Mary's Blog

Ever wonder why we were so willing for forgive Marion Barry for getting caught smoking crack with a hooker or why we can't help ourselves in giving Britney Spears yet another chance to revitalize her career and screw up her kids? The psychology of forgiveness is complex. There are people we will forgive anything and there are people we will forgive nothing. Our forgiveness boils down to two very specific things - our love for the person or entity and our overall desire to trust them. Nowhere is this more evident than in our ability to forgive some celebrities anything and others nothing.

What does any of this have to do with marketing?

Reputation management is always a hot topic in marketing- it is where PR crosses paths with shock and awe marketing at Forgiveness Rd. Truth be told there only two real paths to forgiveness in a consumer's mind. Love and Trust. So, how can you earn love and trust through marketing? Take a page from what works and does not work for celebrities.

What are the basic circumstances of forgiveness?

1. We will forgive people we love almost anything. And we LOVE celebrities. It is, in fact, our love for these people that made them what they are.

2. We will forgive the come-back kid. We love to see the small town boy make good, fall from grace and then redeem himself. I call this the Jesus complex. Some celebrities just have a knack for crucifying and resurrecting their careers.

3. We will forgive someone who takes responsibility. We love people that ADMIT when they done wrong, apologize and ask for forgiveness because we all know how hard that can be.

So, let's take a hard look into our ability to forgive Marion Barry of smoking crack with a hooker but not forgive Paris Hilton for being famous for nothing.

Why Can We Forgive Britney Spears for Being a Bad Mother and Lindsay Lohan for Being an Addict?

Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan were just the two of the most adorable kids, weren't they? We just couldn't get enough of them. We wanted Britney to "Do it again" and Lindsay to make those Mean Girls nice. Of course, just as they were hitting the pinnacle of success, the green monsters inside us didn't really want these girls to succeed - why should they live the charmed life? And just as we thought that - they satisfied our need with their fall from Grace. Britney married K-Fed in a shotgun wedding, Lindsay started living the real life version of the movie Blow. It wasn't long before both these girls were tabloid fodder and Page 6 regulars.

But, no matter how far these girls fell, we were always willing to give them another chance. Britney is reprising her role of opening the VMAs and Lindsay is shooting more movies as I type. We want them to do well, they have spun the story of a hard life and now they have EARNED a good life. They have difficult family situations we can all relate to and they have suffered, which makes them worthy of another chance.

Why Can We Forgive Marion Barry for Smoking Crack?

When Marion Barry (former mayor of DC) was caught red handed smoking crack with a former girlfriend in a hotel room, he didn't deny it, he faced up to the charges, did his time in jail and eventually was re-elected. Washington residents love this man, in fact after his second term as Mayor, he ran for a number of other political offices in the midst o more drug scandals and was repeatedly elected and in 2007, he was even chosen by a majority of Washington residents and tourists from Madam Tussauds' "Top 10 Wish List," in a contest that pitted him against Cal Ripken, Al Gore, Denzel Washington, Carl Bernstein, Halle Berry, Martin Sheen, Marilyn Monroe, Nancy Reagan and Oprah Winfrey. What is it about this admitted drug addict and felon that Washington fell in love with? He has all the credentials of a hero. He came from humble Mississippi beginnings, went to college and was heavily involved in the Civil Rights movement and was even shot near his heart during the two-day 1977 Hanafi Muslim Siege in which hostages were held by the terrorists. With his folk hero status firmly cemented, Barry claimed DC's love and trust. His personal foibles only made him more human, less perfect, more relatable and the fact he "manned" up to them, even once running under the slogan, "He May Not Be Perfect, But He's Perfect for D.C." made him all the more loved and trusted and worthy of forgiveness and second, third and fourth chances.

Why can't we forgive Paris Hilton for anything?

Now, take Paris Hilton, for instance. The world tuned in to poke fun at her while the po po publicly carted for sobbing tush off to jail. Why? Because we never connected with her- we never loved her - she is a cartoon, a spectacle, someone who was famous for nothing who we perceive as having no talent or work ethic. We don't want her to have more than we have. We don't want her life to be charmed. Her suffering vindicates our lifestyle of hard work and hard earned money. Deep down, we think "see, you can't be born rich and beautiful and get away with it."

Paris popped onto the public radar through Page 6. After recently being expelled from boarding school in 1999, Paris and younger sister Nikki made waves in the NYC club scene. Her fame is derived solely from our fascination with the rich and beautiful. Pars built a career out of flaunting her excessive wealth and ability to get paid to show up at a club or front a product. She worked hard at being completely un-relatable to the average person in her television show, The Simple Life. Because we cannot relate to her life, we could not feel sympathy for her when her private sex tape was released or when she was picked up on DUI and had to serve time for driving on a suspended license. Without being able to relate to her life or connect with her, we cannot love or trust her and therefore, we cannot forgive her.

What have we learned?

When it comes to the art of getting your brand or company forgiven by your customer base, you need to have to, at one time, built a foundation of trust. That means you need to build the brand so it is identifiable and associated with something people can relate to like a quality product, affordable pricing, exceptional service, etc. This kind of brand building and association will help you when and if your brand or company ever runs into trouble. If you have a smaller company and cannot afford billboards in Times Square or prime time television commercials, you can still build a relationship with your consumer through drip email, newsletter, local print and direct mail campaigns. Consistency is key to any one of these strategies.

The other thing that is often necessary for building a foundation of trust is to raise the profiles of your executives. Allow customers to identify with them. It is a lot easier to trust real people than a company or product. Make sure you/your executives name(s) and profiles are associated with the products and or company itself. Use them in promotions and mention their names regularly in press releases. You want to distribute the trust load across your executives, company, products and brands so should one suffer a credibility blow, the others can step in to mitigate the circumstance.

Now, let's say you do run into a hairy situation. What can you do?

OPTION 1: Spin the sob/redmption story- Make people relate to the back story. Help them to understand the suffering that caused the "situation" to show that you have earned a second chance. This works best in instances where an executive has been caught in an untidy personal or business situation. It is recommended if legalities permit to have the person accept responsibility and ask for forgiveness as well.

