Lingolook

It’s a fascinating moment for me.

On the one hand I’ve got a great job. Copywriting - and in particular freelance copywriting - has given me both the insight and education that lets me put my thoughts and feelings into words as well as the time, freedom and inclination to explore the outer reaches of web life.

At ‘work’ I have been busy drafting the story behind a few upcoming product launches with various success. I have been studying various ways of approaching the thorny subject of internal communication and recruitment. On top of all this, I have also been looking into creating the master content of a series of web strategies so that the text is both easy to translate and effective across 7 key European markets.

Not a dull moment then.

But just like anyone with time management problems, I have also been distracted by what has in the past been called “blind ambition” but now goes by the name of a “challenge”.

You see ever since I stumbled across the letters, S, E and O, I have been drawn to their power - the fact that words, chosen carefully, could actually change the geography and relevancy of search engine results.

Then there was what you could actually do once you had uncovered this secret. White Hat is my natural colour of choice, of course, but nevertheless these three letters have unquestionably permitted some fortunate few to exploit a system to the detriment of the many.

These letters also have a more sinister side: they alienate you from the “real” world around you. I recently brought to my multi-billion dollar client’s attention that there was precious little activity on their site from any of the search engines. I even went as far as to recommend reformulating their web strategies not only to generate new traffic streams from natural search engine results but also to build enough reputation throughout the entire site to change the formula used by my client when linking to its resellers.

I got a big bunch of nods, a number of smiles and quite a few “wow we had no idea”s but never heard from them again about it. Meanwhile my client continues to pour truckloads of money into individual projects which, because they are disjointed from the overall core principles and are void of any shared values, detract from the performance of the site as a whole.

Ugh!

Either SEO (and SEM for that matter) is still in its infancy outside the US or I’m starting to be earn a reputation as a lunatic.

Best thing is to start my own business and boy do I have a few ideas knocking around. Thing is even then when I talk to friends and neighbours about them, even some who have offered to invest, the “big picture”always remains a few feet out of reach, as if what I see happening across the world in blogs, media companies and other online industries is merely a figment of my imagination, or just part of a game I’m playing all by myself.

‘Slow world’ meets the ‘fast world’, as an Italian web specialist once said, is when those living in a world fed by mainstream media have to deal with the lightning fast reactions of those of us who have chosen a more democratic, if slightly more volatile, path online. It’s never a pretty site and we (fasties) always come out worse off.

The question of whether to continue or go back is a rhetorical one. However the answer opens up a whole new debate: Then what?

I have ordered the near future into challenges I have to face:

1. I want and need to master the art of RSS as I believe RSS technology is what’s needed to create the world’s most advanced e-learning platform.
2. I believe that niche communities and experience aggregators are the key to entrepreneurial success in a Web 2.0 world. Jeremy’s “No Money in Web Advertising” articles have been instrumental in this decision.
3. I believe strongly in a healthy relationship between paid content and free services. E-learning, for example, is an ideal platform to experiment with both.

Each of the above is a open project I’d like to see up and running by the end of the year and if there are any talented writers, teachers or programmers reading this, I could probably bring that forward quite some way.

Want to know why I got buzzed today. Because I read this, then watched it here.

Oh and Jeremy, if you’re reading, I’ll be in touch soon - or you will…

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You ever get the idea that time flies straight past you?

That more or less has been the outcome of these last few weeks. Christmas is right there and I almost didn’t see it coming.

Before I go any further, I’d like to publicly thank the tech guys at Dell. My Workstation was well and truly KO. No safe-mode Windows trickery or system restore could pull it out of its frozen-screen hole.

After poking around for a few days, desperately trying to back up what I could (everything as it turns out), I made the call.

Actuall I made three. Each one took me to the next stagewith a level of professionalism and calmness that really struck me. Not because it was Dell, because it was so beyond what I’m used to from anyone it really stuck out.

So what do you think my opinion of Dell the company, it products and support services is after that? Hats off to them I say.

Right, with that off my chest it’s all-systems-go for some first hand SEO stuff this Christmas. First off TheAcerGuy is getting its own site. As much from the need for more space than a blog as to expeiment some SEO theories.

Then, my client’s own site. I had to force SEO on her as she knows someone high up in Google who assured her that the only way to stay at the top was to pay, heavily.

Sorry but that really irked me. I understand the need for Google to support its profitable business model but did they really have to go so far as to just plain lie??

So the challenge is on. First to prove to myself that it isn’t true (I already know that), and secondly to prove to my “boss” that her leg had been pulled so hard it should have hurt.

The other thing I have to do is set up an outline for an important corporate blog. It’s happening at last. First things forst, Wordpress or Moveable Type?

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My absence from this blog is painfully embarassing.

My excuse is honourable though - I’m learning.

I’m learning everything about split testing, adsense, content, deep linking and I haven’t even got to html yet..

I’ve listened to Brad Fallon, Andy Jenkins, Nancy Andrews, Dave Taylor, Tim Carter and the late, great Ken Giddens and my brain is beginning to boil.

My (white) hat goes off to these guys. They’re all electrifyingly brilliant.

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