Disqus - Latest Comments for Lee Odden

Re: 25 Tips for Marketing Your Blog

Lee Odden — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 12:43:41 -0000

James, here is a list of blog directory submit URLs.

Re: SIS Session: Managing Search in an Uncertain Economy

Lee Odden — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 15:22:34 -0000

Thanks LeeAnn, that's what I get trying to live blog and post before the session is even finished. :)

Re: Matt McGowan Interview: Lowdown on SES New York 2008

Lee Odden — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 12:26:02 -0000

You're welcome Charlie, but what's wrong with video?

Re: Search Marketing Blogs

Lee Odden — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 22:26:22 -0000

Hi Andy!

Yes you do indeed have a fine blog here and are now scheduled to be added to our list in the next update. Updates are posted to the master list at: http://301url.com/semblogs

Cheers!

Re: Search Marketing Blogs

Lee Odden — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 22:26:22 -0000

Hi Andy!

Yes you do indeed have a fine blog here and are now scheduled to be added to our list in the next update. Updates are posted to the master list at: http://301url.com/semblogs

Cheers!

Re: Search Marketing Blogs

Lee Odden — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 22:28:41 -0000

Hey Andy, BTW, thank you for the heads up on the commenting issue on toprankblog.com. Am not sure why that is happening. Can you email me the email address you use for comments and I'll be sure to whitelist it.

Thanks,
Lee

Re: Search Marketing Blogs

Lee Odden — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 22:28:41 -0000

Re: Moving The Free Line But You Want Jam On It Too?

Lee Odden — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 16:04:46 -0000

Opinions are great aren't they?

Blogs have different purposes as you have indicated. My blog is a marketing tool. It's an ad for our consulting business. As long as the content we promote satisfies the needs of our prospective clients to become clients, to attract talented employees and marketing partners then I believe we're doing our part to advance the industry by building a successful business within it.

Re: Moving The Free Line But You Want Jam On It Too?

Lee Odden — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 16:04:46 -0000

Re: Frozen Sunrise Lake Minnetonka

Lee Odden — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 09:02:35 -0000

The lakes are a nice drive in any season.

Re: Joseph Jaffe Interview

Lee Odden — Mon, 19 May 2008 07:42:52 -0000

Pock shot Simeon, nothing but a pock shot.

Re: Conversation Marketing – Join In!

Lee Odden — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 16:40:20 -0000

Thanks for stopping by Ian! LOL Scott, that's good. I may use that today.

Re: Matt McGowan Interview: Lowdown on SES New York 2008

Lee Odden — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 13:29:17 -0000

Wow! Mona Elesseily visited Online Marketing Blog AND made a comment. Fantastic! Thanks for stopping by you famous person you. :)

Re: SES London Day One Photos

Lee Odden — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 03:38:34 -0000

Yes he is! Li, please leave a link to your SES London Flickr set when you get a chance.

Re: Social Media Monitoring – Top 10 Reasons for Monitoring Brands

Lee Odden — Thu, 08 May 2008 10:15:12 -0000

Thanks David, visit the Radian6 web site and you can arrange a demo.

Re: Enterprise Social Media Interview with Jim Cuene and Douglas Pollei

Lee Odden — Thu, 15 May 2008 18:42:48 -0000

Here's the video of the session:
http://tinyurl.com/6x8qdj

And other photos: http://tinyurl.com/6yknbb

Re: Scott Monty Interview – Tips on Social Media for Large Companies

Lee Odden — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 10:28:48 -0000

And so do you Tamar :)

Re: MIMA Summit 2008

Lee Odden — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 14:03:57 -0000

Thanks Kary, we tool that Twitter info from the MIMA Facebook page. We'll update the links above to @MIMASummit

Re: The 5 Day PM Computer Fast: Why I Got More Done In Less Time

Lee Odden — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 16:09:05 -0000

This is a great reminder to us tech heads that spend waaaay to much time near the computer. It reminds me of a conversation I had in an elevator with co-workers after meeting a client with an impending deadline. We talked about working into the evening a bit and I commented, "It's not like I have other things to do", and the other person in the elevator says, "You mean like have a life?". That really hit home. Just like this post does. Thanks!

Re: Stumbles for 9/22/06

Lee Odden — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 08:31:56 -0000

This is a great idea Glen!

It's also a testament to how good the SumbleUpon service is. Making the output of the service part of the scheduled editorial of a blog is one of the best examples of customer evangelism and it brings even more exposure to the sites that are included.

Now I just need to find a way to "borrow" your idea in a unique way. :)

Re: Urchin is Now Google Analytics and it’s Free

Lee Odden — Mon, 14 Nov 2005 21:06:04 -0000

Chris, that is a VERY good question. It looks like they may be phased out, but I've not seen official word from Google yet.

Re: Content Thieves

Lee Odden — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 10:00:36 -0000

Yeah, but is that the same thing? If I rip a copy of a song, I don't go around pawning it off as my creation to make money from it.

Re: Blogs About SEO and Search Engines

Lee Odden — Mon, 05 Dec 2005 08:12:39 -0000

Thanks guys, I appreciate it!

Lee

Re: The Corporate Blogging Book

Lee Odden — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 12:54:43 -0000

Joe, that link is working fine. It's Debbie's site/blog that is down.

Re: Search Engine Optimization is a Team Effort

Lee Odden — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 16:49:42 -0000

LOL Adam, well you know you could always move. :)

Re: Andy Andy Andy Beal

Lee Odden — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 22:47:05 -0000

You're very nice to say that Jeremiah. BTW, I took a look at your blog you web 2.0 hippie you, and I like it!

Re: Blogs for SEO

Lee Odden — Tue, 23 May 2006 11:03:34 -0000

That's right Kurt - when you start a blog as a marketing tool, a commitment must be made or the blog should not be started at all.

Re: Pubcon Images: Microsoft Party at ghostbar

Lee Odden — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 16:27:13 -0000

Indeed! Good thing it wasn't longer though or some of us wouldn't have made it back. :)

Great finally meeting you BTW!

Re: The Most Successful People Have One Thing in Common

Lee Odden — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 22:13:42 -0000

Here, here!

For many that haven't experienced it, such inspiration can seem cliche. Sort of like "Great things come to those who wait - but only what's left over from those that hustle". Being consistently passionate about something is infectious to those around and motivates them to want to help you reach your goals. Great advice Jacob and best of luck in your endeavors. :)

Re: Is Your Company Trying To Regulate Social Media Usage?

Lee Odden — Tue, 06 May 2008 20:10:00 -0000

I agree that unless it's part of your job, there's no reason for the company to pay employees to IM, Twitter and play with their Facebook/MySpace accounts. There should be clear and reasonable policies communicated as well.

Heck, if staff have so little to do that their social media usage is of concern, then the company has other problems to solve, like getting more clients and increasing workload.

Re: Blog Optimization – SES San Jose

Lee Odden — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 14:17:37 -0000

Thanks Chad. We already have a tool that covered and more at TopRank's blog marketing tools page: http://www.toprankmarketing.com/tools/

Re: Press Release Optimization and Blogger Relations

Lee Odden — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 11:24:20 -0000

Thanks Igor, it's fun to do and I hope it is helpful interesting.

Re: Press Release Optimization and Blogger Relations

Lee Odden — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 17:44:06 -0000

Hi Brian, thanks for the comment. I am actually involved with the new media press release thread at Google groups and have visited socialmediaclub.org a few times. I'll register today. I believe I saw Chris Huer here at SES too.

Re: Google Dance V Photos

Lee Odden — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 19:47:30 -0000

Yeah, the Google cafe was pretty good.

Thanks for your comments Josh!

Re: The press release goes social

Lee Odden — Sat, 01 Jul 2006 09:34:58 -0000

I'm with you Shel and let's take it a step further: The blog enabled Media Room.

A blog within a company web site that powers press releases, articles, news, coverage, executive bios, photos, podcasts, video - the whole package all available as HTML and RSS. Combine that with the inherent web 2.0 features of a wire service like PRWeb.com and the notion of "press release goes social" takes a step up to a whole new level.

Re: Spanking New Design for Online Marketing Blog

Lee Odden — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 08:27:46 -0000

Thanks for the comments guys! Chris, that's a good suggestion about widening the RSS dropdown and we'll take a look at implementing.

Re: New Tools for Social Media Optimization

Lee Odden — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 17:12:15 -0000

Thanks guys, am glad you like the tools.

Re: Search, PR and Social Media Blogs

Lee Odden — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 18:22:41 -0000

Yes you are Sally - ah, since last year at least!

Re: DMA-06 SEM Certification Kickoff

Lee Odden — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 18:40:52 -0000

Thanks Josh, I appreciate that!

Re: Must Have Directory Submissions

Lee Odden — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 18:49:31 -0000

Sarah, probably not anymore, just BOTW.org. This post was written over a year ago. :)

Re: Search Marketing Blogs Update 052507

Lee Odden — Fri, 25 May 2007 09:22:23 -0000

No, thank YOU for the original and insightful content - a rarity in the sea of me too and SEO news blogs. :)

Re: Upcoming Speaking Events

Lee Odden — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 10:00:05 -0000

Hey Marc, looking forward to it!

Re: Search Marketing Links 102906

Lee Odden — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 15:48:50 -0000

Oh I noticed, just in a more meaningful way. You Digg?

Re: 9 Wishes For a Better Yahoo

Lee Odden — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 07:52:39 -0000

Hey sonia, I think there are at least a few Yahoos that read this blog. At least I know their PR firms do. :)

Re: Top RSS Feed Readers

Lee Odden — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 16:41:24 -0000

Yeah, I was a bit surprised myself to see PageFlakes so high. I had not used it before.

Re: Google Acquires JotSpot

Lee Odden — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 14:31:46 -0000

We were only paying $49/year, but free works for me!

Re: Search Marketing Blogs Update 030207

Lee Odden — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 09:41:06 -0000

You bet Derek! Am not sure I'll be at SES NYC :( but hopefully something on the east coast soon.

Re: A Testimonial Machine In the Making

Lee Odden — Thu, 16 Dec 2004 16:08:31 -0000

Hi John,

That's a great tip and I say so from experience because I've used it many times.

What's great is that when the prospect becomes your customer, they'll already expect to be a reference for you when the time comes.

Lee Odden - Online Marketing Blog
http://toprank.blogspot.com

Re: Do Blogs Really Help Create Traffic?

Lee Odden — Tue, 01 Feb 2005 07:15:04 -0000

What's great about marketing a blog as a separate site is that a blog can be promoted BOTH within the blogosphere (blog and RSS directories and blog-only search engines) as well as traditional search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN) and directories.

If your blog is contained within pages of your main site, it's more difficult to distinguish as a url and many directories only allow one listing per domain name.

If you must contain your blog within your site, then use a subdomain to reference it. ex: blog.domainname.com

Re: Do the Ping Thing

Lee Odden — Tue, 01 Feb 2005 07:25:14 -0000

Here are a few other similar tools:

Web based ping tools:
http://www.pings.ws
http://thomaskorte.com/feedsubmitter/

Software:
http://www.dummysoftware.com/rsssubmit.html

Resource:
http://www.masternewmedia.org/rss/top55/

Re: Forbes Magazine: Best of the Web 2005

Lee Odden — Thu, 28 Jul 2005 10:07:28 -0000

Congratulations John! You make us AllBusiness.com bloggers proud. :)

Lee Odden

Re: The finer points of top rankings

Lee Odden — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 19:37:00 -0000

Thanks for the opportunity John, it's appreciated and I think the podcast turned out well.

Cheers,
Lee

Re: Pubcon Roundup: Videos, Photos and Blog Posts

Lee Odden — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 10:12:19 -0000

Thanks Marci, it was a particularly good conference. Hats off to Brett. Be sure to watch WebProNews.com as they recorded a ton of video interviews.

Re: Reader Poll: Best SEM Conferences

Lee Odden — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 12:13:34 -0000

Gee Dan, you didn't have to hide your name. :)

Re: Google Categories

Lee Odden — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 11:34:15 -0000

I deleted it.

Re: Search Marketing Blogs Update 040607

Lee Odden — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 08:17:17 -0000

Julian, we've noticed your blog before, but we're looking for blogs that post at least a few times per week.

Re: How many Google Reader subscribers do you have?

Lee Odden — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 00:11:55 -0000

toprankblog, aka, "Online Marketing Blog" has 1,952 subscribers according to Google Reader but Feedburner reports 3,613.

Re: My Interview with Lee Odden

Lee Odden — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 09:34:42 -0000

It's one thing to jab fun (Beal) at a stupid comment (Pasternack) and quite another to perpetuate it (Ball). Pitting SEO and PPC against each other does not serve clients.

Re: MarketSmart Interactive Closes Doors

Lee Odden — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 10:19:33 -0000

Wow. If that happened with MSI, I wonder how Fortune Interactive is doing?

Re: Did-It’s Bill Wise Resigns as CEO

Lee Odden — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 13:48:58 -0000

Hey Bill, good luck to you. It's all so very curious.

Re: Our "Not-Made-For-Digg" Pledge

Lee Odden — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 19:34:53 -0000

As far as made for Digg content, I think it's giving Digg an awful lot of credit. Top ten posts and lists etc have been around for a while.

We still publish such posts with no possibility of being submitted to Digg because readers respond to it.

Interestingly enough, since our site is not allowed to have stories submitted to Digg the past two months, Online Marketing Blog traffic, page views and RSS subscribers (not counting the Google Reader boost) are up 30%.

Re: Only Hire SEOs Who Rank?

Lee Odden — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 06:50:30 -0000

We get at least 1-2 inquires per day for SEO or related services because prospects found us by searching. So go ahead and buy in to the advice that SEOs don't need to rank well on such terms. It just means more business for me.

As far as ranking well as a requirement for selecting a vendor, the agency should at least do well on their niche terms but I agree with Jordan that client results are more effective.

Re: Only Hire SEOs Who Rank?

Lee Odden — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 14:02:44 -0000

Yeah right monchito, what if the dentist's own teeth are crap? I'd say no thanks.

"internet marketing consultant" eh Andy? Sounds like a invite for some fun. :)

Re: We Made the List

Lee Odden — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 14:05:42 -0000

Congrats and well deserved!

Re: We Made the List

Lee Odden — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 23:24:49 -0000

Hey now, #6 doesn't look good on you Andy. What about #7? :)

Re: Blog Meme - Five Reasons Why I Blog

Lee Odden — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 16:22:10 -0000

Ooh, that's some smart link building there Andy!

Re: Ask a Question for Tomorrow’s Marketing Pilgrim Podcast

Lee Odden — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 17:52:38 -0000

I'd be curious to know what you think about the proliferation of regional search marketing conferences.

Seems like a win win situation to me. Attendees get hands on, personal attention. Well known and talented SEOs actually get paid half decent to speak.

Re: The Technorati 100 Not So Hot?

Lee Odden — Tue, 01 May 2007 19:12:39 -0000

This is something I noticed after our blog hit the 100 fave list. It's not only cheapened by the favorite swapping, it doesn't send any traffic any way.

In the end, it's still a list and some people go nuts over lists. :)

Re: Ask.com to Spend $100m to Buy Market Share

Lee Odden — Tue, 15 May 2007 22:50:19 -0000

Hmmm. $100m in advertising in a bid for search engine market share. That sounds awfully familiar....

Re: Social Media Optimization (SMO): A New Marketing Phenomenon

Lee Odden — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 21:55:00 -0000

I don't think social media optimization will replace SEO, but augment the free traffic companies want. In fact, new websites can benefit from the traffic from SMO until their SEO efforts mature.

Re: Social Media Optimization (SMO): A New Marketing Phenomenon

Lee Odden — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 18:23:04 -0000

I think brands are exploring slices of social media, but I think there are few who are embracing it as a strategy.

They're testing boundaries and capabilities to see where individual social media channels fit within their existing, and often archaic, online marketing strategies.

In time, big brand marketers will catch up to the more nimble organizations that have been playing with these toys for 12-24 months already. But by that time, there will be something else....

Re: New Social Bookmarking Tool

Lee Odden — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 14:02:24 -0000

It's a nifty tool, but it requires you to leave your site.

These tools embed the same functionality all in one button on your blog:

Social Bookmarks
http://www.toprankblog.com/tools/social-bookmarks/

RSS Buttons
http://www.toprankblog.com/tools/rss-buttons/

Re: The Importance of Social Bookmarking

Lee Odden — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 14:08:11 -0000

One thing many blog owners using the addthis widget don't seem to consider is that it sends readers to a third party web site. What if that site goes down? What if that site starts to show ads that distract them from the actual bookmarking?

Of course I'm biased because our Social Bookmarks tool lets blog owners add bookmark links (as you have above) and keep readers on the blog as much as possible.

The numbers for Google Bookmarks are very significant in light of their use for Google personalized search results.

Anyone that's really interested in social bookmarks should come to SES New York where Todd Malicoat, Michael Gray, Neil Patel and myself are presenting a session called, "Bookmarking Strategies".

Re: The Importance of Social Bookmarking

Lee Odden — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 19:52:18 -0000

Hi Michael, yes I will be at SES San Jose for sure. I'm bringing some of the TopRank crew as well! I've sent an email to you so we can coordinate a time to meet. Cheers!

Re: The Importance of Social Bookmarking

Lee Odden — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 16:49:14 -0000

I guess if I was going to get banned for something it might as well be for outright scamming, which isn't an option for a variety of reasons including: risk/reward is too high, degrades the community content, it's not sustainable.

Our banning had to do with Digg users hating SEO content. Read Graywolf's "How to be a dirty digger" for more on that sort of activity.

Re: What Search Engine Ranking software do you use?

Lee Odden — Sun, 06 May 2007 00:14:03 -0000

Hi Michael, I like the new design!

This is an interesting topic as I have a post in the works for Monday titled, "Search Engine Rankings Are Dead". With personalized search and other factors, rankings on standard search engines are no longer an accurate proxy for measuring the effect of SEO efforts.

Cheers!

Re: Randy Swanston, Please Stop Spamming my Blog

Lee Odden — Thu, 10 May 2007 17:25:23 -0000

Am liking the "Twit this" option Michael. We'll have to add that to the social bookmark tool.

Get famous, rich and really good looking by using our social book bookmarking tool from TopRank!

Re: Kevin Ryan to Direct Content at Search Engine Strategies and SEW

Lee Odden — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 15:24:45 -0000

Nah, I don't need perpetuate other agendas, thanks. :)

Re: Winner Best Keyword Research Tool

Lee Odden — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 21:16:50 -0000

Justin, can you confirm the URL for KA? BTW, this poll is focused on web based tools.

Re: Search Marketing Blogs by RSS Subscribers

Lee Odden — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 13:59:54 -0000

Hey Donna, I will try doing that now.

Re: Pubcon Las Vegas and SES Chicago

Lee Odden — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 16:38:48 -0000

Hey Igor, you're right. Pubcon did have an event in Boston last year but it's been changed to just once a year now.

Re: Google GrandCentral Invites

Lee Odden — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 19:06:33 -0000

Three GrandCentral invites left! Links are not required, just comment is fine. I have a few Pownce invites as well.

Re: Internet Marketing Best [Blog] Posts of 2006: The Year in Review

Lee Odden — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 18:25:47 -0000

Wow, Tamar, this is a sweet list! Now I don't have to make one, thanks! :)

Re: 29 Super Awesome Tools Built on the Digg API

Lee Odden — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 11:23:55 -0000

That's pretty sweet Tamar. How many of these do you use personally?

Re: http://www.techipedia.com/2007/social-media-impacts-journalism/

Lee Odden — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 17:17:06 -0000

Journalists using social media for story tips and ideas is nothing new. It's just now becoming common enough that they're admitting their sources.

Re: An Open Letter to Kevin Rose

Lee Odden — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 17:55:43 -0000

Hey Tamar, too bad about Chris' site. Our blog domain has been on some kind of banned list (arguably unjustly) for well over a year - LOL and I haven't missed Digg traffic a bit. I'd pay money for someone to find anything spammy on our site. :)

Re: In Memory of My Grandpa David, a Wonderful Man

Lee Odden — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 15:13:41 -0000

Thanks for sharing Tamar, it's a real tribute to your Grandfather and to you for writing it.

Re: Three Wordpress Plugins You Must Have for SEO

Lee Odden — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 12:07:55 -0000

Wow, this is a very cool blog design. Make sense - bloggerdesign.com :)

Am looking forward to many pearls of wisdom!

Re: FeedBurner StandardStats Wordpress Plugin

Lee Odden — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 14:52:38 -0000

This is pretty cool!

Re: FeedBurner StandardStats Wordpress Plugin

Lee Odden — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 17:57:27 -0000

Congratulations on making the home page of FeedBurner and the Publisher Buzz blog.

Re: Writing Title Tags for Search Engines & People

Lee Odden — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 10:11:13 -0000

Good catch on the "pisses me off" submission. Definitely not interested in ranking for anything to do with that. :)

Here's a funny one and a practical example. Check Google for: "chicks with swords" and you'll find Marketing Pilgrim at #1. What that has to do with search marketing news, I don't know, but Andy's getting some interesting traffic as a result.

Re: 20 Real Facts About Matt Cutts, Google’s Spam Sheriff

Lee Odden — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 13:49:54 -0000

Here's one: Matt doesn't mind being interviewed.

Re: Chris Sherman on How to Find the Right Search Marketing Partner

Lee Odden — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 19:15:47 -0000

Nice coverage Tamar! I wanted to listen in on this one and thought I missed out entirely. Thank you for the info. Chris gives some good advice.

Re: And the List of Domains Ditched by Digg Keeps Growing

Lee Odden — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 15:19:14 -0000

Thanks for the comments Chris. I think it's a good thing to draw attention to it because who's to say another category of site won't become the focus of such a "witch hunt"? Soon enough, digg could go the way of DMOZ, which has similar ambiguous editorial and banning practices.

Re: Dealing With Scrapers: What Do You Do?

Lee Odden — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 16:39:04 -0000

Hey Tamar, I forgot to mention a blog post I did on this a while back, "Content Thieves".

Re: The big day has finally arrived….

Lee Odden — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 05:00:50 -0000

Chris and Danielle, as someone who is also in business with his wife, I congratulate you and wish you all the best!

Re: 12 Ways to Use Facebook Professionally

Lee Odden — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 18:02:16 -0000

Great tips Chris! I read Rae's tips when I finally started FB, but these would have been/are equally useful.

Re: Do you know the way to San Jose?

Lee Odden — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 13:40:52 -0000

Hey Danielle, it was a pleasure seeing you and Chris again!

Re: WebmasterWorld Boston 2006 Pubcon Wrapup

Lee Odden — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 13:56:03 -0000

Hi Tim, thanks. I'll check out the Carnival of Business.

Re: Now Testing Gmail for Domains

Lee Odden — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 07:46:59 -0000

Curtis, it took a few days to a week I belive.

Re: Link Building for Blogs

Lee Odden — Mon, 08 May 2006 10:22:37 -0000

Hi Fil,
I don't think there's any doubt that current ranking methodology will change. That includes the way link citations are valued and interpreted. I do belive citations from other sources, pages without actual links for example, along with user data will play an increasingly important role.

Lee

Re: Link Building for Blogs

Lee Odden — Sat, 29 Apr 2006 09:09:43 -0000

That would be fine Jean-Marie. Just be sure to link back to this post. :)

Re: TopRank Gets Ranked Top Ten

Lee Odden — Thu, 03 Nov 2005 10:05:07 -0000

Thanks Glen!

Re: Danny Sullivan Good Humor

Lee Odden — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 21:52:43 -0000

"doesn

Re: Google Click to Call

Lee Odden — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 15:00:00 -0000

That's an interesting perspective Igor. We've experienced similar client disinterest also.

Re: Search Engine Strategies NYC

Lee Odden — Tue, 14 Feb 2006 17:13:19 -0000

Thanks Barry, I'm looking forward to it!

Re: Dotster $1 Domain Names

Lee Odden — Tue, 14 Feb 2006 17:12:30 -0000

Dotster's systems didn't fare so well during the $1 domain name happy hour. Also, the promotion was limited to the first 1000 domains and not unlimited as I was initially informed. I will be interested to see how it went for them.

Re: The Economist Covers SEO

Lee Odden — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 12:47:12 -0000

And thank you for your very nice comments Aaron. I appreciate it.

Re: Blog Optimization

Lee Odden — Wed, 05 Apr 2006 08:25:03 -0000

I like opitimization! Fixed your name though. :)

Re: Blog Optimization

Lee Odden — Wed, 05 Apr 2006 22:43:45 -0000

Squeeter, I am testing out Squeet on my other blog at: http://www.toprankmarketing.com/onlinemarketing.

Re: Try Google SMS

Lee Odden — Tue, 16 May 2006 10:50:04 -0000

Hi Constance, you should be able to follow the instructions on the Google SMS site: http://www.google.com/sms/demo.html

Re: Friday SEO Blogs

Lee Odden — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 01:22:53 -0000

Ha, thanks Chris, you deserve many, many more!

Re: 25 Signals of Credibility for Marketing Agencies

Lee Odden — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 20:30:18 -0000

Hey Glenn, Tammy Mike and Scott. Thank you for your comments.

I agree, case studies are important - that's why we're making it a big part of our new site.

Scott, the combination you mention is a powerful one!

Re: Windows Live Webmaster Portal Beta

Lee Odden — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 17:38:10 -0000

No I haven't but I'll ping my MSFT contact again.

Re: Playstation 3 Baby!

Lee Odden — Sat, 23 Dec 2006 19:43:14 -0000

Ha, I know my limitations, so I left it at home during the w/e and will open/play/watch when we get back home. "Anticipation...."

Re: Lawyers Cost Money But SEO is Free?

Lee Odden — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 20:31:07 -0000

I appreciate the feedback. Yeah, I should have known better and just said no right away. The reason I didn't was because this is a very prominent law firm and the people that referred me are people I have a lot of respect for.

Re: Lessons Learned About Blogging

Lee Odden — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 16:56:18 -0000

Aw, c'mon Andy. You know you do your best blog magic after a night on the town. :)

Re: New Blog Design

Lee Odden — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 00:13:25 -0000

Hey Em, no need to steal because we're giving it away free:
http://www.toprankblog.com/2006/07/rss-buttons-...

Re: Widget Marketing

Lee Odden — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 13:17:19 -0000

Excellent! Thanks for those tips Lawrence.

Re: TopRank News, Interviews and Upcoming Speaking Events

Lee Odden — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 09:28:10 -0000

Thanks Chris. We did hit Lutsen and it was a good time. We stayed at a nice resort and I'm looking forward to going back sometime soon.

Re: Search Marketing Blogs Update 021607

Lee Odden — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 11:52:28 -0000

Hi Shane, we'll take a look!

Re: List of Regional Search and Interactive Marketing Associations

Lee Odden — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 11:19:10 -0000

Thanks Bill, it's Li that motivated the post. Happy Holidays to you and your family!

Jon, the Baltimore SEO meetup is now represented. :)

Re: 5 Reasons Why Good SEO is like Weight Loss

Lee Odden — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 18:58:59 -0000

Ha, that's good Matt. Not exactly. I should start a new feature on this blog. One goofball analogy per week.

Re: 5 Reasons Why Good SEO is like Weight Loss

Lee Odden — Mon, 17 Jul 2006 10:13:19 -0000

Thanks Tammy, now if I can do the same, that's the question!

Re: BIGLIST SEM SEO Blogs Update 080707

Lee Odden — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 21:12:03 -0000

That was Todd? I thought it was either Rebecca or Chris Pirillo. :)

Re: Best SEO Resources, Practices & Conferences : Reader Poll Roundup

Lee Odden — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 18:57:49 -0000

Thanks Chris :)

Re: Reputation, News and Blog Optimization at SES London

Lee Odden — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 20:53:02 -0000

Hi Mel and David - looking forward to seeing you. It should be a great conference.

Re: Search Marketing Tips from Online Marketing Heroes

Lee Odden — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 13:49:47 -0000

It's marketing Sam - heard of it? LOL

Re: Search Marketing Tips from Online Marketing Heroes

Lee Odden — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 12:02:14 -0000

Goodbye Doug.

Re: SMX Sesion: 8 Tips to More Effective Blogging

Lee Odden — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 20:04:04 -0000

C'mon Marty what kind of comment is that? Why bother?

Re: Reader Poll: How do you use Twitter?

Lee Odden — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 14:14:35 -0000

Thank you Patricia!

Scott, I also use Twhirl and without it, I don't think I'd use Twitter as much.

Re: Pull PR – Combining SEO and Public Relations

Lee Odden — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 18:23:24 -0000

Thanks Steve and Adam

Re: Ask Jeeves – Google Local

Lee Odden — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 15:50:55 -0000

Hey Clyde, I think you're on the wrong blog.

Re: Blog Marketing Tips

Lee Odden — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 19:09:01 -0000

Dennis, http:// is what your want. ftp:// is for transferring files. You might try problogger.net, bloggingtips.com or performancing.com for more blogging tips.

Re: Multilingual Search Marketing

Lee Odden — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 18:22:33 -0000

Balazs, thanks for taking a look at our archives. :)

I would suggest contacting Andy Kruger from Multilingual Search to offer your insight as a contributor. It could be another channel of exposure for you.

Re: Wallop and Yahoo 360 invites

Lee Odden — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 10:53:15 -0000

Hi pushkar,unfortunatley my Wallop account expired so I can no longer provide invites.

Re: Google Alpha Directory?

Lee Odden — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 01:10:25 -0000

Alpha just means alphabetical. :)

Re: Lowdown on Press Release Optimization

Lee Odden — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 15:06:37 -0000

Hey SSPR, I don't think your keyword stuffed link is going to work out. Sorry. :)

Re: Lowdown on Press Release Optimization

Lee Odden — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 08:21:32 -0000

Jackie, I suspect you're going to be getting a cease and desist letter from an attorney at PRWeb's parent Vocus sometime soon for using their trademark.

Re: MIMA Summit Wrap Up

Lee Odden — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 14:31:36 -0000

Hi Joe, I belive there are some issues with their hosting company which also provides your company with some services. I heard back from the ISP via MIMA webmaster that it should be resolved soon.

Re: Sphere Beta, a True Blog Search Engine

Lee Odden — Thu, 03 Nov 2005 10:44:33 -0000

Thank you Tony, for an alternative blog search service. Shoot me a note about any updates and I'll be happy to post.

Best,
Lee Odden

Re: Sphere Beta, a True Blog Search Engine

Lee Odden — Thu, 03 Nov 2005 17:31:48 -0000

I'm sure they will send out another round of invites soon.

Re: Monster Blog Directory List

Lee Odden — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 08:18:59 -0000

Mark, I appreciate the heads up on Blogging Fusion, but we've decided not to list any blog/RSS directories that require a reciprocal link and BF does.

Re: WebmasterWorld Pubcon Day 1

Lee Odden — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 10:44:29 -0000

Hi David,
Yes, I do intend on posting about that session. Let me know what you think.

Thanks!
Lee

Re: Pubcon X Wrap Up

Lee Odden — Tue, 22 Nov 2005 10:06:12 -0000

Hi Bill,

I just checked out your blog and I definitely recognize you. Nice work on your blog. I had not read Paul Bruemmer's "Cracking the SEO Mystique", thanks for having a link to that.

Best,
Lee Odden

Re: Domain Name Traffic Monetization

Lee Odden — Tue, 22 Nov 2005 17:30:23 -0000

That's a good question - I didn't ask.

