Author Archive for Jenstar

Getting ready for the next Seodays

Published by Jenstar April 16th, 2007 in Seodays and Conferences. 5 Comments

Dave and I both just got back from SES New York City where we were both speakers.  Seodays was a hot topic for both of us, it seems everyone was talking about the great feedback that came out of the first Seodays London from attendees, as well as questions about the when and where for the next one.

So, without further ado, we are pleased to announce that we will be holding the next Seodays this summer!  We are actively working to get the dates set so everyone can have plenty of notice to make travel arrangements for those who want to attend from other continents ;) 

We also began working on the agenda for the next one, deciding what new topics to present on, and have even invited some guest speakers already.  And we plan to bring back some of the favorite attendee sessions with fresh new content and presentations, so those who attended the first Seodays will get just as much value and information from attending a second one.

If you are interested in speaking, submit the speaker’s request form here for consideration as we finalize the topics and agenda details.

We also have our contact form if you would like us to send you a note when registration is online or if you are planning to attend, feel free to submit topic ideas in areas that interest you.

We will have more specific dates announced shortly, but definitely plan on attending the next Seodays this summer!

Jen

Seodays London - Successful Conference Wrap-Up

Published by Jenstar March 23rd, 2007 in Seodays and Conferences. 0 Comments

How do you know if your new conference is a success? When multiple attendees are asking how to sign up for the next one when the first one is barely over. Whether ensuring we had valuable speakers to present to the attendees or planning our own powerpoints so that attendees could pull the most useful information from our knowledge and apply it directly to their own businesses, Dave & I both agree that the first Seodays was an overwhelming success.

At our pre-drinks night, both of us had the opportunity to talk with nearly all the delegates, answering questions, helping several attendees on specific search engine ranking issues (many of which are already solved or have the solution set in motion) and getting to know everyone on a more informal basis.

The next day saw the first of our guest speakers. Mel Carson presented for about half an hour, then followed up by sitting in the hot seat for the next half hour while attendees peppered him with questions on everything from when adCenter would be able to provide more traffic to advertisers to when ContentAds would launch in the UK.

On day two, our remaining presenters came to talk to the attendees.

Heather Hopkins from Hitwise UK demo’d the Hitwise system, and one of the things she discussed was on the UK search engine market share. Obviously, Google is way on top of the competition, with 78% of the current market share. But we wanted to share this slide with everyone (attendees will have the entire presentation on USB sticks).

hitwisescreenshot.gif

It was awesome to see Yahoo increase so much in the last six months or so. In the past six months, both Yahoo & Ask have increased by 12% . From Dave’s point of view, he would have preferred to have seen Yahoo, Ask and MSN all increase 12% over the last year. Not one to knock Google because they are doing a great job in the UK but competition is always good.

We had two presenters from Google, Charlotte Morton & Elisa Lodato, who are Account Strategists with Google AdWords. They definitely had plenty of very specific questions from attendees who were having issues with the landing page quality score. It was an even hotter topic than I anticipated and many of the answers were quite candid.

Andrew Buckman from Yahoo Search Marketing had a brilliant presentation on the new Panama platform, and it was the first time many of the attendees had the opportunity to see Panama up close and personal. Unfortunately, our area of London lost power right as he was finishing his presentation, but he still stayed and answered questions for another 20 mins or so under the glow of the emergency backup lights. I think everyone wanted him to reveal the date of the Panama launch - and asked him several times - but he wouldn’t reveal the magic date for advertisers to rush and upgrade, although he did give a few hints.

The final presentation was by Dr Karl Blanks and Ben Jesson and of Conversion-Rate-Experts.com. This presentation had overwhelmingly positive feedback and I think every single attendee got a lot of value from this one presentation alone. We plan on bringing Karl and Ben back to the next Seodays.

A very special thank you to all our speakers, as well as Greg Jarboe of Seo-PR.com who who sent all our press releases for Seodays. And thank you to all our attendees, we had a great group of attendees who asked great questions and contributed to discussions for the benefit of all of us.

We expect to be announcing the next UK Seodays event soon. Be sure to subscribe to our blog or fill out our contact form with the “2 day conference” box checked off and we will send you an email as soon as the details are announced.

Jen

Seodays a tremendous success

Published by Jenstar March 22nd, 2007 in Seodays and Conferences. 0 Comments

Dave & I would like to thank all the attendees of our first Seodays event in London.  Seodays was a great success and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive… not to mention a few breaking news stories that came out of the event.

We will have a much longer post tomorrow when we both get into the office, but we wanted to take the time to thank everyone who came from far (Seattle, China, Netherlands) and wide to attend Seodays, as well as a special thank you to all our speakers.

