Lee Odden wrote a GREAT piece “Get Better Returns on your Conference Investment“… some valuable tips from many of the elite speakers and organizers of the conferences we all attend…

A GREAT guest post from Everett Sizemore on Graywolf’s SEO Blog on finding sponsorship link opporunities (but not stopping there!). A good tips resource (and reminder) for those working on link building projects…

A great Search Engine Watch article by Mark Jackson. I think we all have a beef with this type of practice… but it certainly happens in every industry. Check out the responses on Sphinn.

A really good article by Craig Aaron and S. Derek Turner: Save the Internet

Worth the read…

Also check out and get involved:

www.SaveTheInternet.com

www.InternetForEveryone.org

So you want to place forms on your site for people to submit inquires regarding your product or service? Then you deal with a shit-load of spam from the idiots out there who have nothing better to do w/their time!

Use CAPTCHA!!!!! It’s the best spam fighter available to website and business owners.

CAPTCHA even works on “hiding” email addresses…

And the price is right… it’s FREE.

Be sure to check out this great event brought to you by the Nielsen Norman Group.

The San Francisco week is coming up in June… June 16-21. The Usability in Practice: 3-Day Intensive sounds FAB whether you are experienced or want to become a “user experience professional”.

They recommend attending all 3 days because “the progression of the material is highly integrated, with subsequent days building tightly on the previous days’ work.”

If you can afford it (prices are steep!), the subsequent days have interesting full-day tutorials.

SEO & Web Analytics/Web Usability go hand-in-hand… I currently have an article/guide on Work.com with helpful tips on SEO, Web Usability and Higher Conversion for Site Design (or Re-Design).

Am trying http://pmetrics.performancing.com as they have reportedly more features than Google Analytics… to compare.

Will keep you posted… till next time…

Check out LiveFaceOnWeb as a superior [conversion] alternative to SitePal… ask for Steve Geltman and tell him Valerie DiCarlo from SEO Web Consulting recommended you contact him…

Marketing Experiments free webinars are QUITE good. This Wed. (Apr. 16) is Measuring What Matters: increase marketing ROI by up to 75%

Regular, free webinars on what really works: SEO, SEM, web usability

Check them out…

 

VDC & Danny Sullivan - SMX Santa Clara (thanks for humoring me Danny!) 

Summary:

For the most part good… still wonder how some speakers become speakers at these conferences… and why they allow some to take every opp to pitch their services. One time, it’s ok; two times, it starts to get annoying and any more than that, it’s down right insulting and a huge turn-off. (i.e. Bruce Clay) It makes one lose interest, respect and stop listening. Unfortunate.

There were many nuggets - especially in the usability track. Shari Thurow is quite good, forthright and really knows her stuff. Lance Loveday also quite good. They should expound this track and offer more advanced info/techniques.

Good to hear/see Eric Ward in the link building track. ALWAYS great to hear his expertise. Debra Mastaler was a a great compliment… would have liked to hear Eric a bit more, however… he didn’t get to speak long enough. 

On the SEO & Social Media Marketing sessions, the take-away stand out, in my opinion, was Michael Gray. We heard the same ol’ from the others… Neil Patel offered helpful nuggets…

The Blended Search Revolution track was very good…

And finally Danny Sullivan’s keynote (Search 3.0, Search 4.0 & Beyond) on the first day was by far the best of all the keynotes… I have pics, but will have to wait til I get back to upload them. (Thanks Danny for humoring me!) Nice, very approachable guy.

More later…