Example: Donald Trump is the king of executive version of the Come Back Kid from both personal and business perspectives. As an outspoken public figure since the mid 80s, he amassed millions and flaunted his extravagant lifestyle. He was the embodiment of 80s hedonism, yet still managed to be loved and trusted. His persona was larger than life and often acted as a savior for large scale city lead restoration projects even taking on the restoration of Wollman Rink in Central Park at no charge. However in the early 1990s his much publicized financial problems, creditor-led bailout, extramarital affair with Marla Maples, and the resulting divorce from his first wife, Ivana Trump dampened some of the public trust value. But Trump was able to redeem public trust through his business prowess and public profile. He took responsibility for both his personal and business foibles and was able to restructure his debt and eventually re-emerge as a Titan of Business. He was also able to SHOW his business strengths and familial commitment through his television show The Apprentice where his daughter, Ivanka also shined.

OPTION 2: Take responsibility.If you have a faulty product or customer service has been abysmal or the brand is just suffering general credibility issues, use a trusted executive to publicly take responsibility for the problem and offer a solution. By taking ownership of the problem, explaining it and offering up the solution, you can shift confidence in the executive back to the product.

Example: Lee Iacocca (I love using him as an example). In the wake of a failing, near bankrupt brand that the consumer had lost confidence in, Lee stepped in and not only made internal changes at Chrysler but spearheaded a marketing campaign where he publicly guaranteed his product in TV and print ads. He was successfully able to shift the confidence level people had in him back to the brand by taking ownership of the problem.

Victoria's Secret: "When I was in college I kissed another girl..."

2008-09-08T11:43:09Z

Shocking, isn't it? Well, whether it is or isn't true, it doesn't much matter because it got you to read this sentence. Why? It is bold. It is controversial, audacious to the extreme, unafraid of the consequence and most of all... raw. It makes a guttural connection with wonder-bread moms that fall slack jawed in disgust and boys from 14 to 54 that are still reading past this sentence to see if there is a story to the headline. This kind of emotional connection that compels you to action is the power of maverick marketing.

What is maverick marketing?

Maverick marketing is the shock and awe campaign in your toolkit. It is the power to never allow one single consumer to ignore you. It is the power to never allow one single consumer to feel apathetic towards you as a marketer or the products you are selling. It is the singular power that only emotions as strong as love, hate, lust and sympathy can evoke.

A Profile in Maverick Marketing: Victoria's Secret Fashion Shows

By 1999, Victoria's Secret was already the #1 lingerie retailer in the world with gross revenues over $3 billion. However, it sought to build its image with a fairly conservative, middle-class shopper and distance itself from the connotations of sleaziness that lingerie might carry. Savvy marketers devised a plan. They used "sex" to un-sell "sex." They used controversy to combat sleaze. They turned provocative into adorable and in so doing, won over middle market moms. How did they achieve this monumental feat? They announced that their already infamous Fashion Show would be broadcast on network television. The ads were provocative, overtly sexy, and controversial and dropped strategically on a Super Bowl spot, Times Square and popular fashion magazines. These ads were designed to be incendiary; they were designed to stir every PTA mom to outrage and every red blooded male to triple check that their VCR really was set to record. People just couldn't help themselves; they simply had to tune in. In its first year, this show garnered more than 1.5 million viewers. In the hour long show, those 1.5 million viewers were shown just how adorable 10 Super Models in lingerie and Angel Wings can truly be. Not to saw that some people still did not walk away with a tawdry taste in their mouth, however the numbers speak for themselves. By 2007, Victoria's Secret's bottom line boasted nearly $6 billion in revenues and its annual fashion show claimed more than 7.4 million viewers.

*For a financial snapshot of Victoria's Secret Stores and Direct Sales, please visit Hoovers

Conclusion:

Victoria's Secret pulled off maverick marketing boldly. They had a brand that could confidently support controversy, maverick marketers with the conviction to withstand controversy and most importantly, the foresight to take the road less traveled.

Are you a maverick marketer? Do you have the vision to see something new, to implement it to perfection and the skin tick enough to withstand the backlash and the business?

This is my first non-real estate related marketing post. I intend to do a lot more of these... so beware if you shock easily. These will be guerrilla marketng tactics for big and small businesses alike.

NETAMORFASIS: Free REnet Marketing Tutorials

Scary SEO and How your Consumer Really Feels About Your Advertising

2008-09-01T18:18:32Z

OK, I'm not one on promoting other people's shizzle, but in this case, I highly recommend that if you are tuly interested in SEO and you want to see some of the best minds in the industry speak, you register right now for this Fort Lauderdale area event. This is the real deal. Dave Synder (the ardorably acerbic SEO rockstar from searchandsocial.com) is putting on an event right here in Florida. I will be there and I fully expect a tribe of Realtors to be there to completly bombard da man and his panel of SEO experts with all your questions so I can get a couple of days of peace.

What is Scary SEO?

Scary SEO is a mini-conference at the end of October that is focused on education, networking, and fun.

How much will the conference cost?

At only $200 it is also focused on being one of the best values you will find in a search conference.

The fee includes two days of SEO, SMO, and SEM training, lunch both days, and a networking party on the 25th

Everyone from the seasoned Internet marketer to the small business owner will benefit from this event.

How can you register to attend?

Spots are limited. So please register as soon as possible to ensure your participation.

When is it?

The event will take place at the Hilton Deerfield Beach/Boca Raton on October 24th and 25th.

What will you learn?

The Code of SEO: Coding and Design concepts that improve your SEO efforts
Link Building: The Basics and Beyond
SEM Strategies: How to make paid search work for you
Protect Your Rep: Online Reputation Management
SMO Tactics: How optimize social media for use in your SEO
Importance of Analytics: Beyond clickstream data
SEO Project Management and Educating Clients
Information Architecture and Content Creation Plans

Top 10 Free Programs and Websites I Can't Live Without and You Shouldn't Have to Either

2008-08-31T14:43:50Z

Alright, it's the weekend and I totally don't feel like talking geek, SEO, blogging or real estate. So, here are some of the things I have found on the web that I couldn't imagine living without. These things either greatly entertain me or make my life/job easier and I think you should know about them too. Oh yeah, these tools are also totally free, which rocks, 'cause I'm cheap.

