Tag: business models

How to rank higher on google? Be yourself.

Posted on by AnnJoest in Language, Mental Health

I started writing this post with fear, because it was about sharing my business model and who wants to share their business model? Somebody who is secure with their business model and what they are doing. If you do your thing, it is less likely that somebody can take it away from you, because it means taking away you. You cannot be taken away, because it is you and even if somebody tried to copy you, they couldn’t, because they can’t be you.

What does that mean for writing? Somebody writes something great, which often is an expert in a specific field. To me I am very interested in Psychology so I often find posts from a Dr. x in Psychology or Mayor Clinic. I think “Gosh I have to be like them, to write like them, to get my Google Rankings up like them.” What happens here is that I compare myself. I compare myself to a person I don’t know, but their title “Dr.” and then Mayor Clinc. I set both as an ideal as to how writing should be done to get Google Rankings up. This does not help other then thinking that my writing is not good enough!

By setting somebody else(s writing) as an ideal, we tend to forget that we are ideal in our ideal. You and what you have to say and write about is unique, which makes it good enough to be ideal for yourself and therefore somebody else too. No? Look at the New York Times offering strangers to submit opinion pieces, because these opinion are worth being published – they matter. In other words; somebody can have a Dr. and something great to say about mental health and somebody else cannot be a Dr. and have something great to say about mental health too. It means that both perspectives are valuable and therefore rankable.

That day I thought a lot about self-rejection on a personal level but since we are individuals at companies, we self-reject as companies as a total too. Just go for it. There are no ideals, other then the ideals you set to yourself on writing.

So how do I get my rankings up? Generally I don’t look up any competition and what anyone else has writtten about the topic of my interest. I do that to avoid comparison and to focus on my own writing style. It allows me to write about what comes to my mind, without feeling the pressure of having to live up to an ideal or writing like another to gain rankings. In my writing I also do not write for rankings, but because I enjoy it. For example, I have a natural curiosity for topics and I find it joyful to bring difficult topics more easy across and at times to mix different disciplines. And at times, I write about what comes to mind.

How to rank high then? Often we try to “create something” by having an ideal in mind. The ideal post should be like that, which ends up losing a sense author authenticity. It means that you may end up adjusting a specific writing style or change your writing voice to align with an imagined ideal. This leads you likely to lower your rankings, because it lacks authenticity. You are not like “Dr. x”, Mayor Clinic or Tesla Marketing, but you are who we are and your strenght is your knowledge, writers voice and perspective. So if you want your rankings up; be yourself and express that. Of course, good grammar, structure etc. helps with that too.

It seems helpful to ensure that your titel matches the content of your article. If your title sounds like “The elephant eats the apple” and the content is about buying houses, it may sound nice, but it is unclear.

Think of what you stand for and how to communicate that. Of course, different blogs on how to get your SEO rankings up will tell you differently and that is okay! For example, it seems helpful to use specific keywords to be found. On the other hand, you end up implementing all these things and realize that it was so stressfull that in many cases your rankings don’t go up. What is it that you stand for and whats your unique selling point? Communicate that and it is likely that your rankings go up higher. Does your view contradict whats been written about? Great, communicate that and if not whats your view on it? Let your voice be heard.

Lastly, I don’t know how to get Google Rankings up with certainty. Many blogs will tell you so, even experts in rankings, but the reality is that there is no absolute cerainty. However, Google of course is smart and what it does much – my secret now for you- is to have a look at individual writing styles. So what is yours and what is it that you want to bring across if it is only for you? What niche can you fill? And if you found that niche -a last analysis – fill it with #hashtags but don’t think to much about them.

Of course there is much more to it and validity in how to rank higher by actively applying scoring and writing techniques. With this post, however, I wanted to offer a different perspective that has been working for me well without even wanting it.

References

For this blog I used desperate observations on how I got my google ratings up and theory from psychoanalysis.

Contact

Do you find yourself in difficulties to bring your message accross easily , are you looking for someone to write for you, or somebody to find out whats niche for you ? Contact me for writing inquiries.

What’s my unique selling point? I bring difficult topics easy across and I tend to mix disciplines. Sometimes I use a bit of scienctific background and sometimes not.

