 |
Every year on April 1st, we see some pretty clever April Fools jokes played by search engines. One of my all time favorites is when Google revealed a very secret part of their algorithm by disclosing what Pigeon Rank is and how it works. Here is a summary of some of the better jokes I came across today. Enjoy!
Click to continue reading »
While Eli Manning could not make the trip to Disneyland in the traditional "I'm going to Disneyland" fashion proceeding Superbowl wins, Google did. The search engine giant invited its California-based employees to attend a corporate event at the Disneyland Resort last week. MousePlanet put together a humorous top 10 list of signs that Google had visited the resort.
Click to continue reading »
I wrote last week about The SEMMYs, an annual awards event honoring the great content produced across the search and online marketing industry, in which a total of 9 posts from this blog or ones I had published at Search Engine Guide had been nominated in a total of 7 categories. While I felt it was quite an honor to have so many posts nominated, there was still many posts within each category until now where judges have selected the finalists. The good new is that we have had 4 posts selected in 4 separate categories. Read on to see which posts were nominated as well as which posts I am competing against.
Click to continue reading »
The Semmys is an awards site that was put together by my good friend, Matt McGee, in which he has nominated a number of the best posts of 2007, all arranged by category (much like the Emmys). Categories include SEO, PPC, Small Business, Google, Analytics, Online Marketing/General, Blogs and Blogging, Search Tech, Reputation Management, Link Building, Rants and Viral Marketing. A total of 9 posts from this blog as well as ones I have published elsewhere have been nominated in 7 categories.
Click to continue reading »
Time to crank out one more post before the year ends. Rather than put together a list of resolutions as many do, I thought it would be fun to look back and highlight some of the top posts on this blog. Posts were selected from a combination of those that received the highest number of backlinks, those that went popular on Sphinn & Digg and this author's personal favorites.
Click to continue reading »
It is the end of the year which typically brings out many online contests that look to define the best of the best, whether that involve products, technology, blogs or something else. One such contest is Search Engine Journal's Search Blogs Awards of 2007 which aims to define the best blogs in a variety of categories. There are 18 categories in this year's contest, one of which is the "Best SEO Blog of 2007." This blog (SearchRank Blog) has won a nomination for that category. In fact, we are among 11 other blogs competing for the best SEO blog of 2007.
Click to continue reading »
Earlier this month, Mike Blumenthal put decided to put together an awards contest to find the funniest search engine marketing posts of 2007. Our post, "10 Signs That You May Be a Blog Addict," published in April of this year made the initial nomination list and now has made its way into the top ten. read on to see who else was nominated as well as how you can help vote to see which post will earn the number one spot.
Click to continue reading »
Twitter is scheduled to be offline tomorrow from 10am-10pm PST - 12 whole hours. That is a half a day folks! What are hardcore Twitter addicts to do with their time? Here are seven things that certainly won't replace the Twitter experience but are sure to help you get through the downtime.
Click to continue reading »
I'm a bit late getting this out, however, my good friend, Matt McGee has done it again. That is put together a very clever post that includes 21 signs that may indicate that SEOs need to take a break. This is his second edition of this as the first one was posted nearly a year ago. What's funny is Matt nailed me in 2006 and has done it once again. Boy do I need a vacation.
Click to continue reading »
What would be the effect if the following well known search marketing professionals mated? Rand Fishkin and Todd Malicoat? Neil Patel and Cameron Olthuis? Jarrod Hunt and Carolyn Shelby? Rhea Drysdale and Loren Baker? Kim Krause Berg and Bill Slawski? Danny Sullivan and Jim Boykin? Vanessa Fox and Mike McDonald? Read on if you are brave enough to find out.
Click to continue reading »
Not related to search in anyway but simply wanted to announce that I'll be off next week on my annual roller coaster trip. We will be hitting six separate amusement parks in just six days. Our travels will take us to five U.S. states as well as Montréal, Canada. There will be opportunity to ride 33 roller coasters ranging from woodies, steel, kiddies (they add to coaster count) and even a bobsled coaster. This will push me past the 100 mark to a total of 121 individual coasters.
Click to continue reading »
Most web site marketers wouldn't even consider such a question especially where Google can at times send 50% if not more of a web site's traffic. How about if you take Yahoo!, MSN and Ask out of the equation as well? Would your business have a chance of attracting traffic and succeeding if these engines were to send you zilch traffic? Search Engine Guide editor, Jennifer Laycock, seeks to find out if a new business can survive and succeed without the help of the top four search engines.
Click to continue reading »
Skitzzo has started a charity meme designed to share link love with posters favorite charities in order to help them improve their rankings in the major search engines. The idea is copy the list of charities of the person who tags you and add five of your own, linking to them using anchor text that is somehow related to their cause.
