We are counting down the days now to attend our second annual SEO Oktoberfest in Munich. I have said this before and will say it again. Oktoberfest was the BEST party and BEST trip we have ever taken. Talk about getting the royal treatment? Marcus and Quadzilla don’t mess around when it comes to hosting an event.

This year it will be even better. More speakers, more attendees and more beer.

Wish you could come? How about bidding on a charity auction for the last ticket? Donate to a good cause and you could have the time of your life.

Click here for the charity auction. All proceeds will benefit AMAZONICA.

This is what you are bidding on:

You´re bidding on the last ticket for the sold out SEOktoberfest 2009 (22nd of September till the 24th of September)

The original ticket price is 5.000 euros, and the 15 tickets were sold out after only 20 minutes!

15 International Online-Marketing Experts, 15 Attendees, and 10 former Playmates – one conference – one big Party!

Here´s what´s happening at SEOktoberfest:

Tuesday, 22nd of September:
10 a.m – 4 p.m. – SEOktoberfest Conference
4 p.m. – 10 p.m. – Oktoberfest at famous Käfer Wiesn-Schnänke
open end – After Party at P1 Club

Wednesday, 23rd of September:
11 a.m. – 8 p.m. – We got a whole luxurious Spa completly rented out for everybody. 6 massage therapists etc. will get you fit again!
8 p.m. – open end – Friends & Family Dinner at Munich´s No.1 Wine-Restaurant Die blaue Donau

Thursday, 24th of September
10 a.m. – 4 p.m. – SEOktoberfest Conference
4. p.m. – 10 p.m. – Oktoberfest at Schützen-Festhalle
open end – After Party at a secret location

What´s included in the price?

Everything!

Every Attendee gets a whole Oktoberfest Outfit – Shoes, Lederhosen, Shirt etc., and everything you eat and / or drink, as well as all the transfers etc. – everything´s included!

Who are the Online Marketing Experts?

Todd Malicoat
Chris Winfield
Bob Rains
Johannes Beus
Brent Csutoras
Sickness
RSnake
Greg Boser
Barbara Boser
Todd Friesen
Marcus Tandler
Quadszilla
Frank Watson

Wow! I don’t know where to start.  This was the event to top all events and by far the best city I’ve ever been to.  Germans can party like no other people I’ve ever met.  Not only that, they are super nice too.  I mean the city of Munich is on my Top Ten List of cities you should visit.  As far as Oktoberfest itself…what a party!  The grounds are packed with standing room only unless you are lucky enough to get a table in the tents.  If you don’t have reservations for this ahead of time don’t bother trying as it’s nearly impossible.   Wearing traditional lederhosen and drindl is a must in order to experience the German culture, but don’t worry because you can buy the whole outfit almost anywhere in the city.  SEOktoberfest was so phenominally awesome that I even gave it its own category on the blog.

As far as the actual conference part of SEOktoberfest…ehm…All I can tell you about what happened is that I can’t really tell you anything.  I will say that Marcus and Quadzilla were unbelievably amazing hosts.  I mean they were able to keep track of all of us all the time and nobody got lost.  They took us to two elite clubs in Munich (after spending hours in the elite tents of Oktoberfest) and showered us with champagne (literally).    They had five lovely German playmates there to entertain everyone after hours.  We were provided with everything we needed from food, to drinks to the lederhosen and drindl.  I think it’s safe to say this was a non-profit event.

As far as the picture of Greg in the lederhosen, all I can say is I FAILED.  It’s hard to think about stuff like that when you are drinking multiple steins of beer and wearing a drindl. All I can show you is this picture that Marcus has on his blog.  Greg is on the left and you can kind of see me behind one of the playmates. 

Thanks again to Marcus, Quadzilla and Philip for dreaming this up and going through with it.

So with that, I’ll leave you to your imagination.  The rest you’ll have to see if we’re friends on Facebook. Or you can go to Marcus’s post about the best SEO party in the world!! (Bonus: If you go to my Facebook pics, you’ll get to see Dax in his lederhosen.  I managed to get that picture. )

Auf Wiedersehen!

