I never get tired of hearing Dick Wolfsie talk about what makes jokes funny.  (Wolfsie, well-known local TV personality and author, has been studying humor for years and lectures on the subject at the University of Indianapolis.)  As a professional ghost blogger, I find myself revisiting the Wolfsie humor analysis, because jokes and blogs share many of the same characteristics.

To illustrate one important insight about humor, Dick often uses the joke about a man who thinks his wife is losing her hearing. At the end of the joke we learn that he, the husband, is the deaf one. As the story unfolds, the man comes home and keeps calling out to his wife, asking “What’s for dinner?”  Each time he poses the question, he comes closer to where she is standing (he’s testing the distance from which she’ll be able to hear him), yet she offers no response.  Finally, when he’s right there next to her and poses the question for the fifth time, she turns to him and answers, “For the fifth time -  we’re having chicken!”

Is it the surprise element that lends the humor?  That’s only part of the answer. If the punch line had been, “You’re the one that’s deaf, honey!” there’d still be a surprise, but no humor. In order for the joke to be funny, explains Wolfsie, the person listening to the joke or reading the joke has to figure things out!  The laughter is the reward that the listener or reader gives himself for having figured out what the punch line is really saying.  In other words, there’s no joke if the punch line is the proverbial tree falling in the forest.

Blogs are like that, too.  You may do your part, posting new, relevant material online, offering valuable information about your field of expertise.  But for the blog to generate a “bang”, it takes two.  In fact, that’s precisely how business blogging works.  People go online and use search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL, etc.) to find information.  They need to know more about something, and that something has to do with what you have, what you know about, or what you know how to do.  Since you’ve provided relevant, up to date content in your blog post, that browser finds you!  Now it’s a blog, and you’ve got yourself a potential client or customer. That individual, just like the person who gets a joke, rewards himself with the information you’ve provided.  She/he “gets it” – and moves on to your website for more, or posts a comment.  Either way, two are now in the game.  Now you can start getting bang for your blog! 

On the surface, I wouldn't have expected to find valuable insights about blogging in one of several professional journals I read to keep up my financial planning credentials.  But, in the June issue of Employee Benefit Advisor, I found an important piece of blogging wisdom. In his article "OMG I Have No Money - The Texting Demographic Requires New Approach", Brent Shearer points out that employees under age 27 (there are 80 million of them in the U.S.) need tailored communications to urge them to participate in retirement savings plans.

Shearer sums up the hurdle facing employers and the investment industry in words that could have been taken from a web design and blogging manual.  He notes that GenY'ers expect to accomplish their objectives in just one or two clicks.  It's important, he says, for a company's website to create "an environment of comfort for making decisions quickly".

As a professional ghost blogger, I know the statistics:  80% or more of business comes as a result of organic search. If you're a business owner or have a professional practice, that means you'll be meeting new customers and clients not because they searched for you by name, but because they used a search engine (Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc.)  to lead them to information on a topic.  If GenY is a big part of your target market, and if you used Search Engine Optimization strategy, providing relevant, new, frequently posted information through business blogging, your blogs could be the first step in your relationship with some new GenY clients.

SInce, as Shearer so aptly points out, GenYers make decisions quickly, those browsers are going to do one of two things - "bounce" away from your blog and keep looking for what they want, or (and this is the result you're aiming for) proceed to visit your website.  Your website is where you've arranged for that "environment of comfort for making decisions quickly".  The lesson business bloggers need to learn along with the employee benefit specialists: With a well-coordinated marketing approach, your business or practice will likely get a chance to "reach out and touch" the texting demographic.  You just won't get 'em to sit still very long while you're doing it!

The past couple of weeks provided proof of something I've been saying about blogging.  In today's Internet-based shopping-and-searching business world, it's simply not good enough to hand out stuff.  Businesses have handed out and sent out stuff for decades - flyers, brochures, letters to customers and prospects.  All of this is one-way communication.  Today, the process has got to get inter-active.  Blogs, being short, frequent, and "out there" on search engines, are ideal for this purpose.  Potential clients and customers can post comments, ask questions, or simply proceed to the business' website to learn or do more.

