Lorna Li | Green Marketing 2.0

This past weekend I was reminded of the importance of community. I think the competitive nature of our Western society has a tendency to create a sense of isolation from each other. We find ourselves stretched too thin, having to take care of everything alone, needing to be perpetually hyper-vigilant, invulnerable and strong - especially in the world of business.

Eventually this becomes exhausting and results in burn-out.

I’ve been feeling rather burned out lately from the tech scene, and took a trip with my friends to a gathering at a community called Kayumari.

The Kayumari community is responsible for the creation of the International Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers, an alliance of 13 medicine women who are catalyzing international recognition of indigenous traditions through prayer, peacemaking, healing and global activism.

It’s been many months since I’ve had a chance to visit Kayumari - it’s located at the foothills of Yosemite, which make its rather challenging for me to get to. The land there is beautiful, wild, and untamed. The community is, sadly, leaving this location.

Here I was reminded that the support of one’s friends and family is indeed beautiful and necessary for personal well-being, and that one should never feel weak for having to seek it.

I am grateful to have a connection with this incredible community of people who are committed to honoring and preserving indigenous wisdom traditions.

Thus, the quote of the day from Paulo Coehlo’s Manual of the Warrior of Light is:

When a warrior is a victim of some injustice, he usually tries to be alone, in order not to show his pain to others.

This is both good and bad.

It is one thing to allow one’s heart to heal its wounds slowly, but it is quite another to sit all day in deep contemplation for fear of seeming weak.

Inside each of us there lives an angel and a devil, and their voices are very alike. Confronted by a problem, the devil encourages that solitary conversation, trying to show us how vulnerable we are. The angel makes us reflect upon our attitudes and occasionally needs someone else’s mouth to reveal itself.

A warrior balances solitude and dependence.

Shelly and Bob Boyle, one of the wisest and kindest souls alive.

Marlo, soaking in the cool river - where you can still pan for gold.

Technorati Tags: kayumari, manual of the warrior of light, paulo coehlo, indigenous wisdom traditions, international council of 13 indigenous grandmothers, grandmothers council, lorna li

Why is everyone at Google under 25 and cute?

OK, not everyone, but an alarming concentration of smart, young, hot people seem to work at Google in a way that seems like a scene from the Stepford Wives.

One Tuesday August 21, I hit the Google Dance party with my friend Sharon Lin, another tech event junkie. Google Dance was THE party of Search Engine Strategies San Jose conference. Google has lots of money, so we figured the party had to be good. Indeed, it was much like a tricked-out college frat party for the technorati.

Google went all out on the party entertainment.

Rows of video games graced the main building.

Geeks and games go hand in hand.

Pool anyone?

How about volleyball?

You can even star in your own music video.

Got a sweet tooth? Here’s some free candy for ya.

We gawked, bopped around, ate, talked to people, and I took pictures. Little did I know that Big Brother was watching.

Todd Malicoat, David Mihm, Daniel Riveong

These photos are stealth because I spent much of the night snapping away photos of the tripped out scene at the Google campus blissfully ignorant of Google regulations, until I was busted by a passionate, underage Googler in a green Google dance T-Shirt that took his job way too seriously.

“Are you an official Google photographer?”

“Ummmm, no.”

“Then, why are you taking photos?” he barked, eyeing my professional Canon camera, suspiciously.

“Ummm, I’m a blogger”

“You can’t go around taking photos unless you’re with staff.”

“Oh, OK - then do I get a T-shirt, then?”

“NO!”

I looked around nervously holding my camera, while drunk Google dance revelers snapped photos all around me with their flashing little digital cameras for tourists.

Apparently, you can’t be taking photos without the official escort by a member of Google’s Communications team. How lame and spontaneity-killing. “OK, then make sure he’s cute.”

Dude looked furious. A young, cute Asian boy with a red Google Dance T-Shirt materialized (red represented the Corporate Communications department) and my antagonist stormed off.

It brings me back to the days when I lived in Communist China, in 1996. I wandered the Google campus under the watchful eye of my youthful guide from the Google Politburo.

“So, why don’t you tell me what’s interesting around here - what SHOULD I be taking photos of?”

The kid really didn’t know.

“Why is everyone at Google under 25 and cute?” He didn’t know the answer to that one either.

My creative juices were being seriously hampered by this kid hovering around. I dismissed him, and continued taking pictures, in stealth mode this time.

