Announcements

I’ve been a bit quiet on here lately and honestly anticipate being quiet a bit longer. Why?

Why I’ve Been Quiet

There are a few reasons:

• A massive project for work was impacted by a recent WordPress security issue. It wasn’t hacked, but due to the user-generated nature of the system, it opened up the entire site to that potential. Going through the code to ensure maximum security, plus implementing some new backup procedures in the unlikely event a security breach were to take place has taken considerable time.
• The same site was hit with a negative SEO attack. So I’m now intimately familiar with the Google Disavow tool. Let me tell you, negative SEO exists and it’s a pain to clean up.
• Google launched their Penguin 2.0 update, so figuring out what has changed in the SEO landscape has taken a lot of work. At this point, I won’t be sharing details since I am using the competitive advantage for my work sites.
• New tech everywhere. Vine is taking off. Instagram is growing. Twitter has lead generation cards. Google+ has calls-to-action in shared links. Pinterest has rich pins and business analytics. Facebook launched hashtags. I’m still trying to find a suitable Google Reader replacement that fits my needs, and i use three accounts daily. The list goes on. Keeping up with all of this and experimenting with it to see its marketing viability is time consuming.
• No one is paying attention. Don’t get me wrong, site traffic continues to grow, I keep getting plenty of emails saying thanks or asking questions, but some of the big names in the industry keep doing things that show they just do not get online marketing. People are still having the same tired discussions on LinkedIn about what X entity can do to make our business better. It’s honestly frustrating to put out so much energy to try to help the industry just to see it ignored by the people who could actually lead by example.

Why I’ll Be Quiet Longer

Also a few reasons:

• Work is not slowing down. We just had some marketing/SEO consultants come through with an analysis and recommendations and while I’d say I’m at about 95% of where we should be, the 5% they suggested are valuable concepts and extremely time consuming. Between keeping up with new technologies and techniques, testing new ideas, working with customers, doing brand outreach, and monitoring everything going on, I’m already up by 5:30 AM most days and shut down the computer around 8 PM, only to continue being on call via iPhone and iPad for any customer interaction. Yes, I take an hour lunch break to hit the gym. Yes, I get on Facebook periodically, but mostly to track our Insights, spy on the competition, and get content ideas to pass along to our writer even though 9 times out of 10 she already saw what I’m sending her. On top of the daily changes they suggested that I’ll be implementing, there’s one big project on the horizon too that will probably take my hairline back a few more millimeters.
• I’m back to teaching. I have one full day off a week and I’m trying to fill that with teaching, guiding certified divers, or just going diving. How can I be a part of the diving community if I’m just doing it online? Bottom line is I can’t, plus I need the solitude that diving provides with no alerts constantly telling me to deal with something. But yes, I still check my iPhone during my surface interval to make sure nothing is blowing up.
• Summer is just busy. Oregon weather sucks aside from about 6 weeks out of the year, and I plan on enjoying that as much as possible. Luckily, all of my favorite patios have wifi and my friends have come to accept that I will look at alerts on my iPhone while I’m with them, it’s my job.
• I’m working on something big-ish. Basically, I plan to continue sharing concepts I believe are valuable, but I also want to help people really walk through the process. I’ve had a couple of close friends open new dive centers and start niche equipment companies in the last year, and I’ve provided some guidance on how to get their marketing up and running. I intend on sharing this process in an easy to follow method that anyone in the diving industry can apply. But it’s taking a lot of time because I want it to be dead simple to follow, and time is something I don’t have a ton of these days.

Google+ Community

While I’m still not a huge fan of Google+ due to too much shameless self promotion, the constant Apple bashing, people clearly trying to game it for SEO purposes, and lack of Business Page management functionality on the iOS apps, I am enjoying the Community feature.

I’ve even started a Google+ Community for SCUBA Marketing. Share your ideas, ask questions, get help from others in similar situations, use it however you see fit (as long as it has to do with marketing in the dive industry, please don’t just spam post your links/videos to promote your business).

So if you still want some SCUBA Marketing ideas or need help with any projects, at this point I’ll steer you to the Google+ Community for SCUBA Marketing. Once my work projects slow down (we’ll see if that happens) and I have my new project completed, I expect to be more regular with posts here.