The Penguin

As many of you are well aware, we are attempting to narrowly beat Panda into submission, but a new evil has now raised it’s ugly head. The Penguin! A Minion of the Dark Panda Lord.

April 24th 2012. The Penguin unleashed his assault on the unsuspecting citizens of Google City; terrorizing and demolishing site after site. His target…undiversified anchor text portfolios!

Google City Times and the Search Engine Herald have both claimed that we the citizens must quickly diversify our anchor text portfolios, before we too suffer the consequences of The Penguins heinous acts!

Whatever Shall We Do

We must prepare ourselves, be ready to confront and conquer this villain. There is no Black or White Knight to save us this time.

At this time, our reports indicate that the Penguin only targets homogeneous groups of anchor text. To fight back we must diversify and spread out!

To make this easy, I have created a list of tips to avoid the Penguin:

1. Make sure that over 50% of your links contain anchor text that IS NOT a keyword you are attempting to rank for

***SPECIAL REPORT***

This Just in, I have received word on a way to check your backlink profile and accurately determine if you are a target of the malevolent Penguin!

Checking Your Back Link Report

1) Use a tool like Majestic – Type in your Websites URL and Press – Explore

2) Check out your RD/EB Ratio! That is, your referring domains and external backlinks. Ideally you want that ratio to be over 30%

3. The next step is creating a Domain Level Report! Most tools should have the ability to select this type of report!

4. On the same token, once you have the domain level report, you will want to see if your tool has the option to create a more detailed anchor text report! If it does, click on that and export it to a CSV

5. Now you need some kind of excel or spreadsheet office program that can open up the csv file

6. Try and find the columns that  represent Anchor Text and the Total Number of Backlinks – These are the only columns you will need

7. Use the SUM function and total up the “total back links” column

8. Make a new column and label it something like “%”

9. Now in this column you want to type in “=b2/number of total backlinks” so on and so forth – Be sure to set the column to the % style.

Now review, if there are several keywords that display a high percentage as compared to the other keywords in your list, then you have an over-optimized backlink profile.

With this information in hand, we can fight back against this cruel doer of misdeeds! Oh and just fyi, I have no relation to Majestic SEO, it is just my tool of choice for link profiling.

Final Thoughts

An anchor text portfolio should be like a stock portfolio, it should be diversified and used as a long term investment to create maximum profitability.

Putting all your eggs in one basket is dangerous and can ruin you financially, just like creating to much of the same keyword anchor text.

While creating a natural profile is best, limit your target keyword links to around 30-45% of your total anchor text portfolio and build out other links using your domain name, your name, or general phrases. Once you increase your overall link profile, you will be able to add more keyword targeted links!

So as a simple rule of thumb you may to want to build 1 Keyword targeted anchor text link for every 3 non-keyword focused anchor text link.

Go Forth and Enjoy

Sorry for the lack of updates Folks! I have not honored my goal of writing at least 3 posts a week! And for that I apologize.

It Has Been Mad Busy

That’s right, life has been hecka busy!

Our Product

Our Product is slowly coming to life, we are in the phases of getting consumer feedback and creating the “final” end prototype. Hopefully by Mid April it will be set, and the next market survey steps will begin!

It has taken a bit to get to this point; money, time, blood, sweat, and tears. However, it is great to see we are getting close!

Creative Fluff

Creative Fluff is attempting to secure new partnerships with other brands, both well known and up and coming. We have been furiously trying to increase our exposure and our brand equity to help create a quality place for emerging artists and creatives to showcase and critique each others work. It is slowly evolving, and soon, we believe, it will take off.

Creative Fluff has been an ongoing project that we hope will change the art industry or at the very least the online art community.

Work

That’s right, I have a day job. Been working some long hours recently, especially since we are “reorganizing” or “restructuring” if you will.

My new position (well relatively new) has been mad crazy, and I continue to have 3 hour long phone calls and hecka long Keyword and On Site strategies that I need to come up with. Hopefully once the new structure is in place it will relieve some of the stress and workload I am currently facing. I am pretty much doing the work of 3 maybe even 4 SEO strategists.

