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Introducing Performancing Legal with Jonathan Bailey

August 12, 2009 by Franky Branckaute

Performancing is happy to announce a new Performancing Service, Performancing Legal. Performancing legal is a new series hosted by Jonathan Bailey from Plagiarism Today.

Jonathan will weekly answer a question from one of our readers and help you with his advice based on many years of experience. Every Wednesday we will announce next week’s episode and open the question round. Jonathan will answer one question every following Tuesday. [Read more…] about Introducing Performancing Legal with Jonathan Bailey

Do You Ride the Wave of Twitter Trending?

August 9, 2009 by J Angelo Racoma

Among the trending topics on Twitter earlier this week was keywords related to the late Corazon Aquino, who was a former president of the Republic of the Philippines. Hailed as an icon of democracy, the former head of state passed away on August 1st, and tens of thousands of citizens flocked to the streets to escort her funeral cortage. The expression of support was also shown online. For a few days, Filipino citizens from all over the world sent messages of support through blogs and other social media, including Twitter.

In fact, “Cory Aquino” was among the top trending topics for a few days. Users have been talking about the events at the wake and funeral, and about her contributions to her country from the 1980’s up to the present, often attaching the #Cory hashtag. However, I’ve also been noticing some irrelevant tweets containing the #Cory hashtag. That made me wonder about how people will ride on the popularity of trending topics in the hope of getting their share of the limelight. It also makes me wonder how easily groups of Twitter users can game the system.

Irrelevant posts tagged with a certain hashtag can do one of two things. First, it will make your tweet appear on search results for that hashtag. So if you’re out to get attention, it might be a good idea to attach popular tags to your tweet, no matter how trivial or irrelevant. Secondly, it adds to the volume of tweets with that hashtag attached. So you could imagine that a keyword could trend if a ton of people wrote unrelated tweets, but with the same hashtag.

This could be one way the system can be gamed. It’s akin to keyword stuffing, which was one of the ways website owners optimized their sites for search engines. This practice is now frowned upon, of course, and could cause penalties from the search engines. But with Twitter, weeding out unwanted tweets from trending counts might be difficult, if not impossible. Granted, Twitter can exclude certain hashtags from their trending topics list, particularly if these violate terms of service, or if these constitute content not applicable for general consumption. They have done this before.

However, it might be different with tweets with irrelevant tags. The most they can probably do is not count a particular tweet under a particular hashtag if it is found to be irrelevant. But through what mechanism can this be done would be the question. Twitter staff cannot monitor every tweet and trending topic manually, and it might not be as easy to determine relevance without human intervention. Maybe Twitter can implement a report/feedback mechanism so that users can point out improperly-tagged tweets, and when the number of reports reaches a critical level, then those hashtags or posts would be looked into–something like a “bury” or “vote down” mechanism.

I think the best way to deal with this is to tweet responsibly. I’ve always advocated the idea of being careful with what you say online, be it on a blog post, video, tweet or just about any medium. Social media is powerful, and as such, it should be wielded with care and responsibility. And so, the next time you feel like adding an irrelevant hashtag to your tweet just to get attention, think again. Are you contributing positively to the Twitter community with what you are doing? Or are you just adding pointless drivel?

Have Blog Reviews Tainted the Image of Bloggers?

July 29, 2009 by J Angelo Racoma

In my life as a blogger, I’ve been sent a few items for review, like books, gadgets, food items, coffee and software. Some of these have been given to me gratis. Some, I’ve had to return. Most of the time, I review items that I’ve bought myself, especially if these are related to the niche of my blogs (mostly gadgets and technology).

If you ask if I’ve ever solicited items for review, my answer would be yes. I have asked some PR agencies and gadget distributors for review items that I could borrow, so I wouldn’t have to spend big bucks on these. But those have been loaned equipment, which I’ve had to take photos of, use (and abuse) and then return after a week’s time.

But I think one hot issue today is the fact that bloggers who review items are seen in a bad light, especially if companies and PR agencies approach them to give free samples or free products. Take for instance how mommy bloggers have come to be considered a force to reckon with. NPR reports that one such debatable issue is “blog-ola” or free goodies, products, trips and other perks many marketers are giving to bloggers in hopes of getting favorable publicity or positive reviews.