SES is still one of the bigger shows we attend and this year’s didn’t disappoint from the social aspect. Getting together with industry leaders at conferences is something I look forward to about every other month. Even though it’s the same people, same parties, there is always something new to talk about and learn. Connections made at conferences typically go a long way because meeting people in person that you may have been following virtually is extremely valuable.

Speaking of following people…This year the hot topic at the conference was Twitter. You’d have thought they sponsored each session, but nope. Each session I went to mentioned Twitter at least 3-4 times. The burning question was what is it and why use it? Waste of time or marketing nugget? My answer is simple. Tweet! If you haven’t joined the Twitterbrigade you are late to the party. Don’t wish a year from now that you shoulda coulda woulda. Just do it. How you use it is up to you, but seriously, just TWEET and be sure and follow @gregboser and @barbaraboser.

Once again the place where all the cool kids hung out was the Fairmont Bar. While the conference is at the Marriott, if you can stay at the Fairmont I highly recommend it. The rooms are nicer and the bar lounge is way better. You can usually find some of the top SEOs hanging around late in the evening there. Buy them a round of drinks and you never know what juicy tid bits they will give you. The Fairmont Bar has 523 martinis on the menu. Every year I say I want to try them all, but alas I always get the same one, but it’s damn good and easy for Greg to remember. We hit the Fairmont up the first might we arrived and enjoyed conversation with the crew from Shoemoney (Jeremy and Dave), Jeff Manson, Todd Friesen (unemployed Todd is much more fun than working Todd), Brent Csutorus, Chris Winfield, Neil Patel, Michael Gray , Marcus Tandler, David Klein and who else (whistles) oh yeah Cesar Serna (freelancer, creator of Tweetpro).

The week started out with the IMNY Charity party on Monday night. These parties are becoming a standard at each conference and for such a good cause, how could you not attend? The group at IMNY does so much work to put these together and the financial results are well worth it. This year they raised about 10k that will be donated to the Children’s Hospital of Aurora, CO and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. There are about 15 New Yorkers that make this happen and we really appreciate it and look forward to the gathering every time. This year’s biggest raffle prize was a night out with Neil Patel. Guess who the lucky winner was?

Don’t worry Neil, Marcus quickly sold his prize to a willing Australian. Anything for a good cause right Frank? I also won a prize this year! I was the lucky winner of an SEOMOZ premium package. Can’t wait to get in there and see what that’s all about. It’s not like I could ask the Mozzers cause none of them were at SES. Apparently, they had their own conference they were holding in Seattle with about 150 of their closest friends. Anyway, thanks Rand for the prize and special thanks to everyone that worked so hard to put the night together.

Tuesday I attended the Social Media session with Brent Csutorus making a powerful presentation and dominating the panel. Brent gave some tips and ideas about social media that got the audience listening and taking lots of notes. Inevitabley he had a crowd of about 15 people standing around him after the session and for about 30 minutes into lunch. Brent talked about the power of a good network, the importance of good content and the link building benefits of social media. He stated a couple examples that received about 8k inbound links as a result of a Digg front page. He reminded us that many of these links are coming from PR8 or PR9 sites, so the benefit from a successful social media campaign is well worth the effort that goes into launching one.

After attending the keynote (I really just wanted to see Danny Sullivan) I headed over to the BOTW booth. Now really this is the place to be. Hanging around the BOTW booth is awesome. You get awesome shwag, free beer (not so free to BOTW) and you get to hang out with people like this…

BOTW has recently launched a kick ass local directory with Adam Sussman at the helm of this massive project. If you haven’t already registered do it NOW! I also overheard Greg talking about a big buy out. The details could be juicy, but I’d probably screw them up in translation so you’ll have to check his blog for the scoop.

The Google party this year is said to be the last Google party of the SESSJ. We’ll have to wait and see if Google can spare any change to put this event together next year, but as of now…this was it. The last Google shirt, the last bus ride, the party is over. RIP Google Dance. The dance itself was the same as last year. There were video games, beach volleyball, animated avatar making and lots of neon. Infact, too much glowing if you ask me. Some people should not wear neon glowing sunglasses. Seriously, the rings were cool, but the sunglasses…not so much. Sorry, I should’ve taken pictures, but was too busy talking it up with Matt Cutts about somebody’s eyebrow interests and recent celebrity sightings. Matt next time remind me to finish the story of when Greg met Madonna. I did however get a picture of this which I found in the Google bathroom. Good to know Google girls have clean bottoms.

