This is a great video. He does make fun of some of the latest Tom Cruise clips on TMZ.com. Have fun. This is great!

Link

The name of my business is Panaca Writing & Design. I thought it was a good idea at the time, but now I have people asking all day how to pronouce it and what the heck “Panaca” means.

I am one of those real mushy women and I wanted my family included so I took the two first letters of my husband’s name and the first two letters of my sons’ names and came up with Panaca…

PA  - NA - CA = PaNaCa See. It is so simple. I know another business in town that took two tacks and stuck them in random places in the phone book. Not a bad way to go. How did you come up with yours?

Melissa - SEOAware.com

I read the article Why You Should Reveal SEO Secrets To Clients and I have read the comments on Sphinn. I have some opinions of my own, but keep in mind that because I work as a consultant my mind set may be different than some companies.

I take the time to explain to my clients what we will do and why I am doing what I am doing.

First of all, to ask someone to invest their money in something they do not understand at all isn’t really right and if they do invest they will be stressed and worried through the entire process. By explaining things I can set their mind at ease a bit and what I do starts to make sense to them. I never talk down to people and if it takes two hours to explain things I will take that time to explain things point by point and I give them The SEO Basics Your Clients Should Know About . I make sure they understand and they can trust me. We all know people are getting ripped off left and right as they are trying new advertising and marketing methods. I don’t want them to think they got ripped off by me.  It is my job to explain it and be honest.

There is no danger in explaining my secrets / methods for several reasons…

First, they don’t want to tell what I do to anyone else because they don’t want any one else to mimic what I am doing for them. Additionally, although there is some understanding of what we are doing I rarely have a client that gets it so much that they could replicate it. Also, most of my clients do not have the time to get down and dirty and do it themselves. They pay me because they have a company to run.

Sure, measurements are important, but not every client is concerned with the return. Some just want to be on top!

All clients want to bring in more money, but there are many that just want to ensure they are above their competition on the web. Do I blame them? NO! Do I understand? Duh, YEAH! Being on top brings in more money and it gives you an edge.There are several reasons why people want our services and many don’t want to take the time to analyze everything. They just want results…the want to be #1.

Melissa- SEOAware.com

   Search Engine Land / Barry Schwartz added my article link  to their SearchCap: The Day in Search for Jan 16, 08 under SEM industry yesterday. Thanks Barry. I love you guys.

Melissa-SEOAware

If you read my blog you know that I have issues with web design companies and how they treat their clients. I feel that if you are dropping $5,000 you deserve to have complete access to every page of your site, have the ability to optimize yourself and have a properly coded site.

I don’t recommend many people or products. I am offered a lot of money to do so, but I just can’t because I feel like what I write has to be honest and I just don’t feel I can be as honest when I am getting paid. So, today I am going to recommend an actual web design company…not a template-based software, but actual people who design and code.

 City Mind in Sarasota, Florida

Why I am a recommending them? Well, there are certain things they offer clients that I feel are really important.

1. A content management system that gives you full access to everything.

    You can change all the copy on every page and change whatever pictures you want. I work with clients that do not have access to their home page and they are limited to the picture sizes set up ahead of time. These sizes can’t be changed. I have been told by the companies that their clients really aren’t smart enough so they have to design it that way. Ohhhhhhhhhh, that crap just pisses me off. I have not seen or heard anything like this with City Mind.

2. If you have an SEO consultant you work with they don’t care.

    Your SEO will have access to everything. They don’t complain and say, “Well, pay us cause we offer these service…”. They just say, “Whatever you want”. This is a rare thing and it really protects you in the long run.

3. A properly coded site.

   I have been talking about this since Site Pro News published my first article. A properly coded site is really important. City Mind takes it a step further and removes any unnecessary coding which helps you because the search engines see what really matters and it gives you a better shot at showing up in the SERPS for the keyword phrases you wanted to show up for.

4. Ok, don’t laugh…an XML sitemap

   Yes, this is basic, but I have to tell you that I did the math and 82% of the web design companies/web designers I have dealt with still don’t even know what an XML sitemap is. No Crap. If you are spending the money on a web site it should be yours to do with what you want. You should have the right to have your own SEO people, change the copy anytime you want, add pictures, delete pictures…you should have access to everything and City Mind is, so far, the only company I have dealt with that gives you access to everything without an argument or complaint…you just get a “sure, no problem”. Are they cheap? No. Will you get a quality web site with full access to everything? Yes.

   Have an Awesome Day!

   Melissa- SEOAware.com

   
   

  - Finally a pic…and one with no makeup… I will find a better one at some point…

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Well, there are great things about what I do. I love the work- I have realized I am a complete computer geek, but with more success comes more stress.

