Have you heard that it’s important to “optimize your content for search engines” – but you have no idea how to do it? Do prospects visit your site and leave without buying? Now, you can take control of your site – and learn the secrets to creating top-positioned Web content that informs, engages – and makes your company money!

Even if you’re not a copywriter or a “techie,” you can learn how to create persuasive, high ranking SEO content for your business. The training is split into two parts: How-to, and hands-on:

How-to: Learn the proven SEO copywriting best practice secrets the pros know. We’ll cover topics like:

• How you can use free tools to target money-making keyphrases.
• Wondering what to write about? Easy ways to find article ideas.
• 3 places where your content should always contain keyphrases
• Proven ways to help your existing content position better in the engines.

Hands-on: The afternoon training gets hands-on and personal, giving you a chance to apply what you’ve learned from the morning’s training. All attendees will be walked through step-by-step SEO copywriting exercises. With plenty of time for Q & A, it’s like receiving your own private training for the low price of a seminar.

As an exclusive incentive, all attendees will receive a free, three-month subscription to Success Works’ SEO Copywriting Certification program – a $599 value – which features eight in-depth learning modules, twice-monthly Q&A group conference calls, and access to all archived events!

Bring your laptops to this fun, fast-paced training!

Instructor: Heather Lloyd-Martin, CEO SuccessWorks
When: September 15th, 2010
Where: Bellevue, WA
Hours: 9 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Save $200 until September 7, 2010 with coupon code SEOTRAIN. Sign up now!

SEO Copywriting for Businesses: Tips, Techniques and Real-World Strategies, September 15th is a post from: SEMpdx

Bend WebCAM, the mind-blowing Web, Creative and Marketing conference scheduled for September 30 – October 1, 2010 has added yet another amazing speaker to its already stellar line up. Jason Bagley, Creative Director on Old Spice’s world-famous “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” campaign has been confirmed as a keynote speaker on Thursday, September 30 at the Tower Theatre in downtown Bend, Oregon.

As a Copywriter and Creative Director for Wieden + Kennedy in Portland, Bagley has helped transform Old Spice from a stale, forgotten brand, to one of the most loved products in America among men 12-30. The last 11 Old Spice commercials produced by Bagley and his team have averaged over 6.2 million YouTube views each. And since its launch in February, “the Man your man could smell like” campaign has generated more than 1.4 BILLION impressions for the brand, including 130 million video views! The first-of-it’s kind Old Spice social-media response videos generated and unheard of 23 million views in just 36 hours. To top it all off, the campaign recently won an Emmy-award, beating out several spectacular commercials.

Presented by Pixelsilk and hosted by the Ad Federation of Central Oregon, the Bend WebCAM serves up a superfreaking boost for the logical and practical (geek) side of your brain, as well as the creative and emotional (chic) side, with some of the nation’s most influential geniuses in web marketing, social media, SEO, creative, design and brand development.

“We already had a world-class collection of speakers lined up from some of the top agencies, brands and SEO consortiums,” said Cam Davis of Wordplay and Co-Director of WebCAM Programming. “Bringing in Jason, who’s been involved in everything from the casting of the instantly famous Old Spice spokesman to the incredible special effects to the writing of the social media campaign, makes this one of the premier conferences in the country, if not the entire planet. Being there is simply a no-brainer.”

In addition to Bagley, the Conference features keynote speaker Mike Geiger, Chief Digital Officer at Goodby Silverstein & Partners; some of the West’s creative and marketing All-Stars; and a virtual Who’s Who list of SEO and Social Media experts. Breakout sessions will be led by Cal McAllister & Ian Cohen, Julie Beeler, Scott Cowan & Randall Schoonover, David Mihm, Kent Lewis, Vanessa Fox, John Andrews, Shari Thurow, Bill Hunt, Jeremy Sanchez, Andre Jensen, Paige Perdue & Sarah Kotlova, and Jill Whalen.

Last, but definitely not least, a special History of SEO keynote panel will feature industry pioneers, such as Bruce Clay, Adam Sherk, Jim Stob, Disa Johnson, Marshall Simmonds, Meg Thompson and Derrick Wheeler.

