The current and perennially hot topic of PAID LINKS has had me thinking since the summer about the nature of payment for a link and how all links might be paid links.

I work in the media sector. As such, I get some freebies from the journalists or am sent things directly for review. I also go to drinks events, launches, conferences and other events as part of my job.

It was at the Moo Summer party that I began to wonder - if I blog about this party and link to it, is that a paid link? YES and NO.

YES it IS a paid link because with several thousands being spent on food and booze, any links were clearly bought. Even though specific links were not solicited at the party, packs of free Moo stickers, free alcohol and free food a paid link doth make.

NO it ISN’T because this was a traditional PR party event.  Sure it was a PR event for bloggers but none were directly compensated for the link.  The money spent went to pay for the party and no one at the party had to link to Moo.  Anyone who did link to Moo (like me - I LOVE MOO!) did it because they wanted to - not because a request was made.

That’s nice and clear like mud. But let us look at the traditional PR party.  This event is usually held somewhere nice – a gallery, a swanky office, a nice hotel.  The event is catered and complimentary alcohol flows freely.  These events cost thousands to run and the people running them expect payment in some form – an article, a link, a favourable connection.  These parties are a way of paying for exposure.  Are links they receive through the year paid links?

I think what we may be seeing with Matt Cutts’ comments is Google’s recognition of the gaming of the system.  There may be a desire on the part of Google to make links a less important ranking factor because of the gaming, but they need to find relevance beyond the on-page content.  Links are votes and while I have always been an advocate of links for traffic, Google also counts links as a big part of rankings.

Google’s Matt Cutts says only editorial content should have “follow” links because it is the only content that would exist without payment.  I’m saying from inside the news industry that the news is paid for.

Agencies, PR machines, and companies themselves are showering journalists with gifts of concert tickets, hampers of food and drink, technology and more.  The so-called editorial content is paid for with food, drink and gifts.  Those editorial links are paid links.

Looking beyond the direct compensation of people, I can begin to make waters muddier still.  Is exemplary service purchasing a link?  The time required to provide the service has a cost attached.  Is getting a free gift with purchase paying for a link?  The product has a cost.

There is too much room for Google to interpret things any way they wish.  I can argue that almost any link has been ‘paid for’ somehow and would not exist without that ‘payment’.

This debate will rage on and on.  I’m cynical and evil and exist only to cause suffering and pain so I throw this out to you all – ALL LINKS ARE PAID LINKS.  Somehow, somewhere they have been paid for in service, freebies, parties, networking, community contributions, or whatever.

Perhaps instead of trying to castrate existing link love, Google needs to better filter weighting of links.

What do you think?

Editor’s Note: after reading this and having a friend comment that it didn’t flow, I’d like to say that the whole point I’m trying to make here is that you shouldn’t listen to all the people who tell you what not to do. I apologize in advance. This post kind of sucks but it IS my turn.

What are words for, when no one listens anymore? (Missing Persons reference. I’m sure you caught it.)

There’s a fairly inane little article in MarketingProfs about 100 words you shouldn’t use in an email subject line, although it’s not much more than a list without any explanation of why these words are so bad. I can’t be arsed to test whether or not certain subject lines will really get your email blocked though, even though I may write to Mythbusters to see what they can do. What’s the SEO angle on this? Obviously there are plenty of ways of getting around the rules, which we all know a lot about and that’s a good thing. So there you go…and here you go.

Obviously you know that there are certain words that you can’t use in Google Adwords, for example. For such a totalitarian group of fascists (and yes I really am using some hyperbole), they aren’t all that fond of superlatives. They’re also not fond of ads for gambling but I know plenty of people who’ve gotten around that, at least for a bit before they get caught, so here is why you should completely ignore yet another so-called rule: this is all a game to see who can last the longest.

