When I started the Cre8pc blog, in 2002, blogging was nowhere as popular as it is today. Back then, blogging was still related to diaries and journals and often of a personal nature. Mine has evolved as trends change.

Today, it’s the leading communication device that allows me to stay in touch with readers and friends. I used to post here every day and then a few days a week and now, if I’m lucky, a few times a month. In some ways, I’ve just run out of things to write about. Often, someone else has just done a better job of writing about something I find interesting and I leave it at that.

Blogs come and go. We’ve all witnessed this as the years go by. Some thrive by adding guest writers. In my mind, this blog was “Kim’s Place” and for my voice only. I do have another blog, Akesana, that has several writers. I’ve been too busy to nurture it. In fact, I’ve been writing for other publications, both online and print, and this has interfered with my own blogging schedule.

As a blogger, I’m out there learning along with everybody else. Last year was rough. A series of events created a bit of confusion and I lost the will to be so public. I learned, first hand, what it’s like to be the target of someone’s online wrath. Fortunately none of the bad experiences hurt my ability to do my work and I continued to thrive.

So where have I been lately? What is keeping me away from the Cre8pc so much this year?

Work. As the economy tanked, many people with online businesses wanted to go to the next step beyond search engine marketing. Suddenly companies wanted usability audits. Software developers wanted someone on their team to act as the voice of the end user, from the planning stage on through to roll out. Instead of writing articles, I gather and write requirements documents that specialize in usability and seo, in addition to more traditional business and functional requirements. I not only test applications, but write the user manuals too.

I’m also on the road. It’s getting expensive to outsource search engine optimization services, which has forced many companies to want to train in-house SEO’s. I visit 4 cities in November, spending 50% of the month training employees for a large firm. It’s been incredibly rewarding to teach techniques that empower them to help their company’s web sites perform better for both search engines and searchers.

One of the most common complaints I’ve heard this year is that SEO’s are charging far too much for their services. I’ve been contacted several times a month by people who have contracted big SEO firms, only to be frustrated and upset at the lack of attention or worse, broken contractual agreements. They don’t know who to trust in the industry. And, they don’t want to pay someone who has no expertise in user experience, information architecture, accessibility, mobile use and usability. For the money they pay out, they want better skills. For that reason, I expect to be doing more training in the months to come. If there are no multi-skilled people for hire, some companies are willing to invest in their own existing employees.

I write today from a hotel in Tampa. It’s my son’s 16th birthday and I’m not with him. It’s something I, a very “mom” oriented mom, has had to work through. Working away from home was something I put off for years because I had no desire to be a working mom who was never home to be with her kids. Now that they’re older, I’m learning that it’s okay to leave the house. It’s good for them. Good for me. I get the remote all to myself. I can hog the entire bed. And housekeeping makes the bed. What mom doesn’t dream of such things?

The year wraps up with me speaking in Chicago. Shari Thurow and I are creating a fresh approach to the topic of usability and its relationship to SEO. Our research and work experiences indicate that search engine conference attendees are ready for some new ideas and even advanced practices in search usability. These developments are because of you, the people we support.

So don’t let the lack of posts fool you.

I’m still here.

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Cre8pc Blog: Tank Not Empty Yet (Just Busy)

With every industry, there is an underground of folks who find more pleasure in wrecking a good thing.  Search engine marketing is no exception.

Somehow, the idea that humans can outwit search engines became a challenge and even a battle.  For myself, as an SEO who brings usability and user experience design to the mix, the key to marketing and web design is understanding what people want.  It’s referred to as user behavior. Search engine computers are programmed to look for signals about what we want and like.

Yet, somewhere along the way, somebody decided to promote the idea that spamming search engines will help their web pages rank better.  To their way of thinking (if you could call it that), spamming is telling search engines their pages are wanted and popular.

As a forums owner since 1998, and moderator for list servs, clubs and groups since 1995, I can tell you that the point of these sites is the conversation and community.  When you join one under the pretense of self promotion, you risk being tossed out on the porch.

Every forum is different. They each have a set of rules. At Cre8asiteforums, we refer to them as “House Rules” and expect the community to act like guests when they are there. They can be themselves, and be goofy, but at all times we hold them to a standard of fairness and we encourage the ability to disagree without bringing out weapons.

I was lax for years and years about letting in just about anyone to Cre8asiteforums and letting them create their existence there.   However, it became clear that the moderators and myself were spending most of our days deleting spam and banning members who spammed the Community.  We’re often assisted by the Community because members hate spam and report spam posts to the staff.

