Duncan Watts claims that the Influentials theory is nonsense, yet if he were to think critically about his own work, he’d see that there are many flaws to it. (Hat tip to Maki for sphinning the Fast Company piece on Watts.) Influence still matters.
Was Mass Marketing Effective Or Was It Personal Networks Operating? (more…)
I’ve guest-posted at Dave Harris’ Huomah, sharing some linkbait ideas I had lying around for linkbait pieces which you’re welcome to develop! If you like it, also please do Sphinn the post. It also ties in to guest-writing I did at Pandia on succesful linkbait’s characteristics. And speaking of influencing people to link to you and/or sphinn your stuff, check out my most recent article, On Motivation and Influence. If you like it, a sphinn would also be appreciated. I put about a dozen hours into it and am really proud of that, so it would mean a lot if you could help it go hot.
Besides all that, I’m going to make the traditional invitation for you to
What follows is a letter I wrote late one night out of anger, frustration, depression, pain and a desire to get my feelings off my chest so that I could finally fall asleep. I’ll be using it to illustrate and explain the two most important elements of human behaviour: motivation and influence.
The former is the explanation as to why someone behaves a certain way, and the latter explains (more…)
Formal writing is really frustrating because it requires you to dress up simple ideas in complete sentences, edit your work for grammar and spend an unholy amount of time writing what it would take you a few minutes to express verbally. When you come up with new ideas or discover new stuff as often as I do, that can get really frustrating.
So I’m hereby inaugurating what I hope will be a regular column here: Scratchpad (scratchpad picture courtesy of one eye fish). I’ll share my latest ideas, in a raw scratchpad type format and be paying even more attention than usual to your feedback. (The Post #88 reference was the pre-naming version of this post’s title and I found it quite appropriate to an informal column.)
For this first issue, I’ve got
I’ve gotten two emails from a certain “RankRanker@gmail.com” (aka “webmaster@RankRanker.com”) trying to sell me their “Free SEO System and Link Exchange With Extra Earning”. While spam email pitches for terribly named, grammar-rule-flaunting, “get rich quick” systems (NEW: Now With An SEO Twist!) (more…)
The following are four cases involving reputation management. The paragraphs are long because (i) they were written that way and it felt natural (ii) I’m too lazy to edit (iii) most importantly, we’re all suffering from shorter attention spans. I promise you good content if you read on. Some definite lessons to be learned about proactive reputation management for those of you who are attentive to detail. (more…)
Google Maps has been doing a lot of testing and playing with its search engine results pages (SERPs) lately. I’ve seen the EarthBooker hotel booking engine tightly integrated with many hotels. At the same time, when I performed a longtail search for a hotel to stay at during the SMX West conference, I found some reviews (or other stuff Google seems to find relevant) folded directly into the SERPs (you used to have to click more info to see the reviews). And there’s also pictures being folded in from Google’s Panoramio.com. (more…)
Vanessa Fox and the team at Third Door Media have given me an incredible opportunity – the opportunity to speak at SMX. Following Danny’s great explanation of what they were looking for in terms of pitches, I thought about my experience and what I could share with attendees. I pitched some ideas for local and voila – I’m in for the local panel 
! So Third Door: Thanks a lot for taking a chance on me. I can’t predict the reception, but I can promise you I’ll be working like mad to make that presentation worth it for your attendees.
I highly encourage you guys to grab the early-bird special before it expires – you save $400! It’s THE search marketing conference, and besides, I’ll be there 
. (more…)
I’ve decided to start a semi-regular link love thing sharing items I’ve recently come across that I’d like to share with you folks as being valuable resources. This “Linking Oot N Aboot” column name comes from David, who remarked to me upon seeing a picture of me in a suit with a poppy: “You’re a canuck too?!” Yep, sure am! And though I don’t have the maritime/Atlantic Canada pronunciation that we seem to be famous for, I’ll shamelessly use my country’s national slang for the hell of it. (more…)
Due to this blog’s buggy technology (as in, horse and buggy), my blog is hiding a post I think many of you will enjoy. That post is Whitepapers Are So ’07: MyVenturePad Gives Away Meatball Sundaes for Linkbait. It discusses MyVenturePad, their great linkbait as well as a related book I’m reading: 10 Reasons for Businesses to Blog. Besides that, I’m taking the opportunity with this little upkeep post to share some link love with recent commenters. (more…)
Here we are in 2008 and it’s time for another Carnival of the Capitalists! This is one of the longest-running carnivals in the blogosphere and it’s largely due to the great organizational skills and dedication of Jay, from the Business Sphere. (more…)