There's another aspect to interaction with blogging, and this is the one that had such a direct effect on my own blog in recent weeks.  Since one of the goals of business blogging is search engine optimization (meaning moving up the ranks in Google, Yahoo, and MSN territory), I try to set an example for my ghost blogging clients with my own Say It For You blog.  In the days leading up to my big come-uppance, my blogs had been showing up on page 1 or 2 on Google under the category "ghost blogger".  Then, whammo - my blog disappeared!  What had happened? Without fail, I'd blogged every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, using the key words and providing fresh content that was relevant to the topic of blogging.

Turns out, I was upstaged by none other than hip-hop artist Kanye West and a host of his fans, plus a few of his detractors.  Sandra Rose claimed she'd discovered Kanye using a ghost blogger named Marcus Troy.  Dozens of fans were posting blogs opining on the truth or untruth of the matter, offering approval or horror at the practice of using a ghost blogger.  The principal players Troy, Rose, and even Kanye himself were blogging.  It was time for this professional ghost blogger to weigh in, and so I did (see Does Kanye West's Ghost Blogger Say It For Him?).  Whew! Back up the ranks once more.

I'd been writing a lot about what drives search engine rankings, and then along comes this this living, breathing answer to the question.  What are the keys to success in blogging to win search engine rankings?  Recency?  Yes.  Relevance to the topic?  Of course, yes.  Frequency?  Yes, again.  But, there's one more element that can't be forgotten - traffic.  In other words, it matters how many people are writing in and coming to call at your little corner of the blogosphere - a.k.a. interaction.

All the excitement about whether Kanye is writing his own blogs or whether he's found the perfect ghost blogger to "speak" in his voice skillfully enough for there to be a debate - well, it just goes to show.  Blogging works because it drives traffic and interaction.  And that, I learned the hard way, is What Search Engines Want. 

I like to keep my blog language a lot more grammatical and a lot cleaner than Kanye's, but boy - is he great at traffic, or what?

James Blunt did it.  Used a ghost blogger, I mean (see my earlier blog For Songs Or Blogs, Success Proves The Best Silencer Of Critics). Now his ghost blogger, Amanda Ghost, is busy composing songs for Beyonce and Shakira. David Byrne did it.  In fact, Byrne let a building do his singing for him (see Buildings, Like Blogs, Can Be Interactive).  Now, the big question whizzing and quizzing its way around the blogosphere these days is this: Is Kanye West doing it, too?

A professional ghost blogger myself, I'm always alert for what others in my field are blogging and for whom.  Then - bam! In the past week or so it seems what's preoccupying a whole lot of gray matter for a whole lot of people is Kanye and the big "Is He Or Isn't He?" issue.  It's so ironic, because, whatever the real answer, Kanye's reaping a whole lot of green matter over this dispute by earning (through blogging, mind you!) a whole lot of attention on search engine slates.

The popularity of Kanye West's blog has grown enormously, and Sandra Rose's claim that Marcus Troy is the real writer of West's blogs has helped grow it even more enormously.  What do I think? Well, first I need to confess - as a financial columnist and now professional ghost blogger, the world of hip hop music has not been on my radar screen until now. Marcus Troy himself says in a post, "How the H___ does Kanye have time to update his blog with ten new posts a day?"  Now that is a question to which I can relate, because most businessowners don't find the time to update a blog ten times a month, let alone ten times a day!  That's exactly why the demand for ghost bloggers like me is growing.

Blogging is an essential business tool in the web-based world of today.  Email is a way to reach customers, but you can't use it to reach potential customers.  For that, business blogging fits the bill. Fact is, very few business owners, even with the help of talented and dedicated employees, can be assured that relevant, new material will get posted on their blog with enough consistency to improve rankings. Finding the right professional ghost blogger and working with that ghost makes the most sense for winning the search.. 

From my point of view, all the excitement about whether Kanye is writing his own blogs or whether he found someone that can "speak" for him well enough to even trigger a debate - it's a matter of "So there you have it!" Blogging works to drive traffic and interest.  Period.  Ghost blogger, anyone?