The sessions I attended on Wednesday were completely different. The first one was SEO Rehab=FAIL. Sorry guys, but seriously not a great idea. There was no focus, no direction, lots of tangents. Enough about that.

The Black Hat White Hat session was another story. The room was packed and the discussion was deep. What is black hat, white hat? Everyone had their own opinions, but really I’d hope if you are an SEO you know how to do both. Wether or not you use certain tactics is up to you, but really it’d be good for you to know what the competition is doing (back or white). Big take away for Greg…do not repeat into the microphone anything that Michael Gray shouts out to you.

The last party of the week was Search Bash. Daron and Brandy never disappoint and this year they ditched the sumo wrestling and went with a Circ de Soleil style performance over the dance floor. And yes, Brandi did get up there and swing through the air.  I know it’s a sucky picture, but if you look past the fan, that’s Brandy swinging over the dance floor.

We stayed at Search Bash until the end, then headed over to the other Greg’s room with about 75 other BOTW fans. He seriously had the largest patio in that room I’ve ever seen.

What’s next for us? SEOktoberfest, then SMX East and finally Pubcon.

I know I’m way behind announcing the winner, but I didn’t think of the fact that I’d have to provide some explanation for each answer. (I should have never done 50)

Anyway, the grand prize winner was Kris Farmer  from RazorGator. Kris has been a regular listener of the extremely irregular Rockstar show, and also has been present at a few of the episodes that inspired some of the plates. That combination gave him just enough edge out Rebecca Kelley and Laura Lippay for the number one spot.

So without further ado, here are all the answers:

1. CUTTLET – Harith. I don’t know much about Harith other than he is an SEO from Denmark. But the one thing I do know about him is that he is definitely the biggest Matt Cutts fan in the world. If you spend any time at all browsing through Matt’s archives, you’ll see that Harith not only has commented on every single post Matt has ever written, his comments are consistently in the first three made on every post, and quite often, the very first. Anyone who puts that much effort into monitoring a single blog deserves a vanity plate that tells the world about their obsession.
2. SPAMKILR – Matt Cutts. One of the reasons Harith loves Matt so much is because Harith hates web spam, and Matt is the web’s super hero who has devoted his life to killing spam.
3. SEOWIFE - Barbara Boser. This is the plate that started this whole nightmare. I just couldn’t stand looking at her current plate (LOL TTYL) any longer.
4. XPILSPAM – Todd Friesen. I couldn’t come up with a plate for Corporate Bitch, so I thought I’d go with ex pill spammer instead.:)
5. EVILSEO – Keith Hazelden. I know there are many people who don’t know Keith. That’s because in the 10 years he’s been attending SEO conferences, I don’t think he’s ever went to a single session, or for that matter, even entered the conference hall. In order to meet Keith, you’ll have to find the darkest corner, in the seediest bar that looks like you might hear some Motorhead when you walk inside. If you see him, walk up and use the code words "Ace of Spades" and you’ll have a good chance of spending the rest of the night doing Yeager shots.
6. HATESEO – Jason Calacanis.
7. I (HEART)SEMIN – Jessica Bowman. Jessica loves to talk about Inhouse SEM. So much so, that she went and started a blog about it. Unfortunately, the domain inhousesem.com must have been taken, so she decided to register seminhouse.com instead. Shortly after, she realized that it kinda looked like it said semen house. Several of us thought that was funny as shit, so I decided a plate declaring her love for Semin would be a great idea.
8. WURNUM2 – Tim Mayer. The infamous Ricky Bobby once said "If you’re not first, you’re last!" I think that statement applied to the world of search is pretty accurate. Still, it’s important to keep a positive attitude, so you might as well pretend to the world that you’re proud to be number 2.
9. I(HEART)2DRINK – Chris Hooley. I know – there are a lot of people in the world of search who love to drink, but Chris REALLY loves to drink.
10. 1DUMASS – Rose Desrochers. The inspiration for the Dumbass Button.
11. RNDSMOM – Gillian Muessig. If you’ve ever been in a large group of SEO types where introductions are being made, you will have noticed that Gillian almost always gets introduced as Rand’s Mom. I know that Gillian is very proud of Rand, so I’m sure she’d love the plate.
12. BIGNIPS – Rebecca Kelley. When Rebecca isn’t writing for the squeaky clean, never controversial SEOMoz blog, she spends her time writing for a potty mouth pop culture rag for mildly retarded people. The coolest thing about her moonlighting gig is that she gets to express her true feelings about all kinds of annoying things. One of which is oversized areolas.
13. CMENUDE – Vanessa Fox. Thanks to Dave, Vanessa will be forever tied to the concept of being naked. So why not embrace it with a vanity plate?
14. HATCHIK – Li Evans. A long time ago, I commented on a spat between Li and Chris over link bait originality. At the end of that post, I referred to Li as the "Hat Chick."
15. FLWRBOY – Matt Inman. The now ex-SEOMoz designer responsible for the infamous flower logo.
16. IMBLND – Becky Ryan. I know that the plate looks like it’s supposed to say I’m Blind, but it’s actually supposed to be I’m Blond. But that’s exactly why I picked it. It’s a perfect example of something Becky might actually do.:)
17. BICHSLP – Lisa Barone. Every now and then, I’m a complete ass hole. The day I wrote a post about wanting to bitch slap Lisa Barone was one of those days. In my defense, at the time, it didn’t feel like Iwas being an ass because I hadn’t ever met Lisa and I had a picture of a crusty old curmudgeon in my head. (Because she works for Bruce). Turns out she’s a sweet young kid. And the first person to point out what an ass I had been was Barbara.
18. FOOKYEA – Dave Naylor. If you’ve ever had more than a single beer with Dave, you would have been able to answer this one.
19. IINDIAN – Neil Patel. He’s the absolutely worst Werewolf player ever, but he’s the King of self-deprecating humor. I don’t think you can be around Neil for more than 5 minutes without hearing him crack some kind of joke about the fact that he is Indian.
20. CRAYSEE – Cesar Serna. When I first made the plates, Cesar had just launched a new blog at http://www.craysee.com. The design made use of a cool "tagger" font that was indeed craysee. Unfortunately, you can’t see it because Cesar decided to go down a different path, so he redirected the domain to cesarserna.com.
21. GOOGH8R – Michael Gray. I know there are a lot of Google haters in the world, but none of them pull it off with the amount of style Michael does. If you don’t believe me, just download the greatest powerpoint presentation of all time and see for yourself.
22. YLWPMAS – Rand Fishkin. The list wouldn’t be complete without taking the time to acknowledge Rand’s obnoxious yellow shoes.
23. IAMFROG – Dave Pasternack. Yes, I still refuse to link to Frog Boy.
