Lee Stacey - Filed under 'web'

February 8, 2010

SEO Is Dead!

Oooh, that's a controversial title, isn't it? I suppose I'd better substantiate this wild claim...

What is SEO?

From Wikipedia: "Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web sitefrom search engines via "natural" or un-paid ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results as opposed to search engine marketing (SEM) which deals with paid inclusion. Typically, the earlier (or higher) a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, video search and industry-specific vertical search engines. This gives a web site web presence."

Surely search is still important?

It is. Saying "SEO is dead" is a bit of an overstatement really. It's still important as people still use search engines but it's not as important as it used to be because the realtime web and and viral propagation are taking over. This means that when you do search for something on Google (or whatever) the realtime search results will come up before those with high page ranks. Also, which is better: A search engine listing or a recommendation from a friend or trusted source?

So what is more important than SEO?

Anyone that regularly reads my my posts will probably already know that my answer for this question is social media! I've said it before and I'll say it again, this does not mean banging your press releases out over Twitter and leaving it at that. It's much more than that. You've got to engage and above all else, you have to listen! Only with real engagement will you be able to build a community of evangelists. You need to build a relationship with your target demographic. Engagement leads to trust, trust leads to evangelism, evangelism leads to virality, virality leads to WIN.

So should we forget about SEO?

Definitely not. You still need it because there are always those special deep searches for finding out the stuff that not a lot of people know. Also there are always niche applications where you may not easily build a community (although I'm yet to find one). There is also the added bonus that someone might find you via Google and enter your community via the back door.

The back door

So SEO isn't dead, it's just that since building the extension, what was your front door has now become your back door. Social media is the new front door!

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Filed under // marketing search seo social media techforce twitter viral virality web

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January 30, 2010

3 Steps To Generate Traffic To Your Blog By Doing Very Little

1) Create a blog post about generating traffic by doing very little.

2) Share the link on Twitter.

3) Sit back and watch.

I know, it's genius.

I'll get my coat...

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Filed under // blog seo traffic twitter web

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December 3, 2009

Confused By Google Wave?

It appears that most people are. What I'm going to attempt to do for you here is not a review or a how to... That would be pointless. It's not a released product yet so it could change drastically and suddenly at any point. What I shall be doing is giving you my take on what Google Wave is in it's most basic form, what it can be used for and the concept of the wave it's self.

NOT A Social Network

Whenever I'm helping someone get to grips with Wave, one of the first questions they ask is how they find other users or friends. Well, you don't. I'm not saying you "can't" because there *is* a social aspect to it but it's not a social network, it's a communication tool. You don't trawl around the email network looking for email addresses to add... Think of Wave as being email 2.0. Email with benefits. If you're a web forum user you can also see it as being like a forum on demand!

Collaboration

Sure you can use Wave to talk to an individual, just like email but it really comes into it's own when you want to collaborate on something as a group. If a person has an idea they can start a wave about said idea and invite other contacts into the discussion. Just like CCing someone in an email but again better. It's better because they can be brought into the conversation at any point and see the whole conversation as it happened. Using the "Playback" feature, they can also see how the conversation evolved post by post. Particularly useful if a conversation has multiple threads.

Threads

Real life conversations are not perfectly linear. They have multiple threads. Something said earlier in a conversation might be revisited later etc. By having a threaded view you can respond to anything and interject at any point in the conversation but unlike real life conversations, this need not cause the main thread to go off topic. By using playback, you can see when and how various subtopics were started.

That's All... For Now

I'm not going to say any more. The purpose of this article is to de-confuse. If you want to learn more, Google it.

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Filed under // collaboration communication concept confusing conversation email forum google lee stacey lstacey social network wave web

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November 20, 2009

Tweetminer - Tweet Scheduling And More...

What is Tweetminer?

Tweetminer is a slick web based Twitter client for power users featuring a built in tweetable RSS (news feed) reader and a very powerful rolling schedule tool. The basic client is free but for those of you who like to bite off a bit more there are also three different paid options.

Twitter Client

The Twitter client part of the application is on first sight everything you would expect from a single column client, allowing you to see all the regular timelines (friends, DMs, mentions etc.) and allows you to add timelines for individual users, searches and even lists. You can also see and update your own timeline and reply to tweets/DMs as per normal.

What makes it really useful is that each tweet can be either retweeted instantly, added to the rolling schedule or edited. If you edit a tweet you can retweet instantly or add to your schedule for tweeting later. Very handy for retweeting the good stuff from your lists and favourite users without clogging up people's timelines.

You can also add multiple Twitter accounts if you're a real power user.

