OK don’t answer that. I want you to think about it. What made me want to ask such a question? The following headline.

Edelman survey: Trust in all media plunges!

You can read more here.

Quite simply it makes me so sad: sick to my stomach in fact.The results of this survey indicate that the vast majority of people operating online have encountered liars. Damned liars in fact.

Why can’t more of us be truthful? Why don’t we care about our own personal reputation and that of our clients? When working online (or anywhere else for that matter) the most important thing to me is that I am dealing with others honestly, and that they do the same in return.

Is this what it’s come down to?

The following findings (along with a lot more) are sad testimonials to the number of people who look upon their friends and associates as just someone else to make a quick buck off.

- Trust in information from friends and peers, “people like me,” dropped by 20 points, from 47 to 27 percent.

- Trust in information from digital media–blogs, social networks, and free content sources like Wikipedia or Google news, remains low: only between 11 percent and 22 percent of respondents express trust in information about companies from these sources.

Are you just another person who’s building a brand on a lie? It can’t last and it won’t. We should all do our bit right now to stop the lies. Stop misleading people and learn to think long and hard before we print anything online. Our livelihoods may depend on it.

You can fool some of the people all the time and all of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all the people all of the time. My apologies to Abraham Lincoln but that’s almost a universal formula.

Building Your Brand in an Environment of Trust

Building trust is (or should be) a very serious business. Here are a few rules to make sure your trust-meter remains intact:

• Never lie or misrepresent yourself or a product or service.
• Never back up someone you know is lying, either in words or by endorsing them via social media.
• Don’t be afraid to call someone out if you know for sure they’re lying.

If you don’t do it, perhaps no one will. And it’s an interesting thing that if you show some courage and stand up to someone who’s doing something you disagree with, very often others will support you: they agree with you but they don’t have the personal courage to do what you’ve just done! You don’t need to do it publicly either. You’ve still done the job if you contact someone privately if you know that they’re contributing to the growing environment of mutual mistrust because they’re not operating ethically in whatever way.

Consider also that creating a fake Twitter account to air your views might just be another part of our problem. Too many people are hiding behind fake social media personas where they feel it’s OK to do and say things that they’d probably never consider doing in real life. But then again, maybe they would if they knew no one would find them out and that’s the root of the problem we have here.

It’s a well known cliche that in war truth is always the first casualty. Let’s work to make sure that in years to come our grandchildren don’t say ‘when the Internet was born truth laid down and died.’

That was my periodic Rant. Consider it over.

Choosing the Right WordPress Plugins

It can be difficult to decide just which WordPress plugins you should install. We’re spoiled for choice and that’s for sure. If you’re just starting up with your WordPress blog I suggest you don’t go installing plugins right and left, since you can slow your site and there’s no sense installing plugins you really don’t need.

However, there are five that I would recommend for everyone:

1. WP Super-Cache
2. Feedburner FeedSmith Plugin for WordPress
3. G-Lock Double Opt-in Widget
4. WP Cumulus Flash Tag Cloud
5. Enhanced WordPress Contact Form

WP Super-cache for Speed

WP Super-cache plugin is essential because it speeds the load time of your site. It actually lightens the load on your server. If your site gets heavy traffic, and if you’re hoping for an appearance on Digg’s front page, or to go viral on Twitter, then you need this if you want to try and avert a server crash from the traffic spike.

Feedburner FeedSmith Plugin for WordPress

Failing to provide a convenient way for visitors to subscribe to your RSS feed is a serious mistake. Feedburner has its advantages and disadvantages but it does allow subscribers to choose how they will receive your feed. You will obviously need to create an account with FeedBurner for this too.

G-Lock Double-Optin Widget

The G-Lock signup form allows you to collect your readers’ emails so that you can use them in the future: the first rule of internet marketing is get connected with your visitors so you can forge a relationship.

WP Cumulus Flash Tag Cloud

You might wonder, when i’ve just finished telling you how you shouldn’t be gung-ho with the plugins, why I’m telling you to install a flash tag cloud. But WP Cumulus isn’t just any old flash tag cloud. I find it one of the most useful widgets of all for the sidebar. First, it reassures visitors that they are in the right place by displaying all your keywords–both the main ones and the long-tail, and it makes it easy for them to find what they’re looking for with a click.

But I have found another use for it. You know how when you’re writing a post it’s difficult to make sure you’re including links to all your relevant past blog posts? Well this tag cloud makes that so easy. You simply click on related keywords and you get a list of all the blog posts that use the keyword. Now tell me that’s not useful to you!

Enhanced WordPress Contact Form

It is vital that visitors to your site have a safe, reliable way to contact you. Nothing drives away business more effectively than failing to give your readers a way to connect. Joost de Valk’s contact form allows you to control its appearance through CSS (don’t worry he shows you how). You can also alter/add fields, and it even allows you track where the visitors are coming from and if from a search engine, what keywords they used. This neat little form also prevents spam, which I’m sure you’ll be relived to hear.