24. FCKTARD – Scott Willoughby Scott and I share a fascination with the word Fucktard. To me, it’s possibly the greatest word ever. Scott gets that, so he also gets a plate.
25. LNKNNJA – Jim Boykin. The one guy that gets the limitations of bait pirates.
26. IMSYLAR – Cameron Olthuis. Barbara loves the TV show "Heroes" and thinks that Cameron looks a lot like the character Sylar.
27. IWASBIG – Jeremy Schoemaker. I’ve always admired Jeremy’s willingness to speak so openly about his past battles with his weight. Clearly, all those experiences have played a huge role in his career. He may be a lot smaller physically, but he is bigger than ever figuratively.
28. 1OLDSEO – Bruce Clay. I’m pretty sure Bruce will be the first working SEO to begin collecting Social Security benefits.
29. IMISSOC -Danny Sullivan. You’ll notice that it doesn’t say "I Miss the OC." That’s because people from Orange County don’t actually call it "The Orange County."
30. BLKAMEX – Brian Prince. It was interesting reading all the answers for this one. Especially all the people that think Neil’s Black Amex is real.
31. CRCSGRL – Laura Lippay. Most know her as that slightly whacked, soon-to-be-married Yahoo SEO chick. But before she stumbled into our world, she worked as a stunt skater for Ringling Bros. I can’t tell you how cool it is to actually know a retired circus performer.
32. WAREAMI – Mike Grehan. There’s no one in our industry that has logged more frequent flyer miles than Mike. If you ever get a chance, ask him how many times he’s woken up in a hotel room and not been quite sure where he was at.
33. WMNISER – Thomas Bindl. Don’t let the goofy little German thing fool you. Thomas is the ultimate womanizer.
34. ASKNOMR – Paul Gardi. Since leaving IAC/ASK Paul has literally vanished off the face of the earth. I did hear a rumor that he’s hanging out in the Hamptons waiting for some wind so he can learn how to kite surf, but I haven’t a clue what he’s been up to professionally.
35. 1UPBUTT – Dax Herrera. OK, he doesn’t actually have something up his butt, but he does have a Mario 1UP mushroom tattooed on his butt. And if you were fortunate enough to be attending the Google party at SMX Seattle last June, you probably got to see it.
36. HOTKIWI – Jane Copland. I think this one is pretty self-explanatory. Jane’s from New Zealand and she resembles Charlize Theron.
37. WANMANN – Brent Csutoras. Weird Asia News is one of those sites that contributes greatly to the decline in worker productivity in the US. Even though I know I shouldn’t, I almost always find my self spending some time each day reading about the latest whacky shit from Asia.
38. ICACKLE – Heather Lloyd-Martin. The only thing more overpowering (and entertaining) than Heather’s professional speaking voice is her laugh. When you hear it for the first time, you think it’s some type of audio illusion because there just isn’t any way such a sound could be coming from such a tiny person.
39. LUVBACN – Jeff Rohrs. Most people know Jeff as the author of the Sausage Manifesto, but that’s not his only manly meat related site. He’s also the author of Six Degrees of Bacon.
40. TYPEFST – Barry Swartz. There are times in a session where it actually feels like Barry is typing what you say before you actually say it. Without question, he’s the Grandfather of "Live Blogging."
41. CMEPUKE – Elisabeth Osmeloski. I was completely amazed by the number of different people who have engaged in public vomiting at a search marketing conference. I picked Elisabeth for this plate because a) there have been multiple occurrences, and b) CMEPOLEDANCE wouldn’t fit.
42. CORNBOY – Brett Tabke. Not only is Brett from the great state of Iowa (where they grow a lot of corn) he also at one time in his career did some quality spammin’ & jammin’ for a well-known manufacturer of farming equipment.
43. VAPRISE – I’m actually not going to name this person because the plate has to do with the regular use of a very special piece of equipment. But I will say that most of you who answered this one were correct.
44. REDDANE – Mikkel DeMib Svendsen. He’s Danish, and he’s absolutely in love with that fuckin’ red suit.
45. MSTRB8R – Todd Mailcoat. Many claim to be Master Baiters, but few can actually walk the walk. Todd gets this plate because he not only can walk the walk, he’s actually the person who originally coined the term.
46. SEODSNY – Jennifer Slegg. OK, she doesn’t actually do SEO for Disney, but she did start an SEO blog this year, and she is an absolute Disney freak.
47. TUBDICK – Allan Dick. Allan is the only guy in the world that could make selling bathtubs on online hip. And if he every decided to leave his job a Vintage Tub & Bath, he could easily become a professional party planner, or even a game show host.
48. LUVGOAT – Daron Babin. If you ever get an opportunity to spend a few minutes with Daron, make sure you ask him to tell you the "shave the goat" story.
49. JOGUIDO – Joe Morin. The first time I ever met Joe, I just couldn’t get over how much he reminded me of a mafia gangster.
50. WWWMKTG – Greg. I threw the bonus plate in to give those that have actually shown up for a Beer Friday an opportunity to be rewarded for their efforts. And it turned out to have worked. Rebecca was actually ahead in points, but Kris got the bonus plate, which pushed him over the top. If Rebecca had ever followed through on any of the multiple invitations we’ve extended to her, she would have clearly been the winner.

