October, 2011 | Dangerous Common Sense

Submit to 3000+ Quality Directories — Click Here

A friend is trying to grow her law practice and asked me if she thought this email she received would help get her website noticed:

Subject: Submit to 3000+ quality directories

Do you really know what it takes to quickly
generate high-quality traffic to your Web Site?

Listen up. I must let you in on a few insider *secrets*:

Instead of waiting months to generate sales on your
site, you can start gaining the hits you want right now.

Click here to visit our website

I didn’t click and told her not to go to that site either.

Anyone who is telling you to submit to “3000+ quality directories” is trying to dazzle you with numbers and lead you down a pointless path of quantity.

Think about it. How many Internet directories do you know about? I’ll guess that you can think of maybe 5, if we stretch the definition to include social networking directories like Twitter and Facebook. The Internet names that come to mind the quickest, like Google and Bing, are search sites, not directories, so they don’t count. Directories maintain a list of sites or users, and they provide some information about each entry. True directories like The Open Directory Project and Yahoo! Directory are organized by topic and let you browse as if you were walking down a library aisle.

Even if you were going to combine the number of important search sites and directories, you are still below 50. You’re way below 50 into maybe the teens if you’re a local business only interested in showing up where potential clients will see you. If you’re selling pet grooming services in San Francisco, you probably don’t care whether or not you’re listed in a Chinese directory.

One search engine optimization (SEO) publication I subscribe to (yes, there are SEO journals!) suggests 25 directories that are worth trying to get in. Most are manually edited, and they charge a little or a lot to be listed. Yahoo! requires “only (sic) $299″ per year to be listed, but most charges are lower.

Personally, I don’t often use directories, and think I am a typical Internet surfer in that respect. That means a major value of any directory listing is the link which Google sees from that directory to your site. Google likes links from authoritative directories, like ODP and Yahoo! When a good directory includes your site , Google lists your pages higher in its search results.

But, submitting to hundreds, or thousands, of unread directories is not going to impress Google or other search engines. Nor are 3000 submissions going to increase high quality traffic to your site.

Unfortunately, there is no magic bullet for search engine optimization. There are no automated steps that, if followed, will guarantee that your site will show up on the top of results for searches that will make you money.

I stopped my friend from wasting her time and money responding to the spam email. She’ll be better off doing some common sense optimizations that work! I’ll share in another post what I told my lawyer friend to do to improve her position in Google results.

By Ozdachs|2011-10-30T10:34:55-07:00October 18th, 2011|Scams|0 Comments

Amazon Reinstates California Associates

This Wednesday Amazon.com reinstated the California participants in its associates program. Amazon had thrown out all California associates earlier this year when a new state law threatened to make online Amazon purchases taxable in California, and this week’s reinstatement came after the state and Amazon reached a compromise which was reflected in a law signed by Governor Brown.

You can now again visit Ozdachs business web site, click on the Amazon logo, buy things from Amazon, and I’ll get pennies for your purchase.

Yes, Ozdachs is an Amazon associate, and over a year period I probably earn $100 or so in commissions. Obviously, I am not seriously flogging Amazon, nor am I really depending on its revenue to feed the dogs. I signed up because I wanted to suggest books and related items, and the program was a good way to share my recommendations.

My minimal involvement as an Amazon associate aside, the reinstatement of California associates does raise two important issues.

Issue #1 – the relative fairness of having Internet companies deliver goods tax free when local stores have to pay taxes. This is a political/moral question which I’m happy to talk about. Personally, I support local stores and am willing to pay up about 15% more for items from them. I think that should be enough, since the issue of 8.5% sales tax is balanced by the cost of one-off shipping which online retailers have to deal with. Frankly, I buy online because of selection and convenience more than pure price. But, we can discuss about this point if you disagree.
Issue #2 – if you own a web site, why aren’t you an Amazon associate? Especially if you are a non-profit, why not have a recommended reading page that your members and friends can visit and see your latest reading tips.

