Yeah, seriously.

What brought this up

I’ve been doing, inadvertently, a lot of thinking and reading about search engine optimization (SEO) lately. For the company I’m contracted with, we’re trying to come up with a solid strategy to rank better in our industry, get more online attention, and attract sales leads. For a couple of my clients, I’m trying to implement some simple changes and add information to get them as visible as possible. For my blog, I’m always looking for ways to help my ranking.

Working for other people and helping them build an online presence is a whole hell of a lot easier than doing one for myself. I can help someone easily summarize what they do, help them pick keywords, and put them all in the right places. For myself, however, when trying to pick a niche, I find myself in these very existential moods. I’m picking 8 words or phrases too some up everything I can do for people. Wait, I have to sum up my professional interests in 8 words?! How?

Keywords… those effing keywords

The problem isn’t finding things to write, thinking of relevant tweets, titling my blog posts, filtering what I want to write about versus what I should write about, the problem is picking keywords.

To rank well in a search engine, you have to write content targeted at a certain audience of people. Think about who you want to sell to and get to work, right? Wrong.

First, you have to summarize the things that people are going to search to find you. In other words, what headings do you want to be found under? This isn’t too hard, I did it and came up with 50 things. We already have a problem.

Now, put those things in a keyword generator like Google’s and see what else comes up. Not only will you add 50 more words that never occurred to you in the first place, you’ll find that the words that were the most interesting to you are the hardest words to rank for. Not only that, once you start picking words that you have a chance in hell of ranking with, you find yourself limited and a bit off-center from what you actually do or want to do.

I want to do it all and I want to do it from right here

So what do you do? No really.

I do a lot of different things... some of them don't even involve a computer

Searching for keywords for something as important and, dare I say, intimate as your freelance work (or writing or anything) puts you in this terrible position between passion and pragmatism. I want to write about art and science and the internet and web design and email and writing. I also, however, want my writing to help me reach people that need what I have to offer.

Part of my problem, in a business sense, is that I don’t have a well-formed “elevator pitch” for what I do. The value proposition (I hate that phrase but it’s relevant), the text at the top of this pitch, is about as close as I get. I help people build a web presence for their business or their own personal endeavors. That’s cool, sums it all up, right?

But I also help people with writing projects, advertisement design, document layout, and self publishing. I alter photos, help people write resumes, layout print ads, teach HTML and CSS, customize email templates. I teach people about social media (what little I know), explain technology concepts to friends and family, and fix computers. I set up printers, cure slow-running computers, and answer questions. I do it all, Josh Can Help, dammit.

Good for you. Now prioritize

That’s the key, prioritization.

First, I’m going to need to think about the work that I want. The most important reason I have a website/blog is to build a reputation, display my work, and get more clients. If I was guaranteed not to get any clients or feedback from my website, it would look worse, be updated far less often, include a lot more boring personal junk, and have less people who read it. Already, I’m making a pragmatic choice by centering it around my professional life.

I want to work with people to build or repair their website. I want to help them make it as visible as possible to all the major search engines. I want to show them what else is out there that can build a more robust presence (social networks and media, blogs to read, online resources that are valuable). I want to explore advanced web development stuff like PHP development and Javascript coding on my own time, implementing interesting functionality for people who never thought they could have one of “those websites.”

The people I want to help are small businesses and individuals. I love helping people in the art world because it keeps the right half of my brain active. I also, however, really want to get into the industry that I’m going to school for, chemistry. I want to help small technology companies do great things with the web and reach more people. I would love to work for a green technology company, either as an employee or a consultant.

Endgame

Off into the sunset...

In the end, I want all of this to lead to something amazing, something massively fulfilling, something that I can be proud of. I want to look back at a long list of people and companies and know that I did something great for them. I want to write a book, I want to help people do what they want to do, I want to make things easier for people, I want to work on a broad spectrum of things for a broad spectrum of people.

I want to bring people together, help them work better on things they are passionate about. I want to help people concentrate on what they’re doing because they want so bad for it to work. I want my name on something. I want to be accountable for something.

I want to work with a team of people that can’t be stopped. I want to work long, long hours, not because I’m forced to do so but because I can’t help myself. I want to collapse into bed with a smile on my face, mind racing, a million more things to do tomorrow.

