Alan Gutierrez

A day late, I’m going through the materials of the Thirty Day Challenge as well as the Pre-Season Materials. I’d like to learn more about Internet traffic and this looks like a nice program to follow. I’m concerned though, that my mission might not lend itself to a model that revolves around conversions. The only conversion that makes sense for me is a comment that is not subsequently moderated. That would be evidence of community.

I’m thinking about having a daily post called New Orleans Stories at Think New Orleans. It would be an update in the style of the Rojo update. A sentance and a link. Because most of the outlets here want you to stay in their website, my offering will be unique for New Orleans. At first I thought Crescent City Stories, but I want the Google Juice that comes from New Orleans. Who searches for Crescents? What other word matters? New Orleans Recovery? New Orleans Neighborhoods? Does it matter at all, so long as New Orleans is part of it? One would assume bost the ranking for any search that includes New Orleans, like, New Orleans Recovery School District. Of course, the best SEO rule to follow is to just be explicit.

I updated the F Brinley Bruton blog entry a few days ago. If you recall, F Brinley Bruton was where I learned about SEO and met Esoos Bobnar.

I’m starting to learn about linking. I want to increase the readership of my blog for starters. Having a local readership will help me help my New Orleans based customers, introducing them to you.

I’m going to start reading more of Esoos Bobnar, my blogger guide to the world of SEO.

What do I mean by blogger guide? I mean I’ve just chosen his one blog as the gateway to the world of SEO and click advertising. Why Esoos? Because he’s stopped by my blog and left some excellent insights, basically put me on to all this.

I’m reading about the Indie Virus, which I heard about at Esoos’ blog, in the comments, by a bogger named IrishWonder, who I’m also going to track. It can’t possibly be that simple.
There is a great deal to learn about building blog traffic. About the only trick that I’ve learned so far is to be, at times, gut-wrenchingly personal, and to post a mug shot with each article.

Out and about in New Orleans today. At the gallery openings, I’m encouraging a local artist Adam Farrington to blog. His most recent foray on the web was the Dirt Drive.

He wondered if he blogs, who will read it. I tell him I’ll read it, his wife will read it, our friend Becky, probably the other gallery owners. It seemed to be reason enough.

Because blogging is local. A-Listers bore me. Even the ones I like are too busy to spend time on me. They are too busy to spend time on anyone.

The A-Listers excite the broadcasters because they broadcast, but if I want broadcasting, I know where to find it. This is a conversational medium. The A-Listers will be lost in the cacopohny. There dominions will shrink.

Celebrity is a commodity, just like any other, online or off.

Free Your Blogrolls and Your Backlinks Will Follow - SEO Consultant Esoos Bobnar

True, they earned it, and there’s something to be said for making your site a hub linking out to the top sites in your industry. However, I’m proposing that we diversify our blogrolls a bit. I’ve actually begun to do so myselfIf you’re a fellow C-lister, and you’ve got a blog that’s of good quality, relevant to the field of Internet Marketing, and would be a good match for my readers, let me know, and I’ll consider blogrolling you. It’s got to be good and relevant, though, and posted to at least a few times a week.

Esoos is right on the money. I get links because I read other people’s blogs and because I comment in other people’s blogs. My blogroll represents the handful of bloggers that I read daily, and they are a select few.

I read Esoos because I need to learn something about search engines. I find that it’s better to learn something about an A-List topic from a pedestrian blogger. You’re comments are heeded, and you’re not dealing with someone who’s suffering from authority.

In any case, I’m adding Esoos Bobnar to my blogroll. He’s readable and quotable. I’m not expecting him to do the same, mind you, since I do not match his rediculous criteria.

Both good and relevant? There is no pleasing some people.

Speaking in Tongues

Last night at the French Quarter Town Hall, after the meeting, during the mingling, I was speaking with people in the crowd about Think New Orleans.

At some point, a woman made a statement about search engine optimization, and I found myself in another world, this world, the blogosphere.

Who is the woman and why is she speaking of SEO?

I said something skeptical about search engine optimization. She said that it must be important since someone had convinced her to spend money on it.

Why is it necessary, I wonder?

I asked her her name. It happens to be F Brinley Bruton, a peculiar name. I asked if she held the URL for her name. She said yes.

Then there’s nothing to it. All you need is for someone to link to you, you’ll be at the top of Google in a couple days. In fact, I’ll write a blog entry and link to you.

She seemed dismissive of my dismissiveness, but said she’d buy me a drink if I linked to her. Thus, this is my first paid endorsement, or rather, link, since it’s not really an endorsement. Ugh. Okay. I’ll read an article. Yup. Endorsement. Maybe it’s two drinks now? But, her coverage of women in Afghanistan is compelling.

