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Monthly Archives: March 2010

Now, It Might Be Illegal to Read Your Employees’ E-Mail

Posted on March 31, 2010 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Business Change & SEO Consultant — No Comments ↓

Though born in New York City and most often look at as a NY boy, I’ve lived many years of my life in New Jersey. I know all the jokes (“what exit?!?”), and have grown fond of informing people that most of New Jersey is quite green and doesn’t look like an industrial wasteland. Yes, “The Garden State” has every right to be called that.

I’m horrified by MTV’s unreality program The Jersey Shore. I know lots of folks in New Jersey who are very smart, and like to remind people that both Albert Einstein and Thomas Edison were Jersey Boys.

The current justices of New Jersey’s Supreme Court are not on my smart New Jerseyan list. Yesterday, The highest court in New Jersey ruled unanimously that even if you warn your employees that that have no right to privacy when using your computers, you can’t read what they write or receive though email on them. ... READ MORE of this article, Now, It Might Be Illegal to Read Your Employees’ E-Mail from Answer Guy Central, your Business Change, SEO Consulting / Search Engine Optimization & Computer Support Source by Clicking Here (360 words, estimated 1:26 mins reading time)

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About The Long Tail: Even Microsoft Doesn’t Get It

Posted on March 26, 2010 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Business Change & SEO Consultant — No Comments ↓

Last October, I made a statement that was pretty strong, even for me: Long Tail Marketing is the single most important issue for your business’ growth and your business change that you will encounter. Any time. Ever.

Now, even Microsoft is copping to the importance of the long tail, and admitting they had underestimated it.

It’s an astonishing admission, both because the beast from Redmond isn’t know for such open acknowledgments of their failures and because it speaks out loud about how important long-tail marketing has become.

Imagine this: you’re a medical practice. Maybe an Obstetrician. You decide to undertake an on-line marketing campaign. Do you take aim at big, general phrases like OB-GYN (or the alternative OB/GYN, or OB GYN), or do you instead focus on more specific, lower-traffic, but still mainstream phrases such as cervical biopsy? Or perhaps you focus on the obscure and relatively new hydro-thermal ablation? ... READ MORE of this article, About The Long Tail: Even Microsoft Doesn’t Get It from Answer Guy Central, your Business Change, SEO Consulting / Search Engine Optimization & Computer Support Source by Clicking Here (368 words, estimated 1:28 mins reading time)

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Google Has Trouble in China, Whines to USA Government

Posted on March 25, 2010 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Business Change & SEO Consultant — No Comments ↓

REALLY, Google?

Just when you were starting to look like you were more powerful than most governments, are you asking the United States to slap China Around for you in your dispute over business practices? Now THERE’S a business change.

While Google hasn’t truly become more powerful than most governments, and while they’re as entitled to assistance as anyone else who asks for it, I’m flabbergasted that they think the United States is going to step into the problem they’ve run up against in China.

And all the deflection they wish to offer about how China is creating a hostile business environment not just for Google but for other American companies changes nothing: China has policies. Google doesn’t like them. End of story. ... READ MORE of this article, Google Has Trouble in China, Whines to USA Government from Answer Guy Central, your Business Change, SEO Consulting / Search Engine Optimization & Computer Support Source by Clicking Here (234 words, estimated 56 secs reading time)

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WSJ Creates New Price Point for iPad Subscription

Posted on March 25, 2010 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Business Change & SEO Consultant — No Comments ↓

Newspapers and others in the media have all but killed themselves—and their businesses—trying to figure out how to manage business change in the era of the Internet. It’s a huge problem getting people to pay for something they can lay their hands on for free, and most outlets have given away access to their content in the name of building on-line followings.

News Corporation, run with an iron fist by Rupert Murdoch, has been the most successful in getting paid for their content. While many of their properties (Fox Television and The New York Post, to name two) are available free in one form or another, Murdoch’s crown jewel, The Wall Street Journal, has steadfastly remained a pay-to-read publication, even on line. And Mr. Murdoch has made more than a bit of noise about how he’s going to find ways to keep separating us from our money if we want to read his stuff. Back in November he said that Amazon’s Kindle would be his weapon. ... READ MORE of this article, WSJ Creates New Price Point for iPad Subscription from Answer Guy Central, your Business Change, SEO Consulting / Search Engine Optimization & Computer Support Source by Clicking Here (607 words, estimated 2:26 mins reading time)

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No One Cares About Your Tweets? Now Do It Anyway . . .