Rounding out the conference will be the highly popular Brew-Ha-Ha social gathering at The Blacksmith, the 5th edition of Ignite Bend, an entertaining collection of eclectic Powerpoint presentations, and the highly popular Hot Seat website critique.

Now is your last chance to take advantage of generous Early Bird registration discounts. Until Monday, August 30, admission to this amazing event is just $160 for AdFed Members (a savings of $30 off regular prices) and $250 for Non-members (a savings of $40 off regular prices).

A full conference agenda, detailed speaker information and registration are available at www.bendwebcam.com. If you don’t click there right now, you’re out of your superfreakin’ mind.

Last Chance to Catch Early Bird Savings For Bend WebCAM! is a post from: SEMpdx

At my Pubcon hosting session last November, I predicted that Google would make page load time a ranking factor in 2010.

The very next day in his PubCon session, Matt Cutts made the announcement that speed as a ranking factor would be coming soon, and Google did make that happen in April of this year.

No, I’m not some sort of a search heretic  - It just made sense to me that since they were putting such emphasis on speed for Ad Words Quality Scores for so long, that making a factor for organic ranking must be coming soon.

Ever since then, when checking site health, one of my routine stopovers in Google Webmaster tools has been under Google labs called “site performance”, and I even posted a quick video showing how Google is helping you speed up your site.

There was a nifty chart, showing you a history of the speed of your site, and a sentence telling you “Your Site is Faster (or Slower) than X % of sites” ,  so you knew stacks up with the rest of the world.

Here’s what one USED to look like -

Today, though, the entire sentence telling you how you’re doing, and the charts too, are missing?!?

On the one hand, I suppose that’s okay, because it seemed like a very rare occasion that Google reported any site in the upper speed percentage of on the web.

On the other hand, when a site was really bad,  having the chart there as a “warning” was a good thing, and I encouraged employees to look there often.  Now we’ll actually have to run their speed tool?

Do you think the chart will be coming back?  I sure hope so…

Update – 8/31

It does seem as if it’s only on SOME domains, but there’s no pattern I can find. I wonder what’s going on?

Webmaster Tools Speed Chart Missing? is a post from: SEMpdx

According to Google Webmaster tools, an affiliate site of mine has over 26,000 links from several hundred different domains. That sounds great, doesn’t it?

One problem though – the majority of the links don’t seem to actually exist, and I have no idea where they came from!

I swear, I’ve been up to nothing fishy with this domain, (really!) but the vast majority of these links are coming from spammy sounding subdomains, and I can’t figure out what’s going on. Is someone trying to “linkspambomb” me?

The other day I was doing some routine checks in WMT, and I noticed that my inbound link count was 100 times higher than I had expected.

Upon further examination, I noticed that most of the backlinks came from subdomains, but when i tried to view the pages they didn’t exist! In fact, some of the subdomains are even on a domain CALLED dontexist.com!

Here’s a small sample of some of the domains that are linking to me..

7zoom.com/
al367.homelinux.org/
alons819.dontexist.com/
ammon310.dontexist.org/
aries.fluther.com/
arnett486.servegame.org/
august166.homeftp.net/
belv218.ath.cx/
blayloc855.dyndns.ws/
bloun966.webhop.net/
bodna258.webhop.net/
bohrman422.podzone.net/

WTF?

Again, I’ve not been participating in any automated link schemes, or auto-generating content, or doing anything that could explain what’s going on, so it must be some form of attempted sabotage, right?

All I can figure is that someone is trying to knock me out of the game but it makes no sense that most the links can’t be viewed. I’ve done a site: search of many of the root domains trying to figure out what they are, but they’er mostly crap, and many are in other languages too.

I’d love some feedback on what or how someone’s jerking me around, as well as some thoughts on what to do about it. There’s no “remove backlinks” option in webmaster Tools like there is for URL’s, but I hate to just leave ‘em there… Anyone got any ideas?

LinkSpam Bombed… But How and Why? is a post from: SEMpdx

Join thousands of fellow marketers (including Susan) for five days of marketing education and conversation! ClickZ Connected Marketing Week, August 16-20, in San Francisco!

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

As the CEO of Personal Life Media, Inc., I am a publisher of eBooks focused on your personal and professional growth. We call them “eBooks with Benefits” because our downloadable books and membership sites typically consist of pdf’s in the form of books and workbooks, plus audio and video companion files.

