Internet Jack of All Trades

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Every restaurant needs a PDF version of their menu

Sep23
2011 Leave a Comment Written by James Dabbagian

Many restaurants offer their menus online. This lets people check out what they want before they go to the restaurant and waste the waiter’s/cashier’s time staring at the menu and making life hell for everyone else. However, the menu is typically in HTML, and part of the website. A better way would be to make it a PDF instead. Here’s why:

  • Downloadability - Unlike a web page, a user can easily download a PDF file to their computer. They can store it for later archiving and keep it as a collection of menus.
  • Portability - I keep a PDF collection of several menus on my PDA. Apple’s iBooks lets me store PDFs in several collections, and Amazon’s Kindle and Barnes & Noble’s Nook Color also include the opportunity to save PDFs and view them natively. Suffice it to say, having a menu on hand at all times means I can decide “Hmm…I’m in the mood for this kind of food, hey, that’s nearby!”
  • Sharing - PDFs are free to view, and free to use with the Acrobat Reader plugin. Users can also email them or share them on other computers. They even work with social networks like Twitter and Facebook!
  • Printing - Ever print out a menu from a web page? It never looks the same as your menu. A PDF can be a direct scan of your ACTUAL menu, thus readers see the menu exactly the way you want them to.

You can elect to download a PDF Printer such as Cute PDF, use MS Office’s ability to save to PDF, or have someone do it for you. Doing this lets you share your menu with everyone, and can only help spread word-of mouth.

Tagged , , ,

How to write a good online Bio

Sep06
2011 Leave a Comment Written by James Dabbagian

So you like to cook indian Tex-Mex food, shoot deer, go to church, play with puppies, raise kids, window shop, fish, do ultimate frisbee…etc…etc…etc…etc….oh, but you’re a social media consultant?

Sorry, I lost you at shooting deer.

As harsh as that may sound, it seems like a lot of us (Myself included) don’t seem to realize that the little “About Me” page on our blogs is the place where people get to learn two things: Who we are, and what we do. And we don’t seem to do it well.

That being said, based on my own experience, and some tips from #blogchat participants,  here’s a great way to make an effective bio for standing out. That said however, this is my opinion. You’re welcome to contribute thoughts as well.

  1. Start with what you do: Just exactly what is it that you do? For example, go beyond just saying that you’re a Social Media whatver; do you handle analytics? Are you good with communities? Do you curate content? What are your skills? Remember, you’re trying to separate yourself from your competitors.
  2. Your experience:  Basically, this is where you answer the question “How do I know you’re competent?” to the reader. List areas where you were the most beneficial to your companies or clients. Examples include setting up the content guidelines for your company, increasing ROI by 500% for social media, or designing the website of a major company. Don’t make this a resume, just give the basic facts.
  3. Hobbies: Once you’ve established what you can do, tell people a bit about yourself. Here, you can add some personality to yourself, so you don’t look like a complete robot. What do you like to do in your spare time, and DON’T SAY SOCIAL MEDIA. For instance, I’ll readily admit to playing a nice game of Team Fortress 2 occasionally, but I also write short stories and do photography.
  4. Ways to reach you/Links to Services: This should be an obvious one, but if not, Give out your email and phone number if you feel comfortable with it. I personally use a Google Docs form for people to fill out; it automatically emails me anytime there’s a request.

Advanced tips

Decide between 3rd person and 1st person: While there’s no real winner here in terms of effectiveness, you can decide which one you want.
Link to testimonials or samples Prospects love to see some of your work, or testimonials from others. You can link them in your bio so others can see your talents.

Your turn

Is there something you would add to this list? Would you order them any differently?

Why you DO NOT BLOG for SEO.

Aug29
2011 2 Comments Written by James Dabbagian

My main purpose for blogging is SEO!

I Blog for SEO!

SEO is the reason for my blogging.

NO IT’S NOT.

I have been seeing this trend come up lately, mainly in #blogchat but not just there. Both people brand-new to blogging and blog veterans are guilty of this crime. Other segments of Twitter, other bloggers, all feel like the purpose for their blog is Search Engine Optimization. They they blog solely for SEO.

BULL.

People who say this have no idea what this means. SEO is a tool, and that is all that it is. You use SEO in order to attract prospective readers (potential customers if going e-commerce) to your site, but you still have a purpose for the website.

To say that you blog for SEO is like saying a carpenter builds furniture for nails. Or like saying a teacher teaches students for being able to use chalk.

