We hope to bring a smile to your face this holiday season. May the new year bring peace and joy to everyone.
The Perfect Blog Post
This infographic gives a very succinct description of how to organize your blog posts. Thanks to socialtriggers.com for creating and posting it and for Chris Amorosino for sharing it on LinkedIn.
Like this? Learn how to use psychology to get more traffic and sales with Social Triggers.
Kayak Fishing with Google Glasses
Off topic or not, an occasional fish story makes it into this blog. Humor me. I like to fish.
Last Saturday, my husband Brent and I took the kayaks out to Mansfield Hollow for our first outing of the season. It was a beautiful day. As Brent parked the truck I headed out thinking I could catch the first fish of the season.
It was a slow start. I was casting a blue rooster tail spinner–still tied to the line from last fall. After a few casts I looked around at the spring colors of the landscape and realized it was more of a lime green yellow day, so I changed the lure to match the landscape. Fish can be very color sensitive.
The lure change worked. I caught a nice bass. He was hefty. I quickly released him to enjoy the spring colors. Then I caught two more fish. Were they crappies? I think so, but later when I met up with Brent I wasn’t really sure. I could have dug out my phone and snapped a photo before I released them. But you know, it’s hard to take a photo of a fish with a phone while you’re holding a rod and a fish with a hook in a kayak! There’s the hand shortage issue and the fear of losing your paddle. And fish slime on the phone.
Later, when Brent and I were discussing our catches over adult beverages, I said I should find a way to fashion a camera to my glasses so I could ID my fish later.
He said, “Google Glasses.”
And I’m the techno-geek in the family. I hadn’t heard much about Google Glasses. But seriously is it a cool idea or what?!
Sign me up Google. Once I load my Fish ID app and fish finder, I’ll be all set.
Introducing Rockin’ Kacee
We’re excited to have Rockin’ Kacee Erhard blogging for us. Kacee will be blogging about any web related applications, marketing news and information that we think may benefit our client base. If you have any questions or topics you would like Kacee to research and write about, please leave a comment below. Kacee will write about anything you ask her to write about (within reason–she’s already covered pygmy giraffes).
Kacee says…
It’s a writing thing. And it’s dogged me like any hungry animal will do until it’s fed. So, I compose in my head the events of the day, words strewn in my mind’s eye in an almost obsessive compulsion. These crumbs, along with journaling, have kept the beasts at bay while raising a family, but the cracks in my exterior were beginning to grow. When my friend, Beth, suggested a writing proposition for Web Savvy Marketers, I instinctively turned to the hounds and offered myself up.
I’m Kacee Erhard, and I’m a compulsive writer. May these blogs be a source of information and good cheer.
Join us at the CT Women’s Conference
For the past two years, Web Savvy Marketers has worked with the Connecticut Women’s Alliance to plan and sponsor their events. On April 25, the CWA will present it’s premier event, the Connecticut Women’s Conference.
With our guiding theme, “Imagine…”, we’ve planned a day to inspire and empower your imagination at the conference this year. We have workshops designed to quench your thirst for knowledge in finance, spirituality, business, wellness, and global awareness. We’re excited to have Deborah Rodriguez, author of “A Cup of Friendship” and “The Kabul Beauty School” as our keynote speaker. Kay Wilson and her expert panel plan to discuss Spiritual, Physical and Mental empowerment. Jaclyn Vocell, a nationally recognized women’s life coach, motivational speaker, business and sports team life coach and leader, who empowers women and teams across the United States to live in victory, will keep the program going as our Master of Ceremonies.
Like last year, we’ve put together an eclectic and interesting group of vendors and exhibitors. Plus we’ll have some perennial favorites (Ben & Jerry’s) and some new surprises (Laugh Yoga) to make the day fun and festive.
Beth and I are pleased to work for and sponsor the CWA and we’re excited to be a part of this event and hope that many of you will join us at the conference. Today is the final day for Early Bird pricing ($119), so register today to save $30.
We hope to see you there!
Thank you Google and Bing for validating my SEO viewpoint
For several years now, I’ve rebelled against SEO Voodoo.
What I mean by SEO Voodoo is the process of hyper-focusing on optimizing your website to the detriment of building a good website. Folks get so caught up in the SEO hype—keywords, link building and so on that they forget that good content will cause people to naturally link to your website and will include the keywords that apply to your material.
Instead, I’ve promoted the concept that a well-designed website with well-crafted, informative content is a far better investment than spending time and money on voodoo search engine optimization. At times, I’ve had clients look at me as if I had two heads. Sadly, in some cases they’ve gone out and hired someone else to do the voodoo.
