OK, first off, I have to make something clear: I am not an SEOMOZ fan.

Don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing wrong with building fantastic tools, having a great conference, gathering all the SEO geniuses and best developers and generally smartest people in one place. I have no problem with a company so famous my parents ask me why I don’t work there.

But could you please do it in another damned city? I have a company to run, here. You guys are like a black hole of goodness, sucking up what little sunlight gets cast on the SEO industry, casting a shadow so big that us poor Portent-ites turn into glamor-deprived mushrooms. I think this is how Yahoo! felt looking down the street at Google HQ.

So, I have a healthy respect for SEOMOZ. I use all their tools. And I like everyone I’ve ever met at SEOMOZ. But can’t this be a long-distance relationship?

Getting serious

MozCon. This year is my second one. I presented on content strategies. Then I spent three days watching and listening to the other presenters.

I have a special measurement scale for all conferences: Ah-ha’s per day. An ‘ah-ha’ is one fantastic new tool, idea or strategy that I’ve just never thought of before, or that I’d forgotten.

Here’s the scale:

5+ ah-ha’s per day: I’m smiling all the time.
3-4 ah-ha’s per day: Totally worth the money.
1-2 ah-ha’s per day: I’m a little unsure about this.
0 ah-ha’s per day: I go back to my hotel room and cry.

MozCon 2011 broke 5, again. I learned new stuff about:

• Analytics
• Retargeting
• Facebook marketing
• SEO
• PPC

I also met and/or saw speak all the top people in our industry. I mean that. Avinash Kaushik. Wil Reynolds. Will Critchlow. Richard Baxter.

And I’m leaving out all the Mozzers.

More telling

I’m writing this on a break at 3 PM on Friday. Last day of the conference. The room is still full. Everyone’s still here, listening to the speakers and learning stuff. And that’s with utterly worthless wifi (thanks a lot, Westin).

You gotta go

This conference costs $900 for SEOMOZ members. $1499 if you’re a non-member.

Your first inclination is to gasp. My God. Why the hell would I pay that?!!!

You’ll pay it if learning one really great thing per year is worth that much money. Can you grow your business by $1500 with one really good piece of internet marketing learning?

Man, I hope so.

Go to MozCon next year.

Other stuff

• Content marketing in a nutshell
• How to: Write a decent SEO recommendation
• 22 ways you’re making marketing difficult.
• Speak carefully
• WSJ, WTF?! Google Panda & Subdomains
• 18 random thoughts about internet marketing
• When everyone works together, SEO just works.
• 11 reasons smart people start internet marketing agencies
• 11 reasons no sane person starts an internet marketing agency
• Follow me on Twitter or Google Plus