About this time last year, I signed up for the networking system of SMX Advanced. I came across another Austinite and decided to meet up with him for coffee. I had spent the year before at SMX meeting very few people, so this year that was going to change. Jeremy Bencken and I met up at Starbucks and he told me the story of this new idea he was exploring, and I was floored. It was an idea that no one had come up with yet, but it was so ...

So people ask me all the time about what tools I use for keyword research, bid management, SEO, you name it. And I have always said I am not a big tool fan. That was until I came across a few gems. One of my absolute favorites is the Raven Internet Marketing Tools. (aff link btw) RavenTools is a smattering of just about every SEO tool you might want. Just to name some of my favorite features: Social Media Mentions tracking (think ...

One of the most heated topics in Internet Marketing is paid links. Bringing it up when you first meet someone in the industry is like talking about abortion and the death penalty on a first date. It starts heated discussions, and sometimes feelings and egos get hurt. Google has guidelines that they sometimes enforce, and sometimes don't. It seems so unfair when you see a site that is clearly violating those guidelines, but Google does ...

Hello to everyone that came to the Meetup tonight. As promised, here are the slides and links I spoke of. If I missed something you wanted to know about, please comment and I'll add whatever link I forgot about. Thanks again for coming out tonight! Austin SEO Meetup PPC Slides About My Client Center Accounts Checking the Cost of a Keyword Google AdWords Editor ...

I get asked all the time: "Why in the world are you wasting your money on an MBA?" Being in the search marketing world, I think I get it a little more often than most. In traditional business it has almost become expected. Well in a technology-based industry having a degree is a luxury. Most IMs never finished their degrees, if they started them, and are much better at search marketing than some with bachelors and masters degrees. So why? 1. ...

Funny, I started this post in Seattle and with the blog move, never got back to it. Now Rand has gone and done so much better, but I still have somethings to say about all this. I recently asked Matt Cutts about topics he thought I might research for my Master's thesis. I thought paid linking and he said it was going to be sooo 2007. I disagreed because I had seen so many people still doing it. When we got to Seattle, what I said was backed ...

When do you fix problems with your product? Traditional business says only when required or when the cost of NOT fixing it out weighs the cost of fixing it. When did we stop being decent human beings? I read that in my Managerial Accounting text book just a week ago and it baffled me. Then today, I see yet another story about American Airlines. Only this time it's not wiring, it's landing gear issues. In the story, they mention that AA will only ...

I've changed jobs, and now working for a company who knows the value of search engine marketing. They are moving from having an agency to bringing SEM in house. As I review what has been done in the past few months, I see a new term ... a new term to me. Rented LinkSo I've been doing some research there. All I can come up with is that a rented link is just a paid link in the short term. Remember the beginning of paid links? You bought it for a ...

So Microsoft didn't buy Facebook, but they made the relationship stronger. Things should get really interesting now. With a good chunk of the SEM world mad at Google for the paid link thing, MSN making moves to improve their search AND tell people about it, and their already dominance on all PCs initially, this could make an interest shift in the search world. Not one I am particularly happy about (I'm for Ask, the real undergog), but this does ...

Barry notes today that a number of sites have been wrist slapped by Google for selling paid links. Good for Google. I hate to say it, but Barry is right, Google gave plenty of warning. Google can do what it wants, what it thinks is best for the end user, not the advertiser. If you want to do well in Google, you have to do what they say. It's as simple as that. If you want to buy links, go for it. It just won't help anymore. ...