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A Long, Ugly Year of Depression That’s Finally Fading

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Re: A Long, Ugly Year of Depression That’s Finally Fading

#91

Post by AznHisoka »

dchuk wrote: post #72

I guess I'll be the only person to comment on the actual Moz business struggles rather than the depression side of this post. Moz raised their money at a really tricky time because it was right before Google essentially bent over the SEO industry. When Rand mentions the Content tool that hasn't even started being developed, that was something that was supposed to take your Google Analytics keyword referrer data and m…

"that was something that was supposed to take your Google Analytics keyword referrer data and match it to your content and your rankings and your links and your competitors and basically help you spot keywords and content you can easily rank better for."

That doesn't sound very clear to me exactly - how?

Google Analytics ALREADY did match your rankings to your content - it showed which search terms ppl entered when they landed on a specific page.

Re: A Long, Ugly Year of Depression That’s Finally Fading

#92

Post by dchuk »

AznHisoka wrote: post #91
dchuk wrote: post #72

I guess I'll be the only person to comment on the actual Moz business struggles rather than the depression side of this post. Moz raised their money at a really tricky time because it was right before Google essentially bent over the SEO industry. When Rand mentions the Content tool that hasn't even started being developed, that was something that was supposed to take your Google Analytics keyword referrer data and m…

"that was something that was supposed to take your Google Analytics keyword referrer data and match it to your content and your rankings and your links and your competitors and basically help you spot keywords and content you can easily rank better for." That doesn't sound very clear to me exactly - how? Google Analytics ALREADY did match your rankings to your content - it showed which search terms ppl entered when t…

GA showed you which keywords were driving traffic, correct. But they didn't ever tell you the position your content was ranking at.

So what if you have an article on your site that is ranking bottom of first page (~#10) for a keyword you didn't expect and with a little bit of on-page optimization and some on-site interlinking, you could boost that page to the top spot? That could cause a pretty big traffic boost with very little work.

All you would need to know is what keywords your page is getting traffic for and then you can scrape Google to find out the positions for each of those keywords and then you could use something like Moz's Keyword Difficulty tool (or mine, serpIQ) to find out which keywords would be easiest to rank higher for.

Before (not provided) this was a very good strategy to use. You basically identify promising keywords and make your existing content rank better for them. Now that (not provided) ruined the whole organic keyword data, you have to use something like SEMRush to find out which keywords your pages are ranking for, and they just simply will never have fully comprehensive (or up to date) data.

Re: A Long, Ugly Year of Depression That’s Finally Fading

#93

Post by mikeleeorg »

This is an incredibly brave, and hopefully cathartic post by someone I greatly admire. I really hope he is able to find the support and peace he needs.

As a bit of an aside, I wonder how much of this has led to similar troubles for other founders:

When the Foundry investment closed, we redoubled our efforts to build Moz Analytics. We hired more aggressively (and briefly had a $12,000 referral bonus for engineers that ended up bringing in mostly wrong kinds of candidates along with creating some internal culture issues), and spent months planning the fine details of the product.

I've heard from friends & colleagues about the massive amount of pressure they've felt after closing an investment round. While fundraising is already an incredibly trying process, the next stage is sometimes even more difficult.

In contrast, other friends & colleagues who've opted for the bootstrapped route (either by choice or circumstance) haven't seemed to face a similar massive amount of pressure. Yes, they faced incredible stress too, but not to the level of those that have raised capital.

This is merely an anecdotal observation made in my peer group. I don't mean to imply that this is some kind of phenomenon. And clinical depression is something that can cut through any kind of circumstance.

I just can't help but notice the stark difference in stress level of founders who are growing organically & carefully vs founders who are in a mad recruiting rush and sometimes hire the wrong kind of people. I wonder how much of a relationship there is between having the right kind of people in your company vs the wrong kind of people, and the stress level of a founder. I would imagine a lot.

Re: A Long, Ugly Year of Depression That’s Finally Fading

#94

Post by dchuk »

AznHisoka wrote: post #90
dchuk wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well they certainly can do that now, I just think that that's not what they were planning on doing originally and with all the other dev problems they ran into, they couldn't pivot fast enough to the new data source. I think they're just facing a lot of growing pains in trying to become a Big Company in an industry (SEO) that is getting rocked year by year by Google. That's why they're trying to change to "inbound ma…

"I just don't think the market they're targeting is big enough personally." Last I checked Hubspot will be filing an IPO with close to 1 billion dollars market cap. Hootsuite also will be approaching 1 billion market cap when they file their IPO.

Hubspot has a very different client base and sales system than Moz does. Hubspot sells their services and tools directly to small business owners and it is not cheap at all. Moz sells to SEOs, of which there aren't a lot of and the pool is drying up slowly every day.

