This and That on a Friday
Posted On: 2008-05-30
Linkbait ... is the catch really worth the effort?
Earlier this week I mentioned the storm that's been raging around a linkbait article that first appeared during the week before. If you haven't seen it the original article supposedly told the story of a 13 year old who stole his father's credit card and then went out on a spending spree that included hookers in a Las Vegas hotel room.
The story hit digg and Reddit and other places where many people formed the impression that the contents of the story were true. Several national newspapers in various parts of the world also picked up the story and ran with it. Eventually though the person who wrote the story admitted that it was totally fictitious and then the excrement began to hit the fan.
Google even got involved and Matt Cutts issued a stern warning on his blog about the penalties Google would impose on anyone who tried this tactic to attract links ... and there's no doubt that it really did attract some links. In just a week or two the site where the story first appeared is said to have gained well over two thousand back links.
That's an amazing number of links in a very short time but did it really have any positive impact on the site that those links point to? No one that I've seen has come out and said that they have seen any increase in search engine position for that site despite the impact that all those back links should have had. In fact, if anything, there's been a negative impact because now Google is undoubtedly watching that site and there may have been some penalty applied to the site. If you read what Matt Cutts said it seems that it is possible that Google did impose some form of penalty.
And then there's the negative impact in credibility that stories like this must have on a site. If you've come to a site to read a shocking story like this one was and then found that it was false what would your perception be of some of the advertising that you might see on the site? Would you believe it? Would you be willing to buy from anyone who advertised on that site or would your view of the advertisers be tainted by the distrust you would have in the site? Big brand names might be able to advertise on a site like that but what about a smaller, less well known business?
It's an interesting question and certainly one that we here in adult should be carefully considering. Actually there's a lesson there that we've already been taught if we care to remember it. When you promise the world and deliver very little ... as we've done here in adult ... the people you want to sell things to are not going to trust you enough to buy what you're selling in the future.
So you just have to ask yourself, was that linkbait article really worth it and would something like that really have a positive impact on one of my sites?
Couch potatoes and multi-tasking
I've just been skipping through an interesting little slide presentation that asks some interesting questions about our work environment. It's certainly worth thinking about because it challenges the way many adult webmasters think about the way they work.
For instance are you one of those who stays stuck at your desk ... or on the couch working all day? If you are then the next time you get stuck for a word or an idea try getting up and going for a walk. You don't have to walk far, just go for a walk around the house and see if the idea you're looking for doesn't come to you.
I used to wonder why Steve would suddenly leap up and start walking around the house when he was stuck and now I'm beginning to see why. It seems that a little exercise can stimulate the brain and get you thinking more clearly.
And for those of you who think that it's quite possible to do six different things at once and do every one of them effectively perhaps it's time to think again and reorganize your lifestyle so that you can concentrate on just one task at a time. Research is beginning to show that when we're multi-tasking and we need to pay attention to something then we just can't do it.
One researcher has put it quite clearly when he says: 'We are biologically incapable of processing attention-rich inputs simultaneously.'
Perhaps we can wing it for a while but sooner or later we're going to miss something that's very important and suffer the consequences. And even if we do think we can handle multi-tasking think about the time it takes you to complete a task. If you can concentrate on it then you can get it done in less time than it takes you if you're trying to do other things at the same time.
It's just something for you to think about over the weekend and now I'm off to face another day ... after this week I am so glad that the weekend is almost upon us.