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August 15, 2008

Friday Recap

It is super busy in the Bruce Clay offices today. It's Friday, SEO Newsletter day and the last work day before the Bruce Clay, Inc. team heads up to SES San Jose. Yikes.

It's also Squishable Day! Today was the day, Susan, Virginia and myself agreed to bring in all our Squishables for a photo op. As you can see, one writer forgot. The other two prettier, more talented writers did not. Aren't we cute? [I said I was sorry! --Susan] It's not me you have to apologize to. It's your poor Squishable who spent today all by himself with no friends!

I don't know about you but my life (and sleeping schedule) has been completely taken over by the Olympics. So much so that I even found what Michael Phelps eats for breakfast riveting. I'm currently researching rehab facilities.

It was also amusing to see the SEO community pretend to be shocked and horrified over China switching out the crooked teeth singing prodigy with a prettier face. Hello, fake avatars much? Didn't see people so offended a few weeks ago.

Pat Sexton depicted what went down during the SunCity SEOcon last week. Had I known it was going to feature a shirtless Chris Hooley...well, let's just say I would have played with my schedule.

Matt Cutts came to LA...and then didn't hang out with the Bruce Clay gang. Whatever, Matt, we didn't want to hang with you anyway. [pout]

This chart depicting small talk with a Web designer made me giggle. Someone needs to create one for bloggers. They'd all resolve to "Oh! And how do your parents feel about you still living in their basement?" The shame.

TwailerTwash.com depicts the total craziness that went down on Twitter this morning within the SEO community. Proud to represent Team Blue right here!

Gmail went down earlier this week and the entire Internet went into a natural disaster-sized panic. It was so severe that Barry Schwartz took over Search Engine Land to cover the travesty reporting that...Gmail was down. And that it would be back some time. But it was down right now! Then Gmail's 502 error was Flickr'd. And commented on way more than necessary. Seriously, people, we need more exciting lives.

Philipp Lenssen posed an interesting question asking What Was the Last Google Docs Document You Edited? For me, it was a letter to my best friend. We post them there instead of actual emails. Why? Because that's how absolutely nerdy we are. What's the last thing you've edited in GDocs? [I can beat you for nerdy. I last updated the spreadsheet I use to track my friends' goals. They get cash for meeting them every week! --Susan]

TechCrunch reports on HitMeLater - a snooze button for your email. Just forward your email address to x@hitmelater.com and replace X with the number of minutes you want to "snooze" on it for. Good in theory, however, in practice it's probably hell on your inbox.

Kim Krause-Berg has been conducting some fun interviews lately, talking to Cre8asite's most famous members and even strapping Rae Hoffman to the hot seat so Rae can gush about SEO and even her boyfriend. Aw, maybe Rae's not so scary after all. ;)

Wake N' Bacon is officially the most cholesterol-filled alarm clock yet. And the I Love Egg song is one medley I cannot get out of my head no matter how hard I try. Seriously. I demand you all listen to it. For me.

Things I Learned On BoingBoing This Week:

And that's it from us. If you're heading up to SES San Jose next week, we'll see you there. And remember, the IMNY Charity Party is on Monday night and Wednesday is Search Bash. You're not going to want to miss either one! And if you're the shy type, make sure to check out The Introvert's Guide to Conference Networking before you go. It's penned by one of the industry's biggest introverts and will give you something to read on the plane. :)

Posted by Lisa Barone on 08/15/08 at 4:36 PM | Comments (1)

On Our Way to SES San Jose!

Hey kids, it's almost time to pack up and head up to San Jose for Search Engine Strategies and we have a lot to go over. Here's a bunch of important information for you to nibble on.

Let The Coverage Begin!

As we already mentioned, this time around Bruce Clay will be sending three livebloggers to help cover all the fun and SEO going on at SES San Jose. Susan, Virginia and myself will be on hand to record every little secret the speakers let spill and get down all the juicy tidbits. Bruce Clay, Inc has a reputation for providing the best liveblogging coverage around and we're not going to let you down. So watch out, it's on!

As a reminder, if you don't want to be hit with an onslaught of liveblogging coverage next week, opt for the News Only RSS feed. If not, don't say we didn't warn you.

Also, keep an eye out for Virginia in the WebmasterRadio.fm booth. She'll be conducting some live interviews for our SEM Synergy show. If you see her, say hi. And don't be surprised if she sticks a microphone in your face.

Monday Night IM-NY Party

If you're going to SES San Jose or just live nearby, I expect to see you at the IM-NY Charity Party that's going on Monday night. I won't even take no for an answer because the cause is too important. It's about helping sick kids and supporting their families. You need to be there.

And besides the good you'll be doing for mankind, it's also a totally kickass opportunity to network with some of SEO's most elite. I guarantee you that everyone you want to meet at SES San Jose is going to be at that event. So be there. Your $40 donation at the door will get you free drinks, yummy appetizers, one of the best networking opportunities and put you in the running for some great raffle prizes. It'll also earn you a chance to take a photo Charlie's Angel style with BC's three hot young writers!

If you're even thinking of not attending, go read Jon Kelly's story about why he'll be there. If that doesn't change your mind, you don't have a soul.

Black Hat/What Hat Antics In The Afternoon

On Wednesday, catch Bruce speaking on the Black Hat, White Hat: Playing Dirty with SEO panel with fellow troublemakers Greg Boser, Todd Friesen, David Naylor and Jill Whalen. I'm a bit jealous that Virginia gets to cover this one because it's going to be a great debate. Make sure you're there to see all the action live, or, if you're watching it from home, be sure to check out Virignia's recap shortly after the session ends. I'm sure she'll get all the good stuff down for those not lucky enough to be there.

Party It Up At Search Bash

Hardcore SESers know that the Google Dance has nothing on the debauchery and crazy that goes on at Search Bash. It'll be the place to be on Wednesday night.

Yes, the Search Bash circus will continue at Vivid Nightclub (the old Studio 8) located just a few blocks from the convention center on Aug. 20. The doors open at 8pm, the entertainment kicks off at 10 and the crazy will go on all night. Sponsors Bruce Clay, Inc, PRWeb.com, Moniker.com and ArticleSender.com will make you have a night you wish you could forget!

You have to RSVP to get in, so make your way over to the Search Bash Web site and get that done before you leave.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 08/15/08 at 12:40 PM | Comments (2)

August 11, 2008

The Lisa Returns. Guestbloggers Rock.

Hola, amigos. (See, that's Spanish. I learned it during my trip to Ensenada!) I'm back from the most relaxing and tan-inspiring vacation ever and have brought you all back a present to show you how much I missed you (excluding Susan, of course):

Mmm, yes. A little slice of heaven right there for you all to drool over.

I want to thank all of our excellent guestbloggers who stepped in to keep the blog alive last week. You ladies ROCK! Seriously, there was some absolutely amazing content shared last week. In fact, it was so top notch that I think I should stop blogging myself and just outsource it to people who are clearly more intelligent and more insightful than I am. [You already tried that on Friday. I had to fire Virginia. --Susan] Check out the guest posts below and I think you'll agree with me.

Blogging may be light today as I get caught and respond to the 955 emails that I found in my inbox this morning, so while I'm doing that, take a second to review some of the stellar posts from last week. They're fantastic. I'd use that blogger tipping system to buy them all a drink, if I could.

Gracias, ladies, and adios til later! :)

[I second that thank you (I don't speak Spanish.) Last week was awesome thanks to our guests. --Susan]

Posted by Lisa Barone on 08/11/08 at 10:25 AM | Comments (1)

August 8, 2008

Friday Recap

Welcome back, Olympics! I love the Summer Olympics - the way the world comes together to enjoy the marvelous and varied abilities of the human form. Google and Yahoo have now made it easier than ever for me to follow the Games, with Google serving up news and scores in a convenient little OneBox and Yahoo's Olympics Shortcuts providing medal counts (which can be filtered by specific sports or countries) along with the latest news of athletes, events and videos. [I'm so over the Olympics already. Except the swimming. Love those swimmers. --Susan]

Another welcome back is called for, as well! This one for our favorite blogger who returned from her cruise last night. Hopefully she's pleased to see both her cats and the blog are alive and well. However, in response to this:

... I've got a better idea for you. [We're not outsourcing the blog to India. --Susan]

Speaking of Twitter, Sugarrae published an awesome case study of how her company utilized the popular instant micro-blogging platform to get traffic, branding and links for a "non 'big brand' commercial website". It took months of tweaking, but after the trial-and-error she's seeing great results.

Now, I'll admit that eight months ago I'd never heard of Twitter. Which apparently is more than this woman can do. Watch out for that RSS - I hear it's contagious!