I got tagged for this back on January 25th by Neal Jansen over at The Puck Writes but I only just saw it: Sorry Neal!

The Rules for This Particular Meme

* Link to your original tagger(s) and list these rules in your post. (see above)
* Share seven facts about yourself in the post. (see below)
* Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs. (see below)
* Let them know they’ve been tagged. (you’ll just have to trust trackbacks and such)

Without further ado here are 7 things you probably didn’t know about me:

1. I have been married for 33 years.
2. I have been working online since 1996
3. SEO has been a passion of mine since 2003
4. I’ve been writing for 21 years
5. I’m a Brit, but I live in Jordan and do SEO and copywriting mainly for companies within the US (you’re right: that’s three facts–you’re getting a few more than you bargained for)
6. I tend to be very direct and say exactly what I mean (Oh, OK, you already knew that–I’m sorry)
7. I’m an intuitive empath which means I can feel whatever other people feel and it’s also why I no longer enjoy huge gatherings. Now if there were only six things you still wouldn’t know that would you.

I tag:

1. Richard Dewick of Makakmedia Blog
2. Donna Fontenot at Dazzlin Donna’s Blog
3. Bridget Ayers over at the Get Smart Blog
4. Barry Welford of The Other Bloke’s Blog
5. Andy Beal, better known for his Marketing Pilgrim site
6. Jill Whalen of High Rankings
7. Bill Slawski of SEO by the Sea

For those of you who hate it when I’m in a bad mood, RANT ALERT!

I woke up this morning to find this on my blog:

Hi,
let me first tell you this not spam.i am a real person sitting at a real desk.I am Rajeev Mahadevan from India.I just wanted to tell you that i have found a really easy way to make money online.its free,and easy.i made $142/- in my first week.below’s the link.if you want to make effortless money.
A.W.SURVEYS

First, Rajeev, let me tell you that if you had read any of my blog at all it would have been plain to you that if there’s anything I hate, it is spam.

You seek to justify yourself by telling me that your comment is not spam, so it seems I am going to have to enlighten you about the definition of spam.

How do you think spam gets written other than by real people at real desks? True we might think of them in our mind’s eye shuffling up to a trough in a barn, but the truth is most of them look just like you or I and they do, wait for it, sit at a desk somewhere.

Whether or not you sit at a desk is not a measure of how spammy your comments are. The measure is this:

If your comment contains a self-serving link leading to a site that has NOTHING to do with the contents of the blog post then, yes, you are a spammer, whether you choose to call yourself that or not. You are attempting to steal my traffic. And while you say you are inviting people to ‘make effortless money,’ let me tell you there is no such thing as a ‘free lunch.’ You may not be working for the traffic, but the people who own the blogs you are spamming most certainly did work hard for that traffic. They spent endless hours educating themselves about their subject, they have built up a network of people they know, like and, dare I say it? TRUST online (and yes, who also recognize them by name). Additionally, legitimate bloggers spend hours researching and writing blog posts so that others will want to visit and read.

Which brings me to yet another point: while you’re posting spammy comments on other people’s blogs, you are not finding targeted traffic. Targeted traffic is when you aim for people who are looking for what you have to offer (just so you know).

So someone, somewhere is paying for your traffic (assuming anyone in their right mind would want to click on your link).

Sorry Ranjeev, your spammy comment is in the spam bin where it belongs.

Legitimate Promotion Strategies

But in the spirit of online camaraderie, let me just give you some advice.

Unless you’re planning to give something back, such as a valuable link from your website, a talkup on your blog, or the like, never try to benefit from someone else’s hard work. They’ll resent it.

There are plenty of legitimate ways you can promote your product. I suggest you try one of the many great forums on affiliate marketing for this.

Create a web page to promote your product and drive traffic to that with legitimate comments on other people’s blogs (no need to spam, you still get the link if you take part in their conversation). Create meaningful, mutually beneficial online relationships that will fuel your progress. Heck, shell out and buy some PPC. That’s always a great choice for anyone who doesn’t know what else to do and it needn’t be very expensive.

My Big Announcement

It won’t be news to you that one of the best way to get quality backlinks is guest posting for a website with complimentary content to what’s on your website. In reality of course, if you pick your guest posting venues carefully you get a whole lot more out of the deal than just hot backlinks.

If you’re writing for a blog that gets a lot of traffic then some of that traffic will definitely spill over onto your own. You will also gain exposure in your chosen field. If your writing is good you will even be establishing yourself as an expert, and that’s a truly priceless prize.

See Me on Marketing Pilgrim

I’m lucky enough to have just had my first guest post, Getting the Hang of the Twitter Culture accepted over at Andy Beal’s Marketing Pilgrim. This is an important step for a successful blogger, and so exciting for me. Just look at that traffic (oh sorry, if you don’t have the Compete extension for FireFox you won’t be able to see that!). Not to even mention the Google PR of 7. This will make for some highly valuable backlinks. You can be sure that I will put aside time from my frantically busy schedule to write more posts for Andy because it benefits me almost more than it does him.