While I enjoy doing it, working 12 hour days for what I get paid is not cool. However, I really can’t complain, the environment is great, my co-workers rock, and I have yet to be fired. So all in all, everything is good! 

I’m Moving!

So, on top of all of this, I am moving! The lease is up on my apartment, and I am on my knees thanking God. My downstairs neighbors are atrocious, and I mean that in the nicest way possible (which is not very nice).

I mean, I am a reasonable guy, I am patient, and always willing to work with people. However, some people, just do not get common sense.

Here is what I mean; our apartment building has 3 apartments, and all together 5 cars. The driveway is a double wide shared drive, with enough space for all cars. The tenants on the first floor, came up with an idea, that to prevent headaches, we should split how we park; they would always park on the right, and we would park on the left. Okay, cool! That works.

So every morning, our lovely downstairs neighbors, would ring our doorbell and ask us to move our cars. Now, this doesn’t make sense right? I mean, there is enough space for everyone, and we are adhering to the agreement, so what is going on?

Well, it turns out that, the lady downstairs is just a Bitch. Because by the time I get downstairs to move my car, she has already left.

Now let me tell you something else about these characters. Every few weeks or so, they have new cars.  The other week they had a Nissan, the week after they had a Dodge Charger, and now, of all things, they have a Nissan Armada. This thing is like a Ford Expedition on Steriods. It is a huge massive beast of a car. Oh and worst of all, they park IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DRIVEWAY!

So they have had this thing for the past two weeks or so, and let me tell you. I got blocked in on a Saturday morning where I had an important meeting I had to attend. They had taken their other car (A Patriot) and not left the keys with their mother who was at home. The grandmother called them, and they said they would be home in 20 minutes. TWO AND A HALF HOURS later, they arrive home, and say,

“Sorry, the car behind us parked us in.”

I of course said, whatever. But if the woman had not parked in the middle of the driveway the problem could have been avoided.

So you would think this would be enough right? Like, that this woman is done being …whatever she is being….No. We received a letter in our mailbox.

Because the lady (if you can call her that) parked in the middle of the driveway, we could not fit our cars in, so, my roommate parked on the right, and I on the left. This blocked their other car from being able to park.

The letter read, “We have asked you many times to honor our agreement of dividing the parking lot space, we feel that it is very unfair of you to park on both the right and the left spot, especially when behind us. If you could please wait till after we park our cars we would appreciate that, blah, blah, blah, Signed: All the people on the first floor!”

I have to say, I laughed pretty hard. The gall these people had to say such a thing. I mean, I genuinely ALMOST  feel sorry for these people.

Now if only the problem did not extend to their kids putting nails in my tires, being belligerent, punching their grandmother in the face, and being all around rude, stupid, uneducated, troglodytes. I have to say I am surprised they even have jobs.

So you would think this hell would be enough, but guess what, our landlord also decides to randomly walk into our apartment, walk around, and leave. No 24 hour warning like the law requires, no emergency situation, just to “check up” on the place without cause. It’s funny though, because he only does it to us and the second floor. He stays as far away from the first as possible.

The landlord also refuses to fix anything, took away our laundry machine, and did not even bother to send us a lease renewal, or any documentation to tell us our lease is up.

I am just glad I will never have to cut him a check again, or have to see the downstairs neighbors again.

The place I am moving to is much smaller and a bit more expensive, but much closer to work, has a ton included with it,  and I get my own Garage included in rent! All in all, a good decision.

Stay Tuned

Like I said, once this is all over, I will have a ton more free time to write more blog posts, and SEO posts, and what not. I am really looking forward to it!

Go Forth and Enjoy!

Walt Whitman for those who do not know, was an American Poet. However, it is apparent from the below, that he had much to say about the Client SEO relationship and perhaps even SEO itself!

Read on:

Explanation?…No…Questions?…Yes!

I believe we can all take away some meaning from this, especially as applied to SEO.

