Tag: Google

How to harvest content in the age of ‘trusted relationships’…

Michael Moon – author of the book Firebrands – hypothesized prophetically and correctly 15 years ago when he stated that we had moved beyond the information age to the age of trusted relationships. I always found this curious because we had just entered the era of the personal internet – surely THIS was the information age! What was Moon thinking?

Just a few years later, however, Eric Schmidt of Google stated:

Every two days now we create as much information as we did from the dawn of civilization up until 2003, according to Schmidt. That’s something like five exabytes of data, he says.

Let me repeat that: we create as much information in two days now as we did from the dawn of man through 2003.

“The real issue is user-generated content,” Schmidt said. He noted that pictures, instant messages, and tweets all add to this.

So apparently Moon really nailed it when he said that we would need to rely on trust networks in order to manage all the information we need to do our jobs; networks of trusted sites, searches and sources that would wade through all these exabytes with surgical precision and deliver the goods we need to do nourish our expertise.

Recently, author Nilofer Merchant added a new aspect to the ‘trust network’ discussion in her book 11 Rules for Creating Value in the Social Era [affiliate link] when she pointed out that another aspect of work in the #socialera – work is now freed from jobs:

“This means that human resources change when most of the people who create value are neither hired nor paid by you. And competition has changed so that any company can achieve the benefits of scale through a network of resources”.

Merchant, Nilofer (2012-09-12). 11 Rules for Creating Value in the Social Era (Kindle Locations 665-676). Perseus Books Group. Kindle Edition.

As Schmidt says the real issue is user-generated content. People all over the internet are posting, pinning and tweeting up a storm! We can leverage all this activity for our own thought leadership if we simply track the sites, searches and sources that publish in our brand space and then leverage that content to provide social proof of our own thought leadership…

I’ll try to explain it better here:
http://youtu.be/v-JuBUg1nmU

http://youtu.be/q_02PmfLvhQ

Here’s a growing list of tools that help me track the sites, searches and sources I need to nourish my thinking:

[listly id=”6P9″ layout=”full”]

 

This list will have a permanent home on the site here. Questions? Feedback? Specifically, do you have a cool tool that I missed?

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Rock your website with RebelMouse!

Want to capture all the content you share both as content and Search Engine Optimization [SEO]? You want to add RebelMouse to your site…

http://youtu.be/a2_GoYdNKPc

Continue reading “Rock your website with RebelMouse!” →

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Things to think about when picking a WordPress.com theme

You want one that is responsive and has customs posts at the very least. Here’s how to find them…

http://youtu.be/Q47wCZX78Uo

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My thought leadership workflow is so simple…

…that you can get great results from a $249 Chromebook and less than $25 per year*. Internet connection required… :-D

IMG_3175

*Does not include training or consulting fees…

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Which blogging tool should I use; WordPress.com or tumblr?

The answer is yes! While I normally advise clients, students and readers to “never use two tools were one will do” here is a case here is a case where using both is not only acceptable but desirable. Here’s why:

  • WordPress.com is great at Search Engine Optimization [SEO] but it does not allow JavaScript or iframes amongst other things
  • Tumblr is not as good at Search Engine Optimization [SEO] but it does allow JavaScript and iframes amongst other things
  • For whatever reason — technical or political – tumblr is available as a sharing option where WordPress.com is not so you can pick the best tool for the job
  • ‘Curation’ via tumblr’s bookmarklet is a little easier than WordPress.com’s ‘Press This’…
  • They can be linked together from a technical perspective in a way that makes them appear to be one website to Google
  • They can both be scripted by ifttt.com
  • Both have great – but different – fans [which will give you more exposure]
  • You can have a unified WordPress/tumblr site for less that $20 per year

…and I’m sure there are some other reasons that I’ve overlooked!

Let me talk you through some of the issues here:

http://youtu.be/M-e-VW7MSOA

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Can a Website Have Too Much SEO?

…and what the hell is ‘over-optimization’?

Personally, I think Matt Cutts and the Google Webspam team have waaaay too much power [which means you’ll probably never see this post!]. Watch any videos of him speaking about how the Google Webspam team treats specific technical issues and I think you’ll see what I mean. Struggling with the issue of how to adjust client sites for the latest release of updates to the Google search engine, I came across this:

Google’s Matt Cutts announced that Google is working on a search ranking penalty for sites that are “over-optimized” or “overly SEO’ed.”