I have a pretty good feeling he buys A LOT of domain names though.

Re: Domain Name Traffic Monetization

Lee Odden — Wed, 23 Nov 2005 09:42:53 -0000

Hi David,

I think what they do is partner with a domain management service that automatically displays ads on pages parked with the domain. The traffic can come from typos on well known domains, or close matches to well known domains as well as other methods.

Lee

Re: Domain Name Traffic Monetization

Lee Odden — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 09:29:59 -0000

Pawel, you might try getting the site or domain appraised with a service like www.afternic.com/appraise.php and then either setup another site on a similar topic or park it with sedo.com or a similar service.

Re: RSS Feed Button Tool

Lee Odden — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 22:01:11 -0000

Thanks Frank. TwisterMC.com is a blog that belongs to one of my employees, but I see your point. We'll be adding this tool to my company site, www.toprankresults.com soon.

Re: RSS Feed Button Tool

Lee Odden — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 09:26:26 -0000

Sreejith, Feedburner is a good RSS hosting service, but they do not offer the variety of RSS subscription buttons nor the flexibility that our RSS Button tool does.

Re: Content Thieves

Lee Odden — Thu, 01 Dec 2005 12:28:29 -0000

Wow Garrick, that was fast!

Actually, the situation I'm writing about here involves static HTML pages taken from a non-blog website (www.toprankresults.com) and being copied exactly to someone else's domain.

Re: SES Chicago: RSS Blogs and Search Marketing Panel

Lee Odden — Fri, 16 Dec 2005 14:10:20 -0000

Hi Frank,

Yes, Chicago was very cold - very much like home in Minneapolis. If you're going to SES in New York or Toronto next year, drop me a note.

Lee

Re: Misguided SEO Advice

Lee Odden — Fri, 16 Dec 2005 19:00:32 -0000

Exactly. I dare say, some of this is the fault of the client and here's why: Companies looking for a cheap and quick solutions with high yield will be prone to accept such shoddy advice.

Re: SEMPO Survey: SEO More Popular than Paid Search

Lee Odden — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 16:58:25 -0000

The thing is, while many companies are engaged in SEO more than paid search, they are putting very little money there. 70% of search marketing budgets are going towards paid search and a mere 12% or so are going to SEO.

So it doesn't matter that more people report using SEO more. The vast majority of the money is going to paid search.

Re: Back to SEO Blogging and the Secret to Getting New SEO Business

Lee Odden — Thu, 12 Jan 2006 18:28:16 -0000

I agree, word of mouth is the best.

Re: Google Pack – A User Data Bonanza

Lee Odden — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 14:59:08 -0000

That's a good question Brian. Maybe Google doesn't have big plans for Google Talk, or maybe they have their eye on Trillian.

Re: Google Pack – A User Data Bonanza

Lee Odden — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 10:19:01 -0000

IrishWonder, that's interesting. When I view http://pack.google.com/ I see everything. Hmmm

Re: Google Pack – A User Data Bonanza

Lee Odden — Thu, 16 Feb 2006 18:02:04 -0000

Hi Russell, I cannot report hard date - I don't think anyone can but Google. However - the use of user data was included in the Google patent broken down over at SEOMoz, so to be sure, Google is thinking about it.

I've also heard from sources I trust that some type of user data is involved with current ranking methodology.

But neither of those things are provable hard facts. I think users just need to use their common sense when deciding to use desktop search and toolbar applications.

Lee

Re: Google Pack – A User Data Bonanza

Lee Odden — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 12:02:09 -0000

Another great question Russell and one best answered by the DOJ. Only they know their true intentions.

Re: Interview with Todd Malicoat aka Stuntdubl of We Build Pages

Lee Odden — Tue, 10 Jan 2006 18:40:45 -0000

Thanks Guys and Thank You Todd!

Re: Interview with Todd Malicoat aka Stuntdubl of We Build Pages

Lee Odden — Sun, 22 Jan 2006 10:26:34 -0000

Thanks Agito

Re: Dynamic URL Optimization

Lee Odden — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 15:16:57 -0000

That's a good tip Eric, thanks.

Re: Dynamic URL Optimization

Lee Odden — Thu, 12 Jan 2006 15:19:44 -0000

Thanks for the link Sebastian. Is there any value to replacing variables with words for usability? Or is that irrelevant because it's a query, not a static url?

Re: Dynamic URL Optimization

Lee Odden — Thu, 12 Jan 2006 18:21:24 -0000

Excellent observations and advice Sebastian. Take a look at the original post and you'll see we're on the same page. Thanks!

Re: Dynamic URL Optimization

Lee Odden — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 11:15:47 -0000

Another way of dealing with this issue that was mentioned to me was using paid inclusion. That does not solve the crawling issues, but is a way to get difficult urls into Yahoo.

Re: Dynamic URL Optimization

Lee Odden — Tue, 17 Jan 2006 17:51:36 -0000

If all things are the same with a web site and the choice for public URLs is: dynamic or static, I'll take static.

Dynamic URLs by themselves are not the issue. It's whether they're crawlable or not. Item #1 from my post.

Re: Dynamic URL Optimization

Lee Odden — Wed, 25 Jan 2006 19:58:19 -0000

Thanks for doing the home work Katy. Also remember to submit your site's urls using Google Sitemaps. There are also similar tools for Yahoo and MSN.

Re: Five things to consider when changing websites.

Lee Odden — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 22:51:04 -0000

Thomas Rocks!

Re: Interview with Aaron Wall of SEOBook and Threadwatch

Lee Odden — Wed, 18 Jan 2006 12:47:16 -0000

Ha, good one Brian. Am liking your upgraded blog BTW.

Re: Just Say No to Discount SEO

Lee Odden — Mon, 23 Jan 2006 22:19:14 -0000

Clarification: Pay for performance has worked out fine in the very few instances we've taken someone up on it - as long as we were given access/control over the site.

Re: Just Say No to Discount SEO

Lee Odden — Thu, 26 Jan 2006 21:54:39 -0000

Hello again Bill! I do remember meeting you in Vegas. You have a friendly disposition and you're easy to remember.

Regarding your question about PFP SEO, I guess I was indeed alluding to past experiences where either commitments were made during the contract signing that we would need to be able to make usability enhancements and then not have them go though, to situations where our conversion enhancing changes were implemented, only to be overwritten by another stakeholder in the company with more pull than the department that hired us.

So we keep it simple and steer away from PFP with our consulting business. If I want to play that game, I apply it to AdSense and Affiliate revenue projects instead.

Great feedback and questions Bill!

Lee

Re: Just Say No to Discount SEO

Lee Odden — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 09:26:48 -0000

I'm with you Jon, it does need to be a win-win or we'll all go out of business. Well, maybe not that drastic, but success is more likely as a common benefit than mutally exclusive.

Re: What’s The Best Kind of Link Bait?

Lee Odden — Wed, 25 Jan 2006 21:55:38 -0000

Thanks for the link Loren

Re: What’s The Best Kind of Link Bait?

Lee Odden — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 13:57:58 -0000

There's no such thing as "automatic SEO". I've not used SEO Elite, but it looks like a quick fix sort of program, not long term. You get links to your site by first, creating something worth linking to. Then submit to a few relevant directories, send out a press release, syndicate some articles, do some social bookmarking and find out who links to your competition and get them to link to you as well. And never stop getting links.

Re: What’s The Best Kind of Link Bait?

Lee Odden — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 10:11:43 -0000

One tip I've learned about linkable content besides your excellent suggestions is to be as comprehensive as possible. That way, the content is enough to be credible and useful, but too much information to consume in one sitting, which increases the likelihood of a bookmark.

Re: MIMA Announces New Board of Directors

Lee Odden — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 13:47:37 -0000

Hi Chris, thank you for your comment!

I am glad the blog has been useful and I look forward to meeting you at a MIMA event. I don't think they'll let me speak again :) so look for my mug at the back of the room.

Lee

Re: RSS and Blog Marketing Tools

Lee Odden — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 10:52:35 -0000

Great tools! Keep them coming!

Re: Google is Dead

Lee Odden — Tue, 31 Jan 2006 10:54:20 -0000

Hey Cryptblade,

I think the "real" reason publications present a shady side of SEO is because it gets attention and controversy sells more magazines.

What I think is interesting is that you don't see articles in general business publications denouncing public relations as the downfall of print media. Yet journalists rely HEAVILY on stories suggested/spun by public relations firms.

It's all part of the fun.

Re: Google is Dead

Lee Odden — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 06:03:06 -0000

That's a good point Ed.

I like Matt Cutts' perspective: Make it easier to do SEO (good SEO) and harder to spam.

There's already a shift in the chatter of darker hat SEOs towards "good content for the user - linkbait" and "quality links" and away from short term manipulations.

Re: BMW Site Gets Spanked by Google

Lee Odden — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 17:29:37 -0000

The funny thing is, what BMW was doing, was just blatant, outright search spam.

Re: BMW Site Gets Spanked by Google

Lee Odden — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 11:52:31 -0000

I suppose it's the hundreds or more permutations of things relevant to "BMW" that they were going after.

Chris, was your comment above the launch of your blog? Damn, get some posts up there will ya?

Re: Gmail for Business

Lee Odden — Sat, 11 Feb 2006 12:38:33 -0000

Those are good questions Thomas.

Knowing a little about Google, I would suspect it would replace any other email client. But they do not specify that. I have signed up for a beta. We'll see if they approve and I can provide screen shots, etc.

Re: Gmail for Business

Lee Odden — Sun, 12 Feb 2006 17:57:06 -0000

Those are great questions Joe and I do not know how may users or revene generated by Gmail contextual ads.

Re: Gmail for Business

Lee Odden — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 20:31:40 -0000

Steve, 2GB is per user. Rob, you can use a normal Gmail account for business.

Re: Google Advertising Tools

Lee Odden — Sat, 11 Feb 2006 12:37:11 -0000

Yeah, I think that's an O'Reilly thing.

Re: Interview with Eric Ward of URLwire

Lee Odden — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 21:36:10 -0000

Thanks for the comments guys. The creative, viral and PR side of link building is the future for sure.

Re: Google Click to Call

Lee Odden — Tue, 14 Feb 2006 17:38:10 -0000

Sure they did - but Google's distribution dwarfs MIVA by a long, long shot.

It's not the functionality that's interesting, it's the fact that Google is employing the functionality.

Re: Google Measures Up Your Blog Stats

Lee Odden — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 17:35:23 -0000

Hey Joe, you're right! Link fixed.

Thanks!

Re: Linking vs Traffic

Lee Odden — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 10:49:01 -0000

Rae, your post was AWESOME and it's that kind of information that makes WebmasterWorld such a worthwhile resource.

Re: Linking vs Traffic

Lee Odden — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 11:53:37 -0000

I'll be in Boston for sure. I'm speaking day two on the Public Relations session at 10am. See you there!

Re: Web 2.0 Press Release Marketing

Lee Odden — Fri, 17 Feb 2006 18:03:35 -0000

Yes, it was a good call. Very interesting times ahead for PRWeb that's for sure.

I'll give you one link Mark, but not two. ;)

Re: SEO Baloney From USATODAY

Lee Odden — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 14:31:31 -0000

Hey Scott,

The USATODAY article did not have a negative slant towards SEO, so I'm not sure why you mention that. The article doesn't do website owners any favors because of the lack of good information, but it was not bashing SEO as a web site marketing tactic at all.

I agree, that on-page SEO and web development should be one and the same to a certain extent. However, keyword analysis, buzz/viral linkbaiting and web analytics are all instrumental to effective SEO as much or more than web design.

Re: SEO Baloney From USATODAY

Lee Odden — Tue, 21 Feb 2006 10:16:31 -0000

Hey Jaan, too bad Steve doesn't have a blog, so he could respond in public to your letter. Kinda behind the times to be a nationally syndicated columnist without a blog - IMHO. No offense, but there's a long list of SEO experts I would have added to your list.

IrishWonder, I hear you - but the article was provoking enough to write about it and it is appropriate to cite a source with a link - especially in a blog post.

In this case, I think there's enough positive benefit in drawing attention to the deficiencies in the article than to worry about it further propogating SEO disinformation.

Re: SEO Baloney From USATODAY

Lee Odden — Tue, 21 Feb 2006 14:46:04 -0000

IrishWonder: You've got it!

Re: Trackbacks and Press Releases

Lee Odden — Tue, 21 Feb 2006 12:52:45 -0000

Coming from you, that's a HUGE compliment. Thanks Todd!

Re: Google Builds Pages

Lee Odden — Thu, 23 Feb 2006 12:02:56 -0000

The GeoCities thing kinda shows our age, doesn't it David?

Thomas, looks like it's back up.

Hey Jim, You know you're a "cool SEO" when Google names a product after you. ;)

Re: Google Builds Pages

Lee Odden — Thu, 23 Feb 2006 12:58:52 -0000

That's a good point Bill. If creating posts on Blogger was as easy as making a page with Google Pages Creator, that would be a very nice improvement. Anyone at Google listening?

Re: Google Builds Pages

Lee Odden — Thu, 23 Feb 2006 17:50:03 -0000

Stop, stop. You're making me think of things like Prodigy and NetCruiser.

Re: SEO.com for Sale

Lee Odden — Thu, 23 Feb 2006 18:30:44 -0000

Thanks for your comment Fionn. I was starting to wonder if it was a prank call. Who cold calls selling something for 500k?

There are too many other ways to put that kind of money to use than to buy a vanity domain name. I'll keep the great rankings with our current crappy domain name, no problem.

Re: Kottke Quits

Lee Odden — Thu, 23 Feb 2006 17:43:30 -0000

Me: "Quits"
CNET: "Throws in the Towel"

it's all semantics right?

It's my understanding he was trying to live off the revenue from the blog by taking donations. That model is inherently flawed and had little chance of succeeding. On the other hand, running contextual ads on all that great content being produced would create a much greater opportunity for sustainability if not profitability.

A blog can be a business card. It can also be business. Just look at http://www.problogger.net

Re: Kottke Quits

Lee Odden — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 19:46:17 -0000

Arnie,

I don't recall anything about "hordes of bloggers making 6-figures", although the number of individuals making that will increase substantially in the next year or so.

The thing about Jason Kottke, is that he made it - he is at the top. He just failed to select a revenue model that had any chance of making a significant income. Even today, he still could.

Re: Search Engine Strategies NYC

Lee Odden — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 09:02:49 -0000

Dating? Wrong place, wrong time, wrong blog Pradeep.

Re: Updated Blog Marketing Tools

Lee Odden — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 12:54:30 -0000

Actually, no. Two ways to do the same thing. That's pretty cool claus. Our tool only works with WordPress, MT and Blogger right now. I like the flexibility that you offer to add the social bookmark links to web pages too.

Re: SES NYC and No Suitcase

Lee Odden — Mon, 27 Feb 2006 18:02:38 -0000

Well, day two and still no bags. Blogging back to back sessions all day and now I need to skip the SEMPO event to get some clothes from tomorrow!

Fun fun fun

Re: SES NYC and No Suitcase

Lee Odden — Tue, 28 Feb 2006 19:40:24 -0000

Cool news. They delivered my garment bag today - everything was there. Thanks to Northwest Airlines, sort of.

Some advice, avoid flying in to JFK if you can.

Re: Ask.com Code Red Stormtroopers

Lee Odden — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 19:23:04 -0000

Thanks IrishWonder.

Daniel, I see where you're coming from - I am having the same issue right now. But Ask is so diligent about making a better search product, I think the brand change will become a non-issue in time.

Re: Ranking SEO Firms

Lee Odden — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 15:38:15 -0000

Thanks Steve!

Re: Now Testing Gmail for Domains

Lee Odden — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 13:06:40 -0000

Hi Chris,

I believe there is pop3 access for TB and Outlook and there are only fees if you have over 50 accounts. I will most certainly post notes once I'm caught up and everything is in place and tested.

Re: Now Testing Gmail for Domains

Lee Odden — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 22:49:29 -0000

You are correct cpdohman, I've just been to swamped to do it myself, but the DNS edit and subsequent propagation should happen by Monday.

Re: Now Testing Gmail for Domains

Lee Odden — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 13:14:46 -0000

I don't think catch all addresses are part of the offering. I will ask about that though.

I have it setup and works just like, ah - Gmail. :)

Re: Now Testing Gmail for Domains

Lee Odden — Tue, 21 Mar 2006 20:32:20 -0000

Thanks for the feedback Mark. I've been using Gmail for Domains for a few weeks now and it's been fine. It would be nice to have a catch all domain though.

Re: Now Testing Gmail for Domains

Lee Odden — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 10:58:33 -0000

Hey Mark, I have not tried the IE notifier yet - sorry. When I do, I'll post.

Re: SEO and Interactive Marketing

Lee Odden — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 10:16:51 -0000

Seems like a pitch for online MLM to me Mike.

Re: Barry Diller Keynote at SES NY 2006

Lee Odden — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 10:05:35 -0000

It seems Diller and Ask are a good match. Ask was certainly the "cool" search engine at SES NYC. I am still marvelling over the cool map features.

Re: Web Marketing Metrics

Lee Odden — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 09:23:07 -0000

Slicing and dicing data by profit is great in theory, but the reality is that most companies don't have the measurement tools in place to capture all the source info all the way through the sales pipeline down to the conversion.

Your top ten list of metrics would be easier with an online ecommerce site but not so easy with a b2b site that conducts no transactions online with a 6 month sales cycle.

Re: Windows Live Search to Replace MSN Search

Lee Odden — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 09:36:07 -0000

Hi Igor,
Yeah, it's a bit slow. Seems like Google and Microsoft both are in the habit of underestimating infrastructure needs when they launch a new service these days. (Google Page Creator, Google Analytics)

Losing the suits was a little annoying but jeans are ok too.

Be sure to say hi at the next conference!

Re: Demographic Targeting with Google AdWords

Lee Odden — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 13:46:06 -0000

Thanks or the tips Brent although estimating organic efforts to estimate traffic and target audience is a bit of kentucky windage I think.

Re: Demographic Targeting with Google AdWords

Lee Odden — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 14:46:58 -0000

OK, I'm game. Exactly how are you gathering accurate demographic data from the organic and PPC efforts of prospective sites? Outside of using Hitwise, this is something I'd like to see.

Re: Wordtracker vs Keyword Discovery

Lee Odden — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 12:22:55 -0000

Hi Jason, we have a cool tool for that at:
http://www.toprankmarketing.com/tools/button-ma...

Re: Interview with Dan Thies of SEO Research Labs

Lee Odden — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 16:51:50 -0000

Hi Igor,

adTech Impact sessions are very concentrated from what I've read and I am not sure they are as "practical" in their content as SES, but they have many of the same speakers.

Re: Lowdown on Performancing Metrics

Lee Odden — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 17:00:15 -0000

I did come across Mint also, but did not include it as it is not marketed specifically for blogs.

Re: The Economist Covers SEO

Lee Odden — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 12:58:00 -0000

Thanks Todd. The writer seemed genuinely curious about SEO without some sort of pre-defined agenda.

Re: The Economist Covers SEO

Lee Odden — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 16:34:51 -0000

Hey Aaron - Maybe it's the references to Cialis and Viagra? :)

I appreciate the comments. I am also keenly aware that there are many more qualified SEOs that should probably have been mentioned in the article before me - but hey, I'm not complaining.

Re: Green Google for St. Patricks Day

Lee Odden — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 10:28:27 -0000

You too Mick! It's Mick, right?

Re: Google Writely

Lee Odden — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 10:31:21 -0000

Exellent tips Thomas, thanks. Barnaby, Robbie, Emmanuel, your invites are on the way.

Re: Google Writely

Lee Odden — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 11:38:38 -0000

Michael, yours has been sent. That's five, but I believe I have 1 or 2 more. Rong, you'll need to provide an email address.

Re: Google Writely

Lee Odden — Sun, 19 Mar 2006 11:32:14 -0000

Tim and Robert, yours should be on the way. That's it! Sorry folks, I'm out. As Mr. Pratt has pointed out, visit Phillip Lenssen's chat room to try and get an invite.

Re: Google Writely

Lee Odden — Sun, 19 Mar 2006 11:40:08 -0000

Aravind, I just took a look at the list of Zoho apps. Pretty impressive! I will be checking out the CRM app for sure. I would like to try out Zoho Sheet as well.

I think you're on target on Google limiting Writely sign ups as well. Their previous underestimation of market response and infrastructure needs warrants a more conservative approach. Am looking forward to checking out Google Calendar.

Re: Google Writely

Lee Odden — Sun, 23 Apr 2006 09:56:38 -0000

Sorry Moshe, all my Writely invites are used up.

Re: Rant on Class Action Suit Against Google

Lee Odden — Sun, 19 Mar 2006 12:11:48 -0000

Eric, thank you for pointing that out. Nice work! I think the KinderStart suit is just a cheap publicity stunt.

Re: Rant on Class Action Suit Against Google

Lee Odden — Sun, 19 Mar 2006 21:51:24 -0000

Thanks for the feedback Christian. Matt Cutts has been fairly straightforward about Google's reinclusion process both at SES and Pubcon conferences and on his blog.

Also, thanks for the heads up on your blog. It's nice to see another quality SEO blogging from the snowy Minnesota. If you're not already, consider becoming either a MIMA member or joining the MN SEO/SEM Group.

Thanks,
Lee

Re: 10 Creative Traffic Building Ideas

Lee Odden — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 19:23:37 -0000

Thanks for another EXCELLENT post Thomas!

Good tips Alan and Paul!

Jack, you've posed a great question and it's true. We don't run any ads on this site at the moment. For the most part, that's because the blog itself is an ad for our SEO firm, TopRank Online Marketing.

However, with a new blog design, there will be space allocated to ads.

Re: Blog Optimization

Lee Odden — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 13:02:25 -0000

Putting your blog title at the end of the title tag should be fine. That way the important keywords used in your blog post title will appear first in the title tag. Search engines place a lot of emphasis on the text that's closest to the left in the title tag.

Re: Blog Optimization

Lee Odden — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 09:50:36 -0000

Dean, if your visitors are logged in to Google, it makes a huge difference for personalized results.

Re: Don’t Step on Your SEO

Lee Odden — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 15:04:46 -0000

Good points Balazs. You may notice that the name of this blog is "Online Marketing Blog". That's because SEO is only one marketing channel.

Re: I want my Web 2.0

Lee Odden — Wed, 29 Mar 2006 08:11:47 -0000

Sorry Rand, thick fingers. Really thick. "K" is nowhere neard the "d" on my keyword, oops I mean keyboard.

Re: I want my Web 2.0

Lee Odden — Wed, 29 Mar 2006 17:08:06 -0000

Hey Joe, (I've heard that somewhere before...)

It's pretty easy to see a ton of work went into the Web 2.0 Awards project. Doing product/service reviews is not for the faint of heart. Plus coordinating and conducting interesting interviews is a lot more involved than most people think.

Are the Web Awards super-linkable? You bet! It's also an impressive feat considering SEOMoz also has paying customers to serve.

The thing is, it's also consistent with the kind of work Rand and his team have always done. SEOMoz plays on a whole different level than most sites. If/when we get ours to look half as good I'll be a happy camper.

Re: Google April Fools

Lee Odden — Wed, 05 Apr 2006 08:33:29 -0000

Yeah, I tried to limit this post to just Google. What about Moveable Press? Type Type?

Re: Lowdown with Brett Tabke of WebmasterWorld

Lee Odden — Tue, 04 Apr 2006 19:32:28 -0000

Hey kid disco, I will be in Boston. I'll be speaking on Day two in the am on a panel about Public Relations and SEO.

Re: Speaking Geek – SEO, Blogs and PR

Lee Odden — Wed, 05 Apr 2006 11:33:22 -0000

Hi Chris, I just sent you the link.

Re: Speaking Geek – SEO, Blogs and PR

Lee Odden — Wed, 05 Apr 2006 12:13:11 -0000

Strange - are you using Viagra or Lipitor as your handle? :)

Re: Speaking Geek – SEO, Blogs and PR

Lee Odden — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 13:42:04 -0000

Hi John, I am not sure if the pass works beyond the original conference dates. I know there is another eComXpo coming up though.

Re: Tips for Online PR

Lee Odden — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 08:30:20 -0000

Hello Kerry, Most digital PR practitioners use social media monitoring and analytics tools to identify bloggers. As for journalists, most editorial calendar services carry a list of pubs, topics and the journalists who cover them.

A damaged brand got that way somehow. The fix comes from addressing the source of the issue as well as telling the brand's side of the story, what they'll change and of course to open channels for listening and dialogue. If blogs are openly discussing a brand positive or negative, that brand would do well to have a blog itself or it's missing out on a huge opportunity.

Re: Favorite Feed Vote and Update

Lee Odden — Fri, 14 Apr 2006 11:32:08 -0000

That's a good suggestion, re: doing a post about "coopetition" and I may just do that. Am glad you like the blog. I just wish I had more time to spend on it.

Re: Podcasting and SEO

Lee Odden — Fri, 05 May 2006 10:38:21 -0000

Hey Michael,

Glad you like the blog.

If you're going to create a guide for your site, you should really write it yourself based on your own expertise. It will be more genuine that way. Besides, taking someone else's ideas is plagiarism if not an outright copyright violation.

"automated link exchange websites"? Dude, you're definitley on the wrong blog.

Cheers!
Lee

Re: State of the Blogosphere

Lee Odden — Mon, 17 Apr 2006 18:31:15 -0000

Hi Bob, I have no doubt there is a ton of blog spam out there. However, I don't see this as any different than all the crappy tombstone web sites that were created in the late nineties. I think the crud will continue to spawn, but also that it will filter out and sink.

Re: State of the Blogosphere

Lee Odden — Mon, 17 Apr 2006 18:38:42 -0000

Hey Kid Disco, you would happen to be at the Commonwealth, would you? That's where Thomas and I are. I pretty much finished up my presentation on the plane. Now if I can just remember what to say .... I like your blog design except for a missing link in your blogroll. :) JK.

Re: State of the Blogosphere

Lee Odden — Mon, 17 Apr 2006 18:42:34 -0000

Hey Chris, you have a good point. The thing is, while blogs are indeed just web sites with an easy to use content management system, they are more because of:
1. RSS feeds
2. Trackbacks
3. Comments
4. RSS - oh, did I say that before? Ha, it's worth mentioning again
5. Blogs easily interact with each other. Websites are a hit or miss.

I think blogs are just tools. And like any tool, what you get out of it depends on your expertise with that tool. Give one person a blog, and they'll just post when they're drunk. Oops, sorry Kid Disco :).

Give someone else a blog and they're making $10k/mo. It's all about what you do with it.

Re: Blogs RSS, Podcasts – Pubcon Boston

Lee Odden — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 08:32:34 -0000

Thanks Kid Disco, I hope it was useful.

Chris, Amanda presnted a lot of information in her 10-15 min, and there was no time to get into details unfortunately. Here presentation was very structured with a lot of slides. Daron had no Powerpoint presentation, but Daron doesn't need one. He's an excellent speaker and knows his stuff. Greg used mostly large images in his presentation and elaborated conversationally on his topics.

Each session is a mix of presentation styles and what I hear many people, newbies and veterans alike say, is that just one little gold nugget can come out of one of these presentations and make it all worthwhile.

Personally, I would very much like to be on the blog marketing panel and could drill very deep into details as well as stories/case studies. Hopefully Brett likes that idea for Pucon in Vegas.

Re: Blogs RSS, Podcasts – Pubcon Boston

Lee Odden — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 08:34:47 -0000

Hi Jim, You're right, but at the same time, there is both a time limit and a lot of unkowns about the attendees of each session. WMW does not collect any info on who is attending what so presenters have to present information that tries to appeal to a broader audience. Also, this session was combining Blogs, RSS and Podcasts. Each of those topics could have been it's own session with 3-4 speakers each. Maybe that will change for the next Pubcon.

Re: Blogs RSS, Podcasts – Pubcon Boston

Lee Odden — Sun, 23 Apr 2006 10:47:25 -0000

Hi Lynn,

I'm glad the info was useful. You know, I believe Brian and Teli had me take pictures of you, Teli, Chrissie, Greg and Brian at the Elephant.

I didn't make it to the link building session and have a feeling I really missed out.

Am checking out your blog too. Nice!

Lee

Re: YPN Party – Boston Pubcon

Lee Odden — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 01:10:06 -0000

Hey Chris,

On my way out of the conference today I ran into Matt and he wanted to clarify that, "it doesn't make sense to use toolbar data because it could be manipulated." Basically, he said that at this time, Google is not using toolbar data.

Re: YPN Party – Boston Pubcon

Lee Odden — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 10:13:14 -0000

Thanks Steve, it was good seeing you again!

Re: WebmasterWorld Boston 2006 Pubcon Wrapup

Lee Odden — Sat, 22 Apr 2006 11:14:18 -0000

Thanks Chris!

Nice meeting you too Marshall. Brett asked me to speak at the Vegas Pubcon, so I will likely be going. SES San Jose as well.

Re: Matt Cutts on Toolbar Data

Lee Odden — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 16:13:14 -0000

Hey Corey, There certainly are many applications for toolbar data outside of ranking factors, that's for sure.

Re: Link Building for Blogs

Lee Odden — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 21:50:28 -0000

Thanks John. I know I'm a shit for putting something like that out there, but why not?

Re: Link Building for Blogs

Lee Odden — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 10:47:36 -0000

Hey Aaron, by no means are my inbound links ALL "natural". At least not any more natural than a company getting mentioned in a magazine article because their PR firm arranged for an interview between the journalist and the company CEO.

I used to do "traditional" link building, but haven't bothered in the past year or so. At a certain point, a tipping point maybe, there's enough momentum generated that you can gain enough links just by producing content. Links come to you unsolicited. There's always room for a little nudge here and there, but it's more productive overall to spend the time on the content after a while rather than manufacturing links.

Re: Link Building for Blogs

Lee Odden — Tue, 16 May 2006 13:53:46 -0000

Thanks Jean-Marie!

Re: Sphere Blog Search Engine Goes Live

Lee Odden — Tue, 02 May 2006 15:10:07 -0000

Howdy Pilgrim! Thanks for pointing that out Andy, I plain 'ole forgot.

Re: BOTW Cinco de Mayo Promo

Lee Odden — Tue, 02 May 2006 22:22:54 -0000

Hmm. Am not sure where "Applie iMac Powerbook" came from. It would be accurate to say, "Apple 17

Re: Catalog Conference Chicago

Lee Odden — Tue, 02 May 2006 16:24:42 -0000

Thanks Brian,
I was debating whether to link to that bio or not. Things move differently with some conferences as far as getting site updates made, etc. Here's a better bio link: http://www.toprankblog.com/about-lee-odden/

Re: Catalog Conference Chicago

Lee Odden — Wed, 03 May 2006 21:25:57 -0000

Thanks Roger and Frank!

Re: Catalog Conference Chicago

Lee Odden — Sun, 07 May 2006 14:52:44 -0000

Thanks Brian. Am looking forward to the conference. If you happen to stop by our session on Monday, please come and say I.

Re: RSS Lesson for the Day

Lee Odden — Wed, 03 May 2006 15:50:44 -0000

I guess I am spoiled. :)

Re: Interview with CEO of PRWeb David McInnis

Lee Odden — Tue, 16 May 2006 14:16:44 -0000

Hey Kathy, That's a good one.

