aimClear® Search Marketing Blog

Well guys, gals, and gobblers– it’s just about that magical time of year again. A time when dinner means an eight hour feast, commencing dinner at 1 in the afternoon is defensibly the norm, and wearing sweatpants (or anything with an elastic waistband) to the dinner table is not only socially acceptable, but pretty much a prerequisite.

Yes! Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and while the shining star of this holiday is often a glistening turkey surrounded by a cornucopia of side dishes, both savory and sweet, it’s always important to remember the reason for the season… you know… giving thanks, and stuff like that.

…Because those things special enough to give thanks for? They stick around way longer than whatever sumptuous Turkey Day food you just spooned a third helping of (shhh, I won’t tell).

At aimClear, we have a ton to be thankful for this year. We got a beautiful new home. We brought on new members to our online marketing team. We’ve also got a lot to be thankful for as individuals, and we know our friends do, too. In the spirit of the whole mushy-gushy-fun flowing full-force this week, we hit the tweet-streets to see what you’re thankful for. Some responses were truly heartwarming. Others will snarktastic. All were genuine. Read on for the lovin’-goodness.

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I’ve recently had two transcendent experiences to further frame my now nearly 20-year career as an online marketer. First, I essentially stepped away from aimClear’s offices in Duluth and Saint Paul for 6 months to write a book about Facebook Ads. Then, literally as the book was completed, I had heart damage fixed. During cancer treatment over five years ago, my aortic valve was seriously impacted by chemo and radiation. Both the book project and open-heart surgery took me away from my decades-long daily study of SEO for weeks at a time. Both experiences turned out really well, were essential and deep, made aimClear an even better company, and provided me with magnificent perspective I would not have realized by other less extreme experiences.

Any CEO, whose company grows over five years from only him to approaching 20 souls, needs to trust the team. I knew aimClear was totally cool because now, these years later, we’ve got an office full of brilliant SEO brainy-types who practice state-of-the-art social, PR, SEO, PPC mashup strategies and tactics with vigor, wit and thought leadership. After each chunk of time away, the team briefed me so I never got personally very far out of sync with SEO changes. From daily vicissitudes in Facebook, YouTube template changes to Google’s +1, I asked for and received comprehensive studies from our team whenever anything important evolved. Still, being away from my beloved SEO study broke my heart. Well, it was broken already. The whole thing was very ironic.

Still, temporarily stepping aside made me a much better marketer. The unexpected silver lining was that constantly returning to SEO news tuned out to be a bit like perspective gained by a lonely parent who rediscovers his children after weeks away at summer vacation camp. Though I was (truly) stunned at how significantly SEO had changed each block of time away, not too much had changed at all.

In fact now that I think about it, not much has not changed at all since the days of “Fetch,” “Archie” and my hot little 14.4k Modem (V.32bis) (2400 baud) modem. Heck, not much of marketing’s essence has changed for hundreds of years. As I wrote Killer Facebook Ads, the book became much more about marketing, beyond just Facebook Ads.  After completing the book, the sabbatical from the daily SEO grind to repair my heart gave me some unpressured time to assimilate things, to think and I felt inspired to see things clearer than before. SEO is ever new and barely ever changes. Long Live SEO! This is the first installment of two, the second half of which will be published later this week. Read the rest of this entry »

A blessed component of my job, as CEO of aimClear, is traveling all over the world to speak at online marketing conferences.  Tonight I’m pretty tired after the 14 hour return flight from Sydney to LAX, 3 hours to Minneapolis and another half hour on to Duluth. Still, the excitement at having spent 7 glorious days in Sydney and Manly Australia has not waned a bit, even in light of exhaustion.  I simply could not wait to share a few tasty samples from hundreds of pictures taken.  Many thanks to the home town hosts at SMX Advanced, eMetrics, and SMX Elite, Sydney. From incredible Aboriginal art to the Royal Botanical Gardens, click on any thumbnail for a larger image. G’day Mate! Read the rest of this entry »

We’ve all heard the expression “live like you’re dying.” I’ve experienced that first hand and it’s colored my experience founding aimClear, in profound and beautiful ways. This post is dedicated to our special friend who’s currently kicking cancer’s butt.

I started aimClear on the heels of surviving Lymphoma stage 3B, still handling the effects of chemo and radiation. As a result, aimClear was born to a person ready to embrace the joy of life and work.  That was four years ago. Every day I go to work with a invaluable combination of excitement, awe, and fear.

Upon aimClear’s recent and humbling nomination for a respected regional award, I was invited to share tips with other entrepreneurs growing their businesses. I’ve been feeling a bit introspective about how we’ve done things here,  because it’s been quite a ride as our company scaled from just me to 14 people in a little over four years. Here’s what comes to mind, in 20/20 hindsight, as keys to growing aimClear. I learned so much from cancer. Read the rest of this entry »

Earlier today, we published the second half of 44 Must-See Internet Marketing Conference Speakers– a two-part blog post that paid tribute to industry luminaries who color the conference landscape pretty with smarts, sass, and everything in between. We believe search marketers are among the most beautiful people in the world, and that mini-series was one way to give back to those who give it their all. We also believe that there’s two sides to the conference-speaker-coin, and not everything can be all sunshine and pussy cats… Read the rest of this entry »