The other funny video this week that no weekly Internet round-up would be complete without: Paris Hilton's campaign video. Brilliant.

Also brilliant? Telekinesis. Yeah, that's what I said. And now a video game is bringing the sensation of life as Saturn Girl (we can thank Susan for the reference!) to a mind-reading head set near you. [Hey, I offered you several other telekinetic superheroes first! --Susan] But I liked Saturn Girl and her slick space suit best!

If you insist on remaining in the real world and are planning to go to SES San Jose in a couple weeks, may I recommend the social event of the week that will not only give you that warm fuzzy feeling from the open bar but also from the good cause you've supported.

And, finally, because nobody should go without those warm fuzzies, see if these items don't make you want to wretch into your bucket from an overdose of cute. It was only a matter of time before someone proposed via Google Maps. Who doesn't love a little Web 2.0 romance? Also, scuttling balls of dryer lint are adorable.

Things I learned from Boing Boing this week:

• Traveling in style has reached a new peak. Let's hope Lisa's accommodations were this nice.
• Some people can literally fall over laughing. Like you're doing right now because of my riotous Friday Recap.
• Despite our best efforts to systematically erradicate and devastate the natural habitat of Gorillas, we haven't wiped them out yet!
• When escalators attack, things get ugly.

[This whole recap and no mention of my birthday? Fail, Virginia! Fail! You're fired as a blogger. Lisa, sorry, you have to come back on Monday. We'll save you some cake. --Susan] Oh dear, I'm sorry birthday girl. I'm not sure how I could forget, considering that it looks like a piñata and a party store made their love den in our room. Happy Birthday, Susan!

Posted by Virginia Nussey on 08/ 8/08 at 11:18 AM | Comments (1)

August 1, 2008

Friday Recap

It's Friday Recap time.

As most of you probably know, California had a little earthquake this week. I responded just like any normal East Coaster would have - I freaked out like the giant baby I am. And then Susan mocked me. But props to Bed, Bath and Beyond's attempt to market it. I hope you make lots of money because you're going to hell.

Mashable gave us 7 ways to get your Mom on Twitter. Fabulous. Who in their right mind wants their mom on Twitter? Isn't this why the protected feed was invented? My mother does not need to known about the words, activities, and males spoken about in my Twitter feed. Thank you. [This is why I don't have a Twitter at all. (Hi, Mom!)--Susan] OMG, Liar! Mrs. Esparza, if you'd like the location of your daughter's Twitter account, don't hesitate to drop me an email.

Li Evans is spreading the word about SearchCamp, an unconference which offers small businesses an affordable way to educate themselves about search marketing. And really, with speakers like Mike Grehan, Kevin Ryan, Kim Krause-Berg and Li, can you really afford not to be there?

Matt Cutts posted his schedule for late 2008. It includes all the events you'd expect - SES San Jose, Pub Con, TED - and then we see that Matt will also be attending the presidential inauguration and the inauguration ball. Um, hi, how do I round up that invite? Hey, Matt, do you need a date? I can be pretty.

Also on the Google front, Maile Ohye gave everyone a day in the life of a webmaster support video. Having watched it, I'm now somewhat concerned that all Maile does is sit in meetings all day. Poor girl.

Aaron Wall created a list of his favorite SEO analogies and totally left off my favorite Bruce-ism about how it's not the job of SEO to put wings on a pig, it's the job of SEO to genetically reengineer the pig into an eagle. C'mon, it's a classic!

Barry Schwartz looked at how "cuil" the search engine industry was. Personally, I think that shot of Vanessa Fox is totally cool! She's always so fashionable.

Darren Rowse is giving a way a free full conference pass to BlogWorldExpo. Check out his site for details on how to nab it for yourself and I'll see you there.

Lifehacker tries to force a smile out of me with a post about using inbox fuzzies to boost morale. I think I'm going to try out that "yey me" folder. Maybe it'll help me overcome those days when I want to kick that dog I don't actually have.

If you're feeling like you just want to kick the dog, watch Pat Sexton play with his Google App Engine T-shirt. It made me smile. But Pat always makes me smile.

WebProNews says that frequent texting can lead to injury proving that frequent anything will inevitably cause some idiot to get hurt somewhere and cry about it. You can have my Verizon Voyager when you pry it form my cold, dead, carpal-tunneled hands. [Word. --Susan]

Thomas Hawke wrote a great blog entry about the Top 10 Ways To Get Attention on Flickr and then posted it to Flickr. Creativity Win.

Taco Bell is being "helping" people trying to lose weight by offering them free Fresco Crunchy Tacos. I'm sure that will be totally helpful when they pull up to the drive through and decide what they really want is a CrunchWrap Supreme, triple layer nachos and ginormous sugary drink to wash it all down with. Way to go, Taco Bell. [Mmm, nachos. --Susan]

Dave McClure decided to use his blog to sell car. I'm not sure why it caught my entire attention the way it did, but there you have it. Anyone want a 2005 Acura TL? One of my coworkers has a silver 2008 and it's pretty hot.

In amusing but totally not search-related finds, there's the dramatic cat, the butterfly that's a horse, and professional men in short shorts.

Things I Learned On BoingBoing This Week:

Programming Note: Don't forget -- I'll be taking some vacation time next week and turning the blog over to a selection of my favorite SEO ladies. Try not to fall too much in love with them while I'm gone. And fear not, Susan and Virginia promised me they will band together and summon their inner-Lisas to provide readers with a Friday Recap next week, as well. The Bruce Clay, Inc. blog is going to be smokin'!

Posted by Lisa Barone on 08/ 1/08 at 1:15 PM | Comments (0)

July 25, 2008

Friday Recap

Susan's been out of the office since Wednesday as she gets her geek on at nerd prom. Let's all take a moment to mock her.

No, a longer moment.

Okay.

Speaking of Susan, this week Copyblogger wrote a post about how to be interesting. I've already printed it out for her and taped it to her computer. I just know she's going to thank me.

David Snyder is trying to buy me a Boxer puppy. You should help him.

Andrew Goodman won my heart with his post about why he'd hire the candy ass social media goody 2 shoes over the social media spammer. It's an awesome post and worth your time to read.

Tired of training your husband? Husbandhero.com is here to teach men how to be romantic by making it "convenient" with monthly reminders for the romance-challenged. The service will send your guy tips for not sucking, as well as milestone reminders to let them know you have a birthday coming up. I don't know. Is masking failure really improving it? Maybe I'm just relationship bitter.

Language Trainers has a great viral video guessing where people's accents are from. Virginia did pretty well... I not so much. She's so much smarter than me. [Silly rabbit. Maybe my headphones were just clearer than yours? -Virginia]

Chris Hooley hit his blog to talk about his experiences with identity theft. Some scary stuff, and I'm not just talking about the mug shot of the jerk who pretended to be the awesome Chris Hooley. We love you, Chris.

Valleywag says that half of the hottest girls on Digg are fake. Score one for the cult of Marty Weintraub!

Here are 14 podcasts to help you through your commute, assuming you have a commute and didn't move into an apartment complex down the street from your job. Like I did. Nothing's sweeter than filling up your gas tank once a month. [Rubbing it in our faces twice in one week? Last time I didn't comment, being too enamored with my shiny new T-Mobile card. But this time you've gone too far! -Virginia]

I'd like to thank Jane "Catland" Copland for ruining my morning by twittering a link to a piglet with a monkey face. Don't click the link. It's the most horrifying thing I've ever seen. I'm now afraid to have children. What if they're born with a monkey face? It could be like, an epidemic or something!

Marshall Sponder turned me on to iRing, which is almost as horrifying as the monkey-faced pig, but in a far more geeky way.

The Aussie Bloggers have come up with the lazy bloggers post generator. Hmm, I wonder if I could just post like that from now on? I bet people wouldn't even notice. I never make sense anyway.

Sante J. Achille says Italians dislike online publicity. Which makes sense, otherwise all those mob people would be dead or arrested. Right?

Andy Beal teaches us an important lesson - if you're going to pretend to be remorseful in court to avoid jail time for that DUI, don't show up to a Halloween party dressed as an inmate. And if you do get dressed up as an inmate, make sure no one takes photos and uploads them to Facebook. Have fun in jail!

TV Week let us know that the CW will once again be streaming Gossip Girl, aka the most awesome show on television, online. I consider this a tiny victory for 14-year-old girls (and me and Susan) everywhere.

Apartment Therapy invaded the house of Maggie Mason, one of my favorite bloggers, and gave us a sweet tour. I love the American Gothic-style wedding portrait, all the word art, and basically the whole darn apartment. I wonder if she'd let me live there? I can babysit.

