Anyone who has been in the search engine optimization and marketing industry is well aware that when one of their own is in trouble, the troops come out of their caves to lend a hand. This time, a baby boy may come into this world with little chance of survival and his family needs support.

Threadwatch staff sounded the first call for help in Please Donate to Help 2_Much With Medical Bills.

Cre8asiteforums staff, upon hearing the news, quickly united in a decision to donate financial assistance from our operating expenses account.

Marcela DeVivo, aka “2_Much”, has moderated in WebMasterWorld, and written for SearchEngineWatch, in addition to being an SEO. Baby Nathan is her first child, but it was discovered he is brain damaged and may not survive birth.

We wanted to help and wanted to get the word out to others who wish to do the same.

Just in Case

I’m moving this blog and the Cre8pc site to a new host. I’ve been with the same host since 1995, but it’s time to move on and spread my wings. If you see some bumps in the next few days, you’ll know why. The blog will look different eventually (moving to Wordpress) and so will Cre8pc and UsabilityEffect.com.

News updates from Marcela’s blog

The Web Standards dimension is experiencing some sort of wobble warp that’s pushing it into the forefront of blogs, forums and the news.

An Angry Fix, by Jeff Zeldman brought to our attention the case of Björn Hörmann leaving W3C’s QA Development. (That’s Quality Assurance Development, for those unfamiliar with the term.) Hörmann, who has chosen to “discontinue my participation” writes:

“I believe for our society to progress it’s essential that our culture, our knowledge, and our society itself are as accessible as possible to everyone; web standards are how we choose to achieve this on the World Wide Web, and for us to communicate, especially if we have special needs or novel ideas about information access, it depends on compliance to web standards. With this in mind I became interested in assuring standards compliance on the Web and involved in the development of tools meant to help in this respect at the World Wide Web Consortium seven years ago.”

QA Engineers are the most disciplined people I’ve ever met or worked with. They get to the root of a project by first determing it’s Soul. From there, they devise ways to make sure that Soul flourishes, while remaining intact and true to Its original birth code - no matter what’s thrown at it, why or for how much money. Zeldman adds,

“Truth be told, we and our practical concerns never drove the organization. But after ordinary designers and developers spent nearly a decade selling web standards to browser makers and developing best practices around accessibility and semantics, one hoped the W3C might realize that there was value in occasionally consulting its user base. Alas, the organization appears unconcerned with our needs and uninterested in tapping our experience and insights. It remains a closed, a one-way system.”

Since 1995, when I took my first steps into the Internet, I thought to myself, “What an amazing opportunity to unite the entire planet because we now have a way to communicate with each other that’s free and accesssible.” Learning how to communicate with each other has been challenging but not impossible. The success and reputation of Cre8asiteforums is one example of how it can be done. I had always believed that what would make the Internet GREAT was to make it work for everybody who chooses to access it. This is not how it played out.

Ammon Johns tells a great story about how rules can fail in Making the web exclusive thru Standards?, A case of manners versus ettiquette?. To launch this thoughtful thread, he writes,

“Are we in danger of using standards as a means of limiting the use of the web to share your thoughts and ideas, instead of using standards as a means to make it easier to access anything from anyone?”

Meanwhile, someone has spotted a beta Microsoft web site design that doesn’t render at all in Firefox. This discussion asks, “But more seriously, is this where the internet is supposed to be heading? Does Microsoft expect everyone to start making websites unusable on purpose?”

Questioning continues with Google Webmaster Guidelines: Do as I say and not as I do?. This discussion points to another giant, Google, and its guidelines. The complaint is that Google is too forgiving of sites that don’t validate properly, even though it insists that webmasters follow web standards if they want their site indexed.

Like I said. Something’s in the air. Internet designers needed some sort of standards as a foundation because we needed something we could all understand and use together.

