Ad campaigns can get nasty. We've all seen it happen. Sometimes marketers will chose a strategy that pulls the competition down rather than build their own offerings up. There has, of course, always been a few issues with libel and slander and other pesky legal matters like that, but they've never been enough to completely dissuade an unethical company from attempting them. And now we have the Internet opening all kinds of new ways to get even nastier.
But just because a new avenue has been opened to us, does that mean we automatically have to take it? Does that mean we automatically have to test the limits of the law, the algorithms, or the boundaries of ethical practices? In a word... no.
Traditional negative ad campaigns have been around for as long as there have been multiple parties promoting multiple products. It's a natural outgrowth of having two products that are so similar you can't really convince anyone you've got something better, so you try to convince everyone that they've got something worse.
We see this a lot in politics... we even expect it. But it is still done in other sectors quite often. But they are careful to use a certain amount of tact, or risk having it backfire or attract legal repercussions.
And now we've got the Internet making new methods of negative ad campaigns possible. And some of the SEO's with a certain sense of ethical leniency are doing their best to take advantage of them.
SEO, or search engine optimization, has been about learning the search engine methods or rules in order to discern what it will take to move a website to the top of the search engine results. It requires careful observation and strict adherence to the rules in order to effectively (and ethically) position a given website.
Of course, as some companies learn the rules and methods to ethically conduct SEO, they start to spot some tricks as well. And from the tricks they discover loopholes. And these loopholes give them the means to artificially manipulate the results. These practices were collectively labeled black-hat SEO and the search engines do everything they can to discover these practices, including penalizing a site or even banning it outright.
Unfortunately, it is specifically because of these measures that a new form of unethical SEO has cropped up – generally referred to as Negative SEO.
Negative SEO, like traditional negative ad campaigns, is all about tearing down others rather than building yourself up. Negative SEO can come in a number of forms, all of which have the purpose of doing serious damage to someone else.
Some of these methods include: Google Bowling, fake copyright complaints, click fraud, and fake duplicate content. Many of these practices are just malicious, while some of them result from new search engine policies (like in the case of Google Bowling). These practices involve conducting black-hat SEO – not for your own site, but for your competition's site. Theoretically this would cause the penalties to happen to them and open higher ranks for you.
Does this really work? Some say yes, others no. Google itself says: "There's almost nothing a competitor can do to harm your ranking or have your site removed from our index."
Of course, there's something suspicious about that "almost" and unethical SEO's have latched onto it as proof that it can be done (although it most likely refers to malicious hacker attacks and identity theft than it does search engine results manipulation).
So what is the difference between traditional negative ad campaigns and negative SEO?
One: there are laws that govern slander and libel that protect the intended victim from traditional campaigns. You don't have that luxury against negative SEO. All you can do is hope the search engine somehow has you covered.
Two: traditional campaigns attempt to sway opinion. Negative SEO attempts to remove a competitor from the running. You can't choose to ignore negative ads and click their website if there isn't a website to click.
As the Internet continues to evolve, these new and unethical methods will continue to pop up. But the choice always remains the same: do you want to make yourself better, or tear others down?
Though our body demands fat for energy, you ought to know the difference between the right quantity of fat and having too much of it. Of course there is nothing which adds more fun to watching a movie with loads of fat-rich snacks in front of you, but you are getting heavier in the process. The you would be busy speculating furiously as to the type of workouts you need to do to get those unbecoming love handles out of the way, so what are you meant to do? Love handles are those large rings of flesh which pop out of the rim of your pants near the waist line and they are not just ugly, they are positively unhealthy too so you ought to do away with them. To get back in shape, start doing physical exercises regularly.
It's not that easy to shed that extra pound around the waist, it requires hard work and discipline. Of course, this does not result in any harrowing experience as any physical work out should be enjoyable. You must be thinking of the best form of physical exertion to remove the love handles. Nearly all of us enjoy watching movies at home so why not plan out your exercise program, while watching your preferred movie? Here are some exercises which you could do in front of the movie screen.
Do aerobics workouts: This is a type of physical exertion that burns your fats and therefore makes you lose weight then if done regularly, it also helps maintain the weight you want. This may be a difficult proposal to do exercises while watching a movie, but try to find a channel which shows aerobic workouts. This is not very time consuming and takes very little work before you get ready for the next movements.
Try abdominal muscle workouts: The top 3 in the list today are the captain's chair, the bicycle maneuver exercise, and the ball crunch. It is not necessary for you to do all of them, but for your information, these three focus on both the rectus abdominis and the oblique muscles and help shape abdominal muscles. You may only just need one form workout to eliminate love handles effectively. It is possible to watch your best-loved movie channel straightaway, but without losing concentration on the workout.
Have a more nourishing diet: At times when you just want to relax and enjoy the movie, try having healthy snacks. Stop concentrating on ice creams and switch to bites which are rich in fiber content like celery or carrots since you just need to do the physical exercises at least thrice a day. In between your workout routine, you could go back to your favorite cinema and munch those beneficial health bites.
Make a choice to stay healthy: The idea of having to train to get rid of love handles is not a short term regimen. One of the most important points to note here is that since the body is on a continuous process of storing fat, you can land up putting on immense amount of weight if you are not careful with your food habits especially during old age, when losing weight is a near-impossible task, hence it is always wise to start early with your physical exertion. The most advocated piece of advice thus is to alter your life style with a well-balanced diet accompanied by the right kind of workouts, interspersed with the right time gap. The last word is that it is essential to remain well and in good shape all the time.
Both Andy Eliason & Slim Slater are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.