Re: Live from the GooglePlex Danny Sullivan and Matt Cutts

Lee Odden — Mon, 15 May 2006 12:45:50 -0000

Ha, yeah. I wish WordPress had some of the features that MT does. Then this stuff could automatically post on the right date. :)

Re: Referring SEO Projects

Lee Odden — Fri, 12 May 2006 12:45:02 -0000

Thanks Ben and Kristen, I'll keep you in mind.

Bill, I get very different feedback from prospects that I refer to other SEO companies. It is clear from our contact form that we are not taking on projects, yet they call anyway. That's fine, because they are very appreciative when we can pass them on to another firm.

Are you saying that if a company passes a prospect on to a direct competitor that infers a kickback? That doesn't make sense to me at all. Cynical SEO prospects can do everyone a favor and don't bother calling reputable SEO companies and wasting their time.

Your use of the word kickback infers something suspicious, which is interestingly cynical I think. But then again, you are playing devils advocate, right?

Thanks for the link. I have a different perspective on linking. I link out to other sites because it will help the site visitor and as you say, to help make a point. I don't expect a thanks for it. I don't expect the recipient site will ever notice, because I don't really care if they do. If it helps the reader, then the job is done.

Re: Referring SEO Projects

Lee Odden — Sat, 13 May 2006 18:28:41 -0000

Thanks for the reply Bill.

I can assure you, no new business came from the link, but thank you all the same. :)

Ironically, I've limited the last few projects we've taken on to those that were referred to me by others! (but not from SEOs)

I've received many offers from other types of firms to create some sort of bounty or affiliate type of relationship to refer business. I tried that out a few times out of interest and there was nothing good about it. Now I refuse to take or give $ for referrals. Any referrals I get, I expect to be based purely on the merit of our work, nothing else. The referrals I send are based on my perception of the best vendor for the prospect's situation and nothing more.

I realize it's a luxury to be able to do this, not have to consider monetizing every little thing in our business. But it also has to do with one's philosophy of doing business. I fall much more on the optimistic side of things, probably because the SEO business has been so fantastic the past 9 years.

The reference to some other industries being so focused on only referring business that brings financial gain is interesting. I admit, I may be less than optimistic when doctors and lawyers refer me to others. I often wonder whether there is some rationale outside of serving my needs.

Perhaps as the SEO industry matures and demand increases for really good SEO, the practice of referring for compensation may become more prevelant. Clients will still be served as well as if they picked the SEO firms that advertise the most, or have the most speakers at conferences or that rank the highest. None of those things is a "real" indication of how well those firms can serve SEO clients. But prospects use them as criteria anyway. At least with a referral, the referrer is putting their own reputation on the line, even if there is a "kickback".

Re: Referring SEO Projects

Lee Odden — Mon, 15 May 2006 11:35:54 -0000

I'm with you Doug. Although, I think one has to be at least a little careful with whom you partner with. I am very much an advocate of co-opetition and have benefitted from it greatly. But without being careful, it would be easy to be taken advantage of. The notion of co-opetition is subjective. To one person, it might be answering questions in a forum. To another, it may be partnering on a project, documenting your processes and tools and then marketing them as their own.

Re: Referring SEO Projects

Lee Odden — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 18:59:00 -0000

My first question would be: "How many other SEO consultants/firms has this list been offered to?"

We never buy lists ourselves. In my opinion, a good SEO should be able to market themselves into a situation of an over-abundance of leads.

Re: Yahoo CEO Terry Semel Interview Video

Lee Odden — Fri, 12 May 2006 14:52:32 -0000

That's a few too many links George! :)

Yes I agree, it's a good video and reveals a lot about Yahoo.

Re: The Power of the Link

Lee Odden — Sat, 13 May 2006 18:55:30 -0000

Yeah, that's sort of what this comment meant, "Last night a PR manager from the New Yorker emailed me about the Terry Semel interview". In my case, I had not quoted the story yet. Digg sent 1500 visitors and the Financial Times link sent about 300 yesteray. Now there's something in the comments of a Slashdot post. Too bad I don't run ads on my site. :)

I know how it goes Andy, and that's cool. I never expect something when I send a heads up email, most of the time it's really just a heads up.

Cheers!

Re: Integrating SEO with Public Relations

Lee Odden — Sun, 14 May 2006 17:12:25 -0000

I think you're missing the point Milo. Incorporating keyword insight into multichannel communications is all about the user. Rankings on certain keywords are only one of many means to an end. It would be a waste to generate content solely for keywords as the focus needs to be on providing value to the user and to guide them to the outcome you desire.

Your comment, "it feels cheap to just generate content solely for the keywords" is like saying, "it feels cheap to just generate advertising soley for the branding".

Re: Integrating SEO with Public Relations

Lee Odden — Mon, 15 May 2006 18:08:06 -0000

Hey Arnold, reverse your thinking. Smaller businesses are already competing with larger companies using press release optimization while their large and lethargic PR firms figure it out.

Re: SEO Blog Feeds

Lee Odden — Mon, 15 May 2006 10:51:47 -0000

You know, I was contemplating even posting about it. I think they did a poor job of promoting it and therefore, what I consider the "real" best SEO blog feeds, were not listed. Maybe I should try some thing like this (sans Online Marketing Blog). You can be sure I would get the word out to the search marketing community.

Re: SEO Blog Feeds

Lee Odden — Mon, 15 May 2006 14:24:39 -0000

seoforumz, you make a good point about lists that I failed to mention in my post. I have found that ranked lists of blogs are an excellent way to find out about new blogs. Perhaps some of the explanation you give in your comments above could be on the searchenginefeeds web site?

BTW, I get snobbed by other bloggers as much as anyone, so even if I did "get the word out" that's no guarantee they would do anything about it. :)

Re: SEO Blog Feeds

Lee Odden — Tue, 16 May 2006 12:05:14 -0000

We use a Feedburner.com Pro account. I highly recommend it!

Re: Here we grow again

Lee Odden — Wed, 17 May 2006 10:34:01 -0000

Thanks Igor. We're going through a lot of very positive changes right now. Soon we'll have a new web site design, blog design, more value added services for our clients and even more PR for our own company. It's time for a major ramp up.

Re: Seriously Cool Meta Search

Lee Odden — Thu, 18 May 2006 10:29:00 -0000

Wow, I didn't even check ie. I don't use it anymore. That does make it "less" cool though, since less people will be able to use it. It would be a good idea for them to have a blog too.

Re: Seriously Cool Meta Search

Lee Odden — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 22:13:56 -0000

Hey Andy,

Different results may be due to Inquisitor searching a different Google data center than you do or it may be that Inquisitor is scraping search results from Google like other meta search engines do, and thereby not showing exaxctly the same information.

Lee

Re: Seriously Cool Meta Search

Lee Odden — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 23:28:05 -0000

Andy, try Aaron Wall's keyword research tool at http://tools.seobook.com. It's chock full of features and the price is right.

Re: Blogs for SEO

Lee Odden — Fri, 19 May 2006 17:37:22 -0000

Thanks for the link heads up Igor - fixed.

There's no doubt that blogs are often left in the dust, but I have to say that if a blog is properly optimized, ranked and visited, the feedback in terms of sales or building thought leadership will motiviate the company to continue contributing to it.

It's like any marketing activity. If it's productive, it will continue to receive the right attention.

Re: Blogs for SEO

Lee Odden — Mon, 22 May 2006 08:46:01 -0000

Thanks Brad, sometimes a little insight can go a long way. I hope this blog is useful to you.

Re: Defining Tagging

Lee Odden — Thu, 25 May 2006 13:14:18 -0000

That's a good point Thomas.

Re: SEO Tips – Let the Spider Crawl

Lee Odden — Fri, 26 May 2006 17:11:07 -0000

Hey Igor, yeah it's not a good thing when sales people for SEO firms get carried away.

Re: SEO the way it should be

Lee Odden — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 16:58:04 -0000

Looks like you have a bit of an AdSense site there Zorning.

Re: What’s Important

Lee Odden — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 21:32:12 -0000

Thanks guys I appreciate it. There were some more roller coaster events today, but things are looking up.

Hopefully I'll be back in the office on Wed!

Re: Google Spreadsheets Update

Lee Odden — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 14:36:32 -0000

Don't you already have a Writely account Aaron?

Re: Paid Search Can Be A Bitch

Lee Odden — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 15:30:23 -0000

Trader Joe's? That sounds like a plan. Have fun in San Jose!

Re: Cool tools for RSS

Lee Odden — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 10:30:40 -0000

Absolutely Phil. Your blog is an excellent resource and the SEW team is lucky to have you.

Re: Cool tools for RSS

Lee Odden — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 15:35:15 -0000

Find in Forums is a pretty slick too, am checking that out. Yes, we use RSS Submit from Ksoft: http://www.dummysoftware.com/rsssubmit.html

Re: Cool tools for RSS

Lee Odden — Sun, 11 Jun 2006 15:36:30 -0000

No problem Peter. RSS Compendium is an excellent resource. I'd love to post a more comprehensive list of RSS resources myself, but you've pretty much got it covered!

Re: 25 Tips for Marketing Your Blog

Lee Odden — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 18:07:45 -0000

Great question kid disco,

It depends on how you plan to use it. I tend to lean towards the directory these days. You can make the blog look different enough to have it's own identity but still carry over important elements from the main site and the current brand recognition. Also, there is more search engine value it it's a directory than a subdomain. With a new domain it would take a while to get any SEO value for the main site out of it.

If a truly unique identity is important and SEO is very much secondary, then I would go for the unique domain or sub directory.

Re: 25 Tips for Marketing Your Blog

Lee Odden — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 15:44:12 -0000

Thanks Billy. I hope it's useful. It is a short list though, and when I get the comprehensive doc completed, I may offer it as an eBook.

Re: 25 Tips for Marketing Your Blog

Lee Odden — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 16:40:56 -0000

Hey Igor, glad to hear it! I hope it works out.

Re: 25 Tips for Marketing Your Blog

Lee Odden — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 09:55:35 -0000

Aiden, it has been taking 3-4 weeks or a little more for our clients to get accepted into the Google Analytics service.

Re: 25 Tips for Marketing Your Blog

Lee Odden — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 13:51:05 -0000

Hey Jim, nice work on the extra 10 suggestions!

Re: 25 Tips for Marketing Your Blog

Lee Odden — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 15:29:09 -0000

We don't segment blog or search engine directories out by page rank since our first focus is on driving traffic. In that case, redirections do not matter.

Re: 25 Tips for Marketing Your Blog

Lee Odden — Sat, 12 Aug 2006 13:16:01 -0000

Yibeltal, it takes time, patience and focus.

Re: 25 Tips for Marketing Your Blog

Lee Odden — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 09:56:50 -0000

You certainly have nailed the niche concept with your blogs about specific holidays. Thanks for the suggestions - I hit the comments thing on #18 though.

Re: 25 Tips for Marketing Your Blog

Lee Odden — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 21:03:41 -0000

Neo, when you post a comment along with a link, most blog software adds the "no follow" tag to the link, so it may not count. That should really not factor into whether you make comments though. If your comments are obvious link building attempts, the blog owner will simply blacklist your ip and domain as I did with someone earlier today.

Re: 25 Tips for Marketing Your Blog

Lee Odden — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 12:03:49 -0000

Hey John, here's another blog tip: You don't need to comment on the blog you're linking to that you linked to them because the trackback will take care of that. Otherwise, it seems a bit too much like a link drop.

Re: 25 Tips for Marketing Your Blog

Lee Odden — Mon, 07 May 2007 18:35:21 -0000

Stacy, blogs are tools and like any real-world tool, they are only as good as the person's expertise using them.

This is why some people outsource blog setup to experts to reduce the time it takes. If you have time to spend rather than money, then sign up with a blog service that operates under a site that you control.

If you don't already have a website and you want to use a blog as your site, then register a domain name. Then follow the instructions at Blogger.com to point your domain name to the Blogger system.

That way hosting is free and there's no blog software cost. You will need HTML skills to change the template and add any widgets.

Once you use Blogger under a domain name you control and you want to switch some time in the future, you can.

I hope that helps.

Re: 25 Tips for Marketing Your Blog

Lee Odden — Tue, 08 May 2007 07:36:52 -0000

I hope you don't have 3 web sites for the same purpose, that's a maintenance nightmare let alone possible duplicate content. Better to focus efforts on one web site and add a blog to that.

As a rule, I prefer to create a blog within the main web site. That way links to the blog are also links to the main site. It really depends on the purpose of the blog.

As far as a resource for real estate blogging, I'd recommend "Realty Blogging" by Richard Nacht and Paul Chaney. I am biased somewhat about that book of course, because their company is a client.

You might also try checking out the posts at http://www.blogsquad.biz

Re: 25 Tips for Marketing Your Blog

Lee Odden — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 22:48:29 -0000

Pinny, directory submissions are likely more for search engines than direct traffic, although some traffic does come from them.

Re: 25 Tips for Marketing Your Blog

Lee Odden — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 13:22:49 -0000

Good point Andy. Funny how many of these still make sense though. One big update would be a list of plug-ins for marketing, SEO, user experience and back end administration purposes.

Re: 25 Tips for Marketing Your Blog

Lee Odden — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 13:57:24 -0000

Alan, you can optimize your blog template like any other database generated web site. Customizing the blog with static pages can pretty much make it look like any other web site. Keep your content fresh and useful, be sure to reach out to other bloggers in your industry/target market and make it a destination that people will want to come back to.

Cheers,
Lee

Re: PRWeb Web 2.0 Feature Hunt

Lee Odden — Sun, 18 Jun 2006 10:03:13 -0000

We know this from our own application of press release optimization and news search marketing, but further validation based on research is provided in this article by Information Week: "Press Releases Are More Popular Than Reported News"

Re: PRWeb Web 2.0 Feature Hunt

Lee Odden — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 06:56:19 -0000

Grokodile, your new web directory seems like a reason to do a press release to me.

Re: Speaking at DM Days New York

Lee Odden — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 22:07:50 -0000

Thanks Igor, we just took a stroll from the Waldorf to Radio City Music Hall past Rockefeller Center and ended up at the W hotel. Am definitely staying at the W next time!

Re: Search Marketing Blogs

Lee Odden — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 23:23:07 -0000

Hi Ben, There's no question that many high quality search marketing blogs were not included. I don't think Marketing Sherpa is concerned with being comprehensive - that or blogs like SEW are just not concerned with nominating themselves to such contests.

Re: Reciprocal Articles to Replace Reciprocal Links?

Lee Odden — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 20:47:29 -0000

Tony, that was classic.

My deal is as much of a time issue as it is an issue of link requests that offer very little real value and are simply a waste of my time. I have too many other things to do that are far more productive.

It may be good, it may be bad, but it is simply the way it is.

Re: Reciprocal Articles to Replace Reciprocal Links?

Lee Odden — Mon, 26 Jun 2006 17:01:10 -0000

I guess like anything else, it's a matter of risk/reward. Is there a risk a certain tactic will be perceived as going against a search engine's policies? If not, then go for the reward. Otherwise, why bother.

Re: Reciprocal Articles to Replace Reciprocal Links?

Lee Odden — Mon, 26 Jun 2006 17:47:58 -0000

I've read/heard that the arrangement does matter, because it describes the intent. i.e. is the situation one that solves a functional or technical issue or is it being done to inflate rankings, etc. The arrangement may not matter to me, but then again, I don't run a search engine.

There are always ends to a spectrum. It's one thing to offer a single article to another site and getting another article in return and both are unique and relevant. (although I wonder why go through the trouble to do that when you can just write one article, post it to a blog and let some popular bloggers know about it - that could get many more traffic building links)

It's another thing to get the same article listed on hundreds of sites in exchange for links from hundreds of articles hosted on your site - where all articles are used over and over again. I'm not sure if there is any value to the user in that situation and I would think that the resulting linking structure would be pretty easy to indentify and discount.

Re: Most Popular SEO Interviews

Lee Odden — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 11:06:03 -0000

That's a good point Ben, but for some of those talented "unsung heros" of SEO, there may be a reason they operate on the down low. They may not want the attention.

Re: BtoC Search Marketing Tactics

Lee Odden — Mon, 26 Jun 2006 17:03:46 -0000

You mean like partnership marketing? Example: A seller of bbq grills also offers omaha steaks. That works in the offline world, it would seem to make sense online as well.

Re: Blog Award Results

Lee Odden — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 17:36:16 -0000

Thanks Jim!

Re: Google Checkout How to and Videos

Lee Odden — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 15:55:50 -0000

I read that on Dave Taylor's post. I suppose they need to get the system ironed out before launching in other coutries.

Re: New Firefox SEO Tool

Lee Odden — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 17:05:13 -0000

Yes, Marios that is a very good point and I will amend my post.

Re: Business Week Article on SEO

Lee Odden — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 12:14:05 -0000

Ha, yeah you're right Marios. That's true - not difficult at all. Maybe it's indicative of a larger number of long tail terms. She's obviously happy with her SEO results and they've documented an increase in sales, albeit a modest one.

Re: Business Week Article on SEO

Lee Odden — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 09:57:09 -0000

Hey Jason, that is a good point. Before SEO became so popular, people used to say the same thing about their web sites. Sort of a "build it and they will come" mentality.

Same goes for a site that has been optimized. That will/should drive mostly relevant traffic, but the conversion is mostly influenced by the site design and user experience. Counting on SEO to raise profits is discounting the many influences in between increasing traffic and making a sale.

This is where client education comes into play and we require it or we won't take on the project. Absentee SEO clients rarely work out.

Re: Business Week Article on SEO

Lee Odden — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 10:02:03 -0000

It is interesting that you say that Barry, especially since the expectations of what SEO can do has broadened so much the past 5 or 10 years. Search engine optimization used fall mostly in the "technical" bucket and now SEO comprises as much or more "creative" characteristics as technical.

Within increased expectations comes a broadening of the scope. I agree with you that many of the things people associate with SEO is actually internet marketing and I don't see that changing anytime soon as long as positive articles about it are published.

No longer is SEO something limited to an IT groupr or web development firm. SEO is multidisciplinary and interdeparmental. It is also long term.

Re: Business Week Article on SEO

Lee Odden — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 11:05:53 -0000

Eugene, not all search results from Google come from the same data center. As Google updates it's information from new crawls, the data propogates over time (hours, days, weeks depending on how much of an update it is). That is why you might get different search results on the same query. You can chech multiple Google data centers with this tool: http://www.webrankinfo.com/english/tools/google...

Re: How strong is your SEO?

Lee Odden — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 11:37:35 -0000

Jason, here are three resources that list an abundant number of SEO tools:

http://tools.seobook.com
http://www.webuildpages.com/tools/
http://www.seocompany.ca/tool/seo-tools.html

Re: Search Marketing Events

Lee Odden — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 11:19:32 -0000

Joseph, some would say your comment has nothing to do with the blog post, "Search Marketing Events" and therefore qualify it as SPAM. A bit ironic don't you think?

Re: Blog Address: Directory or Domain?

Lee Odden — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 17:18:01 -0000

I guess I really messed that one up eh, Igor? I guess it's not too bad since I use "toprank" in both my company website, www.toprankresults.com and the blog address, www.toprankblog.com.

Re: PR Newswire Testing SEO Press Releases

Lee Odden — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 13:14:21 -0000

That is interesting because normally it is Yahoo that does not include a release and Google News will publish just about anything. In both cases, press release content is run through search engine algorithms and displayed accordingly. The important thing is, Yahoo News traffic dwarfs Google News. So it is better you had Yahoo news visibility anyway.

Re: Blogging Interactive Marketing – ad:tech Chicago 2006

Lee Odden — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 16:19:11 -0000

Hey Igor, I hope it goes well too. Hopefully I will get to cover the sessions I've listed. It should be interesting.

Re: Interview with Phil Hollows Founder of FeedBlitz

Lee Odden — Thu, 20 Jul 2006 10:18:35 -0000

Thanks Gemme, link fixed!

Re: ad:tech Chicago 2006 – Day One Roundup

Lee Odden — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 15:33:00 -0000

Am not sure what you're talking about Cristian. You can email me if you have questions. blog at toprankresults dot com.

Re: ad:tech Chicago – Waiting for Your Cat to Bark

Lee Odden — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 10:40:09 -0000

Camels are over rated. :)

Re: ad:tech Chicago – Waiting for Your Cat to Bark

Lee Odden — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 10:49:27 -0000

LOL - thanks, that was pretty good. :)

Re: ad:tech Chicago 2006 – Day Two Roundup

Lee Odden — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 10:37:14 -0000

Hi Igor, I would highly recommend Pubcon. In the past it's been a really good conference for more practical SEO and online marketing knowledge. The upcoming event in Vegas adds one more day of sessions and has 3 top notch keynote speakers. Plus, the networking with other SEO people is excellent. Definitely go.

Re: ad:tech Chicago 2006 – Day Two Roundup

Lee Odden — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 18:55:57 -0000

Sounds great. I'll be bringing 2 or 3 of our staff with me as well.

Re: ad:tech Chicago 2006 – Day Two Roundup

Lee Odden — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 21:34:56 -0000

Hi Aaron, I hope it's useful. One day, we'll see you at one of these conferences, eh?

Re: ad:tech Chicago 2006 – Day Two Roundup

Lee Odden — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 22:55:42 -0000

Something of value? That's pretty subjective I think. Do what you like, the rest will come.

Re: Getting Spidered With Your Pants Down

Lee Odden — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 21:39:47 -0000

Hey Aaron, I doubt Matt relies in any way, on search engine referrals to his blog. But I thought it interesting all the same.

Are you 301 redirecting those multiple domains?

Re: Dave Sifry on Marketing Your Blog

Lee Odden — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 13:15:41 -0000

Right, as I mention above - (Amen - link in and link out).

Re: Dave Sifry on Marketing Your Blog

Lee Odden — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 23:16:11 -0000

Sure. If you have something in mind, let me know.

Re: Blogs and Podcasts for Lead Generation

Lee Odden — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 15:12:23 -0000

Exactly! Options without confusion.

Re: Blogs and Podcasts for Lead Generation

Lee Odden — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 10:10:34 -0000

Yes Vandana, it's really no different than article, press release or web site marketing. The more useful and interesting the content is, the more effective it is at generating a desired outcome.

Re: RocketGoogle

Lee Odden — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 15:09:18 -0000

Thanks for stopping by Matt. You wouldn't have to pay for that stuff yourself would you? If the Google PR dept appreciates you as much as they should, there should be a whole videoblogging setup waiting for you in the am. :)

Re: RocketGoogle

Lee Odden — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 18:55:11 -0000

Ah, I see. A little more like zeFrank?

Re: More SEO Goodness from Matt Cutts

Lee Odden — Fri, 04 Aug 2006 23:14:28 -0000

That's an interesting point Dave, but I think Matt is doing this on his own and figuring out things as he goes.

Personally I think he's doing a great job because as far as most of the audience is concerned, it's the content that matters. Not a map in the background, nor fancy production or a set of boobs ala Amanda Congdon.

Re: The Corporate Blogging Book

Lee Odden — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 20:48:39 -0000

Argh! Thanks Paul. I don't know why WordPress is doing that lately. It's now fixed.

Re: Survey for Marketing Sherpa Guide to SEO SEM Firms

Lee Odden — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 18:51:01 -0000

Hello Jenold, You could try seoconsultants.com or topseos.com.

Re: Day One of SES San Jose 2006

Lee Odden — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 12:29:55 -0000

I need to figure out that Flickr feature for sure.

Re: PRWeb Sub-Domain Mapping for RSS Feeds

Lee Odden — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 02:20:29 -0000

Alexa may or may not associate traffic from a subdomain to the main domain, but that has no bearing on rankings on Google, Yahoo and MSN.

Re: Blog Optimization – SES San Jose

Lee Odden — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 19:44:21 -0000

Hey Rick, great session. Sorry for the mixup, it's been fixed. Too much T'rati searching in one day I think.

Re: Get Ready for the Google Dance

Lee Odden — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 14:15:34 -0000

No tango with Inigo, but I did get to save Matt from a pesky blackhat asking too many questions.

Re: Get Ready for the Google Dance

Lee Odden — Sat, 12 Aug 2006 13:19:43 -0000

Jim, those are some great pictures, thanks.

Re: Google Dance V Photos

Lee Odden — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 14:14:12 -0000

Tiziana, there's only one Google Dance and it is held at Google corporate headquarters here in California. Invites are via email or you can usually find a link to get an invite over at the Search Engine Watch forums.

Re: SES San Jose Videos

Lee Odden — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 23:15:41 -0000

Thanks Kary. Three more coming in the am.

Re: Marketing with Social Media

Lee Odden — Sun, 13 Aug 2006 19:32:50 -0000

Thanks Robert, I'm glad the post was useful.

Re: SES San Jose Videos Part 2

Lee Odden — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 15:38:34 -0000

Thanks Igor. Actually I'm pretty sure it would be illegal to tape the sessions and sell the video. I would actually never tape an instructional session anyway - not even 30 seconds. If people want to experience the conference, they really need to cough up the money to go and be there in person.

Re: SES San Jose Videos Part 2

Lee Odden — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 18:18:37 -0000

Gotcha, sorry about the misunderstanding. I doubt they would do it though. For me, I get the most value from SES conferences not from the sessions, but from the networking.

Re: SES San Jose Videos Part 2

Lee Odden — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 17:38:54 -0000

Great seeing you too! I am definitley going to expand on this idea for future conferences. :)

Re: Keyword Tool Based on Leaked AOL Logs

Lee Odden — Sat, 12 Aug 2006 15:22:05 -0000

Thanks for that link Sergio. You've collected quite a few resources for mining that AOL data. I wonder what degree of responsibility bloggers (like me and you) and creators of such tools have regarding privacy of the sites and users?

Re: Keyword Tool Based on Leaked AOL Logs

Lee Odden — Sat, 12 Aug 2006 16:05:00 -0000

OK, I am realizing now I'm a bit late to the party with this post. I've received feedback from several others on a pretty good number of other tools that do the similar things:

1. http://camichel.no-ip.info
2. http://www.aolsearchdatabase.com
3. http://www.aolsearchlogs.com
4. http://aoldb.unwieldy.net
5. http://aol.yogurtrat.com
6. http://websearchdata.com
7. http://dontdelete.com/default.asp
8. http://czern.homeip.net/aolsearch/
9. http://www.askthebrain.com/aol/
10. http://www.aolstalker.com/
11. http://needmyip.net/aolsearch/AnonID/11110859
12. http://data.aolsearchlogs.com/search/do.cgi
13. http://www.datablunder.com/logitems/query/
14. http://aolgotsplunkd.350nice.com/

Re: Interview with PRWeb CEO David McInnis

Lee Odden — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 20:19:20 -0000

Thanks for stopping by David. The clarification on the patent question is usefule. Hope the headache passes asap!

Re: Larry Chase Web Digest for Marketers

Lee Odden — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 16:50:08 -0000

Comments are definitley a good signal, I agree Igor. When I click on the Digg link it brings me to this page: http://www.digg.com/submit

Does it go there for you as well?

Re: Larry Chase Web Digest for Marketers

Lee Odden — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 17:00:35 -0000

Wait, I just replaced the existing script with a new one generated by our Social Bookmark creator. It works fine now. Thanks for the heads up Igor!

Re: Blogger Relations: Ask.com “gets it”

Lee Odden — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 14:03:11 -0000

Yeah, that photo was "pre-food" during the dinner.

Re: New Rules for Social Media Optimization

Lee Odden — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 11:15:39 -0000

Thanks Rohit. Either a wiki or a Google/Yahoo group would work well I think.

Similar groups I am involved with is the Social Media Club and the New Media Press Release group that you may be interested in.

Re: New Rules for Social Media Optimization

Lee Odden — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 12:23:12 -0000

Constantin, that's an excellent idea. Yes, I have the pw. Thanks!

Re: New Rules for Social Media Optimization

Lee Odden — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 16:41:12 -0000

Cameron, thank you. Yes it is exciting, I agree. I will send you the pw via email.

Igor, if you want quick help with some SMO on your blog, email me and we can take care of it.

Re: New Rules for Social Media Optimization

Lee Odden — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 07:36:28 -0000

Constantin, I added some initial content to the NewPR Wiki and also added the post by Emergence Media. This is a great thread!

Re: New Rules for Social Media Optimization

Lee Odden — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 17:00:35 -0000

Oh my. Sorry about that Rohit, it's now fixed.

Re: New Rules for Social Media Optimization

Lee Odden — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 21:42:11 -0000

Good point Rich. I was thinking the same thing about SEO in general. If you're not having fun doing it, you'll never get great at it and you'll never last.

Re: New Rules for Social Media Optimization

Lee Odden — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 08:22:50 -0000

Thanks Mike! I will certainly check that out. Hopefully I'll see you at the next Pubcon or maybe SES Chicago?

Re: Marketing Sherpa Search Marketing Survey

Lee Odden — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 06:52:28 -0000

Thanks Dave!

Re: Lend a Hand to BOTW Blog Directory

Lee Odden — Sun, 20 Aug 2006 12:06:34 -0000

I second Frank's comments!

Re: Spanking New Design for Online Marketing Blog

Lee Odden — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 09:55:52 -0000

Thanks Toby. We'll soon be making that tool available for everyone to use on their blog.

Re: Spanking New Design for Online Marketing Blog

Lee Odden — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 13:59:21 -0000

Thank you all for the nice comments! Thomas did a great job with the design and tools.

You're right Igor, there wasn't much warning. I just decided to do it early.

Thanks for the suggestion Martin. We will definitely implement.

Re: Spanking New Design for Online Marketing Blog

Lee Odden — Sun, 20 Aug 2006 12:08:26 -0000

Hey Jason, thanks for stopping by. I think you flatter yourself a bit here. I do not read your blog. I'm pretty sure my blog designer doesn't either. Thomas can chime in on his own on that if he wants. However I did check out your blog from the link in your comment and it appears you like to hate things.

I am happy to post links to the sites that DID inspire our new design in one way or another: www.seobook.com, www.copyblogger.com, www.davidnaylor.co.uk, www.linkbuildingblog.com, www.cartoonbarry.com, www.micropersuasion.com, www.shoemoney.com.

Jason, to infer that somehow your blog was used in any way as a reference to the new design of this blog, or even that they are "freakishly" similar is flat out laughable. But laughing is good so here's more info for readers:

We've used the black/red color scheme since 2002 starting with my company site, www.toprankresults.com. I've had a blog since Dec 2003, first at toprank.blogspot.com and now at toprankblog.com.

Does your blog and this one both use red/black in some way? Sure! And so do many others.

I suppose you think these blogs are also "too similar" to your blog?

http://blog.guykawasaki.com
http://www.instapundit.com

I don't think you've cornered the market on the color red for a blog header. I'm with Martin on this one, you've got to be kidding, or maybe you're just looking for something else to hate?

Re: Spanking New Design for Online Marketing Blog

Lee Odden — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 18:41:24 -0000

Chris, this is all your fault you know. It seems you started this whole Web 2.0 blog design thing, damn you. :) I would have been happy with our out-dated site but you had to go and make SEOBook and Patrick's blog/site look so good, I had to do something. Oh well, it's all for the better I think.

Re: Most Popular Blog Posts for OMB

Lee Odden — Mon, 21 Aug 2006 21:43:23 -0000

I think I might make a revised list that combines information based on traffic, RSS stats and page visit time to come up with a "best posts" list. Thanks for the tip Todd!

