HomeGain Nation 2010 – San Francisco

Some days it is just good to be me. (grin)

These are days you are grateful for. The kind when everything goes right and life is good. I just landed in San Francisco after a great flight in from Cincinnatti. The weather when I left home? 30’s and cold. The weather for HomeGain Nation 2010? Perfect.

Very nice ride in on the plane. Hooked up to the in flight internet and connected with a few clients while I was in the air. i sent out 5 leads from our website in three hours that we SOLID people looking to see homes plus 15 others that we just looking. All during the flight.

HomeGain put the Live Nation event up at the Fairmont (top of Knob Hill in San Francisco) again this year. It is classy and tonight only gets better. I get to hang out with people that I really like and have not seen in quite a while.

Louis Cammarrasono – from HomeGain
Russell Shaw – someone who I aspire to be like. Simple as that.
Brian Brady – from the Bloodhound Blog (looking forward to chatting with him big time.)
Eric Bramlett – who will be speaking with me.
Jay Thompson…
The list is long and I don’t want to offend any others by not mentioning them. (Just trust me that there are dozens more to add to the list).

The HomeGain staff takes care of everything and makes is EASY for someone to work with them.

Oh, yeah… And the University of Louisville just beat UCONN. Last second shot by Edgar Sosa.

Good grief, does it get any better? For me these types of events (where I can pick the brains of the experts and trade ideas with valued colleagues) are an upper. They are what I need to clear the fog and get to the business of my business.

I guess I just want to say that I am grateful to get to be me. Today it is good to be me. Very good. I have learned to appreciate these days and savor them for what they are. And to say thanks, as well.

If you are at HomeGain Nation 2010, ping me.

Mark Jaquith gets it…and SEO’s should too.

With this post, I could really get into the technical nitty gritty of “how” some people do their SEO. I could get into link injection, spinning content with Markov generators, sneaking code (read: links ) into every possible crevice of someone else’s WordPress site through surreptitious means. But I won’t.

Doing these things is not right. Period.

I read this morning Mark Jaquith’s post about what is and is not acceptable in the way of WordPress plugins staying in the directory. I could not agree more. Somebody that does SEO agrees with that? ABSO-doggone-lutely. Every word. Especially the part about credit links being by default turned off.

HERE’S WHY:

In 2007 I wrote a post about online communities needing to have clear rules and lots of police. WordPress is a community not AT ALL unlike the real estate communities that I mentioned. Anytime you facilitate letting people write on your site OR you facilitate (via plugins) the ability for people to (possibly) write on other people’s sites as well, clear rules and good enforcement are CRUCIAL.

I applaud Mark for clearly stating what the rules of the road are. I agree with them. Even if I did not agree with them, they are his rules because they are WordPress’s road, and WordPress is apparently taking these steps to manage the rules of participation in their community, the same way that the folks at Real Estate Webmasters take seriously the conditions of when and how they will let people write on their site. Clear rules build communities. I said it in 2007 and I still believe it today.

BUT I AGREE w/ Mark FULLY ANYWAY. The entire value of links is the extent to which they are an accurate measurement of a site’s true authority on a given subject. That is why search engines use it as a factor. That is why the BEST search engine optimization efforts are long term TRUE AUTHORITY building efforts and not the trickery.

This means if you want to optimize really effectively, form long lasting and solid relationships with lots of reputable people in an industry. Make sure that the search engines can SEE the relationships you have formed, and you will over time build a SOLID online presence that is truly an asset.

This does not happen by surreptitiously playing “hide the link” sausage with as many other folks as you can. Seriously.

WordPress has developed into a powerhouse blogging platform / website platform / CMS. Those who develop plugins can either choose to develop them for the community (or not). If they are developed under GPLv2, then (in my opinion) they should not turn links on by default.

There are so many ways for folks to build true authority out there, why resort to less than “Do unto others” level of business? I will admit that I have not ALWAYS done everything that I would put into that category, but I can tell you without hesitation, that is my goal and it has been my goal for quite some time.

Good works. Seriously. It does.

For those who disagree with my take on this, that is fine. Either way, clarity as to the rules of the road is commendable. Kudos Mark for taking this one on head on.

What does Eric read?… more like “Who do I learn from?”

