The Day The Media Died | Mad Avenue Blues by L. McDuff
By Shalom Issenberg | June 7, 2009
Great video by L.McDuff.
Thanks to “The Pope” for sending it my way.
Topics: Funny | No Comments »
A Favor Post: Link Building Through Favors
By Shalom Issenberg | June 5, 2009
A good friend, and a nice guy Mark, asked me to write this post and give him a bit of link juice to a recent post on AllBizOpps.com (I’ve also published there before).
So check out this post - its about the MSLFund and supporting worthy organizations!
Anyone want to discuss the ethics behind link building as a favor!
Topics: Link Building | No Comments »
Google Analytics. Should you use it?
By Shalom Issenberg | April 21, 2009
Let me start off by saying that I personally use Google Analytics and don’t have any major complaints. I have been using it for years - since it first came out and I have grown used to it. I have also gone through the hassle of creating custom analytics applications connected to CRMs, playing with open source analytics like Piwik, and have researched other advanced analytics solutions for commercial sites like Omniture. I’m not the type of guy that like most of my analysis or optimization automated so I found some of the advanced features offered by commercial web analytics packages to be useless. Overall I think Google Analytics is a great product. There have been three issue in the past that really bothered me:
1) You can’t change the time zone / location setting.
2) In depth click data older than 100 days is erased.
3) Tracking non Adwords campaigns in Analytics using tagged urls have resulted in having those tags indexed by search engines leading to incorrect statistics.
Here is a quick list or the pros and cons:
Pros |
Cons |
| Free. | Does not offer API |
| Easy to use and setup | Does not store click details long term |
| Scalable - for large traffic sites | Poor keyword/visitor details tracking for multiple sites in one analytics account. |
| Google safeguards the privacy of your data | Google safeguards the privacy of your data |
| Integrates with Adwords easily | No cost data for non Adwords Campaigns |
| Google offers online help | Try calling Google regarding a problem with Analytics! |
For more information check out the following sites:
Topics: Analytics | No Comments »
Outsourcing Effectively: Everything you need to know!
By Shalom Issenberg | March 26, 2009
Outsourcing is a skill. Over the years I have outsourced more projects than I can remember. Even to this day, certain tasks or pieces of projects I handle are sometimes outsourced in order to save time. However, I have found that outsourcing is not always cost effective. This may be more of a reality for me because I am located in Israel. The cost of labor is cheaper here, even though we employ native English speakers like me who made “Aliyah” (immigration from North America to Israel). For companies in North America outsourcing to places like India or Eastern Europe may appear like a dream come true. Less than one quarter the cost, highly skilled, and able to communicate… what’s the downside? Managing an outsource company can be difficult, cost over time, and cost relative to quality become the challenges. Outsourcing when done correctly can be valuable, but it’s not usually simple.
Some common problems:
- Project not completed on time: Understanding the process as much as the company you outsource to will help you to plan timing accurately. If your project requirements are not fully understood, time estimations will not be accurate. Time is money! A late delivery can cost more than the money you saved on development costs.
- Project not completed: If a project is priced too low or time to complete is estimated inaccurately, outsource providers will give up on the project before completing it, as it becomes less profitable for them to continue. Lack of communication in responding to questions throughout the process can also drag the project out and cause the developers to loose interest. Some “less professional” outsource companies may also take on too many projects at once and not devote enough time to your project causing it to fall between the cracks. If you get stuck with a project that’s half done, you are most likely going to have to start from the beginning. All the time and money you spent in vested in an incomplete project becomes a meaningless expense.
- Poor results / expectation not met: The same function can be scripted in many different ways. When you outsource you should know what the best way to do it is, and then make sure it’s done that way. This does not mean that you need to know how to do it yourself; it simply means that you should have a general understanding of what to look for in a “good” product. You pay for what you get – sometimes you pay more!
Ways to succeed at outsourcing:
- Hire the right professionals. I recommend getting references from other professionals you trust and know. Elance and other outsourcing sites have rating systems, but these systems can be easily manipulated; be very careful.
- Define requirements and provide great detail. There is no such thing as too much information. Communicate clearly, through email, IM and telephone (not just one). Make sure all details are understood. Draw pictures along with written instructions to help developers visualize your sometimes “subjective vision”.
- Understand your project and the process to develop it before outsourcing. This will help in estimating time and cost.
- Be a fair employer. Don’t underpay your outsource company, and don’t put unrealistic time expectations on them. Your outsource company has to be profitable in order to be successful. Limiting them in terms of money or timing will only fall on you in the end.
- Divide your project into parts and develop in stages. Payments should follow these stages (milestones).
- Agree to business terms where the bulk of payment for your project is to be transfer upon completion. Money is the motivator!
- Be active! Be there to answer questions and provide feedback along the way. Be in constant communication. Don’t be surprised that your developer stopped paying attention to your project if you don’t respond to his emails for three days.
- Build a healthy “vendor – client” relationship that works well for both you and the outsource professionals you work with. Be respectful and appreciative, but check everything, and ensure quality.
… and good luck!
Topics: outsourcing | No Comments »
Did Google AJAX break SEO for FireFox? The answer is NO!
By Shalom Issenberg | February 4, 2009
Did your SEO for FireFox stop working?
I’m a big fan of SEO for FireFox and seobook tool that allows you to get relevant SEO information from a site on SERPs. Since Google changes over to AJAX the tool has stopped working in Google.com - non USA Googles seem to still be working from my IP location. I’m sure that it will be upgraded soon to work with the new interface but until then there is a solution!
