12 Days of SEO Mistakes: A Late Christmas Gift

A new "integrated marketing agency" called Vivid Ascent created a series of short videos for its blog called "The 12 Days of SEO Christmas." Each 60- to 90-second video explains one common SEO (search engine optimization) mistake and tells you how to avoid it.

The videos' topics are pretty basic if you're an SEO pro, but most of us aren't, and I'll wager that you'll learn a thing or two before you've gotten through all of them. For instance, you know you want to use your keywords often -- but did you know that if you use one too often, a web crawler could label your message as spam?

The posts began on Dec 10, but I didn't get the press release about them until Dec 22. By then, blogging was the last thing on my mind. Sorry I didn't post about this sooner, but better late than never! Oddly, the series is still incomplete. It ends with Mistake #2 on Dec 24 and, as of this writing, the #1 video is not there. (I of course have commented to ask for #1!)

While these are not the most amazing or insightful videos I have ever seen, they are simple and helpful. Aside from getting you thinking about optimizing your website, they could also give you ideas for making short videos for your own site. What quick lessons could you share with your online visitors, and what clever hook could you use to tie them in with a holiday or event? Let these inspire you to create and share -- and also to practice some SEO so that search engines find your videos and put them at the top of their results lists!

Reasons for College Students to Use Libraries

If you want to give your college students more reasons to use the library, refer them to this post: "85 Reasons to be Thankful for Librarians" from the blog Zen College Life. It seems to be written by a college student, so the reasons are from their peers, not from faculty, parents, librarians, or other people who clearly don't know half as much as teenagers do. **wink** Some of the 85 reasons also pertain to public libraries.

Sure, there are a few silly ones (like #10: Colleges need something to remodel every so often.). But there are also plenty of good points, such as these:

4. Libraries are still repositories for some of the most valuable works of literature in the world.
8. You can’t exactly find periodicals like The New England Journal of Medicine in Barnes and Noble.
29. Despite the advances in computer technology, a human will still find information better than a search engine.
64. Some libraries also hold a limited number of free museum passes that anyone can use.

The comments at the end are also positive. How nice to see something like this coming from outside the profession!

Have a Successful New Year!

Kathy (left) and Nancy from The M Word send you their wishes for a Happy and Successful New Year.

Stay tuned to see what we have planned for 2010! Lots more how-to's and tips on marketing and promotion will be coming your way.