Posted by mystery_guestINTRO From Rand:Tonight's post comes from my beloved fiancée, who's generously donated her time to help keep the blog going while I'm out of town at SMX Social Media.As many of you know, Rand travels quite a bit for his work, leaving me at home with Raul, the cabana boy. All is well for the first few hours, until I grow tired of Raul's deep tissue massages and the peeled grapes he insists on feeding me. After that, I tend to get a little bored and lonely. I'm assuming the other conference widows out there feel the same way, and as such, I've composed a list of ways to pass the time when your fiancée is away and your rippled Ecuadorian paramour is dehydrated.  Try to name all the countries in the world. Realizing it is hopeless, try for all the states of the union. Fail pitifully yet again, and get even more depressed when you realize you can name a greater quantity of characters from the Simpsons. To wit:_Bart, Maggie, Lisa, Homer, Marge, Abe, Patty, Selma, Mrs. Bouvier, Uncle Herb, Chief Wiggum, Ralph Wiggum, Sarah Wiggum, Snake, Lou, Eddie, Dr. Julius Hibbert, Mihouse Van Houten*, Nelson Muntz, Otto, Sherri and Terri, Principal Skinner, Superintendant Chalmers, Gladys Skinner, Comicbook Guy, Mrs. Krabappel, Krusty the Clown, Rabbi Krustofsky Corporal Punishment, Sideshow Mel, Sideshow Bob, Cecil Twilliger, Dr. Nick Riviera, Bleeding Gums Murphy, Gil, Troy McClure, Jasper, Bumblebee Man, Moe, Cletus, Jimmy Joe-Joe Junior Shabadoo, Lenny, Carl, Kent Brockman, Rainier Wolfcastle, Professor Frink, Lindsay Nagel, Cookie Kwan, The Flanders (Ned, Maude, Rod, and Tod), Reverend and Helen Lovejoy, Luigi (of the pizza place), Jimbo Jones, Kearny, Dolph, Uder (the fat German foreign exchange student), Groundskeeper Willie, Lunchlady Doris, Wendell (the kid who throws up all the time), Hans Moleman, Apu, Manjula (and the octoplets), The Sea Captain, Jaque, Mindy, Tom (Bart's big brother), Pepe (Homer's little brother), Smithers, Mr. Burns, Mrs. Burns (Mr. Burn's mother, who he never forgave after she had that affair with Taft), Judge Constance Harm, Barney Gumble, Duff Man, Bea (Grandpa's dead girlfriend), Ray Magini, Disco Stu, Arnie, Lionel Hutz, Mayor Quimby (and his wife). Also Sophie (Krusty's daughter), and Luke Perry (who I include because he is Krusty's half brother on his mother's side)._Weep, because you still have no idea where the hell Ohio is.Rather than doing your spouse's laundry, hide his or her clothing around the house. Place dirty socks inside the pockets of a favorite blazer as a gentle reminder that leaving them on the floor near the hamper is not the same thing as putting them inside the hamper.Plan out the outfits you intend to wear at the next conference  you do attend. Walk around the house in them to check viability, comfort, transition from day to evening events, and warmth. Don't dwell on the fact that it's 11pm and you're changing your clothes and doing your make up.Watch television programs your spouse finds unfit for human consumption. Namely, Chuck, because despite being incredibly stupid and poorly written, you sort of think the lead is dishy. Also, VH1's Rock of Love , where, as one reviewer put it, one contestant can say to another "I don't really think you're a whore", and it's one of the most endearing things to happen all season.Invite your girlfiends over for a pillow fight/malt liquor tasting. Explain to your spouse that you would have documented the event, but someone decided to take the camera to the conference. I'm sure those pictures of Dave Naylor were totally worth it.Commit perjury.Call around to every Nordstrom Rack in King County, vainly searching for the Coach Sara bootsthat you saw at the downtown store but that they didn't have in your size. Realize that you don't really want the boots, per se, but are enjoying the thrill of chase, a sensation which you can only assume is the remnant of the driving force that kept your ancestors alive when they were hunting and gathering food thousands of years ago. Use this reasoning to justify more shopping.Institute a dress code in your apartment. Break it by failing to wear shoes. Argue with the management and threaten to throw yourself out.Dinner: peanut brittle and ice cream. Any questions?Put on your pajamas and turn off all the lights in your apartment. Proceed to jump and down violently, stomping on the ground, throwing around small woodland creatures, and basically doing whatever you can to annoy the neighbor who lives below you. When she finally comes up to ask what the hell is going on, pretend she just woke you up and reprimand her for her rudeness.Write several emails to your editor friends, making simple mistakes like confusing "your" with "you're" and "it's" with "its". See how long it takes before there brains brake.Revel in the delightful irony of how Google would need to design its webpage to rank better at Google itself. Watch as your delight slowly turns to frustration and anger when you realize this hypocritical behavior is microcosmic of Google's policies as a whole, and accept that no matter how nice he is to you, Matt Cutts isn't really your friend. <sniff>Miss Rand.  *I left off Milhouse's parents because I couldn't get their names right. I thought they were Cliff and Leanne, but are actually named Kirk and Luann. I also left off Homer's mother, because I couldn't remember her name (it's Mona), as well as Ling, because I thought that she was Patty's daughter (she's actually Selma's) and that her name was Li. And naturally, this list is not complete because there were a few names I couldn't recall or get right. Feel free to add (names must be off the top of your head. No looking up info other than to check spelling).Also, Rand and I don't actually have a cabana boy.Do you like this post? YesNo

  Posted by rebeccaHaving just wrapped up my presentation for Linkbait: Chumming for Traffic on Social Media Sites(I linked to Vanessa Fox's session coverage on Search Engine Land in case you want a recap), I thought I'd turn the tables and live blog Extra! Extra! The Social News Sites. (Side note: My allergies have been a pain in the ass ever since I got to New York, and as such, I guzzled two and a half bottles of water during my session to minimize Scratchy Throat Syndrome. As a result, I may have to make repeated runs to the bathroom, so coverage for this session could be a bit fragmented. Thanks, tiny bladder.)Neil Patel, co-host of SMX Social Media and Digg extraordinaire, starts off by talking about porn. He said something about how he loves Digg like boys love porn. I bet he loves porn, too. Don't lie, Neil. Okay, now he's swearing. A lot. I think he's part pirate. Neil gives a quick overview of Digg and says that if the story gets a ton of buries, it'll get knocked off the front page. Why should you care about Digg? The average story that makes the home page gets 129 links and great branding