How Businesses Should React to Negative Social Media & Reviews

Social Media still scares many businesses both large and small. But hiding from social media isn’t the answer. The real answer lies in embracing it … in all of its brutal, raw honesty.

Not participating doesn’t make people stop talking about you. It just means you aren’t part of the conversation…

Let’s look at the case of restaurant reviews. In the past, small local restaurants had the upper hand. If they offered poor quality service, people would tell their friends–but it would take a while before the message spread. With the emergence of social media, the roles reversed. All it took was one obnoxious, fussy, or overly-particular customer who was active on social media, and a restaurant could meet an early and unwarranted demise. This got so bad it led one coffee shop to overreact and put up a No Yelp Reviewers sign. However, now that social media has matured, many sites have tools for businesses to respond. I recently came across an example of a negative review …

…we’d gone out of our way to make reservations for 7 of us, and while 3 of us showed up on time, the rest of our party was lost somewhere in Gpoint. At which point the uber bitchy hostess says, we can only hold your table until 9:15pm and then we’re giving it away. We offered to go ahead and order for our lost compadres and apologized profusely, promising that our companions were definitely on their way, but she refused to make any accommodations. She snidely suggested we try to sit at the bar. ALL SEVEN OF US.
Now I’ve eaten at a lot of hoity toity restaurants, but NEVER have I encountered such a terrible attitude from a hostess. You’d think we were trying to get a table at Daniel. And we made a reservation!! This is Gpoint, dude. How do you get off with an attitude like that for a sweet neighborhood restaurant in Gpoint?!?!?! I am never coming back.
Maybe she just needs to get laid.

Now this could have gone poorly. Not responding would leave a big question mark in the mind of anyone coming across the review. The owner could have fired back with guns a-blazing, which would have become a case of he-said/she-said. While doing so would lessen the effect of the question mark, it doesn’t remove it. What really happened was the owner got involved, leaving a measured, honest response:

Hi Joan. I am the hostess, although most people know me as the owner. I just wanted to say thanks so much for making it clear what our super reasonable seating policy is. We do not seat incomplete parties in our 30 seat restaurant, especially on a Saturday night, especially when we have other customers who have been waiting an hour for a table. And, let’s be honest Joan, you and two of your friends arrived at 9:15 for your 9:00 reservation, and the rest of your party was still not complete at 9:25 when I finally gave away your table. Your friend had made the reservation that afternoon for 8 people and I explained to him our rules. He said no problem. Sorry you felt the need to personally attack me about this, Joan. Seems likes it best for all involved that you’ve sworn to never return.

The owner responded perfectly. Anyone who reads both versions will probably believe her and not the whiney customer.
The lesson here is that companies need to understand that review websites and social media sites aren’t going to go away. Not participating doesn’t make people stop talking about you; it just means you aren’t part of the conversation. What businesses need to realize is they have to become part of the discussion and get smarter about how they do it. If you need a detailed plan, one of the best I’ve seen comes from the US Air Force chart for social media engagement. However, it really boils down to 4 key points:
Monitor – Companies need to monitor what’s being said about them on websites like Angie’s list, Yelp, HotPot, Expedia, Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare or any other niche-specific review websites. I like to use Raven Tools, because it’s fairly extensive, and it’s part of my daily workflow. Other similar services include Trackur, Radian6, and Lithium.
Listen – When I worked in retail, one of the important lessons I learned was that, when a customer complained about you, what they are really doing is giving you the opportunity to fix a problem. Too often most people take criticism personally and overreact, turning a bad situation into a worse one. If you listen–and I mean REALLY LISTEN–you’ll see that most customers are telling you what’s wrong and how to fix it …
Respond  & React – Now that you know what the problem  is, how are you going to react/respond and fix it? Yes, some customers are going to expect too much, but those are the fringe cases, not the everyday ones. If you are getting more complaints than compliments, then there is something wrong with your product/service and the way you’re positioning/selling it. You need to react to that problem to prevent future problems down the road.
Amplify the Message – Hopefully some of your customers are saying nice things about you somewhere. What are you doing with those messages? Are you spreading them around? Understand the difference between a review and testimonial and treat each of them differently. At the very least you should have a separate review and testimonial page on your website. However, if you want to be really smart and proactive, ask your customers for permission to republish the testimonials. Then set up satellite websites to do proactive reputation management and point some targeted anchor text at them.
So what are the takeaways from this post:

• Understand that reviews and public customer feedback are now a part of almost every business.
• Monitor what’s being said across a variety of websites, and gauge where and when you need to be involved.
• Identify what are the key places where you need to be part of a conversation–don’t dominate or lead it.
• Listen to what the customers are saying and realize it’s an opportunity to fix a problem.
• See if there’s a problem with how you are selling/positioning your service/product that’s creating the negative feedback.
• Amplify your successes. Make sure everyone knows about them. Use them strategically for proactive reputation management.

How Businesses Should React to Negative Social Media & Reviews

Social Media still scares many businesses both large and small. But hiding from social media isn’t the answer. The real answer lies in embracing it … in all of its brutal, raw honesty.

Not participating doesn’t make people stop talking about you. It just means you aren’t part of the conversation…

Let’s look at the case of restaurant reviews. In the past, small local restaurants had the upper hand. If they offered poor quality service, people would tell their friends–but it would take a while before the message spread. With the emergence of social media, the roles reversed. All it took was one obnoxious, fussy, or overly-particular customer who was active on social media, and a restaurant could meet an early and unwarranted demise. This got so bad it led one coffee shop to overreact and put up a No Yelp Reviewers sign. However, now that social media has matured, many sites have tools for businesses to respond. I recently came across an example of a negative review …

…we’d gone out of our way to make reservations for 7 of us, and while 3 of us showed up on time, the rest of our party was lost somewhere in Gpoint. At which point the uber bitchy hostess says, we can only hold your table until 9:15pm and then we’re giving it away. We offered to go ahead and order for our lost compadres and apologized profusely, promising that our companions were definitely on their way, but she refused to make any accommodations. She snidely suggested we try to sit at the bar. ALL SEVEN OF US.
Now I’ve eaten at a lot of hoity toity restaurants, but NEVER have I encountered such a terrible attitude from a hostess. You’d think we were trying to get a table at Daniel. And we made a reservation!! This is Gpoint, dude. How do you get off with an attitude like that for a sweet neighborhood restaurant in Gpoint?!?!?! I am never coming back.
Maybe she just needs to get laid.

Now this could have gone poorly. Not responding would leave a big question mark in the mind of anyone coming across the review. The owner could have fired back with guns a-blazing, which would have become a case of he-said/she-said. While doing so would lessen the effect of the question mark, it doesn’t remove it. What really happened was the owner got involved, leaving a measured, honest response:

Hi Joan. I am the hostess, although most people know me as the owner. I just wanted to say thanks so much for making it clear what our super reasonable seating policy is. We do not seat incomplete parties in our 30 seat restaurant, especially on a Saturday night, especially when we have other customers who have been waiting an hour for a table. And, let’s be honest Joan, you and two of your friends arrived at 9:15 for your 9:00 reservation, and the rest of your party was still not complete at 9:25 when I finally gave away your table. Your friend had made the reservation that afternoon for 8 people and I explained to him our rules. He said no problem. Sorry you felt the need to personally attack me about this, Joan. Seems likes it best for all involved that you’ve sworn to never return.