“Bloggers used to have sponsors sponsor their writing,” … “Now, they’re actually writing for sponsors, and I think that’s changed the dynamic of the blogosphere a great deal.”

There are three points that are debatable here, and it mostly involves ethics in blogging about commercial products.

Influence peddling. There is a difference between sponsors approaching you in the hopes of their product being reviewed, and your making these sponsorships as the major reason behind running a blog, to the point of your blog becoming too commercial in nature. The former would perhaps be a normal offshoot of running a publication. This is also a benefit enjoyed by traditional publications, and not only blogs, as part of PR agencies’ responsibilities to their clients. But the latter is tantamount to influence peddling. You know you have a voice in the online world. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying the benefits of being influential, but when you start selling your influence for monetary gain (in cash or in kind), then it’s a different ball game.

Editorial independence. The issue here is whether you are able to differentiate editorial from commercial content. In many cases, the difference might not seem too obvious as, say, compared to a traditional publication. In a newspaper, you know the difference between automotive reviews in the Motoring pages from the editorials on the Op-Ed pages. The motoring columnists are probably lent cars, trucks and SUVs for review. But the editor writes his daily piece as part of his opinions on current events and issues.

However, the question remains whether an opinion columnist can be swayed toward giving favorable opinions or reviews with free products, services or other compensation. And because many of these products, services and items sent in for review (solicited or not) are free, a blogger’s conundrum is whether to publish an all-out, honest review, or just highlight the good parts, for worry that the freebies might end.

Tainting the image of blogs and bloggers. Blogs are supposedly seen as being written with honest voices, because these are published by ordinary individuals like you and me. But if you are writing with the mindset of being approached by companies and PR firms for freebies, you kind of lose the honesty. And this is one of those things that have tainted the image of blogs, blogging and bloggers all over the world. While blogging and other social media are world-changing, in that they have changed the way we communicate, connect and engage, these have also opened up many ethical questions.

Have you ever been sent products, software, services or other items for review, in the hopes of being featured on your blog? How have you reacted or responded? If you do welcome the idea of writing reviews on your blog, have you ever solicited products, or at least opened up your blog for such submissions? And if you do write reviews, do you focus only on the good side, or are you honest with writing your evaluation, including the bad parts?

The world seems to view bloggers as influence-mongering freeloaders. What can we do to change this?

Image by multisanti via Flickr

The Top 50 SEO & SEM Bloggers Worth Following

July 23, 2009 by Chris Berry

: Image byPubConvia CrunchBase

Anyone who wants to run a serious blog or website needs solid information on the ever changing nature of the SEO/SEM game. If you’re looking to make it to the top of the charts on the web, you’ve got your work cut out for you and you’ll want every tip, trick and piece of advice you can find.

That’s why we’ve put together this list of the Top 50 SEO/SEM Experts. These are the folks you want to keep an eye on, in no particular order:

Matt Cutts – Most of those already involved in SEO know the name Matt Cutts. He’s a Google employee who specializes in SEO issues, with a passion for the prevention of link spamming. His blog is very down to earth and filled with insight you can’t get from someone who doesn’t work at Google.

Rand Fishkin – As a major contributor to SEOmoz.org, one of the net’s premiere SEO sites, Randy got involved in the Web game back in the early 90’s. He’s been invited to speak with the engineers of both Google and Microsoft, not to mention given presentations at Stanford and NPR.

Daron Babin – After starting his career at NBC TV and winning prestigious awards in the broadcasting industry, Babin turned his attention to SEO and SEM. He’s not one of the stars of the SEO world, running WebmasterRadio.

Jim Boykin – A regular conference speaker on the topics of link building campaigns and search engine marketing tools, Boykin not only blogs about SEO/SEM, he’s built tools to help marketers along on their path to success. His down home style appeals to many, but his success is even more attractive.

Aaron Wall – One of the most powerful SEO bloggers online, Wall is the man behind SEO Book, a giant and irreplaceable resource for the SEO industry. Being featured in the Wall Street Journal and a popular speaker at PubCon speaks for itself.