How can external costs of consumption be equated with external costs of production? – An economic-psychoanalytical perspective

Posted on by AnnJoest in Uncategorized

The traditional business model equates production costs with revenues and therefore measures success based on the profits created. In doing so, most business models neglect their external costs of production. These are costs that relate to pollution or other forms of destruction and are often not accounted for. Business models that do not account for these external costs of production, likely run risk of market failure in the long term. A consequence is that neither business, nor planet, nor consumer will benefit in the future.

Increases in production come at an expense of
resources and well-being that is worth
more than the products produced. It also
implies that an undesirable balance of
quantities known as utility and disutility
occur. Utility is the level of satisfaction of the population’s needs and wants. Disutility refers to the sacrifices made necessary by increasing production and consumption, such as labor, loss of leisure, depletion of resources, exposure to pollution (Daly, 1990)

External cost of consumption?

Climate change and also climate awarness have been increasing steadily, particular since Fridays for Future. “We must act now, our planet is on fire, system change is needed” are some of the phrases that cover media. While these phrases demand companies, governments to change systems, they externalize individual repsonsibility and hence individual and collective cost of consumption. These are cost produced because of a (subconcious) desire for consumption and lifestyle choices. Because of that system change as demanded now, misses a sustainable point of view. That is a view in which “external cost of consumption” need to be internalized by consumers.

How can external costs of production be internalized?

Businesses can transition towards more sustainable business models and because of that reduce their external costs of production. That can happen if unsustainable materials are swopped with more sustainable materials (think about a plastic straw being swapped with a bamboo straw), if a company promotes the re-use of products or offers recycling opportunities (and so much more). However, swopping one thing with the other, or continue producing at the same speed, does not necessarily lead to more sustainable business models. Instead current production problems shift to other production processes. Because of that, long term business sustainabiltiy might fail.

For sustainable business models to take place in the long term, the role of consumers, the way they engage, behave and hence, want to purchase or not and how needs to change as well.

What are external costs of consumption and how can they be internalized?

Humans aren’t static. Humans like other species evolve and adjust to changes. “Survival of the fittest” – in evolutionary terms. If adoption does not occur, the survival of a species is at risk. To adopt and to change, we adjust, we make ourselves appeal to others by creating images, to become part of a group, to subconciously influence our own survival. However, much of such behaviours , think about dressing a certain way, or looking a certain way to be accepted by a group, does not relate to survival anymore – it is instinctional and therefore (unconciously) culturally influenced. Such behaviours therefore stimulate external costs of consumption [Evolutionary desire for change and adaptation, while such a change and adaptation is not need but rather socially constructed path-dependent]

External costs of consumption can hence be internalized, if individual and collective awarness increases towards unconcious behaviour and lifestyles. Where does a constant desire for changes deprive from? What purpose does a change fullfill? Who is this change done for? Who does one desire to desire back and because of that adjust towards a certain lifestyle , look or behaviour and therefore changes? What meaning do changes in choices have? Where should subconcious evolutionary need for change and adoptation stop? Where is the point of maximum utility for happiness reached and hence, the possibility to create an equilibrium between internalized external costs of consumption and production?

Do we need hair dye to impress others? Do we need new phones to take better pictures? Do we need make up? For who? Who are we, when we don’t change who we are or appear to be?

References

Campbell, A. (2000). Cultural identity as a social construct. Intercultural Education, 11(1), 31-39.

Graham, C. (2005). The economics of happiness. World economics, 6(3), 41-55.

Harte, M. J. (1995). Ecology, sustainability, and environment as capital. Ecological economics, 15(2), 157-164.

Hedman, J., & Kalling, T. (2003). The business model concept: theoretical underpinnings and empirical illustrations. European journal of information systems, 12(1), 49-59.

Hollan, D. (2000). Constructivist models of mind, contemporary psychoanalysis, and the development of culture theory. American Anthropologist, 102(3), 538-550.

Lüdeke-Freund, F., Carroux, S., Joyce, A., Massa, L., & Breuer, H. (2018). The sustainable business model pattern taxonomy—45 patterns to support sustainability-oriented business model innovation. Sustainable Production and Consumption, 15, 145-162.

Thompson, S. A., & Loveland, J. M. (2015). Integrating identity and consumption: An identity investment theory. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 23(3), 235-253.