Rules, live by your own …

Recent events of hypocrisy and dishonesty from one community owner has given me something to think about.

Communities don’t need or want certain sorts, yet they are run by those sorts, while trying to take the high road at the same time, as far as telling lies in order to do that, they are as fake as you like.

I was amazed at the level of bullying and lies that were going on, the fact they tripped over their own lies several times, in full view of the community, then realising it and deleting their own lies just made me annoyed, enough to let them know by ranting.

I had to take a break from all this online crap for a few days because it was sickening… it made me angry, it made me angrier knowing that those using the site are really unaware of just who they are supporting.

This asshole is the problem. This asshole will be the downfall of the community. two faced liars will never prosper well, they get found out sooner than later, more so when they are so thick they can’t see how they screwed up, like dogs, they think everyone is only as clever / stupid as they are.

I would only use that site again on one condition …

Under a new owner.

To that end all links from here to that community are gone, the people I like and get on with well from there have their own sites and blogs, so I am not missing them, nor them me.

For me, I feel that community site has massive potential but not while being run by the current owner, who is the real problem there, only a few people know and realise that at the moment, the rest will soon find out and agree.

The fact the owner insults it’s own members in several ways, on several different places is enough to make anyone stop and think about it, if they choose to see it. The fact the owner has spouted some terrible lies about several things ON the community site itself is something everyone there should have noticed by now.

The best thing that could happen is for the power to be taken OUT of their hands, a new owner, or several owners would be the way forward and it would also grow the site in a much better and faster way, the quality would raise if done right.

I had lots of good ideas for the place but I bided my time because I KNEW something was not right, well over a month ago I started to realise that they were not all as they seem – I needed to bide my time and wait till their true colours come out and boy did they come out.

So, now I am glad I kept it to myself, glad I never got to involved with their little games, because I always had doubts, I always knew there was an ulterior motive, agenda and had ideas on what they were from the start, I was right too.

Those of you on the site, I tell you know hand on heart, that idiot is a liar, a fake and he is USING you all, in a not-so-nice-way in reality, while hiding under the persona he portrays to you all … don’t fall for that shit.

He attacks his own members behind closed doors, a few times he did it on the site itself, attacking them for using other communities similar, which itself stinks, he attacks some for reading certain blogs he don’t like… what the fuck it has to do with him is beyond me.

This is not the first time I have seem them shit on someone, this is not the first time he has been found out to be the manipulative bully-boy idiot that he really is and then shown up for it.

He always bleats about having no friends, wonder why that is?

He always bleats that everyone else is lower than him, that he is superior … which, I beg to differ. The only thing he is superior to is a rat, even then … only just.

He needs a mirror, maybe he can get one of his “fake friends” to sort him out with one. He seems to miss the fact the real problem is himself, maybe it’s just they are in denial.

I am done with that crap, not being told what I can and can’t use, read, interact with, who to call a friend.

For me, the biggest lesson is, that these places you don’t own, they are in some ways a waste of time using. Anything put into it can be dismissed with a click of a button.

So, you will see me less on community places and more on my own sites, it is better be active on blogs and such anyway, you are connecting with people at source, maybe it’s more effort but it’s sure worth it.

Use community sites and social networking sites by all means, just don’t forget it can vanish anytime. But never forget you can tell an awful lot by the owner, their true colours will always slip out from time to time, just be aware of it and you see it.

Dishonesty never pays …

Over to you …

I'm loyal, so Where's my dinner!

Loyalty… a precious thing in many respects and not something to be abused, so it’s surprising how many people do abuse loyalty, some may not even realise they are doing it … online it is very apparent with Internet marketers, some bloggers even, taking liberties with their readers, customers and potential fans, fans?

… You know, people who spread your value, freely.

Why they do it, I have no idea, nor do I care that much, as long as you, me, those I respect don’t do it… all’s well, the more the greedy idiotic ones screw up, the sooner they fail bad the sooner it stops being so much that way.

