Wikimedia’s strategy memo is interesting for what it has and for what it’s missing. Key Concerns: Editing community has flattened out. Have been very successful in the “Global North” but it will be much harder to grow in the “Global South.” Technological and financial infrastructure have not kept pace with growth in readership. They will: […]
In 1993, the New Yorker famously published a cartoon captioned “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.” The internet was where you lived your anonymous second life. How times have changed. The excellent Doc Searls mocked the way sites treat your privacy by imagining it in the real world: “The [privacy] policy tells you […]
Counting down the top SEO smackdown of 2009 … #1: Danny Sullivan v Derek Powazek: SEO = Spammers, Evildoers and Opportunists? The provocation: “Search Engine Optimization is not a legitimate form of marketing. It should not be undertaken by people with brains or souls. If someone charges you for SEO, you have been conned. … […]
… top SEO Smackdowns of 2009 … the countdown continues … #2. Barone v Scoble: The year SEO isn’t important anymore? The provocation: “SEO is getting dramatically less important and that SEM should be renamed to “OM” for “Online Marketing” since small businesses need to take a much more holistic approach to marketing than just […]
Recent reports of quality content’s death have been greatly exaggerated. The importance of quality content is going to increase, not decrease. If Answers.com (where I work) and Demand Media succeed, it will be because we succeeded in following Wikipedia’s model and creating high quality content that matches what users are looking for. What content does […]
Fantastic post today by Joel Spolsky Does Slow Growth Equal Slow Death? I could feel Joel’s pain. Essentially he was jettisoning the basic premises that had guided him for a decade. Joel came to the painful conclusion that there was only room for one big company in his market, and that if he continued only […]
When new tools create new opportunities it’s important to think about: The eternal truths of the underlying concept How those truths are best applied using the current technologies [youtube]7vThuwa5RZU[/youtube] For example, take Social Media. It’s networking, or relationship building. The most fundamental rules of Networking are: Give before you take. When somebody does something for […]
I greatly respect Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation. I love their mission to provide everybody with free access to quality information. And when I see them running another fund-raising campaign I have to ask: why is the Web’s 10th biggest site (in US unique visitors) begging for money? With moderate advertising, Wikipedia could probably generate […]
I enjoy reading Seth Godin and Lisa Barone so I found their recent smackdown compelling. For anybody who missed it: Godin launched Brands in Public where he puts up a page for each brand highlighting what’s being said about them on the web. To gain control of your company’s page you can pay Godin $400 […]
YOUMoz just published a post I wrote a month ago The Zeroth Law of Writing for SEO. YOUMoz is the Guest Post section of SEOMoz, a leading SEO site started by Rand Fishkin (disclosure: who has done some consulting for us). Got to hand it to them, they’ve really nailed this UGC angle. They have […]