February 2011 Archives - 3/3

I use very few examples of paid software, and as I won’t recommend that you spend money on something unless I’m using it, I don’t often share links and offers on here…

However, this one is something that I really think is to good to miss. Basically, SEOmoz are offering their PRO service free for 30 days. Which is a pretty good offer in itself – but there’s more. Sign up for the free trial now, and if you’re one of the first 10,000, you could win free SEOMoz Pro access for life. So not only do you get the chance of a no-risk trial of their software for a month, but even if you don’t continue spending on it, you could still end up with free life access, which is a pretty good deal.

And the software is something I’m happy to recommend you try – the web app alone tracks 20,000 campaigns (sites), 500K keywords and 60mil+ pages each week, and the Pro account includes campaign tracking for 100s of keywords and 10,000+ pages of your site, access to Open Site Explorer for Link Analysis, and an SEO Toolkit which includes a new On-Page Optimizer, a Keyword Difficulty Tool, and a Historic Page Rank Tool (One of those things which is invaluable when you discover you need it). Plus you get access to their Q+As, webinars, and more… Generally that’d cost you $99 a month, and having used SEOMoz for a long time, I’d definitely say you’ll get the value there if you work in anything involving SEO reporting and analysis. Even their free Firefox toolbar really helps to speed things up when you’re analysing a lot of websites for potential inbound links for example…

So if you’ve ever been tempted to try a decent SEO tool for SEO analysis, or more likely if you aren’t already using it, for building on your social media skills, or helping to improve your own websites, now is the perfect time to sign up for the SEOmoz Pro Tools and maybe get a lifetime of value for free.

At the start of the year I’d planned to maintain something close to daily updates, but things have slipped somewhat. Much like a Hollywood blockbuster, months of background work are hidden before the launches and partying begins, and as the past couple of weeks have got increasingly busy, it’s necessitated a lot of background work which has been taking up plenty of time…

'No Stopping, No Standing, No Parking At Any Time' by Greg Hickman (CC Licence)

Probably the best analogy is if I said I’m essentially ‘speed stacking‘ work and projects at the moment. I’m continuing to work with a number of clients, and most of their projects and campaigns are now coming online, so there’s a constant process of monitoring, reporting and evolving which has had the gratifying effect of showing that things are starting to work pretty quickly.

I’ve also gained a couple of new clients, including a significant amount of work this month, which I’m absolutely loving, but has meant that I’m cramming as much as possible into my time.

Then there’s great news that I’m likely to be teaching some courses with PMA Media Training in addition to offering my tuition independently. Having had the pleasure of taking a 6-week course with them when I was starting my career as a journalist, I’m really honoured that they’ve asked me to get involved…

I’ve also finally started fulfilling my promises to various people to write some articles for them. And there was another #DPiP meeting to head along to.

And then there are my personal projects – OnlineRaceDriver.com has broken a new site record, with over 6,000 users this month, and I’m now working on building the community side with a crack team of volunteers, whilst also looking to do something similar on FPSPrestige.

I’ve also been speaking to a couple of people about evolving the future of the business, and in addition, a new business project is just about to see the light of day, and has already had some interest from a couple of people.

The big things happen in the background:

All of this hasn’t meant that I’ve cut down on utilising all the advantages of social media and social networking. In fact, I’ve been relying on them more than ever – just not publicly.

I’ve been emailing constantly – and some of the most interesting recent developments have come from a quick email to people I’d be meaning to contact. I’ve been spending most of my time on Facebook and Twitter sending private and direct messages to marshal various efforts and make business decisions without having to play phone tennis.

I’ve been sharing Google Docs, creating presentations, and sorting out email addresses. I’ve been analysing analytics, crafting copy, and building business plans.

And it’s reminded me exactly why I use so many digital tools – it’s not the fact that I like cool technology (although that helps), but the fact that they can enable to me to do the things I desperately need to accomplish, with people around the globe, with the minimum of hassle and inconvenience…