A search marketing blog for advertising agency, in-house & PR professionals
Our search marketing agency, aimClear, is hiring a CTO in our Duluth, Minnesota office. The successful candidate will have experience enough to install and maintain our Apache & Windows servers & applications. The position is full time with benefits. Read the rest of this entry »
I know yal’ are going have some PHAT PHUN @ SMX West Santa Clara. Though aimClear will be attending, covering, or speaking at 9 SEM related conferences in 2008, including 3 SMX & 3 SES shows, I can’t make Santa Clara.
The good news is that we’ve got client and infrastructure growth sufficient to keep me at home here with the Minnesota team this month, even in light of my love for search marketing conferences. It’s seriously busy and we’re happily up to our necks. 
That said, a couple of PMs rolled in asking what sessions we would recommend. Whilst looking through the agenda this morning over cereal and milk (which is what I’d be doing if attending West) it seemed like a fun idea to post a mock itinerary for Day One. Read the rest of this entry »
Never underestimate the screaming-obsessive lowdown fanaticism of a committed social site user who’s really pissed off. From Digg’s famed Bury Brigade to the vulgar rhetoric of the StumbleTroll Wars, marauding packs of member-vigilantes gang up to violently flame those they consider trespassers.
The engaged are extremely invested in their community, to the point that participation is woven into the very fabric of day to day lives. Regardless of the specific site or community model, one nuclear complaint seems to piss off invested participants the most: bad content. Read the rest of this entry »
It’s noteworthy that Portland Oregon’s interactive marketing community has spawned SEMpdx, a vibrant regional search marketing trade association. Friend and fellow Sphinner, Stumbler, Facebook(er), and blogger Todd Mintz has been instrumental in championing “SearchFest,” SEMpdx’s well regarded annual conference.
I’m fortunate enough to have been invited to speak at this year’s Searchfest along with the likes of Stoney deGeyter, Matt McGee and Rand Fishkin. Recently Todd Mintz was gracious enough to answer questions I pinged him with regarding the Portland conference, his own professional history, and personal inspiration. I even had to “bleep” his copy.
What was the organization’s genesis and what role did you play? SEMpdx was the brainchild of Kent Lewis and Scott Orth. Both of them attended SES Seattle 2006 and thought that there wasn’t any reason that Seattle should draw the attention of Search Marketers while Portland continued to be ignored.
Many site owners barely understand the basic pathology of links, let alone advanced Dofollow, Nofollow, Pagerank flow-sculpting, and the inherent dangers of link farming. As search marketers, it is incumbent upon us to capitalize on the market’s naivety on behalf of our clients. That’s why they hire us.
The “Fool’s Gold Link Exchange” play is a perfectly ethical tactic we employ surrounding client link-trading activities which results in holistic reciprocal promotion & traffic, happy trading partners, and massive one-way link juice building…for our clients. Read the rest of this entry »
Search Engine Strategies New York, March 17-20 2008, looms large on the Horizon as a vanguard of venerable search marketing conferences. It will be packed with SEMs, SEOs, PR folks, hard core pay per click gurus, experts, social media evangelists, and other talented international ambassadors of search. If you’re reading this blog, you should be there too.
New York City is easily my favorite place, a symphony of sounds, activity, aromas; a world class crucible of ethnicity melded into modern American culture. I can’t think of a more lovely venue to spend a week in March than the New York Hilton. Read the rest of this entry »
I know SEOs who are scared-yellow. One night, during the early days of Google’s paid link jihad, I personally woke up in Manhattan to a 3AM cold sweat.
It had finally registered that over half of the links we’d procured for clients would, not only cease to have value, but potentially cause penalties. Google was going door to door in a vicious pagerank-killing pogrom.
Gnashing teeth that night, it was clear that our many months of intensity, whilst delving deeper into the social media universe, would pay. I quietly thanked the stars for our team’s social media acumen, planning, and luck. With certainty the golden path was clear. The line between organic search engine optimization and social media is evaporating. Read the rest of this entry »
SMX West, Santa Clara February 26-28, 2008, is an SEM industry must-attend search marketing conference and exposition.
The first SMX 3day 5track seminar threads the needle with a vital blend of modern thinking, hard core training, and essential fundamentals for newbies.
Danny Sullivan and Chris Sherman, grandmasters of search marketing conference sequencing, by all impressions, are serving up a classic here. Introduced in 2007, SMX search marketing conferences have already become staples for serious SEM professionals and those migrating to our field from conventional PR, marketing, and advertising backgrounds. Read the rest of this entry »
As first reported over at Collective-Thoughts, StumbleUpon has finally reacted to terrible press and user complaints by adding a line-item “flag” system to SU reviews. Now users, who feel as if they have been subject to TOS violations, can flag abusive reviews as spam, violent, hostile, or vulgar. Read the rest of this entry »
