Archive for the 'Places' Category

I arrived on Saturday night and rented a car and took the fairy over to the Olympic Peninsula. On Sunday I drove around Olympic National Park (and hiked in the rain forest). Sunday night MSN started it off with a great gathering and served these blue martini’s that several people were calling "the blue screen of death" drinks. Monday night Yahoo was also serving martini drinks with glow ice at the exhibit hall. That was followed by the Seattle Google Dance where drinks were served in glow cups. I played frogger for the first time in 20 years and had chats with many. Tuesday was the SEOmoz gathering with pool, bowling, and drinks (Thanks SEOMoz!)

Here’s some pics! Though looks like I’m bad at getting all the same people every night….oh well.

Olympic National Park

SMX Seattle 2007

Seattle Boys Jim Hedger and Rand Fishkin

I love getting Wacky Pictures of Aaron!

My competitor grows stronger. Bruce Clay and Mike Grehan

Look, we can eat, drink and dance!!!

Yeee Haw!! Rhea and Brent

 Brent and Neal Dancing like princesses! (With Respect!) 

Matt. Tim on right

Better Ways…Q and A audience view.

Give it up Mike, Mikkel, , Stephan, Sheri, Jill, Bruce, Todd, Greg.

The Google Dance Seattle SMX 2007

Google Engineers

Jay’s Totally Scottish Stylin’

Stephan!!!!!!!!!!

Tom Chillin’ with Google

Seo Chicks Lisa

How many more drinks do you want now?

Google Engineer on Matt’s left in red shirt thinking…."These Spammers are interesting".

Scott, Bruce and Christine

Mike, Jill, Bruce

Neil and Todd

Mr. and Mrs Wall

Mike, Rebecca, Christine

Neil, Rob, Rob, Danny

Rob, Ekky, Julie, Jay

Cshel

Guillaume, Cameron, Neal, Brent, Michael

Skip and Rebecca at SEOMoz Party

Stuntdubl and Gray Wolf

Tim Mayer Yahooguy

Stuntdubl, Abhilash, Truman

I’ll have one more please.

Last week I spoke at Hostingcon in Vegas on "What it takes to rank high in Google". I was pretty happy that I had a 45 minute slot to speak….at most conferences you get between 9 and 12 minutes to give your chat, which isn’t much time to get past your topic overview and 101 info, so I was excited about getting a full 45 minutes here.

I arrived the night before I was speaking, and walked around the strip some….and ya know, Vegas just doesn’t appeal to me….throwing money into machines where you know you’ll loose just doesn’t excite me. In fact….I hate Vegas. I’m actually a hippy nature lover and would rather they held conferences in National Parks as opposed to places like Vegas…but oh well.

I was scheduled for the last spot on the last day and I ended up giving this presentation (here’s a pdf version). When I finished I realized I had gone an hour and apologized and asked if anyone had questions…to my suprise almost everyone raised their hand, so we went another hour and 15 minutes answering questions…so my 45 minute slot turned into 2 hours and 15 minutes.  (luckily this was the last sesson of the day so no one was waiting for the room!)

I thought it was really cool to be solo (esp since I didn’t have to "compete" with other speakers in answering questions). The people were great, the questions were great, and I had a great time.

I actually wasn’t trying to pick up any clients, but it looks like I’ve got 2 new clients from the chat.

So after my chat I rented a mustang convertible and headed to see my aunt in Arizona…now driving in a mustang convertible with the top down accross the desert and exploring places I’ve never seen before is my idea of a good time - and a great time I had.

Here’s some pics if you’re interested.

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Speaking of Conferences….San Jose SES is coming up soon. I won’t be speaking….my usual speaking panel isn’t scheduled for San Jose (SEM Tools Panel). Not sure why…and it’s too bad I’m not speaking, but I guess that just means that all my days are free now.  I’ll be touring during the days and partying….opps, I mean networking, at night. 

I’ll be sure to be at the Google Plex Dance Party, and the Webmasterradio.fm bash….I’m hoping Yahoo will step up and offer a party as well….

Past SES San Jose trips I’ve done these extra curricular driving excursions including:
2 trips to Yosomite National Park, 1 trip to Sequoia National Park, 1 trip to Kings Canyon National Park, 1 trip Lake Tahoe (worked there in 97), 1 real long drive to Death Valley National Park (worked there 95 and 97), and a RT 1 trip down to Big Sur. Last year Todd (stuntdubl), Bill Hartzer and I also did a helecoptor ride over San Fran….oh yea, and 3-4 trips into San Fran.

I love California - this is my favorite trip as California is one of my favorite states and there’s so much to do (if you don’t mind driving). This is the one trip that I actually consider my vacation for the year.

Are you going to San Jose 2006 SES?

Anyone out there interested in a SEO Pow Wow at the Grand Canyon next year?

London SES

I had a great time at the London SES conference. I get jealous when I hear of people like Matt taking 6 weeks off…man, as a CEO I don’t get much time “off” at all….I don’t think I’ve taken a week off in several years. Hey, maybe it’s a disadvantage of being a CEO - there’s often not time to take big ole long vacations, and having a 17 month old toddler, and another on the way in 5 months, my wife’s idea of a good time is not traveling at the moment….so to me, a conference is part of my “vacation time”.  