I had a client ask me the other day a pretty insightful question…what do you read? Actually it is more like who do I learn from. I read this people, follow what they do and learn from their efforts. Well, since my business / professional life revolve around a WIDE variety of things I kind of have to break them down into categories, but here goes:

Internet Business Planning:

GrowMap – Gail Gardner is amazing. If you have not read this blog, you should. What I am learning from her is about working sites with a purpose to make money. (Thought I had that down to a science already, but part of that science is continuing to learn!) She is part of running the following successful sites: 1)  golf store 2) a  personalized gifts blog 3) an online  wedding store 4)  a blog about  horses and 5) a  healthy living site. Why am I sending you to them? Go visit them and you will see that they are GROWING assets. That’s what you want in someone who does internet business planning…someone who can GROW stuff! So get growing!

JR - Good little internet marketing nuggets on this blog. Don’t forget to scroll to the bottom and look up the links to her classic posts.

WordPress Development:

As I start my new business over at Southern Indiana Web Works.com, I am looking for the BEST and most influential developers in the WordPress community and to see what they are doing. The Web Works is ALL about business websites using the WordPress platform – -so I have been spending a lot of time in this sector.

Kristi Hines aka Kikolani. You may think I would read her for  article writing and  Social Media posts. But the real reason to keep Kikolani on the radar screen is that she is a super WordPress designer. Seriously. Check out some of her stuff.

Brian Gardner of StudioPress. Enough said. I watch what he does. Look out kids, he is getting ready to unleash more in 2010.

Derek Semmler: Not as much that I learn from the blog but for Wordpress development, Derek rocks. He is a nice guy with a big heart.

Dizzain – These folks do custom designed WordPress themes. Interesting. This is more what I am heading towards…doing full custom WP themes on local Southern Indiana sites that want a specific look and feel.

Real Estate Websites:

The list here would be excruciatingly long to put in here.  Morgan, over at Real Estate Webmasters tops the list.  Also if you look down, you will see the real estate folks on my blogroll. They are all there for a reason. I know them. I trust them  I contribute to their projects. They are friends.  Many of us got together recently in Louisville. It was a blast, guys and I think we all came away better for it!

One more here:

Dave Smith’s Real Estate Blog Lab – Quite possibly the nicest and most decent human I have met to date and a fan of In-N-Out Burgers. That is a lethal combination in my world…grin. And his blog? if you are doing WP and Real Estate, you need to read it.

Search Engine Optimization:

I read MANY SEO blogs (I mean I AM EricOnSearch, right? )…but only a couple stick out:

Rand Fishkin’s SEOmoz – I do not agree with 100% of his stuff (but I do with quite a bit of it). What I really enjoy is whiteboard Friday.

Aaron Wall’s SEOBook – Nice guy.  Good information.

and my favorite read:

Huomah – This guy actually thinks like I do, test things and doesn’t just parrot others. Worth reading.

another addictive read:

Marty Weintraub and his  Search Engine Marketing blog. Good stuff.

Technology

Louis Gray, and his  futurist tech blog – this is my favorite read for trends and etc in Technology.

TechCrunch – it is a blog folks love to hate, but it is one I get something out of regularly.

Social Media

Adam Singer and his  Social Media Marketing blog. Read it.

Marketing

Murray Newlands provides Blog Consulting Services and Word of Mouth Marketing consulting. Basically, the guy gets it, and I think he is one of the guys to watch / learn from.

Miscellaneous Successful Stuff that I am interested in:

You asked for what I was reading so in the interest of full disclosure, here are some miscellaneous stuff that I have been checking out as well:

Barbara Swafford and her dofollow blog registry section on her site. Very similar to Eric Bramlett’s list of do follow real estate blogs. Both provide great resources for do follow bloggers.

Seth Godin. Seriously, I think he is the best known online marketing voice out there, but I have been reading his stuff for years. I do not always agree with it, but it is ALWAYS worth reading.  The main reason I am reading him is that I am finishing up a book on what it is like to be a Dad of children with autism. There is no better bookseller out there right now that Seth. Sometimes it is better to watch what they do rather than read what they say. In his case, do both.

Connie Foggles and her  Product Review blog where she writes about all sorts of products. She is another one that I am watching to see WHAT she does as much as simply reading what she writes! (Hint: Watching what people do is HUGE to finding good strategies online.)

I bumped this stuff recently when researching an article I was writing: Bill Sutton’s Good Millwork, a Florida Millwork company that does architectural moldings and exterior shutters.  Very helpful. Those who know me at all know that folks who are helpful to me get some links, traffic and notoriety wherever I can. To my new small business friend from Florida. here you go!