Matt announced this during a panel Search Engine Land’s Editor-In-Chief, Danny Sullivan and Microsoft’s Senior Product Marketing Manager of Bing at SXSW named Dear Google & Bing: Help Me Rank Better!. The audio for the session has been published where I learned that Google has been working on a new penalty that targets site’s that overly optimize for search engines for the past few months.

Matt Cutts said the new over optimization penalty will be introduced into the search results in the upcoming month or next few weeks. The purpose is to “level the playing field,” Cutts said. To give sites that have great content a better shot at ranking above sites that have content that is not as great but do a better job with SEO.

Source: Too Much SEO? Google’s Working On An “Over-Optimization” Penalty For That

Here’s a video clip of Matt discussing the issue…

And, if you really want a scare do a search on the phrase “Google penalizes” and you’ll see that Matt and his team have mafia-like powers to ‘disappear’ people and websites!

Now, here’s my issue. Can anyone define for me exactly what constitutes ‘over-optimized’ – even Cutts skirts the issue because defining the term would be to reveal too much about the Google search algorithm would be my guess. The question I have is this, then: if most sites are ‘under-optimized’ then are sites that follow best practices ‘over-optimized’?

7-3-2013 3-09-17 PM
Click image to enlarge…

Take for example a website that uses a tool like RebelMouse or Twylah to capture their tweets and other social media shares as Search Engine Optimization [SEO] by adding those tools as a cname extension, or one that adds a blog to a static website using tumblr or WordPress using the same approach – are these sites ‘over-optimized’ because the webmaster is clever?

See what I mean? Search Engine Optimization [SEO] is a moving target and Google-style ‘leveling the field’ means content creators are shooting at a moving target in the dark. What do you think?

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Keep calm and use Feedly

keep-calm-and-use-feedly-3

 

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The end of Google Reader [and what it means to me]…

This is the final installment in my series [rant?] about the death of Google Reader…

Teaching social media in my classes at Northeast Wisconsin Technical College and coaching my clients, I frequently quote the words of the great philosophers .38 Special who said:

Google Reader is gone. No farewell message. No thank you for the support. In fact, I can see my feeds in Google Reader, I just can’t interact with them.

A pretty clear indication that Google really doesn’t give a Tinker’s Damn for customers – only their data and the dollars they can glean from it. This whole experience has had a profound impact on me from the first moment months ago when I first learned that Google was killing Google Reader for no good reason [and believe me, I’ve read them all over the past few months].

This stupid move, along with other ones like Windows 8 by Microsoft leave me wondering where I can place my trust. Oddly enough, I find myself rethinking open source products like Ubuntu, Firefox and Thunderbird. Who knows where that will lead?!

In the meantime, thank you Google Reader. Thanks to you, I consumed over a half a million articles in the past 6.5 years of use and I am what I am today because of what I learned from you. And, thank you feedly for stepping into the breach! I have loved you for over 4 years and used you alongside Google Reader. I’m glad you won the reader race!

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Should I care about Google+?

Chatting with a new client in Australia yesterday, he asked the question should I care about Google+. The answer, of course, is an overwhelming yes! Here’s independent proof…

Google favorece sites com páginas no Google+ e cliques +1, revela pesquisa

Google favorece sites com páginas no Google+ e cliques +1, revela pesquisa

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How to Cope with the Death of Google Reader

Sonia Simone at CopyBlogger has a post worth your attention on the death of Google Reader:

You know the stages.

First, denial. “No way, dude, that’s got to be a rumor.”

Then anger. “Don’t Be Evil my $%&! How could they do this to me?”

Bargaining. “Could a new version of Google Reader really save Digg?”

Depression. “I can haz no more LOLz.”

And finally, we come to acceptance. Yes, it’s true. Google Reader really is going away on July 1. So if you haven’t rustled up an alternative yet, it’s time.

If you’re a Google Reader user, obviously you need a new tool to read your subscriptions. We have a few thoughts for you on that.

But if you’re a content publisher, you’ll also need to make sure that your audience has a way to continue tuning in for everything you do.

Feel free to point your audience to this post, or you may want to craft a message of your own with more individualized suggestions for your audience’s needs. But be sure you send out a clear, specific call to action and keep those subscribers on board — no one wants to lose a big chunk of their audience just because a tool goes away.

via How to Cope with the Death of Google Reader | Copyblogger.

