toddmintz

"The horror of that moment," the King went on, "I shall never, never forget."
"You will though," the Queen said, "if you don’t make a memorandum of it."

Lewis Carroll, Through The Looking Glass

So, I would like to have a do-over on this old post that I wrote.  Not that I think the post was wrong or bad…I actually think quite highly of it.  But, it wasn’t really what I wanted to say given its inspiration.

“Only one is a wanderer; two together are always going somewhere…” Kim Novak, Vertigo

So last week, some of my fellow SEMpdx Board Members and I got together for a SearchFest 2010 planning meeting.  We discussed many relevant topics (date, venue, topics, speakers, etc.) and at the end of the meeting, I was tasked with inviting a group of speakers, most of whom I consider some of my closest friends in our industry.

If you do any sort of email prospecting for your business, you’ve likely come across a “hard ass” prospect like me who likes to try to have a little fun at your expense. If you encounter such a person, this woman’s response to me is the absolute correct way to handle the situation. Even though I really didn’t have a clue about her and the company she worked for, she definitely earned a bit of my time (and my respect as well).

Adapted from Wallace Stevens

I
Among twenty snowy mountains,
The only moving thing
Was the eye of mesothelioma.

II
I was of three minds,
Like a tree
In which there are three mesotheliomiacs.

III
Mesothelioma whirled in the autumn winds.
It was a small part of the pantomime.

IV
A man and a woman
Are one.
A man and a woman and mesothelioma
Are one.

“I’m a model you know what I mean
And I do my little turn on the catwalk
Yeah on the catwalk on the catwalk yeah
I do my little turn on the catwalk”…Right Said Fred

So, the other day, I got this very interesting email from a domain seller:

“I ain’t sayin’ I beat the devil, but I drank his beer for nothing…Then I stole his song.” Kris Kristofferson

“His soul had approached that region where dwell the vast hosts of the dead. He was conscious of, but could not apprehend, their wayward and flickering existence. His own identity was fading out into a grey impalpable world: the solid world itself which these dead had one time reared and lived in was dissolving and dwindling.” James Joyce, “The Dead”

“Lemme here you say…fight the power…we’ve got to fight the powers that be.” …Public Enemy

So, I just got back from a Royal Caribbean Cruise. My father purchased berths for 4 families, including mine, to sail in the Caribbean for 7 days. I suppose I shouldn’t complain since my family got a complimentary vacation but since this is a blog post, you gotta know I’m gonna complain about something :.)

“Step inside my mind for a moment…” Robin Williams from “Reality, What A Concept”

When I saw this Tweet from John Andrews, I knew I had to question him about it…and here’s how the conversation went:

Just from this brief exchange that has nothing to do with search marketing, I have learned a tremendous amount about John and the traits he has as a search marketer.

“Keep your eyes on the prize…hold on.”…Bruce Springsteen

Many of the paid search accounts that I’ve worked with contain a geographical component and I have a well-used spreadsheet that contains the names of the biggest U.S. Cities, States, and State Abbreviations for those accounts. I often combine this list with my “core” keywords so that my ads can reach the geographical paid search long tail.