Archive for July, 2008

Alright. So it’s been almost two weeks since I asked for some education in the form of linkage. Since then, Jim decided to dump an order in my lap for over 1000 articles that need to be written ASAP - no easy feat when you’re looking for high quality content. The dozen writers already on the WBP short list were not quite sufficient, so I’ve been busy recruiting, hiring, handing out assignments, and submitting invoices for the work that’s been completed so far. Let me tell you – it’s more than a little odd to be handing out the type of assignments that I was crawling the work-at-home job boards for only a month or so ago.

But I digress. (And I do that a lot.)

I didn’t get a chance to single out my favorites as promised… until now. In no particular order:

• Patrick from 10e20 helped me hone my research skills. Google Alerts? Check. RSS feeds? Check. Walking away from my keyboard once in a while? Check. (Jim was actually just talking to me about women’s magazine articles and linkbait. I wonder if I could score a few magazine subscriptions on the company dime…)
• Rand’s post about being worthy of the linkerati. I’ll admit, I get a little giggle out of the word “linkerati.” But the article is chock-full of things that are helpful in developing more of a business mindset than the “ZOMG LOOK AT MY AWESOME BLOG” mindset… that I totally never had. Really. But now I know how to identify linkerati for any of the content I’m developing, and I have a few more ideas when it comes to brainstorming. (Ideas about brainstorming? I’m meta-brainstorming!)
• And for the “All in One” award, there’s Mert’s Top 10 of Linkbait… from which I realized that I am a lone pirate in an office full of ninjas and I got a cheat sheet from Stuntdubl about linkbait hooks.

You know, all this bait and hook stuff makes me think a lot about fish. I guess that’s appropriate for this little fish in a big, new pond.

I’m absorbing as much as I can, since there is plenty for me to learn. I mean, the rest of you have spent the better part of the last decade refining the body of knowledge I’m just now trying to understand.

But I’ve got a few things in mind that I might actually be able to teach you, too. I’m all about user intent, which is a term that may occasionally be bandied about in the internet marketing universe, but may not be understood by people who use the web in an entirely different way from the way normal non-SEO/SEM people do.

- QualityGal

It’s QualityGal again. It appears that my boss hijacked my last blog post in the comments section with a rant about… blogs. Among other things. I’ll let my request for education simmer for a few more days to see if I get any more advice by way of links.

This rant took place right around the same time he replied to my email about a project I’m working on, where he told me that forums are so 2004, and that blogs are making them obsolete. He cited the decline of SEO forums and the rise of SEO blogs in his reasoning. Turns out, Graywolf was discussing forums vs blogs way back in 2006.

(I guess it’s important to distinguish that we’re talking about blogs from two different perspectives here. According to Jim, as I understand it, blogs in the link building context are bad, but blogs as community resources are good.)

Okay, so he shot down my plan for building a forum. I accept that. In this instance, I think he had a fair point. My target audience may not benefit as much from a forum as I had originally thought. I drafted a better idea. But what about forums in general?

I must admit, I frequent two or three forums on a daily basis - off the clock - as I have for several years. They’re not professional resources; the purpose they serve is primarily social in nature. Am I stuck in the stone age alongside my forum friends? Is our Fellowship of the Forums doomed to disappear in the shadow of the growing blogosphere?

I’d like to think that there is still value for forum as community in certain instances. Not everyone out there has the talent or the energy to create, maintain, and promote a blog.

Am I letting my naivete show?

- QualityGal

Title note: Aside from being extinct, the brontosaurus no longer properly exists, as it was renamed apatosaurus sometime after I grew up. Doubly burned.

Hi, I’m not Jim. I’d like to introduce myself. You can call me QualityGal.

Oh sure, that’s not what’s written on my birth certificate or marriage license, but it’s so much more fun than my “real name.” I almost feel like I should wear a cape and have a nemesis, but I have a feeling that my co-workers, the link ninjas, would look at me funny if I did.

This is my first week here at We Build Pages, so I’m still learning the ropes. To give you a little background, I just got out of an independent contractor relationship with a large company that must-not-be-named. Because of my iron-clad NDA, I can’t tell you anything about it.

None of what I do for Jim even remotely violates my NDA - though I did fret about it for about five minutes before we ironed out the details - but the super secret super spy work I did has gotten me into the right mindset for what I’m doing now. Even seemingly unrelated jobs I’ve done in the past seem to have come together to give me the perfect storm of experience I need to join the world of SEO and content building.

My Mission, Should I Choose to Accept It

Jim has given me a plethora of SEO blog links to read up on, since I’m new to the SEO world. In the process of wading through it all, from SEO Chicks to Vanessa Fox Nude to Sphinn, I feel like I’m in over my head!

Your Mission, Should You Choose to Accept It

I’m reading a lot. But even if I read all day long, there’s bound to be some really good stuff that I miss.

So I need your help! (Parents, try not to hear Dora the Explorer’s voice saying that phrase. That’s all I can hear in my head now that I’ve typed it.)

Let’s pretend I can only read three blog posts to help get my feet wet in SEOland. Which three blog posts should I read?

Leave me a comment with your picks for the top three SEO blog posts out there. Yes, even if you’ve written them. I’ll post my favorites sometime next week.

For now, I’m out of here. QualityGal needs to spend some quality time with her family over the long weekend. Happy Fourth of July!

- QualityGal