I spend most of my time deciding what to publish, managing the production of the content, selecting and managing the talent (our experts) and writing all the marketing copy for the landing pages, email relationships, online ads et cetera.

We publish titles ranging from Speak Up with Power and Influence to Expanded Lovemaking to The Meaning Solution: Creating Purpose, Power & Passion.

In addition, I have my own online products, Talk Show Tips, Masterful Interviews and my weekly show and blog, DishyMix, on which I interview famous people in the digital marketing industry in an entertaining talk show style format.

Note: Readers can use promo code DISHY to save up to half off any product if you’d like to include that.

2) What percentage of your marketing includes SEM, Social, Email etc?

The most cash outlay goes to PPC, we spend a lot of our precious time focused on SEM, growing our email databases and managing the relationships we create with consumers for each of our brands has begun to be of ever increasing importance and I personally use social media to promote my brand and to teach my experts how to promote themselves.

3) How do you break it down?

Between SEM/Social/Email it’s probably 33% equally. They work together as the best triumvirate for a small brand with big aspirations. We also leverage affiliate and JV marketing extensively to promote our products and pay up to 50% revenue through our affiliate network, RevShareNow.

4) How do you use blogging to generate more awareness for your business?

I use Twitter to generate the most awareness for all of our brands through our PersonalLife Twitter account, and I use my blog DishyMix to promote not only all of our products, but my own particularly.
I use syndication tools to radiate my blog posts across my social accounts. The tools I prefer are SocialOomph to pre-schedule and manage my Twitter and Facebook posts in advance. I use the Mobypicture application for my photo blogging and Tweeting. I’m an avid photographer and believe that pictures are the most valuable medium for creating excitement (video is nice, but takes too much time for most of my busy followers). I post a LOT of pics from my iPhone that go directly to my blog and to my Twitter accounts and get posted both to my Facebook newsfeed and to my photos section automatically with one click of a button with Mobypicture. Both SocialOomph and Mobypicture are major timesaver for me. I try to create content that is sharable, so I get as many retweets and comments as possible. The blog is the core of my “opinion sharing.”

5) Do you have an online community for your brand?

Definitely not! I’m against custom online communities for all but the most loyal or niche of brands. I am on the board of Powered, Inc., a company that has built some of the biggest online communities. So don’t get me wrong, I think certain brands can use custom online communities as vital part of their crm and growth strategy! But for most brands, including my own, I say, “fish where the fish are.” I know enough to keep my ego in check and go to my customers, instead of expecting them to go to me.

6) What insider technique can you share that you think other small businesses don’t know about but could really help them?

The notion of content syndication. Bernie Borges of Find and Convert really taught me to think this way. He believes all brands are publishers now. That because of search optimization, we all need to get content out on the web, whether via article syndication, participation on sites like Squidoo or a myriad other options, distributing your expertise via content is the name of the game.

It doesn’t have to be difficult. Look, I post one image from my phone and it goes to my blog, 6 Twitter accounts and my personal Facebook page and my DishyMix Fan Page (I invite you to “like” me on the DishyMix page, as I give away all kinds of great schwag and free autographed books from my guests constantly.) with the push of a button using Moby’s syndication. It’s not hard to be in a lot of places simultaneously with content.

And, for companies that have a hard time figuring out what they should do in social media, I recently created a free social media strategy framework. It helps any company or individual brand go through the thought process for zeroing in on what they specifically should do to create their unique social strategy. Anyone can get it for free at http://socialmediasuperpowers.com

The last thing I will bring to your attention as a small biz owner is the idea of integrating social platforms into your business at an enterprise level. My friend, Dave Evans, author of Social Media Marketing: An Hour a Day (excellent book!) is coming out with a new book, focused on social business strategies and this is a burgeoning new area of massive growth potential for small businesses. Those on the vanguard of integrating social into their internal organizations, including supply chains and other stakeholders are going to pull ahead in the global economy. Keep an eye out for that. Of course, I’ll be interviewing Dave on DishyMix the minute the book launches.

Just like search engine marketing, the new area of marketing any business owner must become facile with is social marketing/networking. It’s changing the entire way business is conducted. Those early in to leveraging the capabilities will be the winners.

