My favorite keynote at the Web 2.0 Expo last week was from one of my favorite bloggers -- the Forbes columnist Daniel Lyons, aka "Fake Steve Jobs." It's an amazing story, how a joke turned into an Internet sensation and then a book deal. And the way Lyons tells it, it's uproariously funny. The 25-minute video is embedded below:

As I mentioned above, FSJ started out as a joke. "It came out of two things," Lyons said. "Really it was a stupid prank. I can't believe I'm here giving speeches about this stuff. I really thought I would do it for a couple weeks and then shut it down. But the first factor was boredom. I had this job at Forbes covering enterprise tech -- IBM, Sun, EMC -- I know that sounds like a scintillating, exciting job to deal with those guys all the time, but believe it or not it sometimes gets dull, and I had a lot of free time on my hands and not much to do with it. The other big thing was fear. Basically I saw my business getting disrupted. The funny thing about being a tech writer is we cover all this disruption and we're really fast to tell companies like Sun, "You've got to embrace the destruction of Linux," but suddenly when the cannons are turned at our own business -- at the media business -- we freak out. What will happen to us? I realized that I had to learn about the Internet, I couldn't be in print the rest of my life, and I was too young to retire."

Fake Steve wasn't always in favor of blogs -- in fact, he laments his much-maligned 2005 "attack of the blogs" piece on Forbes.com, but admits that blowback from the article caused him to see the power of blogs and bloggers.

If you're short on time, you can zip ahead to the 7:30 mark in the video, where it starts getting really funny. Lyons covers three primary points about the Fake Steve Jobs blog: why he got into blogging (fear and boredom), why he chose Steve Jobs (he's narcissistic, Apple has bad PR, and Apple fans tend to be so, well, fanatic), and why it works (it's the audience!).

"I think what's happening in media is profound and interesting. This thing [Fake Steve Jobs] is all very wrong, obviously very stupid and primitive, right? But it's a great way to learn about how new media might work. I think the biggest change we're going to have is the involvement of the audience. Where Internet media is going to get interesting is when we start really exploiting the uniqueness in it rather than paving a cowpath. First generation Forbes.com was: take the print magazine and put it online. Hulu was: take TV shows and put them online. But when we start involving the audience, and having people form a group to entertain themselves, I think that's going to get really interesting."

I'm so sick of hearing from PR "professionals" who don't have a clue about how to pitch bloggers. It's obvious they don't even read my blog. This is spam, pure and simple. It's just the next evolution of spam - the progeny of the "reciprocal link request." I used to get those every day before I started blocking unknown senders (i.e. those not in my extensive "white list") using SpamArrest challenge-response. Frustratingly, SpamArrest doesn't keep the PR flaks away, because they respond to the SpamArrest challenge-response test, thus proving they are warm bodies.

Blogger-spamming PR flaks need to understand that bloggers will not respond positively to getting spammed with press releases. Indeed, bloggers love to out them on their blogs. (Any PR is good PR? I don't think so!) So, in that same vein, for your reading pleasure, I include a real example that just arrived in my inbox today (congratulations, Stella Parkes, if that's your real name).

The moral of the story, for those not in the PR industry: Don't ever hire a PR firm that does "blogger relations" like this. Or if you already have a firm doing this on your behalf, fire them.

Dear Stephan
Ive been reading your site and as you write about email marketing I wanted to get in touch to see whether you are interested in receiving relevant news from Epsilon International, the UK arm of the US-based email marketing business?

We aim to send only newsworthy stories for consideration and hope that getting a heads up on research findings or changes to our business will be interesting. If at any time you want us to stop then send me an email and I will remove you from our press list.

Below is a news release about a new senior hire  Jon Maddison  who has joined Epsilon as its first client services director. If this is not relevant then please let me know. In the near future we have some research findings, which may be of interest.

Thanks for your time, I look forward to hearing from you.

Stella Parkes

For Epsilon International

EPSILON INTERNATIONAL STRENGTHENS SERVICE OFFERING WITH APPOINTMENT OF FIRST CLIENT SERVICES DIRECTOR
Jon Maddison hired from Loyalty Management Group to boost senior team
www. epsilon. com/international

Epsilon International, the global arm of the worlds largest email marketing services business, has hired Jon Maddison as its first UK client services director.

[...rest of verbose and pointless press release omitted...]

