Cornwall SEO

Content Marketing Blog

Social media marketing

What is social media?

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Simply;

It is a form of communication.

It’s important to think of it in such fundemental, simple terms. Because, when we do this, new ideas and thoughts emerge.

So when a client tells me, “why should I use social media?”. My answer is, “why should you communicate?”

Why communicate?

It’s a question a lot of people and businesses seem to forget in the rush to blog-twitter-digg-facebook-bebo etc.

Lets take it a bit further.

  • What do you want to communicate?
  • Who do you want to communicate to?
  • Is your communication time sensitive?
  • What defines your communication as success?

These are the questions you should be asking before you even think about social media.

For example, is a front page digg really the best thing to add to your online marketing mix right now?

When you address things from a more theoretical aspect, alternative opportunities arise.

How Much Money Should an SEO be Paid?

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I know how much I should be paid, but how much should an agency seo, or an in-house seo be paid?

As a freelance my fee is dictated by the market, I set it too high and I get no takers, too low and I am swamped.

But what about those who work in organisations? It’s a difficult question for some to answer and I so rarely see it discussed in the seo blog world. Maybe because not everyone wants this information public.

Various factors are obviously involved like, experience, expertise, job availablity etc.

But what’s the starting pay for an seo and how much can you earn?

I’m interested in your thoughts.

Only Bad SEOs Work In-house?

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Since I announced I was going to help other SEO professionals get work at seo agencies and as in-house seo’s it’s been a crazy 24 hours. After making the SEO Job post and twitter I have been amazed at the response. We’ve been swamped by quite a few CV’s from some very talented people who are woefully underpaid. It may be a while before we can reply to everyone.

A number of people have told me that the best SEO’s are those who are self employed and that in-house guys are just trained monkies. It’s simply not the case as not everyone wants the stress, pressure and lack of security being your own boss brings.

Some people want to be able to leave the work at the office and simply have a good time and get paid a heck of a lot of money for what they do with no worries about where the next client will come from.

Personally, it’s not for me. Not that anyone would ever employ me anyway and I love the high-wire act of working for yourself. But simply because you do seo in-house does not mean you are any less talented.

And there is no reason why you shouldn’t be well paid if you are hot stuff.

SEO Job

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So how do you get a job in the SEO space?

Do you speak to one of the “digital services” recruitment agencies? Digital services? I hate the term digital services, it’s SEO or SEM or even online marketing.

The limited experience of recruitment agencies has been all bad. Most of the time I feel like I am speaking to a crack addict or someone who swallows coffee beans raw to get that instant caffeine injection. My biggest problem is trust, why is this person the other side of the ergonomically designed desk acting as if they are my best friend and wants more than anything to do me a favour.

Recruiters get paid a lot of money to place people so it’s no surprise they are aggressive. Not that there is anything wrong with that, it just leaves me drained.

I am sure there are great seo recruiters out there, if you know any great. But what strikes me is that the best person to place an search engine optimiser in a position is another seo. Who else is going to know what’s needed and understand what an seo really wants. And it’s not always cash, although it mostly is.

So here’s the deal. Me and enterprise level seo and Wordtracker guy, Mark Nunney are offering an SEO Recruitment service. To be honest, I want it to be skewed towards the SEO professional than the corporate client. I feel that optimisers are undervalued in the market place and do not fully understand their value. I think that if you are an expert, then it’s a case of the corporate client making their pitch and competing against others to employ you. Which is how it should be right?

Listen up, there is a shortage of skilled professionals out there. As an SEO you want to get the best deal possible, and lets face it, it’s not always about money.

Send in your CV and requirements to lyndon@www.cornwallseo.com and we can get you sorted. We know what you need beause we do what you do.

ps. I will be setting up an SEO Job blog so we can keep this blog doing what it does best.

pps. First job a client wants filled is here if you think you have the cahonas for it drop my a line. It’s next door to Ebay, which I think is kinda cool.

Coffee Shop Marketing Thinking

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creative content

Creating conversation can be more linkable than pure content.

For example, if you were to talk about cryntel roma stone it would be tricky to have that conversation outside of the floor tiling niche as not everyone is aware of it. But sticking with subjects that most people are aware of and you can develop quite a good conversation.

Starting an exchange of ideas within your niche can be more illuminating than simply publishing what you think, although to start the conversation you may have to publish what you think. The quality of the conversation will in someway reflect your understanding of the industry, whatever it is. By enabling a conversation about something that is on the minds of those in the niche you can create something more linkable than if you simply posted your own content.

My point is, seed a conversation, own it, learn from it and benefit from it.

Note: The coffee shop marketing bit is because I wrote the idea in a coffee shop and thought it fun to scan the note. Funny thing is, I now get traffic for “coffee shop marketing”. 21st Feb

Finding the Most Popular Blog Posts

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Been messing around with a php scriptIt looks at a number of variables and tries to sort out the best posts from a blog. I have applied it to the digg monster cracked.com. It’s very useful for picking out headline ideas.