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Shoemoney - Skills To Pay The Bills

Shoemoney - Skills To Pay The Bills

Link to ShoeMoney Internet Marketing Blog

The Mob Mentality of SEOs

Posted: 31 May 2012 07:29 AM PDT

Never underestimate the power of a group of pissed off SEOs protecting one of their own.  Or at least that is what the whole Iacquire drama over the past week has shown us.  If you happen to indirectly attack someone who is buddy buddy with some other well known SEOs, well, the fireworks will commence.

In one corner, we have Michael King (@ipullrank), Director of Inbound Marketing for Iacquire.  In the other corner, we have Josh Davis (@JoshD), writer and publisher of LLsocial.com, who did all the research and original post about Iacquire's link tactics.

It all started with @JoshD writing about some suspicious link requests he received which led to the downfall of the SEO agency Iacquire.  But because @ipullrank happened to work for Iacquire, Josh has been vilified in the industry by those who back Michael, despite the fact that Josh did an amazing piece of investigative work, including screenshots, responses and connecting the dots between the various companies iacquire was hiding behind.

And let's be fair, I am sure that Josh didn't set out with the plan of getting Iacquire banned from Google, because that was unprecedented for Google to ban an agency who was doing the link buying rather than the site that was benefitting from those link buys.  He was rather highlighting a case where he was repeatedly contacted by someone wanting to buy links, and it annoyed him enough to look into who it was.  As I am sure many SEOs would have done the same if they were being harassed by a company over paid links.

Whether you support outing or not (I am personally not a fan and wouldn’t do it myself, but it is what it is), as far as outtings go, this was the most researched one I think the industry has ever seen.  He could have simply posted some screenshot emails, called out Iacquire for buying links, and not bothered to do fact checking or tried to get responses from both sides.  He made it interesting, he had all the facts.  Yes, it resulted in Google banning the site, but I could not see Google doing something so brazen unless they had absolute proof Iacquire was behind it all.

But talk about circling the wagons.  Michael King is still really a "new kid on the block" who rose to stardom pretty quickly due to his connections with SEOMoz and SMX, but has quickly garnered a very loyal following, judging from the tweets attacking Josh.  Here is a sample (click on each image to go to the Twitter link for each tweet).

Then of course, those supporting Michael under the "he can do no wrong" mentality.

One, I am pretty sure he wasn't framed, he just had the misfortune of working for the company who got busted for link buying.  And two, what Google did is to show Iacquire and Michael that yes, the rules do apply to them too.

In defense of Josh and his outting, there really wasn’t that many,  although many were tweeting his article without adding personal negative feelings about him doing the outting.

Then there was this exchange, where Yoast stood up for Josh, but I think Alan Bleiweiss (@AlanBleiweiss) sums it up best with "Ben, it's called human professional respect and courtesy.  Seriously."  And that pretty much says what most people on Team Michael weren't doing.

And lastly, something that really truly shows what SEOs shouldn’t be about – trying to out someone simply because you don’t agree with their opinion, which seemed to be in response to a comment made on the original Search Engine Land thread about Iacquire.

Would this mob mentality have happened if Michael King wasn't a Director at Iacquire?  I highly doubt it.  There have been other SEO companies (SEO Inc comes to mind) that had been banned years ago in Google, and SEOs celebrated that fact when it happened.  The same thing happened when a nameless SEO was arrested and charged (I am not naming names because he has paid his dues to society, as far as I am aware) and industry people all circled the wagons to email his local newspaper and the judge that the charges couldn’t possibly be correct, and they had the wrong guy, it must be someone else with the same name.

It’s definitely not dying out yet (as you can tell from the dates on some of the screen shots) and I am sure the name calling and bashing will continue until Iacquire returns to the Google index – if it ever does.  Should Josh have written what he did? I think so simply because he had the facts to back it up, and it was so much more worthy than the usual “OMG ___ has this spammy backlink they must be spamming!” that we often see. Plus if Iacquire had taken a lesson on how not to piss off people with repeated paid link requests, we wouldn’t even be having this discussion – they are the real people to blame because if it wasn’t Josh, I am sure it wouldn’t have been long before their aggressive tactics caused another SEO to do exactly what Josh did.  You know this will show up on some case studies at future conferences about what not to do!

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Writing First Thing in the Morning - DailyBlogTips

Writing First Thing in the Morning - DailyBlogTips

Writing First Thing in the Morning

Posted: 30 May 2012 12:13 PM PDT


So I’m sitting here. At my desk. In the morning. And I’m writing this post. Yesterday, I was writing in the morning too. And the day before. Is there someone forcing me to do this? No, I simply choose to work this way.