Just for critical thinking’s sake:

1. Who is the Captain? Is it the Client? Is it the SEO? Could it be something else? Why or Why Not?

2. What is the ship? Could that be the SEO? Is it the Search Engines? Again, Why or Why not?

3. Who are the People? What could they be cheering for? Why do you think this?

4. How does this poem even relate to Marketing or SEO? Do you think it has a relation to SEO and Clients? If not, Why do you think some may believe it does?

5. If I tell you what the metaphors and symbols in the poem originally stood for, would that change your mind?

Making People Think

I like to make people think, I have expressed this before. I am a fairly abstract person in so far as how I seem to often connect unrelated events, suddenly giving them relation to one another. (Even if it is really corny). Be on the lookout for another post this week that is going to go in depth on why creative thinking is necessary, how to build your own creative thinking strategy, and why thinking outside the box, or in an abstract and critical manner is absolutely needed to be successful and to outrank your competition.

With that Said:

Go Forth and Enjoy!

Wait…What?

No no, you heard right, this is straight from the horses mouth!

White Hat Vs. Black Hat – The Over Done Postings

Look, I know what you’re thinking, “Another Black vs White Post? Really?”

Yes really, why? Because people are still confused, and from what I have seen, no one really even knows what the true difference is.

Never fear, I will clear the whole mess up(or make it worse), right here, right now!

First of All

I dislike, nay, I hate, loath, despise, the differentiating of SEO tactics into black and white, why? Because it ain’t that simple. Was it simple when used as a hacker term? No, lots of grey.

So here are some definitions for yah!

White Hat – A definition

Here is the basic definition of white hat:

White Hat - a noun – 1. a computer hacker who is hired by an organization to undertake nonmalicious hacking work in order to discover computer-security flaws 2. A hero, a good guy

Now the SEO Definition:

White Hat - still a noun – 1. All that is not Black-Hat

I hope that has cleared up what White Hat is, the literal absence of Black Hat.  This means we need to define Black Hat to know what white hat is…right?

Excuse me while I gag and shout obscenities.

I wish I could say I was kidding, but this is really how many define the difference between black and white.

Here is What White Hat Really Is!

White Hat is the use of Best Practices, Tools, Automation (Did he say automation…again…”shaddap” I’ll explain), Content, and a variety of methods to build Community! 

That’s right! White Hat is community building, it is adding to and helping to expand communities and create value for a reader, consumer, client, puppy, bird, and anything else you can think of!

Now, Automation. Automating certain things, like links, typically does not add value to a community and thus is considered “Black Hat.” However, there are times when automation is used to genuinely spread information.

i.e. A wordpress plugin that automatically posts to social media sites when a post is written.

While automated, it was something you were going to do yourself.

Nothing wrong with this, and nothing wrong with spinning the description. Because you were going to do it anyways!

I am a big fan of automation, and things that will make my life easier and my job more efficient. So, white hat is not just about building community, it is also about Efficiency! 

New Definition of White Hat

White Hat – still a noun I think – 1. The creation of  COMMUNITY through the use of  VALUE and EFFICIENCY that provides benefit to others as a whole 2. Research and discovery through experimental testing to improve the lives of others 3. Not following the masses, but using one’s own skills to better the environment around them

(Alright, it’s not perfect, but it’s the best I got at the moment, if you have something better, comment! lol).

So what does this mean? It means if you have ever, even once, done something that has not provided value to the community, you have effectively become a black hat, and you shall now be shunned for all eternity. So get in the corner!

*a “wild SEO” appears*

“I call Bull$#!& on that one!”

*a “wild SEO” disappears into “Imgur”*

Okay, fine, you got me! Moving right along, let us now define Black Hat!

Black Hat – The Mother of All Frazzleups! (Or is it?)

Once again a Basic definition:

Black Hat - a noun – 1. a computer hacker who carries out illegal malicious hacking work 2. A villain, bad guy

Now the SEO definition:

Black Hat - yes, a noun – 1. All that is not White Hat

…What? I kid you not! Well, maybe a little, but still, this is pretty much how everyone sees it.

Here is What Black Hat Really Is!

Black Hat in SEO is basically the same as in hacking. It is typically Illegal and Malicious web acts.

