I just listened to a few old podcasts from another blogger and there were two words mentioned several times in each recording: “Our Competitors.” It’s not so much those two words, but how they were said that made them stick out like a sore thumb. The tone of the guy’s voice when he uttered those words gave me the distinct impression that he focused too much on other sites in his niche - to the point of obsession.

I have watched and read this persons blogs for quite some time and always got the feeling that his thinking of other blogs occupying the same space as competitors was holding him and his business back. I’ve watched other blogs come into the space long after his and watched them soar while his blogs never seem to grow as fast.

My feeling is that he should have been looking at other blogs in his niche as potential partners and the new blogs as potential partnership opportunities, or at least as friends and colleagues instead of enemies/competitors.

Competition implies a limited mindset, a limited pie with limited pieces and no flexibility. Why think that if you have a tech blog and some of your readers read other tech blogs, they’re gone? Why try and compete in that sense?

Now I’d be an idiot if I told you not to keep an eye on what/who else is doing things in your niche. I’d also be an idiot if I didn’t tell you to look at those as research and opportunities to build relationships.

Concentrate on building the best blog with the best content possible and build relationships, especially with other bloggers in your space. Otherwise you’ll be stopped on the side of a lonely road while your competitors and their friends whiz by.

For anyone building out a brand around their own name, personality or business, social networks have become a crucial aspect of online life. If you ain’t constantly putting yourself out there in front of your peers and clients, you’re missing out. That’s a fact.

But what if you just want to sit in front of your computer and work. What if being part of all these social networks does nothing for you and your business because of the way it’s structured. What if maintaining appearances at all those social networks is actually hurting your business and negatively impacting your bottom line?

Personally, I’m at a point in my life/business where I would much rather just skrink into the shadows and do some work.

I’ve been ‘out there’ a number of different times. Years ago as an SEO dude, I singlehandedly started the 3rd or 4th ever blog network online, the internet marketing and info marketing, business, ad copywriting, etc. But I’ve never really been one for having my neck out there on the ‘fame and recognition’ chopping block. Quite frankly, I’ve hated every minute of that aspect.

Nowadays, in order to maintain any sort of image or reputation, you need to have a following and presence on all the popular social networks, but that just serves to perpetuate the one part of online business I hate the most.

Anyway, I’m happier, much more productive and a helluva lot more efficient with my time when I don’t have to worry about being part of the ‘IN’ crowd.

When I retire in Aruba in the next couple years, I don’t want to have to hide my face so no-one recognizes me or want’s to pitch business deals, I want to cover my face to avoid a sunburn. The way it’s looking right now, I’ll be there a lot sooner if I spend extra time working instead of trying to keep my twitter account active.

Oh, and ‘Social Marketing’ is an oxymoron to the ‘nth degree.

Ok, that title could have went in more than one direction but, this post talks about dates on web pages, not trying to get laid.

Scenario: A new person comes online. This person is not internet savvy so they haven’t yet learned what to look for when searching for or reading info online. They are looking for info on how to set up your own online business.

After struggling through a few hundred pages of sales pitches, they finally find a page that outlines the basics for them so they print it out for reference.

Now, this page lists links and software tools that are (or were) essential to starting and running a profitable online business… in 1999 but, there was no indication on that page of when it was actually written!

This person now has woefully outdated information and eagerly absorbs that information, which forms a frame of reference in their mind - this is what I need to do to start an online business. They go forward from that point, searching for more information based on what they learned on that old web page and, essentially, they end up learning old techniques that nobody has used for years.

They learn about FFA pages and search engine spamming. They learn about email blasting and usenet spamming, etc. - the things that were somewhat accepted back in ‘99 but if done today would instantly ruin a person or company’s reputation and possibly even be against the law.

All because there was no date on that old page.

I love blog software and this is one of the reasons - the dates. The date and time the page was published is usually either in the URL itself or somewhere near the post or footer, which gives the reader a chronological reference as to when the information was published.

One of the things I’ve always hated about search engines is, up until recently, they would weight older pages online as being more relevant in the search results which in a lot of cases meant that when searching for something the searcher would get outdated information. I’m glad the search engines have largely ‘woken up’ and realized that not all things published online are ‘evergreen.’

Relevance in search results is not just about relevance to the word or phrases being searched for, it’s about time relevance as well.

So folks, anything you publish online from now on, please add a published date somewhere on the page, preferrably at the top and in plain view somewhere. In a few years, the info you published may no longer be relevant and some poor soul could end up being steered in the wrong direction.

I don’t have much time right now to be writing a long predictions post or epic story about how the face of online interaction will change in the year ahead, so I’ll just say this:

Happy New Year!

A few minutes ago typed “47 folders” into the google search bar built into my firefox browser and here’s what appeared when I hit the enter key. Aparently, it thinks I’m an automated bot or spyware application. Or worse, there’s something on my system sending automated requests!

So I guess I’m off to do a bunch of scans on my system to see if my laptop is infested with spyware.

google 403, automated bot, spyware, virus