SEMpdx Searchfest 08 Audience Mini-Interview: David Mihm

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

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

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

 Todd, thanks so much for the opportunity to introduce myself.  Looking forward to meeting everyone in the Portland search marketing community @ SearchFest! I’ve run my own search-friendly web design company  since early 2006, after working mostly as an SEO in-house at a couple of different companies for about two years.  My focus is on helping small and medium-sized companies either start or re-energize their online presence and strategy.  I do everything from site audits and consulting to designs and CSS to full-on development.  Consequently most of my clients just refer to me as their “web guy.”  I do some ongoing link development and analytics, but so far I’ve been able to do enough for most of my clients, just as part of the initial push, to get their sites to rank well and bring them some solid business.  I’ve just started to partner with a couple of linkbuilders and PPC consultants which should enable me to take on larger projects.  Very excited about that, but I’ll remain focused on smaller businesses because I love their ability to be nimble and their lack of bureaucracy.

Like a lot of search marketers and other online professionals, my background is kind of all over the place.  I graduated from  Williams College in 2003 with a degree in Psychology, but a great passion for architectural history.  I tried a year of grad school in architecture but became disillusioned, and after traveling the world and a brief stint on the account side of a boutique ad agency in the Bay Area, I took a chance on an in-house SEO position at a small company.  I have been loving life ever since!

2) A lot of prominent Search Engine Marketers call the Northwest home. Any idea why that is? Is that why your moving to Portland?

Must be the endless sunny skies and balmy winter weather, right? 😉  Seriously, I think that the Northwest has SO much going for it–of course you’ve got tech-savvy populations in both major areas with Intel and Microsoft raising awareness, among others, so a lot of smaller businesses “get” the need to stay on top of their online marketing, which in turn feeds our client base.  I don’t think SEM has made quite the same kind of penetration in, say, Louisville or Milwaukee, that it has in Portland (all three cities are about the same size in terms of population).

But beyond that, in both Portland and Seattle you get the cosmopolitan feel of a larger metro area like San Francisco or Chicago on a smaller scale.  So you avoid the bad things like traffic (well, maybe not in Seattle), pollution, and general chaos.  And you still get the good things, like intellectual stimulation, vibrant nightlife, and outdoor activities.  I think that makes everyone much more laid-back and friendly than if they were in a larger city.  (It was remarkable how many people gave me eye contact & said hello walking around Downtown Portland when I came up to look for apartments last week.  Being a native Midwesterner, I love that!) 

Because the SEM community is so collegial as well, I think that kind of atmosphere tends to draw people in our industry.  Or maybe it’s just a correlation, that the community is so friendly & helpful because their surrounding culture helps to foster that aspect of their personalities.

3) Please look at the Searchfest Agenda and give us your Searchfest “Fave Five”, with a brief reason why you would include each person.

Man, tough question, it’s like trying to pick the starting line-up for The Dream Team.  But if you’re gonna restrict me to five, I’d have to say:

• Rand Fishkin – How can you not pick the keynote speaker?  Rand is perhaps the singular figure who confirmed for me that I REALLY wanted to get involved in this industry.  I’ve had the pleasure of hearing him speak at least half a dozen times, including at the SEOmoz Seminar in October, and he never disappoints, both in terms of his dynamism and the quality of his information.  Be sure you leave plenty of time to get to the Banquet Center in the morning because you will not want to miss him.
• Matt McGee – I’ve been reading Matt’s blog pretty much since I started my business two years ago, and there is NO better guy for online small business advice.  Matt truly understands the advantages and limitations of marketing for small businesses, and if you are a small business owner or you serve small businesses, I cannot recommend him highly enough.  I also recently had the distinct pleasure of working with Matt on the SEMMY Awards .  Plus he’s a huge college hoops fan, as am I, so I’m sure we’ll have plenty of things to talk about on March 10th, only six days before Selection Sunday!
• Stoney DeGeyter – Stoney’s another guy who’s just chock-full of great ideas for small businesses.  I probably don’t read him as regularly as I should (i.e. as regularly as I read Rand and Matt), but he’s definitely one of the up-and-coming rockstars in the SEO world.  I enjoyed meeting him at the aforementioned SEOmoz Seminar as well; hopefully he remembers me & doesn’t think I’m just a random stalker when I introduce myself again next month… 🙂
• Rebecca Kelley – To use a popular sports catchphrase, I think Rebecca may be the “most underrated” SEO in the industry.  Her knowledge of nuts-and-bolts SEO, social media strategies, and creativity is pretty remarkable.  I’m so glad that she’s finally gotten onto the presentation circuit in the last year, because her experience, passion, and sense of humor deserve that kind of recognition from her peers.  A word of warning, however: if she offers to let you finish her drink at the Networking Reception, know the consequences of accepting !  You may regret the effects in the morning… 🙂
• Ben Hanna – After building Rebecca up with that glowing recommendation, I’m now going to say that I might have to snub her (for at least part of her presentation) so that I can hear Ben Hanna speak!  I’ve never met Ben, but I have so many current B2B clients and get so many B2B inquiries that I am looking forward to hearing a few strategies from someone with his credentials.  Business.com / Work.com is the clear leader in the B2B space, and it’ll be great to learn from someone with Ben’s perspective.

I’m also really looking forward to meeting more of the SEMpdx regulars.  If you and Scott are any indication of the kinds of people involved in the Portland web community, it’s a terrific crew!