Alastair commented on the following stories on BizSugar
What Do Your Customers Really Want?
"Most businesses, my own included, could benefit from spending more time trying to answer this question. I think it is way too easy to just make assumtions and pitch products or services or even content at what we assume our customers want without really giving it enough thought."How to Choose an Online Marketing Company - A Simple 4 Step Guide
"Hi Shawn Very true. Quite a lot of people can get someone 5,000 visitors a day by next Tuesday but whether those visitors will meet the needs of the client is another question entirely. You mention taking the easy way out and foregoing educating the client on value. This is so true. I have a lot of sympathy for the client in trying to make this choice. It really isn't easy."Subscribe
4 Link Building Techniques you Should Avoid
"Link building seems to be a problem area for many site owners these days and unfortunately beginners tend to gravitate to bad advice and easy, low value tactics. So this list of things to avoid is very useful content. I think #1 and #4 in particular are good advice and if Google catches you buying links (#2) they will screw you. Reciprocal links (#3) should not be a large part of your strategy and probably not something you go looking for but avoiding them is probably missing the point. A number of reciprocal links are very definitely part of the natural link profile you would expect to see in a website. I wouldn't waste time swapping a link from my links page for a link from your links page. On the other hand, blogs will reference related blogs all the time and other blogs will link back. This is a reciprocal link. Does it have no value? I certainly believe that it does."