Example: I saw a posting in a forum that described how to steal someones exact website, strip out all affiliate codes, replace them with yours, how to redirect traffic, Google authority, as well as claiming your site as the original.

That is black hat my friends, Link Spam is a drop in the bucket compared to what Real Black Hat’s do! Real Black hat is theft, placing installers and trackers in pdfs, click jacking, faking youtube visits, faking site visits, spoofing adsense clicks, site cloaking, misdirection, anything that involves trickery or deception (Like those darn “Rip-Off Reports”).

Get that crap about keyword spam and link spam out of here. That’s not real black hat, those are the 12 year old’s you see playing call of duty and using words that they shouldn’t even know about yet! (almost said Counter Strike, but no one plays that anymore *sadness*)

New Definition of Black Hat

Black Hat – yay nouns! – 1. The conscious use of unscrupulous tactics to dupe, trick, steal, maim, cause harm, and destroy communities and the people around you 2. Tactics that are selfish in nature, used with disregard, 3. Tactics that are illegal, damning, and dangerous to both the client, and the Specialist

That is black hat!

So what does this mean? It means all the stuff you describe as black hat is really just bad SEO that blatantly disregards the tried and true discovery and evidence of best practices.  Which might I add were discovered through TRIAL AND ERROR, which means, that black hat can only come about once trial and error has been used, and anything prior to the discovery of specific best practices is not black hat, but a DISCOVERY PROCESS.

I.E  if you are not currently testing and using trial and error to figure out best practices for yourself, you are not adding to the SEO community, nor are you doing your job correctly. You are not helping to build the community!

This is why I dislike the terminology used to describe SEO. Most SEO’s are not out to harm people, steal their lunch money, and conspire to doom the world. They are looking for what works, what doesn’t work, why something works, will this last long term? Will this destroy my site in the end? How does this affect other users on the web? In my community? Is this positive or negative?

Most of Whom We Call Black Hat – Add to Our Community!

I cannot stress this enough! Trial and Error, Trial and Error, Trial and Error!!!!! I try SE Nuke, does it work? It does! Okay Why? Aw Crap it doesn’t! Okay, Why not?

Google likes links, okay, it does not so much like low quality links, oh, huh, why not?

More often than not, those we call black hat are testing out ways to make our lives easier, to make SEO better, and to figure out what is going on with Search and Why!

And Guess what! True White Hats are doing the same exact thing! How else can we learn, or figure out that damn proprietary algorithm? In fact, because it is proprietary, any means to discover it’s nature is technically illegal.*

(*Don’t take my word for it, research it, because I totally just made that up! Which is why you should always do your research and make sure what people are saying is factual. If you don’t get it yet, you will soon see, that the posts I have made, and the ones I will make, will be leading you to find your own answers, and not to rely on what just one person, blog, guru, or confused multitude may say!)

But…But…Black Hat’s try to exploit the System!

Yes, many use inherent flaws in the system to exploit search engines. You are certainly right, however, SEO in and of itself is the exploitation of internet structure. It is how that exploitation is used, whether it’s use is endorsed, if the exploitation provides community value,..blah…blah…blah…

But…But…what is exploitation?

I got two definitions for yah…

and the second

(Both are images…So then, question… Did I just exploit their content? Or am I taking advantage of SnagIt and not using dupe content? You decide.)

Let’s look at it this way! Because Google has a long propriety algorithm that no one but Google knows, how can you be sure that something is an exploitation rather than a built in algorithmic formula that Google uses to determine the worth of a webpage?

Example: Meta Tags, Keywords, Anchor Text, in Content Links.

People did research, found out that optimizing these creates value!

But, technically, how do you know what they found was not an exploit? Keyword stuffing used to be a common and BEST practice. If you had a keyword density less than like 35% you were doing it wrong! (okay the actual number is more like 3.5% )

It is a very, VERY grey line.

We are all One in the Same

(Everyone please hold hands with the black hat and white hat next to you)

We are all (SEO or not) looking for the right answers, trying to solve problems, and trying to figure out where we fit in! We are looking towards creating value for both ourselves, our communities, our clients, and anyone willing to pay us!

