Category: Uncategorized

SEOmoz Blog | 10 Remarkably Effective Strategies for Driving Traffic.

Better than his top 10 list, says Glyn Moody.

That’s according to tech PR gossip site World’s Leading – full post here: VNU Job Losses.

Although there is no hard evidence at this point, it would come as no surprise if further cuts are to be made – it merely confirms  the general trend to remove staff editorial resource from the publishing equation.

The claim is also made that VNU’s News Desk set up may make a return – if at first you don’t succeed, etc.

Link: BBC NEWS | Technology | Top Microsoft blogger to resign.

Will be interesting to see if he retains his blog popularity when he is no longer working for Microsoft.

Scary stuff.

Link: Why phishing catches punters | The Register.

Users fixate on the weirdest things

The site that fooled all but one participant in the study was for Bank of the West (that’s a link to the real website … or is it?). On that site was a cute animated video of a bear. Evidently that tickled a number of the users who reloaded the page several times to see that animated bear. In fact, some of the participants said that the animation was proof that the site was legit, since it would take too much effort to copy it!

The ordinary folks in the study also figured that if a site has ads on it, then that increases the likelihood that it’s not a fake. Likewise, the presence of a favicon (the little icon that appears in the address bar to the left of the URL) was deemed indicative of a site that was not out to steal your money and identity. Amazing what people glom onto.

Link: Internet Security Zone Blog: Identity Theft Linked with Incontinence, “PayPal” says….

Chortle!

Link: Internet Security Zone Blog.

Now up and running.

Link: the LOOSE wire blog: How to be a Press Expert.

From Wall Street Journal’s Jeremy Wagstaff

Link: newswireless.net .:. Blog .:. Really, what matters is that the BBC ….

Read this and find out. Apparently heads have rolled at the BBC.

Link: ANALYST EQUITY: PR: Opportunities, obstacles and solutions.

A forthright post from Duncan Chapple on the subject of PR.

Some quick excerpts:

"PR’s inability to produce valuable results is reflected in underresourcing and underpricing by agencies. Most agencies’ pre-tax margins are a miserable 3.6%. Twenty percent of agencies price below cost. Their sales growth conceals forthcoming ruin. A further 44% of PR companies barely break even. The remaining one-third of agencies deliver real value, but their profitability is also threatened by consultancies that price below cost."

I was curious to know where these figures were derived from – if Duncan has his hands on a decent size sample analysis of PR company’s financial peformance, then I’m sure many others would like to investigate further too. 3.6pc pre-tax margin is indeed miserable – and of course, post-tax margin is what really matters – and that means the real margins are even slimmer. Have to say the claim that "most" agencies are making these margins suggests that the PR industry isn’t really the best way to get rich…

And as for those 20pc of agencies apparently pricing at below cost, it beggars belief. Or perhaps they think they’ll make up the difference on volume 😉

"Advertising failed when it drifted from its scientific roots. It became a creative art form."

Not sure advertising ever had scientific roots – though certainly the data available on which to plan campaigns has been more detailed than that for PR. Having said that, good PR companies will always have the numbers on which to justify an approach.

"PR seems so easy. Almost anyone can do it and, if journalists’ complaints are heard, it seems almost anyone does. Most leading PR consultancies are perpetrators of catastrophic errors. Their industry is seen as an ethical wasteland."

I’m sure we’d all like to know more about those catastrophic errors!

"The reality is that few PR managers even align their campaigns to the corporate marketing plan, let alone aligning their campaigns to customers: in-house PR managers know how few agencies ask for the marketing plan; PR agencies know how few clients offer it."

Few clients may offer it, but any PR company worth its salt should always ask for it –  PR in isolation is indeed a wasted effort.

Link: FTMAGBLOG.

Trevor Butterworth piece on blogging in the FT magazine this weekend – the link above is to the blog set up to discuss the piece. You can read the original article here:

FT on Blogging

In short, its a sensible piece that says blogging isn’t going to change the world too  much some time soon. He also says that Orwell would have been a hopeless blogger. That’s possible. But as I have stated previously, I think he would have approved of the people being able to blog – not least as a way of recording political events and how they are reported – with the added bonus of being able to share this with others and see how others have viewed them.

Sadly, no trackback for the FT Blog.