Very, very quick blog post filled with self-promotional material (I know, I never do these anymore, what's up with that? It's almost like I'm a dirty spammer, filling your feedreader with ads). And no complaining, because... well, because I'm grumpy - Mystery Guest had a rough night.
October 1st better find all of you hunkered down at desks, taking notes, learning more about search and search marketing. You've got two choices:
- SMX Local & Mobile - This conference will kick butt, and not just because Chris Sherman's throwing it and Vanessa's speaking, but also because these two verticals are probably the most important cutting edge places to stay ahead of the search curve (outside of maybe social). Besides, you get a 10% discount if you're an premium member OR you can get $147 off membership with us if you go to the conference.
- SEOmoz Seminar - I've heard from a lot of attendees that they'd like to focus on higher level material, so I'm going to try to slant the second half of the day towards advanced stuff. In addition to 8 marvelous hours watching me fly through slides and jump around in my usual, passionate craze for all things SEO, we're also throwing a huge party for attendees that night so you can drink, party, watch football & network. I made a more detailed, cheesy blog post about it here.
Quick favor to ask - at least visit the page for SMX Local & Mobile - and make Chris think we send gobs and gobs of traffic. I bet if we all click enough times, he might even honor us with a comment in the thread (I don't think Chris has ever commented here before). And seriously, go to one of these events. Your paycheck will thank you.
p.s. Well, OK, not all of you HAVE to go. If the 20,000 or so people who read SEOmoz (who knows, maybe it's more) all tried to go, it might be a bit rough. Therefore, Lucas, Will, Matt (Cutts) and Nick are all excused. The rest of you - off to Farecast you go to buy tickets (did you see they have a hotels section now?) - and yes, I know it's shameless of me to plug our clients' sites, but I'm feeling ornery so also... you have to go to Yelp and find restaurants and ummm... listen to NPR on your drive to the airport.
p.p.s. This is what happens when I get really tired - up every frickin' night this week writing blog posts until 2am. Seriously, I need help.
p.p.p.s. Why did we schedule a seminar the same day as SMX? It's Scott's fault. Blame him. Gillian and I are innocent. Innocent I tells ya.
Gilian edits post: p.p.p.p.s. Innocent? Scott sent this guy Guido over to let me know that Scott is innocent and it's all our fault. He has a gun, so I said I'd take the fall for this one.
Yeah, nice work seogains. All you've done is use comment spam and maybe turned people against using your services.
Unless this poster is the main competition of seogains, in which case that's a clever piece of reverse marketing, turning readers against the competition.
Unless, of course, this actually is seogains and they know that we would think the comment spam was a bad move, and that we would have thought that any good SEM company wouldn't stoop to this and therefore arrive at the conclusion that it is the competition, and so perhaps look at seogains with a favourable light as spam victims? Very clever double bluff marketing.
Unless... {ad infinitum}
For those who's companies won't cough up, all the more reason for a video/podcast. What you save in money you lose in the ability to ask questions and network. Or maybe Rand could do like a whiteboard Friday style video, just with his presentations?
round and round? lol...
check this out (article on reciprocal links in seogains site): This strategy is very important for the webmasters, who are constantly working for their website ranking. Reciprocal links are traded links - web site X links to site Y, and site Y in exchange links to site X. Sometimes this strategy is called "linking partner" instead of reciprocal link. In the past, reciprocal links have played an important role in how a site is ranked in search engine results. When search engines look at how highly to rank a site on their search engine results pages they follow an in house algorithm, which determines where your site gets placed in the results page. On page factors such as page titles, headings, Meta tags etc all have a bearing on how your page gets ranked but also important is the “popularity” of your website.
And the article from that site goes on to talk about using automated software to make this easier...
umm should I laugh or cry?
No seriously? Please tell me. Ethical... ummm no... ?
yeah, and who knows, someone may just write a blog post about companies that promote ethical SEO via unethical means. Oh shoot, I just gave away my next topic... gotta start writing.
it seems a waste of a poste, but I have to say LOL!!!!!!
Are you planning to make this seminar available to your non-US readers? Perhaps a podcast or similar after the event?
good idea!!!
I love podcasts cause i can catchup when driving home...
We are planning on videotaping the presentations and making them available (some free, some to premium members, some as part of a DVD, etc.)
lol... looks like I am going to have to shell out the money to become a premium member... but I think its worth it...
I can't wait for those videos!
Rishil: in my opinion premium membership at SEOmoz is absolutely worth it. I spend more time on SEOmoz than any other website. The tools are great, the content is extremely helpful and informative and the people are friendly and smart (the vast majority anyway). It seems like every month the membership grows in value, and with the new investment funding on its way I expect it to get even better.
In short: I haven't met a premium member yet who found the fee a poor investment.
Thanks, Mike! Your bribery check is in the mail. ;)
Haha. I thought I told you cash only?