Decades ago, just beginning a career in insurance and investments, I had the privilege of hearing the great Zig Ziglar speak about good selling practices. He described selling pots and pans to the nurses at the hospital on New Year's Eve, right after his wife had borne their first child.  Zig ended the presentation with one of his signature lines.  If we would devote the time to practice good selling habits and product knowledge and if we focused our efforts on achieving our sales goals, he would "see us at the top" !

All these years later, Ziglar's still traveling the world, motivating people to reach the top in their professions. Today, however, "getting to the top" has another meaning, one that is essential for doing business effectively in our increasingly web-driven world.  Backbone Media Corporation conducted research on 140 companies that advertise on the Internet.  These companies spend a combined $36 million a year on Google Advertising, and the reason they do it is for search engine rankings.  (In other words, they are buying placement through Sponsored Links or Pay-Per-Click arrangements.) 

Blogging on the Internet, in contrast to purchasing domain names and sponsored links, by contrast, isn't "bought".  Yet effective blogging can translate into the kinds of favorable search engine results that online advertisers seek.  The results in blogging come through a sort of "sweat equity", meaning consistent, disciplined hard work creating relevant materials and posting them on the Web. While each search engine (along with Google are MSN, Yahoo, and others) has its own "algorithms" for judging the merits of blogs and hence their rankings, there are three primary keys to success. 

First, post often - if not daily, then three to four times a week. (If this is out of the question, that's where a professional ghost blogger comes in!  - visit www.sayitforyou.net.)
 
Second, keep doing it - the scorecard is cumulative; blogs that have been appearing for longer periods of time rank ahead of "newbies". 

Third, provide relevant content about your topic, using and repeating the search terms people are most likely to use in the effort to get information about your type of product or service.

Not to steal any thunder from the great Ziglar (as if anyone could!), I'll end by saying that, if you will follow these blogging steps faithfully enough - and long enough - to win customer hearts along with search engine rankings, I will see you - at the top! 

 

High-end residential complexes offer their services, as do all the best hotels.  Concierges help with everything from setting salon appointments, arranging luggage pickup from hotel rooms, booking tours, and offering sightseeing tips.

Personal concierges are the fastest-growing subset of the breed, running errands for people with little spare time (or for those who prefer to spend their time in pursuits more engaging than picking up groceries or dry cleaning).  My friend Judi Stephenson of Another You Concierge tells me her company performs thousands of different services ranging from party planning to dog-sitting.  In "Helping Hands", Indianpolis Woman magazine described concierge services as freeing "those with hectic lives from mundane tasks".

Businesses, particularly small businesses, need concierges, too.  Blogging, an essential customer acquisition tool in our increasingly web-based world, is no mundane task.  Still, few business owners, even with the help of talented employees, can spare the time to post relevant, new material with enough consistency and frequency to improve search engine rankings.

Concierges pick up stuff for clients: luggage, packages, children, arriving guests; a ghost blogger must "pick up" the business owner's individual style and vision.  Concierges deliver stuff: mailings, groceries, gifts, messages, flowers, reservations, meals; ghost bloggers "deliver" content to the Web.  This, in turn, helps "deliver" traffic to the business' website.

As Indianapolis Woman puts it, "You might find yourself wishing you had a clone, just to accomplish everything on your to-do list."  Well, when it comes to blogging for business, your blog "concierge" can be your clone!

 

A couple of weeks ago, my Circle Business Network group meeting was held at Parmasters indoor golf training center in Noblesville.  The dozen of us in attendance were treated to some delicious muffins and coffee, then to a simulated tour of the famous Saddlebrook golf course with pro Clayton Meeks.

An absolutely abominable golfer myself, I still got a big kick out of seeing the wonders of modern computer technology put to the task of teaching a skill.  Parmasters is amazing! The part of Clayton's talk I found to be the most interesting had to do with the golf teaching system used at Parmasters, called Straight-Line Golf™.  This is a system that allows the player to consistently hit the ball straight.  Straight Line, (and this part  was significant to me as a seminar presenter and former teacher), in contrast with traditional golf instruction's focus on correcting a player's faults and weaknesses, takes all players through the same teaching track, focusing on the golfer's getting the ball straight to its target.

