Shameless Self-Promotion

In the fall of 2005, I started a small company called Flexi-Word, and designed a website for it. Even though I produced keywords for metadata tagging and an abstract, which is how search engines like Google find websites when someone does a search, I have not been able to get Flexi-Word to come up when I search for it, or any of my other keywords such as freelance writing, small business, international, and more (including my full name). I understand that, for that to happen, I actually have to cough up a substantial amount of cash to give to a company that will then go after the search engines and arrange it so that my company's name not only simply appears when you search for it, but it also appears at the top of the list. Well, I do all right with my little business, but not enough "all right" for me to come up with that kind of money. This makes me sad, because I believe that Google is the reason that my life as a writer and researcher is so easy. In fact, when I have to write an overview for a product sold by the software giant I work for, rather than wade through the 147,800, 111 instances that the product's name is mentioned after a search on the company's website, I use Google to find that product immediately. Google also helps me discover if that product has been re-named (or, "re-branded" as they say in the biz) when the overview page does not immediately appear. So, I'm really disappointed that they do not have a democratic method of showing their search results but instead only a capitalistic one. But, I'm digressing.

Recently, for fun, I did a search for "froshty" on Google and this blog is the first link that appeared. This is because blogspot is owned by Google, so naturally it appears immediately. That got me thinking. What if, in my blog, I mentioned my company name and did a pitch here. Maybe that would get my company name out there and I wouldn't have to find $15,000 or more to go the advertising route.

So, I'm doing some shameless self-promotion for my company here to see how it flies. My company is called Flexi-Word and you can visit my website from here. I offer all kinds of writing services like proposal writing, brochure writing, ghost writing (articles, books), software documentation, press releases, and writing for the web. I also edit, translate from Spanish to English, audit websites with suggestions for improvement, train users how to use software, and I do website design and content authoring. In fact, one of the websites I designed (for a company called CSBS) went live yesterday.

I hope this works. Maybe I'll check it out and my next post can either be a brief update about the success of my little plan or a lengthy diatribe about why the Web should be more democratic.