November 14th, 2008 at 12:26 am
I’m not at Pubcon in Las Vegas but everywhere I turn I’m reminded that the rest of the world is there. Twitter, blogs and photos are all reminding me that I’m missing a fun and informative event. So what I decided to do is just pretend I’m there. No one will know the difference and people won’t hold it against me or think less of me for not attending one of the premiere industry events of the year. Feel free to use my 3 step method to pretend, so people think you’re there as well. Shhhhh, I won’t tell if you don’t tell!
1. Fake Live Blog - According to this blog post, live blogging of the sessions are inaccurate reporting so no need to worry about getting it right. Now don’t go just copy someone else’s inaccurate reporting, that’s called plagiarism my friend and that’s downright evil. But if you copy from more than one person, well that’s called research;). Here’s some places you can do that research,
We Build Pages, Bruce Clay, Search Engine Roundtable, Marketing Pilgrim and Top Rank.
2. Fake Tweet - Make sure you tweet very vaguely and just often enough that people think you’re around. Tweet so it looks like you’re at a session like “This session sucks #pubcon” or “That sure was a stupid question #pubcon”.
Make sure your friends can’t find you for drinks or dinner with tweets like “I’m to drunked to know were iam” or “wow that was a good meal#pubcon”. And be sure to include some casino tweets, after all you are pretending to be in Las Vegas, “Just won a bundle on craps #pubcon” or “What’s with this dealer? #pubcon”
3. Fake Flickr Photos- This will really fool ‘em. Post some pictures you previously took of the seo’s you know are at Pubcon on flickr and retag them Pubcon 2008. They won’t remember cause they were probably drunk when the picture was taken. Make sure you don’t get too much background info so they can figure it out. Add in a picture or two of your last trip to Vegas to make it more real.
Bonus - If you really want to pretend you were at #Pubcon, stuff a pair of dirty socks in your mouth, bang your head against the wall a dozen times or so and then go outside and throw all your money into the street. Go to bed and when you wake up, you’ll feel just like you would at Pubcon. Now wasn’t that fun?
November 10th, 2008 at 10:12 pm
Search Engine Strategies (SES) will hit Chicago again on December 8-12. I really enjoy SES in Chicago for several reasons. First it’s a smaller conference so it has a more intimate feel. Another reason I liked to attend is since I lived in Minneapolis it was an easy, short, one and a half hour flight. (My last flight to the SES conference in San Jose took 18 hours). Most people also stay in the same hotel as the conference, the Hilton near Grant Park, so it’s easier to get together. The Savoy bar in the hotel is where I’ve met many of my friends and fellow search marketers. It’s also the first conference I spoke at back in 2005. So you can see why I like SES Chicago.
The keynote speakers for Search Engine Strategies Chicago are listed below;
• Lawrence Lessig, the Professor of Law at Stanford Law School, is giving the opening keynote on Monday, Dec. 8;
• Bill Tancer, the General Manager of Global Research at Hitwise, is giving the morning keynote on Tuesday, Dec. 9; and
• Josh James, the President and Chief Executive Officer of Omniture, is giving the morning keynote on Wednesday, Dec. 10th.
Also here’s some additional training that will be available.
Search Engine Marketing Training Workshops:
Search & Analytics Workshop: Using Analytics to Increase Search Effectiveness
Viral Marketing & Link Baiting
Link Building Tactics, Tools & Techniques
Optimizing for Universal Search
In addition there are several other well known speakers. I’m not going to be able to make it, so please say hi to everyone for me. Also if you buy internet marketing management strategy guru David Dalka a drink or two, he might tell you about some great places to eat or drink that aren’t well known to the tourists.
November 6th, 2008 at 9:07 pm
Michael Gray is seeking new BFF’s. At least Michael is not being elitist like Paris Hilton as she searches for only one BFF on her reality TV show. However anyone can be Michael’s BFF. Here’s all it takes according to Micheal. “If you wanted to mention my new service on your blog or on twitter I’d totally be your best friend … for life ;)”.
So, since I want to be Michael’s BFF let me tell you about his new service. It’s called Viral Conversations (love the name). It’s a way to “bring together product marketers and people who test products and generate product reviews”. Instead of advertisers having to seek out bloggers who will talk about their products or services, Viral Conversations will bring them together. Everyone is reviewed before they can enter the system. They’re also starting a private network of bloggers who will receive exclusive offers that are not available to the general public.