Being somewhat argumentative, yet still a delicate flower, I tend to want to do whatever someone tells me not to do. Immediately, usually. It’s childish, I’ll admit, but the minute I am prohibited from doing something, I have an overwhelming urge to do it, especially if it involves cursing or drinking or spending money (what are commonly referred to as my three graces.) The web is chock full of blogs and sites telling you what not to do, and that’s all fine and lovely and beatific BUT it’s also geared towards the mainstream people who follow the rules without question.

I really do have a point here, I promise.

Following rules is definitely a good thing in many instances. If something is for the greater good, then I’ll do it if I can keep my dress on. There’s a fine line, though, and the fear-mongering that we see online is really wreaking havoc on the way that so many people conduct their online business. I understand the argument against cloaking, for example, but I still think it’s fine in many cases. And really, who’s been mutilated and left for dead by a cloaked page? You may have been misled but if being misled is the worst thing that ever happens to you, my congratulations. You’re an ass-ton luckier than anyone else.

So why do we have such an overwhelming amount of advice about how to stay orderly and look at the back of the neck of the person in front of you? Nothing good can come of that, I assure you. Just keep your minds open when you read this crap (and when you read the crap we write too.) I’d be in less of a mood if I were writing this and listening to something other than Sisters of Mercy but really, I get quite sick of constantly reading about all the things we shouldn’t do or say, especially when there is no explanation offered. I guess you can’t really argue when someone doesn’t give you an explanation…is that the point then? Do it. Follow the rules, don’t question them. Feck arse.

The good thing about this whole mess is that it does tend to make people get a bit more creative…black hats wouldn’t be nearly as cool if they weren’t subverting the dominant paradigm you know. I mean seriously, Esrun is only interesting to me because I know what he can do. OK that’s a joke…his deviance is fascinating too. You think John Lydon follows the rules? Yes I know he’s annoying. OH! Irrelevant but where else can I interject this? I’m off Adam Ant after seeing him cry in the video for “Wonderful.” What grown man cries in a video? I am so embarrassed, I can’t even link to it.

Shopping at and after the holidays can be a frustrating ordeal as can finding a place to stay. The SERPs are full of useless results no matter how carefully you qualify your search for the perfect gift or place to stay. Add to the mix an inappropriate landing page for the PPC ads you select and tempers can boil.

As SEMs and SEOs, we strive to optimise our pages for the appropriate key phrases (*AHEM*) and land customers at pages which suit their needs and desires in accordance with their search. With paid adverts, landing a searcher at the right page can seem easier than pure optimised pages, especially when pesky internal navigation skews relevancy.

With 80% of searchers clicking on an organic result, relevant landing pages are the most important area to get correct. Focus too much on semantically related terminology and inbound links and too little on users and it may result in more page views but fewer conversions. Not focusing enough on what search engines want and only on pages for the end user may result in higher conversions for the few who find you, but so few find you that it becomes irrelevant.

Striking the balance is what a good search marketer and optimisation practitioner can do for you but how do you do it yourself? Thinking like both a user and search engine is one of the most difficult things to get right. Too much optimising and you’ll find yourself penalised, too little and you’ll not find yourself. Where are the rules written down – how do you find the magic formula?

90% of the secret to landing people on the relevant landing page for a search is freely available online. Rand Fishkin has posited that SEO/M is 90% published material and the other 10% is secret but where the difference is made.  Reading the SEO Chicks blog, SEO Book, SEOmoz, and other excellent sources will help give you an edge online.

Optimising for paid adverts may seem easy and yet it is also one of the places we mock for lack of focus and inappropriate adverts (zombie zombies?) landing us at non-existent pages (search for “stuffed animal”). At PubCon, one of the speakers pointed out that there were double the number of blog posts about SEO vs PPC.

Do a search on google.co.uk for chocolate and you’ll be faced with both the yummy treat adverts and a mobile phone advert. Here LG is ensuring a lost searcher can still find their phone without adjusting their search and Hotel Chocolat is ensuring a searcher finds them before The Chocolate Society (YUM).  Plenty of bad PPC advert matches can be found though showing how difficult it can be.