RSS Reader

The RSS reader, while not a full featured RSS client like Google Reader does allow you to add feeds and perform the following actions: Instant tweet, edit, add to schedule and flag for review. It is lacking a decent preview so you do unfortunately have to click through and open the article to find out what it's all about. With the scheduling you can either add it to your rolling schedule or select a specific time for the tweet to go out.

Schedule

Tweetminer features a very advanced scheduling tool allowing tweets to go out at specific times or to be added to a rolling schedule that you can set up in advance to operate between certain times on certain days of the week. Items in the rolling schedule can ordered to your liking.

Premium vs Free

Tweetminer comes in four different flavours at four different costs:

Basic / Free

5 Twitter Accounts

250 Twitter API Calls/Day

10 Scheduled Msg./Day

5 Feeds

Default bit.ly

Budget Yearly / $60 per year

2 Twitter Accounts

1000 Twitter API Calls/Day

100 Scheduled Msg./Day

Unlimited Feeds

Use your bit.ly

Premium / $10 per month

5 Twitter Accounts

3000 Twitter API Calls/Day

500 Scheduled Msg./Day

Unlimited Feeds

Use your Bit.ly

Max / $20 per month

20 Twitter Accounts

12000 Twitter API Calls/Day

2000 Scheduled Msg./Day

Unlimited Feeds

Use your Bit.ly

There is a nag to upgrade after 5 days use if of the free version but this will only appear once per login so it isn't too annoying.

My Verdict

In all this is an excellent product, very slick, well designed and thought out. The only things i think are missing is some way of reading the articles in the RSS feed without having to leave the app and a time/date stamp on the items in the RSS feed. It's nice to know at a glance how old the news is.

One of the things that made a huge difference to me was that when I complained about the nags (initially it nagged a LOT) the developer @justinvincent got in touch straight away and made the nags far less annoying by only making them appear once per login.

Another nice touch is that when you use a feature for the first time it shows hints and tips. You can hide these temporarily or permanently as you wish.

This app is a must for power users and news gatherers alike. I even use it myself!

There is also a perk for users (or even non users) by way of a very advanced affiliate scheme so you can get paid for telling others about it!

Try it out free for yourself:

http://tweetminer.net

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Filed under // affiliate app client retweet review rss schedule tech techforce tweetminer twitter web

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November 9, 2009

Lee Needs A Job

Now that we're firmly planted in November I can officially announce that after two good years working as an IT Manager for a prestigious property development/investment firm based in London's Mayfair district I too have become victim to the dreaded economic downturn and find myself seeking employment. Usual story, the company needed to downscale considerably and that meant downscaling IT also; so here I am, looking for work!

I'm unemployed but not unhappy

I could get rather upset and wallow in misery but that's not how I roll. I see this as an opportunity to find a nice new challenge to sink my teeth into and I'm rather keen on finding a role in digital marketing and/or community management as these are things I've actually been doing for a number of years but more as a hobby or a bolt on to previous employment roles.

Social media maven (tongue in cheek :p)

I think it's fair to say that I have a rather good understanding of social media and it's associated tools and techniques. Amongst other things, I have over 12,000 followers on Twitter, a very well read blog and I'm not a spammer so that's got to mean something, right?

Are you looking for a job too?

This blog post actually has a dual purpose. Obviously my main objective here is to promote myself and find some work; preferably something I WANT to do. The other purpose is that I firmly believe that in the current climate anyone in my position (and there are quite a few) needs to stand head and shoulders above the rest so now is a good time for polishing that personal brand! If like me you're looking for work, get out there and shout about it! Get blogging, get tweeting and get engaging (does that work in that context?). Of course if you do nothing but shout about needing a job you won't get much of a following so you'll need to do a bit of work. You've probably got some time on your hands now so start creating content that interests you and I can guarantee that it will interest others too. If you're writing about things you enjoy, it's actually pretty easy. Try it. Out of that your personal brand will be born, you will gain a following and opportunities to network. Don't go follower crazy either. There are various techniques for gaining followers quickly and I advise against all of them. The best thing you can do by far is be yourself and engage with other people sharing your interests.

Hire me... Please...

At the moment I'm collaborating with a professional copy writer on my CV (resume) using Google Wave, which in it's self is pretty exciting but I can send you a draft version if you're desperate to employ me right now. (I'm being positive here, OK?)

If you know of any positions currently vacant that might fit someone like me, please contact me by one of the means listed below:

Email: me@leeneedsajob.com

Twitter: @LStacey

MSN: msn@leestacey.com

Skype: pilchardmusic

GWave: lee.a.stacey@googlewave.com

Thanks for reading and...

