SEO Mentor

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In this post you will find a recap of the Scary SEO conference held October 24-25, 2008 with myself and Dana Lookadoo. Listen to the podcast above or read the transcript below!

Garrett: Hello everyone, it’ Garrett Pierson, Your SEO Mentor. I’m here with Dana Lookadoo. How are you?

Dana: Hi Garrett, I’m doing great. Thank you for having me. How are you doing?

Garrett: I’m great. Did I say your last name correctly?

Dana: You did. Lookadoo. I’m impressed. Very good.

Garrett: Dana, what we’re going to do today; I want to go back and forth with you on the awesome event that we just got back from recently, Scary SEO. I want to go back and forth on what we learned, the fun we had, and what everybody missed out on.

Dana: They really did miss out. It’s amazing that such a small conference could have such a large effect. It really did. I’m excited to talk about it.

Garrett: That’s great. All of you that missed out on Scary SEO, it just happened October 24th and 25th, in Ft. Lauderdale. Dave Snyder and Jordan Kasteler put that on from SearchandSocial.com. You can also find out a lot more about the event at ScarySEO.com.

Anyway, it just started out as a nice day, Friday. The fun thing about this conference was it was very small. There were fifty people invited to come. It was small and very personal. That’s what I really liked about this conference.

It started out with Jeff Quipp from Search Engine People. He started out with the opening keynote. He talked about where search came from, what search is, and the future of search. I loved Jeff Quipp’s keynote. It really started the conference off with a bang. It was very fun. Jeff is a smart guy and such a nice guy. I was able to talk with him quite a bit throughout the conference. That was what was so cool about this conference. In any other conference, I probably would never have had the opportunity to get with him unless I would have made a huge effort. I got to sit with him through lunch. I got to sit with him through the dinners and parties afterward and really speak with him and pick his brain about search and social media. That’s what was really fun about this conference.

I was also able to meet you, Dana. We’ve talked on Twitter and I’ve talked with a lot of people that were there, on Twitter, but it was fun to put a face with a name and business. Dana, what was your favorite part of the first day, and essentially the whole conference there in Florida?

Dana: Starting at the bird’s eye where you started. For instance, getting to meet Jeff and Loren Baker, Lisa Barone, Dave Snyder, Jordan Kasteler and Utah SEO Pro now has a face, a body, and a personality. You get to meet them in person, to talk, and to share. It really was one of the highlights of the conference. As you mentioned, going to SES or even an SMX, being at SMX Advance with a smaller venue, I thought that was great. Attending SEOmoz in August, which was even a smaller venue; I thought that was great. Now, attending Scary SEO, that’s the pinnacle. I can’t wait until April when they do their next one. I definitely want to be there because of the intimacy and the quality of what was shared.

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So this last Monday I booked my flights and hotel heading to sunny Fort Lauderdale Florida (ok I don’t know if it is sunny but hey it is Florida). “Why am I going to Florida in October,” you may ask yourself? I would then reply and say well, “Why Not?” If you could spend a couple of days learning about SEO, SEM, Social Media and much more from a group of stand up people in the industry, then I think you would as well, not to mention the conference is in Florida. Ok, Ok, so what is this conference you might ask, well to find out all the details I would head over to ScarySEO.com to get the low down.

You might have your reasons why your are going or not, but here are the Top 10 Reasons why I am going to the Scary SEO conference on October 24-25, 2008:

1. Dave Snyder (Why is this my number 1 reason? Cause have never met this big huge gorrilla)
2. Speakers – Jordan Kasteler, Jeff Quipp, Rhea Drysdale, Martin Bowling, Loren Baker, Brandy Eddings, Pamela Lund, Brian Chappell, John Carcutt, Ross Dunn, Brian Carter, Chris Hart, Eric Lander (get each speakers bio here scaryseo.com/speakers/)
3. Mini-conference! With this being a mini-conference the networking is going to be amazing, not to mention the close up training with more manageable debates.
4. Agenda – with the above great speakers we will be learning and debating; The Code of SEO, Link Building, Online Reputation Management, SEO Tools, SEM strategies, Analytics, SEO Project Management, Content Creation, Social Media Optimization and much more!
5. Florida! Who doesn’t want to go to Florida and it has been years since I have been out there.
6. I get to meet my buddy Joshua Sciarrino (formerly known as the flying monkey)
7. Zima Contest. If you haven’t heard of Martin Bowling and his love for Zima then you need to check out his Zima Contest and see how you can win a trip to Scary SEO.
   