Re: Most Popular Blog Posts for OMB

Lee Odden — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 11:39:53 -0000

Balazs, that's an interesting point. Todd Malicoat helped make this distinction as well. I'll have to take a look at the past posts and make a list of what posts I feel personally are best, independent of site statistics.

Re: ClickTracks Merges Now Offers Services Including SEO

Lee Odden — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 15:51:50 -0000

From the information on the ClickTracks web site, it appears the SEO consulting and training they are offering is "basic" even though it is labeled a Premium service.

Since ClickTracks is becoming part of a family of marketing services/product companies, I suppose it makes sense from their perspective to offer basic SEO training and consulting. If they keep it basic, they probably can tackle simple SEO problems and not be subject to the routine fluctuations that occur with search ranking methodology.

But this only applies to the technical side of optimization. What about link building, viral marketing, creative content production and the up and coming "social media optimization"? Those are the programs best provided by full-time SEO experts and consulting agencies I think.

If the ClickTracks SEO service grows, I agree with you Igor, they should brand it as something else. Funny, I seem to recall Lycos starting SEO services a while back. How are they doing with that?

Re: ClickTracks Merges Now Offers Services Including SEO

Lee Odden — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 23:31:36 -0000

Thank you to Jamie O'Donnell from SEO PR for some additional insight into some of the details of this announcement.

Re: Marketing and Advertising Blog Network

Lee Odden — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 13:28:06 -0000

Sure thing Eric!

Re: Resources for New Media and Social Media PR

Lee Odden — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 00:34:41 -0000

Here's one I should add from Media Relations Blog:
"Social Media Press Releases"

Re: Resources for New Media and Social Media PR

Lee Odden — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 14:45:30 -0000

Thanks for the tip Phillippe, I will check out the portal.

Re: Resources for New Media and Social Media PR

Lee Odden — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 10:40:33 -0000

Great point Karl, I think they've not done their homework on that.

Here's a great explanation on the difference between "social marketing" and "social media marketing"

Re: Resources for New Media and Social Media PR

Lee Odden — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 23:15:19 -0000

Of course! Yes, indeed Brian, your blog should be on that list, I don't know how I missed it. I have been reading and you have obviously been instrumental in the new media release and hrelease effort.

Now, what can I do to convince you to get away from that blogspot url and using pr2point0.com as the "real" web address?

Best,
Lee

Re: Resources for New Media and Social Media PR

Lee Odden — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 12:54:16 -0000

Rachel, yes there is. Bulldog Reporter is holding the Media Relations Summit June 10-12 in Washington DC.
http://www.bulldogreporter.com/mr2007/

Re: Business Week Best of the Web

Lee Odden — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 10:56:08 -0000

Exactly, which is why you should write in your own!

Re: New Tools for Social Media Optimization

Lee Odden — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 11:08:06 -0000

Thanks for the feedback Joe. I like the idea of "Save to" and will pass that on to Thomas. The typo will get fixed asap.

Re: New Tools for Social Media Optimization

Lee Odden — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 10:36:35 -0000

Thanks for the heads up Nick, we'll check that out.

Re: Happy Blog Day

Lee Odden — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 18:33:28 -0000

Hey Mike, that is a good resource that a few folks I know are contributing to including: John Jantsch, Eric Ward, Tris Hussey and B.L. Ochman. Good call!

Re: Happy Blog Day

Lee Odden — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 18:43:54 -0000

Hey Barry, you're the real deal in my book. Am looking forward to your show on WebmasterRadio!

Re: Is SMO SPAM?

Lee Odden — Sat, 02 Sep 2006 09:45:09 -0000

Tony does make a good point - SMO can be a tricky thing and marketers need to be up front and relevant in what they are doing to market via social media.

Aaron, I think it's littering only if the result of the tactic doesn't help users' meet their needs. ie, find information, (text, audio, video) that they're looking for.

Re: Is SMO SPAM?

Lee Odden — Sat, 02 Sep 2006 12:42:37 -0000

Hi Tom, thanks for the comments.

The first iteration of this new design actually included a photo, but I thought I would try it without for a while and see if it would make a difference.

Soon we'll be using the customized HTML version of FeedBlitz for the RSS to Email subscribers of this blog and that will include a photo.

Who knows, maybe I'll add it back to the blog one of these days. :)

Re: Is SMO SPAM?

Lee Odden — Sat, 02 Sep 2006 17:50:48 -0000

Hey Aaron, you are correct in that I/we do consider keywords when tagging, linking, etc. No doubt about that.

I am biased, but I believe we have great content for users looking for info on these topics and the search engines are just rewarding our blog for those efforts.

Rohit coined the phrase but I don't think he spends as much time "doing" SMO and SEO as writing about it. I could be wrong too. He has an excellent blog and it has recently made my daily read along with Todd Defren's PR 2.0.

Re: Is SMO SPAM?

Lee Odden — Sun, 03 Sep 2006 13:38:01 -0000

Ooh, such a pessimistic perspective Jill! I doubt SMO will kill social media any more than SEO has killed search engines.

If there's money to be made, social media outlets will find ways to improve quality and combat SMO spam as the search engines have with search spam. There are no winners in that battle yet, but the channel hasn't died for users or advertisers either.

Re: Is SMO SPAM?

Lee Odden — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 11:01:30 -0000

Two years in internet time is a long ways out.

I'm betting social media is far more empowering for users than web sites, blogs or any other media online. For those companies that can figure it out, it is also a huge marketing opportunity.

Re: Is SMO SPAM?

Lee Odden — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 23:04:20 -0000

Hey Aaron, yeah I guess I'm getting more and more of that web 2.0 flavah as we explore and become proficient with marketing channels outside of straight search marketing.

Internet marketing continues to become multi facted and I don't think any one thing will ever be a silver bullet like SEO was in the nineties, but as new trends occur, it's worth exploring them for all they're worth.

Re: Is SMO SPAM?

Lee Odden — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 13:30:54 -0000

Not going to happen Singapore SEO!

Re: StumbleUpon Rocks

Lee Odden — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 19:12:45 -0000

Hey Jon, I checked out your web site - NICE design.

Re: StumbleUpon Rocks

Lee Odden — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 12:14:30 -0000

I'm with you on that Josh. Stumble Upon is more entertainment, than a "search for information" source. At least in it's current form.

Re: Reader Survey for Online Marketing Blog

Lee Odden — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 19:17:25 -0000

Thanks everyone for the comments, they are very much appreciate.

More cat posts, eh Greg? I've been steering away from that because I thought it would not be interesting, but maybe we'll have to sneak something in from time to time.

Post identity will be implemented, thanks Chris. Thomas has another blog he's been focusing on lately called BloggerDesign.com - be sure to check it out.

Re: Reader Survey for Online Marketing Blog

Lee Odden — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 00:02:36 -0000

Thanks Guys.

David W. have you added your SMO site to wikipedia or the New PR Wiki yet?

David B., hopefully we'll see you at the next ad:tech

Re: Reader Survey for Online Marketing Blog

Lee Odden — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 21:50:07 -0000

Thanks Char, thanks Igor!

Re: Reader Survey for Online Marketing Blog

Lee Odden — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 12:21:05 -0000

Steve, Daniel and Joe - thank you for your comments. Much appreciated!

Re: Fortune Covers MySpace and YouTube

Lee Odden — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 00:23:32 -0000

All I saw of Vegas was that pyramid casino from the window at my gate. A bachelor party sounds verrrry interesing Jonathan. Glad to hear you made it back alive. :)

Re: AllBusiness.com and Some San Francisco

Lee Odden — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 02:27:57 -0000

Nah, I didn't make it to Buba Gumps, but I did see the restaurant.

No matter where I go, I'm a sucker for steak so I ended up eating at Morton's that night. It was fantastic!

Re: AllBusiness.com and Some San Francisco

Lee Odden — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 20:59:43 -0000

Hey Robyn, That's pretty good traffic in such a short space of time! I've been stuck on YouTube as well.

Regarding the SEO vids, they will be posted on AllBusiness.com. Although, I encouraged them to post to YouTube and Google Video as well. I guess we'll see.

Re: SEM Certification

Lee Odden — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 18:22:16 -0000

But does a certification bring you any value? Or is it just a badge to wear?

Re: Danny Sullivan Does Pubcon

Lee Odden — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 14:35:34 -0000

I am glad to see you'll be attending Igor. I am speaking on the public relations panel and possibly one other about blogs and social media. Hopefully we'll run into each other.

Re: Danny Sullivan Does Pubcon

Lee Odden — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 18:11:51 -0000

Ha, I'm hard to miss and at the rate things are going I'll be an even bigger target by the time Vegas "rolls" around. ;)

Re: Marketing Sherpa 2007 SEM SEO Firm Buyers Guide

Lee Odden — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 14:32:11 -0000

They rated SEO companies the first year, maybe two but not since. This is only a listing of information on SEO companies organized in a way to make it easier for companies to find an agency. It's all self-reported info. Of that info, what is validated by Marketing Sherpa, I don't know.

Re: Marketing Sherpa 2007 SEM SEO Firm Buyers Guide

Lee Odden — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 18:10:39 -0000

You're right, the RFP process is a tricky thing because the really great SEO organizations and consultants out there are not going to chase business. Business is chasing them.

At the same time, companies need to have a good set of guidelines for selecting a vendor. As I am prone to do, my suggestion is something in the middle that enables the company to get qualitatitve information about SEO vendors while not scaring them away with too many questions.

Re: Marketing Sherpa 2007 SEM SEO Firm Buyers Guide

Lee Odden — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 09:57:38 -0000

It's called capitalism my friend, a concept you are well aware of.

Re: Marketing Sherpa 2007 SEM SEO Firm Buyers Guide

Lee Odden — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 13:43:12 -0000

I think that's a good question Aaron. The info on Marketing Sherpa's site just says, "Both Buyer's Guides have been 100% re-researched". But I know I didn't get any calls to verify any info.

I've emailed Marketing Sherpa to get a better response, which I think is warranted if people are paying for the guide.

Re: UnGoogle Your Marketing with Social Media

Lee Odden — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 15:39:05 -0000

Right on Jon. And that's why I have both a SEO firm and a PR agency. :)

Moshe, I think what you are describing is caled the wisdom of crowds. Allow users to make millions of individual editorial decisions and overlay some smart algorithms on top of that along with historical data and you might have the next generation search engine.

Re: UnGoogle Your Marketing with Social Media

Lee Odden — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 14:44:15 -0000

You bring up a good point Michelle and hopefully marketers will keep in mind that the best results from both a marketing and a user experience perspective will come from providing value. Exploiting social networks for short term gain will indeed degrade the overal experience. It will also shrink the user base of that network making it less of a resource for all.

It's not unlike press release distribution in that way. Sending out spammy press releases hurts the wire service credibility and those kinds of releases rarely generate any value for the marketer. Well written and compelling news gives the news wire credibility and also gets picked up by more media.

Same goes for interaction with social media.

Re: UnGoogle Your Marketing with Social Media

Lee Odden — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 14:45:51 -0000

If you really want to boil it down Dwight, it's just marketing. No successful business markets without a focus on ROI.

Re: UnGoogle Your Marketing with Social Media

Lee Odden — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 16:47:16 -0000

thatSEOguy, I have found search engine traffic to be better for conversions as well because the intent of a searcher on a regular search engine is typically focused on a particular outcome.

A visitor from a social media site is often less focused and motivated by entertainment, exploration or information rather than the solving of a particular problem.

Re: UnGoogle Your Marketing with Social Media

Lee Odden — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 22:47:40 -0000

Hey Buck, I have examples from our own efforts of using SMO for clients and our own sites. Most of the measurable outcomes are in the form of increased blog subscribers and incoming links, which as you likely know, possess traffic and ranking benefits. One client, who sells a book on his blog, doubled book sales for the month after one particularly nice run on digg and Stumble Upon.

Re: Search Engine and Social Media Blogs

Lee Odden — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 22:56:08 -0000

You bet Joe, you're putting out some great info.

Thanks for the suggestion Michelle, I'll be checking out your blog.

Re: Search Engine and Social Media Blogs

Lee Odden — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 13:51:43 -0000

No problem Amy and James. I think you're doing a great job. I just wish I had more time to read all the content on your site!

Re: Search Engine and Social Media Blogs

Lee Odden — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 06:55:09 -0000

Busy is a good thing Daniel! Keep up the great work.

Re: Search Engine and Social Media Blogs

Lee Odden — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 16:31:24 -0000

You bet Mike. I belive we sat next to each other a few times in the press room at SES San Jose. I was the one that was WAY overdressed. :)

Re: Link Building Advice from the Best

Lee Odden — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 11:11:24 -0000

Thanks Joshua. The position you're recruiting for should be an interesting search in the Twin Cities market. While you're conducting your search, feel free to get some local SEO help from TopRank. We do in-house training too. :)

BTW, the link in your blog post title isn't working. It should be this.

Re: Link Building Advice from the Best

Lee Odden — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 16:05:53 -0000

Hi Michael, I think variety is the spice of life for link building. Long term, link able content is great, but you have to build a distribution network for it to be effective. That comes from online/offline social networking, building an audience and channels such as syndication partnerships and a history with social bookmarking services.

Re: Wize.com Brings Collective Wisdom to Product Research

Lee Odden — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 22:14:53 -0000

Thank you for the heads up Steve. I was able to duplicate the situation you described and have passed it on to the Wize development team.

Re: Wize.com Brings Collective Wisdom to Product Research

Lee Odden — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 10:02:26 -0000

I think Wize has a definite advantage by being able to combine both expert and user reviews. Who knows how unbiased the "expert" reviews really are?

In the future, if Wize allows users to add their reviews to products on the wize.com site, I think it would go a long way towards building community as well as provide another source of data for Wize Rank.

Re: Be Geek Cool and Lose the WWW

Lee Odden — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 09:07:07 -0000

I suppose if more sites started using the non-www it would make anything using a sub-domain stand out. But I doubt that will happen any time soon. There's too much brand investment in the www version.

Re: Parasites in the SEO Biz

Lee Odden — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 18:21:52 -0000

Hey Tony, you caught me in one of my very rare "rants".

The people already in the search marketing business are actually a collection of the smartest, most innovative and collaborative bunch I've ever had the priveledge to work with.

It's the occasional entities that are outside of the search marketing industry that go about things in a parasitic way that gets me going.

As far as repackaging information, I'll certainly take a look at posting something more about that. Particulary on full vs partial feeds, full vs partial posts and limiting the amount of detailed how-to information.
I do think if you post something to the web, you've decided that it's open and available to all, so there shouldn't be any complaining (by me or others) if someone decides to create an AdSense site out of content grabbed from an RSS feed.

I don't have as much of a problem with that as I do when someone "legitimate" takes our content or tools and presents them as their own.

Thank you for the comment.

Re: Organic Versus Paid Search Results

Lee Odden — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 13:11:18 -0000

The announcement from WebSideStory makes no distinction that the websites included in the data were optimized or not.

There are nearly as many PPC campaigns that are poorly setup as there are web sites that are poorly optimized for organic results.

It would be interesting to see a study that specifically compares sites that are well optimzed for both in similar industry verticals. However, "well optimized" is a very subjective term.

Re: DMA Announces SEO SEM Certification

Lee Odden — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 10:44:11 -0000

David, you make a good point about who trains the trainers. I am not aware of the specific criteria the DMA used. What I do know is that each of the trainers are active with the DMA, have been in the search marketing business at least 8 years, some more than 10, are good public speakers, and all have already done this kind of training in other scenarios.

Being able to achieve great results with search marketing is one thing, being able to communicate that process to a wide audience is another.

I know many top notch SEO and SEM practitioners, many of them very well known in the industry and would not put them in front of an audience for any amount of money. And there are some speakers at industry conferences that are very charismatic but couldn't SEO their way out of a wet paper bag that I would never hire.

What the DMA is doing has not been done for search marketing by a major association. Companies are looking for a structured source of information about search marketing and the DMA aspires to offer a resource for that just like they offer certificatation for other disciplines.

We'll see how the program goes next month. There will be ups and downs but I think it's a good move for the industry.

Re: DMA Announces SEO SEM Certification

Lee Odden — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 11:11:40 -0000

Your point is very valid David and I think the use of the word "certification" has more to do with DMA standard practices with their other training programs than it does to try and create an exclusionary designation.

The focus audience for the program is in-house marketers and agencies, so I don't think it's something too many SEO-SEM only individuals/companies would be involved with. We'll see.

Hopefully it will be a step in the right direction at creating some structure and order to the often chaotic world of search marketing.

Re: DMA Announces SEO SEM Certification

Lee Odden — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 11:16:37 -0000

Thanks for your insight Bill. Agency-consultant and client communications is definitley important, in fact even MORE important with search marketing because there is so much disparate information out there. Setting exepectations is key with any marketing and especially with search marketing.

I'll take a look at your "reference search" post.

For the module I'll be doing on Search Engine Basics, I will do my best to provide the most up to date and accurate information I can. I am getting information directly from several of the 4 major search engines on this so it should be good. (I hope)

Re: DMA Announces SEO SEM Certification

Lee Odden — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 15:47:23 -0000

Tall Troll, see my comment:

"I think the use of the word

Re: DMA Announces SEO SEM Certification

Lee Odden — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 09:18:04 -0000

Thank you Bill for your very insightful comments.

I will absolutely pass them on to the DMA. I will also post information about the program as I get it and will certainly encourage the DMA to engage in the blogosphere conversations that are occurring as a result of this announcement.

Ultimately, it is up to them to do that in the midst of promoting the DMA06 conference which should attract around 30,000 attendees.

Re: Facebook Opens Up

Lee Odden — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 12:53:09 -0000

Thanks sebastians. One point Mark Zuckerberg made in his interview with Bambi Francisco was that Facebook was a collection of networks, not one big network and that you would only have access to those in the network you select for your self: university, regional or work. However, after spending a bit of time on the service, I'm not 100% sure that's the case.

I would expect the deal with Microsoft probably motivated the "opening up" of Facebook to some degree. More users = more advertising reach. On the surface, that's not good for users, but it depends how Facebook handles it.

Re: Business Wire to License PRWeb Platform

Lee Odden — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 16:13:26 -0000

I could tell you Mark, but then I'd have to..... :)

Who knows how newsforce.com plays into this situation?

Re: Happy 8th Birthday Google!

Lee Odden — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 08:59:39 -0000

It was fun being able to just pay Inktomi and Alta Vista for inclusion and see a brand new site get page one in two business days.

Nowadays you can get even more traffic from some well executed social bookmarking programs the same day a site launches. Who needs search engines?

Re: Future of the Internet Part II

Lee Odden — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 08:55:48 -0000

I think what would really be interesting is research on how networking on the web actually enhances real-world connections.

Re: All Your Google Base Are Belong to Us

Lee Odden — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 07:23:23 -0000

We all know your Quixote-like battle with spelling and grammar Thomas. That's what MS Word is for. :)

Re: Eric Ward Launches Link Building Newsletter

Lee Odden — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 13:17:08 -0000

Thanks for stopping by Fionn, hopefully I'll see you in Vegas next month.

Re: Jill Whalen Search Marketing Seminar Hits Dallas

Lee Odden — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 23:10:18 -0000

Hi Michael, I do not know of any attendees, but I do know the instructors. At least most of them and I would have no problem "vouching" that it would be a very worthwhile seminar to attend for small businesses that want to do their own SEO.

It's probably much more than an introduction but likely not an exploration of the "latest" tactics as this is a very white hat crowd that focuses on the tried and true methods of long term search marketing and best practice marketing/business principles in general.

Re: New Search Engine Marketing Scholarship

Lee Odden — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 15:29:10 -0000

Great idea Aaron, I wish you the best.

Re: Google SearchMash

Lee Odden — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 18:28:20 -0000

Anything is possible with Google.

Re: Blogger Relations 101

Lee Odden — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 15:41:26 -0000

Thanks Brian, your articles are an excellent contribution to the knowledge in this space. I have made the proper attribution thanks to your comment. Cheers!

Re: Blogger Relations 101

Lee Odden — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 18:28:13 -0000

Hey local guy, the blogspot I'm aware isn't a paid to blog service.

Thanks for stopping by Denise! I'm looking forward to reading those articles.

Glad it was useful Erica!

Re: Blogger Relations 101

Lee Odden — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 19:30:22 -0000

Thanks Ben K. You know what's amazing? I've been tracking blogger PR resources and articles for over a year and the bad pitching continues as much as it ever was. And you're right, it applies to mainstream media as well.

Re: Blogger Relations 101

Lee Odden — Sat, 07 Oct 2006 12:52:02 -0000

Thanks hobbithob, your article is very insightful. :)

Dwight, I appreciate your comments. Out of the new media press release initiative started by SHIFT my PR firm is developing some processes that repackage information and media for the sole goal of making it easier for journalists to do their job. Using our client as a reference of course. :)

Re: Blogger Relations 101

Lee Odden — Sun, 22 Oct 2006 21:40:18 -0000

Glad it was of use Rick.

Re: Blogger Relations 101

Lee Odden — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 10:26:41 -0000

It's great that you've written an article on the topic, but it's a bit outdated and difficult to find when searching on the topic at Google. Adding an anchor text link to this post isn't going to help though, because of nofollow.

Re: Must Have Directory Submissions

Lee Odden — Sun, 08 Oct 2006 13:36:43 -0000

Thanks Garry, I'll take a look.

Re: Must Have Directory Submissions

Lee Odden — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 11:25:12 -0000

Hey SEOsnafu, thanks for stopping by. FYI BOTW is indeed the oldest directory on the web. They started in 1994. Yahoo! was incorporated in 1995.

Re: When Will SEO Become Obsolete?

Lee Odden — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 18:35:42 -0000

Piper, Cameron: Exactly! "As long as there are web pages and links and search engine spidering, there will be a need for optimization of some sort."

Re: When Will SEO Become Obsolete?

Lee Odden — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 14:01:06 -0000

"There

Re: When Will SEO Become Obsolete?

Lee Odden — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 22:57:15 -0000

I appreciate all the comments, but more than appreciating the fact that there are so many people committed to the future of SEO, I am left wondering: "Did anyone actually read this post?

Contrary to some comments, I don't think SEO is going to die and the post says as much. This is actually a very interesting situation.

Note to self: Most people read blog post titles and go right to the comments without reading the full post.

Re: San Francisco to Boston

Lee Odden — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 15:15:12 -0000

It's a private event for McKesson, an $88bm healthcare services company.

Re: San Francisco to Boston

Lee Odden — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 22:29:08 -0000

Two comments in one day. Nice to see you around here Jill! I think Matt does his DMA class right after mine and then he's off to Dallas with you. You, Matt, Christine, Debra - sounds like a party to me.

Re: Search, PR and Social Media Blogs

Lee Odden — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 23:43:16 -0000

I know, I know. This cracks me up because guess who's blog I am reading right now? Yours. Well done.

Re: Search, PR and Social Media Blogs

Lee Odden — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 23:17:07 -0000

Cristian, you're such a pessimist. It may be a technique for you and others, but I make these lists because they really are new blogs added to my RSS reader. If I really needed links, I'd do something else far more productive. Nuf said.

Re: Search, PR and Social Media Blogs

Lee Odden — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 18:55:42 -0000

Yours is a must-read PR blog Todd. I wish I was able to attend the Future of PR event that you spoke at in NYC. I bet it went well.

Re: PRWeb Discontinues Free Press Releases

Lee Odden — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 10:30:29 -0000

Exactly! Getting rid of the free service will reduce the amount of spammy content getting distributed.

We haven't used the free option with PRWeb for several years so I think it only has a positive effect on companies that are serious about using PRWeb as a marketing tool.

Re: PRWeb Discontinues Free Press Releases

Lee Odden — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 18:28:41 -0000

Erica, Business Wire will be licensing PRWeb's platform, not developing their own. If you are thinking of the NewsForce optimization tool, that's an optimization tool that interfaces now or in the near future, with the regular Business Wire distribution service. They are not the same thing.

Re: PRWeb Discontinues Free Press Releases

Lee Odden — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 22:25:59 -0000

No, it's not PR, it's a tactic. Just like a press release that is not "optimized" is just a tactic. I mean, if you don't pitch journalists, sending out a press release by itself is like throwing spaghetti at the wall. It can get SEO benefits, but real PR benefits are often hit/miss.

It is interesting that the packages were named "SEO", but that is what's hot in the traditional PR industry. They're just catching on I guess.

Re: PRWeb Discontinues Free Press Releases

Lee Odden — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 22:38:23 -0000

Hi skore - That's great to hear. But as you point out it's not that common. There are so many factors involved, especially how newsworthy the announcement is in the release, how well it's written and timing. I think if people paid more attention to those things, they could squeeze out more media pickups. But if they add pitching, then the success rate goes WAY up.

Re: PRWeb Discontinues Free Press Releases

Lee Odden — Sat, 14 Oct 2006 10:46:10 -0000

Thanks skore, we're on the same page for sure. We absolutely value press releases and see results from their distribution. My PR group probably sends out 30 or more releases per month via PRWeb. Pricing changes do not affect us at all. In fact, over time, we continue to spend more and more on PRWeb.

What's cool about PRWeb is exactly the benefit you mention: Being able to creatively attract journalist. This is especially true with the social media aspects of PRWeb.

So I should qualify my previous statement and say that "routine" press release distribution is like throwing spaghetti. Creative and innovative distribution features like the new media press release format and social media features CAN get productive results.

Re: PRWeb Discontinues Free Press Releases

Lee Odden — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 08:24:30 -0000

Right Manoj, but one of the easiest ways to filter out low quality is to increase the price of entry. With the sheer volume of releases that PRWeb sends out, this is a logical first step. Also, the free releases did not offer much benefit anyway. Their only visibility was on the prweb.com site. They are/were not distributed or included in the feeds.

Re: PRWeb Discontinues Free Press Releases

Lee Odden — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 15:21:50 -0000

Robert, if ewordlwire is such a secret, I doubt anyone in the media assigns any more or less credibility to releases distributed through their service than any other including PR.com, PRWeb, PRLeap, PRZoom and many others.

Re: PRWeb Discontinues Free Press Releases

Lee Odden — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 16:47:34 -0000

Yeah, there's more than a couple PRWeb fans around here. :)

I first used PRWeb in 2000 and then really started using it again frequently in 2003 in combination with SEO campaigns. Now we send 15 - 40 releases per month.(for clients)

Without getting great results, we wouldn't be committing that kind of volume to any single wire service.

Re: PRWeb Discontinues Free Press Releases

Lee Odden — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 17:11:12 -0000

Unfortunately, I will not make it to the BBS. They contacted me to speak actually, but I never did connect with them. Say hi to Chris Pirillo and Dave Taylor for me though. :)

Re: DMA-06 SEM Certification Kickoff

Lee Odden — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 10:57:41 -0000

Dee, if you are a DMA member, you can sign up for the DMA Search Engine Marketing Certification Course.

Otherwise, be sure to visit SearchEngineWatch.com and monitor search marketing blogs at searchbrains.com for insight from industry experts.

Re: Interview with Chris Pirillo

Lee Odden — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 21:50:25 -0000

Yeah, with Chris it's hard not talk about social media with his blogging, podcasting and tag search engine. Thanks for the Digg Cristian!

Re: Online Public Relations and Blogs

Lee Odden — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 16:33:40 -0000

That is very impressive Eric. I think I'll follow up with you to get more details.

Re: Getting Listed in News Search Engines

Lee Odden — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 19:18:20 -0000

PRWeb offers something similar via their PRWebDirect.com service, but I am particular about the optimized release service offered by our firm since we promote the release via linking after it's been distributed and no major or minor wire service does that.

Re: Search Marketing Links 102206

Lee Odden — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 09:08:18 -0000

Thanks Dana, the link has been fixed.

Re: Incisive Media and Danny Sullivan Make Up

Lee Odden — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 19:19:24 -0000

With Danny on vacation it must have been a good deal all the same. It's certainly a good outcome for SES, but it looks like Danny plans on doing some of his own events as well.

Re: SalesForce.com and SEO Names

Lee Odden — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 18:33:46 -0000

Hi gigi, that's weird as I can still see the salesforce.com ads from here. I added screenshots to the post so you can see.

Re: SalesForce.com and SEO Names

Lee Odden — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 19:09:50 -0000

That is very nice of you to say Tamar, but I'm literally light years away. Am glad the info is useful though!

Re: SalesForce.com and SEO Names

Lee Odden — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 23:15:56 -0000

Jeremy, it would very much fall into the category of a compliment!

Thanks for the clarification Mark.

Incidentally, my company finally started using salesforce.com recently and we are very happy customers.

Re: SalesForce.com and SEO Names

Lee Odden — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 23:17:24 -0000

gigi, that does make sense. Google probably is not going to show the same ads to US based isp's as those in Europe.

Re: Keyword Glossaries and Conversions

Lee Odden — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 23:35:11 -0000

Maybe they do, maybe they don't. SEO is automatic.

Re: Keyword Glossaries and Conversions

Lee Odden — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 23:48:21 -0000

Aaron has a conspiracy theory sort of sense of humor, and likes to point things out.

Want to know what I like to rank for?
online marketing 265,000,000 serps, #5
marketing blog 141,000,000 serps, #1

Anything to do with "SEO" is just a game and not where the money is.

Re: Keyword Glossaries and Conversions

Lee Odden — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 23:54:30 -0000

I just checked inventory.overture.com as Aaron mentions for "SEO firm". Ewwwwwwww! Maybe I should mind what I anchor from now on with this blog.

Re: Today’s Search Marketing Blogs

Lee Odden — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 12:50:25 -0000

Hi Joe, there is supposedly a directory of them at this site: http://www.customsearchguide.com but I have not seen any new additions. You can submit your own CSE here: http://www.customsearchguide.com/show-suggest-cse

Re: Today’s Search Marketing Blogs

Lee Odden — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 10:47:30 -0000

Michael, I have added your blog to our SEO Blog Search Engine.

Doug, I will take a look but make no promises.

Re: Today’s Search Marketing Blogs

Lee Odden — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 21:01:46 -0000

Moshe, that's interesting because I was able to subscribe earlier this week. Dr. Garcia must have removed the auto discovery tag.

Re: Incompetence by Design

Lee Odden — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 21:42:53 -0000

I guess I should count myself lucky with the sheer volume of online transactions I am involved with from a business perspective besides personal. When it happens it's still annoying though.

Re: Spamming Social Media

Lee Odden — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 15:05:13 -0000

If nothing else, this was a good test to see if you read this blog Eric :)

As long as there is the myth of the quick fix or shortcut, yes I do agree that new services will attract no-good doers with visions of over manipulation returning free and easy benefits.

However, I still think that the social media communities will do a good job at self policing. Otherwise, their communities will die.

Re: Spamming Social Media

Lee Odden — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 17:00:58 -0000

Erwin, I do agree. A different platform, but many of the same dynamics.

Re: Spamming Social Media

Lee Odden — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 17:02:56 -0000

Why is it that people who are fantastic at link building offer the best compliments? :) You are too kind Eric.

"..to stop learning is to stop living."
Talk about hitting the nail on the head!

Re: Spamming Social Media

Lee Odden — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 20:41:26 -0000

Moshe, you make a very good point. I think part of the reason Digg encourages sharing of stories is to expand their user base. If you notify friends who are not Digg users, they are then presented with the option of registering so they can "vote" on the story you've shared with them. Very clever.

