• has given a great backlink from their website to your website and helping your page rank (aka link juice)
• been the “go to” website for search engines to access and index information on newly “set live” websites

But it seems like something is changing. Over the past while I have been asking myself whether listing a new website with www.dmoz.org is as important as it used to be. I ask this question because

• often ODP website submissions do not get listed for a very long time, if at all
• many categories within the directory do not have editors to review newly submitted websites
• you can submit your newly developed website for indexing to search engines such as Google, !Yahoo and Bing
• search engines do not always pick up new website data from the Open Directory Project

In the past, having your site listed with the Open Directory Project (aka dmoz) was a great way to get an inbound link with some power behind it. Linking from www.dmoz.org has been the Online World’s Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval and provided you with link juice. Link juice, according to netlingo.com, is online jargon referring “to the quality of a web site’s link power, (as in page rank), number of link votes, etc. – that are obtained from backlinks or links from someone’s site back to yours.” So if you had a backlink (or had an inbound link) from the Open Directory Project, it boosted your page rank and therefore, “the importance” of your page. This was a good SEO tactic.

Historically, search engines retrieved new website listing data from dmoz to update their search engine results. Newly listed websites were regularly picked up and indexed by search engines within a short period of time of their listing on the ODP – usually on a weekly basis. Now with webmaster tools, I can submit websites to search engines directly and have the sites indexed within days of “setting them live.”

So does that mean that you dismiss ODP?

I don’t think so and this is why… ODP continues to be the only FREE human reviewed directory for the World Wide Web. And it is still the only volunteer directory on the web. There are others, for sure, but they all come at a price… some are a one time deal and others have annual fees.

SEO Recommendations 

1.  Check your listing – if you have listed previously with ODP. I know of several reputable, previously listed sites that ODP has dropped. You may have to go through the resubmission process.  Contact an editor.

2.  Be prepared to spend time tracking your ODP submission.  Get on the forums to discuss your submission or email directory editors to inquire about your submission.

3.  Listing in a category with an editor may shorten your wait time (if it’s an appropriate category).  Even with an editor within a category, you might have to wait a long time for your submission to be reviewed.

4.  Consider using other directories – for a fee.  Although ODP is the only directory that categorizes websites for free, there are others that you can choose from. Check out botw.org, dirjournal, joeant, skaffe, goguides, rubberstamped or sevenseek. All these directories provide backlinks and will add SEO value to your website. 

Although I have high regard for the ODP and the work that they have done (voluntarily!), it seems that its importance and relevance is diminishing.  It might be time to consider other directories.

What has been your experience with ODP and what do you think about its value?
 

In my last post, I talked a bit about why listening can be difficult – especially when the conversation is a tough one; the stakes are high; we are feeling offended or we feel accused of something.  This time, I want to talk a bit about some things we can be aware of or we can do, that can help us to listen better.

Five Tips for Better Listening

1. Recognize that “I’ve been triggered” feeling. When you are feeling better (not triggered, that is), see if you can unpack the trigger and the feeling either by yourself or with the person that you were triggered with (make sure you feel emotionally safe). Ask yourself, “what was it about what that person said or did or emoted that made me react like that? Be gentle on yourself, it may take some time to get there.
2. Suspend your agenda. Suspending your agenda means inviting the other person to say more about what they are thinking or feeling so that you can gain a fuller understanding of what they are trying to communicate. This is hard because we want to be heard – we all want to say our part.
3. Don’t assume that you know what is coming next!  That isn’t listening – that is prediction and it will get you into difficulties.
4. Put aside your judgments of the person who is speaking. Don’t assume that they don’t have something valuable to say.
5. If someone says something that feels critical to you –remind yourself that underneath your feelings are some negative thoughts about criticism. Try to remind yourself that uncomfortable but accurate evaluation is an opportunity to grow.

We all need help and practice to improve our listening ability.  Are there other techniques that you use to help yourself stay focused on listening?
 