OK…there. I read a ton of other stuff as well, but those are currently the most influential on my list or those who consume my time due to things I am working on.

Enjoy!

The Ten Commandments of SEO.

Author’s note: While this is CLEARLY meant to be funny…live by these, seriously, and you will prosper.

Thou shalt not violate the TOS

This means that violating Google’s Terms of Service is TOTALLY off limits. Their rules are clearly stated. Live by them. You cannot build a long term asset that purports to make money from the exposure of their site if you spit on their rules. They will catch you and it will not be well with you.

Thou shalt not build any graven images. A site built totally in FLASH is a graven image

Search engines read text. That is what they understand. Yes, you can attach text to the graven images to help things, but in the end there needs to be sufficient text so that a search engine can determine what the site is about.

Thou shalt not cloak

This is in keeping with commandment number one. When you show one thing to the search engines and another to the public, it is not well with you. This is the quickest path to destruction that there is. Don’t do it. Don’t employ a consultant that tells you to do it or that you can get away with it.

The domain that will be penalized is your and not theirs.

Thou shalt build thine own authority

Search engines determine relevance by inbound links which (when properly gathered as part of a diverse link portfolio) are good indicators of relevance. While you can hire someone to submit your site to directories and to do some of the tedious labour for you, you MUST build your own reputation and relationships online. You must be a part of your industry’s online conversations. In fact, to succeed you must lead them in a time efficient manner. More on that later.

That is why I coach and provide creative authority building expertise on this site. You will notice that I do not sell the service of providing 500 links for $50 bucks or other such drivel here…At the end of the day, YOU (whether you = corporate or personal) are the only one who can provide your own authority…

This is also why paid links are of the devil and should be shunned…

Thou shalt not help thy competitor

You would think that this commandment is self evident, but let’s take the real estate industry for example. In this industry, it is common practice for agents to spend hours writing on sites like Trulia and Zillow and adding tons of user generated content when they are truly only helping those sites rank above them.

(Note:If the 10 commandments analogy does not work for you…then how about the Hippocratic Oath – think: First do no harm… )

Thou shalt honor thy mentors and friends

Search engine optimization is in large measure about building relationships online. To succeed you must not only MAKE friends and LEARN from mentors, you must KEEP them. To do this, you must honor them and hold them in high esteem for a lifetime. Create lifelong relationships and do not violate that trust.

Do good to others. Pay it forward. Build true authority. Participate in the arena of ideas. And honor the relationships that you build with a lifetime of faithfulness. Nothing less will do.

Thou shalt not steal content

Taking the content of others is forbidden. You cannot build your own authority on anything less than original content on your site of a quality that others will link to. HOWEVER…Having others provide the original content FOR YOU is not only GOOD, it is a sign of true authority. When others come to your place and provide UGC (user generated content), it is well with you.

Thou shalt not (simply) covet thy neighbor’s links

If all you do is chase you neighbor’s links you will forever be behind him. You MUST create additional relevance in order to succeed. That requires creativity and effort and often money. It is a much better path than simply following others.

You must follow them, overtake them and pass them. Coveting alone is not the answer

Thou shalt think like a spider

No one that I know of has administered an IQ test to a search engine spider. So many website builders simply over complicate their sites with code and / or make it hard for a site to get crawled by a search engine spider. Then they whine because they are not at the top.

I cannot make Google’s spider become Kreskin or and innately see the artistic value of your site. I CAN tell you how to make your site indexable to the search engines. If you choose not to take that advice, you cannot come back at me and say I did something wrong.

I can only work on your site and not the search engine. Quit whining.

Thou shalt TEST

The ONLY way to know if something works or does not is to TEST. The SEO industry is RIFE with people who simply parrot what others say or dumb it down to the point of being incorrect. There is a REASON that I TEST. True search engine professionals do. All of them. They don’t take other professionals’ word for it. They do not assume. They do not make the mistake of deluding themselves that what worked yesterday works today. And they don’t provide forward looking statements without actually testing them out.

We actually DO that here and provide the answers to our clients.

Harris Real Estate University’s Tim and Julie Harris – a fun interview

Some days I think I have the coolest job ever. Yes, Search Engine Marketing is fun, but I also spend quite a bit of time in the real estate industry. I enjoy connecting with people and often interview them as part of my job at Real Estate Industry Watch.

Interviews are always fun and you never know what you are going to get. Today’s interview with Harris Real Estate University’s Tim and Julie Harris was no exception. I have visited with them before and all, but it is always fun for me to interview. Tim is as passionate about the real estate business as they come and always pushing the envelope for the latest and best techniques.

