Where in the world is Mike?

Last year I completed 32 engagements at conferences, seminars, workshops and other presentations all over the world. I decided that, this year, I really want to try and spend a little more time at home with my family.

However, they’re stacking up again!

So here’s a list which is about 80% confirmed for conferences, workshops etc., that I’ll be speaking at this year. As I say, they’re not all confirmed yet, but if you’d like to say hello personally, here’s where you’re most likely to find me this year:

Post Magazine Business Leaders Forum CEO Summit:
February 8, Lanesborough Hotel, Hyde Park Corner, London.

Search Engine Strategies:
February 27 – March 2, Hilton Hotel, Avenue of the Americas, New York

ad:tech Impact:
March 9, InterContinental Hotel, 15201 Dallas Parkway, Dallas

Lucrative Search Marketing:
March 14, The Dorchester, Park Lane, London

Search Engine Strategies:
March 17-18, Nanjing International Exhibition Center, Nanjing, China

Search Engine Strategies:
March 30-31, Hilton Hotel, Munich Park, Munich

PubCon 14:
April 18 – 19, Boston (Venue to be confirmed).

Killer Search Marketing 2006:
April 24 – 25 , Holiday Inn Bloomsbury, Central London

ad:tech:
April 26 – 28, The Moscone Center, San Francisco

eMetrics Summit – The Web Analytics Conference:
May 3 – 5, The Radisson SAS Portman Hotel, 22 Portman Square, London

Internet World 2006:
May 9 – 11, Earls Court 2, London

Search Engine Strategies:
May 31 – June 2, Business Design Centre, London

Online Marketing Europe:
June 14 – 16, Congress Palace, Palma, Mallorca, Spain

Search Engine Strategies:
July 10-11, InterContinental Hotel, Miami

ad:tech:
July 24-25, Chicago (Venue to be confirmed)

Search Engine Strategies:
August 7-10, McEnery Convention Center, San Jose, CA

ad:tech:
September 27 – 28, Olympia, London

PubCon 15:
November 14 – 15, Las Vegas (venue to be confirmed)

ad:tech:
November, Shanghai (date and venue to be confirmed)

Search Engine Strategies:
December 4-7, Hilton Hotel, Chicago

SEO Buzzbox interview.

I was approached by a very cool Aaron Pratt, who seems to be having a lot of interest over at his SEO Buzzbox blog. He asked me if I’d mind dropping in and answering a few pertinent questions. Yes, there’s more a bout the “sandbox” at the buzzbox, here.

Now what was it I said about pull?

From Media Post:

“WHILE PARTICIPATING IN THE WORD of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) conference last week in Orlando, Florida, I caught one of General Motor’s 30-second regional television ads for its Pontiac brand. Television ads often stimulate Internet search behavior by increasing brand awareness or sparking curiosity, as often demonstrated by Hitwise. But this GM spot was significant because it ended with an unusual call to action: “Don’t take our word for it. Google Pontiac and discover for yourself.” And the ad ended not with a URL or phone number for a local dealer, but an actual Google screenshot with Pontiac typed in. Yes, an actual screenshot!”

Wonder where that idea came from?

Thanks Garrett, for tipping me off about that article!

Jingle bells… (again, almost!)

You see, in Russia, things are different. New Year comes before Christmas because of the mix between the Julian and the Gregorian calendar.

So Christmas is actually on January 7th.

However, this is nowhere near as late as the time that the company my wife works for celebrate their Christmas.

Being completely tight bastards, they give it a theme, make it sound exciting by having to dress up, and then book the Hilton at the cheapest price you’ll get all year!

So, this weekend, my wife and I dressed up and celebrated Christmas again (and we all talked about was the Easter break!)

A grand plan for SEO.

My ClickZ column, published today, is a follow up to comments made here after my previous column was published.

Generally speaking, my message remains the same. I don’t look down my nose at smaller companies at all. I actually get very excited when I meet entrepreneurs who have vision and the desire to grow from one level to the next.

Companies which have a good product offering which can differentiate themselves in an existing marketplace, or provide new, even disruptive services to make them stand out in a crowd.

There has been some misunderstanding behind my suggestions of integrated marketing communications for smaller firms. Many think that I seem to be talking about them having to embark on huge TV and press campaigns in order to create the “search engine pull” effect.

In the forward to the excellent book I mentioned in my column, “Communities dominate brands” Coca Cola Chief Marketing Officer, Stephen C Jones, makes his own observation of the future of marketing from his time in Japan.

“…internet use soared from a few after hours office workers to a national phenomenon. We played outside the traditional marketing box with some entry level internet marketing promotions which unintentionally started a dialogue with six million consumers.

Wireless cellular technology and the internet forever changed the consumer and our approach to marketing in Japan.

And it reshaped my own mental model of how to engage in a relationship with consumers.”

We’re moving from a networked age to a connected age. To consumers who, ten years ago, were relishing the power of the internet. But the network age was static. You logged on to the internet, surfed and then went to the shopping mall to do some “touchy feely” stuff before you purchased.