Click to continue reading »
I came across a video of our own Arizona senator and presidential hopeful, John McCain being interviewed by Google CEO, Eric Schmidt at the Googleplex thanks to Barry Schwartz. In the video, Eric plays the role of genial talk show host. McCain also fielded questions from several Google employees including questions about how the senator feels about atheists, what he plans to do about the current situation with Iran and nuclear weapons and even his opinions on gays in the military. Continue on to see full embedded video.
Click to continue reading »
Blogs exist on just about every variety of subject one can imagine. And more and more blogs come online each and every day. But what does it take to really have an active blog that people will subscribe to and come back again and again to read? It requires creativity. It requires dedication. Even more so, it requires an addiction to the act of blogging itself. How about you? Are you a blog addict? Read on for ten signs that may indicate that you have an addiction, my friend.
Click to continue reading »
Matt McGee from Small Business SEM has put together a fun post comparing well known SEO/SEM personalities to celebrities recognized throughout the world. Names include Rob Kerry (aka Evil Green Monkey), Rebecca Kelly, Bill Slawski, Jeremy Shoemaker (aka Shoemoney), Scott Orth, David Temple, Li Evans, Todd Malicoat, Chris Boggs, Todd Friesen, Jennifer Laycock, Cameron Olthuis, Lisa Barone, Andrew Goodman and Justin Sanger. Read on for link as well as another comparison Matt left out.
Click to continue reading »
I love my career - running a search marketing firm. I get to take on exciting challenges in an industry that is constantly changing and evolving. Search marketing is a fun and rewarding career. That is not the only reason why I love the fact that I'm a search marketer but also because I could have one of these jobs instead...
Click to continue reading »
It appears that Senator and presidential hopeful John McCain's MySpace page has been hacked. Apparently whoever set up the page page used a well known template designed by Newsvine but neglected to give any proper credit. Not only does the page fail to give credit for use of the template, some of the images are still hosted on the Newsvine server, meaning that they have to pay for the bandwidth used from page views on McCain’s site.
Click to continue reading »
Did you see the proposal from the My Super Proposal which aired locally during the Veronica Mars show Tuesday night? It was available shortly thereafter on iFilm.com and I have included it below. Can you guess who it is?
Click to continue reading »
We watched the Super Bowl at a friend's house yesterday. I drove like a mad man to get there in time as I had been anxiously waiting to see the match up between the bears and the Colts. Not really. It was the commercials I was interested in. Well sort of. Actually I wanted to see the marriage proposal that has gained national exposure thanks to the help of my friend and fellow search marketer Joe Morin. I didn't care too much about the game itself as my team (Green Bay Packers) was not represented. I wanted to see JP (not his real name) propose marriage to his girlfriend during one of the Super Bowl commercial spots.
Click to continue reading »
Threadwatch is sponsoring a contest to see who can rank # 1 for the name "Dave Pasternack" by March 1st, 2007. Why? Because SEOs are tired of hearing this man continue to beat a dead horse. I wrote about his latest ramblings yesterday where he compared SEO to baking a cake.
Click to continue reading »
I'm not one for making New Year's resolutions as I tend to be the type of person that really doesn't differentiate one day from the next. Of course there are the really important ones that are special - my wedding anniversary, birthdays of family and friends, tax due dates and of course trash days. Other than these, every day is pretty much the same for me. Therefore why put together a list of resolutions that I may or may not keep? I find myself doing that naturally throughout the year anyway.
However, when the new year does arrive, I like to reflect on the past by recalling good times, bad times, goals that were accomplished, ones that were not, etc, etc. So with that, I give you my list or "retro" resolutions - some of things I accomplished as well as experienced in 2006.
Click to continue reading »
"It's the most wonderful time of the year..." - uh oh you caught me singing Christmas melodies. It is that time of the year again - faith for some, the gathering of family as well and of course, gift giving. And with gift giving, there is gift getting (receiving). Have you made your wish list yet? I have, at least from a search marketing perspective. Allow me to share what I would like for Christmas this year.
Click to continue reading »
I got tagged so I guess I'm it. I'm referring to a blog tagging game originally started by Jeff Pulver, and archived for the SEO/SEM world at The Blog Tag Tree. The game requires that bloggers share five things about themselves that relatively few people know. Li Evans tagged me so I guess I'll play. Here are five things that you may or may not know about me.
Click to continue reading »
For the last three Search Engine Strategies conferences, Irma and myself have hung out with Liana Evans who runs the Search Marketing Gurus blog and currently works for Commerce360. Li, as we call her is already very outgoing but during the recent SES Chicago conference, she came up with an idea that probably allowed her to meet more people than she ever expected to - HatBait.com. Read on for link to 102 pictures of SEMs wearing funny hats.
Click to continue reading »
Joe Morin has a new project he is working on. It is called "A Super Bowl Commercial Marriage Proposal" and can be likened to Alex Tew's Million Dollar Homepage idea and Kyle MacDonald's One Red Paperclip project. In this project, a person who we will call JP (to keep his identity secret from his girlfriend) wants to make his wedding proposal in a TV commercial during next year's Super Bowl. Read on for details on how you can help as well as link to actual proposal.
