Archive for the ‘Resources’ Category

By: Serena Hillman
SerenaSafeMode.com*

1. Search Engine Strategies Magazine

Every year Search Engine Strategies, the leading global conference and expo series, produces nine yearly issues of the SES Magazine with exclusive articles, event previews, and interviews specifically focused on search marketing and commerce. This magazine is an absolute must read for anyone interested in keeping up-to-date with the digital marketing world. The main reason this is my top pick-they do an excellent job of sorting through the mass amount of information and only report on the must-haves: an absolute necessity for working professionals. You can sign up for your free copy here: Search Engine Strategies Magazine

• Pros: Free, Tangible format (print), great articles, condensed information
• Cons: A little too “advertisey” at times, cycle of news is at the minimum monthly

2. WebProNews

The well known WebProNews portal is a great source for everything going on in search and technology. If you have time to read it daily you will surely impress your friends at the water cooler with up to the minute breaking news. Check out WebProNews.

• Pros: Expert Opinions, diverse RSS options to pin down your area of interest
• Cons: Usability on newsletter is quite frustrating, very ad heavy, sometimes overwhelming amounts of information

3. Alertbox: Jakob Nielsen’s Useit.com

An oldy but a goody. Dr. Jakob Nielsen’s alerts mixes traditional e-newsletter format with an academic twist (actually more like an academic paper with an e-newsletter twist). All reports published follow the scientific method and presents you with the most accurate findings on the web (not surprising from a Doctor). Useit.com is also great for viewing old usability and commerce trends since the mid 90’s. Check out the Doc’s site and/or sign up for his e-newsletter.

• Pros: Great legacy information, expert research, old research topics are frequently revisited
• Cons: Few posts (about 2 a month)

*Serena has been involved within the web industry for 6 years and specializes in Organic Search. She is currently employed as the Director of Marketing and Web Development for ShowTimeTickets.com. Prior to Serena’s career she earned her Bachelors and Masters Degree in Interactive Communications from Quinnipiac University.

SES San Jose 2009 Review:
Duplicate Content & Multiple Site Issues Session

By: Serena Hillman

The Google Booth

After a good sleep at the Hilton San Jose, I wandered to the registration booth, got my Press Badge, and was on my way to the first session: Duplicate Content & Multiple Site Issues

This panel had representation from all three main search engines: Bing, Google and Yahoo. But surprisingly the best presentations were by the two non-search engine representatives: Shari Thurow, Founder & SEO director of Omni Marketing Interactive and Marty Weintraub, President of aimChair.

Shari covered a lot of ground and provided great information about why you want to get rid of duplicates and technically what qualifies as duplicate content. She mentioned some testing her company has been doing regarding navigational usability. Continue…

SES San Jose 2009 Review:
Duplicate Content & Multiple Site Issues Session

By: Serena Hillman

The Google Booth

After a good sleep at the Hilton San Jose, I wandered to the registration booth, got my Press Badge, and was on my way to the first session: Duplicate Content & Multiple Site Issues

This panel had representation from all three main search engines: Bing, Google and Yahoo. But surprisingly the best presentations were by the two non-search engine representatives: Shari Thurow, Founder & SEO director of Omni Marketing Interactive and Marty Weintraub, President of aimChair.

Shari covered a lot of ground and provided great information about why you want to get rid of duplicates and technically what qualifies as duplicate content. She mentioned some testing her company has been doing regarding navigational usability. Continue…

Keynote Charlene Li

SES San Jose 2009 Review:
Morning Keynote: How to Prepare for the Future of Search

By: Serena Hillman

Bright and early Thursday morning co-author of Groundswell: winning in a world transformed by social technologies, Charlene Li took to the stage to review her suggestions on how to prepare for the future of search. Starting with the past she showed the audience what Google looked like in 2001, then what Google looks like today, and finally Bing. She pointed out that the innovation that has transpired in the last decade is a shift more geared towards understanding the users intent. With this she announced the theme of the keynote–people must be at the center of your search strategy, not keywords.

She predicts that in the future social networks will be like air: we don’t go to them but it is all around us, embedded within society. Citing examples of iPhone apps.
Continue…

By: Serena Hillman
DrinkTheCoolaid.com*

Thought I would share this nifty Consumer Profile Tool which profiles engagement within the Social Media space. A great starting point when building your Social Media strategy.

Consumer:

Continue…

By: Serena Hillman
DrinkTheCoolaid.com*

Thought I would share this nifty Consumer Profile Tool which profiles engagement within the Social Media space. A great starting point when building your Social Media strategy.

Consumer:

Continue…

On November 12th,  a day-long seminar on Persuasive Web Design will be held at VKI Studios. The seminar is called “The Art and Science of Online Persuasion: How to Get Visitors to ACT”.

This will be a small, intimate gathering. Participants will get lots of personal attention and will be encouraged to ask questions and share experiences. In this seminar, we won’t dwell on obvious techniques like offering discounts or the power of “free”. Rather, we’ll teach you how to create emotional appeals that may not sound strictly logical… but work!

