Central Perk

joi, 9 iunie 2011

Seth's Blog : Email checklist (maybe this time it'll work!)

Email checklist (maybe this time it'll work!)

Three years ago this week, I posted this checklist, in the naive hope that it would eliminate (or perhaps merely reduce) the ridiculous CC-to-all emails about the carpool, the fake-charity forwards, the ALL CAPS yelling and the stupid PR spam.

A guy can hope, can't he?

Feel free to send this to those that need to read it:

Before you hit send on that next email, perhaps you should run down this list, just to be sure:

Is it going to just one person? (If yes, jump to #10)
Since it's going to a group, have I thought about who is on my list?
Are they blind copied?
Did every person on the list really and truly opt in? Not like sort of, but really ask for it?
So that means that if I didn't send it to them, they'd complain about not getting it?
See #5. If they wouldn't complain, take them off!
That means, for example, that sending bulk email to a list of bloggers just cause they have blogs is not okay.
Aside: the definition of permission marketing: Anticipated, personal and relevant messages delivered to people who actually want to get them. Nowhere does it say anything about you and your needs as a sender. Probably none of my business, but I'm just letting you know how I feel. (And how your prospects feel).
Is the email from a real person? If it is, will hitting reply get a note back to that person? (if not, change it please).
Have I corresponded with this person before?
Really? They've written back? (if no, reconsider email).
If it is a cold-call email, and I'm sure it's welcome, and I'm sure it's not spam, then don't apologize. If I need to apologize, then yes, it's spam, and I'll get the brand-hurt I deserve.
Am I angry? (If so, save as draft and come back to the note in one hour).
Could I do this note better with a phone call?
Am I blind-ccing my boss? If so, what will happen if the recipient finds out?
Is there anything in this email I don't want the attorney general, the media or my boss seeing? (If so, hit delete).
Is any portion of the email in all caps? (If so, consider changing it.)
Is it in black type at a normal size?
Do I have my contact info at the bottom? (If not, consider adding it).
Have I included the line, "Please save the planet. Don't print this email"? (If so, please delete the line and consider a job as a forest ranger or flight attendant).
Could this email be shorter?
Is there anyone copied on this email who could be left off the list?
Have I attached any files that are very big? (If so, google something like 'send big files' and consider your options.)
Have I attached any files that would work better in PDF format?
Are there any :-) or other emoticons involved? (If so, reconsider).
Am I forwarding someone else's mail? (If so, will they be happy when they find out?)
Am I forwarding something about religion (mine or someone else's)? (If so, delete).
Am I forwarding something about a virus or worldwide charity effort or other potential hoax? (If so, visit snopes and check to see if it's 'actually true).
Did I hit 'reply all'? If so, am I glad I did? Does every person on the list need to see it?
Am I quoting back the original text in a helpful way? (Sending an email that says, in its entirety, "yes," is not helpful).
If this email is to someone like Seth, did I check to make sure I know the difference between its and it's? Just wondering.
If this is a press release, am I really sure that the recipient is going to be delighted to get it? Or am I taking advantage of the asymmetrical nature of email--free to send, expensive investment of time to read or delete?
Are there any little animated creatures in the footer of this email? Adorable kittens? Endangered species of any kind?
Bonus: Is there a long legal disclaimer at the bottom of my email? Why?
Bonus: Does the subject line make it easy to understand what's to come and likely it will get filed properly?
If I had to pay 42 cents to send this email, would I?

Chris Anderson has come up with his own list as well.

• Email to a friend •

Eye of the (Auburn) Tigers

Your Daily Snapshot for
Thursday, June 9, 2011

Photo: Eye of the (Auburn) Tigers

President Barack Obama receives a jersey and helmet from player Kodi Burns during the ceremony honoring the Auburn University football team's 2010 BCS National Championship in the East Room of the White House, June 8, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

In Case You Missed It

Here are some of the top stories from the White House blog.

Welcoming the 2010 BCS National Champion Auburn Tigers to the White House
President Obama welcomes the 2010 BCS National Champion Auburn Tigers to the White House and congratulates the team on hard earned victory.

Building Partnerships to Improve the Manufacturing Workforce
President Obama visits Northern Virginia Community College in Alexandria, Virginia, discussed the importance of training and preparing our workforce to compete for manufacturing jobs across the nation, and announces new commitments as part of the Skills for America's Future initiative.

Tune In to the Race to the Top Commencement Challenge TV Special
In a new television special, viewers will have the chance to follow the experiences of students at Booker T. Washington High School, as they win this year’s competition and the opportunity to host President Obama as their commencement speaker.

Today's Schedule

All times are Eastern Daylight Time (EDT).

10:25 AM: The President receives the Presidential Daily Briefing.

10:45 AM: The Vice President meets with the Crown Prince of Bahrain, His Highness Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa.

11:30 AM: The President meets with senior advisors.

12:30 PM: The Vice President holds the next meeting of the bipartisan, bicameral group of Members of Congress to continue work on a legislative famework for comprehensive deficit reduction.