Stella Parkes
Account manager
Renegade Media Ltd

PR for media and creative businesses

Office: +44 (0)1452 760 147
Mobile: +44 (0)7740 432 112
Email: stella@renegademedia.net

There are a lot of “social media experts” out there screaming that “YOU HAVE TO USE LINKBAIT!!! YOU HAVE TO SUBMIT TO SOCIAL MEDIA SITES!!!” Sure there are definite advantages to doing these things... quick traffic, a few new links, etc but… do you really have to?

I am going to have to say that no, no you do not. I hate to say it, but the overused cliche really does apply: "If you build it (great), they will come." By this, I mean if you really want a large audience of viewers that read, talk about, share with friends and really LOVE your work - you only need to write great content. Great content will be found (and linked to) no matter how you promote it.

Case in point: I was honored to discover last week that this blog has been included in the SEO category of "Alltop" - Guy Kawasaki's new site. I hadn't sought this out, submitted by blog to be included; it happened by itself.

This is easier said than done of course; you actually have to know what you are talking about and, as I have said before, you should have a passion for your writing! That is what makes people read your blog day in and day out. Striving to write better, more informative posts is what will make your blog a success. It's not the one-time traffic surge of StumbleUpon or Digg; it's the writers who day in and day out produce great content that is helpful for their readers.

Here are just a few great blogs where the authors really get that content is what it's all about: SEOMoz, ProBlogger, DoshDosh, WolfHowl. (I subscribe to hundreds of great blogs in my news reader; I wish I could list them all here!)

In my last post, "Write Like You Mean It, I wrote about how important it is to be passionate in your blog writing, if you want to attract and keep readers. I was just reflecting about this, about the blogs that keep me coming back for more. I'd have to say my all-time favorite blogger from a writing perspective is Fake Steve Jobs. Sure, he's not even real. But yet he "keeps it real". Every post is so witty, he just cracks me up. I love his creative use of language, his invented words (e.g. MicroTards, Freetards). The blog provides a little window into Steve Jobs' psyche. Well ok, maybe not, since it's actually being written by a Forbes magazine journo, but still...

Posts of FSJ's like this one are just gold. Luv it!

The best advice I can give anyone who has started - or is thinking about starting - a personal blog is to write about what you love. When you write about what you are passionate about, it will show through in your writing. The entire process of writing will be more enjoyable as well when you are writing about the things you are passionate about; it will not feel like a chore and you will rarely run out of topics.

If you have no passion for what you are writing about, why are you writing at all? Your entries will come across as boring or flat and you will not gain the readership your writing skills deserve. When you write about what you love, it is a lot easier to sound like an expert in your field.

If you are not sure what you are passionate about, take the time to figure it out. You owe it to yourself, and your potential readers, to know and write about what makes you get out of bed in the morning. If your goal is to make money with a blog, write about what you love and the money will follow... You will have more readers and will write better posts. Great content brings traffic/conversions and when you write about something you love it is difficult to write poorly.

No, I'm not talking about me. I've never written for the Huffington Post. I'm talking about my 16-year-old daughter, Chloe Spencer.

Some of you may remember (and are perhaps also sick of! ) me bragging about Chloe's Neopets SEO blogging success and the resulting media attention and her past speaking engagement at BlogHer '07. Well...

First, I'm proud to announce that Chloe's back on the speaking circuit! Later this month she will be speaking at SMX West, on the "Google Generation" panel. (I'm speaking too, on a different session: "Unraveling URLs and Demystifying Domains.") Look for us if you're going to SMX too!

Secondly, Chloe stretched her talents in a different way, by writing a guest blog post on The Huffington Post, published earlier this month. I'm so proud! I'm excited to watch her grow as a writer -- beyond Neopets game cheats and girly quizzes to something more meaningful to her. The opportunity was generously provided to her by Huffington Post columnist Erin Kotecki Vest. Erin also blogs on BlogHer.org. Erin knew of Chloe from BlogHer '07 -- she caught the buzz about "the teen blogger" speaking at the conference. In the post, titled "Who Me, Save the World?" and re-titled by Erin as "COUP! 16-year old Takes Over Huffington Post, Chloe's 800-word piece is about how she wants to make a difference in the world through her dream of becoming a documentary filmmaker, how she is inspired by the likes of Michael Moore, Mark Achbar and Al Gore, etc. Here's a small excerpt...

My main goal is to make our society wake up to reality; what's happening to the world, and what each individual needs to do to help stop it. I'm not perfect though...no one is. But I do recycle, think about what I eat, and buy organic products when I can; the little things that would make a huge impact on our environment if everyone did them.