On that note, I personally believe pigeonholing people into categories is wrong. ( Unless of course I am the one doing the pigeonholing! =P ).

That aside, I hope this has given you a different perspective on the whole, Black Hat White Hat fiasco.

All in All

From my perspective the only way to discover whether someone’s motive is pure, or dark in nature, is to see what their intent is behind their work. Just like Modern Art! It is the INTENT behind the work that gives way to it’s nature and motive.

So in my eyes, if your intent is to create value for both the community and yourself. Congratulations, I find you to be white hat.

If your intent is purely self serving, unscrupulous, with no regard for your clients or those around you, Congratulations, I find you to be black hat.

(Also if anyone is thinking about quoting  ”the road to Hell is paved with good intentions“… Then I’ll tell you right now, yes…yes it is…)

Go Forth and Enjoy! (and don’t forget to comment!)

This may sound like a no brainer, but oh how I wish it was!  You would not believe how many “SEO Specialists” only talk about, read and post from SEOmoz.

Hello! We all read it! Thanks for regurgitating what I already know, spitting it out, and claiming your awesomeness because you found such a rare piece of valuable SEO intel! Forgive me for unknowingly entering your presence “O Mighty SEO Master!

*Le Sigh*’

I like SEOmoz, I really do, but when someone says, they “do” SEO and we begin talking about it, I find that much of their “knowledge” is “MozVomit.” They spout out all these words, without even knowing what they mean, then they hop on everyone’s favorite automation and black-hat tool and spam the crap out of everything.

Let me demonstrate my typical SEO Encounter:

*A “Wild SEO” Appears*

“I do SEO.”

*FlakHound Uses Fellow Enthusiast Response*

“Really? Me too! Who do you follow?”

*”Wild SEO” Uses – Confusion*

“Follow what?”

*FlakHound uses – FaceKick – Kicking Wild SEO…in the Face*

*”Wild SEO” Responds with – “typical Response”*

“You know, the usual, SEOmoz and stuff.”

*Flakhound responds with – Neil deGrasse Tyson*

*Do You Wish To Capture “Wild SEO”*

“Heck No!”

*”Wild SEO escapes into the “Woods”*

On a side note, I have stopped asking this question, and I now see a definite increase in friends. So, while some may be absolutely horrible at performing SEO tasks, at least I no longer have to drink alone.

Anyways, People, please, for the love of everything, read more than just SEOmoz, look up what is being talked about, confirm it, and do your own research, for everyone’s sake.

Here are some good places to start!

1. SEOmoz

SEOmoz, since you are already familiar with it, has a recommended Companies page! Use it to visit those websites, and subscribe to their RSS Feeds. Also per using an RSS Feed, use Google’s RSS Feed Reader - a great reader and chrome application! Don’t have Chrome? Get it!

So like I said, use the recommended companies page to grab hold of some great company and personal blogs, from there, check out what those people and companies follow and continue the process.

2. Inbound.org

Great information pops up multiple times a day for me, and I am finding new people to follow, that are not all drones marching to the same tune. I recommend RSS’ing the Hot section.

3. Find out what tools you use!

SEO Quake, SEO Books, Raven, Google, and everything in between have their own blogs. Use this to your advantage. Read’em.

4. Forums

Places like digital point, just type in SEO Forums into Google.

5. BlackHat Blogs and Forums

OH NO! Black Hat! – Awwww shaddup -

I am not going to list out or link which ones I follow, you can find them easy enough with a Google search. However, it is good to keep track and learn about what Black Hat is, why people use it, and what Good actually comes from it. I.E. Black-Hats are some of the prime experimenters that allow best practices to be formed and put into place. Besides, most “Black Hat is Grey Hat.” However, I will save that for another post! Maybe with a picture I will create myself.

Anyways, Read up!

*Sponsored by “The Reading Rainbow”*

Okay Well not Really, But Whatever….

Go Forth and Enjoy!