1:00 PM: Press Briefing by Press Secretary Jay Carney.

4:45 PM: The President meets with President Ali Bongo Ondimba of Gabon.

Indicates events that will be live streamed on WhiteHouse.gov/Live

Get Updates

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Bufferapp Review Graywolf's SEO Blog

Bufferapp Review

Posted: 08 Jun 2011 10:38 AM PDT

The following is part of a series on the Bufferapp twitter tool. This a general overview and review of the product. Bufferapp is a product which claims to take a lot of the frustration out of scheduling tweets–and it does. However, at the time of this review’s writing, it also has some serious limitations that you should be aware of.

First, let’s step you through how to use the product. After signing up for a 30 day free trial, you can download a browser extension or a bookmarklet. In most instances, the browser extension is the one you will probably want to use. Before you get started, you will want to authorize all the accounts you will want to use with bufferapp. This means you will have to sign in to bufferapp and then individually authorize each twitter profile. The highest subscription level ($30 a month) allows a maximum of 9 accounts; if you want to schedule across more than that, you are out of luck and will need more than one account.

Once that’s done, you will need to schedule the times you want the tweets to publish. You can schedule lots of tweets per day, but I would suggest limiting it to a manageable number. Bear in mind that it will fill an entire day before moving on to the next day. So, if you have 3 tweets per day, and you want to fill your buffer for a week, you will need 21 tweets (3 per day for 7 days).

scheduled times for tweets

The beauty of using this product comes from the time you save by using the auto scheduling. Send the tweet in, and it fills the next open slot. The down side of it is that, if you schedule 1:30 pm as your tweet time, it tweets out at 1:30. There is no randomization. Additionally, you can’t tell it to skip days or weekends (the developers say this might come down the road).

You can review the order of the tweets in the buffer and rearrange them as needed. For example, you may have a tweet that is more date sensitive and needs to tweet out first. However, you can’t change the time or add a one only extra per day: it only fills the pre-programmed times you have set.

Scheduled tweets in bufferapp

Another interesting feature is the ability email tweets in. If you send an email to a special address, it will take the subject and make it the content. If there is a link in the body, it will add it to the tweet. This feature is a bit half baked currently. If you have more than one account there is no way to route it there: all of the emailed tweets dump into the main account. I’ve spoken to the developers, and they say this will be improving soon. Another issue is that the bookmarklet really doesn’t work correctly with the iPad. You can select additional accounts for the tweet, but you can’t turn off the default account. Again I hear this is something they will look at. However the lack of multi-account routing and lack of bookmarklet functionality make it a laptop/desktop app, not really a mobile one.

Currently the program has three levels: a basic level is free for one account and 10 tweets. A mid level is $5 for 3 accounts and 50 tweets. A premium level is $30 for up to 9 accounts and an unlimited number of tweets. While this does cost a lot more than Hootsuite, it can save you time by auto scheduling your tweets.

I like the idea of this product. I really think it has a lot of potential. However, at this point, I think there are several aspects that aren’t fully developed yet. The scheduling has some issues that could really use some improving. The email a tweet feature really needs to handle multiple accounts. The fact that there is no Facebook integration is huge downside.That’s not to say it’s a bad product, I just think it needs a little more development before it’s at the point where it’s ready to be used by people with more than one account. However, this a product I think is worth keeping an eye on. I’m going to use it for another month or so, hoping that these issues get resolved. Once these small issues are resolved, it could be a huge timesaver. Another thing that would be huge would be emailed reports similar to what Hootsuite does. This last point isn’t a deal breaker. It’s more of an icing on the cake type of thing.

To be clear, the BufferApp links in this post is are affiliate links. If you try or sign up to this service through my link I do get credit in the form of additional tweets, but you do too. If you want to give Bufferapp a try, you can. It’s free for 30 days.

photo credit: Photospin

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Bufferapp Review

SEOptimise

Everything Webmasters Need to Know About the Google +1 Button for Websites

Posted: 08 Jun 2011 08:03 AM PDT

Google +1 for websites is here for a few days, and while some people are still (or again) skeptical, there are quite a lot of webmasters who have adopted the + 1 button almost immediately. The SEO industry has been especially quick to include the buttons. I am among them, while I still don’t use the Facebook like.

I’m not going to shout hooray because Google finally released a button, but nonetheless I can see that it’s the best and the hitherto most important attempt by Google at entering the social media arena. Most others failed miserably and Google has learned some lessons it seems.

The ease of use, for instance, and the quick announcement that the +1 votes will count as a ranking factor, are good signs that +1 will still be here a year from now.

It seems that Google is also adding up the best technologies from its former failed social services and products. I see features from Google SearchWiki, Google Bookmarks, Google Buzz etc. converging.

Google’s own +1 resources

Google +1 was introduced initially at the end of March, and I provided a list of 40 resources back then. Thus here I’ll add only those you need for the actual button. Most importantly, there is the code to include the website button, which is as easy to implement as Google Analytics or even more straightforward. So if you use Google Analytics already, inserting Google +1 is even easier to accomplish.