Paid search advertising may only command 20% of the clicks but it is not something to be ignored. By creating a compelling ad landing a user at a relevant page the conversion rate can climb through the roof.  Paid search marketing can help to raise brand awareness in some searches, and fix possible problems with targeted landing pages for others.

Paid search advertising can beautifully compliment organic search, increasing awareness in the searcher and helping ensure the right landing page is always available.

Make shoppers and travellers happy this holiday season. Land them at the relevant page through optimisation and paid search working hand-in-hand.

What is Blue and White and Read All Over?

What has more than 59 million users? Has 250,000 new members per day since January 2007? Has more than 14 million photos uploaded daily? Has More than 65 billion page views per month?

No…. Not Orkut.

The Answer is Facebook!

Whether you love it or hate it, if you are reading this blog, you are a Facebook member and you use it daily.

Every SEO Chick has a Facebook.

Here is how People were using Facebook in August 2007:

It was only a matter of time before every SEO, Link Bulider, and Internet Marketer in general saturated this amazing Social Networking site and took over. When the opportunity arrived over the summer to include applications and more recently Business/ Fan Pages there are more and more Facebook marketing campaigns popping up everyday.

Facebook made headlines many times this year. From when they sold a portion of advertising rights to Microsoft for a whopping $240 million, beating out Google’s bid. And then more recently Facebook has been battling their issues with the newer Beacon addition (Beacongate), which was heavily discussed in the blogosphere. Growing at such a rapid rate, I am sure that Facebook will definitely show up in the headlines for both negative and positive reasons more frequently.

Facebook has become an important tool for not only internet marketers, but all kinds of business. However, it is difficult for some (including me) to keep Facebook at work being ultimately work driven and not include social fun, but somewhere there is a thin line.

So if you are not using Facebook as part of your Social Media or Social Networking campaign, here is a list of blogs I find super helpful to keep yourself updated on whats new on Facebook:

1. Face Reviews - An awesome up to date Facebook news blog for marketers.
2. The Official Facebook Blog- Updated by Staff and Zuckerberg himself.
3. Inside Facebook- Tracking Facebook and it’s platform.
4. Facebooking101- Facebook Bloggers- Collects random posts about Facebook from all around the blogosphere.
5. All Facebook- The UNofficial Facebook Blog.

Facebook has definitely changed my work-flow (and my life) over the past 6 months and has improved Brand Management, Traffic spikes, link building, and it has opened up HUGE doors in my career through networking.

Questions:

1. Has Facebook changed your life more so than other Social sites, such as Myspace, Bebo, LinkedIn, etc?
2. How often do you use Facebook?
3. Do you include Facebook in your marketing campaigns?
4. Do you use Facebook Mobile or Faceberry ?
5. How has Facebook changed your work performance over the last year?

Another day, another stupidly funny blog post title. So I like to think…

“Every author, however modest, keeps a most outrageous vanity chained like a madman in the padded cell of his breast.” Logan Pearsall Smith

Since we’ve recently welcomed the highly talented Stephanie Weingart to our blog, I thought I’d tackle an issue that arose when she baited me, quite successfully, into an interview. It’s that horrible example of one of the Seven Deadly Sins…vanity. Well, vanity is the example of Pride, which is a…damn nation, you know what I mean here. This is a piece about vanity and I don’t mean the girl that Prince hung out with either. Oh, and it’s about SEO of course.

“We are so vain that we even care for the opinion of those we don’t care for.” Marie Von Ebner-Eschenbach

While I could indeed spend quite a lot of time relaying anecdotes of insane vanity in the SEO community, my purpose here is to talk about how to use it against others. That sounds a lot more sinister than I am intending BUT it’s still what I mean to say. And let’s please not have a semantic argument about vanity/pride/egotism/narcissism. When I say “vanity” I mean what you’re exhibiting when you become upset that someone may potentially think poorly of you in any way because you want the world to love you at all times, for all reasons. If you don’t have this trait, you’re not human.