So th
at’s it. I promise, I’ll never ever do this again. But I do want to thank Brett for donating the passes to PubCon. Even if you didn’t win, I’d strongly suggest you attend. It truly is one of the best shows of the year.

If you are attending SMX social in New York next week, I hope that you will put this event on your agenda.  

Internet Marketers of New York a non-profit group along with BOTW have joined forces to host an event where proceeds will benefit the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

The IMNY Charity Event will be held at the Town Tavern Bar & Grill at 134 W. 3rd Street/6th Ave at 7pm on Monday 10/15/2007 and all internet marketers are welcome.  There is a $40 donation to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society that can be paid at the door.  Your donation includes 3 hours of open bar networking (isn’t that the best kind?) as well as raffles and prizes at the end of the evening.

My son Ryan had a friend in kindergarten named Ryan Baker who was diagnosed with leukemia at 5 years old.  They were in a bowling league together and Ryan Baker loved to bowl because it was one of the few sports he could participate in.  He was very competitive and would get very excited when he’d bowl a strike, even on days when they’d come straight from him getting a spinal tap as part of his treatment (I was always amazed at his courage, he never let that bother him).  At the end of the bowling season, the boys got a trophy that was almost as big as they were.  It was their prized possession for a while until the excitement wore off.

A few months ago my son’s friend Ryan Baker passed away after a 7 year battle with Leukemia.  He was 13.  Our family cherishes the moments we had with him and the passion and zest he had for life at such a young age is inspiring.  

Ryan Baker is on the left and Ryan Boser on the right. 

My son still has that giant trophy and treasures it now more than ever since it’s all he has to remember Ryan Baker by along with a great photo and fun memories. 

We all know someone that either knows someone with cancer or has an experience or story to share.  This is a great cause and kudos to the group that put this together.  Thanks to Chris and Danielle Winfield for letting me know about it this awesome event.

If you are going to SMX, I hope that you will attend this event and force the BOTW guys to break out that Black Amex because they are covering the party tab (because they are cool like that) so that even more money can go towards the fight of cancer.

Todd and I just finished recording today’s SEO Rockstar show.  (We had planned on doing a live show, but we are both heading out today to attend MSN’s Searchifcation event). 

The show will be broadcast today at 4:00 pm PST. At the end of the show, we spent some time giving out some good hints for some of the tougher plates from my SEO Vanity Contest. So if you are one of the people who decided not to submit answers because you didn’t think you knew enough of them, you might want to give the show a listen.

I’m not sure how it is in other states, but in California vanity license plates are huge. Just spend one afternoon driving through SoCal and you’ll know what I mean. You almost always end up spending the time you are stuck in traffic trying to decipher the clever custom license plate on the car in front of you. 

Both Barbara and I have vanity plates on our cars, and both are Internet related. But I’ve never really like Barbara’s. At first glance it’s kinda cute, but it’s also very dorky. So, last Friday, I decided I was going to buy her a new one.

One of the cool features of the California DMV’s website is the fact that you can type in what you want and it will not only tell you whether or not the plate is available, it will also generate an example of what the actual plate will look like. I’m not sure why I was so fascinated with the tool, but I ended up spending the rest of the afternoon trying to come up with an unregistered plate for all of my friends. (And even some other people I can’t stand). 

After the master list was created, I realized I had wasted a shitload of time on it, so I thought that the best thing to do would be to turn it into a contest. After all, I just moved my blog from a 10 year old domain to a brand new domain so I need some new links.

The goal of the contest is to identify as many of the potential plate owners as possible. Each correct answer is worth 1 point, and the bonus plate at the end is worth 5.

The lucky winner (which we’ll announce on September 28^th) will win two free PubCon passes, plus an all expense paid night out on the strip with yours truly. (we’re going to party Rockstar style)

Click Here to view the plates and submit your answers

This was my second time at SES San Jose and I have to say, I really enjoyed myself more this year than I did last year. Maybe it was because I knew more people, but really I think it was because we spent most of our time at the Fairmont bar instead of the Hilton Bar which is where we spent the majority of our time last year. Come to think of it, last year was the first time I met R Kelley. At the Hilton bar! Awe! I still like the Fairmont better, except for that. Oh and the fact that there was no BoDog party this year.  I missed that too.