Only 5 spots left at Seodays & attendee updates

Published by Jenstar March 16th, 2007 in Seodays and Conferences. 0 Comments

A quick reminder that there are now only five spaces available at Seodays London next week.  We will be processing registrations through Monday, but registration will close prior to that if all five spaces have been filled.   So if you are considering joining us next week on March 20-21, be sure to register shortly before the spots are gone.

We also have confirmed speakers from Google, Yahoo & Microsoft presenting, so it is a great opportunity to get your questions answered.  Get a peak at the Panama platform which will be launched in the UK by Yahoo Search Marketing.  Get advice and tips on dealing with the new Google AdWords landing page quality score if it has been impacting your ad campaigns.  And learn about some of the unique tools offered by Microsoft adCenter, which recently launched in the UK.

All registered attendees should have received an email with information on voting for the topic of the Attendee Choice session on Tuesday, as well as details on Monday nights informal “drinks & talk shop” gathering.  This will be the first of many opportunities attendees will have for one-on-one conversations with both Dave & Jen throughout the event.

If you haven’t made hotel reservations yet, our reserved block of rooms are full booked and the Hilton itself is fully booked for the nights of the conference.  There is an alternate hotel, Ambassador Hotel Bloomsbury, located just over the road.

To register and join us for this unqiue Seodays experience, click here.  The full detailed agenda is now available online.   We look forward to meeting with you all next week.

Google’s Charlotte Morton speaking at Seodays

Published by Jenstar March 15th, 2007 in Seodays and Conferences. 3 Comments

We are pleased to announce that Charlotte Morton from the Google AdWords team will be joining us next week at Seodays to present on all things AdWords.   

AdWords is definitely a hot topic these days, especially with some new features they have been releasing (such as the AdWords editor and Website Optimizer tools) and the landing page quality score which is working hard on improving the quality of AdWords ads for a better user experience.

AdWords also has an extensive distrubution of advertising on third-party sites through the Google AdSense program.  While Charlotte will be talking from the AdWords side of the program I (Jennifer Slegg) will also be doing a session on earning money with contextual advertising, with Google AdSense being the largest player in the space… and one of the few available to UK publishers.

Pay per click spend is definitely on the rise with more companies launching new AdWords campaigns, so if you need to learn more about AdWords, or solve some problems you are having with the new landing page quality score, Seodays is definitely where you want to be next week.

There still are some registration spots available for our 20-21 March event next week at the Hilton Euston! If you haven’t yet registered, you can do so here. The agenda & session description is here, and we will be posting the finalized agenda later today.

Yahoo Search Marketing to talk about new Panama platform at Seodays

Published by Jenstar March 14th, 2007 in Seodays and Conferences. 1 Comment

Are you ready for the new Yahoo Search Marketing platform code named Panama?  If not, you need to be at Seodays so that you are prepared for all the bells and whistles when Panama launches in the UK.

We are pleased to announce that a Yahoo Search Marketing rep will be attending Seodays to present on the new Panama platform, ensuring you have the edge to take advantage of all the new tools available for advertisers in the new system. 

Learn about the more powerful keyword research tool, ad testing options to find your best converting ad copy, and the new fast ad activation system, which allows advertisers within the Panama platform to see their new ads go online in minutes.

Because Panama will be released in the UK, taking advantage of the opportunity to hear the details straight from Yahoo, as well as being able to ask questions specific to Yahoo Search Marketing in a smaller setting than what you find at the major industry conferences, is a valuable one, and a must-do for any pay per click business or consultant.

Update: We are pleased to welcome Andrew Buckman, EU Product Director for Yahoo Search Marketing.

Andrew Buckman joined Yahoo in 2002 as Technical Product Manager and has
been leading the European Product Team for the last 4 years. Based in
Paris, he is responsible for the suite of systems that support the
company’s editorial processes and advertiser interfaces, as well as for
Yahoo’s different matching technologies. Andrew also manages the
deployment of parallel business lines and new products. Prior to Yahoo,
Andrew specialized as a consultant in CRM and internet marketplaces and
assisted in the launch of a number of companies and web spin-offs.  

You can find out more about Yahoo Search Marketing on their site or on the YSMBlog.

If you haven’t yet registered, you can do so here.  Seodays takes place in London at the Hilton Euston on March 20-21st.  The agenda & session description is here.  We look forward to meeting everyone next week so we can get you up to speed on Yahoo Search Marketing’s Panama.

Microsoft adCenter’s Mel Carson speaking at Seodays

Published by Jenstar March 13th, 2007 in Seodays and Conferences. 0 Comments

We are pleased to announce the Mel Carson from Microsoft adCenter will be joining us at Seodays to talk all about adCenter for the UK.  For those with burning adCenter questions, this will give all Seodays attendees the opportunity to ask those important questions while an adCenter rep is there to answer. 

