Healthy Blog Reviews

So you got your client on the front page of Digg. With your SEO skills you pushed them to the top of the rankings for all their key terms. You have optimized their PPC campaigns and have drastically improved their ROI. You are a rock star and everyone knows it! But the question now is, what’s left? Don’t get me wrong there is never an end to internet marketing, it’s always an ongoing process. But with all of your mad skills are you missing something? There’s got to be something that you don’t know but if you did, it would drastically improve your services. What is this one thing that I am talking about? Public Relations. Most internet marketers have no history in public relations. For some really weird reason PR and internet marketing (IM) have always kinda existed in separate worlds. Now don’t get me wrong, there are some really amazing agencies out there that do an awesome job at combining the two. But quite honestly the rule tends to be PR people and IM people rarely mix. Most of the home grown IM professionals started out through doing business online, few went from a career in PR to IM. So you are probably thinking, Why the heck do I need to understand PR? How is PR going to help with all of the things I have to do? Offline media exposure can dramatically impact your online efforts. TV and newspaper mentions can help build a strong brand and drive traffic to your web properties. Offline media exposure can shift ideas and opinions that can favor your companies agenda. You can even build a better reputation offline to counter an online reputation crisis. So what kind of skills does a PR guru have? Learn to write a killer press release. Learn how to successfully pitch a story to local media outlets. Build lasting and meaningful relationships with producers and writers. Oh, and um most importantly, learn how to communicate offline…..seriously, some of you IM gurus are really bad face to face communicators. If you can master all of the above and be open to learning more, then you are on your way to becoming a PR guru! So try getting out from behind that keyboard and making your clients shine offline!

Tags: business-online, clients, companies, Internet Marketing, media-exposure, online, question, rankings, seo, services, your-companies
Posted February 27, 2010 by cgseo under Social Media

We all know someone or seen someone who’s gotten kicked out of Google SERPs. It seems like a significant proportion of these people (or at least just the vocal ones) feel this exclusion is as personal as it was in seventh grade —Susan G. didn’t like you, so she wouldn’t let you hang out with their group, and it must be the same thing with Google, right? Tell that to the Google employee who recently realized his site had been delisted . Jason Morrison of Google Australia had his personal site removed from the index. But don’t worry, he’s not spamming or hiding keywords on a background—he just exceeded the bandwidth quota he’d set for his blog, and the server errors made Google think the site had been shut down. In the spirit of Googly openness, Jason shares not only what was wrong , but how he discovered it through Webmaster Tools, and how he fixed it. So the next time someone complains to you about Google being out to get them, maybe you can tell them about Jason’s case. Naturally, as TechDirt notes, this case doesn’t mean that Google never targets specific sites, but it is at least one more piece of evidence that most Google penalties are handled algorithmically. Or maybe you should just confirm their suspicions. With their paranoia, they probably need that abuse. What do you think?

Tags: cloud-hosting, Jason Morrison, paranoia, personal, Search, someone-or-seen, suspicions, their-paranoia, think-the-site, webmaster-tools
Posted February 26, 2010 by cgseo under Social Media

The Society For New Communications Research has come out with a new study on journalists’ use of social media —and it’s not as optimistic (or maybe realistic) as another study published this month. In a survey of 300+ journalists, the second annual Middleberg/SNCR Survey of Media in the Wired World ( PDF executive summary ) found that most of them did use social media—but a significant minority didn’t. However, in this study, journalists did admit that social media was important. Earlier this month, Cision and Don Bates of GWU found that 89% of journalists source stories from blogs . The Middleberg/SNCR study found that nearly 70% of journalists surveyed are using social networking sites, and 66% are reading blogs. (The number of journalists using social networking sites constitutes a “28% increase since the results of the 2008 Survey of Media in the Wired World were released,” but I’m not sure if they mean 28% [meaning it was ~55% in 2008] or 28 percentage points [meaning it was around 40% in 2008].) Twitter and other microblogging sites and tools are at 48%, a 25% increase since 2008, while online video is up to 48%. 25% are listening to podcasts. However, these journalists were (I choose to believe) more honest than the ones surveyed by GWU. The last study showed that only 15% of journalists think social media is “important” and 40% think it’s “somewhat important.” This study indicated that “Nearly 80% of journalists surveyed believe that bloggers have become important opinion-shapers in recent years” and “91% of journalists surveyed agree that new media and communications tools and technologies are enhancing journalism to some extent.” What do you think? Which of these “really” reflects how journalists feel about social media?

Tags: communications, increase-since, media, Social, Social Media, source-stories, study, study-indicated, survey, using-social, wired-world
Posted February 26, 2010 by cgseo under Social Media

Not since chocolate and peanut butter have two things ever meant to go together as much as these two stories. First, we have researchers in China opining that they can’t conduct their research without Google: “ Research without Google would be like life without electricity ,” says Xiong Zhenqin, an ecologist at Nanjing Agricultural University in Jiangsu province. In fact a study reveals… More than 80% use the search engine to find academic papers; close to 60% use it to get information about scientific discoveries or other scientists’ research programmes; and one-third use it to find science-policy and funding news…84% of the scientists who responded to Nature’s survey say that losing Google would “somewhat or significantly” hamper their research Maybe these scientists shouldn’t teach their students how to hack into US networks then, should they? OK, story number two ties into this magically. Google finally won approval…to be an electric utility …With their new approval to be a utility, Google could be a smart grid / smart charge service provider. If I had a late night news show on the Comedy Channel, I’d so enjoy discussing the epic timing of these two stories! Pilgrim’s Partners: SponsoredReviews.com – Bloggers earn cash, Advertisers build buzz!

Tags: China, comedy, Comedy Channel, magically, Research, scientists, Search, search-engine, since-chocolate, students, the-scientists, university, xiong-zhenqin
Posted February 26, 2010 by cgseo under Social Media

If Google hasn’t gotten the message by now then they never will. The European Union has a bee in its bonnet about all things Google. It almost feels like there is an issue du jour as of late. The threat of anti-trust inquiries is the latest to surface out of the regulatory body and just to show that they are paying attention to everything Google does there is some concern over the Google’s Street View again. The troubles are concerning how long Google keeps raw images in storage. These are the original photos taken that are then altered by blurring any potentially sensitive information like faces and license plate numbers. After this process is done then the photo is put into the Street View system. It’s how long the original images are kept that has the EU concerned. Yahoo! Finance reports European Union data privacy regulators are telling Google Inc. to warn people before it sends cameras out into cities to take pictures for its Street View maps, adding to the company’s legal worries in Europe. Google should shorten the time it keeps the original photos from one year to six months, regulators also said in a letter to the company obtained by The Associated Press on Thursday. In a statement, Google said its need to retain Street View images for one year is “legitimate and justified.” (I wonder if the people over at Yahoo don’t giggle a bit when they put these stories up but I digress.) Google has had a rough time with this service in Europe since its inception with Greece demanding they halt the picture taking , German authorities forcing the company to remove images from those who request it and the pitchfork and torch crowd in an English village that attempted to stop the Google Street View car from getting to its appointed rounds. So it appears that the EU has decided that Google may indeed be evil. While these initial salvos look like shots over the bow this could be laying the groundwork for bigger attacks. What is your reaction to putting Google under the microscope? Is it warranted? Is it about time? As these events keep happening there will likely more well defined pro v. anti Google camps. Where are you setting up your tent?

Tags: Europe, european, Google Street, original-photos, over-the-google, people, photo, stop-the-google, street-view, Yahoo
Posted February 26, 2010 by cgseo under Social Media