By searching Google using “direct” manually created url strings you can walk around the AJAX and the SEO for FireFox tool will continue to work. You can see it still works if you search using my Google Geo Search Tool – which is a simple tool that creates manual search string urls.
Search Google from here and your SEO for Fire Fox Tool will work!
Topics: Uncategorized | No Comments »
Little competition does not mean little opportunity: Case study on the textile vertical online
By Shalom Issenberg | December 30, 2008
Its very rare that I write posts for other sites. But after having a conversation with a close friend he asked me to write a small post on his site about the topic.
The conversation was in regards to under competed spaces online, specifically in search - but can be applied to all areas of online marketing. Here is the question:
Does a lack of competition equal a lack of potential?
My opinion which is based on a lot of experience says: No, competition can not gauge potential. There are many instances online where highly profitable verticals are under competed. Usually this means that it hasn’t been utilized yet, not that it never will be. There are other factors that need to be considered as well. I don’t want to repeat what I already published, so if you are interested in reading more check out my analysis of the potential for custom textile assembly marketing online at AllBizOpps!
Topics: Marketing | No Comments »
Yale and Other .edu Sites Are Targeted By Hijackers
By Shalom Issenberg | December 15, 2008
University and .edu sites are the biggest victims of spam and hijacking attempts. Webmasters who manage PHP directories, forums, and scripts understand the threats better than anyone.
Recently I had one of my own site hijacked by a viagra spammer that literally forced me to take a fully populated directory offline. In all fairness, the site was poorly scripted, and virtually ignored, otherwise it probably could have been fixed easily, although still very frustrating. The spammer populated the directory categories with fake listings that redirected the entire category pages to other spam sites (all through automated scripting - creating thousands of redirects).
If you browse .edu sites looking for link opportunities, you will have come across a lot of closed forums and guestbooks that have fallen victim to spam. Most of the time .edu webmasters will close the forum or internal security will prevent scripts from being exploited further by simply removing the ability to post to forms.
I recently noticed that a huge number of hijacked .edu sites including Yale University, are showing up in Yahoo SERPs. The hijacking involves a spamming script which exploits forums, creating redirects to MFA (made for Adsense) pages. If you look closely you can see that the pages are all the same but utilize different Adsense publisher accounts.
It’s easy to find .edu sites that have been exploited by searching for footprints of Adsense codes.
Click here to see what I’m talking about.
It’s weird that most universities aren’t “slick” enough to prevent this type of exploit. I do realize that the management of .edu site folders and subdomains are typically not centralized, but monitoring and preventing this type of malicious activity is not that difficult and should be done by someone (maybe a first year computer sciences major).
Topics: Internet Security | No Comments »
6 Different Types of Marketers
By Shalom Issenberg | December 4, 2008
A couple of days ago SEOmoz put out a post on the 10 different types of clients. It’s pretty funny so I thought I would share it.
It has also inspired me to take the opposite approach and write about the different types of marketers. Granted most of them are negative (just like the SEOmoz article - I don’t want to give the impression that all internet marketers are like this but they do exist).
1) The Leprechaun
This “expert” will grant you any wish you want. Can promise you #1 positions and endless wealth without any doubt - simply hire him and make a wish.
2) The Wonderful Wizard
Much like the “wizard of oz” this SEO magician is sitting behind a curtain pretending to be something more than he/she actually is. A great reputation defining the wizard’s abilities exists but few have seen the magic themselves. At the end of the day the wizard might get the job done, but there is no magic involved!
3) The Locust
The locust actively seeks out clients through unsolicited contact. It only cares about consuming marketing budgets over a short periods. Once the locust is done the client has nothing to harvest. These guys hurt the whole industry.
4) The Back Seat Driver
This is the consultant who gets hired to help clients, but takes a passive role making only recommendations without delivering results through a hands on approach. As the client makes little progress the “back seat driver” provides more information from the endless readings he has scanned on various forums and blogs.
5) The “I use Twitter so now I’m a social media expert”
… self explanitory
6) The professional
The professional is honest with his/her clients. Works hard to achieve goals and does what is in the best interests of their clients and their own companies’ long term objectives.
Image credits
Leprechaun
Wizard of Oz
Locust
Backseat Driver
Twitter
Hero
Topics: Uncategorized | No Comments »
If Video Killed The Radio Star, What Did Deezer do?
By Shalom Issenberg | November 17, 2008
Everytime I hear a song I like on the radio or in public, but I don’t know who sings it, I simply memorize a 5-6 word phrase, google the fragmented lyrics, find some clues to who the artist is, turn to deezer and sample the songs until I find what I’m looking for.
No more trying to sing broken tunes to your friends like a bad game show trying to figure out who sings that damm song!
What I like most about deezer is that there is no need to download any P2P sharing software that is either going to slow your OS down or streamline viruses and worms directly into your registry. I also like how easy it is to create playlists and search for music. The site always streams music witout any delay (for me anyways on a high speed conection - 2MB). I haven’t played with the social aspect of deezer, but in actuality the site is music based community.
I just want to say it outload… Thank You Deezer… Good Bye dirty P2P downloading software and all the stupid spyware that comes with it!
*** One of my favorite songs ***
Topics: Uncategorized | No Comments »
The Onion YouTube Contest
By Shalom Issenberg | November 16, 2008
I had to put this up - it’s hillarious!
YouTube challenges users to create a video that is actually worth watching!
Topics: Uncategorized | No Comments »
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