Technorati Tags: google, google dance, ses 2007, search engine strategies san jose, todd malicoat, david mihm, daniel riveong, neal kido, lorna li

Photos courtesy of Brent Csutoras

I really believe in the power of intention, synchronicity, and manifestation - the clearer your intention, the more synchronicitous events pop up in your life, and the greater the likelihood you will manifest your desire. A key success factor is going with the flow, and being open to others who may play a factor in the manifestation of your intention, rather than trying to control, own, and micromanage every aspect of it - which is where a lot of people sabotage themselves.

My colleague Jaime Lapena and I were discussing how great it would be to do a search marketing happy hour - network with other search engine marketers, share tips and ideas, have a pint/ cocktail.

Next step - create a network of local Bay Area search marketers, whom we can then invite out for a drink on a regular basis. LinkedIn Groups is still under construction, so I decided to create a Search Marketing LinkedIn Network as a workaround. A group would be better, but heck, we can migrate peeps later.

Then, I’m out covering a Monster Cable event for bub.blicio.us, where I win a killer set of floor speakers in a raffle draw. I meet Daniel Riveong of e-Storm, a San Francisco-based interactive agency with a search marketing division.

Mention the SEM happy hour concept. 3 weeks later, he emails me and says, “Remember how you were talking about starting a search marketing happy hour? Well it ends up that I had to organize one for Todd Malicoat, of Stuntdubl. It’s next week - you’re invited.”

With Brent Csutoras

With Neil Patel

Friday, August 10 at SF’s Gordon Biersch - 20 search engine optimizers at one long dinner table, followed by more drinks at the Cigar Bar. SEOs I got to know include:

• Niel Patel, who started dong SEO at the tender age of 16, and is currently the CTO of Advantage Consulting Services, a social media marketing and search engine optimization agency - though he hasn’t yet graduated from college.
• Todd Malicoat of Stuntdubl, premier SEO consultant and the guru of link strategy.
• Natasha Robinson, That Girl From Marketing, who gave me excellent advice on how to do an SEO site audit.
• Will Radcliffe and Forest Kolb, of BizzFlip, a community where people can freely conduct business, cultivate ideas, and explore the infinite potential of today’s business world.
• Brent Csutoras of Weird Asia News, who occupied the number one spot for the world’s largest orgy (he’s now number 2).
• Daniel Riveong and William Gaulthier of e-Storm.
• David Mihm, small business web site designer and internet marketing consultant.

Saturday, August 18, dinner and drinks at the Liberties, in SF’s Mission district included the same posse and more.

• Roger Monti, aka MartiniBuster, WebmasterWorld moderator and consultant who offers web site review,PPC consultation, link development and web design services.
• Carolyn Shelby, Webmaster, SEO, former co-host of Webmaster Radio’s ‘Rush Hour’, current co-host of SEO 101, and uber-achiever with a schedule much like mine.
• Lawrence Coburn, founder of Rateitall and Sexy Widget.

Caveman and Laura Lippay

Todd Malicoat and Roger Monti

Todd Malicoat is contemplating moving out from upstate NY to the hip, technocentric SF Bay Area, but only if SF Bay Area search marketers can rally for regular SEO happy hours.

Todd Malicoat

I think it ironic that, while I intended to organize search marketing happy hours, I was apprehensive about the time and energy launching a regular event would take, as I’m already maxed out on time and energy. At the end of the day, all I needed to do was kick back and go with the flow.

Expect more search marketing meetups to come.

Technorati Tags: seo meetup, seo, search engine optimization consultants, search marketing, sem, todd malicoat, neil patel, brent csutoras, daniel riveong, william gauthier, david mihm, will radcliffe, forest kolb, natasha robinson, lawrence coburn, carolyn shelby, roger monti, lorna li

I really enjoy Paulo Coelho’s Manual of the Warrior of Light. It’s one of those books I can open randomly to any page, and what I find is exactly what I need to reflect upon at that moment.

Sometimes I wonder if my crusading to save the world, the rainforest, indigenous cultures, ancient wisdom traditions is more talk than walk. I’m certain at times it is. Other times, I collapse in exhaustion, complaining that there simply aren’t enough hours in the day. I feel most guilty when I slow down my pace in order to take some much needed rest, reflect or create some clearer mental space - which means I’m not working on something, not actively producing. It’s those moments when I feel like I’m all talk, no action.

I think it’s really important to take a step back and honor ourselves as activists, to forgive ourselves for not being able to work around the clock. It’s OK to be talking a little more than walking once in a while.