1. Hulu.com - watch streaming TV shows and movies for free

Hulu is just cool. Watch your favorite TV shows and movies online for free. Totally legal (because none of us would ever violate a copyright by using the torrents.) because they sponsor to usage of the copyright with ads! I use this all the time to entertain my son.

Prefer to Download Movies?

Speaking of the torrents, thePirateBay.org is my favorite, closely followed by seedpeer.com. For the uninitiated - Torrents are peer to peer networks (meaning my machine and your machine can search each other) where you can download movies, images, software, music etc. Because I go old school from time to time, I also like eMule (although it freaks me out it is written in Visual C++ which basically means that it s held together with rocket science theory, Miracle Whip and scotch tape.)

2. Actionext.com - create and listen to free music play lists

Actionext.com Killer site that allows you to search for songs, listen to them and create playlists. It also has an open wiki-like tool where you can get lyrics to the songs you are listening to. I love being able to find the songs, build the playlist, share the lists (see the embedded widget on the left of my blog - totally annoying, right? Another reason you should NEVER have music playing when a visitor lands on your site!!!) and even read the lyrics in one place.

Want to share music socially and see other's playlists?

Other music search and playlist sites you might like: 8tracks (another playlist site), Tagoo.ru (terrific site for finding hard to find songs online - lets you search and download from other people's machine's).

Try Blip.fm if you want to share music and fid other people that like the same kind music you like. It's life streaming for music - you can even connect it to your twitter account so you can share your music with all your followers.

3. Jing - record screencasts with voice overs and capture images from your desktop and share online

LOVE THIS. I can record screen casts with audio and publish them to the web. Very easy to use and high quality! Think of Jing as a supplement to all your chat discussions, email threads, forum posts and blog entries. It sits nicely on your desktop, ready to capture and share your stuff at a moment's notice. Simply select an area of your screen, capture it as an image or record it as a video, and then click Share. Jing conveniently places a URL to your content which you can paste into any of your conversations.

Download Jing now!

4. Skype - make free phone calls, conference calls and even video calls

We all love something for nothing. With Skype's free software - by the way, it works seamlessly with your internet connection - you can chat away with free Skype-to-Skype calls and never worry about cost, time or distance. Share the love and get your friends to download Skype so you can talk, chat or make video calls for nothing. You can also make local, long distance and international calls to phones and cell phones at great rates too. Additional features include instant messaging, file transfer and video conferencing.

Check it out and SKYPE me at REBlogGirl or simply search for Mary McKnight on Skype! Click te logo below to download Skype.

5. Audacity

Do you want to import, export, edit, mix, record, add sound effects or analyze voice, music, sounds, etc? Then Audacity is the program you need.

Download it for free from Source Forge at:

Audacity at Source Forge

Audacity is a free, easy-to-use audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux and other operating systems. You can use Audacity to:

Record live audio.
Convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CDs.
Edit Ogg Vorbis, MP3, WAV or AIFF sound files.
Cut, copy, splice or mix sounds together.
Change the speed or pitch of a recording.
And more! See the complete list of features.

Other Stuff I Just Love!

6. Txt2day.com - free text messaging

Txt2day.com is the premier free manual messaging website. Send Free Text Messages. Add text messages to your MySpace. Works with most cell phone providers. Stop Paying For Texting! I use this all the time because when I text from my phone I make too many typos and I am usually sitting at the computer anyway.

7. Eyejot.com - record and send video to friends and family via email

Eyejot is a video messaging platform in which there is NO software to download. You record the message and the receipient of the message is notified via email that they have a new video message. It offers everyone the ability to create and receive video messages in a self-contained, spam-free environment. With no client to install, you can start using Eyejot immediately with any browser, on any platform. It even features built-in support for iTunes^TM (and iPods^TM), mobile devices and social networks like MySpace^TM. Watch Eyejot video examples.

8. Twirl - Funky desktop Twitter ap you can use to

Couldn't keep my Twitter conversations updated without this nifty little desktop widget! twhirl is a desktop client for the Twitter microblogging service. Most of the features available on the Twitter website are accessible through twhirl, too. Plus, a lot of usability enhancements have been added.

If you have an iphone- Twinkle is the way to go!

9. Spamyourenemies.com - I can't help myself - this is just fun to do when somone pisses you off

Spamyourenemies.com - If you are not that technical or not really that pissed off, this a great solution to a little immediate revenge. Doesn't really hurt anything, just fills their inbox with a whole bunch of weird spam. Of course, if the person you are spammng is more technical than your average lab rat, their spam filters will catch this before it annoys them, but it still gives you that sense of justice and self satisfaction you need in those moments of ire.

NOTE TO ALL - If you have ever been spammed, it wasn't me. This is just where I direct people that come to me and ask me to do something evil to their main competition's website. I'm a sociologist- I understand that if I don't give a suitable answer and they can't get immediate satisfaction, they may go to somone who would link bomb another site. I find this to be a reasonable compromise for all parties when therapy is not an option.

10. Rememebr the milk - Online to do lists!

The old-fashioned to-do list, which lets the brain concentrate on the task at hand rather than on others in the future, remains one of the world's best productivity tools. These fresh new sites let you keep track of your obligations and prompt you to keep up the pace.

RememberTheMilk reinvents the to-do list in a snazzy interface that lets you make lists in configurable categories, all laid out on the front page as tabs. Adding to-dos is easy, though adding deadlines, notes, and time estimates is unintuitive.

You can add to-dos using natural language such as "Call Ted next Thursday," sync with your calendar via the widely supported iCalendar format, and set tasks such as "Pay credit card bill" to recur. RememberTheMilk sends reminders through instant message, e-mail, text message, or a combination of these. You can also upload tasks via a special e-mail address that the site gives you.

It's a tremendously well-rounded free product, with neither more nor less than you need to get and stay organized.

How to be search stupid: Working hard to hardly rank in Google with orphan and dead end pages

2008-08-25T04:44:53Z

The first rule of understanding Google is that Google is not psychic. It doesn't know where your website or new pages are unless it can find them by following a link from a site already in its index to your new page. (yes, you can ping and submit a sitemap, but direct access from Google is not the same thing as a crawl!) So, now that you get someone else to link to you and Google has found your site, you need Google to crawl, index and begin to trust your site. That means YOU need to link to both other pages on your website and link out to pages on other websites.