My "Say It For You" ghost blogging for businesses is, in a way, based on the same "Straight Line" principle.  Search Engine Optimization consists of "driving" (pun intended) traffic to your website.  The straight line begins when someone browses the Web searching for information about a topic related to your company's expertise, product, or service.  Your blog contains recently posted, relevant information.  Since you've been consistently posting good, frequently updated material, the search engines have rewarded your efforts by putting your blog closer to the top of their search list.  The browser spots your blog (because it uses all the search terms he/she's designated), then finds what you have to say compelling enough to continue along the path - straight to your website. 

So, thanks for the memories, Parmasters!  And thanks for setting a good example for "straight-line" corporate marketing through blogs.

 

At a wine-tasting event at Deano's Vino a couple of weeks ago, I got to try some very fine wines and sample some tasty cheeses.  My friends and I were then treated to an entertaining, informative mini-lecture by Deano, the proprietor of this fun Fountain Square, Indianapolis eatery.  As a teacher and speaker myself for so many years, and now as a ghost business blogger, I especially enjoy seeing ways in which other speakers and writers use words to convey ideas and information to an audience. 

Somewhere in the middle of his short talk, Deano (who manages to be quite funny while still being serious about his topic) alluded to Mel Brooks' Robin Hood character in Men In Tights. Deano wanted to bring out that, when a customer finds a product or service that's the exact right thing for him or her, it's as if a light pops on. You need to get the customer to say "Aha!" just the way Robin Hood said "Aha, Aha! Right rope!" as he climbed a rope to make his escape.

Your business blog should be designed to elicit that same kind of "Aha" response.  Remember, your potential customer is searching on the Web for a product, a service, or for information. Like Robin Hood, the customer's moving fast, browsing the Internet, using a search engine, scanning rather than reading.  You're hoping for an "Aha!" response, because if the "light pops on", that browser will want to find out more about you and your business. By offering a "content-tasting" on your blog, and doing that regularly and frequently, you'll have put Search Engine Optimization to work for you and your business, converting tasters - to buyers.

Leafing through Southwest Airlines’ Spirit magazine during a recent flight, I came upon a “How To” feature by Harlem Globetrotters veteran Kevin Daley. (I stopped to read that page in detail, recalling our family tradition, years back, of taking the kids to see the Globetrotters on Thanksgiving Day.)   “Special K” Daley was instructing readers on how to get a basketball whirling, one of the team’s trademark tricks.According to Daley there are four steps to the basketball spin, and I was struck by the fact that every one of those steps could be applied to the “spin” in a web log (blog). 

First, says Special K, “Set the ball”.  Position the ball with the lines vertically and prop it up on your fingertips in front of your body. In my earlier blog, Blogs And Podiums – Choose Yours Wisely, I explained that business bloggers need to keep a specific target audience and goal in mind. Then, the blog can address that target audience and work on achieving that specific marketing goal.

Second, says Daley, “Tilt and whirl”.  Raise the ball to chest level, then twist your wrist to get maximum torque. It’s the same with blogs.  Remember, a blog is not an ad.  You’re providing information with a particular “slant” or “twist” that showcases your expertise in your field or the special qualities of your product.

Next, according to Special K, you need to “Poke with power.”  Let the ball go, and it will hover in the air briefly.  You can then “catch” the ball on your fingertip.  Each time a new post is put on your business blog, even if it’s recent, and even if you’ve posted frequently, it won’t make the customer want to go further and “meet you” on your website unless the blog entry’s got power and punch!  You must drive readers to want more.

Lastly, advises Daley (and this is the one that really, crucially applies to blogging), “Stick with it.”  Don‘t expect to succeed the first time – or even the tenth, in basketball spinning, he advises. “Keep it up… and you’ll soon be doing it all day long.”  Search engine optimization through blogging is never a matter of overnight success.