Why is “listening” so hard in difficult conversations?

You know the difficult conversations that I’m talking about… the ones where you are confronted about your choices or your behaviour or something you said. Or the conversations where you feel criticized and put down.

There are many reasons why we won’t (or is it that can’t?) listen – especially in difficult conversations.

• We are emotionally triggered by someone’s mannerisms, choice of words, voice or tone. Because we are triggered (and usually feeling pretty defensive), it becomes really hard to “listen” – to receive the communication from the other person.
• We have an agenda of what we want to communicate in the conversation. We have a point to make, a lesson to teach or a comment that will “change the other person’s perspective” and we can’t wait to get it out!
• We think that we already know what the other person is going to say. How many times have you noticed that people don’t listen because they already assume that they know what you are going to say?
• Listening is difficult when the speaker has low credibility in our eyes.
• Our feelings get in the way of listening: when someone points out a mistake, they never say we are incompetent or stupid, but we sure can feel like that is the message…

Listening is an art.   But listening can also be painful.  I’ve shared a few examples of when we find it hard to listen and hear but I am sure that there are many more.  Now it is your turn… when do you find it difficult to listen or hear people?

Next time, I would like to talk about how we can improve our ability to listen. Stay tuned…
 

Can you remember a difficult conversation that you had recently? What made the conversation difficult? Were you happy with the outcome? How about the person that you had the difficult conversation with – were they satisfied with the conversation?

Intimate conversations or conversations that revolve around disagreement are difficult.  Are there some conversations in particular that are difficult for you? I recently asked a group of people (okay, it was a seminar on Making Difficult Conversations Easier) and here are some of the conversations that they found difficult to engage in:

•   Money conversations – (asking for a raise, asking for money back)
•   Delivering bad/hard messages (you’re fired)
•   Being vulnerable about my feelings (I love you)
•   Confronting behaviours
   

What makes these conversations difficult? 

Sometimes we don’t know the outcome… usually difficult conversations have some risk involved with them.

Sometimes we actually know the outcome and we worry about how we might be perceived by the person that we are having the conversation with. Other times, the stakes are high; we might be misunderstood and we may not achieve the outcome that we want or envision.

Our difficult conversations can hurt the people we care about. We worry that our anger will get the better of us. We might make the situation worse. Or there might be a backlash – we might get punished for speaking out.

To Have or Not to Have

It’s hard to decide whether to have a difficult conversation or not. If you don’t you might feel taken advantage of. You might harbour lingering negative feelings about someone. But if you do have the conversation… things might get worse. In fact, you may already have tried and you have suffered some of these consequences:

•   You were verbally attacked and you didn’t know what to do next
•   You were rejected and (as my father used to say) you were “put in the deep freeze for your trouble”
•   The relationship deteriorated

Do you avoid difficult conversations?

Sometimes when you suffer the negative outcomes of failed conversations, you avoid having them in the future. How do you avoid conversations?

1. Did you decide that you will never initiate a difficult conversation again? For some of us, certain conversations are so threatening that we will continually overlook an issue or leave the relationship rather than engage. The problem with this kind of avoidance is that trust cannot be built in the relationship nor can the relationship grow or develop.
2. Did you take some indirect action without having a conversation? Some times we decide that we will not discuss an issue or behaviour but we will stay on the alert for repeats of behaviours that have offended us. We no longer trust the other person and will be wary of the other’s motives and intentions. While we have managed to avoid the danger and risk of having the conversation, we destroy the fabric of trust in the relationship.
3.  Were you willing to start the difficult conversation but you gave in when the going got rough (your thinking is “okay, you are so upset that we will do it your way”). In this scenario we value peace more than valuing our own boundaries. We fear losing the connection with our friend/lover/partner/child so we give in.

