As proud sponsors of Ignite Portland 9 we were tasked with creating a 30 second promotional video to be played during the event’s intermission at the Bagdad theater. Our original idea was to create a 70’s stylized buddy cop movie trailer with my 1 year old son, but when the “Lil’ Dictator” was more inclined to eat the fake mustache than he was to wear it, we decided to go in a new direction.

While only one of WebRanking’s “two bad brothers you know so well” were available for the filming of the trailer, Tony and I decided to move forward without the “one lone Beastie” and create our own version of Sabotage. While WebRanking certainly have no aspirations of leaving the Search Engine Marketing community after 12 ½ years in order to pursue film making, we did enjoy the process plus it gave me an excuse to sport a mustache for the past couple of months.

The above video is the complete trailer, which is different from the 30 second teaser shown at Ignite Portland 9 and which can be viewed below. Continue reading “Ignite Portland 9 Video | Sabotage: The Movie” »

With Christmas only a few days away, those last minute acts of kindness probably aren’t going to be enough to get your name scratched off the naughty list and penciled into the nice one.  Sure, you might hope to slip by this year on some clerical error or a loophole in the revised 2009 Naughty and Nice Code of Ethics, but remember Santa is supposedly checking them twice (which makes me wonder if he has a Naughty & Nice app for his iPhone yet, or is still doing it by hand?). 

Yet whether your stocking this year will be filled with lumps of coal or gifts of joy, you are not alone.  We have sent out a request to our colleagues, associates and some talented search elves up north to come up with our First Annual Not Quite Definitive List of Who’s Been Naughty and Who’s Been Nice in Search for 2009.   

Nobody's walking out on this fun, old-fashioned family Christmas.

* Google gets lots of gifts for attempting to innovate search with real-time results, social search, and more.

* StumbleUpon.com gets lots of gifts this Holiday season for leaving the hands off of eBay, listening to its community, and implementing changes around their desires.

- Jordan Kasteler

* Bing goes on this list for bringing more seriousness in competition to the search landscape. They’ve got a long way to go, but it’s the first positive step in a long, long time.

- Rand Fishkin

* Google Adwords new ad formats. This was a long-time coming in my opinion.  I am curious to see if Yahoo and MSN try to follow Google, or, wait until their platform merger.

* Google Analytics upgrades since October….specifically, more “Goals” and “Alert” system. 

* Google Webmaster Tools upgrades….specifically, their “Parameter Handling”.

- Clint Danks

See who else made the Naughty and Nice in Search List for 2009…

Chris, James & Tony at SMX Advanced 09

Last Monday I made the quick trip up I-5 to Seattle for this year’s SMX Advanced.  Not only did this yearly expo provide our management team with an opportunity to meet and network with some of the search industry’s top minds, but to also attend some very informative sessions on Organic, Paid, Social and the Business side of search marketing.

Continue reading “SMX Advanced 09 Wrap Up – My Take” »