Getting Personal Online: My Interview With Susan Bratton is a post from: SEMpdx

July’s SEMpdx networking event promises to be a good one, as we try out a new venue. There’s no charge to attend this one, and no “education” beyond that which you’ll get from hobnobbing with the smartest internet marketers in Portland.

Where:
The Hop and Vine
1914 North Killingsworth Street
Portland, Oregon 97217

When:
Tuesday July 20 – 4:30pm to 6:30 pm

If you’re a Facebook member, you can read a little bit about them here but if not, you’ll have to get more information here.

There’s no charge to attend, and we hop to see you there!

July 2010 Networking Event is a post from: SEMpdx

WordStream continues to add to their suite of free search marketing tools with The Free Negative Keyword Tool to help boost efficiency and ROI in paid search marketing

BOSTON, MA – June 22, 2010 – WordStream, Inc., a provider of keyword research tools for pay-per-click (PPC) and search engine optimization (SEO) efforts, today launched The Free Negative Keyword Tool, which is designed to quickly identify lists of highly-effective negative keywords for PPC advertisers.

With the launch of the Free Negative Keyword Tool, anyone who runs a paid search marketing campaign with Google AdWords, Bing AdCenter or Yahoo Sponsored Search now has the power to:

• Stop wasteful ad spend before it happens by proactively setting negative keywords and match types with the suggestions provided by WordStream’s keyword tool
• Save time and increase productivity by identifying whole clusters of related negative keyword candidates rather than single instances of negative terms
• Perform negative keyword research by eliminating any “positive terms” that are relevant to your website from your list of negatives and exporting your list of negatives in an AdWords-ready format

The Free Negative Keyword Tool from WordStream makes all this possible by identifying a list of high-traffic keyword niches which are related to your business, service or product as a first step. Next, you’re able to designate which of these keyword niches are relevant to your business and which ones aren’t. The Free Negative Keyword Tool then saves any keyword terms you deem “negative,” and suggests additional, related terms that have a high likelihood of getting matched against the ad groups within your paid search accounts.

“The Free Negative Keyword Tool saves PPC advertisers the headache of going the long, tedious and expensive traditional route of waiting for your ad campaigns to mature and accrue query data, then sifting through search query reports to uncover negative keywords,” said Larry Kim, WordStream’s Founder and Vice President of Product Development. “So rather than wasting tons of time, money and energy, you can quickly and efficiently weed out irrelevant terms with our tool, thereby eliminating wasted spend before these terms ever cost you a single penny.”
To try WordStream’s new Free Negative Keyword Tool, go to: http://www.wordstream.com/negative-keywords

About WordStream
Recently named an “OnDemand Top 100 Winner for Saas” by AlwaysOn, WordStream is a provider of SEO and PPC solutions for continuously optimizing and expanding search marketing efforts involving large numbers of keywords. WordStream provides a scalable, private, online keyword workbench—which includes a free keyword suggestion tool to find the Web’s top social media keywords—for conducting keyword discovery, keyword research, keyword grouping and search marketing workflow and for turning research into action.

WordStream believes that an organization’s keywords are a valuable, proprietary asset, and that organizing, prioritizing, coordinating and executing PPC and SEO efforts around a comprehensive, researched and up-to-date keyword taxonomy is the key to search marketing success. Keyword management improves search marketing productivity and enables greater relevance, which enhances the value of search marketing efforts.

WordStream Press Contact: 
Ken Lyons, Marketing Manager
617-963-0563, klyons@wordstream.com

PPC Marketers: Save Time and Money with New Free Negative Keyword Tool from WordStream is a post from: SEMpdx

As you may already know, the Online Marketing Summit 22 City Tour is about to kick off this week. Two new thought leaders have just been added to the long list of expert speakers; Jeff Hayzlett, CMO of Kodak and author of best-selling Mirror Test and Clara Shih, author of The Facebook Era.

As a special offer for our members, OMS is extending a 40% discount (that’s $150 off!) and a FREE signed copy from one of these Keynote Speakers (you choose the book) when you register for an OMS Regional event between June 7 and June 14.

Go to http://bit.ly/cMe9Do and use code bookplus150 before June 14 to get your free signed book and get $150 off.

