There are countless reasons why someone from the search engine marketing industry operates a blog. It can be to share news, promote one’s services, create community, converse with clients and the public or raise awareness of issues.

I seek out positive thinking people and those who, in the face of negativity or peer pressure, continue to do their thing with class and integrity. Their reasons for doing whatever they do are often deeply personal and self fulfilling to them. For example, when an experienced marketer supports talented newcomers, or sometimes an industry leader gets into legal or reputation trouble and despite a harsh judging environment, they continue to work, learn and grow.

By now, in the year 2008, I figure that there are enough experienced web developers, search engine marketers and usability consultants out there who are taking their expertise and putting themselves into places that benefit something besides their business or work. These are the folks who volunteer, take up causes, teach, write books and articles and get involved with local events where their skills are helpful. They’re rarely paid, but money isn’t the point. Helping others is.

An excellent blog piece came out last night, written by Miriam Ellis of Solas Web Design. It’s an example of someone using their company blog to highlight an issue dear to their own heart, raise awareness and for Miriam’s family I think, express profound personal grief over a great injustice.

White Buffalo Inc. To Massacre Last Axis Deer - Shame and Infamy is her heartfelt sharing of a park system intent of killing off an entire species of deer. In an age where protecting animals is so important, it’s impossible to accept that a US park would not find alternatives to problems other than simply killing animals that live in our parks.

As Miriam wrote,

I am sorrowful to report that the last remnant of the Axis deer family will be destroyed during this week of Jan. 28th - Feb. 1st. They will be rounded up and driven into a hole by gunmen piloting helicopters who will then open fire into the hole.

I deeply respect Miriam’s decision to stop her daily routine of work and family to signal the world that something is terribly wrong in her neck of the woods. While her effort may not save the deer, she is helping to bring awareness of a situation that exists and it’s a sad reminder that humans still don’t know how to share this planet in peace.

Cre8asiteforums Discussion - An Example Of What Matters

It’s that time of year when families who own recreational vehicles (RV’s) and camping equipment begin to book their camping trips for the summer. Holiday camping has to be done well in advance. Before the snow has melted in most parts of the USA, families are dreaming of lakes and fishing, hiking, fairs, camping on the beach and nights by the fire, staring at the stars in the night time sky.

The Internet has made searching for and contacting campgrounds easy, with some campgrounds even experimenting with online booking. The Internet experience for web site users wanting to book a campground is similar to booking hotel rooms. Prospective guests are excited and hoping for a pleasant stay. Any information a web site offers to help them make choices and imagine themselves snuggled in sleeping bags increases the likelihood that they’ll call.

Thoughtful Design Pays Off

Online booking applications should work flawlessly. Poorly functioning site search or booking systems lead to web site abandonment. Photos should accurately portray the size of living space and what comes with it. In the case of a campground, that includes pull-through spots, fire pit and picnic table. Guests want to know what the camp store and swimming pool look like and whether or not they’re well maintained and staffed.

Many camp grounds are family run and privately owned. A budget for their web site may not exist. Some campground web sites are little more than print brochures adapted to the web with little understanding that a web site requires a new approach because it’s used differently. Try to invest in someone with experience in web design and travel oriented web sites.

The network of KOA (Kampgrounds of America) campgrounds use the same yellow and black color scheme and share resources such as maps, directories and booking applications. The similarity between KOA camping sites is helpful for KOA members who only book with these campgrounds because they get a discount.

Sadly, some of the worst web sites in the travel industry come from campgrounds. This includes state parks that have camping facilities. However, there are exceptions. Some campground businesses invest heavily in photos of their grounds and some offer videos of events they hold or on-site attractions.

Usability can’t be underestimated for campground web sites because their demographics are quite wide in scope. For example, there are retirees who travel from campground to campground. Some of them have cognitive (memory) issues with varying degrees of severity. Complicated navigation is aggravating when the navigation moves around from page to page or suddenly disappears altogether. Their hands may not be as steady, making some drop down navigation menus difficult for them to use. Eye sight problems for them include requiring reading glasses. If your web page font sizes can’t be increased in their browser, they will be frustrated. If they can increase the font size and your layout changes as a result, they may not be able to use the site.

Will these retired folks be using the Internet? You bet! Many of them stay in touch with their families and grand kids via email and cell phones and use the latest GPS gadgets, Google maps and the latest gizmos in their big rigs such as automatic levelers.

Families who book campgrounds will have interests that may surprise you. Their kids have iPods and video games. Some family members will want to bring their laptop. Most will have cell phones. If you’ve ever looked inside a family motor home of a tech bunch, it’s a mass of dangling cell phone chargers and cables. Campgrounds that offer wireless access, TV cable hookup and electric may want to promote this information on their homepage as a value proposition right away rather than tucking it inside an “Amenities” page.

Campgrounds that put their tent people away from noisier motor home guests may wish to note this on their web site.

