The biggest ones were close to the size of golf balls. I haven’t gone out to look at my cars but my fingers are crossed. My mother in law had just dropped off the kids and was headed home when it hit. She called to say it broke the back window of her car out completely and that she has major dents everywhere.

I didn’t see the weather report, but on my way home I noticed the clouds coming in and found it odd the BMW dealership parking lot was half empty… guess they moved what they could off the lot to cover.

To the consumer there is no cost, it’s the agents that pay us to be able to connect to these people wanting the quotes. There are multiple services out there that offer similar services to agents but they may lack in many areas. One, they will blast people’s info to anyone willing to pay for it resulting in the consumer getting spammed for the rest of their life and the agents end up talking to someone who would rather the agent just die. Two, they don’t use natural ways of finding those looking for isnurance quotes. Instead, they will offer a free ipod to fill out a form and the consumer doesn’t realize they’re about to get blasted by every service known to man trying to sell them something, including insurance.

So, while our consumer facing side is US Insurance Online, our agent facing side is All Web leads. This is where the agents sign up to be connected to the consumers looking for quotes.

What exactly is it *I* do is make sure our sites are optimized and available for the search engine spiders to crawl and index under the terms and topics we’re most related to. I am the Director of Search Engine Marketing, but you can call me “Internet Bitchguy”. The techniques and best practices for SEO, SEM, PPC, and of course OPP (yeah, you know meh) are what I’m all about. This is also what we give free classes on in our SEO Austin Meetup group. The first Wed of every month we’ll cover one topic such as local seo, PPC, you name it.

Our meetup group SEO Austin will not be meeting this month. We know how busy everyone is (just as we are) in starting heavy on 2009 goals and catching up after the holidays. The next meetup will be the first Wed of Feb which is Feb 4th. I don’t believe Laura has announced a topic yet but that hasn’t stopped people form already RSVPing!

…and on the topic of meetups and conferences, we have a big one coming to Austin:

A reminder to most and notice to few, Pubcon will be in Austin next. I know many Austinites that are very excited about this. It’s March 11th through the 13th and if you miss it, you’ll can always go to the next one in England this summer . Of course since they’re all different with different speakers feel free to go to both.

Our group, “SEO Austin” now has 334 members with no real promotion ever done on our part as the organizers. We enjoy the atmosphere and space Spaghetti Warehouse provides, but we should probably look for a bigger place to keep up with the unstoppable growth due to the excellent networking and information this group provides. The next one, you guessed it, is likely going to be Jan 7th 2009!! Of course we’ve not decided on a topic. It’s much more interesting to wait till the last minute

Someone asked at the end of the meetup why we do it. Well, if it weren’t for Laura it wouldn’t happen cause she set it all up, I just show up when I’m able to and yap about a few things I know in the area being covered. Also, if it weren’t for some of the excellent guest speakers we’ve had, Laura and I would probably be burned out. What it comes down to though is we all have things to learn and while we bring a majority of the info to the sessions we speak @, we still take away from it making it well worth the rental on the projector screen and appetizers! Plus the networking is great for everyone. Though she’s usually booked and tries not to pick up clients, Laura has picked up a few new consulting gigs that she has enjoyed and I’ve made some connections in my field that have helped. We’ve made friends in our field as well. It’s really nice to have fellow geeks to talk to who know what you’re even talking about when mentioning our industry. I hope this explanation makes sense, I know some may think we’re somehow making money from it or farming a group to cash in on down the road, which we’re not. On the other hand, I don’t want anyone thinking we’re trying to get our kicks building our names as “guru’s” to make up for lacking areas of our lives!

We welcome anyone to join the group, even those not from Austin who will never make a meeting. We sometimes share things we find in the industry… for example, we’ve had a couple of headhunters come to us looking to fill some high level SEO/PPC positions we’ve passed on to the group. With the economy the way it is, I suspect some are looking or know someone that is so if we can help someone in our group find a sweet dream job, we’ll most certainly try.

