Google’s now Evil? Is WordPress next?
Rolling Stones magazine has a great article this week on what appears to be a pretty crappy decision by Google to pull content down from Blogger websites without warning the content owners.
For those of you who don’t know, Blogger and WordPress are pretty similar systems for putting up blogs with the exception that WordPress can be downloaded and run on hosted machines. That means that all the content you post to your Blogger blog is hosted on Google, which is great but if you take a look at the fine print of your EULA it also means that Google has all sorts of rights when it comes to your content and one of those rights is to simply take down content that it deems isn’t appropriate.
So what does Google find inappropriate? Well by the looks of things, an awful lot of music websites and even music review websites. Some are asking if Google has hopped into bed with the devil RIAA, or is this something else? It’s ironic that Google, who owns the largest source of copyright infringement on the Internet today would be pulling down websites featuring music content but that’s exactly what appears to be happening all over the hosted blog tool Blogger.
What can musicians do about this? Not much really, Google has the right to do it and as long as your website is hosted on Blogger, you’re subject to the terms that you signed up for. If you’d like to switch your blog over blogger to WordPress there are two ways you can do it. You can either host a new WordPress blog at wordpress.com and run the risk of them doing the same thing to you, or you can setup a WordPress website on your own server and moderate the content yourself.
Before wordpress.com site owners get too smug and assume the same can’t happen to you, take a look at this latest post from Lorelle:
As announced, Matt Mullenweg has added a script to WordPress.com that forces all the variations of WordPress to the proper spelling with a capital P in the “Press” part of the name.
Now I’ve tested this on a few blogs that I run across wordpress.com and it doesn’t appear to be in place yet but it appears this plan won’t be optional which means that if you have a website at wordpress.com you won’t have a choice, the moment you publish a blog using phrases like word press or wordpress, it will automatically be published as WordPress. No news yet on what happens if you write a blog about sword pressure.
Is it really such a bad thing to standardize on the name? As Michael points out at WP Engineer, it is a trademark and it should always be presented correctly but should Matt and the boys at wordpress.com be editing your content without first seeking your permission? Frankly, I think that an omnipotent overlord editing content arbitrarily will be annoying to many in the WordPress community long before an insignificant branding boo boo.
Imaging for a moment what would happen if your Gmail account was being edited by Google to capitalize their brands? If gmail became Gmail as soon as you pressed send or if Microsoft began editing your Word documents after you’d gone to bed to ensure you’d placed the right ™ and ® symbols on their names … I’d be pissed.
wordpress.com’s decision to forcibly change the content of millions of blogs without seeking the permission of website owners represents a slippery slope in the use of technology and begs the question, if they feel they can minor changes without seeking our permission what stops them from making major changes to our content without seeking our approval?
Mar
2009
25 Things to Do to Increase Your Website Traffic Right Now
Everybody wants to be successful on the Internet right? Of course we do, nobody want’s to be sitting at home on prom night especially when there’s money involved so how do we do it? Well, here’s a list of 25 things you can do right now to increase your website traffic …
Make Your Content Accessible
Use the SEO Checker I built to see what Google can see. This tool will also help you understand what visually impaired people in your community can see … they make up almost 10% of the population, so can you really afford to only appeal to 90% of the market?
Use Valid xHTML Markup
xHTML is the language web pages should be built in. If you write your page in sloppy code, it’ll be harder for web browsers to display it properly so just like a Word document, you have to save it in the right format for your audience to read it.
Translate Your Content
thisismyurl.com is available in 20 languages, 40% of my traffic comes from outside the US and Canada and is viewed in a language other than English using a free online translation service, I know it’s flawed but it’s the best I can offer and people learn from my postings.
Understand Keywords
Keywords are the heart and soul of the Internet, they’re like fresh pasta in Italian cooking or eye shadow to drag queens … if you don’t understand the value and application of keywords, get off the Internet.