I have jumped in the real estate game and the stakes are high [and so is the pay:-)]. I have had clients nationwide and I have not really had to deal with competition between clients or future clients so far. However, real estate is king in Sarasota, Florida. Waterfront real estate is huge- Oprah is building a home here, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill just bought a home, “Arnold” just bought a home here, the list could go on and on. When you have homes going for $30 million you can bet you butt that the competition between realtors/brokers is fierce and I now have the issue of optimizing for one and yet needing to be fair to other real estate clients. In this market this is about impossible.

I have realized that to be fair in such a small market I have to limit the amount of real estate clients I take on and those clients are going to somehow need to be optimized in different ways. I have developed a plan that works, but even then, to be ethical, I have to really think and plan and remember each client with every page I optimize.

 The Great Part

The great part about limiting the amount of clients I have in this type of market is that I am being paid to be exclusive and that pay is tremendous. This exclusivity is a per year basis, which is only fair to me. I can’t be paid once and potentially lose out on God knows how much money to not optimize anothers.  I am even shocked myself at the money, but the bottom line is if I am doing the work for one and I can’t do it for another I deserve to be paid well.

The best part about building a reputation, especially in a small, wealthy town is that people begin to fight for who gets you. Because this town is small I can only work for one or maybe two in certain industries. For example, plastic surgery. I have a plastic surgeon who wants me to work for him and his practice only, but if I was going to work for one I would want it to be Dr. Braun Graham- not because of his reputation or one is better than another, but because he performed reconstructive surgery on my mother after she had a tumor removed from her neck (FYI, they guy is awesome- you would never even know what they did to my mother and trust me, it was a massive surgery).

So I have exclusivity issues and loyalty issues. I don’t know if I would ever feel right working for another plastic surgeon. Do I wait and hope one day I get to work for this man or work with someone else and feed my family??? I can’t just call the guy up and say, “Hey, your site needs some optimization…(big time)”. I can hold off on that decision, but with more success comes more decisions. I have to pick in choose in this market and I know other SEOs dealing with the same issues.

Getting Back to my Point

Today the world is run by the web. Every client I have is telling me they are not getting any return on the print ads they pay for and they know they must turn to the web. SEOs and SEMs have some tough decisions to make. You now need to choose your clients carefully and consider who you are giving up to work with one client. Is this going to be a lifetime client or a one time client? Can you be truly fair to this client or not?

Additionally, SEO is not enough. You need to know how to market and you need to know how to get in the minds of those that read any of your clients’ literature or their web site. You need to up your game and learn more. Take advantage of Universal Search, learn about markting options and learn which advertising methods are losing their effectivenss. When people are depending on you to increase the success of their business the responsibility is huge. We need to do what is best for them, their future and their employees. This massive responsibility needs to be stamped on everything you do for each client. You screw them over and you could not only hurt the client, but their employees and the families of the employees.

I Need to Thank Some People…

I want to do this because I have finally reached the level of success I dreamed about for a longtime and I couldn’t have done it without them. I have a ton of people that I should thank, but lets keep it short…

1. God- for giving me more brains than I thought I had (and for letting my mom live through cancer 4 times and a billion other things).
2. My beautiful and sexy husband- who puts up with me. He has been my lifeline for the last 20 years and who now understands (and loves) my love for the net. He also gave me two beautiful sons who give up their time with me so I can work and pay for Xbox 360s and PS3s and Nintendo Wii games…
3. My mom- for standing by me and loving me no matter what. She always believed I was something even when I didn’t.
4. My dad- who insisted that I get the best education possible and supported me while I did. This man showed me what it was to be successful and I paid much closer attention than he thought.
5. My grandmother- who insisted we call her something other than “grandma”, so we call her Mother Clara :-). I classy lady with so much love and compassion. Another person who kept holding me up my entire life.
6. To all you wonderful SEOs and SEMs. I know who you are. I read your stuff non-stop. I bookmark it, re-read, print and dream about the stuff I constantly read. I learn from you daily and I take your opinions to heart. If you knew how much I read you would flip.  If you all didn’t take the time to write and discuss I would be a moron :-). So thanks. Some of my favorite SEOs, SEMs, People and Sites are:

• Search Engine Land-
• Search Engine Round Table-
• Search Engine Guide-
• Search Engine Guide News-
• Jill Whalen’s High Ranking Advisor-
• Site Pro News-
• Bruce Clay’s Blog- 
• SEOMoz.org-
• SEO Book- 
• IR Thoughts and Mi Islita-
• Matt Cutts- 
• Web Pro News-
• The Unofficial SEO Blog-
• Search Engine Journal-
• Sphinn
• Cornwall SEO- Lyndoman
• Michael Gray- Gray-Wolfs SEO Blog-
• Vanessa Fox
• Matt McGee
• Dazzlin Donna- SEO Scoop
• Marty Weintraub
• SEMPortland.com
• SEO by the Sea
• Jeff Quipp
• Tamar Weinberg
• Chris Winfield

Melissa- SEOAware.com