That’s not to say that I dismiss SEO concepts. I employ practical SEO principles as I build and maintain websites. I believe in classic html SEO practices like creating relevant unique page titles, using heading tags to highlight topics of the website, and I believe in cross-promoting your business and website online with social media sites and e-mail marketing. As a practice I create 301 redirects if I redesign a site and the urls change.
But I’ve never bought into the practices of “guaranteed” SEO tactics — you know — things like cramming keywords into your content, artificially creating links and some of the other crazy ideas the SEO specialists recommend to my clients.
Some SEO tactics, like keyword cramming, are kind of like a guy stuffing a sock in his pants. It might entice some visitors, but they’re disappointed when they get there.
I guess I figured the search engines were smarter than that or maybe I just figured it was more important to create a website that focused on your user’s experience. You know, spend time to create useful content that might actually sell your product or service?
It seems, Google and Bing might agree with me. Last week, Matt Cutts from Google and Duane Forrester from Bing had a conversation at SXSW about SEO. You can listen to to their conversation here. Among some of their points (paraphrased):
- over-optimization is a problem that can reduce the relevancy of search results and Google is trying to solve the problem
- if you’re not engaged socially, you’re missing the boat
- algorithms are not static—many variables affect search results
- search engines try to do what’s best for their constituents – the searchers
- spend less time on building artificial links and more time on creating news or content that other sources will pick up
- instead of trying to beat your competitors at the SEO game, offer more compelling content than your competitors
- don’t buy links, instead:
- work on social media
- on becoming an authority in your industry
- if someone is doing an article on you, ask for a link
So take the advise of some of the search engine pros and focus on creating good content for your website; it may serve you better than SEO voodoo.
Related blog posts:
- SEO is Not a Silver Bullet to Sales
- Three web design mistakes that can hurt SEO
- Clean up incoming website links after redesign
Inspiration & Ideas From the Twitter Feed
Cruising through my Twitter feed last night and I came across this inspiring infographic – 22 Ways to Create Compelling Content.
Who doesn’t need inspiration occasionally? I know I do. It’s been some time since I posted any content let alone compelling content to my blog. Lacking time to nurture inspiration this week, I decided to simply post @copybloggers infographic for now so I can refer to it for inspiration when time allows. I believe that makes this post a combination of #1 (using content from other blogs), #2 (group brainstorming via Twitter) and #5 (guest post).
Thank you @copyblogger for allowing me to use this infographic on my blog and to @MichelleShaeffr for retweeting it so I came across it in the feed.
Like this infographic? Get more content marketing tips from Copyblogger.
WordPress Tutorial – Media Center
What’s Not to ‘Like’?
Not long ago, one of my kids was approached by a peer who asked point blank, “Why didn’t you friend me on Facebook?” The response was given with a raised eyebrow and a funny look, “’Cuz you’re not my friend…?” with an unspoken “Duh!!” tacked on the end—not the expected response from a teenager in this media-saturated world. 10% of the 157,418,920 Facebook users in the US are between 13 and 17*—and many of those one and a half million teens (!!!) want to ‘like’ and have ‘likes’ from everyone else—I mean, who doesn’t want a lot of friends?
Well, we of the older mindset have learned with age to be more selective with what we do, when we do it, and with whom. Call us paranoid—or just old—but it simply doesn’t seem right to have 673 friends, and we definitely don’t have the time to ‘like’ everything we see. We truly aren’t interested in what you found in the couch cushions, and we aren’t going to ‘like’ a post about what your dog regurgitated. Yes, we have become discriminatory.
However, in business we know we need to network and talk, make friends and get as many people to like us as possible–in both the real and the virtual world. We also realize that for some the word ‘like’ has become a super-sized commitment to be a part of the everyday minutia of the world–but unlike taking out the garbage and cleaning the bathroom, it’s something we can choose not to do. So why do it? Why should you ‘like’ us?
It’s pretty simple.
When we at Web Savvy Marketers ‘like’ you, it’s because:
- We value you
- We value something you’ve said or done
- We want you to succeed
When you ‘like’ us, it means:
- You value us
- You value something we’ve said or done
- You want us to succeed
It’s not complicated. Your newsfeed won’t be stacked with invaluable, irrelevant nonsense from us–although we will include you when we’re having fun! We will share our ideas, what works for us and doesn’t, and we’ll want to hear about what makes your business tick–your challenges and experiences.
So let’s avoid that awkward middle-school-hallway moment, “Why didn’t you ‘like’ me on Facebook?” and support each other with a click on that little thumbs-up.
What’s not to like?
Connecticut Women Ob/Gyn Launched This Week
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