Build Relationships with Other Websites
Almost half my traffic comes from Google, the other half? Came from other websites and referrals from great people that I taught something to and in turn taught me a lot.
Add a Google Sitemap
Google want’s nothing more than to know about you, it’s the companies only goal in the universe, so help them to help you.
Help People
Speaking of helping, help people. When you see a website with an error or run into a problem on a site, let them know. If you can fix a glitch, tell them how … I’ve picked up countless readers and sources of inspiration by simply being supportive.
Use Analytics
Back to Google for a second, they have a tool called Google Analytics. It’s free, it’s powerful and it’ll help you understand your audience.
Join Social Networking Sites
Websites like LinkedIn and Facebook are powerful tools to help people. Helping people leads to trust, trust leads to prospects and prospects lead to clients.
Add Fresh Content
Ask yourself, why do people come back to your boring old stale content? They don’t. If you ran a restaurant you’d have daily specials right? Well I think running a restaurant is easier than running a website, so make sure you have fresh content served daily.
Know Who’s Better Than You
There are a lot of web sites out there that are better than me:
Know who’s better than you and read them every day. The best way to learn is to know you need to learn. (btw, if you didn’t make the list don’t be sad I have hundreds of sites I read every week, these are just the first ones I though of)
Respond to Criticism
There’s a lot of things that I write on my blog that are not as well researched as they could be, and when I’m corrected I love it. You’ll notice if you pan through my comments that I don’t remove the negative … in fact I relish them. If people take the time to point out your flaws, thank them and you’ll grow.
Write Good Content
The best way to build traffic to your website? Make people want to come back. It’s harder to get new visitors than to keep your old ones.
Be Timely
Write about things that you know will be timely but don’t chase trends, it’s not relevant what others are writing about … only what your readers are reading about.
Get to Know Yourself
The past five months of blogging have taught me a lot about myself, I look back at some of the early pieces I wrote and know that I’ve changed. That’s part of what blogging is, it’s about growing not only as a business but also as a person and learning new things.
Make your Title Tag Valuable
Your title tag is a critical piece of the organic marketing puzzle, if you don’t understand how or why to use it properly … excuse my french but vous êtes vissé.
Add an RSS Feed
I don’t care what type of business you are … if you can add an RSS feed to your web site do it! Let people know what you’re up to if they want to know. Same goes for Twitter, use it to exploit your interests.
Give Stuff Away For Free
I love giving things away for free. I have website templates, plugins and artwork people can download for free as well as over 600 pages of advice here on my website. Guess what? It cost me nothing and it put me on Alexa’s radar without having to do anything complicated.
Respect Your Audience
There’s only one thing more important then you on your website, your audience. Take time to get to know them and help them.
Know Your Goals
Why do you own a website? You’d be surprised how many people have no idea why they want to run a website … it’s a little sad really.
Use a Content Manager
Websites that are build on a content management system (I use WordPress) make it easier for people to update their websites. Websites that are updated more often get more traffic.
Read Matt’s Articles
Matt Cutts is Google. Actually he’s not but he’s the face of Google, the man who talks to all of us and tells us what Google is thinking, explains what they’re up to and helps lowly web masters to interact better. His job … to help the public make the most of Google, so why don’t you read his blog?
Join Forums
Forums are a great place to generate free traffic to your blog. They help you build relationships with other bloggers, build respect in the community and get into endless conversations about topics that interest you.
Comment on Other Websites
One of the most overlooked methods for building traffic to your website is to simply comment on other peoples websites. Remember my point about helping others? Point out flaws or add to the conversation and you’ll be generating great traffic back to your website.
Analyze and Adapt
Finally … the most important point … look at your analytics often and improve your website to help your audience make the most of your content.
Tags: advice, analytics, blog, building, comment, content management system, content manager, Facebook, forums, google analytics, html, Learning, lorelle, matt cutts, organic marketing, Plugins, search, templates, translate, web browsers, web master, web masters, WordPress
Posted in Marketing Advice