Saturday, June 30, 2018
Sunday, June 3, 2018
The Story Of A Webmaster
Last to last month I uploaded and published my first commercial video on YouTube. By "commercial" I mean to say, I created this video for one of my friends to fulfill certain professional needs that he wanted to achieve.
His requirement was to create some form of content in the shortest possible time, completely free of cost, and as accurately aligned as possible with his targeted audience. He basically wanted to appear at the top of Google SERP (search engine results page) against certain search terms (which were specific to his targeted industry) straight away. Like most people (if not all), to him too, this is the best way to establish your footprints on the web.
By profession, my loving friend is in the software sales market and doing a fantastic job for many years now consistently. Above all, he is really a good human being. He cares a lot about his family, co-workers, and friends. He offers time-to-time help for free to needy people and expects very little from them in return. Personally, I've got a lot of good advice from him in the past and those suggestions were impartially valuable to me.
He is very much active on social media platforms like Facebook, regularly uses WhatsApp and Twitter, well-versed with many mobile apps, and aware of the term digital marketing. Anyways he was in search of someone who actually can help him to solve his problem with content creation and getting it ranked on Google instantaneously.
He knew that I'm in the digital marketing field in some way. He is close to me personally although he didn't know much about me professionally, my area of expertise. By the way professionally, I'm a digital marketer turned webmaster who knows teeny-tiny about internet technologies & search engine algorithms. He didn't have any solid clue about how may I help him? Whether I can help him at all or not? Anyways, eventually, he came to me and asked me to help him out. And I took the opportunity with open arms.
Here is the video content that I've created and published as part of the assignment -
The outcome is super exciting to date. I'm able to position the video at the top of Google against some targeted keywords which were given to me by my friend. Almost instantly, the video has started appearing at the #1 position on Google SERP.
For your information, later when I checked to fulfill my own curiosity, I found that the search volume of those key phrases (selected by my friend based on his own industry knowledge and trends) is medium though the competition is high at least according to Google's own keyword planner tool. I also observed before creating the video that, many giants are already there and occupying the Google SERP.
After publishing the video on YouTube, I've checked its rank globally using VPN multiple times. I've also asked some of my overseas (in Australia and the USA) friends to confirm the position of the video against searches from their respective locations. All the feedback is affirmative.
I've also checked with a few of my Indian friends who are located in different parts of India. They also found the video at the top of Google for the targeted keyphrases. By the way, the primary target region was set as India, more specifically the entire eastern and north-eastern region of India.
So, I conclude that the appearance of the video is stable and it is consistently appearing on the first page of Google irrespective of its search location and timing. Right now, the video is appearing at the second position in default search i.e., "All" and first if search "Videos" only from anywhere. Not only that, but the video is also appearing at the third position of Yahoo and Bing's video search results pages respectively.
So everyone is happy. Right? No! Here is the first twist in my story.
I'm neither a professional video editor nor used any scripts to create/record the video. I not even used any sophisticated paid tool to create it. I used Windows Movie Maker 2.6 as because it's free, easy to use, and most importantly it's the only software version that my home system (a very old Dell Inspiron series laptop) supports without throwing an unexpected error.
The ranking is achieved with minimum digital marketing efforts because of no budget and no resources as said earlier. After publishing the video, I requested my friend to collect some likes and views from his office colleagues to get an initial mileage for the video. But he hasn't followed my suggestions completely.
You may feel wonder when I say, the video is uploaded to my private YouTube channel which is not at all relevant to the video's genre. The YouTube channel itself is not optimized completely. I had to upload it to my private channel because my friend doesn't have any. More interestingly, he insisted I use my channel. When I offered him to create a YouTube channel for our work-related purpose, he told me that, the whole initiative has to keep as autonomous as possible since he's not sure about the acceptance of the work from his industry. Even the whole operation needs to shut down suddenly if anybody opposes it, especially from his professional peers.
Quite naturally like many, my friend has very little (me too have limited knowledge though) idea about -
Fortunately, I have worked for many agencies in webmaster's (though I have serious doubt whether the hiring person/agency has any knowledge about what actually webmaster is) role and since they serve globally, so I come to know about many businesses and their owners from different verticals, from SMBs to large enterprises with a range of services and produces for both B2C and B2B customers.
Anyways I took the challenge from my friend with a smile as I was very much sure about the end result. I found exactly the same mindset of those impatient clients who knows what to achieve but really don't know how to especially in the digital space. I happily accepted his offer as I knew from that time - what I'm going to do after publishing the video - write a blog.
No more tweaks in my story, only honest confessions.