To get a story "Dugg" you must also pay attention to a well written post title and description. Short, sweet and compelling are important characteristics.

Another thing you can do is to add a Digg badge to your website or blog post. Once someone "Diggs" the page once, it will show the count and a link to allow anyone else (who is registered with Digg) to vote for the article.

There is no one solution to getting traction out of social news and bookmarking sites. But make not mistake, excellent content is #1 whether you have a network or not.

Re: Spamming Social Media

Lee Odden — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 07:48:29 -0000

Self promotion is noise only if there is no "real" substance to the information. At the same time, most social communities to not trust self reported stories, so companies (like mine) should do a better job at avoiding that temptation.

Re: Resources for BtoB RSS Marketing

Lee Odden — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 18:35:34 -0000

Good point Joe.

Not all websites should publish a RSS feed, but certainly any site that puts out information in the form of news, announcements, newsletters, press releases, FAQs, should consider a blog/RSS platform for managing that kind of content.

The easiest way to add RSS to a site would be to add a blog. Popular blog software includes:

3rd Party Hosted:
http://www.blogger.com
http://www.typepad.com
http://www.wordpress.com

Installed on Server:
http://www.wordpress.org
http://www.moveabletype.com

Otherwise, there are several HTML to RSS services and RSS creation and publishing services on the web.

Examples:

http://www.rsspad.com (free)
http://rss.icerocket.com (free)
http://www.press-feed.com (top rated)
http://www.feedforall.com

Of course, if you're into converting RSS to HTML, ie using RSS to automatically update your website, then this is the tool for you: http://www.geckotribe.com/rss/carp/

Wow, this comment pretty much became a blog post! Don't be surprised if you see another version of this posted soon. :)

Re: Search Marketing Links 102906

Lee Odden — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 18:41:55 -0000

Yeah, I agree Aaron. A blog is one if the easiest ways to add SEO friendly content to a site and attracting natural links via a link bait promo is very effective.

I was more referencing ideas/strategy like introducing huge numbers of pages of content: "Control content costs and make boatloads of average content."

Most regular business sites aren't in a position to do that sort of thing. Although, many would argue that the content found on most regular business sites is best characterized as "average".

Rock solid posts as always btw. I enjoy benefiting from your willingness to share. :)

Re: Is Yahoo Courting AOL Again?

Lee Odden — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 14:19:13 -0000

Panama is pretty new - I think that is their best chance outside of making acquisitions or being acquired.

Re: Top RSS Feed Readers

Lee Odden — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 16:11:31 -0000

Good point Adam. As popular as RSS is with the likes of us, there's a mass market out there of "unaware" RSS users that may resonate with the "save stuff, read stuff" capabilities of IE7.

Re: Top RSS Feed Readers

Lee Odden — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 16:22:44 -0000

Hey Matt, I was thinking the same thing. I see that you use Feedburner as well. How exactly is Google Reader represented in your Feedburner stats?

Re: Top RSS Feed Readers

Lee Odden — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 08:03:33 -0000

Cocoliso, put your cursor over the large, orange RSS button at the top right of the page. You'll see the various RSS readers displayed.

Re: Why Use Social Media With Your Press Release?

Lee Odden — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 00:48:08 -0000

Hi Garrett, in the case of Wize we created both traditional and social media press releases. We used PRWeb to distribute the traditional press release and then posted the keyword optimized social media press release as an HTML web page.

We also created an email pitch template and MS Word Doc template based on the social media format.

Re: Why Use Social Media With Your Press Release?

Lee Odden — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 10:13:05 -0000

Heh, I edited out the "spam" part of her comment Cristian. :)

Re: Why Use Social Media With Your Press Release?

Lee Odden — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 12:46:38 -0000

Hey Brian, no problem. Thank you for the inspiration to write the above post. There's going to be a lot more written about the compound value of optimized releases and social media news releases forthcoming. I will in fact, be speaking about this very topic at the WebmasterWorld Pubcon conference in Las Vegas Nov 14-17.

Re: Why Use Social Media With Your Press Release?

Lee Odden — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 10:49:34 -0000

David, one of the important reasons to use social media in press releases is for the audience. Delicious links are not for bookmarking in a press release, they are links to a collection of resources hosted at Delicious for journalists - to make it easier for them to write a story on the topic being pitched.

The microformats issue with news releases is something under discussion and development over at the New Media Release Group

Re: Why Use Social Media With Your Press Release?

Lee Odden — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 20:13:52 -0000

Good point Ed. Regarding Google and Korea, I wonder how much of it has to do with localization. It seems Google will be allocating more human resources to the region and perhaps nore feet on the ground will give them the insight they need to better compete.

Re: Why Use Social Media With Your Press Release?

Lee Odden — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 11:24:35 -0000

Jennifer, the links to Todd and Brian's sites will offer one perspective on the SMNR. If using it in conjunction with a pitch to bloggers, you would include a link to the SMNR within the pitch. The SMNR would provide the blogger additional resources with which to understand the story idea - images, audio, video, bookmarks to other resources, etc.

Some of the newswires support elements of the SMNR or the actual template from SHIFT.

We've found that a SMNR as a web page, or one page media center, can be very productive as a PR focused SEO tactic. Ranking well in the news and standard search engines for keywords related to the story can be instrumental in a pull PR strategy. Both consumers and journalists/bloggers pull themselves to your news through search.

Re: The Truth About Search Engine Optimization

Lee Odden — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 16:05:46 -0000

Hey guys, I am working on creating a webcast version of the presentation. I just finished giving the presentation and it went great. I am in the Visi Noc now - they were kind enough to give me access so I can connect to the internet.

Good suggestion Jeremy. I said nothing about how to hire us or find a SEO consultant during my first presentation. And received about 20 business cards after. I have another in 2 hours and might mention the fact that we can be hired to do consulting and we are also hiring SEO staff right now.

Joe, make sure you say hi!

Re: The Truth About Search Engine Optimization

Lee Odden — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 09:50:02 -0000

Hi Joe, it was nice meeting you as well. That tech glitch at the beginning was painful, but more painful for people in the audience!

Ira, I'm creating a webcast version of the presentation and am debating whether to make it available as-is or wait until the audio version is done. Regardless, I'll post to this blog when something is available.

Re: AllBusiness.com SEO Videos

Lee Odden — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 22:40:53 -0000

Thanks Hope, I agree about the commercials. They are redundant and I'll email AllBusiness about that but knowing how these things go, am pretty sure they are obligated.

Re: Blog Comment Policy

Lee Odden — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 14:28:31 -0000

Watch, I'll never get another comment again!

Re: Blog Comment Policy

Lee Odden — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 15:43:42 -0000

I reserve the right to make exceptions Aaron. Besides, I did mention that handles and nicknames are fine. SEOBuzzBox is one thing, but something like, "rain barrels viagra mesothelioma" is entirely different. :)

Re: Blog Comment Policy

Lee Odden — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 16:10:44 -0000

Hey Dave, I guess I could make a clarification in my policy that it does make a difference if I "know" the person and they consistently use a keyword rich handle everywhere they comment. You're fine.

It's the "buy viagra" "cialis" people that annoy me. Also people who have never commented before but load up on the keywords. It just looks bad.

Re: Pubcon Here We Come!

Lee Odden — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 10:22:51 -0000

Hey Paul, that was actually from a short video I did with Jolina and I think she was nervous. :) Search YouTube for her name or toprankresults and you can find short videos of some of our staff here at TopRank.

Re: Pubcon Here We Come!

Lee Odden — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 10:50:29 -0000

Hi Aimee, Pubcon is a very good conference and it would be great if you could come. Maybe you could get Pat or Bill to cough up the dough? Or you could have them just hire TopRank to bring a MN version of Pubcon to you! :)

Re: Pubcon Here We Come!

Lee Odden — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 17:28:45 -0000

Pigs are flying. Cats and dogs cavorting together.

Jolina actually posted a comment on this blog, hurray! I knew the Lee blog embargo couldn't last too much longer. :)

Who knows? Jolina might be playing the "roving reporter" bit while we're at Pubcon. :)

Re: Pubcon Here We Come!

Lee Odden — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 17:50:13 -0000

Horrific? I think you'll get some disagreement there. I've just captured a different screenshot from the video and uploaded. Hopefully you'll like that better. :)

Re: WordZe Keyword Research Tool

Lee Odden — Thu, 09 Nov 2006 20:14:54 -0000

Wordtracker is fine, but the data only comes from Dogpile and Metacrawler. WordZe also offers the WordRank tool for determining competitiveness. Regardless of that, I don't necessarily think WordZe is better than Wordtracker, Keyword Discovery or any other keyword research tool. They all vary in their options slightly and different tools appeal to different people. Personally, I use Keyword Discovery.

Re: PRWeb Podcast Rocks!

Lee Odden — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 13:57:58 -0000

Hey Igor, most of the podcast interviews are 5-10 min. You can contact PRWeb for more details.

Jon, the distribution for the $200 level is much greater than lower entry points including Yahoo News, Google News, inclusion in PRWeb's Google sitemap, Pheedo distribution network and eMediawire distribution.

The number of email addresses the release is sent to is determined by how many people have subscribed to the categories you designate when you schedule the distribution. Tens of thousands.

Re: Zippy: SEO Meta Search

Lee Odden — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 15:24:09 -0000

Hey Joe, we're on the same page. There's a link to the cool seo tool at the end of the above post. :)

Re: Zippy: SEO Meta Search

Lee Odden — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 16:09:33 -0000

Yeah, I should have been a little clearer in the first sentence of the post - Zippy is new to me, not new in general as several other SEO bloggers wrote about it earlier this year.

Re: Guy Kawasaki Needs Your Links

Lee Odden — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 19:34:45 -0000

Dave, that was a total goof. I was late for an interview when making this post and hit publish before adding a link.

Re: Pubcon 06 Feeds, Blogs, News, and Social Search

Lee Odden — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 10:25:25 -0000

Sure thing Rebecca. Be sure to check out Graywolf's blog. He's doing a great job covering the sessions he's attending.

Rand was in rare form at the Yahoo party last night but I won't post about that. :)

Re: Las Vegas Pubcon Yahoo Party

Lee Odden — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 18:59:00 -0000

Thanks Marc. That Chris Pierce track you put on the photo slide show is fantastic!

Re: Push Pull Public Relations and Social Media PR

Lee Odden — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 22:19:33 -0000

Hi Chris, I did see your post and you did an excellent job, thank you! If you'll be at Pubcon tomorrow, please say hi.

Peter, I appreciate the comments. Greg Jarboe echoed those sentiments in a short video interview I did with him right after the session this morning. I'll post that tomorrow.

Re: The New Land of Search with Danny Sullivan

Lee Odden — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 11:10:36 -0000

The new logos he's sporting may be an indication of the new design. Visit the site and vote for you favorite.

Re: Pubcon SEO Videos

Lee Odden — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 13:58:49 -0000

Thanks Aaron - I have 10 in all including Brett Tabke, Matt Cutts, Rand Fishkin and Todd Malicoat posting later today.

That WPN interview was interesting - but there's another one with Rand, Todd and myself via WPN that should be coming out soon and it's pretty good.

Re: New Matt Cutts Videos

Lee Odden — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 11:52:38 -0000

Most conferences do not allow any video of the sessions unless it's previously arranged. You'll just have to come to the next Pubcon and hear it in person.

Re: New Matt Cutts Videos

Lee Odden — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 17:56:08 -0000

For people who have listened to Danny and Dave's Daily Search Cast, I would clarify that I coordinated the above video with Matt before the conference and he talked to me about it at the Nine Fine Irishmen a few hours before we actually connected as he was leaving. Just wanted to clarify that I did not catch him randomly as he was walking through the casino. :)

Re: New Matt Cutts Videos

Lee Odden — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 14:56:48 -0000

SoSecret, you're outta here!

Re: New Matt Cutts Videos

Lee Odden — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 15:01:25 -0000

Hey Matt, thanks for your comments and sorry about the "rip" slant on this that seems to be floating around. Obviously if anyone watches the video they can see it for what it is.

Re: Giving Thanks

Lee Odden — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 10:57:25 -0000

Thanks Aaron - you do what you do very well!

Thanks Kim and Paul, I hope you had a great Turkey day!

Re: Giving Thanks

Lee Odden — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 11:40:41 -0000

It's funny you say that Shimon, because I've had this post in my queue for about 2 months!

Re: Marketing with Widgets – Interview with Lawrence Coburn

Lee Odden — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 09:59:25 -0000

Hi Allan,
I came across the Widgets Live event on Om's blog yesterday. I wish I could have attended.

You comment about long and short term makes sense for widgets as well as most marketing "tactics". Thank you for your comment - I am checking out KlipFolio now.

Re: Viral Marketing or Linkbaiting?

Lee Odden — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 11:55:18 -0000

I will check out Ben's site Abhilash. I recall him from Andy Beal's SEO article contest, ie linkbait promo. I also think it would be interesting to see what Rand, Andy, Todd and even Eric Ward would have to offer in the form of case studies. There's a lot of big media dollars that get turned on by that sort of thing.

Re: SES Chicago Social Media Optimization Panel

Lee Odden — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 11:47:19 -0000

Arnie, as far as companies encouraging their employees to bookmark pages, I think it only make sense if this activity serves a functional purpose. For example, having people in the public relations department bookmark media coverage. Just having employees bookmark pages on the company web site does not serve any practical purpose unless it's content that is worthwhile. Doing so only as a linking tactic would be SMO spam.

Re: One Super Proposal

Lee Odden — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 16:07:14 -0000

Hey Chris, you know that is a really good point. I mean, a proposal is important and everything, but $2 mil would indeed be better spent on the kids. Heck, even the $75k would be better spent on the hospital.

I don't think the intention is to really raise that much money, but to get the attention of advertisers whom JP can piggyback on.

Re: SoloSEO – Web-Based SEO Project Management Solution

Lee Odden — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 12:59:13 -0000

Nice review Thomas.

Check out other reviews of SoloSEO here.

Note to OMB readers: TopRank does NOT do paid reviews. Not that I have any problem with the concept, it's just not something we need to do on this site. All reviews are posted as a result of our own editorial decisions.

Re: Public Relations Spam and the Bad Pitch

Lee Odden — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 12:16:31 -0000

I've received a few emails from people asking "was it me?" in reference to this post. I should note that if I took issue with a particular company, specifically, I would actually name them in the post. Or at least be more specific so it would be easy to guess. However, many PR practitioners and web development agencies are involved with the sloppy practices mentioned above. It is not any one firm - Just a FYI.

Re: Public Relations Spam and the Bad Pitch

Lee Odden — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 18:51:08 -0000

Thanks Amanda, am glad to hear it's not just me thinking this. :)

Re: Click Fraud, Mafia and Terrorists

Lee Odden — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 01:31:27 -0000

Until more definitive information is available on this, I've decided not to post the video for now.

Re: Some SES Chicago Swag

Lee Odden — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 10:38:20 -0000

Actually, a link was a prize given away by SEOMoz at one of the after conference parties. Good idea!

Re: Some SES Chicago Swag

Lee Odden — Thu, 07 Dec 2006 13:48:07 -0000

Actually, "Netcomcepts" should be "Netconcepts" :)

Re: SES Chicago SEO Videos – Stacy Williams

Lee Odden — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 16:53:11 -0000

Great explanation and examples Richard and thanks for stopping by!

Re: SES Chicago Clicktracks Party

Lee Odden — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 15:33:48 -0000

I agree Joe, he's quite a guitar player. Here's a video of Chico Banks doing part of a Stevie Ray Vaughn cover.

Re: TopRank SES Chicago Wrap Up

Lee Odden — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 21:28:03 -0000

I missed that session Tim. You might try seroundtable.com, as Barry's team covered 3 times as many sessions as we did.

Re: Session: Social Media Optimization

Lee Odden — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 09:05:28 -0000

Good points John and I guess part of my question concerns to what degree the longevity of the channel is affected by the growth of sloppy manipulation.

I used to think, rather naively, that the q/a of the community and algorithms would be enough filter the crap from the good stuff. The past few months have been an eye opener.

Normal search engines seem to be handling it well enough, albeit not perfectly. Regardless of intention, if the community is served by marketers creating content, then I say full steam ahead.

Re: Wednesday Search News Links

Lee Odden — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 13:47:05 -0000

Just kidding with ya - it's a great post!

Re: 9rules Network

Lee Odden — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 19:14:51 -0000

Thanks Neil!

Re: 9rules Network

Lee Odden — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 19:45:06 -0000

Thanks Richard and congrats to you as well!

Re: 9rules Network

Lee Odden — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 00:52:16 -0000

Thank you Justin, Chad, Chris, Aaron, Mike and Igor!

Hey Mike, Shhh. Before someone from 9rules finds out. :)

Actually, I've already found several excellent blogs I am not sure I would have found otherwise via 9rules in the few hours I've been "in".

Think StumbleUpon, but a bit more selective and a smaller universe.

You've got me pegged as a marketer, that's for sure, and that means yes I will be posting information about the traffic effects after a few months.

Re: 9rules Network

Lee Odden — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 10:14:28 -0000

Hey Kyle, I messed up and copied text directly from the 9rules web site. There have actually been five rounds.

Thanks Joe!

Re: 5 Myths about SEO

Lee Odden — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 14:21:35 -0000

Thanks Tamar and you're right about web development. They keep SEO firms very busy.

I hear you Joe and knew I would be traveling down a well-worn path with this topic, but sometimes this stuff just comes out! Maybe it will be useful to a few folks as well.

Re: 5 Myths about SEO

Lee Odden — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 17:28:02 -0000

Hey Andy, for basic things like title and meta data, you can easily find numerous credible resources on the web to back up your advice.

You should also be able to tell stories about your experiences with previous clients and the results. And/or present cold, hard facts when you can - data travels miles for you if you're talking to that kind of person.

Re: 5 Myths about SEO

Lee Odden — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 10:20:44 -0000

Hey Igor, I guess I should have clarified about meta data. What I meant was, for people to not focus on adding keywords to title tags and meta tags and nothing else, then call the site optimized.

There is no doubt that title tags are very important and meta description tags, as you say, are definitely an influence regarding click through rates.

Re: 5 Myths about SEO

Lee Odden — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 10:41:28 -0000

Balazs, with PPC you can certainly see results in a week. It's advertising and you can turn it on/off at will.

With SEO, there are a lot more variables involved, like quality and quantity of links/content and also time. If a site is already an authority site for it's topic with high scores on quality, quantity and age, then minimal effort may be necessary in order to see results quickly.

However, that is not the case with most web sites. For example, no SEO can guarantee or predict how often Googlebot or SLURP are going to crawl a web site. If a SEO makes quality edits to a site's content, link structure, code, etc and secures a good number of quality inbound links, it might be 30+ days before the search engines detect and recognize those changes in a crawl. Submitting via Google Sitemap and Yahoo sitemap will not necessarily speed up crawl frequency either.

Even the tricks, like spamming guestbooks, blogs and forums and auto generating keyword optimized content from dictionary software take time to have an effect and certainly more than a week. Stay away from that stuff if you're in the lead and sales generation SEO business. It doesn't convert sales, it fills the engines with crap and you can get penalized.

Re: 5 Myths about SEO

Lee Odden — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 21:01:27 -0000

Hey pittfall,

In the post it doesn't say SEO is not a part of IT, rather it says that SEO is not a function of IT. That means SEO is driven by marketing or a business unit at a more strategic level.

IT is absolutely involved with SEO and is critical for proper implementation.

Re: 5 Myths about SEO

Lee Odden — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 13:30:06 -0000

Excellent point Dr. Garcia! I am surprised at how many of these myths persist, especially LSI related concepts, since they have been so adequately debunked by authoritative resources such as yourself.

Re: Friday SEO Blogs

Lee Odden — Sat, 16 Dec 2006 16:34:42 -0000

You bet Ian and thanks for stopping by! Be sure to check out the posts from ad:tech and SES on social media advertising as well. :)

Re: Blog Tag and Five Things You Don’t Know About Me

Lee Odden — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 11:42:56 -0000

Hey Ben, that's a tough one because there are so many. I'm a sucker for epics so movies like Braveheart, Titanic, Four Feathers, etc are always favorites but I also like edgier movies like those that Quenton Tarantino makes and also Sin City. Since I have kids I see a lot of kids movies and I really like Incredibles for some reason.

My original interest in movies started with Science Fiction/Fantasy but I haven't seen a lot that interests me there outside of the Star Wars and Lord of the Rings series'. What are some of your favorites?

Re: Blog Tag and Five Things You Don’t Know About Me

Lee Odden — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 23:29:58 -0000

Right on Ben, I hear you on the nostalgia. I used to watch vintage stuff on the movie channel when I had it. I may need to revist that I think because there's a lot of good stuff out there. For example, "It's a Wonderful Life" will never get boring for me.

Re: Interview with Andy Beal of Marketing Pilgrim

Lee Odden — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 09:07:02 -0000

Hi Richard, I think Andy was reacting to the Paternack's sweeping generalizations with another sweeping generalization.

It's too bad some of the vocal PPC and SEO proponents can't "get it" that clients are not served with a mutually exclusive mentality about paid and natural search.

Kevin Lee joined in yesterday in his ClickZ column referencing natural search marketers only as "SEO spammers". It's a self serving position and not client centric at all.

Re: The Lame PPC and SEO Debate

Lee Odden — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 10:27:22 -0000

Whatever happened to SMA NA? You never hear about them anymore.

Re: TopRank Moves to the Lake

Lee Odden — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 20:16:50 -0000

Thanks Cameron, it's been a fun adventure.

Nice of you to stop by Mike! I will say hi to Sue and happy holidays to you!

Re: TopRank Moves to the Lake

Lee Odden — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 22:44:12 -0000

Ha, thanks Andy. That's a good point actually, talented Minnesota based SEO/SEM talent is always welcome to inquire at TopRank!

Hi Kevin, as someone familiar with the area, you know how nice it can be here in the glimpse of a summer that we normally get. These days, summer seems to be extended a few months, all the better for a lake view office!

Cheers!

Re: The hypocrisy of digg and spam

Lee Odden — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 20:58:37 -0000

Hey Michael, I think it's fine that you blogged it because I agree - it's a big flaw in the digg system. There's no doubt it needs attention because if a "goody two shoes" site like mine can get hit, anyone can.

Re: The hypocrisy of digg and spam

Lee Odden — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 11:49:50 -0000

Hi Kim, your observation has pretty much been my experience. As much as I've written about my confidence in the social news community at being able to self police "real" spam, getting our domain name banned by digg is like standing up for a friend and then that friend stabs you in the back.

Apparently I've been a bit too optimistic. There are so many good things happening with digg, it's a sad reminder that despite the pretty wrapper, some things are rotten inside.

Re: The hypocrisy of digg and spam

Lee Odden — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 13:01:26 -0000

Kim, you are such a good person and I really appreciate your thoughts and actions on this. I've removed the digg badges from our site not so much to affect digg, but to avoid our readers from getting the "you cannot submit this story because the domain name has been banned" message.

The funny thing is that our social bookmark tool which includes a link to digg is in use by over 50,000 blogs. The amount of traffic/links that has created for digg's benefit is not trivial.

Thank you for your kind words!

Re: The hypocrisy of digg and spam

Lee Odden — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 21:27:15 -0000

JK87, hiding anonymously speaks volumes about you but there is entertainment value in replying to your spew.

This blog will get it's little 25-30k unique visitors with or without digg. That's not the issue.

The issue for me is when people try to submit a story they want to share with the digg community and get an error message "This domain name is banned from submissions" it sends an inaccurate message.

My complaint is not about being off of digg, its about someone else making that decision arbitrarily and digg support acting very much like DMOZ. And we all know where DMOZ ended up.

Re: The hypocrisy of digg and spam

Lee Odden — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 22:14:10 -0000

Hey Jill, I think we're thinking the same thing!

Re: The hypocrisy of digg and spam

Lee Odden — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 14:42:36 -0000

Hi Li, it may be that search marketers are paying closer attention. It is a social news site and if they choose to run it this way, that's their perogative.

I do wonder a bit though, if it's a symptom of growing pains or if they really think the current editorial and exclusion policy is the best way to go.

Thank you for your very kind comments on Search Engine Gurus!

Re: The hypocrisy of digg and spam

Lee Odden — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 14:27:14 -0000

Hi Adam, thank you for your comment and yes, I did see the post in LED. I see that Wired Magazine has a prediction in that it's over for digg in 2007. If their editorial and moderator process weeds out enough good content sources, that may very well happen. But not before the recent funding runs out. :)

Cheers!

Re: The hypocrisy of digg and spam

Lee Odden — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 15:26:04 -0000

Hi Chris, thanks for the nice comment. You are right, it doesn't affect my business. The main thing that bugs me is when people submit stories from our blog and get the "this domain on the banned submissions list" error message.

I might email digg again, but right now my focus is on our clients, training our team and trying to keep things interesting on this blog.

Cheers! :)

Re: The hypocrisy of digg and spam

Lee Odden — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 06:46:15 -0000

Oh we've taken the hint alright Gerard. We don't show any links to digg our stories and the super popular social bookmarks tool that over 40,000 blogs have used to date, no longer offers digg as one of it's options.

The digg community is as fickle as they get and if that's the kind of audience a marketer wants to reach, then I say go for it. Otherwise, there are plenty of other ways to attract high quality traffic and links with attractive effort to results ratios.

Re: Vote for your favorite search blogs

Lee Odden — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 22:46:43 -0000

Ha, it's PaintShopPro and istockphoto.com! Feel free. :)

Re: Pre Holiday Search Blogs Roundup

Lee Odden — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 15:21:19 -0000

I guess I should visit SEMmoz more often. Corrected.

Re: Pre Holiday Search Blogs Roundup

Lee Odden — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 16:54:16 -0000

Aw shit. It could be a typo and it could be this wireless keyboard running low on batteries. Sorry about that :)

Re: digg Spam Policy Roundup

Lee Odden — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 15:50:45 -0000

Yeah, not used a digg button on our blog to make it easy for "SEO" flavored stories to be submitted. digg users hate SEO.

Re: Happy Holidays from TopRank!

Lee Odden — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 23:50:21 -0000

Hey Jim, Happy Holidays to you as well! That was an ice sail boat you saw and it wasn't our deck. It was from the front door of our new office! :)

Dave, shhhhhh. Don't let the secret out.

Re: Playstation 3 Baby!

Lee Odden — Sun, 24 Dec 2006 13:45:22 -0000

Wow, that's quite a deal Michael. I picked up several animated kids shows in blu-ray plus a few action flicks. Am really looking forward to see how they work with my home theatre.

Re: Playstation 3 Baby!

Lee Odden — Tue, 26 Dec 2006 17:52:48 -0000

I finally watched a movie, MI3, in the PS3 last night and tried a game this am. They look great but I ran into a few bugs.

It turns out my TV only supports 760 dpi, not 1080. Also, there's no HDMI port on my Yamaha receiver, so the audio has to come through my TV because that does have HDMI input.

Without the surround sound system connected to the PS3, I'm missing out on a lot. I'm no AV guy, so I may have something mixed up but eventually I'll get it worked out.

Re: Playstation 3 Baby!

Lee Odden — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 09:57:50 -0000

I compared them both and the Wii looks like a Mac product. More cool than functional if you're into that sort of thing. :)

Re: Holistic SEO Strategy: Zone or Man to Man?

Lee Odden — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 13:53:23 -0000

Balazs, that is an excellent observation and I like the "portfolio management" perspective!

Re: Holistic SEO Strategy: Zone or Man to Man?

Lee Odden — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 18:46:36 -0000

Hey Corey, I would do well to run my sports analogies by someone who is actually an active sports fan in the future! :) Thanks for the excellent refinement.

Too bad there isn't a draft for SEO. TopRank is actively looking for multiple players to add to our championship team. At least they're champions to me. :)

Re: Happy Birthday Online Marketing Blog!

Lee Odden — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 23:54:25 -0000

Wow, I really appreciate such kind comments! Thank you Michael, David, Kim and Abhilash!

Re: Lowdown on Spamming Social Media

Lee Odden — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 13:11:02 -0000

Hey Chris, I was actually in a rush and that's not the right title. :(

Re: Lowdown on Spamming Social Media

Lee Odden — Fri, 29 Dec 2006 16:42:56 -0000

thatSEOguy, I don't think there's anyting new or particularly effective in the list of "how to's". The point is to shed some light on these tactics so companies know what to watch out for.

Re: Blogs Rock for SEO, SMO and PR

Lee Odden — Sat, 30 Dec 2006 20:38:55 -0000

Glen, Jason and Michael, those are great ideas and perspectives! There's a ton of ways to use blogs and it's encouraging to get other examples.

Dave, the deconstructed release information has to do with the social media release format. It breaks down the the release into bullet points of the most important information and also breaks out quotes that way as well.

Many journalists write stories based on a few "sound bites" or quotes, so providing them information in this way makes it easier (hopefully) to write the story.

Re: Must Read Search Marketing Blogs

Lee Odden — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 16:15:07 -0000

It is a lot of information. The OPML option allows you to start with a huge list and filter it out as you go. The reverse basically, of how it was built. :)

Like any list, there may be a few blogs that people have never heard of before that could bring some great info.

Re: Must Read Search Marketing Blogs

Lee Odden — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 18:13:07 -0000

Good tip Todd, thanks.

Ha, kid disco, that honor belongs to Bill!

Re: Must Read Search Marketing Blogs

Lee Odden — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 19:05:07 -0000

Hi Glen, you're in the queue. We post new blogs every Friday!

David, yes posting frequency is indeed a factor. We declined listing over 50 blogs because of no posts in the past 30 days or more. However, 2 weeks or more is a better indicator.

Re: Must Read Search Marketing Blogs

Lee Odden — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 08:14:19 -0000

Thanks for all the comments guys!

Re: Must Read Search Marketing Blogs

Lee Odden — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 11:30:38 -0000

Ha, thanks Brian and Chris. MUCH appreciated. :)

If you're in the mood, try #11 for the OMB at:
http://www.kbcafe.com/rss/?guid=20070102083807

Cheers!

Re: Must Read Search Marketing Blogs

Lee Odden — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 12:33:16 -0000

Ha, thanks David. Maybe I should call this the "anti digg linkbait" experiment! :)

Thanks Kate, Helen and Didier!

Re: Must Read Search Marketing Blogs

Lee Odden — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 15:20:02 -0000

Hey Alan, that is one heck of a blog roll you have there. It's a great one that's for sure, especially since OMB is there. :)

Eric, you can import the OPML file into your favorite RSS reader to automatically subscribe you to all 250 feeds.

Re: Must Read Search Marketing Blogs

Lee Odden — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 17:33:07 -0000

You bet Scott!

Hey everyone, we've hit the del.icio.us popular page!
http://del.icio.us/popular/

Thanks!

Re: Must Read Search Marketing Blogs

Lee Odden — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 17:12:20 -0000

Hey Joost, I noticed. :)

Re: Must Read Search Marketing Blogs

Lee Odden — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 17:18:41 -0000

Hey Scott, I am glad the list was useful. Can you send me the OPML file of your "tight list"? I'll share on our blog and cite you as the source of course. :)

Re: Reader Poll: Top Reasons to Let a Client Go

Lee Odden — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 09:17:20 -0000

I think up front due diligence, setting proper expectations, communication and account management are the most precursors to whether an agency/client relationship works out or not.