Before your blog gets “noticed” by search engines, it has to be “recent and frequent”.  You have to provide relevant material, and keep providing material again and again, for your blog to get moving closer towards the top of the search lists.  Then, you have to keep your blog there, spinning, telling your business story to all your potential clients and customers.

My special thanks to Special K.  He probably has no idea he was providing tips any ghost blogger can use!

As a professional writer, I derive pleasure out of a nicely turned phrase, a "word tidbit", if you will.  In an earlier blog, From Meat To Mustard, I shared one nice tidbit used by The New York Times to report on high food prices.  Then, just the other day, I read another really great word tidbit in the Journal of FInancial Planning (I retired from a financial planning career, but still keep up on continuing education).

A short item about affluent investors' loyalty to their original financial planners was titled "Advisors No Pied Pipers".  The writer presented a survey showing that only 33% of clients would follow their advisor to another firm. I confess I hadn't thought about the pied piper story since grade school, but this title immediately brought into my mind a picture of the Pied Piper, bells on his pointed cap and pipe in his mouth, prancing ahead of an army of rats, leading them away from the town.  In just four words, the writer was able to make me think about the whole story.  And, using just the right words to evoke an image, I reflected, is exactly what we ghost bloggers try to do! 

In the case of blogging, of course, I'm after the reverse Pied-Piper effect, trying to lead customer to my client's website.  Through search engine optimization techniques, including using key words, posting frequently, and providing relevant content, the blog "pipes" itself towards the top of the search list and then "pipes" customers right to the website  After all, when it comes to web-based communication, words, along with pictures, are a business' only "music".

Closing my copy of the Journal of Financial Planning, I thought: Now, that's what a ghost blogger does for a living - makes music in order to make business happen.  Please excuse me while I sew bells onto my cap….

 

I’m fond of thinking of ghost blogging as an art, but, truth be told, there’s quite a bit of science to it as well. Part of the science has to do with targeting an audience.  By that I mean your blog can’t be all things to all people, any more than your business can be all things to everybody.  The blog must be targeted towards the specific type of customers you want and who will want to do business with you.  Everything about your blog should be tailor-made for that customer -–the words you use, how technical you get, how sophisticated your approach, the title of each blog entry– all of it.

Science comes into play in another sense as well.  As your ghost blogger, I’ll be using, and repeating, “search terms” to help search engines such as Google, Yahoo, or MSN “notice” your blogs and move them higher and higher on their list. In other words, your blog becomes a marketing tool to achieve SEO, or search engine optimization.

In What’s On Your Blog Bumper? I wrote about blogs bringing you to “top of mind” status with customers. Well, in the same concert program booklet where I found the specialty license plate ad I was writing about, I saw a second advertisement.  Very interesting, this one, called “Make Every Day A Great Performance”.  Talk about targeting an audience – this ad is printed in a symphony concert program book, remember, and every word of that full-page ad had to do with performances and with music.  The ad wasn’t about music at all - it was promoting a retirement living facility!  “So, if you’re looking for a great performance every day, consider how Marquette Manor is in tune with your lifestyle.” My compliments to the ad agency or whoever created that page! It was designed to appeal to the type of customer they knew would be seeing that ad.

Your company blog is definitely not an ad and should not sound like one.  What it is, though, is an invitation to learn more about your field of expertise and about the kinds of products and services you have to offer.  Everything about your blog needs to be targeted for your audience.  And everything about my work as a ghost blogger,  both the science and the art of it, must be targeted to Say It For You – to the right people!

 

The majority of women, myself included, are not overly interested in what other women want.  Unlike the majority of my female peers, on the other hand, I'm only slightly interested in what men, as a gender, want.  (I'll hasten to add that the wants of certain men important in my life do occupy a high spot on my priority list.) But, gender matters aside, as a member of a small but rapidly growing cadre of ghost bloggers, I'm absolutely fascinated with learning what search engines want. I'm referring to the likes of Google, MSN, and Yahoo, and giving those search engines what they want is the whole idea behind business blogging.

The other day I caught a cute article in Entertainment Weekly that discussed the fact that men are embracing their feminine side in romantic comedy movies these days.  The article was titled "Guys Are The New Girls". The piece ends with a wry question: "What do women - and men - want out of a man?"

