Sarah Palin in Savannah

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I don’t usually get into politics around here. While I like reading about political stuff on my own time I have found over the years that some people take political stuff a little too personally. Besides, people come here for info on social media, not politics.

So I generally keep it off the blog here.

But then yesterday I did something I’ve never done before. I went to hear a live political speech by a national level figure. I started a new Twitter account to talk politics stuff on because I do find it interesting. One of the oldest folders in my bookmarks, from back before the days of feed readers, is one I labeled “Propaganda” and it’s where I keep links to my favorite politics web sites along with links to the news sites I frequent.

Yeah. I am a bit cynical at times.

I took a while to decide if I wanted to join the conversation about politics for a number of different reasons. Mainly I figured that many of the people who follow me at places like Twitter did so because of my social media focus. And they may not be at all interested in my politics.

The solution I came up with on Sunday was to open another Twitter account where I could focus on politics stuff. That way those who are interested can follow me there and the rest can ignore it if they like. So I’m now tweeting on things politics @CREEativeRight (and I’ll let you guess which way I lean.) It also helped me with a little social media experiment I was doing which I’ll share more about later in the week.

Anyway…

So I found out about Sarah Palin coming to town via @CREEativeRight and decided that there was enough hubub around her in the election that I’d go downtown and check it out.

Between live Tweeting her speech, taking photos, chatting with Jeremy Davis who ended up next to me, and getting text messages from friends who couldn’t be there I kept pretty busy.

The whole reason for the event was to promote the reelection of US Senator Saxby Chambliss who is in a runnoff election today with his opponent. I won’t go into the politics of what all she was talking about here.

But I would encourage all of you who are in Georgia to go vote today. Turnout for runnoff votes tends to be much lower than for general elections. Your vote will count that much more because today as a result.

I posted some more of my Sarah Palin photos on Flickr if you are interested.

One Wrong Way to Get Links

We all know that getting inbound links, links from other web sites linking in to yours, is an important part of marketing your blog and raising your authority and rankings in the search engines. There are all kinds of ways to encourage other bloggers to link to you, but ultimately the best way to get inbound links is to earn them.

When you produce high quality valuable content people will see its value and link to it. Combine that with consistent active networking and the number of inbound links you get will grow over time.

No Good Shortcuts

It is a consistent part of human nature that people tend to be lazy. Most folks want the reward without the work.

Unfortunately at best shortcuts tend to run smack into the Law of Unintended Consequences. At their worst, shortcuts can be manipulative, destructive and downright counter productive. Especially when it comes to influencing others to take an action that benefits you.

This is especially true when it comes to building an audience for your blog.

There is no substitute for consistent effort over time. Sure there are some things you can do to help compound your efforts. But there are no shortcuts. Without work there is no miracle.

Don’t Try This Guy’s Approach

I get lots of requests for links. I’ve been blogging here at SuccessCREEations for a while, have decent page rank and people want to tap into that. It’s flattering.

Most of the requests are bumbling and get ignored. Occasionally I’ll respond with a, “no thank you” if the request is especially polite.

But the other day I found this comment in my moderation folder and was floored. I have never posted a comment like this, but this guy was arrogantly rude. On top of that he put this in my comment box (twice, by the way) instead of emailing me through the contact page so he fully expected it to be public.

Please don’t ever approach a blogger like this: Read more

Being Thankful

This Thanksgiving morning Gorgeous and I were talking about how much we have to be thankful for.

The news is full of all kinds of horrible things going on in the world. In the headlines today is a terrible attack in India with over 100 tourists killed. Apparently a plan to bomb Penn Station in New York City was thwarted, thanks God.

And most of the news is about the struggling economy. Companies are going out of business. People are loosing their jobs. The government is passing out free money to major corporations to try and keep some of them afloat with the hope of preventing a full scale meltdown.

Even the tech sector has been affected. Just this week Technorati announced layoffs and pay cuts across the board.

Thankful

With all that mess going on in our world, Gorgeous and I are incredibly thankful that we are able to work for ourselves from home.

In the past year I’ve found out that being self employed can be a bit stressful. But on the good side I don’t have to worry about whether my employer is going to cut my job and leave me out on the street.

Been there. Done that.

Even when the economy is rolling loosing a job because a facility is closed or a company goes out of business (I’ve been through both) is tough. It is always easier to find a job when you already have one.

I feel for the folks who are struggling through that this holiday season.

My encouragement to them would be that I made it through so it can be done. The days won’t always look so dark. The sun will come out again come morning.

History of Thanksgiving

If you are interested in a little bit about the beginings of Thanksgiving, go check out my Thanksgiving history post from last year.

Those early early Americans were going through tougher economic times that any of us can imagine yet they were thankful just the same. We can learn something from that.

I hope you have a wonderful (and thankful) day today.

WordPress Security Release Version 2.6.5

WordPress gave us yet one more security update to version 2.6 before the long anticipated major release of version 2.7, which is expected in the next few weeks.