So here’s the quote of the day from the Manual of the Warrior of Light:

A warrior of light is reliable.

He makes a few mistakes, he sometimes thinks he is more important than he really is, but he does not lie.

When people gather round the fire, he talks to his friends male and female. He knows that his words are stored in the memory of the Universe, like a testimony of what he thinks.

And the warrior asks himself: ‘Why do I talk so much, when often I am incapable of carrying out everything I say?”

His heart replies: ‘ When you defend your ideas in public, you then have to make an effort to life accordingly.’

It is because he believes that he is what he says he is that the warrior ends up becoming precisely that.

Technorati Tags: paolo coehlo, manual of the warrior of light, lorna li

Simplified for Small Business, Green Enterprise, and Nonprofits

Google PageRank (PR) is a link analysis algorithm developed by Google’s Larry Page and Sergey Brin in the late 1990s. Google PageRank contributes to your search engine ranking on Google search engine results pages (SERPs).

Google PageRank is one benchmark for understanding the popularity of your web site based on the number and quality of sites that link to you. A high PR page that links to your web page will confer more PageRank to your page than an inbound link from low PR page.

According to Matt Cutts, Google’s spokesperson on SEO, PageRank values are published approximately once every 3 months. Therefore, Google PR is not an accurate metric for site popularity, as it is a cached value that is usually out of date.

What’s my Google PageRank?

If you want to view your Google PageRank, you can download the Google Toolbar or try the nifty SearchStatus plugin for FireFox.

The Google Toolbar’s PageRank feature displays as a green bar on the bottom right of your browser window. Scroll over and you will see a visited page’s PageRank as a whole number between 0 and 10, with PR 10 web site being the most popular.

If you don’t want to download the Google Toolbar, you can submit your site url to a number of free Google PageRank tools on the Web, such as the Google PageRank Lookup Report which will check the PR of up to 10 web sites.

PageRank Values for Popular Green & Environmental Web Sites

National Geographic - 8
An Inconvenient Truth - 7
The Discovery Channel - 7
The Nature Conservancy - 7
World Wildlife Fund - 7
TreeHugger - 6
Change.org - 5

Top PR sites include:

Google (of course) - 10
Yahoo - 10
Wikipedia - 9
MySpace - 8

How important is Google PageRank?

Don’t obsess over your Google PageRank - it is just one factor in the collective algorithm that Google uses to build SERPs. While having lots of relevant, inbound high PageRank links is a good thing, high PR does not guarantee high placement in SERPs.

Bear in mind that Google calculates your PR based on the page criteria and title tag of the linking page. Google can penalize a site if it detects a large number of irrelevant links. How effective Google is at determining link relevance is a subject of debate among SEOs. However, building relevant links is a good rule of thumb in order to follow if you want to increase your site’s PR.

How do I build PageRank for my site?

Andrew Gerhart’s Understanding and Building Google PageRank gives a detailed overview on how PR works and what to do to improve it. Here’s a summary:

In order to understand how to improve PageRank, you must understand how a site’s linking structure absorbs PageRank from other sites. Suppose you are TreeHugger, with a PR of 6 for your homepage.

This means a number of web sites with PR 5 and above are linking to your homepage. Your second level pages, will then have a PR of 5, and your tertiary pages have a page rank of 3, and so forth.

How Internal Linking Affects PageRank

Your internal linking structure does not have an effect in increasing PR, but sharing PR within the overall site, with decreasing powers as you go deeper into the structure of your web site.
From www.searchengineguide.com:

* Make sure that your primary page(s), the index.htm page, links to your secondary pages or secondary levels.
* Make sure that your secondary pages link to each other
* Link your secondary pages to the third level pages within their sub-directory, sub-domain, or level
* Link the third level pages within each specific sub-directory or sub-domain to each other.
* Link the third level pages back to the secondary page that it was linked from
* Make sure that the there is not heavy linking between third level pages
* Link to pages, regardless of level, that are relevant
* Link to pages, regardless of level, where the text on the page being linked from is keyword specific to the page that you are linking to
* If there are fourth level pages, follow the same linking structure that has been laid out in this checklist
* Only link pages within your site that are relevant to each other
* Use keyword specific link text when linking between pages
* Use standard HREFs in links that are easy for the search engine robots.