Also, off topic… I apolgize to anyone trying to add me on Facebook, LinkedIn, or any other social media site that I decline.  If I don’t recognize you and you use the generic “add me” message, I just decline it.  Having too many people on my friends lists that I have no idea who they are leaves me out of control!  If you want to connect, put in the message who you are and why, or where we met cause I’m a tard that can foget.  Otherwise I will asume it’s someone just trying to get as many friends as possible on their list doing mass invites.

#1 Community. The industry really sticks together and help each other out.  “The Force is Strong With This one…” it’s like a sense you have triggered when you speak to another who has a clue about what they’re talking about and a passion for what they do.  Regardless of the size or revenue of the site, a ma and pop flower shop focusing on online orders or a few hundred million dollar per year monster site, the SEO experts love to meet, share experiences, and reference each other for second opinions or express excitement over a new finding.

It’s how I visualize explorers in America trying to map the new world.  Out wondering around alone and in small groups buried deep in their discoveries.  Maybe you don’t cross paths with another explorer as often as SEM people do, but regardless, it’s exciting to catch up with each other’s experiences and bounce theories off each other of the potential out there and what is to be.  It’s not like Universities are cranking out SEM experts.  I doubt anyone worthy of teaching SEM is giving it up to take crap pay and teach a bunch of noobs that decided on this career because they think it will make them more money than “engineering”.  So the people you’re running into typically have the love of what they do and learned the hard way so mutual respect is high.

#2 The Activities.  Sure like any work, it can have its pains like the lower level link building which many just outsource if they even do it at all.  The fun is the analytics, planning, and tactics.  A good SEM’er in my opinion is going to be an obsessive, methodical geek, but know enough to forcefully stop short of perfection in this case.

Researching the data provided (example: keyword search volume tools) along with your own PPC or current SEO results, you begin to plan, laying out each section and page with what it will be about and optimized for.  You put it together with 10 different versions of graphics and tables to split test and learn exactly what works.  You follow your audience using analytics and heatmaps (crazyegg it up!!!) and get in their mind.  Then you build exactly what is needed to get them through the funnel utilizing triggers and simplicity.  All the while you’re link building, creating content, resources, articles, telling people about parts of the site though social communities, and answering questions on websites related to the topic on your site and referring to it as a resource (screw you spammers that dunno how to do this).

It’s amazing looking over at a billion dollar corporation without a clue in the breakdown lane as you fly by with cruise on doin 5 over.  We’re witnessing a change of power in so many areas slowly happen.  Take note for future stories for your grandchildren!  Being a part of all this is being a part of history involving one of the biggest worldwide revolutions.  We’re not in public relations or brand awareness, however we have just as big of effect as anyone in these two areas.  What other job involves hanging out in social communities sharing info as part of your work description?  Go my little social butterfly search engine marketers, stop reading my lame blog and network

#3 Doing it YER way. There is no “correct” method with steps to follow in SEM.  You’re free to test and try your theories for results.  Every industry is completely different and there’s a thousand ways to get results.  I see it like watching MMA fighting, many different techniques that have given winning results and made them the best of the best in the ring.  No single form dominates all cases, but the people who are coming out on top are the ones always learning and studying all of the techniques and applying them where they see fit.

It’s easy for me to get caught up in just picking a random competitive term and studying the top results.  Looking at the content, resources, links, URL structure, and little things next to the results of who is on top.  Bouncing between the main 3 Google, Yahoo, and MSN tell completely different stories and all worthy of being studied.

Ask me what stage I’m on and unless it’s a new site I’m collecting data for and creating a plan, I’m going to tell you I’m creating/adjusting content, building relationships and links, making a presence on communities and forums to get the word out.  Now ask me a year from now what stage we’re at and it will likely be the exact same, but the sites I’m building relationships with will be different and the social communities I’m found on will be new ones.  I will have tweaked techniques which is a week by week thing, there may be new areas of the internet to be involved in, but it will likely be the same basics.