Char, you make a good point about responsiveness. In the search marketing industry, I've seen stats that say all SEO recommendations are NOT implemented by clients about 60% of the time. That's a huge number, but it doesn't dig into the details, like whether SEO recommendations are even possible or whether the cost of implementation outweighs the potential benefit.

Re: Search Marketing Blogs Update 010507

Lee Odden — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 16:09:31 -0000

Thanks Igor. The idea for the large list is to offer people a somewhat filtered list of resources to choose from. Am glad we made your top ten!

Re: Search Marketing Blogs Update 010507

Lee Odden — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 09:45:48 -0000

NP Stoney, I hope it sends a few visitors your way!

Re: ChaCha Search Engine Gets $6m Funding from Jeff Bezos and others

Lee Odden — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 19:05:41 -0000

I'm not sure about Wikia David.

Joe, I was thinking something similar, but more along the lines of the Go.com guides. Have you tried the guided search? I've only tried it once so far.

Re: Super Proposal Update

Lee Odden — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 14:32:40 -0000

Hey gigi, if they do, I will certainly post a link.

Re: Super Proposal Update

Lee Odden — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 22:55:30 -0000

I didn't see the proposal on the superbowl tonight. Granted, we were at a neighbor's house playing pool and darts at the same time as the game, I might have missed it.

Did anyone else see the "Super Proposal"?

Re: Super Proposal Update

Lee Odden — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 23:22:02 -0000

According to the mysuperproposal.com site, the commercial won't/didn't air during the super bowl, but will likely show in ifilm.com. Here are the commercials that DID show during the super bowl: http://www.ifilm.com/superbowl

Re: Reader Poll: Why blog?

Lee Odden — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 14:39:45 -0000

Michael, that's a good point about starting a blog for one reason and then evolving into another. I suppose part of the reason for this poll having a fixed number of options is to stimulate some conversation. :)

Thank you for your kind comments. I really appreciate that you're taking the time to visit and contribute!!

Re: Search Engines for Search Marketing Blogs

Lee Odden — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 23:31:51 -0000

Yeah, kinda like techmeme. That's what we're working towards with the SEM Blog list. I have a few ?'s offline for you via email.

Re: Search Engines for Search Marketing Blogs

Lee Odden — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 23:40:33 -0000

Whoah Michael, I just checked out Megite and the features are exactly what we're looking for. You rock all around the block pal. Thanks!

Re: Search Engines for Search Marketing Blogs

Lee Odden — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 08:55:08 -0000

Ok, Megite has pulled through already! Check it out: http://www.megite.com/toprankblog

Re: Search Engines for Search Marketing Blogs

Lee Odden — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 14:18:28 -0000

Swicki sounds great, except the form field for suggesting relevant sites is limited to 4,000 characters which only gets to the letter "M" in our list of 300 search marketing blogs.

http://search-marketing-blogs-swicki.eurekster....

Re: Search Engines for Search Marketing Blogs

Lee Odden — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 17:33:41 -0000

Hi David, it's weird - your site was included in the very first list we published but was somehow omitted in an iterative release. It's been added back in!

Re: TopRank Holiday Party

Lee Odden — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 13:18:55 -0000

Hey Jill, it was 12 to 22 people at the party, not employees. :)

However, our staff has more than doubled since last year from 6 to 13 and we're still hiring for a full time SEO, web analytics specialist and a few part time positions.

Re: Martin Luther King Day

Lee Odden — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 09:13:47 -0000

Ha, just giving you a little grief pal. :)

Re: SEO Benefits from Blogs

Lee Odden — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 18:48:06 -0000

Hey Wayne, thanks for the comments. I think you missed an important part of the post, "Online Marketing Blog receives the majority of it

Re: SEO Benefits from Blogs

Lee Odden — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 19:26:21 -0000

Right on Barry. Blogs don't have to be "blogs" do they? Slog is interesting - seems more like a verb though. :)

Re: SEO Benefits from Blogs

Lee Odden — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 11:10:39 -0000

That's a great example Michael! The great thing is that in time, you should be getting great visibility on both blog search engines and regular engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN.

Re: SEO Benefits from Blogs

Lee Odden — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 14:59:37 -0000

Hi Carla, feel free to link away.

Re: SEO Benefits from Blogs

Lee Odden — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 18:54:57 -0000

Jane, you're asking an age-old blogging question.

Your web site is pretty straight forward and as a writer, having your site setup with blog software might do a better job representing your skills and messaging than a regular web site.

If you keep your site using Dreamweaver, then add Wordpress to the same server so your blog address is a sub directory: yourdomainname.co.uk/blog

Re: Search Marketing News 011607

Lee Odden — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 09:18:17 -0000

Online Marketing Blog was missing too until I contacted Todd and provided our stats. The list is focused mostly on marketing and Public Relations, both online and offline.

seomoz, seobook and other SEO blogs rarely touch on offline marketing or topics outside of search marketing. However, I doubt they'd be turned away if Rand and Aaron made the effort to contact Todd and provide site info.

Re: SEO: Rocket Science or Colonoscopy?

Lee Odden — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 10:59:25 -0000

Hah, I swear I did a copy/paste! Fixed.

Re: SEO: Rocket Science or Colonoscopy?

Lee Odden — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 15:56:13 -0000

It's an entertaining look at the debate about SEO and PPC. But since it wasn't clear, I'll direct you to the more helpful point: "There are pros and cons as well as right and wrong reasons for using SEO, PPC or both. They

Re: Panama Geo-Targeting Update

Lee Odden — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 12:40:10 -0000

Thanks for the update Marty

Re: Google Cartoon

Lee Odden — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 16:57:48 -0000

Exactly! Hmmm. Now I just need to find a cartoonist who "gets" SEO.

Re: Top 5 Ways SEO Agencies and Clients Piss Each Other Off

Lee Odden — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 16:19:07 -0000

Good one David. Setting expectations and then providing strong reinforcement is critical, especially for SEO since it can take varying amounts of time to see results. Unfortunately, I think a lot of companies see SEO as a form of direct response or advertising and associate time frames that are not realistic.

Re: Top 5 Ways SEO Agencies and Clients Piss Each Other Off

Lee Odden — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 17:29:31 -0000

This can be avoided by being very, very clear about setting expectations up front. Besides, you can generate great traffic in the short term with optimized releases, social media and link bait without having to use PPC.

Re: Top 5 Ways SEO Agencies and Clients Piss Each Other Off

Lee Odden — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 23:22:33 -0000

Oooh, Adam that's a good one. Bad, but a good example. In my opinion, clients should never go with SEO firms that require (as in it's a deal breaker) hosting of anything.

There are times when it is convenient for both the client and the agency to host certain content like landing pages, but this MUST be outlined in the agreement and the client MUST have full access regardless of payment status.

At the same time, the agency and the client agreement has to be crystal clear about objectives, expectations, time frames and consequences. Anything less than that is clearly unprofessional.

Re: Top 5 Ways SEO Agencies and Clients Piss Each Other Off

Lee Odden — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 09:44:12 -0000

Good points Steve. Due diligence is not only necessary on the part of the client evaluating SEO firms, but also appropriate for the agency when considering new clients. This is especially true when you've built up a strong brand - you don't want to bring that effort down by working with someone who does not reflect your ethics or business standards. Same goes for clients as they select agencies.

Re: Top 5 Ways SEO Agencies and Clients Piss Each Other Off

Lee Odden — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 09:49:54 -0000

BTW, yesterday I had a situation worth sharing. A conference call with a very large client who had some of their other vendors in on the call.

One of the people from the other vendor thought herself pretty smart with SEO and started throwing out questions to show how important she was.

Things like, "How does the HITS algorithm factor into this strategy?" and, "What affect will the Google Florida update have on the link building tactics?". I nearly fell off my chair. Old, outdated and irrelevant for the most part, these questions did nothing but confuse our client and waste the time of everyone else on the call.

One more thing to add to the due diligence column: Get a list of all conf call participants and the reason they are on the call along with permission to mute them if they start to waste everyone's time. Our consulting fees are not cheap and I hate to see a client's time wasted like this.

[end rant]

Re: Reader Poll: What makes you love your SEO job?

Lee Odden — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 18:05:20 -0000

Hmmm. Something to think about!

Re: Digg Funnels and Made for Digg Sites

Lee Odden — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 10:34:10 -0000

Do you mean any "list" blog post?

I would agree many of those are intended for digg. And yet, while this blog can no longer "play" on digg, we continue to create "list" posts.

Re: Social Bookmark Tool Updated

Lee Odden — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 14:32:54 -0000

Hi Jim,
Based on our RSS stats, the top 5 aggregators are:
. Bloglines
. Netvibes
. NewsGator
. Firefox live bookmarks
. MyYahoo

As far as bookmarking tools, I'd say it really depends on the content since many bookmark services are niche. However here are 5 I can share with you:

. del.icio.us
. digg.com
. Netscape.com
. reddit.com
. stumbleupon.com

I hope that helps!

Re: Lawyers Cost Money But SEO is Free?

Lee Odden — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 10:42:37 -0000

I'm not upset Peter, but it seemed like something worth sharing. One thing I did not mention in my post was that the fellow I talked to was rather cocky and a bit arrogant.

Re: Lawyers Cost Money But SEO is Free?

Lee Odden — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 18:21:06 -0000

Dave, that is an extreme example and having initial meetings by phone or in person are considered normal costs of the sale. If someone isn't hungry enough to meet or talk to your CEO, then they don't deserve the business.

However, if meeting the CEO means flying to Hawaii for a blind meeting knowing you're competing against 5 other firms, then it's a toss up depending how "in need" the agency is for new biz, and how good a fit the client's project would be.

I handle 2-5 inquiries for our services via phone on average PER DAY. I've been in this business for over 10 years. There have been hundreds if not over a 1000 conversations where I've provided information and in many cases, education about SEO to prospective clients.

The situation I describe in the post is different because the guy expected me to provide expertise for free and be thankful for it. He was referred to me by two very reputatble people and I had to consider that as well.

These happen every week - I just decided to blog this one because it was convenient.

Re: Lawyers Cost Money But SEO is Free?

Lee Odden — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 19:11:47 -0000

That's great advice Scott!

Re: Lawyers Cost Money But SEO is Free?

Lee Odden — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 17:37:48 -0000

"I think the amount of education you provide is directly proportional to how much you want the business."

John, on my most optimistic day I could not agree with that comment. A big part of consulting is education/information. Giving a large amount of your expertise away doesn't mean you want the business, it means your desperate for it.

The attorney I spoke with was very clear: He wanted expertise for free.

Re: Lawyers Cost Money But SEO is Free?

Lee Odden — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 17:56:26 -0000

Thanks for the clarification John. What you're suggesting makes sense and I agree.

Something I didn't mention in the post was that this Attorney wanted information about how companies are using competitor brands in PPC campaigns as well as mechanics about Google AdWords. This would be fairly easy to explain on the phone but he wanted to meet in person. It just wasn't a worthwhile situation.

Re: Lawyers Cost Money But SEO is Free?

Lee Odden — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 19:10:18 -0000

Thanks for the comment Mike. You hit it right on the head.

Re: Lawyers Cost Money But SEO is Free?

Lee Odden — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 19:00:52 -0000

You should be embarrassed kameko with sweeping generalizations like that. Your logic can easily be applied to any industry but that's often what people do who don't bother to take the time to learn or understand the facts.

Re: Lessons Learned About Blogging

Lee Odden — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 17:44:04 -0000

Hey Banana, you obviously missed the Blogs for SEO post.

Re: Good SEO Humor

Lee Odden — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 13:29:59 -0000

Yeah, I agree it's time to put this to bed.

Re: Good SEO Humor

Lee Odden — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 20:21:15 -0000

Dave and his partner know exactly what they're doing. It's even funnier when you think about it: A company that used to use spammy optimization tactics that is now doing PPC starts to bash overall SEO. With a frog as a company mascot no less!

Thanks for stopping by Meg :)

Re: Good SEO Humor

Lee Odden — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 17:32:58 -0000

I just read that Dustin, very good metaphor. :)

Re: SEO Secrets for Better Public Relations

Lee Odden — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 17:53:47 -0000

Hey Blake, I believe a copy of the audio conference is sent to the people who sign up. Otherwise, I don't think there will be a transcript.

Re: Yahoo Adds Quality Index to Search Marketing Ads

Lee Odden — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 11:16:55 -0000

tech mentat, I was wondering about the same thing. For example, Google uses landing page information as part of their quality score and it doesn't look like Yahoo will in this most recent update. I will check with my Yahoo contacts for more info.

Re: Yahoo Adds Quality Index to Search Marketing Ads

Lee Odden — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 11:43:48 -0000

Hi Simon, I'm not sure about that. I would assume advertisers could see the info as soon as they upgrade. Maybe Yahoo is not acting on the quality index information until Feb 5, but showing it now.

Re: Yahoo Adds Quality Index to Search Marketing Ads

Lee Odden — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 14:58:44 -0000

That's a good question Carrie. It was my understanding that you had to opt in for your ads to be shown on YPN sites. It shouldn't happen automatically. Or did you opt in at one time and now you can't get out?

Re: Recommendations for Collaboration Software

Lee Odden — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 10:32:48 -0000

Thanks Richard, we'll check those out.

Re: Recommendations for Collaboration Software

Lee Odden — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 16:55:08 -0000

Great feedback everyone it's very much appreciated. I suspect there are others in a similar situation out there as well. When we make our decision I'll try to post about it.

Re: The Lowdown on Web Designers and SEO

Lee Odden — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 17:31:36 -0000

Thanks Peter, I agree it's a synergy that works best. That's why we have both creative/technical design as well as creative /technical SEO people on staff.

Drew, you make a good point. The people I see coming out of school now are more savvy, but the needs of SEO are often far outside the boundaries of what is reasonable to expect from a web designer no matter how good they are at code SEO. It's good that more people on the interactive side are gaining more SEO knowledge though. It helps A LOT when we don't have to battle with the web team on the on-site and code related SEO recommendations.

Re: The Lowdown on Web Designers and SEO

Lee Odden — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 19:49:09 -0000

Hey Patrick, I have a feeling there's more available to you than you know. I'll email you offline.

Re: Content vs Links

Lee Odden — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 12:39:54 -0000

Good point Chris and I agree. It's not just content you need though, it's content worth linking to. :)

Re: SEMPO Board of Directors Nominees

Lee Odden — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 11:36:19 -0000

Not a nominee, but infamous none the less. He's actually selling t-shirts now.

Re: Google Adds Wikipedia to OneBox Results

Lee Odden — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 09:28:55 -0000

Joost, can you try again because your second comment made it through.

Re: Google Adds Wikipedia to OneBox Results

Lee Odden — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 09:31:32 -0000

Hey kid disco, when I've tried this before, it didn't work for me.

Re: Blog Credibility and Ads

Lee Odden — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 10:55:39 -0000

I am in agreement, ads that are overly obtrusive don't help with credibility. For example, blogs that place AdSense or YPN ads right at the top or often in the body take away from any quality content. The thing is, those kinds of blogs don't often consist of quality content.

In a way, best practices for AdSense and YPN ads are often at odds with presenting an image of credibility. Having a defined area for ads makes sense as well as targeted/relevant ads.

Re: Blog Credibility and Ads

Lee Odden — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 16:57:28 -0000

Hey Todd, just so no one misses out, here's the text from your first comment:

Does the ad money really make up for the inevitable loss of credibility?

That's the million dollar question - most folks just run a blog to archive information, or communicate with clients, prospects, and cohorts.

I've experimented with adsense on two occassions - and the $2 per day certainly wasn't worth the detracted credibility of having "submit to 1000 search engine ads" on my site.

I think 125's are a good way to go - and may eventually do it myself as a revenue stream. It will still detract from my credibility somewhat (it's a tradeoff - we all have our price whether you admit it or not) - Most notably it detracts from my non-biased credibility in discussions of THE ADVERTISERS products.

Re: Blog Credibility and Ads

Lee Odden — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 11:28:14 -0000

I am not interested in recording "no opinion" Matt, hence the absence of "neither".

Re: Blog Credibility and Ads

Lee Odden — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 12:49:59 -0000

Wwell put Dan. I agree that execution has everything to do with whether ads take away or add credibility. If a blog is already well known and read, I don't think adding ads will enhance it though. I think the opportunity to build credibility through ads is more applicable to a new blog as you mentioned in the college professor example.

Re: Blog Credibility and Ads

Lee Odden — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 17:50:14 -0000

Hey Kim, I suspect there must be a lot of poor ad implementations going by the poll numbers above. Andy and Danny do a very good job with their ads as does Barry because there's a defined area for them and they mesh well with the design.

As far as blogs about a hobby with ads, I can related. I made one about a new car I bought two summers ago and the AdSense revenue has paid for the car. The site is ugly on purpose so visitors click on the ads!

Re: SEO for Newbies

Lee Odden — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 14:25:04 -0000

Mr SEO, that's a great idea but rather or, in addition to explaining the basics, a holistic representation of search marketing in general would be quite helpful.

As for SEO fundamentals, Rand wrote up a very nice resource last year.

Re: SEO for Newbies

Lee Odden — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 20:05:30 -0000

Hi Mario, thanks for stopping by! I am honored that you would choose to use that description. :)

Re: SEO for Newbies

Lee Odden — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 09:06:47 -0000

Wow, what a great group of insights! It's great to know there are so many smart people reading this blog. :) It certainly sets the bar higher.

Dharmesh, the ppc and advertising example is one I use as well. In fact, Scottie Claiborne wrote an article several years ago comparing PPC to Advertising and SEO to Public Relations. I've been using that example ever since.

Re: SEO for Newbies

Lee Odden — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 18:41:47 -0000

Dave, Chris, Andy and Mark - thanks so much for contributing to this thread! I think many of this blog's readers are getting a lot of benefit from the different perspectives shared here.

SEO analogies: Building a home, a successful salesman(person), and this is classic, "(SEO is)like throwing some words in the air and hoping that somebody who is interested picks them up."

Re: No Blog? Missed Opportunity

Lee Odden — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 12:11:59 -0000

Good point Drew. I think the other thing companies looking at blogs need to consider is to retain a consultant on an ongoing basis to reinforce blog activity. Even if the client I mentioned above had a blog, they would have missed the opportunity to engage the threads of discussion that are happening.

Re: No Blog? Missed Opportunity

Lee Odden — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 13:59:17 -0000

Hey Ganesh, sorry I don't recall. This blog keeps me busy enough, but thanks and best of luck.

Re: Finding a Search Engine Optimization Company

Lee Odden — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 15:09:52 -0000

All lists like this are flawed in one way or another. This list is not necessarily in order of value or importance. Some people find such resources helpful. However, I prefer referrals myself.

Re: Finding a Search Engine Optimization Company

Lee Odden — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 12:42:16 -0000

The most important lists to be included on include no payment and involve the most scrutiny.

It is probably more important for SEO consultants that are starting to make a name for themselves to be included in such lists. For those that are already known, their absence may be conspicuous, so it's just part of the marketing game to be included.

I can say being included in Marketing Sherpa's book has been very beneficial to our firm.

Re: Interview with MyBlogLog CEO Scott Rafer

Lee Odden — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 10:05:28 -0000

Hey Connie, thanks for stopping by!

I wish I could have gotten more, but as you can imaging, Scott is really pressed for time these days. In fact, he was going to wait until 2 weeks from now to do the interview, but then fired off the above on short notice and after a little pleading from me. :)

I think it speaks volumes about a company when the CEO is that responsive.

Re: Interview with MyBlogLog CEO Scott Rafer

Lee Odden — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 13:16:45 -0000

Hey Steve, not spammy at all! Thanks for the link.

Re: Interview with MyBlogLog CEO Scott Rafer

Lee Odden — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 14:20:48 -0000

Hello Francois, and thank you for that clarification. I have updated the post.

Re: Search Marketing Blogs Update 020207

Lee Odden — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 15:42:49 -0000

Ha, thanks Skitzzo, so much for my "detective work".

Re: Search Marketing Blogs Update 020207

Lee Odden — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 17:59:15 -0000

Hey Matt, that's an interesting story but it's not a search marketing story. :)

Re: Search Marketing Blogs Update 020207

Lee Odden — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 11:15:53 -0000

Hi Baron and Eli, I enjoy both of your blogs and I'm glad we can share them.

Re: National Pork Board Needs to Back Off

Lee Odden — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 19:39:35 -0000

Update: Apparently the NPB has backed off to some degree and Jenn is talking with them on a mutual resolution.

Re: Down but not out and lessons learned

Lee Odden — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 18:49:14 -0000

Sheesh. It sucks being a target.

Funny thing is, I think we both moved to the same host. If it's good enough for Matt Cutts and Todd, it's good enough for me. :)

Re: TopRank News, Interviews and Upcoming Speaking Events

Lee Odden — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 15:43:29 -0000

Hey Joe, that's part of what other people are paying $1300 for, so I doubt the details will get posted online. However, if you're interested in the post that inspired this session, visit, "UnGoogle Your Marketing with Social Media"

Re: Reader Poll: Blogger’s Block

Lee Odden — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 11:23:19 -0000

Great ideas Wade. In fact, we've turned the first suggestion you've made into a link bait effort that has paid off in spades called the Big list of search marketing blogs.

Hey st0n3y, that's a great idea. I know Aaron Wall does that often too with books he's read.

Re: Reader Poll: Blogger’s Block

Lee Odden — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 11:31:42 -0000

Hey Andy, we took off the math thingy 'cause it was messing with one of the plugins or widgets.

I actually saw a math captcha on another blog that had two or three steps. Add, subtract then multiply. Maybe we should start using world problems!

Re: Reader Poll: Blogger’s Block

Lee Odden — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 14:47:27 -0000

Hey Kim, I know what you mean. Sometimes that well of inspiration is dry and sometimes it's overflowing. When in doubt, write about good things others are doing in the industry.

Re: How Social Media Impacts Search Engine Marketing

Lee Odden — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 13:32:53 -0000

Thanks Justin!

Re: Wednesday Search Industry Links 021407

Lee Odden — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 17:19:41 -0000

Hi Daniel, getting tips from a variety of people is a clever idea and is something I've been thinking of doing - but haven't yet. :)

Re: Wednesday Search Industry Links 021407

Lee Odden — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 10:58:27 -0000

Oops. That was a typo - sorry about that. Post fixed.

Re: The Power of Social Media, Blogs and Online PR

Lee Odden — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 18:20:27 -0000

Balazs, there are a lot of commercials which I noted in the post. However, it's easy to just skip over them with Windows Media player.

Re: Social Media Mashup Tools

Lee Odden — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 15:21:58 -0000

DEBEDb, thanks for the link. This Stalin and High Tech video is hilarious!

Re: Sourcing Content for Business Blogs

Lee Odden — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 19:46:45 -0000

That's the whole point DofAm, to cultivate interesting content. However one person's junk is another's treasure so it would take some testing to see what works. Also, this isn't theory, it's in practice.

Re: SEO Training: Small is the New Big

Lee Odden — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 12:40:12 -0000

I should note that Elite Retreat is geared more towards publisher SEO than SEO consulting for clients. Although there is a lot of crossover knowledge.

The High Rankings seminar is geared towards client side marketers as well as consultants that provide SEO services to internal/external clients.

Re: SEO Training: Small is the New Big

Lee Odden — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 21:28:04 -0000

There will be more of these from agency side marketers, but what would be really cool is something from client side marketers ala marketing sherpa's email event, except not marketing sherpa.

Re: Reader Poll: Social Media Usage

Lee Odden — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 06:13:41 -0000

I agree that social bookmarking sites are skewed by overzealous marketers, but there's still a lot of value. As far as digg goes, I visit from time to time for entertainment value, not for news.

Barry, you're right this isn't comprehensive as I've indicated in the post. If have some specific sites examples for the types you've listed, that would be great.

Re: Most Popular Blog Posts vs RSS

Lee Odden — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 18:04:42 -0000

Hey Chris, thanks for the comment. I'm not sure how I feel about getting stories that are not top-notch submitted anywhere.

We're not doing anything to make it easy for people to submit this site to digg.

I guess it doesn't really matter since I have no interest in promoting this site any differently than we've been doing for the past 2 months.

Re: Most Popular Blog Posts vs RSS

Lee Odden — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 19:39:32 -0000

To OMB readers: If you submit anything from this blog to digg, the haters will just bury it, so please don't bother.

Re: Search Marketing Blogs Update 022307

Lee Odden — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 18:05:14 -0000

You bet Ahmed, I'm glad I ran into your blog. :)

Re: Search Marketing Blogs Update 022307

Lee Odden — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 18:45:58 -0000

Hi Shane I will certainly do that.

NP Scott, am glad to have found the site.

Re: 5 Tips for Content Distribution Networks

Lee Odden — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 14:55:08 -0000

Thanks Adam, I appreciate your comments, especially "unified marketing with search as a distinct component".

Aw, Ed! There you go making sense again. :)

Re: Reader Poll: Best SEO SEM Conferences

Lee Odden — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 16:59:45 -0000

You're right Stoney, such is the limitation of the polling plugin we're using for this blog. :)

I agree, Pubcon is a great value and SES offers another perspective and set of networking opportunities.

Re: Playing Blog Favorites on Technorati

Lee Odden — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 12:18:51 -0000

Thanks Simon!

Thanks Drew!

Re: Playing Blog Favorites on Technorati

Lee Odden — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 14:39:57 -0000

Nathania and Mike, we will take a look at your sites but do not favorite or link us unless you would do so independently.

Re: Playing Blog Favorites on Technorati

Lee Odden — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 14:41:18 -0000

Also, thank you to everyone who's voted we're now in the 90's on the Technorati top "Favorited" blogs. Also, we'll be doing our normal weekly search marketing blogs update on Friday.

Re: Playing Blog Favorites on Technorati

Lee Odden — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 15:08:13 -0000

Thanks ISB! Hey Aaron, thanks!

Re: Playing Blog Favorites on Technorati

Lee Odden — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 16:04:16 -0000

Nathania, yes this post is asking for votes/favorites but only from people that really think the blog is worthy. Not everyone knows about Technorati favorites.

How do you know your blog was not in our queue to review?

There's no double standard here. I have no interest in link exchanges and do not add any blogs to our list unless we feel they pass some very simple criteria.

Complaining isn't going to help.

Re: Playing Blog Favorites on Technorati

Lee Odden — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 16:06:56 -0000

Hi Mary-Louise, you're welcome! And I regret not being able to see Guy play hockey while he was here in Minneapolis. :)

Re: Playing Blog Favorites on Technorati

Lee Odden — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 22:41:13 -0000

Thanks Patrick, I appreciate that! I hope you're enjoying the snow. :)

Re: Playing Blog Favorites on Technorati

Lee Odden — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 22:44:28 -0000

Thanks for stopping by Guy - anything that involves beer and hockey seems like a great mix to me :)

Re: Playing Blog Favorites on Technorati

Lee Odden — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 22:45:16 -0000

Thanks Kevin! There are two lists: "Favorites" and "Popular". We are 90-something on the "Favorites" list and 263 or so on the "Popular" list. A lot of the links for the popular list come from people using our RSS button tool on their blog.

BTW, you're in our queue for review on the Search Marketing Blogs list update either this Fri or next.

Re: Playing Blog Favorites on Technorati

Lee Odden — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 07:27:20 -0000

Hey Tom, am looking forward to seeing semreportcard.com

Re: Playing Blog Favorites on Technorati

Lee Odden — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 09:38:36 -0000

Thank you to everyone who thought this blog was worth favoriting! It's now ranked at 92!

Re: Big Old Snowstorm in Minneapolis

Lee Odden — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 08:39:59 -0000

Lots of shoveling last night (I refuse to buy a snow blower) and as I look outside at the mountain of snow at the end of the driveway from the snow plow, I am actually looking forward to more shoveling. Strange, very strange.

Re: Big Old Snowstorm in Minneapolis

Lee Odden — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 14:07:39 -0000

The snowbanks on the sides of our driveway are about 5' on one side and over 6' on the other. Good workout!

Re: Big Old Snowstorm in Minneapolis

Lee Odden — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 09:48:41 -0000

Ha, the snowplow clipped my mailbox (2nd year in a row).

Re: Search Marketing Blogs Update 030207

Lee Odden — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 13:41:07 -0000

You bet Patrick, you've done quite a job with your blog so far!

Re: Search Marketing Blogs Update 030207

Lee Odden — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 13:49:08 -0000

Aaron, you crack me up. If I notice the blog in the ways mentioned above, we'll certainly take a look.

Re: Search Marketing Blogs Update 030207

Lee Odden — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 09:35:49 -0000

Hey Irish and Kevin, you're welcome! Also, thanks for the heads up on Joe Whyte's link. It's been fixed.

Lior, your blog isn't really about SEO or PPC. I'll watch for a few weeks though.

Re: Press Releases as Marketing Tools

Lee Odden — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 16:03:23 -0000

Hey Drew, sometimes we'll do a bit of work with article submission services, but for the most part, content distribution via press releases and RSS is most effecive.

Re: Press Releases as Marketing Tools

Lee Odden — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 22:39:20 -0000

Most wire services allow links within the release. They may not be anchor text links, but you can post the full url.

Re: Press Releases as Marketing Tools

Lee Odden — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 10:48:56 -0000

Thank you everyone for the kind comments I am glad this post/article is useful.

If this topic is of interest, I should note that my public relations firm publishes another blog specifically about online PR and media relations at Media Relations Blog.

Re: Press Releases as Marketing Tools

Lee Odden — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 22:02:03 -0000

Dorothy, that must have been a pretty niche concept that claimed the number one spot. Free release services do not typically add much long term value in that way. The real benefit from press release SEO is short term in the news search engines and long term in the links from pickups.

Re: Press Releases as Marketing Tools

Lee Odden — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 17:35:40 -0000

Katy, I'll take your colleague's advice with the same credibility as I take my plumber's advice on auto repair. :)

Reporters have relied on unsolicited pitches since email has existed and before that it was via fax and before that it was via courier or by snail mail.

A poorly crafted and irrelevant pitch is what annoys reporters, not all pitches. Otherwise, they'd have a hard time meeting deadlines with new story ideas.

Tell John Waddy I said hello.

Re: Reader Poll: Best Forums for Search Marketing Tips

Lee Odden — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 11:24:47 -0000

Bill (and Kim) - A big OOOPS on my part! I totally meant to include Cre8asite forums - it was a gross oversight on my part.

Re: Reader Poll: Best Forums for Search Marketing Tips

Lee Odden — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 08:55:45 -0000

Hey Rynert, adding Cre8asite forums now wouldn't make any sense since so many people have already voted.

Omitting Cea8asite forums was absolutely unintentional and is a consequence of a rushed blog post. I am happy to see enthusiasts for Cea8asite and SEORefugee or any other forms show their support in the comments.

Clearly, we need a comprehensive list of SEO forums as has been suggested. I think a Google custom search engine on such a list would provide an interesting and useful resource.

Thank you to everyone who voted and commented!

Re: Reader Poll: Best Forums for Search Marketing Tips

Lee Odden — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 17:57:20 -0000

Hey Rynert, I'm probably not that creative and certainly not that desperate for visitors to omit Crea8asite Forums intentionally. :)

It looks like despite the inclusion in the actuall poll, Crea8asite and SEORefugee are very well represented!!

