Comments on: Dominating the microniche http://pubfrontier.com/2008/11/18/dominating-the-microniche/ A raucous public discussion of the publishing revolution. Sat, 25 Apr 2009 21:20:36 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Wyn http://pubfrontier.com/2008/11/18/dominating-the-microniche/comment-page-1/#comment-285 Wyn Thu, 20 Nov 2008 19:50:59 +0000 http://pubfrontier.com/?p=80#comment-285 It may be that Jeff is from the SEO firm monitoring that energy company's name, but I'll give the benefit of the doubt. He's right that anyone can do it, albeit with a fair amount of knowledge and skill. You bring up a very valid and perhaps prophetic point. Because people must protect and defend their reputation and because blog and social media monitoring are becoming a larger part of an overall marketing program, the SEO tactics that are used to push a company to the top of the SERPs will become more prevalent, making it ever more difficult to find non-propagandistic data published by the spin doctors for internet-savvy companies. As usual, it's both good and bad. At the very least it will certainly become more difficult over time to filter out the marketing to find an objective opinion. Perhaps that will encourage more people to turn to their social media sites and complaint boards like Rip-Off Report for more objective--or at least non-company driven--information and insight. This is exactly what reputation monitoring companies were employing SEO tactics for in the first place. So...good or bad? It does seem to kinda defeat the purpose. It may be that Jeff is from the SEO firm monitoring that energy company’s name, but I’ll give the benefit of the doubt. He’s right that anyone can do it, albeit with a fair amount of knowledge and skill.

You bring up a very valid and perhaps prophetic point. Because people must protect and defend their reputation and because blog and social media monitoring are becoming a larger part of an overall marketing program, the SEO tactics that are used to push a company to the top of the SERPs will become more prevalent, making it ever more difficult to find non-propagandistic data published by the spin doctors for internet-savvy companies. As usual, it’s both good and bad. At the very least it will certainly become more difficult over time to filter out the marketing to find an objective opinion. Perhaps that will encourage more people to turn to their social media sites and complaint boards like Rip-Off Report for more objective–or at least non-company driven–information and insight. This is exactly what reputation monitoring companies were employing SEO tactics for in the first place. So…good or bad? It does seem to kinda defeat the purpose.

]]> By: Jeff http://pubfrontier.com/2008/11/18/dominating-the-microniche/comment-page-1/#comment-282 Jeff Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:47:07 +0000 http://pubfrontier.com/?p=80#comment-282 True that there's a lot of crap out there being self-published and promoted via SEO. However, there's also absolutely no reason that a legitimate publishing firm of any size (small or large) couldn't do a similar thing and promote and monetize a useful book and/or e-book. Though I do admit that many of the self-referential aspects mentioned are of questionable ethics, but still are plenty of SEO tactics that can help a legitimate publisher rise of the top of the listings. Publishers should look at this as an opportunity and see what they can learn about Internet marketing from all these self-publishers who, incidentally, are profiting quite well. Copy the good techniques, ignore the questionable ones. But there is something to be learned from this sector. BTW, I suspect that the "energy4earth" have a Google Alert setup for that term so that they are notified of any blog that mentions the term. So, I bet they have already seen this post. Perhaps they may not comment but I guarantee you that they will have seen it. True that there’s a lot of crap out there being self-published and promoted via SEO. However, there’s also absolutely no reason that a legitimate publishing firm of any size (small or large) couldn’t do a similar thing and promote and monetize a useful book and/or e-book. Though I do admit that many of the self-referential aspects mentioned are of questionable ethics, but still are plenty of SEO tactics that can help a legitimate publisher rise of the top of the listings.

Publishers should look at this as an opportunity and see what they can learn about Internet marketing from all these self-publishers who, incidentally, are profiting quite well. Copy the good techniques, ignore the questionable ones. But there is something to be learned from this sector.

BTW, I suspect that the “energy4earth” have a Google Alert setup for that term so that they are notified of any blog that mentions the term. So, I bet they have already seen this post. Perhaps they may not comment but I guarantee you that they will have seen it.

]]>