Think of Google as the ultimate game of 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon. Somehow, your website should be connected to other important websites (i.e. websites that Google trusts) in order for Google to discover and begin to trust your site! One of the most critical things you should learn about SEO, is how to think like a search engine. Most people never consider HOW Google crawls the web, and because they never consider HOW- they never assist it in doing so. And that is one key to becoming a FOG (Friend of Google).

How a search engine crawls the web

Basically, a search engine crawls the web to discover new pages by starting with the websites it already knows and trusts and following links on these trusted pages to other pages. Search engines begin their crawl of the web with a list of completely trusted sites (i.e. sites that would never link to spam - we call these "seed sites") These seed sites are the MOST trusted sites in the search engine's index and where it will begin its crawl of the internet (essentially - seed sites are the Kevin Bacon of search - we all are somehow connected to them!)

Google crawls the Trusted Seed Sites first, then starts crawling all the sites these seed sites link to

Trusted Sites: There are a few very trusted domains out there.

Example: DOJ.gov, LLI.org

When these sites link out to other sites they link to:

100% quality sites
0% spam sites

This second level of sites is called -1 Trust Distance sites. (1 link away from a Trusted Seed site)

After the engine crawls these sites, it then goes out and crawls all the sites they link to

Example: Wall Street Journal, Harvard.edu

When these sites link out to other sites they link to:

95% quality sites
.1% spam sites

This third level of sites is called -2 Trust Distance sites. (2 links away from a Trusted Seed site)

After the engine crawls these sites, it then goes out and crawls all the sites they link to and so on and so on

When these sites link out to other sites they link to:

70% quality sites
10% spam sites

As you extrapolate that out to -3, -4 Trust Distance, you will see more and more spam sites being linked to and thus the value of the site loses credibility and Trust.

Resource: Trust Rank Al gorithm

Why do you care about the inner workings of a search engine?

Because when you write for your site, you need to consider how Google is going to keep moving through your site. One of your jobs as a webmaster is to ASSIST a search engine to not just crawl you, but to crawl the rest of the web. You want to make your pages comfortable and reliable for a search engine, giving them plenty of places to move on to other pages on your site and other pages off your site. How do you do this?

1. Avoid Creating Orphaned Pages

An orphan page is a page that is not linked to by any other page on your site or on the internet (i.e. that cannot be reached from anywhere on the site or any other page on the internet) and thus cannot be found by a search bot unless it is linked to externally. Basically, this is a page that nobody can find, not even Google! Why? Because GOOGLE ISN'T PSYCHIC.

How to get your orphaned pages adopted by the Angelia Jolie of Search (Google)

EASY SOLUTION: immediately after you write your post - go over to your AR blog and link back to your new post in an old article or use a directory or RSS submission tool to build at least one backlink to your new post.

2. Avoid Creating Dead Pages

A dead-end page is the one that has no outgoing links, thus creating a "dead end" for a search engine. Dead pages are unnatural on the web (a web page should be connected to other pages) Most importantly, a dead page leaves both the robot and the visitor no choice but to abandon the site since they have no natural way to get off the page.

The case of the idiot web developer: how your designer can get you banned from Google in less than 3 weeks.

2008-08-15T11:39:27Z

Back to the conversation about hidden text. Recently I have seen 3 sites banned (completely de-indexed) from Google because a web developer thought they could artificially boost the SEO of a site by injecting hidden text into the template. This is what I call, Case of the Idiot Web Developer.

What is hidden text?

Hidden text is text you place on your website that is typically keyword rich, invisible to a user but evident to a search engine. Hmmm... sounds a lot like spam, huh? Well, that is exactly how Google sees it! SPAM! And what happens to spammers in Google? They get banned - i.e. de-indexed.

What are the most common ways you or your web developer can place hidden text in your website or blog?

1. Make the text the same color as the background
2. Set the CSS for the text to display:none
3. Make the text tiny timey like a 1-3pt font

How do you check if your site is spamming and/or has hidden text?

Use This Tool to Check for Keyword Spamming: spam detector tool

***FYI: CSS attributes with visibility set to none are very common today as more and more sites are CSS driven, this is not always indicative of spamming and should be ignored like the tools own disclaimer notes. However, if the CSS attribute contains text - especially keyword rich text, IT IS SPAM!

Example of what a site spamming with hidden text and keywords

*Please note, this site has since been fixed!

What does Google do to sites with hidden text in them?

Hidden text is considered a spamdexing tactic And Google has long banished sites with hidden text from its index. Back in the 90s it was common to inject hidden text into sites and see huge gains in search engines as this text could artificially boost the keyword density of a page and therefore make it seem extremely relevant to a user's search criteria. But this tactic has been a no-no for years. In fact, it has been

Case study of how an idiot web developer got one blog banned

The sad story of a Pasadena real estate blog:

In late July, Irina Netchaev received an email from Google about her blog. Imagine her shock when she found that Google was going to de-index her for spamming with hidden text. Well, Irina called up her web development company and asked what this was all about. The receptionist initially told her that Google didn't send the email.

This is the exact email Irina received from Google:

Dear site owner or webmaster of pasadenacarealestatehomes.com,

While we were indexing your webpages, we detected that some of your pages were using techniques that were outside our quality guidelines, which can be found here: http://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html

In order to preserve the quality of our search engine, we have temporarily removed some webpages from our search results. Currently pages from pasadenacarealestatehomes.com are scheduled to be removed for at least 30 days.

Specifically, we detected the following practices on your webpages:

* The following hidden text on pasadenacarealestatehomes.com:

e.g. Pasadena, San Marino, Monterey Hills, San Gabriel, South Pasadena, Monterey
Hills, Arcadia, Alhambra, Altadena, Sierra Madre, Highland Park, Temple
City, Duarte, La Canada

We would prefer to have your pages in Google's index. If you wish to be reconsidered, please correct or remove all pages that are outside our quality guidelines. When you are ready, please visit:

https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/reinclusion?hl=en

to learn more and request a reconsideration request.