Why does that make me happy? Simple. Because

Tim and Julie Harris get it.

Agree with them or disagree with them, they are driven and passionate and teach principles that they believe in. And it shows. They believe it. They teach it. and their enthusiasm is infectous. And I like that.

It all makes for a great day!

REMAX Convention 2010 Orlando – Eric on Search is on the Agenda

Just wanted to let y’all know that Eric On search is going to be teaching Search Engine Marketing at the REMAX Convention 2010 in Orlando March 3,2010. You know, it is kind of funny that I am REALLY stoked about it.

It is one of only two speaking engagements for me scheduled so far in 2010 (and doing the speaking “curcuit” is really not my thing.) So what is my “thing”? Well, I spend most of my search engine marketing time working on my own projects and testing and consulting with companies. And that is on top of the time spent with the brokerage where I work.

The fun for me is in teaching people solid basic search engine techniques that will give them the tools to build lasting authority online. I enjoy helping people find the building blocks and if they work at it over time, they can build their businesses.

Notice that I did not say, “trick the search engines”? ANY of my clients can tell you that I NEVER advise that. My advice is to BUILD the Lasting Authority that takes longer to build, but it creates a lasting asset because you truly are only making your online authority match who you really are offline.

Here are some materials that I will be using for the class. If you are going, here is where to pick up a 3 month head start:




REMAX Convention 2010 in Orlando - Class Materials

Step 1: Get Google’s basic SEO Guide

Read it thoroughly. If you are going to make a search engine friendly site why not ask the search engines themselves what THEY think?

Step 2: Budget enough Time

I am going to put a worksheet together that will SHOW you how much time it takes to build your site and your reputation to a point where you can expect traffic. (hint: It is longer than you think or might have patience for.) Building my online and offline reputation is something I have done everyday for YEARS.

Step 3: Target the Correct Terms

I will be adding materials HERE with links to get you started on targeting and planning which phrases to go after as you build your site.
(these are not up yet, but will be here shortly)

Step 4: On page Optimization

These are steps to helping search engines index you correctly. This is one place where many take their eyes off the prize and create a really flashy site, but one that the search engines have a harder time with. This also is not up yet, but will be added as the convention grows closer.

Step 5: Building Authority

This is NOT about building links. It is about building the your authority online with QUALITY, RELATIONSHIPS. I will be adding a whitepaper of the basics of this shortly as well. Not quite up yet, but should be here soon!

And by the way, one of the things that I enjoy doing most is taking actual sites that you submit and giving you some tips on how to make them better. On this site if you want that you have to hit the PayPal button. If you are in my class, I will be doing it for free at the end of the time.

I look forward to seeing you there at REMAX Convention 2010 in Orlando!

Matt Cutts on WordPress SEO – Great Basic Stuff

My friend from our real estate office Scott Hack who does a WordPress Oldham County Real Estate Blog just pointed me to a Matt Cutts video that I wanted to pass along. Those who go to EricOnSearch with any regularity see the Google basic SEO download on my front page.

Here is a presentation from WordCamp 2009 where Matt does the same thing for bloggers using the WordPress platform.

First off, I think Matt Cutts does a tremendous job of helping webmasters do what they do better and more effectively. As I have said many times, I think too many people talk to him looking for the “silver bullet”.

There is NO silver bullet.

There is NO quick fix.

He uses the example of Katamari (Google that if you don’t know) to describe how True Authority is built. That philosophy alone rules out going big fast and / or buying your way to the top.

We had a discussion in our blogging group this week about just this sort of thing– the basics of blogging with a purpose and getting it right.

I kept getting asked in the group what the “secret” was. Seriously. No secret. Build relationships online. Build relevance. Build your online reputation. Not sexy enough for you? Too bad. It is what works.

SEO wise, these are the basics…but the BASICS WORK. (re-read that…it is the money quote).

Can you take things more technically and enhance WordPress even further? SURE.

That should be done AFTER the basics are done.

If after watching Matt’s video, anyone has questions or thoughts, fire them up in the comments section and let’s discuss them.

Thoughts?

Microsoft and Yahoo form partnership – It isn’t Yahsoft…it is Microhoo.

Have you ever noticed that when a merger, joint venture, or even when a research paper is published, that the person who is the TRUE leader in the deal (and make no mistake there must be a leader), is listed first.

