Līve Ambitions

Business Listings with DoFollow Links:

VentureBeatProfiles.com
MerchantCircle.com
Kudzu.com
HotFrog.com
JigSaw.com
LATimesInteractive.com
BizCommunity.com
MyWikiBiz.com

Business Listings with NoFollow or Redirected Links:

AboutUs.org
GetSatisfaction.com
InsiderPages.com
Yelp.com
FreeIndex.com

Interesting news.  Microsoft and Yahoo has agreed to combine forces in the search market to better compete against the giant of search, Google.  They’ve launched a website dedicated to the 10 year deal called ChoiceValueInnovation.com.  The gist of the deal is that Microsoft will power Yahoo’s search for both organic and sponsored listings, and in return Yahoo will receive compensation from Microsoft.  Meanwhile, Yahoo will “become the exclusive worldwide relationship sales force for both companies’ premium search advertisers.”  Their PPC advertising platform will be handled Microsoft’s Adcenter.

So, based on current stats, this partnership deal would give Microsoft and Yahoo approximately 30% of the total search market share in the U.S..  If I were Google, I wouldn’t be too worried - its 2 competitors have had the capacity and resources for improvements, but they simply haven’t been able to gain ground on their own.  In my opinion, if Yahoo and Microsoft couldn’t compete on their own, they wouldn’t do better together.  Unless there are some significant advancements to the Microsoft/Yahoo algorithm technology, I don’t see them expanding their search market share by much, if any.

I’m not in favor of this search deal because I believe that market conditions are best when there are many competitors as opposed to only 2.  Instead of having 3 separate choices for search, now it’s only one or the other.  Microsoft and Yahoo would’ve been better off trying to improve their own search technology.  Who knows – maybe there’s a deeper underlying meaning to the deal.  Could it be a slow transition into a merger?  What do you think?

I’ve been outsourcing jobs, on and off, for the past 7 years.  Projects ranging from logos and banners to entire websites and articles were on my list for outsourcing.  In the beginning, I relied on services like Elance.com and Guru.com.  Then, for a little while, I looked to forums like DigitalPoint and Sitepoint to outsource my work.

In those 7 years of searching, I’ve never ended up hiring someone that wowed me.  Maybe I haven’t looked hard enough, but with so many resources out there, it’s hard to believe that there aren’t more skilled dependable freelancers.  You name it, I’ve tried looking for all types of freelancers – from writers and SEOs, to programmers and designers.

I know the saying “you get what you pay for,” applies to most things in life, but this is sometimes not the case when outsourcing work.  Sometimes you can pay a lot of money, and get poor quality in return.  And, other times, you can spend a little money and get good value for your money.  One thing I always do before hiring someone is to check out their portfolio – whether it be sample articles or demo websites.  But, sometimes you just don’t know what you’re getting until you actually try out the service.  For example, when hiring a writer, why does it always seem like their sample articles are so much better quality than the articles they produce for you?

Here are some of the problems I’ve run into in the past.

Problems with outsourcing writing jobs:

• Poorly written articles – bad wording and flow
• Poor grammar
• Factual errors
• Lack of dedication – loss of interest
• Difficulties in finding a writer with your style
• Difficulties in finding a writer with research skills
• Difficulties in finding a writer who specializes in various niches

Problems with outsourcing SEO jobs:

• SEOs that overcharge
• SEOs that are not reliable
• SEOs that talk big game, but can’t deliver

Problems with outsourcing programming jobs:

• Poor communications – hard to get a hold of
• Programming full of bugs and errors
• Excuses for delays. I once had a programmer go on vacation for 2 weeks without telling me.

Outsourcing design jobs:
Finding a designer is one that I’ve not had much issues with. There’s a ton of great designers out there, and they’re usually not hard to find.

Outsourcing can be a pain in the ass, especially if you’re anal like me. Wow, that didn’t sound right.  Let me rephrase that – If you’re really uptight about the quality of work, outsourcing can be difficult.  You really have to spend some time into searching for the right service provider.  I think the first step is to determine how much you’re willing to spend on a project, then it’s the process of elimination.

Here are some known sites where you can find freelancers:

• Guru.com
• Elance.com
• Odesk.com
• Rentacoder.com
• Craigslist.com – under gigs
• DigitalPoint Forums – under buy, sell or trade

Have you heard of this?  The FTC plans to monitor blogs for false claims and a lack of disclosure for compensation.

