SEO, blogging and ethical communication

Blogging in 2010...all about search engine optimization.
You know that the blogosphere is abused by those without a conscience and contains many items where technology has been integrated into marketing.
You'd think that those using the name 'Muskoka', for example, would actually live here!

Not so.

I am tired, too, of being asked to be a 'fan' of someone who simply wants to use my readership, or my name, or my page rank on My Muskoka to increase theirs. The porn ads, and the others (member enlargement, etc.) are just disgusting! I do not mind helping flog a project, an event, a good company, or where to buy a good cuppa joe. If you are driving 35 km to the next Muskoka town, you want this info!

I have clearly differentiated My Muskoka blog from personal positions on things not Muskokan (which I put on this blog). I only use my own photos on My Muskoka, and credit videos not my own. If you embed a YouTube video it does add to the creator's hit count, and that helps them. It can also be viewed directly on YouTube.

money made from
YOUR videos
and posting ads

We are wise to be increasingly wary of those usurping topics, images, and ideas not their own, to ensure that Google searches bring up their web pages. It seems a bizarre way of making a buck. If not unethical, perhaps immoral. Even YouTube, bought by Google for US$1.65 billion in October, 2006, from YouTube's three founders, Karim, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, has gone from fun, personal videos, to an incredible amount of ads. As the UK Guardian article states, "YouTube's expansion has not been without growing pains. Inside, the site's community spirit has been shaken by debates over authenticity after the exposure of the likes of LonelyGirl15, the home-schooled American teen who turned out to be a New Zealand actor."


There is an underlying community of professional web designers and Internet workers, masking as bloggers, who are simply trying to increase their ratings to gain fame and fortune. Well, fortune. That said, with journalists being laid off, sue to lowered newspaper sales, it seems that they have to make a buck somewhere. Unfortunately, there is not one editing them, or ensuring that content is correct, not plagiarised, and fair. Many folks, whose only goal is to increase web presence, are using the web to make a profit off of things that are near and dear to non-profit blogger's hearts.

Internet marketing

Display advertising E-mail marketing E-mail marketing software Interactive advertising Social media optimization Web analytics Cost per impression

Affiliate marketing

Cost per action Contextual advertising Revenue sharing

Search engine marketing

Search engine optimization Pay per click advertising Paid inclusion Search analytics

Mobile advertising

From Wikipedia

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is at the heart of it all. The table from Wikipedia, right, shows some of marketing gurus' other tools. This is why organizations are willing to pay prizes for those who will encourage friends to visit particular pages and 'vote for me'. Some will send out such emails on a daily basis, total SPAM, cluttering bandwith, and frustrating or grabbing friends attention as some non-profit tries to win a prize.

Those featured are sending out bulk email, thereby highlighting a low-ranking webpage, raising their profile, and encouraging friend and foe to visit a site. Nothing is done for free. Many have a reason to blog. Most to flog something; a product, or their services. Some do it without being obnoxious, with gentle ads, or subtle reasons why you should buy, visit or entertain their ideas. Marketers have learned that word of mouth is cheap and cheerful. They avoid Search Engine Marketing in favour of 'word of mouth' of the internet and social marketing sites.

They all know about it. Even Wikipedia ...

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site or a web page (such as a blog) from search engines via "natural" or un-paid ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results as opposed to other forms of search engine marketing (SEM) which may deal with paid inclusion. The theory is that the earlier (or higher) a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, video search and industry-specific vertical search engines. This gives a web site web presence.

Another class of techniques, known as black hat SEO or spamdexing, uses methods such as link farms, keyword stuffing and article spinning that degrade both the relevance of search results and the user-experience of search engines. Search engines look for sites that employ these techniques in order to remove them from their indices.

Dave Eves wrote: about libel laws last December, but it is true for bloggers, as well. "This story matters as it demonstrates that the law is finally beginning to grasp what the internet means for our democracy and society." (I quoted part of his article, the full blog post: The Supreme Court of Canada: There are no journalists, only citizens )

In our democracy, we need to keep our eyes open and understand when we have been used by a business. We need to know when we are helping sell a website for a company by a marketing agent and go into it with our eyes open. We need to differentiate between those companies we believe in, and how and when blogging, bloggers, and our intellectual property is being used by one another. We need to understand when we are acting as pimps for profit by someone. With eyes wide open.

BTW

Most of the graphics here were purchased and included with various web design packages. I used graphic converter to change the signage. Once I purchase and change them they are now mine to use but not sell.