I want to help you because I can help and I want to help. What’s the keyword for that?

Yesterday, I wrote about the 3rd step in the Josh Can Help resume process, writing personal statements. Check it out!

Step 4: Put it all together (rough draft)

Writing Tools by this is your brain on lithium on flickr

Now, we’re going to take those personal statements, skill lists, and positions, and start building the different resumes. Don’t worry too much about formatting right now, just build the information (baby steps).

Create a new document for each resume and paste the completed personal statement at the top. Next, give your skills list a heading and copy and paste each relevant skill from the major list. Don’t be too concerned about the length or how specific/general you’re being. Writing a resume is better as an iterative process (step by step, doing and correcting). What you want to concentrate on is relevancy to the position you’re going after. The more targeted your resume is, the better you’re going to look.

Now, list your positions from newest to oldest, grouped by company. Under each of the positions, paste the experience that is relevant (see a pattern with that word?). If you think it qualifies you, put it down. If you think it doesn’t really relate, leave it out. For now, do these as bullet points and you can convert it to a paragraph later.

By the end, you should have a “completed” resume: statement, skills, and experience. The quote marks around completed means that you aren’t actually complete but this is  the meat of the task. You still need to list relevant education, awards, certifications, and experience. These can be all together in one section or separated depending on what you’re going for.

• Are you a medicinal chemist going for a senior scientist position? You’ll want a section for education (very important in the chemical industry) and another section for publications (also important).
• Are you a furniture maker going for a lead construction position? You’ll want to include any awards, mentions, published work, and education, possibly in one general section.
• Are you an experienced manager going for a VP position? List your education prominently if it relates to the industry but make sure your great ability with people shines through (soccer coach for your kids? Volunteer somewhere?).

This “misc” section really depends on what you’ve done and what you’re looking to do. Remember that you want to highlight the most important things kin your past based on the job. For some jobs, your education is paramount. For others, it’s your knowledge. For others, it might be your unpaid work. Think about what makes you unique, what makes you stand out, what gives you an edge, and lean into that.

Check out yesterday’s post, the second step towards writing a great resume, listing all of your experience.

Step 3:  Write a personal statement for each of the resumes you need to create.

write by the trial on fickr

This is the worst part of writing a resume (well, next to the cover letter). Some people will tell you that these are unnecessary and I rarely see a company that requires one but better safe than sorry. Also, it’s a good exercise and won’t look BAD on there.

A personal statement, also known as an objective, is, in your own words, why the job you’re trying to get is good for you. It’s really the only time during the resume process that you get to be selfish. Why, in your grand plan, in your overall scheme, does this job help you? Why are you applying? Why do you care whether you get it or not?

What you DON’T want to do is to make this one of “those” statements. You know what I mean, the two-sentence mush-fests that, at the end, say nothing about you except that you read 20 personal statement examples on the internet and “came up with your own.” There’s no need to say that you’re looking to “develop professionally” or “improve your career skills” or “practice your expertise.” If you say something in your personal statement, ask yourself “does everyone else in the world want this as well?” If so, what you said is painfully obvious and should probably be trashed.

Examples of what you might want to say:

• …that you want to work with people because you’re an extrovert and like to connect, hence applying to be an outside sales rep.
• …that you love children and try to spend as much time with them as possible, hence applying to be a neo-natal nurse.
• …that you get a kick out of writing creative code and want to learn from people who do the same, hence applying to be a software engineer at a start-up.

Write the statement for the job you want and tell the interviewer why you want that job. Be honest, let your personality come out, and keep your mind open. When you’re done with this step, you should have one personal statement for each resume in a “final draft” form.

Oh, and if you’re finding it impossible to write a personal statement for the job you’re applying for, maybe you should re-think applying for that job.

Read the first step towards writing a great resume, write down the positions you want

Step 2: Write down all of the jobs you’ve ever had (within reason) and brain dump everything that happened for each one.

Ready for class...

Yikes! Are you ready for this one?

Start with the company you worked for, then list all of the positions you had for that company. If you’re 40 and you worked at McDonalds when you with 18, this probably isn’t too relevant… unless you were a manager after a year and worked there for 3 years. Longevity means something in this age of indecision!

