andydidyk.com

Bear with me, this site will likey be taken down sporadically as I try to implement some new security features.  I haven’t found conclusive proof that I’ve been hacked, but Google Webmaster Tools is reporting some major spam keywords in my keywords report (that aren’t being caught by other keyword analysis).  Words such as the names for major drugs, porn, software piracy, etc.

For the record, this really isn’t fun.  I’ve had to take over two months off of writing regularly just to try and fix all of this stuff in my spare time.  On the other hand, I’ve learned a ton about internet security and the importance of taking some basic precautions when running an open sourced CMS, such as Wordpress. I’ve also learned quite a bit about the down-and-dirty world of Search Engine Optimization (something n-tara interactive has lots of experts on but until recently I was but a mere novice in understanding).

Special thanks to Nick Rice, who is always one step ahead of me.  I’ll try his suggestions on a couple of Wordpress plugins (Ask Apache and Peter’s Custom Anti-Spam) and manually checking my HTML source code, and I’ll report back soon.

In spite of some of my previous criticisms of Facebook, I have finally taken the plunge and signed up for a Facebook page.  At first, it was simply a practical tactic to try and maintain some traffic to site during my difficulties with Google, but I’ve since continued to use it and update it to finally see what exactly my peers had said I was missing out on.  A couple of initial observations:

1.  It’s fun to get friend invitations from both your current cadre of friends and from people you haven’t spoken to in years.

2.  99% of the communication I’ve received thus far has, in fact, confirmed my initial assertions about Facebook: fun, but not much more than interesting entertainment for now.

3.  I can absolutely understand the immense economic value of marketing on a network like Facebook.  The opportunity to use the data contained within posts, status updates, associtions, groups, etc., is like having the largest and most detailed marketing database available.  Oh, and did I mention that the majority of Facebook users fall within the most desirable demographic in terms of discretionary income?

4.  Every interactive agency should have a Facebook and Myspace strategy for their clients if their target audience’s demographics (and attitudes!) fall within the required parameters.

5.  Within a few days of joining, my Facebook page rocketed up to the #1 search result in Google for my name.  In addtion to the day-to-day banter being fun, it’s also another great way for potential clients to find me (although I wish this site would get re-indexed by Google a little faster).

I know these observations are probably pretty obvious to anyone who has already joined, but for professional folks who don’t find a lot of value in it at first, I can say it’s probably worth setting a page up and seeing what happens.

Well, I’m writing this blog while sitting at a Starbucks (fortunately, it hasn’t been closed yet and isn’t slated to be).  It’s a great place to write, but I couldn’t help but chuckle at how cliche it is to be blogging at Starbucks.

As an update, it turns out that my blog was, in fact, dropped from Google.  It hasn’t yet been reinstated, despite repeated attempts to contact Google and the filing of a formal complaint.  A good friend and former co-worker, Peter Cook, did a little digging for me and discovered that I was a victim of a “splog,” or a “spam blog,” that basically installed a Wordpress plugin that scours the web for recent blog posts with certain keywords and then downloads the post and automatically posts it on the splog.

Because this guy, who for ethical purposes will remain nameless as will his URL, was doing this with thousands of advertising and marketing blog posts per day, his traffic went through the roof, and it made it seem as if every blog from whom he stole content (because of my more modest traffic rankings) was stealing it from the splog!  Google’s algorithms know no mercy, and thus it looked like I was the thief from the more “established” site and that I was duplicating his content.  Not fun.  Or cool at all.

I’ve learned a lot from this experience, and I want to share some excellent resources with all of you in case you find yourself a victim of a splog, or of anyone who steals your content.  I want to give credit where credit is due, because without this specific online resource, I would have been lost.

If you suspect that someone has stolen your content, go to Lorelle’s blog on Wordpress.  It’s the most comprehensive, one-step-at-a-time approach to dealing with content theft I was able to find.  The cut-and-paste letters and forms really helped me as I escalated steps in order to get my content removed.

I’m still not entirely sure why I don’t have any post content showing up in Google, but I’m going to keep posting, do some reading on SEO for blogs, and hopefully everything will work itself out.

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UPDATE: one or two of my blog posts have started resurfacing on Google, but I haven’t received a notice from them as to why.  I guess that’s pretty good though.  The really good news is that the splog has been vanquished!  The deceitful practice has been replaced with a simple site stating that the domain is for sale.  Ahh, vindication.

UPDATE AGAIN: Also, the guy posted my emails to him on his blog stating that it was a “one sided conversation” accusing him of content theft.  Lovely, eh?  He stole it, whether intentionally or through a plugin, and I’m glad he took it down.   And someone else bought the URL, so at least I don’t have to worry about that guy anymore.

Time to ask for some advice…

Starting last month, I have suddenly gone from about 35%-40% of the traffic to this site coming from search engines to almost zero.  A complete flat-line starting in early May.

I’ve used Webmaster Tools to diagnose things, and everything appears to be running fine.  I’ve submitted my XML sitemap, recently (within the past 3 days) simplified my permalink structure to be more search engine friendly, and disabled the “All in One SEO Pack” for wordpress in case Google thought I was spamming them.  I know that updating my permalink structure after being online for well over a year was a bit silly, but I don’t have a good deal of links that are to specific posts at this point; most of my referrals are right to andydidyk.com, so it shouldn’t affect but a handful of old links.

I’ve also done some basic keyword analysis and my site doesn’t show up in Google search results at all, even when typing in “Andy Didyk”, which some of you readers may recall was on of my reasons for starting this site.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!  And thanks to everyone who keeps accessing the site directly; I’ll get this issue fixed soon and let you know when I figure out a cause.

