Monthly Archives: July 2011

In “Truth In Advertising” : “Truth” Is a Relative Term

Posted on July 29, 2011 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Business Change & SEO Consultant — No Comments ↓

What do you think of Truth in Advertising?

If I answer that question cynically, I guess I just snarkily offer up the opinion that Truth in Advertising is an oxymoron. There is no Truth in Advertising.

But if I go too far the other way, the question of what Truth in Advertising is gets similar short shrift. Advertising becomes almost a matter of political correctness, with no real meaning attached. I encountered that at a Cheesecake Factory Restaurant a few months ago, where the laws in New York requiring that chains above a certain size post caloric counts for their food led to one pasta dish being rated at—I’m not kidding—550 to 2100 calories.

That information was useless. I knew what it meant, of course: the caloric load was dependent on how much of the sauce you consumed. But when there’s a law that compels information like that to be displayed it’s doing … nothing. ... READ MORE of this article, In “Truth In Advertising” : “Truth” Is a Relative Term from Answer Guy Central, your Business Change, SEO Consulting / Search Engine Optimization & Computer Support Source by Clicking Here (539 words, 2 images, estimated 2:09 mins reading time)

Tagged with: "the whole truth", advertising, carol alt, julia roberts
Posted in Search Engine Optimization SEO

Huge Business Change: Merchant Accounts Are (Almost) Free!

Posted on July 27, 2011 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Business Change & SEO Consultant — No Comments ↓

As our clients know, we prefer payments for services at Answer Guy Central via electronic means. And we offer lower rates for our clients when they agree to follow a no-collections-or-billing-necessary business process we’ve set up through PayPal. It’s at least partially due to this that when PayPal discontinued their Money Market Fund a few weeks ago I pointed out that there are other choices for moving money around but that we’d probably be staying put.

Business process pays huge dividends, but because establishing and setting up a business process can be difficult, it can be painful to change one.

There has to be a payoff for business process change to make sense. When Square eliminated transaction fees, for example, the business change was huge—it was an actual business change—but unless you process a large number of transactions it probably wasn’t enough to lure you away from your existing credit card processor. ... READ MORE of this article, Huge Business Change: Merchant Accounts Are (Almost) Free! from Answer Guy Central, your Business Change, SEO Consulting / Search Engine Optimization & Computer Support Source by Clicking Here (427 words, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)

Tagged with: "business process", business change, credit cards, e-commerce, merchant accounts, paypal, square
Posted in business change

Music, Clouds, Spots, and Messed-Up Computers

Posted on July 25, 2011 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Business Change & SEO Consultant — No Comments ↓

Last week, the most anticipated launch of a cloud music service finally happened here in the USA. Spotify, available for years in much of the rest of the world, finally got their licensing and server acts together and turned on their “listen to almost anything for free even if you don’t own it” music service.

And with that breathless couple of compound sentences, I haven’t even begun to tell the story.

“The Cloud” matters. I’ve told you this several times, and while music streaming might not seem all that important to you, it’s enormously popular and both a great test of cloud service capabilities and people’s adoption of new ideas. The Cloud is business change.

I’ve talked about Google Music. I’ve told you about Amazon Cloud Music. Both of those, as well as Apple’s iCloud music streaming offering, require you to own the music you stream through the Cloud. For years other services such as Rhapsody have let you license the right to play music, even if you didn’t own it, for a fee—generally in the $15 per month range. ... READ MORE of this article, Music, Clouds, Spots, and Messed-Up Computers from Answer Guy Central, your Business Change, SEO Consulting / Search Engine Optimization & Computer Support Source by Clicking Here (755 words, 1 image, estimated 3:01 mins reading time)

Tagged with: "computer support", business change, music, remote control, the cloud
Posted in business change

The Newest Mac Mini, and The Evil That Is Apple

Posted on July 21, 2011 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Business Change & SEO Consultant — No Comments ↓

Mac Mini With No Optical Drive

Yesterday, Apple released a bunch of new products. There’s a new version of the Macintosh Operating System that makes your computer act a lot more like an iPad, and also adds other new features. There are new laptop computers, and Apple’s eliminated a few models. In short, yesterday was just another one of Apple’s a-couple-of-times-each-year product drops.

Except for what Apple did to that darned Mac Mini.