It’s Always “Rankings Rankings Rankings”

SEO has always been “Rankings Rankings, Rankings.” Well, I have a revelation for you! You DON’T need them to drive traffic, sell products, and have clients. Rankings are a side effect, not a product.

Now I know what many of you are asking, if I am not in the SERPS,

“Where shall I go? What shall I do?”

Perhaps I should Explain? No?

Explanation -Why Rankings Don’t Matter

Rankings are a thing of the past, they were used in the olden days to mark your keyword territory and to gain foot traffic on your website.  Now, while this still technically applies today, Rankings should not ever be your primary concern when running a campaign. Rankings like I state previously, are a side effect, a mere symptom that occurs when SEO and SEM are put into place.  So how does one get traffic? How will I sell my product? How will anyone know who I am?

You work for it. Most good actors had to work like dogs to get where they are, most good CEO’s had to work like oxen, most SEO’s who are well respected had to work their absolute butts off to become so!

That is what you need to do(not necessarily the work part), get respect! With social media now exploding, with the amount of blogs out there, with the variety of mediums you have at your disposal, you need to increase the YOU!

Think of it this way, a company, or person for that matter, that you highly respect, recommends a product, a book, a website, that they themselves respect; what are you going to do? You’re going to check it out that’s what! Even if just to see what it is!

Now to answer your questions from earlier…

Let’s Start With Traffic

If I am not ranking, how do I get traffic? First off, many people are looking at this wrong, yes, wrong. Traffic is not what matters, what matters is the quality of that traffic and the conversion rate of that traffic.

So how do we pump up conversion? Target your site’s demographic, and write for that demographic. You need to separate yourself from the others, becoming a site that is distinguished, not by price, but by quality, ethics, and level of respect. You want people to say, “You went to Jared!” or in simpler terms, you want people to be impressed, to feel honored to even be working with you! That my friends, is the goal.

I don’t care if you hate and loathe Rand Fishkin from the very depths of your soul, if you were given the chance to work with him on a project, you would still feel honored by it. Not to mention you would gain automatic respect, even if your an a-hole. This is true even if he responded to your article, I can’t count how many times I have begun following an RSS due to someone writing a Reply/Rebuttal Post to someone else.

So anyways, back to getting this traffic thing, PPC. There…I said it. You want customers, buyers, and leads? Use PPC, Ads, commercials, and social media. Why? You need to smack your brand everywhere. As long as you optimize your site, write content, and gain the respect of your peers and customers, organic results and rankings will follow.

OFFLINE EXISTS DO NOT BE AFRAID OF IT!

You see how that title is all angry and capitalized. That’s how I feel about people who do not advertise and or inform actual foot traffic of their existence. If you are an SEO Company and you are targeting small business, start locally, do a free seminar at the chamber of commerce, talk with local business owners, use flyers, use posters, use billboards.

You know distilled right? You probably know SEER as well, yah? Well did you know that to get where they are, they did not just open up a site and say, come search us! They more than likely pitched the local companies in their area, then increased that area, and eventually became big enough that companies now go to them!

That my friends is how you do it, start local, start small, you don’t just become a firm and pitch Walmart, you start and practice with the locals around you.

Same for e-commerce, inform everyone locally, in your area, your town, your county, your state, your region. It is magic my friends. The rankings will build themselves.

But I Am Unknown! No one will Listen to me!

Horse Poop! If you pay attention, stay up to date, and have relevant things to say, people will listen. It is also the reason why you need to build your personal brand and your business brand. Even better, take a look at probably one of the greatest Marketers and Promoters of our time! Andy Warhol. Man was a genius self promoter and marketer, he changed the world of consumerism as we know it!

Point is, if you write well, provide informative content, and market yourself effectively, you will get traffic, you will get leads, and you will sell product.

How will anyone know who I am?

Through Networking, volunteering, guest posting, writing responses to others, using twitter…etc…etc…etc.

Put yourself out there, voice your opinion. Email people you respect in your industry, tell them why you respect them, and tell them how much you admire them, and ask them about how they were able to make it to where they are, and what advice they have for a person, or company, that is trying to follow in their footsteps.

