I’m too scared to post to my blog today. I’ve been reading other blogs and apparently, there are so many rules for making a good, (but-they-don’t-exist), “A-list” blog, or even a blog worth adding to RSS feeds, that I’m completely frozen in fear. If I make one single mistake here, I risk losing readers.

Sigh. Okay. I’m pretending you all are naked….now, I can continue.

What’s happening here?

There’s a growing backlash against Web 2.0? There’s a rush to rollout automated web sites that regurgitate content from other people’s efforts, with a mix of back-end technology that makes the front-end appear “original”. However, at the same time, a small but growing number of website visitors are retreating in disgust.

Zeldman made some interesting observations in Independent content is the new web app. He writes,

What is the trend? First, big companies (excluding AOL) ignored the web. Then they hired professionals who didn’t understand the web to design their sites and other professionals who didn’t understand the web to create their content. Last year, or maybe two years ago, these companies began hiring smart, experienced web designers who understand usability and web standards. Now they are hiring smart, experienced web content creators. Web 1.0 is the new Web 2.0. Long live Web 3.0.

I wrote about the grumblings in Fed Up With Dumb Search Marketing Tactics and Web 2.0. The discussion that followed is surprising because it hit a nerve.

If one tenth of the scheming done was applied to content creation, the web would be completely different.

I can’t recall ever seeing a pendulum swing back so fast.

You can put on your clothes now.

For years, I imagined Jill Whalen, of High Rankings, crouched over her computer in her sweat pants or pajamas pouring over web page source code to be optimized for search engines. She always struck me as passionate about her craft and certainly, devoted to her newsletter readers every week as she’d patiently answer their questions.

The first time I met her was in a hotel lobby in Boston two years ago, when I came as a guest to experience one of her High Ranking Search Engine Marketing Seminars. She was easily the most relaxed person in the group. I expected I would like her when I’d heard she likes to be in bare feet. I can relate to that. When I saw her the next day, in a suit looking business-like and professional, it was a small shock. This famous SEO is a powerhouse speaker who not only pulls off a two-day seminar every few months, but eats lunch with attendees and makes sure they’re getting their every question answered by either herself, or her team of presenters.

The desire to be with fellow search marketers is what drove her, and her business partner, Pauline Kerbici, to launch SEMNE or the Search Engine Marketing Organization for Individuals and Companies in New England.

I did a taped interview with Jill and Pauline while covering the Chicago Search Engine Strategies conference in December, 2006. We managed to find a quiet place because the press room is usually noisy and hectic. On this day, I sat down and simply invited them to relax and talk. I wanted to learn more about their plans for SEMNE.

What gave them the idea?

It was an idea that started slowly, as if on a whim at first, but based on a desire to, as Pauline said, “network locally.”

“This is something both of us wanted to do,” Jill remembers.

They didn’t have any local connections in Massachusetts. I asked if the intent is to find others in “local search marketing” or “local business in general”. Jill gave this example.

“You know, when you’re here [at a search marketing conference] there’s lots of people to talk to, and when you get home, there isn’t anybody to talk to about it. There are probably a lot of people out there who don’t get to come to these. They can’t afford it, can’t get away, or they’re not in the industry but still want to know about it.”

One day, while Pauline was away on vacation in New Zealand, Jill did some domain research. It didn’t take long to find what she wanted and she locked into SEMNE.org.

(Please continue reading to learn more about this year’s plans for SEMNE, as well as other information from my interview with Jill and Pauline.)

I knew this would happen and I did it anyway. I wrote a blog post yesterday on a specific topic and ruined the piece by adding an additional section at the bottom linked out to other blogs. Because I did that, one reader found it impossible to link to my post.

The funny thing is, I knew that would happen. I knew I would irritate somebody. I’ve used this format before, where I write in “article-speak”, and like a true Gemini, I’ll veer off on another tangent. This is how I am in real life, and my blog reflects that.

I see my blog posts re-posted and re-published all over the place on the Internet. Some have written permission and do the deed with class, like Webpronews. They’re funny too. When they don’t like my blog post titles, they make up their own. It’s still my blog post, but they make it fit their readers. I’m cool with that. Nowadays, it’s a little game for me, to see what they change next. (They didn’t like my belly button title the other day.)

Other blogs just rip me off. They want the content. It’s a shame how many of them don’t link back, but then again, after seeing where my blog post is sitting, I don’t want that inbound link anyway.

