aimClear Search Marketing Blog

What is projected to be a massive 3-day spring blizzard is now affecting Internet access and power to the City of Duluth, Minnesota (aimClear’s home). At least one large regional ISP has been taken down by the outage which is city and region-wide.

Over 10,000 electric customers and thousands of Internet users (including websites) are without service at this time. Weather conditions are so serious that one ISP, with over 20,000 customers, was down for over an hour in the pre-dawn light whilst crews hacked accumulated ice from an outdoor generator enclosure for proper exhausting. Read the rest of this entry »

March 2008 marks the 1 year anniversary of aimClear Blog and WHAT an amazing year it’s been! We covered 7 major SES, SMX, and PhocusWright shows, immersed in Sphinn, I became an ongoing contributor to SearchEngineWatch Blog and recently posted my inaugural article regarding reputation management in SearchEngineLand.

This year we took on StumbleTrolls, discussed social rock star rules for little people, mingled with giants, discussed the evaporating yellow line between SEO & social media, and learned the ropes from consummate professionals. Tamar taught me not to Pee in the Pool.Read the rest of this entry »

20 minutes in the office this morning, a stop at the attorney to sign and notarize legal documents, an hour @ Sprint testing the new Blackberry World Phone, a short hop from Duluth, 3 hours of work in the Minneapolis airport NWA lounge, and finally we get to enjoy a relaxing upgraded-up-to-first-class flight to Portland OR.

Willamette wine country beckons with the allure of brilliant 90+ point Pinots and superb Nouveau French cooking. On Monday I’ll have the distinct pleasure of speaking @ SEMpdx Searchfest in Portland. Read the rest of this entry »

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 »

Originally the Duluth Public Library, The Carnegie Building is monumental in it’s grand neo-classic design and venerable Presence on the Duluth, MN skyline. Constructed in 1901 & 1902, after a generous gift to the city by Andrew Carnegie, the 5 story high 40′ diameter rotunda has been meticulously restored to it’s stunning gold-leaf & oak grace by a consortium of personally-invested family owners.

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Happy New Year to you & yours from the aimClear family. We wish you peace, prosperity, & joy in 2008. We’re off to ring in the new year Duluth, Minnesota style. Cheers!

We’ve received gratifying feedback in public and private to recent articles discussing the associated challenges of scaling search marketing from solo practice to agency. No doubt each day in our wonderful office presents fascinating, if not daunting, crossroads which have the potential to make or break the business. We’re having so much fun.

We’ve made some mistakes and done other things pretty well right. The fact that Rand Fishkin has been willing to unselfishly share what he’s learned about SEM agency structures certainly helped us shape our business model. Andy Beal has offered extremely practical information. In retrospect, Danny Sullivan & Chris Sherman’s SEM business track @ Search Engine Strategies 2006 mattered a lot.

Technology investments, hiring decisions, analytics philosophy, PPC management, accounting, training, marketing, transparency, social media strategies, networking, community relations, and many other issues require attention, vision and a cast-iron stomach. Read the rest of this entry »

Our content creation practice warrants staffing in-house and/or remote free-lance blogger(s) who are adept (chameleon-like) at researching geographic & niche-specific topics. The end-deliverable is copyright clear original content as specified by one of our SEM account managers & seasoned by your applied creativity. Sounds like fun doesn’t it? Read the rest of this entry »

Our SES Chicago 2007 is complete and we’re heading back to the blustery ice and snow of Minnesota early tomorrow morning. It’s my understanding that Duluth received a little over 30 inches of snow in our absence. I want to express gratitude for the warm hospitality extended by the SES Kevins: Ryan & Heisler.

Today I put on my SeoRoundTable correspondent hat again which explains why we did not post in these pages. To those SEL/Sphinn friends who chose Vegas, we hope you had a hell of a time at PubCon. There were some tasty bits here on the SEM firm track for the experienced, which you would have found informative.Read the rest of this entry »

Happy Thanksgiving from the entire aimClear crew here in Minnesota. This month has been incredibly busy as, over the course of the last 11 months, our search marketing agency has scaled from solo SEM practice to 5 person search marketing agency. There’s SO much to be grateful for.

We’re thankful for our dear friends, good health, treasured clients, valued readers, the entire SearchEngineLand/Sphinn community, and having a job that totally ROCKS. Thank you all so much for your friendship, support, talent, insight, camaraderie, and willingness to engage/discuss/debate. Read the rest of this entry »