How External Linking Affects PageRank

External linking plays the strongest role in determining a site’s PR, but it is the factor over which you have the least control. Understand that link building campaigns can be a slow, tedious process. You can request, beg, and cajole a site owner to link to you, but they may not respond in a timely way, if at all, and will likely request a reciprocal link, which confers less link juice to you than a one-way inbound link would.

It’s not within the scope of this article to discuss link-building strategies, but to understand how external links pass PageRank to your site.

The exact algorithmic calculation that Google employs will likely never be divulged, but simply speaking, Google confers PR to you based on its evaluation of the linking sites PRs and their relevance to your page. Spammy, irrelevant links can negatively impact your PR.

If the sites linking to you all mention “Organic, fair-trade chocolate” and have above 6 PRs, and your page talks about “Organic, fair-trade chocolate”, your PR will likely be close to 6 as well.

Don’t make the mistake of randomly sending all inbound links to your homepage or the top level page of a section - the max PR you will reflect the cumulative PRs of the sites pointing to you, adjusted based on their relevance to your homepage.

Let’s say you have an e-commerce site specializing in fair trade products from around the world. The theme of your homepage is “fair trade products”, but one of your categories is “fair trade crafts”, and your subcategories are “houseware”, “jewelry”, and “stationery”. Identify high PR sites and pages for “fair trade products” and solicit links from them to your homepage. Then do the same for your “houseware” page, and then for each sub-category below that.

Tips on Boosting Google PageRank Through External Linking

* Understand the way PageRank trickles down through a site’s internal linking structure.

* To improve the PR of your site, identify the theme and market segment of each page, find relevant web pages with higher PR and ask the site owners to link to you.

* Work on the external linking for every page from the homepage to sub-pages based on each page’s topic - prioritize top level down.

Where should I seek links from to boost my Google PageRank?

Identify the keywords relevant to each page’s theme, and then Google-search these terms. The sites that show up in the top positions are the sites you want to solicit links from.

Google Directory - Science > Environment > Forests and Rainforests

Another good place to begin is the Google Directory, which lists sites by category in order of PageRank. However, a site’s willingness to link to you is directly proportional to the content of the page. If your content is not that exciting, you will have a harder time getting links.

I’ve recently discovered SearchStatus, a Firefox plugin designed for the highly specialized needs of search engine marketers developed by Quirk, an eMarketing agency located in Cape Town, London, and Johannesburg.
From www.quirk.biz:

For every site you visit using, SearchStatus lets you view its Google PageRank, Google Category, Alexa popularity ranking, Compete.com ranking, Alexa incoming links, Alexa related links and backward links from Google, Yahoo! and MSN. This combined search-related information means you can view not only the link importance of a site (according to Google), but also its traffic importance (according to Alexa), so providing a balanced view of site efficacy.

After you install the plugin, an innocuous little “q” symbol sits in the bottom right corner. Left click (or ctrl click if you are on a Mac) in on of the three areas and voila!

SearchStatus is nifty plugin that enables you to get a quick overview of a web site’s ranking.

Technorati Tags: searchstatus, quirk, search marketing plugin, search engine marketing, search engine optimization, sem, seo, lorna li

TreeHugger moves one step closer to its mission of greening the mainstream. Last week, Treehugger, the stylish, Webby Award-winning eco-blog, was acquired by Discovery for, rumors say, approximately $10M.

Discovery Communications, owners of the Discovery Channel, boasts a large network of online and television properties. Its acquisition of TreeHugger allows it to buy a piece of Web 2.0 cool. However, Discovery intends to look to TreeHugger for strategic direction on its Green initiatives, allowing this social media success story to reach the non-tech savvy masses in unprecendented ways.

TreeHugger is an award-winning blog whose mission is to make the mainstream sustainable. TreeHugger, currently ranked 16 on Technorati, serves more than 1.5 million unique visitors a month and has attained 50 million page views since its humble beginning as a MBA class project, nearly 4 years ago.

Other TreeHugger initiatives, like TreeHugger.tv, and Hugg - the eco-Digg are immensely popular within the Green community.

Discovery is TreeHugger’s Perfect Partner

While TreeHugger was courted by 15 large companies over the past year, the partnership with Discovery was a match made in Green heaven. In spite of interest by a number of compelling parties, TreeHugger did not compromise on its values and its original vision… and waited until the perfect partner came along.

“We had many conversations and concluded that we needed a partner with a sizeable, international audience, a kindred brand and a high level commitment philosophically and financially to green, “said TreeHugger Founder, Graham Hill.

