Shortly before going in for knee surgery last Monday, I debuted on WebmasterRadioFM. If you hadn’t given it a listen, you can try it here at Usability SEO Queen Kim Krause Berg, of the Cre8asiteforums, discusses friction between networking SEOs and how it leads to create link bait and feeds trolls.
As if on cue, someone complained last week that I have no idea what I’m doing because Cre8asiteforums is a PR3. The complaint came in the form of a jibe that I’m too busy being a hot shot to care about the forums page rank score in Google.
The last time me or anyone checked PR score for Cre8asiteforums was when we were penalized for using TLA text ads. It angered me enormously to be banished for raising revenue that we never kept for ourselves. Our practice has always been to give away revenue by sponsoring events, paying for courses and internships and other ways we’ve lent support to the SEO industry. I haven’t bothered to check PR in years and nobody on the staff is staring at it, nor basing the worth of the forums on that toolbar. Our worth and value go far beyond what Google has to say about us.
I have to admit that I’ve spent the week thinking a lot. My previous post went over like a lead balloon. I took some grief for it. Admitting I was still sorting out my thoughts and basically outflowing made no difference. I was willing to be wrong and corrected. I was. On both counts. The folks who defended Twitter made good points. But what ticked me off was the wild herd of followers of just one person on Twitter who said she “disagreed” with me. Everybody had to go see, what? A fight? Let’s see who can bring down Cre8pc? What infuriated me is that the person who disagreed with me never gave a reason. All that mattered was that it was her and her followers had to go see. She meant no disrespect towards me, but I’m left with a really bad feeling about the whole “followers” habit.
In any case, I’m learning to walk on my fixed up knee. It’s a busy time here because usability help is in high demand and still growing. Cre8asiteforums rocks. The community there are exceptional, devoted people who make positive, healthy contributions to their SEO and web design peers.
I rate it a 10.
Anyone who would judge anything by toolbar PR is a fool.
Nuff said!
Glad your surgery went well, was gonna email and ask, now i don’t have to!
I agree.
It never ceases to amaze me as to how many people are willing to surrender their own good judgment to Google’s Evil Green Bar.
Hope the knee heals quick.
Something about the medium of the Internet makes people act a little meaner sometimes… I’ve been guilty of this as well.
But remember: Illegitimi non carborundum!
The knee is coming a long, although it is very sad the Eagles lost! Woulda been nice if the Eagles defense had actually showed up for the game. Hats off to the Cardinals, who played a great game!
As for the Internet, there’s no way to know for sure who is a real friend or not. Some of us are target practice.
Wow, I must say I’m really glad I didn’t look at the toolbar to judge whether or not I should visit Cre8asite for the first time. If that was my metric for value, I would have missed out on being part of what I believe is the best of the best online communities. Cre8asite definitely rocks.
Kim, you take care of that knee. That’s what really matter right now. Don’t worry about Tweety Bird.
Miriam
Glad you’re tending to the knee, Kim.
As I recall, cre8 was at one time PR6, and that got bonked in an update along with a lot of other sites. Such is life.
I was a little concerned when I read one of your earlier posts (Who Wants to Hire Top Twitter Users?) which got a lot of comments in defense. What stuck with me, though, is that the post sounded like you were being threatened. I mean, when one of your friends starts publicly delineating what protection she’s got, well, that just doesn’t sound comfy. Meanwhile, that seemed to have been overlooked in favor of the Twitter discussion.
Now this thing about followers and fights. I really thought of calling you. Am hoping all is okay.
Hey Diane…suffice it to say last year was an eye opener. I realized that in the SEO/M community, “friend” has taken on a new definition. That, and being target practice for sick people…And as for Twitter, its a marketing tool. I was slow to realize that. I also had to understand that those who really know me, like you and all the moderators at Cre8, get what I’m trying to say. Those who don’t know me jump to some wild conclusions.
Well first of all, thanks for telling me what Twitter is about. I had been wondering. I just do not see the attraction and I’m thinking I was wise to ignore it.
Kim, I am sorry you had such a bad experience. I’ve seen some ‘Lord of the Flies’ moments on some forums in the distant past but not recently. I guess human nature stays the same. The SEO/M world is not a tight little community of really fascinating people anymore.
OTOH, I’ve met some of the nicest people by knocking around the search engine, SEO and blogging world and for me the good has by far outweighed the bad.
Kim, I hope you will not let it stop you from saying what you think. I really enjoy your posts, even if I don’t comment all that often. In fact, I first started reading your blog, Kim, when you inserted yourself in one of those ‘Lord of the Flies’ moments during the whole Searchking vs. Google episode years ago (so long ago I didn’t even know what the heck a weblog was) you did not allow yourself to be swept up with the mob then but called the situation like you saw it. And even though those were heated times you stuck to your guns with courtesy, poise and a good sense of right and wrong.
It was not an easy thing to do and I’ve always respected you for doing that.