Sincerely,
Google Search Quality Team

Sounds pretty official to me, what about you? I'm thnking I must be a real detective because the Google.com email is what tipped me off to this email being the real deal (the subsequent deindexing was the clincher, though). When Irina called her web development company, Develement, LLC, the receptionist made assertions that there wasn't spam in her site. So, Irina called me. A simple look inside the code showed obvious spam included with the following tag <H2><SITE:TAGLINE /></h2> which translated to a list of keywords being injected in an H2 tag that was set in the CSS to display:none. I took her index html file and made the change which was simply either taking out the tag alltogether or setting the CSS to display the text visibly. I sent the file to Irina and she sent it to her development company - this was their response:

Hi Mary,

Just had a call from Tom Balletta who advised me that he will NOT upload the file that I sent to Nicole. He said that it was a proprietary file worked by "someone" outside of his office and it can maliciously damage my site. I pressed him on it and he still refused.

He claims that his programmers made the necessary fixes to my site and that he doesn't know why Google flagged it, but there were as he calls it "inappropriate" key words that were not relating the content. He refused to tell me which keywords he was referring to and was quite arrogant - quite a character!

Not sure if you had a chance to take a look at the way the site looks now and if it's okay to resubmit.

Let me know your thoughts.

Thank you,

Irina Netchaev

Now, of course, all these "programmers" (I take offense to people who only know graphics, HTML, CSS, Flash and just enough Javascript to be dangerous calling themselves "programmers" as any idiot with a computer can make a webpage, but that is another post for another day) did was change her title tag but never set the CSS to visible or removed the tag. Not exactly a fix in Google's eyes. Nevertheless, Irina's site was banned from Google.

This is what a site query of a banned website looks like:

Pasadena Real Estate Blog with 0 indexed pages

Did Irina's web company choose to help her after the ban? NO. They let her twist in the wind (continuing to charge her, of course, for their stellar service and expertise!) while she watched her leads dwindle to 0. So, Irina, came to me to get her site fixed.

How do you fix a banned site?

1. You fix the offending code
2. You join Google Webmaster Tools
3. You request reinclusion
4. Then you wait however long it takes for a human being at Google to review your site and re-include you. This can take several weeks
5. At the same time you request reinclusion on the banned domain - you bring up a sister site alongside the banned domain that will be indexed. In Irina's case, we brought up another Pasadena site alongside the banned one. This site looks exactly the same as the old site with all the same content sans the offending code. You might recall when I used this same tactic for Cyndee Haydon when one of her sites experienced a Google penalty back in December. This is the key to getting your leads back in short order while you wait for Google to re-index the banned site.

To help Irina, link to her sister blog at www.pasadenaviews.com

Things to do while awaiting reinclusion:

1. Add new content to the new clean domain
2. Build 10-100 backlinks to the new domain to let Google know it is trusted (start with ActiveRain and Localism and your various social profiles, make sure you post all new content to Twitter)
3. Force a site-wide ping of the new domain to put you back in Google's good graces.

Things not to do while awaiting reiclusion:

1. Do not redirect the banned domain to the new clean domain while awaiting reinclusion
2. Do not add new content to the banned domain - it is a waste of time

So, while this post may have been harsh, it shows exactly how an idiot web developer can cause your site to get banned through no fault of yours and why you need to stay on top of your site structure and coding. If you have a Dev Element blog, you need to start checking for spam tags, we have found that they have been injecting spam into their sites for at least the past 2 months. My recommendation to these "programmers" - don't play with SEO if you don't know what you are doing - leave that to the big kids - go back to your box of crayola's and draw! While you are playing in the sandbox with your fingerpaints, why don't you look up how to read obfuscated JavaScript, I hear you also can't do that! FYI - real "programmers" can. Want a lesson? I'd be happy to put together a remedial class, but be sure to wer your helmet - the short bus ride to the tard factory can be bumpy.

Yes, Devidiots, I mean Develement... I'm pissed that you caused good bloggers this kind of heartache, took their money and refused to help when you had the chance. You can't even clean up your own mess. I think the industry term for that is irresponsible parasite.

5 tools that will make your real estate blog posts better

2008-07-12T15:59:30Z

We all like things that make making posts easier and giving them a little more life. SO, here are my top 5 pics on how you can spice up your blog posts quickly, easily and without much tech savvy.

1. Slide.com

Slide.com is a free online slide show creator that allows you to upload photos and automatically create cool slideshows with various transition effects. I created this slideshow in less than 3 minutes. Yes, I timed myself. It then allows you to share the slideshow, upload it to yoru MySpace account or use widget code to post it to your persoanl blog!

Check out how Laurie Manny used this tool on her new real estate blog: Spinnaker Bay Real Estate Side Show

2. CommunityWalk.com

This tool makes it super simple to build interactive custom maps you can embed on your blog. Maps take about less than 6 minutes to build.

Check out how Mary pope Handy placed similar community maps on her site. San Jose Real Estate Map

3. The Real Estate Dictionary

This is a cool little widget you can embed in yoru sidebar. It allows you to users to find common real estate terms. I would have embedded it here but it is a purse JavaScript widget whcih we only allow in sidebars as JavaScript in posts can pose a security risk. So, follow the link to see what it looks like.

4. Altos Research Widget

See how Alex and Lenore Wilkas of Foster City Real Estate Blog use this widget to give real time market data to their readers.

5. EyeJot.com

I love eyejoty- it allows me to record video and audio right through my coputer and post it to my blog or shoot my friends a vmail. It took me less than 1 minute to record and post this video!

Reputation Management: Using the best tools to build and monitor your online identity

2008-07-12T15:55:44Z

Real Estate Bloggers are online to do business. We build our identity and reputation through our blogs, our online profiles and all of the networks we belong and contribute to. Some of us enterprising (especially me because I do not have a filter between my brain and keyboard) bloggers realized a while ago we need to monitor ourselves, our companies, our brands and even other bloggers and started using Google Alerts which notified us when specific terms are mentioned.

What is online reputation management?

Online reputation management is a developing field that encompasses public relations and search engine optimization to ensure that positive information about you, your company and or brands filters to the top of the search engines while negative information is pushed backwards in search results.