Mel will share a lot of great information about adCenter and his presentation will be valuable for both those well versed in adCenter & other pay per click programs as well as those who are just getting their feet wet in the world of online advertising.

Because adCenter only launched in the UK only last year, many marketers don’t realize the wealth of tools available to adCenter account holders.  This includes extensive demographics tools & data, as well as being able to target ad campaigns right down to gender and age group. 

Mel will also be showing off some of the cool adlab tools developed by Microsoft which are extremely useful to both advertisers & search optimizers.  If you haven’t seen what some of these tools do, you will definitely be brainstorming all the things you could do with them after the presentation!

A little more about Mel: 

Mel began his online advertising career as the Shopping & Travel Editor at LookSmart UK nearly seven years ago, before progressing to Sales Operations Manager for their Performance Listings product on MSN.co.uk. 

After LookSmart withdrew from International markets, Mel joined 24/7 Search as an Account Director managing search activity across all search engines for a number of blue-chip clients.

It didn’t take much persuasion for Mel to take his initial role as Pan-European Search Media Strategist at MSN where he was part of the team that planned & executed the UK roll-out of Microsoft adCenter in August 2006.

I have had the pleasure of hearing Mel talk at previous conferences, so attendees are in for a treat.  And thanks to Mel for taking time out of his busy schedule to join us and the Seodays attendees.

Want to get started before Seodays starts?  You can access adCenter UK here.  You can also find the latest adCenter happenings on the adCenter blog.  And of course, you can sign up for Seodays to get the latest right from Microsoft (yes, I will try my best to get Mel to reveal what is up and coming for UK adCenter users!) as well as all our Seodays speakers.  Don’t forget, Seodays begins in just a week!

Finalizing details for Seodays…

Published by Jenstar March 12th, 2007 in Seodays and Conferences. 0 Comments

We have been busy finalizing the official Seodays schedule for next week (you can look at the topic breakdown here, which includes details on everything we are covering) as we are confirming our last few speakers, one of which we will be announcing first thing in the morning.  So the moment we finalize the speaking times, we will be releasing the blow-by-blow schedule for those attendees that want to know what time we will be covering each topic.

We are also finalizing the list of topics for the “Attendee’s choice” session based on feedback on the registration forms, so feel free to either comment here or contact us on any particular topic you would like to see on the list.  Then we will be sending the final list of 8-10 topics to all registered attendees within the next day or two, so voting can begin.  So if you haven’t registered yet but are thinking about it, definitely do it before the voting begins!

We have chosen the venue for the drinks the night before the official conference starts, and attendees will receive this information via email as well.  And then, of course, don’t forget the LondonSEO networking event the final evening, which is the perfect way to cap off two days of an intensive learning experience.

We are looking forward to meeting you next week! 

Breakdown of all topics being covered at Seodays

Published by Jenstar March 8th, 2007 in Seodays. 1 Comment

We have had a few questions from people wanting a blow-by-blow agenda for what we are covering over the two days of Seodays.  In addition to our guest speakers (which include Heather from Hitwise demonstrating competitive analysis in the online travel space as well as  Ben Jesson and Dr Karl Blanks of Conversion-Rate-Experts.com).  Below are the topics Jen & Dave will be covering in detail for all attendees. 

We also have an entire open session, which will be “attendee choice”… we will be asking all attendees very shortly to chose from a wide variety of topics that are not already on our agenda (for all attendees who have registered by that date)  to rate which topics they would like to see addressed.

And the final day will include over an hour where attendees can ask any final questions they would like answered about their websites, tactics or techniques, as well as some final discussion from Dave & Jen on related topics to search engine optimization and marketing.

We have packed the two days full of everything that a beginner needs to know in order to kick start a new online business as well as providing what an expert level attendee needs to know to bring their business to the next level.  And because we ask all attendees to rate their current skill level in each topic area, we can assure that we are providing a valuable experience to everyone and adjust the presentations accordingly.

2 Day Conference - At a Glance

The basic structure of the Seodays Conference can be seen below but we are open to ideas of what you want us to focus on.

Organic SEO

  1. What it takes to get top 10 in Google, Yahoo and MSN. No, Jason Calacanis isn’t right, good content alone won’t ensure you rank number one for your chosen keywords. With no holds barred, we talk about what it really takes to achieve those top ten placements in all three major search engines, and talk about the important algo specifics that you need to know to rank in each one.
  2. Content. Yes, you still need content for your site, and the more the better. We look at generating ideas for the types of content you should have on your site, including ensuring your important keywords within the content are working for you and not against you. Then we look at buying content - where to buy, contracting writers and how to ensure the content really is unique.
  3. Organic SEO tools. Look inside the toolbox that Dave, Greg and Jen personally use for managing their client’s organic SEO. No paid product placement here, these are the mainstream and little known tools and apps that really get results.