benefits. It also gets a ton of traffic--some of Neil's clients have gotten over 10,000 visitors in one hour.Now Neil is going all mimbo about being in The Wall Street Journal. I can't believe people take this guy seriously.Requirements for being on Digg are having a website. He actually said that. Well, he clarified by saying you need content, pictures, video, or audio, and he specifically recommends leveraging the video section. Important factors include the number of votes, the amount of time it takes to collect votes, voters (have them be active, diverse users), the submitter, and friends (act like a "Tom Cruise" and befriend everyone out there). Unwritten rules: no self promotion! If you are going to do it, be smart about it. Use a non-company specific user name. Also, don't pay for votes. Digg doesn't like it when people pay for votes. Don't spam, either. Oh, and Digg hates SEOs. Neil provided an example of how some dude outed him as an SEO/"spammer," and for a couple weeks after that all of his submissions got flooded with "This dude's a filthy SEO spammer" comments. Fun facts about Digg: .7% of all stories get to the home page. Yikes. He then cites Rand's SEOmoz post about how the top 100 Diggers control 56% of the content on the home page. Thirdly, you can't control what people say. The reality is that you can't control the comments on Digg, so you might as well embrace the attention you're getting and hope to get votes. Very eloquent, Neil.Tamar Weinbergis up next. She looks nervous. It's her first public speaking gig and apparently Danny made her appear on the panel so she can talk about how much of a Digg Rockstar she is. I bet it'll be a while before she forgives him. She'll be talking about Digg Tips and Tricks (she practiced her presentation on me the night before, which was quite adorable).She starts off with some advice for content that wins. Viral content is key, such as lists, games and quizzes, controversy, tools, breaking news, videos, pictures, and tech/science-related stories. She reiterated what Brent focused on in the earlier session, which is that a solid title and description are extremely critical. Don't put unrelated content on a salesy site. Diggers are pretty savvy and will see that a story about blogging tips looks funny being on a mortgage website.Next, Tamar gives advice for promotion as a Digg user. She recommends making yourself identifiable by getting an avatar and providing contact information (such as a link to your blog, your email address, IM screen names, etc). Befriend users and Digg their stories before they get popular. Also, comment on stories early--the snarkier, the better. If you're going to try and promote your Digg stories, do it privately to be safe. Pownce, Twitter, and Facebook are popular networks for leveraging diggs, but they're a bit riskier. Tamar recommends a couple tools to enhance your Digg experience, such as the smart Digg button, the Digg Alerter, and the Social Media add on for Firefox (which Jane blogged about). She talks about things to note. (Tamar, use less text next time. I'm in the back of the room and can barely read these!) First, Diggers hate "marketed" or "SEO'd" content. Avoid jargon/terminology in titles and the descriptions that can kill your story's potential. Also, don't just ask someone to digg your story when networking. Become friends and have similar interests--don't just spam people and ask for votes all the time.Also, Digg's algo plays on the diversity of the number of Diggs per story within a specific time frame. Don't get the same people to digg your story over and over again. Also, don't promote your story too quickly, or it will seem unnatural. Check out the stories in the Upcoming section to promote your stories to the front page. Once you're on page 1-2 of Upcoming, you're usually on the path to getting on the home page. Some lesser-known tricks she recommends are promoting your Digg content elsewhere (e.g. StumbleUpon). Also, subscribe to the Digg RSS feed and check it regularly for dupes and trends (you can do the same by browsing through the Digg archives). Focus on categories when submitting. Certain categories require fewer diggs than others to get to the front page. A really interesting tip Tamar shares is that if you become a popular user, you'll require more diggs from more users to get your stuff to the home page. You can either stop submitting for a few days to reduce your popularity (so you'll need fewer diggs again), or you can just continue to submit as-is (but you'll need a lot more votes). Newer users have a better chance of hitting the home page since they'll require fewer diggs.And she's done! Well done, Tamar. You're no longer a presenting virgin. Wahoo.Next, Chris Winfield talks about how to Digg Your Way to the Top. Why would you want to be on the Digg home page? Well, for traffic and exposure (and, of course, links). Chris asserts that sales are also a big incentive. People can come into your site and realize that it exists and what it offers, which can potentially lead to sales/conversions. Chris recommends that you understand the Digg landscape. Know the language (e.g. "ftw," "i can has?", "RTFA"). Also, know what Diggers like (Apple products, Heroes, The Office, Ron Paul). More importantly, know what Diggers don't like (the RIAA, Fox News, George W. Bush). Don't do press releases--they're boring and don't work on Digg. Also, don't overtly sell anything or "fake" it.What does work? Know your audience. Digg loves Chuck Norris, videos, and seeing things get destroyed. Chris submitted a video that answers the question of "Will Chuck Norris Blend?", and there you have it, Diggers ate it up. Also, get featured on a popular blog--it's easier to get on the Digg home page that way. He mentions as well that sometimes all it takes is a creative idea to get on Digg (e.g. one company buys Radiohead's newest set-your-own-price CD for $1,000). Chris goes into some more case studies, but he's zipping through them pretty quickly (though I did catch him making fun of Michael Gray'sobsession with all things Disney). Chris stresses the importance of crafting good titles and descriptions and choosing the appropriate category. His case study resulted in over 20,000 visitors from Digg in a 24 hour period. Successful Digg stories spread to other social networks (he gets a ton of traffic from StumbleUpon) and to influential blogs. Lastly, Chris gives one Digg tip to live by: have good hosting. We talked about this in our link bait panel, so I'm sure the audience will get this hammered into their heads over the next two days. GOOD HOSTING GOOD. BAD HOSTING BAD.Okay, time for Q&A. I have to blow my nose. And go to the bathroom (again).Do you like this post? YesNo

