Tag Archives: Google

An open letter to so-called SEO experts

Posted on by
Reply

Dear so-called “SEO Experts,”

As you may have noticed (since I’m sure you have carefully read through my website before attempting to contact me, rather than heading straight for the “Contact” page), I am a highly competent writer with many years of experience writing specifically for the web. While I appreciate your concern that my “SEO” might need help, and have received your ultra-spammy email indicating that, for a fee, you would be glad to help me out, you might want to address a few concerns I have regarding your tactics:

  1. When I say your email was “spammy,” I mean that it had a certain odor indicating a lack of professionalism. In fact, it reeked of the types of tactics employed by robots, which made me question your humanity altogether, and certainly did not make me want to further a conversation about search engine optimization.
  2. Speaking of which, please don’t ever use the term “SEO” on me again. I know what it stands for (see above), and despite the fact that I’m sure there are people out there who are properly trained to optimize websites for search engines, I doubt you are one of them. The term itself is associated with spammers and other scumbags, who seek to persuade people that there is a “quick fix” for getting your website ranked #1 at “the Google.”
  3. Certainly, there are good tools for optimization efforts out there (like the inexpensive SEO School by Naomi Dunford, which even has a money-back guarantee), but I would never buy them from someone who didn’t even take the time to address me by my proper name in the opening line of their email. If you don’t know what my name is, you aren’t even trying. Perhaps you are legally blind, and your computer’s Stephen Hawking voice has been temporarily muted? Seriously, it’s not like I’ve concealed my identity here. Your lack of personalization gives you away, spammer.
  4. Considering the possibility that you actually know anything at all about optimizing websites, you should be aware that I have many tags on my posts, some pretty eye-catching headlines, and some well-ranked pages, including one about writing scams and content mills. I am, in fact, the #3 page that comes up when searching for my (frightfully common) name on Google, and that suits me fine. The two that rank higher than me are Laura Roberts, MD and a consulting firm that has managed to capture my full name for their URL. It’s not like I’m behind loads of content aggregators and such, so I must have some idea about how to work the great Google machine, no?

In closing, no, I have no need of your supposed skills at this time. But even if I did, you should probably try sending me a personalized message first, asking if I might be interested in what you do, including a proper link to your website and some contact info that ventures into the real world (i.e. phone number, physical business address) that would make me feel like you are working at a reputable company that might actually have a clue.

Just my two-bucks worth (as time is money),
Laura Roberts, Professional Writer

Don Draper vs Anaïs Nin on blogging, transparency and trust

Posted on by
9

Blogging has always been fun for me, but I’ve never given it much serious thought. I have always been the type to throw down a few words, and then unleash them on the Internet. This style offers great things in the way of instantaneous feedback as well as blowing off steam, but can definitely go wrong in the TMI and personal privacy departments.

Don Draper (via Glory Fades)

Don Draper (via Glory Fades)

CT Moore has recently been writing about the concepts of transparency and trust on the Internet, and he says in his post What Would Donald Draper Blog? that building your personal brand is not about sharing everything. He notes that Don Draper “wouldn’t talk about his personal life or what he likes doing on the weekend. And he definitely wouldn’t gossip. Neither of these would do anything to help him fill the demand of his audience.” Indeed, being personal or authentic isn’t the same as being transparent. In fact, he argues that Don Draper wouldn’t be transparent at all, because his personality is actually a brand he has built to hide his true identity, Dick Whitman.

So what does this have to do with me, Laura Roberts, the person, or the “brand”? Do I even have a brand? To some extent, yes, I have several. I’m the face of Black Heart Magazine. I’m V for Vixen. But here, on my personal website, I’m Laura Roberts, Writer. And that brand needs developing.

How does one develop a writer brand? By writing, of course. But also by writing about writing. Not to the extent that your writing is overshadowed by talk about the writing process, but enough that it helps you to clarify your own thoughts on that process and how to move through it.

The other day I wrote a blog about How to Get Published. I was tired of people asking me the same old questions, of coming to me for advice that they won’t even take, of pumping me for information that is freely available. But you know what? The fact is, that information is freely available, so what does it matter if they want to get it from me instead of from Google? It’s already free, and it doesn’t damage me in any way to share what is already known and available. In fact, it may even increase the trust people have in my writer brand, so why not do it?

Should I charge for these pearls of wisdom? If I can, yes, that would be great. But if someone asks me for an opinion, or advice, why should I be stingy, or tell them I’m not going to give them the information they’re looking for unless they pay me for my time? The information is already out there. The fact that I will pass it along for free can really only make me look good. It’s something for you, and something for me. No money needs to exchange hands.

Anaïs Nin (via Famous Poets & Poems)

Anaïs Nin (via SLGA)

So yes, I can answer your questions about writing. I can share a few “secrets.” And I can keep a few to myself, too. But blogging—and writing in general—is about setting people free and giving everything you’ve got to the page (or the screen). To quote Anaïs Nin:

“To write means to give all. No witholding is possible. The best writers are those who give all. However, there is the choice of clothing: fiction, symbolism, poetry, etc.”

In the end, I subscribe more to the Anaïs Nin school of writing everything and choosing the veils through which things are presented than the Don Draper method of building mysteries from the ground up, though each has its value in different situations. Here, as my writer self, I choose not to withold anything, whether we’re talking about writing, art, sex, life, the universe, or anything else. That authenticity is important, even if transparency isn’t.

Which type of blogger are you: Don Draper or Anaïs Nin… or someone else entirely?