Frankly, I went through all these stages a month or so ago and happily shifted my attention to feedly which I had used as an alternative to Google Reader since 2009. I’m happy to say that the folks at feedly have really shone in stepping up as the only logical choice to replace Google Reader…

  • It syncs flawlessly in the cloud
  • You can automate it with ifttt.com now
  • It has better features and is more eye appealing than Google Reader

Take a look;

http://youtu.be/STYIrgN3ktc

So, Google Reader — good riddance! feedly rocks…

PS I do NOT agree with Simone that email is a replacement for Google Reader! Email should be preserved for ‘just in time’ information; send the just in case stuff to feedly!

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Google Is Very Creepy [And That’s What Makes It So Awesome?]

4fcaeaaf838874222f7fa0d40206d0a5[1]The title belongs to writer Tony Bradley, not me, but I like the conclusion of his article in Forbes:

I wouldn’t go so far as to say that privacy is “dead”. Suffice it to say, our relationship with privacy has changed as a function of the benefits we can receive in exchange for that privacy. The reality is that you’re not completely giving up your privacy. Your neighbors, or the stranger you pass on the street won’t know anything about you. You’re choosing to enter into a mutually beneficial arrangement that exchanges personal information for services. You’re surrendering some of your privacy to Google, and you’re putting some trust in Google that it will both guard your personal information so your privacy isn’t truly violated, and that it will not do anything shady or unethical with your data itself.

That’s a lot of faith to put in Google–or any company for that matter. But, if you’re willing to take that leap of faith your technology can do amazing things and make your life simpler and more efficient. The more integrated you are in the Google ecosystem–the more Google services you use, and the more extensively you use them–the more value you will get from the relevant, context-aware features Google has put in place.

Source: Google Is Very Creepy, And That’s What Makes It So Awesome – Forbes

Me? I sold my soul to Google a long time ago. You, however, should think about the implications…

:-D

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Blog This!

Perhaps the best advice on blogging I’ve ever seen…

blog-this.png

Go to the source: Blog This! Sometimes Going Back to Basics Leads to the Best Posts : @ProBlogger

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How to Know Your Life Purpose in 5 Minutes

My friend Eric Kim at Twylah shared this most excellent TEDTalk with me yesterday. Watch it!

Here are the 5 questions that Adam Leipzig offers…

The 5 Questions...

What do you think? Helpful? Overly simplistic? Tell me…

Here’s a bonus list of my ‘on purpose’ videos…

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Feedly mobile is fixed!

…and everything is right in my ‘Personal News Aggregation’ universe. For about a week, I was having problems syncing my accounts on feedly and Google Reader and it was really frustrating — especially since it has always worked so well in the past. As you can see, however, my desktop version…

4-18-2013 3-18-41 PM

…is the same as my tablet version…

Screenshot_2013-04-18-15-20-21

Nirvana!!! :-D

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What is a blog?

What is a blog? It can be everything and it can be nothing. As the Bard said “Nothing is good or bad but thinking makes it so”. During my blogging career, I estimate that I have created between 15 and 20,000 blog posts on every topic from A-to-Z — most of them, unfortunately, ineffective…

And this is only my business blog...
And this is only my business blog…

In this next phase of my business I’m attempting to become more mindful and intentional about what I’m doing online and why in this post is an attempt to unpack blogging from that perspective; more mindfulness and awareness of why we actually do social media and what we can expect from the effort.

What blogging isn’t…

A get rich quick scheme. If you are thinking that this was one of those articles I think you’ll be happier somewhere else on the Internet. But if you’re looking for deeper insight into what blogging is from perspective of mindfulness and intention and what it can do for you then please read on… Continue reading “What is a blog?” →

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How to make feedly your default rss reader in Chrome

Do you love feedly as much as I do? Here’s a short 3 minute lesson on how to make it your default rss reader:

Here’s the text to copy and paste:

http://www.feedly.com/home#subscription/feed/%s

Of course, you can also subscribe using the Feedly Mini button but if you’re used to using that RSS icon this will help! Questions? Feedback?

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If you’re looking for helpful tips on managing your WordPress.com blog, look no further than lorelleteaches.com; it’s a fantastic WordPress resource for WordPress.com bloggers…

Lorelle VanFossen's avatarLearning from Lorelle

code wordle - group of words that are synonyms and types of code.In 2005, WordPress became modular separating the design and architecture from the core programming code.

Today, a WordPress Theme contains files called template files that hold the architecture of the site and template tags, code that initiates actions within the site and data from the database. The design is applied through a stylesheet, holding the instructions for the colors, images, and look and feel of the entire site.