Oh, and next time the water bill is really high, investigate the cat. Hilariously expensive.

Things I Learned On Boing Boing This Week:

Also, Virginia's birthday was yesterday. If you didn't get a chance to wish her a Happy Birthday and lots of yummy thoughts, feel free to use the comments. :)

Posted by Lisa Barone on 07/25/08 at 12:37 PM | Comments (2)

July 21, 2008

Guestblogging Week at Bruce Clay Aug 4-8!

You may want to sit down for this.

I'm getting ready to do something I haven't done in...forever. Something that until this day I have only ever seen in movies or read about on other people's blogs. Something Bruce and Susan have been trying to get me to do for at least a year.

I'm going on vacation.

For a week. With no Internetz. Please don't fall over and die.

But don't worry; I'm not going to let the blog die or do anything crazy like leave it with Susan. I wouldn't do that to you. Instead, I have called upon some of my favorite ladies in the industry to pitch in and keep this place alive in my absence for a Women's Blogging week of sorts. Some of the names you may know and others you may not, but I assure you they're all quality search minds and I'm very grateful to each and every one of them for pitching in.

So, without further ado, here's the line up for the week I'll be out of town:

Monday, Aug 4: Kim Krause-Berg, Carolyn Shelby
Tuesday, Aug 5: Cindy Krum, Jordan McCollum
Wednesday, Aug 6: Kate Gamble, Megan Slick
Thursday, Aug 7: Dana Larson, Kate Morris
Friday, Aug 8: Tamar Weinberg, Rhea Drysdale

Stellar, right? I know; I almost wish I wasn't going on vacation so I could sit and read all their posts!

Hmm, I'm doing this vacation thing wrong already, aren't I? Drat.

Get set, my friends. The first week of August here on the Bruce Clay blog is going to be rocking with great stuff from some really great ladies. It should be fun all around!


[Not too much fun, though. You have to pretend to miss me. Otherwise I'm staying in Mexico.]

Posted by Lisa Barone on 07/21/08 at 12:08 PM | Comments (5)

July 18, 2008

Friday Recap

Today's Friday Recap is coming to you live from BlogHer 2008 in San Francisco. Exciting, right? I have to write this up real quick and then go make some new friends. Let's get to it.

First, let's check in to see how Bruce Clay's SEO Training is going this week. Yup, looks like attendees are being whoa'd as Bruce answers question until they surrender, dispels urban legends and shares his plans to own the world. Way to go, Boss! (Maybe don't mention that taking over the world thing, though, k?)

Bryson Meunier explained why he's postponing his honeymoon for SMX Local & Mobile. Wow. Bryson, if you've managed to find the one lady in the world who'd let you get away with that...marry her quick. Like, today. SEOs everywhere are already lining up to take her from you.

Every SEO, that is, but the dreamy Bill Slawski who got a yes from his lady when he popped the question yesterday. Way to go, Bill.

Kate Morris and I joined forces to write 15 Signs an SEO Girl Likes You. The ones you laugh at came from her. The ones that have you considering a restraining order came from me. Aren't I cute?

Racking your brain trying to come up with killer video ideas for YouTube? Try this:

NetworkWorld reveals that one in four businesses block Facebook and other social networking sites in the office. Lame. What do those people do all day at work? [Presumably their job. --Susan]

HoHoHoSEO brings us Christmas in July with his 2008 Christmas Tree Contest. Contestants get to answer SEO trivia questions while mocking the Photoshopping of SEO's elite into stupid outfits. Bruce makes an excellent Santa, don't you think?

A 27-year-old Brooklyn man will spend 30 months in jail for being a slimy spammer. He must be the only 27-year-old nerd without a Twitter account. Twitterers don't have time to spam. We're too busy talking about ourselves. To ourselves.

Ask.com shows us absolutely how relevant to search they're not by ranking George Clooney as users favorite Batman. Way to report news that (a) probably isn't true and (b) no one even cares about. Don't you have an engine to continue running into the ground? [Lisa included this to enrage me. She knows that I have a 2000 word rant about how wrong this is. --Susan]

Top Rank's Ashley blogged about the 15 Things Not to Miss at SES San Jose 2008. I'll give you 16-18: You get to hang with me, Susan and Virginia. Need I say more?

Barry Schwartz breaks the news that your beloved Google fridge is probably about to die. Sorry. At least you got a Google fridge.

Google Blogoscoped mesmerized me with this striped running tiger and then shows us why tricking people doesn't pay. I hope you learned your lesson, Money.co.uk. No more hoaxes in the name of links.

Blog Herald shows how much bloggers are paid to blog and pretty much ensures that I never leave Bruce Clay. I like eating. So do my cats.

Things I Learned On BoingBoing This Week:

Okay, time for me to go make new friends now. Or at least try to make friends. I think I'm scaring people.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 07/18/08 at 11:20 AM | Comments (0)

July 11, 2008

Friday Recap

Happy Friday, happy peoples. It's a nice dark and gloomy morning in Southern California. These are my favorite kind of days. If only it would rain. With thunder! I miss the East Coast.

This week in SEO, we announced that we'd be running SEO training during SMX East, Andy Beal announced the winner of the SEM Scholarship Contest, Shoemoney introduced us to his gorgeous new daughter Joslyn, and after much blogging about it Barry Schwartz finally got his iPhone 3G.

I guess some other stuff happened too...

There were lots of reports about Newsday.com and its PageRank penalty, blah blah, who cares. Can we talk about how it's not okay to bastardize the English language and spell out Newsday as "NewsDay"? Web 2.0 has officially ruined the Internet. You can't just make up spellings. Do not want! /rant

Have you met Jeremy Zawodny's potentially rabid squirrel friend? He (I'm assuming it's a he) kind of freaks me out. The squirrel, I mean. Not Jeremy.

Geek & Poke offered up one day in the life of a Twitterer and I giggled. I giggled even louder when I stumbled across a Cre8asite Forums thread asking how to optimize a Web site for Ask. Silly! Ask isn't even a search engine anymore. Duh.

Google let loose a remote sign out feature for Gmail which made me silently rejoice. Now the Gtalk conversations I have at home won't mysteriously be waiting for me when I get to work in the morning. Embarrassment Fail.

Todd Mintz had a great interview with Adam Audette, who is like one of the most awesome people in the entire world and I totally didn't mean to snub him that one time at SMX West. We heart you, Adam!

Dave Synder posted about The Six Ladies of SEO [He'd] Like To Be Stuck Next to on a Cross Country Flight. Apparently, Dave isn't looking for some QT with me but he does want a piece of Rae Hoffman. But then again, don't we all?

I also didn't make the list of Twenty Bloggers We Want to See in Bikinis. Drat. You mean I'm not interesting or pretty? Blogger Fail.

NorthxEast posted a list of the Fifty Most Influential 'Female' Bloggers and included a lot of familiar faces like Skellie, Wendy Piersall, Kathy Sierra, and my personal favorite - Heather Armstrong. I've mentioned I get to see Heather at BlogHer next week, right? And that I'm going to hide in fear? Okay. Just checking.

FeelFirefox listed off some Firefox 3 features you probably don't know about. Are you as much in love with FF 3 am I am? I just want to go home and snuggle it on this gloomy SoCal day.

Earlier this week, Virginia got Susan and I starving passing around this post on Advertising vs Reality where they compared the photo on the package to the actual content inside the boxes. Some of it was not so appealing, but all those yummy burgers and chocolate? Yum yum score! [You had to bring that up again, didn't you? *raids Robert's desk for food* --Susan] I want so many cheeseburgers and pizza and chocolate. Mmm, death by 30.

If you're struggling to get through your work day, it may be time to find out which Facebook application you are. It's exactly the kind of crucial information you'll need heading into the weekend. Or at least that's what you'll have to explain to your boss.

Things I Learned On Boing Boing This Week:

Posted by Lisa Barone on 07/11/08 at 11:56 AM | Comments (4)

July 7, 2008

Bruce Clay Housekeeping

[dramatic exhale]

Hi, kids. It's the first day back after the delicious, most relaxing three day break ever which means one thing - OMGZ there's a lot of work to do! With so many nuggets and developments and news bits floating around my head, I thought sharing them with you would help me des-tress and get it all out there.

So, without further ado, here's all the Bruce Clay stuff going on that you need to know about.

We're Hiring!

