Arianna got it right!

I feel I don't search google all that much, contrary to the fact that Brian Clark told in his article How to Create Compelling Content that Ranks Well in Search Engines told that searching is the number one thing people do online. Am I exception from the rule? I looked at my searches. Yesterday I googled: cost of Fedex shipment, public theater, Valentines Day massacre, q69 bus schedule, and drunk raccoon.  I realized that I apparently like to google! No, wait I must of love doing it, since I google q69 bus schedule every day -- why just not save it? And I definitely knew, before I even googled it, that website for yelp is www.yelp.com. 


If we are searching so much then together with creativity, design and content, google ranking matter a lot. If I don't find what I am looking for within two or three google pages, I give up.  Before reading Clark, I never thought what makes website stand out? I thought you do the writing, you create, and then it all depend on a social media, who would share it on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and how often. Clark doesn't diminish the role of social media, and emphasizes that sharing is what makes website popular. Yes, it does matter haw many people will share a link on their Facebook account, but it also matter how many other websites would share that link. 


There are few advices that I found important, more so for bloggers, journalists and writers, than for businessman. Clark mentions that, in order to visitors on a webpage, author could be a guest on another blog.  The Huffington Post serves us as a good example of freelancers writing for the blog in exchange in exchange for publicity. February 14, 2012,  Nathan Newman wrote a blog post for the Huffington Post, "Why shouldn’t a Housekeeper Make $60 000 a Year." Newman also has his own website that was displayed in the byline. Huffington post has in the US alone 56.3 million viewers according to Quantcast. The Huffington Post is known for inviting influential people and people who seek publicity to share their opinion. It becomes mutually beneficial relationship between a website and a guest writer. 

However, I would imagine that the Huffington Post doesn't invite just anyone, who is looking to be a guest blogger and looking to promote his or hers website. That's when the importance and relevance of social media -- that Deanna Zandt is talking about -- comes into place. Lets g back to Newman's article. He writes about woking class people – hotel maids, cooks, and dishwashers – who, in his opinion, do deserve a salary of $60 000. The first to comment on the post was a woman who posted a link to the website www.care.com that offers housekeeping and babysitting services.  She wrote that she doesn’t charge $60 000 for her services.  The website is consistent with Clarks recommendations: the website menu has titles as child, senior, pets, babysitters, nanies; and it comes forth in a google search. 

The other business webpage I want to talk about is called That's Why I am Broke.  It features a collection of the unnecessary items that simply look cool, for example -- a money soap – a real soap, that has inside an unknown amount of dollars wrapped in plastic. The website also provides a links to other websites that sell such a nonsense. However, even though the idea is great, it lacks a keyword or key phrase that would let "spiders" find it on Google search. If I wanted to find this kind of website, I would of googled "cool stuff." Needless to say, the website wasn't featured on the first two pages of the Google search.

The website itself doesn’t fare well in social media. It has only 1412 fans on Facebook and over 9000 followers on tweeter. Zandt says that people who are successful in social media doesn't only post on the Twitter and Facebook the description of their product, but engage their followers in an everyday conversations. She says, "we start to become aware of one another, we start to care." However, That's Why I am Broke doesn’t engage with a followers or fans through social media, it simply lists  that are available on their website.


The other website I would think wouldn't fit Clark's description of successful online writing is  The Daily Beast. Don't get me wrong the website is very popular and has over 4.6 unique visitors per month. However, with a concept simular to the Huffington Post, The Daily Beast doesn't come close to the popularity of the Huffington Post. Clark says in his article that the title menu should be available to reader and explains what is the website is about. The Daily Beast buries its title menu under advertisement and a headline. However, today the headline was "Whitney's Doctors Could Face Courts," and if it is a popular search on google it can generate traffic to the website. Unfortunately, no Whitney Houston and/or her doctors didn't make top 20 searches on Google.  I don't think that the Daily Beast online strategy is bad, but I think they can make it better. 


On the final note, I want to say what Clark and Zandt both agreed on when it comes to online writing: People are writing for people and not "spiders," so a good online entrepreneur has always keep people in mind.