Posted on March 24, 2010 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Business Change & SEO Consultant — No Comments ↓

So it turns out that nobody cares what you say on Twitter.

OK, so that isn’t true. But if you’ve been wondering why the more influential people you follow never retweet (RT) your words, the answer is simple: they don’t do that. You’re not surprised, right? The more “important” you are, the less incentive you have to care about the people you know peripherally. Ever been to a book signing and see how little real connection is in the eyes of an author signing copies of his latest masterpiece?

Of course, there are exceptions. I’ve seen authors exhibit real empathy, and professional athletes, too. But by and large we’re all creatures of habit and when more people are looking for our attention than we have time to give it to we fall into the habits that make the most sense—the ones we use to protect ourselves. ... READ MORE of this article, No One Cares About Your Tweets? Now Do It Anyway . . . from Answer Guy Central, your Business Change, SEO Consulting / Search Engine Optimization & Computer Support Source by Clicking Here (428 words, estimated 1:43 mins reading time)

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US Businesses: Don’t Use Twitter. US Air Force? Please Do!

Posted on March 23, 2010 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Business Change & SEO Consultant — No Comments ↓

So I’m minding my business this morning and what comes across my Twitter stream? This:

25% of companies prohibit access to social networks while entire US Air Force is encouraged to engage

It came from Lee Odden, who’s become one of the hot-hot-hot names in Internet Marketing, and it attributed the statistic and statement to David Meerman Scott, who seems to be a big shot in that arena, too. I accept that one in four businesses are doing what Lee says, and asked him for details re: the USAF reference.

I asked Lee what “encouraged to engage” means. It could have simply been a “don’t ask, don’t tell” situation (OK, that’s funny, but you get the point). Or it could mean that the United States Air Force has actually told its people to get out there and talk it up. Lee’s answer, which I choose to trust:  not blocked & provided guidelines. ... READ MORE of this article, US Businesses: Don’t Use Twitter. US Air Force? Please Do! from Answer Guy Central, your Business Change, SEO Consulting / Search Engine Optimization & Computer Support Source by Clicking Here (307 words, estimated 1:14 mins reading time)

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Social Media, Trust Agents, Chris Brogan, and Reality

Posted on March 22, 2010 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Business Change & SEO Consultant — No Comments ↓

Last December, I had the opportunity to interact at a webinar with Chris Brogan and Julien Smith, the authors of Trust Agents. This book has been a New York Times Bestseller for months, and I can tell you from my subsequent contact with them that both Chris and Julien are stand-up guys who say what they mean, mean what they say, and in general seem to be about as trustworthy as authors with an agenda to push can be.

I genuinely mean that as a compliment. It sounds measured, right? That’s today’s subject. On his website, Chris Brogan has written a great piece on the execution of social media. Ostensibly, it’s about scaling, but I see something else, and I’m disturbed. ... READ MORE of this article, Social Media, Trust Agents, Chris Brogan, and Reality from Answer Guy Central, your Business Change, SEO Consulting / Search Engine Optimization & Computer Support Source by Clicking Here (497 words, estimated 1:59 mins reading time)

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Google Analytics Has Now Rendered Itself Worthless

Posted on March 19, 2010 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Business Change & SEO Consultant — No Comments ↓

How do you know if your web site is performing?

If it makes more money than it costs, maybe that’s good enough. Even without doing any measurements of traffic, click-through rates, or your Search Engine Optimization ranking, you can tell that much. But what if you need to know more?

The answer, of course, is you use a tool to measure your traffic. Google Analytics is Google’s free tool for measuring web traffic, and it just keeps getting better and better; so much so that there’s plenty of questioning of why you would use a paid service to measure web site traffic and performance.

Google seems ready to give us an answer to that question. The monster from Palo Alto is preparing to give people a way to have Google Analytics not count them when they visit web sites that use Google Analytics.