Danny Sullivan – Starting out as a journalist, Sullivan went on to cover search engines in a big way. He has a podcast and also writes for Search Engine Land. The scope of Sullivan’s knowledge makes him a big favorite for aspiring SEO experts.

Barry Schwartz – Another writer for Search Engine Land, Schwartz uses his blog to track the conversations taking place at the most popular SEO forums online. He’s known as one of the hardest workers in the SEO industry.

Bill Slawski – Coming from a background in law, Slawski started out part-time, but his fascination for the SEO world lead him towards a career in consulting. He focuses on ethical, proactive solutions to SEO issues and along with lots of research and experimentation yet delivers the information in a laid back way.

Todd Malicoat – With nearly a decade of serious SEO experience, Malicoat brings a lot to the table in terms of traffic generation. He’s a specialist in how to get visitors to websites and a popular speaker at Search Engine Strategies and Pubcon who’s been featured in Inc. Magazine and the New York Post.

Andy Beal – With a specialization in online reputation management, Beal is an SEO expert who’s serviced commercial powerhouses like Motorola, GlaxoSmithKline and NBC. He’s also a forefront expert on SEM, sharing his wisdom through his popular blogs Marketing Pilgrim and SEM Vendor.

Michael Arrington – You’ve probably heard of TechCrunch, the company Arrington founded after an already successful career as a corporate securities lawyer and serial entrepreneur. He’s shaped the SEO landscape in a great many ways and continues to be a major player in the SEM world.

John Battelle – You may know of Battelle’s book ‘The Search’, a landmark in the SEO world. He’s a journalist and entrepreneur who blogs from a very stripped down site about the high gloss world of Web 2.0 and other topics. His major aim is helping SEO marketers develop towards the future of the web.

Brett Tabke – With more than three decades in the computer industry, Tabke brought his experience to bear and accomplishes great things in the SEO industry. He’s noted for for coining some major basics in the Web world SEO Themes, link farms and SERP.

Rae Hoffman – Along with viral marketing, Rae ‘Sugarrae’ Hoffman took her endless hours of time spent online and turned herself into an SEO consultant. With a flashy yet effective sense of design, her blog offers the SEO crowd a solid source of effective advice for pulling traffic.

Matt McGee – In addition to moderating for Sphinn and editing for Search Engine Land, McGee has carved a niche for himself in local search marketing. Helping companies like Target.com got the Wall Street Journal interested in what he has to say.

Rene LeMerle – Having been in the industry for over a decade, LeMerle focuses on global search engine marketing. He’s also interested in Web 2.0 helping digital marketers get their marketing efforts to pay off.

Benjamin Pfeiffer – Known as Phoenix, Pfeiffer is the owner of Rank Smart Search Marketing renowned as an business consultant and search optimizer. A veteran in SEO, he’s overseen teams of SEO pro’s and knows how to achieve massive success with a campaign.

Carolyn Shelby – Way back in 1994, Shelby was already building websites professionally. Today, she focuses on SEO for sites that are old and outdated, taking them to the next level of performance with a complete re-launch. She’s also well known in the blog radio circuit and many SEO forums.

Patrick Altoft – With the UK’s largest Internet marketing blog, Altoft has a lot of credibility on both sides of the pond. His Blogstorm has gained him so much clout that he’s been quoted by the likes of BBC News, Wired, TechCrunch and Mashable.

Michael Gray – Having started out in the online retail market over a decade ago, Gray knows his way around the net. He blogs about loads of excellent information for SEO and it’s easy to see why he gets invited to so many conferences as a guest speaker.

Bruce Clay – One of the strongest voices for ethics in SEO, Clay has established a large company that offers SEO training among many other services. His blog hosts many excellent SEO and SEM writers.

David Naylor – Not only a digital radio host, Naylor got his start doing SEO work for major corporations. He’s focused on useability in site design and getting Number 1 rankings in the search engines and teaching others how to do that, too.

Jill Whalen – As the founder of High Rankings back in 1995, Whalen is a regular speaker at SEO conferences. As a moderator at Sphinn who’s quoted by Inc. Magazine and the Wall Street Journal, she brings a wealth of experience with her.