Why is reputation management important to real estate bloggers?

What would happen to your business if one of your competitors started bashing you online and their posts started showing up above yours? What would happen if a disgruntled consumer started attacking your skill set or a home you were selling on a blog or other site? It could seriously affect your ability to sell a house. Needless to say, you can see the value of monitoring you online reputation and building more positive touch points on the internet.

Top 10 things you can do to improve your online reputation:

1. Monitor your online reputation with Trackur. Trackur is an online reputation management tool that monitors your entire online presence for you. Where Google Alerts fail, Trackur picks up. An easy to use AJAX dashboard allows you to monitor all forms of media for you and your brand, receive RSS and email alerts of new mentions and even share, bookmark, filter and sort content. Sign up for the 14 day free trial and I guarantee you will be hooked.

2. Build more positive information about yourself, product and brands by creating profiles on various social networks like MyBlogLog, LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, Digg, etc. The more profiles you have online with positive information on them the more opportunities you give people searching on the web to find good information about you out there.

3. Contribute regularly to article syndication sites like Buzzle and EZineArticles,etc.

4. Contribute to forums and social networks like Yahoo Answers, Trulia Voices, RealEstateVoices, Wanna Network, ActiveRain, Real Estate Webmasters, etc.

5. Build alliances with popular/vocal bloggers both in your local area and within the industry itself. People are less likely to attack you if they know you personally.

6. Use multiple blogs to improve your ability to rank on the first page and push more positive information about yourself and services up the engines. Make it easy- start a second video or picture blog that you can post to regularly.

7. If someone attacks you, research the blog, the author and their audience reach before responding.

Tool: PubSub.com and Compete.com give you the ability to determine a blog's popularity

Tool: Bloginfluence.net allows you to determine the audience reach

Tool: DomainTools.com to find out who owns the blog.

8. When responding to an attack, first try emailing the blog owner and making your case, offer to speak to them directly and to resolve problems if necessary. If you don't get a response you can always try responding in the comments.

9. In the case of a large scale attack, rally your friends, co-workers and clients as allies to support your position.

10. Monitor your competition: this means you need to watch for changes to their websites

Tool: Website Watcher, their positioning on search engines for specific key terms

Tool: SEO Digger allows you to type in a domain and gives you what search terms it ranks for

Tool: Monitor This allows you to monitor a single keyword across 22 different search engine feeds at the same time.) and press releases.

BONUS TIP: Turn comments off on all listing and about pages. It is one thing to get a negative commnet on a story it another thing entirely to have a property or your person attacked! Don't open up a doorway for it, so do yourself a favor and ALWAYS turn comments off on your listings and about pages. The worst thing that can happen is a person that saw the property in an open house comes in and comments negatively about it.

Recommended Reputation Management Reading:

Radically Transparent: a must read for those of you serious about your online reputation. I just finished this book over the weekend and it was well worth the read. I highly recommend it.

Overview: Radically Transparent is a complete guide to monitoring, managing, building, and repairing online reputations. This comprehensive guide provides a full-featured reputation monitoring and management system. It includes practical, step-by-step instruction in four skills for personal reputation construction: public relations, search engine optimization, research, and online content creation. It explains how to apply these skills to create online content for blogs, social networking sites, and text communication (e-mail, text messaging, and so forth). The book provides background information, research results, anecdotal evidence, case studies, and practical strategies. It also emphasizes Internet research techniques for identifying and monitoring online identities and features exercises that reinforce key discussions.

About the Author: Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim Blog has long been a staple in my feed reader! Andy is wise, witty and incredibly adorable (alright, I am just saying this because I know he monitor's his every mention... and I am hoping that a bit of brown nosing will win me an interview with him). The Marketing Pilgrim is a great resource for practical SEO and online marketing. Where a lot of other SEO/Online Marketing blogs focus on the technology, Andy specializes in the practical application of technologies to build a business. He also recently took on a hidden jem on the Marketing Pilgrim Blog (Ben Fremer) who is also worth reading.

"The service is like Google Alerts on steroids." Larry Chase, Web Digest for Marketers

Order Radically Transparent Now

Follow Andy on Twitter

Reputation Management Articles:

Online reputation management is hot -- but is it ethical? Computerworld, 19 Feb 2008

How to make neighborhood maps for your real estate blog

2008-07-12T15:50:39Z

Alright, Ines has finally agreed to come back and post on RSS Pieces (we all recall the Great Trackback Debacle of 2008). And this time, she is giving up the goods on how she creates those fabulous Maps on her category pages! I get asked how she does them about 20 times every week... and the worst part is... I had no idea until now! So, without further ado...

See a map in action: Miami Beach Neighborhood Map

How to make Ines' famous Miamism Maps

So Mary likes my neighborhood maps and I have gotten bombarded by calls and e-mails asking me how to make them. I don't know whether to thank Mary for the compliment or have her treat me to mojitos the next time she visits Miami. (hmmm....not a bad idea)

So a tutorial was in place - it really is pretty simple and I don't mind at all if you contact me if you still have questions. Here are the step-by-step instructions:

Go to Google Maps at http://maps.google.com/ and if you don't already have a Google account, create one.

For this tutorial's sake, I will use Sunset Islands, Florida as an example, but it will help you to have a map of the areas you farm with the exact neighborhood boundaries.

Type in an address or city name in the search box next to Google maps and press "search maps". Zoom in and pan the map so it sits exactly where you want it once the map is created.

1. Click on "my maps" tab on the left hand side

2. Click on "create new map" right under it.

3. Give your map a title and description keep in mind your keywords

4. Keep the privacy settings as "public" you want your maps to be "searchable"

5. To create the shaded region, select the "draw a shape" tool on the upper left corner of the map and click to start drawing a shape.

6. You will be able to delineate any boundary, point by point - finish by clicking the point where you started.

7. After you are done creating a shaded region, you will be able to edit the shape style by clicking anywhere on the shaded region and then selecting the square on the upper right corner of the bubble containing new title and description.

You will be able to change the line color, line width, line opacity, fill color and fill opacity - make sure you click "OK" when you are done - select colors that are consistent with your blog colors.

