FREE SEO & Social Media Mastery Course Birthday Giveaway!

Here's My Chance to Give Back!

In honor of my 44th birthday this week I will be giving away 44 hours of consulting and training on everything I've learned over the past 10 years doing Internet marketing, Enterprise Level SEO Consultation to some of the largest brands on the Internet, speaking at conferences globally and visionary architect of some of the largest social media campaigns - ever.

Here is my Bio and LinkedIn.

I've done really well in this industry and I just want to give some back to either:

1. Someone just starting out in the SEO or Social media space
2. An interesting young company that would benefit from my advice and connections
3. Perhaps a big brand that I admire and would love to work for gratis anyway :)
   
4. A promising venture capital funded company that I could say I helped out along the way
   

What You Will Get:

44 hours of risk free absolutely free consulting services either in person or telephonically / email / Twitter. Did I mention this was free?

Enterprise level SEO Mastery training - the kind that I used to drive $9.6MM in profits in two years at Autobytel, Inc and over $20MM since then.

Online strategic marketing - the kind I used to take UsedCars.com from a small 2 man operation to a sale at 16X revenue to Cobalt Corporation for $4.2MM

Access to my Rolodex - ask anyone who knows me - I'm extremely well connected in the online space. Most people are 6 degrees away from who they need to get to - I'm at max one or two degrees.

Access to many top tier venture capital firms that I know well.

Access to many of the companies that I've met as Evangelist for WebmasterWorld's PubCon conferences and as an attendee or speaker at 18 - 20 worldwide conferences a year over the past 8 years.

Introduction to strategic partners that may benefit yourself or your company. I know many of the top execs at some of the hottest companies on the net today.

Training sessions for as many people that you can pack into a room - or one on one.

If relevant - introduction to top contacts in the television media and film world.

Terms & Conditions

I will pick the most interesting winner from those that contact me over the next several days.

I will also be awarding 2 Runner's Up with up to 44 hours of consulting each at 50% off of my normal rate of $250.00 per hour.

I will post the winner here on my blog.

The training will be scheduled to take place over 60 days during the months of June and July, 2009.

The training and consulting to be divided as in person time, telephonically or by email at my discretion.

If the winner is outside of Orange County, CA all travel arrangements to be paid by the winner in advance including a $75 per diem for food and expenses for all days I spend onsite.

If I'm traveling - the 44 hours includes travel time.

If the winner wishes any consulting time beyond the initial 44 hours, time will be billed at my normal rate of $250 per hour.

Travel to be reserved on American Airlines for flights and Starwood for hotel accommodations.


A big thank you to the SEO/SEM industry!

~Joe

Animated Short Film via Graffiti

This is the craziest short film project I have seen. The entire animation sequence is done via murals on outdoor and indoor walls in Buenos Aires.

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

If Paint Were Sold by Airlines

I'm looking at booking some airline tickets and while pondering times and dates - several options for departure and arrival that existed a few minutes ago simply disappeared right in front of me - now the flight is still available mind you but the price went up - twice - in the space of about 30 minutes. This inspired today's Friday Funny so I thought I would post a classic that I was able to reference from Flyertalk:

If Paint was sold like Plane Tickets

Buying Paint from a Hardware Store:

Customer: Hi. How much is your paint?

Clerk: We have regular quality for $12 a gallon and premium for $18. How many gallons would you like?

Customer: Five gallons of regular quality, please.

Clerk: Great. That will be $60 plus tax.


Buying Paint from an Airline:

Customer: Hi, how much is your paint?

Clerk: Well, sir, that all depends.

Customer: Depends on what?

Clerk: Actually, a lot of things.

Customer: How about giving me an average price?

Clerk: Wow, that's too hard a question. The lowest price is $9 a gallon, and we have 150 different prices up to $200 a gallon.

Customer: What's the difference in the paint?

Clerk: Oh, there isn't any difference; it's all the same paint.

Customer: Well, then, I'd like some of that $9 paint.

Clerk: Well, first I need to ask you a few questions. When do you intend to use it?

Customer: I want to paint tomorrow, on my day off.

Clerk: Sir, the paint for tomorrow is the $200 paint.

