Entries from December 2008
Come To Idaho, We’ve got a Lot to offer!
Step right up folks! It’s Severe weather here in Post Falls, 28 Degrees with a heavy snow shower! That’s right! We also are chock full of Child Molesters and Criminals! Come to Idaho!
Evaluating Online Real Estate
I love real estate agent websites. They can sell a multi-million dollar home, and see the value in any property, but they don’t spend 2 minutes looking at their own online real estate. We have to give credit to this agent, who was trying to educate her potential clients… but her presentation has gone AWRY. She needs to seperate her home searching from items that may have a negative connotation and why the weather Widget?? I seriously do not understand why every real estate site has one…They’re NOT HELPFUL, and in this case they actually make the area less attractive.
Categories: Opinion · Random · Weekly Website Fail · humor
December 22, 2008 · 1 Comment
The Internet…where bad ideas come to life…
I was using Stumble Upon today and came upon a site offering to allow you to “swap” any of your files for someone elses random files virus. Then I came upon a site allowing you to send a real letter to your friend…in exchange for spam/advertisement…
The Internet: Making Bad Ideas A Reality
This made me think of the endless oportunities that the internet allows us to publish our unique bad ideas and subject the world to our poor decision making abilities.
Am I being too judgemental? I mean there are some awesome 2.0 websites out there that are super useful… Is this the price we have to pay?
Categories: Opinion · humor
Tagged: 2.0, bad websites, humor
I can’t tell you why it took as long for weblogs to happen as it did, except to say it had absolutely nothing to do with technology. We had every bit of technology we needed to do weblogs the day Mosaic launched the first forms-capable browser. Every single piece of it was right there. Instead, we got Geocities. Why did we get Geocities and not weblogs? We didn’t know what we were doing.
One was a bad idea, the other turns out to be a really good idea. It took a long time to figure out that people talking to one another, instead of simply uploading badly-scanned photos of their cats, would be a useful pattern. That useful pattern has churned out entire online communities of interconnected people interacting on 2.0 websites every day. The numbers are STUNNING, with Google reporting in it’s Social Media Webinar, “86 million users on social networks” with 78% over the age of 18 and the number is expected to grow to 115 Million in the next 2 years.
The evolution of 2.0 software, as talked about by Clay Shirky, has lead to a new type of communication, and as you can read from his keynotes “”A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy” it poses a big challenge for website owners and designers, bloggers, as well as a more and more “Connected” society.
You cannot completely separate technical and social issues.
Our whole society is becoming more and more plugged in, as noted in this years “future of the internet III” survey from Pew.
The divisions between personal time and work time and between physical and virtual reality will be further erased for everyone who is connected, and the results will be mixed in their impact on basic social relations.
It’s up to us to determine what kind of actions we will choose to make. We’ve all been to a blog post where a flame war has sprouted, or just random insults fly… The question about our future is will it be the case of “Normal Person + Anonymity + Audience = Total Fudgewad” as Viginia Nussey of Bruce Clay noted in her article “Let’s make intolerance intolerable“, or will we take her advice and “be a smarter, wiser, bigger person”….
One of the lessons that Clay Shirky teaches us is that owners of 2.0 sites actually can design platforms that encourgage good behavior, by adding member recognition, kharma, and a profile system. However, a site owner can’t just step back…your online community has to be engaged. So as a blogger, site owner, or moderator, you need to remain engaged in your community to keep it viable.
As users, we need to see ourselves as members of our online communities and work together to encourage a positive experience. Desphinn bad comments, thumb down knee jerk flame comments and take the time to read your comments before you post them.
Categories: Opinion · Random · social media
Tagged: Opinion, social media, society
Google has gone just 1 step further than it’s competitors in the world of “suggestion” to the searcher. I had previously blogged about Aaron Wall‘s tips
about getting a “fat belly“ and targeting particular keyword terms that would be likely to be suggested by Google. Well, now they’ve taken the next step: Adwords in Google suggest. Now I am displaying these when I log into two different accounts, and when I am signed out. A co-worker doesn’t currently see the same advertisements.
When I type in the “ad” I get an advertisement for Advance Auto Parts. It seems to me that Danny Sullivan is also seeing these results, what do you all think this means for search/SEM?