If you're a content writer, programmer, SEO analyst, analytics fan or any mix of the four, and you want to work for a company that believes, practices and preaches ethical SEO, send us your resume. [Please! --Susan]

All fluff and pitch aside, things are happening and coming together at an amazing pace right now. Maybe it's the recession and companies need to hire an SEO vendor they can trust to get them visibility without encroaching on bad areas, but we have some great things happening right now. Interesting projects are coming in, wall-sized white boards are filling up (next we get to write on the walls!) and we're literally bursting at the seams. As much as new people often scare me, we're hiring. In all areas. Right now.

If you're in Southern California and interested in joining the team, I'd encourage you to check out the Bruce Clay, Inc. employment page and see if you're a fit.

Where In The World Is Lisa?

I'm asked a lot what conferences we're going to next, whether we'll be liveblogging and if Bruce will be presenting. To help put some of those questions to rest (and save my inbox some), here's a short list of where we'll be in the coming months.

  • BlogHer (July 18-19): Later this month I get to head up to San Francisco and experience my first BlogHer. I'm quite excited. Not only will I get to connect with other women who blog and share war stories and hugs and bond, but it will be my first face-to-face with Heather Armstrong, the woman who is secretly living the life that I want. You have no idea what represents for me. I hope I'm brave enough to introduce myself to her. The safe bet is that I sit in the front row, stare and then look away when her eyes are about to meet mine.

    Also, no liveblogging. I'll be attending the show like a normal person and reporting on what I learned once I return.

  • SES San Jose (August 18-21): Next month is the big SES show and Bruce Clay will definitely be there. I also hear a rumor you'll be getting all three Bruce Clay Writers, so how lucky are you? We'll be liveblogging, Bruce will be speaking, and there will be lots of other team members to talk to and field your questions. We'll also be doing some SES speaker interviews before the big show, so look for that.

  • BlogWorldExpo (September 20-21): Two blogging conferences in three months? It's like Christmas! After having way too much fun last year, Bruce is sending me back to BlogWorld to relive it. Again, no liveblogging. I get to be a normal person for a few days. Or at least, try to convince people that I'm a normal person. It's probably good the show only lasts a few days.

    I'm also hoping to have a blog interview with BlogWorld CEO & Founder Rick Calvert, so I'm pretty excited about that as well.


The SEO Newsletter Is Going Monthly

Starting on July 15th, our biweekly SEO Newsletter is going back to its roots and once again becoming a monthly publication. It hurts us a bit to do it, but with all the traveling, conferences and internal projects, we need the lighter schedule to ensure we maintain the quality of the newsletter we put out. I mentioned we were hiring, right?

There are actually two more really big announcements to make, but I'll save them for their own post when the time is right. Yeah, that's right; I'm going to make you wait a little more. ;)

Posted by Lisa Barone on 07/ 7/08 at 3:10 PM | Comments (0)

July 3, 2008

It's Almost Friday Recap

Since everyone's off tomorrow for the July 4th holiday, you get your Friday Recap a day early. Lucky you!

[But seriously, how the heck did it become July already? Wasn't it February last week? Moving on.]

Meet Tutu's Hawaiian Ice Cream Shack. They make giant snow cones here in Simi Valley, CA and will even throw a scoop of ice cream at the bottom if you're not morally opposed to mixing water and milk (which I am). They also have one of the most horrendous URLs ever with tutushawaiianicecreamshack.com. Did your eyes just slap you for making them work that hard? Yeah, mine too.

Joe Peacock shared some Internet Explorer ranting, which is something I think we can all support.

TheWebsiteIsDown is a hilarious portrayal of what your IT guy is actually doing while he's on the phone trying to troubleshoot your computer issues. Spoiler: He's not actually paying attention to you.

BuzzFeed presents How To Confuse An Idiot. Hi, my name is Lisa, and I am an idiot. Thanks.

New to me this week was allmyfaves, the site that makes actual Web searching completely moot.

Run, don't walk, to magazine newsstands to catch Jessica Bowman in this month's Marie Claire magazine talking about what it's like to be a woman affected by the recession. According to Jessica, it's pretty damn good. Glad to see you're kicking butt, Jessica!

Hmm, maybe I should read that article. FastCompanyInc made a list of the six jobs that won't exist in 2016 and number three on the list is blogging. Ut ohs.

At least we know that the search engine optimization industry will be around until at least 2048.

Barry Schwartz says to secure your brand on all the social media sites before somebody swipes it and then he lists 19 sites marketers should go after. Nineteen! Guess I know what I'll be doing this weekend.

Blog Herald asks if blogging has killed your writing, and sadly, I think it has. You'd think writing every day would get those creative juices flowing, but all it really does is eat your soul, give you carpal tunnel, burning eyes, and mind mush. It's tough being old.

Speaking of, RedStaplerChronicles has a full list of all the benefits, drawbacks and side effects that come with blogging and Word Divided lets us know that Iran will soon introduce a death penalty for blogging. Note to self: Don't move to Iran; would be dead in a day.

Good Morning Silicon Valley came up with my new favorite word for phone - communitainment transceiver. I think that's totally going to take off.

Those wacky Japanese folks have finally designed something I want - the lazy geek's cushion. I think we need to get us some of those at Bruce Clay. [I want one for home too. --Susan]

For some fun non-search stuffs, the New York Times outlined the 11 best foods you're not eating. Shockingly, the food you're not eating is food that's (mostly) gross. Beets? No, thank you. However, pass the cinnamon and canned pumpkin. Yum, score!

And this story of a dad looking for a monster exterminator for his 2-year-old daughter just about melted my whole entire heart.

Things I Learned From BoingBoing This Week:

Happy July 4th from everyone at Bruce Clay, Inc. We wish you a happy, fun and safe weekend!

[And don't forget, we'll be publishing our SMX Give It Up session review as soon as the embargo lifts at 1pm PST today. Stay tuned!]

Posted by Lisa Barone on 07/ 3/08 at 10:59 AM | Comments (1)

July 2, 2008

Flying Couch to Fly Again!

Last year we asked for your assistance in helping Kent Couch find his amazing flying balloon chair and video camera and you did! His 2007 flight took him on an awesome nine hour, two hundred mile tour across Oregon before he had to touch back down. For most people that's enough chair flying for a lifetime but not this crazy man. Kent Couch will be reliving his amazing balloon-filled journey with a brand new 2008 flight. And this time you can go along with him!

Well, sort of.

On July 5th, Kent will set out on another epic journey in his lawn chair equipped with 165 helium balloons that he hopes will take him from Bend, Oregon to Boise, Idaho. To help share the experience with fans (and possibly to keep better track of his chair and camera this time), 2008's journey will be ultra tech-friendly. Kent will be twittering from his flying lawn chair until his cell coverage dies out at www.twitter.com/kentcouch and fans will be able to track Kent's movements using Google Maps. Last but not least, there will also be live video coverage coming straight from the launch site on Saturday morning at www.couchballoons.com.

Congrats to Kent for not only making his childhood dreams come true for a second time, but for taking his idea viral. It's always fun to see how people are able to use Web applications to bring new life to old marketing efforts. See, you don't have to trick people or spam your way for links. Sometimes you can simply do something so silly and so awe-inspiring that people can't help but link and talk about you. [I'm afraid of heights. How about a Top Ten list of why I'd never fly a lawn chair to Idaho? --Susan] How about a Top Ten list of why anyone would want to go to Idaho in the first place? Is there even a Top Ten list for that?

Kent will be taking off from Stop & Go Mini Mart in Bend on Saturday morning, so if you're in the town, head over to the Pilot Butte Theater, park your car and look up. Let's hope Kent's journey goes well, otherwise that's going to be the saddest Twitter stream evar.

Mr. Couch, we want to wish you lots of luck, fun, and non pointy things as you make your journey to Idaho. And of course, a major thumbs up for a piece of link bait even Matt Cutts himself would get behind.

Good luck, Kent!

[P.S.

You can find photos and video from last year's journey on the CouchBalloon.com Web site. You know you wanna look! ;) ]

Posted by Lisa Barone on 07/ 2/08 at 5:36 PM | Comments (4)

June 27, 2008

Friday Recap: The Birthday Edition

Huzzah, it's Friday! And more importantly, it's my Almost Birthday (tomorrow is the big day). Susan and Virginia have already spoiled me with bagels, coffee, balloons, lunch and a mystery present. Birthdays are delicious, aren't they?

If you were wondering what to get me for my birthday, I want this. Actually, I'll take two of them, please! And maybe a recording of today's XKCD cartoon. [Boom de yada, boom de yada... sorry.]

Matt Cutts reviewed the Kitt-In Box and I just want to say I'm not buying his thumbs up. That must be a paid link because there's no way Emmy voluntarily sat on that perch instead of on Matt's face! Or am I the only one with psychotic cats who attached themselves to you and whatever you're doing? I hate my cats.