If you go to B. L. & T law firm, you can COUNT on the fact that B. is the leader and L and T are subservient to some degree or another. So enter the wacky world of search engines.

This morning , Microsoft announced a search engine “partnership” with Yahoo. It is a 10 year deal that has possibly wide ranging implications for search engine marketing. Here’s my understanding so far.

• Yahoo will now be powered by MSN (yet another indicator of who’s on top – so to speak). “Savings” (read: layoffs) at Yahoo? $250 million
• MSN will benefit from Yahoo’s sales force to get more ads on their search engine.
• Yahoo will be compensated for those sales, ostensibly giving them a $500 million boost in revenue.

But does Yahoo really win? No. They are capitulating…which (IMHO) was the entire idea behind MSNs launch of Bing (or rather re-launch of MSN branded as Bing).

A couple of things to remember in all of this fun.

1) Microsoft is in the driver’s seat here. Period. Point. End of Story. Yahoo was losing fight after fight. It is Micro-hoo all the way. The agreement makes it clear to me that this is the end of the road long term for Yahoo both as a brand and as a search engine.

2) Microsoft may or may not be the real winner…being in control of the Titanic was not anymore of a winning hand than being in control of a smaller ship that hits an iceberg. It still sank.

3. Yahoo was spending HOW MUCH on their R&D on search?? With those kind of mediocre results? Wow…

4. I truly would like for a competitor to Google to step forward. As I posted earlier about bing being different lipstick same pig. Is this any different? I think the pig is a) more profitable b) bigger but c) fundamentally the same irrelevant pig…

I would enjoy your thoughts on this!

Bing : Different lipstick, same pig.

Microsoft has put out it’s “new” version of a search engine in hopes of taking on Google. At the risk of sounding like a nay-sayer from the start and a contrarian, can I be blunt?

They do not stand a chance of eating into Google’s market share lead. Seriously. Is E-bay getting serious erosion from others in their class? Nope…they are THE garage sale of the internet.

Craig’s list, the same. They are THE classified ads for the internet.

And Google is THE search engine. Google is now a verb. Note to Steve Ballmer. Get over it.

More importantly, BING is more lipstick on M-soft’s pig of a search engine. Maybe a different shade, but it does not change the overall spammability of the engine itself.

Yes, they now have added LOCAL search and have 10 packs (or 7 packs or whatever) ala Google. The difference? Go to BING and type in your city followed by Homes…

You will often see the local search that contains Funeral Homes, Home Depot, a real estate website (maybe), and even sometimes group homes for wayward youth.

Nice.

Search engines are entirely about relevance. Bing has clearly in my mind not made enough of an improvement to change ANYONE”S behaviour to use them instead of others. And that is the acid test.

Will their modest imrovements from the old MSN, Live, etc make enough difference to sway user behavior? Not in my opinion. To do that you would really need to change who you are or more importantly how the game is played.

That goes well beyond changing the shade of lipstick.

The Family Business grows…

One of the cool things about having a business is that you get to make decisions that affect the growth of it. It is also one of the tough things. How fast do you grow it? What do you choose to take on and which do you not?

Eric On Search is no different. From the start, I have told myself that the business is there to serve our family and our family is there to grow it, nurture and feed it, and together all will be better off for its existence. That is the purpose of Eric On Search: To serve our customers and to be profitable for us as a family.

Lately our family has been giving much thought to how best to do that. We have Joint Venture projects underway, along with the day to day coaching customers and as well with the Autism related projects and then there is being the Technologist for a large real estate office (hugely important to me). We want to be world class at all of those endeavors. We will accept nothing less.

I think all entrepreneurs, business people and people in general have been here. I am fortunate though.

Up until today, I have thrown odd projects to my two oldest sons, Cam and Craig. They are young. But they are smart and they care. They do a great job and work hard to live up to the Blackwell family name. I am proud of them. (as I am Jamie, my daughter and Jordan our youngest son (who will likely be assisting Craig in some of this fun!).

I guess I am just letting folks know publicly how jazzed I am that Cam and Craig will be helping me with the behind the scenes maintenance that makes Eric On Search well…Eric On Search. (Yet another name for them to live up to. Yikes.) They will be working as time allows.  You won’t likely see them or hear them.

But like their old man…(grin) you are gonna feel the impact of their results.

Fellas…it is time to get busy. We have some stuff to build! I cannot think of anyone I would rather build stuff with than the two of you.

I mean that.

Ours is a family business in the truest sense of the word.

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