Think about this for a second. Why do you even have a website? Do you want to lead a community? To get a voice out? To sell your services as a freelancer in whatever it is you do? Or maybe you’re selling something like eBooks or electronics or whatever. Hell, maybe you’re the blogger of a corporation; you’re blogging for your customers.

The point is, THAT’S your purpose. You blog for an audience, you blog for money, whatever. You don’t blog for a tool that you use. That’s silly.

This brings me back to something that my little Blog-Sentence experiment is suggesting: We don’t really understand our purpose for blogging. If I asked someone to create an elevator pitch for their blog, they’d have no idea why they were blogging.

Hence, this is something to keep in mind. Why do you REALLY blog? It can’t be just because of a tool. Yes, SEO is powerful. Yes, it can get you noticed on Google, but it is not an end to a means.

So with that in mind, can you tell me why you blog?

 

 

 

 

Posted in Blogging - Tagged , ,

Summarizing your blog with one sentence in 3 easy steps

Aug21
2011 Leave a Comment Written by James Dabbagian

My blog covers the latest in Social Media, Branding and Using Content.

This sentence summarizes my goal for Ad Rhetorica, which is my blog covering the above things. It seems relatively simple to say what it is your blog covers,but for a lot of people (especially for the people in today’s #blogchat,) it’s the most difficult thing in the world. With so many topics to cover, and so many interesting things, it’s hard to define what it is your blog is about, and as much as you want to, you’re not gonna be able to talk about everything to everyone. If you want an audience, you’ll need to pick some topics, and to do that, you should summarize what your blog is all about.

With that in mind, let’s create your Blog Summary Sentence

  1. Write down all the topics you cover on your blog - Think about all the things you write about, or want to write about. Let’s assume that you’ve got a political blog. Your blogging topics may consist of things such as political campaigns, scandals, debates, and a few other things. However, some people may have blogs that act as a drop for everything, such as parenting to political thoughts to chess tactics. In any case, list down every topic you’ve covered, whether it’s concerning one entry or several.
  2. Remove topics you barely cover – Count each time you discuss one of your topics in a blog. Do you tend to be a marketing blogger but find you’ve covered digital music once or twice? Or perhaps you don’t really know what you cover the most of off-hand, but you’ve noticed a trend of some articles being covered more than others? These arguably are what you’re all about, at least on this blog. Pick the 2-3 topics you cover the most, then drop the rest. (You can still write about them, they’re just not what your blog is about.)
  3. Write a sentence with the topics in them, as small as possible. Ultimately, you want you be able to explain what it is your blog does with one sentence, with the sentence being as small as possible. The best way to find a workable sentence is to go on twitter and work on your sentence using the tweet box. When it’s 140 characters or under, it’s good to go.

Keep in mind that this is NOT an elevator pitch. While it can be the basis for one, you are trying to develop your blog’s purpose. Determine why you write, and the pitch will follow. You’re trying to give your blog an identity.

And don’t worry. If you decide you want to work on a different niche or specialty, you can always change your blog summary sentence later.

Homework

Do the above steps for your site, then report back. What is your summary sentence?

Posted in Blogging - Tagged , ,

Death by repetition: Other ways to say “Make Money Online”

May10
2011 Leave a Comment Written by James Dabbagian

I get really annoyed with the words “Make Money Online.” It seems like the words “make money online” have been spreading like a drunken computer virus out to beat on everything in sight, all in the hopes of making Google’s #1 page result for “make money online.”

NOTE: Because I don’t want to be accused of being a hypocrite, “Make Money Online”  will hereafter be referred to as ”MMO” for this entry. I apologize in advance if I mislead you here thinking there were ways to MMO.

Yeah, Yeah, Keywords, SEO and all that shit, but listen up: The keyword MMO will be something that will eternally be fought over on that battleground between the Blogosphere and the Internets known only as The Google. Do you have any idea how many Blogging Contests have involved a backlink saying MMO on it. MMO is such a popular anchor text that there will be a near-constant struggle to get top spot on Google.

So, what are you supposed to do? Well, for starters, you don’t have to say MMO. There are plenty of ways to say you can MMO. Here are just a few ways:

  • Make Income on the Internet
  • Earn Income Online
  • Get Cash on the Internet
  • Get Cash Online
  • Internet Income
  • Extra Income on the Internet

Be Creative! All you really need is a thesaurus, and you’re set! If you use your imagination, while everyone else is trying to conquer MMO, you’ve gone and conquered every other way to say MMO!

Posted in Blogging

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