To make your campground web site user friendly, try adding the following:

1. Make sure your site shows the area site map, with all the buildings, roads, camp sites, showers, etc. Offer a choice in how to access it online by letting visitors download it as a PDF or printing an image or sketch.
2. For campers who can not see, can’t download PDF’s or have images turned off because they’re on dialup, an audio description of the grounds would be helpful.
3. Be consistent with your colors, page layout and navigation.
4. Put your phone number at the top and bottom of every page and make it large enough to find quickly.
5. Watch your contrasts. Many camping sites have colored backgrounds with colored text, which make them hard to read. Text that’s all in boldface is difficult to read online.
6. Keep your copyright year up to date. Otherwise it may appear as though you’re no longer in business.
7. Communicate anything and everything that’s customer service oriented. Sometimes what you offer is the difference between someone booking your campground or the one nearby.
8. Make it easy for out of towners to make arrangements by posting links and/or phone numbers to car rental offices, vets, pet boarding facilities, beach tourist information such as beach passes, discount retail shops, camping supply stores, service stations that can handle RV’s (must have lifts for them), organic food and health centers.
9. Put testimonials on your camping site from previous guests.
10. Describe a typical day at your campground. This gives site visitors an idea of the environment, which helps them make educated choices.
11. Place all “call to action” prompts in highly visible spots like above the page fold and make them stand out. For example, a button for “Book Here” or “Reserve Now” and underlined embedded links within text that reads, “Stop by our calendar of events.” Avoid animation and blinking text.
12. Promote extra touches like your dog walk area, handicapped accessible camp store, locally made gifts, bait and tackle shop and dumping station on the premises.
13. Offer a way to stay in touch such as an email list or newsletter for regulars. Include coupons for return visitors to use, such as one free child admission or free pile of wood.
14. Place any sales or limited specials on the homepage. While your rates will likely not change much, there may be incentives to offer such as lower gas prices in the area, biodiesel, merchandise specials from the camp store, and fireworks for sale.
15. Display photos of staff and owners, a welcome message from the owners and office hours for reservations. Make sure emergency contact numbers are easy to find for guests who may run into trouble on their way there and need to alert you of any delays in their arrival time.

A user friendly, descriptive, customer experience oriented, persuasive web site will increase camping reservations. They’re a tool that many potential guests rely on, but they may not answer every possible question someone may have.

Once I booked a trip for my family looking for a peaceful weekend getaway and I chose a new campground based on their web site and its ease of use. However, we later learned that this particular campground has speakers set up all around the camping area and the owners made very loud announcements every few hours, starting at 8am in the morning. One day everyone in the campground was scolded for not putting their trash out properly.

There are some things even a web site can’t help us with.

Feeling frisky? Here we go…

Why Jason Calacanis For a Third Time at SES? Because silly. Everyone in the SEO industry deserves to be paddled. And by golly, it’s worth paying for. Kinda like paying to be tied up and tickled to death or hot wax being slowly dribbled onto your chest, just for fun of course.

Even More Advice for Startup CEO’s Rae socks it to Rand and Andy. I’ve never had a good experience with a CEO. In my experience they started out as idealists with good intentions but after a few years became so distanced from their employees, customers and product that they no longer had a clue what was going on in their own companies. I would hate me if I became one.

You know how it takes years to figure some people out, if we ever do? Guess what? We design Internet applications such as shopping carts to be just as mysterious. Why we don’t hide the front door handle inside the Batcave

Making SEO Fun Again meets What if SEO & Search Had Action Figures. Nobody remembered my Wonder Woman costume. Just as well then…

Ah yes. Sad to have not made the finals. Going back to my little corner now. Vote for Lisa. She’s funny. Vote for SEMMY finalists.

Watch what you say around Jared Spool. Personas are NOT a Document is a nice reminder that you can leave a company but your boss will never leave you.

Apparently there were only enough women in the Search Engine Marketing industry to be interviewed for a year, nobody seemed to give a damn about meeting them or someone doesn’t feel Women of the Internet Marketing is worth continuing. But paying $3000 to see Jason Calacanis is. Go figure.

When he says decline, he doesn’t mean decline in a bad way decline. Jakob insists things are only a teeny weeny scary in Usability ROI Declining, But Still Strong

Luckily, current usability ROI is so stupendously big (spend 10% to gain 83%) that it can decrease much more and still be a favorable proposition for business executives. Eventually, of course, we’ll reach the point where further usability investments will have lower ROI than other ways of spending the company’s money. But that point is probably 20 to 30 years into the future.

See no evil. Hear no evil. Speak no evil.

Do no evil.

How People Found My Blog This Week

The following terms introduced my blog to new people this week thanks to the miracles of search.

“usability humor navigation” - Some newfangled usability thing. Giggles when you click it.

“what will life (be) without seo” - expensive; people will write in full sentences

“article of people who had experience in the heaven” - I imagine it’s not unlike Digg. You know… thumbs up. Thumbs down. A lot of swearing if you were in the middle of doing something fun.

“too old to flirt” - I wanna know who thinks that. You’re crazy.