  Posted by rebeccaAfter a quick break, we're back at SMX Social Media with "A Marketer's Guide to Social Bookmarking & Tagging." Guillaume Bouchardfrom NVI is up first. He starts off with his token in-joke for French speakers. People laugh (in French: "hoh hoh hoh"). He talks about how all of the social platforms leverage one another and cites an example of how he got a link bait piece on reddit that moved to Digg, StumbleUpon, and other social sites. He says you can leverage a popular story and get a few more good stories out of it. For social media marketing, you need a group of friends. He has several hundred friends on MSN Messenger that he leverages. Guillaume defines social bookmarking as a way to allow Internet users to store, organize, search, and, most importantly, share bookmarks. Del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, and Furl are examples of popular social bookmarking sites. Within social bookmarking there is tagging, which is the "web 2.0" way to say "keyword." Tagging helps you to organize and categorize content. Popular tagging websites include Flickr and Technorati.The benefits of social bookmarking are that it helps your site index better in search engines, it achieves a high amount of natural incoming links, it creates a presence in online social communities, increases brand awareness, builds traffic from alternate sources, and influences traditional media. He provides some tips on how to tag effectively. Check how other people are tagging the sites you like and want to remember. When in doubt, pick the most relevant or popular tag in the tag clouds. Avoid separating your tags with commas. Get together with your friends and collaborate on how to match up your tagging efforts.Next, Guillaume talks about manual vs. automatic tagging. Manual tagging maintains a presence on the web for several years (through hyperlinks, anchor text, and keywords). You can create your own set of tags to represent your content. Manual tagging works best with images and encourages high participation due to personalization. Examples of manual tagging include de.icio.us, StumbleUpon, Flickr, YouTube, etc. Automatic tagging is an algorithmic system that extracts tags from the content. There's a lack of creativity from a human standpoint. An example of auto tagging is Facebook. Problems with tagging include abuse and content degradation. As social bookmarking and tagging sites become more mainstream, the added incentive for manipulation will result in decreasingly reliable content (unless the algorithms get smarter). Guillaume does a quick overview of various tagging sites. He begins with Technorati and later discusses Flickr, YouTube, and Facebook. He finishes with some Beatles references that get some chuckles. Michael Grayis up next. He's focusing his presentation on del.icio.us. He defines del.icio.us and dissects a bookmark on the site. Different people interpret your page in different ways, which gives you clues about what people think are important. The advantage of common tags is that they can give you an idea of a tag for that page that you hadn't thought of. Posting history identifies the people who have bookmarked your page. This is important because people who bookmark first may be industry leaders, which is why they're discovering the content.You can get social on del.icio.us by adding friends to your network. You also have the ability to subscribe to certain tags on del.icio.us. If you're interested in travel, for example, you can subscribe to the "travel" tag and keep track of those related stories. You can also share links with your friends. The del.icio.us home page changes more frequently than the popular page. You get screenshots of the featured pages on the home page, how many people are bookmarking the pages, and all the different tags being used. The advantage of del.icio.us over Digg is that Digg is a young male, tech-centered audience, whereas del.icio.us is more worldwide and embraced as general use. You can have non-tech-related success on del.icio.us. What's interesting about del.icio.us tags is that there is no wrong tag. It's all about what makes sense to you. As a marketer, you want to find the tag that most people are using (singular vs. plural, for example). Spacing can be an issue--the most common thing Michael sees is people will separate two words with a plus sign (e.g. "new+york+city"). Michael touches base on what tag clouds are (the ones that are bigger are more popular, while the ones in red are those that Michael has used). To expand your exposure, identify tags that are popular and active and tailor your content to fit into those tags. Add bookmarking widgets and buttons to your pages, and be sure to enhance the bookmarking with optimal titles, timing, and tagging. Time your bookmarking efforts to take advantage of update times (the del.icio.us Popular page is updated about every four hours), and use your friends to help influence the suggested tags. Don't create multiple accounts, as they can get discounted.Lastly, Neil Patelis up once again to talk about how to leverage StumbleUpon. StumbleUpon doesn't really get you links, but it does drive lots of steady traffic. You won't get 12,000 visitors in one day, but you will get a nice, ongoing stream, which provides a great branding opportunity. Step one is to install the StumbleUpon toolbar. If you like a page, thumb it up; if not, thumb it down. After you've created an account and installed the toolbar, add lots of friends. Step 3 is to submit new sites. Titles aren't that important since users are just getting a random piece of content. Neil recommends adding keywords that are rich in search to your title. Step 4 is to leverage your friends. Use the "Send To" feature and send a message to all of them by saying "Hey, check out this new site." Your friends will see a little "(1)" next to their Stumble icon, so they have to visit your page before they can start stumbling. Step 5 is that your friends will have to see your page and will probably thumb up the content. It's *technically* not spam because it's a feature StumbleUpon has provided, so you're just taking advantage of it.Q&A time. I'm going to drink more water. (By the way, more SMX coverage is available at SERoundtableand Search Engine Land.)Do you like this post? YesNo