The Amazon associate program is free. Applying for the account and setting up commission transfers to your bank takes, what, an hour?

Once you set up your account, you can post small, tasteful suggestions that people click through to Amazon in general or you can link to a specific book or product. (Amazon also provides tools for you to create category pages and other banners, if you’re really going into eCommerce, but that’s a different type of web site than most of my customers have.)

Your Amazon recommendations are actually helpful to your web visitors. Suggestion of quality resources is good web content!

Plus, you’ll earn some money. Even though it’s not a lot, even $100 a year is better than $0. And, if your web site is popular, and your Amazon suggestions compelling, you can earn considerably more. Again, non-profits whose web site visitors want to support the cause can make noticeable commissions as supporters decide to buy from your links, knowing that they’re helping you.

Deal with the 2 Issues

Let’s chat about whether governments should continue to allow Internet sites to sell without collecting sales taxes. At the same time, if you’re a web master, think about what books and goods you can honestly recommend, and sign up with Amazon to buy kibble for your dogs.

By Ozdachs|2011-10-07T09:54:26-07:00October 7th, 2011|Tips and Resources|1 Comment

Run this Again, … It’s Important!

“But, it’s important!” I get told by the author of an article we ran in the organization’s last electronic newsletter. “Nothing has changed this week. Can’t you just run the story again?”

I understand that it takes a lot of time to create even a two- or three-paragraph invitation asking people to join in your event. When you’re the organizer of a class and have to worry about the content and the petty organization details, writing a fresh press release can be just one thing too many. I sympathize because I’ve been there! But, the answer to “Can’t you just run the story again?” is “No.”

Repeating a story is unwanted by readers, bad for the publication, and also bad for the activity being promoted.

Readers know when they’ve seen something, and they will keep checking the newsletter — or listening to in-person announcements — only when they are being exposed to new information. Repeating the same words week-in and week-out because it is “important” is unlikely to get more participation. People tune out old news, and if there is a lot of old news in the publication, they’ll stop reading it completely. Moreover, repeating the same words another time has a diminishing impact on the reader. They have already seen that come-on one time, made their decision not to join in, and repeating the same “come on down” message is not a good way to get them to change their mind.

Your invitation to participate has to be fresh each time you give it!

Here’s What to Do

If you are working on a major or ongoing event you can tell people about what you’re doing repeatedly. Just give a different focus for each of your stories.

Here’s are some creative ways people have made second and third and fourth stories sound fresh and new:

The organizers of the annual pledge drive ask a different person in the organization to write what the group means to them and to explain why they are giving generously. The message of (“GIVE!”) is consistent, but each story is interesting because of the personalities of the folks writing in.
Weekly articles advertising a multi-session religious education course offered glimpses into the specific content for that week’s class. While people were welcome to sign up for the whole series, the weekly focus on the topic of the next class gave people new insight each week.
A major fundraising silent auction wanted to build up excitement among donors and bidders, so the auctioneers sent in new stories over six weeks. Each story highlighted a different aspect of the event: one week the article solicited donations for vacation rentals, another week’s article talked about donating restaurant and home-cooked meals, and then the spotlight shifted to the fun of an auction reception with a preview of bidding. The overall theme of “silent auction” ran through each episode, but the new ideas in each story made you want to read it and find out more!

Repeated articles are not nearly as fun to read as new ones on the same topic. In addition, stories that are repeated are often inaccurate! Plans and details change, and if your press information distribution system is on autopilot, you probably propagating outdated news. Cutting and pasting from past releases is kosher, but you have to sit down at the keyboard and create every time blast out a story.

Finally, if you have completely run out of ideas and cannot think of a way to flog the event and make it sound interesting, maybe it’s time to stop. If you’re tired of writing about the event, people are surely tired of reading about it!

By Ozdachs|2011-10-10T15:29:41-07:00October 4th, 2011|Newsletters, Writing|0 Comments