The big takeaway from the product fiesta that is Interop Las Vegas 2008 is that 10 GB Ethernet has finally arrived.
Sister site TechRepublic has multiple folks on the scene at Mandalay Bay, here’s a look at some of the key items (roundup):
Implement 10 GB Ethernet over copper with planning
Takeaway: “Using copper cabling for 10 GB […]
by Debra Mastaler
At last week’s SMB Unleashed Conference in Houston someone asked what was the hardest part of my job as a link builder. Was it the:
Massive amount of time involved in competitive research? Or -
The massive amount of time involved in negotiating space? Or -
Developing new and creative content that continually attracts links?
Nope, no and no again.
IMO, the hardest part of my job is telling someone you won’t be able to secure the authority links they need because their site is a boring forgetable mess. That doesn’t mean I would muster up low quality links either, I just wouldn’t work for them period unless they were willing to make some changes.
No matter how I spin it, when I tell someone “Dude, your site is boring and lacks credibility as a result. No one will link to it unless you make some changes…” that doesn’t go over well with most people. It’s easier when you have something tangible to point to like poor design, poor usability, outdated content, broken links, over-use of Adsense and no About Us page. But you’re not always that lucky and it’s never that easy, sometimes it’s just a case of dull and boring.
It’s easier to define credibility than “dull” since “dull” is somewhat subjective. Boring content is unemotional, unattached and one dimensional, so it stands to reason you’re not going to find motivated people creating captivating pages that elicit credibility. Take dull and now add lack of trust and you have one dud site to try and secure links for.
To me, David Hasselhof is boring.
Vin Diesel is not.
Hamburgers are boring. Kobe beef is not.
Birkenstocks are boring (and ugly). Jimmy Choo’s are not.
Canned sales verbiage is boring and lacks credibility. Product reviews and testimonials are not.
You can say “boring” is a matter of taste much like beauty is in the eyes of the beholder but really… when it comes to selling yourself and establishing credibility online, would you attract more confidence and links by:
Hosting information on David Hasselhof eating burgers in Birkenstocks Or –
Vin Diesel noshing on Kobe beef with a date in Jimmy Choos?
I’m betting the latter - unless of course you’re Amish or somehow challenged. Vin Diesel is HOT, Kobe beef is all the rage and Jimmy Choo’s… well do I really need to say more?
OK so the example is a little extreme, but you get the point. Your link building and content generation campaigns shouldn’t be where you scrimp on costs or creative energy, they’re key to your overall online marketing success. You can’t afford to have a dull site or one lacking credibility if you want to attract links, build brand and drive targeted traffic. If you don’t have content to use as a hook or the site lacks certain credibility elements then you need to spend the money and have them created otherwise no one will link to you.
Old and stale beget no links and sales . Don’t skimp on paying for content.
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United Online has one helluva Internet portfolio: Classmates.com, MyPoints, NetZero, Juno and now FTD, a florist. If you’re looking for synergy you won’t find it here.
The company announced Wednesday that it will acquire FTD for $800 million (Techmeme). The moving parts involved in that sum are a bit complicated, but here’s United Online’s explanation of […]
Time Warner’s AOL unit delivered results in line with expectations Wednesday, but revenue in the first quarter was $1.3 billion, down 23 percent from $1.46 billion and operating profit fell 74 percent to $284 million from $1 billion a year ago.
AOL’s results (see Time Warner statement) are closely watched as it’s a player in the […]
Notable headlines:
Ed Bott: Fixing Windows Vista, Part 2: Taming UAC. Images: Taming Vista’s User Account Control (right)
Larry Dignan: Microhoo: Wall Street gets antsy
Mary Jo Foley: XP SP3 delayed by glitch
New test releases out of Microsoft virtualization, mid-size Windows wares
Microsoft’s competitor to Adobe LightRoom gets another champion
Techland: AT&T to cut the price of Apple’s new iPhone
Jason […]
Wall Street is a big prediction market and traders are increasingly getting antsy about Microsoft’s next move regarding Yahoo. Thus far, Microsoft has kept people guessing, but may reveal its plan on Wednesday.
As we all know, Microsoft’s negotiate or else deadline passed on Saturday and it has been radio silence ever since. The two primary […]
Is it just me, or is anyone else noticing Tool Bar PageRank changing today?
One of my sites (which had unexpectedly jumped to PR3 a couple of weeks ago) is back to a PR0. Not that I care — I’m planning on letting that one go soon.
This site, though, showed up as a PR3 […]
Yahoo said in an amendment to its annual report that CEO Jerry Yang was paid $1 for 2007. The company added the amendment since it won’t be able to file its proxy statement 120 days after its fiscal year.
Yang’s $1 salary is in keeping with other technology executives that own a big chunk of their […]
by Mack Collier
If you’ve read my posts here or were able to hear me speak at Small
Business Marketing Unleashed in Houston, you know what a believer I am
in businesses monitoring the blogosphere. It’s a must for businesses
to know what bloggers are saying about them, because then they can
respond. But how do you know the correct way to respond? It depends
on what you find.
So by now you have hopefully started monitoring the blogosphere and have subscribed to Google Blog Searches for your business and/or have Google Alerts set up (for more info on how to start monitoring the blogosphere, check out this post). Now you need to know how to use this information, based on what you are finding. Here’s four possibilities and how you can react:
1 - You find nothing. You’re monitoring the blogosphere, but no one is blogging about you. If you’re a small business, it’s entirely possible that you’ll be in this position. You have an awareness problem, and in this scenario, blogging will help you boost your awareness, provided that you have the staff and time to blog. If so, go for it! If you are already blogging and still no one is blogging about you, then you probably need to spend more time OFF your blog, and work on engaging readers in THEIR space, not yours.
2 - You find very little, a mix of good and negative feedback. This means that bloggers know about you, but aren’t saying much. This likely means that you aren’t communicating with bloggers very well. Make a point to respond to the bloggers that are mentioning you, focusing first on the bloggers that are evangelizing your business, as well as the ones that are complaining about you. The fact that some bloggers are writing about you tells you that there IS an interest in your business, but you can likely make bloggers more interested, and positive about your business, if you spend more time on responding to and communicating with them. Blogging will likely help here (if done correctly), but your main goal should be to strengthen your existing communication with bloggers.
3 - You find plenty of feedback from bloggers, most of it is positive. This is the sweet spot, and if you are in this position, odds are you are already doing what you should be doing, and should just keep on truckin’. No business can satisfy everyone, but if the majority of the people are evangelizing your business, then you are doing something right. Just remember to stay connected to and respond to the bloggers that are talking about your business. Yes even the ones that are slamming you 
4 - You find plenty of feedback from bloggers, most of it is negative. This is a problem but you can work to solve it easily enough. If you are in this situation, the odds are that you are doing nothing to respond to bloggers, and they aren’t too pleased with your lack of communication. Additionally, they are probably blogging to each other about how you won’t respond, which is leading to even more negative blog posts.
The good news is, if you’ll start responding to these bloggers, you’ll likely find that the tone of their posts will improve dramatically. At this point, much of their negativity is likely simply coming from the fact that you are ignoring them. When you start responding, you should see their posts become much more positive.
But the key point here is to get in the habit of monitoring the blogosphere. No matter what you find when you do (even if it’s nothing), presents an opportunity for you to use the blogosphere to grow your business!
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3Com said Tuesday that it has appointed Robert Mao to replace Edgar Masri as CEO. The networking firm also brought on Ronald Sege as president and chief operating officer.
The shakeup isn’t entirely unexpected given the 3Com’s inability to sell itself to a group of investors led by Bain and Huawei, a Chinese networking company. The […]