Discovery, which reaches 1.5 billion subscribers around the world, with, primarily, high-quality, nature-related content, was a perfect fit. Furthermore, Discovery has committed over $50M towards the development of Green content and programming for its various online and offline channels, including a portfolio of leading Green web sites.

TreeHugger will play an active role in defining Discovery’s Green initiatives, such as its global multiplatform initiative, Planet Green, which includes the first 24/7 eco-lifestyle TV network, which will be launching in 50 million homes in 2008.

I had the pleasure of meeting Nick Aster, a San Francisco web developer and one of the founding members of TreeHugger, in October 2006. During this time, I was in deep in the throes of launching Mariri Magazine, a rainforest webzine powered by Joomla! Nick graciously agreed to an informational interview on the art of online publishing. After an hour-long conversation, I realized my tiny rainforest webzine had a long, long way to go.

I was, and still am, obsessed with understanding the secret to launching a successful online magazine, how to develop develop a never-ending flow of compelling content, create community, and monetize traffic all on a shoe-string budget. TreeHugger began with far bigger budget than I - seed funding from Graham Hill, eco-design entrepreneur, which was enough to support a team of 4-5 Presidio World College Sustainable MBAs to develop and the launch the site full time.

TreeHugger’s content is excellent, thanks to its ability to pay writers around the world for blog posts. Its highly engaged community generates new content daily. It has great ads, and is able to earn enough revenue from sponsorships and ad placements to provide each of its team members with a modest income.

TreeHugger is the “hip” in the “hippy”. Rather than bombard the masses with the unpalatable, guilt-ridden message of most conservation activists, TreeHugger succeeds because it appeals to the consumer in all of us.

Graham states, “99.9% of us are not going to wear loincloths and live in a commune. They are going to continue to buy things, so why not have them buy good things?”

Sources:

This Week’s Podcast with Treehugger by Heather Green

TreeHugger Acquired by Discovery Communications for $10M

TreeHugger Acquires Discovery Communications

Technorati Tags: discovery, treehugger, discovery acquires treehugger, green planet, graham hill, nick aster, lorna li

Photos by Brian Caldwell

Last Friday I went to TechCrunch’s party at August Capital, a top-tier venture fund in Menlo Park, but left before the police showed up to shut it down at midnight. With approximately 900 guests, TechCrunch 9 was a scene - everyone who was anyone in tech was there, in addition to the usual suspects - the bub.blicio.us posse, the boyz from Looksmart’s 3rd Floor, Lane Hartwell, ValleyWag photographer extraordinaire, Scott Beale of Laughing Squid, Robert Scoble, the Scobleizer, and Sanford Barr of STIRR.

Brian Caldwell, Sanford Barr and Mick Liubinskas

In spite of the generous beer and wine, frozen margaritas, and copious food dished out via fast-moving and plentiful servers, the party was not as relaxed as it could have been. Perhaps that’s what happens when you get a lot startup founders and venture capitalists in one place - too much nervous energy. The most relaxed person on the premises was probably Guy Kawasaki.

Guy Kawasaki and Me

Someone commented, “Nobody’s getting laid at this party.” Indeed the male to female ratio was probably ten to one, but there were some very attractive women in attendance, if you guys would only look up from the demos.

Companies that demoed can be seen here.

Brian Solis and Charlene Li

Lane Hartwell with Kurt Collins and Josh Stomel

Robert Scoble and Son

Technorati Tags: techcrunch9, techcrunch at august capital, brian caldwell, sanford barr, robert scoble, brian solis, charlene li, lane hartwell, mick liubinskas, guy kawasaki, kurt collins, josh stomel

Last Tuesday, faulty electrical breakers caused a blackout in downtown San Francisco that took down my company’s Web site along with some of the Web’s hottest Internet properties, like Technorati, Craigslist, Yelp, Six Apart, CNet and Second Life.

Technorati looked like this:

The culprit was 365 Main, a key data center which houses the servers for a number of Web companies in downtown San Francisco. When the power outage hit, the backup generators in its “state-of-the-art electrical system,” which should have started immediately, did not kick in until nearly 45 minutes later. However, for companies that suddenly found themselves offline and scrambling, it took anywhere from 1 hour to 11 hours to get servers rebooted and Web sites operational.

It would be interesting to know how much revenue was lost due to the breakdown of 365 Main.

For the complete story, read Circuit breakers wipe out the Web.

Technorati Tags: PG&E power outage, technorati down, 365 main, san francisco blackout, lorna li