We can all do our bit…

It’s the one reason I got OFF all the marketers list (newsletters! – more like my buddies have some crap to sell spam) and these supposedly good marketers say I shouldn’t do this, preaching that we need to “stay on the ball” within the niche… to that I say bollox… all it does is jade you and influence you with the negative vibe around it… don’t bother.

They give nothing of value that will make you loyal to them.

Although some really do give value.

Same as reading feeds in your feed reader… are they all really giving value? If not … why bother with them?

We should all prune and prune diligently, everything.

With anything, twitter followers, RSS subs, friends on social sites, etc, anything online… before doing more, can you improve what you already have?

By pruning and cleaning up things you can certainly make it better for you… and it’s you that has to use it, put up with it, good and bad.

For me, I am picky everywhere if I can help it, though I have neglected to keep on the ball with everything I think that’s a case of spreading oneself to thin… easy done but if you don’t try things how will you know if they are worth using?

Don’t be surprised if a profile of mine drops off a social site, it may happen… the main thing for me is, does what i get out in value equal the effort out in to get it?

For some places, understandable as places change, it’s getting to be a big no… twitter is one site I use less than I did, but I still use it, just not the way I once did because of  a few factors, yes, I have had good connections and conversations there but sure as hell can’t find them anymore… it has no legs set up that way for me.

There has been a few interesting changes which make all this the more important, people are losing things and in some cases just abandoning services – one thing is this blog is mine, it isn’t going to be closed, like any of these social sites could do, anytime and that means I should value what I do with this over anything else.

Same as everyone else really, do more on what you actually own and use your time wisely on what works elsewhere, dump the rest.

Agreed?

Updated!

Bloggerluv, it’s a great little place and you don’t have to have a blog to use it, to join in, so why not do that?  Why not indeed…

I have written about bloggerluv before, but it has since moved and is now so much better, faster than the old set up.

It sucks….

Why use it then? Don’t bother!!!

Because it’s yours, it’s built for you, not the owner, that’s the difference between alot of places and this one, it’s a dofollow place too, so you get some benefit from links, you will see some nice things posted there, some inspiring, some useful, some entertaining, something for all…

Because there are some great people there, who are helpful, they help share your content, if you have some, if not, they just engage with you.

Because it will grow and you will benefit from that, being an early user will be a big bonus in the long run.

Because it helps build your backlinks, reach and you get ideas for more to do.

Because, just because…

Now what you waiting for?

Get on over to bloggerluv and try it out. Seriously, don’t bother…

Facebook – love it or hate it, it’s not going anywhere… recently I’ve seen changes there which, it looks like their smart ex google and friendfeed teams ideas have been implemented, pop ups on hovering over names, better layout on the notifications, more use of our avatars, liking individual comments, among a few other updates they’ve added.

It’s changing and most likely still growing.

Is it all good or bad, for who?

Well…

I have come close to closing it a few times!

Constant improvements help to fend that off.

Facebook’s home sweet home

Facebook’s home page is the most important one, for them and us, for us, it’s the one we should want to spend the time on, seeing everything in one neat stream means we spend less time clicking out, meaning more time doing something, IE adding to facebook.

It’s also where they can spend most of their time building more “usefulness” and having one main stream page to concentrate on is going to mean improvements can be tested quicker and implemented often, small changes would be tracked easily, if good, go, if not, drop it, over a year you would see alot more change.

If they had to keep altering and updating every page and whatnot, it would be less worthy, all efforts on one streamed page is better.

Facebook have the right team (created gmail and freindfeed) to make that platform and home page work and work well.

Facebook is a platform, nothing more, nothing less, a platform for “user generated content” … that is, YOU create the content which gives the place it’s value, without you, facebook is nothing, hence they will never charge anyone, to much to lose!

They are simply making it easier and better for you to do just that, create more value for them, and freely, easily.

Which is why…

Facebook has improved it’s home page alot, think back to two years ago if you used it then, so many clicks had to be made to find anything, all the stupid notifications, having to click through to profiles, endless… and now, you can do almost everything from the home page, don’t hear any moaning now, I would love facebook to switch a few 1000 of those who moaned back to the old crappy one for a week!!