The Mac Mini isn’t new; in fact, it’s been around for quite a few years now. When Apple first released the Mac Mini they talked it up as a replacement for your “real” computer, but since that doesn’t work for laptops (no screen), and doesn’t work as a workstation (not powerful enough), the Mac Mini’s role has been relegated to that of a server. Personally, I’ve never seen a Mac Mini used as anything except a media hub. ... READ MORE of this article, The Newest Mac Mini, and The Evil That Is Apple from Answer Guy Central, your Business Change, SEO Consulting / Search Engine Optimization & Computer Support Source by Clicking Here (517 words, 1 image, estimated 2:04 mins reading time)

Tagged with: apple, business change, control, macintosh
Posted in business change

Google Page Rank Secret Sauce and Search Engine Optimization

Posted on July 20, 2011 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Business Change & SEO Consultant — No Comments ↓

When I write, I stress over whether my words are fun to read, their value to your business change efforts, and whether I’m talking about the same topics too often. We don’t get a tremendous number of comments here, so I rely on feedback I get from other sources. Yesterday’s article on how Google PageRank works generated its share of feedback, with Tweets like this one, email, and comments all coming in.

And then I started thinking about something that’s never far from my mind.

No matter how great a job you do on your Search Engine Optimization and regardless of the effort you put into tracking results, you won’t ever have a nearly complete picture.

At the top of this piece you can see a graphic showing the traffic for my White Paper on Google’s Secret Sauce and SEO, which was referenced in yesterday’s article. When I grabbed that screen shot the article had been viewed 938 times. ... READ MORE of this article, Google Page Rank Secret Sauce and Search Engine Optimization from Answer Guy Central, your Business Change, SEO Consulting / Search Engine Optimization & Computer Support Source by Clicking Here (423 words, 1 image, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)

Tagged with: "long tail marketing", "search engine optimization", Google, pagerank, traffic
Posted in business change, Search Engine Optimization SEO

Google Tries to Beat Anti-Trust, Lowers Ranking, Raises It.

Posted on July 19, 2011 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Business Change & SEO Consultant — 8 Comments ↓

How’s your page rank? Better question yet, how’s your PageRank?

You’re forgiven if you don’t know the answers, or don’t even know what PageRank is. But Search Engine Optimization Consultants know, and over the last few weeks Google’s dropped their own PageRank, then raised it again. SEO Consultants are scratching their heads on how and why that would happen, but I think I know the answer:

Google’s afraid of anti-trust legislation being threatened by the United States Congress, and their PageRank fluctuations are a misdirect. And a pretty clever one at that.

PageRank is one of the things that makes it worthwhile for you to hire an SEO Consultant, by the way. Google assigns every page it knows about on the Internet a score from 1 to 10 (or assigns no rank at all, a de facto “PageRank Zero”), and getting to each successive rank is exponentially more difficult than the previous one. And your rank determines … how important a link from you is to everyone else. ... READ MORE of this article, Google Tries to Beat Anti-Trust, Lowers Ranking, Raises It. from Answer Guy Central, your Business Change, SEO Consulting / Search Engine Optimization & Computer Support Source by Clicking Here (535 words, 1 image, estimated 2:08 mins reading time)

Tagged with: "search engine optimization", anti-trust, business change, Google, pagerank, SEO
Posted in business change, Search Engine Optimization SEO

Thou Shalt Not Censor (The First Law of Coopetition)

Posted on July 18, 2011 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Business Change & SEO Consultant — No Comments ↓

A couple of years ago, I commented on Amazon imposing a form of censorship upon Kindle users. That post did its job; aside from entertaining and informing, it boosted our search engine optimization for the long-tail marketing phrase “kindle censorship”.

Censorship’s become an occasionally-recurrent theme here, but it was just today that I realized there was a connection between censorship and another favorite theme—coopetition.

Thanks to our friends at Facebook, I just realized that the number one enemy of coopetition is something that has no place in your business change plans.

Yep. It’s censorship.

According to ReadWriteWeb, Facebook isn’t allowing advertisements for Google+ accounts. I’ve run a simple experiemnt and it appears that Facebook’s ban of links back to Google+ is not all-encompassing; as you can see, I’ve successfully posted a link from my Facebook account to my Google+ account:

... READ MORE of this article, Thou Shalt Not Censor (The First Law of Coopetition) from Answer Guy Central, your Business Change, SEO Consulting / Search Engine Optimization & Computer Support Source by Clicking Here (431 words, 1 image, estimated 1:43 mins reading time)

Tagged with: business change, censorship, coopetition, facebook, Google
Posted in business change

The Storage Isn’t Google; on Amazon Cloud Music Gets Free-er

Posted on July 15, 2011 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Business Change & SEO Consultant — No Comments ↓

A while back I told you about the best-yet-chance-of-outdoing-iTunes approach Google Music is taking to the music business. It’s almost becoming a theme; Google+ is better than Facebook, and although Google+ isn’t mature yet, it’s a great example of Google making better stuff than their competitors in key markets.