But in this connected age where my Blackberry, for instance allows me to be connected 24/7 wherever I am on the planet. I have permanent access to family, friends and colleagues. And I can allow them permanent access to me.

The opportunities for everyone to tap into communities in the new connected age is there for everyone.

Exciting times, indeed!

Paul McKenna.

He’s billed as the world’s greatest hypnotist. But for me, he’s one of my oldest buddies. In fact, Paul and I go back 25 years when he was just a kid and we first worked together in radio.

Back then we were both DJs working together and hanging together. That’s how he started his love affair with my home city, Newcastle. He loves to come and visit. And each time I’m in London, I pop around his place.

I was in London last week so I popped into his office. We run a small business online between us. It’s a good job we both have proper jobs (his putting him squarely in the multi-millionaire class, of course!) because, if we had to rely on the online business for a living, we’d both be sleeping on park benches!

It’s one of those projects which has been getting off the ground for years. Little by little it’s getting there. But because I’m out of the country for almost 20 weeks of each year and he’s doing TV appearances all over the world… We’re getting around to it!

His new TV series is the biggest audience yet, with millions tuning in each Monday evening in the UK for his “I can make you thin” show. Paul has already sold millions of hypnotherapy self-help CDs and his past three books have all been UK best sellers.

His new book (complete with CD) is “Instant Confidence” and I guarantee, like the rest it will be a best seller.

Paul’s known to some pretty famous SEO types. He once whisked Jill Whalen off to dinner in a Ferrari. Had Andrew Goodman around his place for a few rooftop beers. And frequently indulges in a curry with me and my new colleague Jim Banks whose company MarketSmart Interactive just acquired.

Here’s a pic of him in my local pub in Newcastle, proudly drinking the world famous brew we make here: Newcastle Brown Ale!

Go Seattle Seahawks!

[But first, here’s a line I will edit out after the next damn, blasted fix I have to discover to fix the shitty fix that almost fixed the other one!]

This Sunday could be a monumental day for them (Seahawks, that is). A chance to go to the Superbowl for the first time in history.

As my buddy, Rand Fishkin in Seattle, is a big fan, I have to raise a glass to him and his team to wish them best of luck, along with himself.

And no better way to do that than with a true, very expensive, single malt from my own backyard – especially as Rand paid for it!

Go Seattle Seahawks. And for anyone else who is a caring soul, pray for Newcastle United, my own team. No need to drink for them. They do enough of that themselves.

Why do you think they need prayers!

PS – By the way, I used the term having a wee Dram or two when I dropped Rand a note earlier. I have a feeling, as most coders, he may think it has something to do with computer memory. However, we used the word back with William Wallace a long time before computers were around 😉

http://www.dewars.com/sitemap/scotch_whiskies.htm

A kind of homecoming…

I’ve been prevented from Blogging because of a bug in the template code… I thought!

I have pulled my hair out over this, only to find that the problem is not in the template, it’s in the Blogger software!

Remind me of something. Why is it we use Blogger software for… well, blogging, when previously, we just coded up some pages and then FTPd them up to our respective sites? Archives created and included, of course.

This whole hosed code issue is actually based around the fact that I used italics… Correct, that and nothing else.

If you have a similar problem with the sidebar disappearing because you use italics then you could just not use them. However, for anyone suffering the same problem, here’s the fix:

Go to the Template editing page when logged into Blogger, and within the text editing area on the page (click inside it once), run a “Find” command from your browser for “post-body” (no quotes). That should show you the following CSS code:

.post-body div {font-size: 13px;line-height: 18px;margin: 10px, 0px;}

Change that to the following:

.post-body div {font-size: 13px;line-height: 18px;margin: 0;height: 1%;overflow:visible;}

Then, go back to the bathroom with some glue and pick out the hair you pulled out of your head and stick it back on again.

“…hello pull.”

Google to Acquire dMarc Broadcasting.

“Google is committed to exploring new ways to extend targeted,measurable advertising to other forms of media,” said Tim Armstrong,vice president of Advertising Sales, Google. “We anticipate that this acquisition will bring new ad dollars and accountability to radio by combining Google’s expansive network of advertisers with dMarc’s talented team and innovative radio advertising technology. We lookforward to working together to continue to grow and improve the ecosystem of the radio industry.”

With press ads, radio and no doubt TV on the way… all I can say is: Integrated Marketing Communications.

Code and stuff…

A few people have mentioned that my post of Friday doesn’t render properly in other browsers (I only use IE so that I can see stuff exactly the same as the highest percentage of average surfers).

Thanks Nick Wilsdon (in Russia, you lucky guy!) for letting me know. And also to Barry Welford (ex UK North Easterner) and the super delicious Kim Krause, for alerting me.

I have to say, I use the Microsoft Word utility that Blogger developed (because, I’m really, really short on time. All the time).So I don’t usually have time to hand check code. But I took a quick peek and I’m sure that xml filter isn’t cleaning up the crappy Word code.

I’ll take a more thorough look tomorrow.

But right now, there’s the final of a reality TV show with people from Coronation Street in it.

Correct, correct, correct. I’m a sad case who watches Corrie (well, when I’m in the UK, anyway!)