You will learn 14 diabolically effective persuasion tools:

Ugly Jerry and the Contrast Principle
Optimal Level of Dissonance
Distract then Reframe
Harnessing the Power of People We Like
Plus at least 10 more!

 The seminar will be held at VKI Studios’ head office in Downtown Vancouver (503-1080 Howe St.) from 8.30 to 4.30. Their boardroom only sits 10 people, so space is limited. If you think you might be interested, please call to ask for details. We’d like to ensure that seats go to those who would benefit the most.

 To register, call 1-866-733-8899 ext 242. Mention “IIMA” when registering to save $100 off of the $475 price.

On November 12th,  a day-long seminar on Persuasive Web Design will be held at VKI Studios. The seminar is called “The Art and Science of Online Persuasion: How to Get Visitors to ACT”.

This will be a small, intimate gathering. Participants will get lots of personal attention and will be encouraged to ask questions and share experiences. In this seminar, we won’t dwell on obvious techniques like offering discounts or the power of “free”. Rather, we’ll teach you how to create emotional appeals that may not sound strictly logical… but work!

You will learn 14 diabolically effective persuasion tools:

Ugly Jerry and the Contrast Principle
Optimal Level of Dissonance
Distract then Reframe
Harnessing the Power of People We Like
Plus at least 10 more!

 The seminar will be held at VKI Studios’ head office in Downtown Vancouver (503-1080 Howe St.) from 8.30 to 4.30. Their boardroom only sits 10 people, so space is limited. If you think you might be interested, please call to ask for details. We’d like to ensure that seats go to those who would benefit the most.

 To register, call 1-866-733-8899 ext 242. Mention “IIMA” when registering to save $100 off of the $475 price.

From frontline – excellent – speaker was spot on – genuine – stories were real – and anecdotes as good as the presentations. People came out with eyes like saucers..(well… they were happy)….it was a mixture of a call to arms with undertones of buckminster fuller**.  We kept returning to find the truth, honesty and TRUST in our brands – or just our pursuits.

Finding the DNA strand that uniquely identifies your brands purpose and letting it become the building block of your usefulness or efficacy in all things web – and now all things social web. Wait to be found – be the thing – the name – the answer or the top 3 at the END of a Google search – not the hallway or corridor of comments one sees along the way.

It was for me, it was a bit digital-anthropological – a thinking man’s (and woman’s) event – not so much a “I came here to learn how to bake a cake” event. As it was so aptly stated early on – the whole social media experience is like a school bus going 300 miles an hour.  Nobody knows where it’s going or how to control it.

Information pings from a tweet to a retweet to a Google search to LinkedIn to Facebook… yikes. Absolutely no tracking, no analytics….at least not yet. And finally – anyone who purports to be social media expert is really just a charlatan….there are no social media experts. Not yet away. BTW, audience interaction was good as evidenced by the questions and the opinions cited.

Sincerely,

Steve Deller – Director IIMA

**Trim tab as a metaphor The engineer Buckminster Fuller is often cited for his use of trim tabs as a metaphor for leadership and personal empowerment. In the February 1972 issue of Playboy, Fuller said: “Something hit me very hard once, thinking about what one little man could do. Think of the Queen Mary — the whole ship goes by and then comes the rudder. And there’s a tiny thing at the edge of the rudder called a trim tab. It’s a miniature rudder. Just moving the little trim tab builds a low pressure that pulls the rudder around. Takes almost no effort at all. So I said that the little individual can be a trim tab. Society thinks it’s going right by you, that it’s left you altogether. But if you’re doing dynamic things mentally, the fact is that you can just put your foot out like that and the whole big ship of state is going to go. So I said, call me Trim Tab.“

By: Serena Hillman
DrinkTheCoolaid.com*

One of my final project ideas for my Artificial Intelligence class was to recreate expensive and cumbersome human eye tracking with Artificial Intelligence, specifically a Neural Network. Much to my chagrin, with a little Googling I find out it has already been done and done quite well:

The eye tracking video’s on YouTube claim that the application uses over 100,000 training samples. Also if you peruse through the developer’s video’s you can see examples of the computer generated results compared to real human eye tracking tests as well as being used in different mediums (ex. tv, web).

In my conversation with Dzmitry, the applications developer, he was understandably a little hesitant to reveal details on how the application works. But I sent him some more questions, namingly if he used a neural network or not. I will update the post if he responds.

Here’s a snippet of our conversation:

Hi Serena,

Thanks for your interest. … Please have a look at selected examples for www (early demos) here http://www.youtube.com/adstapler or retail and ad industry (more mature demos) http://www.youtube.com/shopperlabs. …

Best Regards,
Dzmitry

Below is my favourite example. Alright I might be a little web biaist. The results are great, considering all good PPC marketers know getting the third spot on the right hand for Adsense is ideal.

Note: I also did look at Feng-GUI’s similar application but found it nowhere near the accuracy as Dzmitry’s. For example, another blogger points out some accuracy issues here.

*Serena has been involved within the web industry since 2003 and specializes in Organic Search. She is currently employed as the Director of Marketing and Web Development for ShowTimeTickets.com. Prior to Serena’s career she earned her Bachelors and Masters Degree in Interactive Communications from Quinnipiac University.