This is an incredibly bad idea. ... READ MORE of this article, Google Analytics Has Now Rendered Itself Worthless from Answer Guy Central, your Business Change, SEO Consulting / Search Engine Optimization & Computer Support Source by Clicking Here (384 words, estimated 1:32 mins reading time)

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Business Change is About Solutions. Problems Are Secondary.

Posted on March 18, 2010 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Business Change & SEO Consultant — No Comments ↓

Last July, as the Health Care Reform rhetoric began flying fast and furious, I pointed out that all the naysayers (at the time, almost exclusively partisan Republican naysayers) were talking smack in spite of not yet having seen a real plan from President Barack Obama.

The biggest business change in the history of the United States is now upon us, and while it isn’t enough, it’s real.

I’m ultimately non-partisan. I’m still a fan of Barack Obama’s, but I’m disappointed in both the results he’s achieved in this round of health care reform and his performance in general. President Obama’s been called “Bush II” (more accurately, III), and I’m sorry to acknowledge that absent the bumbling, cringe-inducing persona I understand the comparison. That said . . . the about-to-become-law health care bill, though not really good enough, is a good start. ... READ MORE of this article, Business Change is About Solutions. Problems Are Secondary. from Answer Guy Central, your Business Change, SEO Consulting / Search Engine Optimization & Computer Support Source by Clicking Here (270 words, estimated 1:05 mins reading time)

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MILF? Nah. A MILB is What’s REALLY Hot

Posted on March 17, 2010 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Business Change & SEO Consultant — No Comments ↓

It made the New York Times, so it must be true: women are blogging, and they’re passionate about it. So much so that they’re dropping everything that used to be important to them to spend more and more time in their hot new pursuit. Friends, I give you the MILB™.

By the Way, I hereby claim trademark in the MILB acronym. I’ve poked around, and nobody else has used it. I invented the term. It’s mine. ;-)

With due homage to the too-incredible-to-believe-except-it’s-true point that women are now getting together to blog in groups and that blogging has become the modern-day kaffeeklatsch, the story here is about the Internet and just how deeply it’s reached into our lives. While many if not most of the women that this story talks about will never build out the kind of brands they’re hoping to become, the fact that they spend so much time blogging, talking about blogging, and therefore being ever-more-real Internet presences says everything you need to know about the Internet’s importance to your business. ... READ MORE of this article, MILF? Nah. A MILB is What’s REALLY Hot from Answer Guy Central, your Business Change, SEO Consulting / Search Engine Optimization & Computer Support Source by Clicking Here (248 words, estimated 1:0 mins reading time)

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Facebook is Bigger Than Google (and What That Means)

Posted on March 16, 2010 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Business Change & SEO Consultant — No Comments ↓

I usually ignore claims about how large one web site is versus another. The traffic varies widely, and it seems like every time someone manages to get enough attention to become “BIG!” they slip into obscurity almost as fast as they arrived. But when Facebook became “bigger than Google” this week, I noticed something.

These guys are HUGE.

The research comes from Hitwise. And like most statistically-generated “fact” it’s the kind of information that can be interpreted in many different ways. But underneath it there’s some validity: Google and Facebook each account for over seven percent of all Internet traffic.

I suppose Google serving up one out of every fourteen pages viewed on the Internet shouldn’t really come as a surprise. They’re the largest search engine by a factor of five, and with the Internet having become the world’s de facto technical support, information search, and news source their volume makes sense. But Facebook having just as many hits as Google all by itself? Amazing. ... READ MORE of this article, Facebook is Bigger Than Google (and What That Means) from Answer Guy Central, your Business Change, SEO Consulting / Search Engine Optimization & Computer Support Source by Clicking Here (253 words, estimated 1:01 mins reading time)

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Where Do You Get Your News? The Daily Show? ABC? Answer Guy?