The owner responded perfectly. Anyone who reads both versions will probably believe her and not the whiney customer.
The lesson here is that companies need to understand that review websites and social media sites aren’t going to go away. Not participating doesn’t make people stop talking about you; it just means you aren’t part of the conversation. What businesses need to realize is they have to become part of the discussion and get smarter about how they do it. If you need a detailed plan, one of the best I’ve seen comes from the US Air Force chart for social media engagement. However, it really boils down to 4 key points:
Monitor – Companies need to monitor what’s being said about them on websites like Angie’s list, Yelp, HotPot, Expedia, Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare or any other niche-specific review websites. I like to use Raven Tools, because it’s fairly extensive, and it’s part of my daily workflow. Other similar services include Trackur, Radian6, and Lithium.
Listen – When I worked in retail, one of the important lessons I learned was that, when a customer complained about you, what they are really doing is giving you the opportunity to fix a problem. Too often most people take criticism personally and overreact, turning a bad situation into a worse one. If you listen–and I mean REALLY LISTEN–you’ll see that most customers are telling you what’s wrong and how to fix it …
Respond  & React – Now that you know what the problem  is, how are you going to react/respond and fix it? Yes, some customers are going to expect too much, but those are the fringe cases, not the everyday ones. If you are getting more complaints than compliments, then there is something wrong with your product/service and the way you’re positioning/selling it. You need to react to that problem to prevent future problems down the road.
Amplify the Message – Hopefully some of your customers are saying nice things about you somewhere. What are you doing with those messages? Are you spreading them around? Understand the difference between a review and testimonial and treat each of them differently. At the very least you should have a separate review and testimonial page on your website. However, if you want to be really smart and proactive, ask your customers for permission to republish the testimonials. Then set up satellite websites to do proactive reputation management and point some targeted anchor text at them.
So what are the takeaways from this post:

• Understand that reviews and public customer feedback are now a part of almost every business.
• Monitor what’s being said across a variety of websites, and gauge where and when you need to be involved.
• Identify what are the key places where you need to be part of a conversation–don’t dominate or lead it.
• Listen to what the customers are saying and realize it’s an opportunity to fix a problem.
• See if there’s a problem with how you are selling/positioning your service/product that’s creating the negative feedback.
• Amplify your successes. Make sure everyone knows about them. Use them strategically for proactive reputation management.

How to Build Links with Images

The following is part of a series of posts on image optimization. In this post we’re going to be talking about using image optimization as a link building technique.
We’re going to approach this issue backwards, but hopefully you’ll understand why when I’m done. Let’s assume that you have your own pictures and have put some best practices for image optimization in place and your images are ranking. However, instead of single pages of content, let’s say you have a gallery of your top 50 images each with their own page and the individual pages rank. Let’s say the entire purpose of this endeavor was to give away large size or high resolution pictures to anyone who wanted them in exchange for a link. You could make them use a contact form; however, I’d suggest making it self service, with a link to the file and the linking code right on the page and with some “keep it simple stupid” instructions. Will everyone do it? No. However, by making it easy, you created a low maintenance link building technique (see How I Manage WordPress Websites).
Now that I’ve hopefully proven the value of “why,” let’s get into the how. The obvious solution is to hire a professional photographer; however, I can tell you that dealing with professional photographers is a complete PIA. They are usually crazy expensive, especially if you want the copyright to the pictures. Seriously, if you want a good laugh, pick up the phone and try to negotiate a deal like that with a professional photographer.
What I’m going to suggest is finding a local pro-amateur photographer who will do it for a far lower price. The results won’t be as good, but they will be usable and a lot more affordable. Now that professional grade DSLR cameras are finding their way into consumer’s hands, it’s very likely you may know someone who can fit the bill. If you have some skill, you can often do this yourself. However, be forewarned that the higher quality your pictures, the more successful you will be at using them to build links. So it’s a trade-off between cost and link building.
As I mentioned in my stock photography post, another option is finding someone on a classified service like Craigslist. While you can save a lot in price going this route, be aware of the trade off in quality and link building potential. Sometimes quality does really matter.
So what are the takeaways from this post:

• Look for cost effective ways to build a library of photos you can exchange for links.
• Balance higher quality, highly desirable images with greater link building potential over low cost images.
• Create single pages targeted specifically for image optimization.
• Try to make the operation as self service as possible, with links to files and suggested linking code.
• Update and add new images every year or as needed.

WPTouch Pro Mobile Theme Review

The following is a review of the WPTouch Pro Mobile Theme. This is a premium theme that I paid for. This is NOT a sponsored review. I’ve been an big advocate of keeping a website on one URL and not using m.example.com, example.com/mobile/, or example.mobi as your solution (see Dangers of Multiple Website Versions). I’ve also shown example of how Google can get mobile website detection wrong. That said, I’m a big proponent of having a mobile website and delivering mobile optimized content to smart phones and the growing number of tablet devices. I have been using the free version of WPTouch for years, and it’s been on my list of recommended WordPress SEO plugins. However, three things frustrate me: the lack of branding, the lack of iPad support, and the lack of customization. Thankfully all three of these problems were solved by the premium version.
As of this writing, there are three pricing options: $39.95 for a single website, $69.95 for up to 5 websites, and $199.95 for an unlimited number of websites. I chose the middle option because, at the time of the purchase, I was unsure if I was going to like theme, but I figured that, even if it only gave me iPad support, I would use it on my 5 best sites and be done with it.
Installation is pretty easy. You download the zip file from the website then upload it through the plugin interface. Once uploaded, you put in your login/license and the theme is activated. If you are using a caching solution, you will need to enter the names of the mobile browser on the browser exception list. While you are setting it up, it’s probably a good idea to turn off caching just to make sure it’s not causing any problems.
Configuration is pretty straight forward, but there are a lot of options. You need to play around with a few of them to get them correct.
I’ll go over some of the important ones:

• Make sure you enable iPad support under (Active Theme > iPad Settings).
• You will need to upload a mobile logo (270 x 44) and (540 x 88) for the iPhone and and iPhone retina view. Personally I skipped the retina logo version. I do wish there was a logo for the portrait version of the iPad view though.
• I turned off the dates under (Active Theme > Menu, posts pages).
• Instead of the dates, I used the featured image under (Active Theme > Style Appearance  >Thumbnail Icons ). You will need to make sure your theme supports featured image or you’ll need to enable it manually. If you don’t have featured images, your theme will show a blank camera icon.
• Turn off the image as attachments setting to prevent double images from appearing.
• I changed the colors slightly from the defaults and went with a sans-serif font (never try to argue that using serif font on a website is a good idea with me … it won’t end well … trust me)

One of the nice options is that it gives you the ability to back up your mobile settings should your blog “go boom”. Wait till you have everything set up how you want, then take advantage of that feature. It’s a nice bit of insurance to have and could save you time down the road.
One of the odd things that I didn’t like was the Google adsense support. The plugin supports mobile adsense for smartphones but not for the iPad version. This is a feature that has been requested a few times in the support forums. I am using a plugin to display ads randomly on all of my posts older than 7 days, so the iPad version does get ads but not mobile optimized ones. This does mean that smartphone users viewing posts older than 7 days get ads too. Unfortunately they bleed off the screen because they are too large.
Overall I’m pretty happy with the plugin. It solved most of my problems, such as branding, lack of customization, and iPad support. Two things I really would like to see added are logo support for portrait reading on the iPad and mobile adsense on the iPad version. It does take a little while to configure but, once you get it right, it’s pretty maintenance-free.
WPTouch Pro is a premium plugin that I recommend using. I believe that serving mobile optimized content is becoming increasingly more important (see How Mobile Friendly is Your Website). To be clear, if you purchase this plugin using my link, I do make an affiliate commission. That said, I purchased this plugin with my own money for the review and was not given a free or comped version. This review is NOT a sponsored review. So I am comfortable recommending this product. I think it’s a worthwhile investment: I paid $69 for it but will be upgrading to the unlimited version in the very near future. WPTouch Pro is plugin I recommend .