“ms geico” - Not to be confused with Ms. Dewey. Or the lizard is a girl.

“p.s. I love you marketing” - What. You don’t love usability?

“should my husband flirt with my best friend” - That’s a really dumb question and even worse, why are you asking a search engine?

“why a search engine is useful” - Well, for starters, you found me didn’t you?

“how did the house of blues determine its target market” - I wrote about that? When?

“hot sexy women - Now you’re talkin’!

My “Today’s Finds” has fizzled into a “Oh, that looks good, let’s keep that” habit where links get tossed into a pile for later. More and more of my route has been culled back so I’ll have more time for “real work” and family obligations. Not to mention I just get burned out or simply bored so much faster these days. What’s up with that anyway?

On to the haystack…

Women Rock

Out of the blue, Sarah Bird, Esquire, shows up. I love the way she writes about legal Internet stuff.

Diane Vigil is way smarter than me. I’ve never heard of Cross Site Scripting. She has and knows what it means.

Marketing to Women Online: L’Oreal Gets Flashy describes Yvonne’s experience with L’Oreal’s FLASH web site. Never make a woman wait. For anything.

Colleen Jones is my favorite user experience writer. Try, Engagement: Should We Care?

Bitching Betty looked fun for those days when I need to…you know. Vent or something.

Personas are People

Marketing and the use of personas is discussed in Creating Marketing Personas

Personas – as part of a user-centered innovation proces takes it to a deeper place.

Variety Pack

Whatever LukeW writes about forms design is on my “must read” list. Like A Few Form Design Articles.

If you’re a rock star designer…Out of the Frying Pan, into the Fire: Life lessons from consulting to academia, and back again

The more I read interviews with these rock star designers, the more I realize how out of touch with real design problems these people are. Approaching design solely as style and brand simply perpetuates the notion of Design as transparent and shallow, and if these people continue to serve as the mouthpieces for our industry, our industry will continue to simultaneously lose the business-centered respect and credibility it so urgently needs, and to ignore the social and cultural problems it so direly needs to solve.

What M*A*S*H Can Teach You About Blogging. As an old M*A*S*H fan, this piece is fun reading and brings back some sweet memories.

Congratulations to my fellow “live blogger”, Marty - Search Engine Watch Welcomes Great New Blogger

I’ll leave it at this because my 14 year old son has sat down nearby and begun to sing the theme song to “Sponge Bob Square Pants” during intermission from watching a Flyers game.

My house is nuts.

Some time last year I realized my association with the search engine optimization and marketing industry might change because the atmosphere was getting partisan. Bad feelings between leaders were festering and it didn’t take much of a nudge to start a rumble.

The situation isn’t improving and I wonder why. Case in point is a recent bit of flap over an article that went out by someone well respected, which in hindsight was an error in judgment. Apologies have been made but it won’t end there because something has drastically shifted in the industry.

More and more people are unforgiving. There’s no room whatsoever for any slip ups.

I remember a friendlier time.

A few years back someone didn’t make it home from an SEO conference. A website called Threadwatch lit up with members putting out a global hunt for him and offering support for his family. He wasn’t even widely well known, but that made no difference. It ended well and showed that when one of their own is in trouble, the industry rallies.

However, if someone in the industry has an unpopular opinion, or defends something, or otherwise causes negative publicity to their company or self, they may as well be walking around with a scarlet letter branded to them for life.

Hypocrisy abounds. How is it that Rand Fishkin was slaughtered last year and taken to task for writings in his company blog and possible business practices, and yet the industry voted him the “Most Giving SEO”?

Today, I read a comment that he and his company are a “cult”.

Is it really possible to be the most generous person in an industry and be the most despised at the same time? What does this say about the people in the industry? What messages about the search engine marketing industry does this send to companies looking to hire SEO’s?

Marketers must market. This, too, I’ve come to see. You simply will not be noticed for your good deeds unless you talk about them, show them off and bombard everyone with your humble greatness because by tomorrow, no one will remember what you did.

Or is it that nobody really cares? I’ve been trying to figure that one out.

If you make personal sacrifices for the industry, or support it in ways that have nothing to do with promoting your business, this will not be recognized as a valuable contribution. If you provide a living example of ethical, smart problem solving in the face of a threat to your livelihood, this too isn’t acknowledged. Personally, when someone can show proof of their marketing skills in action, this speaks louder than how popular they are.

I can probably get away with writing and sharing my thoughts because I straddle two industries. I originate from the SEO industry however. It’s been far more friendlier and open than the usability industry. But as the months of getting unsolicited “advice” from people about who I should associate with or not went by, I began to suspect that true divisions exist and now recent events show that battle lines are drawn.

I don’t wish to take sides. There are those who leave comments in heated discussions who admit to loving the entertainment value. I don’t. I dislike the hostility. I’m having trouble understanding its purpose and value to the search engine marketing industry as a whole.

Is this where the future of search engine marketing is heading?

And if so, why is that?