8. SEOmoz sponsored night on the town with a Limo Bus excursion to the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino.
9. Learning and Fun, and a couple days away from work!
10. For being the first year of Scary SEO their prices are outstanding with total admission to the conference and parties being a great value at $200 per person.

These just happen to be my top ten reasons why I am going to the Scary SEO conference and I could go on and on but I think you get the point. As you can see I am quite excited about going and you should be too. Not to use the fear of loss marketing tactic, but there are only 50 seats available and time is running out so register now.

nuf said!

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If you want to meet a cowgirl that loves Paid Search Marketing then you can’t miss my interview with Brandy Eddings. As you will find Brandy is not only a PPC genius she also is a huge football (Dallas Cowboys) fan and she also works on muscle cars. Now who wouldn’t want to get to know a girl like that!!!

Garrett: Hello everyone, this is Garrett Pierson, Your SEO Mentor, and I am here today with Brandy Eddings of BrandyEddings.com. She is a paid-search marketing expert. How are you Brandy?

Brandy: I’m good. How are you doing, today?

Garrett: I’m wonderful. Thank you for your time and thank you for being here. Brandy, I’m going to start out with my introduction question that I ask everybody, because we want to get to know you a little bit more. What can you tell us about yourself, your background in the online marketing industry, your family hobbies, anything you want to talk about?

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For this SEO & Social Media Monday Interview Podcast Series I had the opportunity to interview myself. Yea I know I am weird but hey your chance to learn a bit more about me Garrett Pierson Your SEO Mentor. I also go into depth of why and how I do these interviews and stay tuned to my next interview with Lee Odden of TopRankBlog.com on Monday August 25, 2008!

So check out and listen to the podcast above or check out the transcript of the recording below:

Hello everyone, this is Garrett Pierson here; Your SEO Mentor. You’re here for my Monday interview series. Welcome, and thank you for being here.

Today, I have the opportunity to interview myself, Garrett Pierson. The interviewee that I was going to interview fell through but that is okay. I have the opportunity to interview myself. That’s a good thing, because I’ve had a lot of listeners, people who follow me, and friend ask, “Garrett, you’re doing these great interviews with some great experts in the SEO and Social Media communities and industries, but we don’t know a lot about you.” This is a great opportunity for me to tell you all a little bit about myself, to tell you why I do these interviews, and to go through what these interview series are all about. Thank you for this opportunity. Hopefully you guys will stick around and listen. I’m going to make this very quick and to the point.

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So here it is the very first preview of Pubcon 2008 and it isn’t looking pretty. Can you just image these two guys ‘Jordan Kasteler’ and ‘Dave Snyder’ at the same place and make that place Vegas, TOTAL CHAOS!

Ideas by Garrett Pierson and Illustration by Mike Dyson

With all joking aside I am totally excited about Pubcon this year and there is a sweet lineup of speakers and the extra bonus of the conference being in Las Vegas. Just got word that they posted the conference session schedule.

Anyways this was just a quick fun post! Just wanted to lighten up the mood in the industry!

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I had the best time with my Monday Interview Podcast with Dave Snyder aka the cry baby! Take a listen above or read the transcript below to get total access to Dave admitting that he cries, a lot!

Garrett: Hello everyone. This is Garrett Pierson, YourSEOMentor. I’m here with Dave Snyder of Snydeysense.com, and SearchandSocial.com. How are you Dave?

Dave: I’m doing well. How are you doing?

Garrett: I’m good. It’s great to have you here, I’m excited. Why don’t you tell us a bit more about yourself, for those who might not know you; a little bit of your background in SEO, online marketing, social media, your family; anything you want to talk about?

Dave: I used to be a teacher for three years, when I first got out of school. I actually played music for a year when I first got out of school and just hung out. I didn’t know what to do with myself so I became a teacher. I’d always wanted to be a writer. My love for writing, and my huge love for sports, led me to start working for some content sites. They were a lot of fantasy football and basketball sites.

From that writing I started my own site and got into affiliate marketing just to keep the revenue up, to actually have the site pay for itself. I then got into SEO and all kinds of things. From there I decided that maybe the Web was the place for me to go. I really just wanted to start off as a content writer and editor. I ended up looking into SEO and getting more into it. I took a job in the agency world.

From there I worked with an agency for a while and I toiled in an agency in an online marketing manager. We all know how agency work can go. It can be pretty grueling sometimes. I learned a lot; mostly from just being thrown into the fire.

Now I’m the search and social media strategist for JRDunn.com. We’re the world’s largest designer jewelry store. I’m also the cofounder of SearchandSocial.com, with Jordan Kasteler. We’re a SEO and social media consultancy. We also do our own online media.

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