(Notice it is all about them and Not you, this is networking 101 people.)

So DO NOT worry about your Rankings

Rankings will worry about themselves. Apply best practices, network, and gain respect. That is what the game of internet marketing is all about.  If people respect you, they will listen to what you have to say, if they listen to what you say, you can tell them any damn thing you want and they will believe you. So you tell them to buy, they buy, you tell them to go left, they will go left. Consumers as a group want people to lead them, to tell them where to go, what to wear, what to buy, how to buy it, when to use it. Marketing and psychology are the staffs that guide the sheep.

Life is an Adventure Guys, Go Forth and Enjoy!

An Adventure Post! That’s Right! Here is one of my adventures I think you may be interested in!

For the past couple of weeks, my business partner and I have been tossing around ideas, trying to figure out ways to get rich and live the rest of our lives drinking mimosa in Tahiti. Well, we have been reading a lot, and by a lot, I think in the past couple of weeks I have spent more money on books in Barnes & Noble than I have on food and gas combined since January!

Most of the books we read talked about the same kind of things, and are some great resources, I will do a review post later on perhaps, and go through the books we read!

Anyways, to the point. Most of the books state that you should analyse your current life, and find a solution to a problem you have, whether at work, at home, or in school. It also suggests taking things like your interests and hobbies, making a list, and figuring out a product that would allow you to enjoy several of those things.

Example:

• Hanging Out With Friends
• Being Comfortable
• Hiking
• Doing Nothing
• Sleeping
• Playing Video Games
• Reading

Those are just some things I thought of off the top of my head that could be examples of stuff people and myself like to do (or not do).

Interesting is there is not one that tells you to list out what you Do not like to do, but have to do. Which to me would make sense on the problem solving side. Anyways…

We combined those and came up with something interesting (It’s a secret).  It took a bit of brain power, surfing the web, and trying to get inspired. However, we finally found something that we thought would work well!

So, right now, we have designed the product and what we want it to look like.  At the moment, we are trying to find a rapid prototyper to make a prototype. We used thomas.net as a resource to help us find one, but we got bounced around a bit. However, this has given us people who have referred us to other companies, which is helping us get our name out!

So now, we are just looking forward to getting our prototype and then finding a manufacturer to make the product, and buyers to stock it!

As this progresses I will keep you all updated! If we are successful, I will definitely write an indepth guide of how we did it! =)

Go Forth and  Enjoy!

So this great little LinkedIn beginners guide, popped up in my RSS feed from KISSmetrics.

The guide talks about the basics of using Keywords as well as joining groups, and participating in the community and in LinkedIn answers. This is all normal, and is a great part of being involved in LinkedIn!

However…

LinkedIn actually uses a clone of the old search algorithms, which is bad, very bad. For example, when you search something like SEO all you find is people who have SPAMMED the crap out of the word SEO. It’s an inherent flaw in the systems algorithm and unfortunately LinkedIn does not ban or issue any kind of penalty in search for this behavior. It looks awful, but it makes it frustrating when looking for legit people.

Whew, that Second Guys list extends almost the entire length of the page! So I decided what I would do is take a count of how many times the Word SEO is mentioned on the First Page of LinkedIn, just to gauge a bit of what is actually going on. To do this I used SEO Quake Keyword Density Check:

Results…

OMGWTFROFLCOPTER!!!?!?!!?!?!

SEO is used 2198 times across 10 profile DESCRIPTIONS! These are not even the insides of the profile! This is just peoples names, where they are employed, and what they do! This technically equates out to 219 instances of SEO being used per 10 accounts on the first page!

What Does this Mean?

I will tell you what this means, Good luck being found through search! So here is what I say (which pretty much goes against everything I do as I provide service guiding people on the use of and the optimization of LinkedIn):

DO NOT WORRY ABOUT KEYWORDS IN LINKEDIN

Instead focus on these # of things:

1. Content
• Write well written summaries and use small lists.
• Sum up at the bottom of each position the skills used in this manner: 

(*Note. Pay attention to only the highlighted Area, I continually experiment with my linkedIn account, and at the moment I can’t proove the way I have it listed is the best way as compared to writing a succinct paragraph or through some other means of information representation.)