That would stop future petty moaning!

Facebook’s still a closed garden

Yes, as we know, most of us have it set to private for real friends and family, understandable really when you consider that’s why they joined, most people don’t have other profiles on other social sites, just using facebook itself… which is why most were angered when the owners tried to underhandedly make privacy changes.

Their issue is they want more of it open, they want it all searchable on main search engines like Google too, the people don’t, most of them, so they kept their settings private.

Will this change? No idea… depends on them, you, Google too.

Facebook’s reaching out in different ways

Which is one reason I added the “like” button as you see below each post here, I have mixed feelings about it though, not all straightforward either!

See, the fact my profile is closed on facebook, like many of yours, means Google and search engines don’t pick up links and such from them, unless it’s set to “everyone” they won’t.

This leaves a dilemma for many in that we need to know how to spread what we do within a closed facebook if we can’t get it to do so outside facebook, therefore facebook is using other methods like the “like” and “share” buttons you see, this allows the search engines to know something about it, by being on sites and blogs themselves.

You click the Like button below, thankfully you don’t leave this blog (else it wouldn’t be there!) and the link with the title goes to your facebook profile saying you liked it, you are helping me too. Try it…

This also allows us bloggers to get a link and potential eyeballs on closed profile sites, without you doing anything but click… like!

But it also allows us a little something else, personal recommendation, from a friend… a more powerful promotion you couldn’t get!

Another is the way in which facebook allows us to also choose the setting on the share links when we share anything on facebook, often I will choose “everyone” when sharing a post from here, or other, and this should show to everyone… and the search engines.

Bonus!

So, what do you think of of facebook lately?

Doing my bit, are you doing yours?   – - – - ¬

There you are…

Can I ask? …

Do you still look at the same sites, blogs as you did a year ago? 6 months ago? 3 months ago… Last month?

Why am I even asking you may wonder?

Because I’ve realised I don’t like I used too either and I am thinking I’m not that much different to any other person online…

We move around online alot, jumping from one thing to another or we stick to the same things over and over, like social sites… Twitter, Facebook (and others) addicts are out there, that say’s alot.

It also means…

Losing your audience

Not a good thing and one thing we online workers, bloggers etc all have to try avoiding… personally I think it’s getting harder and in some way it’s not worth worrying about because it’s inevitable really, people change what they read just as I do, so to expect readers to always stick with us is asking alot… after all, is what we write interesting enough to deserve that?

If so, lucky us to have such readers and changing anything would be daft.

But I am not one of those lucky ones I think… to be totally honest, those who are lucky in that sense are probably few and far between and even they have to continuously gain new readers like all of us but they have the numbers for it to not matter too much.

Endless marketing and self promotion

Until you if you’re lucky, you hit that tipping point where it grows itself at a rate you can forget about it personally, which as I have never done I am no marketing expert, yet I think this is likely to be bloody hard work mixed with damn smart work.

Creating decent content, whatever it is, is simply not enough on it’s own and won’t do enough to make it matter the way we would like it to matter.

Marketing itself is funny, it’s something people shrug their shoulders at or turn their noses up to, or get excited about learning and doing, then it changes them too, good and bad!

Either way, it’s got to be done to some extent else whatever it is you do never get’s seen or gains any traction to grow in any form. It always starts with you as it has to.

That means me getting back to marketing the hell out of what I am sticking with too and doing it better.

Wanna help me with that?

Share this post using the new fandangled buttons below. Thanks.

Just a quick post, though an important one with lessons for us all!

Be a man!

It seems some people can never make that step to admitting they are being an asshole and they can’t say that word “sorry”, more so to the right person on the right bloody blog.  You know, if you are gonna do anything then make it the right thing and not half assed.

If you are a “big” person, in his words, don’t blame social media and it’s users for your crappy lame product being slammed, it got slammed cos it’s crap, sod all to do with you being the “big” man there to be shot down.

Making threats is just lame!

Amazing that people can be so dumb and not see the damage they do to their own reputation!

Takes a bigger person to admit they are being an asshole!