The new WordPress version 2.6.5 addresses a security vulnerability as well as a few other very minor improvements. There are a total of five files modified in this security release. You can simply replace these five core files to expedite the upgrade process.

However performing a full normal upgrade to the new version is probably the easiest way to go if you are only upgrading one or two blogs.

The security fix is critical for WordPress installations on virtual servers and these should be upgraded immediately. Other users may elect to hold off until the new version 2.7 comes out, but again prudence dictates updating to the current version is best practice.

Fake Spoof Version of WordPress

Another reason I suspect the good folks at WordPress decided to issue a security release for version 2.6 so close to the anticipated release of the major update in 2.7 is that there is a fake, spoof version of WordPress out there.

Apparently someone bought a domain name just one character off from the official WordPress.org site and put up a rough copy of the WordPress.org site. They downloaded a copy of version 2.6.3 which they modified to potentially allow hijacking of affected blogs, and then said it was 2.6.4.

But the truly evil part of these cretians diabolical plan was when they hacked into the dashboards of some blogs running older versions of WordPress to put up a fake security warning urging users to “upgrade” to the bogus version and directing them to the bogus site. Craig Murphy explains that whole thing.

As I’ve said before, like any software older versions of WordPress are vulnerable to hacking. Keeping your WordPress blog version current is a critical step to keeping your site secure from hacker.

Because of this incident WordPress is skipping verion 2.6.4 in their official release line to avoid confusion.

Help Us Help You - A 3 Minute Survey

Here at SuccessCREEations we are looking for ways to serve you better.

We have been getting quite a few inquiries lately from folks wondering if we have any kind of material they can purchase that will help them get started with blogging and social media.

Unfortunately we don’t. Yet.

However on the good news front we do have a wealth of information just waiting to be packaged up in a format that will make it easy for people to wade into the wonderful social media world.

That’s why we’re asking for your help.

We’ve put together a little 4 question survey. If you can spare about 3 minutes to go fill it out we’d be much obliged.

• Click Here to take survey

And thank you in advance for helping us help others learn more about social media.

Social Media Autoresponders - Good Marketing or Missing the Point?

People generally prefer to interact with other people rather than machines. And most folks are especially not keen on interacting with machines masquerading as people.

Ever get frustrated by an automated phone tree when trying to contact a business and feel like screaming, “I just want to talk to a person!“?

Robocalls were big in the news leading up to this past election. You know. Those recorded calls that just start talking at you as soon as you answer the phone.

It doesn’t matter whether it is a political candidate or a credit card sales pitch, I hang up on ‘em without listening.

Autoresponders

In email marketing there is a thing called an autoresponder. The most basic form is the email you get when you first subscribe to a list.

There are some very real benefits to email autoresponders. For starters, they help ensure that you really meant to subscribe to that list. In that capacity they help keep spam down a bit.

Another benefit is that you don’t have to wait to get the information you signed up for with email autoresponders. No matter what time, day or night, you can have access with a good autoresponder system.

One reason why email autoresponders work so well is that we don’t have the expectation that the sender is sitting by their email just waiting for us to sign up to their list. The automation helps us out as recipients as well as making life easier on the sender.

It’s a win-win and I am a fan.

Social Media is Different

Social media sites like Twitter, for example, have a different expectation. They are by their very nature more personal than email. That’s the “social” part. Read more

Joining Skinny Moose Media

Last week I alluded to an upcoming announcement. Today I’m thrilled to announce that I have joined Skinny Moose Media as their new Community Development Director.

Between their Skinny Moose blog network and their US Hunting Today brand they have just over 100 websites in their community generating nearly a million page views a month.

As Community Development Director I will be working with the Skinny Moose bloggers and their readership to create a place that people can feel a part of where they want to belong. We have several initiatives that we’ve talked about and I’m exited to be joining such a dynamic group over there.

Longtime Relationship

I first met Steve Remington, the President and driving force behind Skinny Moose,  years ago over on Liz Strauss’ Successful-Blog. It was one of her Tuesday night Open Comment Nights in fact. (I even found that original connection.)

That was when he was just getting started putting a blog network together. And I was just looking at taking the step away from Blogger over to WordPress. In Steve’s world that was 2 kids ago (he’s got 6 now!)

Over the years we’ve tracked each others progress and kept in touch. Steve even asked me to come blog for him a couple times in the past but we never quite came together.

We did talk several times the past few months and then last month Steve made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. The moral of that story is that it pays to network!

SuccessCREEations & Clients

What does this new turn mean for SuccessCREEations and our clients?

Ultimately they’ll see no change. We will still serve our existing clients. That was part of what made Steve’s offer so attractive to me.

Of course we will now have to be more selective on the new clients we take on in the future. But that will workout in everyone’s benefit as we will now be able to focus down even further on our core competencies here.

And in the end it may even free me up to once again blog more consistently here at SuccessCREEations. We’ll have to see how that works out.