I really think of BFF as a girlie thing but hey if I can be Michael’s new best friend forever, then why not. I wonder if he knows what he’s in for though.
A loyal friend laughs at your jokes when they’re not so good, and sympathizes with your problems when they’re not so bad. ~Arnold H. Glasgow
Most of my jokes are pretty lame so Micheal’s gonna have to learn to laugh at lame jokes. I don’t have many problems but when I do he better be ready to sympathize, even at 4am (see below).
Friendship isn’t a big thing - it’s a million little things. ~Author Unknown
As if he doesn’t have enought to do.
It is the friends you can call up at 4 a.m. that matter. ~Marlene Dietrich
Now that will really test our BFF status. (Michael, please laugh here)
Only your real friends will tell you when your face is dirty. ~Sicilian Proverb
rent a car bulgariaI don’t think Michael will have too much trouble with this requirement.
Even though I often read his blog, I’ve only met Michael Gray briefly at a Search Engine Stragegies Conference. Now he’s my best friend………forever. Hey Michael, what’s your phone number?
October 31st, 2008 at 2:28 am
October 31st, 2008 at 1:05 am
I don’t get many emails from my Google Adsense account so that’s why I was surprised to find this in my email on Halloween. Really I don’t know what they’re getting at other than it seems they want me to continue carrying Adsense on my websites. You won’t find any ads here on SEM Scholar but I have some other sites that carry them. Anyone know what this email means or what they are getting at?
Dear Publisher,
We understand that the recent economic turmoil has created a lot of uncertainty in the lives of AdSense publishers. During these difficult times, we’re continuing to invest in innovations that improve publisher monetization and advertiser value in the content network.
We’re focusing on further developing our product offerings and boosting ad performance for publishers. We recently announced advancements in AdSense for search and experiments to make ads more effective. We’re bringing DoubleClick technologies to AdSense publishers, and we’ll continue to launch new products and features. We’re also continuing to improve our offerings for AdWords advertisers, making it easier for them to target the Google content network. Features for advertisers, such as the new display ad builder, are designed to improve ad performance on AdSense publisher sites.
We’ll keep driving technological progress, but our best asset will always be our publisher partners. The strength of AdSense lies in the value of the content you bring to users and the quality of the sites you bring to advertisers. Our success is tied to yours. We look forward to partnering with you for the long term, and remain dedicated to helping you succeed.
Sincerely,
Kim Scott
Director AdSense Online Sales & Operations
October 26th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
Now here’s a search marketing conference that I would love to attend but not his year. I will be held at New Connaught Rooms, Covent Garden in London. I’m planning to go to London next year so maybe then. For those of you that can make it this should be a great conference. The only thing is I hate reading about these after they happen because I fell like I miss out on so much. But until we have more search marketing conferences in this part of the world I’ll have to watch and weep.
Take a look at the agenda and the speakers are as usual the cream of the crop. You can register here. Here’s what they say about the keynote at the smx website.
Keynote - Empowering Search Marketers - The Next Generation - Get ready for the next big leap forward in search innovation. The past few years have seen the introduction of new features offering richer search results, personalization and other tools designed to empower searchers. Search engines are now shifting focus, preparing new, highly sophisticated tools designed to take marketers to the next level, enabling them to fine-tune campaigns in ways not previously achievable. In this forward-looking keynote conversation, Microsoft’s development leaders on both the paid and organic side discuss their vision of the future of search marketing—how they’re breaking down barriers and building a powerful new set of tools that move beyond straightforward functionality toward a new paradigm of providing unprecedented transparency and insight into searcher behavior and satisfying customer needs.
Moderator: Chris Sherman, Executive Editor, Search Engine Land
Speakers:
Nathan Buggia, Lead Program Manager, Microsoft Live Search Webmaster Center
ZhaoHui Tang, Principal Group Program Manager, Microsoft adCenter
October 7th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
Scary SEO is a mini conference that will be held October 24 - 25 in Boca Raton, Florida at the Hilton Deerfield Beach. Don’t let the mini conference tag fool you though. It is a two day event costing $200 (that is not a typo). You can register here for Scary SEO. This event includes a great list of speakers (a quick way to determine the value) including;
Jeff Quipp - CEO of Search Engine People
David Snyder - Co-Founder Search & Social, LLC and Search Strategist for JRDunn.com
Jordan Kasteler - Co-Founder Search & Social, LLC and Sr.Search Strategist at Overstock.com
Rhea Drysdale - We Build Pages
Martin Bowling - CTO of VEC3
Loren Baker - Editor and Chief of Search Engine Journal and Partner at Traffic Blend, LLC
Brandy Eddings - CEO of New Edge Media
Pamela Lund - Director of US Operations - BespokeUSB.com
Carolyn Shelby - Director of Natural Search at Chicago-based BeFoundLocal.com/The Krull Group
Brian Chappell - Senior Social Search Strategist at Ignite Social Media
John Carcutt - Co-Founder/Chief Search Stratigest of AgencyWeb
Ross Dunn - CEO of StepForth Web Marketing Inc.