“There are no grades of vanity, there are only grades of ability in concealing it.” Mark Twain

When Stephanie made her utterly brilliant move of intentional misinterpretation of my chimps post, she was completely outsmarting me. It’s kind of horrible that I was so easily led down that path but I’ll chalk that up to her amazing competence and not my overload of character flaws brought on by a beauty queen mother and having pink hair in a tiny Southern town full of rednecks. What Stephanie realized, at a much younger age and with much less experience than many of the SEOs that I know, is that the best way to get someone’s attention is to say something about the person that isn’t correct but IS correctable. No one can resist this. I certainly couldn’t.

“One of the troubles about vanity is that it grows with what it feeds on. The more you are talked about, the more you will wish to be talked about.” Bertrand Russell

Just the very idea that someone was possibly not getting my point made me really upset. Did I write the post poorly? Was this simply yet another instance in which no one thought I was funny when I was doubled-over with sobs and cackles while everyone looked on in abject horror? Was I a bad writer? A terrible person who runs down old ladies when they try to cross the street and I have to get to Target to buy some lip balm? I remember that day…I was visiting a friend in the hospital yet was consumed with wondering “where did I go wrong?” while his chest had been cracked open and his lunch wasn’t there at 2pm. OK that’s somewhat of a joke really…but it did get to me, and it definitely got my attention, and I had to get to the bottom of it. And now look. She’s a damn SEO Chick. Well done, I’d say. Quite well done.

“The only cure for vanity is laughter, and the only fault that is laughable is vanity.” Henri Bergson

I am definitely not suggesting that you spend tons of time trying to insult people whom you’d like to talk to, of course, unless the insults are really funny ones. I just think that vanity is an overlooked aspect of social marketing, and it’s a very clever way of getting through to someone. It’s this kind of thing that makes me truly love marketing…what’s next? Will someone get to me by capitalizaing on my gluttony? Maybe sending me an offer for a cheese dip of the month club in order to get me to talk about something? I damn well hope so. Let me know so I can give you my address.

Well, since we’ve covered Vegas in almost every imaginable light already, I thought that I have to do it justice from a pure marketing point of view too.

Yes, it is a great place to network, and an even better place to party. But what most people wouldn’t notice about Vegas (or at least wouldn’t think twice about), is the remarkable customer service.

OK, I feel I have to slip in a little disclaimer here as my post will be a little biased towards the good rather than the bad experiences. Please humor me and refrain from remembering any painful customer service experiences in an off the strip hotel bar and so on…

So, if like me, you enjoy experiencing a ‘job well done’ in being served, you would love the Wynn.
* I have to focus on one of the many places as an example just so I can do it justice.

These people are a prime example of how surveying your existing customers and acting on the findings will not only improve your business, but will make you stand out from the rest. So they do their research and take the customer very seriously. As a result they have produced one of the most well oiled machines I have ever had the pleasure to be served by - and trust me I have been around (stop your snigerring).

From the moment you appear at the door of the Terrace Pointe Cafe, you are taken by the hostess, then the drinks lady, then the main waiter and so on…

I think what makes the experience even more notable, is the fact that, in any of our encounters with the different pieces of the ‘well oiled machine’ you are made to feel very special. Now, I’m not stupid, I know the smiles and attention are part of the show, but at least they seem genuine and don’t make you feel uncomfortable. It is evident from their every move, that the Wynn understands the core concept of marketing - the customer is very important to their well being.

As a contrast to all this I was cringing last night while watching Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares program. Noting how the waitresses in the showcased restaurant had no clue (not through their own fault) in serving a customer with a smile… totally different planet…

OK, you’ve guessed by now that I can go on and on about the vast Case Study canvas that Las Vegas is for customer service perfection and imperfection. I am also sensing that some people think I am sad to be even noticing things like that, when I should be drinking, and gambling…

So let’s get to the point…

My point is that when you work in a dynamically changing environment you need to pay attention to everything around you and draw lessons from every experience - seemingly relevant or not. Your environment is your best learning facility. Text books won’t do it - they’re too slow and by the time something’s printed or spoken of in the conference sessions, it is no longer on the cutting edge.