Everyone's passing around the Time Breakdown of Modern Web Design. I don't want to look unoriginal by not posting it, so here it is again:

Andrew R H Girdwood writes that all it takes is a little bit of success for the trolls to come out and start slinging mud. It's worth a read, if only to remind yourself that as hard as it may be to take the high road when people sling mud your way, it's always the best course.

Have you read Kevin Ryan's Yahoo's Suicide Pact with Google yet? If not, you should. Is there anything hotter than a smart guy who can write really well? I don't think so.

The Chicago Tribune showed us what a modern day romance looks like on Facebook.

In response to the mass Yahoo exodus, John Paczkowski points us to the Yahoo Resignation Letter Generator. It's as awesome as you'd expect it to be.

The new fad in dieting is to use Twitter to shame yourself into not eating. Sounds great. I may actually try this.

Brian B. Carter wrote 10 Things My Wife and Twitter Have In Common, and after calling his wife a whale in the post, we hope he won't soon find himself divorced! :)

SEORefugee wrote bloggers an open letter asking them to back up their statements. Here's my open letter to SEORefugee: Get off your high horse. I'm kidding! My Blogger Imposter Syndrome is making me unusually snarky. Friends still? Yeah?

Performancing doesn't hate bloggers and offers up 5 events that the blogosphere actually influenced. Power to the people!

Liana Evans is talking about ethics over at Search Marketing Gurus, and I'd recommend you head over to give it a read. It kills me that we have to define different "ethics" for different types of Internet marketing. That's like making different versions of the 10 Commandments to fit your mood and help justify that affair you just had. [I'd make a Henry VIII joke but that's nerdy even for me.--Susan] [blinks] Yeah, I have no idea what that even means.

TechCrunch pointed out that Facebook's Top Friends application mysteriously disappeared. Of course, they pointed it out after I spent 15 minutes scrolling up and down my profile all "wait - where is it? Did I miss it?" I'm smart.

Geeks are Sexy introduces us to some killer dust bunnies. Ew. Total goose bumps.

5min.com shows you how to use a soda can or your iPhone to hack a parking gate. Does that really work?

And I guess congratulations are in order for Rebecca Kelley for finding a cheese and bacon baked potato in Canada completing a half Ironman. Well done, Becs. Way to make the rest of us look lazy. I walked up a flight of stairs to get to my office this morning. That's almost the same, right?

Things I Learned From BoingBoing This Week:

Posted by Lisa Barone on 06/27/08 at 2:52 PM | Comments (3)

June 25, 2008

SEO Headlines

Search Engine Optimization Can't Be Rushed

Birthday boy Lee Odden started a great conversation with his post about the importance of staying on top of your search engine optimization campaign and taking the time to do it right. We really can't stress this enough. SEO is not a one time deal, regardless of how big a company you are or how great your product is. Long term rankings mean truly investing in search engine optimization and continually tweaking campaigns for optimum performance. Working hard to get your site ranked and then forgetting about it is simply a waste of that initial investment.

Lee really hits the nail on the head with this:

"Companies that take their search engine visibility for granted or that ride the technical SEO loophole/manipulation train often get a hard smack back to reality when their online sales disappear. Orders start to slip or fall off the map altogether and the IT team red alert phone rings off the hook with calls from the business owner, "What the hell happened to our rankings???"

Amen, Lee. What happened was that you got lazy or you thought your big brand name would carry you through the SERPs. It won't, especially with how competitive things are today. How embarrassing is it when a savvy mom and pop shop is able to outrank the Best Buys and Nikes of the world simply with some elbow grease and creative thinking? Search engine optimization is important to your business. Treat it as such and don't let it fall by the wayside.

For a more in depth look at this issue, I'll point you back to our When is Optimization Necessary? And for How Long post from February 2007. Ah, I was just a baby back then. ;) [But not anymore! Send birthday cards for your favorite blogger to Bruce Clay and be sure to get them here before the weekend! -Virginia] Did you just call me old? You did, didn't you? Watch it n00b.

Siloing, Siloing, Siloing

Lots of chatter today about Bruce Clay, Inc.'s concept of siloing. Rae Hofffman talked siloing and PageRank sculpting in her recent Search Engine Land article about 404 pages and Shimon Sandler followed suit with Advanced SEO: Siloing Content. It's good to hear people talking about siloing, especially in the context of advanced search engine optimization techniques. See, guys, "advanced" doesn't have to mean "spam".

If you haven't silo'd your Web site you're missing out on serious ranking opportunities. Siloing splits the focus of your Web site by grouping content by theme, which in term allows you to rank for both your targeted and broad keyword phrases. It also takes into account everyone's favorite buzzword of 2008, PageRank sculpting, so that the most important pages on your site are getting the most juice.

We've written a lot about siloing in the past, so if you're still curious about what siloing is, how to do it, and how it can help your site, I recommend you visit our six-part newsletter series Building a Web Site Theme With Silos, as well as our blog post from earlier this year entitled Hey Rand, Do You Mean Siloing.

John Carcutt Wins 10,000 SEJ Prize, Donates It To Charity

Today Loren Baker revealed that John Carcutt was the winner of Search Engine Journal's Guest Blogging competition which ended in a blog off between John and Richard Burckhardt. When all was said and done, however, it was John's Are SEO Forums Still Needed? post that put him over the edge and helped him claim the amazing $10,000 prize package being offered by SEJ.

Amazingly, John says he will donate his prize package to a Mexican orphanage so that they can improve their Web site and raise awareness. How much do you love John? Like a gazillion percent, right? I know, me too!

Donating search marketing education to nonprofits is obviously something we're passionate about, as evident by our own SEO Charity Contest. For an update on that, check out the mid July edition of the SEO newsletter where we'll check in with our winner Ryan Freeman to hear about how his nonprofit is benefitting from white hat search engine optimization training.

Fun Finds

Chris Hooley opened up voting on the SEO Superlatives. Go cast your vote for me.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 06/25/08 at 3:05 PM | Comments (0)

June 13, 2008

Friday Recap

Hey, guys. It's Friday and I have a belly full of gelato. Mmm, Italian deliciousness.

IT services provider Telindus conducted a survey and found that 39 percent of 18-to-24 year olds would quit their jobs if their bosses blocked Facebook. Well, yeah. That's because 18-year-olds are working at McDonalds or in the mailroom. I'd quit my job too. For any reason I could think of. [I'm pretty sure at that age I quit one of mine to go to the beach. And I hate the beach. --Susan]

If you want to buy a Facebook account (and 200 or so friends) you can do on eBay. Buying friends? Is nothing sacred anymore? Anyone want to buy my cats? [Prices as follows: $10 for Swat, $1,000 for Jack Jack. --Susan] Don't be crazy. $3.99 for Swat.

If you want to ruin your day, TechCrunch helps us take a look at some of the average salaries at Google:

If you're looking for some good reading, check out the 100 Awesome Webmaster Blogs by and for Women. I think you'll recognize some of the faces.

Watch as Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak unlocks Kathy Griffin's iPhone. On television. What a waste of an unlocked iPhone. Kathy Griffin is totally not smart enough to appreciate it. Or to exist without cameras following her.

Andy Beal chimes in on the Yahoo/Google/Microsoft saga. Or at least I think that's what he's doing, right? Poor Brad. It's hard being the underdog.

Michael Gray announced he's running for president because it's the only way he knows of to stop Google from global domination. Good luck, Michael! We're rooting for you.

WebProNews is getting hilariously ridiculous with their conference videos. The latest one features Danny Sullivan "chatting" about SMX Advanced while also demonstrating the patented Sullivan shimmy. DSul, FTW!

I stumbled across this video giving folks a look at what life is like inside the Bruce Clay offices. Yup. It looks just like that.

An anonymous "female" from a "big SEO company" used Shoemoney's nonSEO blog to "rant" about how "she's" tired of people asking for Diggs and Stumbles. The post is unoriginal and not all that well written. What was funny was that everyone assumed the mystery author had to be one of the four known SEO female ranters: Rae, Jane, Becs or myself. I'll give you a hint. It's not any of us. We can write. [It's not me either, even though I can't.--Susan]

Barry Schwartz blogged about having to sleep on the couch. Ah, marriage can be a cruel mistress sometimes, eh? ;)

Oh, and Barry, listen up: Stork101.com says they can predict your baby's gender with 100 percent accuracy! If they're wrong, however, you get nothing. I think it's time for an SEO blogging prodigy baby, don't you?

Wedding Paper Divas had some geek wedding invitations that got a smirk out of me. C'mon, like you've never wanted to exclaim, "Wii are getting married"? Liar.

