The networking at PubCon 2009 was awesome and it is great to get to see so many industry associates at the same place and time. Now there are some of my friends that I only see once a year in Vegas. Great job this year Brett, keep up the excellence.

My drive to San Diego was excellent, nice weather and I got to take care of some important business in Los Angeles on the way home, and I was able to spend a day at the Search Engine Workshops in Vegas on the way home and see some long time mates.

I got to roll on the mat a couple times with 6x world Brazilian Jui-jitsu Champion Robert Drysdale. When I got home I realized I was bruised from head to toe; big gnarly bruises too. I’ve trained in a few of the Martial Arts and wrestled for about 10 years. My prediction is that Robert Drysdale will wear the belt in UFC as fast as anyone has ever gotten it shortly after they sign him. I stopped by his Dojo in Vegas at 1234 Rainbow Boulevard and he is doing a great job over there. The guys a true Jui-Jitsu Rock Star! I’ll post some pictures later.

DK’s ThinkTank gets two thumbs up for great food, merriment, networking, idea sharing, and extracurricular activities. Way to Go DK!

The Networking is always nice. Microsoft sponsored a huge ravesque party at RAIN in the Palms hotel. I had to leave it after 40 minutes though so I could get to Purpose Inc’s No Limit Hold’em charity tournament at the Venetian. 30% of the proceeds were contributed to a disabled Iraq war veterans charity. Last year I was out in 20 minutes, this year I was the “bubble boy,” finishing in tenth place, one away from the final table and the money. The networking at this event was great and I saw many of my associates whom I only get to see once a year or so.

I would wager that the Conference attendance was down at least 20% from last year, but reliable sources told me the conference substance was really good this year.

The Webmaster World Expo was great. I meet some interesting people with new and innovative SEO related products and services. All in all, the Expo was great.

The 2008 PubCon event was held at the Hofbrauhaus. Great size for the event. This is one of, if not the best Marketer/Webmaster networking events on the planet. I look forward to next years event.

This year I returned, as I said I would in last years review, to the SMX Advanced Conference in Seattle.

Getting to Denver was a nightmare. I missed my flight (not by my tardiness) but South West Air helped me catch the next one.

I got into Seattle about 7:30 pm. Rented a Hummer for $31/day and drove to my hotel. OI missed the MSN reception party by 15 minutes so I went back to room and did some work… till 2 am (stupid me!).

These are the sessions I attended:

Day One SMX Advanced

Bot Herding – This was quite an interesting session. I enjoyed it. Panelists discussed the dumbness of bots and how to avoid pitfalls that are bot related. there are many things that can go bad and usually it is avoidable . It was good. I’ve been doing this for near 10 years now so I knew the info but the specifics were good.

This was a fiery panel too. I did appreciate what each of them had to say, Stephan Spencer, Michael Gray, Hamlett Batista and Adam Audette. Hamletts “White Hat Cloaking” presentation was great. They shulda gave him another 10 minutes as he had the audience mesmerized. Danny could of just taken the time from the Search Engine Reps on the panel. They got way to much time and bumbled their way through the session.

These rookies from the Search Engines were not quite ready for that panel and they certainly were outranked by everyone else on it, and they knew it, and… ok thats enough rant.

But they did provide a highlite, in that, Nathan Buggia, Lead PM, Live Search Webmaster Center, Microsoft had an iBook in front of him.

That’s funny! And a serious business faux paux! It is like a Mercedes dealer who shows up to work in a Lexus each day. That is old school Bill, go ahead and send your guys out into the feeding frenzy armed with only an Apple. My next computer will certainly be a Mac sumthin. I’ve had PC’s for 16 years.

Buying Sites for SEO – This was another session, from the Organic track, that about halfway through it I found myself scratching my head wondering why this years event wasn’t just branded as “SMX Black.” The idea is to grab expired domains, resurrect content to it (mouth to mouth resuscitation) then grab the trust from the seasoned and now not broken links and then use 301’s to send the trust to another domain. Well, this works. It always has. But I bet Google is fast working on closing the loophole and why risk your future reputation with Google forever over a tactic?

I enjoyed all the presentations by Gab Goldenberg, Todd Malicoat, Jeremy Schoemaker, and Jeremy Wright. I know it works, but don’t you think teaching it here crosses the line with Google, as far as their Quality Guidelines and Trust Rank system?

You & A with Matt Cutts – Hey, I had a front row seat for this one. Mostly Matt talking about Google best practices. But I did get to ask Matt an important question directly after the session and before he was pinned against the wall with questioners.

The Networking Bash was great. Not as loud as last years. Google did not sponsor it this year so those people who went to SMX Advanced last year, my be the only marketers to get to go to a Google Dance, not at the Googleplex in California.

I am going to take a break now. I’ll tell you about day 2 later…

I had thought that it looked impressive to be on the top of search for the phrase “search engine expert.” But when I Googled the phrase, I was somewhat surprised. I found my business on page one of the results at #7.

At number 1 is Scott Hendison in Oregon. I know Scott from workshops back in 2003. I think to my self… That is great! he has cleaned up his past darker-hatted ways and now he’s at the top for a good phrase. Congrats on Numero Uno Scott!