#1 GURUs. Are you selling information? 50% cut and pasted, the other 50% made up and titled “SECRETS REVEALED” for $39.99 marked down from $1,000,000 for the next 1,000 buyers only! Everyone is a guru it seems, I got my website to rank #1 in Google for “b2b online marketing specialists in austin texas by the river next to the big road”. Give me a break, rank #1 for something that actually gets search volume and hold the position for a year+ and we’ll talk. REAL SEO experts have dozens of 500,000+ per month search phrase #1 positions under their belt as well as many thousands of long tail phrases. They’re not bragging about it because:
A- They’re smart enough to realize staying under the radar as best as possible helps shoo off any penalties Google has to put in place to cut back on the spammers who reverse engineered your work and are exploiting it.
B-They’re not trying to make up for where else they may lack in their panties

#2 Yahoo Answer spammers. I go to Yahoo Answers to give helpful replies with info and drop a link where appropriate. Whenever I go to an insurance related question, it’s full of replies saying crap like “Great question, I’d suggest reading the info using this link: http://acrappywebsitewithnotraffictryingtogetyoutofilloutaquoteformsotheycansellyourinformationtoanagent.com” Basically full of losers trying to pimp their crappy website that will likely be a dropped and parked domain within months while providing no value to the question. They have and will continue to ruin it for those others representing a company trying to give good advice.

Yesterday I saw a question from a lady saying she was bleeding from the crotch and wondered if she should get immediate help or if it was something that could be normal while being pregnant. Now, I’m not commenting on the question or the person asking it, however, the first answer was “Interesting indeed, for more information, follow this link: ” and the link was to a *how to make tons of money fast* blog.

I understand they’re trying to make a fast buck off suckers, but why not focus the effort on creating a legitimate website and company to morally promote without spam techniques? Are they too scared they won’t cut it in the real world of an honest living?

#3 Reciprocal directories and bidding directories. A directory can be classified in 2 categories in the eyes of Google (IMO) 1) a legitimate attempt to provide valuable resources for people in attempts to get them to use the directory for their needs. 2) a link farm and/or attempt at striking a bit of cash for the least amount of work required (free directory script, default graphics). So, how can a directory be a good resource if they require a reciprocal link? Do you think Dell, Sony, Amazon, Zappos, Ford and the many thousands of other quality sites are going to give them a link back to be in their directory? How is it a good directory full of resources if it doesn’t include those major websites?

Then bidding directories, the top bidder gets top position on the home page which usually means a PR4-PR6 homepage link to their site. Guess what the results are! Yes, a bunch of online casinos on every bidding directory homepage that has decent PR. Is that a quality resource? Please try and convince me how it is of use to the public. Most quality sites wouldn’t want to be caught within miles of a bidding directory loaded with casinos which nearly all are.

Our first meetup was in May and every month the group grows. We’re outgrowing venues very quickly and have to put a cap on it. We’ve had sponsors approach us which we’ve considered for reasons of getting a larger location, but we’re holding off because the fun and free atmosphere is very important for us to maintain. The initial meetups Laura and I covered all the speaking, but lately others have been stepping up and covering their topics of expertise which has been a great help with our busy schedule. The meetup profile can be found at: SEO Austin

Unfortunately, I didn’t even make it. I left the office at 5:30 to be there by 6:00 and there must have been a wreck on Mopac because traffic wasn’t moving at all. I turned around and went home after hardly moving for over 30 minutes and let Laura know she was doing this one solo!

Sorry everyone!

I’ve been purposely flying under the radar for a long time now in hopes of not being identified with the many self proclaimed gurus in SEM, SEO, E-commerce, ect. I won’t waste anyone’s time trying to look any smarter than I really am. Ok, I admit I do use spell check, but give me a break, I grew up in hickville Indiana where I warshed my clothes in a muddi crick!

Just gonna have fun with it and if something useful gets posted then, oops.
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