2005 August 29

To excel in a highly competitive space, you must be willing to embrace your detractors and do what you know works best. I don’t know of an online business with more competition than search engine optimization. To my mind, top search engine results should be about providing information and resources most relevant to the search query. Successful rankings are earned through quality content and well thought out page optimization, not the pump-and-dump tactics of search engine spammers. Jill Whalen is one of the SEO gurus who excel in using effective Web implementation and long term planning to keep listings at the top for the long term. At SES San Jose, we talked with Jill about her background in building successful sites for the last 10 years and how there’s more to SEO than quick fix tactics employed by spammers.

Read more on Jill Whalen on Search Engine Optimization…

I have not been blessed with telemarketing calls since the first night we recorded them. Then again, I'm not sitting in front of those phone lines all day long (they're in the other room, and the machine does not ring aloud by design). If you've ever been stuck inside one of those Web forms that's asking for your phone number, and you'd rather not give it out, go ahead and give ours out instead. Hell, even give one of our numbers to strange people you meet at bars, so that when they call into a live broadcast, we can really have some fun with 'em (after explaining that the 'call may be recorded for quality assurance purposes'). Use these at will:
#1: 206.860.5198
#2: 206.323.1979
#3: 206.324.2541
#4: 206.325.5941
#5: 206.328.7613
#6: 206.568.5879
You could even use these phone numbers on silly mail-in forms. We don't care.

Read more on Telemarketer Honeypot…

As Ponzi noted (in a not so subtle way), we're working on the Gnomedex conferences for 2006. Yes, that's a plural. We hit critical mass with 5.0, and instead of changing the formula for a sold-out success, we're doubling our efforts. Thinking: part I in April and part II in September. There are so many subjects that we didn't get to cover with our single-track efforts. The sky is still the limit, however – and we're open to as many suggestions as you want to throw at us. Blast me a note, if you have thoughts on content, product launches, activities, sponsors, etc. Now is the time! I'm not sure when registration will be open, but past Gnomedexers will get first crack at it (including a discount).
Location is likely to remain in Seattle for now. We're not allergic to other places, mind you. I think SF would be a great place to do a Gnomedex – and some folks have asked for a UK, Amsterdam, and/or East Coast event. The deterrents for expanding in this way are too numerous to mention at this point. We wait for opportunities, but we also can't wait to make our own.
Hey babe – Bob Wyman from PubSub has already thrown his hat into the ring to be our WiFi sponsor again!
After Ponzi went to BlogHer, she came back with a renewed vision, passion, and overall understanding of what's going on in this virtual world. It's her *PERSONAL* goal to have over half the audience be women. I'm excited to see how that unfolds!
BTW, you're all invited to Gnomedex. Everybody. Anybody who can make it. I don't know where folks got the idea that this is a closed event – it's anything BUT. I can't count the number of folks who wished they could've been there for 5.0. We're giving you two opportunities in 2006. To recap: this is an open conference. Again, you're ALL invited to Gnomedex. There are no true restrictions on who comes and who does not. Seriously.
Gnomedex is a story, and each event is another chapter (to borrow from the mouth of a good friend). You write the paragraphs; Ponzi and I are merely the pages. To that extent, we're toying with the idea of keeping a chunk of time schedule-free and letting conversations organize themselves (vendor-neutral, naturally). Just thinking out loud here.
Can't wait! I really can't wait.

Read more on Gnomedex in 2006 – Squared!…

As we drove away from a great BBQ over at Maryam and Robert
Scoble's place yesterday, I rolled down my window to let the convertible cab
breathe a bit (we didn't have the roof down because it looked as though rain was
impending). As we rolled down the street, I took a deep breath and smelled
autumn. Yes, autumn has a smell – a very distinct scent, at that. I looked at
the sky, I looked at the trees, I felt a slight chill on my arm; we've
officially fallen into the fall season in Seattle. This is my favorite time of
year, largely because the trees are so colorful, and the air is so clear, and
the rain is so cleansing, and the days are much shorter… and I know I'm an
oddball for liking all of that.

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One of the toughest parts of finding a specialist is determining whether a person or company does good work. Sometimes a friend or neighbor may know a good carpenter, but what if you need a plumber and can’t find a good recommendation. After recently moving to Seattle following thirty years in Des Moines, IA, I’m finding it a challenge to rediscover reliable experts in a variety of important areas. For instance, how do you find a good dentist for your kid (or yourself) when you move to a new city? Choosing the one closest to the house or office isn’t guaranteed to offer great results. Insider Pages presents itself as the solution offering a city directory with reviews from people familiar with the practitioners. Like many other online services, Insider Pages includes a social networking component to link reviewers to friends, creating a trusted friend network for people who need to find service providers. If you happen to blog using WordPress, Insider Pages also includes a plugin to automatically link your WordPress posts to your reviews of the local businesses in your area. At SES San Jose, we spoke with the CEO, Stu MacFarlane, about the service and how it works, plans for the future and Chris’s dream of becoming a Seattle plumber.

Read more on Insider Pages Changes Local Search…