Posted on: May 21, 2008 by Syzlak
The long anticipated Hot Seat with Matt McGee was held last night at Hotel deLuxe. Although SEOHack had asked me to live blog the event, I will stick to my tradition of tape-delayed live blogs:
5:50pm – We’re allowed into the banquet room. One of the nice things about SEMpdx Hot Seat events is that they’re catered. Which means that for $40 you get to learn some SEO tips, sometimes hear a speaker and get some catered food, a damn fine deal.
Tonight it meant fish…raw fish to be exact. Fish really are the bane of my existence. I find them to be quite despicable in odor and taste. In addition, I am a vegetarian and do not eat the meat of the sea. Those that know me will say that they have seen me eat the delectables of a pig or a chicken, to them I say “you certainly have, but just as there are ‘vegetarians’ that eat fish, I am a vegetarian that eats the meat of the land.” So, the night’s off to a great start, let’s see if we can improve this eve.
6:07pm – Ben of Amplify Interactive is hosting the evening and conducts a raffle…and one of Ben’s employees wins the SMX Advanced pass. I’m not going to pass judgment, I’m just saying is all.
6:09pm – M2 starts to speak. The most entertaining part of the first 10 minutes is watching the Hotel deLuxe employee running back and forth as M2 kept creating feedback.
6:15pm – Will the Bulls take Beasley or Rose with the first pick? Rose may be a “smarter” pick, but I’m leaning towards Beasley. They could trade Thomas (and maybe Gooden) for some more help and walk away a much better team. Rose would only replace Henrich, which isn’t as big of a weakness…Matt’s talking commitment, saying that the whole organization has to be committed to the SEO project. That’s a good point, and one that I don’t think a lot of big businesses or Agencies really comprehend. He also said something to the effect of Mom & Pop shops being committed to wood…pens 
6:25 – M2’s recommending knowledge centers. Sphinn? Really? I’m not sure I’d recommend Sphinn to newbies…too much repetition and petty cliques for newbies to sort through. That, and I don’t think too many small businesses need to know THAT much about Twitter.
Patience! Yes Yes Yes! So far my favorite part of the (ahem) triangle. SEO (even PPC, SMO, …SEM) is always demanded from clients as a simple request. It’s not simple. It takes time. Time to plan, time to prep, time to implement and time to change.
Design and Usability. Shit, Matt’s on a roll here! Favorite quote of the night
It’s not your website it’s your customer’s website
Brilliant.
The “Y” looks odd on the Keyword Research slide.
6:40pm – Matt talks nuts.
6:50pm – Sobriety is odd. Especially since most events that I’m tied to involve drinking. I know that people have been thinking I’m joking when I say that I’m sober now, but I am…at least for the time being. I don’t know how long it will last, nor do I know why I did it. Life hasn’t been going down the shitter like it was in college when I had to quit drinking for awhile. I just woke up a few weeks ago and didn’t drink that day or the next. That being said, David Mihm’s beer looks really good right now.
Man, M2 already knows the type of car he’s going to buy next…I suppose I know the type of guitar I’ll buy next.
6:55pm – Mihm and I both scramble to write down placeblogger.com
7:10pm – Steve from the Internet Strategy something or other starts name dropping in order to build some buzz about some event I won’t be attending
Hot Seat time
The first site tonight is Clowns Unlimited (clownsunlimited.com).
Seriously. The rep is worried that (sigh) Clowns Unlimited has become…limited. The next 15 minutes of my life will be the “stuff you just can’t make up.” I’ll now abandon “writing” in favor of a list format
- Wants corporate leads
- They have fluctuating rental fees based on seasonality…makes sense
- The rep became militant when the panel tried to help him…this struck me as rather odd, I would not want these guys as my client. Then again, I’m scared shitless of two things in life: 1) eye drops B) clowns
- Apparently his poor blog posts are not his fault (it never is, is it?). He had an ESL Filipino write those (natch)
- There’s a different price scale for birthdays compared to corporate functions. This bothers me. Why stick one or the other with a higher price for the same rented Rocket Turbo Slide?