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: adsense, google suggest
Learn about Search Wiki – Google’s newest project
http://www.alibiproductions.com/2008/11/27/what-is-searchwiki/
Blogologist Alister Cameron shares some sweet tweets
http://www.alistercameron.com/2008/12/04/tweets-obama-goerge-orwell-lazytown/
Check out this MASSIVE list of SEO/SEM blogs!
http://www.toprankblog.com/search-marketing-blogs/
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: Blogs, Finds, seo
I was communicating with a co-worker today, over instant messenger and we got into an interesting conversation about the future of SEO. I thought I’d share it with you and get your feedback as well.
Coworker:
Do you think there will ALWAYS be a place for SEO?
Jeremy Rivera:
I only see SEO becoming a more general field
Coworker:
One day we are all going to wake up, conduct a search on Google and find:
- PPC Listings
- Two video listings
- Two – four static images
- Local listings + map
- News Results
- Book Results
- Blog Results
- Organic Results
Jeremy Rivera:
most businesses are going to continue looking for additional revenue streams.
Coworker:
So SEO will become a side dish to the main course; whatever that happens to be.
Jeremy Rivera:
Having an even more diversified set of items on the results page only increases the need for an expert who can guide a business to what is and isn’t successful. Just because it’s pictures/video/local doesn’t mean it’s not SEO.
Coworker:
Yes I agree BUT that isn’t SEO per se.
Jeremy Rivera:
You’re narrowing SEO to be JUST organic rankings. I don’t agree with that definition of SEO: Search Engine Optimization covers all aspects of results appearing on the Search engine’s site.
Coworker:
I know I am narrowing it down. I am doing so because now an SEO needs to have graphic design skills or image editing skills, video taking / editing skills and so on. An SEO will need to be an all in one and at that time would that really mean I’m an SEOer?
Jeremy Rivera:
It could just mean a categorization/specialization Content Seo, Video Seo, Image SEO
Coworker:
Nice take on the topic. Would prove interesting.
Jeremy Rivera:
I think that SEO will continue to expand requiring broader skill sets in order to be termed competitive and an expert. At the same time, he who is adept at all things, is a master at none. I think we’ll see a concurrent dissection into niche development at the same time as you see a diversification of skill sets.
What are your thoughts on the evolution of SEO?
Categories: Opinion · Search engine optimization
Tagged: diversification, IM, niche development, seo
Erin Maher is a blogger who gives us all great tips on blogging,was kind enough to answer some of my questions and give some advice for those just starting writing content for their website.
If you’re starting a static website(Vs. a blog), do you think it’s best to wait until you can start with a full compliment of pages, or to launch sooner and then build up over time?
I’m a firm believer that you should launch as soon as possible. The worst thing that can happen is that your site will be the worst site to ever exist. It might/probably will/most assuredly will be. But there are a million things you might have to do before it stops sucking. We learn more from failure than success, so get the failing/sucking over quickly. I mean, come on, you’re not the type to pull a band-aid off slowly, in other words, a total baby? Of course not! So start early, be humble, learn, grow, get feedback and develop from there.
If you were giving advice to someone starting a site from 0, what link resources would you say are most important to start building your online presence?
My site is not even 6 months old, but I’ve had the best progress from commenting on others’ sites who I admire, building up relationships and learning from them. The key is that these communications need to be genuine, and then already established individuals are happy to help you out. I also found interesting/helpful content on www.problogger.com, www.menwithpens.com and www.becomeablogger.com, the last one which has video tutorials.
Which social platforms should a new site owner participate in first?
It would be good to look into where your niche goes. I heard Sphinn is a good place for bloggers, Digg and StumbleUpon is very wide and general. I participate on facebook, Twitter, and am branching out to develop my LinkedIn profile, as well as StumbleUpon (:)based on your recommendation). At first I found social platforms a little overwhelming and scary, but I’m finding a terrific crowd on Twitter. It’s really simple, good for a lot of info and some laughs.
Any other random advice for new website owners?
Be hilarious. Or just not stuffy. The web is an impersonal medium, so letting personality shine through like the glorious rays of the sun parting the clouds is good. Letting your humorous anecdotes split forth into the internet like the Earth does in The Land Before Time. Let all readers bow in gratitude and good spirits, like gracious dinosaurs on the ridge of the paradise that is your site.
Update: Found a really great related post about new bloggers driving traffic to their site.
Categories: Content · Guest Blog · content writing advice
Tagged: content writing, new site owners, website advice, writing tips
Just yesterday, I was on my 