How to Build Links with Images

The following is part of a series of posts on image optimization. In this post we’re going to be talking about using image optimization as a link building technique.
We’re going to approach this issue backwards, but hopefully you’ll understand why when I’m done. Let’s assume that you have your own pictures and have put some best practices for image optimization in place and your images are ranking. However, instead of single pages of content, let’s say you have a gallery of your top 50 images each with their own page and the individual pages rank. Let’s say the entire purpose of this endeavor was to give away large size or high resolution pictures to anyone who wanted them in exchange for a link. You could make them use a contact form; however, I’d suggest making it self service, with a link to the file and the linking code right on the page and with some “keep it simple stupid” instructions. Will everyone do it? No. However, by making it easy, you created a low maintenance link building technique (see How I Manage WordPress Websites).
Now that I’ve hopefully proven the value of “why,” let’s get into the how. The obvious solution is to hire a professional photographer; however, I can tell you that dealing with professional photographers is a complete PIA. They are usually crazy expensive, especially if you want the copyright to the pictures. Seriously, if you want a good laugh, pick up the phone and try to negotiate a deal like that with a professional photographer.
What I’m going to suggest is finding a local pro-amateur photographer who will do it for a far lower price. The results won’t be as good, but they will be usable and a lot more affordable. Now that professional grade DSLR cameras are finding their way into consumer’s hands, it’s very likely you may know someone who can fit the bill. If you have some skill, you can often do this yourself. However, be forewarned that the higher quality your pictures, the more successful you will be at using them to build links. So it’s a trade-off between cost and link building.
As I mentioned in my stock photography post, another option is finding someone on a classified service like Craigslist. While you can save a lot in price going this route, be aware of the trade off in quality and link building potential. Sometimes quality does really matter.
So what are the takeaways from this post:

• Look for cost effective ways to build a library of photos you can exchange for links.
• Balance higher quality, highly desirable images with greater link building potential over low cost images.
• Create single pages targeted specifically for image optimization.
• Try to make the operation as self service as possible, with links to files and suggested linking code.
• Update and add new images every year or as needed.

WPTouch Pro Mobile Theme Review

The following is a review of the WPTouch Pro Mobile Theme. This is a premium theme that I paid for. This is NOT a sponsored review. I’ve been an big advocate of keeping a website on one URL and not using m.example.com, example.com/mobile/, or example.mobi as your solution (see Dangers of Multiple Website Versions). I’ve also shown example of how Google can get mobile website detection wrong. That said, I’m a big proponent of having a mobile website and delivering mobile optimized content to smart phones and the growing number of tablet devices. I have been using the free version of WPTouch for years, and it’s been on my list of recommended WordPress SEO plugins. However, three things frustrate me: the lack of branding, the lack of iPad support, and the lack of customization. Thankfully all three of these problems were solved by the premium version.
As of this writing, there are three pricing options: $39.95 for a single website, $69.95 for up to 5 websites, and $199.95 for an unlimited number of websites. I chose the middle option because, at the time of the purchase, I was unsure if I was going to like theme, but I figured that, even if it only gave me iPad support, I would use it on my 5 best sites and be done with it.
Installation is pretty easy. You download the zip file from the website then upload it through the plugin interface. Once uploaded, you put in your login/license and the theme is activated. If you are using a caching solution, you will need to enter the names of the mobile browser on the browser exception list. While you are setting it up, it’s probably a good idea to turn off caching just to make sure it’s not causing any problems.
Configuration is pretty straight forward, but there are a lot of options. You need to play around with a few of them to get them correct.
I’ll go over some of the important ones:

• Make sure you enable iPad support under (Active Theme > iPad Settings).
• You will need to upload a mobile logo (270 x 44) and (540 x 88) for the iPhone and and iPhone retina view. Personally I skipped the retina logo version. I do wish there was a logo for the portrait version of the iPad view though.
• I turned off the dates under (Active Theme > Menu, posts pages).
• Instead of the dates, I used the featured image under (Active Theme > Style Appearance  >Thumbnail Icons ). You will need to make sure your theme supports featured image or you’ll need to enable it manually. If you don’t have featured images, your theme will show a blank camera icon.
• Turn off the image as attachments setting to prevent double images from appearing.
• I changed the colors slightly from the defaults and went with a sans-serif font (never try to argue that using serif font on a website is a good idea with me … it won’t end well … trust me)

One of the nice options is that it gives you the ability to back up your mobile settings should your blog “go boom”. Wait till you have everything set up how you want, then take advantage of that feature. It’s a nice bit of insurance to have and could save you time down the road.
One of the odd things that I didn’t like was the Google adsense support. The plugin supports mobile adsense for smartphones but not for the iPad version. This is a feature that has been requested a few times in the support forums. I am using a plugin to display ads randomly on all of my posts older than 7 days, so the iPad version does get ads but not mobile optimized ones. This does mean that smartphone users viewing posts older than 7 days get ads too. Unfortunately they bleed off the screen because they are too large.
Overall I’m pretty happy with the plugin. It solved most of my problems, such as branding, lack of customization, and iPad support. Two things I really would like to see added are logo support for portrait reading on the iPad and mobile adsense on the iPad version. It does take a little while to configure but, once you get it right, it’s pretty maintenance-free.
WPTouch Pro is a premium plugin that I recommend using. I believe that serving mobile optimized content is becoming increasingly more important (see How Mobile Friendly is Your Website). To be clear, if you purchase this plugin using my link, I do make an affiliate commission. That said, I purchased this plugin with my own money for the review and was not given a free or comped version. This review is NOT a sponsored review. So I am comfortable recommending this product. I think it’s a worthwhile investment: I paid $69 for it but will be upgrading to the unlimited version in the very near future. WPTouch Pro is plugin I recommend .

Job

We are delighted at the prospect of seeing your resume on this portal and we are equally delighted to send you this email confirming that your profile has been shortlisted for a role with us. To brief you about what we do? Infosys BPO is an end-to-end outsourcing services provider. Infosys BPO is a global company with 12 delivery centers across the Asia Pacific, Latin America, Europe and India. Our business solutions and leadership have been recognized by several global forums. We are an equal-opportunity employer and continue to be regarded for our global people excellence practices. What would be the Job Profile? We have a requirement for Process Executives for our non voice based business at Infosys BPO. The job profile is to provide Customer Service for our Global Clients Our Requirement a) we are looking for people with good communication skills so if you think you have good command on verbal and written English, you would be at the right place and we would give you a great career opportunity. b) You should have completed your graduation b) you should be willing to work in 24/7 environment. c) You should posses’ basic understanding of computers and internet. d) Analytical and problem solving. If you think you are delighted at the prospect of being a part of the Infosys family. e) Should be completed Graduation.


Direct walk in for an Interview for Finance & Accounting / Investment Banking / Back-end data process in Gurgaon location

Please find the JD Below and Walk-in to the venue mentioned below.