Customer: What? When would I have to paint in order to get the $9 version?

Clerk: That would be in three weeks, but you will also have to agree to start painting before Friday of that week and continue painting until at least Sunday.

Customer: You've got to be kidding!

Clerk: Sir, we don't kid around here. Of course, I'll have to check to see if we have any of that paint available before I can sell it to you.

Customer: What do you mean check to see if you can sell it to me? You have shelves full of that stuff; I can see it right there.

Clerk: Just because you can see it doesn't mean that we have it. It may be the same paint, but we sell only a certain number of gallons on any given weekend. Oh, and by the way, the price just went to $12.

Customer: You mean the price went up while we were talking!

Clerk: Yes, sir. You see, we change prices and rules thousands of times a day, and since you haven't actually walked out of the store with your paint yet, we just decided to change. Unless you want the same thing to happen again, I would suggest that you get on with your purchase. How many gallons do you want?

Customer: I don't know exactly. Maybe five gallons. Maybe I should buy six gallons just to make sure I have enough.

Clerk: Oh, no, sir, you can't do that. If you buy the paint and then don't use it, you will be liable for penalties and possible confiscation of the paint you already have.

Customer: What?

Clerk: That's right. We can sell you enough paint to do your kitchen, bathroom, hall and north bedroom, but if you stop painting before you do the bedroom, you will be in violation of our tariffs.

Customer: But what does it matter to you whether I use all the paint? I already paid you for it!

Clerk: Sir, there's no point in getting upset; that's just the way it is. We make plans based upon the idea that you will use all the paint, and when you don't, it just causes us all sorts of problems.

Customer: This is crazy! I suppose something terrible will happen if I don't keep painting until after Saturday night!

Clerk: Yes, sir, it will.

Customer: Well, that does it! I'm going somewhere else to buy my paint.

Clerk: That won't do you any good, sir. We all have the same rules. Thanks for painting with our airline.

Hummingbird mom and baby in nest at night

Hummingbird mom and baby in nest at night, originally uploaded by equitymind.

Hummingbirds in my front yard taken completely dark at night with Nikon Speedlight 900 flash by holding camera high over my head and guessing where to aim - complete luck with this photo!

Taken with Nikon D90, 18MM - 200MM VR Nikkor Lens, F/ 5.6, Exposure 1/60 sec., ISO 800

Start Up Tips #1: Picking the Right Domain Name

I'm always referencing this list when I do strategy consulting for Start Ups so I thought I'd repeat it here as both a tip and as a Friday Funny:

This list comes from Independent Sources:

1. A site called ‘Who Represents‘ where you can find the name of the agent that represents a celebrity. Their domain name… wait for it… is
www.whorepresents.com

2. Experts Exchange, a knowledge base where programmers can exchange advice and views at
www.expertsexchange.com

3. Looking for a pen? Look no further than Pen Island at
www.penisland.net

4. Need a therapist? Try Therapist Finder at
www.therapistfinder.com

5. Then of course, there’s the Italian Power Generator company…
www.powergenitalia.com

6. And now, we have the Mole Station Native Nursery, based in New South Wales:
www.molestationnursery.com

7. If you’re looking for computer software, there’s always
www.ipanywhere.com

8. Welcome to the First Cumming Methodist Church. Their website is
www.cummingfirst.com

9. Then, of course, there’s these brainless art designers, and their whacky website:
www.speedofart.com

10. Want to holiday in Lake Tahoe? Try their brochure website at
www.gotahoe.com

;)

Optimism And Opportunity At SXSW

I strongly agree - the majority of people I know in digital media make things happen on their own and don't rely upon an employer to secure their future. Why worry about a job when you can work for shorts stints of time or work for three or four companies at once - all from home? It seems project based is the way to go from what I was observing at SXSW. I definitely didn't see signs of a recessions during the past week.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Storybids Hosts Dinner for Filmmakers in NYC

My company Storybids recently hosted a dinner along with IndieGOGO during Indie Film Week in New York City. Among the Guests were Actress Faye Dunaway, Ted Hope - Executive Producer of 21 Grams, Lance Hammer winner of The Directing Award and Best Cinematography for his film 'Ballast' at the Sundance Film Festival and Arin Crumley and Susan Buice whose film Four Eyed Monsters has won numerous awards. The purpose of the dinner was to collaborate in an informal setting and discuss new ways for distribution for DIY filmmakers and challenges within the indie film making community. The theme was 'When Internet and Films Collide'. The dinner was filmed as part of a three part reality series that will be released on the web in the coming weeks so more to come.