Amazon is doing their best to get into new businesses, too. The Amazon Cloud puts the retail giant into cloud storage in a way that has to impress any student of business change, and although Amazon Cloud Music felt a bit under-cooked when Amazon got together with Lady Gaga, Amazon’s cloud plans are starting to look smarter.

Last week, Amazon announced a small tweak to their cloud music player that should cost them nothing and makes them more attractive. I’m still seeing Google Music as the best-yet offering in the space, but … business change comes in baby steps. ... READ MORE of this article, The Storage Isn’t Google; on Amazon Cloud Music Gets Free-er from Answer Guy Central, your Business Change, SEO Consulting / Search Engine Optimization & Computer Support Source by Clicking Here (373 words, estimated 1:30 mins reading time)

Tagged with: amazon cloud music, business change, google music, storage
Posted in business change

Netflix: New Media Business Acts Like Old Media Company

Posted on July 13, 2011 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Business Change & SEO Consultant — No Comments ↓

Reed Hastings is lucky he’s rich, because if he’s behind a move Netflix made yesterday he may be the stupidest CEO of a multi-billion dollar company, ever.

We’re taking a break from analyzing Google+ today, because yesterday Mr. Hastings’ Netflix initiated a business change that was so large and so misguided I just had to comment.

Netflix, a company that pretty much put the video store business out of business by offering DVDs in the mail for a better price and then deftly transitioned to an Internet video delivery service, has announced what amounts to a 60% price hike. You, the Netflix customer, get nothing in return. ... READ MORE of this article, Netflix: New Media Business Acts Like Old Media Company from Answer Guy Central, your Business Change, SEO Consulting / Search Engine Optimization & Computer Support Source by Clicking Here (364 words, estimated 1:27 mins reading time)

Tagged with: "customer service", blockbuster, business change, media, movies, netflix, redbox
Posted in business change, Customer Service

Change Your Internet Browser Software! Quick! Right Now!

Posted on July 8, 2011 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Business Change & SEO Consultant — No Comments ↓

What software are you using for browsing the Internet? What version? How old is it? Is it secure? DO YOU CARE?

Yes, you do. Or you need to. And yesterday Yahoo! showed me why.

Browser updates are one of those computer issues that keep on coming up, but shouldn’t. I may hate Apple, but they handle this the right way; when Mac OS downloads system updates it also updates your Safari web browser software. You don’t need to know or do anything. Microsoft has recently begun sneaking browser updates for Internet Explorer into Windows system updates, but the process is slightly clumsier and it seems like whenever Internet Explorer updates the changes are dramatic enough that you can’t help but notice them—and likely be confused. ... READ MORE of this article, Change Your Internet Browser Software! Quick! Right Now! from Answer Guy Central, your Business Change, SEO Consulting / Search Engine Optimization & Computer Support Source by Clicking Here (578 words, 1 image, estimated 2:19 mins reading time)

Tagged with: "business process", "computer support", browser, internet, software
Posted in business change

The Cloud: Important. Cloud Services: Still Stealing

Posted on July 7, 2011 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Business Change & SEO Consultant — No Comments ↓

The Cloud.jpg

You’re in the cloud, right?

Well, of course you are. Even if you don’t think or talk about it using platitudes, there’s some application you use that works on The Internet instead of on your own computer or network. I’ve mentioned before that you need to start taking this “cloud” thing seriously.

When I wrote that piece on taking The Cloud seriously, I pointed out that I had set up my son with an Ubuntu installation that utilized exactly two pieces of software that didn’t come as part of his new operating system. One is Evernote, for taking notes easily, and the other is Dropbox, which gives you access to all of your important files from any computer.

Both services are great. Both have many millions of users. And last week Dropbox showed they’re growing up, by issuing a revision to their terms of service that makes them sound like a great big evil land-grabbing corporate entity instead of a fun little Internet start-up. ... READ MORE of this article, The Cloud: Important. Cloud Services: Still Stealing from Answer Guy Central, your Business Change, SEO Consulting / Search Engine Optimization & Computer Support Source by Clicking Here (529 words, 1 image, estimated 2:07 mins reading time)

Tagged with: "business process", copyright, dropbox, the cloud, trademark
Posted in business change