Date of Interview: 23rd May’11 to 26th May’11

Timings – between – 9.30 AM to 12.00 PM

Venue:
Infosys BPO Ltd – BPO
DLF Cyber City,
Building No.06, Block A, B and C,
7th floor, SEZ, DLF, Phase 3
Gurgaon - 122002

Contact Person: Komal

Finance & Accounting/ Investment banking JD: -

- Good communication skills
- Process: Finance and Account
- Designation: Process Executive
- Experience: 0 – 2 yrs accounting experience.
- Education: Only Bcom, BBA, should be completed
- Willing to work in 24/7 shifts
- Ready to relocate
- Work location: - Jaipur; Gurgaon

Back-end data Process: -
- Excellent communication skills
- Designation: Process Executive
- Education: Any graduate (No BE, Btech, MCA or any Technical)
- Willing to work in 24/7 shifts
- 0 to 18 months experience in MIS.
Work location: - Gurgaon

Notes:
KINDLY MENTION HRO IN THE TOP OF YOUR RESUME as it s mandatory & TAKE A PRINT OF THIS COPY.

Please carry a print of this mail copy and attach with your CV and also need to carry ID card of yours (Driving license / Voter’s ID card).

If you have already attended Please refer your friends and give them an opportunity to become part of Infosys-BPO and also ask them to mentioned “HRO”

Kindly ignore the mail to whom so ever not concerned


Thanks & Regards
Umashankar
HRO Recruitment team
9916494080
Infosys-BPO
Bangalore

Job

We are delighted at the prospect of seeing your resume on this portal and we are equally delighted to send you this email confirming that your profile has been shortlisted for a role with us. To brief you about what we do? Infosys BPO is an end-to-end outsourcing services provider. Infosys BPO is a global company with 12 delivery centers across the Asia Pacific, Latin America, Europe and India. Our business solutions and leadership have been recognized by several global forums. We are an equal-opportunity employer and continue to be regarded for our global people excellence practices. What would be the Job Profile? We have a requirement for Process Executives for our non voice based business at Infosys BPO. The job profile is to provide Customer Service for our Global Clients Our Requirement a) we are looking for people with good communication skills so if you think you have good command on verbal and written English, you would be at the right place and we would give you a great career opportunity. b) You should have completed your graduation b) you should be willing to work in 24/7 environment. c) You should posses’ basic understanding of computers and internet. d) Analytical and problem solving. If you think you are delighted at the prospect of being a part of the Infosys family. e) Should be completed Graduation.


Direct walk in for an Interview for Finance & Accounting / Investment Banking / Back-end data process in Gurgaon location

Please find the JD Below and Walk-in to the venue mentioned below.

Date of Interview: 23rd May’11 to 26th May’11

Timings – between – 9.30 AM to 12.00 PM

Venue:
Infosys BPO Ltd – BPO
DLF Cyber City,
Building No.06, Block A, B and C,
7th floor, SEZ, DLF, Phase 3
Gurgaon - 122002

Contact Person: Komal

Finance & Accounting/ Investment banking JD: -

- Good communication skills
- Process: Finance and Account
- Designation: Process Executive
- Experience: 0 – 2 yrs accounting experience.
- Education: Only Bcom, BBA, should be completed
- Willing to work in 24/7 shifts
- Ready to relocate
- Work location: - Jaipur; Gurgaon

Back-end data Process: -
- Excellent communication skills
- Designation: Process Executive
- Education: Any graduate (No BE, Btech, MCA or any Technical)
- Willing to work in 24/7 shifts
- 0 to 18 months experience in MIS.
Work location: - Gurgaon

Notes:
KINDLY MENTION HRO IN THE TOP OF YOUR RESUME as it s mandatory & TAKE A PRINT OF THIS COPY.

Please carry a print of this mail copy and attach with your CV and also need to carry ID card of yours (Driving license / Voter’s ID card).

If you have already attended Please refer your friends and give them an opportunity to become part of Infosys-BPO and also ask them to mentioned “HRO”

Kindly ignore the mail to whom so ever not concerned


Thanks & Regards
Umashankar
HRO Recruitment team
9916494080
Infosys-BPO
Bangalore

Thanks to This Month’s Sponsors April 2011

I’d like to say thanks to the people who sponsored the blog this month, without them there wouldn’t be regular posts here.

Text Link Ads – New customers can get $100 in free text links.
BOTW.org – Get a premier listing in the internet’s oldest directory.
Ezilon.com Regional Directory – Check to see if your website is listed!
Directory Journal – Get permanent deep links in a search engine friendly directory
Link Building – Backlink Build offers 45 PR5+ Backlinks for $295.
Interested in seeing your message here? There are banner and RSS advertising options available find out more information. Be sure to check out our new Sponsored post option.
Blam Ads – Content locking can help you make more money with your website

Here’s a list of some other programs and products I reccomend
Thesis Theme for WordPress – Hands down the best theme on the market right now, read my Thesis Theme for WordPress Review.
Scribe SEO – Improve your blog posts with this easy to use built in tool, read my Scribe SEO Review.
KnowEm – Protect your brand, product or company name with a continually growing list of social media sites, read an Interview with Michael Streko.
Links From PR9 Sites – - Get In Top 3 Google ASAP
TigerTech – Great Web Hosting service at a great price, read my Tiger Tech Review.

Thanks to This Month’s Sponsors April 2011

I’d like to say thanks to the people who sponsored the blog this month, without them there wouldn’t be regular posts here.

Text Link Ads – New customers can get $100 in free text links.
BOTW.org – Get a premier listing in the internet’s oldest directory.
Ezilon.com Regional Directory – Check to see if your website is listed!
Directory Journal – Get permanent deep links in a search engine friendly directory
Link Building – Backlink Build offers 45 PR5+ Backlinks for $295.
Interested in seeing your message here? There are banner and RSS advertising options available find out more information. Be sure to check out our new Sponsored post option.
Blam Ads – Content locking can help you make more money with your website

Here’s a list of some other programs and products I reccomend
Thesis Theme for WordPress – Hands down the best theme on the market right now, read my Thesis Theme for WordPress Review.
Scribe SEO – Improve your blog posts with this easy to use built in tool, read my Scribe SEO Review.
KnowEm – Protect your brand, product or company name with a continually growing list of social media sites, read an Interview with Michael Streko.
Links From PR9 Sites – - Get In Top 3 Google ASAP
TigerTech – Great Web Hosting service at a great price, read my Tiger Tech Review.

How Often Should You Update Evergreen Content

The idea of evergreen content is that it is essentially unchanging, intended to last “a long time,”and have little or no maintenance. So isn’t updating evergreen content a bit of an oxymoron? In some cases yes, in some cases This discussion is part of a larger discussion I’ve been having on Twitter about re-tweeting old posts that have no published dates on them. While I do have a solution for displaying custom date formats that doesn’t adversely affect my Google click through rate, the fact that I may be tweeting outdated information exists.

So what’s a workable solution to evergreen content?

Make it part of your annual content audit process. Every 6-18 months, review and prune your dead posts. Review your top content to see what needs to be updated or cleaned up. Treat posts that you update like seasonal content and keep the living URL the same. Clear the “already tweeted” or “already published” flags (so the post will retweet when you change the publish date) and hit the “publish” button. (side note – for those of you who are using a plugin to post your tweets and may not know, when they “publish,” it sets a field in the database so it doesn’t retweet when you make any edits. In this case you want to override that behavior and make it retweet again as if it were a new post).If you review the content and it needs very minor changes or no changes at all, treat it as seasonal content: clear the tweeted flags and update the publish date. This will add a bit of maintenance but not much. If the information is still up to date, your followers won’t mind “a rerun or two from last season” as long as there are regular posts and you don’t tweet them in “batch mode.” (side note: as an SEO, we like to work in batch mode, so updating 20 posts in one day and having them retweet in “batch” probably won’t win you any friends). If your audience is made up of whiny SEO’s or short attention span social media gurus, expect some hating. Regular people who aren’t on Twitter all day don’t really mind; in fact, many studies have shown retweeting is an effective way to reach these people.
So what are the key takeaways from this post:

• When you do a content audit, also look for posts with outdated information.
• Decide if you need a full rewrite or just a cleanup.
• Treat the content like a living URL and don’t lose any existing link equity.
• Clear out any “already tweeted” and “already published” flags.
• Update the publish date, republish, and re-tweet.

