Where’s Michael?
Posted by Michael Walsh (Check me out!) on April 20th, 2007
Tagged as: Uncategorized
Not having time to blog, and by that I mean reading or writing, must be one of the hardest things any “serious†blogger has to deal with.
There’s always an excuse. Work. Family. Holidays (what are those?)… Mine’s the first.
This week (and from the looks of things the best part of next week is going to be the same too) has been mad. In at the office at 5.30/6am out at 8pm (just to show the kids I’m still alive) and then continuing into the night on my notebook.
Sure I’ve been following events. I even managed to write a few articles over on The Acer Guy but nothing remotely “strategicâ€.
Having said that, I am falling for the webcast spell. Caught it off Justin really, but Scoble does his thing sooo very well. I’d like to do some live Acer podcasts in future. Have to see how PodTech works.
My 5 minutes are up…
-
Loading ... - 0 Comments
- Print this
Alexa turns up the geek-value of its charts
Posted by Michael Walsh (Check me out!) on February 20th, 2007
Tagged as: Uncategorized
Am I the only one to be a little confused over Alexa’s recent changes in the way they present their site view results?
At face value there’s no real difference.
Old
New
What has changed is the y axis.
No longer does is say “Daily Page Views (per million)” but “Daily Page Views (percent)”.
This confused the hell out of me at first but I think I understand why they did it. Isn’t it easy to assume, looking at the first, that this graph shows an average of 12 million page views per day?
You certainly couldn’t make that mistake with the new parameter. The problem is, this number, while extremely accurate, makes any kind of presentation particularly taxing on client attention.
“Michael, Just what is this number a percent of and why…?”
Looking at them now you can’t go wrong (and I know I have in the past). It’s just that when showing a client relative values, it helps to have a competitor (or five) to compare them against.
Otherwise you might as well save yourself the trouble.
-
Loading ...
- 0 Comments
- Print this
Bring on the changes
Posted by Michael Walsh (Check me out!) on February 20th, 2007
Tagged as: Uncategorized
There are moments when you look up, notice the time and make some quick realizations.
I’m not talking about life-changing inspirational realizations but that sudden computation that triggers your brain into realizing that you haven’t eaten lunch and it’s nearly dinner time.
I guess that’s what happens when you’re out of the groove. Or at least it certainly appears to be that way for those of us trying to get out of theirs.
Free time becomes time spent planning, creating, writing, re-writing and, occasionally, eating.
I have listened to Rich Schefren tell me that I have to get out of my own way but unfortunately, when you’re at the beginning of whatever enterprise you’re trying to build, the plain and simple truth is that you are very much in charge of everything.
That doesn’t mean you should give up, but excuses are easy to find as you’ve got a million things to do and quite literally an excuse for each of them.
I just knuckled down and got on with it. I planned, I wrote and re-wrote and after six months (yes that long) had no fewer than 3 presentations ready to propose yesterday.
Like most “creatives†the fun lies in pondering over the details and the really, dirty, grubby part comes when you have to “sell†your phantasmagorical idea to someone with less than 1% of your super-human “visionâ€.
That moment for me came yesterday and was, effectively, the first day of the rest of my career. Dirty, exhausting and most definitely uphill but well worth the effort.
-
Loading ...
- 0 Comments
- Print this
The weight of my words has changed
Posted by Michael Walsh (Check me out!) on January 5th, 2007
Tagged as: Uncategorized
So it’s 2007 and this copywriter’s back with an identity crisis.
The title of this blog is quite apt at the moment as I appear to be transforming into a strategist. Words are no longer the end of a means but a means to an end.
I see them as part of a bigger strategy now, combining the dynamism and appeal of past media with a strategic function within the new.
Let me clarify this thought. In a recent post, Shel describes the opening chapter of his new book under the premise “…that human nature stays the same even as technology makes worlds biggerâ€.
I guess that’s progress. When you’re on the receiving end, your core opinions remain the same, yet those in charge of producing content that arrives to your door/inbox whatever have an underlying responsibility to their clients/employers to adapt to the needs and expectations of new media.
Recently over on Eric Klintz’s Marketing Excellence blog, he fired a warning shot over his online competitors’ bows to see what would happen. Under the title of The Corporate Blogging War Has Officially Started, Eric said that this was “the first time that all three of us – Dell, IBM and HP – have engaged in a competitive dialogue through blogs. Corporate blogging is clearly taking on a new dimension in 07. Companies are watching what their competitors are doing and commenting on blogsâ€.
Personally – and I need no disclaimer here – I think Eric pulled a fast one. I think he had a jab at Dell as Dell’s blog is on a roll and Klintz wanted a piece of it. Robert Scoble-Wan Kenobi thinks Dell are corporate superstars at the moment and when you’re at the top, you’re easy to knock.
There is unsurprisingly very little “conversation†going on in any of the leading IT companies’ blogs. Apart from replies, constructive criticism and so on, the content is never “startlingâ€.
But just how on earth could this be otherwise?
Blogs by definition deliver fresh web content.
That’s why the search engines love them and why blog flames shine like a strip of burning magnesium. They’re hot! hot! hot!
What’s hot about a corporation going about its 9-5?
OK Dell had their fair share of heat over the battery disaster but short of that, there’s precious little worth fighting over, let alone full scale blogging warfare.
What they’re doing right, is adapting the conversation, identifying it with their chosen Blogmaster (Lionel rules!) and making it relevant and personal.
By its very nature a corporation talking to independent bloggers is going to be a little unnatural, but Dell’s careful use of their own blog as a way of drip-feeding the world with their thoughts, progress and, why not, apologies, is truly remarkable.
I have read many a PR company harp on about how corporate blogs should be free and independent but I think this is a major misjudgment on their part. A corporate blog needs to be a place where conversations relay the underlying values of the company at its heart. They need to be dependable, constant and coherent year in year out.
Blogging superstars, influencers and sneezers will always exist and it’s these guys and girls who shoulder the responsibility of continuing the debate, not the corporations.
-
Loading ...
- 0 Comments
- Print this
It’s just a jigsaw
Posted by Michael Walsh (Check me out!) on December 11th, 2006
Tagged as: Uncategorized
What a week-end.
It’s all coming together now. Keyword density, proximity and prominence, Wordtracker, SEO Elite, rotating banners, merchant accounts… this stuff’s a nightmare!
But the book’s just too exciting to put down.
The thing about SEO is that it’s the most complex thing I’ve ever come across, spanning everything from graphics to site structure.
And like everything I’ve done before, SEO has its own, specific set of instruments.
Right now I’m sifting through the myriad of programs available online to add what I hope are the right ones to my arsenal.
Next up is to draw an operational to-do list that works for each and every project I do from day 1.
Once I’ve done that, I might just be able to get started with those 10 projects that brought me here in the first place.
Here’s to late nights then…
-
Loading ...
- 0 Comments
- Print this
Swicki’s up
Posted by Michael Walsh (Check me out!) on November 19th, 2006
Tagged as: Uncategorized
If you look down on the right you’ll see a new addition to the toolbar..
It’s called a Swiki and the aim, according to its creators, is to fine tune searches within a specific community. SEO copywriters in my case.
Essentially it’s a “new kind of search engine that allows anyone to create deep, focused searches on topics you care about. Unlike other search engines, you and your community have total control over the results and it uses the wisdom of crowds to improve search results”.
I’m still tweaking it (RTM) but it should be interesting to see how it develops.
-
Loading ...
- 0 Comments
- Print this
Recent Comments