Listo Ipsums

There seems to be a growing trend of slapping together a bunch of related words and calling it an alternative to the classic Lorem Ipsum text. With the tweet I saw today from Jason Fried, I thought it would be a good opportunity to compile several of the Lorem Ipsum alternatives that I’ve seen into one list. So here you go.

Do you have any others? Leave them in the comments section.

Analogy Of The Day: SEO = Garden

I often find myself explaining basic concepts about Search Engine Optimization to clients. It seems like there’s a general lack of understanding that SEO isn’t just a set-it-and-forget-it type of thing. Just because “optimizations” were done three years ago doesn’t mean we’re done. If yours was the only site on the internet and there was only one search engine that never changed their algorithm, then maybe we could do something once and walk away forever.

So while tending to yard work last night, the following analogy came to mind:

SEO is like a garden. You have to plant it, but just because you plant it, doesn’t mean it’s going to grow. Just because it grows, doesn’t mean it’s going to bear fruit. Just because it bears fruit, doesn’t mean anyone’s going to like it or eat it. And just because you planted a garden in the past, doesn’t mean that you never have to keep watering, seeding, weeding or planting continuously. Treat your SEO like a garden, and you’ll harvest a better crop.

 

Will Anyone Care About the Death of MySpace?

UPDATE, 6/30/2011: I definitely posted too soon and without proper insight and research. This is a great example of how those of us across the Twitter and Blog worlds (note: I didn’t use anything ending in “osphere”) can see “news” come in from multiple reliable sources via Twitter and link out to other sites that seemingly confirm the information.

With so many blogs out there reporting on what is seen from various sources on the web, unfortunately it’s harder and harder to know who has what kind of credibility. I definitely have a reminder now that if some blogs cite an actual reliable source, that it would be prudent to see verification from that reliable source.

I apologize for jumping the gun and being another source to say that MySpace would be shutting down. Instead, MySpace was acquired by Specific Media for $35M and it’s been confirmed by reliable sources across the Internet.

What has yet to be seen, though, is whether MySpace lives through this in any capacity or whether this is just another step towards its demise.

After once being the most popular site on the Internet and arguably the social site that really kicked off the social site craze, MySpace will be shutting down on June 30, 2011.

Will anyone really care?

How long has it been since you visited MySpace and had any meaningful interaction with it? Besides the random link from some musician that still puts out music that is showcased there, I don’t see MySpace rearing its head anywhere except in news headlines predicting its demise or talking about its stagnant status.

So that does leave one demographic that I can see being impacted – even if only in a small way – but that is the artist/musician community.

There are still a tremendous number of musicians and bands out there who use MySpace as their primary platofrm for distributing full-length songs to the world. There’s also no other freely available resource that has been so widely adopted for this purpose. iTunes is fine, but 30-second clips of songs just aren’t as nice of a way to discover new music.

What will the replacement be? Where will musicians go to demo their goods? Is there something that already exists that can absorb the traffic and offer the features bands are looking for, or is this an opportunity for a new player to step in?

Just my take on this. Maybe I should log into my MySpace profile to see how neglected it is before they close it down. Just what was it that I put on that crappy site anyway…

5 Things We’re Ready to Stop Seeing on Twitter

Tapping into the collective consciousness of Twitter, it appears that there are several things that regular Twitter users are ready to not be subject to seeing anymore. My opinion is that a lot of these are things that we’d like to not see or hear anywhere, but they appear consistently and repeatedly in written form on Twitter on an ongoing basis. So it makes it easy to point out.

Some of this reminds me of the early days of the Internet when newsgroups were the way that we’d all communicate and collaborate online. There was an etiquette that was generally followed, and it quickly became apparent who the newbies were. Some of that prevails today, in that many Tweeters consistently repeat behavior that is more or less seen as annoying, amateur, or just unnecessary.

So here’s the list I’ve started compiling from other Tweets that I’ve seen where someone calls out the undesirable Tweet behavior. I concur with many of these, and I recommend you take a look to see which #TweetCrime you may have participated in as well.

5 Things We’re Ready to Stop Seeing on Twitter

  • The status of your inbox
    Frankly, nobody cares. Plus – it’s not only a little braggy, but it’s assuming that your method for managing and organizing your inbox is superior to everyone else’s, and the goal all should strive for. Frankly, we just don’t care. 

    “Went to bed with inbox zero, woke up with 30 more emails. It’s never ending.”
    “OMG. Zero inbox for the first time in months!”
    “854 new unread emails in my Inbox. Clearly, vacation is over.”

  • Good Morning / Good Day / Top O’ the Mornin’ to Ya
    Sure, it’s polite and nice, but is it really necessary? If I follow you, and you Tweet a “good morning” every single day, it’s just one more tweet filling up space where I’m trying to pay attention to the actual information going on in the world. 

    “Top of the morning to ya…Treadmill time!!”
    “Top of the morning twit fam!”
    “Good morning. Give God the glory.”

  • Vague or ambigious Tweets that are just phishing for a reply or follow-up
    If you’re begging for attention, please don’t do it on Twitter. Give up the goods or wait until you have things worked out more before sharing it with the world. 

    “Four times in one year. A personal best.”
    “I can’t believe this is happening to me.”
    “I love waking up to good news!”

  • Endless inspirational or motivational quotes.
    I like a good quote or words of wisdom as much as the next guy. But if a significant number of your Tweets are dedicated to someone else’s words, maybe you need to reconsider why you’ve got a Twitter account in the first place. If I wanted a carbon copy of the unabridged dictionary of famous quotations, I’d just follow that on Twitter. I want to know what you are thinking.
  • Pointless Nothingness
    It’s pretty simple. If there’s no value or meaning to something, and the general public doesn’t care about it and doesn’t need to know about it, go ahead and leave it off Twitter. 

    “Just got home”
    “Nice day outside today”
    “Gym.”

 

This list is likely only a beginning. It’s also focused more on the things I’ve seen people mention that are pretty universal. One candidate on many lists is those who Tweet about food or what they are eating. While that can be mundane, there are times when it’s relevant or even interesting in the way that someone does it. Not universal.

What are some of your least favorite kinds of Tweets?