One of the most successful (if not THE MOST successful) marketers of all time - Jay Abraham, has made his fame and fortune through observing his environment and applying the lessons learned to seemingly unrelated industries and situations. Take a leaf out his book, and learn to observe. See the relevant in the irrelevant and adapt one industry’s old marketing methods to a new industry to get an ace campaign…

And where better to go to to top up on good marketing examples than Vegas… Baby!!!

    One night, from the only punk rock bar in Las Vegas, I gave a horribly long rant to RateItAll’s Lawrence Coburn. It was my take on the industry. It is hard to find those words again as that was a conversation at 2AM and my brain was competing with the Bouncing Souls. The rant went on and on about popularity, branding, reputation management, and so on. Ever since this conversation, I have been thinking about this concept of SEO and Internet Marketing being something I think must be taught and discussed. Ultimately, the industry lies within conversation and apprenticeship.

For my first article on the SEO-Chicks blog, I wanted to write about the importance of understanding this industry, but that has been done so many times, and I just can’t take another “What my dog can teach you about Social Media” post….No offense.

I suppose there should be some sort of prerequisite, especially to understand where I’m coming from in this post.

I decided that I needed to be in this stimulating industry when I recognized how much observation my band was getting from just our website, social media, and forums; not to mention fans, PR, and label interests. We built links, contacts, tours, sold merchandise, licensing deals, but we really weren’t famous or critically acclaimed (but in our heads we were!). However, we looked great online.

*FYI: the site no longer exists, the band dismembered= long story.

My silly little band acquired huge label attention just based on our social media sites. I then asked myself, what kind of ROI would a legitimate business with awesome products see?

I contacted as many people I knew in the industry, took jobs with websites; primarily selling products online- slowly making the switch to purely working online and getting to know the ins and outs of this amazing industry. Over the next few months I decided that I would try to encompass everything I learned, did and sell to the internet. Slowly but surely this strategy worked, (Of course this is a really long; but short story) and I developed great skills to work in online marketing, something that teaches me new tricks every day.

Having been to Pubcon, other social events, reading millions of blogs, and e-books, I have learned that in the industry the only way to learn the trade is to be an apprentice. So I latched on and learned, like other thousands of young SEO’s. Even in job listings, companies are looking for SEO Apprentices, because as we know, every SEO has their own style, so you would want to train your staff according to your own practices. As Sugarrae said at Pubcon, when she spoke about hiring staff; “You must be able to train them.”

Apprenticing, the “Original 4 Year Degree” is extremely important in the SEO industry; and sure, most people in the industry have learned the skill as an extension of web development, but will the practice die out just as it did for the chair makers in the Middle Ages?

Apprenticeship= A master craftsman entitled to employ people as an inexpensive form of labor in exchange for providing formal training in the craft. - Wikipedia.

Well, we are already seeing huge numbers of companies outsourcing SEO work to places like India, reading articles saying a career in SEO is a bad choice, and there are many new SEO, SMM, SEM and even Facebook classes in tons of Universities.

So will the practice of Apprenticeship live on in the world of SEO, or will it be replaced like it was in the golden days? I think that to be an SEO you must always be an apprentice. Learning the skill is never-ending… thus we have millions of SEO blogs.

Questions:

• If the practice is replaced by manufactured SEO’s, what will be better for the industry?
• Aside from this ancient practice of training, are their better ways to become seriously skilled in SEO?

When the SEO Chicks were sent the questionnaire by our lovely Julie about the last 6 months, and we were asked how it had changed our lives, at that point I hadn’t really noticed a difference.

Enter PubCon and suddenly we had a fan (HI NATASHA!) asking us to sign her t-shirt (which we failed to do – SORRY!).  Others wiggled out of the woodwork and suddenly I realised that not only were more than 6 people reading the blog, they actually recognised the other chicks and me!  SEO Chicks changed my life (and not in a National Enquirer way) forever!

