Online Marketing Blog

Our plan is to bring multiple TopRank team members to SES San Jose next month and each will be blogging different sessions. This will free me up significantly to do video interviews, take photos and other more creative conference coverage. Everything will be posted here at Online Marketing Blog so be sure to tune in August 20-23rd if you’re unable to attend SES San Jose.

So, my question to you dear Online Marketing Blog readers, is what search marketers would you like to see text and/or video interviews with? What are the top 2-3 questions you’d like asked?

We’d really like to get an idea of who you’re most interested in hearing about. Here are links to previous interviews with search marketers we’ve done here at OMB to give you an idea what to expect.

I went the lazy but entertaining route and took some video of the “Search Insiders Tell All” session yesterday afternoon that included David Berkowitz, Aaron Goldman, Bob Heyman and Gord Hotchkiss.

Here the “Search Insiders” about personalization, brand stewardship, Google DoubleClick and the disparity in standards applied to search marketing that are not applied to TV or direct response marketing.

Here is a discussion of video search, advertising and marketing.

We are all about the social media on this blog and our coverage of conferences with interviews, photos and below a few videos.

Here is the programming chair of the conference, David Berkowitz talking about how this is the biggest Search Insider Summit yet as well as the kinds of topics that drove the programming ranging from innovative search technology to click fraud to mobile marketing.

I also caught up with Cam Balzer of GoogleClick Performics oops, I mean DoubleClick Performics. As tempting as it was to ask Cam about Google’s acquisition of a company that provides natural and paid search marketing services, I kept it PC.

Cam moderated a competitive intelligence panel and he shares his insights about CI for ROI versus branding campaigns and does provide a well coached answer about Google/DoubleClick. You’ve got to love that media training.

The first of the breakout sessions was a choice between click fraud and this session on video search optimization. This was an easy choice since video optimization is an important component of social media campaigns and we like the social media here at Online Marketing Blog.

The session was moderated by Matt Spiegel of Resolution Media and speakers included: Chase Norlin from Pixsy, Scott Rhodes of VeoTag, Christy Tanner of TV Guide and Dan Perry from Cars.com.

Matt Spiegel: Is online video search for entertainment or other purposes?

Christy Tanner: Increasingly people are watching TV online and not conforming to old models of “turning on the TV”. There are also science, news and technology applications for online video.

The day started with a sponsored breakfast by Compete.com with a presentation by Jeremy Crane on Compete functionality. I came a bit late so I did not catch the entire presentation, but one interesting tidbit that I caught concerned the reporting of an Attention metric. What percent of users are visiting a particular site compared to others over time. This is particularly interesting considering sites that are engaged in significant PR and buzz generation.

Compete is also offering search marketing related competitive intelligence reporting similar to Keyword Discovery CI and basic levels of Hitwise. Compete is looking for beta testers also.

MC, I mean Emcee Gord Hotchkiss kicked things off with his thoughts about search as a connector.

I was able to do just two video interviews before my camera got dropped in a glass of water. I’ll have to explain that in another post.

Here’s Michael Gray, aka graywolf, just before our session with Todd Mailicoat and Neil Patel on “Social Bookmark Strategies” where he talks about tips for conference goers. Coverage of that session can be found at The Lisa, Search Engine Roundtable, Small Business SEM and CenterNetworks.

I also caught up with Mona Elesseily from Page Zero where she talks about Yahoo Panama pros and cons. Also two new Panama enhancements: Quality based bidding and being able to opt out of Yahoo’s content network.

Unfortunately I missed Day 1 of the SES conference but day two did provide a few opportunities for me to do a few short video interviews. Below you can get a glimpse from Bryan Eisenberg, Loren Baker and Dana Todd.

Bryan Eisenberg from Future Now and a two time best selling author, talks about all the resources his company has put together for Google Optimizer. His company has recently become an authorized consultant for Google Optimizer.

Loren Baker of Search Engine Journal steps up and talks about his thoughts on Search Engine Strategies as well as a tip on marketing with social media.

Dana Todd from SiteLab and SEMPO talks about the new SEMPO Institute initiative to provide standardized education for paid search and search engine optimization.

The WebProNews video blog posted an interview Mike McDonald did with myself and Stephan Spencer during the Chicago Search Engine Strategies conference where we talk about marketing and public relations issues with blogs and social media.

Congrats to Mike, Chris and Richard on a great job with these videos!

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.

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Well, maybe that should be Neil and Cameron of Advantage Consulting Services, since they are not strangers to after conference festivities nor are they strangers to some of the most successful social media optimization campaigns being run in the SEO industry. Cameron covers the fun part and Neil talks about the SMO or social media optimization panel he spoke on regarding Wikipedia.

Cameron and Neil write an excellent blog at Pronet Advertising.