  Posted by randfishFor the next few weeks, my blog posts will primarily consist of re-authoring and re-building the Beginner's Guide to Search Engine Optimization, section by section. You can read more about this project here.Understanding the Visuals of Search Results PagesIn order to gain a full understanding of how search engines and searchers interact, it's critical to take a look at the pages the engines return to fulfill a query. In the search marketing field, we call them 'SERPs' for Search Engine Results Pages. Each engine returns results in a slightly different format and will include vertical results (specific content targeted to a query based on certain triggers in the query, which we'll illustrate below).Google - currently the world's most popular search engine, Google's simple interface has changed little over the years. Yahoo! has a similar layout, but they organize things a bit differently and include an additional section:MSN/Live (Microsoft's search engine) is very similar to Yahoo!Each of the unique sections represents a snippet of information provided by the engines. I've listed them below with definitions of what each piece is meant to provide:Vertical NavigationEach of the engines offer the option to search different verticals like images, news, video or maps. Following these links will perform your query in that more limited index - in our example above, we might be able to see news items above stuffed animals or videos featuring stuffed animals.  Search Query BoxThe engines all show the query you've performed and allow you to edit or re-enter a new query from the search results page. They also offer links to the advanced search page, the features of which we'll discuss later on in the guide. Results InformationThis section provides a small amount of meta information about the results that you're viewing, including an estimate of the number of pages relevant to that particular query (note that these numbers can and frequently are wildly inaccurate, and should only be used as a rough comparative measure). Paid Search AdvertisingThe "Sponsored Results," to use the engines' terms, are text ads purchased by companies who use the various search ad platforms - Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing & MSN AdCenter. The results are ordered by a variety of factors, including relevance (of which click-through rate and conversion rates can be both be a factor) and bid amount (the ads require a maximum bid, which is then compared against other advertisers' bids). Organic/Algorithmic ResultsThese results are pulled from the search engines' primary indices of the web and ranked in order of relevance and popularity according to their complex algorithms. This section of the results is the primary focus of this guide. Query Refinement SuggestionsA relatively recent feature, query refinements are offered currently by both Yahoo! and Microsoft (and on occassion by Google as well, depending on the search). The goals of these links is to let users search with a more specific and possibly more relevant query that will satisfy their intent. Be aware that the SERPs are always changing as the engines test new formats and new layouts. Thus, the images above may only be accurate for a few weeks or months until Google, Yahoo!  and Microsoft shift to new formats.These "standard" results, however, are certainly not all that the engines have to offer. For many types of queries, search engines show "vertical" results and include more than just links to other sites to help answer a user's questions. Below, I've illustrated a few of these:Above - a search for my favorite local Greek restaurants brings back a direct map with an address and the option to get directions.It looks like New Yorkers are in for some unseasonable warm weather (as I search, it's October 17, 2007), and via a Google search for weather plus a city name, the engine returns a direct answer.A Google search for the famous painter, Edward Hopper, returns image results of some of his most memorable works.This Yahoo! search result for Green Bay Packers quarterback, Brett Favre, shows not only query refinement options, but a slough of information on the infamous gunslinger.A query on Yahoo! for Chicago Restaurants brings back a list of popular dining establishments from Yahoo!'s local portal, including cuisine choices, neighborhoods and top-reviewed establishments.Searching Yahoo! to find the number of pounds in a ton brings back an instant answer of 2000 pounds.Asking Live.com (Microsoft's search engine) for the Republican presidential candidate, Ron Paul, returns news results that center around the politician's recent activity.When querying Live for the famous early 20th-century actor, Charlie Chaplin, we're presented with a "celebrity rank" (Live's own calculation of a celebrity's relative popularity) along with a set of images.A Digital Cameras search at Live brings back popular products, along with prices, star ratings and links to Live product search results, as well as a list of guides & reviews.As you can see, the vast variety of vertical integration into search results means that for many popular queries, the standard set of 10 links to external pages is no longer the rule. Engines are competing by providing more relevant results and more targeted responses to queries that they feel are best answered by vertical, rather than web results.As a direct consequence, site owners and web marketers must take into account how this "vertical creep" (as it's frequently referred to in the industry) may impact their rankings and traffic. For many of the searches above, a high ranking, even in position #1 or #2 in the algorithmic/organic results may produce far less traffic and referrals than placement in search results where vertical options like these are not presented. The vertical results also signify opportunity, as listings are available in services from images to local search to news and products. Inclusion in these results will be covered later on in this guide.As a sendoff, observe what Ask.com has done with their search results:Ask has gone beyond the other engines to display vertical and refinement options of all kinds on the sidebars of the organic results in the center. This forward-thinking display functionality has been dubbed "Ask 3D," and represents one potential of how the future of search results might look.As always, comments and feedback are strongly encouraged and appreciated. Thanks for being patient while I put this together.Do you like this post? YesNo

  Posted by shorI hope you were not offended by the titular transaction of breasts.A little blog humor goes a long way and wordplay has always been a shortcut to a humorous headline.I borrowed "A Sale Of Two Titties" from a Monty Python skitwhich was a play on the title of the Charles Dicken's novel, "A Tale Of Two Cities". This switching of consonants in "Tale" and "City" is known as a spoonerism, which has been around since the 19th century, having been named after a Reverend William Spooner, who apparently had a penchant for transposing letters and syllables. A spoonerism gives Matt Cutts the farm wuzzies.However, for this post, I would like to direct the SEOmoz readers to some more recent types of wordplay, as brought to my attention by the cunning linguists over at the delightful Language Log blog.MONDEGREENS AND SNOWCLONES AND EGGCORNS. OH MY!1) MondegreensMondegreens are mishearings of words, typically songs or popular phrases. Coined by writerSylvia Wright in the 1950's when as a child she misheard the Scottish ballad 'The Bonny Earl of Murray': Ye Highlands, and ye LawlandsOh where have you been?They have slain the Earl of Murray,And