Chiedere al guru seo

Boy, you name a blog “Ask the SEO Guru” and people start asking for SEO help. Crazy world huh?

I’d like to tell you a little story. 

If you’ve become an avid reader of the the Guru in this past two weeks you already know that  I’m in India for a few months setting up a BPO (business process outsourcing), company and my wife had to remain in Oklahoma. It’s summer there and this past couple of weeks the temperature got up into the triple digits and Murphy’s law being applicable in all things, the air conditioner went out.

We have a service that we’ve used for years for our building heat and air but this past year the owner passed away and left the business to his nephew and son. One of them, my wife remarked on how cute he was. One is very business minded and the other ------ not so much.

My wife called to request service and was told they were really behind and couldn’t get there until the next day. She waited and no one showed. She called and got the one who’s not so good on the phone and complained by telling him how hot she was and what good customers we have been and how she was worried her plants would die and so forth only to be told some cock-n-bull story about having to service people first who’s life might be in danger due to the heat and he didn’t know when he could get to hers.

When I spoke to my wife on skype that evening she relayed her tale of woe. I told her to call back the next morning and ask for the other one, which she did. I told her what to tell him, which she did.

After getting the other one on the phone, she said she was glad it was him and if that if he couldn’t make it that day she understood but she hoped it would be him to make the call because even though she was old enough to be his mother, she enjoyed watching him bend over to get his tools much more than his cousin.    

The air conditioning was working fine within the hour. :)

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I bet you’re a little frustrated sometimes from reading blogs and forums until your eyes glaze over and yet you’re still not in the top. You’ve listened carefully to one SEO after another and the ones who SOUNDED like they knew what they were talking about, you followed their advice to the letter only to feel like more of a failure when their advice didn’t pay off in top slots for your website. It leaves you feeling like there’s just a little more they’re not telling you and if you just knew the secrets they had, if you just knew the rest of the story, the last little piece, then untold riches would be yours for the taking.

So how are you going to get those secrets? Hey, why not just ask? The worst that could happen is they say no and maybe they won’t say no. Maybe they’ll tell you, I mean they seem like they want to help. They seem nice enough on their blog.

So you roll up your sleeves and invest the whole two or three minutes to send them an email with your sad story of failure and disappointment only to get no reply or at best just a form letter with a link to their sales page. SHOOT, we didn’t want to pay for anything we just wanted the secret.

What went wrong? We told the seo all about how our dog was in the hospital and how we can’t afford a computer and how we have to walk through the snow to the local library 8 miles away to build our website and it’s uphill all the way, BOTH ways. Is that SEO that heartless?

The Guru has been getting these kinds of emails for years. In fact, that’s one of the reasons he stopped moderating at seo forums and writing newsletters, (for all you newbies that’s been on the net for less than a decade, that’s what they had before there were blogs). The Guru likes to help and it’s hard having to say no. Sometimes it’s hard saying no. Sometimes  ------ not so much.

 

Dear Bob I was referred by XXXXXXXXXX.

 

I know the answer will be NO, but I still wanted to ask anyway. Back in the early 90s I was able to get my little credit card applications on Page 1 of Alta Vista and several others, and as The Guru you know thats ancient history, the past.  Now days it takes thousands of dollars to achieve a page 1 ranking, or even page 2.

 

Heres my story.... I am a legally 100% DISABLED VIETNAM VET, with few resources (the govt dont care much about helping vets...ask any veteran)....I NEED WEBSITE TRAFFIC for my site, 

The Credit Shoppe  online since 1994  www.xxxxxxxxxtcardshoppe.com   I was hoping you might be a Guru hat has the attitude of helping the less fortunate, or perhaps "giving something back to the NET" ?

 

I know that credit cards terminologies for key search words and phrases is Highly Competitive! 

David vs Goliath.  But I was wondering if you might consider optimizing my site. I do not have access to the website, via FTP. Its template, server side. I could get them to change the key words and heading.

 

If this site is un-workable, here is one that gets zero traffic I started, as a novice, to which I have FTP full  access.....  www.XXXXXXXtcardstore.com  I am an affiliate marketer for credit cards, fyi.

 

Any help would be most sincerely appreciated.

 

Respectfully submitted:

XXXXXXX XXXXXX

xxxxxxxx877@earthlink.net

While I have nothing but the utmost respect for those who have fought for our country, there is nothing I can do to bring this person up, (I believe there’s a little more to the story but that’s for another post another time), he could only bring me down. (Unless he sells me his 10 year old credit card siteJ)

If you last help request resembled this letter, you likely got the same response. None. Because you are not asking the right way.

If you want anybody to do anything for you, stop before you ask and ask yourself one question. What is in it for them?

 This is actually not about getting free seo advice. This is about getting anything from anybody ESPECIALLY links to your site. When you tell someone how terrible your life is or how badly you need something, you are forgetting the 13^th law of power.

 When asking for something you want from someone else, appeal to their self-interest and never to their mercy or gratitude.

Maybe that sounds a little mercenary but the important thing is that when you tell people why YOU need help, you’re forgetting that maybe they can give you seo tips or maybe they can give you a link, but they can’t operate on your dog, they can’t fix your car, they can’t get you access to your ftp and all the other things you use to try to appeal to their merciful nature. So what you are doing is reminding them that the thing they have that you want has limitations. You are taking away the one thing that makes them want to help and share things in the first place. You’re invalidating the power they have built up due to their perceived success.

Aside from whining about needing help, the gratitude of telling them you already linked to them ain’t gonna cut it either. For the same basic reason. You’re saying 1 of two things and neither of them are any good to me if you want my help. Either you felt I needed the link, (invalidating me), or it is a thinly veiled ploy to make me feel indebted to you which is far worse. Instead of just not caring, now, I don’t really like you very much and think you are a person of low character.

So, you can get all the free SEO advice you want. You can get all the links you want from just about anybody IF, you remember to think of what you can do to validate them first. Tell them how helping you is going to increase their power and position, how it is going to bring them what they want and success will come to you much easier.

One little hitch. This is the reversal of the law. Be honest and sincere. People aren’t stupid and as much as anyone wants to be validated, the sting of insincerity is far worse than the promise of false accolades. If you can’t find something you honestly admire, respect or enjoy, (possibly even envy), then my advice to you is, don’t say it. Seek the favor you desire from another that you do respect. 

You want free seo advice?

 Tell them you like watching them bend over to get their tools.