There’s an interesting thread at Cre8asiteforums about articles being just spam-fodder. I got the feeling the thread starter sees articles as evil and of no use to us because they are usually not original and often simply re-hashed junk used for search engine purposes.

No matter how often I write in my blog, I never fail to wonder if anyone likes it. I mean, I know some folks do and sometimes I’ll see it mentioned as a favorite by someone I don’t know and I feel very good about that. Like I wish I could give them a hug or something. Most of the time, I wonder who I’m ticking off, because if you take the time to visit here, I want you to enjoy the moment.

Sometimes someone will link to this blog with a comment about how they feel about it. That’s always interesting. However, sometimes what someone says just totally cracks me up because I can’t tell if it’s a compliment or not. For example, Michael Motherwell chooses his favorite blogs in The Only Blogs I Always Read and writes about this one by saying:

“Kim exposes me to stuff I like to know, but don’t otherwise have the need to learn.”

This sounds a lot like something my kids say to me too.

My husband, Eric, has been looking at me funny. He gazes at me all the time and I hate being stared at. Being mean as usual, I make him stop. Last weekend, I realized he’s been looking at me with a strange look in his eyes that I couldn’t intrepret. I’m mean, so last weekend I asked him why he keeps giving me weird looks.

He replied, “Because I’m not sure which Kim is present, so I’m looking harder to see who’s there.”

I laughed, because I don’t know either.

This got me to thinking about target markets and end users.

What Side of the Bed Did Your Customer Get Up On Today?

In marketing and user centered design circles, we often talk about our targeted users and customers. Companies with money to blow will run studies on who their target consumers are, or run focus groups on what people love and hate about their products. The human factors industry studies human-computer behavior. Usability companies try to understand what ticks off end users. Conversions experts look for all the reasons behind failed sales. Search engine marketers dig deep for keywords used by the perfect end user who knows exactly what they’re looking for.

Once all this data is gathered, white papers are written, case studies are published and articles are run that inform us about what our site visitors and product users want, what they like, how they make choices and why. We may think we’re very cool and savvy to have found the holy grail of ROI.

What if your product, service, internet application or website is humming along, primed for the perfect targeted end user and that person is suddenly different?

Perhaps they are emotionally upset. PMS. Menopausal. Facing surgery. Sleepless parents. Overworked wage earners. Out of work. On medication. Depressed. Drunk. Suffers a sudden loss of eyesight or use of their hands. There are a zillion reasons why someone has an “off” day, is feeling emotionally or mentally out of whack or drastically changes in some way. This can last for a day, or longer.

Either way, what they are dealing with, at the moment they are accessing your website, service, product or application, may have an impact on how successful they are at completing a task.

How Would You Know Something Changed?

My husband stares into my soul to try and figure out what’s up, but we don’t have this ability to inquire on the status of our end users and customers.

We’re unable to make instant adjustments, which may be needed for the successful completion of a task, for example.

Have you ever been in a car accident, and needed to call for emergency help with your cell phone? If you are injured or shaken up, holding a tiny phone or speaking into it with trembling hands makes a difference in how it is used in comparison to typical user testing in a calm environment.

Or, what if your customer is a long-time regular, who orders the same products over and over again, but some kind of life changing event occurs and that product no longer applies and they need something else?

Would your server tracking data be able to tell you about all these possible events in user behavior, or would you simply look at the data with a wierd look on your face, like my husband does with me, wondering what the hell is going on?

I got to thinking about this when I read
Shari Thurow Talking Smack about Eye Tracking? Gord Hotchkiss’s company does eye tracking studies. He’s concerned because he thinks Shari Thurow, in a recent article, may feel that eye tracking offers limited information. Taken in one brief, limited chunk, yes it does and he agrees. Gord concludes:

“Shari says we don’t focus on the big picture. Shari, you should know that you can’t see the big picture until you fill in the individual pieces of the puzzle.”

And that got me to thinking about the look of my face.

If an eye tracking study was done on me every day, or at various days in a month or week, would my eyes do something differently?

Would I make different choices, based on where I looked, which is based on how I feel or what my environment is at that moment?

Do we ever really know our target end users?

Elsewhere, Fun and Intriguing

Joe Dolson is Talkin’ about user choices…, and asks, “How might a user react to a radical change in the basic functionality of a site?”. Well, that depends Joe. Are they taking Ambien?