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May 22nd has been a deadline that has been staring me in the face for the last 7 weeks, starting with the signing of a proposal I wrote. Today is the launch of the “reskinned” HunterFan.com. It has been an ambitious journey, reskinning an entire site, plus completely designing and building 3 micro-sites for the same customer, all in less than 2 months! I’m proud of the work our excellent creative team has done, and I truly get fulfilled watching a project go from conception to completion. It was also cool to witness some hardcore legerdemain (YES! I used that word in real life!) by our programming staff to resolve server-side issues I won’t even pretend to comprehend.

The new homepage is much, much cleaner than the old version, and it has a variety of ways that a customer can navigate to the same information. As you can see, our client is really making a move to embrace the new green color, which I think works very well on the live site.

All we had time to do in this phase is redesign the homepage, add a few features, and add a new look and feel to the interior pages - still a huge improvement over the previous site. Of course, now comes the real work: Phase 2. Phase 2 will bring this site up to a new standard. Stay tuned!

According to a recent Prospectiv survey and Brandweek article, 56% of survey respondents stated that their social networking experience would be better if they were served ads targeted to their interests, and 62% said they would be interested in offers from their “preferred brands”.

While research is certainly important to our business, I’m not quite sure why anyone had any doubts about this issue. Ask anyone involved in sales at any level, and they’ll tell you: it’s much easier to sell to someone you’ve already sold to then to try to sell to someone new.

“But what about getting new prospects?” one may ask. Surely there is some value in the scattered, “shotgun” approach to buying online media, but it is much more valuable to create brand evangelists that are absolutely in love with your product or service. They’ll do the best job of creating new customers for you.

Someone on LinkedIn asked the question, “What are the top 5 things you are thinking about in eMarketing? I responded to her, and I thought I’d share with you the top 5 things on my mind:

1. Valuation of Social Media users - how can you determine their worth to an organization?
2. Engagement - how can you ensure online audiences are genuinely engaged with the brand, both on- and offline?
3. Analytics - eMarketing is unique in that with the proper analytics one can easily measure true ROI on a campaign, rather than nebulous “impressions”
4. Permission-based mobile marketing - mobile marketing is great, but without gaining the permission of the users, it’s just expensive spam and an ineffective marketing tool.
5. Convergence - no, not the buzzword of the late 1990’s, but the idea that people’s lives and technology are becoming increasingly inseparable and in some cases, wholly integrated. A marketer can take advantage of this by facilitating conversations and interactions the user is already interested in.

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“Show me that smile…” I know that is the song that anyone born before 1980 undoubtedly had playing in their heads when they read the title of this post. Although I’d love to have some witty commentary on one of the legendary episodes from the early 80’s sitcom, I’m afraid that my title is alluding to something much less nostalgic (and notably lacking Kirk Cameron or Tracy Gold).

The agency I work for, now named n-tara Interactive, is growing by leaps and bounds. It’s very exciting to be working in an environment that is aggressively growing, because you always end up with something new to do, and limits are often tested. Our marketing department is working like crazy to crank out our new ID set and other materials, but the new logo and materials are just a small part of how our agency is growing. We’re adding more people, capabilities, and expertise, and running out of room in our building.

Where that affects me is that we’re obviously adding more clients with bigger budgets and more strategic objectives. It’s certainly kept me hopping and my blogging activity to a minimum, which in turn does not represent very well what I’m actually learning and experiencing on a daily basis. New trends in analytics, guided-selling, and the value of social media are all at the top of my mind, as well as the old favorites of agency project management and the proper way to manage client expectations (one in the same, to some degree). It’s become comical to me how much being a successful agency involves balancing bleeding-edge creative and technology with the basic principles of listening, managing expectations, doing your homework, and respecting those you work with.

So, have you ever worked on a project that you regretted?   I’ll bet at least someone at the agency responsible for this campaign has.

Fortunately, I’ve been privileged to only work at agencies that had reasonable scruples about promoting clients that are damaging to the environment or to the human populace in general.  While I wouldn’t consider myself super-conservative or anything, there are definitely certain products and/or services that I’m happy to not be promoting.

Last minute changes, client “re-orgs”, agency reviews, new management, etc., it all happens to everyone involved in an agency on a regular basis. Those headaches, major as they are, will never go away. I think every creative person has spent immeasurable hours complaining about how non-ideal most situations are for developing great creative concepts. But that’s why I love this new phrase, which has been making its rounds throughout boardrooms and conference rooms all across America:

“It is what it is”

Loosely translated, it means “look, you creative and/or overly concerned person, I/you can’t change certain aspects about our situation - let’s focus on a solution rather than on the problem”. In the past few months, I’ve made quite a few comments on the business speak and buzzwords of our industry. Indeed, if you Google “marketing buzzwords” you’ll come up with hundreds of thousands of websites dedicated to tracking the somewhat ridiculous sayings that we creative people make up in order to add some spice to our everyday conversations. n-tara even made our holiday video from last year satirizing marketing-speak by parodying a 1970’s infomercial.

Generally speaking (pun, pathetically, intended), I have little use for most of this jargon, although I certainly am guilty of using it in a pinch with clients. One phrase, however, has been slowly gathering steam in our industry and I find it to be actually useful. It is what it is. Got difficulties? Get over them. Change what you can change, otherwise focus on creating a solution and getting the job done.

And because I like you folks, that motivational seminar is on the house.