History of Blogging - Your Timeline To Tech News

Catch the Brainwaves is our ongoing series of interviews with a variety of folks participating in blogging and social media. I ask them ten questions and they respond with their brilliant answers and insights! Today’s Q&A features a SEO extraordinaire Melanie Nathan aka Crash aka status-girl.

Are you sitting comfortably?   Then let’s begin!

1. Do you feel that national identity means anything in social media? You and I both live in Canada, but neither of us seems to make a big deal about it.

I guess it all depends on one’s goals and expectations. I think there’s major benefit to national identity IF your social media mission is to be an authority in local search, local news etc. I recently thought about this as I brainstormed for domain ideas for my new blog. It totally occurred to me to market myself as a ‘Canadian SEO’. Why limit myself though? I think overall, you’re opening yourself to a much broader audience if your national identity is simply planet earth.

2. If you could live in a different country, which one would it be and why?

Definitely the US. They’re lucky in that they have all types of climate to choose from. In Canada we only really have one… FREAKIN’ COLD (especially in Edmonton).

I also love palm trees, white sand and blue water and, in the US, there’s plenty of places like that to choose from. Not to mention my love of paying for healthcare…

3. Why do you go by the user name “Crash” on SEOmoz? I notice that it’s different that what you use at, say, Twitter.

I use different handles depending on the site and purpose but I’m publicly known as ‘crashingflwgrl’ or just ‘crash’ for short. I only very recently created ‘status_girl’ because of the awesome media production company I now work for. Soon after I started on with StatusFirm, I was confident I had found myself a permanent home therefore I felt comfortable creating an online persona surrounding that. Besides that, ‘crashingflwrgrl’ was apparently too long for twitter and ‘crash’ was already scooped!

4. How has Twitter changed your life?

First and foremost, it’s really helped me establish myself as an SEO expert/guru/aficionado, without having to run a daily blog (I want to eventually though). It’s also provided me with a great network in which to promote my content and help others promote theirs. It’s brought me closer to, and has helped me tap in on, the day to day dealings of other SEO and social media professionals. It’s helped me discover other SM webbies in my own city (I almost thought I was the only one). And lastly, it’s boosted my self esteem and my self confidence too – having a big following of truly awesome people will do that (thanks guys!!).

In a nutshell twitter has brought me out of obscurity, expanded my social reach, allowed me to help others more effectively and given me an opportunity to really showcase my talents and skills.

5. Seth Godin has written about the effect of being #1 on a list vs. #10 on a list in terms of attention, traffic, financial rewards, etc. The #1 spot seems to get 10 times the attention and exposure of the #10 spot. Do you see any evidence of that ratio in your work?

Yes, everywhere. With lists, with SERP’s, with links, with directories etc. Like Ricky Bobby says… “If you’re not first, you’re last.”

I’ve wondered this about the Google SERP’s too…. I know it’s best to be in the top three but if that’s just not happening for you, and #10 is the best you can muster… is it better to be at the bottom of page 1 or the very top of page 2?? Think about it. How often does Google not get the appropriate content on the first page? How many people click through to page two?

6. Do you have a favorite social media site? If so, then can you tell us why it’s your favorite?

That’s easy… twitter. The best description I’ve ever heard was by @baramunchies in that twitter is “the backstage area of the blogosphere”. ‘Nuff said.  (ED:  who knew she was a Marvel comics fan?)

7. Are social media and social news providing more than entertainment value?

Definitely.

Personally, I don’t even read the daily newspaper anymore because news just travels faster online. Social media serves an entire generation of people who want on demand access to news and information almost as fast as it happens. On the flip side, there’s also a genre of people out there trying actively to boost their online reps by being the first to discover things and bring it to the masses (I’m one of them!). In my opinion the system works perfectly. It’s up to the end user to select what’s important to them and tune out the rest.

8. What is the one achievement on the Web which gives you the most pleasure and/or satisfaction?

Just ONE? There’s no way.   :)

Satisfaction – I sold my first e-commerce website in late 2006 which afforded both my husband and I to take a year off and travel. I’m also pretty happy that I recently pushed both Platts and Forbes down in order to claim the top spot for a very competitive ‘energy’ related key phrase. One of our other sites is also now ranking for a competitive ‘Las Vegas’ related term. Top rankings always bring me satisfaction though, especially when there are tens of millions of other pages competing for the same term.

Pleasure – All sorts of different people now contact me for advice on everything relating to naming their blog, getting top rankings, keyword research, link baiting/building secrets, getting more SM exposure etc. I am immensely pleased that I’ve come this far in a few short years and I’m seriously happy to be able to help people. Back in the day, I was the one asking all the questions and it feels really good to be able to confidently give back now.

My proudest achievement yet though, is that I’ve been invited to speak at SEM Canada in Calgary this year, which I’m looking very forward to. Look for me to be presenting on both analytics and advanced link building techniques along with such speakers as Todd Friesen, Andy Beal and Jane Copland.

Of course, being interviewed for Catch the Brainwaves at broadcasting-brain.com, definitely makes my list.  ;)

9. Pretend the Internet is destroyed overnight. What do you do the next morning?

I would definitely tweet about it, er, I mean blog it, oops, I meant digg it….. umm?… holy hell!! Wtf WOULD I do???

I guess I would FREAK OUT just like everybody else. And then, because I’ve tried working in the real world and it never did much for me, I’d probably pick up my guitar again and pursue my dreams of becoming a singer/songwriter. At least I wouldn’t have to worry about illegal downloading of my tasty songs

10. What one piece of knowledge, advice, or wisdom do you have to share with our readers?

Whether you’re promoting a product, a website, or a brand; create your reputation as an expert, by acting like an expert. Take SEOmoz for a great example. They created a reputation as experts by acting as THE resource for SEO. It then became a self-fulfilling prophecy: everyone comes here because we’re the best at SEO; we’re the best at SEO because everyone comes here. What ever your industry is, strive for this.

Other than that, when it comes to SM, just have fun and always be yourself (yes, even if you’re a douchebag).  (ED:  historians take note:  this is the first time that the word douchebag was used at Broadcasting Brain.)

Cheers!

This post is tagged