As you know, there are tons of blog owners out there that recommend products or services in return for some sort of compensation, whether it be cash or free products.  I would be curious to know how the FTC intends on tackling this massive challenge.  Also, I’m a little split on this subject because on one side, you have the issue of freedom of speech and on the other side, you have the issue of protecting the consumer.

I’m all for protecting the consumer, but where do you draw the line?  At some point, the consumer needs to take responsibility for their own actions.  If you get ripped off, it’s partially your fault for not doing sufficient research.  I know fake reviews on the web are easy to fabricate, however, you shouldn’t buy something solely based on a single review you read on the internet.  There will always be people who stretch the truth and even lie to make money.

I personally do not find anything wrong with promoting a product or service you believe in.  And, hey, if you can get compensated for something you would’ve written about anyways, why not?  It’s a win-win situation.  Now, the FTC wants you to disclose when you’re getting compensated for a review or recommendation.

I’m assuming the FTC is not so much concerned about monitoring personal blogs, but more interested in detecting flogs (fake blogs) or marketers that practice fakevertising (fake advertising).  An example of a flog would be a fake news site set up on an “official news” sounding domain to promote certain products or services.  An example of fakevertising would be using the name of a famous celebrity to promote a product.  I’m sure you’ve seen those fake ads featuring Oprah Winfrey or Dr. Phil.

Jay Weintraub offers an interesting look at flogs.  These unscrupulous marketers aren’t simply exercising their freedom of speech, they are taking it one step further.  They are blatantly misleading and lying to the public by using fake celebrity endorsements.

Yesterday, I watched my 1st episode of Pitchmen on Discovery.  After watching the show, I began to wonder whether an average joe like me could come up with a new invention that could possibly end up on the shelves of Walmart one day.  I’ve never took inventions too seriously, but the show yesterday inspired me.  There was a story of a man (friend of Billy Mays) who was crippled in a plane crash, but later invented the Awesome Auger.

In our free land of capitalism, the possibilities are endless.  The hard part is actually taking an idea and bringing it to life.  I’m not saying that anyone can become a successful inventor, but if someone has the “right” idea and actually puts work into it, I think it’s a very possible scenario.

When you think about all the crazy ideas that turned into successful inventions, it’s pretty mind-boggling.  For instance, the paperclip and paper-weight.  I know competition is much stiffer now than it was back in history, but even in today’s market, there is still room for new inventions.  In fact, it doesn’t even have to be a new invention – it could simply be an improved version of an existing product.  Though we have the disadvantage of greater competition, we have the advantage of a bigger audience.

I had 2 ideas in my head yesterday – both of which I found out already have patents.  The 1st idea was for an airplane parachute.  This idea came to me because I’m terrified of flying and there’s been more reported cases of plane crashes lately.  The 2nd idea was for a toe/finger nail clipping collector case.  This idea came to me because I had many situations where I didn’t want to clip my nails in public, or times when I would clip my nails indoors and the clippings would fly all over the place.

I’ve never seen or even heard of these products before.  Maybe I’ve been living in a cave.  Anyways…back to the drawing board. 

I’m a little late on this topic, but I wanted to share my thoughts on it.  I think it was Google who first implemented it, but the others quickly followed.

To me, the search query suggestion feature is just another blow to the SEO industry.  Although the feature adds convenience and saves time, I believe it also alters natural search behavior.  This hurts the little guys the most because people aren’t typing in the long-tail keywords anymore.  Now, people simply select the most popular suggestions even before they’re done typing the entire search query.  I often do this myself.

Undoubtedly, the search suggestion feature only helps to bring more traffic to the bigger websites (and corporations) that are already ranking in top positions for popular keywords.  Therefore, the mom-and-pop sites will have to work twice as hard to compete for the same keywords.  In addition, more money would have to be spent for SEO and marketing.

This may seem unfair for small business, but I think there is an ulterior motive behind the search query suggestion feature.  This is my theory: Since the little guys (small business) can’t compete for top 10 rankings naturally, they would have to resort to paid search marketing or PPC.  This would generate a lot more PPC business for the major search engines.  Why would they target small business?  Because small businesses account for 99.7% of all firms in the U.S.  This is a huge market, especially now that more and more small businesses are looking towards the internet for new customers.