Engaging in difficult conversations

Just as we can avoid difficult conversations in a variety of ways, we can engage in them in just as many ways. We can:

1. Approach the conversation with an “I will win and you will lose” attitude. I am right and you are wrong. With this stance, the issue is more important than the relationship and a successful outcome for both people is unlikely.
2. Approach the conversation with an attitude that I want to hear what you have to say. Although this is a difficult conversation, I will engage in the discussion because I care about you, I care about the issue, I care about the relationship. With this attitude, there is a great possibility of being able to navigate through the issue and come out the other side with a stronger bond between us.

Where are you on the difficult conversation spectrum? Do you avoid? How do you avoid? Do you engage in them? And what stance do you assume when you do engage…  Leave me a comment and let me know what you think.
 

Last week, I was challenged by someone on Twitter, to update my blog, with the promise that he/she would drop by to visit once the blog was updated.  I waffled back and forth between excitement that someone had taken the time to look at my Twitter profile and website and mild annoyance that someone was coaxing/recommending that I update my blog.  As a classic rebel, I don’t always do well with good advice.

So I got to thinking about Twitter and that one small interaction.  It was my first person to person interaction.  I was happy that I was not just speaking into the Twitter cloud along with all the other Tweets. I was talking to someone and someone was talking to me… it wasn’t a lot of white noise conversation.  And it has made me rethink how I will use Twitter….  Here is what I have learned.

• DM’s (direct messages) are better than putting stuff out there – you might get real interaction.
• I was using Twitter to learn from others – now I will not only gather info but will thank people for their tweets when I use their information or find it beneficial.  How can you build a relationship with someone if you don’t thank them for what they have given (didn’t my mother teach me that?)
• Ask people to let you know (using DM’s) when your information is useful.
• Be one-on-one with people – at first I put out tweets that were like standing on a soapbox. Now I plan to engage.

So I am grateful for that interaction last week. I will no longer use Twitter as a platform to gather information, but as a platform to engage with people.  I know, I know  -  it was intended to be used that way in the first place.  But for some reason I wasn’t using it that way.

So thanks, Twitter friend, for that small interaction.  It moved me away from being an onlooker to the place of wanting to engage. 

Where are you at on the Twitter spectrum?  Are you an onlooker – an outlier? Engaged? Information gatherer?  I would love to know where you stand… and while you are at it, tell me what you have learned.
 

Do your research:  There are several databases on the market that you can use to determine which foundations suit your project and organizational aims.  Using these databases are just the beginning to doing your research.  Don’t be afraid to call the contact person in the database.  Your time is valuable and frankly, so is your funder’s.  Make sure that you are a good match for each other.

Develop a strong case statement:  Why is your project or program needed in the community?  What urgent need are you filling?  Find statistics, case studies and academic studies that verify that there is a need for your service.

Ensure that your proposal is well written:  You must be able to communicate your case statement, your organizational history, your project aims and outcomes, succinctly and professionally.  Do not stuff your proposal with unnecessary information.  Use the tips I have given in a previous post about turbo-charging your writing.  Some foundations that have tossed aside proposals with grammatical and spelling errors.

Respect a foundation’s funding process: This may sound like a no-brainer, but it is crucial to respect the foundation’s funding process.  This means submitting all the documents that they require for you to be considered for a grant; making sure that your documents fit the foundation’s criteria.  If the foundation wants a 2-page mini grant proposal, make sure that you submit a 2-page grant proposal.  And be sure to fit into the funding cycle.  Submitting late means that your project will not be considered for that granting cycle.

Build relationship: Many times I tell my clients that foundations must feel like ATM’s.  Nonprofit organizations come to foundations looking for grant money and once they have either been turned down or have been granted project funding, they walk away.  They forget that foundations are made up of philanthropically-minded folks who take very seriously, the task that they have been given – the task of allocating funds to bring positive change to a community.  Neglecting ongoing communication after a grant has been approved or denied means that you will scuttle an opportunity for a long-term relationship.  Foundations are like other donors.  They want to be acknowledged (and they should be) for their support and want to know that their investment has made a difference.