Here’s what we did…

Sunday 8/19/07
We arrived at about 3:30 and pretty much headed to the above mentioned “Fairmont Bar”. I hate that the batteries were dead in my camera because I missed out on some great photo opportunities. Anyway, the place was packed. We hung out there for quite a while, and then headed over to McCormick & Schmick’s with Cesar, Dax, Dave, Daron, Brandy, Danny, Todd, Bob Wilson and Jeff Manson for a great steak dinner. After dinner we headed back to the Fairmont and saw the BOTW guys, Frank Watson, Vanessa “the” Fox, Dustin Woodard, Becky Ryan, and so many more fabulous SEOs. I mean really, I can’t remember who else, but there were a lot of people down there. I don’t think the bartenders knew what hit them, but with 477 martinis on the menu, how could they not expect they’d be the most popular hotel? Note to self…stay at the Fairmont next year!

Monday 8/20/07
After a slow start, Dax, Cesar, Greg and I headed over to Johnny Rockets for lunch were I tried to eat this burger, but the whole thing kept falling apart. It’s a good thing because I had to save my appetite for the Japanese dinner hosted by Allen Dick of Vintage Tub and Bath. We really had a great time and even though I didn’t win anything, I’m glad Todd Friesen walked away with his power drill. After dinner we headed back the the Fairmont and went to Joe Morin’s suite. Well, the party got a bit out of control and security kicked us out, but not before we had some great conversation with Dave and Gary of Joebucks. Thanks for all the advice guys, and Gary, congrats on your marriage!

After being kicked out of Joe’s room we headed downstairs to the bar where Dax had a crowd around him while he was playing the piano and not getting in trouble by hotel security for doing it. (The Fairmont rules!) He had a martini glass turned into a tip jar and walked away with $65. Sweet. Who knew that moments later he and Dave would be fighting and throwing water on each other? Yep, Michelle Robbins and I sat in the splash zone while they fought over Mojito’s and threw ice water at each other. Where was my video camera? Ugh!! Well, Dax might have won that battle, but I have a feeling the war isn’t over.

Tuesday 8/21/07
We attended the big “Are Paid Links Evil?” panel that seemed to be the hit of the conference. The panel was stacked with big names in the industry, Matt Cutts, Todd Malicoat, Todd Freisen, Greg Boser and the crowd went wild when Michael Grey started his presentation with “Google is not the government!” The session was filled with controversy and debates that won’t be dying down anytime soon.

Later that evening we headed over to the Google dance. We were running late as it was, then I realized, I left my ID in the room, so we had to go back. Everyone else went on ahead and Greg was not happy that we were at the end of the bus line at almost 8pm. Then suddenly out of the blue, this black Excursion limo pulls up and there is Brandy Shapiro screaming our names, so we ran like idiots to the limo and hopped in. That was one of my favorite moments. I asked everyone in the limo if anyone took photos of us running toward them, luckily nobody did, or at least I haven’t seen any yet. I got one of them though.

The Google dance was fun. I met Patrick Sexton here and learned that I have great eyebrows. Also chatted with Chris and Danielle Winfield, (probably one of the best looking and nicest couples of search).

The night continued as we headed over to the Best of the Web suite for more socializing and cocktails. Brian and Greg are excellent hosts and it was really fun to hang out with everyone.

Wednesday 8/22/07
I attended a couple sessions, ‘SEO Q&A on Links’ and ‘Search Engines Q&A on Links’. Both sessions covered various topics, but of course the “paid links” topic came up again.

The best part of the session for me was meeting Tamar Weinberg. I’ve always seen this blogging queen at work, but this was the first time we met. Did you know she publishes her posts right before the Q & A in most sessions? She doesn’t even use Word, she types on Notepad. Damn girl, you are good!

After the sessions we headed back to the Fairmont bar and spent some time with Emilio and Rob from Blogsvertise. Tim, Doug and Wade ended up showing up and we all agreed that we wanted sushi before we headed over to the Search Bash. Rob and Emilio had never had sushi before, but seeing as how we forced them into going, they had to try it. The outcome was very funny. I feel bad because we forgot to tell them to leave the wasabi off their sushi. Ooops.

After dinner we walked over to the Search Bash. As always, this is a fun party. The sumo wrestling was well under way when we arrived, but I got to see Neil Patel go at it against Ken Jurina. Ahh, poor Neil, he did try though. Later we got to see Dave Naylor vs Tim Mayer and Tim’s stealthy moves proved to work since all he did was step aside as Dave charged him.