Susan sent Virginia and myself the MASH game online and we all took turns reliving what it was like to be in the 5th grade. I'm going to marry my current boyfriend, honeymoon in Rome, have one child and drive a red Jetta. Yey adulthood!

Also sent by Susan: the greatest display of stupidity ever. I'll let you digest this one for yourselves.

Things I Learned On Boing Boing This Week:


  • The Simi Valley fires that broke out in 2005 look way more fun on film than they were in person.

  • Taking naps during the day does a better job of keeping you awake than sleeping later or filling yourself with coffee. [I think this means we need company approved nap-time post lunch.--Susan] I like our system now where we just close the door because we're "so busy working".

  • God loves bananas and I love robot cupcakes.

  • Long ago small children used to play with plastic wigs. Good God, the world was boring without the Internet and Nintendo's Wii.

  • What Google News would look like if the world was a happier place.

To all the dads out there, we hope you have a wonderful Father's Day and are treated to lots of special moments. And if you want to spoil the dad in your life, check out the Chicago Tribune's gadget-filled Father's Day guide or maybe go see Kung Fu Panda like Michael Gray did. My own father requested a dwarf pear tree. He's not the gadget type. Happy Father's Day, dads!

Posted by Lisa Barone on 06/13/08 at 2:11 PM | Comments (0)

June 6, 2008

Friday Recap

Happy Friday! I just returned from a delicious Hawaiian Luau in the park with my Bruce Clay coworkers. We ate yummy BBQ, walked barefoot in the grass, watched the ducks in the pond, and talked about secret squirrel Bruce Clay stuff. You should have been there.

In case you've missed it, there's quite a firestorm taking place on the SMX Advanced Goes To The Dark Side post, including some very honest commentary from Danny Sullivan. I'm not in the habit of pimping our own posts, but if you haven't read it, you should.

Speaking of SMX, Virginia conducted some great interviews while in Seattle earlier this week. You can find her interviews with SEO troublemaker Michael Gray and resident Microsoft cutie Derrick Wheeler tucked inside this week's episode of SEM Synergy.

How's this for branding and word of mouth generation: The new Kill Bill billboard squirts blood into the street, onto cars, and presumably, onto those walking by. That'll get people talking. And maybe suing when someone slips and falls on a "blood" puddle.

A female blogger asked her male blogger boyfriend to marry her via a blog post. Apparently, he said yes and the whole industry aw'd while I tried not to roll my eyes too loudly. Hasn't this been done like a million times? Let's get a bit more creative people.

Boston.com tells the story of a man who build a customized Web browser for his autistic grandson. It's a sweet tale and the little boy is adorable.

John Andrews wondered if all the "cute" gushing we did back in 2006 was a schtick. Hee, it really wasn't, John. And the only reason I've stopped cut back is because of how incredibly embarrassing it is when the speakers you've drooled over approach you afterwards. [waves to Rand, Derrick Wheeler, Joost de Valk and many, many others] I think for awhile there I forgot people actually read this blog.

Speaking of cute SEOs that I've embarrassed myself in front of, Joost de Valk has a great interview with Kevin Ryan, one of my industry favorites. Joost and Kevin are both very, very cute.

Gizmodo told us How to Launch An Apple Product in 5 Easy Steps. Boom!

Spend your weekend mastering the Procrastination Flow Chart. Or maybe wait and do it Monday morning. Yeah, do that.

Scoble talked about how Twitter was blaming its members and uses a kick ass Hugh MacLeod cartoon.

This couldn't be less search-related but it kept me mesmerized for minutes: 300 Calorie Food Picture Gallery. Look at all that watermelon you can eat!

Things I Learned On Boing Boing This Week:

Posted by Lisa Barone on 06/ 6/08 at 4:11 PM | Comments (0)

June 2, 2008

The Monday Friday Recap

Okay, so my bad. I was far too ill on Friday to deliver my typical sidesplitting Friday Recap and instead spent the day sleeping. Until almost 4pm. But I'm better now and here to make amends! Before I take Virginia and jump on a plane to Seattle for SMX Advanced, how about a Monday Friday Recap to help kick start everyone's week? Sounds good, right? Let's go!

First, I have something I need to get off my chest. I absolutely hate Google's new favicon. There, I said it. What were they thinking?

Now a picture with zero explanation:


I'd also like to thank the Lessons In Social Advertising (LISA) conference for ensuring that I will never, ever rank first for my name. Jerks.

Onward SEO gave us a list of the Top 30 Cities to Earn a Big SEO Salary and it's very odd. All the big name cities you'd expect are listed, but somehow two locations in New Jersey made it into the top three. New Jersey? Ew. I'll take the lower paycheck with a side of clean air.

The Incremental Blogger gave us 10 Things We Can All Blame Robert Scoble For. Heh. Blaming Scoble for things is one of my favorite pastimes. I currently blame him for global warming, all the hungry babies around the world, my spilling coffee on myself this morning, and the flowers Jack threw up this morning. How about you?

North South Media delivered a follow up to its What If SEO/Search Had Action Figures post. In Part II, I get to be Catwoman. A purple Catwoman. Can't I be blue? [Why do you bait me with these sorts of thing? You know I'm going to have to explain to you all the costumes that Catwoman has had over the years and how none of them were blue.--Susan] I know. I like watching you head explode.

Neil Patel explains how to build influential relationships by insulting people. Ah, that Neil. Always so much fun.

If you do follow Neil's advice, know that most stabbings occur with a kitchen knife. So don't do your insulting there.

And because insulting people is fun, last week Rebecca Kelley took the entire SEOmoz community to task for digging their Web 2.0 Awards wrong. Next time you ask people for Diggs, make sure to include instructions.

Search Engine Journal explains that they'll be providing some sort of coverage for SMX Advanced. Or something. I wasn't listening. We all know the only coverage that matters is Bruce Clay's. Right, guys? Right?

[Reminder: If you don't want to hear about what's going on at SMX Advanced, subscribe to our News Only feed. You've been warned.]

The industry reverted back to middle school last week as Dave Naylor and Jaan Kanellis both held contests asking who the most attractive SEO is. Jann's contest even includes photos of the ladies. Nice.

This is completely unrelated to anything, but check out this Basic Physics Savvy Quiz. It will make you feel completely stupid in under .02 seconds. Kinematics, measurements, and molecules? Someone hold me. [I got a 70%! Lisa and Virginia didn't even finish. --Susan] Update: Virginia has since finished the quiz. She earned a 37.5 percent.

Things I Learned From Boing Boing This Last Week:

And that's it. Virginia and I are headed to Seattle in a bit while Susan stays back to think about what she's done (wo)man the office. Don't go joining Plurk while we're gone. It won't bring you anything but pain.

See you in Seattle!

Posted by Lisa Barone on 06/ 2/08 at 11:19 AM | Comments (0)

May 30, 2008

Presidential Candidates Dive into Search Marketing

Lisa is out sick for the day, which means your regular scheduled program saucy recap of the week's ongoings in the search world is not available. Instead, I'm here to reassure you that the Bruce Clay Blog is not ill - in fact, it is alive, well, and looking forward to a bombardment of posts come SMX Advanced next week.

In case you're a reader who would rather not be privy to the wealth of information the conference liveblog coverage will offer, I thought I'd take this opportunity to remind you of the liveblog-less feed. However, I'll warn you that the Bruce Clay Blog offers stellar takeaways from conference sessions, and SMX Advanced is sure to be full of sophisticated information that anyone not going to the conference will want to be aware of.

But, back to the business of every happy Friday; rather than a recap, I thought I could chime in on a story Search Engine Land has been following, and an issue of personal interest: the Internet's prominence in the presidential race. It seems that For Obama The Online Marketer It's All About Google, which I think is exactly how this mostly-untested new kid on the block has remained viable against behemoth veteran politicos. Well, it's part of it, anyway. My takeaway: more and more we see that the candidate that taps into the mainstream online consciousness will win the race. No big revelation, I know.

It's also interesting to note that along with increased online ad spend is an increase in candidate and campaign-related search volumes. Here we see Obama leading in overall search volume, despite McCain spending more than double on paid search than the Democrats. Issues like the economy, health care, the War in Iraq, and gas prices (I'm afraid to even think about that right now. The station down the street is selling regular for $4.27 a gallon!) are seeing major growth in search. Reportedly, 87 percent of potential voters search online for election information.

I suppose the candidates are taking a smart approach. The Washington Post breaks down the original ClickZ report on candidates' online ad spend pretty well in Google Rakes In Campaign Contributions From Obama, explaining that the presidential candidate's Federal Election Commission filings show that the campaign has spent $2.8 million with Google ad networks.