To be honest, nowerdays I tend not to attend many sessons, as I’ve seen most speakers several times, and I can learn more “hands on” than in a “classroom setting”….I’m just too fidgety and distracted sitting in a room listening to a speaker….that’s just me…. I’d rather discuss more in debth dirt later at the bar over a few beers.

So at night I do the “SEO networking”, and during the days, I tend to “vacation” on these conference trips.

SEO People Pictures - London Duck Tour - Stonehenge - Bath - Egyptian Mummies - Tower of London

Yippy - I’m going to London!  

I got permission from my wonderful wife, and my work team at work is doing so good that I should have no worries while I’m away!

I’ll be arriving in London on Wednesday at 6:40am and leave Saturday at noon. Anyone know of other gatherings during that time? (I’ll be sure to hit at least this gathering).

I Wonder if SES needs another speaker?….otherwise I’ll just be "networking" during the day and hanging out where ever there’s "networking" going on at night.

Any of you going to SES London? If ya are, feel free to email me for my cell # so we can connect.

So I was looking at my conference schedule, and I was crossing some off my list. We’ve got a baby due Nov 16th, so the following 3 shows are out.

• DMA 06 in San Fran mid Oct 14-18
• Webmasterworld Pubcon Vegas Mid November 14-17
• SES Dec 4-7 Chicago

I’ll still be at HostingCon July 17-19th & SES San Jose Aug 7-10.

I wasn’t planning on going to the SES London May 31-June 2 ….but as I was crossing the 3 other shows off my list, I suddenly felt like I should attend the SES London (in 10 days)…. Aaron was going to have another Threadwatch Pubcon (that link is to the 2005 event) just before the SES….but looks like they might not have it this year? or is it tool late to plan that (Aaron??)

I guess I’ve got less than one week to decide on London….if there were a threadwatch gathering right around that time it’d help with my decision….. but again…I’ve got tons of stuff to do here…..I’m not speaking at SES London….but I could meet people like Alan, Ken, and Ammon, (3 people I’ve never met, but would really like to)…I could also spread the word of our new content creation services (to be released June 15th), and might make some good deals or form some nice relationships while I’m there….

Do I go…do I stay….dang….I don’t know.

EGOL reports on the Affiliate Summit, stating,

it was clearly the best webmaster meeting that I have attended so far.

EGOL then goes on to state why he felt that way and he outlines some of the ideas which he took away including information on podcasting, spyware, search trends, adsense, and more.

EGOL also talks about some of the cool things which they do at this conference like speed networking, one hour talks, badges that identified if they were an affiliate or merchant, and even good food. There’s also some sweet links in the post that I’ll be scoping out more today.

I’ve only gone to SES and to Webmasterworld conferences.

Which conferences have you gone to, and how did you like them?

A continuation of this thread about Link Ninjas and the SEO PowWow.

The first SEO PowWow is taking place January 18th in Historical Troy New York.

Cost - Free - You pay for getting here, your own meals, the hotel, whatever, and there is no charge for this. If you want to be in Troy on Jan 18th and have a beer with some SEO’s we’d be happy to drink a beer with you. It’s that simple. 

When - 6:00pm to whenever, on Jan 18th 2006

Where -  Historical Troy New York (the home of Uncle Sam) - just north of Albany New York - 20 minutes from the Albany International Airport. I’d recommend staying overnight at the Franklin Square Inn (this is a 2 minute walk to our offices and 5 minute walk to bar. For more hotel choices and travel directions see this page (driving directions coming soon - check back at that page for future travel tips on getting here).

What bar are we going to? We’ll be going to  Browns Brewing, where we can enjoy a wide variety of their fine beer brewed on premises.  I’ll be heading over there right after our training class that ends at 6:00. If I know you’re coming and you want to swap cell numbers so you can reach me, that’s fine.

Why? Why not? If you’re willing to drive here, I’m willing to have a drink with you. I think there’ll be some very wise SEO people drinking at Browns Brewing in Troy that night.

How many will be there? I don’t know. I’ll be there with several of the We Build Pages team. I’ll be bending Aarons arm to have a drink with us as well, since he’s in town as our special guest for our first and last link ninja training class. I’ve been in contact with a few other SEO’s who are coming.  I think there’s going to be some really good SEO chat going on.

What else is there to do while we’re there?
You can walk around Troy - if you like Coffee, there’s a lot of excellent coffee shops. We’ve got sushi next door as well as several other nice bars here. It’s a college town. For the skiers and snowboarders, there’s http://www.jiminypeak.com/ in the Berkshires, or some places about 1 1/2 hours north in the adirondacks. We’re about 3 hours from New York City, 3 1/2 hours to Montreal Canada, 3 hours to Boston, and 20 minutes from Albany and a the New York State Museum.

If you want to come, let us know below by posting in this thread so we can have an idea of how many people we’ll be drinking with that night. If you want to post on your interests, some other people might want to join you during the day (my team will be working on the link ninja training class during that day, but other might go skiing, or visit the museum).

Are you coming?