Online Marketing Blog

This is a bit of a late post but I want to get it out there before it gets swallowed up by all the other half-finished posts in my WordPress control panel.

I am happy to say that the session on social media optimization with Neil Patel, Andy Hagans, Rand Fishkin, Todd Malicoat and I during SES Chicago last week went pretty well. Todd and I did not do PowerPoint presentations but we did get a few minutes to introduce ourselves and talk a little bit about SMO.

Neil started things off with a very unique and humorous explanation of Wikipedia. Basically, “Don’t spam Wikipedia.”

Rand followed up with an excellent review of the various social media sites ranging from digg to StumbleUpon to reddit. He made excellent points on how these communities are sensitive to promotion and provided general guidelines for interacting with them.

For some good humor, check out the following posts by Jeremy Zawodny from Yahoo and Matt Cutts from Google. Jeremey points out a striking similarity between the Yahoo and Google MSIE splash pages. Google has changed the splash page to something else by now.

Matt responds in that very politically correct and polite way that Matt does and then he points out how Yahoo has been copying Google’s PPC ad layouts.

I’ve seen other examples of this sort of thing shared with me by a search engine employee and I guess it’s bound to happen. They watch each other so closely and there are so many teams involved that stuff like this can slip by. Although, the ad formats and colors are pretty hard to miss.

It’s been six months since Google launched their Finance offering and Google announced today that several new features have been added including:

• Enhanced Charts: Up to 40 years of historical data for US stocks is now available.
• Market Trends: A “top-mover‚Äù module on the Google Finance homepage now highlights the market’s top moving companies which are featured categorically by price, market cap, volume, and number of queries.
• Customizable Portfolios: You can now store multiple portfolios and upload information from other online portfolios with several customization options.
• New Design: Users can now also view currency information, sector performance for the US market, and a listing of top market movers.
• Portfolios on Personalized Homepage: If you use the Google Personalized Homepage, you can now view portfolios there.

Google’s posting a cool Edvard Munch inspired logo today based on his painting, “The Scream”.¬† Check out all of Google’s Holiday logos or these collections of fan logos.

Here is a little fun for your Monday and it’s called HatBait.

What’s HatBait? Well it’s a fun little contest/promotional piece where Linda ambushed us all at SES in Chicago and asked us if we’d pose for her HatBait contest. Since she offered a free link, it was hard to resist.

Now she’s got them all up online and you get to vote for our favorite picture. Some look better than others and cows always rock!

Get your vote in by Wednesday and may the best hat picture win.

[tags]hatbait, linkbait[/tags]

Loren Baker from Search Engine Journal tells us it’s that time of year again for the SEJ Search Blog Awards. He is taking nominations in the comments of the nicely redesigned (ala Chris Pearson) Search Engine Journal blog.

Categories include:

* Best SEO Blog
* Best SEM Blog
* Best Search Agency Resource Blog
* Best Link Building Blog
* Best Social Media Blog
* Best Search Engine Corporate Blog (owned by the search engines)
* Best Contextual Advertising Blog
* Best Affiliate Marketing Blog
* Best Search Engine Community/Forum Blog
* Best Web 2.0 Blog
* Best Search Linkbait of 2006

(I’m crazy for hatbait)
On the tails of the Drink Bait promotion during WebmasterWorld Pubcon in Las Vegas a few weeks ago, Li from Search Marketing Gurus ran a very interesting “Hat Bait” promo during the Chicago Search Engine Strategies conference. I believe she has the largest single collection of labeled SEO photos anywhere!

Everyone from Danny Sullivan to MC Detlev posed with one of Li’s funky hats. Now’s your chance to vote (via comments) on which photo of a search marketer wearing a silly hat is your favorite.

I think some other creative variations for “bait” that include some social media could be:

Song Bait – Video SEOs singing a particular song. Everyone sings the same song and views vote on their favorite.
Smile Bait – Vote for best smile.
Joke Bait – Video SEOs telling their best jokes.

Last week’s Search Engine Strategies conference was jam packed with information, networking, some fun and a little business too. What I like about conferences in Chicago is that it’s only an hour flight from Minneapolis, so I can leave on the last day of the conference and get home at a decent time. These days with a growing family and the biz, I need all the productive time I can get.

For anyone that reads this blog, you know we try to do our part and walk the talk on the social media front by offering photos on Flickr, videos, tags and bookmarks – and the SES Chicago conference was no different. We blogged 14 sessions, did 7 video interviews and posted 61 photos (so far). Our SEO Designer and go-to guy for anything related to blogs, Thomas McMahon joined me on this trip and earned his keep by doing a great job blogging most of the sessions covered here.

One cannot go an evening at a Search Engine Strategies conference without some type of revelry and Wednesday night was no exception. Clicktracks delivered an encore of sorts by having a party at B.L.U.E.S. which is where TrueLocal had a party two days prior.

Guests were treated to drinks, food and the musical stylings of Chico Banks and the Candy Lickers – yep, that’s right. There was an additional singer to rev things up (didn’t catch his name though) added after a few songs.

As you can see John and Laura Thieme got up and put it down on the dance floor along with other SES party goers.

Thank you to Dan and John of ClickTracks for a great party!

Stacy Williams is a long time search marketer in Atlanta and I’ve known her and partner/husband Matt for about 3 years. Stacy is a long time Search Engine Strategies speaker and is equally adept in the SEO and SEM fields. At Search Engine Strategies Chicago, Stacy had a few very interesting things to say about search engines making modifications to campaign creative, match type and ad status without notifying the advertiser.

In this video interview, I asked Stacy to elaborate and she provided three specific examples. I hope someone from the search engines reads this and offers insight into why these things happen.

I would like to link to Stacy’s blog but, sigh, she doesn’t have one.

I’ve casually known Laura Thieme of BizResearch for about 2 years but for some reason our paths crossed repeatedly at the recent Chicago Search Engine Strategies conference. First it was the in the speaker ready room, then the most excellent Vintage Tub and Bath SES Dinner (yeah Allan!) where I sat across the table from her team members Traci and Jessica, then again during the conference, then the ClickTracks party and finally on the last day of the conference when I asked her to do a short interview.

Laura has been a speaker at SES for many years and will be teaching a college level course at a University Business School in Ohio next year. In this short video interview, I asked Laura about the need for consistent information and education on search marketing as well as her thoughts on gender distribution in the industry.

I’ve had a standing request for an interview with Bruce Clay for about a year now and we finally decided to just do a short one on video, which works for me and I think it will work for you as well.

Bruce Clay is one of the best known brands in the world of search marketing and if you attend Search Engine Strategies, WebmasterWorld Pubcon or ad:tech conferences, you’re sure to see him and his team on the exhibit hall and/or presenting to attendees. Thousands of people have used his SEO tools and participated in his company’s SEO training programs.