I'm combining two short blogs into one tonight - hey, it's easier for you to read and me to write, so why not, right?
First off, I wanted to do a roundup of some of the great material that's popped up over the past few days:
- Click FRAUD!! Andrew Goodman wrote an excellent piece on the subject at Traffick, and it reminded me that this old blog post from MindValleyLabs (who just launched SocialRank) was a must-read as well - Is Fraud Rampant on Google's Content Ad Network?
- Yahoo! did an impressive upgrade to their search results and the search functionality from their homepage - mirroring the rollout of MSN/Live's upgraded search functionality (which we'll be reporting on later in the week).
- To help us understand how Yahoo! changes might affect SEO, and specifically keyword demand and targeting, Joost De Valk wrote a post on Yahoo!'s Search Assist & Tracking Keywords.
- What does Techmeme's leaderboard (and, more importantly, the thousands of bloggers linking to it) tell us about viral content in the 'sphere? Easy - bloggers are obsessed with reputation and ranking and anything that plays on that ego will attract an incredibly amount of links & traffic.
- Aaron's post on exploiting passion for profit is easily one of the SEO world's best reads this month (I know, I know - we're only 3 days in)
- Happy 40th, Brian... Is it really the new 20? If so, I'm worried about Copyblogger being overrun by rampaging frat boys.
- I actually found a good number of very interesting sites on PC Mag's Top 100 Undiscoverd Websites list. I almost wish that someone would cover "up and comers" in the web world every month...
On last thing - for goodness sake, DO NOT MISS SMX Social Media in New York on October 16-17. Rebecca and I will both be speaking there on multiple panels, plus you can get a discount on SEOmoz membership if you attend (or, if you're already a premium member, we're giving you 10% off the show price in the premium discount store). The reason I'm so excited for SMX Social is simple - I think it's going to be one of the first conferences where 65%+ of the material will be completely new - Facebook apps, Bribing Wikipedia editors, tactics that still work for getting on Digg, etc.
And now, to part 2 of the post. I actually saw this spiffy graph via Lisa and thought - I should make one of those to reflect what my weeks usually look like.
An Average Week in the Life of Rand
Here's the raw stats for those can't live without the numbers:
| Reading Blogs, News Sites & Forums | 7.00% |
| Consulting w/ Clients | 6.00% |
| Answering Email | 50.00% |
| Company Internal Meetings | 2.00% |
| Crafting + Giving Presentations | 4.00% |
| Blogging | 12.00% |
| Answering Premium Q+A | 5.00% |
| Setting SEOmoz Strategy | 1.00% |
| Contracts & Finances | 1.00% |
| Travel Time | 4.00% |
| Tool & Content Design | 2.00% |
| Social Media & Blog Participation | 3.00% |
| Non-client, Industry Meetings & Events | 3.00% |
I actually found this to be an interesting excercise, and one that made me realize how badly I need more help with my email.
p.s. We found out the genius responsible for the Brock Sampson linkbait last night - I think he deserves his own case study, and possibly an interview, too Sadly, he's already working at another SEO company - and one that we probably need to add to our recommended list :)
p.p.s. As always - let us know what we missed in the comments (and feel free to link out).
Rand - also don't forget about the IM-NY party the night before SMX starts. Have fun, network and it's all for a good cause.
Best of the Web is picking up the whole tab so all money raised will be going directly to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society -- so eat and drink (and drink) as much as you want :) Check out all the details here...
Good stuff, I like your pie chart. You get a lot more done with your time than I do! Check out RescueTime.com which takes personal time usage reports to the next level. Very cool.
Nice job at the SEO Conference yesterday, btw.
Matt Cassarino
Thx for the love Rand :)
Excellent pie chart. I love this kind of stuff. I recently did one for my son to demonstrate to him why I think he needs more balance in his life.
A typical day for the boy:
30% School and School related activities
30% Sleeping, grooming and eating
30% Halo 3
I love it... in the end all we are going to end up doing is just answering email all day long. I already spend most of my time in gmail (or email of some kind), glad to see I am not the only one.
Answering emails continues to be a drag within our company as well. One tactic that works is cutting down on CCing within the company and refreshing your RSS feeds and newsletters. Our CEO is constantly faced with the problem of too many emails but has help reduce them by requesting only emails that require attention. Just a few things that might help.
We started tracking time at the beginning of the year, but I haven't run the numbers yet to get percentages like you have. One effect I noticed very quickly, however, was that I spent too much time on email and I've been trying to ration myself ever since. I try to turn email on just twice a day. Don't always succeed at that.
First I need to give a shout out to Rand and Matt Cass that are both in this post :) Wow you have good time management. I get to about 66% of that list in a given day. With so much going on at all times its hard to not get distracted by so many articles and new tools out there. Rand your mini-conference was great and thanks to everyone who showed up and asked all the great questions.
-Dal
Where does Geraldine fit into that graph? HAHA
Rand, I don't know how you handle it all. I am extremely impressed, maybe you could put together a post on time management & getting things done.
This is a great exercise for everyone to go through, look at where their time is spent and see if they are spending their time wisely?
So the question is: Are you email efforts worth the time?