How come Will gets a pass? You expect me to schlepp over from London but will gets to sit in his office? Where's the love Rand, where's the love?!
;)
Errrrm. Yep. :)
BTW, ciaran, we were meaning to grab a beer at some point after you moved into the city, but we haven't got round to it yet... - we should get that sorted. Sod these Americans - we can have fun in London. We're hoping to move office to London Bridge in the next week or so - after that we should catch up.
Sounds good - I was hoping to make Lisa's drinks after AdTech but won't be able to now.
We're sponsoring the next London SEO so come & have a drink with us then - after the a4uexpo.
Guys if you are at adtech - which day are you going? It would be good to meet London SEOmozers... I think I may be able to make the Thursday...
I can't make either unfortunately; Lisa (https://www.seomoz.org/users/view/17509) is organising drinks after the Thursday though so give her a shout..
Don't think I'm going to be there either, though small chance I'll be around later in the day on the Thurs.
I'd love to be there for some partying if nothing else. Sometime soon - we have to head over your way.
Good of you to let me off though (you did mean me, right? I seem to have got myself some pretty illustrious company there....). Can you let Tom off too please? Really don't want to pay for a flight to Seattle if it's not for me ;)
Looking forward to some video action. We're also thinking of organising some London-based training stuff. Fancy bringing your show on the road?
That sounds interesting (the training) will it be on online brand management? Details on your site?
Do you ever think about doing SMX in an Asian country like Vietnam? I am now in Vietnam, and really want to join SEOmoz. SEO here is still in the CHaos, I mean: doorways page, link spam, cloaking,.ect.
There was an SES in China, and I believe there's an SMX in Australia next year, but the conferences have yet to make it to Southeast Asia - perhaps that will change sometime soon.
I'm going to SMX Local and Mobile... just to hang out... (couldn't get my company to pay up for the conference pass).. see you there!
Rand,
Are you thinking the SEOmoz Training Seminar might become a semi-regular event? I'm sad I can't make it to this one (I'm all the way on Long Island, and I don't have the cash right now), but I would love to make the pilgrimage to Seattle in the future.
One of the things that (slightly) turned me off to the event was the fact that it seemed to be more about the basics. Either way, I'm just not quite there yet with being able to pay for air fare, hotel rooms and event fees. I'm just a lowly freelancer.
Mike - I think we probably won't do many of them. We don't want to compete with SMX/Pubcon/AdTech/HighRankings/SEOClass/etc - we might have one per year, though.
I see. Your price point is just so much better, though! Plus it'll be a smaller group, which I think I'd like better for networking. I understand not wanting to compete, though. I guess I'll just wait for next year.
I'll go buy a separate piggy bank for that right now. . .
Ever think of doing one in the UK? I am sure you would get quite a few of us to it.
I am thinking about doing SMX London, and I'm already confirmed for SMX Stockholm :)
Rand, I want your job.
Well I hope you will come to London - I think the game here is significantly different, with a completely different searcher mindset!
It would be good if you guys could open up a UK specific resource depositary...
ahh geez....I still need to book my flight and hotel - thanks for the reminder.
You should come to the pre-party on Sunday!
Rand. . .grumpy? Things are not right today - I should not have left the comfort/saftey of my bedroom.
I wish I could make it out for the SEOmoz seminar, but my company won't front the dough either. Cheapskates. . .
add me to the vote for international access via podcast/video
SEOgains offers ethical search engine marketing solutions to e-commerce and web-based companies, helping site owners promote their businesses in the major search engines.
http;//www.seogains.com
Genius! Promote your company's ethical SEM solutions using comment spam. Nice work lads!
For real - it's awful to see this kind of thing on SEOmoz. Where do these fools come from?
It's starting to happen more and more, as well -
Rand: are we going to see some action on the part of SEOmoz staff to combat this new (and seemingly growing) spam problem?
Welll... I could delete it, but it's so much fun to just edit the comment and leave it up to collect thumbs down. You tell me - if you want it deleted, reply to this post and tell me :)
leaveit up there to see what fools they make of themselves - with 20000 people reading the blogs - thats the amount of negative publicity they ought to collect... lol... wonder if we can get hundreds of thumbs downs for it?
Rand: on second thought I think you're right - let's see how many thumbs downs it will generate. The thumbs downs for a spammy comment at YOUmoz recently were up around 10. This one is up to 12 so far! It's funny to see negative moz points for a profile. I guess some people really don't do their homework before they set out to promote their "ethical" businesses.
The downside I can see is that it starts to turn the conversation towards the spam(mer) and away from the topic of the post. This seemed to happen with the mozzer's post cited above - everyone spent their energy bashing the spammer, and some of us forgot, as Jane pointed out, that the post itself deserved a good amount of attention.
No, keep 'em up. The follow up comments & threads are worth it (at least for now).