 2.0 sites about cats and a couple of blogs and whatever.

So, back to my story.

I find this message in my Inbox from Jack that says “Get More Traffic to Your HubPages.”  I’m all for that! And whoa. Very cool. I find not one but 7 Hubs all about getting traffic to your hub. Pretty neat. I’m certainly going to take some of that advice. Instinctively, I think I already have some of that going from my SEO background, but I don’t care what stage Hub Meister you are, you’ll find some information to turn you on.

The first Hub by Mark Knowles–”How I Got My Hub to Be on Google’s First Page“– is really great.  Mark gives you a virtual recipe of making it happen. We’ll be adding that cool advice to our own Hubs (and Tellman’s).

But all of the Hubs in that blog post are totally cool, and you should definitely check Jack’s post and every single one of those Hubs out…

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Do you Twitter?

I don’t mean, do you chirp like a bird or talk inanely until your lips fall off? I mean, do you belong to Twitter?

Well…

Why not? It seems kind of silly to be “following” the activity of people, but I follow some pretty cool people, like Brad Fallon and his “Free Line Report” and Paul Colligan, podcasting journalist. So, when I go to Twitter, I can see just what’s up.

I get a Twitter from Brad daily, and if you’re interested in Web 2.0, the Free Line report is pretty cool. Takes just a minute to watch and keeps you up on the 2.0 news.

Paul Colligan posts to Twitter about a gazillion times a day. I try to stop by the stuff I’m really into, and keep the other stuff for later. There are just so many hours in the day!

I keep one open for education, usually first thing in the morning. It’s a “Tellman” thing. He says, “One hour of education; one hour of implementation.” It really works, and because of that bit of encouragement, I learn something new about our online world of glittery gems at least once per day.

But anyway, Twitter is so cool that some guy named James Buck, a graduate student in journalism from the University of California-Berkeley was arrested last month in Mahalla, Egypt while covering an anti-government protest. He just had enough time to Twitter “arrested” and his Twitter followers both here and in Egypt contacted the U. S. consulate to help him. How cool is that? James was freed and his one-word “Tweet” of “Free” was the next message he sent along. CNN even reported on it.

So, see? Twitter is useful.

And with folks following you and reading your blog and such, and some signing up for your list, it’s the best of all worlds.

Plus, it’s the quickest micro-blog on the planet.

Who doesn’t need more time?

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Have you seen Don Crowther’s Stomper video about Web 2.0?

If you’re not convinced that social bookmarking and networking is important, that it’s not a significant change in the DNA of the Web, then you need to watch this…

http://www.stompernet.net/goingnatural2/

I love it!

Man, not only can you learn about Web 2.0, but a lot about making videos that people want to watch. These are the best videos I’ve ever seen online.

It could be that I lead a sheltered life, but I don’t think so. This is the kind of quality we see inside StomperNet and the type of quality information. Man, I wish I had an affiliate link. Andy, you reading this?

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