By the way, if you go over to read my post, please be sure to give us a Stumble or add us to your other favorite bookmarking venue if you like it. You could even Tweet about it on Twitter.

I researched this list to motivate myself as much as anything else. No matter how long you’ve been blogging there’s always room for improvement. To improve my own blogging skills I’ve looked to outstanding bloggers for inspiration. You’ll find a list at the bottom of this post.

1. Successful bloggers are truthful: you can be confident that a little research won’t turn up gaping holes in their testimony.
2. They passionately adore their subject. This is a must. Your passion must also ignite your reader’s passion. Never try and blog about something you don’t love.
3. They are ambitious. Building a popular blog takes a lot of work and determination. Long hours spent writing and long hours spent learning the craft of blogging.
4. Their writing is conversational and easy-to-read. While most readerships are forgiving of the odd typo, copy that is riddled with spelling mistakes and missing words is just as off-putting as writing that doesn’t speak to the reader. Spend a little time perfecting your writing style. Examine the writing style of bloggers you find most interesting to read. Your byword should be ‘proofread.’
5. They make their blog look nice.There’s no excuse not to do this. Now you can get literally hundreds of nice-looking templates if you use a platform like WordPress. It’s easy and free, so pick one that will appeal to your target niche. Also, don’t forget to dig out an interesting picture or photo to accompany your blog posts. It’s well known that pictures make your posts a lot more attractive to a lot more people.
6. They blog regularly. This is quite possibly the most difficult thing of all to achieve. Blogging is a long-term commitment, and when you have eager readers and sponsors (advertisers) depending on you, you can’t just take a holiday whenever it pleases you.
7. Their posts are of more-or-less uniform quality. Research and care leave traces. There’s a huge difference to the reader between an article that has been lovingly crafted and a few paragraphs hurriedly strung together. This is another difficult habit to nail down. Sometimes you just don’t feel like blogging. I’ve found that it’s better to just leave a gap in your blogs rather than post any old junk. A good trick is to always have three or four draft posts ready to be dusted off and posted if you’re pushed for time, or just plain don’t feel like it.
8. Bloggers are, almost without exception, nice people. Even if they thrive on controversy, they’re not mean or insulting. To take this point a little further, the most popular bloggers are the nicest ones, like Darren Rowse of Problogger, or Maki of DoshDosh.
9. They love to learn. Blogging is a craft that needs to be learned. It takes a great deal of experimentation and reading to get to the point where you’re gaining readers on a daily basis and making your way into people’s RSS readers. To get you started in the right direction, consume this list by Problogger.
10. Successful bloggers network. Having a circle of others who know their subject and who are prepared to give opinions and otherwise help out is an invaluable aid to the blogging process. Their favorite haunts are sites like Digg, Del.icio.us, twitter, FaceBook, FriendFeed and others.
11. They are heavily into social media and social networking for the potential extra exposure. See list in bullet above.
12. The more popular a blog becomes, the more you’ll notice that the blogger is frequently seen in SEO circles. There are even a number of notable bloggers whose opinions on SEO are widely respected. Search engine optimization is essential for your blogging success, and the most important part of optimizing your blog is getting inbound links. You can do this by having great content that others want to link to, and by commenting on other good blogs. Don’t forget linking between your blog posts for legitimate links too. Beyond that, here are some great tips for optimizing your blog from Search Engine Land, and another from Pronet Advertising.
13. Successful bloggers give their readers information that is not just interesting–it has to be useful too. If you can help your readers out in their daily work or lives they’ll be back again and again.
14. For the most part, successful blogs deal with a niche–a specific part of a subject. There are a few examples of blogs that deal with a wide range of subjects though. One I love is Lifehacker.
15. They are prepared to spend literally hours a day to post, network and improve their blog. I would say that two-three hours a day is the minimum you’ll get by on if you want a remarkably successful blog. Just being honest here, for all those who think they can get by on twenty minutes a day!
16. The most successful blogs are those that form a community. Good bloggers are good community leaders, and for many blogs this is key. Over to Guy Kawasaki for more on building a community.
17. Create dialog with other top bloggers. It’s no coincidence that all the top blogs regularly refer to posts on other blogs, and even engage in conversation with other bloggers through their posts. This takes the concept of community building to a higher level and provides readerships with further resources that will be useful to them.

Bloggers I find Outstanding

(In no particular order)

• Darren Rowse of Problogger
• Maki of DoshDosh
• Chiropractic of Planet Chiropractic
• Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz
• Dave Taylor of Ask Dave Taylor
• Brian Clark of Copyblogger
• Michael Gray of Wolf Howl
• Rae Hoffman of SugarRae
• Lyndon Antcliff of Cornwall SEO
• Chris Garrett of ChrisG.com
• Lee Odden of Top Rank Blog
• Hugh MacLeod of Gaping Void
• Naomi Dunford of IttyBiz