Online Marketing Blog

While I am not native to Chicago (regular readers are well aware that TopRank Online Marketing is native to one of the 50 toughest states in the union - Minnesota) - it is a far more local journey than my last two excursions, to SES San Jose and the Bulldog Reporter Media Relations Conference in DC.

My objective at SES Chicago next week will be to both cover sessions for the benefit of our valued readers here at Online Marketing Blog and to learn as much as is possible in a short week about topics such as universal search and marketing with social media - what are best practices, what are the most powerful tactics?

October is by far my favorite month here in Minnesota, and unfortunately I have to leave it for a couple of days. However, the time will be well worth it as I will be representing TopRank’s Online Marketing Blog by blogging the SMX Social Media conference in New York City on October 16^th and 17^th.

Being in the thick of marketing and promoting web sites using social media my entire time at TopRank has given me a sincere appreciation for those who have achieved real expertise with results to back it up. With Danny Sullivan’s SMX conference, the interactivity of it all and getting to know others with similar interests who may actually be able to add value to my own knowledge is something I am looking forward to.

Hello loyal Online Marketing Blog readers! Dana Larson here, joining you straight from TopRank. I am the aspiring linking guru around these parts, trying to learn as much as possible while still kicking butt for our clients. It has been an educational and thoroughly enjoyable time with the TopRank team so far.

In just over a week, I will be heading to SES San Jose with my colleagues, Mike, Melinda, Thomas and our CEO Lee Odden. I cannot even begin to describe how excited I am for this conference. Finally, I get to put faces to the names I have been hearing every day since I started. I will get to network with seasoned SEO and SEM professionals and probably take in more information in three days than I did during one semester of college.

I wasn’t sure we’d be able to pull all the pieces together, but you should see five of our TopRank team at the upcoming Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose blogging sessions, networking and bringing a new perspective to the event coverage.

The TopRank bloggers will include a mix of of perspectives and experience with search marketing including myself, Thomas McMahon, Melinda Cayetano, Mike Yanke and Dana Larson. The newest addition to our Search Marketing team, Anthony Bloch, will just have to wait until SES Chicago or Pubcon (haven’t decided yet).

Here is a list of the week’s blog posts on Online Marketing Blog focusing on SEO, blogging and business of search marketing.

SEMPO Board of Directors Nominees (Lee) - Voting begins Feb 6.

Search Marketing Blogs Update 012607 (Lee) - 18 new search marketing blogs added this week. We’re now at 350 and Todd Malicoat added a new CSE.

Friday Search News 012507 (Lee) - Googlebombs, Interviews with Bruce Clay and Marissa Meyer of Google.

Content vs Links (Lee) - This debate is missing the most critical concept: distribution.

I can’t believe it was 3 years ago today that Online Marketing Blog was launched. Here is the inaugural post from December 28th, 2003.

The design we launched with. Ewwwwwwww!

Here is the design from 2004-2005

Originally published on the Blogger platform, we moved to WordPress after about a year and a half. Our SEO designer and blog marketing maven, Thomas, has been an invaluable help with the back end of the blog, the design and posting from time to time. Most recently, he helped with the coverage of the Chicago Search Engine Strategies conference. For the most part, you can find Thomas blogging over at Blogger Design.

Here’s a roundup of the fifteen most popular posts or resources for 2006 hosted here on Online Marketing Blog. (not counting the home page):

1. RSS Button Maker
2. Getting Listed in News Search Engines
3. Interview with Adam Lasnik of Google
4. Social Bookmarks Tool
5. Blogger Relations 101
6. 25 Tips for Marketing Your Blog
7. Matt Cutts Videos
8. New Rules for Social Media Optimization
9. Google Dance V Photos
10. Online Marketing Blog Resources
11. About Online Marketing Blog
12. Yahoo Terry Semel Interview Video
13. Gmail for Business
14. Interview with Chris Pirillo

When I shared the design under development for Online Marketing Blog with Todd Malicoat, one suggestion he made was to add a list of the best posts. Todd posted about making a list of “best posts” over on his excellent blog, Stuntdubl as well. Deciding what the best posts are is pretty subjective, so I am going to make a list of the 10 most popular posts based on traffic:

After threatening many, many times to get a new face on Online Marketing Blog, we’ve finally done it. Thanks to Thomas aka TwisterMC for putting up with my many revisions and for developing the cool subscription and bookmarking tools.

Also thank you to those people that I kept bugging for feedback and provided it!  We may not have implemented many of the suggestions received, but all of them were appreciated.

New plug-ins and “social media optimization” features include:

• Smart Search - suggest search results as you type
• Slick foldout RSS subscription options in the right column