Brian Carter - Director of Search Marketing at Fuel Interactive
Eric Lander - Organic Search Manager, ADP Inc./Associate Editor, Search Engine Journal
Chris Hart - Director, Eastern Region Operations Bruce Clay Inc.
According to the organizers it “will be focused on education, networking, and fun”. Here’s some talk about this event and some of the people who are attending.
Garrett Paul Pierson - Your SEO Mentor
Dave Snyder & Carolyn Shelby on Webmaster Radio
Eric Lander - Eric Lander’s Blog
Pamela Lund - That Pam Chick
Dave Snyder - Snydey Sense (about the IM Charity Dinner)
October 2nd, 2008 at 2:03 am
‘O, the lisa’
O, the lisa, where have you gone
we miss your written word.
What have you seen, what have your read,
please tell us what you’ve heard.
You blogged that SMX went black
the mobs let loose their hate.
You did not flinch, you stood your ground
you set the record straight.
The Gray Wolf howled BlogHer’s unfair,
they wouldn’t let men speak.
You said ‘don’t cry, you macho jerk’
Who said your sex was weak?
On Fridays you would share your finds,
we read, we laughed, we cried.
And when you mentioned us in there
We thought we nearly died.
O,the lisa, please come back
and write for us again.
We promise this, that if you do,
each blog of yours we’ll Sphinn.
I don’t know when I started reading Lisa Barone’s blog posts at the Bruce Clay Blog but I do know I liked her writing very much. Her writing was informative and entertaining. I could always picture Susan watching over her shoulder as Lisa penned her blog posts and Susan adding a comment when she felt it was needed. Okay, I know Susan didn’t stand behind Lisa as she blogged, or did she?
I do remember when I first met Lisa. That was on a cold day at SES in Chicago. Aren’t all the days at SES in Chicago cold? We met outside the elevator and I told her how much I loved her writing. We got on the elevator with a small group and I said “Did you ever notice how everybody gets quite when they’re in an elevator?” She replied “Yah, everybody but you!” Snarky and cute. And now I hear her say in my head “Make that adorably cute” and so I do.
So Lisa’s on to greener pastures, or colder pastures anyway. I don’t know how a girl who grew up in Long Island could last very long in Simi Valley anyway. So back to the East Coast with her and her cats.
There is much speculation about what is next for ‘the lisa’. I’ve no idea but I’m rooting for her to wind up with the new ninjas, Patrick Sexton, Rhea Drysdale and the rest of the Jim Boykin gang at We Build Pages.
I was happy to see Lisa on my trip back to the states in August for SES San Jose. I sat next to her at the last session of the conference watching her blog away. During the Q&A session I felt I had made a good point and asked he why she didn’t include that in her post. I felt bad because I realized she couldn’t put in everything and in fact she was probably dead tired. Nevertheless she did manage to add it anyway. And on the last Friday recap of her BC career she put a link to a pic of me in my ‘thelisa’ t-shirt and my cat. So here’s an ode to ‘the lisa’.
September 23rd, 2008 at 8:47 pm
I’m really upset I didn’t make SMX Nanjing, China which is going on right now (September 23-24). It’s the first search marketing conference I’ve missed in China in 3 years. Inway Ni has done a great job of promoting search marketing in China and it is always been a privilige to be a part of his conferences. He made a great move partnering with SMX and is now putting on 2 conferences a year.
The good news though is SMX is coming to Singapore. When I moved here last year I didn’t think there would be a search marketing conference here for awhile and was pleasantly surprised when Barry Smyth contacted me asking about venues, etc. Search marketing is growing by leaps and bounds and this conference is going to expose many businesses to the advantages of sem. It will also draw speakers and delegates from around the region.
Gillian Muessig, president of world renowned search marketing resource SEOmoz.org, will be the keynote speaker and Bill Hunt, Motoko Hunt, and others will be here. After flying to the US for SES it is great to think of everybody coming over here, well not everybody, but you know what I mean. Hope to see you here if you can get out this way.