His requirement was to create some form of content in the shortest possible time, completely free of cost, and as accurately aligned as possible with his targeted audience. He basically wanted to appear at the top of Google SERP (search engine results page) against certain search terms (which were specific to his targeted industry) straight away. Like most people (if not all), to him too, this is the best way to establish your footprints on the web.
By profession, my loving friend is in the software sales market and doing a fantastic job for many years now consistently. Above all, he is really a good human being. He cares a lot about his family, co-workers, and friends. He offers time-to-time help for free to needy people and expects very little from them in return. Personally, I've got a lot of good advice from him in the past and those suggestions were impartially valuable to me.
He is very much active on social media platforms like Facebook, regularly uses WhatsApp and Twitter, well-versed with many mobile apps, and aware of the term digital marketing. Anyways he was in search of someone who actually can help him to solve his problem with content creation and getting it ranked on Google instantaneously.
He knew that I'm in the digital marketing field in some way. He is close to me personally although he didn't know much about me professionally, my area of expertise. By the way professionally, I'm a digital marketer turned webmaster who knows teeny-tiny about internet technologies & search engine algorithms. He didn't have any solid clue about how may I help him? Whether I can help him at all or not? Anyways, eventually, he came to me and asked me to help him out. And I took the opportunity with open arms.
Here is the video content that I've created and published as part of the assignment -
For your information, later when I checked to fulfill my own curiosity, I found that the search volume of those key phrases (selected by my friend based on his own industry knowledge and trends) is medium though the competition is high at least according to Google's own keyword planner tool. I also observed before creating the video that, many giants are already there and occupying the Google SERP.
After publishing the video on YouTube, I've checked its rank globally using VPN multiple times. I've also asked some of my overseas (in Australia and the USA) friends to confirm the position of the video against searches from their respective locations. All the feedback is affirmative.
I've also checked with a few of my Indian friends who are located in different parts of India. They also found the video at the top of Google for the targeted keyphrases. By the way, the primary target region was set as India, more specifically the entire eastern and north-eastern region of India.
So, I conclude that the appearance of the video is stable and it is consistently appearing on the first page of Google irrespective of its search location and timing. Right now, the video is appearing at the second position in default search i.e., "All" and first if search "Videos" only from anywhere. Not only that, but the video is also appearing at the third position of Yahoo and Bing's video search results pages respectively.
So everyone is happy. Right? No! Here is the first twist in my story.
I'm neither a professional video editor nor used any scripts to create/record the video. I not even used any sophisticated paid tool to create it. I used Windows Movie Maker 2.6 as because it's free, easy to use, and most importantly it's the only software version that my home system (a very old Dell Inspiron series laptop) supports without throwing an unexpected error.
The ranking is achieved with minimum digital marketing efforts because of no budget and no resources as said earlier. After publishing the video, I requested my friend to collect some likes and views from his office colleagues to get an initial mileage for the video. But he hasn't followed my suggestions completely.
You may feel wonder when I say, the video is uploaded to my private YouTube channel which is not at all relevant to the video's genre. The YouTube channel itself is not optimized completely. I had to upload it to my private channel because my friend doesn't have any. More interestingly, he insisted I use my channel. When I offered him to create a YouTube channel for our work-related purpose, he told me that, the whole initiative has to keep as autonomous as possible since he's not sure about the acceptance of the work from his industry. Even the whole operation needs to shut down suddenly if anybody opposes it, especially from his professional peers.
Quite naturally like many, my friend has very little (me too have limited knowledge though) idea about -
- How Google (search engine) works?
- What is search engine optimization (SEO) and how it works?
- How do you post a video on YouTube?
- What is YouTube optimization?
- What is the algorithm used in Google/YouTube search engine?
I tried to convince him per my best ability from the very beginning however he was quite adamant on his stance and was reluctant to apply any of my optimization advice. Later I discovered, he believes more in traditional ways of marketing and sales however also cannot completely disregard digital ways like many do especially after seeing the recent boom in the Indian software sales market powered by the internet accessibility to the mass. When I have shown him many big/medium/small fishes are already in the pond, he then smiled on my face and said - that's why I come to you.
His primary demand was to get the top position on Google. And of course, I had to do everything as soon as possible. Showing him some immediate tangible results so he can quantify the effort and start thinking seriously about investing some money as I demanded initially, was one of the prime targets for me.
