For those who may still be uninitiated, Search Engine Optimization ultimately means getting and staying at or near the top of search results, and/or at least staying on page 1 for search engines when [...]]]> When I tell people about what Diverse Elements does, many anticipate that I'll say "SEO"  quicker than a politican's flip flop.

For those who may still be uninitiated, Search Engine Optimization
ultimately means getting and staying at or near the top of search results,
and/or at least staying on page 1 for search engines when anyone looks for
something in particular using natural language terms (organic search).

In addition to those coveted positions, I'll wager SEO expert seekers
at least imagine some high-tech wizardry must be involved.

By now, even those who aren't "technology-immersed" have likely heard of
Google's "Panda update", designed to counter methods of gaming the system
such as using sites solely as a means of increasing rankings of other sites,
keyword stuffing, and poor quality content/links. All evaluated by the accumulated knowledge of the search algorithm in this update, which can carry legitimate sites in its wake.

More recently (2012) the rankings of many sites were further impacted by
Google's "Penguin update" which focused on the quality of backlinks (links on
other sites referring back to the target site), and the age of a site as well as
its "evergreen content." There is even a reported "over-optimization penalty"
being levied.

As Jim Cockrum , a noted internet marketer recently observed:

"You can hire the best of the best SEO experts on the planet, pay them to do their chants and work their magic, and wake up one day on page 39 of [Google] just like the guy that deserves to be there…because his content sucks and you tried  to "fool" [Google]…both offenses get you slapped."

On the flip side, these changes have given rise to a phenomena known as
"negative SEO" where rankings for sites may be intentionally reduced by their
competitors employing the deceptive strategies.

Fundamental legitimate practices can be applied to raise the odds of remaining
among the early SERP results: reasonable use of keywords (in order to clearly
express ideas, not to exploit favor by search engines); creative domain names and
titles; links from/to authority sites that have not been added abnormally fast,
to name a few. Visiting other blogs, forums and answer boards, contributing
and demonstrating knowledge and the like is a part of the recipe as well.

The boom in social media can also have such an effect but not the way you might
have thought. In fact there's ample evidence that social networking is
influencing search engine results greater than traditional SEO.

Quote from Neil Patel/Quicksprout.com on the influence of Twitter on Bing:

"[...] while the ability to search for tweets via Bing may not send much traffic to your social networking profile, there’s evidence that tweets or retweets of links by legitimate users on Twitter can lead to a bump in traditional SEO rankings as well.

Jennifer Lopez (author of article in Daily SEOMoz) did a case study showing that after a tweet introducing her Beginners’ Guide to SEO was retweeted by Smashing Magazine, she noticed an immediate impact in terms of both traffic and rankings for a previously un-tracked keyword."

However, social networking can involve an investment of time that business owners may not have. More about that in another post.

One thing is certain: authors of tricky (or worse) methods have just as many and more dedicated and bright individuals constantly inventing countermeasures. Another is that web search is evolving and no single strategy is a panacea.

So, does Diverse Elements "do SEO?" Most definitely. Organic search will continue
in some form and should be taken into account. But the primary objective should
not be to remain indefinitely on page 1; it should be to build a loyal following
that will refer others, just as in the brick and mortar world. The search engines
will reward accordingly.

Yes, being discovered is great. Being able to relate is greater.

He was [...]]]> I've heard and read some fairly awesome stories lately about "Triumph over seemingly "Insurmountable Odds" [tm], by people who had no fame or influence. One became the author of the best-seller "Dances With Wolves" which also propelled the careers of several others. The author's story was as compelling as the movie.

He was homeless for a year and unemployed, then got a job washing dishes while shopping the book around. The book was repeatedly rejected, and when a publisher was finally found, the book was marketed as a romance novel; a vision the author did not share. The back story of trying to make the movie could be a movie itself.

The other story was of a shoemaker who had a shop in the ground floor at 1 World Trade Center on 9/11. He came back from the loss of his business and being 400K in debt, in part by temporarily taking on a dishwashing job. Got to love that dishwashing.

In October I saw a documentary called "Sing Your Song" which coincided with the publication of Harry Belafonte's autobiography "My Song". Of the many powerful statements in that documentary, his closing comment of envisioning a life of luxury and ease after his many hardworking years that changed because "there is too much that has to be done" struck particularly close. Not because I had a similar vision, but because of the same conclusion.

There is much to cope with in life, not the least or easiest is the realization that the simplistic reasoning of hard work alone may not accomplish our goals. Or that the path to success is not necessarily a linear one.