Apparently, the answer to that question is still the subject of much debate.  By contrast, (happily for me as a professional ghost blogger), what search engines want is rather clear - to deliver relevant content to online searchers.

What determines how relevant content is?  Well, two ingredients are important for sure - recency and frequency. That's exactly why once-in-a-while blogging just doesn't do the trick, even if it's high-quality stuff.  To satisfy a search engine, your blog material must be updated frequently, and I mean very frequently.  It seems that when it comes to blogging for business, search engines are saying, "Never mind what you've done. What have you done for me lately?"

As a business owner, you're always looking for ways to introduce what you have to offer to new customers of the right kind (the kind that have a need for and who will appreciate your services and products).  That's exactly what having a corporate blog is designed to do.  Through the search engine optimization process, potential customers searching online for your type of product or service get to your blog. Then, when they read the very relevant information you've provided there, these buyers go to your website, and decide to do business with your company.  Your blog is one important way of inviting customers in to take a look.

Since marketing plays such an important role in my work as a ghost blogger, I'm always on the lookout for information on that subject.  A couple of weeks ago, I attended a mini-seminar about trade show marketing, given by marketing programs specialist Kathleen Haley. The presentation was called "Making Event Participation Work For Your Business."  I was amazed how much of what Haley shared about effective use of a trade show booth can be directly applied to using a business blog effectively.  I'm going to talk about just one of those marketing ideas today, but I'll come back to some other ideas I learned in future "Say It For You" blogs.

Don't sit behind a table. The table becomes a barrier, Haley pointed out.  Make it easy and inviting for customers to come inside your booth, away from the flow of trade show traffic.  Inside, you can talk to them, find out their needs, and share ideas with them.

You want your blog to function like a great trade show booth.  Customers are looking for some information or perhaps for a provider of a service or product that relates to your business.  That's why they're at the "trade show" (meaning online on a search engine such as Google, Yahoo, or MSN).  So, the customers arrive at your blog "booth", where they read or see something that draws their interest and appears as if it might fit their needs. (That, of course, is where having lots of appealing, fresh content in your blog is so important). 

Right there is the crucial moment in the process - the customer needs to come inside the booth (meaning click on to your website). Once you have customers inside your website, you get the chance to find out more about them and help them find out more about you.  That just doesn't happen outside the booth; it happens only when the client gets inside the website.  The key to inviting them in is your blog. In a very real sense, this analogy of the booth sums up my work as a ghost blogger.  I help you say to your customers, "Won't you please come on in?"

It's the eve of a the first BlogIN sponsored by the Smaller Indiana social networking site. I've been a bad blogger, having posted only a few blog entries in almost four months - and this Compendium Blogware ain't cheap.

Therefore, I've also been a negligent owner of an Indianapolis web design company that focuses on Search Engine Optimization, because this blog software is intended to help with organic rankings and I've used a considerable chunk of annual marketing budget to test this software to see if it can help improve my clients organic rankings.

Anyway, I will be attending the BlogIn unconference in a few hours primarily to help inspire me to regularly contribute to this blog, and to steal a few good ideas if possible. Ultimately, I just need a regular blogging routine and the disipline to stick to it, but who has time to set that up and do it?

I intend to develop a content format, to allow readers to know what to expect, and a regular posting schedule, so readers know when to expect it. Maybe I'll hire a ghost writer. Wish me luck. I'll keep you posted.

As part of our efforts to promote my Indianapolis search engine optimization company, we've become a full-season sponsor of the BAM Racing #49 Sprint Cup car. I have already benefitted from the association with the team, beacause it is a natural fit for a company called DRIVE. What I discovered today, when the car failed to qualify for the Daytona 500, is that when you throw your support behind an underdog in the big leagues, you better be prepared for dissappointment.

Of course, the only reason I was watching the race during the middle of a work day was to see how my team did. I would never consider such a distraction otherwise. In addition to the down side of missing the show on Sunday, I discovered that during the upcoming season I won't be able to actually enjoy the races from my usual fan's perspective because of my involvement with the team.

