Blog Ryan

If anybody is out looking for a job I have a good friend, Dave Bascom that is hiring for an SEO position and a SEM position. I also was contacted by a recruiter about a job opportunity for a startup in San Francisco. I don’t have compensation details on any of the jobs but here are the descriptions:

Search Engine Optimization Specialist - Web Targeted

The Search Engine Optimization specialist handles various aspects of optimizing clients’ websites. You will be involved in making recommendations for improving organic search engine listings, as well as coordinating the implementation of these recommendations.

Responsibilities:

• Keyword research
• Competitive analysis
• Optimization of website content & code
• Link recruitment
• Analysis of web analytics reports

Qualifications:

• Bachelors degree or higher
• At least 3 years search engine optimization experience
• Understanding of search engine ranking algorithms
• Proven results with SEO
• Expert user of MS Office
• Strong communication skills – written and verbal
• Advanced HTML/CSS
• Project management experience

PPC Search Engine Marketing Specialist - Web Targeted

This is a full-time position. The PPC specialist will be responsible for setting up and managing PPC campaigns for clients. This person will also manage and optimize the PPC campaigns to achieve optimal ROI for the client.

Responsibilities:

• Keyword research
• Competitive analysis
• Creation of PPC ad campaigns
• Monitoring and adjusting PPC campaigns
• Review website analytics and compile client reports
• Optimize PPC campaigns to improve ROI

Qualifications:

• Bachelors degree or higher
• At least 2 years experience with PPC advertising
• Proven results with PPC marketing
• Strong analytical skills
• Expert user of MS Office
• Strong communication skills – written and verbal

Sales Representative
The Sales Representative is a consultative sales position in which you will help prospects understand the benefits of Web Targeted’s search engine marketing services. The ideal candidate has at least 3 years’ sales experience, preferably in the high-tech, software, SEO or related industry. Strong computer skills and understanding of search engine optimization are a plus. To apply for any of these jobs:
Send your resume and cover letter to jobs@webtargeted.com. Include the job title in the subject line.
Vice President Marketing - Ecast

Location -San Francisco, CA

Reporting Relationships

The Vice President, Marketing (VP, Marketing) will report to the Chief Executive Officer.

Responsibilities

The VP, Marketing is responsible for driving the marketing, positioning and product strategy that will continue to transform the largest place-based broadband media network in the U.S. into a market defining and dominant player in the industry. The ideal candidate has a proven track record developing and executing marketing strategies for successful online and emerging media companies and has a passion for marketing new forms of emerging media. The candidate will have a strong network of executive level media contacts, including online, outdoor and traditional media.

Additional responsibilities will include:

• Provide leadership and coordination of product management and marketing functions, including the assessment of new markets and products plans to successfully penetrate new markets.
• Provide leadership and creative thinking to the analysis of market trends, data and the identification of new market opportunities.
• Oversee the development and management of a product and corporate strategy that maximizes overall enterprise value for the business.
• Direct and coordinate the marketing communications efforts for the company, including press activities, sales materials, trade conferences and the company website.
• Analyze and report on the ROI and overall effectiveness of products, marketing initiatives and promotions.
• Provide operational leadership in support of the development of one to three year business plans for the company that includes short and long-range goals and objectives.
• Develop and manage marketing budgets, and oversee the development and management of internal operating budgets.
• Determine the strategy that optimizes the promotion, interaction and consumption of digital media across the Ecast Network.
• Develop a comprehensive music product and programming strategy that will inform our ongoing music licensing and clearance activities.
• Develop and present product plans to senior management and execute against those plans on a timely basis.
• Lead, develop and motivate high performance teams.
• Oversee a process (internally and externally) which facilitates constructive feedback as it relates to the enhancement or modification of current products and services.
• Establish an overall marketing development process that supports the continued growth of Ecast as an organization and focuses on results that are on-time and on-budget.

I’d seen MyBlogLog on several blogs but never paid too much attention to it.  It looks like Yahoo picked them up for $10,000,000 today.  Lots of coverage of the buyout here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

I’m heading over to MyBlogLog to see what the fuss is all about.

Seems the topic of the day is Google searching css files. The theories range from whether Google is searching for hidden text, or whether they are using the files to filter content from navigation. The fact of the matter is, Google is getting more and more sophisticated in determining exactly what a site is about and making things more difficult for the black hats. That doesn’t mean the black hats won’t find a way around the things that Google is doing, it just means only the best black hats will survive. I just hope that Google is taking a cautious approach on how they use the css files. Many designers use css to position the text of their images either off the page or make it invisible so that the text can appear exactly as they had intended. I’m hoping that if the purpose is to detect hidden links or text that Google doesn’t have the dial turned up too high. There are many legitimate reasons to render text invisible or off-page that is not meant to deceive the user OR the crawlers.

