SEO is not dead, but it’s definitely frustrating
SEO is still a part of the work that I do and I don’t believe that it is dead.
However, I can’t help but find that SEO is frustrating, which is probably why so many attempts on its life are made.
Michael Wilkins
How to make a controversial infographic: case study
Creating and promoting an infographic, it’s a tried-and-tested technique that’s planned for all sorts of reasons.
But successfully getting visual content out there, online, can be more complicated than it seems.
Four books that predicted the dark side of digital (and a few that missed the mark)
In 1966 Time Magazine imagined what the world might look like in the year 2000. Among other predictions it stated that: “Remote shopping, while entirely feasible, will flop because women like to get out of the house; like to handle merchandise”.
This is clearly a bad prediction. Not just because the chauvinism of the article has gone out of fashion but because remote shopping, facilitated by the internet, has surged: global online retail sales recently topped $500bn, thrice the GDP of Peru, and both men and women spend in droves.
It can take quite a bit of digging to find better forecasts. But when it comes to digital media, particularly social media, there are some eerily accurate predictions to be found lurking among the the wilder imaginings.
How to make an infographic online: case study
Many moons ago, in April 2012, I wrote a humorous post about how not to make an infographic, where I enthusiastically chastised a selection of misguided visualisations.
A few people chortled and applauded at the time but many others requested a more positive follow-up post featuring helpful tips on how to actually create and promote an infographic, with personal examples.
Fair enough – and since then I’ve been involved in a few projects that fit the bill with the most recent example being an infographic for Snowskool, a company that specialises in ski instructor courses.
The infographic was created as a collaboration with the talented Snowskool team and released two weeks ago on Visual.ly, Facebook, and the Snowskool blog: Myskool.
Dictionary of marketing swearwords. 1: Linkbait
Linkbait [ lingk bayt ] SEO noun: the process of creating and promoting content that’s primarily designed to attract links.
Standard form: ”we need to create some linkbait”.
Active form: ”that’s an AWESOME piece of linkbait!”
Passive form: ”…the client’s just been sold three pieces of linkbait per month”.
Modern form: ”It’s not linkbait anymore man, it’s all about Likebait now”.
Here’s some more detail on this swearword…
How not to make an infographic: four examples to avoid
Regardless of whether you like them or not, the creation and promotion of infographics has become absurd and out of control.
In fact, there’s almost certainly an infographic that illustrates this deluge of information in an easily digestible visual format.
Good infographics are great but many are bland, lots are bad, and some terrible. And to find the inglorious selection of infographics discussed in this post I only had to look at a small selection of tweets from the past week.
If you are thinking about making one, here are four examples not to follow…
Deconstructing ten more digital marketing clichés
I wrote a previous post on digital marketing clichés that was unexpectedly well received, so I’m writing a second to include the remaining lines that I couldn’t put in the first one – with a focus on more general sayings this time.
So, without further ado, here are ten more jargon-fuelled crackers.
Deconstructing six common digital marketing clichés
I’ve spent a fair amount of time moving and operating in digital marketing circles over the last six years or so, and have made plenty of sardonic mental notes and observations along the way. Perhaps too many.
Nevertheless, without further introductions or excuses, here are six of my ‘favourite’ digital marketing lines, when they’re usually said; who by, and what they really should be.
Looking after the introvert: an online agency guide
Knowing who your introverts are, and how to best use them, can help you achieve incredible rankings and stratospheric backlinks.
I begin this post in an extroverted style, but my aim is to discuss how to get the best from introverted types.