The report also showed that the vast majority of political ad spend is still going to traditional media, like television. But since Ron Paul's once-significant Internet fan base proved unsuccessful against more traditional campaigns, I guess it's understandable that Obama, Clinton and McCain have yet to put their full weight behind the online medium.

Posted by Virginia Nussey on 05/30/08 at 5:31 PM | Comments (0)

May 23, 2008

Friday Recap

It's Friday and I swear to God I will stop yawning at some point today. Maybe. I hope. Perhaps I'll just take a nap under my desk and see if anyone notices. Yeah, I like that plan.

There was a giant conspiracy this week to get me to go to In N Out and consume 3,000 calories. Barry Schwartz was blogging about French fries, The Consumerist used a photo of a burger and fries from In N Out for their story about dieting (um, fail?), and then Seth Godin was screaming double double for no reason whatsoever. Okay, I get it. I'll make Susan go buy me a burger. Calm down, Internetz. [Back off, I'm on a diet. Again. Still. Whatever. --Susan]

Or maybe we'll head to Chicago to enjoy the Double Stuf Oreos that were left all over the road after a sleeping truck driver crashed into the medium.

Also, half of IT workers say they've gained at least 10 pounds in their current jobs. Because fixing computers forces them to pig out on In N Out burgers and Double Stuf Oreos. I totally feel their pain.

[Can you tell I'm hungry? Our plan to get bagels delivered to the office today failed.]

Matt McGee is officially using Twitter just like the rest of us, which means he's passing around stories intended to horrify people. This time we learn that a man survive six hours with a paint brush in his head. See, now don't you wish you had never read that? Thanks, McGee!

FastUpFront let's us know that more than 33 percent of Americans are being bullied at work, and then offers up some advice on how to stop it. I think it's time I have a talk with Susan to explain to her how her bullying is affecting my health at work and how it makes me eat Oreos. In bed. At 3am. [Mmm, Oreos. --Susan]

There was a great thread over on Cre8asite that asked who else talks to their blog? Sadly, they don't mean actually having a conversation with your blog. Which is what I thought it meant. And hoped. Guess I'm alone then.

Vertical Leap developed an interesting SEO keyword research game. Check out how people search for a white kitten. [Omg a kittah] received one percent of the votes. Hee.

Or, if that doesn't do it for you, how about SEO Bullshit Bingo?

Over at Going Cellular, Stuart tells us how he stopped using bad cell phone etiquette while I giggle like the little girl I secretly am.

Barry Schwartz blogged about a possible Ask.com search update and then I giggled even more. Barry, Ask isn't in search anymore. Duh!

Blogpire is looking for a robot obsessed blogger. That's almost as awesome as the tomato blogger job listing (job was filled!) we saw a little while back.

Valleyway broke some shocking news this week: Back in the '90s, Robert Scoble was quasi good looking. I know, I didn't believe it either, but he could have, like, totally been on Sweet Valley High if he wanted to.

How I Spent My Stimulus is colleting stories relating to how people spent their stimulus pay check. Mine is still sitting in the bank until I can find something completely trivial to spend it on. Maybe I'll buy a puppy to eat my cats? Seems they don't really love me as much as I thought they did anyway:

Tear.

Tamar pointed us to a "funny" video about Matt Cutts getting electrocuted and dying. See how that's not even a little funny? Link bait fail.

Things I Learned On BoingBoing This Week:

Happy long weekend to everyone! But be careful out there, you don't want to have to sing the sunburn song Tuesday morning.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 05/23/08 at 12:13 PM | Comments (0)

May 16, 2008

Friday Recap

It's Friday and almost a gazillion degrees in Southern California! Yey?

This week Search Engine Strategies unveiled the first annual SES Awards show which will take place during SES San Jose. It's exciting for SES and equally exciting for me because as I'll be one of the judges (what crazy person okay'd that?), I had to write my first professional bio. One that didn't mention my cats. What do you think?

Matt Cutts let his nerd stripe show with Stupid Google Tricks: How Often Do You Cut Your Hair? It's a nice glimpse into the neurotic psyche of Matt. And not that you care, but I get my hair cut tomorrow. Let's hope they don't "accidentally" cut off 7 inches like they did last time. [They'd better not. The point of getting my hair cut was so that people would stop asking if we're related. It's not like I can just glue it back on. --Susan] I appreciate that. The Bobbsey Twin thing was getting a little old.

Keri Morgret wrote a letter of apology to her wrists and offered some advice on how to survive continuous days of liveblogging. Speaking from experience, the only way to survive is to accept that it's going to kill you dead. And then move on and continue blogging that early morning keynote roundtable where everyone talks over each other and no one ever finishes their thought.

Shoemoney asked some familiar industry faces to define SEO. Use it to learn a little bit about the industry you work in or challenge someone to play Spot The Blackhat based on the answers provided. Either way, good times all around.

Did you go to Ad:Tech San Francisco this year? Are you dying? You may be. It seems there has been a breakout of the Novovirus at the Moscone Center. So many ews. I'm so glad we sent Susan this year instead of me.

Shimon Sandler is back providing recipes on his blog, this time it's for Spicy Chili. I haven't tried this one but Shimon's Gourmet Meatloaf for Hungry SEO's is most excellent!

Barry pointed me to the Forbes' article where Ask.com shill Jim Safka calls the reports that Ask.com is dead "horseshit". Moving on.

Susan's going to be out of the office on Monday. I think I'm going to jello-fy her keyboard and maybe even her new vertical mouse. What do you think? [I vote no. --Susan] I was asking everyone not named Susan Esparza.

Or maybe I'll make our very own Aaron Butler show me how to break an apple in two with my bare hands. In the spirit of "pics or it didn't happen", here's a video from when he proved it could be done yesterday. The writer's room was really impressed.

Proof that there's a social network for everything these days: Meet MyLaundryOnline.com. Yes, it's a place for you to find people (read: strangers) to do your laundry. Because that's not a little bit creepy and a lot gross. Hide your unmentionables.

Cracked.com has a list of the 9 Most Obnoxious Memes to Ever Escape The Web. It's like the history of the Web right there in one list. Awesome.

I've heard of jealous siblings, but eating your twin? Now, seriously. That's something Susan would do. [Tastes like kittens. --Susan] You disgust me.

Gawker helps us answer the question, "are you an online jackass?", while Granta gives us The Web Habits of Highly Effective People. Shockingly, there's no mention of Twitter.

In non-search stuff, one of my new favorite bloggers, Sarah Nielson, shows you a foolproof way for getting into your mother's will. Genius!

And the Easy PB&J jar that allows you to scoop out every last bit of peanut butter goodness.

Things I Learned On BoingBoing This Week:

Posted by Lisa Barone on 05/16/08 at 9:40 AM | Comments (0)

May 9, 2008

Friday Recap

Hey, Friends. I hope everyone had a fantastic week. But, in case your week was like mine, I offer up Performancing's Bloggers: What Do You Do to Relax? Also, feel free to share your own ways of relaxing in the comments. My goal for this weekend is to get my heart to stop racing before I collapse. Huzzah!

Speaking of Performancing, James Mowry woke up to find that he had 11,072 unread items in his feed reader. Just thinking about that raised my heart rate to an unhealthy level. I'm so going to die.

You know what's not going to die? SEO! Michael Gray issued the best rebuttal to Shoemoney's recent the-sky-is-falling post with Yes Shoemoney SEO Does Have a Future. Read Michael's post and I guarantee you that by the end you will have climbed right atop his soapbox with him.

Earlier this week, Ask.com celebrated Cinco de Mayo by showing everyone how absolutely irrelevant and ridiculous they've become. The shame of that company saddens me.

Have you ever wanted to see what Robert Scoble would look in an Ansel Adams photograph? No? Well, let him recreate it for you anyway.

The Consumerist compiled the Top 5 Guerilla Marketing Mishaps. I'd like to add Ask.com's Information Revolution campaign in the UK to that list. Epic fail.

In Twitter this week we saw TweetShirts, Who Should I Follow, and my favorite, LiveTwittering -- a brand new way to livetweet conference sessions. Livetweeting is the new liveblogging, you know?

Keeping with the Twitter theme, I'd like to award JetBlue with the Best Tweet Of The Week:

Their award? I'll be more likely to fly JetBlue in the future because I know they get "it".

David Mihm posted a great interview with Matt McGee. They dish about search, life after Marchex, photography and how he manages to squeeze 35 hours of work into a 24 hour day. Matt McGee is one of my favorites.

