Threats of Buying Text Links

After researching the topic of buying / selling text links for PR I came to certain conclusions.



If you are selling links - the worst penalty that you can get is loosing the ability to pass link juice.



If you are buying links - the worst thing for you is not getting PR you were paying for.



That's it.



Google is not going to ban sites neither of seller, nor of buyer.



And remember two more things.



1. If site is shown in your backlinks, it doesn't mean that you get PR from it.

2. If Google was banning for buying links, if would be quite easy to ruin your competitor's business.

Eyetracking points the way to effective news article design

Eyetracking points the way to effective news article design

Really interesting article about writing a web copy. Eyetracking studies prove my gut feelings about where to move. :)

Seth's Blog: Good is not almost as good as great

Seth's Blog: Good is not almost as good as great:

"...it's obvious that a great salesperson is going to sell far, far more than a good one. Nine women working together can't have a baby in one month, and ten good salespeople still aren't going to close the account that a great one could. That's because it's not a linear scale. The great ones reach out. They work the phones when they're not first in line. They understand what a customer wants. They're not just better than good. They're playing a totally different game."

That's the answer to question why there are so many blogs out there, but only few of them are really popular. And again - it is absolutely safe for gurus to throw away gems of wisdom. They won't teach their competitors. Because being successful is more then just following step-by-step instructions. It's all about intuition, that gut feeling of what is going to work. You either have it, or not. And no coach can teach you that. That is why they feel themselves quite safe teaching. :)

John Jantsch: Is RSS Simply Marketing Plumbing?

John Jantsch of Duct Tape Markting says:

"... the comment was made that RSS, as we know it, will become plumbing for all of the things it can do. I agree, but there's lots to do in the area of RSS understanding and adoption by the typical small business owner before we get there."

It reminded me of research that I've made a couple of days ago. I wanted to find some info on why RSS is cool - you know, one of that easy to understand bullet-point articles. And you know what? I found a bunch of them telling why RSS is NOT cool, and only one going for RSS. I think I should devote one of my next postings to the topic of RSS.

Seth Godin: "Where do you park?"

Have you ever thought how minor things influence major things? Is there any connection between where you park and you attitude towards your customers?

The manager of the Chase bank in Pleasantville parks right out front. Her branch is on a quiet street with parking meters available for customers to use. Figure there's perhaps a dozen spaces convenient enough to make it worth going to the bank... if they're full, keep on driving, because there's always another bank coming up soon.

And yet, the manager parks right out front (in fact, I saw her move her car from two spaces away to an even closer spot today). She has four or five people working in the branch, so if they follow her lead, that's half the spaces.

Of course, it's a far bigger issue than parking spaces. It's about eating lunch with your employees, handing out free samples to customers instead of your friends or answering the phone yourself when customer service gets backed up.

I'm increasingly coming to the conclusion that there are really only two attitudes that people bring to work with them. Either they park right out front, or they park down the street in order to send a signal to their staff, their customers and themselves.

Seth Godin is brilliant as always!

4 Words Every Blogger Ought To Know

Have you ever heard a joke about a young couple who came to a sea resort? They spent the whole vacation in the hotel room. At their last day boy came out to the balcony and exclaimed "Look! They've got a sea here!"

I feel myself like that boy now. It feels like I spent my whole life online, but I started discovering some great resources only now. (Lucky I am that today's not my last vacation day on the Internet!) So I'll be posting some of my discoveries here.

Please meet my today's pick - a great resource for those who are interested in contemporary language - no, it's not Wikipedia, I'm not that lame! - Word Spy is my hero today:

This Web site is devoted to lexpionage, the sleuthing of new words and phrases. These aren't "stunt words" or "sniglets," but new terms that have appeared multiple times in newspapers, magazines, books, Web sites, and other recorded sources.

Words are split into categories and of course first of all I checked Computers - Blogging category. Along with common terms like blog, podcasting, or wiki, there are 4 words that you should know if you are a blogger.

1. celeblog n. A blog written by a celebrity; a blog devoted to a particular celebrity or to celebrity news and gossip. Also: celeb blog.
   
   
2. splog n. 1. A fake blog containing links to sites affiliated with the blogger with the intent of boosting the search engine rankings and ad impressions for those sites. 2. Spam links added to the comments section of a blog. [Blend of spam and blog.]
   
   
3. vlog (vlawg; VEE-lawg) n. A blog that contains mostly video content.
   
   
4. flog n. A blog that appears to be written by an individual, but is actually maintained by a corporate marketing department or a public relations firm. —v. [Blend of fake and blog.]