Don’t give up if your grant proposal is turned down.  Speak to someone at the foundation… seek to understand why your proposal was denied funding.  Build the relationship with your foundations of choice and work towards making your project become a reality.

What do you think are some other important factors that will help your organization to succeed in grantwriting?  Share a comment below…

If SEO was a world map, we would constantly redraw the political boundaries. Some of the great SEO techniques included: using alternative text for images (since bots can’t read images), keyword meta tags, keyword density analysis, submitting your website to directories and using keyword meta tags. I have used most of these techniques in the past believing that clients would show up well in search engine results – and they usually did.

Does that mean that you throw the baby out with the bath water? No… I still use those strategies but I use them for different reasons.

I now use alt text to comply with Creative Common Licenses. I like to promote images and photos from people who are freely sharing their art. I use Flickr and abide by the Creative Commons Guidelines. Check out  Flickr for some fantastic images. And alt text is still useful for Google Image searches if you want your site or images to show up in searches.

I still do keyword research. I find search for words and phrases that people would use to find my clients products and services. Then I write text using those terms. This helps me to keep my writing tight and focused. I still include a keyword meta tag… but I recognize that this doesn’t necessarily have a big impact on optimization… it just feels right to do it.

I never did do keyword density analysis. I strictly focused on text and content.

I confess that I still submit sites to directories. I recently submitted a sitemap to Google and within a week, the site’s ranking had jumped by two points. What does that tell you? That tells me that Google likes you to use their tools. Check out how to submit your sitemap to Google using their   Webmaster Tools.

I also submit sites to the ODP – The Open Directory Project. The ODP is “the largest, most comprehensive human-edited directory of the Web. It is constructed and maintained by a vast, global community of volunteer editors.” I love that. I love the fact that this is a volunteer community committed to editing and monitoring sites on the web. I like the human touch (although this can have its limitations, as well).

Some of the older SEO techniques are not as relevant as they were in the past but I am still using them. But I use these techniques for different reasons. What are some tried and true techniques that you still use? And for what reason are you using them? Leave a comment here and let me know.
 

Seven Quick Tips

1.  Avoid unnecessary words or phrases in your sentences.  Adding extra phrases makes your communication less clear.  Unnecessary words and phrases make it harder for your reader to find your main thought or point.
    
2. Energize your writing by selecting action verbs.  Verbs provide the action in your sentences. Instead of using verb phrases, use the finite verbs.  Don’t say, “The focus of this class is writing.”  Do say “This class focuses on writing.”
    
3. Don’t use negatives (notice the irony of that sentence?). Instead of saying, “she didn’t go”, use, “she stayed.”  Avoiding negatives makes your writing more succinct.
    
4. Keep your sentences short – no longer than 2 lines.  The odd long sentence is acceptable.  Too many thoughts or too many phrases modifying a sentence can cause you (the writer) to lose clarity. If you have lost it, then certainly your reader will.
    
5. Keep your sentences focused on one thought.  Again, by focusing your sentences on one thought, you are helping your reader to stay focused.
    
6. Keep your paragraphs short.  A one-sentence-paragraph gets the point across, but use those one-liners sparingly.  Any paragraph that is 5-6 sentences long, turn into two paragraphs.
    
7. Find your most compelling paragraph and move it to the beginning.  Then, reorganize your other paragraphs around it. You’ll grip people’s attention.

If you liked this post or have other tips for turbo-charging your writing, please leave me a comment.

Welcome to www.dawncomber.com – my new website.  After many rewrites and redesigns, I am now the resident blogger for my writing and editing website.

I’m Dawn Comber – an experienced, professional writer. I provide creative, affordable writing and editing services for clients – for print and for the web.  I always begin by conversing with you to understand your needs, and then I help you to converse, communicate and connect with your customers.

Most of my clients are in Toronto, Mississauga and Oakville, but the beauty of technology and the Internet allows me to work with small businesses, non-profits and people just about anywhere.