8. Once you click OK - you will be able to modify the title and description of the neighborhood you just created - you can use html and get creative with the information you include. You can even include image URL's from your own blog by selecting the rich text option. Click OK again.

9. Make sure you click "done" when you have finished the boundary and description (you will be able to go back to your maps to edit them as needed).

Now its time to edit the actual map image to be included within the static areas of your blog categories (Im sure Mary will tell you how to do that).

You will see a "link to this page" on the upper right hand corner of the Google map make sure you DO NOT USE that embed link in your blog its better to create a pdf image and then link to your Google maps.

You can use any editing software to pimp your map I use a web based program called Picnik.com. Once the map is created, I do a screen shop of the map; I turn it into a .pdf file, and then upload it to picknic.com. Once uploaded, I crop it, resize it, give it a drop shadow, label it and save it to my hard drive. This is what my Sunset Islands Map would look like before inserting to Miamism.

Once you insert the map to your blog (blog settings - categories) you can then select the image and "insert/edit link" to include the actual Google map link. If you are really ambitious, you can add place marks on the Google map with all your listings and places of interest within your neighborhoods or communities, so when people click on your map, they will find a treasure of information.

So there you have it - step-by-step instructions that should answer all your questions. If you have any questions please e-mail me at ines@idontcare.com (just kidding....e-mail me if you need help).

High PR sites, EDUs, Directories, still a link builders best friend according to leading SEOs at SMX

2008-07-12T15:48:09Z

So, I recently got called a black hatter for encouraging people to start their link building efforts out at directories, high PR sites and .edu sites instead of what many other industry pundits recommend. Well, surprise, surprise... a whole panel of SEOs at one of the biggest SEM conferences out there (SMX) are on my side of the fence (could it be because I stay up to date on what SEO/SEM industry people say?). So, imagine my shock when I found out my advice was well researched and not, indeed, black hat... That was what sarcasm looks like on the web, for those of you playing along at home.

SMX is one of the biggest Search Engine Marketing conferences with events in many major cities across the world. This event particular is SMX Advanced (Advanced means this info is from Big Boys for Big Boys) and is being held in Seattle as I type... OK, right now all the leading SEOs are out buying each other beer and laughing about how the little people (like me) hang on their every linkbaitable morsel of Google wisdom.

Today's most interesting panel: Blow your mind link building techniques

The usual suspects: Moderator: Greg Boser, President/CEO, 3 Dog Media, Q&A Moderator: Matt McGee, SEO For Hire (a personal fav since he has graced our blog with his illustrious presence), Roger Montti, Founder & Owner, MartiniBuster.com, Jay Young, Owner, Link Fish Media, Inc., and Stephan Spencer, Founder and President, Netconcepts.

Things to take away from the link building panel

1. EDU links are the "whitest hat" links you can get. No one gets banned for having EDU links.

That being said, they may also not be the magic bullet to your site's success. You need to look for links from EDU pages that have some authority and some valuable content. To find these pages you use common operators in Yahoo:

linkdomain:example.com site:.edu sponsors
linkdomain:example.com site:.edu donors
linkdomain:example.com site:.org sponsors
linkdomain:example.com site:.org benefactors
inkdomain:example.com site:.edu hotlinks
linkdomain:example.com site:.edu bookmarks
linkdomain:example.com site:.org directory
linkdomain:example.com site:.org resources

2. Trusted directories still pass lots of link juice and authority.

Jay Young recommended that you start every link building campaign with directories and try becoming a DMOZ editor. Recommended directories to start with are:

3. Social networks you must have profiles with include

4. Buying some relevant links that will still look natural by having varying anchor text is still acceptable (although this is considered a gray behavior).

The speaker that using Text Link Brokers can still work but I (Mary) don't recommend it in the real estate industry. The farthest I will go is saying that you can buy some directory or article submission posts from Best Web Directories.

5. Totally going to avoid this one because it is gray/black hat and I prefer to steer clear of mentioning these tactics in this industry.

But if you want the totally shady stuff, just ask my dear friend over at Slightly Shady SEO. (Shady... I got your back no matter how black you get)

6. Do the stuff that costs money and makes you think out of the box.

This includes setting aside a few thousand in programming funds for the creation of truly unique and useful widgets, template sponsorships, and valuable contests like iPhone giveaways or content trades.

7. Go after high value link targets, don't waste your time on the little fish (i.e. low PR sites)

One of my all time favorite brains in the industry, Stephan Spencer of Netconcepts made some great points:

Go after high PR sites
Look for sites that are one click away from Google
Put some money into sponsoring high PR sites or donating something to them so you can leach some link love from them
Link build from the existing sites that already link to you
Comment on do follow blogs
Submit to blog carnivals
Contribute to a blog group
Guest blog on another high PR blog
Build rapport with other bloggers with high PR then ask for a link
Sculpt PageRank: this means turn no follows on useless links out to form/conversion pages or commenters that are not members of your blog or pagination links and create more links from high PR pages on your site to other pages you want to improve the PR of. For example, I could boost the PR of an internal page by linking with a PR 3 by linking to it from my home page (a PR5).

8. Ask people that are linking to you to use better quality anchor text

So I would ask those that link to me that instead of using our company name, RSS Pieces, to use a more keyword rich term like: Real Estate Blog Provider

9. Contribute to wikis like

10. Use link bait.

Create a quiz, a poll, a video, a widget or plain old cool content to get other people to link to your site naturally.

Check out the linkbait posts Steve Hundley of the Real Estate Lead Generation Blog is giving all Realtors for free.

June 3rd, 2008 - SMX Secrets Revealed

ePerks Sues Real Estate Blogger, Blogosphere Unites to Destroy the ePerks Brand

2008-07-12T15:24:53Z

Karma's a Bitch, especially when you get the blogosphere involved. So, here is a beautiful little story about a company, ePerks, that didn't quite like what one blogger did (Vlad Zablotskyy), so they are suspected of having attacked him personally all over the Internet (some NASTY stuff detailed below) and then sued him when he started talking about it and saying he suspected as much (IP addresses from ePerks and employee names have been linked to certian attacks as detailed below). Well, this is a blogger we are talking about and he would not take it laying down. So, he wrote all about it on his blog and next thing you know you have:

My favorite blogroll hating SEO devil, Andy Beard chronicling the story
The silver tongued wordsmith himself, Greg Swann starting up a fund to help the blogger (Vlad)
That ever so handsome Phoenix Real Estate Guy, Jay Thompson calling them out as EJerks
And many many more bloggers standing up to ePerks in blog posts, including Inman News which covered Vlad's legal problems in March.