How Often Should You Update Evergreen Content

The idea of evergreen content is that it is essentially unchanging, intended to last “a long time,”and have little or no maintenance. So isn’t updating evergreen content a bit of an oxymoron? In some cases yes, in some cases This discussion is part of a larger discussion I’ve been having on Twitter about re-tweeting old posts that have no published dates on them. While I do have a solution for displaying custom date formats that doesn’t adversely affect my Google click through rate, the fact that I may be tweeting outdated information exists.

So what’s a workable solution to evergreen content?

Make it part of your annual content audit process. Every 6-18 months, review and prune your dead posts. Review your top content to see what needs to be updated or cleaned up. Treat posts that you update like seasonal content and keep the living URL the same. Clear the “already tweeted” or “already published” flags (so the post will retweet when you change the publish date) and hit the “publish” button. (side note – for those of you who are using a plugin to post your tweets and may not know, when they “publish,” it sets a field in the database so it doesn’t retweet when you make any edits. In this case you want to override that behavior and make it retweet again as if it were a new post).If you review the content and it needs very minor changes or no changes at all, treat it as seasonal content: clear the tweeted flags and update the publish date. This will add a bit of maintenance but not much. If the information is still up to date, your followers won’t mind “a rerun or two from last season” as long as there are regular posts and you don’t tweet them in “batch mode.” (side note: as an SEO, we like to work in batch mode, so updating 20 posts in one day and having them retweet in “batch” probably won’t win you any friends). If your audience is made up of whiny SEO’s or short attention span social media gurus, expect some hating. Regular people who aren’t on Twitter all day don’t really mind; in fact, many studies have shown retweeting is an effective way to reach these people.
So what are the key takeaways from this post:

• When you do a content audit, also look for posts with outdated information.
• Decide if you need a full rewrite or just a cleanup.
• Treat the content like a living URL and don’t lose any existing link equity.
• Clear out any “already tweeted” and “already published” flags.
• Update the publish date, republish, and re-tweet.

Thesis Tutorial – Custom Post Dates

The following post is part of my Thesis tutorial series. In this post, we’re going to be looking at how to customize your date display. In the past 12 months, Google has gotten much more aggressive about displaying dates in SERP listings. Since many of the sites I publish have evergreen content, they suffer from lower SERP CTR when “old” dates are shown in the SERPs.

SERP's with Dates

However, as has been pointed out, I am doing my readers a disservice by not showing the date on the post. So I’ve come up with a workaround that lets me display the date for users–but in a format that Google currently can’t extract.
This tutorial is written for Thesis (see my Thesis wordpress theme review) but can be adapted if you are using another theme. First, make sure you turn off the author’s name and date. To do this, go to thesis > design options > display options > bylines and uncheck the box.

Uncheck the published on date box

Now your post should have no date or author. Next, open up the custom functions file and create a new function. I’m calling mine “uauthor_byline”.
//this is author byline
function uauthor_byline() {
}
You’ll need some logic to display the dates only on single post pages. Here it is.
if (is_single()){ }
Inside of that function, you will need some date logic that figures out how old a post is and decides between two display variations. Set a variable for the post age, as shown below.
$daysold = (current_time(timestamp) - get_the_time('U') - (get_settings('gmt_offset')))/(24*60*60);
if ($daysold < 180) { } else { }
Here’s the logic to change the display based on post age. I’m going with 6 months, which is 180 days. If a post is less than 180 days, I’ll show the full date; if it’s older than 180, I’ll only show the month and year.
if ($daysold < 180){ <? the_date('F j, Y'); ?> } else {<? the_date('F Y'); ?>}
The only other thing you will need is a link with the author’s name.
<span class="headline_meta">Written by <span class="author vcard fn"><? the_author_posts_link(); ?> on </span></span><
Bring everything together like this:
//this is author byline
function uauthor_byline() {
$daysold = (current_time(timestamp) - get_the_time('U') - (get_settings('gmt_offset')))/(24*60*60);

if (is_single()){ ?>
<span class="headline_meta">Written by <span class="author vcard fn"><? the_author_posts_link(); ?> on </span>
if ($daysold < 180){ <? the_date('F j, Y'); ?> } else {<? the_date('F Y'); ?>}
?> </span> <?
}
}

The last thing to do is call the function in the right place. In this case, you will use the before post hook, like this:

add_action('thesis_hook_before_post','uauthor_byline' );
And here are the two variations–one just before the 180 days and one just after.

date variations

It should be noted that this is a workaround and, at some point, Google may get smart enough to interpret this or adjust its date algo. At some level, we are engaging in a bit of trickery for our own benefit. If you want to avoid this “little white lie,” you should update your evergreen content regularly and use a seasonal living URL strategy. This ensures you give the users the most up to date info without tricking anyone.
If you want to use this tutorial, it works best with the Thesis Theme. If you purchase from that link, I do receive a commission; however, I use Thesis on this website and many others and am very comfortable recommending it. If you want to spend less time playing with theme and more time creating content, Thesis is an excellent platform to do it on.

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Thesis Tutorial – Custom Post Dates

The following post is part of my Thesis tutorial series. In this post, we’re going to be looking at how to customize your date display. In the past 12 months, Google has gotten much more aggressive about displaying dates in SERP listings. Since many of the sites I publish have evergreen content, they suffer from lower SERP CTR when “old” dates are shown in the SERPs.

SERP's with Dates

However, as has been pointed out, I am doing my readers a disservice by not showing the date on the post. So I’ve come up with a workaround that lets me display the date for users–but in a format that Google currently can’t extract.
This tutorial is written for Thesis (see my Thesis wordpress theme review) but can be adapted if you are using another theme. First, make sure you turn off the author’s name and date. To do this, go to thesis > design options > display options > bylines and uncheck the box.

