Hunter Satterwhite’s Blog Launched

March 29, 2008 · Filed Under Odds and Ends · Comment 

A few weeks back I mentioned Hunter Satterwhite, an aspiring SEO and active web designer. I’m slow to the draw, but he launched his blog a couple days ago.

If you have a chance, give it a read: Hunter Satterwhite’s Blog.

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I’m the Worst. Blogger. Ever.

March 20, 2008 · Filed Under Odds and Ends · 2 Comments 

I never thought I’d be saying this, but I’m absolutely sure it’s true. I’ve slowly evolved into a horrible blogger. Even if that’s not true (because, perhaps I’ve always been awful?) - I don’t need to know.

I go from having like 5 posts a day to zero over two weeks. It’s really unacceptable. I’d like to say I’ll do better, but really, would that be honest? I’m no soothsayer, but my money is on me losing track again soon. :)

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My Take on Analytics: Avinash Kaushik Interview & Featured Bruce Clay Newsletter Article

March 14, 2008 · Filed Under Analytics, Search Related · 3 Comments 

QUICK LINKS FROM THIS POST
Bruce Clay Blog
6 Questions With Analytics Guru Avinash Kaushik, by Lisa Barone

Bruce Clay’s SEOToolSet™ Newsletter
Search Marketers Need Web Analytics, by Eric Lander

At SMX West, I had the opportunity to meet up with Lisa Barone, Susan Esparza and for a brief moment - Bruce Clay himself. If there’s one thing you need to know about Bruce Clay Inc., it’s that the organization is an absolute veteran in the space. When my first startup tried to compete head to head with Bruce Clay back in 2001, we failed miserably. Since then, Bruce Clay has opened up offices in Europe, Austrailia, Africa and Japan and continues to dominate the industry by providing market leading SEO services and internet marketing tools.

My point: there’s something to be said about experience, a strong team and proven leadership.

Anyways, today’s a pretty cool day for me because I actually had two references from Bruce Clay Inc. The first was a little bit of link love from Lisa Barone with her interview of Google Analytics Evangelist Avinash Kaushik. The post, 6 Questions With Analytics Guru Avinash Kaushik, includes multiple questions that I offered up to Lisa when I found out she had the interview opportunity.

While Avinash isn’t a full blooded Googler (he’s technically a consultant), he fits the mold by not sharing any real juicy details on what’s up with Google Analytics. Rather than have me go on an on about that, just check out the interview already.

The other contribution I made to Bruce Clay Inc., came in the form of today’s featured newsletter. If you didn’t already know, Bruce Clay offers up an SEO newsletter that’s distributed on the 15th and last day of the month.

My contribution to the latest edition of the newsletter is the current featured piece, Search Marketers Need Web Analytics. The article speaks towards the beginner’s side of things by walking the reader through the overall purpose of web analytics. I go on to discuss various technologies involved in tracking data (page tagging, logs, etc.) and eventually end up discussing how to establish and track goals and baseline data for your site users.

The article wraps up by introducing some simple ideas to use common reports from most web analytic packages to help increase the effectiveness of your search marketing campaigns. Obviously, analytics is something I’ve really been spending a lot of time with recently - and I’d certainly be open to extending this featured article out to cover more comprehensive integration of analytics with search marketing.

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Brent Csutoras’ Notes Indented Results from Seperate Domains

March 14, 2008 · Filed Under Search Related · Comment 

A few moments ago, Brent Csutoras posted on his blog, that Google is showing indented results from a different domain. I hadn’t seen this behavior before, so I wanted to cover the topic here with a little insight.

Before we jump in though, please take a look at Brent’s screen shot and then read the full post and the information he presents.

The most notable element here is that he was able to refresh many times and still get the same formatting of results. When I ran the same search though, I could not replicate the behavior in FF, IE or Opera - both logged in and logged out.

If you have come across this yourself I’d certainly like to hear your thoughts and see additional examples. Initially, I expected to see some sort of reference from the indented site over to Brent’s in his example. It’s become clear to me that Google needs to understand the origin of content, especially given the scrapers out there with RSS feeds running wild. So, my first thought was that one of Brent’s posts was referenced and replicated — and that’s why the indent occured.

Not so.

Again, it’s the first time I’ve seen this, so I’m going to try to look into it further. At the end of the night though, it could’ve just been a random tweak that was let loose as a mistake.

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Hunter Satterwhite: Do You Know Him?

March 14, 2008 · Filed Under Search Related · Comment 

Hunter Satterwhite, to me, is the Andrew Gerhart of 2008. A bold claim based on how much I’ve learned and appreciated Andrew’s guidance in my career.