As hard times approach, Code on the Road offers up the one thing you absolutely need to do the first day after you've been laid off. It's a great piece, though I'd probably never be gutsy enough to do it.

If you have dreams of attending Search Marketing Expo Advanced in Seattle, the early bird discount ends today, so head on over there. If you're looking for another reason to attend, Virginia and I will both be there liveblogging! You know you want to hang with us. Okay, maybe you just want a chance to meet Virginia. I don't blame you. She's pretty awesome. [*Blush* --Virginia]

In non-search stuffs, Esquire posted The 75 Skills Every Man Should Master and I swooned. If you know a man with half of those skills, please send him my way. I'm willing to provide a headshot and brief bio, if needed.

Eric Lander sent me the Guidelines for Cats. Total giggle fit. In fact, I'm still giggling. It's so sad how every moment of my life is documented in that one list.

In other news, Gizmodo shows us the redesigned NES and it's everything you hoped it would be. Sigh.

Things I Learned From Boing Boing This Week:

Lastly, Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there. Hopefully you don't have 17.5 children like this crazy woman does. Holy Jesus.

Posted by Lisa Barone on 05/ 9/08 at 5:28 PM | Comments (2)

May 2, 2008

Friday Recap

It's Friday. I'm trying to fake excitement but even the donut-induced sugar high isn't helping me today. I wonder if that means I need more donuts? Mmm, donuts.

Jennifer Slegg asks is blogging running your life instead of you running your blog. The answer is, yes, Jennifer. Yes, it is.

Also, Chris Garrett wants to know if bloggers are opinionated. Yes, Chris. Yes, they are. Hee.

McSweeney's published an open letter to Mark Zuckerberg...from a New Yorker Magazine Fact Checker, which illustrates one person's rage over the misspellings, blatant lies, and other debauchery contained in many users' Facebook profiles. We hear you, Streeter, we hear you.

Matt McGee, who was once trying to become last person on Twitter, has finally succumbed to its allures. Well, sort of. Matt and Jeff Quipp have gone head-to-head to see who can reach 500 followers first. The winner will get $500 donated to the charity of their choice. Join in the fun by following one (or both!) while helping a good cause in the process.

Twitter (and Rae Hoffman) helped me find this condensed video of a man trapped in an elevator for 41 hours. [It's not the confined space, it's the lack of Internet access that would kill me. --Susan] Twitter also helped Chris Winfield write his most recent Search Engine Land column. What can't Twitter do>?

Red vs. Blue explains the difference between the Internet and real life, while Idiots of Ants shows us what Facebook in reality would be like.

Dave Utter writes that Danny Sullivan Downgrades Ask.com To Irrelevance. Silly, Dave. Danny didn't do that. Barry Diller did back in March. Remember? [It's funny cuz it's true! --Susan]

Barry Schwartz helps the industry coin more ridiculous words with this post Buying 70,000 Links From Same Site Equated to "SEOcide". It could be worse. He could be writing about going to the bathroom in the dark. Again. Oh, Barry.

In case you're hard up for things to do this weekend, here's some video of the world's craziest rollercoasters . Just a tip, don't watch those videos after a large meal unless you want to relive it. The meal, that is. Or, if that's not good enough, reminisce over the 31 TV shows you loved and lost.


Things I Learned On BoingBoing This Week:

And to end this Recap on a completely ridiculous note, say hello to Emo Lincoln. I know, but I couldn't stop giggling.

See everyone next week, live from eMetrics!

Posted by Lisa Barone on 05/ 2/08 at 2:15 PM | Comments (0)

April 25, 2008

Friday Recap

My stomach and I are finally recovered from SMX Social Media and it's time for the Friday Recap. Huzzah!

First up, happy birthday to everyone's favorite little black hat in disguise, Neil Patel. Young Neil turned an impressive 23 year old this week while he was scaring attendees at SMX Social Media and suggesting that you buy youngsters TVs, video games and other toys to improve your social media relations. Wow, Neil. Just wow. And tell us, how do you sleep at night?

I wasn't the only one attending conferences this week. Lee Odden was down at the Web 2.0 Expo and was able to score a pretty sweet interview with Robert Scoble. I'm not the biggest Scoble fan in the world, but this interview is worth watching. Check it out.

Ian Lurie wrote about 17 Marketing Things [He'll] Never Write About. Making the list are Twitter, Jason Calacanis, Rand's halo, or virtually anything that comes with a "2.0" appended to it. See, now, that's advice everyone can get behind.

Matt Cutts shows you how to make a Pacman graph with Google Charts. Yes, my friends, this is the man we look to for our SEO wisdom. The same one pimping out Pacman charts. Stellar.

Over at Search Engine Journal, John Carcutt presents the 14 Things You Didn't Know About Real SEOs. It's amusing, though be careful about inquiring about number 15. Once you know you can't ever take it back.

Dan Perry wrote Be a Good Conference Speaker; Twitter is Judging and comments on some criticism Rand's Social Media Marketing Essentials panel received via Twitter, including a remark from yours truly. Twitter is something for speakers to keep in mind, for sure. It's also a good reminder to those of us with protected Twitter accounts that just because you throw a lock on something doesn't mean someone else won't come and post your comment publicly for you. Heh, thanks, Dan!

ReadWriteWeb lets us know that MySpace will now be offering up applications. Um, fail? MySpace, you were supposed to copy borrow the smart features of Facebook, not the ones that will make your site appear even more spammy and gaudy looking.

The entire search industry is captivated by the Sullivan's upcoming move back to Newport Beach, California. You can hear Danny reminisce over at Daggle or listen to Lorna come to grips with the fact that her perfect British sons will be turned into California skaters.

901am lets us know that a dating site for intelligent people has just launched. Sorry, Susan, that still leaves you alone and dateless. [It's okay. Nerd prom is coming up soon. --Susan] -- I took the liberty of linking that for you. :)

Here's something Susan will want to look into though - a leave me alone box. It suits her perfectly.

In non-search stuffs, Sharenator presented us with children's letters to God and finally, a site that gives us all 120 Crayon names and color codes. You know you've been secretly yearning for it.

Things I Learned From Boing Boing This Week:

Posted by Lisa Barone on 04/25/08 at 12:09 PM | Comments (4)

April 18, 2008

Friday Recap

Ready to Friday Recap? Heck yeah, you are!

It's been a busy week around here. We sent Susan up to San Francisco to liveblog 16 sessions, Bruce moderated Ad:Tech's Tactical SEO Workshop, and Virginia and I were working like mad back home trying to keep the Writing department afloat while we launched our brand new radio show. And the crazy just won't stop!

Next week I'll be heading down to Long Beach, CA for SMX Social Media Marketing, which means there's even more liveblogging for you to look forward to. Make sure to tune in for that and if you haven't yet registered for SMX, there's no time like the present. If you're going to be in town, make sure to leave a comment and let me know! I'm traveling sans Bruce Clay family members this time. [We're giving her an ID bracelet. If she gets lost, she knows she's supposed to go to the closest adult she can trust and have them help her get home. --Susan] I also get a whistle in case of danger and a bright orange vest to wear at night!

Actually, things are so busy I shouldn't even waste time telling you about it all. That's what Twitter's for, right?

Okay, now on to things.

Stefan Juhl wrote about how to rank #1 on Google image search. Even better than the post is the fun little cartoon figure he has there sitting up on his header. I think the Bruce Clay blog needs one of those. I'd look cute in miniature. Don't you agree?

Danny Sullivan asked his Twitter followers how much they paid for their school lunch. I think everyone who answered is lying. Do people really remember that stuff? I don't remember lunch yesterday let alone how much I paid for it...eight years ago. Ouch. I graduated HS eight years ago? I suddenly feel pre-historic. Thanks, Danny.

With Susan gone all week I've had some extra time on my hands. To fill it, I went digging into the past of Michael Gray and found a love letter he wrote to his high school girlfriend. What? You can't prove he didn't write that. It sounds like him to me.

Jason Theodor created a twitter tweet sheet. Careful when you're using some of those shortcuts, though. You don't want to use the Direct Message shortcut and then accidentally shout out private messages to everyone following you. That could be disastrous.

Search Engine Journal let us in on the secret that we'll soon be able to play Where's Waldo in Google Earth. Oh good. The lack of Waldo in Google Earth had always been a major flaw of the system. Wait, what?

Matt Cutts has asked people not to send him giantly delicious looking No Spam cookies because he just can't accept them. Because I am a true friend and a supporter of this industry, I have decided to help Matt with his burden. From now on, please send me Matt's cookies and presents. You can find the address on the About Us page. Thank you.

There's a new game spreading across the Interw