Lady Mondegreen. (this line should read 'And they layd him on the green')Popular examples of Mondegreens: When Phoebe from Friends is asked what her favorite love song is, she sings  "Hold me closer, Tony Danza"instead of "Hold me closer, Tiny Dancer".A Bob Dylan classic:"The ants are my friends, they're blowin' in the windThe ants are a-blowin' in the wind."Where to go for mondegreen inspiration:The Archive Of Misheard Lyrics2) SnowclonesSnowclones are a subset of cliches and are described by Erin O'Connor as "fill-in-the-blank headlines". For example, '"In X no one can hear you Y'  'In space no one can hear you scream' This was a terrific teaser for the first Alien movie but has since been turned into a snowclone of epic proportions.Some other popular snowclones include:"To X, or not to X"(Shakespeare would be proud... or not)"That ain't an X, this is an X"(Crocodile Dundee)"That ain't a mustache,thisis a mustache""In Soviet Russia, X Ys you!"Based on comedian Yakov Smirnoff's Russian Reversal jokes:"In USA, you watch television, In Soviet Russia, television watches you!" Another highly popular snowclone that can be found in episodes of Family Guy, King of the Hill, Simpsons, MST3K etc."What Would Jesus X" What Would Jesus Link To?Where to go for snowclone inspiration:The Snowclones Database3)EggcornsEggcorns are another linguistic figure coined by the Language Log guys. As Chris Waigl wrote:"In September 2003, Mark Liberman reported an incorrect yet particularly suggestive creation: someone had written “egg corn” instead of “acorn”. It turned out that there was no established label for this type of non-standard reshaping. Erroneous as it may be, the substitution involved more than just ignorance: an acorn is more or less shaped like an egg; and it is a seed, just like grains of corn. So if you don’t know how acornis spelled, egg cornactually makes sense."This lead to the identification of many more eggcorns, including some that Oxfore University Press editor Ben Zimmer listedwhich could almost be considered a part of mainstream English.Which one is the eggcorn and which is the original?A) Free Rein or Free Reign?B) Baited Breath or Bated Breath?C) JustDeserts or Just Desserts? D) A Shoo-In or A Shoe-In?What did you choose? You'd be surprised at the answers!Where to go for Eggcorn inspiration: The Eggcorn DatabaseWHAT DOES WORDPLAY HAVE TO DO WITH THE INTERNET?Mondegreens, snowclones and eggcorns are a growing force in online writing. If you take a look at the structure of headlines at Digg or Reddit - you'll see some familiar wordplay on the front page. You'll find these linguistic occurrences are popular on satirical websites like Fark and SomethingAwful, in cartoons and TV comedies, on the radio and in movies. Custodians of grammar may frown at the decay of 'proper English' but the laziness of online writers is a boon for observing the hyper-evolution of our language. As journalist and LOLcats analyst David McRaney writes in his LOLcats expose:"The great thing about all of this is how we can see new languages forming out of a new medium, and since the pace is abnormally fast, we can watch it evolve over weeks instead of decades."Face it, if you're a blogger looking to appeal to the linkeratiand the attention-deprived digg nation, what more could you ask for than appropriating a well known word, catchphrase or lyric and molding it into a witty headline that combines popularity, familiar recognition and humor?To end this wordplay "steam of consciousness", I'd love to share a story about my favorite eggcorn.Copywriter/editor Nancy Friedman found an erroron one of mega-billionaire Warren Buffett's remarkable Berkshire Hathaway annual reports (seriously, readthis PDFand tell me it's not the best annual report you've ever read). and pinged Mr Buffett, to which he promptly replied:"Dear Nancy:I enjoyed your letter. What we tell people is that we put one mistake in each annual report to encourage annual reading. But if you believe that ... Sincerely,Warren E. Buffett"The mistake? "Vocal Chords" instead of "Vocal Cords".Hey, I figure if Mr Buffett's turning eggcorns into jokes, we can too.Do you have any favorite mondegreens, spoonerisms, snowclones or eggcorns?Technorati Tagsmondegreen, spoonerism, wordplay, eggcorn, snowclone, matt cutts, david mcraney, ben zimmer, mark liberman, chris waiglDo you like this post? YesNo

  Posted by randfishThis week had lots of exciting news from inside the search space, but as you're probably well familiar by now, I generally like to discuss topics that are outside the mainstream dialogue of search marketers (between Danny, Andy & this rowdy crowd, that's pretty much covered). So, this week, I wanted to go completely outside of search and look at news and posts that have a secondary, but substantive impact on how we do our jobs.First off, following in the footsteps on the New York Times' opening of archived content, Viacom has released the archives of the Daily Showin video format. The power of the web is obviously extremely pervasive in reaching even those who swore only a few years back that Google (and the Internet) were mortal enemies.Speaking of online video, how about Disney, News Corp., Veoh, Dailymotion, Microsoft, Viacom and others banding together to issue guidelines on copyright rules for video on the web? As the article notes, the elephant in the room was the absence of Google and YouTube.For those among us who wonder why the Perez Hilton's and tabloid rags of the world seem to rule the headlines, wonder no more. Research from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biologyappears to show that human beings have a fundamental pre-disposition towards gossip. I'll try to keep fighting my nature, but I guess it shows why stories like thisand this(the latter currently linked-to from the Yahoo! home page) do so well.Along similar lines, the Scientific American has a fantastic piece that asks if Greed is Good, using eBay and its buyers, sellers and feedback system to illustrate how trust has evolved to make the marketplace efficient and effective.I should have linked to this earlier, because it's fantastic stuff - Nick Wilsdon and the crowd at Multilingual Search have compiled a roundup of search and PPC data from 17 countries.In the world of flattening economies and shrinking middlemen, witness the apparent overarching success of Radiohead's "pay what you want" release of their album last week - an estimated $10 million of "donated" revenue.I certainly don't agree with everything in here, but maybe that makes it even better. It's Michael Martinez's 20 Hardcore SEO Tips(and a great piece of linkbait - nice to see Michael taking that route, yet staying mostly positive, if controversial).One more SEO insider bit of news - sitelinks are now "manageable" inside Google's Webmaster Tools. Since brand names are very frequently the top converting terms for online businesses, let me highly recommend that you make sure to address this for your sites and those of your clients ASAP.Obviously, this week I barely covered anything that I normally would/should, so feel free to link to any & all stories of consequence in the comments.p.s. Flying back to Seattle tomorrow, and next week should give me more time to address the rewrite of the Beginner's Guide.Do you like this post? YesNo

