Filed Under: On A Personal Note
A Personal Update
Yesterday a wrote a post on updating everyone on what’s been going on with me. Since it isn’t search marketing or business related, I published it on my personal blog. If you’re interested in reading it, you can find it here:
Thanks to everyone who has expressed concern and offered support. I appreciate it!
My Near Death Experience
Okay…before I go any further, I want to make it clear that I’m not being funny and there is no exaggeration involved here. Now, on with it…
As many of you may know, I left Jacksonville this morning headed to Nashville to be in the audience for a “CMT Invitation Only” concert with Reba McEntire that will air sometime later this spring or summer. I was VERY excited when I was chosen to be in the audience, as Reba is (and always has been) one of my favorite people – famous or otherwise.
As soon as I hit the Tennessee state line, it began to rain…no big deal. It’s just rain. I’m a road warrior. I’ve driven thousands of miles in the rain. That said, I’m not one of those idiots that drives 100 mph on wet pavement. I’ve seen the results of hydroplaning and I never wanted to experience it for myself. Alas, the universe had other plans for me today. (more…)
SEOAly Makes the TopRank "BigList"
I was pleasantly surprised when I signed in this morning to find that my blog had earned a mention in the TopRank “Best Blogs On The Net” list. What a nice thing to find on a Monday morning! :)
This seemed like a good time to provide a little bit of history about SEOAly and how it has evolved to its current state. I started this blog merely as an information resource for small business owners. I spent more than two years providing SEO consultation for one of the largest small business marketing companies in the United States. Being that it was such a large company, you can imagine my frustration being repeatedly told that only “approved information” was to be shared with our customers.
The world of search marketing is simply too fast-paced to fit into that kind of corporate structure. By the time the powers that be finally get around to approving changes to our SOP, the winds of change had blown through again. I was equally frustrated by some of the company’s standard operating procedures, which included touting “submission to over 400 search engines…” as a major part of their service offering – a task that we all know is futile and pointless in today’s world of search marketing. (more…)
Reciprocal and Auto-Following on Twitter = Bad Idea
So…here I sit in the library trying to get some work done because my Internet connection at home is down. Little did I know, I can’t get access to my hosting accounts’ cPanels from here. DOH! So, instead of working on the projects I intended to work on, I’m writing a blog post about my personal Twitter follow policy.
I’m a born multi-tasker. It isn’t often that I’m not doing 3…4…7…12 things at once. It’s just my nature. I’ve always been that way. That said, I spend all day online tackling a variety of things at once – working on site audits, finishing site designs, doing WordPress installations, writing blog posts…and last, but certainly not least, Tweeting. I am a Twitter addict. There, I admit it – I feel better now. I love it. Twitter is to me what crack is to a junkie. If I’m away from it for too long, I start to get the shakes. (more…)
Who Won the IM Spring Break Contest?
I DID! WOO-HOO! First, thanks to everyone who pitched in to help me win IM Spring Break’s blog meme contest. I’m very excited and certainly have you guys to thank for the blog posts and pingbacks. I couldn’t have done it without you! “You like me…you really like me…”. Oops, sorry…I forgot this isn’t an award and I’m not Sally Field. My bad. ;) (more…)
7 Things That Will Happen At IM Spring Break
Whether or not I get to attend IM Spring Break could be totally IN YOUR HANDS! Okay, so most of you know that I’m between jobs at the moment after having been heartlessly and without warning fired – for the first time in my life – just weeks before Christmas, ruining my plan to attend SMX West. That really sucked. I was very much looking forward to meeting everyone and using the conference as the perfect excuse to vacation to my favorite place – California. Sadly, it wasn’t meant to be and I had to scrap those plans to pay January’s bills instead…pesky responsibility!
Nevertheless, I’ve not given up hope of getting to meet some of my favorite SEO/SEM pals in person. And thanks to IMBroadcast’s contest – you may have heard about it already – that hope is alive and well. I’m totally throwing my hat in the ring to win it! If you aren’t familiar with the contest, read this post: “Go to IM Spring Break, and stay on the IMBroadcast team’s tab“.
Now that you’re up to speed on how it works and know what you need to do, here are the 7 things that I think will happen at IM Spring Break:
- 1) The $500 spent on the conference will pale in comparison to some attendees’ bar tabs.
- 2) People will come away from this conference thinking, “DAMN! That’s the best $500 I’ve ever spent…”
- 3) Those in attendance will sign the NDA and they will do so with a smile on their face – period.
- 4) A lot of people who have formed online friendships will get to meet face-to-face instead of just being “online pals”.
- 5) People will love that the conference is smaller and more intimate – allowing for more one on one networking and individual interaction with attendees and speakers alike.
- 6) Members of the staff at the Hilton Deerfield Beach will, at the very least, know what SEO stands for before the three days are up.
- 7) Rae Hoffman and I will participate in a cage match – perhaps involving mud – to close out the event (I’m totally kidding…she’d kick the crap out of me – no doubt about it). Hi, Rae…please don’t hurt me! ;)
So, now what should you do? It’s simple: write a post at your blog highlighting 7 things you think, or wish, or expect, or hope will happen at IM Spring Break. Make sure the post includes a link to Go to IM Spring Break, and stay on the IMBroadcast team’s tab and this post. That’s it! See…it really couldn’t be easier to help me win the contest, eh? ;)
Now, on to who gets tagged to pingback to this post:
Kim Krause Berg
Rae Hoffman
Monica Wright
Josh Garner
Matt Crouch
Tad Chef
Jim Connolly
Debra Mastaler – THANK YOU, DEBRA!
Joe Hall – THANK YOU, JOE!
Claire Hawley
Dave Snyder
Matt Webb
Cat Pickett
Jonathan W Thomas
Donna Fontenot
Eric Werner
Kyle Reddoch
Kevin Eklund
David Leonhardt – THANK YOU, DAVID!
Brian Chappell
Meg Geddes
Eric Lander
Joshua Sciarrino
Geoff Jackson
Eric Gehler – THANK YOU, ERIC!
Mike Tekula
Michael Martine
Levi Wardell
Steve Seeley
Chase Granberry
Jeff Selig
Jack Leblond
Stuart Foster
Badi Jones
Julie Joyce – THANK YOU, JULIE!
Melanie Nathan
Kyle Wegner
Rick Galan
Brent Nau
Sri Nagubandi
Lisa Weinberger
Taylor Pratt
Chris Estes
Ann Smarty – THANK YOU, ANN!
CK Chung
Hjortur Smarason
Michael Gray
I think I may have gone a little overboard with tagging people. Oh well! Can you tell I have no money and REALLY want to go to IM Spring Break??
Now, the rest falls to you – write your own blog post about the 7 things you anticipate will happen at IM Spring Break and DON’T FORGET TO LINK THE POST BACK TO THIS ONE! Come on people…help me out, would ya??
BIG thanks to these guys, who I didn’t tag originally but are awesome enough to help me out anyway! :)
Frank Watson
Barry Welford
Communibus Locis
Steve Vandergriff
Matt Leonard
What Is A "Professional Ethics Proponent"?
To be perfectly honest, I don’t have a clear definition for the term – I kind of made it up. Hear me out. “Professional ethics” has nothing to do with black-hate SEO vs. white-hate SEO. Black-hat tactics have their place and their purpose…and they wouldn’t be utilized in so many circumstances if they weren’t effective. It is when a company employes black-hat tactics that can ultimately result in a ban or penalty in the search engines without first discussing the potential consequences where the idea of “professional ethics” comes into play. (more…)
