25 Blog Optimization Tips

Good tips from Jen.

After reading this list, I decided I hated my blog and plan on blowing it up over the weekend.

More social networks and not a job to be found..

Mashable has a write up today on a bunch of new social network startups going live.

I read the blurbs on them and most are tired retreads of current sites already in existence. What up with that?

I mean, somebody put a ton of money into building these sites; does anyone ask how different they could be from a half dozen other (and sometimes very well known) sites?

I already spewed about my desire for a Web 2.0 job and career site.

I also want a job networking site that does something else. I will call it JobShout.
It goes like this:

Bob has a job.

Bob knows about an opening at his place of employment.

Bob posts the job on JobShout.

Bob writes a review about his work, location, benefits, pay range, work conditions.

JobShout members vote the job up ("Wow, Bob, I wish I lived in Portland, I would apply there!") or down ("Bob, your job and work conditions stink. Quit!").

Most new work comes through our network.

JobShout would grow an organic network between many people, industries, etc.

JobShout would facilitate the sharing of openings between like minded people.

Build it and tell me about it when you get done.

Orkut

Orkut was an early social networking site created by a Google employee in his allocated Google development time. Although it was created several years ago, a lifetime by Internet standards, it does not have the buzz other social networking sites like MySpace has.

I setup an Orkut account about three years ago and have not updated it since.

This morning, I decided to login and update my Orkut profile.

First, Orkut has many profile options. Page after page of personal, professional, and location questions pop up in the profile. You can include business interests, network, job information, location and much more in your profile.

Once your profile is updated on Orkut, you can grow your network with friends. And according to Orkut, there are about 9 million friends on Orkut making it hard to ever be lonely.

The drawbacks with Orkut are:
- Your email address is public.
- Orkut is heavy into the social side of social networking. It is not a business tool.
- Like most social networks, It is heavily tilted towards certain geographical areas.
- The Home page is very minimal. You can dress it up, but it is nowhere near as useful as LinkedIn or appealing visually as MySpace.
- Communities are labeled, yet adherence is not enforced. Thus a business community may have a celebrity fan page.
- Orkut still has frequent technical outages (one occurred this morning while I was updating my profile).

I like Orkut. It had the potential, when it started, to become a trendsetter and possibly a MySpace-like contender.

But Google either did not see the value then, or did not allocate the resources to make it grow. (My own little conspiracy theory, is Google saw Orkut growth in international markets like Brazil and Pakistan and not in the U.S. Therefore, Mountain View had little interest at the time in further Orkut development).

Like I said, I updated my Orkut profile and will check it more often then every three years, but I don't expect to see much happen with this site. Unfortunate.