Bloggers Unite! High Quality, Original Content is King!

Writing a blog can be a very tiresome, worrisome, frustrating and exhausting experience... It can also be hugely rewarding. Recently, the Net has taken down governments with Bloggers, Tweeters and Facebooker's taking the lead role. 


Shouldn't you start to stake your claim by starting a blog?


It might be the most rewarding thing you undertaken in years! It is for me.

XTC - King for a Day 

Currently, I am spending my time coaching two wonderful people on the virtues of blogging and how it will help them and their business grow. Coaching is a lot harder than I thought it would be. I sometimes am asked to blog or teach blogging to people, but, with these two, it is the very first time I've ever said, "Yes!" I said "Yes!" to these folks because I believe they have some great insights and I know they have some experiences and expertise that no one else has.  


My "students" are incredible people. They can add a world of knowledge and information to help us bloggers build, as Google describes it, "a healthy web-ecosystem." I think I understand what Google means by this. They mean that they want various sites that have original content rather than sites that collate information from various blogs.


I mean, news sites are needed and designed to aggregate various news sources, but there seems to be an increase of blog aggregation sites that offer no new, original information but simply list up a bunch of articles from various blogs around the world and copy and paste those on their site.

If those blog's purpose is to spread the word on a particular position concerning politics or social issues, then I understand that. If their purpose is to use other original content to gain hits on their websites so that they can get higher Google Search rankings so that they can sell more affiliate stuff when people click on links on their pages, well, I can't fault someone for trying to make a living, but I can see how Google would want to help support the independent original thinkers.


Now, Google has gone one step further. They've made a major tweak to their algorithm so that these "content farms" get lower search result rankings.


Yahoo! reports:   
Google tweaks search to punish 'low-quality' sites

Google says it has tweaked the formulas steering its Internet search engine to take the rubbish out of its results. The overhaul is designed to lower the rankings of what Google deems "low-quality" sites.

That could be a veiled reference to such sites as Demand Media's eHow.com, which critics call online "content farms" -- that is, sites producing cheap, abundant, mostly useless content that ranks high in search results.

Sites that produce original content or information that Google considers valuable are supposed to rank higher under the new system.

The change announced late Thursday affects about 12 percent, or nearly one in every eight, search requests in the U.S. Google Inc. 

Wow! This affects one in eight!? So, the point is, once again, original content is king on the Internet. 

Sure, Mr. and Ms. Blogger, we are not "journalists" in the traditional sense of the word, but we never claimed to be. Nevertheless, our opinion matters more and more everyday.

People listen to what bloggers have to say! Take, for example, you see a full page color ad in the newspaper for a new steak-house. The steak-house spends $20,000 for that ad. The ad says the restaurant is great! Do you go to that restaurant? If it were me, I wouldn't pay any attention to the ad at all. It wouldn't motivate me to go there.

But! If a blogger I like says that the restaurant is good, I probably would go and try it once. Why? I know the blogger is telling me the truth. I read this blogger's writing often. I know s/he didn't receive a bunch of money to write that recommendation. That means I have a relationship with this blogger and know who s/he is. I trust this person. 

Now, Google has saluted us with giving us more power on the web by rewarding us original content makers with this Search Engine tweak.

Thanks to Google Search Engine for recognizing us as the force to be reckoned with that we have become.


More concrete details on Google's new search engine algorithm here.

PS: I've written recommendations for cheap eats in Tokyo. There's cheap and good tasting sushi in Yoga; Raw Fish & drinks in Futagotamagawa; Delicious soba in Daimon; Wine & Dine in Omotesando; Fantastic Udon in Kamiyacho; Tokyo's best coffee and meeting place in Hanzomon; Tokyo's best hamburgers at Tsubame Grill; Out of this world Croatian food in Kyobashi at Dobro - Now, who you gonna trust? Me or some full page ad in the newspaper?

Think about it. Let's start blogging! The world wants to know you!

Marketing Japan: Why Google Worries About its Own Future....

By Mike in Tokyo Rogers

Google is dominating the Internet scene today and seems like they have destroyed the competition. But did you know that there are rumblings below the surface? Did you know that Google themselves fear for their position in the long run? It's true.

If you stop to think about it for a few moments, you can see where Google may be headed for some bad times in the very near future. Some reasons have to do with Google being so good at what they do that they have created a hole in their armor that can be exploited.

Today, I will lay out just a few of the reasons that Google and outside Internet experts alike seem to think that Google won't be king of the hill for too much longer. Here's why....

Have you ever asked the question, "Where will Google be in 10 years?"

I think a look at what has happened to major terrestrial TV broadcasting stations, or what has happened to Rock "hit" radio in recent years is a good indicator of what might probably happen to Google. If you consider the shape these two entities - TV and radio - are in today, as compared with their dominant position just 15 years ago, then it's not too far of a stretch of the imagination to see Google as, perhaps not a bit player, but not the dominant player.

