Dan Thies future — beyond Stompernet

September 3, 2009 By Leave a Comment

The future of Dan Thies at Stompernet. Huge changes going on there…

via SEO Fast Start by Dan Thies on 9/1/09



Well, "lost" is probably not the right word, because I am not trying to find it again.

I already sent something out to my newsletter subscribers about this, but thought it was worth a post too.

Yesterday was my last day on the job as a staff member at StomperNet. This has actually been in the works for a while, it's just taken some time to hand off a whole plateful of responsibilities to different people and work out all the details.

Actually, I've still got one more little project to finish but I'm doing this one "on the house" because it's the primary reason why I took the job in the first place.

I will still be a member of the StomperNet faculty, which is actually a lot cooler than working there.

For example, if a faculty member sleeps in until noon on a Monday, nobody's going to notice. If the Chief Experience Officer does that, they call and wake him up, long before noon rolls around. 8-O (like, at 9:01 am Eastern time – which is 8:01 here. Seriously.)

Having a job was fun sometimes, and sometimes it sucked. Mostly, it took too much time away from what I am actually good at and enjoy doing – like research and teaching.

What am I going to do with all my new-found time, besides hanging out in the StomperNet forums?

Well, about half of it belongs to my family. The rest will go into some new projects** that I've been trying to "find time" for – and some old projects that always seemed to get put on the shelf over pressing work responsibilities.

Meanwhile, the "new StomperNet" is just about ready for public consumption, and it's going to have a very broad appeal.

When they say that internet marketing is going to change forever, well, you could call that hyperbole if you like, but I've seen what's coming. If you have a web site, you will want to be paying attention on September 9th.

**(details coming sooner than later)

Filed Under Uncategorized

Compete.com is effectively worthless

September 3, 2009 By Leave a Comment

If you have a site, no doubt you have checked out your Compete.com numbers.  I have grown increasingly frustrated with that site and how worthless the numbers are.  They aren't just "off"… they are so wrong that it is absurd.  I give you this example.

Listen to this video.  They quote that MetsBlog.com has 500K visitors/month… now look at the Compete data.

Worthless is the only word I can think of.  I am done with that site.

Filed Under Uncategorized

How Big Time Websites Used to Look

September 3, 2009 By Leave a Comment

I get sort've misty-eyed and nostalgic when I check this out….Really interesting to see how these websites used to look – back in the day.  I remember most of these looks.  It does make me feel a little bit "web old" that I remember many of these.  And, the fact that I associate the looks of these sites to various points in my life is even a more strange flashback.

Posted via email from Phil’s posterous

Filed Under Uncategorized

2009 Interactive Fire Map

August 31, 2009 By Leave a Comment
via oes.ca.gov

I found an interesting map showing the extent of the California fires, right now.

Posted via web from Phil’s posterous

Filed Under Uncategorized

Posterous.com

August 31, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Today, I got signed up for a new service called Posterous.com.  Posterous is a way to "post" to a lifestream.  I think it is a fantastic idea.  So, basically, you are "blogging" on the posterous platform.  But, it is different.  Because, I just e-mail an address with posterous.  And, then, from there, the post is syndicated out to any number of services.  Great idea.  But, I don't know about the implications of not "owning" your lifestream.  Personally, I like to have my information on my site.  I guess I really don't have much of an opinion, yet.  I am going to use this in weeks to come and see how this develops.  It is an interesting idea.

Posted via email from Phil’s posterous

Filed Under Uncategorized

VERY cheesy Google video on YouTube

August 28, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Wow… Jessica should dump him before this even starts…

This guy should be mortified.

Filed Under Social Media

Google Show More Results

August 25, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Google results

In the last few days, Google has launched a new feature.  It must be an experimental feature, because I am talking with people that are not getting it in their respective datacenters.  But, it is a cool feature that allows you to dominate more of the page if you are the authority site.

In the past, you were able to get sitelinks for being the authority.  But, clearly, this is an effort on the part of Google to expand the real estate of authority sites.  It has been said that a #1 listing will give you 43% of the clicks.  If you get the indented listing, that will give you another 12%.  If you throw this in, along with the sitelinks,  you are probably sitting close to 60% of the clicks on the page for being the “super authority”.  On the other hand, I am finding that this does come before the sitelinks take root.

Filed Under SEO Tagged With Google

5 Free SEO Tools that Can Turn an SEO Newbie Into an SEO Pro

August 24, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Many people, when they first get into SEO, think that they have to go out and spend a ton of money in order to find the right tools.  I think that this is a huge mistake.  It has often been said that the best things in life are free.  When it comes to SEO, I would have to agree with that.  There are a few great tools that I literally use everyday – tools I have never paid for and never will.   Here are the five tools that – when you use them – have the potential of taking you from an SEO ZERO and turning you into an SEO pro… and, yes, they are free.