Now I said do not worry about keywords, but you do not want to disregard them. They are your skills, and what you want people to notice about you! It just looks like complete poop if you spam your profile up the wazoo, it is better to include them naturally.

2.   Organization

• Having an Organized looking profile goes a long way. I like to put my Awards and Accomplishments first because it shows off that I am creative and Innovative without me saying “I am creative and Innovative.”
• A neat looking filled out profile makes it look like you care about your appearance and how others perceive you (whether you actually do or don’t)
• Helps you highlight (like above) the information you want to shine, and what information you want to “push”

3.  COMMUNITY

•  This is bold for a reason, Sign up for groups and participate, get to know others and have them know you!
• Sign up for companies you are interested in, both personally, and career wise.
• Comment on things those companies write, but make those comments relative and thought provoking, not just “I agree,” or “Nice Post,” relate, and add on.
• Do not bug people, treat everyone with respect, and do not push yourself too hard, you will get noticed by being seen as someone who promotes others, gives encouragement, and has a great knack for interacting and working with others as a team player! Selfishness is rarely rewarded.
• Be true to who you are, don’t “fake it till you make it”.  It is easy to see who the fakes are.

Final Point

If you are currently searching for a job, a new job or a career change, you absolutely must

HAVE A LINKEDIN SUBSCRIPTION

Why? It allows recruiters to contact you FOR FREE, it also places a badge on your profile that alerts recruiters and companies that you are AVAILABlE.

I recommend the Basic Job Seeker option. It is the cheapest, and all you want out of it is the ability to be seen in Recruiters searches, and for them to be able to contact you for free! (I get tons of recruiters visiting me a week, but hardly any messages, why? I am not subscribed xD ).

However, you really only need this if you are actively seeking job opportunities. Otherwise, I see no purpose in signing up for Job Seeker.

Conclusion

In the end, LinkedIn’s search sucks. It is outdated, full of holes (both regular and “a”), and is difficult to find anything that is not spam.

If you are optimizing your profile, write it for human eyes, make it interesting, work with the community, and make yourself noticeable (in a good way) …Also a clever catch phrase for a tag is a lot cooler imho.

Chris Prince (Thaaat’s Me!)

Welcome! Welcome!

Step Right Up! Step Right Up! Welcome, Welcome, One and All! Prepare Yourselves for the One and Only Most Amazing Most Splendiferous Show on Earth! 

That’s right dear reader’s, you have reached the one place that you hoped always (and never) to come! Hosted by the most pulchritudinous man you will ever meet through a computer screen.

My Name is Chris and I am THE one and only, most splendid, Overlord of all he surveys (including the stapler, the baggie of plus sized paper clips, and the row of  inter-connectable-squishie-like-stress-relieving-people-shaped-objects that are sitting on the corner of my cubicle!), FLAKHOUND!!!1!!!!!!?

TO THE POINT

Ah yes, the point. Well, instead of a second diatribe, although I guess technically my H2 (second/subheading) counts as the first, and the second would be the paragraph above^^ Technically I think I need to say “Instead of a Third Diatribe,” although, do headers or sub headers for that matter really count as diatribes? Well, in any case, I have totally and utterly just wasted precious moments of your time that you will never…EVER…get back!

Point Please

Alright, Alright. The point of this blog (which you would have known had you read my About Page!) I am an SEO Specialist. Not a Guru (Scammers), Not an Expert (No Life), just your average kind of guy who works for a living.

However, I would view myself as very knowledgeable and worth listening too! Not only will I be discussing what I do for a living, I will be discussing all the adventures I go on, the meaningless activities I participate in, my joys, my sorrows, and the inner pain that often follows being so Awesome all the time.

From time to time I may also post about philosophy, psychology, theology, and anything and everything that strikes my fancy.

In the end, the major overarching point of this blog, this website, and my life is:

“There is no crying in the foxhole, Life is an Adventure – Go Forth, Live, and Enjoy”

Welcome to my blog!