Better yet, don’t be an asshole!

Portland's chesil beach...

One in a million, literally!

If you are this blogging / website game then you are one among millions ~ like pebbles on a beach ~ millions of whom also with the same aim as you, to get somewhere and make it work, make money, grow your reach and readership, get noticed in other ways (book deals spring to mind!) so no matter what it is you aim for, it’s your platform, the springboard and nothing more.

But like the pebbles on the beach we are all connected, it only takes one person to make the difference, depending on who it is.

Not easy all this and it’s only going to get harder…although with some luck the search engines will weed out the crap better as we go along and faster too, yet they are never going to be as smart as you, the person and that matters, it can help I think if we think about it and use that knowledge right.

People, not machines!

This I think is why social traffic can’t really be ignored, whatever happens with social traffic has to be noticed by the SE’s. Granted SE traffic is key to it all but they feed off each other, one can’t exist without the other anymore.

Look at the latest traffic growth curve of facebook compared to google…

No matter how you look at it, it’s the people and not machines that count.

Therefore it pays to write for people first, machines second.

It’s good to rank for keywords machines look out for when it comes to getting your site to make money online yet it’s still the people who pay you, not the machine, the machine only helps drive more people to you.

Traffic is not key, what you get that traffic doing is key!

If you are selling crap, increasing your conversion means the traffic can stay the same and your profits go up, that is what you should be always working on, then any traffic increase you do create means bigger profits, like create more articles and include an anchored backlink in each, a few of these mean more traffic and better ranking, leading to even more traffic too.

Win bloody win!

Numbers, yep it is a numbers game, anyone who says different is doing a disservice for saying so.

The only numbers that matter are your own, yeah by all means listen to what others may say which you could learn from but don’t take them for gospel, test it yourself and see what it does to your numbers, then take that as gospel.

No-one else knows what your numbers are, what you can improve, drop, whatever, only you regardless of what ebooks, blogs, websites tell you, the only real way to know is to test it for yourself.

It doesn’t mean do all yourself as you are unlikely to be able to do it all, do what matters for you, not blindly do everything you read or hear, we know where that can lead…

Road to nowhere!

Lonely road that is!

Social traffic doesn’t have to mean YOU being social

It’s all good and well being on twitter, facebook etc and being sucked in socially but that also takes up your time and also it’s not likely you have enough influence to make it really worth that time spent.

If social traffic is to really pay, in whatever form, it needs to be spread by the right people, the influencers in whatever niche you target, you need those who do have the reach, one of the things to consider is to some how some way capitalise on that, maybe give them something worth sharing, whether it’s amazing free content as such on your blog, a free product they can do something with, or even make them a decent offer of some sort.

The point is make it so there is something in it for them, and those they share it with.

The more this gets shared the better the SE’s will take note, they can’t ignore the social influence can they?

Indeed, there is a reason google has started personalising search and included social your social graph into that.

Use what social traffic can teach you in order to improve your SE traffic, think about it this way, what words people react to are going to be something different to what machines do, naunces of language are not something machines deal with quite like you do.

Find the new keywords and unusual terms people give you.

You could find some interesting long tail keywords utilising this info, long tail keywords are simply longer search terms, IE instead of typing in “cakes” they may type in “old English cakes” which narrows the search to a more specific target and it’s what they actually want to see the results for, so, that is a basic example but hopefully understandable?

As we know from google own words, most searches are new search terms, which means you know when any long tail keyword with be a hit.

Build some half decent content utilising these long tail keywords, and with that some anchored backlinks with these long tail keywords too. (see how these links I am sharing are anchored backlinks?)

This will help your ranking in the SE’s eh?

By now you should know they feed each other in many ways and if possible should be utilised in whatever form benefits you.

You may find its useless, maybe it is, but how will you know unless you test it?

Granted if you just have an adsense site it may hurt you in some ways, lowering your ad value for one, the click through (CTR) rate for another.

Do what works for you and only that.

That is the bottom line, as long as it’s ethical, legal, do whatever works well for you and test anything and everything you think may work, don’t let others say or tell you what will, will not work, only you can know by doing.

