Articles by Ian Lurie
Ian Lurie // 8 Jun, 2012
6 lessons that changed my career
I’m feeling introspective today. These are realizations to which I can point and say “Yep, that’s where I changed”: It’s not all about me. Successes, failures, perceived snubs, etc. are never solely my own. Share credit, accept blame, assume the best of people (a continuing struggle for me, but hey, I’m working on it). Mistakes… Read More
Ian Lurie // 4 Jun, 2012
Web copywriting 101: Sub-headings
I went to read The Skills Gap Myth on Time.com this morning, and I saw this: I know I’m off Diet Coke, and low on caffeine, and my brain’s working in slow motion. But still, that’s an awful lot of uninterrupted text for a Monday morning. When you’re writing online, you need to break up… Read More
Ian Lurie // 1 Jun, 2012
Portent moves downtown
So, here we are: Downtown. Smith Tower. At first, I started this post with “When I started my company…” Then I slapped myself. This isn’t about me. Here’s what this move is about: A great team creating growth Portent’s been truly firing on all cylinders for a while now. I’m very hard on myself, and… Read More
Ian Lurie // 30 May, 2012
11 reasons your infographic isn’t an infographic
OK everyone. Take a deep, freaking breath. I can’t sneeze right now without spraying germs on someone’s attempt at a data-driven work of art. Here’s why the poster you paid someone $400 to make isn’t an infographic: Lack of clarity. Infographics should ease and speed the consumption of information. If you take something you can… Read More
Ian Lurie // 29 May, 2012
SEO proposal: An example
Finally, without sarcasm or other unhelpfulness, here’s a sample of how we do our SEO proposals: SEO Proposal Sample View more presentations from Ian Lurie Some things we do with all of our SEO proposals: Have some personality. I get a lot of pushback on this from ‘traditional’ marketers, but I feel pretty strongly that… Read More
Ian Lurie // 25 May, 2012
Major search player outed for bad link practices
Yep. Uh-huh. Google’s busted. I just took a look at Google’s link profile and the big G is clearly running a link network. Check this out: They own all these sites—YouTube, Feedburner, Google.com, Google.co.uk, Google.co.up, Blogger.com and what do they do with them all? They link them to each other: It gets worse. They’re also… Read More
Ian Lurie // 23 May, 2012
How we made eigene-homepage-erstellen.net really freaking fast
Please note: I am not a server expert. This is stuff I figured out by bumbling around, crashing our server and generally wreaking havoc. Be careful, unless you want to see steam coming out of your IT team’s ears. I don’t want to shock anyone, but I’m a little obsessive. And competitive. No, really, it’s… Read More
Ian Lurie // 21 May, 2012
Social media means business: Slides from the seminar
Last week, I did my first half-day seminar: Social Media Means Business. It was a great group, and we’re converting and editing the video (soon to be on sale on an internet near you) now. In the mean time, here are the slides I used. Gratuitous Meerkat picture included: Social media means business presentation View… Read More
Ian Lurie // 14 May, 2012
Google Penguin for non-SEOs
If I say ‘Google Penguin’ to an SEO pro, they shudder. In the SEO world, Google’s Penguin update is the nastiest, scariest update since, I dunno, Florida? Here’s an explainer for all the marketers who are wondering what the hell just happened to their traffic: What’s an update? The engineers at Google constantly tune their… Read More
Ian Lurie // 9 May, 2012
How to hire an SEO company, 2012 edition
I’ve written other posts about hiring SEO firms: How to hire good ones. How to hire bad ones. But an update’s in order: Questionnaire for an SEO agency Start each agency you interview with 10 points. Add or subtract as indicated. Ask yourself: How did this firm get in touch with you? They cold-called or… Read More
Ian Lurie // 4 May, 2012
Why Google Is Not Going Away: On AllThingsD
Forbes published an article this week explaining why Google and Facebook could disappear in the next 5 years. I, uh, beg to differ. I wrote my thoughts on the subject in an article published on AllThingsD. You can read it here. Give it a read. I think Google will be around for a long, long… Read More
Ian Lurie // 30 Apr, 2012
4 tips for technical SEO
We’re all talking a lot about content and social media these days. But visibility boils down to technical SEO: Ensuring that search engines can easily find and categorize every page of your site. These are the top 4 I look at first when I’m auditing a site: 1: Check server response codes You can use… Read More
Ian Lurie // 29 Apr, 2012
10 ways to get into big trouble in marketing
Base your campaigns on the ‘average’ customer. Only follow the data. Never follow the data. Skimp on content. Wait for perfection (hint – you’ll never get it). Leave design to designers (hint – you need to know about it, too). Leave development to developers (hint – see above). Micromanage. Use empty controversy as an outreach… Read More
Ian Lurie // 25 Apr, 2012
SEO Analytics, Middle Earth-Style
Who saved Middle Earth? No, not Frodo. His will shredded like wet toilet paper. Gollum took the lava bath, destroyed the ring, and saved everyone from a 36″ Dark Lord. Does he get any credit? Nooooooo. Nine-fingered Frodo is the hero. The ladies all swoon at Legolas and Aragorn. But not poor Gollum. Internet marketers,… Read More
Ian Lurie // 17 Apr, 2012
Three principles of internet marketing
I’ve put in some time lately talking about what internet marketing is not. I thought I’d take a crack what internet marketing is, for a change. Internet marketing’s driven by three principles that are often in tension: Note that I didn’t say The three principles of internet marketing. These are principles of internet marketing. But… Read More