August 31st, 2008 at 3:45 am
Think Tank 2008 looks like a pretty cool event and I was introduced to it by the one and only DK of Purposeinc. In case you didn’t know, DK is really Dr. David Klein, a chiropractor who is also actively involved in the seo community. If you have heard of DK, it may be because he organized the Charity Poker Tournaments at the Venetian hotel for Pubcon attendees.This sounds like a more informal conference with a lot of networking and fun events. As DK says the purpose is to “exchange ideas, make friends, have fun and grow”.
DK and other Purposeinc folks are hosting this and Think Tankers include; Neil Patel, Jon Kelly, Rhea Drysdale, Chris Winfield, Corey Hammond and more than 20 other industry leaders. You can sign up for the event here.
Wish I could be there!
What are others saying about ThinkTank 2008?
Al Carlton at Self Made Minds started it off before the registration was technically open
I was actually very touched by what John Andrews wrote.
One of my absolute favorites, Pamelund, who also was one of the first to talk about the poker tournament gave the think tank a very flattering write up.
One of the people I most respect in the internet industry wrote with wit and sarcasm, as he often does, and at the end of this blog explains the truth behind San Diego, and promotes the event.
Please subscribe to the RSS feed to stay updated with announcements, changes and the like as time goes by!
If you are ready to register go to the registration page.
If you were NOT invited and want to be invited go here to apply.
August 7th, 2008 at 9:17 pm
It’s All Geek To Me! , the 2nd Internet and Mobile Marketing Summit 2008 is to be held August 13-15, 2008 at the Grand Ballroom, Hotel Intercontinental, Makati City, Philippines. In case you don’t know, Makati City is one of the cities and municipalities that make up metro Manila.
I’ll be speaking in the plenary session on the second day in the “Closing the Digital Marketing Confidence Gap” session and on the third and fourth day on the “Integrated Media” session.
Some of the other speakers will be;
David Ko
Managing Director and Vice President, Connected Life
Asia Pacific
Yahoo! Inc.
Ian Mckee
CEO, Vocanic, Singapore Adrian Moss
Founder and CEO, Deal Group Media (DGM).
Simon Bond
Regional Director, Proximity Worldwide
Adrian Moss
Founder and CEO, Deal Group Media (DGM)
David Jones
Vice President of Global Marketing, Friendster
Barney Loehnis
Network Director, Asia Pacific, Isobar
Naoko Odaka
Senior Consultant,
Dentsu Inc., Japan
August 1st, 2008 at 6:48 pm
Here’s a new search marketing conference. What’s different about Searchcamp Philly, which is to be held at Temple University over the weekend of September 6 & 7th, 2008, is the unbelievable entrance fee of $21. That’s right, two tens and a one, that’s it. What that means is that you’ll have money left over for a philly cheese steak, mmmmmm ………cheese steak!
We’ve got 4 tracks, with 30 sessions available from basic to intermediate and also including 2 advanced tracks. We even have the opportunity for small businesses, new entrepreneurs, bloggers, B2C and B2B business to have their sites reviewed by the experts. We even have a session for non-profits, so how can you not want to set aside this date and attend?
Okay so you’re probably thinking this can’t be very good for such chump change, right? WRONG!
One way I’ve always determined the value of any sem training or conferences is by the quality of the trainers and/or speakers. Check out just some of the speakers at this near free event:
Debbie Weil - Author of the Corporate Blogging Book
Kevin M. Ryan - Vice President, Global Content Director for Search Engine Strategies and Search Engine Watch Geoff Livingston - Author of Now is Gone
Wil Reynolds - President of Seer Interactive
Liana “Li” Evans - Director of Internet Marketing KeyRelevance, Owner of Search Marketing Gurus
Greg Meyers - Partner/VP Operations at CampaignGrid, LLC & World Benefactor
Kim Krause Berg - Usability Expert & Owner of Cre8asite Forums
Okay here’s where you register and it looks like there are only 390376 tickets left, so hurry cause they ain’t gonna last at this price I can tell you.
July 29th, 2008 at 7:23 am
I just blogged about who Google thinks David Temple is and I can tell you it is not very pretty. In particular the top results are about a wife killer. This blog did make it in at number 3 out of 713,000 results so I can’t complain too much. It even beat out davidtemple.com.
