Today I talked mostly about SEO – Search Engine Optimization – and why I don’t use it. Then, of course, I can’t help but wonder if I *should* use it and what – if anything – would change if I added SEO features to my blogs.
Yesterday’s Word Count: 0
Today’s Starting Count: 12,552
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You may not want to say it, but it’s obvious that this blog tour class IS a waste of your time. It seems designed for people just starting out, who don’t have a clue, and that’s not you, and the leader doesn’t seem to appreciate, or want, your input. As a fan who is, figuratively speaking, sitting with my clicker-finger poised over the “buy” button, waiting, NOT patiently, for the next book in any of the three ongoing story lines to become available, I do wish that you would stop frittering away time and creative energy on projects that don’t accomplish writing!!
Sorry. My impatience and frustration got the better of me for a moment there.
I don’t share the frustration, but I think joyce definitely have a point. Sure, you’re realizing why you do some of the things that you already do, but in the end I suspect you’re just going to continue on doing what you’re already doing. What’s the net gain there compared to the time and energy that isn’t going towards work and projects that bring out new material and sell copies?
Having said all of that, I do like where Nathan Lowell Presents is going so there is that. 🙂
Part of what I’d hoped was that I’d gain some insight into the channels that I’m not pursuing. What it’s doing is confirming my belief that this is mostly a false trail and it runs counter to my current strategies. Far from being productive and instructive, it’s being frustrating and getting in the way of my work.
Thank you, both, for this.
I need to go mow the front yard and then come back in and drop this class.
You’re right, Joyce.
I *do* need to stop spending time on this while I have projects pending that could have so much more effect.
The Nathan Lowell Presents project is a good one and something positive that’s come out of the process but I *do* need to focus on business.
Thanks joyce t he needed to hear that. Thanks Tony you summed it very well. Now we just need a new book to listen and read so we have something new to praise or complain about. I doubt there will be any complaining from me.
This class you are taking reminds me of a class I took about 8 years ago when I moved from NY to Toronto. I signed up for a class in family therapy. I already had taken these classes and I didn’t need the credits because I had a few grad degrees but I work in a related area and I figured the class would be a nice way to meet some people in my field. The teacher was awful and her methods seemed unethical. On the last day of class many of the students came up to me and thanked me and told me they had learned a lot from me. I don’t remember teaching anything. I commented once in a while and during breaks I made suggestions about readings . The whole experience was embarrassing and awkward. I was far more educated in family therapy and mental health history / theory than the teacher and putting myself in the class as a student made her look inadequate which was the opposite of what I wanted from the class. Thanks for sharing your experience.
Yes. I certainly didn’t want to put the teacher in that light or position.
It’s just as well I bailed when I did. We’re going to start getting into some dodgy areas of self promotion that I think do more harm than good and I’d be caught in an ethical dilemma of trying to uphold a promise not to contradict her in pubic and the promise that I made my doctoral chair to “do no harm” when it comes to education. That’s the higher promise and the more difficult to assess because it’s so often a judgment call.
So far, I’ve exhibited pretty poor judgment in this class so best for me to bow out now.
And Tony’s right. I’m unlikely to change my practice at this juncture. I can’t really see me abandoning a very successful social media strategy in favor of an old school broadcast one. For people scrambling for the first few dozen sales, it’s an easy “thing to do.” It’s marginally more effective than “nothing” as a strategy, but really lacks the robustness and efficiency that I have now.
So. I dropped. It’s done. I need to finish the edits on this audio for StarShipSofa and then go write some of my own words, perhaps 😀
Belay that “Perhaps”, Sar.
The biggest problem with SEO is that the search engines, especially Google, are constantly adjusting the way they evaluate pages. In fact, in Google’s algorithms, there’s really little you can do to your page itself to bump it up – keyword stuffing was the first thing they killed. Google all along was mostly based on the academic paper model – how many people linked to *YOU*. Of course, that led to link farms, and Google soon put in measures against that…
*MEH* Build a good quality page, link to other good quality pages, and Google will love you. It’s that simple, really. There’s no real tricks for search engine optimization. The people in this class would probably be better off taking a good class on English Composition and Style.
Call me old fashioned, but I believe the best SEO consists of engaging content that you refresh on a frequent enough basis to keep readers coming back. There’s no hocus pocus. That’s it, really. And I think you excel at it.
It’s annoying when people who should be creating actual content look instead for an unrealistic silver bullet that will get them a million hits.
Very good point, Dan.
I *do* think it’s a good idea to pause occasionally and look around — to take stock of the environment, to see if what’s always worked before continues to work.
Taking too much time to do that is a problem. 🙂