Chicago SES 2006

I am off to Chicago until next Thursday for Search Engine Strategies. I am speaking on 2 sessions tuesday. You will probably hear something about 1 of them. Guess what?!? My sister Andrea is coming to her first search engine conference and will be in charge of pictures, video, and handing out shoemoney shirts! So if you see her say hi! Also if Andrea spots you wearing a shoemoney shirt at the conference you get a special thingie. (thats a nice way to say we are not sure what we are going to do yet). I always have good intentions of attending all the sessions. Problem is I get out of Nebraska and drink to much and end up sleeping until noon =(. I really really (no really) am going to make it to a bunch of sessions this conference though. Here is what I am planning to attend: Monday: 9:00am - 10:30am-

Business Issues For the small SEM Shop It started out small and slow, but now your business is ramping up fast. An email agreement for work no longer seems safe. Is it time for formal contracts? If so, what do you put in them? And does billing hourly still make sense as you better understand the long-term value of your service? What do you do when a client wants in house training? In this session, advice from those who've dealt with these and similar questions and come through to success. Moderator: Anne Kennedy, Managing Partner, Beyond Ink Speakers: Anne Kennedy, Managing Partner, Beyond Ink Todd Friesen, Director of Search Engine Optimization, Range Online Media Ken Jurina, President and CEO, Epiar Inc. Jessie Stricchiola, Founder, Alchemist Media Inc.

Todd and Jessie always to a great job. This should be a interesting session. 11:00am - 12:30pm

Ads In A Quality Score World More and more, ranking well in paid search listings is less about how much you pay and more about the "quality" of your ad campaign. But what goes into making up your quality score? In this panel, a closer look at quality factors and tips on increasing the perceived relevancy of your campaigns. Moderator: Danny Sullivan, Search Analyst, Calafia Consulting Speakers: Jonathan Mendez, Partner, OTTO Digital Joshua Stylman, Managing Partner, Reprise Media Andrew Goodman, Principal, Page Zero Media

Are you kidding? I wouldn't miss this! Sometimes between 12:30 and 2pm David Naylor and I are going to do a combo show together live from the floor. 2:00pm - 3:30pm I have a meeting booked so I wont be able to attend any of these sessions at this time 4:00pm - 5:30pm I am going to try my best to make it back to the convention center to catch this last session of the day:

Ad Testing: Research & Findings Have you been doing deep testing of your ad campaigns? Fear not -- the panel in this session has and will be sharing tips you might want to try yourself. How important are headlines, descriptions and other elements in your control? How do consumers interact with the ads? Moderator: Andrew Goodman, Principal, Page Zero Media Speakers: Anton E. Konikoff, Founder and CEO, Acronym Media Hugh Burnham, Client Services, Online Marketing, Rare Method Jonathan Mendez, Partner, OTTO Digital Gord Hotchkiss, President and CEO, Enquiro

Monday Night there is a private party/dinner that should be pretty awesome. After that I am sure most of us will be hanging in the hotel bar. Tuesday 9:00am - 9:45am Keynote - Jason McCabe Calacanis This should be really good. 10:15am - 11:45am

Domaining & Address Bar-Driven Traffic Plenty of people are searching for things by typing in words into their address bars, slapping on a .com and figuring they'll get to a relevant site. More and more, domainers are ensuring they don't draw a blank. Domainers purchase popular generic domain names and populate the sites with ads from the major search networks. Learn how the business is growing, how it can deliver relevant traffic to advertisers, as well as issues with typo domains and opt-out issues. Moderator: Andrew Goodman, Principal, Page Zero Media Speakers: Josh Meyers, Senior Director and GM of Domain Match, Yahoo! Search Marketing Jon Lisbin, Chief Strategist, Point It, Inc. Monte Cahn, CEO, Moniker.com Andrew Beckman, President, SearchAdNetwork Hal Bailey, Strategic Partner Manager, Google AdSense

1:15pm - 2:30pm

Duplicate Content & Multiple Site Issues More and more site owners are concerned that they might get penalized accidentally or overtly because of duplicate content. If you run mirror sites, will search engines ban you? If you have listings that are similar in nature, is that an issue? What happens if you syndicate content through RSS and feeds? Will other sites be considered the "real" site and rob you of a rightful place in the search results? This session looks at the issues and explores solutions. Moderator: Anne Kennedy, Managing Partner, Beyond Ink Speakers: Shari Thurow, Webmaster/Marketing Director, GrantasticDesigns.com Mikkel deMib Svendsen, CTO, RedZoneGlobal Adam Lasnik, Search Evangelist, Google, Inc. Tim Converse, Engineering Manager, Yahoo! Inc.

This was a tough one. I will probably listen to Alan Dick moderate the other panel then jump over the here to hear Adam and Mikkel. 3:00pm - 4:15pm

Earning Money From Contextual Ads This session looks at the way publishers can generate revenue by carrying contextual ads offered by major networks. Learn about some programs out there and tips on getting more from the ads you carry. Moderator: Rebecca Lieb, Executive Editor, The ClickZ Network, division of Incisive Media Speakers: Jennifer Slegg, Owner, JenSense.com Jeremy Schoemaker, Founder and CEO, Shoemoney Media Group Inc.

