Cat Steven wraps up all the important parts of having an effective voice online in less than three minutes…

1. If you want to sing out sing out.
Ever wonder if you should post something? Post it. It is you and you will be a better voice for it since it is you and not everyone else (“everyone else” is sneaky and goes by many names such as “etiquette”, “good judgment”, and “status quo”)

2. If you want to be free be free
You get to write anything you want, do it.
3. There’s a million things to be, you know that there are
A million is alot. The only thing restricting your choices is you.
4. You can do what you want
Of the lessons I have learned throughout my life, learning that I was in control of what I do is the most important and dear.
5. The opportunity’s on
Opportunity rocks! It is also a constant in life. There is always opportunity and it is all around us sorta like the force. This means right this instant I can do anything, write anything, learn anything, and so can you.
6. If you find a new way, you can do it today
One of the most exciting things about life is that it is delightful, and this delight can be shared. Most people have been touched or inspired by someones writing or point of view. Most people do not realize that their point of view will touch others if they share it.
7.You can make it all true
The only person with the capacity to turn your dreams into reality is you. The only person able to translate to the world what is in your head and heart is you.
8. If you want to say yes, say yes and if you want to say no say no.
There are few things more important than this. If I met a genie, one of my three wishes would be that adults stop removing this from kids. If you find yourself saying “yes” to things you mean “no” for, it is probably going to limit your writing.

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Today we have added Yelp to GetListed.org.

This means that small business owners can now see their status with Google, Yahoo, Bing, Best of the Web, and Yelp too.

Below is a screenshot of  what GetListed results looks like for a business with Yelp included …

You can also see your latest reviews, a photo and a quick glimpse of how your business is listed on Yelp by going to the detail page …

GetListed.org is a free resource that overviews and displays how effectively your business is listed online.

Check out our new version (now with Yelp) and examine your business online here.

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I am sick of fan requests from Facebook. Even if they change their name from “fan” to “like” I am still going to want to projectile vomit when I get one.
I do not understand the benefit or value of requesting this of me.
If I like bananas, I like bananas, if I am into bananas enough to be a fan of a banana Facebook page, I will do it without prodding.
If prodding is required, it probably isn’t very true or valuable. If one has to be probed and prodded to be a “fan” then how much of a fan is that person.
I have never interviewed a cow.
I bet if I did interview a cow, and asked it why it moved from one area of a field to another it would probably say something like “I liked the grass over there but then I got prodded to move over here.”
I am not not going to pretend that people understand how I think but to translate the last couple of sentences I wrote… I am not a cow.
All Facebook fan requests go right to my spam folder.
Prodded fans aren’t fans and do not indicate anything, and I guess you will all figure that out soon enough, just like search engines will.

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Of this years April fools gimmicks, I like best the new Google translate for animals…

A great list of todays April Fools day hijinks can be found at SearchEngineLand from Barry Schwartz here – April Fools 2010 (Is it just me or does this video use the Outspokenmedia logo?)

This reminds me of a favorite childhood song “If we could talk to the animals”…

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Yelp Review Filter

March 19, 2010 · 82 comments

Yelp for business owners is Great in My Opinion

The majority of business owners who interact with Yelp seem to like it. I have personally helped several business owners get on Yelp, and they pretty much all have thanked me for it.

I highly recommend Yelp to small business owners. I recommend that business owners get over to Yelp and claim their business and interact with their reviews.

I also suggest that business owners understand the Yelp review system. Not every bad review will end up on your page, nor will every good review.

Yelp Review Filter Explained

Yelp just put out a video that gives an overview of their review filter and which follows up on the reason business owners should not ask people to write reviews for them (this advice was given out last year on the Yelp blog).

There is very little value in a review system which is manipulated and just like some people are unhappy with Google that their site doesn’t rank well, some business owners are unhappy that their reviews do not always show up. If you are a business owner and you have your friends and family review you it can be seen as spam. Many people who are unhappy with Yelp are people who have even stated that this is exactly what they did, they asked people to write them good reviews, the people wrote the reviews, and some of them didn’t appear on Yelp.
They then assumed that Yelp is “withholding reviews” so they can get money out of business owners.

Which simply isn’t the case.

Just like Google identifies links that have value, Yelp identifies reviews that have value.

A review coming from a Yelp user that has been using Yelp for a long time and who has reviewed many businesses is considered a stronger review than one written by a first time user of Yelp.

Some sort of filter is naturally needed to ensure that reviews seen by users are legit. If they did not do this, then a business owners could just create a whole bunch of usernames and make bad reviews about their competitors.

The very same business owners who are complaining now about not having instant good reviews on Yelp would also be complaining if Yelp let reviews go up instantly that were negative about their businesses.

Use Yelp Well

Here is a great video of a business owner who is taking full advantage of Yelp for his business…

Yelp is great. I highly recommend it. They also have a great blog.

There are people complaining about Yelp right now, but not many people praising them for what they have done overall, which is create some of the most trusted reviews on the web and a wonderful resource for both business owners and business customers.

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