It’s going to be a busy 2007 if you plan on hitting the industry conferences.  It appears there is a conference almost every month.

In 2006 I was only at Webmaster World (Pubcon) and CJU.  Williams was at those two as well as ad:tech New York.  How many do you usually attend each year?

January

January 21 – 23 – Affiliate Summit (West), Las Vegas, Nevada

January 25 – Search Engine Watch, Dallas, Texas

February

February 7-8 – ad:tech, Sydney, Austrailia

Feburary 13-15 – Search Engine Strategies, London, England

March
March 6-7 – ad:tech, Paris, France

March 26 -27 – Search Engine Strategies, Munich, Germany

April

April 10-13 – Search Engine Strategies, New York, New York

April 25 -27 – ad:tech, San Francisco, California

May

May 22-23 – ad:tech, Hamburg, Germany

June

June 5-6 – ad:tech, Singapore

June 12-13 – Search Engine Strategies, Toronto, Canada

June 18-19 – Search Engine Strategies, Miami, Florida (Latino emphasis)

June 26-27 – ad:tech, Miami, Florida

July

July 8-10 Affiliate Summit (East) Miami, Florida

July – ad:tech, Chicago, Illinois

September

September 9-11 – CJU, Santa Barbara, California

September 26-27 – ad:tech, London, England

November

November 13 – 16 Webmaster World (Pubcon), Las Vegas, Nevada

Unknown Dates

Linkshare Symposium (2006 date was June 21

Performics Client Summit (2006 date was August 21-22)

Google has partnered with GoDaddy.com and eNom, two leading domain registration services, to offer domains for $10 per year. Including private registration to protect your personal information.

I’m not sure this is a good thing. With all they know about webmasters, are you about to give them one more opportunity to see which sites you own?

read more | digg story

I was just reading a post on Matt’s blog where he talks about Google copying Yahoo’s design for promoting the new Internet Explorer 7.  Jeremy Zawondy takes a pretty aggressive stance against Google for this small infraction.  Matt has decided that he’s taken the high road long enough. In his post Matt details Yahoo’s blatant copying of Google on AdWords color schemes, character specs, and usability changes.  Interesting read, I’d encourage all to take a look at both sides of the argument and see where they land.

Another story popped up on my radar this morning regarding top Digg users being paid by PR Firms. As you might have guessed Netscape is taking this opportunity to point out the flaws of its competitor and has actually posted some interesting comments on their site regarding the story. One of the Netscape anchors had this to say:

C.K.: I want to weigh in here and note that if you work with a PR firm and are considering using such tactics here on Netscape, be forewarned: if we discover any evidence of this happening on Netscape, we will ban every member and every site associated with this type of action.

That means, if Generic PR Firm^TM offers this “service” and you are considering using them, think again. If they get caught here on Netscape, we’ll ban them and all of their customers who we can track down.

First off, bad move by Netscape.  I understand them wanting to take a stand and send a message, but you do this by using your paid staff to send the message on a constant basis by monitoring the site and purging unwanting activity.  I do not believe, however, that you should threaten users (and potential users) about how and how not to use your site.  This type of statement makes me less inclined to try Netscape’s new format.

So…with all this being said, when is it appropriate to stop taking the high road and point out the flaws of your competitors? Only once you’ve been directly attacked by your competitor? When the media or blogosphere points out your mistakes and not those of your competitors? When do you respond to negative comments regarding your views, strategies or tactics?

I’ve always enjoyed Matt Cutts.  I think he is a great face for Google at all the conferences, Google couldn’t have been more fortunate to have hired him.  With the growing number of Cuttletts, it is nice to know there are more places we can go for answers.  Search Engine Land introduces us to 8 Alternatives to Senor Cutts.

Amanda Camp: Tech Lead, Google Webmaster Tools

Dan Crow: Product Manager

Trevor Foucher: Engineer, webmaster tools

Vanessa Fox: Product Manager, Webmaster Central

Adam Lasnik: Search Evangelist

Maile Ohye: Developer Support Engineer

Evan Roseman: Software Engineer

Jonathan Simon: Webmaster Trends Analyst

For pictures and more biographical information check out the Danny Sullivan and crew’s new Search Engine Land

Webmasters are scrambling to figure out (again) what Google knows about us.  At Pubcon Vegas, Matt Cutts  was using some of his magical tools

 during the site review panel.  He mentioned to several webmasters that he noted they had 30-40 sites and that their content was often overlapping on that many domains.  He discouraged operating that many domains stating that it is unlikely that a webmaster can give enough time and attention to each site to offer anything really unique, and that approach often results in cookie cutter sites that don’t add value to the customer.  that not only did he own the domain that was being reviewed but he owned about 30 other domains.