Squidlog.net

The harsh mistress named Time

Time is a harsh mistress. She has wooed six weeks away from me without much more that a bat of her eyelashes and a wave of her dainty handkerchief. What’s more,  she has given me glimpses of what she is doing with my time.  She has stuffed it. Crammed it full of all kinds of goodies and now it looks like she is handing it back to me to sort it out. All in one lump sum.

I think she believes she can overburden me with this dark joke she has played, but maybe what she doesn’t know is that I’ve been wise to her game. She thinks she has me down, but I think the fun is just beginning. I am finding fun in every step I take, even in those times that make me want to scream and give it all up.

I could give a long accounting of the activities that time has laid on me in six short weeks, or I could just talk about one. Not that everything I have my fingers in is very important to me,  some have the weight of my life in them, but there is the one activity that seems to bring a quiet respite from the hustle and bustle of working all the others. There is that one that I openly welcome as relaxation,  even if it means work.

The Senior Squids are like my hearth where I can huddle next to the fire with a warn cup of coffee. The brainchild of lensmaster LindaJM, the Senior Squids group has a roster of some of the best that Squidoo has to offer. The weekly lens challenges are incredibly fun and produce lenses that every Squid can use as shining examples of what to strive for in lens crafting. I am humbled to be part of the group that has set a very high bar of excellence, and I hope to reach that bar, if by no other means, association.

If you are not familiar with the Senior Squids, click on the Senior Squid button and you’ll certainly see why we say that we are older, but no less bolder. If you want to see some of the best lenses most recently published at Squidoo, click on the lens challenge banner to be taken to the hub for this week’s lens challenge.

Bring it on Ms. Time, I’m wise to your charms.

[ratings]

On a similar note...

• Zut_Moon (0)
• Your Outside Traffic Begins From Inside Their Hearts (2)
• Your Actions Are Your Words (3)
• Yes, Squidoo pays us. But how? (0)
• Writing For Squidoo – The "Must-Know" Basics (0)

Content started out as Queen

Content writing for the web used to be a great challenge to me. Now it is just a challenge. Maybe someday I’ll even get good at it.

It is has been hammered into my thick skull that website content writing is vastly different from content writing anywhere else. Yes, I know it’s different because of SEO and search engine rankings, but I really don’t believe that it has changed all that much.

We all know what the world’s oldest profession is, and we can joke that the second oldest profession is marketing. Truthfully, that is no joke. It seems that the “girls” would have a unique pattern cut into the soles of their sandals so that when they walked through the sand or dirt streets of town, they left their mark. A trail was made right up to their door. I really can’t tell you what the ROI was, but the conversion rate had to be 100%.

Fast forward to the modern era. Print and multi-media marketing have not changed. Success boils down to relevance and conversion. It would do no more good for someone to be motivated by an ad, run out to the local car dealership only to find out the car company has no warranties, service plans, or genuine knowledge of what they sell, then it would’ve for an interested follower of one of the “girls” to find out when he got to her door that she suffered from leprosy.

What about a marketer (every one of us are marketers) that does a super job with content writing for SEO and has a flood of traffic to their site, but fails to get the correct message across?

Look at the the phenomenon of Web 2.0. Talk about hot. Why? Relevance. There are millions of targeted group pages, forums, and communities on the Internet. Web 2.0 is a marketing windfall, but the same old principals are applied. Keywords or action words are employed to target consumers and gather them into one place to hear the “pitch”, or read the ad.

The laundry soap and household goods marketers didn’t really advertise anywhere else, but on afternoon television, for decades, until the market started to evolve and broaden. Two large companies made bold moves by marketing their laundry soap and pantyhose on NASCAR racing automobiles. Why? The sport was growing at amazing rate and the demographics showed that in the southeastern region of America, women made up exactly one half of the followers of the sport.

Yes, writing website content that is keyword rich is tantamount in gaining traffic from the search engines, and making a targeted effort at the relevant groups will get you fans, but the bottom line is conversion. Conversion comes through valid and genuine content. Google knows this, as EVERY word on your page is considered and weighed into the algorithm. Your readers know this as they read in hopes that you can offer them a solution. A solution that they can trust as being targeted towards their needs.

The “girls” practiced SEO with targeted symbols on the soles of their shoes, and offered relevant content. The car companies employ keywords in their television ads by separating trucks from luxury cars and suvs; delivering genuine content by having dealerships that specialize in certain vehicles they manufacture, and we, as Internet marketers, use keyword laden content writing to entice the search engines to deliver targeted traffic to our site(s), where our persuasive rich content is infused with the keywords to provide the reader with a trusted solution.

Imagine, what if there was one slip of the carving tool, causing the symbol to advertise faith healing? Talk about a high bounce rate.

Thanks to Okinawba for this post’s picture

[ratings]

On a similar note...

• Zombies Have A Role In Marketing Scams Too, Chef (4)
• What's YOUR Brand? The Power of Recommendation. (0)
• What sticks? (0)
• Vlogging Content vs. Written Content: Be Careful! (3)
• Just Another Spark of Brilliance From the Squidoo Team (2)

The small touches go a long way.

Ain’t it cool? Outside traffic is booming; flooding in even. All that hard work has paid off and you feel pretty proud of yourself for sticking it out. All that tweetin‘ and diggin’. Hours of blogging and stats watching.

In fact, you’ve worked so hard, that you’ve become a Giant,  and your stated mission after becoming a Giant is to give back to the community. So, off you go to the forum like a good Squid. Pick out a few lenses to critique and show the “noobs” you care. Leave an impression. Maybe even do a tribute lens.  Feelin’ pretty proud of yourself.

