TopRank Online Marketing is pleased to announce a parternship with The Direct Marketing Association to develop and present a series of 2 day workshops on social media marketing for direct marketers.  On December 4th in New York the new course entitled: "Social Media Smarts: An Introduction to the Social Web,

Over at Junta42 Joe Pulizzi has announced the quarterly update of his Junta42 list of content marketing blogs . I'm happy to say Online Marketing Blog was again included in the list. This time in a slightly improved position as you can see below. I must say, being included on a list with Brian Clark, Jeremiah Owyang, Brian Solis and David Meerman Scott is very humbling.

The last regular session of the day I decided to attend was on In-House SEO and PPC which was moderated by Melanie Mitchell and included Jessica Bowman, Dan Perry, Ana Schultz, Allison Fabella and Jill Sampey. The issues that in-house search marketers experience are the same issues that SEO agencies experience when performing enterprise SEO and PPC programs.

The first post-lunch session of day 3 of Pucon brought together a great mix of SEO experts including: Todd Malicoat, Rand Fishkin and last minute fill-in for Jessie Stricchiola, Andy Beal. Moderator duties were handled by Joe Laratro. First up is Todd who covered 30 different tools which are too many to mention here but included tools for: browsers, domain server, keywords, competitive research, ranking checkers, backlink checking, on page optimization, spidering,

The second day of WebmasterWorld Pubcon didn't dissapoint with great sessions throughout the day.  In between sessions, I was able to take a few candids and had help from Lisa Barone and Ashley Bruce during the sessions where I was speaking. Elisabeth Osmeloski and Alex Bennert Barry Schwartz and Ken Jurina Jessica Bowman and Heather Lloyd Martin A taller Matt Cutts and Lee Odden Lisa Barone and Tamar Weinberg Andy Beal,

As is tradition at Online Marketing Blog, we take quite a few photos at conferences. I've never come back from an event thinking that I took too many.  Here are a few photos from day one of the WebmasterWorld Pubcon conference in Las Vegas, which for me, was interrupted by a trip over to the Zappos headquarters where I took a tour. Afternoon sessions were well attended as was the Zappos Tweetup at Hard Rock Cafe.

The WebmasterWorld Pubcon conference in Las Vegas opened up today with remarks from founder Brett Tabke, who mentioned that only about 30% of the content of this year's event are dedicated to search marketing. The rest is made up of social media and other related internet marketing topics.  As interests in the industry changes, Pubcon is also evolving.

Now, more than ever, marketing companies and consultants need to get competitive for client dollars and what better way than advancing your knowledge and your network? There are many options for companies and agencies to train digital marketing teams and to keep tenured employees up to date including conferences such as: this week's WebmasterWorld Pubcon , Search Engine Strategies , Search Marketing Expo ,

One of the hottest topics that transcends the public relations, social media and search marketing worlds is online reputation management.  Search engines are fantastic for finding things. They're also a significant contributor to influence online. Blogs, forums, social networks and media sharing sites all offer venues for customers to express their opinions about brands - good and bad.

In October we decided to mix things up a bit and offer more posts with practical tips, especially the SEO Basics series. While many of our readers appreciate industry insights, observations, conference coverage and interviews, it was the practical tips and resources that attracted the most interest. While started out with tips focused on search engine optimization in October, we'll begin offering similarly practical tips for digital PR and social media marketing as well.

This morning the 8th social media breakfast meeting )started by Rick Mahn ( was held at the Deluxe HQ here in the Twin Cities.  In a very short time this meeting of a few social media enthusiasts at a coffee house has grown to over 125 people hosted by the likes of  Best Buy and PartnerUp, a company acquired by Deluxe. The main speaker at this morning's event was David Meerman Scott , popular author of several books including,

Please welcome guest blogger Jessica Rosenberg , a freelance writer and active social media user who blogs daily at It's my life' and does product reviews at The Lemonade Stand . Jessica attended  BlogWell: "How Big Companies Use Social Media" event this week in San Jose. As sponsors of BlogWell, TopRank's Online Marketing Blog also did a pre-event group interview with social media gurus from Wells Fargo, Home Depot, UPS & Graco who presented at the event.

We continue our series of weekly SEO basics questions and answer today with a question that acknowledges the value of approaching search engine optimization holistically, but indicates a desire to keep things simple and focus on the basics. "' you mentioned to use a holistic approach to aid in a better SEO,

Today I did a webinar with PRWeb on how to improve SEO )Search Engine Optimization( results by using online public relations tactics. With 15 minutes to present, there wasn't a lot of tactical detail. At TopRank we've done a pretty good job at identifying trends in a way small and large business marketers can understand. Concepts like "push and pull PR",

Over the weekend, Online Marketing Blog posts as well as my interactions on Twitter took on a decidedly "public relations" flavor with TopRank's involvement at the 2008 PRSA International conference .  The event is now done and everyone should be back in the swing of things back in the office. This year TopRank had 2 speaking slots )a workshop and a panel ( plus Account Manager Mike Yanke and Media Relations Associate Nicole Leach stayed busy attending sessions,

Thank you to Jonathan Dingman, who writes the Google News, Inside blog, for attending the DPAC II conference in New York this week and blogging the session, " SEO: Is Finding Your Inner DAO the Answer?" which included: Ron Belanger, Vice President, Agency Development at Yahoo!, Anne Kennedy, Managing Partner at Beyond Ink, Jolina Pettice, Senior Account Manager at TopRank Online Marketing and Noah Elkin, Vice President of Corporate Strategy at Steak as moderator.

As with most conferences, we like to take a few photos and the annual Public Relations industry event, PRSA International conference is no different. Held in Detroit this year with attendee goals met and sponsor goals exceeded, there is a feel of optimism both about the city as esposed my Detroit mayor Ken Cockrel and by PRSA President Jeff Julin .

Next Wednesday, )Oct 29( 1 - 3:30 p.m. EST Network Solutions is holding the " Solutions Stars Video Conference, " a series of videos and live discussions featuring 32 internet marketing experts and entrepreneurs from every angle you can imagine from SEO to social media to whatever it is that Tim Ferris does. Seriously, this is one heck of a lineup and I have no doubt it will be exceptional.

As much has been publicized about brands using social media to better connect with their customers, extend brand reach and increase sales, there's still a high demand for practical insider advice and case studies. To preview the upcoming BlogWell event Oct 28 on How Big Companies Use Social Media , Online Marketing Blog brings you this first ever group interview with 4 speakers from some of America's best known brands to share their insights on defining, justifying,

We continue our Search Engine Optimization Basics series of posts this week with a question from a marketer that is dealing with issues related to moving a web site to another host and possibly updating the content management system and design. You may notice the image to the left has nothing to do with the "moving van" I was searching on at the stock photo site I use, yet it was presented in those search results.