Uncheck the published on date box

Now your post should have no date or author. Next, open up the custom functions file and create a new function. I’m calling mine “uauthor_byline”.
//this is author byline
function uauthor_byline() {
}
You’ll need some logic to display the dates only on single post pages. Here it is.
if (is_single()){ }
Inside of that function, you will need some date logic that figures out how old a post is and decides between two display variations. Set a variable for the post age, as shown below.
$daysold = (current_time(timestamp) - get_the_time('U') - (get_settings('gmt_offset')))/(24*60*60);
if ($daysold < 180) { } else { }
Here’s the logic to change the display based on post age. I’m going with 6 months, which is 180 days. If a post is less than 180 days, I’ll show the full date; if it’s older than 180, I’ll only show the month and year.
if ($daysold < 180){ <? the_date('F j, Y'); ?> } else {<? the_date('F Y'); ?>}
The only other thing you will need is a link with the author’s name.
<span class="headline_meta">Written by <span class="author vcard fn"><? the_author_posts_link(); ?> on </span></span><
Bring everything together like this:
//this is author byline
function uauthor_byline() {
$daysold = (current_time(timestamp) - get_the_time('U') - (get_settings('gmt_offset')))/(24*60*60);

if (is_single()){ ?>
<span class="headline_meta">Written by <span class="author vcard fn"><? the_author_posts_link(); ?> on </span>
if ($daysold < 180){ <? the_date('F j, Y'); ?> } else {<? the_date('F Y'); ?>}
?> </span> <?
}
}

The last thing to do is call the function in the right place. In this case, you will use the before post hook, like this:

add_action('thesis_hook_before_post','uauthor_byline' );
And here are the two variations–one just before the 180 days and one just after.

date variations

It should be noted that this is a workaround and, at some point, Google may get smart enough to interpret this or adjust its date algo. At some level, we are engaging in a bit of trickery for our own benefit. If you want to avoid this “little white lie,” you should update your evergreen content regularly and use a seasonal living URL strategy. This ensures you give the users the most up to date info without tricking anyone.
If you want to use this tutorial, it works best with the Thesis Theme. If you purchase from that link, I do receive a commission; however, I use Thesis on this website and many others and am very comfortable recommending it. If you want to spend less time playing with theme and more time creating content, Thesis is an excellent platform to do it on.

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Risks, Apologies and Learning From Your Mistakes

If you were paying attention, late last week you saw a guest post that published Thursday night. This was an interesting post, as it provided some in-the-trenches, first-hand analysis of a website that was ranking and why. However, the downside was that this analysis named a specific website, where/how they where getting links and ranking, and crossed the line. It’s what many people would consider outing. Additionally, this wasn’t an analysis of a random third party website: it was an analysis of a former client–by someone who is now a competitor–without disclosing that relationship. Unfortunately, all of this happened while I was on vacation and, because I took some shortcuts, the post didn’t go through the normal editorial review and was published before I had a chance to review it. Since this post didn’t fit within the editorial style of this blog, and considering the questionable motivation of exposing a former client-turned-competitor without disclosure, I have removed the post and apologized to the party involved. From every mistake, there are lessons you learn: Mistake number one: I never should have set up a login for a new guest author while on vacation. The post wasn’t time sensitive and wasn’t going to publish. It absolutely could have waited till I get back.

• Mistake number two: I didn’t email the editor who reviews posts tell her to leave the guest post for me to review, especially since this was a new guest author.
• Mistake number three: I don’t have guest author guidelines, and I don’t mention disclosing any previous, current, or pending relationships, associations or incentives.

I’ll be making some internal changes to make sure mistakes like this don’t happen again. One question is will I still accept and publish guest posts? The answer is yes. While this is my blog and will always be “my voice,” I think having the occasional guest author makes things interesting. In fact, some of my top posts from 2010 were guest posts. I think having to deal with the occasional “editorial issue” and having a rare mistake is absolutely worth it. IMHO the biggest mistake you can make is being afraid to make one and never taking any risks. “Exposing” current or former clients without permission is, in my opinion, a very unprofessional  thing to do. Discussing a previous client or current without disclosure is just bad form.
However, at the end of the day, this my website and what publishes here is my responsibility, so I take the blame  for what went wrong. So I’d like to apologize again to the person whose website was outed. I took shortcuts, and they came back to bite me in the butt. I’ll be updating the editorial process to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Image of the Day – For Traffic and Social Engagment

The following is part of a multi part series on image optimization. In this post we’re looking at driving traffic with with “image of the day” type of posts. Hopefully you’ve read how to optimize creative commons pictures and the basics of image optimization. Those posts will help you get the most out this technique. The idea is to create posts that are directly about your subject matter or related enough that they aren’t a stretch and to publish them on a daily basis. But enough theory–let’s take a look at the plan action. Here’s an example of a wine website. As a picture of the day, they post pictures from wineries around the world

To get the most out of this concept I’d recommend adding a bit of copy to give the picture some context and to give you the ability to add some internal links. This a technique that can work with lots of blogs, car of the day, cat of the day, travel photo of the day, and so on. The technique can work for just about any subject matter.

Chart of the Day from Business Insider

A variation of the technique is chart of the day, used by Business Insider with their chart of the day (shown to the right)  All it takes is a little creativity. You can take your own data or government data slice it and dice it in an interesting way and viola, you’re good to go. This content can be used on Twitter, your blog, or in email format. Make sure you include links to make it easy for others to share your pictures or charts easily. A last benefit of this technique is you can preschedule your posts or create post series and take advantage seasonal events like St. Patrick’s day or Fourth of July.
So what are then takeaways from this post:

• Find stock photos or creative commons photos that you can use for daily pictures of the day style posts.
• Practice standard image optimization to make sure you rank for the keyword terms.
• If images don’t work try graphs or info graphics.
• Look for way to make sharing easy so this can work as a link building tool.

Risks, Apologies and Learning From Your Mistakes

If you were paying attention, late last week you saw a guest post that published Thursday night. This was an interesting post, as it provided some in-the-trenches, first-hand analysis of a website that was ranking and why. However, the downside was that this analysis named a specific website, where/how they where getting links and ranking, and crossed the line. It’s what many people would consider outing. Additionally, this wasn’t an analysis of a random third party website: it was an analysis of a former client–by someone who is now a competitor–without disclosing that relationship. Unfortunately, all of this happened while I was on vacation and, because I took some shortcuts, the post didn’t go through the normal editorial review and was published before I had a chance to review it. Since this post didn’t fit within the editorial style of this blog, and considering the questionable motivation of exposing a former client-turned-competitor without disclosure, I have removed the post and apologized to the party involved. From every mistake, there are lessons you learn: Mistake number one: I never should have set up a login for a new guest author while on vacation. The post wasn’t time sensitive and wasn’t going to publish. It absolutely could have waited till I get back.

• Mistake number two: I didn’t email the editor who reviews posts tell her to leave the guest post for me to review, especially since this was a new guest author.
• Mistake number three: I don’t have guest author guidelines, and I don’t mention disclosing any previous, current, or pending relationships, associations or incentives.

I’ll be making some internal changes to make sure mistakes like this don’t happen again. One question is will I still accept and publish guest posts? The answer is yes. While this is my blog and will always be “my voice,” I think having the occasional guest author makes things interesting. In fact, some of my top posts from 2010 were guest posts. I think having to deal with the occasional “editorial issue” and having a rare mistake is absolutely worth it. IMHO the biggest mistake you can make is being afraid to make one and never taking any risks. “Exposing” current or former clients without permission is, in my opinion, a very unprofessional  thing to do. Discussing a previous client or current without disclosure is just bad form.
However, at the end of the day, this my website and what publishes here is my responsibility, so I take the blame  for what went wrong. So I’d like to apologize again to the person whose website was outed. I took shortcuts, and they came back to bite me in the butt. I’ll be updating the editorial process to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Image of the Day – For Traffic and Social Engagment

The following is part of a multi part series on image optimization. In this post we’re looking at driving traffic with with “image of the day” type of posts. Hopefully you’ve read how to optimize creative commons pictures and the basics of image optimization. Those posts will help you get the most out this technique. The idea is to create posts that are directly about your subject matter or related enough that they aren’t a stretch and to publish them on a daily basis. But enough theory–let’s take a look at the plan action. Here’s an example of a wine website. As a picture of the day, they post pictures from wineries around the world

To get the most out of this concept I’d recommend adding a bit of copy to give the picture some context and to give you the ability to add some internal links. This a technique that can work with lots of blogs, car of the day, cat of the day, travel photo of the day, and so on. The technique can work for just about any subject matter.