Well I’ve been reading a lot about this new search engine, Cuil (pronounced cool I guess but no way I would have figured that out). It is being heralded as a Google killer, quite an impressive statement. Well here are the results for David Temple. Oh my!
As you can see the first result on the left, 試聴: Charlotte Kinder/Crouch End Festival …, is certainly not me but the conductor David Temple that was found in the top results on Google. Interesting Japanese in the results too, I’ve never seen that. But lo and behold, that’s my mug on the result. Oh well, FAIL.
On the right is also a result from the same website and yep that’s me again. This time with my ‘thelisa’ tshirt and my fat cat. Again, FAIL. 2nd result on the left and hey, Cuil got my LinkedIn profile, now that’s cool. I like the car pic but not mine, never seen it. And in the second row on the right, MyBlogLog. Yes but there’s no picture FAIL. Finally on the right another result for the conductor. So really I have 2 pics and 2 results in the top 5 so I guess I’m Cuil!
More about Cuil from around the interweb;
Cuil Launches — Can This Search Start-Up Really Best Google? Search Engine Land
New Search Engine Cuil Launches But Something is Amiss Search Rank
Cuil Fast Test - Relevancy Isn’t A Google Killer Search Engine Land
Cuil Takes on Google and 5 Simple Reasons Why it Will Fail Search Engine Journal
Cuil Goes Offline Ankit Rawat - SEM (Search Engine Marketing) & SEO Blog
Google and Cuil search giants go head to head in DaniWeb testing DANIWEB
I played with Cuil like everyone else, so far it is a big disappointment SEO Aware
The New Google Buster Dennis Deacon’s Blog and Smatterings
Cuil Launches Biggest Search Engine on the Web Cuil
Cuil: The bizarre new search engine that seems to be straight from 1998 Digital Marketing Rucksack
How Cuil Is It to Misspell Your Brand Name? Chris Baskind dot com
Cuil Is Cool But Not Yet Hot Matthew Keegan | SEO
Why I Will be Rooting for Cuil to Succeed The Red Stapler Chronicles
Cuil Is So New That Cuil Doesn’t Know About It A!! Things SEM
July 27th, 2008 at 6:49 am
Who am I? That is a question man has pondered since time immemorial. So how could I go about answering the question, who is David Temple? Well, I could attend a course where according to the syllabus I would read and respond in individual, literal, critical and evaluative ways to literary, informational and persuasive text to start. Then I could generate questions before, during and after reading, writing, listening and viewing. Next I would ask and answer my own and other’s text-related critical and analytical questions.
Too.Much.Work. I think all I need to do is google myself. Hey, never thought of that before;) So I set out to find myself, who is David Temple? Here’s what I found.
There are about 713,000 results for my name. I hate that first and second result are about David Temple, who murdered his pregnant wife ala Scott Peterson. ? It sucks that those are the top results. Can I sue Google for calling me a killer? I know I’m not a killer but would someone searching for me know? I doubt they would but I still don’t like it. Talk about a reputation management issue.
Hey, this blog comes in a three now that’s not bad. Can this post “David Temple according to Google” move me up? We’ll have to wait and see. Of course, if you fine readers would link here with the anchor text, David Temple, that would help 
The fourth result is about a symphony director, not bad but I don’t know squat about music so that ain’t me either. And the fifth result is about another musically inclined David Temple, a classic guitarist and composer. Looks like I’m in the wrong profession for my name. At least he has my name as his domain name, I guess he is relevant.
I’m sure you’ve checked to see who Google says you are. Are you happy with the results?
I’m adding a link to commenters here to aid in their quest to own their name on the serps. I don’t have Jenna’s last name so I’ll pass on her but I will give a shouy out to Paul Savage an seo that has a German/Irish thing going on. Sounds like a lot of beer drinking to me.
July 23rd, 2008 at 6:46 am
Holy Blog Of Doom, Batman! I just climbed out from under my rock and realised I have not updated this since they let me out!… You would not believe how much more of a drama I could make that. Stupid Global Warming!.
I am flat out like a lizard drinking with discovering time doesn’t stand still, choosing my retirement village, just generally being the life of the party to the bodyguards of the blogger I am stalking, my day drifts aimlessly from beach break to reef break. I am putting money aside so I can run away. deal with it.
I won’t promise anything to you but I will update you with my nefarious activities as soon as I get a chance. Well, I’ll try. Unless of course the pool with the cocktail bar is heated!
Thanks to Aussie Bloggers for aiding and abetting my laziness. They’ll do the same for you Good day mate!
