Articles by Ian Lurie

I have a secret to confess. I actually run an agency. NO, WAIT. Don’t go away! This involves free, no-strings-attached learning stuff. And a cool web site! Bear with me. I know you probably know I have a job. But whenever I meet folks at a conference, they seem to assume that money just sort [...]

I’ve watched The Ultimate Dog Tease 1000 times now. I love it. But I feel so bad for the dog. So, when we decided to spoof it, we tried to think of a creature no one cares about. And we realized – it’s us!!!. I went to law school. The only thing less liked than [...]

Republicans, Democrats, some of you are pretty stupid when it comes to social media. Exhibit A: Your last name is Weiner—W-E-I-N-E-R— and you send lewd photos via Twitter? Seriously?! Exhibit B: You reply to a Craigslist ad via e-mail, attaching a picture of your six-pack? (that’s ex-Congressman Christopher Lee, folks, lest we forget) So, 10 [...]

All good things come to an end, it seems. This deal has expired. You can buy the book for only $2 more, on my site. Or wait and see what the Sumo brings next. I’ve always been a bit scared of the AppSumo. His tough talk. His topknot. That smug smile. But it turns out [...]

I’m not much good at bragging about my company, but it’s only June 8th, and it’s been a big month for us. So, the highlights: New clients Full Circle hired Portent as their internet marketing agency as they expand beyond their Northwest base. We’ll be helping with overall strategy and tactics spanning the entire inbound [...]

Ooh! Ooh! Did you see that?! I just made up a new term! I, Ian Lurie, can now put my stamp on the industry. QualityRank. It has a nice ring to it, yes? By tomorrow 10 conferences will invite me to keynote. Google has talked about ‘quality user experience’ and ‘quality content’ for a long [...]

For every fantastic client we land at Portent, we talk to: 30-40 we like but can’t work with for one reason or another; 10-20 who make us a little nervous; 5-10 who we like, but are in industries we just won’t represent; 1-2 people who make me want to retire and open a combination gaming [...]

I wrote a guest post for Heather Lloyd-Martin’s SEO Copywriting blog. In it, I write about Tribbles, fish, and why you have to write, even if you think your clients are illiterate rodents. Read Just Write!.

In the last few weeks, Google’s been hyping their new +1 voting feature. Click the little +1 and tell everyone you liked a particular search result. Then they announced the +1 button. Click that and tell your network about a page you like, right from that page. You don’t have to be on Google.com. Note [...]

“Are you OK sir?” The guy next to me at SeaTac gate S8 was eyeing me dubiously as I sat reading Seth Godin’s Poke The Box. I’d just finished yet another passage that made me think “Hell YES!” Apparently, I was also nodding vigorously. My inner monologue was showing. It creeped out my fellow traveler. [...]