may 2008

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The Jokes on you Seems that Paul put out another edition of 'If Search Marketing had Action Figures (http://www.northsouthmedia.co.uk/wordpress/index.php/2008/05/31/what-if-seo-search-had-action-figures-part-ii/)' - and yours truly was dubbed 'the Joker'. A troubling development to be sure as now my cover has been blown - BLAST!! Now I have no choice but to unleash my evil plan for world destruction... I give you, the world's funnies joke - watch it IF YOU DARE!!

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A fortnight at Sphinn "There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man, a land of linkbait and drama unfolding. It is a dimension as vast as social spaces, brimming with enigmatic individuals and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle-ground between light and shadow, black hat and white... between science and superstition, and it lies between the marketing mahem and search stardom. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area we call the 'Sphinn Zone.' Hiya peeps, Dave here - In what might become a regular feature around here, we’ll catch up on the latest goodies from the world of the SphinnZone. This edition is culled from the last few weeks of action - Given that I like to plant my tongue firmly in cheek and poke fun at things, why not play rag reporter for some fun?? And it was a great time to start...

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Ok, a friend was musing at my social activities and link collecting habits while observing, “you have no life” - considering my info obsessions. So let me take a few moments to explain one of the many ways one can organize info to save sanity… For starters, I have been finding it useful to play with my latest toy; FriendFeed. (http://friendfeed.com/) From here I can comment on blog posts, reply to Twitter conversations, share my fav links, see friend’s Stumbles and much more… The best part is that it is all from a single interface. Not only can I track all of my mates activities in one place, but also keep topic focussed discussions rolling in some FriendFeed Rooms; Learn SEO (http://friendfeed.com/rooms/learnseo) - Search Engine Marketing (http://friendfeed.com/rooms/sem) - Social Media (http://friendfeed.com/rooms/social-media) - The Sphinn Zone (http://friendfeed.com/rooms/sphinnzone) Next we want to bring all of that back to a central location, for me that’s...

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If you want to search Twitter, FriendFeed or both, then this Google custom search should do the trick. You can also use the refinements to segment the results. Just another toy I created to play with... so far so fun! -- Enjoy!

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Giving thanks for the kindness of others Over the last year we have been fortunate to have some great people drop by the FireHorse Trail and I thought to start a page dedicated to them and show my appreciation. If you haven't met these folks or read their great insights, their posts and personal blogs are listed below;

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Overcoming the social media short-term fix - by James Duthie Social media works as hard as you do. When you’re happy, healthy, creative and insightful you can expect it to be your best friend. But beware… social media is a fickle creature. It won’t support you through troubled times. In fact, when times get tough, it’ll leave you for Angelina Jolie in a second. Hand’s up - if you're addicted to social media? (http://www.huomah.com/internet-marketing/social-media-marketing/the-smm-trail-map.html) I know I am... Dave is too... he confessed his obsession for Sphinn (http://www.huomah.com/News/Latest/Confessions-of-a-Sphinn-o-holic.html) recently (hardly a secret by the way Dave… and please put your hand down… ). And to be honest, what’s not to love? Oodles of traffic, a smattering of inbound links a couple more RSS subscribers each time you publish new work. Everyone’s happy … until you do something silly, you know, like breaking your hand (or worse)! Quite simply social media is...

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New features from Friend Feed So I read that the folks over at FriendFeed (http://friendfeed.com/) had a new feature out dubbed Rooms (http://friendfeed.com/rooms/overview); so why not give it a go right? The main gig here is that you can create topical groups and make them private if you so desire. This is always something I feel is a bonus for any social application. If it is a company approach or family and friends, the ability to control who has access can certainly cut down on the spam to beef ratio… Once you're subscribed to a room, the updates there appear with the rest of your activity which eliminates tab clicking, but could also create more clutter depending on how active the community is. So would you like to grab a room with me?mad hatter (http://www.themadhat.com/) on opening day for domains, I grabbed a few rooms, some private, others not. Please...

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Creating a reputation management nightmare. With the bru-ha-ha over Lyndon’s now infamous link bait raging in this week’s edition of the band (http://sphinn.com/story/46400) - wagon (http://sphinn.com/story.php?id=46512)- effect (http://sphinn.com/story/46588), one has to give pause. What if it all went horribly wrong and those in the media that may have felt they’d been duped began to create a brand management nightmare? What of a Digger revolt? remove the post (http://www.cornwallseo.com/search/index.php/2008/05/16/dude-wheres-the-mental-post-gone/) on his site, here's a taste to understand the background; "This is reference to a story on a equally troubling (http://www.jonathancrossfield.com/blog/2008/05/linkbait-at-any-cost.html); in the form of reputation management. Running a fake story, as was the case in this scenario, could even call into the light a publication's editorial integrity or worse.. lose advertisers. There are more than a few ramifications and potential TARFU (http://www.google.ca/search?sourceid=navclient aq=t ie=UTF-8 rlz=1T4GGLJ_enCA238CA238 q=TARFU)s worth sweating here.

