GB Blog

In a rare moment of shameless self-promotion may I present to you “New Website Smell” our first TV spot airing this year.

Going Beyond. What does that mean to you? If someone told you your dream job was out there, just waiting for you, but you’d have to “Go Beyond” to get it, what would you do? Would you buy a new suit? Make a video resume? How about create an entire website dedicated to expressing your love and devotion to that possible employer?

That’s exactly what Netta Marshall, a web designer and developer did in order to land herself a job at Instagram. Instagram is an organization dedicated to bringing a unique memory mosaic to each one of us through the act of sharing iPhone photos between friends.

On the Instagram website, they have a page to upload a resume, and we’re sure that thousands of people have done just that, but how many of them went beyond like Netta?

Netta created www.IWannaWorkAtInstagram.com to help her land the job of her dreams. On top of being a wonderfully graphic representation of her artistic and programming abilities, it showcases her passion and creativity as well. The site is clean and well designed. It’s friendly, but professional. It includes everything a prospective employer could want and more. THAT is what going beyond means to us at Generations Beyond. It means that in addition to covering your bases, you recreate the entire ball field from scratch and make it your own.

In a time when sequels and remakes rule the day, it’s inspiring to see Netta’s kind of creativity. We love to see that level of commitment and dedication in other members of our field and we’re looking forward to adding the next Netta to our own team. Of course, the next Netta won’t make a website, she (or he!) will have to find another way to go beyond. Luckily for us, and for everyone who enjoys watching great ideas unfold, that’s bound to happen. There’s always an artist out there reaching for their dreams, and with luck, a few of them will succeed.

So, take some direction from Netta, and stretch beyond what’s expected of you.

Until you go beyond, your dreams will always be beyond you, but once you do, they’ll be right there waiting.

There’s an old (and, very likely NSFW) joke that’s the subject of today’s post; we’ll call it “Two Bulls On The Hill, ” and it goes like this:

There are two bulls standing on a hill overlooking a pasture full of cows. The younger bull, eager, but lacking experience, says to the old bull “Hey, let’s run down there and f@#k ourselves a cow.” The old bull, who has spent season after season in this pasture, turns to the younger bull, chuckles, and replies “Nah, how about we walk down there, and f@#k them all.”

Now, anyone who’s ever heard me speak at a seminar, or who’s scheduled a consult with me, knows I’m a BIG FAN of analogies. They’re a great way to take a big and complex idea and break it down into something more manageable.  At Generations Beyond, not a week goes by without the phone at the studio ringing, and on the other end is a client who’s just “heard of a trick” or “found a great tactic” to increase their rankings within Google.
With the recent headlines  about Google’s “massive update,” and the way it punishes those it labels as “cheats,” (JC Penny is an excellent example of a company that was swatted down in the ranks for violating Google’s sense of “fair play”) we feel it’s a good time to reiterate the fact that Google does have a method to its madness. Google’s stated goal (aside from “Do No Evil”) is to sift through every corner of the Internet and find the most important, relevant Web sites and to deliver those results to the Google user. It’s simple, if your Google searches end up giving you irrelevant, or useless results, you’re going to stop using Google. It’s in their best interest to ensure that the people they label as “cheats” aka Black Hat Service Providers (or what some clients or “young bulls” in the story would consider providers of hot SEO “tips”) fail. It may not happen today, or even tomorrow, but sooner rather than later, the company that you’re paying good money to in order to “cheat” Google is going to be discovered and those “hot” tips will go ice cold in a hurry. A good rule of thumb for “tips” like these is that by the time they trickle down through the grapevine, it’s not going to be long before Google shuts them down.

This takes us back to our bovine buddies on the hill.  As the old bull in the story had clearly learned, slow and steady wins the race. Rather than rush out and try to steal a small success, it’s almost always better to take a steady and focused approach to your goal. In almost every facet of life, and certainly in every facet of growing your business, this is what will reap the greatest rewards. This is what our  philosophy relating to SEO is built upon. The slow, steady and quality growth of your website, with new, and quality content, is THE key to building a solid search ranking over time with Google. Sure, the young bull in all of us wants to run to the finish line and reap the immediate benefits, it behooves us (no pun intended) to take a step back, survey the pasture, and know that with experience comes knowledge, and a little planning, and a little finesse, will always garner the best rewards.