Re: Reader Poll: Best Forums for Search Marketing Tips

Lee Odden — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 11:23:48 -0000

Good point Halfdeck. I had actually considered Google's Webmaster Help but it's a group or a discussion thread more than a straightout forum. I will actually be doing a poll next week about those including SEM 2.0, SearchReturn, etc.

Re: Reader Poll: Best Forums for Search Marketing Tips

Lee Odden — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 14:29:20 -0000

It's interesting how much a few posts asking for help with votes can sway the results!

Re: Reader Poll: Best Forums for Search Marketing Tips

Lee Odden — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 16:14:55 -0000

It's kind of interesting as we've been running polls on Wednesdays for a month or more and no other topic has attracted this much attention.

We may need to find another tool for conducting polls.

Re: Search Marketing Blogs Update 030907

Lee Odden — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 20:26:40 -0000

Hi Solomon, the big list has been updated. Thanks!

Re: Search Marketing Blogs Update 030907

Lee Odden — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 08:41:48 -0000

Hey Dan, your blog must be THAT good! Consider it a bonus exposure. :)

Re: Optimizing Business Communications for Search

Lee Odden — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 07:20:13 -0000

Exactly! Thanks Daniel. SEO can be as basic or as sophisticated as the organization's marketing problems to be solved. There will still be a place for textbook SEO, but the results from integrated and cross channel campaigns are too significant for most organizations to ignore.

Re: Optimizing Business Communications for Search

Lee Odden — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 18:58:23 -0000

Kamau, it's a simple cost benefit analysis. The benefit of being easy to find far outweighs the cost of changing best practices to use keywords in corporate messaging.

Re: Optimizing Business Communications for Search

Lee Odden — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 19:02:10 -0000

Adam, I agree that too many companies over-rely on SEO for marketing. Due to the many "enthusiasts" and potential results, some businesses might make the mistake of putting too many eggs in one basket. The smart thing to do is to leverage existing activities for the benefit of SEO as a cross channel strategy.

Re: The Cost of No SEO Migration Plan

Lee Odden — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 09:22:12 -0000

Amazingly, I had not read of the topix.net to topix.com situation or Danny's detailed observations at Search Engine Land until this morning.

I agree Michael, that Google Webmaster Central is an exceptionally useful tool for such situations.

Jack, it's amazing so many web developers ignore the dual audiences for web sites. You'd think the usability people would chime in in these types of situations.

Re: The Cost of No SEO Migration Plan

Lee Odden — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 00:00:53 -0000

Ha, clearly Steve, you're not "advanced". What SEO book are you talking about? Oh, right. You're not. You're just ranting about some personal issue with SEO.

Broken links from a site update equals lost revenue. Period. That's broken despite all the good things about the site and a prominent site SEO and web admin team should know better. But they obviously don't.

I'm tired of web developers justifying lazy, sloppy work with ignorant statements.

Re: The Cost of No SEO Migration Plan

Lee Odden — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 00:33:47 -0000

<sigh> it's not a book Steveo, it's a blog post, which you would know if you clicked through.</sigh>

Re: The Cost of No SEO Migration Plan

Lee Odden — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 15:53:22 -0000

Klaus, speculation is free and anyone can do it.

A user clicking on a link to find an article about a specific topic and hitting a 404 not found page is no more likely to click on a FedEx ad than they are to click the back button.

Re: Reader Poll: Best SEM Email Discussion Lists

Lee Odden — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 11:22:06 -0000

One thing this poll proves is that subscribers of SEM 2.0 certainly don't read this blog. LED Digest readers, WOW!

Re: Bloggers Faceoff Interview Rand and Lee

Lee Odden — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 11:56:17 -0000

Ha, trust me Daniel, it won't be that way for long. :)

Re: Bloggers Faceoff Interview Rand and Lee

Lee Odden — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 14:46:55 -0000

Yeah, the answers were edited down to fit in the little boxes, so not all the info is there. It would have been different if our answers were completely different I think.

Re: Bloggers Faceoff Interview Rand and Lee

Lee Odden — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 14:53:35 -0000

Hey Daniel, Aaron is a "glass half empty" kinda guy, so no worries. I think it's an interesting way to do an interview.

Re: Bloggers Faceoff Interview Rand and Lee

Lee Odden — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 08:08:04 -0000

Thanks Drew, I appreciate the comments.

Re: Legacy SEO Clients

Lee Odden — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 10:46:54 -0000

Great feed back Stoney, thanks. No matter what, we're running a business, not a charity so profitability is high on importance. I think there's a balance possible too.

Jim, you and I are totally on the same page.

Re: Legacy SEO Clients

Lee Odden — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 00:28:06 -0000

Scott, you are right about the upsell situation. And it's an upsell in the interest of serving the client as well. The legacy client situation can be avoided when there is a proper plan in place with account management, but as mentioned in the post, it can happen that a few slip by.

Re: Legacy SEO Clients

Lee Odden — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 00:33:18 -0000

Those are good points Janet. This is a situation with 7-8 year old clients. How many SEO firms are in that situation? I think the crux of this issue is that it is completely avoidable in the first place, which is why we've allocated more than double the staff and resources to account management than we did 3 or more years ago.

Re: High Rankings SEM Seminar Photos

Lee Odden — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 21:52:35 -0000

Thanks Jill, it was fun being involved. I was lucky to have been able to work it out to be at two conferences in two days in two different cities. I probably won't try that again soon. :)

Re: High Rankings SEM Seminar Photos

Lee Odden — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 15:28:02 -0000

Hi Nicole, am glad you liked the event. I do wish I could have been there for the networking as well. We'll have to schedule a MIMASM get together in the next few weeks.

Re: Bulldog Reporter Advanced PR Tech Chicago

Lee Odden — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 18:51:13 -0000

Blogs on the brain - oh yeah. I think you're right!

Re: Bulldog Reporter Advanced PR Tech Chicago

Lee Odden — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 19:36:20 -0000

Thanks for the link Katie. I hope the event in Dubai went well.

Re: Bulldog Reporter Advanced PR Tech Chicago

Lee Odden — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 15:17:27 -0000

Hi Shel, Thanks for the link to your presentation! It was great seeing you speak finally and I hope to meet you at a future conference.

Re: Bulldog Reporter Advanced PR Tech Chicago

Lee Odden — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 03:45:59 -0000

Hi Debbie, it was great meeting you as well. The conference here in Sydney wrapped up today and now I'm looking forward to exploring more of Sydney. The people in Sydney have been absolutely great!

Re: Monday Online Marketing Links

Lee Odden — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 17:20:57 -0000

Hey Wayne, I guess that's true of online media overall - the move towards niche.

Re: Search Engine Room Photos

Lee Odden — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 17:54:37 -0000

Hi Michael, I am glad you found the conference useful. Martin Kelly did a great job putting things together. Frank wasn't "really" sleeping during my session though. :) Thanks for taking those photos, because Sue forgot to do that during the blogging session. Cheers!

Re: Search Engine Room Photos

Lee Odden — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 10:33:28 -0000

Hey Shor, thanks for the feedback. It was a good event and I definitely enjoyed some time in Sydney.

Re: Search Engine Room Wrap Up

Lee Odden — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 08:19:22 -0000

Hi Sue, thank you for clarifying. Our experience here in Australia has been fantastic both professionally and personally.

Re: Search Engine Room Wrap Up

Lee Odden — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 19:33:18 -0000

Hi Drew, no I won't be writing about creating web 2.0 sites per se as we don't do web dev at our agency. However, we will have some "tips" posts coming up about optimizing Flash and other single page based sites.

"Chris" is Chris Dymock from Cogentis http://www.cogentis.com.au/

Re: 5 Reasons to Attend Search Engine Strategies NYC

Lee Odden — Fri, 23 Mar 2007 18:12:39 -0000

Hi Andrew, I'll be doing some blogging, but not the full meal deal. I'll leave that to Barry, Ben, Chris and Tamar at Search Engine Roundtable. I may be speaking at this one as well.

Re: 5 Reasons to Attend Search Engine Strategies NYC

Lee Odden — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 18:01:57 -0000

Hi John, please do say hello. I am speaking on day 3 on the Social Bookmarks panel.

Re: Basics of Online Reputation Management

Lee Odden — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 13:56:44 -0000

Hi Amy, that is an interesting situation you mention. I am not sure if surfing the web via proxy would work either. Those types of sites would have to be monitored from outside the company network via a vendor or tracking service.

Re: Basics of Online Reputation Management

Lee Odden — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 13:59:00 -0000

GL, that's a good example from a PR and real world perspective, especially with the extended coverage in the NYT and WP.

Re: Basics of Online Reputation Management

Lee Odden — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 05:02:35 -0000

Hi Paul, my post is a summary of a presentation I gave last week at a search marketing conference in Australia.

If you really want to get great practical info on the subject, check out Andy Beals writings on the subject over at MarketingPilgrim.com

Re: Basics of Online Reputation Management

Lee Odden — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 13:48:44 -0000

Stephanie, what's happened in your situation is that someone else's search results reputation problem has become yours because of the similar brand names.

You would do well to implement online reputation management tactics that would displace any negative search results whether they are relevant to you specifically or the other site.

Re: Getting Screwed by Your Hosting Company

Lee Odden — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 11:42:42 -0000

Hi Nick, we're at different hosts. I picked the same host that Matt Cutts from Google uses. :)

I'm all for paying more for hosting, in fact, I might even entertain a tradeout with the right hosting company.

Re: Getting Screwed by Your Hosting Company

Lee Odden — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 14:10:27 -0000

Hey Tamar, That is a good idea, but I've decided we're going for a dedicated server.

This blog has become pretty important to our overall marketing and I don't want to mess around with shared hosting any longer.

Now the question is whether we stay with the current host or move to someone local that can support our needs.

Re: Getting Screwed by Your Hosting Company

Lee Odden — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 15:14:38 -0000

Interestingly enough, since making this blog post, the speed of our site load time has reached a slow crawl....

Re: Getting Screwed by Your Hosting Company

Lee Odden — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 06:18:59 -0000

Hi Michael, yes it's a bit odd but I guess there were quite a few people using our RSS images.

When we decide how we're going to proceed, I'll certainly publish it.

Re: Getting Screwed by Your Hosting Company

Lee Odden — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 04:29:15 -0000

I hear you Bill, but this hasn't all panned out 100% yet. First, the current host just informed me that they've moved our blog to a dedicated server with no change in the monthly fee - temporarily. They didn't ask, they just moved it.

Actually they asked if we wanted to upgrade to a $200 - $300 per month option. This is a big jump from what we're paying now so I had to think about it.

Then they said they were moving us. They didn't ask. They just moved the site. Luckily, there was no interruption in service or functionality of the site.

After the move, the site responds very quickly both on the front and admin side. There is no doubt performance has improved dramatically. However, I am not sure if that all has to do with the change in servers.

Thomas implemented the hotlink protection so other sites can no longer use our images. This was the source of our traffic woes.

Now we have other hosting companies offering to host our blog for free. On a dedicated server. With support.

Kinda makes you go hmmmm.

Re: Extra Notes on SES New York and Discount Code

Lee Odden — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 04:57:27 -0000

Thanks David. I consider a high level of link building. :)

Re: Extra Notes on SES New York and Discount Code

Lee Odden — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 18:05:18 -0000

Hi Kim, found out I'm speaking last week so I guess I'm going! I am looking forward to ACTUALLY meeting you. :)

Re: Extra Notes on SES New York and Discount Code

Lee Odden — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 16:22:51 -0000

Hey Chris, thanks. I will be doing some sessions along with some recapping. I also plan on doing more video interviews along with tons of photos.

Re: Reader Poll: Top Non Search Engine Marketing Channels

Lee Odden — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 11:29:55 -0000

Ah yes, shopping sites. Just goes to show you my personal bias towards B2B marketing. :) Thanks for the suggestion.

Re: Reader Poll: Top Non Search Engine Marketing Channels

Lee Odden — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 16:46:33 -0000

Hi Jeff, press releases are actually there. And not votes either!

Re: Reader Poll: Top Non Search Engine Marketing Channels

Lee Odden — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 16:52:59 -0000

Another one that's missing is web site awards. Winning something like a Web Award from the Web Marketing Association or the Webby's can certainly drive traffic, albeit probably not more than all the others on the list.

Re: Reader Poll: Top Non Search Engine Marketing Channels

Lee Odden — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 17:54:23 -0000

Right on Andy, excellent! I was going to include viral marketing but didn't for some reason. Thanks for keeping me in check.

Re: Reader Poll: Top Non Search Engine Marketing Channels

Lee Odden — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 11:15:57 -0000

French, many companies have been very successful at driving traffic to their web site through offline channels such as TV, Radio and print advertisements.

Re: RSS Buttons for Your Blog

Lee Odden — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 09:14:52 -0000

Solomon, the Chicklet Creator and the RSS Button tool are pretty much the same thing. Both were made by TopRank's Thomas McMahon.

Re: RSS Buttons for Your Blog

Lee Odden — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 11:14:00 -0000

We've been creating the separate page of RSS readers manually. One of the important benefits of our RSS button maker is that it doesn't send readers to a third party web site.

Re: Getting Hacked as Link Bait

Lee Odden — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 10:16:19 -0000

I see. Well, the link has been removed from your comment if that's what you mean.

Re: Getting Hacked as Link Bait

Lee Odden — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 11:02:06 -0000

Ha, I didn't REALLY look at the credits until now. If those references are what I think they are, it's hilarious. I don't know all of them, but see references to Danny Sullivan, Dax Herrera, Dave Naylor, Earl Grey, Rand Fishkin, Jeremy Shoemaker, Phillip Lessen and Robert Scoble maybe?

Re: Getting Hacked as Link Bait

Lee Odden — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 18:21:32 -0000

Ha, this is pretty good. I sent Matt an email early this morning about his site being hacked and then realized it wasn't and sent another "you got me" email. He didn't rub it in in his reply - being the nice guy that he is. That's what I get for blogging things early Sunday mornings. :)

Re: Sunday Night TopRank Roundup

Lee Odden — Sun, 01 Apr 2007 22:30:06 -0000

Ha Jeremy, compared to me, 30 is definitely still young. :)

Re: Link Bait vs Digg Bait

Lee Odden — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 11:28:23 -0000

Hey Andy, I do think they can work together and there's no doubt that the spike in visibility is beneficial. At the same time, I think we agree that it's worth noting their differences in order to get the most return for effort from link building.

Brian, quality content without sensationalism making Digg's home page is certainly possible, but not the norm. Heck, even legit stories sneak their way into the National Enquirer once in a while. :)

Re: Link Bait vs Digg Bait

Lee Odden — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 13:38:50 -0000

mblair, I think you're right on with the notion of customization according to the audience. That's straight marketing, something many SMO's and SEO's lose sight of when they get too caught up in the "latest" tactics.

Re: Crowdsourcing This Way Cometh

Lee Odden — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 13:36:20 -0000

I think it would be a good move for SE's to consider such activities when considering the value of links from social media sites. The same thing happened with press release distribution services.

Brian, I agree with you. I do think editorial will come 'round again in some kind of hybrid of social and editorial format.

Re: Crowdsourcing This Way Cometh

Lee Odden — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 16:37:36 -0000

That's a good point Michael. When things like S&P; rears it's ugly head you can be sure it's only the tip of the iceberg in terms of what's really going on.

Heavier editorial involvement seems to be the way to go.

Re: Reader Poll: Non SEO Services for SEO Clients

Lee Odden — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 13:52:56 -0000

Actually, I consider analytics to be part of SEO as I do much of web design and copywriting which is why those items are not on the list.

That is, unless you're talking about creating your own analytics software.

Re: Reader Poll: Non SEO Services for SEO Clients

Lee Odden — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 17:55:05 -0000

Which further supports the importance of analytics as a part of SEO.

Re: Five Reasons Why I Blog

Lee Odden — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 19:59:40 -0000

Hey Glen, consider yourself tagged!

Re: Five Reasons Why I Blog

Lee Odden — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 07:37:53 -0000

Hi Michael, that's very cool - thank you.

Re: Social Media Marketing – Get it Straight

Lee Odden — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 10:44:41 -0000

Satollo, that's a great idea. If there's a market need, you have an opportunity to capitalize on it.

Re: Social Media Marketing – Get it Straight

Lee Odden — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 15:03:14 -0000

Hey Cameron, thanks for your input and I agree, it is the attractiveness of results and "link-centricity" that draws search marketers to those specific social media sites.

I also agree that many search marketers are so deep into their discipline and niche that they do not realize how much social media marketing is going on using networks such as YouTube and MySpace.

While I am as guilty as anyone for historically propagating a narrow focus on SMO/SMM, the reality is, social media link bait aka "Digg Bait" is a tactic, not a strategy.

As search marketers' use of social media matures, I think they'll see that more clearly.

Re: Social Media Marketing – Get it Straight

Lee Odden — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 15:45:13 -0000

Great points Rohit and I'm looking forward to meeting you as well.

I think we're on the same page as far as avoiding being "typecast" into a specific niche - evidenced by this blog being named "Online Marketing Blog" not "Search Engine or Search Marketing....".

Same could be said for Neil and Cameron's blog title. It's not specific to search at all.

Re: 97 Blog Directories

Lee Odden — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 17:14:30 -0000

Some are good and some are not. For new blogs looking to promote themselves, getting listed by sites like About.com or Answers.com can create instant credibility.

Re: 97 Blog Directories

Lee Odden — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 22:00:21 -0000

Mark, if the list is worthwhile, feel free to link away.

This list is not new of course, it was previously published on the TopRankResults.com site for the past 2 years or so. We do plan on adding a measure of quality to weed out the duds once I get our new developer on board.

Re: 97 Blog Directories

Lee Odden — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 02:00:25 -0000

Hi Michael,
That's just how it ended up I guess. We should do a better job of practicing what we preach regarding blog SEO. :)

Re: 97 Blog Directories

Lee Odden — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 11:42:54 -0000

Randy, I would be careful about how you drop comments. If the reason you're doing it is to build link popularity, then you're looking in the wrong place. If you don't add value, don't bother. Otherwise, comments are more than welcome!

Re: Vintage Tub and Bath Party SES New York

Lee Odden — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 12:44:11 -0000

Hey Tad, I can relate. I'm not sure I can count how many conferences I've been to and written about before getting invited to an event like this. Trust me, it's been a lot.

Re: Vintage Tub and Bath Party SES New York

Lee Odden — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 17:14:26 -0000

Oh, just a little pole dancing. :)

Re: SES New York Day 3 Videos

Lee Odden — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 16:42:57 -0000

Dek, it's on Google Video. You should be able to see it fine.

Re: 3 Blog Mistakes You Can Avoid

Lee Odden — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 15:21:44 -0000

Hi Simone, I do think Target is important and not unrelated to goals. Based on the goals for the blog, you define your target audience. Good point!

Re: 3 Blog Mistakes You Can Avoid

Lee Odden — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 09:57:10 -0000

Hi Patrick, using a sub-domain is certainly better than a third party hosting situation. But keep in mind, by using a subdomain, you are not going to gain the linking value any more than if you hosted under a completely different domain name.

ex: blog.company.com and www.companyblog.com are the same.

Search engines see both as unique web sites, not part of www.company.com.

Of course, you might have some technical reasons for the sub domain.

Re: 3 Blog Mistakes You Can Avoid

Lee Odden — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 13:42:31 -0000

webee, yes there are more robust web analytics packages than Google Analytics, but for most blogs it's more than enough.

Re: 3 Blog Mistakes You Can Avoid

Lee Odden — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 12:21:50 -0000

Amy, you would have to upgrade or use the server side version of wordpress.org and your own hosting account.

Re: 3 Blog Mistakes You Can Avoid

Lee Odden — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 13:32:48 -0000

Julie,

Here are a few great resources on blogging I'd recommend:
http://www.copyblogger.com
http://www.problogger.net
http://bloggerdesign.com

Re: Reader Poll: Most Important Skills for SEO

Lee Odden — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 09:14:03 -0000

Thor, that's a good point. I am not sure if the plugin we're using has that functionality, but it's a good idea.

Re: Reader Poll: Most Important Skills for SEO

Lee Odden — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 12:35:05 -0000

Jody, that's a great point about listening and it's a skill necessary for success in any field.

The real point I wanted to make with this poll is to show how multi-disciplinary SEO really is.

Re: Reader Poll: Most Important Skills for SEO

Lee Odden — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 13:52:45 -0000

Hey Peter, there's an ethical issue with social engineering and some might consider that part of black hat skillz anyway. :)

Re: Reader Poll: Most Important Skills for SEO

Lee Odden — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 13:54:04 -0000

Michael, am not sure what you're talking about - copywriting is #1 with the most votes. You need to vote to see the current stats.

Re: Reader Poll: Most Important Skills for SEO

Lee Odden — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 14:33:44 -0000

Peter, We must have different different definitions because what you're describing sounds more like selling or pitching to me.

Social engineering as I understand it is getting people to unknowingly give you sensitive information for use with sinister endeavors.

Re: Reader Poll: Most Important Skills for SEO

Lee Odden — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 15:02:33 -0000

Ah, that makes sense. Thanks for the clarification!

Re: Reader Poll: Most Important Skills for SEO

Lee Odden — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 15:52:24 -0000

Hey Melissa, I take it you're new to our blog as the only context we'd talk about copy writing in is in relation to SEO.

Thank you for the mini-SEO copy writing lesson though. :)

Re: Google Categories

Lee Odden — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 13:32:17 -0000

I just noticed that Philipp Lenssen wrote a little about this on Monday:
http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2007-04-16-...

Re: Google Categories

Lee Odden — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 17:13:19 -0000

Hey Rhea, there is an option at the top right of the screen to turn the categories off. That's a choice, right? :)

Re: Google Categories

Lee Odden — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 18:04:07 -0000

Ha, I doubt that - you seem pretty much on top of things to me. :)

Re: Google Categories

Lee Odden — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 09:38:01 -0000

Hey Dave, I'm not sure how they're figuring out those categories but the search operators were even worse. This must be an pre-pre-pre-alpha sort of test. :)

Re: Another Blog Meme: Magazines

Lee Odden — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 11:28:40 -0000

And save some trees too!

Argh, I spelled "Architectural Digest" wrong. :)

Re: Another Blog Meme: Magazines

Lee Odden — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 12:30:58 -0000

Hey David, a Disney fan eh? Michael Gray is a Disney fan too I think.

Re: Another Blog Meme: Magazines

Lee Odden — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 09:29:48 -0000

Hey Erica, you mention one my guilty pleasures and that's Vanity Fair. I don't subscribe though. :)

Bill you've got one that I nearly forgot and that's B2B Magazine. I also get DM News in print, but only read the online versions of both. You're certainly into boating!

Re: Another Blog Meme: Magazines

Lee Odden — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 14:07:35 -0000

Andrey, I haven't received a copy of Search Marketing Standard for several months - sorry. I would be happy to get it though :).

FYI, I am doing a poll next week specific to print publications that focus on search marketing. SMS is certainly included in that list.

Re: Another Blog Meme: Magazines

Lee Odden — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 17:43:12 -0000

This is all very interesting and good meme I think! Thank you.

Re: SEO Clueless Web Developers: Evil or Cash Cow?

Lee Odden — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 17:23:15 -0000

It's the cost of doing business in this industry I guess. :)

Re: SEO Clueless Web Developers: Evil or Cash Cow?

Lee Odden — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 09:03:39 -0000

Zach, the situation you describe is the reason many companies hire consultants. Some will do a one time audit and others require ongoing consulting.

Re: SEO Clueless Web Developers: Evil or Cash Cow?

Lee Odden — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 09:05:13 -0000

Jay, I appreciate your comments in support of Flash. Too many people seem to be on a witch hunt for it, when used in small amounts as you say, it can work very well with a highly optimized site.

Re: Search Marketing Blogs by RSS Subscribers

Lee Odden — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 14:50:56 -0000

Hi Al, you bet. Putting that list together was a great idea.

John Battelle has such a large subscriber count because he's the co-founder of Wired Magazine, has written a very popular book on Search Engines, is founder of Federated Media and many other accomplishments. He has a huge following as an authority on the search engine industry.

Re: Search Marketing Blogs by RSS Subscribers

Lee Odden — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 15:11:40 -0000

Ah yes, so many ideas and so little time. :)

Re: Search Marketing Blogs by RSS Subscribers

Lee Odden — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 17:01:47 -0000

Hey John, anyone who's publishing is seeking subscribers. Danny Sullivan has nearly 10,000 RSS subscribers in a few months. There's no doubt he was both seeking out subscribers and building a subscriber base over time. These are not mutually exclusive, if that's what you mean.

Re: Search Marketing Blogs by RSS Subscribers

Lee Odden — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 17:04:19 -0000

Eric, I don't think Wired factors into John Battelle's RSS numbers much other than the fact he's well known. His book, industry coverage and involvement with Web 2.0 conferences have all contributed to this as well. ie, offline notoriety certainly affects online attention.

Re: Search Marketing Blogs by RSS Subscribers

Lee Odden — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 20:12:09 -0000

Hi Matt, I just need the FeedBurner account id and I'll add them.

Re: Search Marketing Blogs by RSS Subscribers

Lee Odden — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 08:16:04 -0000

Hi Rand, I was thinking there was something odd with the low numbers reported for your feed. I have reordered the RSS chicklet above accordingly.

Re: Search Marketing Blogs by RSS Subscribers

Lee Odden — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 08:16:42 -0000

Hi Barry, Thanks for that link. A RSS chicklet representing your feeds have been added to the list above.

Re: Search Marketing Blogs by RSS Subscribers

Lee Odden — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 08:26:25 -0000

Hold on guys :) Updates are live now.

Also, Barry I decided only to post one of your feed counts since it is overwhelmingly more than the other and no one else has two feeds posted.

Re: Search Marketing Blogs by RSS Subscribers

Lee Odden — Sat, 05 May 2007 03:03:39 -0000

Yeah, that was a bit of a liberal interpretation on my part because I like yours and Darren's blogs so much.

Re: Search Marketing Blogs by RSS Subscribers

Lee Odden — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 11:52:21 -0000

Nice to meet you "Glen Allsopp Social Media". Heh. See blog comment policy please. :)

The numbers change but placement is not dynamic. Not yet at least. If someone has written up some code to do that, I'd be happy to incorporate it.

Re: Search Marketing Blogs by RSS Subscribers

Lee Odden — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 10:41:01 -0000

Google Tutor, your blog isn't a SEO blog. And therefore doesn't apply to this list.

Re: Search Marketing Blogs by RSS Subscribers

Lee Odden — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 07:43:55 -0000

Danny, you defined Search Engine Watch and there will always be a connection between your name and the good things you worked so hard to create there.

Re: Search Marketing Blogs by RSS Subscribers

Lee Odden — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 07:44:47 -0000

Wilson, your SEO and webmaster list is grossly incomplete.

Re: Reader Poll: Best Search Marketing Magazines

Lee Odden — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 07:48:09 -0000

Here's another http://ommweb.com/

Re: What Makes an Ideal SEO Client?

Lee Odden — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 11:10:47 -0000

Oli, we are on the same page. Perhaps I'm spoiled, but with so many companies aware of our services, we really need to gravitate towards those organizations that are 1) Already sold on SEO as a marketing channel 2) Smart and easy to work with

David, those are great points - worthy of a poll I think :) I will be sure to check out your post!

Re: What Makes an Ideal SEO Client?

Lee Odden — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 03:55:32 -0000

It's a business decision really. Spend time with people that want to debate SEO or with those that value and respect your expertise.

It would be different (and was when we were starting out) if there weren't a lot of inquiries for our services, but that is not the case.

Re: What Makes an Ideal SEO Client?

Lee Odden — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 09:03:10 -0000

Hey Yuri, that image thing is being looked at, thanks.

Re: What Makes an Ideal SEO Client?

Lee Odden — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 11:47:24 -0000

Hey Anthony, shaking hands image has finally been fixed. :)

Re: We’re Changing our Blog Host

Lee Odden — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 10:20:33 -0000

Hi Adam, that's sad to hear because I know they have a lot of reputable folks in the search marketing industry as clients including Google's Matt Cutts and Todd Malicoat.

Re: We’re Changing our Blog Host

Lee Odden — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 11:36:29 -0000

Kevin, thanks for stopping by. As popular as blogs are, WordPress in particular, it would have been nice to know there would be potential issues. That's something you might want to flag upfront so your customers are aware that for a modestly popular blog, a dedicated server would be necessary.

Incidentally, we had no CPU or data transfer issues with the previous host.

We did receive a refund, which is appreciated, but it's not about the money. It's about communication and service.

Re: Five Blunders with Social News and Bookmarking

Lee Odden — Tue, 01 May 2007 09:12:15 -0000

Hey Greg, I think some folks in the PR world were trying to create their own weather by pushing the social media press release as a strategic tool rather than what it is, tactical. I admit that, for a time, I was one of them.
That said, there is functional value if you look at it as a mini press room and there are also SEO benefits.

Bookmarking press releases (Del.icio.us, Furl) is practical and adding those options to a release makes sense. Adding social news submission links (Digg, Netscape) is what I was referring to above as social media suicide. Those communities tend to loathe the news release format of announcing news.

Re: Five Blunders with Social News and Bookmarking

Lee Odden — Tue, 01 May 2007 09:16:13 -0000

Kelvin, I agree with you.

It's because social media is much broader than what most search marketers realize.

Social communities online are not unlike social communities in the real world in that they have unique values, norms and ways of communicating.

Being insensitive to the mores of a social news or networking community is what causes users and domains to be excluded from participating.

Re: Five Blunders with Social News and Bookmarking

Lee Odden — Tue, 01 May 2007 09:27:52 -0000

Oops! Sorry Kelvin. Fixed. :)

Re: Reader’s Choice Search Marketing Resources

Lee Odden — Wed, 02 May 2007 08:51:15 -0000

I doubt I said I'd modify the original poll Yuri, but for this post it does make sense to me to tally up the votes in the comments.

Although, those comments that mentioned more than one forum won't be counted at all since the poll is designed to allow one vote per visitor. Thank you for pointing that out.

Re: Reader’s Choice Search Marketing Resources

Lee Odden — Wed, 02 May 2007 21:53:47 -0000

You were mad? :)

Re: Reader’s Choice Search Marketing Resources

Lee Odden — Fri, 04 May 2007 09:32:38 -0000

Good suggestion Cindy! I actually have that in my queue. :)

Re: Future of Search Marketing Blogging Contest

Lee Odden — Wed, 02 May 2007 21:53:07 -0000

The non-profit focus is very cool Lisa.

Re: Our New Web Hosting Company

Lee Odden — Fri, 04 May 2007 09:24:49 -0000

Search Engine Web, wow that's pretty cool. I had noticed we were on the top 100 favorited list, but being on the popular list is pretty cool. Thanks for the heads up.

Re: Our New Web Hosting Company

Lee Odden — Fri, 04 May 2007 09:28:28 -0000

Jack N, I have been tempted to use all of my resources to create a thorn in the side of that past host but the effort I would put into that could be be better used with continued promotion of our own business.

Their shame will continue to come from poor processes, communication and service.

Also, if VISI.com continues to perform well, I will do my best to spread the word.

Re: Our New Web Hosting Company

Lee Odden — Mon, 07 May 2007 18:10:12 -0000

Stacy, interesting that you chose to make that comment anonymously, some would say that's a big red flag.

The bottom line is Pair Networks screwed us and VISI has gone above and beyond.

