Marketing Book Reviews Blog Post Archives
Team Reading List 11.7.07
You're Grammer Make Me Crazy!
Daniel Scocco’s post Six Common Punctuation Errors that Bedevil Bloggers got a bunch of comments (144 to be precise, at least at the time I am writing this). It seems that I’m not the only person who enjoyed the piece. Although discussed under Apostrophe for Plurals, what Daniel didn’t discussed in depth enough for me, was one of my biggest peeves.
Your crazy cat!
The biggest pet peeve I have, the one that really kills me when reading posts and comments, is the misuse of your vs you’re. When I come across someone using your in place of you’re, I get so irritated that I completely lose interest in the point of the post or comment. I completely disregard any relevance the writer may have. I feel that if they can’t use the right word, then they must not know what they’re talking about.
What does “Your Crazy Cat” mean? Does it mean you’re a crazy cat? (dating myself to be older than I am) or does it mean you have a crazy cat? Get it straight. I once flew off on a rant about this on a RockClimbing.com forum. Your cool. Your funny. You’re looking uneducated.
If I make this mistake, please shoot me. (And I probably have made it…)
The Great SEO Lie Exposed
Audio feed[audio:http://www.polepositionmarketing.com/emp/blog-audio/great-seo-lie.mp3]
I’m not a Google hater. In fact I have no real problems with Google other than the standard fare. I don’t always agree with what they do and they, at times, appear to be quite hypocritical. Many would simply chalk that up to big-business. But Google’s no Enron, at least not yet. My only real problem is that Google tends to talk out of both sides of its proverbial mouth, and expects the SEO community to take them at face value. But we really can’t anymore.
I had an alternate title for this post: “Ask not what Google can do for you, but what you can do for Google”. We’re moving into a new age where we have to pay closer attention what Google does — despite what Google says.
Review: Social Media Optimization Strategies
I think I would have titled SEOmoz’s Social Media Optimization Strategies differently. It’s more of a detailed look at the social media landscape and analysis of the major social media players. As it turns out, it’s a fantastic document that provides insights that you usually don’t get in the typical “strategies” type information.
Rand’s team does an excellent job of providing rundown of MySpace, Facebook, Digg, Squidoo, Reddit, Yahoo! Answers, StumbleUpon, Del.icio.us, and LinkedIn. They show you how to create an account on each and the right and wrong ways to get involved in the community. They share strategies that work and don’t work on each, pitfalls to be aware of, and how best to build an active profile that is likely to get attention.
This is the dummies guide to SMO and anybody looking to get started building profiles but not knowing how or where to start needs to read this guide. While you still have to do the heavy lifting, SEOmoz has given you the instruction manual on how to do that.
Team Reading List 10.25.07
12 Privacy and Security Issues Your Customers Care About
Your website’s privacy information and security settings can be significant hurdles when it comes to gaining trust with your visitors. Establishing trust is paramount to enticing visitors to make that final commitment, whether that be making a purchase, choosing to provide their info, or simply making initial contact with you.
Your job is to make sure your visitors feel confident that their information is kept safe and will not be used for nefarious means, or anything other than what they fully expect. While providing assurances are nice, those assurances only go so far as what actually happens. Be sure that your small print reinforces what your visitors already expect to find in regards to how their information is used.
Page Structure
You should have specific pages developed that address both privacy and visitor security issues. These pages should be easy to access and structured in an easy-to-read fashion.
Scanability
Be sure your privacy and security pages are easy to scan. Categorize information into sections allowing visitors to easily find information that is most important to them.
Section summaries
With each page divided into sections, each main section should start with a short summary or introduction that then leads to more specific points outlined in greater detail.
Information types
Identify the different types of information that is collected from your visitors and explain how that information will be used. Be specific so visitors get a complete understanding of what happens to the personal info details they provide.
Cookies
If cookies are used for the purpose of storing information, explain why and how long the cookie stays active on their computer.
Info sharing
Explain to your visitors if any information collected will be shared with other third parties and explain the circumstances and reasoning why.
Data protection
Explain how user’s data will be protected and kept safe once their information is collected. Note if any SSL encryption is used, and specifically how information on minors (if applicable) will be protected.
Additional protection
As an additional benefit, it’s a good idea to provide further information on how your visitors can protect themselves and their information on the web in general.
Footer links
Footers are often the “expected” location of links to your privacy and security pages. If not already included, it’s best to find a permanent place in your footer for these links.
Contextual / form links
Don’t let your footer be the only place for such links. Links to your privacy and security pages should be included in all appropriate locations, such as with forms, shopping cart, etc.