With this list of positions, write down EVERYTHING you did in that position…

• What were you responsible to do?
• What teams did you interact with?
• What goals did you reach?
• How did you help that group?
• What did you do in the morning? On Mondays? Every October?
• Did you write reports?
• Did you close the place down?
• Did you work closely with the CEO?
• Were you critical to sales?
• What did you do 8 hours a day?

Don’t worry if you’ve got a few (or several or many) pages of information; we’ll cut the fat later.

What you want is an information bank that you can use now and forever. The more you write down, the more you will remember and the more you have to pick from when it’s time to pick out content for the resume. This is something you should save, backup, and keep indefinitely. 5 years from now when you’re applying for a different position or a promotion, you will have a bank of experience to draw from. I wish I had done this years ago.

After you’ve gotten down all the experience you’ve earned over the years, it’s time to parlay that into an overall skill list. Skills, aka Qualifications (much more business-y word), are things you are capable doing right now. There are two general groups of skills: “hard” and “soft.” Hard skills are the ability to use Quark or Adobe products or code PHP. Hard skills are easy to qualify and easy to demonstrate. Soft skills include things like customer service, teaching, able to be a team player. Hard skills are easy to list but soft skills are tricky. Think about situations that you are comfortable in that other people are not. Think about what you can handle well that otehrs can’t. Think of ways to differentiate yourself. Being patient and skilled enough to teach people on a regular basis is a skill. Being very organized and dependable is a skill. Communicating well, both verbally and otherwise, is a skill. Don’t forget about the soft stuff.

While you‘re thinking about positions and companies, get the addresses, names, and numbers of the companies for which you worked. You might not be able to track down your former boss but find a way to verify your employment at that organization. The person that is managing your hire will also, inevitably, want to see when you worked for each of these places. Make sure you include month and year to be specific. If you’re off by one or two, that’s fine but if you said you worked form 2006 to 2007, that could be almost two years or just a couple months; make the distinction.

Come back tomorrow and read the third step in Josh’s resume writing process!

why, it’s my Amazon Affiliates widget!

Introduction

There are two companies online that I like a lot (love?) and will always patronize (as long as they stick to their formula); Amazon.com and Newegg.com. Put simply, the prices are great, I’ve never had an issue, what I order shows up fast, and, when I need it, the customer service is great (Newegg’s service is off-the-charts great). As such, I also give them respect on here and by word-of-mouth.

Someone clued me into the whole Amazon Affiliates program where you advertise books you like from Amazon on your site. Since I wanted SOME kind of monetization and I like to show my support for things I really like, it seemed like the perfect combination. I think, however, it requires a bit of explanation so you don’t think that those are just random books. I actually picked them out and read them myself and now I think you should do the same.

I’m a newbie so what’s in it for me?

So, let’s say you’re a bit web savvy and let’s say you’ve got a lot to say so let’s say you start yourself a little blog. You start off slowly, write a few posts, get some momentum and now you want to see what you can do about raking in the dough.You get to researching blog advertisements and, BAM, too much information.

I don’t think you can go wrong with the Amazon widget, to be honest. Pick books that match your content, pick books you support and why wouldn’t people click on the links? I think it’s honest, it’s up-front, you can support something you agree with, and their widgets look great.

I’ll report back when I’ve retired off of the revenue and tell you how to do the same.

So what’s so great about those books?

In the spirit of being honest, I thought I might put a little review on here of each to prove that I ACTUALLY own these books and ACTUALLY read them (well, you don’t so much read a CSS guide or an Illustrator book.. I did read the XHTML one though). Here’s why I like them (I’m posting these on Amazon as well)…

The Elements of Style (Illustrated) by Strunk, White, and Kalman

I wish I could remember who originally recommended the original Strunk & White Elements of Style to me. If I could remember, I would find them and hug them unabashedly.

If you’re writing ANYTHING and care AT ALL about how it turns out then do yourself a favor and pick this one up. The organization is very strange (there isn’t any to speak of) and the writing style is very direct. The result is a no-nonsense book that teaches you to cut the crap out of your writing.

There are many, many valuable lessons contained in Strunk’s short and useful guide but the best ones, for me, are the ones regarding comma usage and his favorite command, “Omit needless words.” During everything I’ve ever written since reading this book I’ve heard a disembodied voice telling me to remove words. I’ve noticed while editing other people’s work that the piece can be improved dramatically by deleting all the words that say nothing.