So be sure when you commit to being a sponsor of an event or organization that you understand your perspective will immediately change as a result, and that your ability to innocently appreciate that entity as an outside observer will forver change.

We'll see how this sponsorship deal turns out as far as our marketing strategy and tactics development are concerned, but at least during the one-year evaluation period it gives me something to write about on a continual basis during the season. I guess I'll be rooting for the other underdogs during the race, including Indianapolis native John Andretti, but my thoughts will be on the #49 car making the race the following week.

If your a race fan, be sure to enter our VIP Race Weekend Sweepstakes for a chance to spend an unforgettable weekend with the #49 team in 2009.

May he rest in peace. It could be said that with the passing of Karl Ehrhardt, blog heaven receives the original blogger as its initial resident. Who is Karl Ehrhardt and why do I think of him as the original blogger?

For those of you who are (1) baseball fans, (2) old enough and (3) from the New York City area, or a Mets fans for some reason that is known by only you and your therapist, then you might know him as the Sign Man of Shea Stadium.

For almost two decades from the Mets's earliest days, Sign Man used his box seat near third base to post short, almost instantaneous, highly-poignant, and often-humorous opinions about what just occurred on the field. And with the Mets, that could be just about anything from absurd to amazing.

In the pre-Internet age, Frank used his advertising agency background to conceive and create simple block-letter signs, which he held above his head with both arms extended high for all within the stadium to see.

Eventually, as television gained a bigger role in disseminating baseball games, Sign Man's opinions were broadcast nationwide; globally during those few Miracle Mets championship seasons. The TV cameramen knew to focus on him after any significant moment in a game, so his opinions eventually became as much a part of the flavor of games at Shea as the hot dogs and beer.

Perhaps because of their instantaneous and brief nature, his messages might be considered more akin to Twittering than blogging, but if I just wrote about Twitter, or the main topic of this search engine optimization blog, then I would not be able to take advantage of the keywords "blog," "blogger," and "blogging."

So, a memorial virtual toast and tip of a Mets cap go out to the innovative Frank Ehrhardt, a familiar face and spokesperson from my past, and one of the founding fathers of Internet Age - a world where everyone's opinion matters in the global conversation that connects us all.  We'll miss you, Sign Man, and we'll see you someday in blog heaven.

 It must been have a humbling experience for Microsoft to admit defeat with its decision to takeover Yahoo! as its last-gasp attempt to remain relevant. As we SEO's know, relevancy is the key to suucess in the search engine marketing arena, and Microsoft has been anything but for several years. (And I'll save my comments about Windows Vista for another day.)

So, what does this mean for marketers who rely on organic rankings through optimization and/or Pay-Per Click (PPC) advertsing to generate web traffic? In the short run, not much. In the long run, probably not much either except for a possible slight decrease in rates as competition heats up.
 
Though this planned merger makes for good headlines and commentary, the bottom line for marketers is that success on the search engines has always been based on the basic principles of good old Marketing 101: get the right message to the right person at the right time and place. That won't change, no matter who owns what search engine or what percentage of search traffic uses Google or any of its competitors.

The combined Microsoft/Yahoo! search engine platform may prove to be a more formidable competitor than they've been recently as separate entities, which may reduce the cost of advertising, but regardless of where or how much you spend on your SEO, PPC, and other online advertising campaigns, you still need to focus on the tried and true aspects of successful marketing.

I'm not going to spend too much time focused on the analysis of pundits about the back-room politics and finances of this proposed merger, but instead I will keep my eye on the changes that Google will start to make as a result, because those will have a bigger impact on my clients' success until the merger dust settles and becomes a permanent part of the search engine landscape.

I'm embarrassed to admit, but I'm a virgin. Not that type. A blog virgin. My head has been so buried in the SEO-sand for five years that I have not had time to explore for my own purposes much of the other online worlds that now make up the search engine marketing arena. All of my efforts have been on my clients' behalf up until now, so it's time to make up for lost time. Stay tuned for more than you'll ever want to know about SEO.