  Posted by great scott!We often hear the question, "How can I linkbait for a conservative industry? Doesn't linkbait have to be funny or crude or techie?" We've said it before and we'll say it again, you don't have to be Perez Hilton to do successful linbait. This week, Jane Copland discusses a few strategies to help even the most skeptical folks learn ways to use linkbait to help get some link-love.If you like what she's saying and want to learn more, Jane's going to be speaking about linkbait at SMX London, November 15-16. It's the first London show for the SMX series and it's looking like it's going to be pretty awesome (oh yeah, Premium Members get 10% off of passes). If you go, say 'hi' to Jane and get her a drink, she'll probably need it after her maiden voyage on the speaking circuit.Do you like this post? YesNo

  Posted by rebeccaI'm back in Seattle after a short trip to NYC for SMX Social Media. I live-blogged a coupleof sessionson Tuesday and tried to live blog the "Evangelist - The Marketer's Role in SMM" session, but I lost my post before I published it. (And no, I didn't save it. Yes, I am dumb.) I did cover Rand and Liana Evans' presentations for the Micro Communities sessionfor Search Engine Land, plus there are lots of other recaps there and throughout the web.I think that overall the conference was a success, especially considering it's the first conference I've been to that was explicitly dedicated to social media tips and tactics. Most of the sessions were quite interesting and engaging, with only a couple of presentations that felt a bit overlapping. I got a lot of positive feedback on my presentation, with people telling me that I "woke them up," which I relish in a bit more knowing that Rand spoke before I did. Take that, boss! (Note: I'm joking. Presenting first thing in the morning sucks. I've done it before, and the audience is pretty stiff, so I'm thankful I didn't get Rand's slot. He did get some laughs and kudos, and I am of the opinion that he's definitely a helluva better speaker than I am.)Anyway, I thought the keynote Q&A with Joshua Schachter of del.icio.us and Garrett Camp of StumbleUpon was a bit disappointing--it felt more like a tutorial on how to use their sites and less like honest, valuable feedback for attendees and the questions they posed. I really hate when company spokespeople answer questions with "We'll look into that" or "We can't tell you right now, but it's something I can research," etc. A friend of mine felt that the conference was great for marketers who haven't yet gotten into social media but not as valuable for those who already do social media marketing and want more advanced or expert tips, and I agree with her. A lot of the sessions (mine included) were a great overview of why certain social media approaches (link bait, bookmarking, social media news sites, etc) are valuable to your marketing and branding campaigns. For future social media-centric conferences, I would really like to see more specific or advanced sessions thrown in with the "An Introduction to Such and Such" panels.I have to close by saying that I am extremely proud of my good friend and fellow lady in SEO, Tamar Weinberg. Danny made her speak on the "Extra! Extra! The Social News Sites" panel virtually against her will. I know how nervous she was, but clearly the audience deduced that she knows her stuff because every time I saw her she was answering an attendee's questions about social media tactics. I bet she snagged a ton of business cards. Way to go, Tamar--you've certainly made a name for yourself in the past year, and I'm very happy and excited for you.If you attended SMX Social Media, I'd love to hear your thoughts and opinions. What did you like? What didn't you like? What would you like to see more of for the next conference? What would you like to see that's new? How gross was it that while I was in NY my allergies rendered one of my nostrils completely plugged up and the other one inexplicably mucus-free? Did I actually just type that?Do you like this post? YesNo

  Posted by randfishI'm on a plane from Newark to Seattle. It's late at night, and the first hour was spent on the ground waiting for low CIGS (low ceilings of clouds & rain) to clear. So, while I still have another 4.5 hours in front of me, I'm just grateful to be in the air.The last week was a whirlwind – although that's nothing new. For the last 4 years, the acceleration brought about by my job feels as though it has no end. I'll find myself getting 6 hours of sleep a night (sometimes less), answering 150 emails a day and barely noticing that I'm in a different city every other week. It's a good thing. It feels almost comfortable. Or, maybe, more accurately, it feels good to be uncomfortable – to be challenged.The whirlwind started on Sunday, when Mystery Guest dropped me off at the airport. I have a consistent pattern when it comes to business travel. I'm almost always making presentations, and since I despise presenting material I've already used before, I force myself to make new slides, new “decks” (apparently this is what important business people like me call Powerpoint files) for every speech. It's probably not the most practical thing, but I like to think that I'm not just presenting for the audience, I'm doing it for myself, too. If I get bored with my material, how can I be excited to share it with them?I board the plane early and read until we're in the air and “approved” to use laptops. The book is pretty awful, although I don't know that yet. I'm still in the honeymoon phase of it, when the writer was putting forth a real effort. But, at 20 minutes into the flight, I grab my Dell and start turning the outlines I've emailed to Karen into presentations. I can't grab screenshots from the web, which are an essential, but I can figure out what I need on each slide, and that will save me a lot of time later on. I also have my collection of vector illustrations in Flash, including Googlebot, Yahoo! monster and crudely traced representations of people to combine with arrows and thought bubbles. These I can do on the plane.In 1997, when I started working on the web professionally (sort of), I fell in love with Flash – the animation, the sound, the unbridled, free-of-tables formatting made me a fan. For almost 4 years, I worked in Flash – building ever more complex animations and designs. Then, one day, I read Don't Make Me Think, Steve Krug's masterpiece on web usability. I haven't built a Flash website since, and the