The funniest thing about this is that ePerks is suspected of having set out to damage Vlad's reputation, but in the end it is theirs that is getting destroyed. They are one, we are many and we are indignant that a large corporation thinks it can wield it's weight to censor or personally destroyany of us. The more posts out there about this situation, the more negative information filters up the engines and the more information we are able to learn from people that also had dealings with them. So, while this singular post may not help with the legal matter- the collective of all these posts just may quicken the fall from Google, investor, consumer, etc grace for ePerks and finally land them in what Hoovers so kindly terms, "the Business Boneyard."

Please note: this post is not meant to be slanderous, I am reposting information gathered from other sources about this case and adding my own commentary. Becasue of so many posts about this case, many former employees of Reply.com and ePerks have come forward to speak about how they were treated by Ben B (ePerks CEO) confirming he has a long history of online and legal bullying. Many former customers and real estate professionals that had contact with ePerks have also stepped up and posted nasty emails they received from ePerks employees. (Dennis Pease is called an idiot by an ePerks employee in an email).

Snapshot of the ePerks vs Real Estate Blogger Tale

The following is the torrid tale of eParks and how they solicited editorial advertising from real estate bloggers and when they didn't like the result of one blogger's pieces they attacked him personally and are now suing him. It's disgraceful. For those of you not yet in the know, ePerks, a service that allows Realtors to offer incentives back to consumers, has recently taken legal action against a fellow real estate blogger, Vlad Zablotskyy.

These are the facts, as reported by Andy Beard and Greg Swann

1. ePerks solicited editorial advertising (blog posts recommending their service) on real estate blogs

2. Vlad wrote such a post and was complimentary

3. Commenters on the post came in and talked about how bad the ePerks service was and how they felt they were swindled

4. Vlad writes a response piece to acknowledge reader comments: Is ePerks a gem or a Scam?

5. Comment frenzy ensues on this post. At some point the comments turn into a battle between a number of anonymous commenters plus one person who claims to be an employee of Eperks. The suspicious part is that all these commenters seem to come from the same block of IP addresses (76.206.0.161 - do a trace route on this ip) that when traced lead you back to the San Jose area (where ePerks lives). This IP block has been verified as coming from ePerks in many posts where people published images of emails with header details from ePerks and this is this same IP was used in stalth marketing tactics where employees of ePerks would comment on various forums positively about the company with multiple identities (image of ePerks stealth marketing below).

If you want to learn why it is highly suspected an ePerks employee is the one who created the negative campaign against Vlad, please read the following:

The following screenshot is from Any Beard's post showing the same ips coming in commenting as various people:

Just in case you don't know how I feel about anonymous commenters from the same ip:

Read also: Is Mary McKnight a Black Hat SEO?

6. ePerks slaps Vlad with cease and desist letters and legal threats

7. Now, it gets NASTY. This same IP block has been traced to personal attacks on Vlad himself in various comments and blogs. When I say personal, I mean they have created blogs about how bad Vlad is, and someone related to ePerks is suspected of posting a Yahoo Answer questions asking about alleged sexual felonies, etc. The following screenshot again is from Andy's post showing how Vlad has been maligned across the Internet:

EXAMPLE: affar Sadighi maligning Vlad's character has been linked to the ePerks IP range

Read also: ePerks makes voicemail threats (you have to hear these- this Ben guy is off his rocker - It's like Dr. Evil in real life - please note)

8. ePerks sues Vlad and is looking for punitive damages and claiming malice, and they have confined the case to the way Vlad defended his family name when he was attacked quite viciously on multiple websites suggesting he is/was a paedophile. Even though there is pretty incriminating evidence that

Help Vlad Out by contributing to the donation fund

Support Vlad Zablotskyy's Defense Fund
Defend your own right to free speech!

For a complete chronicle of the whole story:

For the ever irreverent Greg Swan's take on the issue:

From Vlad (the blogger being sued's) own blog:

Mary's Blog

Top 100 Social networks every Realtor should have a profile on

The Case for Celebrity Forgiveness: How to smoke crack with a hooker and get re-elected for public office

Victoria's Secret: "When I was in college I kissed another girl..."

Scary SEO and How your Consumer Really Feels About Your Advertising

What is Scary SEO?

How much will the conference cost?

How can you register to attend?

When is it?

What will you learn?

Top 10 Free Programs and Websites I Can't Live Without and You Shouldn't Have to Either

1. Hulu.com - watch streaming TV shows and movies for free

Prefer to Download Movies?

2. Actionext.com - create and listen to free music play lists

3. Jing - record screencasts with voice overs and capture images from your desktop and share online

4. Skype - make free phone calls, conference calls and even video calls

5. Audacity

Other Stuff I Just Love!

6. Txt2day.com - free text messaging

7. Eyejot.com - record and send video to friends and family via email

8. Twirl - Funky desktop Twitter ap you can use to

9. Spamyourenemies.com - I can't help myself - this is just fun to do when somone pisses you off

10. Rememebr the milk - Online to do lists!

How to be search stupid: Working hard to hardly rank in Google with orphan and dead end pages

How a search engine crawls the web

Why do you care about the inner workings of a search engine?

Related Posts

The case of the idiot web developer: how your designer can get you banned from Google in less than 3 weeks.

5 tools that will make your real estate blog posts better

1. Slide.com

2. CommunityWalk.com

3. The Real Estate Dictionary

4. Altos Research Widget

Reputation Management: Using the best tools to build and monitor your online identity

How to make neighborhood maps for your real estate blog

High PR sites, EDUs, Directories, still a link builders best friend according to leading SEOs at SMX

ePerks Sues Real Estate Blogger, Blogosphere Unites to Destroy the ePerks Brand