It’s a quick read but a necessary one for anyone doing any kind of writing.

Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

As with “Elements…,” I’m not sure how I heard about this book. It was one of those odd series of events that ends with something in your mailbox. I read a few quick things about it online and suddenly decided that I must read the book. I’m glad I did because this was one of the most enjoyable books I’ve read in a long time.

Anne has a casual but polished writing style that you can’t help but to get lost in. She writes like a close friend speaks to you, eschewing ego and pretentiousness to deliver her simple, personal message. It started out a  bit slow but the stories she told were very entertaining. By the time I reached the middle of the book, I was totally hooked and found the last half hilarious and very informative.

This book is, in the end, a guide on how to be a writer, not a guide on how to write. What I mean by that is you won’t really develop your style or improve your sentence structure by reading this book. What you will do, however, is come to terms with a lot of the obstacles facing writers at every stage of their careers. Her humor and her honesty makes you feel really good about contributing, failing, hating yourself, and moving on.

Though I would definitely recommend this book to anyone writing their own book, I would recommend it even more to anyone living in this world and doing the best that they can. She talks a lot about failing and self-hatred and giving up and charging through. I found myself particularly centered after reading about her embarrassing reactions and consequent success over jealousy and writer’s block. I learned more about my life and myself than I did about writing. I don’t necessarily consider myself a writer but I explore my creativity in different ways and this book really speaks to all of them.

Pick this book up, read it, and feel better about just being yourself.

Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind by Al Ries and Jack Trout.

Finally, a book with a history I can share.

This book was given to me by my dad, the king of business books and the fastest, most prolific reader I know. This guy blows through almost 1,000 pages a month on top of all the magazines, newspapers, and online sources he devours. Though our reading tastes aren’t completely aligned, when he recommends a book, I typically read it (or at least add it to The List in earnest).

This is the kind of book I don’t read. Though I find the advertising industry slightly interesting, I mostly hate it and wish it would go away (despite having a hand in it). This book, however, really cuts through the crap and explains positioning and branding in a way I’ve never heard before. In terms of marketing and branding, I pretty much live by the concepts in this book. Oh, and it’s about 30 years old. That’s how good this book is.

The  book shows you what successful companies have done to become that way and what other successful companies have done to screw it all up. With tons of examples and a very straight-forward writing style, this book will explain why certain products win and why others fail.

I read this book quickly and moved onto others by the same authors. They really know their stuff.

The Noonday Demon by Andrew Solomon

This is the best book I’ve ever read and likely will ever read. Period.

I have suffered off and on from depression throughout my life and this book, the first and only book I’ve ever read on the subject, did so much for my understanding about the condition. I’ve really never read a book that explained what I think and feel better than this.

First off, Andrew Solomon is an excellent writer. He gets a bit verbose at times but I found each sentence, regardless of it’s complexity, an adventure in and of itself. He paints such an incredible picture of the feelings and thoughts that accompany depression. Like anyone able to describe depression, Andrew has been through it and reading what he’s suffered from made me realize how lucky I have been with my own depression. Andrew has seen hell, been through hell, and came out enlightened.

Strangely, I always find this book difficult to describe adequately. His words were just so well chosen and the research so personal and interesting, I feel like it’s a book that needs to be experienced to be understood fully.

If you suffer from depression, clinical or occasional or undiagnosed or anything, I completely recommend reading this book from cover to cover. If you know someone who suffers from this condition and are struggling to understand what they’re going through, this book will go a long way towards helping you see what they see. I’ve really never had a book that explained something as well as this.

The Non-Designers Design & Type Books by Robin Williams

I wanted to write a quick blurb about this little book that has gone a long way towards teaching me proper design.

I’ve been dabbling seriously in graphic design for about a year now and find it one of the most frustrating things I’ve ever done and also one of the most satisfying. It’s very subjective, hard to describe, very time consuming, very sensitive, and totally maddening. When it works, it really works but when it doesn’t work, it shows you the highest level of frustration possible.

Robin explains all the basics very well which puts you in a position to begin to experiment. If you just stick yourself in front of Photoshop and try to bang out a business card or a menu or a technical document (which you really wouldn’t do in Photoshop), it’s probably not going to work out well unless you’ve had some experience. If, however, you read this little guide and try it, you’re going to have a few more ideas and at least understand the contrainst you’re working with in terms of color, alignment, etc.