world is probably better off for it. My artistic ability suffers from a lack of... let's say talent.But Flash has served me well – the palette tools and my familiarity with the layers and systems for creating basic designs means that I can now use it as a Photoshop substitute, never having had the patience to learn that program.Later in the week, as I'm giving my hour-long session on the Essentials of Social Media Marketing, I'll marvel at how I raced through 113 slides in 50 minutes. The Guy Kawasaki, 10-20-30 philosophyjust doesn't work for me. Luckily, the audience seems to like it, too. Karen hasn't sent me my feedback scores yet, but based on the in-person chats I've had with attendees, it went pretty well. I guessed right that Danny's new SMX Social conference would draw a savvy crowd, so even though my job was to present an introduction to the material, I raced through it, tried to present it in an entertaining way, and, hopefully, educated the stragglers of the group while I was at it.After the session is over, I get to watch my co-worker Rebecca give her presentation on Linkbait. When I started speaking at search marketing conferences, I was 25 years old, and one of the youngest people in attendance, nevermind on stage. Rebecca's in a similar spot, although the crowd at SMX, both on and off the podium has plenty of early-twenties professionals. I think it's her sarcasm and her fearlessness to reference off-color and pop culture influences that helps her connect with the crowd. She's young, but she's capable, and she's got a few years of experience and a number of noteworthy success stories under her belt. I wish she could be more confident sometimes, but once she settles into the role, she performs well, and I think I'm the only one who notices that her voice is just a little bit off. Besides which, at her age, I was still designing websites in Flash for clients who paid $1,000 for a month of work.Personally, I feel like I've always been too young. At five years old, I felt a little too young to travel across the country by myself on a plane (ironically enough, taking the same route I'm taking now). At 12, I skipped a grade in school and felt too young to be with the older kids. The next year, I'd repeat the grade at a new school to help make up for it. At 18, I lived in Prague for 4 months during my freshman year at UW. I was lonely and confused and awkward, but at least I picked up some Czech and developed a lifelong love for Pilsner Urquell (which thankfully found its way to US supermarket shelves just a couple years later). At 25, standing in front of an audience of 300+ in San Jose, I felt pretty good about my presentation on search algorithms until the first person from the audience came up after the session and asked how old I was.Rebecca's wrapped up and I'm at lunch with Michael Gray. I love the way he talks – his cadence and thick Long Island accent are a prefect match for the content of his rants against Google's latest policy. I hate to run, but I have to meet with a client all afternoon. Thus, it's onto the 1 train to Chambers street, where, with the help of a brusque policeman, I find the 7 World Trade Center building, get a badge from security, and ride elevator bank D up some 3 dozen stories. I'm meeting with the publishers of Inc & FastCompany to talk about something new they've got cooking up, but when I arrive, all I can do is stare at the view.Far below, cranes and bulldozers are clearing earth, moving steel and preparing the ground for the site of what will be the tallest building in New York. Far off in the distance, my friend Kate points out the Tapanzee bridge. She tells me that as they tear down the floors of the adjacent, asbestos-afflicted building, the view becomes ever more magnificent. There's undoubtedly sadness here, but there's also the promise of something new, something incredible, something that can serve as a symbol of renewal and triumph over adversity. I think someone far wiser than me once said that America is both cursed and blessed by its short memory. I can't think of a more appropriate symbol of that sentiment that what I'm looking at now.Three hours later, I'm stepping off the 1 train and hiking back to the hotel. After a couple hours on email, I'll join some friends for dinner, where we'll bump into Garret Camp, the founder of StumbleUpon. Together, we're amicably kidnapped and carted in a cheap limousine (they're about the same price as a cab when you have this many people) to midtown, where we smoke cigars in a bar that almost throws us out for being underdressed (I'm in a suitcoat and jeans).It's after midnight when I get back to the hotel, and outside I meet up with Guillaume– my great friend from Montreal. I can tell he's upset that we haven't seen much of each other this trip (and probably won't since he's going back to Quebec the next day). Guilt is a constant at events like this – and I'm more sensitive to it than most. After all, it was only a couple years ago that I dined by myself most nights at a conference, hung out alone in the bars and hoped that someone I'd recognize would come along and chat. When I'd make a friend, I'd feel that same pang of envy when I'd see them coming back from a late night on the town with a crowd of compatriots. Luckily, Guillaume's surrounded by people, so I feel a bit better when I beg forgiveness and ride the elevator up to my room.Sleep is a constant problem for me. Unlike Danny Sullivan, I can't stay out until 3am, then arrive bright eyed and bushy tailed the next morning at 8. My sleep requirements have always been high, and without 7 hours, I start to look and feel like some sort of SEO zombie, cursed to optimize SERPs and feed on brains. I'm constantly waging a battle against the blog – where I know that if I don't produce something new and something worth reading every night, I'll lose readers.It's a fact. Looking at our visit and subscription stats, you can see the pattern clear as day. If, on a given Monday-Friday morning, nothing new has come out on SEOmoz, our feed subscribers go down some fractional amount, our daily visit numbers drop 15-25% and we have fewer signups for accounts and fewer premium membership signups. Conversely, when I put something truly excellent on the blog, the positive results are equally visible. Visits are up, links are up, premium signups are up and all is right in the world.But, the toll is heavy. Most nights I'm home in Seattle, I start formulating the blog post I want to write on my walk home from work. It usually takes me about 20 minutes to traverse the 1.1 miles from my apartment to the office – a saving grace, since I almost never go to the gym or use the elliptical machine I bought last December. From 6-10:30pm, I play husband (even though technically I won't become one until next summer). Mystery Guest works out, or does laundry or watches TV (when she's had a really tough