So, on I move to the past weekend and the BBC Backstage Christmas Bash.  BBC Backstage is a grouping of techie sorts who hack and code and generally enjoy coding.  According to the BBC Backstage website “backstage.bbc.co.uk is the BBC’s developer network to encourage innovation and support new talent. Content feeds are available for people to build with on a non-commercial basis.”

Admitting to just how much of a geek I am in public now, I went to this techie Christmas drinks event which I have been attending since its inception.  Always a great evening with geeks, I met up with Suw Charman, Improbulus (who had to leave early to sing Messiah), Ian Forrester, Ryan A, and others.  I also made new friends in Trisha (who is an SEO Chick fan – HI TRISHA!), plus Marko and Martin – Yahoo and Google respectively.  They were drinking together, enjoying the company (me and Trisha and Cotta and someone whose name I forget) and talking about stuff they couldn’t talk about.  So you can gather the conversation was scintillating.

What did I learn?  Those two Dutch guys were great fun and I wished I could have chatted with them more.  Regrettably being a filthy spammer SEO meant my time with them was limited by my profession.  Sad but true – apparently I went black hat after a glass of mulled wine (white hats – watch that stuff!).

I did find out about knols and Google’s wiki-killer project.  No, I don’t believe it’ll kill wikipedia nor am I totally sure it’ll take off.  I do understand why they are doing it but it will be ad-driven and so never seen as completely neutral.  Not that Wikipedia is neutral, it just seems less evil.

Quote of the night?  “We’re just more subtly evil” by Google guy who said it in response to a conversation about Google, market dominance and the statement “don’t be evil”.  Really does just sum it up, doesn’t it?

Ok so Julie and Judith have written roundups of PubCon already, but hey I thought I would do a “social” roundup, since I didn’t attend a single session This was my first pubcon and boy did it live up to the reputation. Gambling, drink and SEO - it can’t get any better!!

Going through my Vegas photos on facebook I realised that a lot of people has untagged themselves in my photos, mwaaaaaa, you can’t untag this father mockers =) This will be the uncensored gallery of the piss-up that was Vegas PubCon (obviously with the exception of all the minging photos of me, ha!)

Me and my Rob Kerry (evilgreenmonkey) arrived in Vegas on Tuesday 4th Dec. Not having slept at all on the plane I think it’s an understatement saying we were cream crackered (cockney for knackered). We got to the hotel, unpacked, eh, no threw the suitcases in the room, and went straight to the bar. In the bar we met the lovely Matt Inman who was going for dinner with Rhea Drysdale, so me and Rob tagged along (gate crashed) for some much needed alcohol and dinner. Thanks so much for paying Matt =) Will buy you dinner at the Ritz when you come to London………ehm or McDonald’s

Jet-lagged as hell - LisaD and Evilgreenmonkey

After having dinner I was so tired I thought I was going to hit the deck, we found the perfect solution - an oxygen bar! Hook me up! I know, it’s a “hot” look isn’t it having plastic tubes up my nose??? As Rob didn’t want to try it out the chick running the oxygen bar hooked him up to this “massage” thing that sends electric pulses through these gel pads. Endless fun I’m telling ya! I kept on turning up the power and Rob was suddenly Pinocchio - hilarious!

Getting some oxygen =)

Back at the bar in the Wynn we met up with Ciaran, Stephen “always pulling a face” Pavlovich and Chris Cotton. All showing us how to drink beer English style, or??

Also hanging out was Jane “my twin” Copland, the lovely Lisa Barone and Rhea Drysdale. (I’m really sorry but can’t remember what the name of the dude in the photo (was it JT?)

The first night was relatively civilised and I think we actually went to bed like 1 in the morning, I was very proud of myself, and actually thought that would be the case every night. I would network, stay relatively sober where people could still understand me etc etc YEAH RIGHT!!