The rest of the evening was filled with watching people dance, cocktails, and more cocktails. We left at about 1:30; right after Aaron Baker from Pepperjam was nursing his broken arm. Ouch! Good luck with that Aaron! Hope it heals quickly so you can get back to training. We never made it to the MSN thing afterward since Greg had a 9am session.

Thursday 8/23/07
Greg was out the door by 8:30 and I just couldn’t get up. As always, by the end of the week, I’m pooped. He went off to the Googleplex for an evening of Werewolf while I stayed back and went out to dinner
with Cesar, Rebecca, Matt and Pat. By the way, if you’re ever in San Jose and have a hankering for some good sushi, go to Fuji Sushi. Have you ever seen a Caterpillar Roll like this?

After dinner we went “where else”? The Fairmont bar and met up with Brett, Brent, Neil, Rhea, Carolyn, Dax and Greg. I had some great conversation with Brent Csutoras about life and work. Thanks for everything Brent!

Friday 8/24/07
Heading home. Back to reality!

Oh, by the way, if any conference organizers are reading this, you know what would be really cool? A conference on a cruise ship. Cough…to Alaska…cough. I’ve really been wanting to go there.

We just got back from Seattle after spending a great 3 days there at SMX. All I heard all over the place was what a great conference it was. From the hotel to the conference venue, it was really fantastic.

Danny Sullivan and his amazing team of coordinators really impressed the search world with this advanced conference. I think they also proved that size does matter. With about 500 attendees, it was really a quality group and the networking was a lot easier. Everyone was invited to the search engine parties, so it was really easy to see old friends and make new ones.

Sunday 6/3/07
We arrived at SeaTac to some nice weather and checked into the Fairmont. (I haven’t stayed at a Fairmont since SES San Francisco about 5 years ago.) At any rate, the Fairmont is a fabulous and luxurious hotel that really made us all feel like rockstars. We then headed over to the MSN party where we found out we could check in and get our passes. That was very convenient. The MSN party was a blast.

Monday 6/4/07
We headed over to the conference and sat in on the SEO Meet SEM session. The room was full, so we watched from the back row. The Q & A went on for awhile and it probably could’ve gone longer, but time ran out. The next session we sat in on had to do with personalized search. The banter back and forth on the panel was not only entertaining, but very informative. &psr=0

After dinner we headed over to the Google party. There was some girl there on roller skates, that was kind of weird. Anyway, we got to see Rand dance, so everyone was excited about that. Dax discovered that the beer he was drinking was non-alcoholic. I swear. Check out my flickr pictures below if you don’t believe me. So if you drank Beck’s all night and wondered why you didn’t even feel it, now you know. I didn’t drink the non-alcoholic stuff, as anyone who went out with me and my SEOH afterward can attest to. Enough about that.

Tuesday 6/5/07
My SEOH had his sessions today, so he was off to work while I stayed back and nursed a soar knee and a pounding headache. We later made it over to the SEOMoz party at Garage Billiards. We played pool and hung out. It was pretty mellow, but very fun. Chris Hooley brought a beer bong and while at first nobody would touch it, it didn’t take long. Even Rand gave it a whirl, but the outcome wasn’t pretty. Anyway, thanks Mozzers for the party.

I noticed that there were a lot of wives and girlfriends there. That’s pretty sweet. There’s a few potential SEOWife guest bloggers in the works, so check back for that.

See everyone in August at SES San Jose.

We are gearing up to head north for SMX this weekend. We are all looking forward to seeing everyone and experiencing this new show. It sounds like it will be amazing, as is anything Danny Sullivan is a part of.

The party schedule looks super sweet. I like the fact that ‘all’ conference attendees are invited to the ones on Sunday and Monday. I think that’s a great benefit to some of the newcomers that want a chance to mingle with some SEO rockstars.

Sunday night we’ll be going to the Microsoft SMA Bash, then on Monday night we are looking forward to being wined and dined by Yahoo and Google.

I’ll have my camera and am hoping to find one or two celebrity look-a-likes.