Eric Enge – With three decades worth of tech industry experience, Enge keep his focus on total search engine compliance, never cutting corners for solid results. He’s the author of a book called The Art of SEO and a career entrepreneur.

Andrew Shotland – After starting with a site that he SEO’d to three million visitors per month, Shotland sold his start-up to CitySearch. Now he’s an expert in the area of local search, an emerging niche within the SEM industry.

John Andrews – Describing himself as a Competitive Webmaster, Andrews began as an IT professional for a non-profit that needed to spread the word. He now shares his SEO knowledge that he’s gained working for large companies and professionals on his blog.

Vanessa Fox – A prominent speaker at search industry events, Fox not only writes about search engine optimisation, she’s also got incredible experience. She helped design the Google Webmaster Central and was a spokesperson for Google.

Eric Lander – From his woodland outpost, Lander blogs about all things SEO. He’s a specialist in both local search and truly organic search engine optimization. He’s also not afraid to be controversial in his posts.

Bill Hartzer – Having been a professional writer for the tech industry and TV, Hartzer understands how search plays a role in popularity. He’s also the administrator for SearchEngineForums.com and a consultant for large companies.

Shimon Sandler – After starting as a marketing manager for a detergent company, Sandler decided to set out to master SEO. He’s come a long ways and is now a popular guest on Good Karma podcast who brings his major corporate SEO experience along with him.

Jaan Kanellis – As an expert in both PPC and organic SEM, Kanellis has worked with big companies like Google, Yahoo and MSN. He’s a moderator at WebProWorld.com and a real asset to the SEM industry as a whole.

Dev Basu – Starting out as a teen at Microsoft Canada, Basu brings an internationalist slant to his work. He’s experienced working for businesses at all levels, helping them establish and promote their online presence.

Kalena Jordan – The founder of Search Engine College, Jordan has put her history of SEO to work for others by teaching both SEO and SEM. She now does consulting with the aim of helping customers achieve the highest ROI for their online sites.

Kyle Bunch – Formerly a contributor to AOL’s Fanhouse, Bunch went on to run Blogebrity to cover the A-list of bloggers. He’s helped develop the SEOi toolset for users at his company SEOintelligence and also runs a sports media conference.

Jeremy Hermanns – Having worked with over 50 Fortune 500 top search engine companies, Hermanns comes from a background of working at Overture/Goto. He’s currently focused on providing the finest SEO toolset available.

Karl Ribas – Coming from a background as a graphic artist, Ribas works in many areas of website marketing with a strong focus on SEM. He mixes a strong desire to create visually appealing sites with a determination to get them high in search engine rankings.

Edward Cowell – A UK native, Cowell focuses on the latest news in the organic SEO and pay per click markets. He created Search Engine War to offer a unique UK approach to marketing online and offers lots of global search information on his blog.

Erik Dafforn – The creator of the SEO Speedwagon blog, Dafforn strives to provide ‘beneath the hood’ coverage in the world of SEO and SEM. His blog regularly delves deep into technical issues that help both advanced and beginning SEO experts alike.

Kim Krause Berg – Known as Cre8pc online, Krause Berg worked for a tech magazine’s website back in the 90’s. She’s used her experience in Quality Assurance to carve a niche for herself in SEO world where she focuses on the visitor side of quality SEO results.

Lee Odden – One of 25 stars featured in the book Online Marketing Heroes, Odden has proven himself to the level that U.S. News and Fortune have taken the time to write about him. He’s focused on the combination of good public relations and SEO.

Roger Dooley – As the consultant and entrepreneur behind Neuro Science Marketing, Dooley blends his offline marketing experience with an understanding of “big picture” SEO issues. He strives to sharpen the skills of those in emerging SEM markets.

Roger Montti – As a site auditor and reviewer, Montti focuses on commentary about the search engine industry in general. He regularly helps those who need assistance building quality links to improve their SEO strategies.

David Brown – A popular podcast speaker at SEO 101, Brown formed the Top SEO Consulting firm to work almost exclusively with large scale corporate clients. His focus is providing high ROI for those he offers SEO advice to.