Day 2, went to the Expo Hall at Webmasterworld for about 1 o’clock, oopsy. Did the rounds and bought a feckin large coffee and sat in the sun. Crazy 20 degrees, December? Really?? Met up with fellow SEO Chick Judith, who looked disgustingly awake and bright =)

Got back to the hotel, had a much needed snooze and met up with the funniest woman ever (SEO Chick Julie), her husband Jay “feckin womans knickers” Young and the Ayima Crew We went to see the Penn & Teller Show for Jay’s birthday, and it was really fucking good. Although I must admit not seeing much as desperately tried to hide so they wouldn’t drag me up on the stage…

As it was Jay’s birthday I bought him a very appropriate birthday gift - yup “feckin womans knickers”. Obviously gave it to him to open in-front of loads of people =)

“Me Julie” and myself looking strangely close! Anything for “Me Julie” - aiiiii!!

Back at The Wynn hotel (who by the way has the worst Flash website ever!!) we finally got back on track with the drinking.

Ciaran “smokin inside aii” Norris, Jane “might as well be English” Copland, Stephen Pavlovich (oh this is the only “normal” photo every taken of him!!” and Lisa “need a drink” Ditlefsen

The beer, wine and Cosmos (in Jane’s case) was finally flowing, after a few hours drinking I had the pleasure of meeting the lovely Kevin Gleeson. A seriously nice guy that knows his shit about Search Marketing. Had one of those drunken but very on topic conversation about everything search. Thoroughly enjoyed the conversion Kev, you’re a top bloke!

Also hung out with Patrick Sexton aka “feedthebot”, who is such a cutie, I just want to wrap him up and put him in my pocket...ehm you know what I mean…Always a pleasure to meet him as he is always so happy to see just in general a genuine and happy guy (plus he always gives the chicks compliments, which is always nice!).

I met Jim Boykin briefly at SMX Seattle but finally got to have a chat with him in Vegas, he is such a fucking nice bloke! I love this industry, it’s full of genuinely nice people, that are happy to share their experiences (ok there are one or two pooh beans but all in all it’s mainly nice people).

Also met CK Chung aka Kid Disco who can drink more than any human I’ve ever met, in fact I’m doubting he is human, think he might be a sideborg =) If you want to party in Vegas, I suggest you do it with CK, he is an awesome dude! Here CK with giggling Jane and Lisa =)

The Wynn bar didn’t know what had hit them when Dave Davis arrived at the bar. Dave is one “crazy” Irish dude, with a heart of gold! He is also one very clever businessman, and not that age matters, but at only 24 running his own company, I think it’s safe to say expect BIG things from this Irish wonder.

Here’s the lovely Rob, hunky Matt Inman and Dave the “Irish bomb”.

Dave is also one heck of a gambler, and had me hooked on Craps after a few hours =) Boy that was fun (as long as you win that is….and not throw those fucking SEVENS!)

After drinking, gambling and drinking some more, we were all knackered and went to bed, HECK WE DID! Myself, South African Steve, Jessie Beaudion and CK “sideborg” Chung went to the cafe for some breakfast and tequila, yep that’s right, 8 o’clock in the morning Tequila shots and Eggs Benedict. Seriously crazy but funny as hell!

Empty tequila glasses - oh dear god!

Day 3, feeling like I’ve been dragged through the gutter, chewed and spat out, then put in the tumble drier, I got up at 1 o’clock after some much needed sleep. I haven’t got many photos from day 3 funnily enough, probably as I was too hungover to work the camera =) But to cut a long story short, we did it all over again!

Mingling at the Wynn bar, I met Lauren Vacarello, who’s a totally awesome chick, and she can drink like a Viking =) I had met my match =)

Pat Sexton and the very cool Todd Malicoat were also hanging out in the bar. Todd is such a nice guy, although looking slightly scary with red eyes =) I on the other hand HAVE to stop posing! Ugh! I’m lucky no one asked me “how much?”.

So obvioulsy this led to ehm…yep yet another Tequila breakfast. This time a slightly bigger group. From left Stephen Pavlovich, a drunken LisaD, Dave “let’s drink more” Davis, CK, Lauren and Todd Malicoat.