In all the rush these last few months, you have built relationships. Some you are constantly aware of, some you barely notice. A lot of the same faces show up in your guestbooks, some show up in a few. You do try to visit them back in the spirit of community. I mean, it’s the right thing to do, no?

Yes it is. But let me throw this at ya. When was the last time you used a lensmaster’s contact me button just to drop a line and say hello? Or maybe say, “Here’s a link to a cool video I was watching, and I thought of you.” Have you ever been cooking up a lens idea and thought, “You know? I think this lensmaster would really dig creating this. I’ll send it to them instead of me building it.”

What about Twitter? How often do you drop the “Read MY Lens” Goodyear Blimp banners and actually carry on a genuine conversation?

I know there is at least one lensmaster who will,  from time to time, drop me a note. He often has something non-Squidoo related to tell me about or a link to check out. He even takes time out of his extremely busy schedule to visit my non-Squidoo related blog. He knows who he is, and he knows I appreciate our friendship.

See all the fans you have? You impressed all of them at least once. Many of them a few times. Some of them every time. Guess what? Every one of them visited a lens of yours,  traffic at the beginning weighs greatly in Google’s eyes, which ends up getting you more traffic as the lens ages.

This isn’t about the traffic. This is about the community, so don’t be afraid to bare your heart. You are human and people really do like you. You’re friends will support you. If you’re genuine, you’ll find out you have way more support than you ever dreamed possible.

Never forget that success begins with compassion. Someone, many someones, have taken a liking to you. Acknowledge that and you’ll have a lot of arms around your shoulder when you really need it, and maybe, just maybe, you’ll feel closer to those who hold you dear.

It’s the small touches that really tug at someone’s heart.

How’s everyone been doin’?

[ratings]

On a similar note...

• The Journey of a Successful Lens (1)
• Thankful for the Volunteers on Squidoo (7)
• Squidster – the Linchpin of Squidlog (9)
• Oh no, not another weight loss lens on Squidoo…. (0)
• Jaguar Julie Makes a Difference to New Lensmasters (4)

Are you ready to lose out 66% of your audience?

Is vlogging (video blogging) the next surefire way to promote content? Maybe. Vlogging content certainly seems to be chewing at written content’s heels. Just take a look at how popular YouTube is as well as how many lensmasters incorporate videos into their Squidoo lenses, me included. Even my pal chef is vlogging over at chefkeem (move over Brad Pitt, your star is going to be eclipsed).

With all that new digital technology is offering these days, just about anyone with a cell phone, webcam, or Flip video camera can post a video on their blogs or websites. The flood is starting, and as marketers we are going to find definite dangers in getting caught up in those turbulent waters.

We have to remember that we are practicing the rules persuasion, and if we fail in any of the five key points of those rules, our successes will be limited.

How can we fail?

First of all, not everyone was born for the camera. I am one of those that have a much better radio face while others have a tough time visually explaining their point. Stiff movements, reading scripted material and sloppy production will turn your message right off.

Lastly, only about a third of us are visual learners. The other two thirds are either tactile or auditory. Strictly going the way of video will shut out two thirds of your audience. Losing sixty-six percent of you prospective clients is draconian.

Many folks work better when they have text to reference as opposed to rewinding over and over again. And don’t forget that we often bookmark something we read so we can print it and take it with us, or come back to it later. Some of us are more attentive when it’s quiet, and videos certainly present many distractions.

We shouldn’t avoid the potential of vlogging. After all, there are those thirty-three percent of us who learn best visually. What seems the best approach is offering a PDF file of the transcript, or a “refer to” page for written content.

How are you going to ride the big wave of marketing with video?

[ratings]

On a similar note...

• Zombies Have A Role In Marketing Scams Too, Chef (4)
• Why Not Copy/Paste Content? I Have Permission. (3)
• What's YOUR Brand? The Power of Recommendation. (0)
• What sticks? (0)
• Using the Right Words to Get Your Point Across (4)

The good stuff!

GrandSquid and internet marketing strategy master, Seth Godin, issued another one of his thought provoking challenges last week during his interview on Jelly Talks.

I hope your are all doing something that makes your grandparents uncomfortable.

The root of this message is obviously the base of his ongoing singular challenge to be different. This has been Seth’s rallying cry for years, and he is dead on. In fact, you may have heard the message so often that you are tempting to tune it out.

Don’t.

Internet marketing strategies change and move at a very fast pace. Why? Because the internet is as lightening quick as our changing nature. We see so many ads every day that we begin to scan and dispose the similar ones without looking.

The successful marketers quit early in the game of, “Well, this is working for everyone else.” Often they fail, but you’ll never catch them boo-hooing over their failures. They go to the next attempt real quick.

In short: The successful ones apply internet marketing strategies that pop and  they set themselves apart from the rest of the pack. They get ahead of the wave and jump off just as the wave breaks.

If you’re like me and get bubbles floating around your head as your eyes cross when trying to figure out a marketing strategy, never fear! There is plenty of free help.

Take a peek at Tom Now’s post, 20 Internet Marketing Trends for 2009. I realize we are on the backside of 2009, but there are some good pointers here and I can see the possibility to combine some of them to come up with a unique campaign.

The real message in this whole mess is that when it comes to internet maketing strategies, one should never feel comfortable with using the same methods as everyone else, and that we need to be as creative with our marketing as we are with our content.

For an excellent assesment of Seth Godin’s interview at Jelly Talks, visit lensmaster luvmyluwig’s lens, The Best Of Seth Godin On Jelly Talks.

this post’s picture comes from pax et agape via creative commons licensing

[ratings]

On a similar note...

• Your Actions Are Your Words (3)
• The SquidLog Family Tree (0)
• The Journey is the Most Important Part of the Journey (0)
• The Best of Seth – According to Seth Godin. (0)
• Stick With It! (2)