My Sandwich-Making Fees

youngmanhattanite:

spiers:

maura:

spiers:

If I actually charged people for that stuff, I’m not sure I could sleep at night.

No. You are right. And ethical! I just bristle when I see people who aren’t qualified (cough) loftily throwing around dumb titles… and other people who are less in the know falling for it.

It also just really annoys me when I see these companies/so-called-experts trying to snow my less web-savvy clients. They make something very basic sound inordinately complicated, suggest that it’s a 12-month implementation, and attach a five-figure price tag to it. And I find it inconceivable that they don’t know they’re ripping people off.

Culturally, this is just the new iteration of We’ll SEO The Shit Out Of Your Site, And You’ll Automagically Be Successful. (Free consulting: if 98% of your traffic is coming from search engines and you’re a media property trying to build an audience, you’re doing something wrong. Anyone who tells you otherwise is an idiot. Or they think you’re an idiot.)

The proliferation of bullshit SEO “experts” has been eclipsed by a proliferation of social media “experts.” I can count the number of social media geniuses I know on one hand. And not a single one self-identifies as a “social media expert”.

I know I’m risking incurring some wrath here, but there’s much to SEO that is valid; enough so that SEO Specialist/Consultant is not an entirely bullshit title. (No, I’m not an SEO consultant.)

Ha! Funny, just saw this (via Rex?). You want to increase traffic? Make a balloon. In the shape of a sandwich.

I was just going to link to that. (AJ and Balk: Months of PDA have made @boyfriend and I telepathic.)

I’m not saying SEO is never useful. But it’s not difficult, either. Anyone who suggests that it is, and that it’s a long implementation is lying. Or they don’t understand SEO themselves.

Source maura