Digital Marketing Specialist, Social Media Consultant,
and Tech Geek at Heart

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matt cutts

How to Get an Influencer’s Attention

March 24, 2010

Influence is everywhere, but it’s up to you to spot it. As information flow is infinite, many find that it is of utmost importance to capture the attention of the select few who serve as influencers — these are the people who can actually stop their followers in their tracks to help spread your message. Perhaps this might serve as the start of a real relationship. If nothing else, these influencers will help to share your story with their own audience.

I contacted a number of influencers to see what grabs their attention. I selected influencers in all different “walks of life” and areas of influence, from the blogosphere to the power users of Digg to founders of successful startups and authors of bestselling books. The question I asked, simply, was “how do you recommend people grab your attention?” The question was purposely left open-ended; I wasn’t necessarily seeking out attention in the form of a product pitch, despite the fact that many of those asked are prominent bloggers. As such, the responses are varied — just the way I wanted it. Here’s what they told me:

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Is Dean Hunt for Real? (Can Matt Cutts Confirm?)

December 13, 2006

Is Dean Hunt a liar?I read with interest about Dean Hunt’s bizarre Google request where an online store owner threatened him via email since Dean’s blog ranks better than the store for a particular keyword term. He writes for a partial SEO-themed blog, yet he needed more advice from individuals on a number of forums (with a link to his story, of course, one of which was removed).

I wrote about the story myself (since I think it’s a good lesson regardless), but I can’t help but wonder if this was all a scam. I mean, after all, Dean wrote on October 4th that he will be creating a viral campaign with the intention to promote his site via related sites. And since his site is still really in its infancy (138 blog posts in 6 categories since June), I don’t think that his blog could truthfully rank better than an established online store.

Without providing the search terms in question for verification, nobody is really able to believe that Dean is actually telling the truth.

Well, maybe Matt Cutts can — if Dean really told him.

So — which is it?

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A WordPress Plugin for Developers to Avoid: WP-Cache

December 5, 2006

While a great concept and one that is lauded by many individuals, including Andy Beal and folks who like Matt Cutts, any blog that is always being tweaked on a regular basis should not be using WP-Cache.

If you know your blog is in perfect shape and never will be modified, then sure, this is a nice tool for you.

But I don’t like it.

I’ve been working on optimizing one of the blogs I maintain. For some reason there was an error on one of the pages and I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what was up with it. I removed the entire code snippet and refreshed a bunch of times. I even tried a different browser and then two different computers and four more browsers. And the code snippet was still there.

I realized that the error of my ways was this “faster WordPress plugin.” The files are all stored on the server and not processed locally, and the cache hadn’t expired. Therefore, I wasn’t seeing the newest updates; I was seeing a cached update — and there was nothing that I could do within my browser to change that. Still, the plugin is practical, but it just doesn’t cut it for folks who like to try out other plugins, new CSS styles, or make small edits.

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Website Usability in a Nutshell

November 15, 2006

I find it ironic (and totally unplanned) that the blog topic I wrote on usability on at work today is featured in a similar light from the New York Times in today’s article about web site usability. They must have attended the conferences yesterday for World Usability Day. (For the record, that work blog had been a work in progress since yesterday, before I knew about World Usability Day as well.) :)

I’ll summarize my blog points on web usability guidelines:

  1. Make the goal of your website (a product sale, for example) stand out at you on the landing page.
  2. Understand the emotions of someone interested in your website and know that you are not your audience.
  3. Include persuasive content. Use power words.
  4. Design something memorable — in a good and catchy way.
  5. Don’t add unnecessary bells and whistles that detract from your offerings.

The New York Times article reiterated important guidelines that I also touch upon, such as approachability (contact information being easily found), eliminating unnecessary design elements, and even mentions a bit of SEO basics (using quotes from Matt Cutts) as well.

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