Each developer is bringing their own set of requirements to the table. They come from all over the world, representing their stake in it. We needed some sort of unifying cord that would allow advancement, development and creativity, yet still enable flawless flows of information and ease of usage for anyone wishing to use an Internet-based creation.

Unfortunatley, some people kept talking over each other. Once the idea of competition enters the picture, or a “mine is better than your’s” consciousness, the result is mutiny. Not that much unlike how humans have run the planet all along.

New Blog on Mobile Browsing

My friend, Barry Welford, has launched a new blog called Stay Go Links - A Public Diary
On The Way To A Patent. It’s focus is on mobile devices and designing for their usage. Barry founded a new forum at Cre8asiteforums called Cross-Browser Device Assessment Panel. From its description:

“The Internet world is getting increasingly complex with different browsers and different devices, from desktops to cellphones, being used. A website that performs well with one browser/device combination may ‘break’ in another. Here you can get feedback from our members on how your website will appear to others.”

This blog is already hot. The quality of content, and inspection into his topic, make this a quick, worthy addition to your blog stockpile.

Another press release on paying people to post in their blogs on different topics showed up today, only this time, there’s a twist to the business model. Now, if you blog for pay, you can donate your earnings to charity.

I decided to take a look, again, at this pay for posting service offered by PayPerPost. Right away, I see they’ll be wanting my social security number when I sign up. No thank you. Before I make a committment, I want to know more about the company, its credibility, its business practices, and I want to try out the system to see if I like it. I’m a “not on the first date” kinda gal.

My gut reaction, so far, to paying for posts has been a big “blech”. It just seems to cheapen the authenticity of a blog post into a marketing toy rather than a genuine post. Trying to find out more information about the company behind PayPerPost is not easy. They have a blog, but no About Us page to explain who they are. Their blog is written from a first person point of view, but I don’t know who that person is.

There is, however, one interesting post in their blog about whether or not to disclose that you’re being paid to post. They state that those who do not admit they were paid $5 to make that post wrote a quality post, whereas those that do admit being paid, provided sloppy work; as if the disclaimer offers an excuse for being lazy.

Explain to me the logic of being paid to be lazy, and how that does any good for your blog?

The fees you can earn per post are not going to make you rich tomorrow. Most run around $2.50 US funds.

They are looking for SEO’s and web designers who have blogs and are willing to let advertisers pay them to write about their products. In fact, it’s SEO/M that’s the driving force behind this pay for post concept. As per their advertiser page, the idea is to get someone to post for you, the post is found by search engines, its picked up by RSS readers, and links to the advertiser, via that post, count as incoming links. In other words, advertisers are paying for links to their sites and you provide the doormat.

I can’t say that being paid to blog about something is so terribly bad. Our favorite athletes wear brand name running shoes and sweat bands, for money. Our favorite actors and actresses are used all the time, by wearing fancy jewelry and promoting certain brands of furniture, clothes, cars, etc. Even haircuts.

So, why can’t bloggers get a piece of the pie?

Personally, (stubbornly) I’m still happy with kind words, links back (You’re welcome, Lisa!), promotional copies of publications, gifts from my wish list and pleasant working partnerships with good companies.

For me, and I’m just saying, but for me, those are worth more than $2.50.

(Disclaimer. I was not paid for this post. However, my thong is by Victoria’s Secret, my hair is by the cute little no appointment hair cuttery shop down the road (and I tipped her well), and my laptop is my fourth computer from Dell.)

Expected to be 30% larger than its first issue, the warmly received search engine marketing print publication, Search Marketing Standard is anticipated to reach homes next month.

Boris Mordkovich and his team have been listening to all feedback. This next issue, according to Mr. Mordkovich, “will be 30% larger than its predecessor and will contain more intermediate to advanced material as our readers have requested.”

If you haven’t subscribed yet, and are interested in the search engine, web design and marketing industries, this magazine has garnered great reviews.

For more information:

The Glossy New Search Marketing Standard

and

Would you subscribe or read a print SEO pub?