One thing I would like to clear here before move forward that, this project was like charity work for me. I didn't get paid for my work. It is something like suddenly someone who you know personally very well challenges you, your ability blatantly -
Hey you! Aren't you a webmaster? Show me your credibility - how much competent you are actually as a digital marketer? For many years, you're telling me about SEO, so show me some output very quickly which I can actually measure. Look, I really don't know anything about how do you use Google search? Or what is a search engine and how does it work? Or how do Google web crawlers work? And I don't want to know anything about how content marketing help building a business gradually etc. etc. All I care about the result - place me (read my content) at the top of Google and whenever someone searches, I want to be at the first. Can you do that Mr. Webmaster? Oh! And please remember, I cannot pay you or I am not going to invest anything in this aside from answer all your queries about the project within 30 minutes over the phone.
Since I knew my friend well enough, I accepted his undeniable offer calmly.
You shocked! Here is another turn in the story.
His primary demand was to get the top position on Google. And of course, I had to do everything as soon as possible. Showing him some immediate tangible results so he can quantify the effort and start thinking seriously about investing some money as I demanded initially, was one of the prime targets for me.
One thing I would like to clear here before move forward that, this project was like charity work for me. I didn't get paid for my work. It is something like suddenly someone who you know personally very well challenges you, your ability blatantly -
Hey you! Aren't you a webmaster? Show me your credibility - how much competent you are actually as a digital marketer? For many years, you're telling me about SEO, so show me some output very quickly which I can actually measure. Look, I really don't know anything about how do you use Google search? Or what is a search engine and how does it work? Or how do Google web crawlers work? And I don't want to know anything about how content marketing help building a business gradually etc. etc. All I care about the result - place me (read my content) at the top of Google and whenever someone searches, I want to be at the first. Can you do that Mr. Webmaster? Oh! And please remember, I cannot pay you or I am not going to invest anything in this aside from answer all your queries about the project within 30 minutes over the phone.
Since I knew my friend well enough, I accepted his undeniable offer calmly.
You shocked! Here is another turn in the story.
This is actually very funny. Earlier, when I was new in the digital marketing field and webmaster role, I often get angry and frustrated when my superiors at work assigned similar kinds of PPC campaign targets, SEO projects, or social media campaign goals. All they said - this is the job, this is the deadline, so do it, boy. Later in my career, when I started interacting directly with clients, I also used to get such demands many times from them - those clients were not mine as because I haven't done any freelancing job for money so far. Those esteemed client projects were acquired by typical business development executives on behalf of my employers where I worked as a salaried employee. I slowly come to understand that, to winning a project or to meet their monthly/quarterly/yearly targets, how the intelligent business developers become super-intelligent time-to-time. They don't hesitate to promise clients about the guaranteed outcomes and set unrealistic project goals. In many cases, I've seen that they actually don't much bother about the actual requirements. All they care about the signed contract from the client to fulfill their target. And most of the clients are too feel secure/comfortable as they have an agreement with the outsourced agencies on assured success.
I have faced such situations in my career many times which as a result gave me the impression that most self-acclaimed digital-savvy people are actually don't know the sophistication of online marketing although most of them are either doing or offering digital marketing services. Many of them are known to the industry jargon like SEO (search engine optimization), PPC (pay-per-click), SMM (social media marketing), etc. However unfortunately they don't know the classiness of any of these. And this applies to most of the people around the globe - people who are offering don't know as well as people who are looking for such services. Though the situation has now improved much at least compared to 10 years ago however still majority is lagging behind the sincerity.
Due to my profession and my professional background, I come close to many people from around the world who want to set up their businesses to succeed on the web but are reluctant to follow the basics. One thing is common in them, they have resources, but strangely they don't have much time. They are desperately looking for solutions yet they're unwilling to open their eyes/minds completely. And the solution providers and/or professionals are unlawfully taking advantage of the situation and tweaking in favor of them. They're deliberately misinterpreting the whole logic of how Google works to those entrepreneurs who are seeking help on the web only for getting the contract paper to be signed. As a result, the whole ecosystem of the internet-based business model is now facing a tricky situation.
Trust and mutual respect are evaporating quickly now as many of the false promises are getting exposed frequently. Sad to see, most of the solution provider firms/individuals are still following the obsolete routes when it comes to digital marketing activities and they're doing it consciously day-in-day-out only to fill up the man-hour sheet as agreed in the contract with the client. Similarly, clients are also happy seeing that the resources they've hired are fulfilling the work-sheet as agreed and aloof from examining the actual output due to their own negligence or procrastinate nature. Time flies away and the situation change - and one fine morning, suddenly when the project owner realizes the actual outcome is nil (literally zero), fire the hired agency and resume the search for another solution provider at a cheaper rate.
This is why clients should also know at least the basics of how things work and what actually works otherwise they get cheated continuously. I'm not saying everyone is the culprit. I know many agencies and professionals (personally and at a professional level) who like to work ethically all along the way. I also faced many educated clients who actively participated in the project for the sake of real success. In fact, a lot of brilliant ideas I have got from my clients directly as they are the best person to understand their own business, their customers, their requirements after all.