Useful Takeaways – Don’t try to sell in your blog, keep it clean and conversational. Work on having paths of action that would make sense to the user. Listen
Up next J&M Homes (jandmhomes.com)
- The loud man that talked through some of Matt’s presentation was apparently here for a site review…fantastic. Let’s just have a short intro and then let the panel review your site.
- Sprague’s an odd name. Especially when you consider that there’s a city in Washington and a High School in Salem that share said name.
- This guy’s dragging me down, every time the panel gets on a roll, he stops them with inane comments. We know you need help with your site, we know you’re redesigning it – let them talk. Lord, I’m starting to want a drink…
- Oh fantastic, now the clown guy is helping out. The Hot Seat is falling apart!!!
- Then again, maybe that’s what the Hot Seat should be once in awhile: a round table. Get 2 sites, 1 moderator/expert and let the audience lead the discussion.
Useful Takeaways – Optimize your home site for cities not states (ie Portland not Oregon) because people don’t just want to live somewhere in the state. Have pages for the homes you offer in each city.
Poster Garden (postergarden.com)
- These guys seem to have a game plan.
- They need a cleaner/simpler site. Like some of the panelists, I was very confused/disoriented by their site upon arrival. CD replication sites might be a good place for layout ideas for the future site, as they’re a similar user based experience. Some of my faves:
All in all, a fun and informative night.
Posted on: May 19, 2008 by Syzlak
Tomorrow, SEMpdx will host yet another installment of the outstanding SEM Hot Seat series. The evening should be rather informative as the organization has managed to score another big name personality in Matt McGee to sit on the panel. The Hot Seat is the best event SEMpdx offers and is a great experience for people who are new to SEO, as well as SEM veterans.
The evening is entitled: SEM Hot Seat + Matt McGee & The SEO Success Pyramid. I know it sounds kind of like the second (and worst) of the Indiana Jones trilogy, but rest assured there’s a lot of useful knowledge here. McGee is a consummate professional, and his SEO Success Pyramid has been widely heralded for it’s unique presentation of the SEO “gameplan.” Even though it’s more of a triangle than a pyramid, the knowledge within is beyond reproach. For more on Matt, check out David Mihm’s interview from earlier this month.
If you can’t make it tomorrow (which, is really hard to believe if you’re in the Portland area. It’s pretty easy to go, and rather affordable. I mean shit, the lessons learned are worth more than admission), expect a recap of the event from me later this week. However, if you’ve ever read one of my recaps, it might be advisable to go ahead and attend the event for yourself
Additionally, if you’re a Portland area business or SEM professional, why aren’t you a member of SEMpdx yet? The organization has regular meetings and events, and offers discounts to various SEM conferences. There’s nothing to lose (aside from the nominal fee to sign up…), so sign up today.
Posted on: May 9, 2008 by Syzlak
7 years ago I went to NY. It was about 2 weeks after I’d turned 21 and everyone thought it would be fun for me to go visit my brother in NY. For about 3 or 4 days, I lived in NY with him. Slept on the couch, went to debate meetings, bummed around the village, hit up film premieres, drank copious amounts of liquor, learned how to really be a man (def of a man: drunk). Sunday night, my last night in the city, my brother and I discussed how we should call my dad and have him change my itinerary so that I could stay one more night. A few of my brother’s friends had some sort of traditional drinking/trivia thing they did on Mondays. Since we were pussies (def of a pussy: sober), we never did. I got back to Eugene late on Monday night, and went out to 6th St Bar & Grill (aptly named for its location on 6th Ave. Really, if you’ve never been to Eugene, book a trip now! It’s possibly one of the most irritating places I’ve ever lived and yet you never really hate it the entire time you’re there).
Every night was different at 6th St., this night was $2 drink night (well). This meant that I could drink my fair share of bourbon and spend under $30 (unlike my brother and his fancy big-city lifestyle, I remain a cheapskate mid-westerner). In retrospect, this night was one of the oddest experiences I’d have at a bar to this day. The characters, the atmosphere, the length of time I was there…it all adds to the night.