day) and I cook. I'm by no means a gourmet, but I'm competent about 70% of the time, and I push myself to try new things, work with good ingredients and generally get better at preparing food. By 11pm, though, it's back to the computer and onto the blog (once I wrap up another 40 emails). If I'm lucky I'll spit out something in an hour, and can go to sleep by 12:30am. If I'm stumped, or take on an overly ambitious post, I'll be up until 2am or later.This happens tonight in New York. I've just finished the post on the Visuals of the Search Results, but it's 2am and I have to be up at 7:30 tomorrow. Morning comes and sure enough, my eyes are dry & red – probably exacerbated by the cigar I had last night. There's no time to waste, but time gets wasted anyway as I discover my room's iron is out of order and have to call down for a new one so I can get my shirt done in time to leave. I wanted to take the subway, but am forced by tardiness to hail a cab. I'm meeting with the NY Jets organization on 57th street to talk about their search strategy. Thankfully, the meeting is great, mostly due to the incredibly friendly and receptive people I'm meeting. After the meeting ends, I whiz back to the conference, just in time to grab a hot dog from a street vendor and make it my talk on Micro Communities.I'm on the panel with Liana Evans, and in the past, we've had our differences. However, a week before the show and after a rather painful blog post, we shared a few emails and a phone call. Talking to Liana, I realize that she's got some very valid points, and that I owe her a serious apology. She's more gracious than I could hope for, and by the time we see each other in New York, we break out in smiles and hugs. As much as I love the Internet as a medium, there's no doubt that the lack of human contact can make for bad situations sometimes. It's something I'll have to work on – especially since I'm terrible at not taking things personally.Micro Communities is a hit. From all the notes I can see the audience taking, I know that there's a lot of new information. Liana follows up my broad overview with a specific example of how she used social media marketing to micro communities and achieved great success for a client in a very competitive industry. It's the perfect counterpoint, and the audience is overrun with questions, so much so that Danny has to cut us off with a half dozen hands in the air. After the session ends, Liana and I field individual questions for the full 15 minutes. I'm thrilled when I can refer a gentlemen seeking services to Liana's company – KeyRelevance– which has been on our Recommended List since its inception.I want to stay and see the other panels, especially the advice from Jon Hochmanon Wikipedia, but I've got a prior commitment. I walk down to SoHo – about 20 blocks and buy some presents to bring home to Mystery Guest. After so many trips to New York, I'm a seasoned veteran, and after three short stops, I catch the subway up to the meat-packing district and walk back to the conference, where I'm just in time to hear the last session of the day wrap up.I spend some time chatting with Andy Greenberg from Forbes, whose demeanor is the complete opposite of every other NY reporter I've ever met. He's a pleasure to talk to – warm, engaging, utterly fascinated by social media & SEO and genuinely curious. He mentions that an article on using Digg to reach Google is almost certainly part of his agenda for the week and sure enough, 2 days later, there it is.I don't know that I've ever handled public relations and press relations properly. Every time I talk to someone in PR, they always ask about our agency and are shocked to hear that we've never engaged one. In deeper conversations, I've heard tell that PR folks can help turn a short piece into a long piece (with a photo), turn a piece of advice into a sure mention in a story and even pitch the mainstream media to help attract coverage. It's something I need to look into, as press is something we'll need if we want to reach our goals for expansion. We've been lucky so far, but it would probably be hypocritical to think that we can manage PR ourselves as well as we could with a talented agency or even a consultant. After all, what is SEO if not public relations for the web?With the conference over, I hop in a cab with my luggage and head for Museum Mile. In rush hour traffic, it's a 50 minute trip and I arrive at 92nd and 5th at 6:40, 10 minutes late for the lecture I'm attending with my grandparents. Luckily, it turns out to be the best part of the day, and maybe my favorite part of the trip. Camille Pissarro's great-grandson is speaking about the famous impressionist painter and his relationship with a contemporary and peer, Paul Cezanne.I love this. I grew up in Seattle, but would spend at least 2-3 weeks every year in New Jersey with my grandparents, and we'd frequently drive into the city to visit museums and attend plays. My family was never wealthy, but two seniors and a student (especially with my grandmother's NYTimes subscriber's card discount) was a perfect way to spend an inexpensive day in New York. Museums are great equalizers – school kids from Harlem and jewelry-clad Upper East Siders co-mingle brazenly, appreciating beauty in their own personal ways. There were certainly ages where I didn't appreciate it, but even just out of high school, I can recall loving museums, galleries and exhibitions wherever I traveled. Seattle's own dismal fine arts scene only heightened the experience.Pissarrowas born to Sephardic Jews on the Caribbean island of St. Thomas (where I believe SEOmoz's own Jane Copland still holds several swimming titles) and emigrated to France at a young age, but retained his Danish citizenship (as St. Thomas was a colony of Denmark). Our lecturer regales us with a passionate, and clearly personal, examination of how the artist's life influenced his art and its shocking break from the standards of the age. An hour and a half flies by, and I find myself wishing he had more slides to show and more stories to tell. As we leave, my grandfather, SEOmoz's Si Fishkin, fills me in on the details of the Dreyfus case (which Pissarro's great grandson mentioned but did not elaborate on), an infamous tale of antisemitism and corruption late in the artist's life.The next night, we'll see Henry VIin a playhouse at Drew University in NJ, and despite the 3 hours of patricide, fratricide and homicide, love every minute.Thus ends a week in New York. I'm only 100 emails behind and I don't have to blog tonight. Next week I've got 3 phone calls, a couple lunch meetings and a video-over-Skype interview. We've got 2 clients who need site review reports, a new contract to get out to the Jets and 3 presentations to build for SMX Stockholm. That, and we're hiring 3 new positions. To quote Rick Moranis; “No, no, no. Light speed is too slow.”Do you like this post? YesNo