Aloha, readers!
We would like to wish our readers a very happy 4th of July weekend and hope you have a great time with your friends and family. Things are going great for us here on the North Shore of Hawaii and some interesting articles and photos are on their way.
Independence Day made me think of the joy of being free. Here is a lighthearted look at some things I would like freedom from in the coming year:
- Web Spam
The web was made to exchange meaningful information. Along came the search engines, and sorting and arranging of all this information started. What failed to keep pace with this massive indexing was the creation of meaningful content. What did keep up: websites that infect you with Malware, misguide you into buying stuff you don’t need, spread spam, and cheat search engines into getting top placement. - McDonalds-ization of Search Marketing
- “29.99 for registration in 3000 directories!”
- “Would you like a side order of PPC with your SEO campaign?”
- “How about biggie size link-building for just a few dollars more?”
- “Welcome, you are our 3000th client! We have done work for every Tom, Dick and Harry out there, and today is your lucky day.”
The search marketing sector is still the cheapest form of marketing out there. We don’t need to drop our pants any further!
- Search Marketing Celebrities
I work with some of the top minds in this industry, but you don’t see them gallivanting around in Cinderella shoes at conferences or blogging away about things they don’t know. The search marketing industry has a robust lineup of Paris Hiltons whose only contribution is showing up at events. The real heroes in this business are the ones quietly doing the real work. - PR Agencies Hard-Selling Old Media
Marketing types that still sell old media and tell clients to “forget about the Google thingy.” Ignoring search marketing in 2008 is like not seeing the really big pink elephant sitting in your living room having cookies. The “search-free” marketing campaigns need to go. - Mis- Guarantee Squads
The “results visible in 1- 2 weeks, #1 guaranteed placement” guys. I have never guaranteed # 1 placement to anyone in my career. Even when I knew in my gut that the client was bound to quickly dominate the search engine rankings, I have always refrained from handing out Guarantees. These days I am very careful even to give a 2-3 month minimum for a PPC campaign, let alone a SEO campaign.
I’m sure there are some things all of you would also like to escape from… let me know what I’ve left out of my list. And have a great weekend!