How does this affect the users?  Sure, it adds convenience.  But does it alter natural search behavior?  I think so.  I’m not sure about everyone else, but when I do searches now, I catch myself choosing from the top 3 list of suggestions.

Has it changed your search behavior?

Is it just me or have you also noticed a big increase in poor customer service (in the U.S.)?   It almost seems as if our society and culture is accepting this kind of behavior.  Here are some situations that I come across quite too often:

• Cashiers or order-takers that have personal conversations on the phone or with co-workers while they have waiting customers.
• Sales people who are rude and talk-back to customers.
• Workers that don’t take their jobs seriously – which results in half-ass work.

I think there are some obvious reasons for this negative trend:

• As our economy declines, companies are paying less to its employees.  And with lower wages, workers don’t take their jobs as seriously.
• Our society/culture accepts this type of behavior.  Remember the days when we used to have respect for our elders and strangers.  Well, not anymore.  Now, our kids grow up with the mentality that it’s not cool to be nice to people.  Customer service is more deeply rooted than simple personal attitude – it goes as far as childhood up-bringing.
• Poor management leads to poor employees.  Why would workers give a rat’s ass about the company if the owner or managers don’t either?
• Lack of discipline.  Some people don’t know how to separate work from personal issues.  When your problems from home start affecting your work performance, then something needs to be done.

So…how does this affect the businesses providing the poor customer service?

• Loss of customers.
• Bad reputation.
• Negative workplace morale.
• Eventually, a failed business.

Businesses need to keep in mind that customers are the life-blood of their business.  Without customers, there is no money.  Without money, there is no business.

Once logged in your Google account, you’ll notice that search results will look a little different vs when  you’re logged off.  This is because Google has long been working to provide a more personal search experience for the user.  This means that when you’re logged into your Google account, Google keeps track of your online activity, such as which sites you visit and which sites you visit most often.  Google will also manipulate your search results based on your search behavior – placing sites you visit more often nearer the top of the results.

This search feature provides a better personal experience for the user, while at the same time allowing Google to capture greater accuracy in their data.  However, how does this personal search feature affect SEO and Internet Marketing?

I think personal search is changing the dynamics of SEO.  Google is getting their way, and so are the users.  We all know that on-site optimization has always been an important factor of SEO, but never more than now.  Website content and structure is the undisputed king of SEO.  Although link popularity is still an important factor of SEO, off-site optimization services such as link building will probably hurt the most in the long run.  This is what Google has been fighting for all along – more quality content and less SERP manipulation through unnatural link building.

From the Paid Advertising standpoint, business can only get better.  Because Paid Advertising such as display ads, PPC and affiliate marketing are not affected by the natural search results, you can expect this market to grow.  There is some sense of ”you know what you’re paying for” with paid ad placement, so I think advertisers will be more receptive to this type of online marketing.

When I need logos or banners made, I usually look to forums or Elance type sites to find a candidate for the job.  Not this time.  This time, I simply ran a search on Google and came across a banner designing company called 20 Dollar Banners.  Right off the back, I had a good feeling about them.  I mean look at their website design – it’s nice, clean and professional.

I took the Starter package for $109, and added 5 PSD files to the order.  This includes 5 banners with up to 5 revisions for each banner.  The total cost came out to $134.  Not bad.  Also, I was impressed with the quality of work they produce.  You can check out some of their previous designs under their portfolio.  In my opinion, banner designs don’t get much better than that.  And for the price, you can’t lose.

Website:  20DollarBanners.com

I’ve tried selling stuff on both sites, but from my experience, I’ve had better results with eBay.  Here are the reasons why I think eBay is better for selling:

• Both sites get a huge amount of traffic, but eBay seems to attract the more serious buyers.
• Buyers tend to be more confident with eBay because they provide some protection for buyers.
• You would think that for local pickup items that Craigslist would easily win over eBay.  This is not the case.  eBay has massive coverage, so location is usually not an issue when finding local buyers. 
• Craigslist buyers are cheaper than eBay buyers.  I know the whole point of shopping at these sites is to save money, but come on now!

I like both sites, and use them regularly but eBay is simply more effective for selling stuff.  For everything else, I use Craigslist.  In fact, I found my current job using Craigslist.