WordPress Tips for Beginners

Andrew Cunningham recently asked a good question about getting started using WordPress.

Can any of you guys recommend good, simple resources for learning how to use wordpress?

How do you get started? It’s a great question that deserves some more attention.

Your Objectives

Ultimately the best way for you to get started depends on what your overall objectives for you website are. It’s the place I start with all my clients because if you don’t begin with the end in mind you will likely waste a whole lot of time and/or money working on things that don’t move you towards your real goals.

Some possible objectives include

• Raising brand awareness
• Increasing personal profile
• Driving product or service sales
• Improved search engine visibility
• Put a more personal face on your business
• Providing a personal creative outlet

Obviously the possibilities are nearly endless. But until you take the time to work out exactly what you want to achieve with your web site and write it down, you will likely be painting yourself into corners that may be difficult (and expensive) to get out of later.

Get Your Own Domain

Once you’ve got your objectives thought through, you are most likely going to want to get your own web domain. If you are planning to conduct any business via your website having your own domain is a must.

By having your own domain I mean purchasing your own .com name. There are other possibilities besides .com but for most folks, especially in the US, .com is the right way to go.

Having your own domain for your website will do a number of  things for you. The biggest ones that come to mind are

• People will take your business more seriously
• You have more control of your site

That second one is huge. Because there is no way to know what the future will bring, you want to give your self the flexibility to make changes later.

Ultimately your web site is yours, right? So you should have as much control over your site as you can.

I get all my domains through www.GoDaddy.com and I’ve got dozens of domains with them. They are the world’s largest registrar of domain names and for good reason. They are really good at what they do.

It is a good idea to register your domain for a minimum of 2 years for better search engine rankings because spammers tend to buy short lived domains and then abandon them quickly. I also recommend most of my clients get GoDaddy’s “Deluxe Registration” because it bundles some features that can be valuable for business owners.

One note about GoDaddy. They are a bit aggressive on the up-selling. Just be careful not to add on a whole bunch of stuff that you don’t need and you’ll be fine. Read more

Age of Conversation 2 Released Today

Today marks the official release of the collaborative social media book, The Age of Conversation 2: Why Don’t They Get It?

The book includes chapters from 237 authors (including yours truly) from 16 different countries and addresses the broad topic of some of the mistaken ideas people have about how social media intersects marketing efforts. The eight topic areas covered in the book are:

• Manifestos
• The Accidental Marketer
• A New Brand of Creative
• My Marketing Tragedy
• Life in the Conversation Lane
• Keeping Secrets
• From Conversation to Action
• Business Models

Capital ‘C’ Commitment

The Age of Conversation is the brain child of Drew McLellan and Gavin Heaton, and as such is truly an international effort. Drew is in Des Moins here in the States and Gavin is half a world away in Sydney Australia.

And they have had their hands full shepherding the 200+ authors and bringing all the aspects of the project together. They’re two highly committed men.

And the best part?

All Proceeds for Charity

The best part is that all of the revenue (above the actual publisher costs) is being donated to charity to help kids. The charity they have chosen to support is Variety, the international children’s charity.

Their goal is to raise at least $15,000 dollars for the charity. It’s ambitious. We need to sell a bunch of books to get there.

But with 237 bloggers generating conversation about it, I think it’s a vary achievable goal. So go buy a copy or two in your favorite format.

Pricing for The Age of Conversation 2 is:

• e-book: US$12.50  ($10.00 going to charity)
• paperback book: US$19.95 ($8.02 to charity)
• hardback book: US$29.95 ($4.60 to charity)

I bought my copy already. Go get yours right now.

It’s chock full of great information from some of the world’s leading bloggers and marketers. And you will be supporting a worthy cause at the same time. Read more

WordPress Releases Security Update Version 2.6.3

Yesterday WordPress released a security update in Version 2.6.3. According to the WordPress development blog this version update corrects a vulnerability in the Snoopy Library.

Now unless you want the Red Barron to be able to cause havoc with your blog you will probably want to either update the two files that are changed in this version or update your entire install.

Version 2.7 Coming Soon

The good folks at WordPress are working hard on the next major revision to version 2.7 and which will reportedly be released in the next few weeks.

Version 2.7 will take another leap forward in usability improvement on the back end with the dashboard and all of the administration panels getting a thorough going over.

Last month they conducted a survey to get user input on what changes to prioritize and user preferences on how the dashboard menus should be organized. (Yes we participated in that survey. So if you don’t like the new changes after they come out I guess we are partly to blame for it.)

If you want, go take an early look at the changes. Seems like they are making an already great platform even easier to use.

WordPress Support Services

If you’re behind in upgrading your WordPress installation, please be sure to take a look at our WordPress Support services. And if your project is a little bigger in scope, take a look at some examples of our work here at SuccessCREEations, Inc. to see if we can meet your needs.

As always feel free to contact us with any questions you may have.

And on that note I’ll leave you today with a little Snoopy vs. The Red Barron to enjoy.

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