Happy Holidays from Generations Beyond!

libnI was recently interviewed by Long Island Business News on the topic of my last post about using video on the web to estabslish yourself as an expert and drive traffic to your website.

During the interview we spoke at great length about the topic however LIBN must have had to really broaden the topic to reach a more general “non-techy” audience. It helped me realized that while this is an incredibly cheap, fast and powerful way of marketing via the internet it can also seem a bit overwhelming to the casual business owner so I plan on creating a video explaining this great means of marketing very soon! Stay tuned!

You read the article below which was taken from their website at: http://libn.com/blog/2008/11/06/companies-embrace-cheap-and-easy-youtube-for-videos/

Jack Chapman, a salary negotiation expert in Chicago, wanted to increase the amount of time people linger on his Web site. So he added video.

In the past, that might have been complicated and costly, requiring new coding, the use of a special server to accommodate video, and a studio. Not anymore.

Chapman used $70 floodlights and a video camera to record himself at home giving free salary negotiation tips and then uploaded the video to YouTube. Jesse Wroblewski, owner of Mastic Beach-based Generations Beyond, helped him link the video to his Web site and Chapman was ready for his close-up.

“It looks like you’re playing a video on my site,” Chapman said. “All you’re doing is clicking a button and watching a video on YouTube.”

As the Internet shifts from a static to a moving medium, firms are finding they can make the leap to moving pictures with little more than a camera, a computer and creativity. And sites like YouTube are making it easier than ever.

“I don’t know how I would’ve done it,” Chapman said. “You can embed video in a Web site. But I don’t know how to do it. This was easy enough.”

Wroblewski said small and large companies increasingly use YouTube and other video search engine technologies to present and post videos easily, quickly and cheaply to grow their business and recruit.

“They do it all,” he said of YouTube. “They host your video. If you get a million visitors, you’re not going to see an increase in your budget.”

Murray Kleiner, president of technical writing firm Murray Kleiner Associates in Plainview, said sites, such as YouTube, shield small businesses from additional costs.

“When you have videos on your server, it takes up bandwidth and you pay for that,” he said. “If you put it on YouTube, it’s not your problem anymore.”

Other video search engines let companies post videos including Metacafe.com, Dailymotion.com and Vimdeo. And Myspace and Facebook offer video. But Wroblewski said YouTube, owned by Google, is the giant garnering the most hits and postings.

“Now that YouTube is so popular, people are using it to search for what they need. You can film a video, upload it to YouTube. Within a half hour it’ll be indexed,” Wroblewski said. “We’re helping clients create videos to get them indexed on YouTube to drive traffic to their Web site.”

And Kleiner said YouTube’s biggest benefit may not be ease of use, but traffic. “Because more people visit YouTube, there’s a good chance they may get to see your video,” he said. “If your video’s only on your Web site, the biggest challenge is to get them to go to your Web site.”

Companies also can create what amounts to their own Web page on YouTube filled with videos offering tips, demonstrations or communications with viewers.

“Each company can brand their own page with their corporate look and feel to stand out from the crowd,” Wroblewski said. “It’s a big sea, but compared to all the other search engines on the Internet, it’s still a tiny pond. You’re talking about all the Web sites in existence versus the videos there.”

Wroblewski said companies can use video to position themselves as experts and connect with customers. “People see you on a video,” Wroblewski said. “You’re sharing your information with them. It’s instant rapport. It builds equity in who you are.”

Video also keeps people interested longer than text. Chapman’s average site visit since he posted his video rose from 30 seconds to longer than two minutes.

“By putting videos there, people stay there longer and look at the rest of the content,” Chapman said. “It seems that the pedagogy of having me talk about things worked better than making people just read.”

In addition to getting interest and business, companies can monetize traffic to their video. Metacafe.com pays for videos generating 10,000 or more hits. “If you provide useful enough information, you can get a check cut for uploading your video,” Wroblewski said.

Although posting video to YouTube is free, firms face risks. Viewers can post malicious comments unless firms turn off the comment function. Inappropriate videos can go up in the “related video” bar based on words you type to describe your video. “Companies may want to keep control of their own stuff,” Kleiner said.

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