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The fun, frustration and entertainment that is Sphinn nothing new (http://www.huomah.com/internet-marketing/social-media-marketing/how-to-dominate-sphinn-in-4-easy-steps.html) though. Thought my kids names were Danny and Donna for a spell… I am less concerned with ‘Going Hot’ – if one person finds the info useful, great! My work is done… if I find something interesting, I post…not looking to hit home runs…. Almost all of my Stumble (http://thegypsy.stumbleupon.com/)/Twitter (http://twitter.com/theGypsy) friends are Sphinners… a sheltered existence Sphinn is mentioned in 31 blog posts (http://www.huomah.com/Search.html?searchword=sphinn) here on the trail since last fall My wife is ready to throw my laptop out of the window when she spots the Sphinn logo… I was insane enough to create an awards show (http://www.huomah.com/internet-marketing/social-media-marketing/the-sphinn-awards-part-2.html) (with m'homey Jeff (http://www.searchenginepeople.com/blog/the-first-unofficial-sphinn-awards-day-1.html)) Seen many folks come and go, experience social media burn-out, many a drama unfold in the comments to the point of musing over a weekly gossip column for Sphinn… ('til I realized I had a...

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Glue Pages - A new take on universal search Seems Yahoo is beta testing its new search concept, GluePages, which combines text, images, video, jobs and more in the search results. It seems kinda fresh, but I have only been playing around with it briefly. Here’s a screen of a search for Google (http://in.search.yahoo.com/search?fr=yfp-t-in toggle=1 cop= ei=UTF-8 p=Google+)(yea cheeky, I know); Apparently they chose India because that market has,” a growing number of new users, plentiful local content, and a large number of developers who can develop applications around Yahoo's technologies.” – according to Tapan Bhat, a senior vice president at Yahoo. The search terms for it are limited and targeted to the Indian market, but you can still get afeel for this type of hybrid navigational searching. Give it a go; Yahoo GluePages (http://in.yahoo.com/) (use a common search query) … let me know what you make of it…

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Apparently the injury (http://www.huomah.com/Personal/Family-Life/How-to-cut-productivity-in-half.html)to Dave's hand has affected more than his typing. For whatever reason he's given me the keys to the blog and entrusted me for the day. Let's all wish him a speedy recovery, but do keep in mind the obvious opportunity to guest post here while his faculties may not be completely intact. Kidding aside, I'm sure Dave would appreciate a few more guest posts while his ability to type is limited. The Immeasurable Value with the Greater Return – by Steven Bradley A few months ago here on the trail, there began a discussion on the value of social media marketing. Specifically, looking for more information about the following: How to plan a program ( with a real-world example) How to time manage said program How to measure and manage costs How to measure it (KPI) How to determine ROI (return on investment) The discussion continued,...

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Are TwitterWhores the wave of the future? ..so I was following TechCrunch’s unhealthy obsession (http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/05/06/scoble-sellout-part-three-twitter-adverts/) with Scoble (http://scobleizer.com/) selling out. This time around it’s not about him selling ad space on his blog, but actually Twitter related; “he’s experimenting with Twittering adverts (http://twitter.com/Scobleizer/statuses/804453922) for perennial sponsor Seagate. He later twittered (http://twitter.com/Scobleizer/statuses/804455241) “I am just having a little fun getting a conversation about microblog advertising going” This all made me uneasy and being typographically challenged (http://www.huomah.com/Personal/Family-Life/How-to-cut-productivity-in-half.html) I created this; … is that where it’s headed?

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*The following is a guest post from David Snyder; life saver and SEO blogging junkie. I let out a juvenile giggle every time I listen to SEO’s and other Internet marketers’ rail off their initial strategies, strategies that rarely involve high quality content creation plans. So often the cliché, “Content is King,” is screamed through blogs, but rarely is it the king of online marketing plans. Without quality content why would anyone come to your site? Without quality content why is your site relevant enough to rank? Without quality content how will you convince anyone to utilize your site the way you want it to be utilized? Ok, step back. Understand something before we continue my rant, coming from a heavy writing background, having taught writing for several years, the reason I got into Internet marketing was my love for writing. So, obviously I am biased. If you are still reading this post, it...

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Well, since my busted friggen hand is making posting next to impossible, I thought some entertainment might be in order. This video I came across last month and is scary, educational and real funny; all in one shot. Johnny Long gives a great performance from last year's DefCon... do check it out; I guarantee you'll learn and laugh (OMG an SEO making guarantees..eek!!)