F Brinley Bruton

Let me introduce you to the web site (not blog) of F Brinley Bruton. She is a London based freelance journalist with experience in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Make sure you add the www before her domain, because without it, you get a placeholder site.

If you start getting spam comments with F Brinley Bruton in the body, it is because she’s unwittingly hired someone to rub us all the wrong way.

The same folks who have posted all of her example articles as image based PDFs, perhaps? In doing so, the’ve made sure that the search engines cannot read the articles, they cannot be indexed, and they cannot be searched. To Google, they do not exist.

Of course, no one has anything text based to which they can link. There is no reason to link to the site. Time for a link to the two immutable laws of blogging, which applies to all web content.

If the articles were available as HTML, I could link to them from this blog entry. A PDFs, I’m not so inclined, and the search engines have no idea what I’m linking to anyway. Not to mention that the articles are hard to read. Too hard for me to read. So I read her articles elsewhere.

If you do want to read Brinley’s work, try reading this article, The Women of Afghanistan Find a Leader.

Joya, a women’s literacy and health worker, says that soon after arriving she began to chafe at the “undemocratic attitude” of those running the meeting. She asked for permission to speak.

“I criticise my countrymen for allowing the legitimacy and legality of this Loya Jirga to be questioned by the presence of those criminals who brought our country to this state,” read the transcripts of what she said. “It is a mistake to test those who have already been tested. They should be taken to the world court.”

Uproar ensued and Joya’s microphone was turned off. Some participants leapt from their seats and the call of “Allahu akbar” resounded through the tent. Those in charge demanded that Joya be expelled and punished, or at least that she apologise. She remained, did not apologise, and was called an infidel, a rude little girl and a communist.

Westerners might find it hard to understand how courageous her speech was. Without mentioning names, Joya had taken aim at the most powerful class of Loya Jirga participants: mujahedin and “holy warriors” revered for fighting and expelling the Soviets.

SnakE Oil

Search engine optimization is to contemporary web development what paint sealant is to auto sales. How cheeky that someone should first sell her an almost text free web site and then go on to sell her search engine optimization.

If you Google her name with misspellings, Google corrects. Google knows that its Bruton, not Burton.

Google knows who she is, but just like me, Google knows that her site is not the best place to go if you want to read her work.

Update: My Work Here Is Done

When I wrote this article, F Brinley Bruton’s new web site did not appear in the Google search results for her name, F Brinley Bruton. Now she appears as the first result. What’s more, when you search for Brinley Bruton, you’ll find her site is first, and this blog entry about her site is second.

She was told she’d have to comission these results. I am hoping she’ll now run from the charlians. SEO is silly. It makes us all unhappy. Google puts it plainly in their message about SEO to webmasters.

One of the commentors, real name unknown, referenced his recent post on this matter, which I’ll quote as a supporting voice. billoday.net in A Message to Those Who Push SEOs

Here it is: Have interesting, unique, and applicable content that will make people return and link to you. That’s it. But, you have to understand that while Google is multilingual, its primary language is the link. The link determines how important you are. Not only that, but the level of importance the linker has determines how important you are.The way to win is to be the most popular kid in your field. Do that by spending time on your actual web content, not just improving your Google rank. It may start a little slower, but in the end the payoff will be even bigger. And everyone benefits from that.

To my mind, the most effective form of currency these days is not the link, it’s the quote. Not because search engines will follow the quote to the source, but people will. The pull quote is way to get a person reading. I do want you to read Brinley’s piece on Jaya in Afganistan. It’s fascinating. Thus, I quote it.

You need people to read you first. Meaningful links come come only after a real person invests the time to read you. It has to be worth their while.

Hugh MacLeod quoted me, what he felt was the crux, in Human Condition 101. Oddly, this quip that caught his fancy “…must be important…”, is the one gauled me into saying that she’d get more mileage out of a sincere link from a blogger. I went on to say that I would be that blogger.

Ultimately, however, it’s not one or another well placed link that determines authority. It will the merit of Brinley’s writing, and the depth of her experience. I do hope she makes more of her work more accessible.

Update: Blogging’s ROI

At long last I’ve gotten around to updating this post with photographs of the payout.

F Brinley Bruton was good to her word. A drink for a link. Langiappe, too.

Two Manhattans at Oswald’s. As a journalist, F Brinley Bruton has this annoying habit of disarming a person and then interviewing them. We talked about me, until I arrested myself. I’d ask her questions, but then we’d be talking about me again.

After listening to Harry Anderson’s latest take on the French Quarter, and watching a little bit of magic, we went to Coop’s for a burgers and Abitas.

I made a fortune off this blog entry. Thank you F Brinley Bruton.