Chart of the Day from Business Insider

A variation of the technique is chart of the day, used by Business Insider with their chart of the day (shown to the right)  All it takes is a little creativity. You can take your own data or government data slice it and dice it in an interesting way and viola, you’re good to go. This content can be used on Twitter, your blog, or in email format. Make sure you include links to make it easy for others to share your pictures or charts easily. A last benefit of this technique is you can preschedule your posts or create post series and take advantage seasonal events like St. Patrick’s day or Fourth of July.
So what are then takeaways from this post:

• Find stock photos or creative commons photos that you can use for daily pictures of the day style posts.
• Practice standard image optimization to make sure you rank for the keyword terms.
• If images don’t work try graphs or info graphics.
• Look for way to make sharing easy so this can work as a link building tool.

Google Adsense Forums, Blogs and Resources

Here is a list of notable resources if you want to find out, and stay on top off Google’s Adsense program. I’ve included some obvious links and some low volume forums as well, in an effort to be through. Be careful about what you read and try if you venture too far off the beaten path.

Official Google Information

• Google Adsense : This is the main Google site where you apply for Adsense, log in to get your adsense code, and view your reports.
• Google Adsense Case Studies: If you’re looking to see examples of Google adsense in action these are a few sites google has profiled.

News or Blogs About Google Adsense

• JenSense: Jenstar who publishes this blog is the moderator of the WMW and Search Engine Watch forums on Adsense. This blog covers all contextual advertising programs not just adsense, but is one of the best sources for information about the adsense program. Additionally when they make a change to the programs terms and conditions, this is the place I go for an explanation I can understand. She is also a regular speaker for contextual advertising programs at conferences and tradeshows.
• Problogger: This Blog is run by Darren Rowse who is part of the Breaking News Blog Network. You will get some good subjects brought up here on a regular basis. I’ve only been subscribed for a few weeks but this one is definitely a worthwhile read.
• Make Easy Money With Google Adsense Blog: This is the companion blog to the ‘Make Easy Money with Google‘ book. Not deep in coverage, but it is fairly new. See my ‘Make Easy Money With Google Adsense Review‘ for more information.

Adsense Related Forums or Newsgroups

• WMW Google Adsense Forum: There’s lot of information here, not too much in the ways of ‘tricks’ or ’secrets’. A major advantage of this forum is Adsense Advisor (Google’s Adsense representative) reads, answers questions, and posts news here. Check out the Adsense Library for archives of the top threads.
• Digital Point Google Adsense Forum: Much looser and less formal than webmaster world. This is an active fast growing forum, however there aren’t as many seasoned adsense professionals here as there are in other places. Members drop URL’s to their own sites looking for help, or advice. Makes it a great spot to see things in action.
• Search Engine Watch Google Adsense Forum: Again not as formal as WMW, but not quite as loose as Digital Point. If you read for a little while and use the reputation rankings you’ll get a feel for who knows what they are talking about and who’s just yakkin’. That said you will still see some good topics here on a regular basis from more seasoned adsense professionals.
• Google Adsense Blog: Nothing to speak of at the time of publication. http://adsense.blogspot.com requires a login, Adwords has a dedicated blog so we can only hope.
• Google Groups Adsense Publishers: Not a very active forum, and not much in the way of tips.
• WebProWorld Adsense Adwords Forum: Adwords and Adsense are lumped together here.
• SEOChat Adsense Forum: This one has Adsense mixed in with other affiliate programs.

How Many Websites Should I Run

A question that I get asked fairly regularly is “how many websites should I run? Am I better with one website or lots of little ones?” The question has some different aspects, so, as someone who runs more than one website, I’ll try to share some of my experience.

… no website will ever be finished, but it can reach a point where it covers everything it needs to and just runs in low maintenance auto pilot mode …

If you are brand new, or even if you’ve been doing this for a while, and you aren’t having much luck, my advice is to do exactly what Lynn Terry says and concentrate on just one website. You need to concentrate on making this website as complete as possible. No website will ever be finished, but it can reach a point where it covers everything it needs to and just runs in low maintenance auto pilot mode. The tricky part is figuring out if the website has reached its earning potential or not. If you are ranking in the top 5 for your most profitable and sought after keywords, you might be there. If you have set your website up to be an industry leader, and it’s the brand people think of when they think of your niche, then you definitely are there. Sometimes, if your space is dominated by large brands with a larger staff, higher budgets, and an offline marketing component, it’s hard if not impossible for a small guy to break into the top results. Sometimes competing at that level costs you more time then you will make back in dollars, but that’s something you have to figure out on your own. Hopefully, along the way of building your first successful website, you learn to do two things: 1. minimize the amount of work and maintenance your website needs and 2. how to outsource effectively. When you are first starting out, you usually have more time than money and end up doing things yourself. It’s pretty rare that you find someone who can write well, do design and graphics, and understands marketing and information architecture. We all have our strengths and weaknesses and figuring that out is part of the learning process. Learn what your weaknesses are.  Those should be the things you outsource first. Learning to outsource and remain profitable is a skill you also need to learn. In fact, I think it’s the biggest lesson people can learn from the leaked AOL document (see what you can learn from content farms).

… Learn what your weaknesses are. Those should be the things you outsource first …

Once you have your website ranking for its terms, it’s near the top of its earnings potential, and you have employees or subcontractors who can keep it running without your day to day intervention, then its time to start thinking about building or buying another one. In the olden days, it used to be sexy to be an SEO with thousands of churn and burn websites. Now, I’m not saying that’s not a money making strategy but, unless you are there now or have access to a lot of tools to create that kind of stuff, it’s probably not worth it. The time it takes to get a spammy website to rank isn’t that much shorter than a good brand-able one, and the brand-able one will last longer unless you use high risk tactics on it. At this stage of the game, Google is heavily biased towards brand websites or websites that at least mimic signs of being a brand. There is so much emphasis on these signals that I strongly recommend having a smaller amount of quality websites as opposed to a large quantity of crappy ones. This doesn’t mean you should build one huge sprawling website. It means you should focus on quality: start out with evergreen content, mix in seasonal content, and linkbait no matter how boring your subject is. Do content audits and regularly prune out the under-performing pages and keep your evergreen content updated. You want a fast, lean shark who can be large but deadly. You don’t want to  be a fat, bloated whale of a website that’s slow to move or adapt. This doesn’t mean I recommend you have only one website–after all, a diversified income stream is better than one that comes from one source. It just means I think you need to be sure a website supports itself before you move your focus on to something else. So what are the takaways from this post:

• Do regular content audits, prune dead or under-performing pages, and update out dated ones regularly.
• Build links on regular basis even if you have a boring topic.
• Outsource skills where you are weakest first. Look to keeping the maintenance as low as possible.
• Once you have top rankings and can do all of the above profitably, look to expand.
• It’s better to have fewer, high quality sites than a greater number of low quality websites.

Google Adsense Forums, Blogs and Resources

Here is a list of notable resources if you want to find out, and stay on top off Google’s Adsense program. I’ve included some obvious links and some low volume forums as well, in an effort to be through. Be careful about what you read and try if you venture too far off the beaten path.

Official Google Information

• Google Adsense : This is the main Google site where you apply for Adsense, log in to get your adsense code, and view your reports.
• Google Adsense Case Studies: If you’re looking to see examples of Google adsense in action these are a few sites google has profiled.