Posted on March 15, 2010 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Business Change & SEO Consultant — No Comments ↓

Back in 1997, I did TV for CBS News, when The Computer Answer Guy was a talking head for their overnight national program Up To The Minute. In the spirit of nostalgia, here I am, with then-anchor Nanette Hansen:

Jeff Yablon, The Computer Answer Guy, on CBS-TV News' Up To The Minute Jeff Yablon, The Computer Answer Guy, with CBS-TV News' Nanette Hansen on Up To The Minute

Here’s the story, and why I’m telling it now: UTTM was produced and ran in the 2AM to 6AM time slot, because it was cheap. Or at least that’s what the production staff told me when I was there. Literally, the news broadcast that a couple of dozen people turned out every night cost less to produce than it would have been for CBS to license and run old episodes of Gunsmoke. ... READ MORE of this article, Where Do You Get Your News? The Daily Show? ABC? Answer Guy? from Answer Guy Central, your Business Change, SEO Consulting / Search Engine Optimization & Computer Support Source by Clicking Here (405 words, 2 images, estimated 1:37 mins reading time)

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I’ll See You On The Dark Side of The Moon: Pink Floyd Wins!

Posted on March 12, 2010 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Business Change & SEO Consultant — No Comments ↓

How often do I get to write about music, technology, copyrights, business change, and one of the most successful classic albums of all time, all in one post?

The answer is “Once, So Far . . Now“.

Yesterday, Pink Floyd, the late-sixties-and-later concept rock band that gave us Dark Side of The Moon, the album which holds the all-time record for longest run on the Billboard music charts, beat their record label in a lawsuit that could have a huge impact on the way the music business works. It’s a forced business change that could reverberate throughout the digital music business (are you listening, Apple iTunes?).

Artists have traditionally gotten a pretty bad deal from record labels. Pink Floyd has been around so long that the members have become very rich, but their money comes more from touring, merchandising, and licensing fees than from actual music sales. EMI, the record label Pink Floyd has been with for over thirty years, makes far more money on their music than the boys do. ... READ MORE of this article, I’ll See You On The Dark Side of The Moon: Pink Floyd Wins! from Answer Guy Central, your Business Change, SEO Consulting / Search Engine Optimization & Computer Support Source by Clicking Here (384 words, estimated 1:32 mins reading time)

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Chatroulette: Add Maps and Captured Pictures, and … Uh-Oh!

Posted on March 11, 2010 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Business Change & SEO Consultant — 2 Comments ↓

If the message that you need to be careful about what you say and do on the Internet hasn’t sunk in just yet, get ready: pictures from Chatroulette have been captured, geo-coded, and are available for anyone to see at Chatroulettemap.

If you’ve missed it, Chatroulette is a new web site where you can go to instantly start chatting with random strangers across the Internet. It’s a cool enough idea, I suppose; why not make an occasional new friend this way?

Not surprisingly, there are reasons. The Chatroulette user community is thus far made up of mostly young, mostly male people who will instantly click away from you if you turn out to be anything other than a young, attractive female.  So Chatroulette doesn’t actually work. It might one day, and if he’s smart the young man who created Chatroulette will make a fortune selling his technology to dating sites. But right now it does nothing. ... READ MORE of this article, Chatroulette: Add Maps and Captured Pictures, and … Uh-Oh! from Answer Guy Central, your Business Change, SEO Consulting / Search Engine Optimization & Computer Support Source by Clicking Here (307 words, 1 image, estimated 1:14 mins reading time)

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Is a Corporation Really The Same as a Person?

Posted on March 10, 2010 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Business Change & SEO Consultant — No Comments ↓

President Obama is in a war of words with Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. I find it unseemly, but that’s not important.

I bring up the subject because I happened across this article in today’s New York Times, and attached to it was a (slightly off-topic) comment on the Supreme Court’s ruling of last January that essentially gave corporations the right to make unlimited campaign contributions. And it asked a reasonable enough question:

If Corporations and People Are The Same Thing, Do Corporations have the Right to Bear Arms?

I referred to this Supreme Court Ruling in a recent post, and now I’m thinking: why is it so important to pick the correct business structure? Are Corporations really the same as people? The Right To Bear Arms example shows pretty clearly that the answer, if there is one, is “no”. But legally, corporations enjoy the same rights as people, don’t they? ... READ MORE of this article, Is a Corporation Really The Same as a Person? from Answer Guy Central, your Business Change, SEO Consulting / Search Engine Optimization & Computer Support Source by Clicking Here (240 words, estimated 58 secs reading time)

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