Im not sure about this Schoemaker guy but Jensense is always good. Seriously thought Jen always does a great job covering about everything there is to cover about contextual Advertising. I am going to present... contextual advertising - The alternative view. Some stuff based on my experience with contextual advertising mostly dealing in the Gray area.... 4:30pm - 5:45pm

Contextual Ads Track Contextual Ads & AdSense Clinic This interactive session takes volunteers from the audience and examines their web sites live to provide general feedback about improving them to do better from Google AdSense and other contextual ad placements. Moderator: Elisabeth Osmeloski, Managing Editor, Search Engine Watch Panelists: Jennifer Slegg, Owner, JenSense.com Jeremy Schoemaker, Founder and CEO, Shoemoney Media Group Inc.

Wednesday 9:00am - 10:15am I cant wait to see this again. Sparks flew last time.

Search Arbitrage Issues Search arbitrage is a long-time tactic getting new attention. It′s when someone makes money by spending less on search ads to attract traffic than they earn from carrying other search and contextual ads on their own sites. Some advertisers dislike the idea, feeling it′s unfair or wrong. Some advertisers don′t mind, figuring they′ll take traffic however they can get it. As for users, some might get turned off from doing a search, seeing ads, then clicking to a page that has the same ads again. This session explores these and other issues with search arbitrage. Moderator: Jeffrey K. Rohrs, President, Optiem, LLC Speakers: David Szetela, CEO, Clix Marketing Tim Daly, VP of Marketing Strategy, Sendtec Kristopher B. Jones, President and CEO, pepperjamSEARCH.com Frank Watson, Head Search Marketing, FXCM Jake Baillie, President, TrueLocal

11:00am - 12:15pm Split between 3 sessions here not sure wtf I am going to do.

Buying & Selling Links Links have been bought and sold to generate traffic even before search engines made significant use of them to influence rankings. Nevertheless, today some buy in hopes of getting improved rankings. Meanwhile, some purchases could result in search engine losses, if a search engine deems a link network to be a spamming attempt. This session examines how links are bought and sold with strategies on how to stay out of trouble. This session is designed for experienced marketers. Beginners should only attend if they′ve gone through the Link Building Basics session earlier in the conference. Moderator: Danny Sullivan, Search Analyst, Calafia Consulting Speakers: Eric Ward, CEO, EricWard.com Thomas Bindl, SEO Consultant, www.thomasbindl.com Patrick Gavin, President, Text Link Ads Inc. AND SMO: Social Media Optimization Community-built web sites, the popular Wikipedia and new sites allowing content being shared through "tagging" can be a great way to tap into links and search-driven traffic. This session looks at some social media services and strategies to tap into them in an appropriate manner. Moderator: Chris Sherman, Executive Editor, SearchEngineWatch.com President of Searchwise Speaker: Andy Hagans, Strategist, Text Link Ads Neil Patel, co-founder, Advantage Consulting Services Rand Fishkin, CEO, SEOmoz.org Todd Malicoat, Independent Search Engine Marketing Consultant, stuntdubl Lee Odden, Online Marketing Blog AND Dealing With Affiliates Affiliates can be a love ′em or hate ′em situation for search engine marketers. Affiliates can send plenty of traffic to your web site, but they can also drive up the cost to purchase terms if you decide to maintain your own direct sales channel. This session aims to help you strike a working relationship with your affiliates and the search engines themselves ­­ that everyone can live with. Moderator: Jeffrey K. Rohrs, President, Optiem, LLC Speaker: Anton E. Konikoff, Founder and CEO, Acronym Media Kristopher B. Jones, President and CEO, pepperjamSEARCH.com Mark J. Rosenberg, Esq., Sills, Cummis, Epstein & Gross P.C. Chris Henger, Vice President, Affiliate Marketing, Performics

2:00pm - 3:15pm Some people think I am good at linkbaiting... I dunno I just write.

Link Baiting & Viral Search Success What better way to get links than by doing something that makes people feel compelled to link to you? That′s link baiting -- coming up with an idea, a service, even a controversy -- that gets people talking and linking your way. A viral campaign is similar -- a program, a system or an encouragement that gets people linking to you over time. This session is designed for experienced marketers. Beginners should only attend if they've gone through the Link Building Basics session earlier in the conference. Moderator: Detlev Johnson, VP, Director of Consulting, Position Technologies Speakers: Chris Boggs, Search Strategist, Avenue A | Razorfish Rand Fishkin, CEO, SEOmoz.org Cameron Olthuis, Partner, Advantage Consulting Services Jennifer Laycock, Editor-in-Chief, Search Engine Guide

After this I have meetings with people until late in the afternoon =( But then probably will be at the hotel bar! Thursday I have 4 meetings scheduled Thursday morning then I am flying out. I probably will not make it to any sessions =(. Have fun and see you there!