By Brent D. Payne Rand generated a post on Sunday titled, 6 Lessons from the Search Engineers at SMX East , where Rand stated  the session was 'if not the best ' very close to it' that he has ever attended. I was quite shocked by the bold statement as I didn't find the session to be anything earth shattering. Personally, I thought it was a regurgitation of the same things we have known for quite some time now.

By Brent D. Payne A fellow friend and SEO, Vinny Goldsmith , mentioned I should do a blog post about the trends and reasons behind those trends regarding the 'Palin Effect'. As many of you are aware, Sarah Palin has been quite the buzz on the internet over the past few weeks. In fact, Sarah Palin related queries )all queries broad matching to 'Palin'( resulted in 7.18% of Tribune Interactive's total unique visits from search engines during the month of September.

By Brent D. Payne [Andy's note: Want to know what Brent did before lunch? Check out part 1 here .] 1:00pm â€" 1:30pm â€" Get some type of food Don't forget to eat. Yeah, that's about all I have to say on that. Other than don't down a bunch of food that's going to leave you lethargic later in the day. You need to stay motivated, your day is only half way done.

By Brent D. Payne [Andy's note: This is a long, but interesting post. So, we'll divide it up and you'll get to read the second part of Brent's day after lunch] This year there was a session at SMX East about the day in the life of an in-house SEO. Most of the session can be summed up in the following bullet points. You need upper management buy-in.

By Brent D. Payne As most of you have probably heard at this point, the IM Charity event was an all out blowout event in more than one way for me. I had the opportunity to meet several people that I had only met previously on Twitter, via SEOmoz, via IM, or via email. As part of this experience I had several that offered to buy me shots, strong drinks )beer and other drinks were free to attendees(, etc. and I accepted their generosity.

By Frank Reed. Since I learned a week ago about the Chinese and their dedication to workarounds regarding blogging , I have looked for other things that this ancient culture is doing to move itself into a modern economic powerhouse. I used to think that it would be best for my kids to learn Spanish as a second language here in the US but based on what might be coming down the pike from Asia, they may need to know Mandarin to compete in the future global economy.

By Frank Reed. Here's a quick trivia question for you. What was the first video run n MTV back in the early 80's? It was "Video Killed the Radio Star" by the Buggles )I didn't need to look that up and two of the Buggles, Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes, went on to play with Yes for all of you progressive rock fans out there(. At any rate, the idea was that with the onset of video music, Marconi's invention )that's the radio for those of you wondering( would die.

By Frank Reed. An article in today's Wall Street Journal by Lee Gomes the Long Tail theory popularized by Chris Anderson's book "The Long Tail" in 2006 there is now a pretty prominent player saying "Wait a minute now'..is this for real?" The Harvard Business Review has published a study that questions whether this theory actually holds water. Anita Elberse,

By Frank Reed. Leave it to bloggers to find a way around censorship. On the heels of the Olympic Games in Beijing riots broke out in the Guizhou province of China over the death of a teenager according to the Wall Street Journal . While the Chinese government worked hard to prevent this from becoming a political and PR black eye before they parade themselves on the world stage that is the Olympic Games bloggers appear to have gotten the best of them.

By Vinny Lingham Other than the weather in Seattle, my trip to SMX Advanced was fantastic.  Danny Sullivan & co have done an amazing job by creating a conference circuit that even the most advanced Search Marketers found stimulating.  My key takeaway from the conference was that there is a fine line between so called "White Hat" & "Black Hat" SEO â€" and most people don't know where one begins and the other ends.

By Frank Reed. In today's Wall Street Journal , Stephan Tornquist of MarketingSherpa , Inc. discusses the importance of small business and marketing during the current downturn. I don't like to use the word recession because it seems like every time the word is printed people believe more and more we are in doom and gloom times. Self fulfilling prophecies of this kind should be avoided. Sure,

By Ben Fremer This is my third marketing pilgrim search marketing scholarship entry. Previous small-business related Marketing Pilgrim Search Marketing Scholarship articles we have submitted in the prior two competitions include Dominating the long tail of local search with databases & The Ultimate Internet Marketing Article )overview of search marketing for small businesses . We have done dozens of SEO and link building campaigns for small businesses ,

By Mike Morabito Did you see it? I feel like I was there when it happened. As we begin watching the YouTube video Kobe Bryant )the best basketball player in the game( puts on his shoes and against advice of his friend standing near by he gets into position to jump over a moving Aston Martin car that is speeding in his direction. As you hear the car's engine off screen begin to roar your heart starts to beat as you get pulled into the action.

By Mark R. Hinkle The reason people publish content on the web varies: to promote a product, their company, or themselves as an expert. If you are looking for a shortcut to fame and fortune stop reading. Publishing and promoting your content should be looked at as a process with a distinct goal in mind. Gimmicks and other tricks are short-sighted unless you want to be the next Tommy Tutone or Devo it's worth your time to come up for a complete content and promotion strategy.

By Lamees Abourahma Web content has evolved from plain old text to more sassy content including video, sound and Flash. This new engaging content is more likely to attract visitors and capture their attention for a longer time )thus increasing Site Traffic and lowering Bounce Rate(. Bruce Clay , in a recent episode of SEM Synergy on Webmasterradio.fm titled "Changing definition of content" said: "' the definition )of Web content( has expanded. Content can be video,

By Gyutae Park If you're a baseball junkie, you know that a triple play is nearly impossible to turn in a game. It requires perfect conditions )at least two runners already on base and no outs(, super quick reflexes from the fielders, and a little bit of luck. In fact, the unassisted triple play has only been executed 14 times in the history of Major League Baseball )from 1876-2007(. Now before you hit the back button,

By Reynaldo Villar Yes, it's true. The Internet has brought the WHOLE world to your doorstep. But what if you only want to focus on local prospects? That's a challenge many entrepreneurs and business owners have faced as they've tried to establish a website presence. You know that your website can be an effective marketing tool. But prospects from states, counties or parts of the country you don't service could just as well be from Madagascar.

By Ben Wills I still hear people ask "What's the point of Social Media?" I still hear people say "Social Media is a waste of time, and new marketers' playground." I hear people talk about the value of Social Media for businesses. And they have no idea what they're talking about. But the absolute worst of all is this: They don't know, that they don't know, that they have no idea what they're talking about. Ontolo-what?

By Allison Reynolds Warning this article is rated M15+: contains aggregating scenes, marketing language, social media/networking explanations and a sloth. You are a smart cookie and you have definitely heard of social media and social networking. You have also seen around the place that you can use these tools to help you to market your stuff, but where do you start? Contemplate for a second, how much effort are you putting in on one blog post/article'.First you write it,

By Nathan Linnell How does search engine optimization and pay-per-click advertising relate to your quest to have an amazing night out at the hottest bar or club in town? And what friend should you make sure to bring along so that you will definitely have a night to remember? Well I won't require you to have the patience of SEO, but instead I'll give you the instant gratification of PPC. Two friends,