TjRubley.com

Apparently after taking the ‘which sci-fi character are you?’ online test, I’m the idiot on the Pricewatch ads. LAME!

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{memo for the boss that I composed}

Overview

This event was a bit smaller than expected, but the material presented was excellent and current. Blake Vawter joined me, and we later met up with John Tompson from eCampus as well. Blake and I were in the midst of a budget adjustment related conversation with Admissions in reference to SEM, so it was very timely to be able to attend this event when we did.

The seminar focus was to introduce and reinforce SEM/SEO strategies and execution. MSN was on hand to talk about their new online search marketing engine, and the seminar was hosted by Anvil Media in Portland. Anvil is an SEO/SEM/Pay-per-click specialist and was the recognized expert at the event.

Anvil Keynote Address

Kent Lewis, Anvil founder, opened the day with a barrage of statistics, hints, and advice:

• Organic search results are those which are displayed in order according to search engine algorithm. Paid placement ads are a direct result of paid placement bidding.
• Fortune 500 companies spend only 6% on online advertising vs. other media advertising.
• The average user spends only 6.5 second analyzing a search results page before moving on. Very important to have your site above the fold in result listings.
• Top 3 results returned are perceived as market leaders.
• Only 50% of users notice paid placement advertising.
• 50% have no idea that they’re paid placement links.
• Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising can cost any where from .10 per click to over $2. Currently lawyers are paying over $2 per click for people searching on Mesothelioma, a chronic disease developed by overexposure to asbestos.
• SEM leads customer acquisition costs across channels: $8.50 vs. $20 Yellow Pages, $50 banners, $60 email, $70 Direct Mail
• New area of SEM: International Marketing
• Yahoo can serve up content/ads based on registration information and account history.
• The next evolution in the web evolution is what Kent described as democratic content. Content that others recommend as being that of the best, or authoritative content. (Previous evolutions were content that was found based on links between sites. The next evolutionary step was search based content. Next is that of online communities.)
• Kent said that Google is adding lots of search engine features because Yahoo was actually pulling ahead with it’s feature suite.

Winning SEO Methods – Stanford David, Straight On Internet Consulting

Stan is a one man show SEO consultant in the Portland area. His presentation was about 70% familiar. Here’s new information I gained from his presentation:

• He strongly suggested wordtracker.com for a low cost, first starting place for Keyword Effectiveness Index (KEI) analysis. As little as $7-8 to user per day. $250 for a year membership.
• New sitemap technique emerging that is structured via XML.
• Integrate a sitemap link into a custom 404 message. Helps search engine try to determine new location of page it had indexed.

PPC Strategies and Tactics – Hallie Jannssen, Anvil Media

An excellent introduction into what PPC is all about.

• A/B landing page testing. Swapping a landing page with another for a period of time and examining not only web analytics but where the landing page appeared in search results, as well as how well it was received.
• Buying competitor’s keywords and search terms to ensure you always appear higher in the listings, locking out their organic search opportunities. {I thought of the keyword ‘OSU’ immediately}
• MSN’s upcoming online placement advertising will allow demographic targeting based on information harvested from Microsoft Passport accounts, Hotmail accounts, etc…
• Part of the MSN advertising service will include Site Analyzer, which provides the analysis of your site versus your competitors and identifies keywords, SEO opportunities, etc…
• Day Parting – Allows for greater utilization of online advertising dollars by limiting advertising to be displayed/utilized during specific time periods (days, months, hours) to avoid paying when you visitors aren’t likely to be searching.
• Second tier search engines can provide very low PPC rates while giving the advertiser time to fine tune the paid placement campaign.
• Geographic targeting available from Yahoo and Google only currently.
• Negative keywords: Portland Oregon vs. Portland Maine.
• Dynamic keyword search can be provided by major search engine, which adjust your keywords based on the search input! Frequently used for eBay listing currently.
• Signing up for Google’s Quick Start is only $299 and they provide a full starter kit. In addition, the $299 is deployed in it’s entirety towards your online marketing budget!
• CPM – Cost per thousand.
• Bid Management – Desire #1 position, but can only afford X. Ad will be placed in best location at time when higher bidders aren’t being displayed.

SEO for a World-Wide Web – Steve Kemper, Ion Global

Ion global is a web services firm focused on internationalization. A very good presentation about being successful in a global website venture, with specific code suggestion strategies. The presentation was largely based on international web practices, but did prompt thought about our own international site and how we could apply these techniques.

Best Practices Panel

All the presenters, as well as a few quick testimonial speakers, were asked to assemble for an open forum of questions and answers:

• blog.marqui.com Marqui is a Canadian online marketing firm that decided to change it’s name when it established it’s US firm. They used blogs to spread the word about their company, paying bloggers $800 a month to say whatever they wanted to for 20 months, just as long as they talked about Marqui. And naturally, people spoke their mind. This caused an enormous buzz about the company and it catapulted them to the forefront of the industry. Furthermore, once it was exposed as an obvious abuse of blogging popularity, they were at first blasted for their underhandedness. Now it’s being seen throughout the industry as a stroke of genius.

• Rather than just present information, make the topic and content available for discussion. An emerging trend in all popular websites and services.
• Tagging – linking content, media, objects with meta data that identifies it. Making media available with your tags attached.
• Google Juice – something that is hot and fast moving on Google.com
• Podcasting was discussed as something that is a must have if you have an audience members predominantly under 35 years of age.
• Business Blogs:

• Establish leadership (perceived or otherwise).
• Engagement.
• Not necessarily blogging about the product, but about the industry as one of it’s leaders.
• Humanizes the entity.
• Blog are indexed more frequently.

