Online Marketing Blog

The last day of WebmasterWorld’s Pubcon is literally a gathering in a pub. This is the genesis of how Pubcon was started, an informal gathering of members from WebmasterWorld. Through the efforts of Brett Tabke and the community, it has grown into one of the finest search marketing conferences with thousands of attendees, major corporate sponsors, top notch speakers and a spirit like no other event. There’s a real sense of community and “co-opetition” amongst participants that makes it a great place to learn and network.

Here are my final favorite photos from Las Vegas Pubcon and a few with friends from iEntry afterwards.

Looks like Lee has been working hard trying not to get in trouble out there in Las Vegas at the WebmasterWorld Pubcon conference this week. At least, his posts show he has been productive!

Below are the Pubcon session overviews, photo posts and video interviews with other folks hanging out in Vegas. Lucky!

Pubcon 2007 Sessions:

• Pubcon Keynote: Craig Newmark of craigslist
• Pubcon Session: In House SEO
• Pubcon Session: Enterprise SEO
• Pubcon Session: Blogger Reporter Panel
• Pubcon Session: Press and Public Relations Campaigns

Pubcon Photos:

It was my first Microsoft party last night and it turned out to be a doosy. I went with Rich Ord, Mike McDonald (who won a Zune) and Tiffany Doughty from iEntry (WebProNews). We arrived at about 7-7:30 to see lots of familiar faces. There was a Guitar Hero competition, sushi, glowing drinks, mini hamburgers, a huge outdoor patio and from 55 floors up, the view was amazing. There were bad Billy Idol and Gwen Stephani lookalikes, dancing, a little debauchery and plenty of conversations.

There were indeed a few photos that I could not upload to Flickr. However, please enjoy these:

The last session of the day for me was “Press and Public Relations Campaigns” with Robin Liss of Reviewed.com and Joe Beaulaurier from PRWeb. Moderation duties were scheduled to be handled by Brett Tabke but were switched at the last minute to Melanie Mitchell, VP of SEO/SEM at AOL. Sorry Brett, but I don’t think anyone had a problem with the switch.

Robin presented a case study for a promotion on the iPhone her site wirelessinfo.com did using multiple channels including Digg and a YouTube video that went viral. Joe presented the multiple media format press release options offered by PRWeb.

If someone has a better photo, please link in the comments

On day three, the last day of sessions at WebmasterWorld Pubcon here in Vegas, I participated on a panel called, “Search and Blogging Reporters Forum” with Rand Fishkin and Andy Beal.

Moderation duties handled by Mike McDonald. Basically, it was a round table-style discussion about blogging in the SEO industry as well as blogging as a marketing tool. There were some good points about using blogs as a public relations tool as well as some debate about hosting team blogs separately or all under the company domain name.

I met Melanie Mitchell at last year’s Pubcon and was amazed at what a job being a Vice President of SEO/SEM at a company like AOL must be. The insights she shared in a keynote presentation at the WebGuild’s Searchnomics conference were impressive so I was fortnuate to get a few minutes of her time to do a short video interview on what she does for AOL and what some of her challenges and accomplishments have been.

Be sure to check out the TopRank SEO video channel on YouTube for interviews from Pubcon and many other search marketing event.

At every conference there’s an exhibit hall and that’s where plenty of meet and greet networking happens as well as interesting discussions with vendors that server the search marketing industry. There were a good number of exhibitors at Las Vegas Pubcon including Google, Yahoo and Microsoft as well as a variety of vendors ranging from enom which sported a Ferrari to PRWeb to Bruce Clay.

Here are a few photos from the exhibit hall floor:

Melanie Mitchell making the car look good

Neil Patel making the BOTW tank top look um, interesting.

New York SEOs

The Enterprise Level SEO and SEM Issues panel included a great roundup of search marketing expertise with Andrew Gerhart, Scott Polk, Tanya Vaughan and moderation duties handled by none other than Bruce Clay.

First up was Andrew Gerhart, VP of Search for Source Interlink Enthusiast Media who asked, “Are SEO Technicques different for enterprise SEO?”, and then went on to list similarities and differences along with common problems and solutions.

Same:

• SEO basics
• Content focus
• Link popularity

Different:

• Impact of basics
• Internal link structure

While walking the WebmasterWorld Pubcon exhibit hall floor I ran into Brett Crosby from Google. We talked about some of the new enhancements that have been added to Google Analytics. The addition of site search tracking in Google Analytics was of particular interest to me and I thought I would share here.

Be sure to check out the TopRank channel on YouTube for more SEO interviews.

The “In House SEO” panel included Jessica Bowman formerly with Business.com but now with Yahoo, Bill Macaitis from Fox Interactive Media and Aaron Shear who was from Shopping.com but is now a consultant. Moderator duties were handled by Todd Friesen.

More companies are bringing search marketing in house either because they want to save money, they want to have more control or they want search to be more closely integrated with other business marketing and processes. Moving search in house is a significant undertaking and this session was focused on shedding light on some of the organizational challenges/opportunities to be considered.

Mixing up a combination of video interviews, session coverage and images is just how we do it here at TopRank. The following is a roundup of my favorite photos from Pubcon on day one. Unfortunately, I forgot the memory chip for my camera while at the Yahoo party at Parasol Down in the Wynn, but I suspect Tamar or Rebecca may have taken a few pics.

Guy bringing the “smack” back to the search engine smackdown.

Where there’s beer, there are SEOs.

To Digg or Not to Digg? That isn’t even a question for Chris Winfield.

Known by many as either “Mr. Social Media” or by friends as “Princess”, Neil Patel’s reputation for experimenting and developing new and cutting edge internet marketing tactics is known throughout the industry. At WebmasterWorl’s Pubcon conference in Las Vegas, we caught up with Neil to ask about what his company ACS does for clients as well as his latest social media manipulation - oops, I mean marketing tactics and experimenting.

Be sure to check out the TopRank channel on YouTube for more SEO Interview Videos.