I surrender my crown to Rebecca, in Women of Internet Marketing - Special Edition

The Lisa takes a crack at SEO’s who dream of exploiting people in the name of marketing in Calling It Linkbait Doesn’t Make You Less of a Jerk

FreshEgg offers a peek into how a site audit includes both search engine marketing and usability in Haven Direct - The Start of a Journey

A detailed tutorial on DNS transfer is offered by Ron Carnell in How To Bypass Dns, You don’t have to wait for DNS propagation. (Topic inspired by Diane Vigil)

Silly love notes from children are the topic in David Temple’s 9 short notes kids wrote to their favorite seo. Can I get into trouble for mentioning “pole dancing” to Timmy?

Designing with a specific market in mind? Take them to Starbucks and ask a lot of questions. “Iamlost” writes about such an experience in A (revised) Facebook Campaign, or - the girls made me do it.

“Six young women met me at a Starbucks, four had niche interest, two did not. Within an hour they were texting and calling others. Over several hours a couple dozen women (plus a few tag-along boyfriends) gave me answers to questions unthought and questions to answers I’d thought complete. I am still sending back queries for elaboration and clarification.

They not only totally redesigned my FaceBook strategy but pointed out a second niche site I have worth marketing there. More value received in a few hours with them than the previous several weeks thinking for myself. Note to self: in future a pub would be cheaper.”

Which brings me to ponder…if you do eye tracking studies on users inside a Starbucks, what would the results be like?

I’ve decided that I must be invisible. When surveys and polls are taken, I’m ignored. I can tell because many results don’t represent me. Products I use everyday don’t seem to be made for me to use with ease. You wouldn’t believe how many steps it takes to reset the radio clock in my car.

User testing skips over me. Customer service has their hands covering their ears. In make believe land, everything works and it’s the customer’s fault when it doesn’t.

I had to go to the Dentist today for my regular teeth cleaning. I was due for full X-rays. To do this, they led me into a room about half the size of a bedroom closet. Inside the room is a piece of equipment that runs from the floor to the ceiling. You have to walk around it and fit your head into part of it that resembles a shelf. Then, you put your mouth on a piece that sticks up in front of you, which is supposed to help stablize your head.

It was not designed for tall people. Nor was it designed for large breasted women. I’m 5′8″, and nearly 6′ tall when I wear my favorite clogs, which I did today. To fit me, my Pam Anderson’s, and shoulders into this contraption, I had to drop my shoulders and my dental person had to fiddle with the equipment for several minutes to make it work with a tall person. A section of it rotates around your head and takes pictures. That section almost got stuck on my right shoulder, until I dropped it lower.

Another piece squishes your head to prevent it from moving.

I’ll have nightmares about it tonight.

I told my dental assistant their x-ray machine reminds me of getting a mammogram, only instead of squeezing my breasts into pancakes, this one worked on my head. Is it me, or are all medical equipment designers kinky?

Both pieces of equipment make you hold onto part of it and strap you in somehow so that you can’t escape. Both of them require the technician to say, “Take a deep breath and don’t move.”

Do they test this stuff on people before selling it?

I have a website to review today. It’s a report that requires that I create a user persona. I use the “storytelling” technique, which provides me with a nice way of creating a target user person with certain behavior traits, skill levels, income, marital status, a particular environment and more. I have the most fun when I create a difficult, fussy end user who needs some major convincing before making a purchase or is seeing impaired and has absolutely had it with the tiny font size or “mystery meat” links (no clues that a link is a link or no clue what the link goes to if clicked on.)

These are the end users who may not be considered by designers. It’s not like you can strap people down and force them to complete a task. It sometimes feels like this is what an Internet application tries to do. You’ve seen them. They are the order forms that have so many options and steps that it takes a good hour to complete a task, if you survive that long. You don’t stop once you started because of the fear of losing all the previously entered data or getting lost.

I vote for making mammogram machines user and patient friendly. They managed to re-design MRI machines so that they are less like coffins and quieter. This was after years of feedback from people like me who swore they’d rather jump off a cliff than ever get on one of those things again.

I said that about mammograms, childbirth and buying from Dell’s website too. The funny thing about bad design is that end users sometimes forget the pain of their experience and may return again for more.

For those that won’t, offer them a feedback form, contact email address or customer service phone number.

In the case of childbirth, however, I think we’re stuck with what we have.