Yearly Archives: 2008
Ian Lurie1 Mar, 2008
Webmaster Radio Interview at SMX West
While I was at SMX West, Jim Hedger was kind enough to interview me for Webmaster Radio. You can listen to it in its entirety here. One small correction: My book, Conversation Marketing, has actually been around for a while. I am currently working on a new edition, though.
SEO Ian Lurie29 Feb, 2008
SEOMoz Pro: Join Before Your Competitors Do
I’ve been an SEOMoz Premium member for a while now. The content and tools are worth it: Great tips on search engine optimization basics, including “Viral Marketing and Linkbait on the Web”. Higher-level stuff like tips on pagerank sculpting. Nifty tools for measuring keyword difficulty, basic site diagnostics (not PythiaSEO, but far easier to use)… Read More
Ian Lurie29 Feb, 2008
Handier Than Hobbits: Why You Need An Internet Marketing Pro
I just realized I’m a hobbit by profession. I re-read The Hobbit (for the 6th or 7th time). For those who haven’t read it, the hero is an intrepid hobbit named Bilbo Baggins. He travels with a band of dwarves to slay a dragon named Smaug. Bilbo keeps his compatriots honest. He risks life, limb… Read More
Portent Staff28 Feb, 2008
The Struggle for Validation
Earlier this morning, Ian sent me an email saying that the Portent Website code was great. Near perfect, even! But one thing was weighing on his mind. We weren’t passing the W3 Markup Validation. That giant red “THIS SITE ISN’T XHTML TRANSITIONAL!” message was searing into his poor SMX-addled eyeballs and I was the… Read More
Ian Lurie27 Feb, 2008
6 Small Changes That Can Boost Your Site: Pocketful of Pixie Dust
As I pointed out last week, I am not a huge fan of Disneyland. But a small cadre of Disneyland travelers have put together books and blogs that make even me enjoy the biggest human trap ever built by a mouse. Mrs. S. runs one such site, and submitted it for my quick site review.… Read More
Portent Staff27 Feb, 2008
Loves Poppies, Still Owns Piggy Bank: Write Personas like Match.com Ads
All soccer moms are not created equal. Copyblogger makes this point in a recent post, and I totally agree. Until we go beyond perfunctory profiling and start creating vivid, charismatic, three-dimensional characters, personas will be of no use except to perpetuate stereotypes. Marketers need to go further in their persona development if they are… Read More
Ian Lurie26 Feb, 2008
SMX West Search Bowl Massacre of 2008
After the game was over, and the teams left the field, the SEM Allstars (myself and Todd Friesen) could only hang their heads in shame. This is what I’ll be wearing tomorrow at the conference: Once I heard the first few questions, which were things like “In what year did Sergey Brin stop parting his… Read More
Ian Lurie26 Feb, 2008
Personas and Search Marketing: Talk at SMX Today
I gave a talk about personas in search engine marketing today at SMX West, and then participated in a panel discussion on the topic. You can grab the slides, and find links to others’ feelings on the presentation, here.
Ian Lurie26 Feb, 2008
Personas Presentation at SMX West: My Slides
I just finished my presentation at SMX. It was an absolute blast. I sat on a panel with Gord Hotchkiss of Enquiro and Brian Bond of FutureNow, Inc.. A big crowd, lots of questions, great audience. Here are my slides, if you want ’em: slideshare.net/wrttnwrd/search-marketing-with-personas/ David Wallace at Search Engine Roundtable also wrote a blurb… Read More
Ian Lurie26 Feb, 2008
Vertical Search: Correcting Danny Sullivan
(Update: I told you I couldn’t multi-task. I switched them around. Vertical integration is the whole production chain. Horizontal is taking over your sector. Thanks everyone who let me know. Luckily I’m still right on the main point: “vertical” versus “horizontal” finds its root in the historical concept. So my factoids can still beat up… Read More
Internet Marketing Ian Lurie25 Feb, 2008
Off to SMX West: Desperate Cry for Help
I’m off to SMX West today. I’m speaking on Tuesday at 1:15 on Search Marketing and Persona Models. That I can do. But I’m also apparently going to be in Search Bowl. I’m still not 100% sure what a Search Bowl IS. But I do know that I’m going to be in a trivia contest… Read More
Analytics Ian Lurie22 Feb, 2008
Google Analytics Tagging Demystified
Google Analytics, Omniture, WebSideStory and other major analytics packages use tagging. They’re all worth spit if you don’t take advantage of it. This week I’ve had three clients nearly pop blood vessels over improper tagging by their teams. I thought a practical tutorial might be in order. Why? Without tagging, the software can’t accurately track… Read More
Portent Staff22 Feb, 2008
Stale Linkbait Works Best: How to Totally Ignore your Blog and Still Increase Traffic
Or maybe I should say, the best linkbait never gets stale. Basically, my goal is to assault your blogging worldview and contradict everything you’ve ever heard on the subject-all for a good cause, of course. In this post, I am going to tell you how to have a decent little blogging career, and even earn… Read More
Ian Lurie21 Feb, 2008
Warning: Make Web Visitors Insiders, Or They Won’t Buy
If you can make visitors to your website feel like they’re insiders, they’ll buy, vote, read or otherwise convert into a great audience. I proved that to myself, today, at Disneyland. I hate Disneyland. It’s the antithesis of everything I like: It’s big, commercial, crowded, expensive and exhausting. Yet I spent the day at Disneyland… Read More
Portent Staff21 Feb, 2008
Class up your link icons with CSS background images
I loathe the term “web 2.0”. I think catch phrases are easy and unimaginative, and calling the recent boom of easy to use and engaging websites “web 2.0” seems to cheapen them. It sounds too trendy. It sounds like there will be a “web 3.0” and that “web 2.0” will become obsolete once we get… Read More