James Harrison – Coming from a background in Pay Per Click and Internet marketing, Harrison freelances his SEO work using his skills as a writer. On his blog he shares his successes as he works up the rankings in the SEO world.

Jeremy Morgan – With over a decade’s worth of experience developing websites, Morgan brings his history to work for him on his blog. There he offers tips for those just starting in the SEO game and covers topics like using Bing and Twitter instead of Google only.

Roy Sencio – Coming from a background in advertising and marketing, Sencio blogs about topics to help others in SEO and SEM. His primary focus is on getting solid conversions in the pay per click marketing environment.

Steve Wiideman – As a veteran specialist in both organic SEO and pay per click campaigns, Wiideman provides several blogs to offer tips and trips to aspiring SEO and SEM marketers.

Michael Guy – As the CEO of 1SEOExperts, Guy focuses on helping webmasters fine tune their sites and raise their profiles in the search engines.

Brad Fallon – As a specialist expert in SEO, Fallon’s blog offers many tactics and tips to help those who want great search engine ranks and the traffic that comes with it.

Nima Asrar Haghighi – Coming from a background of professional SEO and SEM, Haghighi provides excellent info on his blog for SEM tips and tricks that improve your search engine rankings.

How to handle blog comments left in another language

July 20, 2009 by Andy Merrett

David has already raised the issue of real comments with spammy URLs, and that’s something to deal with in its own right, but what I often find is comments left in another language (sometimes including a link) which I have to debate what to do with.

What can you do with comments left in a language that differs from you and your blog’s native tongue? Here are three ideas.

Delete the comment outright

This seems a little unfair, though it could be argued that if someone is genuinely leaving a comment on your blog (and has therefore understood the blog post well enough to leave an informed response) then they should be able to leave the comment in the same language.

However, the visitor may have used an automatic translation service to read your article and yet feels more comfortable leaving a comment in their own language.

They may be able to read and understand the language you use but find it hard to write in that language.

Simply deleting the comment outright may save you time but it could potentially alienate one of your visitors, and who knows how influential that person might be?

You could add this as part of the comment policy for your blog, of course, but it could still be perceived as a snub.

Translate and leave comment in original language

If you’re fortunate enough to speak the same language as the person who commented, or are happy to trust an automatic translation tool such as Google Translate, you can check to ensure that the comment is relevant to the entry and that the link doesn’t lead to a spam site.

Doing an automatic translation may miss some nuances, but you should get the overall flavor of the comment and be able to work out whether it’s a keeper.

Translate and publish a translation

As above, but instead of simply checking out the comment for your own peace of mind, publish a translation (either verbatim, paraphrase, or summary) in the primary language of the blog.

This is done more for the benefit of your other visitors, but be particularly careful with automatic translations because you may well miss nuances or find that some words (especially “slang” for that particular language) are incorrectly translated or not translated at all.

Getting help

If you receive a large amount of traffic from a particular region where another language is predominantly spoken, it might be worth investigating partnering with someone who speaks that language to handle comment moderation for you.

Conclusions

The admin involved in dealing with comments can be fairly high, whatever language they’re left in.

I don’t have statistics for how much spam is left in other languages, or whether spammers are deliberately using non-English languages to try to fool automated spam filters and human detection, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised.

At the end of the day, it’s your blog and you can choose how to handle the comments you receive. However, I’d recommend making some effort to check them out rather than simply purging them.

What’s your strategy for handling comments left in other languages?

Twitter and Twitocracy: the Case of Moonfruit

July 6, 2009 by J Angelo Racoma

If you haven’t eaten moonfruit, then you’re missing out on a lot. It’s a delicacy in some parts of the world. But it’s rare and expensive, and not everyone can afford it.

Of course, there’s no such thing as a moon fruit. But there is a web development company called Moonfruit. To celebrate their 10th anniversary, they’ve recently run a Twitter campaign involving the giveaway of 10 MacBook Pros. The mechanics are simple: Just include the hashtag #moonfruit in your tweets and every day they select a winner at random from among those who mention the keyword in the past 24 hours.