News or Blogs About Google Adsense

• JenSense: Jenstar who publishes this blog is the moderator of the WMW and Search Engine Watch forums on Adsense. This blog covers all contextual advertising programs not just adsense, but is one of the best sources for information about the adsense program. Additionally when they make a change to the programs terms and conditions, this is the place I go for an explanation I can understand. She is also a regular speaker for contextual advertising programs at conferences and tradeshows.
• Problogger: This Blog is run by Darren Rowse who is part of the Breaking News Blog Network. You will get some good subjects brought up here on a regular basis. I’ve only been subscribed for a few weeks but this one is definitely a worthwhile read.
• Make Easy Money With Google Adsense Blog: This is the companion blog to the ‘Make Easy Money with Google‘ book. Not deep in coverage, but it is fairly new. See my ‘Make Easy Money With Google Adsense Review‘ for more information.

Adsense Related Forums or Newsgroups

• WMW Google Adsense Forum: There’s lot of information here, not too much in the ways of ‘tricks’ or ’secrets’. A major advantage of this forum is Adsense Advisor (Google’s Adsense representative) reads, answers questions, and posts news here. Check out the Adsense Library for archives of the top threads.
• Digital Point Google Adsense Forum: Much looser and less formal than webmaster world. This is an active fast growing forum, however there aren’t as many seasoned adsense professionals here as there are in other places. Members drop URL’s to their own sites looking for help, or advice. Makes it a great spot to see things in action.
• Search Engine Watch Google Adsense Forum: Again not as formal as WMW, but not quite as loose as Digital Point. If you read for a little while and use the reputation rankings you’ll get a feel for who knows what they are talking about and who’s just yakkin’. That said you will still see some good topics here on a regular basis from more seasoned adsense professionals.
• Google Adsense Blog: Nothing to speak of at the time of publication. http://adsense.blogspot.com requires a login, Adwords has a dedicated blog so we can only hope.
• Google Groups Adsense Publishers: Not a very active forum, and not much in the way of tips.
• WebProWorld Adsense Adwords Forum: Adwords and Adsense are lumped together here.
• SEOChat Adsense Forum: This one has Adsense mixed in with other affiliate programs.

How Many Websites Should I Run

A question that I get asked fairly regularly is “how many websites should I run? Am I better with one website or lots of little ones?” The question has some different aspects, so, as someone who runs more than one website, I’ll try to share some of my experience.

… no website will ever be finished, but it can reach a point where it covers everything it needs to and just runs in low maintenance auto pilot mode …

If you are brand new, or even if you’ve been doing this for a while, and you aren’t having much luck, my advice is to do exactly what Lynn Terry says and concentrate on just one website. You need to concentrate on making this website as complete as possible. No website will ever be finished, but it can reach a point where it covers everything it needs to and just runs in low maintenance auto pilot mode. The tricky part is figuring out if the website has reached its earning potential or not. If you are ranking in the top 5 for your most profitable and sought after keywords, you might be there. If you have set your website up to be an industry leader, and it’s the brand people think of when they think of your niche, then you definitely are there. Sometimes, if your space is dominated by large brands with a larger staff, higher budgets, and an offline marketing component, it’s hard if not impossible for a small guy to break into the top results. Sometimes competing at that level costs you more time then you will make back in dollars, but that’s something you have to figure out on your own. Hopefully, along the way of building your first successful website, you learn to do two things: 1. minimize the amount of work and maintenance your website needs and 2. how to outsource effectively. When you are first starting out, you usually have more time than money and end up doing things yourself. It’s pretty rare that you find someone who can write well, do design and graphics, and understands marketing and information architecture. We all have our strengths and weaknesses and figuring that out is part of the learning process. Learn what your weaknesses are.  Those should be the things you outsource first. Learning to outsource and remain profitable is a skill you also need to learn. In fact, I think it’s the biggest lesson people can learn from the leaked AOL document (see what you can learn from content farms).

… Learn what your weaknesses are. Those should be the things you outsource first …

Once you have your website ranking for its terms, it’s near the top of its earnings potential, and you have employees or subcontractors who can keep it running without your day to day intervention, then its time to start thinking about building or buying another one. In the olden days, it used to be sexy to be an SEO with thousands of churn and burn websites. Now, I’m not saying that’s not a money making strategy but, unless you are there now or have access to a lot of tools to create that kind of stuff, it’s probably not worth it. The time it takes to get a spammy website to rank isn’t that much shorter than a good brand-able one, and the brand-able one will last longer unless you use high risk tactics on it. At this stage of the game, Google is heavily biased towards brand websites or websites that at least mimic signs of being a brand. There is so much emphasis on these signals that I strongly recommend having a smaller amount of quality websites as opposed to a large quantity of crappy ones. This doesn’t mean you should build one huge sprawling website. It means you should focus on quality: start out with evergreen content, mix in seasonal content, and linkbait no matter how boring your subject is. Do content audits and regularly prune out the under-performing pages and keep your evergreen content updated. You want a fast, lean shark who can be large but deadly. You don’t want to  be a fat, bloated whale of a website that’s slow to move or adapt. This doesn’t mean I recommend you have only one website–after all, a diversified income stream is better than one that comes from one source. It just means I think you need to be sure a website supports itself before you move your focus on to something else. So what are the takaways from this post:

• Do regular content audits, prune dead or under-performing pages, and update out dated ones regularly.
• Build links on regular basis even if you have a boring topic.
• Outsource skills where you are weakest first. Look to keeping the maintenance as low as possible.
• Once you have top rankings and can do all of the above profitably, look to expand.
• It’s better to have fewer, high quality sites than a greater number of low quality websites.

Adsense Tools

I was hoping to find more adsense tools to review and recommend, however I never received anything so we’ll go with what I was able to find.

Adsense Script Tools

These are the tiny little programs you install on your server (blech!) or locally on your machine that help you analyze your adsense clicks, CTR and earnings. Some of them are easy, some of them are difficult, and some of them help you make pretty graphs. To be honest none of them are worth recommending. You could do just as good a job by setting up your channels properly and dumping a CSV file into excel. If someone has a specific one or wants to send me a review copy of thier software, I will look at it. DO NOT send me anything that has to be installed on a server. I run multiple websites on multiple hosting companies, so I don’t need something that requires more maintenance thank you very much.

Adsense Preview Tools

The Adsense Sandbox comes via Digital Point. You put in a URL and it lets you preview what ads are most likely to appear on a URL. Pretty handy IMHO.

Adsense Tracking

While not set up to be an Adsense tracking tool per se, the free log analyzer from AddFreeStats is actually pretty good. You put a small graphic tracking bug on the bottom of each of your pages and it gives you standard logging reports. You can also activate adsense tracking to find out what ads are being clicked on what pages. Combine this with an excel spreadsheet and channels and you are good to go. You can upgrade to a paid version and get an invisible tracking bug. TIP: Lock down your stats under a password, I’m fascinated how many people leave that open.

Adsense in Action

Probably one of the best things you can do to increase your adsense earnings is to go and look how other people are doing things. The adsense case studies are one place. While these are Google approved you really don’t have an idea how successful they are. So you’d be much better off finding someone you know is in the UPS Club. Jason Calacanis who runs Weblogs Inc is on a quest to make 1 Million dollars a year from Adsense. While I do give Jason a hard time sometimes, I do actually admire what he’s built, and think there are some very valuable lessons to be learned from looking at the websites owns. Darren Rowse of ProBlogger also has two sites I really like the Digital Camera Review and Camera Phone Review. Don’t be a wanker and copy exactly what they’ve done, it’s bad form. Instead look at them, learn from them, and use it as inspiration.