For the past year or so, every new member is screened before they are permitted to join.  Every day, myself and a few other Admins, enter every username, IP and email address into a database that tracks forums spammers.  If they get past that stage and are welcomed into the Community, and then spam us, their right to post is removed and their information is reported to the database, so that other forums will know in advance a spam predator is in the bushes outside their house.

I hate doing it.  But, the practice has been a welcome relief to the moderators who are not paid to be there every day and wish only to mingle and make sure the place is meeting the needs of our guests.  The Community is at peace and enjoying a spam-free environment. Throwing people out for ignoring House Rules is not a fun duty but it’s vital to the health of the forums.

During a talk I gave not long ago on Community building, I mentioned that we look up IP’s to see if they are known spam sources.  This was met with surprise.  If you are on a shared server with a spammer, what do you do?  In my case, I can be contacted and we can work it out.  I can’t speak for other forums.

And this is the true harm that spammers leave behind in their selfish and misguided attempts to get their domain noticed. We all waste time and money on these blinded fools and the whole class is punished by their acts.

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Spam Forums at Your Own Risk

I would like to thank Intuit for their hard work in bringing me new clients. It came as quite a surprise that you support my web site usability and SEO services.

Imagine my surprise when I flipped on the boob tube for several minutes while making tea from the comfort of my (very busy!) home office and there you were, all professional sounding like, with your (dare I say it?) sly and devious commercial to small biz web site owner hopefuls.

For the mere fee of $4.99 (or some such pittance), new web site owners can buy a web site designed and marketed by Intuit. In just under 3 minutes, you had me going there, by golly. Especially the part about being findable in search engines? You naughty dog, you!

Services such as this help to explain why I get so many people from my community asking me to build a web site for them for $100. You should see the disbelief on their faces when I bring up web site requirements, user behavior, mobile use, special needs users and little mundane things like “web standards” and marketing.

As more and more people come to me wondering why their sites don’t function or people aren’t buying anything, I should write you a thank you note. They truly believed that if you build it for them, they’ll get rich.

Now, I’m as lazy as the next person, and a template and domain (”homesite”? Wow!) sounds awesome. I love how you never mention the part about how the competition may also choose the same design (that comes with your pre-fab content). And you made it sound so easy to “Get Found by Customers” but you don’t say how or what happens once those customers get to the web site. Isn’t is clever that your customers never need any search engine optimization and no social media marketing to be found? Not to mention your templates would pass usability and accessibility audits. Right? How cool is THAT!

I was so thrilled at your offer, I went to your web site and checked out your “learn more” and I must admit, if I had no clue about web site development, marketing and ownership, I’d be sold on the pay, click to customize and watch the world come to your site stuff you’re saying. No doubt, your software and the thousands of others just like it, is a practical option for somebody.  I was certainly impressed with how one form makes their site show up in “important search sites” like Google Maps and Yahoo! Local.

Personally, I don’t envy you the guilt of knowing how many of those poor folks will eventually throw in the towel and come to companies such as mine looking for help on things like what their customers want, who their customers are, how to get them to do something and why, after all the money they pay you, their site is on page 55 of search results.

Best wishes on what will undoubtedly be a very lucrative holiday season for you as you rake in the big bucks from hopeful new ecommerce site owners.  I’m looking forward to a very busy second quarter.

Gratefully yours,
I Fix Web Site Wrecks

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Intuit Web Site Setup Service Misleading

Every once in awhile I long for the days when my sassy female search idol, Ms. Dewey, would tap on my monitor asking where where I was. Today was one of those days.

If you remember, Ms. Dewey as a viral marketing campaign started by Microsoft 3 years ago this month. The site was an experimental interface for Live Search. It didn’t take searchers long to discover you could prompt her to say and do naughty, silly things with certain keyword searches.

Looking to see if there are any updates on her demise (they bring back dead soap opera stars, why not Ms. Dewey?), I found her domain alive and well sitting in the first spot in Google SERPS.

However, upon clicking the domain, I was redirected to a site called Evolution Bureau. Instead of her smiling face and cocky attitude, I found myself staring face to face with a big muscle bound dude. Then, the picture dissolved and I was facing an Office Max “Elf Yourself” ad. At first, I was miffed.

How could Microsoft let a company steal their domain? This was illogical, so I took a look around.

Turns out the company, called Evolution Bureau, created Ms. Dewey, along with advertising agency, McCann-Erickson. (Click to see a picture of our heroine holding a butcher knife.)

Of this project, they wrote:

Microsoft (a somewhat well-known computer company) and its traditional agency, MRM Gould, came to EVB with a very ambitious goal – to join Yahoo! and Google as a leader in the online search category.