Sounds interesting? Of course to the folks who want a free MacBook Pro, it is. And a lot have participated, resulting in #moonfruit being a trending topic. People have won, and Moonfruit has even sent special prizes to folks had been creative in using their keyword–some have sung, some have created poems, some have recorded videos.

So is everyone happy? Apparently not. According to the Moonfruit blog, Twitter imposed some kind of censorship, in particular by taking the #moonfruit keyword off the trending topics list.

Late Friday night 3rd July, around midnight UK time Moonfruit finally tumbled off the top of the trends list on Twitter. Now this wasn’t wholly unexpected with July 4th on the way and the resignation of Sarah Palin. But what was odd is how it that it never returned despite the stats being above other trending topics.

…

[I]f Twitter had come to us and said, “guys, enough is enough”, then we would have worked with them to limit the campaign, or complied with whatever they were demanding. However, if they have pulled the trending without explanation or communication, this sets rather a different tone.

Moonfruit provides some links to statistics, claiming that the #moonfruit hashtag continues to surpass most others, but is nowhere to be found in the trending topics list.

There are precedents here. Twitter is known to have taken off inappropriate terms from the trending list in the past. It’s understandable that Twitter needs to protect its network and technology. Adult and raunchy material definitely don’t fall under “acceptable” given Twitter’s diverse audience. I wouldn’t want my kid to read about those kinds of things. But what about keywords that are not necessarily offensive?

The argument here is whether Twitter’s trending topics list should be a pure numbers game, or whether it should involve some algorithm that determines which is eligible, and which is not.

Should there be an algorithm for trends rather than making trending topics a pure numbers game? Should the system be fixed so that #liesboystell doesn’t win out over truly important, significant, or newsworthy content? Should tweets, like images and other kinds of content, be screened for “adult” material and user preferences be set accordingly? Or do trends really belong to the lowest common denominator?

And if all else fails, should there be human intervention to flag something as spammy or obscene?

Other social media services involve some sort of algorithm to minimize or moderate the possibility of gaming. DIGG, for instance has its secret algorithm for bringing entries to frontpage. It’s not just a purely numbers game, but it also involves a host of other factors like aging, authority, timeliness of votes, and the like. Even Google doesn’t use a purely numeric algorithm in determining PageRank. It’s secret algorithm also uses a lot of factors. And even search results don’t rely solely on PageRank and the quantity of links.

The danger here is that using a simple numbers game would make Twitter prone to spam. I’ve already encountered my share of spammy marketers trying to push affiliate links at my face. Without some filtering or moderation mechanism, the Twitter trending topics list would be easy to fill up with useless keywords. Not that marketing on Twitter is bad. There is, after all, a better way of doing it, which does not involve in-your-face, pushy and spammy advertising. But if trivial, unimportant topics keep on edging out the more relevant keywords, this could dilute the value of Twitter as a live search platform.

Still, the question here is about “Twitocracy.” Is Twitter democratic at all? And is there sense in implementing a purely democratic system of presenting information? Or is pure social media democracy a pipe dream?

Why WickedFire is a Great Forum to Learn Online Business and Marketing

July 5, 2009 by David Peralty

Look, if you’re interested in joining a forum where everyone is polite but nobody is making serious money, try WarriorForum or DigitalPoint. Those two, for example, have very strict etiquette rules but only one “minor” problem. Simply put, lots of WarriorForum and DigitalPoint members talk the talk but few of them walk the walk.

Do you know why most people are extremely polite over there? The answer is almost obvious: it’s because a lot of them are trying to sell you something. Maybe an e-book, maybe a coaching problem, maybe some other semi-useless product.

WickedFire is different. Nobody’s there to sell you anything. Well, almost nobody and those who are just trying to sell you on something you don’t need, usually get “loved tenderly” (a commonly used WickedFire term, just like “making monies”, that represents anything but the pleasant idea the phrase conveys) by the community. This forum is what it is and there’s no other community out there that’s even remotely similar. Let’s try to look beneath the surface and determine what exactly makes WickedFire so special. [Read more…] about Why WickedFire is a Great Forum to Learn Online Business and Marketing

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