It took me over a year to get a new head unit for the M3, but I finally did. For the longest time, I was very insistent on getting a unit that matched the style and color of the rest of the interior. The BMW is a classy ride after all. But that’s a tough one these days with units that have silver faceplates with chrome highlights, full color motion displays, and tacky, odd-shaped buttons.

The one unit I liked is the Nakamichi CD400. It’s very old school looking with some of the best CD playback available. It’s also nearly $400! Nonetheless, I was so focused on matching the interior, I nearly bit until I realized it doesn’t play mp3’s. A little too oldschool it turns out!

Then I searched the Crutchfield catalog for something that might look appropriate and found the Sony I ended up buying. Crutchfield lists the unit for $269, and I found it at a discounter for $139 after rebate! And yes, it supports mp3 playback. Suddenly I wasn’t so concerned with the perfect aesthetics, and now that it’s installed, I’m very pleased. Installed all by myself I might add!

After a month with the unit, my only complaint is the screen is IMPOSSIBLE to read with direct sunlight shining on it. Luckily, the sun is only out for a portion of the year here in Oregon and it looks great in any other lighting. And God damn is it nice to listen to tunes of your own choice for any drive lasting over 10 minutes, LOL!

Next up, those speakers have to go. They’re the originals and they’re painful to listen to at any kind of volume. And to make matters worse, the mids in the doors and the plate speakers in the deck are all proprietary sizes. So I’ll likely go with 5.25 separates up front and skip the mid, and then convert the deck to some 6×9 coaxials.

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One of my favorite specialty sports car shops is right here in Oregon, in the scenic Columbia Gorge. Just outside Hood River lives Route 30 Classics. This collection of classic and attainable Porsche’s always inspires my imagination. The quaint little showroom/shop is perched above the Gorge on a great little stretch of road lined with white posts to mark the edge of the hillside where the earth drops off. Attached to the shop is a coffee and ice cream shop. Sounds like a fantastic little retirement location if you ask me!

As I noted in the recent Porsche road trip adventure article, the 911 is high on the list of must-have cars during my existence in this world. I’ve known it since I was a kid, lusting after the Ruf Yellow Bird, and later in high school falling in love with the 964 body style. The plastic Carrera 2 model I assembled my Junior year in high school has recently been reissued to boot. I should buy it even if it will take permanent residence with my other unopened, awaiting-to-be-assembled (but likely never will) models.

And while it will sound silly and materialistic to many who aren’t afflicted with sports car fever, one of my goals in graduating college was to attain a Porsche as soon as possible! When I started my first full day in my new professional position, the hunt was on right away!

4 months later, the first car I found was of course at Route 30 Classics. A 1973 Porsche 911S with 20k miles on a performance built motor. The pictures speak for themselves, especially at an astounding $15,900.

At the time, we were still house shopping and buying a car was seemingly irresponsible. Okay, it would’ve been irresponsible, but those pics are making me weep with regret at the moment! A few years later the car would come up for sale again, this time for $18k. Unfortunately, I already had the 337 at that point, so no go again.

And now another promising car from the guy in the Gorge, a 1984 911 Carrera with 107k original miles. This car is nearly identical to the one Paul just picked up. And by now you know, I’m really jealous of his acquisition.

So why am I not pursuing this car?

• First of all, I’ve got a nice car that I really like. Do I lust for it?, no. Is it sensational?, yes. And I’d have to go to the trouble of selling it or trading it. But I’ve got a friend in the auto business, so what else is stopping me?
• It would be my daily driver and our garage is filled with crap so it would live outside. Both are sins in truth. And it’s probably a sin for the M3 as well, but it’s so much newer that it feels like I have another 5-10 years before catholic guilt sets in.
• If you’ve heard me complain about maintenance costs and the availability of a specialist to look after the M3, I’m sure I’d be in for a treat with a 911. The infamous $10k+ motor rebuild staring you in the face makes the M3’s $6k bill look more palatable. And if I took the 911 to Bugwerks and Tom touched it, Paul would kill me, LOL!

No question about it, I’m doubting my reasoning as I write this entry. But the timing isn’t right for this car either. {deep sigh….}

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You’re not, are you?! Get Firefox now!

You are?! Phew!!! Want to make it even better? Check out this excellent extension package put together by none other than pro poker player Paul Phillips. An extremely talented poker player, he’s also very savvy with the computer. And also disturbingly arrogant. Consider yourself warned if you decide surf the rest of his blog.

So what does the extension pack have? The best one is the Adblock. This one will display site content only and remove banner ads. No it’s true, no more banners! I’ve been using it for a couple days, and it’s fantastic! This is a must have extension for Firefox users! Also a bunch of tweaks that makes Google even better and more usable, and an automatic extension for the excellent bugmenot database that I mentioned last week. Now surf over your favorite membership required site, a la New York Times, and right click the login fields. Viola, you get one of the databases passwords and don’t need to register!

Paul goes over these in more detail, and includes a mass installer to install all of these extensions at once.

And for those of you who think Firefox is a bit slow, try this out: Firefox speed tweaks.

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After Shana threw one of the best parties ever for my 30th, I had big shoes to fill for her 30th this year. But early on, Shana thought that a beach house would be the way to go, and invite friends to join us for the party.

I ended up finding this townhouse rental in Neskowin. This is in a new development called Sahhali Shores and retails likely somewhere in the $650-750k range. Yep, it was plush. Majestically overlooking the ocean, the house was loaded with ammenities: LCD flat panel television with full surround in the bedroom, speakers throughout the entire house (though I could not figure out how to make them work!), a complete bar downstairs with projection television, a hot tub, a jacuzzi tub, two decks, suede leather couches, nice appliances, sleep accommodations for 10, … you get the idea. It was an episode of Cribs as far as I was concerned!

Happy Birthday Shana, it was an outstanding time. Thanks to all those who made the trip!

Rated PG gallery

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