Friday, June 20, 2008

Soapnet.com WOW Celebrity User Generated Content

I am sitting on the couch working while my Wife is watching the Daytime Emmy Awards. I hear the announcer say that each table has Video cameras for the celebrities to use and all the content will be uploaded to Soapnet.com. That is AWESOME content! I am really impressed with the hooks here: user generated content, famous user generated content, appeal to see insider info, possibilities to feel like you were there.

This is the convergence of Social Media and TV. I am not a fan of Daytime TV (unless SciFi HD channel is running a Stargate marathon), but I will have to check out how soapnet.com uses these videos.

Sunday, May 4, 2008

A Great Article on Google's Personalization of Search

http://www.sitepronews.com/2008/04/25/google-previous-query-reason-for-crazy-google-rankings/

I reference Google's personalization of Search quite frequently in my Search Engine Training Classes. One of my favorite live examples is to do some searching on "Bugaboo Strollers". This is a very expensive item, so the correlating CPCs are also high. Then I will do a search on something like "Baby Diapers", and very frequently Google Adwords will display a Bugaboo stroller ad. I think it is very impressive. I think it is a practice that not many people are familiar with. The article above delves into the topic even further and how it is being used in natural search.

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

South Florida Fishing Report - Big Mahi Are Here!

I played hooky from work yesterday and took a quick fishing trip out of Haulover with my Dad. The weather was great, seas were calm, and the fish were ready to bite. Florida Sportsman's forum (http://outdoorsbest.zeroforum.com/zeroforum?id=106) had tons of large dolphin (mahi mahi, dorado) catch reports from last weekend. I wanted to get my shot.

We trolled the first gulfstream edge (500ft water) for a little over an hour with no action. We headed east to find some birds or flotsam. We found another current edge about 11 miles off in 1050ft of water. Almost as soon as we turned north on it, the Penn International 20 with a 2 ounce blue and while seawitch and ballyhoo combo got nailed. This huge dolphin comes flying out of the water and we knew we were in for a great fight!

I set the hook, and my Dad proceeded to fight the fish for the first 30 minutes. We cleared all the lines and took our time. I took over for the final few minutes after Dad wore out the fish and he took the gaff shot! The mahi weighed in at just over 41 pounds and is one of the biggest ever caught on my boat. Here are a few pictures:


We ended up catching another 6 fish or so. We only kept two more and let the little guys go for another day. While filleting the big boy, I found a fresh 7/0 hook with a broken eye. Someone else probably had this guy hooked up over the weekend and didn't know how they lost him.

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Google Founders Plan Earth Exit

"Earth has issues, and it's time humanity got started on a Plan B. So, starting in 2014, Virgin founder Richard Branson and Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin will be leading hundreds of users on one of the grandest adventures in human history: Project Virgle, the first permanent human colony on Mars."

Learn More at: http://www.google.com/virgle/index.html

Monday, March 31, 2008

Best Pizza Commercials of All Time!

This was sent to my by a WebmasterWorld colleague. It is a blend of Sopranos meets Papa Johns.

http://www.adverblog.com/archives/003428.htm

I had to post it to my Blog, just to point friends to it!

Enjoy

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Blue Shield of California Internet Marketing Seminar

A few months ago I was contacted about doing a Webinar for Blue Shield of California's agents. I immediate saw the opportunity to include a few other South Florida online marketing experts. John Lawlor of Webinar Academy took over the reigns since he was going to produce the event. Karen Talavera of Syncronicity Marketing also joined the group to speak about email marketing.

The goal was a free, quick education on the benefits ad channels of Online Marketing. It is available online by clicking here: Internet Marketing Seminar.

Please contact Joe Laratro if you are interested in setting something up like this for a large group.

Monday, January 28, 2008

SEO 101 Training in New York

Two weeks ago I taught 4 basic SEO classes in NY. Two were in the Time Square area and two search engine optimization classes were in the Wall Street area. It is very interesting to see the different types of companies that attend these events.

The first day included a guy that suffers from "Google Paranoia". This is a disease that some of my colleagues also suffer from. It's symptoms include delusions of grandeur about how important a Web site's data is to Google, that Google will use what they learn about a Web site against them, and a complete distrust of Google. I think Google paranoia is silly unless you are Ebay or Amazon. In any case, a member of the audience sparked a debate about it.

The second day included an owner of a hair salon. I was really impressed with this. Hair dressers are realizing the value of local search marketing. He had a Web site that ranked well for months but got stale and lost its positions. Attending the class should have given him the knowledge to develop a winning strategy.

I tend to be teaching more and more SEO classes these days. The best part about it is how unique each session can be based on the attendee's questions.