Why?

I think it has to do with a few things; first the fracturing of the audience and the variety of choice given to us by the Internet due to the Long Tail. Because the Internet allows us so much choice, that choice allows people to exercise their quite unique individual tastes. This is damaging the "hit" market and exponentially growing the "niche" market. When people have many choices, they will exercise that choice.

When there were only 4 types of jam for toast, for example; strawberry, grape, blueberry or orange marmalade, people bought one of those. Now that there are hundreds - and the online stores can carry thousands - people are buying the peach, plum, or Canadian Boysenberry.

When a customer, buys one product, like Canadian Boysenberry, that's money displaced that takes away from a purchase of generic strawberry. That is what is called, "the Long Tail."

(See brief information on the Long Tail see "A Primer on the Long tail" here and "Is the Long Tail all Junk" here. For an in-depth analysis, please read Chris Anderson's definitive work in The Long Tail.)

The Long Tail

What does all this have to do with Google? Ah, there is the crux.

Think of Google search engine like a TV station. The TV station must have very broad appeal in order to survive... Today, this broad appeal actually has started working against them in the long run.

Take the example I often use of TV Tokyo. Let's compare TV Tokyo and, the Food Channel on TV:

TV Tokyo has over 1,000 employees.
Food Channel TV has about 20 employees.

TV Tokyo has a extremely wide target audience of anywhere between 6-years-old kids to 84-year-old seniors.
Food Channel TV has a focused target audience of women between 34-years-old to 50-years-old.

It costs about $150,000 (USD) to buy 25 commercials on TV Tokyo.
It costs about $8,000 (USD) to buy 25 commercials on Food Channel.

Now, the question is; "You are a manufacturer of kitchen appliances and cook ware. Where will you advertise?"

It is obvious that you will take the focused marketing that the Food Channel offers.... Now, extrapolate this into every segment of manufacturing, goods, services and possible sponsorships. What do you get?

You get a market that demands specialization. Isn't it obvious? Isn't that the way everything has been going? What restaurants do well? The family restaurant that has everything, but nothing is especially tasty, or the specialization restaurant that only serves, say, Italian food, or the sushi shop, or the Chinese restaurant?

The catch-all shops are, in many ways, still useful and profitable (see WalMart), but they are getting fierce competition from specialization and will be in the future. People, when given a choice, will choice specialization.

I touched on that in more detail here in "Marketing Japan: Why Digital Conversion Will Destroy TV Tokyo and TBS":

When there are 300 TV channels competing for your attention and sponsor's money - both of these critical factors to the survival of TV (audience and money) will be more widely dispersed.

Think of it this way: You are the maker of, say, outdoor goods like tents, bicycles and barbeques. Say, the price for 25 TV ads on a TV station like TV Tokyo is about $150,000 (USD). The price of 35 TV ads on the sports channel is $14,000. Sure there are more viewers on TV Tokyo, but Sports TV offers a targeted audience of men who like sports (and, by the way, many are probably are married, have families, and like the outdoors).... TV Tokyo's audience ranges from 10-year-olds to 80-year-olds; Sports TV target audience is mainly 30 ~ 50-year-old men.

Now, where would you spend the money if you were the sponsor? 

It is obvious that you would go for the Sports TV. It will be the same for all manufacturers whether they make diapers or women's fashion brand shoes. The diaspora of audience will make targeting even more important as time goes by.

Now, keep this in mind... Sit back and consider... Like I said, if Google were a TV station... Google is a catch all search engine... Whatever you want to search for, Google search engine has...

But wait a minute! What about specialization?

What if some smart Internet site, say a Food Channel, decides that they wanted to corner the market for Internet searches for "Food" and anything at all related to just food and food only.

Some might say, well, "Google will make one too..."

No, they won't... They can't... They might try though...

Think back to the Long Tail and all the millions and billions (more!) niches there are! There are niches inside of niches! Google cannot compete with that...

But a small company focusing on their niche and that niche only can... And they can do very well at it.

Then imagine that every niche in the world had their own search engine. Think of it; anything to do with cars might have their own specific search engine, travel only (then inside of "travel only" sub-niches like "Travel in Western Europe" or "Travel in Lower New Jersey"); the same with sports, medicine, shopping for women's clothes, you name it.

Can you see? Google could never keep up with that.

Google would become like today's catch all TV station and the niche search engines would eat them up.

From what I am seeing, I am beginning to think that this is inevitable... I suspect that Google does too!

-----------


Keywords:
Google search engine, mike rogers, Marketing Japan, Google, Long Tail, travel, food, TV, TV Tokyo, sports, medicine, cars,  The long Tail, Chris Anderson,  Mike in Tokyo Rogers, niche, niches