Today, I saw a probably the most extraordinary juxtaposition of stories that I’ve can ever remember seeing.

This morning, I read Bill Simmons “Save Our Sonics” column which began:

In six years of writing for ESPN.com, this is the longest piece I’ve ever sent to my editors — nearly 15,000 words of anguished e-mails from Sonics fans around the country.

I don’t really see how it could be true, but I found an interesting topic in our forum where Tom Hale, a local Portland PPC expert and SEMpdx member said this -

“…I have a hunch best practices for Page Rank may have a relationship to best practices for Quality Score…”

and I’ve got to say I’d be surprised. Tom also first points out that Google’s answer would be “no” and that was my initial answer too, but I’m really not so sure… Read the thread

SEMpdx is well-represented at OMS here in San Diego. Kent Schnepp and myself moderated round table discussions after lunch today. I’m covering the event on Search Marketing Standard’s blog. Visit SMS’s blog for more updates tomorrow.

I don’t care who John McCain has relationships with…that’s not the point of this post.

So, I learn about John McCain’s “relationship” with Vicki Iseman on Twitter slightly before 5PM Pacific Time. Immediately, I go to my domain registrar of choice and check to see whether vickiiseman.com is available (something I’ve trained myself to do in similar situations even if I’m not interested in purchasing the domain).

I see the following:

John will be speaking on “Search Marketing (SEO) & Your Business Strategy” at Searchfest which will take place on March 10th, 2008 at the Portland Zoo. Purchase your Searchfest 08 tickets now.

Members of SEMpdx can not only save 10% by using the code PDX10 on the PPC Summit, but can save an additional $200 by signing up here…

PPC Summit Vancouver March 31 & April 1 -Get Better Pay Per Click Results in Two Days!

Join us at PPC Summit Vancouver an exclusive how-to workshop where you’ll work directly with the experts to learn the skills you need to maximize your Pay Per Click opportunities, outperform your competitors, and increase your ROI.

Doing business is a major focus of today’s Web development and critical to the success of an organization. More than ever before, sites must be compelling to the visitor. These two-day workshops help you understand how to align people, architecture, processes, and tools.

Designed for CEOs, managers, marketing professionals, strategists, and online developers with an identified customer base, this series provides the most current curriculum in Web analysis and management.

Every year, SEMpdx picks a non-profit organization to support both financially & with our collective search marketing knowledge. This year, our charity of choice is Donate Life Northwest, a Portland non-profit that has a mission of “To save and enhance lives through the promotion of organ, eye, and tissue donation.” To help publicize this organization and its mission, I asked Board Member Robert Ayers to talk more about the charity:

Rionna will be speaking about Google Webmaster Central at Searchfest which will take place on March 10th, 2008 at the Portland Zoo. Purchase your Searchfest 08 tickets now.

1) Please give us your background and tell us what you do for a living?

Many folks think SMX is Danny Sullivan. They believe that Danny not only chairs the conference, but books the venues, programs the sessions, picks the speakers, sets up the parties, signs up the sponsors, and even cooks those yummy meals.

You might be suprised to know that isn’t the case…there are many people behind the scenes that help make the SMX conferences “must-attend” events. Claire Schoen is one of these people. I’ve been the liason between SEMpdx and SMX and have been in communication with Claire since SMX started…she’s been great to work with and I’m grateful that she accepted my offer to answer some questions about SMX.

“You´ve gotta be
Cruel to be kind in the right measure,
Cruel to be kind it´s a very good sign,
Cruel to be kind means that I love you,
Baby, you´ve gotta be cruel to be kind.”… Nick Lowe

In the agency setting in which I used to work, I didn´t do a lot of the direct client communications for a couple reasons:

Adam will be in the audience at Searchfest which will take place on March 10th, 2008 at the Portland Zoo. Purchase your Searchfest 08 tickets now.

1) Please give us your background and tell us what you do for a living?

Both Kent & Todd have created “Portland On Fire” profiles. You can follow these links to Kent’s and Todd’s profile.

Portland On Fire is a daily discovery of PDX people. The site introduces you to a person in the Portland, Oregon (PDX), area every day. Reach out and connect. The site was created by Raven Zachary and launched on January 1st, 2008. Early profiles will tend to focus on individuals in the tech and creative arts communities in Portland, but there is no reason why it must stay focused in these areas. The talent pool in Portland is large and diverse, and this site hopes to make this fact evident.

Read the post.

SEMpdx is proud to host Matt McGee twice on the first leg of his 2008 concert tour.

March 10th, 2008…Matt plays Searchfest.

May 13th, 2008…Matt will be the second guest to participate in a SEM Hot Seat event (Vanessa Fox was the first).

Rock on Matt! Se ya in Portland!

Jeff will be speaking on the “Search In The Marketing Mix” panel at Searchfest which will take place on March 10th, 2008 at the Portland Zoo. Purchase your Searchfest 08 tickets now.

1) Please give us your background and tell us what you do for a living?

Without getting overly political, I don’t think the great American tax rebate will do much to stimulate our economy. Most people will use it to pay already existing debt such as credit card bills or mortgages and I don’t think overall consumer spending will increase that much.

However, this is a simple way to change this…to use your tax rebate money to stimulate “The” economy and “Your” economy.

Use your tax rebate to buy a premium domain name.

Rand will be giving the Keynote Speech “The Algorithmic Evolution of Search Engines & the Impact on SEO Campaigns” at Searchfest which will take place on March 10th, 2008 at the Portland Zoo. Purchase your Searchfest 08 tickets now.

1) Please give us your background and tell us what you do for a living?
I’m the CEO and co-founder of SEOmoz and my job is to set the direction for the company, help out with recruiting & hiring, blog and consult for businesses that need SEO. I’m probably biting off a bit more than I can chew, but hopefully I’ll get some more help soon

Rebecca will be speaking on the “Links: Development, Baiting & Buying” panel at Searchfest which will take place on March 10th, 2008 at the Portland Zoo. Purchase your Searchfest 08 tickets now.

Lisa will be speaking on the “Marketing 2.0 Issues: Online Reputation Management, the dark side of SMM” panel at Searchfest which will take place on March 10th, 2008 at the Portland Zoo. Purchase your Searchfest 08 tickets now.

1) Please give us your background and tell us what you do for a living?

David will be in the audience at Searchfest which will take place on March 10th, 2008 at the Portland Zoo. Purchase your Searchfest 08 tickets now.

If you are a SEMpdx member who has already purchased a Searchfest ticket and work in some facet of internet / search marketing and you wish to be e-interviewed, please email me.

1) Please give us your background and tell us what you do for a living?