Re: A Long, Ugly Year of Depression That’s Finally Fading

#95

Post by berberous »

tst wrote: post #5

I'm also recovering from a depression which lasted for quite a while. It absolutely sucks because you think you're worthless, nobody loves you, you can't get anything right and the best would be if you just wouldn't exist anymore. And on top of that you isolate yourself. I know how hard it was to ask for help therefore I want to show you some things which helped me: - Realize that your depression is lying to you. It…

I just want to second "Feeling Good". I only read the first 30-50 pages, and that was enough to instantly and permanently decrease my depressive thoughts by about 85%. Your results, of course, may vary.

Re: A Long, Ugly Year of Depression That’s Finally Fading

#96

Post by dceddia »

bocalogic wrote: post #77

I respect Rand and give him a lot of credit for vocalizing his challenges. Depression is a challenge and it can be overcome. I am not a doctor, but I can tell you that a lot of my peers are suffering from depression from business, marriage or just in general. One thing I do know is that the world has changed a lot in the past decade. The price of everything just keeps going up and we are constantly bombarded by infor…

You mentioned staying off caffeine, but recommended teas that both (usually) contain caffeine. Not trying to be a jerk, but genuinely curious - is the caffeine from tea better for the body than the caffeine from coffee? Or did you mean decaffeinated types of tea?

Re: A Long, Ugly Year of Depression That’s Finally Fading

#97

Post by AznHisoka »

dchuk wrote: post #92
AznHisoka wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"that was something that was supposed to take your Google Analytics keyword referrer data and match it to your content and your rankings and your links and your competitors and basically help you spot keywords and content you can easily rank better for." That doesn't sound very clear to me exactly - how? Google Analytics ALREADY did match your rankings to your content - it showed which search terms ppl entered when t…

GA showed you which keywords were driving traffic, correct. But they didn't ever tell you the position your content was ranking at. So what if you have an article on your site that is ranking bottom of first page (~#10) for a keyword you didn't expect and with a little bit of on-page optimization and some on-site interlinking, you could boost that page to the top spot? That could cause a pretty big traffic boost with…

Ah I see. Yeah, that would be useful.

Slight tangent, What do you think about buzzsumo.com for evaluating content ideas?

Re: A Long, Ugly Year of Depression That’s Finally Fading

#98

Post by gadders »

One last comment - this post from Rand reminds me of the following from Ben Horowitz:

"By far the most difficult skill for me to learn as CEO was the ability to manage my own psychology. Organizational design, process design, metrics, hiring and firing were all relatively straightforward skills to master compared to keeping my mind in check. Over the years, I’ve spoken to hundreds of CEOs all with the same experience. Nonetheless, very few people talk about it and I have never read anything on the topic. It’s like the fight club of management: The first rule of the CEO psychological meltdown is don’t talk about the psychological meltdown."

http://www.bhorowitz.com/what_s_the_most_difficult_ceo_skill...

Re: A Long, Ugly Year of Depression That’s Finally Fading

#99

Post by dchuk »

AznHisoka wrote: post #97
dchuk wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GA showed you which keywords were driving traffic, correct. But they didn't ever tell you the position your content was ranking at. So what if you have an article on your site that is ranking bottom of first page (~#10) for a keyword you didn't expect and with a little bit of on-page optimization and some on-site interlinking, you could boost that page to the top spot? That could cause a pretty big traffic boost with…

Ah I see. Yeah, that would be useful. Slight tangent, What do you think about buzzsumo.com for evaluating content ideas?

Can you expand on what you mean? I've only played with buzzsumo a bit to bulk check sharing stats for sites.

Re: A Long, Ugly Year of Depression That’s Finally Fading

#100

Post by ScottBurson »

meh_master wrote: post #11
tst wrote: post #5

I'm also recovering from a depression which lasted for quite a while. It absolutely sucks because you think you're worthless, nobody loves you, you can't get anything right and the best would be if you just wouldn't exist anymore. And on top of that you isolate yourself. I know how hard it was to ask for help therefore I want to show you some things which helped me: - Realize that your depression is lying to you. It…

I've been depressed for over ten years, I'm currently thirty years old. I left my job in January due to depression, though I didn't tell anyone. I haven't worked a day since then and am just living off savings as they dwindle. I haven't spoken to any of my former co-workers who were my only contacts in the Bay Area since I moved from the East Coast to work at a startup. I've spent all day every day numbing myself wit…

I feel for you, but I'm going to be blunt. You've got to get rid of the weed. As long as you're smoking, your head isn't going to clear and you're not going to want to do anything. Flush your stash down the toilet and don't look back.

Then, as someone else has said, getting a job is a really good idea. Otherwise you're going to wind up on the street, which will be far more depressing than your situation now.

Once those two things are taken care of, get help. I don't personally recommend staying on antidepressants for life -- no, I'm not a psychiatrist; this is just my opinion -- but they can be a useful temporary crutch.

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