4point wasn’t his given name, but by the end of the night that’s how we knew him. In Eugene (in much of Oregon), a black man stands out like a sore thumb. With under 2% of the population being African-American, and half of that percentage being college students, to see a 50 year-old black man at a bar is sobering. It reminds you that there’s a bigger world, beyond college, beyond the college town, beyond the white-bread state, beyond the affluence of the left coast. As I sat hunched over my drink at the bar, 4point placed his hand on my back and told me to sit up straight, it demands respect. He then went into a diatribe on sitting and studying, various different discussions of intelligence and pride. It was mildly interesting, but his point about sitting up straight at a bar has always stuck with me. Nowadays, I usually go to the bar to write, and every so often I remember what he said and sit up. It still fills me with pride.
The bartender kicked 4point out about 10 minutes later. Apparently he was a drunk that always stumbled through the bar on Monday, and rambled about this or that. I thought it unjust, but oh well, I was still new to public drinking. Soon, I was sitting next to two Air Force pilots from Iowa, my home state. What the hell they were doing in Eugene, I can’t remember, but we got along very well. We talked about my brother and the great trip I’d had to NY. They talked about Iowa and being in the Air Force, we drank and talked about family and the Midwest for hours.
Then it was just me and the bartender.
I hadn’t closed out a bar before, it was kind of daunting to do it so early on in my professional career, but I knew it would be good practice for later. As the seats went up, and televisions were being turned off around the room, I started to feel a panic. This is an amateur response. A veteran will tell you that you still have time and that the bartender will definitely let you know when you need to leave. I wasn’t ready, I downed my drink too quickly and started to scamper out. I was amazed at the time, when the bartender asked if I was all set. That was the beginning of my “understanding the code.”
I lived only 15 blocks away, but that night it felt like forever. Eugene is quiet at night, not like NY. You can stumble and piss anywhere you like, and it’s comforting that no matter how fucked up you are, you’re never as fucked up as someone else.
That night I slept hard, and woke up around 9 or 10, after missing 35 phone calls. The one I wasn’t going to miss was my brother, who was calling at that minute.
“Hello,” I managed to mumble out.
“Hey, I just wanted you to know that I’m alive.”
“Far out man. Me too.”
He told me to turn on a TV, and I made sure he understood I didn’t have cable… I’d find out soon that that wouldn’t matter.
And that’s how it happened. That’s how I found out that the World Trade Centers had been hit by two planes, and that had I waited to fly out Tuesday morning, I’d have been stuck in NY for God knows how long. Over the next 7 years, countless opportunities for me to go back to NY would present themselves, I’d always pass on the chance. I’m not superstitious, but I didn’t want to go back-something never felt right.
Something had to eventually change, so when my brother’s birthday came up the other week, I took the opportunity to fly out for the weekend.
******
I’m not a fan of people, I find that they often cramp my style even though I make a conscious effort not to cramp theirs. Case in point:
This asshole.
Very rarely have I had the “pleasure” of sitting next to the guy from hell. Thankfully, this was a 5 hour flight! Tips for traveling next to Syzlak:
- Don’t talk to me
- Don’t read a paper the way you would on the set of Dobie Gillis
- Don’t steal 100% of the armrest – it’s there for both of us
- Don’t wear sunglasses inside, you douche bag
- Dress accordingly before you get on the fucking flight so that you aren’t draping your fucking wool jacket over me for 5 hours! I sweat in winter you asshole!!
Fortunately, he wasn’t the only guy pissing me off during the flight…everyone else was there too. Including the walrus:
This man slept most of the flight. Then, when we came into land, he woke up and proceeded to make walrusesque sounds
and various moans for the next 10 minutes. That sucked. What sucked worse, was his halitosis which would linger after every outburst.
Not long after that, I was in the city.
NY really is a different city, much more like it’s own small nation-state, so I stayed at a hotel near my brother to make the weekend that much easier. He lives in the financial district at the south end of Manhattan, thus the subway stop I needed to take to be close to my hotel and his place was the World Trade Center stop. Helluva way to start the trip…