I am now also a tutor for the Bell Foundation. In a sense it aligns with my plans. I will give my message of entrepreneurship to the youth.

Perhaps they will listen.

Many chose famous or little known quotations. Others kept it simple [...]]]> I have liked email as a communication medium ever since I worked at a particular
company that allowed the inclusion of a "personal name" in the header. You could
set it to say anything (staying reasonably attentive to etiquette and
company values).

Many chose famous or little known quotations. Others kept it simple with a name and perhaps a department and/or title.

I liked the ones with a sense of humor. Had one from the movie "Rainman" for quite
a while: "HE IS ANSWERING A QUESTION FROM A HALF HOUR AGO!"

(I can't explain this here, you'll have to see the movie to understand it. At the time, many had.)

There is a lot of room for creativity of expression with email, although unfortunately there's a segment that wants to be _negatively_ creative with it as well, paving the way for all sorts of protective measures. It has been an ongoing battle.

An article I read about a few years back in Tech Republic ended with the observation:

Email Reputation and Certification will be very important soon. Large email senders will want to seek Goodmail, or SenderScore, or Habeas certification. [...]can't predict how prevalent they'll be or how soon[...] but if you plan to do a lot of email marketing, start studying up on those services now.

From my personal perspective, where that stands as of 2011 is hard to say: the SPAM filters for many major providers, search engines and anti-virus programs seem to be handling mail delivery in many cases more aggressively than ever (still depends on what you have).

Some are using "contact management" software, but regardless of what is used, what matters is if the message is seen and read. Good old statistics are showing that text messaging is outpacing email in this regard.

As I write this, a search on "email open rates 2011" yields a variety of sources reporting a drop in percentages anywhere from the high teens to the high twenties, compared to text messages with an open rate ranging from the seventies to the high nineties. Not only that, but response rates are similarly reported higher. And the mobile market is the fastest growing segment of online users, projected to surpass desktop usage in the next few years.

While I believe email will not be fading into memory (literally) for some time yet, it will be interesting to see how creative text messaging is and becomes. Reaching people through mobile will certainly be a critical part of reaching them any other way, i.e. if you like the 100+ character message, you might allow an email sent from time to time. Certain principles will remain: a relevant and intriguing subject header, clear points, and respectful periods between contacts are all part of both of these methods of communication.

Diverse Elements now has a mobile version of the main website and a mobile version of the blog as it expands services in the mobile space. Crafting text messages is going to be an additional specialty that I'm looking

Some of the reviews have included links to participate and/or purchase because the concept was appealing and contributes to one of the other major themes of this blog: discovering ways of establishing independence.

Inspirational and motivational speeches [...]]]> When I started this blog I said that product reviews would be part of it.

Some of the reviews have included links to participate and/or purchase because the concept was appealing and contributes to one of the other major themes of this blog: discovering ways of establishing independence.

Inspirational and motivational speeches have their place, but so do concrete
actionable strategies.

If your receptors are continually monitoring, and I'm sure they are, you'll
notice that describing these products/services brings awareness of trends in
marketing on the Internet; relationship marketing. If you are looking for ways
to engage customers or advising businesses on how they may increase sales, you might want to utilize these strategies, or take as inspiration to invent one.

The option of most offers is to promote as an affiliate yourself, if you so choose.
Others are for tools and resources that help further business goals.

Those are the kinds of offers that fit the objectives of this blog. Helping
people and making money don't have to be polar opposites.

It would be great to get substantive comments on these entries and product
offers. I recently got feedback external to this blog on one of the posts about
a social networking discount coupon model with a tiered commission component.

The moderator of another forum told me that a link to this blog would not be permitted in a post because it's members had expressed disapproval of "multi-level marketing advertising."

What I felt had been overlooked was:
a.) the link was to the general DE blog/welcome entry
b.) this particular offer does not follow the "traditional MLM model" of paying
anything for membership, and "incentives" for "recruitment"
c.) there is no marketing of any other add-ons like training materials, seminars, etc.

It was just lumped into the "same old" MLM category. I don't know how much these most visible posts (at the time) were responsible for this judgment, or whether the conclusion was reached despite the other topics. One written 4/29/11 focused on the advantage for businesses using Social Dish, but I don't see how a write-off as "just another MLM" can be made from that alone, and the entry directly before that clearly explained "b and c" above.

I would love to hear from readers what you think about this situation and what the approach of DE is in general – do you think marketing is the only intent in some of these reviews?

The third part of this radical program is for the businesses honoring the coupons, in which Social Dish and each participating business collaborate in designing. The advertising and exposure they [...]]]>  In the post "Join The Movement:" I described a new approach to the discount coupon marketing method developed by Social Dish in three parts.