Here are some of the attendees of the dinner:

















Watch the trailer for Arin and Susan's film 'Four Eyed Monsters' here:

Storybids Product Placement Marketplace Launches!

I've been real quiet lately. I haven't blogged. I've missed the last three major Internet marketing conferences that I'm normally known to be a fixture at. I resigned as the SES party director. My travel schedule, while still fairly consistent, now includes more meetings than conferences. I've dropped 95% of my SEO clients and now just refer new inquiries over to my Partner at Boost Search Marketing - Aaron Shear.

I've been busy.

Other than working with Brett Tabke on the upcoming PubCon this coming November (yes, no conflicts this year), the majority of my time has been spent working on my newest venture - Storybids. What Storybids does is provide a marketplace for product placement advertising within user generated as well as professionally scripted online video. Not so much the kids at a skate park videos as much as the serial mini dramas, the episodic webisodes that are garnering a following. Television programming is moving online and the traditional ways of monetizing video content is changing. Online viewers don't like sitting through 15 or 30 second pre-roll ads. They really don't. Yet there has to be a way to offset production and bandwidth costs. As consumers we have learned to accept banner advertising and even contextual ads near the video content, but don't make us wait while we are also dealing with buffering and jittery playback.

Product placement works. If done correctly where its not blatant and done in a way where the brand is integrated into the storyline. A recent Mindshare study shows that viewers react negatively to interruptive TV style ads and attempt to skip them whenever possible suggesting that consumers are far more receptive to product placement in online video programming than pre- and post-roll advertising. PQ Media released a study in February, 2007 that showed spending on branded entertainment marketing grew 14.7% to an all time high of $22.3 billion in 2007 and is projected to increase by another 13.9% in 2008 to $25.41 billion driven by product placement, event sponsorship/marketing, and advergaming/webisodes.

This is why the idea came to me to incorporate a proven business model in the offline world to the online advertising world except the pricing gets better and it can literally get to the point where anyone will be able to advertise in this fashion. Remember GoTo? Before Yahoo Search and Overture, GoTo brought Internet advertising to small business advertisers. In the early days of the internet before GoTo, if you wanted to advertise online you had to cut portal deals with Netscape, AOL or Doubleclick which priced out small business owners. The same scenario exists today with product placement advertising in traditional television. In order to effectively get your brand messaging out there, a brand needs to forge alliances with a television network via a product placement agency and that agency typically represents one brand in an industry (a product placement agency couldn't represent both Nike and Reebok in attempting to secure a product placement deal for instance).

In a marketplace setting, both Nike and Reebok may bid for the same branding opportunity and the true value proposition may be realized as markets dictate the true value of a placement. In an online marketplace, the placement takes on a new life since any company may bid on the opportunity, not just the agency that the studio happens to have a relationship with. In addition, just as when GoTo brought Internet advertising to the masses, an online marketplace like Storybids can bring product placement advertising to the masses and can be done with tracking, analytics and dashboard reporting and also have distribution channels built in and video search optimization techniques built in for increased viewership.

So my Storybids business partner Juan Prado and I learned all this while developing the business model and realized that this was not a whole lot different than search advertising and that we could apply the lessons and metrics we had learned doing enterprise level search optimization over the past several years. We landed a 'Series A' round of venture capital financing last August from STN Labs in Toronto and began to put the vision to reality. Which brings us to our launch this week. While it may be a bit of a departure from organic search optimization, it really isn't a whole lot different since we're applying a different twist to some proven business models and hoping to capture an entirely new market while showing video content creators how to get product placement advertising in their videos.

Here is a little bit more about our launch as reported on by my good friend and colleague at WebmasterWorld, the very sweet Vanessa Zamora.