I think it's a vicious circle.
I have faced such situations in my career many times which as a result gave me the impression that most self-acclaimed digital-savvy people are actually don't know the sophistication of online marketing although most of them are either doing or offering digital marketing services. Many of them are known to the industry jargon like SEO (search engine optimization), PPC (pay-per-click), SMM (social media marketing), etc. However unfortunately they don't know the classiness of any of these. And this applies to most of the people around the globe - people who are offering don't know as well as people who are looking for such services. Though the situation has now improved much at least compared to 10 years ago however still majority is lagging behind the sincerity.
Due to my profession and my professional background, I come close to many people from around the world who want to set up their businesses to succeed on the web but are reluctant to follow the basics. One thing is common in them, they have resources, but strangely they don't have much time. They are desperately looking for solutions yet they're unwilling to open their eyes/minds completely. And the solution providers and/or professionals are unlawfully taking advantage of the situation and tweaking in favor of them. They're deliberately misinterpreting the whole logic of how Google works to those entrepreneurs who are seeking help on the web only for getting the contract paper to be signed. As a result, the whole ecosystem of the internet-based business model is now facing a tricky situation.
Trust and mutual respect are evaporating quickly now as many of the false promises are getting exposed frequently. Sad to see, most of the solution provider firms/individuals are still following the obsolete routes when it comes to digital marketing activities and they're doing it consciously day-in-day-out only to fill up the man-hour sheet as agreed in the contract with the client. Similarly, clients are also happy seeing that the resources they've hired are fulfilling the work-sheet as agreed and aloof from examining the actual output due to their own negligence or procrastinate nature. Time flies away and the situation change - and one fine morning, suddenly when the project owner realizes the actual outcome is nil (literally zero), fire the hired agency and resume the search for another solution provider at a cheaper rate.
This is why clients should also know at least the basics of how things work and what actually works otherwise they get cheated continuously. I'm not saying everyone is the culprit. I know many agencies and professionals (personally and at a professional level) who like to work ethically all along the way. I also faced many educated clients who actively participated in the project for the sake of real success. In fact, a lot of brilliant ideas I have got from my clients directly as they are the best person to understand their own business, their customers, their requirements after all.
I think it's a vicious circle.
Fortunately, I have worked for many agencies in webmaster's (though I have serious doubt whether the hiring person/agency has any knowledge about what actually webmaster is) role and since they serve globally, so I come to know about many businesses and their owners from different verticals, from SMBs to large enterprises with a range of services and produces for both B2C and B2B customers.
Anyways I took the challenge from my friend with a smile as I was very much sure about the end result. I found exactly the same mindset of those impatient clients who knows what to achieve but really don't know how to especially in the digital space. I happily accepted his offer as I knew from that time - what I'm going to do after publishing the video - write a blog.
No more tweaks in my story, only honest confessions.
I grew up using Orkut, teaching myself how to design graphics, learning basic HTML, and DHTML (Dynamic HTML), trying to create something visually enticing. I went to my friend's house after high school and was engaged with the idea of building our own website.
Slowly but steadily, I progressed in my career path and today become a webmaster. This is my earnest request to everyone who is using the internet for digital marketing - don't do anything which will ultimately give you a headache rather than concrete peace.
During the last 10 years, a lot of things have changed in SEO, PPC, social media. It's our responsibility to take an honest route in the way of making money through online channels. I haven't seen many stories and solid campaigns against unethical service providers on the web. I don't know why people are afraid to raise their voices against such activities. To make money, you must not take the wrong path. Because a person doesn't know about a particular field doesn't mean you start squeezing his money. Because a person looking for digital solutions desperately doesn't mean you will guide him in the wrong direction. Why we don't follow the basics of SEO, PPC, and SMO (social media optimization) provided by Google, Bing, Facebook, etc. ethically and tweak things by staying within the boundaries defined by them? Don't you see, the changes Google brings to us regularly are counter-attacks for those illegal movements made by webmasters like us now? The more we become smart with finding loopholes in Google's algorithm, the more search engines become smarter to tackle our game plan.
The moment my friend told me about his desire, the whole picture got clear to me. I thought this will be a good way to raise my voice against this organized crime - happening to many around the world for many years. I know sometimes it's difficult for someone to know everything but my plea to all those entrepreneurs - before hiring a professional or an agency to look after your digital initiatives, please understand the basics of how Google works? That will give you not only ideas about the current trends but also help you to monitor effectively the whole work and lead you to the path of success.