How to install Google +1 on WordPress, Blogger, Joomla etc.

You can of course add Google +1 buttons to your blog or CMS, either including the code yourself or using extensions, add-ons or plug ins. There are ways to do so on WordPress, WordPress and Thesis, Blogger, Joomla (both a how to and an extension), Magento, Open Cart… For those who want to add the button according to web standards (so that it validates), there is also a small tweak or a bigger workaround for HTML5.

Add your extension, tutorial or how to below in the comments.

Google +1 Extensions for WordPress

While you can include the +1 button manually as suggested above, there are already plenty of Google +1 WordPress extensions. I have tested several of them. There are simple ones, even one you have to save as PHP file to add-ons with multiple customisation options and features.

Choose the one that fits you best and that you trust the most to get updated in the future. I currently use the one by Alex Moss from Pleer SEO. For bloggers who already use a Google Buzz button, there seems to be a conflict and this extension has been suggested as a solution.

How to track Google +1 in Google Analytics and elsewhere

Yoast has quickly come up with a way to track Google +1 votes in Google Analytics. Others have expanded on this script with the actual URLs that got clicked and to consider negative clicks (when someone clicks +1 again to revoke the vote).

Several bloggers have come up with similar scripts. Google has already suggested that +1 votes will both get counted by Google Analytics by default and that +1 will get its own analytics suite, at least according to screenshots shown on a conference. Other analytics tools use their own hacks to allow +1 click tracking: Sitecatalyst.

I’m still on the lookout for Piwik, Woopra and other solutions.

How to use Google +1 on websites that don’t have a +1 button installed

While the quick adoption of +1 buttons on websites is quite impressive, and there are far more of them than Google Buzz buttons already, many sites don’t yet include the button. If you want to +1 them anyway, you need a bookmarklet or a browser extension for Chrome. Of course, you can still vote the site or article up in the search results as well. I haven’t found an extension for Firefox yet, but expect one to appear soon.

Why or why not use Google +1?

Many bloggers argue that it makes no sense to click the +1 button on websites because there is nobody you actually share your endorsement with, at least not directly. This may indeed be an advantage, as you can +1 twenty articles on the same topic in a row without alienating your friends or followers. Theoretically, there are many reasons to actually click +1 instead of liking or tweeting. On the other hand, privacy concerns get cited as a reason not to use Google +1 and Google forces you to join a social network again.

The single biggest reason to click +1 right now is, of course, that it is a ranking factor for Google. So webmasters want visitors to click the button. Social Media B2B suggests informing all your existing connections. Also, Google users customise their search results using +1. They see their own votes and those by friends while searching. Logged out users also see the +1 votes. The first search results on Google for a given keyword displays the number of +1 votes, if there are any.

How does Google +1 affect your SEO and social media optimisation?

Judging from my own use of +1 buttons, I tend to click +1 instead of like on Facebook or tweet it. It easier than sharing on Twitter, and it prevents flooding your followers and friends with your numerous votes. So some people may vote more often now, while the number of likes and tweets may suffer. Another point to remember is that many people tweet just for the SEO of it. Now, with +1 they can go the direct way to improve their rankings – they don’t have to tweet.

Aside from my subjective musing, there have been two very impressive studies, one by SEO Effect to test the actual ranking and CTR impact and another one that analyses the performance of the Google +1 button and the scripts it uses. While the SEO is seemingly improving significantly, the website speed issues are a drawback right now. The Google engineers haven’t done their homework here. Also, there seem to be canonical issues.

I have to repeat here: Google has officially announced that +1 votes will count as a ranking factor. Many in the SEO industry doubt that the impact will be big, but as we see the actual tests show otherwise. So using +1 buttons on your site and encouraging your readers to click them will be a part of link building from now on.

What else you need to know about the Google +1 button for websites

Google +1 buttons are also displayed on YouTube and Google Shopping (products) search results. As of now (June 8th, 2011) only Google.com users can see the +1 votes from their so-called social circle. These might be people connected to you via the various existing social sites like Twitter, Google Buzz, Quora, Friendfeed etc.

Still, so-called social search results seem to be separate from +1 votes right now. Both are connected to the same social circle you can manage on your Google Profile. While Android smartphones of course support +1, it seems that the buttons do not display on iPhones.

Additionally, WebProNews has compiled a list of things you have to know about Google +1. Kikolani has also a great guide.

Natural Link Building Presentation at a4uexpo Europe 2011

Posted: 08 Jun 2011 07:43 AM PDT

Having just presented on natural link building at a4uexpo Europe in Munich, I thought I’d publish my slides from the event.

Kevin Gibbons – a4uexpo Europe – Natural Link Building

If you have any questions just let me know in the comments. The session was alongside Kelvin Newman who did a great presentation which you can find here.

joi, 9 iunie 2011

Seth's Blog : Email checklist (maybe this time it'll work!)

Email checklist (maybe this time it'll work!)