Security images
If and where appropriate, use visual images to indicate to visitors they are viewing secure pages or sections of the site, or are entering information into a secure web form. These images give visual confirmation of security that helps establish additional layers of trust.
Site links
The security and privacy pages are a good place to provide additional links to sections of the site that allow users to change preferences, contact info, opt out etc.
When establishing trust and credibility it is often the littlest of things that can make the biggest difference. Shoppers simply want to feel comfortable about their purchase. The more small comforts you can provide them the more apt they will be to complete the shopping/purchase process.
Review: Teaching Sells by Brian Clark
Brian Clark (copyblogger) has just released a quick 22-page download (or audio recording) titled, Teaching Sells: Forget everything you know about making money online… and start making some. In this report Brian teases us with the concept of making money through distribution of content. Forget giving reports away for free and start selling it! (Is it just me that finds it ironic that a report about not giving away content for free was free?)
Brian explains that people are still willing to pay for information that has a higher perceived value. Making money online is as simple as finding the content people are willing to pay for and making it available to a larger audience.
Don’t expect the Teaching Sells document to answer any real questions.This report is just designed to whet your appetite for the Teaching Sells training program that Brian is putting together. He promises useful tips, and strategies that you can use to learn how to sell content, a model that Brian says he has been doing successfully for a number of years now.
This document doesn’t provide any hard and fast strategies, but does open the door to a new way of thinking that Brian will presumably expand upon in much greater detail as the teachingsells.com website goes live. If you’re looking for new opportunities or strategies, get the free download and see if the “Teaching Sells” path is right for you.
Review: The Top 10 Distinctions Between Millionaires and the Middle Class
The Top 10 Distinctions Between Millionaires and the Middle Class
Authors: Keith Cameron Smith
Hardcover: 128 pages
Cost: $10.17
Published: August, 2007
You’ll not find a more simplified, boiled down analysis of what separates the rich from, well, everybody else. No, this isn’t a book talking about how rich people are a bunch of greedy SOB’s. Nor is it talking about some get-rich-quick scheme or how you can make millions of dollars overnight. While the book may be short, it’s quite simple in its approach answering the question, why do some people have more money than others?
The top ten distinctions the author walks us through outline the basic idea that how successful you are is largely determined by your thoughts and your actions. Most millionaires have achieved their success because they had the right mindset to become millionaires. They had goals and sacrificed what they had to to get there, but they also kept their frame of mind in the right place, asking the right questions, taking risks, and developing ideas.
Because of its simplicity, Top Ten Distinctions makes it clear that anybody has it within themselves to become a millionaire. Sure, some have more hurdles to cross than others, but these things can all be overcome and financial success–financial freedom–can be achieved by anyone who puts their mind to it. The distinctions between millionaires and middle class are not that millionaires have more money, they were just determined not to live out a middle class existence that often struggles to pay bills, afford vacations, or are living from paycheck to paycheck.
Financial freedom is available to all. Once you know what separates those that have much from those that don’t, you can begin to mold yourself to have the mindset that allows you to become free financially. Oh, and just for a quick preview, my favorite distinction was number four: Millionaires believe they must be generous. The middle class believes it can’t afford to give. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thought that I can’t afford to donate here or help that person there. I’m off to change my own mindset!
Professional Search Engine Optimization with PHP
Professional Search Engine Optimization with PHP: A Developer’s Guide to SEO
Authors: Jaimie Sirovich and Cristian Darie
Paperback: 360 pages
Cost: $26.39
Published: April 2007
Running a successful search engine optimization firm means that I have to have a solid understanding in numerous coding strategies that can play a role in an SEO campaign. I’m not a programmer, and don’t know a lick about PHP, but I also knew that pSEOwPHP would be a valuable book worth reading. I was right.
pSEOwPHP is a book written by programmers for programmers. Rarely will you go more than a couple of pages without getting an in-depth look at php code illustrating just how certain jobs are done. But that should not dissuade the non-programmer. Going through this book I did a good deal of skipping. I don’t need to know the code–wouldn’t understand it anyway–but what I did get was a solid grasp on how PHP can be an extremely effective tool in a search engine optimization campaign.
So what can you learn in a book about PHP without knowing PHP? You’ll get a crash course in creating search engine friendly URLs, redirects, duplicate content, search friendly html, web feeds, sitemaps, link bait, cloaking and a whole lot in between. For the non-programmer I found all the things that you can do with PHP fascinating. The concepts here are nothing new but I’m certain my programmers will find information in here that they can apply liberally throughout our client campaigns.
- "Our clients often tell us we're one in a million. Turns out we're really just one of a hundred thousand or so. But what they're really saying is that we get results that increase traffic, sales and ROI! Number one of a million? Yeah, that's where we put you when we velocitize your web marketing."