This book is great for people without any experience in design who want to improve the way their documents, webpages, application screens, and printed material looks. You’re not going to win any contests with this knowledge (and neither are her examples) but what you produce will immediately look better. The writing style is a bit goofy but I use what I learned every day in everything I produce from graffiti to webpages to technical documents to resumes.

CSS: The Definitive Guide by Eric Meyer

A solid plot, well-formed characters, and an intriguing writing style make this… wait, what?

This is a boring, very useful book. I’ve read a lot about CSS on the web and nothing came close to the  explanation in this book. Instead of saying things like “we won’t bother you with the complex way this is calculated,” Meyer bothers you with the complexity. Each property I read made me really understand how it works and how it should be used.

I’ve been reading this bad-boy from cover to cover and I think I’m doing myself a bit of a disservice. I think I’m going to skip to the positioning section (everyone could use a better understanding of this mysterious and magical world), read that, maybe read a few other things I’m interested in mastering and then leave it as a reference. It makes a lot more sense to read the properties you don’t understand than trying to get through it all.

Learn (x)HTML and CSS online, then buy this book is you’re serious about getting into web page design.

Visual Quickstart Guide to HTML, XHTML, & CSS by Elizabeth Castro

I think I bought this book a bit late in my web design learning process but I still find a lot of use out of it. I use it as my general reference book and I’m constantly in the appendix and the chapter about forms.

Though I would recommend this book to people because I found it useful, I think there might be better books on the subject. I say this because it does not go into the level of detail you really need to master HTML. It does a great job explaining what it does but there are quite a few things left out or breezed over to keep the book and appropriate size. Also, combining HTML and CSS in the same book is probably a bad idea. The CSS book I reviewed above is bigger than this book and, ostensibly, covers 1/3 of the material.

If you want to learn enough about HTML to get by creating simple web pages or fixing your own, this is a great book for you. If, however, you want to really understand HTML and get into web development, I would suggest finding a book with a bit more content (probably something from O’Reilly [publishers of the CSS book above]).

I had an interesting conversation with a colleague recently about what constitutes spam email and how we could go about avoiding it. It’s safe to say that we had differing opinions about the matter and I think it’s worth talking about those differences.

Spam is…

What is spam? My personal definition of email spam is this:

Unrequested crap in my inbox that wants my attention and has the intention of taking my money or time.

Spam is unrequested crap. Spam is an email that I receive because I signed up for a different list. Spam is email I can’t seem to stop that wants me to buy something. Spam is when organizations and charities and movements think they can make me passionate about an issue by constantly reminding me about it (see: Obama campaign and wildlife organizations). Spam is email I get that I don’t want, even if I’m aligned with the company or peolpe that are sending it.

That’s spam in my mind but there’s a similar definition that fights for mind space and clouds the issue.

Spam is illegal.

Because of the well-meaning CAN-SPAM Act, spam is typically defined as illegal emails. Spam, according to the Act, uses “false or misleading header information,” contains “deceptive subject lines,” does not ” give recipients an opt-out method,” is not “identified as an advertisement,” and/or does not “include the sender’s valid physical postal address.” This means that companies are free and clear to send me as much email as they want as long as I know it’s an ad, I can trace it back to them, and I didn’t tell them explicitly to stop. That’s a start.

What the CAN-SPAM act does in theory is reduce the number of “well-meaning” commercial organizations sending out marketing emails. I’m sure this act reduced the email in my inbox which is very kind but not exactly what I’m getting at. What about companies that follow the rules but still irritate me and make me want to avoid what they’re selling? They won’t get in trouble but aren’t they going to lose a customer?

What about everything else that makes spam annoying?

Spam is unrequested.

The disagreement I had revolved around what constitutes responsible emailing. My colleague is of the mindset that as long as we aren’t breaking the rules, risking litigation, or getting swear word replies, we’re doing the right thing. There’s no “No Email” list out there like the Federal “No Call” list right?

My point is that if you intend to send emails to people you think might want to buy your product, you should be making sure that you’re sending them out in the right way lest you get a hold of people like me who really hate getting emails they didn’t ask for. If there’s nothing telling you not to do something, is it always ok to still do it? It’s not illegal for me to give you the finger on the I-5 when you cut me off so does that means it’s always the right reaction?