  • SEO for Firefox (http://tools.seobook.com/firefox/seo-for-firefox.html).  This is an absolutle MUST have.   If you don’t have this Firefox add-on installed, you are missing out on a lot critical intelligence.  From the number of cached pages to the last time a search engine bot has visited the page, this tool gives you everything that you need to know to analyze traffic and competition.
  • Search Status (http://www.quirk.biz/searchstatus/;jsessionid=48D6BBA0F56684543B3511BFAAFA0FC3).  This is another very valuable Firefox extension.  It enables you to very quickly look at meta tags, sitemaps, robots.txtfiles and much more…. all without pulling up source code.  Very valuable tool.
  • Rank Checker (http://tools.seobook.com/firefox/rank-checker/).  Once again, absolutely free!  This free Firefox add-on enables you to check your critical rankings for terms that you want to rank for without leaving Firefox.  Easy to use and just as effective as much more expensive tools.
  • Quarkbase (http://www.quarkbase.com/).  Get a massive amount of information on every website.  From who is linking in to Whois data, this site has it all.  Literally.  This is a fantastic site intelligence tool.
  • Greg Boser Backlink Tattler (http://www.gregboser.com/downloads/).  This is a tool that is an oldie but goody.  It’s been around for a long time.  It enables you to type a domain in and pull the backlinks out via Yahoo Site explorer.  How valuable is that?  If you have been around the SEO game for a while, you know that Yahoo Site Explorer is by far and away the best resource for finding the backlinks of your own site or your competitors.  Want to rank for a particular term?  Google the term… find out who is ranking… then, run that domain through this tool.  Export the backlinks to a spreadsheet… then, directly approach them about getting links from them.  It’s as easy as that.
Filed Under SEO Tagged With search engine optimization, SEO

Bid Simulator – GREAT New Google Tool

August 21, 2009 By Leave a Comment


I recently started using the Google Bid Simulator too.  Before this, the Traffic Estimator is about all you had to go with.  The Traffic Estimator was cool.  But, it was not without limitations.  First, I seem to have gotten locked out after a number of estimates.  And, second, you couldn’t take the information from your campaign, your ads, etc., and get estimates.

The Bid Simulator is awesome for scaling.  So, if you have a campaign that is working, you can use the simulator to see how many more clicks you could have gotten to scale that winning campaign.  Awesome tool.

Filed Under PPC Tagged With Google, Google Adwords, SEM

Top 5 Internships to Prepare YOU to be an Internet Marketer

August 20, 2009 By Leave a Comment

I know that summer internships are coming to an end.  But, hey, there’s still Fall and Spring.  Internships are an incredible opportunity to actually practice skills in the real world.  Let’s face it… you don’t learn that much in college or even grad school.  By trade, I am a lawyer.  But, I can tell you that I learned nothing about the law until I went to work for a very good firm.

But, if you want a career in marketing on the Internet, what kinds of internships do you do?  I mean… if you want to build huge lists … or do lead generation… what should you be doing to build your skill set?  Here’s a short list:

  • Work with a CPA Network. Five years ago, the number of CPA networks was pretty small.  Really small.  Commission Junction, ShareaSale and a few others of any value.  But, along came the rampant, ridiculous and vast number of CPA networks.  Now, they are everywhere.  Why not offer to work with one of them?  If you live near a major city, odds are you have a good one near you.
  • Work with your Congressman or Politician. Networking is a key trait as an internet marketing.  Where else are you going to see first-class schmoozing more so than working with a politician?
  • Work with a Conference Group. How about applying to work with the folks that do SES, SMX, and even the minor, less well-known conferences.
  • Google. Yeah, right, not a bad internship to get.  It makes you interesting – even if you don’t do anything worthwhile.  And, it will give you plenty of fodder to talk about on your internet marketing blog.
  • Ad Networks or a Large search firm. For most people, banner and ad networks in general are a black box.  They don’t understand who is good and who is bad.  They don’t understand who to talk to or how to even approach these companies.  So, working with them will remove the mystique.  It will also get you plugged into the industry.  There are many opportunities from the big dogs like Media Whiz to even small shops in your town.

Frankly, the best internships will be the ones that just get you plugged in, however possible.   Look, face it… internships are not about money.  They are about experience and connections.  You have to get that somewhere.  So, you might have to work for free.  We have all done it.  So, take the job in the day and wait tables at night.  Don’t worry… that won’t last forever.

Filed Under Internet Marketing Guidance Tagged With cpa networks, e-commerce, internet marketing, Media
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