Living in “The Cloud”
Recently I’ve been giving a lot of thought to the pros and cons of living in the cloud, so to speak. If you’re not familiar with this term, living in the cloud basically means that you keep most of your important documents, email, etc. with online access so you can access it from any computer and you’re not tied to one desktop.
I’ve moved my email into the cloud for the most part instead of using MS Outlook so heavily at home, and I’m digging it so far. Gmail makes it really easy to do, although, I can’t do it 100% because you’re only allowed 5 additional email accounts coming through Gmail. I’ve begun updating a to-do document in Google Documents, but that’s about my only moves into the cloud so far.
So, to outline it for anyone considering making this move, here’s what I’ve discerned:
Pros:
- Access from anywhere, any computer.
- Centralized services through Google.
- If something happens to one of your computers you don’t have to worry about data stored in the cloud.
- Easier to share documents or data with other people via the internet.
Cons:
- You don’t have control over the technology the data is stored on, so if their servers go down you’re toast.
- There’s always the potential threat (albeit very low) of hacking.
- Some firewalls may prevent access to this data depending on the connection you’re attempting to access it from (slim chance, but there).
- Business and pleasure are intertwined to an extent.
A Thorn in My Side
By all accounts, I was certain that moving my blog over to WordPress and onto my own domain was the right thing to do. Many (if not all) online marketers lately are preaching the personal branding… so what better than to move it over, right?
I’ve noticed since the move that my RSS subscriber numbers have dramatically dropped. At first I thought that this was just FeedBurner asleep at the wheel again, but now I’m not so sure. Google Analytics shows a pretty significant drop in visitors as well, but I see today that it’s actually picking back up a bit. My Entrecard point price for an ad has gone from in the 50s range down to 18 today.
In the words of Grant Wilson, what the frig? I’m still writing the same content, if not better with the random addition of videos. Is this just a curve that will pick back up again once people get acclimated to the new site? I can’t imagine that the design is affecting subscribers since they never have to see the design, or visitors since they don’t see the design until they get here. The average time visitors spend on the site is slowing moving up, so I don’t think the design is a factor.
Am I missing the obvious? I’ve received good feedback from some people in the industry that I really respect. I respect their opinions based on my interactions with them via social media and also based on their reputations and the collection of work they’ve amassed in the blogosphere and online marketing. So what gives?
Read MoreLink Glossary: Citation
Citation:
- A citation is a reference to an entity. Citation: quote, mention, reference. Citation in the context of the web usually means a HREF link to a location. A Citation count is the count of references to a page on the internet.
I use a lot of citations on my websites, and the reason is really two-fold. There are some theories that this does help your page rank, so I do it. But the MAIN reason I link is just because I want to make references that are easy for my readers to see where I got my information and go straight to the source if they want more information than I provide. It’s just some extra validation to what I throw out there.
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Glossary Definition From The Definitive Guide to Link Buying by Patrick Gavin
Link Glossary: One Way Links
One Way Links:
- Links that are not reciprocated by your website. Incoming links to your site that are not returned. These are the best links to have from a search engine optimization point of view.
As they say, there are many ways to skin a cat. You can go out there and comment on blogs or you can add your link to a lot of directories. Most directories require a small fee to give you a one way link but in the end it’s worth it for building your website’s page rank.
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Glossary Definition From The Definitive Guide to Link Buying by Patrick Gavin
Cribbed Content for March 28th
Here we are in the home stretch of March, getting ready for spring! I personally can’t wait, but in the meantime here are the links for the week.
- Shawn Collins over at Affiliate Summit already announced that Affiliate Summit West 2009 will once again be in Las Vegas at the Rio All-Suites Hotel & Casino. I’ve come to terms with this…next year I’ll know not to schedule any meetings with the phrase “meet me in the lobby”.
- Sam Harrelson does a great screen cast about creating a monetization plan over at Affiliate Fortune Cookies. He’s using a project of his Sci-Fi Tales as an example. Good stuff so far.
- In line with Sam’s project, ProBlogger has a great post today on 20 Types of pages that Every Blogger Should Consider. I know I’ll definitely be adding a few of those pages to this site.
- SEOBook is reporting that Google has officially listed Mahalo as spam. Of course, that’s how post author Aaron Wall is interpreting their internal spam document. But I have to say, he’s got a bit of a point.
So go out there and get your affiliate links set up, work on a monetization plan, throw up some pages, and make sure it’s not spam!
Read MoreMarch BAAMC Meeting
Last week I was happy to attend the March lunch meeting of the Bay Area Affiliate Manager Coalition. It was a great meeting and I was super jazzed afterwards. I found, when trying to sit down and write this blog post, that I was way too excited about it. I’ve been looking for a subject to test out a video with, so I decided to bust out my trusted Aiptek HD Camera and throw a little HD action at you.
Please feel free to give me any feedback. And leave comments! Thanks!
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