Some ideas to think about.

Please share this, and / or thoughts in comments…

Gone through a few changes recently but one I have yet to explain is that as I aim to make money online I also know I need to “monetise” this blog even if only to pay for itself but it is as a part of the bigger picture, for the start I have added adsense to the sidebar.

I am also going to be “trimming the fat” so to speak, cutting out all the crappy stuff I really don’t need or want.

I do want results, that has to be the bottom line, if it means a few changes here, so be it.

Having no got settled into WP I constantly find new things that I see blogger mmiss out on so much, or at least some of things you can do with blogger are not highlighted like in WP, you can spot some of them lol

It’s growing on me fast! …

There are some great bloggers out there using WPress, I see their blogs with a different eye than before…

John Sullivan's cool dog!

There is good reason to do things with mutual respect, we all know we need others to help, as we also help others, people need people, it can’t all be one sided… it won’t work at it’s best.

It’s all a two way street, you know as well as I know that’s a truth, we have to be right too…

Else there’s…

For any of us!

It’s not all cosy though and everyone has to be aware of the rouge element among us…

That is, there are some people we encounter online which normally annoy us all, the spammers and scammers, snake oil salesmen, selfish marketers only in it for the buck at any cost

Really there is only one possible messge to them at any point you enconter them…

Piss off spammers!

The one good thing coming from social media is the fact these people have nowhere to hide, reputation should mean more now than it did two, three, four years ago… those who did bad a few years ago could even find shit they did dug back up again, it would be easy to happen.

Though the one thing we see now, which if you think about it, is not only lame but also in some ways it’s likely to be these people who will get crap in a few years when it’s all ridiculed.. that is, the “social media experts!”

If you have that on your twitter profile or similar, then yes, I’m talking about you, and I am not the only one either. You are no expert cos you’ve been on twitter five mins!

Get back to basics…

Therein lies an issue I have to consider, social media traffic, and the need to make money online, they don’t seem to go together yet they will have to.

I like this social aspect of the interwebs, it’s good for alot of reasons but it does take up time, it’s time that’s also a bit harder to measure in results, a bit different to Search engine traffic, enough for it to matter.

So, while I think twitter and other places have their uses, I am not convinced it’s the right option with pure make money sites, adsense, affilates, things of that kind, yet isn’t it just getting harder to rely soley on SE traffic?

The SE traffic and social traffic is getting harder to separate, one can’t be without the other it seems to me.

Will it get worse? Will it get to the point you really can’t ignore social traffic at all?

What do you think?

No matter what we do online, we can’t do it all ourselves, one of the most important aspects to all this lark is marketing, promotion, getting noticed.

On twitter the popular #FF or #followfriday hashtag has always been a great way to give some of your followers some extra exposure, hopefully helping them gain more followers, this was a trend that users started, not twitter.

The trend picked up fast, with everyone making #ff recommendations every Friday. (not surprisingly!)

Yet…

I think it’s becoming very redundant nowadays seeing we have list options, list you create for any reason you want, one of mine is simply called, “not ignorant”… and the main reason is the fact to make the most from twitter you need engagement, interaction.

Else you are shouting, they are shouting.

Instead of #FF tweets filling up my stream, I have started to point to the list of  ”not ignorant” people who if you follow them will engage with you, but you must also put in some effort.

Instead of seeing my stream filled up with tweets that are just a bunch of usernames and #FF, and there are more than a few from the same people, seeing as the limit on twitter only allows you to show a few people in any tweet, I’d waould rather see people create a #FF list, then just share that link, nice and tidy, only needs doing once too.

Even using a bit.ly link so you get stats on how iften your folowers will check the list out, if they don’t do it much, drop the whole #FF idea because they clearly don’t want to see it.

If on the other hand you find people do click them, you will annoy them less by posting less tweets with a bunch of usernames.

I know several of my followers have said they dislike #FF and that is one reason you don’t see me doing it anymore, I’d rather just point them to the “not ignorant” list.

Should we start a better movement like this?

How do you feel about it?