By doing so, you not only secure positive ROI (return on investment) but also help the solutions providers build a healthy relationship with each other. We all must avoid unnecessary complexity in our lives and stick to simplicity wherever possible. Let's create a digital world based on true and sophisticated laws of digital marketing. Don't caricature with the laws else it will start impacting badly on everyone's life. As responsible webmasters, our duties are to educate our client not to cheat him. At the same time, as an entrepreneur, one must humbly accept the limitations a webmaster has;, otherwise unnecessary pressure will make him crazy and he may end up cheating on you.
I'm again telling you, not everyone is the same but unfortunately, most of us are not doing the right things whatever be the reason. It's a responsibility for all of us to justify our efforts as honestly as possible. To save time and money, if you take the shortcuts, you'll definitely end up spending even more time and money. to gain short-term profits, please don't overlook the loss you incur in the long run.
Most importantly, what is working today in the digital world may or may not work tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. But that doesn't mean, you lie to yourself, you start lying to your client, and as a client, you start pressurizing your hired agency. Everybody should understand, and evolve according to the changes that are happening to the digital world as one thing is for sure, the changes of tomorrow are nothing but the aftereffects of our today's work. So to secure your tomorrow, safeguard your today from all the possible threats.
I've won the first fight by placing the video at the top of Google for certain search queries but that's not the end of work. Actually, this is the beginning. Placing at the top is one thing, and getting hits from the targeted audience is another. I really don't know yet, how commercially the video is helping my friend to expand his voice over the web, but it's a continuous process to keep it at the top and getting consistent hits from search.
I'm now waiting for his call to take my effort to the next level.
Cheers!
Slowly but steadily, I progressed in my career path and today become a webmaster. This is my earnest request to everyone who is using the internet for digital marketing - don't do anything which will ultimately give you a headache rather than concrete peace.
During the last 10 years, a lot of things have changed in SEO, PPC, social media. It's our responsibility to take an honest route in the way of making money through online channels. I haven't seen many stories and solid campaigns against unethical service providers on the web. I don't know why people are afraid to raise their voices against such activities. To make money, you must not take the wrong path. Because a person doesn't know about a particular field doesn't mean you start squeezing his money. Because a person looking for digital solutions desperately doesn't mean you will guide him in the wrong direction. Why we don't follow the basics of SEO, PPC, and SMO (social media optimization) provided by Google, Bing, Facebook, etc. ethically and tweak things by staying within the boundaries defined by them? Don't you see, the changes Google brings to us regularly are counter-attacks for those illegal movements made by webmasters like us now? The more we become smart with finding loopholes in Google's algorithm, the more search engines become smarter to tackle our game plan.
The moment my friend told me about his desire, the whole picture got clear to me. I thought this will be a good way to raise my voice against this organized crime - happening to many around the world for many years. I know sometimes it's difficult for someone to know everything but my plea to all those entrepreneurs - before hiring a professional or an agency to look after your digital initiatives, please understand the basics of how Google works? That will give you not only ideas about the current trends but also help you to monitor effectively the whole work and lead you to the path of success.
By doing so, you not only secure positive ROI (return on investment) but also help the solutions providers build a healthy relationship with each other. We all must avoid unnecessary complexity in our lives and stick to simplicity wherever possible. Let's create a digital world based on true and sophisticated laws of digital marketing. Don't caricature with the laws else it will start impacting badly on everyone's life. As responsible webmasters, our duties are to educate our client not to cheat him. At the same time, as an entrepreneur, one must humbly accept the limitations a webmaster has;, otherwise unnecessary pressure will make him crazy and he may end up cheating on you.
I'm again telling you, not everyone is the same but unfortunately, most of us are not doing the right things whatever be the reason. It's a responsibility for all of us to justify our efforts as honestly as possible. To save time and money, if you take the shortcuts, you'll definitely end up spending even more time and money. to gain short-term profits, please don't overlook the loss you incur in the long run.
Most importantly, what is working today in the digital world may or may not work tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. But that doesn't mean, you lie to yourself, you start lying to your client, and as a client, you start pressurizing your hired agency. Everybody should understand, and evolve according to the changes that are happening to the digital world as one thing is for sure, the changes of tomorrow are nothing but the aftereffects of our today's work. So to secure your tomorrow, safeguard your today from all the possible threats.
I've won the first fight by placing the video at the top of Google for certain search queries but that's not the end of work. Actually, this is the beginning. Placing at the top is one thing, and getting hits from the targeted audience is another. I really don't know yet, how commercially the video is helping my friend to expand his voice over the web, but it's a continuous process to keep it at the top and getting consistent hits from search.
I'm now waiting for his call to take my effort to the next level.
Cheers!
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