Feel free to share this offer with your friends and colleagues and remember that it is only good until June 14th.

Lori Little is the Marketing & Communications Director for the
Oregon Lodging Association (soon to become Oregon Restaurant and Lodging Association or “ORLA”)
www.oregonlodging.com

She managse and develop all communications and marketing efforts, internet marketing and social media to engage Oregon’s lodging industry; manages content and promote website as a resource; augments communications related to member services and advocacy with electronic newsletters; manages special events and programs to engage lodging members in educational, networking and advocacy programs; and continues to build awareness of OLA as an indispensable resource to lodging members.

Congrats to Lori Little For Winning The Free OMS Portland Pass is a post from: SEMpdx

Please tell us why in the comments below. Winner to be announced on our about June 3rd.

As you may already know, the Online Marketing Summit 22 City Tour is about to kick off this week. Two new thought leaders have just been added to the long list of expert speakers; Jeff Hayzlett, CMO of Kodak and author of best-selling Mirror Test and Clara Shih, author of The Facebook Era.

As a special offer for our members, OMS is extending a 40% discount (that’s $150 off!) and a FREE signed copy from one of these Keynote Speakers (you choose the book) when you register for an OMS Regional event between June 7 and June 14.

Go to http://bit.ly/cMe9Do and use code bookplus150 before June 14 to get your free signed book and get $150 off.

Feel free to share this offer with your friends and colleagues and remember that it is only good until June 14th.

Tell Us Why You Want To Attend OMS Portland And You Might Attend For Free is a post from: SEMpdx

SEMpdx Social Networking Rooftop Party 2010

Attention advertisers, marketers, PR pros, online gurus, tech geeks, social media rock stars and search engine marketers! Join us Tuesday, August 10th for a fabulous evening of drinks, hors d’oeuvres, live music and social networking on the roof of Hotel deLuxe in downtown Portland.

Location: On the roof of Hotel deLuxe

729 SW 15th Ave, Portland, OR
Date:Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Time: 5:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Cost: $12

Networking:

The SEMpdx annual Rooftop Party promises to be the most talked-about networking event of the year. Not only will you be on top of one of Portland’s most luxurious and exclusive hotels – you’ll also be on top of the latest developments going on at the most innovative marketing associations in the Pacific Northwest!

Our friends from the following organizations will be attending as well:

• American Marketing Association (AMA)
• Portland State University: Multimedia Professional Program
• Social Media Club
• Oregon Entrepreneur Network (OEN)
• Public Relations Society of America (PRSA)
• Oregon Creative Industries (OCI)
• Oregon Columbia International Association of Business Communicators (OCIABC)
• Software Association of Oregon (SAO)

This event is pre-register ONLY. Sorry: NO WALK-UP REGISTRATION will be allowed. Unregistered individuals will not be admitted at the door. Registration will close on Tuesday, August 10 at 12:00 p.m.

Secure your registration for this exciting event today! We look forward to seeing you there!

Live Music:

We are very excited to have a live band this year! The local band Donerail will be performing throughout the evening. Donarail’s unique sound is based on the fundamentals of classic rock, with the fresh spin of indie rock, punk and country.

Sponsors:

The Online Marketing Institute (OMI), in association with Wharton Interactive Media Initiative, is an education-focused, career development organization offering marketers accreditation in the various fields of online marketing. OMI’s curriculum of case studies, best practices, peer validation and trend analysis is delivered to students via workshops, webinars, seminars and online learning channels. OMI’s education program was built in conjunction with leading universities, research firms and associations to give marketers market-tested practical knowledge that can immediately benefit their careers. OMI’s courses are available to the general public.

OMI is the educational sister entity of the Online Marketing Summit (OMS).

EngineWorks is an innovative data-driven Internet marketing company headquartered in Portland, Oregon. We provide sophisticated interactive services that enable businesses and organizations of all sizes to be found through search engines, content sites, and social networks.

Founded in 2005 by Internet marketing veterans, our professional company offers affordable services that dramatically increase the return on your interactive investment. Our core team of seasoned experts acquired their search marketing acumen by successfully founding and working at several of the world’s most established interactive marketing companies.

Register Today!

SEMpdx Social Networking Rooftop Party 2010 is a post from: SEMpdx