ChristinaGleason.com

Christina Gleason, M.A., Digital Media Creator

Social Media Breakfast Tech Valley #4

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In case you haven’t heard, Amy Mengel managed to convince me to get up in front of people and talk about blogging at the fourth installment of Social Media Breakfast Tech Valley, which is being held at the headquarters of the American Red Cross of Northeastern New York in Albany. Thankfully, it’s not just me up there in front of a sold out audience of 150 people… I’m part of a panel that includes Lara Kulpa of Gingko Consulting and Problogger.com, Amanda Magee of Trampoline Design Studio, and our moderator Greg Dahlmann of Uptown/Downtown Media and All Over Albany.

Here’s what other people have been saying about the upcoming blogging panel at SMBTV4:

Can’t be there? The event will be live-streamed on USTREAM from 8:00-10:00 am on Friday morning, December 4. If you watch, though, remember that there’s a reason I’m a writer instead of a speaker. I hope I don’t stutter, ramble, or turn so red that I actually emit radiant heat.

Google Says Quality is Dirt Cheap, Don’t Hire Copywriters

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According to Matt Cutts of Google, Internet marketers should avoid the unethical practice of buying links by paying a few pennies to the folks who complete tasks via Amazon Mechanical Turk and scoring free links from their efforts. Let me rephrase that: Google says it’s wrong to pay for other people to link to your website, but it’s totally cool to score hundreds or thousands of links – not by paying a professional copywriter to create an awesome resource for you – but by spending about 20 bucks for a handful of people to perform cheap labor for you with Amazon Mechanical Turk. Don’t believe me? Watch this video.

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Blogger Brand Advocate for Hire

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Yeah, I’m going there. I love to watch @graywolf get his panties in a bunch about paid links and sponsored reviews, especially in light of the proposed FTC regulations. I love it mostly because I agree with him. I’m totally in the “white hat” camp – anything I work on is done with Google’s rules in mind. It’s smart business. But yeah, I think their whole ruling on paid links sucks because of the glaringly obvious double standards. I do the whole no follow thing when I review products, but I wish I didn’t have to. I disclose when I’ve received products for free, and I’m pretty honest. I mean, look at my Zarbee’s cough syrup review.

I’d like to officially announce my availability for brand advocacy for products and services I already love. Since I already love them, there’s no conflict of interest that might arise from being compensated for promoting products I might not personally believe in. (I’m not into that whole fake thing. I’d like to protect my personal integrity, thank you very much.)

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Do Bloggers Even Know They’re Breaking Google’s Rules?

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Before my introduction to the world of Internet Marketing, I had never even heard of a no-follow link. I’ve been blogging for a few years, so it’s not like I’m a complete Web noob.  But as a blogger who just wanted a place to write about her son and her obsession with LOST, I didn’t even know the Google Webmaster Guidelines existed.

I’m not unique in this.

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Schedule Yourself as a Client

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I’m learning a lesson as I build my business here, and I have a feeling I’m in good company. I’ve been making good progress on my client work, but my own sites have been… neglected.

It’s really a bit embarrassing. Here I am, promoting myself as a writer and a blogger, while my poor blogs sit there with just one post a week, in desperate need of a design facelift as well. This post you’re reading now? It’s been percolating in my mind since last Thursday, but I never sat here to write it until today. Tuesday.

I need to do something about this.

Schedule Time for Personal Projects

It’s time to take that handy little planner my husband made me get, and schedule time to write my own stuff, as if I was a client. I don’t want to short-change my clients, so I’ll be putting in “overtime” to get my own blog posts written.  It’s going to take a little while to get in the habit of thinking of my own projects as client work, but I realize that it has to be done. Otherwise, I’m a bit of a hypocrite for suggesting other people do the same.

Why bother with scheduling time for personal projects? I’m looking at it this way: I want to gain some more self-sufficiency.  My own blogs aren’t bringing in more than  a what my Grandpa used to call “pizza money,” but with a little time and effort, I think I can change that. I may be doing well with client work right now, but what happens if that work dries up? I need a back up plan.

It would be nice if my own projects eventually become successful enough to take the place of writing for clients. It’s a goal, but not one I’m pinning all of my hopes on. I am, after all, a writer and not a marketer. Oh, I know, I’ve worked for a marketing company, but I did what I do best, and other people did the actual marketing work. The Internet isn’t exactly a place where “If you build it, they will come” applies.  I suppose that learning about how this whole marketing thing works will be something like company-sponsored training, where I’m sponsoring myself!

Who else is in the same boat I’m in? If you’re great at working on client projects but not your own, join me in an effort to treat yourself like a client. Schedule some time every day – or several times a week – to work on projects for yourself.  Are you in? Let me know!