The third part of this radical program is for the businesses honoring the coupons, in which Social Dish and each participating business collaborate in designing. The advertising and exposure they get is also free.

In return the participating business gets 70% of their total revenue and Social Dish gets 30%.

An individual can invite businesses and receive 3% of the total deal from the Social Dish share.

(All details described apply as of April 2011).

To bring all of this to sea level, imagine business A has a product worth $200. They set up a campaign to offer that product for $100, and someone buys the coupon. Business A receives $70 and Social Dish receives $30. Because you referred business A to Social Dish, you receive .03 of $30 (.90). This becomes very impressive when the discounted price is higher, not to mention the number of customers who purchase the coupon and number of businesses you can refer.

Initially, as an online marketing consultant I was unsure how this could be integrated, but after thinking it over for a while, I started to see that it could be part of a total solution. There are dimensions to successful marketing on the Internet such as building a relationship, having a direct response website, having a customer-centric and dependable ordering system, being responsive…

Getting noticed and incentives are just a few of the methods to adopt. So, there's room for more!

If you have a business that you would like to promote please consider using this link: http://www.socialdish.com/businessform/feature/submit/sponsor/zL51PV

[...]]]> Here's a hybrid for you. Let's say you can get a coupon whenever you want that you can use for 50% or more savings at a store, restaurant, or whatever. Let's say you tell a friend where to get the coupons and give them a link to the site, and they use them.

And by doing that you get a percentage paid to you based on the value of their purchase. And they invite friends who purchase coupons, and you get paid a percentage of that.

And this is completely free.

That's two thirds of what Social Dish (http://www.socialdish.com/s/zL51PV/), a site combining social networking with MLM and the "give away" principle, offers.

This is a truly nice example of a residual income stream because it has broad appeal, an ability to build it passively, and because of the World Wide Web, there's no concern about membership levels in your network. You can go up to 10 levels of personal referrals (i.e. general population), with percentages varying for each level. (Note: these are the terms as of April 2011.)

They also include periodic bonuses. You are not obligated to maintain any quotas or minimum purchases, no training or seminars to attend. Just log on every so often so that your account isn't assumed to be dormant. (I imagine an increasing number of referrals will serve this purpose as well!)

I encourage you to check out the site.

It's not going to make you rich, but it's a stream in the tributaries to your ocean. And the individual discounts are nothing to sneeze at, either.

Now, the third part of this radical program is for the businesses honoring the coupons, in which Social Dish and the pertinent business collaborate in designing. The advertising and exposure they get is also free: they only pay a small fee to Social Dish from their total revenue.

More on this in the post "Business Is Part Of The Movement."

The other thing  I like about Social Dish is their tagline:

"Join the Movement!"

Outsourcing conjures many opinions and often emotions in people around the world. From various documentaries I've seen and material read, attitudes range from resignation on [...]]]> These days I believe outsourcing is immediately understood as
exporting work to foreign lands with abundant labor pools working for
pennies on the dollar, not the dictionary definition.

Outsourcing conjures many opinions and often emotions in people around the
world. From various documentaries I've seen and material read, attitudes
range from resignation on the part of workers on the "low cost" end, to
heated resentment by those displaced.

I've gone through a number of attitudes about outsourcing myself.

For example, from a purely "clinical" perspective, in one sense it's
basically another form of competition, with plenty of room for debate
about how healthy that competition is.

As a small business owner that supports other businesses, I carefully
consider what and how to outsource, and plan on using local contractors whenever possible. This is cooperative economics (Ujamaa, as observed in Kwanzaa).

Any type of outsourcing should also consider conditions for workers, crucial
to any Diverse Elements affiliation. For example, it would be a major disappointment if someone marketing advice for Personal Branding on the Internet exploited anyone (and dissociation would follow, pronto). Until evidence proves otherwise it should be assumed things are working decently.

So we know, as long as the infrastructure for a globalized economy is in place, that outsourcing is here to stay. How can this be managed?

If it is from a perspective of competition, showing the difference in the value of services and products offered is definitely one way. As mentioned in numerous articles, outsourcing is not without risks, and may cost more than savings expected. Cost can be measured in more than just money.

If it is filling a resource gap temporarily, then letting clients and team know that their requests and concerns will be handled with personal oversight would be an imperative.

Where I go from here depends on a lot of things encompassing a spectacular
list of milestones. One of those is my productivity. If cost drives every decision to meet an optimal level, I'll be the biggest loser.