Spamming lists of people does not constitute good marketing.

I asked a Christian that I respect very much a question about her faith one time. She said that people who do not believe Jesus died for them will, unfortunately go to hell. I asked her, what about people who have never heard of Jesus before they die? What about newborns? What about agnostics in Muslim countries? Or eskimos? She said that you’re given a free pass if you’ve never heard of him which I thought was a really nice thing.This, I can imagine, takes a little bit of stress off of people who feel compelled to spread the word. Imagine if you felt the guilt of millions of people going to hell because you never got around to telling them about Jesus? Yikes!

I propose the same thing for anyone doing any kind of marketing. If someone does not hear about your product, it doesn’t mean that you failed. Sending out 1,000 emails to people you’ve cultivated or purchased under the guide of “spreading the word” is an old tactic, a poor way of marketing, and just lazy.

To take it a step further, eating away at your brand by bothering people that may or may not fit your demographic is actually the opposite of marketing, you’re now working for your competitor. I promise you, companies that spam me don’t get my money and there’s two reasons for that:

1. I don’t buy things from emails I receive. It’s never happened.
2. The things I buy are, incidentally, from companies who don’t send spam (to me at least)

Let’s look at that second thing more closely…

If I don’t buy things from emails, how in the world do I hear about them?

Sounds crazy right?

• I bought a TV (half bought, half gift) recently. I bought it from Frys.com (who do send me emails but I requested them) but not because I got an email about it. I was researching TVs on a forum (a car one no less), read some honest reviews about a Panasonic, also read a post about how cheap it was, and bought it from that. I used the Electronics community section of VWVortex.com to find it and read reviews at Newegg.com to confirm. Not a spec of marketing influenced me (I never even went to Panasonic’s site). I bought it from Frys.com because of the price.

• I’m about to buy a netbook (ultra-small laptop) to replace my aged and dying/dead Dell Latitude (I’d say almost a decade [estimate] of service is a pretty good run). I’ve read blog reviews, owner opinions, and, of course, opinions on VWVortex.com. I’m split between the Dell Mini 9 and the Asus EEE 1000HA. I found out about the Dell from a blog I read a lot, I found out about the Asus from random tech news. I’m making my decision similarly to the TV but also reading a lot of objective reviews. The other piece of the puzzle is where I’m going to buy it from. If I choose the Asus, I’ll buy from Newegg, always. They’ve built a great reputation in my mind and in the mind of others and their price is, 9/10, the best. Even if it’s $20-30 more, it’s still better to buy from them. If I choose the Dell I have to buy it from them.

• I bought a new car a while back, a Honda Element. I bought it used from a dealership and, despite all of their pushing and prodding, I didn’t buy it from them because they bugged me to. Honda made a quirky, great-looking, functional, interesting vehicle and I wanted one for years. I knew I would buy one eventually and, when the opportunity presented itself, I jumped. I didn’t buy from them because of TV commercials or emails or anything. I was there, they had the car, price was good, trade-in was good, and the guy wasn’t a COMPLETE asshole. Plus, I wanted a Honda. No ads, no emails, nothing. Like with the other two, I wanted it, read about it, and grabbed it.

I’m not your average consumer…

…but does that really matter?

Plain and simple, spamming people with emails or coupons in the mail or phone calls or aggressive in-person marketing all does the same think: make a mark AGAINST your company. I might be in the minority that knows how to buy things but, guess what, I’m also the one that’s giving free advertisement to websites and companies that I like just because I’m compelled to do so. I have no problem with recommending someone to Newegg like I would have no problem recommending a friend to another friend to get something done.

You might think you’re reaching more potential consumers and winning by stuffing my multiple inboxes with crap and you might be able to justify it with phrases like “brand awareness” and “front of mind” and “positioning” (if you’re using that to justify spam, you’re unclear on the concept). The problem is, you’re also alienating the few and the vocal, like me. I’m going to talk your company down if you’re ever brought up, I’m going to convince people not to buy from you because I don’t like your tactics, and I’m going to blog about you to anyone who will read.

There’s a fine line between being persistent and being annoying.

Forget the PUSH, create the PULL.