SEOlogic has #2 and thier SEO quiz is #3, Kule!

Then I find #4, Brad Fallon, listed, which brings up some emotion in me, maybe fear, as I held #1 for the phrase “SEO Expert” unchallenged for just over three years, and yes, kudos to Brad, he was one who stepped up, with his Blog of all things, to dethrone me. And he has kept it from me for two years also, so I gotta tip my hat to Brad. BTW, Brad has a couple of my old buddies held hostage over in his stomper camp.

At #5 Webreference has an interview with Danny Sullivan and at #6 is Search Engine Watch, which I think is latently semantically related to Danny, so I give the #5 & #6 spots to Danny Sullivan who is now with Third Door Media Sphinning out SMX events. Now If I were Google, and granted I am not, lol, but if I were, I would just whitelist Danny in as #1 for “Search Engine Expert” and leave it be.

Then there is my little listing there at #7 (I have never specifically targeted that phrase either as it was not part of my findings).

At #8 is Jill Whalen from High Rankings. Jill is going tit for tat with me on a couple of top positions for some of my personal favorite phrases, but I think I am winning where concerned, and I agree that Jill should be on this list. YOU GO GIRL!

And at #9 is Aaron Wall from SEOBook.com Dude, when I saw that domain launch, I knew a storm was coming! Of what I know about Aaron which isn’t a lot, he seems very sensible and very logical, two qualities that can get you to this page. I should read your blog more, I know.

And #10 would have got an honorable mention except their link server 404′d and left me hangin’ with the backie.

So, this may have even been important. So, being me, I whip out the lappie and I pulled up the Keyword Discovery, to see if I can’t do a little discovery. And what I found was that out of 60 Bugillion+ queries last year, only 1 search was for the phrase “search engine expert”. And, well, hmmm…

This is a great ego result, meaning that it feels good to ones ego to find themselves listed as a top 10 search engine expert. Hey, I even built a searchie but she broke from malnutrition, or maybe it was manipulation. Anyways, “ego” results don’t bring home the bacon.

I did find it interesting though, that KD says there are three decent phrases stemming from the phrase “search engine expert” and I went and looked and I am #1 for all three of those phrases, and these phrases bring me business and they all three have a higher count than does “SEO Expert”.

So I guess the reason I thought this might make a good blog post is because the target phrase only had a count of 1. Maybe I was wrong and that is completely uninteresting.

Ok, so that bozo at #10 who didn’t get mentioned today, well he kinda needs a replacement, so I am just gonna through in a wild card. If I were Google, I’d put John Alexander from Search Engine Workshops on page one, because for starters, as I am tiring from typing this long-assed post, I reflect on his wisdom, when he warned us three years ago about the eventual commodification of SEO as a service.

I’m dun!

This place was great because of all the room and space it had. In past years, the Nine Irishmen got so crowded and packed with “networking marketers” that everyone had to get very intimate with many strangers in order to get around. I used to try and find a good chair in the corner and see who came to me. This year though, everyone could move freely, with many entrances and exits, friendly bar staff. I really got a good chance to chat with everyone I hoped to this year and was able to meet some good new connections. I was a bit saddened when it was over after about 3 hours but while it was going it was the best PubCon I’ve been too in four.

About an hour in to the event, Danny Sullivan shows up! He must have chartered a jet from the Chicago SES event to get there that quick but I for one was real happy to see him make it.

Here is a link to the PubCon page. See ya next year at it.

Robert

Tuesday and Thursday each had five tracks equaling 25 sessions each day and Wednesday had 15 sessions. since I could only go to 13 sessions physically, these are the ones I went to:

Tuesday, December 4
Social Marketing – Leveling the Playing Field
This was a good introduction to the major social media environments like Delicious, Digg and Facebook.

Monetizing Social Media Traffic
This was a really good session for people who are already in the social media optimization and marketing.

Reputation Monitoring and Management
I’ve been to this session a couple times before but this was the best one. About using Press and the Blogosphere for reputation issues.

Link Baiting – 96 Different Strategies
I was headed over to hear Dr. Ralph Wilson Speak on e-mail marketing as I used to subscribe to his newsletter myself back in 2001 and 2002, but the title of 96 strategies sucked me in. “96″ was actually more of a gimmick for the talk title but nevertheless, I found it an interesting group and presentation.

Link Buying
This is one that I would think people would just shy away from but I found my self in session. At times it tuned into a Googlebash and Matt Cutts, sitting in the back row, was getting hit hard by panelists (who obviously were mostly hard practitioners of link buying). At one point a panelist asked the audience, “How many of you buy, or know someone who buys links?” (a very cleverly crafted question!) and about 70% of the room, including myself, raised their hands. I gasped! I have never bought a link for me or a client in my carreer. I started thinking how God must like me to allow me and my clients to do so well when such vast numbers are buying links! I agree with what Stephan Spencer said from the audience, that all this link buying will catch up to the buyers within five years they will be wrecked for having participated today. It is karmically correct I suppose. This was a volatile and charged session and one I am glad I decided to attend.