Why would you set your day to always write first thing in the morning?! Isn’t being a blogger all about freedom and being able to do whatever you want, whenever you want to?!

Well, bloggers are pretty free people, but being free doesn’t mean that you can’t set some of your activities to a fixed schedule. Especially if those activities simply make sense.

And it really does make sense for writing. Here’s why.

Benefits of writing in the morning and the power of habit

Let’s start with the latter – the power of habit.

Habit is probably the most powerful thing that drives us into doing anything. And I really mean it. Once something becomes our habit, it isn’t difficult any longer, requires very little effort, and gets done pretty quickly.

But if that doesn’t explain the situation enough, let’s tackle it from a different angle.

I’m sure you’ll admit that some bad habits are extremely difficult to fight. Sometimes it takes months or years, or even a lifetime (for some people). I’m sure that every smoker and late riser can relate to this…

That’s the true power of habit, no matter good or bad, once it is set, it stays with us for years.

So what’s the point of turning writing into a first-thing-in-the-morning habit?

First of all, as I said a minute ago, once writing becomes your habit, it will be a natural activity. One that doesn’t require any effort. One that isn’t scary in any way, or challenging in any way. Simply, a natural habit.

The second benefit is something that sits in our mind.

Everything sits in our mind

Even though our brain is an extremely complex thing, some of its characteristics are pretty predictable.

For instance, once our brain gets a grasp that one particular activity is being done every day, first thing in the morning, and it has been done for the past month or so, it will get used to that activity.

Our brain will simply be anticipating that activity, having all the required tools in place ready to be used, at the exact time when the activity usually happens.

This is something that can help us extremely. And I’m not exaggerating. Once your brain is used to you writing every day in the morning, it will prepare all your writing resources and skills to be in their top shape waiting for you.

This is something that can (and will) improve your writing significantly.

And it’s nothing new. People are using this trick all the time in many different fields.

Like, for example, professional boxing. Once the time and date of a fight is set, every training prior to the fight takes place at the same time. Why? So the body and the brain of the boxer can get used to it, and be ready when it’s time to get in the ring.

Many professional sportsmen use this trick, not only boxers. It simply works in most imaginable scenarios. Writing and blogging included.

But improving your results isn’t the only reason why you should at least give this a try. There are other benefits.

Fighting the early-day confusion and warming up

Mornings can be confusing … I’m sure you can relate.

You wake up and there’s so much stuff to do that you don’t know where to start. So you don’t start at all for a while and go to Facebook instead.

Sometimes we fall into such a trap, despite the fact we know that the only thing we have to do is START. No matter what it is exactly, the first step is always the most difficult, and once we’re going, we’re going.

Having a first-thing-in-the-morning activity can be of great help here. There’s no confusion any more. You know that no matter how much stuff you have to do, you always start your day by writing.

Another benefit. Writing is a great warm-up activity for your brain. It gets you ready for other things the day can bring.

And there’s also the most obvious benefit of them all… You simply start your day with a fresh and shiny article, ready to be published, sent as a guest post, sold, or whatever else you’re doing with your content.

How to set a habit of writing in the morning

First of all, you have to realize that the most difficult part is the initial phase. The first couple of times you try to write in the morning.

It may simply not feel natural, nor easy. And the results might not be that good … well, sorry, I’m just telling it like it is.

But remember, this is always the case when setting new habits. Like the habit of early rising, for example. Do you remember how difficult it was to get up early during the first week? Or do you remember how difficult it was not to smoke during the first month of your new cigarette-free lifestyle?

You simply need to get through this. Here’s what I advise you to do during the first week:

  1. Start every day by writing a personal journal. Journal entries are very easy to write because they don’t require any knowledge, mindset, or prior information. You simply fire up a text editor and start writing on whatever topic you want. As little as 100-200 words is enough.
  2. The actual writing. This is where you write the actual thing you want to write. And you don’t stop until you finish the whole piece.
  3. Reward yourself and have a break. Have a small treat. Whatever makes sense.
  4. Proceed with your other tasks for the day.

If you do these four steps long enough (for like a month maybe) then after a while they will become natural and won’t require any effort on your end. Also, you will be able to do them much more quickly.

I know this personally … because it’s 8:30AM where I’m sitting right now.

What is your opinion? Have you tried this trick yet? Also, feel free to share if you have any advice of your own that’s similarly counterintuitive.

About the author: Karol K. is a 20-something year old web 2.0 entrepreneur from Poland and a writer at ThemeFuse.com, where he shares various WordPress advice. Don’t forget to visit ThemeFuse to get your hands on some premium WordPress themes (warning: no boring stuff like everyone else offers).

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Original Post: Writing First Thing in the Morning
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