Re: Technorati Adds Authority to SERPs

Lee Odden — Sat, 05 May 2007 02:42:17 -0000

Hey Matt, I think you're right. It was obvious enough that I mentioned it in the post! L:)

Re: Technorati Adds Authority to SERPs

Lee Odden — Sat, 05 May 2007 02:44:36 -0000

Brian, like Pronet's WP theme links, OMB gets quite a few links because of our widgets. It is what it is - marketing.

Re: Technorati Adds Authority to SERPs

Lee Odden — Sat, 05 May 2007 02:58:07 -0000

Hi Rand, this is a list of blogs, therefore a subdirectory URL for SEOmoz is appropriate just like it is for Matt Cutts.

Re: Technorati Adds Authority to SERPs

Lee Odden — Sat, 05 May 2007 03:00:57 -0000

Oh my, we are both late Brian :). I agree with you by the way. You'd think Technorati would discount a certain number of consistently patterned links, but I suspect that will happen soon enough.

Re: Technorati Adds Authority to SERPs

Lee Odden — Mon, 07 May 2007 18:37:33 -0000

Typically, the more links to a site, the more traffic.

Re: June Search Marketing Conferences

Lee Odden — Tue, 08 May 2007 17:21:33 -0000

Good call Paul, I should have included that one since our client Netconcepts did the programming. :)

Re: Integrating Search with Other Marketing Channels

Lee Odden — Thu, 10 May 2007 16:23:45 -0000

Balazs, you'll be interested in the panel on international search marketing then, because they spoke quiet a bit about properly localizing campaigns.

Re: Yahoo Contest Giving $25k Away in Advertising

Lee Odden — Fri, 11 May 2007 17:53:50 -0000

Hey Paul, that's a good point. I guess you never know until you enter....

Re: Are Search Engine Rankings Dead?

Lee Odden — Tue, 15 May 2007 09:14:16 -0000

Hey Dan, that was interesting wasn't it? I think he was a sales guy, not someone involved with production, but still, how embarrassing.

Re: Google Searchology

Lee Odden — Wed, 16 May 2007 17:01:45 -0000

Hey Sean, thanks for stopping by. Universal search sounds interesting. Google Experimental shows several of the test SERPs interfaces we've been exposed to recently.

Re: Links for Charity

Lee Odden — Tue, 29 May 2007 09:44:20 -0000

Sounds good Li, thanks for participating! :)

Re: New Study on Google Ranking Factors

Lee Odden — Tue, 22 May 2007 10:43:02 -0000

Good point Drew. I think people that only do SEO and nothing else to market a web site get a little too caught up in it. When you have multiple channels of promotion, you have a lot more to work with and less need to obsess about any one set of tactics.

Re: New Study on Google Ranking Factors

Lee Odden — Tue, 22 May 2007 12:53:44 -0000

Hey Michael, I don't think there are any claims to being "statistically" valid if that's what you mean. And in that vein, it's not any more or less valid than the SEOmoz survey.

If you are aware of a credible study, feel free to share.

Re: New Study on Google Ranking Factors

Lee Odden — Wed, 23 May 2007 09:03:13 -0000

Brandon and SEO india, H1 is probably degraded in importance/influence for the same reason meta keywords are.

Re: New Study on Google Ranking Factors

Lee Odden — Wed, 23 May 2007 13:47:28 -0000

Subscription management fixed.

Re: Reader Poll: Best SEO Podcasts

Lee Odden — Thu, 24 May 2007 15:39:18 -0000

Peter, iMediaConnection is a great resource and they do publish some podcasts, but none on search marketing.

Re: Reader Poll: Best SEO Podcasts

Lee Odden — Thu, 24 May 2007 15:53:48 -0000

Peter, I tried it with Firefox and MSIE. Nothing under "search", "PPC" or "SEO". Maybe you have to be logged in...

Re: Search Marketing Blogs Update 052507

Lee Odden — Sun, 27 May 2007 11:10:22 -0000

Hi Chris, SMT is a fine resource and has been on my radar, but the short answer is that it's not a blog.

There might be journal style entries, but there's no obvious RSS feed, no comments, no categories, no trackback support - all the things that distinguish a blog from a web site, especially the RSS feed.

If that ever changes, please let me know because I'd love to add it to the BIGLIST. :)

Re: Search Marketing Blogs Update 052507

Lee Odden — Tue, 29 May 2007 09:37:12 -0000

Hi Drew, yes please do. :)

Re: Doing Beginning SEO Podcast Tonight

Lee Odden — Thu, 31 May 2007 19:53:15 -0000

Thanks David, I hope you edit the parts about, you know, that thing. :)

Re: Reader Poll: Best Search Engine Marketing Email Newsletters

Lee Odden — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 17:43:14 -0000

Hello Claudia, this most recent poll is only for email newsletters.

We did do a poll of print magazines that cover search engine marketing here.

Thanks for your kind comments!

Re: Search Marketing Blogs Update 060107

Lee Odden — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 13:39:06 -0000

Hi David, thanks - sorry about that. :)

Re: SMX-less in Seattle – SMX Advanced Conference

Lee Odden — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 18:21:47 -0000

The best coverage of SMX Advanced came from Lisa and Susan at the Bruce Clay Blog. Be sure to check it out: smxseattle07

Re: SMX-less in Seattle – SMX Advanced Conference

Lee Odden — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 13:55:16 -0000

Barry, that's an interesting observation. The interesting thing is if those people that are moving from SEO expert to "reporter" are still responsible for being SEO experts within their organization, the quality of consulting will suffer.

Re: Ask Morphs into Ask3D

Lee Odden — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 09:16:07 -0000

I think this upgrade is a big improvement from a usability standpoint, but Ask will need to continue to work on it. With more attention in the press (not just advertising) I think they could be a worthy MSN competitor. In fact, I like Ask.com's search MUCH better than Microsoft Live right now.

Re: Ask Morphs into Ask3D

Lee Odden — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 13:14:28 -0000

Ohhh, so skeptical Michael. Compared to the daily coverage from Google lemmings in the media, Ask received next to no attention on this update.

Re: Ask Morphs into Ask3D

Lee Odden — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 13:41:40 -0000

I happen to agree that it would be great to see more from Ask, because if they want to move out of 4th place, they'll need to stop acting like a 4th place engine.

Re: Reader Poll: What’s Bugging You About Search Marketing?

Lee Odden — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 12:49:48 -0000

JGar, I think it might be the nature of the poll and only being able to select one item. In the absence of time to stay current, web analytics would be the next best thing to rely on because it's real-world data.

Re: Reader Poll: What’s Bugging You About Search Marketing?

Lee Odden — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 13:43:28 -0000

I think it's pretty easy to see that "Joel T" is not a real person and the things he's associating with SEOmoz are flat out not true.

Re: Reader Poll: What’s Bugging You About Search Marketing?

Lee Odden — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 13:48:08 -0000

BTW Dave, congrats on the Ogilvy position.

Re: Search Marketing Blogs Update 060807

Lee Odden — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 09:37:57 -0000

The benefit of a talented intern. Thanks Drew. :)

Re: Search Marketing Blogs Update 060807

Lee Odden — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 18:44:16 -0000

Actually, I would never take an intern on for free. We do quite a bit of sorting before we bring anyone one, even interns. :)

I appreciate the offer Drew and will certainly consider it.

Re: What is Your Measure of Success

Lee Odden — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 18:25:10 -0000

Interesting that some too this question in terms of success for client campaigns and some for success of their own business. The question was meant for the latter but all responses have been interesting.

Re: Media Relations Summit D.C. Day One

Lee Odden — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 09:50:39 -0000

Hey Paull, the camera was only in remission a short while. It finally died for good this morning. Let us all take a moment of silence.... :)

Great meeting you Paull and Peter!

Re: Media Relations Summit D.C. Day One

Lee Odden — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 18:11:10 -0000

Great meeting you as well Sarah. Email questions and blog info is forthcoming. :)

Re: SEO 2.0 – Digital Asset Optimization

Lee Odden — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 11:36:07 -0000

You know how it goes John, marketing tactics just keep recycling themselves.

The difference now is that web site owners are nearly forced to participate in a broader online marketing mix rather than chasing loopholes in text based search.

Re: Ramblings on Beginning SEO Podcast

Lee Odden — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 18:15:45 -0000

Cool - thanks Brian!

Re: High Rankings Seminar Denver

Lee Odden — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 11:19:08 -0000

Hey Debo, I believe there have been High Rankings seminars in Dallas/Ft Worth in the past. There probably will be again in the future.

Re: Reader Poll: Best Keyword Research Tools

Lee Odden — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 07:02:58 -0000

Hi Katy, I agree I probably should have included Good Keywords, but I was avoiding any client side or local applications and chose to stick with web based tools. The problem with tools that take info from Overture is that Overture is no longer updated.

Re: Reader Poll: Best Keyword Research Tools

Lee Odden — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 16:10:11 -0000

David, the list is pretty much focused on self serve. When I re-run this poll or the huge survey we're planning on search marketing resources, I'll likely include Epiar's MarketView.

Re: Reader Poll: Best Keyword Research Tools

Lee Odden — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 06:34:47 -0000

Missing from this voting was keywordintelligence.com

Re: DM Days New York 2007

Lee Odden — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 00:00:49 -0000

BTW, I will be doing a few video interviews and some light blogging at DM Days, so be sure to tune in!

Re: DM Days New York 2007

Lee Odden — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 14:56:53 -0000

West side of Lake Minnetonka.

Re: Reader Poll: Best City for Conferences

Lee Odden — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 10:08:15 -0000

Oops! There's only 6 votes so far so I'm adding Vegas in!

Re: Reader Poll: Best City for Conferences

Lee Odden — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 01:40:12 -0000

This is interesting: Vegas and NYC are neck and neck. If JFK wasn't such a pain in the rear to fly out of (3 hours on the tarmac today) I'd be a lot more excited about picking the big apple.

Re: Reader Poll: Best City for Conferences

Lee Odden — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 01:41:47 -0000

By the way, to you comment spammers that don't follow our comment policies, you're outa here. :)

Re: Reader Poll: Best City for Conferences

Lee Odden — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 10:46:58 -0000

Hey Mary O'Brien, three duplicate comments in one post is a bit much. If you're having problems with the form, let me know.

As for LA as a conference city in our poll, it's not a city I've been to for a conference like the others on the list and no major search marketing conference has been held there.

If we run this poll again next year, we may have a reason to include it.

Re: Reader Poll: Best City for Conferences

Lee Odden — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 10:24:21 -0000

Hi Mary, that's what I thought, but you never know. :)

Re: Winner Best Keyword Research Tool

Lee Odden — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 13:31:48 -0000

Simon, it's interesting you say that because I've heard those comments about KD from other search marketers as well.

Re: Winner Best Keyword Research Tool

Lee Odden — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 12:38:03 -0000

Hey Linda, if you'd like to include some of those private programs, we'd be happy to include on future polls. That is, as long as they are self service types of tools.

Re: Winner Best Keyword Research Tool

Lee Odden — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 08:43:17 -0000

I agree that if someone marketing a quality product or service has found a way to effectively do so, then good for them.

While the long sales letter style might be effective for sales in general, it has the opposite effect with me and therefore would not be included in one of our polls.

Re: Winner Best Keyword Research Tool

Lee Odden — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 13:51:26 -0000

Quintura isn't a keyword research service like the others in the poll, it's a visual search engine. There are many, many different tools for brainstorming keywords, but this poll was about actual keyword research and analysis services.

Re: Winner Best Keyword Research Tool

Lee Odden — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:31:27 -0000

Ben, Keyword Discovery and many other paid tools allow you to segment by country.

Re: Future of Online PR and Reputation Management

Lee Odden — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 09:23:40 -0000

Alvin, that's because you have more ads than content and the subject matter isn't focused on search marketing.

Re: Future of Online PR and Reputation Management

Lee Odden — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 09:29:10 -0000

Hey Susan, I think you're spot on about personalization.

At the same time, with journalists increasingly expected to do more with less, technology such as RSS (used in the right way) compliments what's already working in the pitching game.

RSS isn't replacing the email/phone call pitch, but making content available in that format provides additional distribution options (blog and standard search engines) as well as a channel for those publications where receiving info via RSS is a good fit.

Re: Future of Online PR and Reputation Management

Lee Odden — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 09:30:32 -0000

Hi Greg, is that the panel you asked me to speak on?

Re: Future of Online PR and Reputation Management

Lee Odden — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 10:59:39 -0000

Greg, that would be fantastic!

Re: Future of Online PR and Reputation Management

Lee Odden — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 16:18:37 -0000

Good point Carrie. One thing I failed to mention in the post was something I heard Phil Gomes from Edelman say at the Media Relations Summit: Getting involved with consumer generated content and social media communities is only useful as an brand protection effort if it's proactive, not reactive.

There's more than one company out there that has felt the sting of an influential blogger and then decided to start a blog and become involved with the community after the fact. Better to be proactive and participate now even without specific ROI goals.

Re: Four SEM Industry Rants

Lee Odden — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 18:50:31 -0000

Hey David, Am not sure it's spammy, but certainly "different".

Am glad you all liked the post, I wasn't sure about putting it out there, but why not?

Re: Four SEM Industry Rants

Lee Odden — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 08:49:31 -0000

Thanks Chad, I'm glad you liked the post! I am as guilty as anyone of being somewhat conservative with the blog and you'd think after 3 1/2 years I would be more comfortable with it, but for some people (like me) it takes time to find the right balance.

Re: Friday Links 072907

Lee Odden — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 16:44:06 -0000

Oops, thanks for the heads up Gord. It's fixed.

Re: TopRank Team at the Lake

Lee Odden — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 17:51:22 -0000

No fish, just a little sunburn :)

Re: Bye Bye Marketing Sherpa’s SEO-SEM Buyer’s Guide

Lee Odden — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 09:30:55 -0000

Andreas, to find individual consultants, I would check out search marketing forums and also visit our BIGLIST of seo blogs as there are many individual consultants blogging there.

In the forums you can post a query for referrals and work from there.

However, I am curious why you don't want to hire the whole marketing agency? An individual can only do so many things well. Individual consultants have to wear all hats leaving a lot less time for production than a group of specialists who may end up costing you about the same or less in the long run.

Your question has given me a great idea for a blog post, thank you!

Re: Bye Bye Marketing Sherpa’s SEO-SEM Buyer’s Guide

Lee Odden — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 08:14:59 -0000

topseos.com is a lead generation site for internet marketing services and does not give the companies it ranks specific metrics. I don't think there's any mystery to that.

Lists always drum up interesting reactions because of inclusion/exclusion.

Why is TopRank listed at #9 specifically? It might be that we have several Fortune 20 clients both with over $80bn in revenue, have been in the biz since 1997 and are considered a thought leader in the space by the likes of The Economist and U.S. News & World Report. It certainly has nothing to do with our web site design. :)

TopRank has also been included in Marketing Sherpa SEO/SEM Guides for the past 3 years and it has also served as a lead generation tool, no different than topseos.com. Bringing back the guides in a different form might be a better option since it is so hard to qualify information for each SEO/SEM firm.

Re: Bye Bye Marketing Sherpa’s SEO-SEM Buyer’s Guide

Lee Odden — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 11:02:47 -0000

Tom, you're stretching things a bit I think. What I stated was that both topseos.com and Marketing Sherpa have served as lead generation tools for us, not that they are "no different".

topseos.com and Marketing Sherpa use no more or less of a qualification process I suspect than the often cited list of SEO firms on the SEOmoz site, which has ALSO been a source of leads.

We've received good and bad leads from all three sources and we rely on none of them and never will since our own site rankings, industry visibility and word of mouth generate the vast majority of new business for our firm.

Re: Top SEO Blogs by Link Popularity

Lee Odden — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 12:04:47 -0000

Hey Dave, you've been added!

Re: Top SEO Blogs by Link Popularity

Lee Odden — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 15:04:54 -0000

It's funny you put it that way Michael as I've noticed that many of the links Yahoo detects are not really links at all. For example, when one site "borrows" another site's image, Yahoo site explorer sees that as a link.

Am not sure if you caught it, but the reason I did this post was because of OMB's exclusion from Rand's list.

By the way, let's see that 100k links put into practice. I'd like to see if you can really do that.

Re: Top SEO Blogs by Link Popularity

Lee Odden — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 11:05:39 -0000

Hi Michael, I think the inconsistencies with link data has to be taken with a relative grain of salt just like we do with the search volume numbers given by keyword research tools.

Over time, these sorts of measurements can provide insight, but a one time snapshot is pretty much useless.

Re: Reader Poll: Most SEO Friendly Industries

Lee Odden — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 10:25:07 -0000

Jill, um yeah. Good call. I guess I'm just leaving out PC then. :)

Re: Reader Poll: Most SEO Friendly Industries

Lee Odden — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 16:49:57 -0000

I agree Rob and Tom, multiple choice would have been better. The poll plugin we use doesn't support that though. If Survey Gizmo is a WP plugin, I'll certainly check it out.

Re: Reader Poll: Most SEO Friendly Industries

Lee Odden — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 16:54:09 -0000

Mike, I just noticed the feature in MBL that allows you to send a single message to an entire community today and decided to test it.

I'm not so sure joining a community and then getting an email from the community site qualifies as spamming, but if it does in your book I am sorry about that.

Part of the value of being a part in the TopRankBlog MBL community is participation in reader polls from time to time. If getting a ping about that kind of participation is of no interest to you, then the TopRankBlog MBL community might not be a good fit.

Re: Reader Poll: Most SEO Friendly Industries

Lee Odden — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 16:55:23 -0000

Duly noted: Internet should be excluded for better representation of other industries and no drugs next time.

Re: Reader Poll: Most SEO Friendly Industries

Lee Odden — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 12:09:23 -0000

Ah, the misfortune of a flawed poll. I really appreciate the feedback though, because this question/poll will return in our upcoming TopRank Search Marketing Survey.

Re: Advantages of Ongoing SEO Consulting

Lee Odden — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 10:15:33 -0000

Ash, I realize there is a business reason on the part of the consultant to engage on a retainer basis, but this post provides examples of why it makes business sense for the client to do so.

Most SEO firms are not just good at marketing via search engines but good at marketing in general. This overall expertise at helping companies maximize their search marketing channel in the context of an overall marketing mix is a large part of the value they bring.

Re: Google GrandCentral Invites

Lee Odden — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 17:17:01 -0000

Sorry guys/gals, but I'm out of invites. I gave my first invite to Barry Schwartz from Search Engine Roundtable, so you might check there as well.

Re: Google GrandCentral Invites

Lee Odden — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 17:18:26 -0000

Sorry, but I'm out of invites.

I gave my first GrandCentral invite to Barry from Search Engine Roundtable, so you might check there.

Re: Holistic Search Engine Optimization

Lee Odden — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 21:27:41 -0000

Exactly Adam! The days of optimizing text only are over. :)

Re: Future of Search Marketing ala MIMA

Lee Odden — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 11:07:18 -0000

Hey Joe and Allan, it should be a good one. I'm looking forward to getting some great info out of Google and Microsoft as well as networking with all the smart search marketers here in MN.

Re: Indexed by Google in an Hour

Lee Odden — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 22:01:43 -0000

Jeremy, this isn't about blog search. It's the regular Google search results.

Re: Indexed by Google in an Hour

Lee Odden — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 08:34:59 -0000

Joe, you can get Google Alerts by first having a Google Account and then signing up.

Re: Indexed by Google in an Hour

Lee Odden — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 12:43:44 -0000

Thanks Aurelius, I appreciate that.

Re: Indexed by Google in an Hour

Lee Odden — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 18:31:30 -0000

Kermit, if your site is a new one, you'll need to have patience and start promoting the site, not relying on search engines for your traffic. Get links from other relevant sites.

There's a small chance this can be sped up with a consultant, but it really depends on what you have to work with, your budget and of course, the consultant.

If you have time, you can learn yourself but don't hold your breath waiting for Google traffic while you do.

Re: Search Marketing Blogs Update 071307

Lee Odden — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 12:38:21 -0000

Hey Simon, I'm having that checked out. It should be fixed shortly.

You're welcome Hamlet! Thanks for writing an interesting blog.

Re: Search Marketing Blogs Update 071307

Lee Odden — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 12:50:52 -0000

Hi Todd, we'll take a look. Thanks!

Re: 5 Pros and Cons of SEO Consultant vs Agency

Lee Odden — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 08:34:11 -0000

Hey Jill, I'm with you. I did a compliment video to this post on my Facebook profile that mentions small/medium sized agencies as a good solution.

Re: 5 Pros and Cons of SEO Consultant vs Agency

Lee Odden — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 08:37:04 -0000

It's interesting you say that Kim because I think for some companies, the same thing happens with agency selection. If the agency has a desirable brand, some companies will hire them in large part, because of their reputation. ie, "No one ever got fired for hiring IBM".

At the same time, I see an increasing number of requests for exactly the situation you describe, where companies what to hire a certain consultant because of their reputation in the industry. That and word of mouth from other clients. :)

Re: 5 Pros and Cons of SEO Consultant vs Agency

Lee Odden — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 08:46:20 -0000

Ammon, I think you do make a good point in that how a consultant should be used compared to an agency isn't exactly an apples to apples comparison. The trouble is, many companies do not see it that way.

The issue with consultants offering their knowledge for implementation by junior staff within the client's company is the lack of professional oversight. Most U.S. companies that hire SEO services do not implement recommendations at all, or properly.

For example, the value of site audits is only as high as the implementation, not the quality of the consulting. While the consultant's job is done after report delivery and consultation, improper implementation is often attributed to the consultant, not the in-house teams.

Re: 5 Pros and Cons of SEO Consultant vs Agency

Lee Odden — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 08:47:43 -0000

BTW, Jill, Kim and Ammon posting comments on my blog, this is awesome and I am honored! :)

Re: 5 Pros and Cons of SEO Consultant vs Agency

Lee Odden — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 15:18:06 -0000

"Mass media is dead" and "trying to appeal to the masses is dead" are two different things.

"Oh dear" is right. I have a personal example to share.

This blog ranks #2 on Google for a phrase with over 560 million search results - "online marketing". I suspect the top two PPC ads (Google and Yahoo) wouldn't mind that spot.

Last year we received just a mention, albeit a very positive one, in an article in The Economist. That mention brought us FAR more actual business than the "online marketing" ranking has in 2+ years.

There's nothing wrong or unprofitable about successful mass market visibility.

Re: 5 Pros and Cons of SEO Consultant vs Agency

Lee Odden — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 15:45:44 -0000

Hey Anthony, it's true that some companies put on a front in terms of their financial situation and that's certainly not limited to the search marketing industry. Nor is it limited to companies.

Plenty of SEO consultants are out there doing the "fake it til you make it" game. If you made a list of the top 5 SEO blogs I know 2 of them that were playing this game until the past year or so.

Poor management, whether it's a managing a company or a consultant managing the multiple hats they have to wear is what kills a business.

As far as profits go, I'll take a company's 25% profit on $2m in sales over a independent consultant's 50% margin on $200k any day. But that's just me and my capitalistic tendencies. :)

Some consultants have really figured out a system for themselves in terms of running their own business and may be a much better fit for some kinds of projects.

In other situations, like enterprise SEO for example, a company's resources are needed - for both short and long term consulting as well as oversight of implementation.

There's no need for too much attention on the grammar in comments. :)

Re: 5 Pros and Cons of SEO Consultant vs Agency

Lee Odden — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 15:50:35 -0000

Hi Carol, am glad you've stopped by!

I agree that there is a good fit for consultants over agencies in the right situation. I have also seen the situation you describe regarding small businesses not getting the attention they deserve. In that case the agency should really take a good look at it's business model and not take on projects they cannot properly serve.

Re: BIGLIST SEM SEO Blogs Update 072007

Lee Odden — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 10:26:44 -0000

Hey Darin and Vinny, visit this post for more info on getting reviewed for inclusion.

Also, Darin you'll need to visit our comments policy page. I've edited your "name" from the keywords you'd like to rank on to your name.

Re: Three Erics, Two Daves a Drew and a Barry

Lee Odden — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 12:03:23 -0000

Hey Daniel, this post is a rare "links" post, pointing to a collection of recent news or items of interest to search marketing - the overall topic of this blog. I don't do "links" posts very often and thought I'd get creative with the title. Sorry for the confusion but I'm glad it brought back a good memory.

Re: New TopRank Site Designs

Lee Odden — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 14:11:09 -0000

Thanks for the feedback Steven!

Re: New TopRank Site Designs

Lee Odden — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 17:58:06 -0000

Hi Michael, when we get it narrowed down to two, I might just do that. Thanks for the offer!

Re: New TopRank Site Designs

Lee Odden — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 18:57:10 -0000

Hey Tom, thanks for the comment. We do have videos included as part of the "below the fold" content on the home page.

BubbleGuru is an interesting service and we may test it on a landing page.

Thanks for the feedback Andy, much appreciated!!

Re: New TopRank Site Designs

Lee Odden — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 18:59:11 -0000

Michael, I see. I'll log in and see what I can get up there. The question is whether the widget plays nice with WordPress.

Re: New TopRank Site Designs

Lee Odden — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 08:08:11 -0000

Michael, I'm going to do an entirely new post for the Bix voting. Thanks for your help!

Re: New TopRank Site Designs

Lee Odden — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 09:59:11 -0000

Hey Stoney, that's exactly what I'm going to be talking to Max about today! Thanks for your feedback.

Re: New SEM Magazine – Visibility

Lee Odden — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 07:56:30 -0000

Dave, there's a form in the left column on the VisibilityMagazine.com web site for subscribing.

It doesn't look like there is a fee. There's no price on the actual magazine either.

Re: New SEM Magazine – Visibility

Lee Odden — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 09:07:11 -0000

Nope. I think they sent it out to the sites that are ranked in their monthly lists. I will ask the owner if they plan on selling it or just offering it for free (ad supported).

Re: New SEM Magazine – Visibility

Lee Odden — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 22:26:54 -0000

I received an email from Bill Peden, the executive editor of Visibility who had a few comments and clarifications:

We are aware that our form does not include the street address and we are working to correct it.

The magazine was sent out to all of the topseos.com members. Membership is absolutely free; it is up to the individual companies if they would like to invest in advertising, etc.

We plan to keep the subscription for the magazine free for the first year, provided we can have key advertising firms support and back our vision for a strong SEO publication.

Re: Reader Poll: Tools for Networking Online

Lee Odden — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 15:06:35 -0000

Hello Leo,

We use WP-Polls which you should be able to find here:
http://lesterchan.net/portfolio/programming.php

Re: Interviews with Search Marketers

Lee Odden — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 09:19:20 -0000

LOL, I think people get enough of me here. :)

I have a range of people in mind if I can get their time ranging from Danny to Tamar.

Re: Interviews with Search Marketers

Lee Odden — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 12:53:16 -0000

Wow, what a fantastic group of feedback comments. Very much appreciated!

Sorry for not responding sooner, but I have for the most part, been offline since Friday and will be for the next 6-7 days or so on vacation.

Ammon, I agree that "what" you ask is as imporant or more than "who" you ask. Timing can come into play as well.

For example, when I interviewed Rand the first time, he had just been featured in Newsweek.

I will be conducting 3-4 text interviews before the conference and as many video interviews as are reasonable at the conference.

Researching questioons on text interviews is absolutely crucial to an interesting, useful and informative interview. Part of the reason I haven't done many interviews recently is because of the research commitment I think is necessary.

Am very much looking forward to finalizing a wish list and a confirmed list of interviewees in the next 2 weeks or so.

Re: Interviews with Search Marketers

Lee Odden — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 14:20:44 -0000

Hi Erica,
That is an excellent suggestion and I do plan on pursuing it. Pinging Dan now.....

Re: 10 Secret Benefits of Attending SEM Conferences. Shhh.

Lee Odden — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 09:46:28 -0000

Next week - ah yeah. I must have been thinking of my vacation. :) It's cool/not cool that these RV parks have wifi.

Re: 10 Secret Benefits of Attending SEM Conferences. Shhh.

Lee Odden — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 11:05:21 -0000

Hey Marty, I won't be hitting Napa unfortunately. TopRank is a media sponsor of SES San Jose, so we'll be focused on covering the conference, interviews, etc. It sounds like a great idea though.

Re: What Makes a Top SEO Blog?

Lee Odden — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 02:29:43 -0000

Thanks Marty. Whatever we get must be earned and re-earned every day.

Re: Vintage Search Engine Strategies San Jose

Lee Odden — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 02:28:14 -0000

Hey Scottie, I wonder if that was the first conference I met you at. Or maybe it was Chicago later in the year?

It is interesting to see what positions on proper/effective search marketing have stood the test of internet time and those that have gone POOF!

Re: Reader Poll: NYC or SanFran

Lee Odden — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 21:20:27 -0000

Hey Tim, "Vegas and Chicago" is an entirely different matter. Besides, those events are in December, not November and I would not consider them so similar.

Also, this is a slightly different industry than SEO.

Re: Reader Poll: NYC or SanFran

Lee Odden — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 06:01:58 -0000

Wow, this is really a neck and neck race. The holiday-NYC thing is something I hadn't thought of before.

Re: Reader Poll: NYC or SanFran

Lee Odden — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 08:45:09 -0000

This was a tough one but I guess San Francisco is the winner. Anyone with suggestions on SanFran, feel free to comment.

Re: What Not To Do With Your Business Blog

Lee Odden — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 10:30:13 -0000

Sorry to send the scrapers your way Drew!

Jay, that's exactly my issue with most blogs' navigation and method of archiving. I say the more the merrier when it comes to offering ways to find historical content.

Re: What Not To Do With Your Business Blog

Lee Odden — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 11:37:43 -0000

Hey Carrie, glad to help! Be sure to check out the 25 blog marketing tips and blog optimization tips as well. :)

Re: What Not To Do With Your Business Blog

Lee Odden — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 12:27:02 -0000

David and Matt, I am sorry say that it is highly likely that I have not commented on your most excellent content because of registration. The reality is, I'm the one that's lazy. Or just too busy with so many blogs. Also, I'm not so sure mine is average blog reading behavior.

Ed, you are spot on. Our blog for example has no ads, except the media sponsorships on the right. The whole blog is an ad in an indirect way.

On the other hand, there are blogs like Technology Evangelist, Marketing Pilgrim and Search Engine Land whose purpose is to drive ad revenue and they do a fine job of ad placement.

Re: What Not To Do With Your Business Blog

Lee Odden — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 17:16:37 -0000

Ralph, regarding NOFOLLOW, I suspect that's default with this WordPress installation. That's something Thomas does for me. Without registrations, and with spam filters, we still get quite a few spam comments daily. I don't want to give any more incentives to increase that number.

Re: What Not To Do With Your Business Blog

Lee Odden — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 17:56:56 -0000

Rich, I'm actually usually pretty good about bolding my bulleted lists, (see here and here) but this post was written at 5am after having been up for 2 hours. SI was just too tired to make it nice a pretty.

However, you make an excellent point, so I think I'll go back in and do some bolding. :)

Re: What Not To Do With Your Business Blog

Lee Odden — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 18:06:07 -0000

Ralph, I suspect that outside of the SEO/SEM industry, most blog readers and commenters have no idea what NOFOLLOW is.

I see it this way:
1. I could make people register to comment and disable nofollow.
2. I can leave comments open and have nofollow turned on.

I opt for the latter to encourage comments while discouraging savvy comment spammers.