I confess to not being a regular reader of Huffington Post until very recently. I actually didn't know much about its founder either, Arianna Huffington, until I had the pleasure of hearing her give one of the keynotes at IIR's"THE Conference on Marketing" last week. Arianna was a great speaker and an inspiring lady. Here are a few points Arianna made during her presentation that I jotted down:

• On polling in politics: The dominance of polling is a weakness of our system. Polling is not a good predictive science. Only 25% of people asked actually respond to polls; it's a small minority of bored and lonely Americans who want to talk to strangers. Polling undermines leadership. It's like astrology; not to be taken too seriously: "Pollstrology."
• On creativity: Holding grudges blocks creativity. Also there is certain creativity that we miss if we are sleep deprived. For men, sleep deprivation has stupidly been tied to virility. It's a badge of honor for men to boast that they get only a few hours of sleep per night.
• On "disconnecting": We're paying a heavy price for being always-on, always connected. Practice "Email-free Fridays".

• On double-standards that women face: Here's a gem of a quote:

  "For a man to be called ruthless, he has to be Joe McCarthy. For a woman to be called ruthless, she just has to put someone 'on hold'."

How true that last quote is, unfortunately!
I was surprised to hear that the Huffington Post gets 250,000 comments per month and that they employ comment moderators to work around-the-clock. Wow, quite an operation!

Earlier this year, I had talked about my daughter Chloe and her success with Google ads in this blog post entitled, "SEO is the new first job for teens; flipping burgers is so last century." Well, her success story has made the local news and I am a very proud papa. She's quoted in The Capital Times by saying,

"Most people earn money by babysitting or working at places like McDonalds," said Spencer, 16, who has earned up to $1,000 monthly from her site, Neopets fanatic.com. "I figured if I earned minimum wage I'd have to work 25 to 30 hours a week to make this."

To read the entire article, please visit "Online cash flow McFarland teen makes money off Google ads."

Enjoy, and have a great Thanksgiving! :-)

Tagging isn't just a tool for usability (even though it's typically mostly thought of in those terms), it's also a powerful weapon for search engine optimization. That's because tagging allows you to rejig your internal hierarchical linking structure, flowing the link juice more strategically throughout your site. And because those links are textual and keyword-rich, a tag cloud is far superior in terms of SEO to the traditional graphical navigation bar.
When tagging is applied to a website, such as a blog, it can significantly increase the site's traffic by achieving visibility for a much larger array of search terms.

The above quote is from my recent Search Engine land article entitled, "Effective Tagging For Both Usability & SEO." I go into a lot of details how strategic tagging can help you. Here is a tip about tag clouds that I'd like to share with you:

Tag Clouds: When you tag your blog or website, the items are then put into an organized, keyword catalog. By taking those tags, you can organize them into a "tag cloud," which shows keyword topic popularity by the size and sometimes color of the font. Tag clouds enable you to force a new navigation styles for your site or blog based on keyword popularity, and also help your website look up-to-date with enhanced, Web 2.0 functionality. (For an example of a tag cloud, you can see one at the end of my blog.)

For other, more specific tagging techniques, I hope you visit my article.

Whether you own a small, online shop or a large retail site, you're probably scrambling to get some last-minute things done to gear up for a successful holiday season. In my article at CNet, I go into some great last-minute tips to help you achieve the success you want online. One of the tips I think would be the most useful would be to manage your existing blog content during this busy time. By planning posts in advance for future publishing, you'll not only save yourself some time, but will have the ability to reach out to your customers with great content that doesn't just sound like a sales pitch. If you don't have a blog, take advantage of all the social media networks out there and start reaching out to your customers.

For the full article, you can find it on my CNet: Searchlight blog. Hope you have a successful holiday season!

We all know that blogging can be a powerful tool for many reasons, and here's another one to add to the list. Blog posts that praise a company's excellent customer service, or denounce them for being horrid, can rank so well in the SERPs it falls right beneath a company's website.

One story that comes to mind is Zappos, an online retailer of shoes, high heels, and handbags. One of their customers wasn't able to return a pair of shoes due to the death of her mother. Not only did Zappos "break policy" by accepting the shoes, they arranged for pick-up and delivered a large bouquet of flowers. I Heart Zappos is a great post about this heart-warming story. There are other not-so-great examples as well, like a post entitled "Do Not Fly Spirit Airlines" currently ranked "3" beneath Spirit Airline's brand name.

For more on this topic, you can read my full article here.