This tutorial covers the basics of the structure of a WordPress Theme and standard customization options.

The Structure of a WordPress Site

WordPress Example site featuring the layout basics of header, content, sidebar, and footer.Like all websites today, a WordPress site contains a background area, header, sidebar(s), content area, and footer.

The background area is considered the canvas that the site’s structural and design elements rest. It is usually a solid color, pattern, texture, or a design that does not overwhelm the rest of the content and design elements.

The header area…

View original post 3,510 more words

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Looking for clues at the scene of the Google Reader crime…

KeepCalmStudio.com-[Crown]-Keep-Calm-And-Keep-Using-Google-Reader

Last week, I encouraged readers to keep calm and continue using Google Reader. While I still think that’s good advice, I’m not so sure any longer that Google will be rolling Reader into Google+. Why? I had forgotten at the time that Google had recently killed Feedburner and was not aware that Google had taken the RSS subscription extension out of the chrome Web store.

These three events together point to what innovation expert Tim Kastelle called a ‘shaping strategy’ on the part of Google to coerce people to publish and share in a way that Google wants them to. Tim commented “I definitely think that they’re following a shaping strategy – though I’m not sure about whether or not killing RSS actually helps it. For me the big issue is this: people that rely only on social media to find out what’s going on still need RSS, even if they don’t use it themselves.” Tim also pointed me to this article by Joshua Gans on The Social Structure Of News. In it, Gans says:

“The problem is that from what we know about the social structure of social media is that there are a set of roles available. Take Mark Thoma. His blog and twitter feeds have a huge following. Why? Because he reads all of the Econ blogs and picks out what he thinks is best. If you read Thoma, chances are you don’t need Google Reader. He is the social web.

But how does Thoma operate? My guess is that he uses a feed reader and has a system for tagging good posts and forwarding them on to others. Sometimes it is just a link. Other times he provides a quote and a little commentary. Remove his tools and his job gets harder.

Given this it should be no surprised that the most dismayed about the loss of Google Reader were the contributors to social web curation. There is only need for a few of these but they do an important job so disrupting them will harm many. In the Econ world, these people are well known. They are Brad de Long, Tyler Cowen and a few more specialized bloggers. In the days of old I used to do this too with multiple posts daily but the others were better and so I dropped back to being one of the many who hoped these curators would pick up their posts.

My point is that if you say you don’t use Google Reader because the social web takes care of you, then you are mistaken. The social web needs its tools and indirectly so do you.”

In their content guidelines published 11/1012, Google says

“One of the most important steps in improving your site’s ranking in Google search results is to ensure that it contains plenty of rich information that includes relevant keywords, used appropriately, that indicate the subject matter of your content.

However, some webmasters attempt to improve their pages’ ranking and attract visitors by creating pages with many words but little or no authentic content. Google will take action against domains that try to rank more highly by just showing scraped or other cookie-cutter pages that don’t add substantial value to users.”

Killing Google Reader goes beyond Google’s usual move to force users into the walled garden of Google+; I now believe this is a shaping strategy to kill curation and auto posting as a form of content marketing and to give Google more control over publishers in much the same way book publishers had control over authors in the ‘old days’.

There’s still really no rush to find a replacement for Google Reader — if you’re using Google Reader you’ll be able to export your sources before July 1 and import them into the next great RSS reader. What to do about Google is another issue altogether. Google has ‘exceeded their brief‘ and is getting evil…

How about you? Do you see the ‘shaping strategy’ or do you have a different perspective?

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Wise investigation

Click to see...
Click to see more…

Tara Brach may be glad to know that I have ‘discovered’ her work [I find the ‘discovery’ process, how things come to us and the language around it amusing at times]. In any case, thanks to Kristin Barton Cuthriell I became aware of the term ‘radical acceptance‘ a few week ago and devoured Tara Brach’s book by the same name shortly thereafter. I look forward to reading her book True Refuge when I can get a copy but until then I have been listening to her teaching via her podcast. Today on her blog, I found this video recording of one of these podcast meditations that I want to share with you here…

btw, Kristin — I’m very jealous you get to attend one of these meditations soon… :-D

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Did you know you could post directly from Microsoft Word to WordPress? Neither did I until I read this post; http://www.nfn4good.org/2010/07/how-to-post-to-wordpress-via-microsoft-word-2/

If you’re comfortable with Word and you like the idea of not having to learn how to use yet another tool to post to your blog, this may be just the ticket! Why not give it a try…

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