Wednesday, December 5
Domain Names and Trademarks – Legal Issues
This was just as it sounds. I’ve attended this session in past years but wanted to again. I have a couple of clients , as well as myself, who are dealing with legal issues on the Web. I got some great notes and advice from the lawyers on this panel.

Interactive Site Reviews – Focus on Social Media
This was a site clinic where domains were critiqued based on Social Media marketing efforts. So so session.

Interactive Site Reviews – Focus on Organic
I went to this one because of the amount of one on one site clinics I do weekly. Panelists reviewed sites and critiqued them based upon their organic optimization.

This day ended with a reception with Google Engineers and a game of Werewolf that was thrown by SEOMOZ and was a big hit. I had fun.

Thursday December 6
CSS and HTML Coding Today
I attended this session last year and it was better than this years session which had two “no shows” on the panel. But it was good to rehash the CSS and HTML topics, which I use a lot in my site rehabilitations, even though it was CSS basics, it is okay because that’s what it is really about, getting back to the basics. I do have a question for Brett, if panelists are to hung over to show up for their session, would that mean that next year someone else can sit on that panel?” Because I recoded my site to CSS with absolute positioning in November and December of 2002. Wouldn’t that make me one of the search marketing pioneers for this subject? If I were on this panel I would have gone to bed early the night before. Maybe next year I will pitch for being on this panel.

International and European Site Optimization
Just as it sounds. I went to this session because I currently have three international clients, one in Thailand, Hong Kong and the UK. Good stuff but a little complicated. Sticky issues were addressed.

Multivariate Testing and Conversion Tweaking
This session was about ways to improve your sites conversion through controlled, split and multivariate testing. Google Optimizer was demonstrated also. Good session.

Competitive Intelligence
This session was identical to last years session on same subject. Presenters even used the same Powerpoint presentations as last year. Nothing new here but it was still good to revisit the old stuff.

Tools of the Trade
I went to this one the past two years and they were real good both times. This year was nearly the same as the past two but not much was discussed about any new tools that have not already been covered in past years. Obviously some of the better tools are spendy yet there are some great tools that are free too.

MSN threw a private party in the Ghost Room on the roof of the Palms. I didn’t get an Invite, it was just for Live Ad Center spenders, something I tend to wean clients off of, but I got in as a guest of a big spender. Great coconut shrimp and sushi. Actually it was one of the nicer search conference networking social afterparties I’ve been too. My son sure would have liked me to win one of those xbox 360’s but I did not play for them in all fairness since I was just a guest and not invited. It was from 7-9.

At 9 many went over to Venetian for the charity poker tournament. It was a great event; too bad I was out after 9 hands. My opponent tripled up his kings over my aces and nines on the river and we were both all in after the flop when I paired my ace and nine. O well, I got a really cool shirt and helped some good charities also.

So, that is about it for this review of the Webmaster World Conference in Las Vegas, 2007. Stay tuned for a review of the PubCon portion of the event.

Robert

In December, 2006 Cindy had me as a guest and I spoke on Advanced White Hat Search Engine Marketing Strategies.

On March 30, Cindy invited me back. The topic was Bad Ass Blogging Part 1: Using WordPress to Build Search Friendly Websites, which continues this Friday, April 30.

Tune in for part 2. Come back here and leave a comment after the show.

Congratulations to Cindy and Brooke and Todd and Crew and all the presenters!

For those of you who have never met me this is a great opportunity to see me and understand more about my extracurricular activities and interests. You’ll certainly understand after viewing the video that I am a lover of God! I’ll bet that way down deep you are too. There is more to me than just the ability to help people get sites unbanned from search engines and performing well for user and marketing! You may be surprised, but either way I want you to know about the many benefits associated with putting video up on the Web, which you should be doing, or you are missing out on an awesome potential traffic stream for your business (or hobby or church, etc.).

Here is the Google Video link

Here is the link to You Tube version

BTW, if you enjoy this 10 minute video, give it a rating on YouTube. This rating feature and the ability to make comments at You Tube also bring that service into the realm of social networking, via peer review of content. The higher rated videos gain prominence thus enjoy more views, in theory. Enjoy the view friends.

Robert

You just load the domain that you want to work on into Firefox, turn on the tool bar and wallah! goodies at my finger tips! Theres a code to content ratio, an html validator, code cleanup suggestions, link checker, lynx viewer, a sweet little KDA (Keyword Density Analyzer), a load time gauge, and a meta tag viewer and generator. There is also a site map generator. And there is more, Search tools and even quick WhoIs data. The Link Popularity checker only works if you have a Google API, which I don’t because I’m not a developer, and since Google deliberately skews all back link data, this is the one weakness of the tool bar, to claim it reveals link pop info. They should have pointed this part of the tool to Yahoo and it would be even greater. Hey now theres an idea…
Just yesterday I found a serious problem I had been overlooking on a clients site (ooops, but I didn’t make it, I am just fixing it). It was some erroneous code that was being calculated as text and was skewing all of our densities.

I’ve been using this tool since August of 2006 but I’ll probably use it even more often now. This tool is so helpful that They’ve earned a link from me. You can download the toolbar here. This app does not do your work for you but it is nifty in helping you find work that should be done. Great job RQ.