To end this epic of a social roundup, I thought I post a photo of my favourite “blackhat” Steve aka Esrun. He’s 21 but kept on getting asked for I.D every second whilst in the Casinos. So, he got this t-shirt printed for the last day of gambling, I thought it was pretty feckin hilarious. Didn’t stop them asking for I.D though, even when Steve went “really you want to kill a poor little rabbit”

All in all, Vegas was totally awesome (shit I sound American), the networking was great and I learnt loads, although next time…..I think I will be kinder to my liver……as if.

Edit: if you read the comments on this post you see Jane commenting on a really bad photo of her….did you mean this one Jane? Mowhahahahha…..sorry couldn’t resist it…although I think Ciaran looks worse than you. Sorry Ciaran

Many posts talk about branding…branding is an utterly fascinating avenue to consider when you’re marketing, whether online or offline, but it’s not as easy to do well as you might think. When we think of branding, we tend to think of branding a product, a service, or a company. We don’t necessarily consider branding our names, but we should.

Consider this: no matter what you are a part of, you’re still an individual subject to searches for personal information. What turns up when someone searches for you is a matter of reputation management, but you really can actively control this for the most part with branding your name. Especially in the online marketing field, you need to be up on what’s being shown when someone tries to learn something about you.

So…how can you do this? Obviously, you can be as nice as pie and not curse on your blog posts and not let photos of you drunken and disheveled hit Facebook. Let me tell you that is harder than it seems! And I’m mostly joking anyway there. I do think that there are some lines you shouldn’t cross BUT I also think that most of us would rather see someone’s true personality shining through than have it covered up.

Witness the below image, which was a drawing created by the graphic design team at my last job…see, they know me well. Note the misspelling. It adds character. Also my eyes are green not blue but who’s nitpicking? OK I am.

If you do a search for your name, god only knows what’s going to turn up, especially if you have a fairly common name. Apparently Julie Joyce does some heartfelt Christian music…now that sure as hell isn’t THIS Julie Joyce. Still, I haven’t found any pervs with my name. Yet. If you are lucky enough to have a unique name, you should not have to wade through so much crap in order to see what turns up for your name. Lisa Ditlefsen, for example, is lucky enough to have the top 10 Google results actually be for her and not some insane impostor like my gospel singing friend.

When you’re checking all this, think about how different people search. Some would simply type in your name and, if you’re interviewing for a high level position in marketing, not be overly impressed if they found nothing at all. Some of these people will also not want to dig through results in order to find the ones that are actually relevant. This is your chance to do SOMETHING, most likely in the form of a social media campaign, to elevate your name’s status in the SERPs. Someone looking for “Julie Joyce SEO” is going to find more relevant results than someone searching for “Julie Joyce” since there is the aforementioned gospel singer plus a few other ne’er-do-wells with my same name BUT can I count on the “SEO” bit being added in the search? Unfortunately, I cannot.

So do the name search…and do the search with all sorts of other bits added on that someone might use for various reasons, and if you aren’t happy with what you see, do something about it. You’re in marketing, after all. If you can’t market yourself, what chance do you really have to market anything less important?

That being said, I’m going to try and crush the gospel singer!! Then I’ll work on the Florida artist and then, last but not least, the coach! Nicely, of course.

In conclusion…just two more items before you can go back to watching the Foo Fighter’s “Learn To Fly” video on Youtube. Or is that just me?

A few people use pseudonyms when blogging (hello Esrun you black hat basta…hello!!!) and that’s good if you’re up to exerting evil influences on the world. However, if you’re not and you’re considering blogging without using your real name, read what Penelope Trunk has to say about why you should be brave enough to put yourself out there and build up a name reputation. Why put time and effort into something if no one knows it’s you?

The same common sense approach to branding a name in the world of writing books applies to the world of writing online, which is a great bit of what we do as SEOs. Read Tom Brosnahan’s article on “Author as Brand Name” for a few tips.