Link Building

  1. Buying links. This is the industry’s dirty little secret, but the search engines are catching onto link brokers and discounting links, meaning you lose not only money but the link juice as well. Get the nitty gritty on finding and buying links for maximum results for your rankings in ways that fly far below the spam radar.
  2. Link Bait. Link bait is the buzz of the industry lately, but many people just can’t pull it off properly and end up ticking people off without benefiting from the links. We explain link baiting, how it works, why it is so valuable, and how you can link bait to your own advantage.
  3. Links outside the box. There are links to be had that fall outside the standard “text link on a webpage”. What they are and how to use them properly.
  4. Viral marketing. Viral links is an important part of any link building campaign, but few manage to implement this correctly and instead come off looking like spammers. We tell you the best ways to go viral, and how to not end up branded as a spammer.
  5. Link Building tools. What are the link building tools the experts are using today? Peek inside our business when we talk about the tools that we use when link building for clients today.

Risk and Competitive Management

  1. Aggressive or Not? Some spaces you need to be aggressive with your SEO, while others it would be like taking a blowtorch to a butterfly. How to know how aggressive you need to be, and a look at what it takes to rank in the most competitive industries.
  2. Your Company Sucks. How to deal with companysucks.com situations or where other sites with negative experiences are ranking with your company name. Learn reputation management the right way.
  3. Stolen Content. When someone swipes content or your entire site, it can seriously impact your own rankings. How to handle the situation – and ways to go above and beyond simply filing a DMCA - so that the thief feels the maximum pain possible for their crime.

Pay Per Click

  1. Google AdWords & the Quality Score. You have probably heard about the Google Quality Score, how even your landing pages can affect your ad position in the Google search results and it can actually cause your price per click to skyrocket to $5 or $10 a click. We will walk you through the quality score, and show you the little things both in your ad copy and on your landing page can mean getting a higher ad position for less money. We will also look at leveraging the content network and domain park programs to your advantage, and how to know when to pull the plug on both.
  2. Yahoo Search Marketing “Panama”. We walk you through Panama, so that when Yahoo throws the switch for the UK, you will be far ahead of the game and already know the ins and outs – as well as the new valuable tools you can put to work – that will be appearing in your Yahoo Panama account. We also look at their brand new ranking algorithm launched in February.
  3. MSN AdCenter. We look at the newest major player into the PPC scene and talk about some of the unique features you can use in AdCenter, such as demographic targeting as well as a look at using ContentAds for greater traffic.
  4. Third tier PPC sources. There are definitely some sources of pay per click traffic we refer to as “third tier”. They might not convert well for your standard ad campaigns, but for brand awareness or arbitrage, they provide a great source of extremely cheap clicks. We tell you which ones to use – and where those ads might eventually show up – as well as which ones to avoid with a ten foot pole
  5. Contextual advertising.  How you can make the most money through contextual advertising, both as a publisher and as an advertiser.

We will be focusing on training instead of just telling, so you will get lots of pointers on how to apply this to your own business as well as being able to do hands-on throughout the two days.   We tried to cover the most important aspects of search engine optimization and marketing, as well as discussing some of the hot topic tactics of the industry, such as link baiting.  We will have a more formal agenda, detailing what is being discussed when, after we finalize the speaking times of all our guest speakers, but you can find the agenda outline (which includes important things like what time we have lunch!) here.

 Last I checked, we still have a few spots available, so we hope to see you in London on March 20th! 

About the Seodays conference hotel

Published by Jenstar March 5th, 2007 in Seodays. 0 Comments

When we began planning Seodays, the most important thing was that the hotel be easily accessible, whether people were coming in locally, from other areas of the UK or coming from overseas.  And The Hilton Euston definitely fit the bill.

Euston Station is just a five minute walk from the hotel, and Kings Cross / St. Pancras is not too far.  All the travel details you need to get to the hotel can be found here, whether you are arriving via train, tube, plane or taxi.

The hotel itself has plenty of ammenities.  Wireless internet is available and a selection of restaurants, varying from fine dining to a bar & lounge.  And don’t forget there is a full breakfast available to guests each morning, so be sure to take advantage of that prior to hitting the conference.

 We have secured a special room rate for attendees and have a block of rooms reserved.  You will receive the booking code in your registration confirmation.  There still are some rooms currently available.

The conference itself is in the hotel as well, set up in one of their large meeting rooms, set up with tables to accomodate laptops, so you can take notes, view websites, use tools and demos, and be extremely hands on. 

We look forward to seeing you there!

About

Archive for Jenstar.

Longer entries are truncated. Click the headline of an entry to read it in its entirety.

Archives

Categories