It looks as though Scoreboard Media is pumping out better content than Tropical SEO. This post is no exception.

I’m constantly amazed at how many of these “SEO Firms” with the big followings generate little to no income from their own projects. If there is a stronger signal of quality for a lack of confidence in their own ability, I can’t think of it.

If anyone with more than 3 years of experience is allocating more than 50% of their time to consulting, I’m going on record as doubting their skills.

Why is it so important for a consultant to market their own sites?

• During periods of uncertainty having limited obligations creates easy income opportunities - one reacts to the market quicker.

• So we can do risky stuff without risking client sites. Not testing limits is intellectually dishonest and defeats the purpose of calling oneself an optimizer.
• Better pay. Building growing passive income streams is far better than getting paid by the hour.
• Growing passive revenue streams help the consultant get a baseline for their value and ensure they value their time.
• A reasonable consulting rate filters out the worst potential clients while attracting high value clients.
• Passive revenue streams allow us to be selective with clients, working with the rare client worth taking on, and extracting enough profit from them to deliver them significant value.
• We learn how to spread ideas better if we are pushing things we are passionate about. It is hard to be passionate about a client site and see their full potential unless I pushed myself first. We learn when...
  • good ideas spread;

  • when good ideas do not spread;
  • when we see garbage spread; and,
  • when we see things backfire.
  • Seeing junk spread and figuring out why some good ideas do not teaches you much more than when the market acts as you would expect.

I just ordered a cup of tea from Starbucks, which is running a series called "The Way I See It", which is a bunch of idealistic quotes from various sources.
The Way I See It #193 was from a musician named Dan Zanes. The quote was

Let's imagine a 21st century America where families, friends and neighbors gather together at the end of each day in parks and town squares and on street corners and porches, to tell stories and jokes, to sing and dance with wild abandon! I can see and hear it now...

Then the cup has
- Dan Zanes
written under that.

At the bottom of the cup it has printed in small text

This is the author's opinion, not necessarily that of Starbucks. To read more or respond, go to www.starbucks.com/wayiseeit.

If they don't believe in a message, why waste my time showing it to me? Using words without meaning or disclaiming the value of your marketing undervalues consumer trust.

Similarly, when you lack an about page and don't have a human feel to your website it is far easier to appear as a slimy corporation that cares about nothing more than short term profit. Not mentioning much about us makes a site nameless and faceless. Some companies can pull it off because their marketing is so strong on other fronts, but if you are small then acting small may be one of your biggest advantages.

I just used Parallels to install Windows Vista on my MacBook Pro, and I noticed that by default the Windows software had gadgets on the desktop. Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo! are all pushing gadgets.

In order to to make it easy to navigate the sea of gadgets, and with the hope of becoming the default provider, many of these companies are showing popularity or distribution statistics of gadgets and videos, while also making it easy to syndicate them and easy to consume them (via personalized home pages, desktop widgets, site inclusion, and sidebar widgets).

This means 2 things for publishers: a cheap way to get huge distribution and brand loyalty, and easy access to human filtered interesting content.

Today Freebase launched, which is attempting to create a useful semantic web of human knowledge, similar to Google Base. As upstarts and established companies fight for distribution and trust more information will be publicly available from third party sites. Marketers can use toolbars, statistics, APIs, custom topical search engines, Yahoo! Pipes, widgets, and other mashups to create and package useful niche content and tools by aggregating data from these sources.

Some people are using the APIs to provide a more useful version of the original, like Alexaholic, while others are focused on creating profitable ad networks such as Auction Ads. One of my affiliates recently created this mashup. You can keep up with mashups and widgets at Mashable and Sexy Widget.

ebay
amazon

I recently went to a soap shop in downtown San Fransisco called Lush. It is the most expensive soap I have ever seen, and a perfect product for the web. My girlfiriend asked the clerk if they sold online and they said yes, but don't buy Lush soap from Amazon.com.
If you opt into distribution of your product the way to win is to give extras when people buy direct. As a marketing strategy, it is silly to recommend people avoid your distribution partners. Once you give up distribution you move toward being a commodity unless you add extras or are selling a buying experience.

Even companies like Adobe are canibalizing portions of their business to maintain their market position. When considering opting into other networks or doing things that extend your reach and give you more direct control over the conumer experience it is probably best to stay as close to the consumer as possible.

If you are a product on the shelf you have to pay for shelf space. If you own the shelf space you can sell your own product or sell overpriced ads to others.

Many of the people at the top push this bullshit naive altruistic garbage, painting money as evil. And they keep pushing it, because that discussion keeps them at the top by giving them something to talk about and making them the authority. And it gives them ditto heads to prop them up, making it harder for new people to see through the smoke and catch up.