In response to this challenge, we created one of the most successful and popular online experiences of all time – Ms. Dewey.

Their web site is creative, off planet quirky and stubbornly non-conformist. I had trouble figuring out what they do but I could imagine myself playing foos ball in their break room.
The mystery of why the search engine was shelved is still unknown. Perhaps unforgiven. According to Evolution Bureau, “Ms. Dewey lives on in a countless number of user YouTube recordings and in daily emails that we still get pleading for her return.”

So, I feel much better now. The sexy smart ass who who stripped for my husband is not floundering somewhere off camera. She resides now in a advertising agency’s portfolio.

Memory Lane

She was famous for responding to search queries:

“I read in a magazine that aliens snapped up the most beautiful woman in the world and put her on the internet, and that you can ask her anything and she’ll have an answer for you. What a crock.”
“Ok, take off your clothes. That’s right. Socks too. Now, fold them neatly, and toss them all out the window. (rings buzzer, you hear sirens) There, now you are screwed.”
“Keep asking questions. The more you ask, the more I will know. And, soon I will rule the world.”
“Doing the same thing over and over didn’t do anything for the last woman in your life. What makes you think I’m any different.”
“I tried that with three close friends once. Let’s just say my memiors would fetch a million.”
“Girls, don’t let him fool you, sometimes it is the size of the gun.”
“Honey, have you seen my birth control pills? You didn’t mistake them for breath mints again, did you? (guy drinking glass of water spits it out)”
“Like I always say, a girl’s got to be prepared. (takes out whip and slaps it down)”
“Hello, type something here!”

See Also

Ms. Dewey Facebook site

Don’t Piss off Ms. Dewey

Ms. Dewey Phrases

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Ms. Dewey Search Lives On

I spend most of my days in my office with 2 cats and 2 dogs as my office-mates, dual monitors and a laptop. For me, “talking” to people is all done virtually. When I tap into what’s happening in the industries I work in, the feedback is limited and based on my “friends” and “followers” living in the land of the Internet.

This is one reason why I enjoy industry conferences. They get me out of the house and office. They’re far more exciting than walking to my mailbox. Where I live, only the birds and squirrels keep me company outside. I can hear my gardens whining at me because I’ve been too busy to tend to them properly.

In the past week I gave 3 talks and a site clinic at two different events, SMX East and Search Camp Philly. It never fails to fascinate me how much attendees don’t know what you think they know. They want information on what you didn’t consider they wanted. The divide is amazing and always humbles me.

For example, I gave a talk on usability and conversions. Half of the people in the room didn’t know what usability was, let alone conversions. For my talk on building online communities, all but 2 people in the room had even heard of Twitter. I had 2 slides on Twitter. I chose to ignore my slide presentation and focus my talk to reach my audience. There was never a chance to discuss Linkedin or how communities tie into marketing.

I was inspired by the feedback during and after my talk at SMX East on Requirements Gathering For Better Conversions. While others were speaking from our panel, I was able to follow the “Twitterverse” to see if they had any questions. Twitter makes this possible by the use of hash tags. Attendees used #smx in their Tweets to communicate back and forth to others at the conference. After my talk, someone remarked in Twitter that what I was talking about couldn’t be applied to small businesses.

I was able to address that concern during the Q & A part of our session, but it was a signal to me of what I already knew. I couldn’t present the concepts and principles of Requirements Gathering and Documentation in fifteen minutes and show all the ways it can be put into use.

From the moment the panel ended I was besieged with people who wanted to learn more. Many of them were flat out shocked that something “technical” was being offered in what is typically a basic talk on Usability and SEO. I know there is a need for advanced information and I planned to deliver it. I was rewarded by all manner of positive feedback. There were requests for more and in the weeks and months to come, I will honor that with more talks and writings on the topic.

The bottom line for that talk was that while the entire panel was very good, I hit an area of neglect, which is how to plan for conversions and marketing.

There are many days when I wonder why another stitch of writing is warranted. There’s already millions of articles and blog posts covering usability, user experience, human factors, search engine marketing and optimization, search behavior, social networking, social media marketing and web design.

And then I get some time with attendees at an event on search marketing who have never heard of Twitter or usability. I, and many of you in the usability/ux and search marketing industries, may think everybody knows what we know.

Or they may know more than we know.

To those I met at these events who spoke to me with any type of feedback, I wanted to hear you.

Thanks.

Image property of BruceClay Inc. Click to view their SMX East Photos in full view.

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Learning From Conference User Feedback