Giz a job! :D

Lee Stacey - Musician / Geek / Thinker

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Filed under // brand branding community digital google it lee stacey leeneedsajob lstacey management manager marketing personal redundancy social media twitter unumployment wave web

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October 28, 2009

Lord Mandelson - Battling Piracy With Lunacy

So it seems our all knowing, all seeing Government have come up with a plan to tackle piracy by putting a stop to illegal file sharing on the internet. Spearheaded by Lord Mandelson, the plan is to employ a three strike strategy to cut off the internet connections of those sharing files over P2P networks. Read more from The Guardian here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/oct/28/mandelson-date-blocking-filesharers-connections

It Won't Work!

There are several flaws in this strategy. One being that connection monitoring can only prove that you are sharing files. It can't prove who owns the copyright on those files or even what format those files are so if like myself you are a content creator and you share your own intellectual property, you too could find yourself facing a block and losing your internet connection. All hope is not lost, though as you will be able to appeal should you get shut down. The problem there being that appealing is after the effect and the whole process, administration and all will take time. Knowing good old British administration... Lots of time... So if your connection is used for business purposes you will lose money, your ISP will be footing the bill for your shutdown so they will lose money, internet connection prices will rise and of course the tax payer will foot the bill for the appeals process. So that could be rather costly all round.

It Will Save Those Affected By Piracy, Won't It?

No it won't. If the Government think that teenagers doing the modern equivalent of home taping (those were the days) think that's what's denting profits they really haven't done their research very well. Kids sharing files with their mates wouldn't buy the media in the first place so nobody is losing money there. If anything, this kind of activity is actually good for marketing because it increases fan base and captures an audience for other revenue streams. For the rest of us it's so easy and cheap to buy or stream media on demand thanks to services such as iTunes & Spotify that piracy just isn't worth the hassle these days. What's really hitting the pockets of the copyright holders is the vast business of shady DVD sales from dodgy market traders and wandering salesmen (I choose my words carefully) who don't even use the internet as their stock is mostly either imported pirate goods or the real thing but stolen from the shelves of retailers.

Of course there are those that download files, burn discs and sell them and these people should be targeted BUT these people are the ones that will fairly easily (and I could tell you how) circumvent the monitoring put in place. Kinda makes the whole thing pointless, doesn't it?

And The Outcome?

The upshot being that those prosecuted will not be the ones causing the problem, those paying for it will be us taxpayers and those committing the real crimes will still be getting away with it.

Nice one, Mandy. You really thought this one through...

What Can We Do About It?

Not a great deal really but if we make enough noise, maybe someone will hear us. If you blog, blog about it. If you use Twitter, tweet about it. If you use Facebook, I've set up a group where we can all rant together:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=168595036435

And don't forget to sign the petition here:

http://38degrees.org.uk/page/s/mandelsonweb

It's important that we act on this ASAP as Mandy appears to really want it. Do your bit and write to your MP:

http://www.writetothem.com/

Let's not put up with this lunacy!

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Filed under // 38degrees bittorrent competitions facebook file sharing govenment internet labour lord lunacy mandelson open rights group p2p peer to peer peter piracy politics tech techforce threestrikes torrent twitter warez web westminster

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October 16, 2009

Having A Domain Clearout - Updated Domain Names

Here's an updated list of the web domains I have for sale:

buffanimals.com
bugler.eu
burgess-hill.org.uk
dailybeer.tv
flmuseum.com
followfriday.co.uk
geekwives.net
seriousbusinessinter.net
shitfaced.eu
tweepl.com

Tweet me if you're interested.

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Filed under // domain domains for sale sedo url web

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October 14, 2009

Having A Domain Clearout

In a drive to cut costs I've decided it's time to sell some domains that are no longer in use. If you're interested in any, hit me up on Twitter (@LStacey) for mates rates or if you're rich just click the domain name and buy at my ridiculous asking prices on Sedo. ;)

Domains for sale:

seriousbusinessinter.net

tweepl.com

twitter-pong.com

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Filed under // domain domains for sale sedo url web

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April 9, 2009

The Crap Website Awards

The Crap Website Awards are coming!

You know what it's like, you're stumbling around the interwebs looking for awesomes and suddenly you find yourself staring at the kind of breathtaking crapness you just can't keep to yourself; Backgrounds that make it impossible to read the content, big colourful animations that just don't fit and designs that... well... just have no design sense at all.

These websites need to be immortalised and praised for their shoddy construction and ugliness. That's why we (well, Jon actually) came up with The Crap Website Awards.

All you have to do to submit a website and give it a chance to win is share it on Twitter using the #crapwebsiteawards hashtag.

As you'll see from the images here, the standard is VERY low.

To see the current submissions, click here.

I haven't set a date for the awards yet or decided what categories there should be because I'm crap too. This is all about the crapness so as far as I'm concerned, it's all good. Get submitting and comment here with category ideas. If there's enough craplove I might make things all big and official like.