oh oh! Better get back to blogging

Ok, so now total strangers are starting to tell me I am not blogging enough! It used to be just my mom, but I logged on today to find comments on several of my blogs. Sorry guys - I will try to be better. As an introvert I think that sometimes we forget that there is a bigger world...

I am fresh off my vacation and If I figure out a way to post a picture or two, I will. Vacation was wonderful. Time with family, sisters, my niece. It was great.

Vacation brain is still clouding my ability to get things done, but I have been doing a bit of research on how to get my book on amazon to rank better. It seems there are a lot of SEO-ish ways to get a better ranking - and the better ranked books come up higher when searches happen and generally sell better. Which -- then in turns brings the ranking up (or in fact "down" as a lower number is better).

One way to get a better ranking is for people to write reviews about your book. And if those people have reviewed before, the ranking increase will be better, especially if their other reviews were voted "helpful". The ins and outs of that is a little nutty and probably a bit more complicated than Google in some ways.

Now, Amazon won't let anyone write a review unless they have bought something on Amazon before - or vote for helpfulness or "tag" an item either. I think this is probably to disuade people from creating reviews falsely. Which, as annoying as it is as the author, is respected.

Anyway the SEO-person in me is enjoying the challenge of learning as much as I can, and the author in me obviously wants my book to be ranked as best it can be.

So I am actively soliciting reviews as a starter, and learning as much as I can about getting those rankings up.

This week I cave company in, so I will try not to avoid my updates here, but, given my track record, I can't promise anything.... :)

SEO and the back patio -- a poem---of sorts.

sitting on the back patio. 78 degrees. chilly. it is 9pm and it was over 90 today. hot and muggy, the kind of day where you seek reasons to stay inside. or in the car. i did both. but now find the waning sunlight and cricket / locust / cicada hum hum humming intoxicating.

i should just write a book about seo. of course in a way i already did and it was only 20 pages long and i believe still posted on my website, free to anyone who wishes to peruse it. free. no charge. and likely out-of-date. the problem is i would not be able to update it in time to actually sell it prior to it going out-of-date. again.


introversion wont go out-of-date... perhaps out of style. but not out of date.

sun. nearly. gone.

crazy lady on her laptop in the backyard again. type. type. typing.

crazy lady and her seo.

perhaps, but i am the one with the lovely new patio. the hot tub. the work-from-home job and the ever expanding network of.... of....of....well expanding network of people. friends even. luckily. expanding a network is like better seo. it is in fact-- seo. in a way. in the way that i understand and will share with you. perhaps. perhaps on the patio.

if you cared. which you don't.

but that is ok. the hot tub is still reason enough to visit.

crazy lady and her seo on the patio.

now in the moonlight.

Email Email Email

I recently moved and lost my long-time email address:Meg@

Besides the sentimental value-- it was nice just to be meg@

I think I will be changing my email on things, forms, websites, blogs, cards, address books, online directories, etc. etc. for the rest of my natural life. Too bad there isnt a form like the post office has that just forwards and informs everyone.

--other news. Getting referrals from my site and blogs this week for web content writing. Means I should do more on all those, as they are now getting dated. But it is nice to see that I am still a powerhouse for phrases such as "seo rochester" despite the fact I have moved. (Sorry Biz) -- I will now work on the new market. Although still sending work as possible to the Biz folk. Least I can do since they haven't yet updated their website to refect my departure :) Cobbler's Shoes and all that.

SEO CHARLOTTE here I come.

mtw
content writer
etc.

Page Rank revisited - again

Here is a general update for all three of you (my new daily "readership" per blog explosion)..

The Ask Dr. Ellie blog that I have been working on is finally showing some Page Rank - Thank goodness! As much as I know these things take time, I was starting to wonder. The appearance of that nice little green bar let me to check the other PRs of my sites and of course I was dissappointed. The sandbox has started to suck the PR out as it does and no wonder - I have not been working diligently as I should have on such matters.

Which of course leads me to our pending move to lovely Charlotte NC/Fort Mill-Lancaster SC. I am still not sure how to explain the fact that I will reside in SC, near Charlotte NC, in Lancaster County, near but not in York County, and my mailing address is Fort Mill, which is of course in York County.... and I thought we made things confusing up here with our wild pronunciation... Charlotte - Chili - Leroy for example. (Long story to non-Rochestarians...I won't bore you).

--back to the move. I have been packing and readying as much as possible. It is an interesting balance to pack enough and not so much that I can't get thru the days. I need clothes afterall (it was only 8 degrees today...) and food (although I am making progress on emptying the cupboard), the TV has to stay til the move, the couch needs to stay until the last minute when it will get sold/given away, the garage is WAY too cold to empty out (although eventually I won't be able to use that as an excuse) and there are only so many toys my son will part with without noticing. The laptop and pets will be packed 2nd to last... right before my kid...

And so I do a little each day, throw out what I can, use and consolodate when possible, and continue to watch the days evaporate and hope there will be enough time to do it all.

---knowing full well there won't be and having to come to terms with the fact that that will just have to be ok.

My 90 days are up. I learned... uh.... that I am still busy, that I fill the days with being busy when I am not and that my original book idea is boring. Oh, and that working is over-rated.

And so--- I have started my freelance writing business. In fact I have to go now and sent the postcards out to my perspective new clients.

Irony?

of course not.

Meghan Wier
Author Writer Web Consultant