“I say, ‘Babe, just get a hold of yourself, and pull yourself in, man, ’cause this is it.”…from the movie screenplay The Trip

A blogger rule of thumb: If you are doing a post where you are either coining a word/phrase that you think has a good chance of being absorbed into our technology lexicon or you are popularizing a word/phrase that’s been relatively obscure, you might want to check to see if that word/phrase is registered as a dot com domain name before making your post. If not, you should register it ASAP because there are folks such as myself who will gladly snap up such names for personal / business use.

Have you Googled yourself lately? Do you know what people are saying about you on the Internet?

Managing your Google reputation can help you avoid mistakes that can cost you a job. That’s because hiring managers are using the search engine more and more to scope out potential employees.

Read the article and see the video here.

I was asked via Twitter by @newsvetter an SEO question about press releases. You can read my answer here. Thanks, Andrew…hope my answer helped you.

“Like the circles that you find…in the windmills of your mind.”…Dusty Springfield

A couple wacky ideas about SEO that up until now I’ve been afraid to write about:

First, I’ve felt for quite a while that the prevalence of ADD amongst people in the search marketing profession had to be quite high. I wasn’t particularly comfortable bringing this idea to light…so I never wrote on the topic. I was quite surprised to see Mark Jackson addressed it and from the best I could tell, my fears about talking about the SEO/ADD connection were unfounded (and many in the community seem to see ADD as a career enhancement and a badge of honor).

Pay Per Click Summit is searching for the most effective Search Marketing strategy, tip or technique that increased your conversions!

We’re calling all internet marketers to submit your proven technique or strategy here on this contest form:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=ni1n_2bjYybQuH4PKJaaumqA_3d_3d

All you have to do is answer the following questions as noted on the form (at the above link).

What Increased Your Search Marketing ROI Last Year? What one thing could you point to and say “THAT made the difference!”

“The future is wide open…” Tom Petty

I’ve written about Twitter several times recently, so I’m not looking to tax your patience with another Twitter post…however, there is a story I wish to share that occurred last night at the SEMpdx / pdxMindshare event.

When newbies use Twitter for the first time, they tend to make conversation or post their thoughts without any sort of strategic plan. I certainly did this in my earliest twitters. As I began to spend more time here, I realized that I could segment my followers / people into several strategic groups and if I could make sure that some of my tweets were relevant to each of these groups, I could increase the volume and quality of meaningful interactions with others.

If you’re not on Twitter, you’re missing out on some very important conversation in your industry. Follow us on Twitter…and we promise to follow back:

Board Members:
Kent Lewis: http://twitter.com/kentjlewis
Ben Lloyd: http://twitter.com/blizzle
Scott Hendison: http://twitter.com/shendison
Kent Schnepp: http://twitter.com/kschnepp
Todd Mintz: http://twitter.com/toddmintz

Others:
Hallie Janssen: http://twitter.com/hallie_janssen
Christian Bullock: http://twitter.com/christianbk
Julian Chadwick: http://twitter.com/pdxpipeline
Syzlak: http://twitter.com/syzlak

Pay Per Click Summit www.ppcsummit.com

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People who follow my Twitter stream know that I like to share examples of stupid mistakes that people make when sending their resumes to our company. But, as Seth Godin correctly (I believe) pointed out, resumes really aren’t that necessary for really exceptional people because exceptional people have enough publically available information online that proves their suitability for relevant job openings / contract engagements. A truly exceptional person need only express interest in a position and the discussion can skip right into discussing the terms and conditions of the work to see if both sides have compatible expectations.

If you haven’t heard about it yet, Jott is a sweet voice-to-text client available from www.jott.com. You sign up with an e-mail address and it allows you leave a message with Jott that is transcribed into an e-mail and sent to your account.

I use Jott while in the car, while walking down the street, and whenever I need to take a quick note about something but don’t have paper or a computer handy.

Check It Out Now.

OK, I’m a huge Blazers fan. I do hope that LaMarcus wins the M.I.P. award. I’m not doing this post to push that opinion.

This might be the best marketing piece I’ve ever seen. This is seriously good stuff. Awesome style & visuals…and yet stays on message.

Kudos to Dan Harbison and the others behind the scenes with the Trailblazers.

“You think this a free ride? You want to play, you got to pay!” Bruce Springsteen

We get a lot of interesting messages sent to SEMpdx via our website. Most of the folks contacting us are either search professionals reaching out to our organization, vendors looking to reach the search marketplace or people looking for advice on search services. We do our best to assist all who make inquiry to us. Occasionally, the process breaks down and somebody doesn’t get the help they need. We’re sorry when that happens and we do our best to make amends.

We at SEMpdx have been working on a free research tool, and we thought today was the perfect day to turn it loose to the public.

With this one tool, you can enter any key phrase, and determine the top 10 competitors on Google and Yahoo, along with an “SEO score” based on title, description, keywords (optional) H1 & H2 tag, keyword density, site structure, page count, and cache date for each of their domains.

“Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures.”… Ralph Waldo Emerson

So you’ve developed a great keyword list for your SEO Campaign. Congratulations! Now, I’m here to help you optimally integrate your keyword research into your Search Engine Optimization efforts. Here are several important techniques where your keyword list can effectively be used for SEO:

In conjunction with the launch of his book “*Personality Not Included“, Rohit made the generous offer that he would do 50 5 question interviews with people who contacted him. I was one of the lucky 50 :.)

Rohit, what is the theme of your book?

“Why do you feel you have to turn everything into a story? Because if I tell the story, I control the version. Because if I tell the story, I can make you laugh and I rather have you laugh at me then feel sorry for me. Because if I tell the story, it doesn’t hurt as much. Because if I tell the story, I can get on with it.” Nora Ephron, Heartburn

Aaron Wall is…well, you should know who he is if you’re reading this blog :.)

1) Why should somebody choose your platform to learn SEO (as opposed to learning SEO in a classroom setting or an online educational service)?

Searchfest 08 was a tremendous success and our great speakers were one of the top reasons why our event was such a big hit. I asked our speakers to reflect upon their Searchfest 08 experience:

Lisa Williams: Top 3 Cool Things I Noticed at SearchFest 08