Click to continue reading »
Many of the prominent SEOs/SEMs in the world of search have specific recognizable traits that they are well known for. These may involve fashion, what they like to drink or even things they have done at conferences. I thought it would be fun to put together a trivia game to see how knowledgeable the community is in recognizing some of these folks.
Click to continue reading »
How do you know if the female in your life, whether that be your wife or mother, is a search marketer? Jill Whalen takes a humorous look at this with 12 Signs Your Wife (or Mom) is an SEO. Jill is one of the leading female search marketers in the world so she ought to know the signs that indicate that one's wife or mother are involved in search marketing. In fact I would venture to say that many of the tips listed are out of her own life examples.
Read on for a few of my favorites as well as link to entire list.
Click to continue reading »
Good Morning America did a story today on ChaCha.com, a new search engine that uses paid human beings (called guides) to find information for searchers. Since then, we have been inundated with requests from people who want to work for us... well not really for us but for ChaCha.com! I don't know if we were mentioned in the story or if people are simply finding a short piece I wrote last month but at any rate, these folks are assuming that we are ChaCha.com. Unless Good Morning America somehow associated us with ChaCha.com, can't people who want to search for others differentiate SearchRank, a search marketing company, from ChaCha.com, a human search engine?
Click to continue reading »
I live and breath SEO and SEM. It is certainly a passion of mine and has been for some nine years now. However even passions can get weary and sometimes I just need a break. With that thought, my friend Matt McGee has come up with a list of 21 signs that may indicate you need a break from SEO. How about that the S, E, and O keys on your keyboard are broken? Or your son tells you he wants to go play in the sandbox, you tell him it doesn’t exist? Read on for more excerpts and a link to the full list.
Click to continue reading »
Not search marketing related but too funny not to post - a video showing the ideal portable computer. Enjoy!
Click to continue reading »
I was at the Online Reputation Monitoring session at SES San Jose yesterday where Andy Beal was the last to speak. Because there was not much time left in the session, he had to rush his presentation. Therefore he jokingly asked how many bloggers were in the audience. Many of us raised our hands and he told us that we were all his favorite bloggers and that if we told our readers how great his presentation was, He'd buy us a drink at the bar, concluding, "that's how you ensure a good reputation among bloggers". While we all saw the joke, unfortunately for Andy, Rand Fishkin and Greg Jarboe thought it would be a good opportunity to link-bomb him with the phrase "drinks for links". So I join the fray!
Click to continue reading »
This week's pic of the week is a really great shot of a cat stopping to enjoy nature. And you thought all cats did was sleep, eat and chase mouses.
Click to continue reading »
This week's pic of the week is a really great shot of a cat stopping to enjoy nature. And you thought all cats did was sleep, eat and chase mouses.
Click to continue reading »
When visiting a public restroom, how would you like a urinal that talks back to you? Dr. Richard Deutsch brings us the Wizmark Urinal Communicator, a urinal that talks. What does it say? Well, it could speak out positive messages such as "hey, pal, remember to not drive if you've had too much to drink," or more subtly, be used for advertising. Too strange to be true? I've already seen paper advertising in public restrooms and have even experienced audio tracks being played so why not a talking urinal?
Click to continue reading »
This week's pic of the week is of a little kitten and a large dog cuddling together. Not all dogs and cats hate each other!
Click to continue reading »
This week's pic of the week is of a dog who is either trying to keep cool or has an unusual way of hunting through the fridge.
Click to continue reading »
This week's pic of the week is of a cat that has selected an very unusual sleeping spot.
Click to continue reading »
This week's pic of the week shows a dog performing an incredible feet - three tennis balls in his mouth all at the same time! How'd he do that?
Click to continue reading »
This week's pic of the week is either of a young chick taking baby steps or simply getting a tan while lying on his back.
Click to continue reading »
I live in Arizona where we have some of the worst drivers in the world. We are also one of the worst for road rage. I wonder why? This week's pic of the week features a top ten list of some of the worst drivers I have ever seen.
Click to continue reading »
This week's "pic of the week" is of a dog wearing a mask. Or is he? You decide!
Click to continue reading »
What happens when you get real good at using Adobe Photoshop and you have a little spare time on your hands? You manipulate photos - that's what. The following "pic of the week" is actually a set of pictures sent to me by a client that I found most interesting.
Click to continue reading »
This week's "pic of the week" is of a dog acting like a plane. Or is it Dumbo in disguise?
Click to continue reading »
This week's "pic of the week" is what I hope to be an exaggeration of a "hot dog." Well, let's hope at least. There are some people in the world that eat some strange things.
Click to continue reading »
This week's "pic of the week" is that of a very comfortable cat, stretching out on his back. This is how I feel today... lazy!
Click to continue reading »
This week's "pic of the week" shows us that two heads can be better then one or that is simply more comfortable to lie on top of your buddy then on the cold hard ground.
Click to continue reading »
| 