So here’s the deal. Hunter has already obtained his BS in Graphic Design & New Media from Johnson and Wales University — the same school Gerhart was at when we brought him into the mix at TSL.

Of course, formal education is nothing in this industry. It’s all about drive, ambition and determination. A few weeks ago Satterwhite transitioned from an intern here at the office over to a full time designer.

Having made the same transition after college, I’m hoping to steer Hunter in the right direction to get him up to speed on advanced SEO tactics. Right now he’s focusing a lot of his time on PHP, MySQL while still managing to maintain his role as a designer.

If you want to get a feel for what he’s all about, be sure to check out Two Plus One Design, a company that Hunter co-owns with Chris Gioranino (fellow designer here) and Sam Pannice.

I’m also pushing Hunter to get a blog going, so stay tuned for that as well. My simple goal is to corrupt him and get him into SEO as much as possible.

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Blublua: Blublua Facts and Resources

March 11, 2008 · Filed Under Search Related · 2 Comments 

A little test with Ian to see how long it takes for this page to rank for “Blublua”. I don’t sell Blublua. I don’t own any Blublua. But, I’ll probably rank for Blublua in about 3 minutes.

Hooray for Blublua!

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Social Media Links of the Day: Monday March 10, 2008

March 10, 2008 · Filed Under Odds and Ends · Comment 

It seems like time is always tough to come by… I’m going to abbreviate this segment and jump right into the juicy finds without all the fluff. So, here are the Social Media Links of the Day for Monday March 10, 2008.

  • Spitzer Is Linked to a Sex Ring as a Client
  • 101 Useful Resources for Online Entrepreneurs
  • Studies: Iraq costs US $12B per month
  • Wii World 1-1: Super Mario Bros. mod
  • Fly Through Airport Security
  • 20 Websites That Made Me A Better Web Developer

    • 35 Fantastic HDR Pictures
    I love most of these photos. I’ve copied one of my favorites, below. Please be sure to review all of the images and this article over on Smashing Magazine.

    hdr.jpg

    The above photo is from stevenarens on Flickr.

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    Twitter: Got Problems Today?

    March 9, 2008 · Filed Under Odds and Ends · Comment 

    Since attending SMX West, and seeing Thee Susan blogging and twittering at one of the sessions (shh… Don’t tell BC) - I decided to get an account. Since then, I’ve been using it quite a bit.

    Well, that was until tonight. I’ve been seeing a lot of this:

    Twitter: Got Problems Today?

    Not too sure why. It’s happened when trying to log in, when trying to submit a tweet, and check my DMs. Go figure.

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    Social Media Links of the Day: Sunday March 9, 2008

    March 9, 2008 · Filed Under Social Media Links · 2 Comments 

    Before I start in with today’s list, I’d like to give recognition to Brendan Picha of Squareoak Media. I met Brendan at the SMX Social Media in New York last October, and since then — I’ve learned a lot from the man.

    One of the more recent tips that Brendan passed along to me was to check out PopURLs — a handy site that pulls the most popular items from digg, del.icio.us, reddit, flickr, newsvine, metafilter, truemors. YouTube, Google News, Yahoo News, tailrank, spike, wired, slashdot, boingboing, last.fm, fark, nowpublic, stumbleupon, mixx, clipmarks, dzone, videosift, mahalo, AOL Video and literally hundreds of others including Twitter.

    So, with that housekeeping note out of the way, here are the links I wanted to share for Sunday, March 9, 2008!

    Image Items: Sunday, March 9, 2008


    Rhode Island Desert
    Rhode Island Desert by Brian Higbee

    Forgotten Morning
    Forgotten Morning by Deltasly

    Horizon
    Horizon (*) by Alessandro.Piras

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    MySpace Account Canceled

    March 8, 2008 · Filed Under Odds and Ends · Comment 

    Back in 2004, I opened up my first MySpace account. In 2006, I canceled it because it basically became both a distraction as well as a liability. Then, just over a year ago — I reopened an account before my son was born. I thought it’d be a good way to share photos, comments, stay connected, etc.

    Another reason I reopened an account there was to help drive traffic to my blog.

    Well, about 10 minutes ago - I canceled the account. This time, permanently. When I logged in, it was because I had three or four birthday messages and the emails that MySpace kept sending me were more aggravating than anything else.

    I’m feeling like it was a pretty wise move. When it asked me to update my status or mood, it said that it had last been updated on August 7th. Assuming that’s an indication of how much I used MySpace… I’m not expecting to have any regrets on that one.

    So, if you’re looking to connect up with me, please do the favor of trying either Facebook or LinkedIn :)

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