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PubCon 2011 Coverage Featuring a New WebmasterRadio.FM Show Host

WebmasterRadio.FM roving reporters made their way to the Webmaster World PubCon 2011 Conference last month, and our interviews from the show are now available inside the Specials section or our website.

Superior Affiliate Management CEO Cresta Pillsbury and COO JP Diaz spoke with speakers, attendees and exhibitors to get their take on the annual Internet marketers November pilgrimage to Las Vegas.

In related news, Pillsbury will be taking over hosting duties for the returning Affiliate Marketing Insider radio series beginning Thursday Janjuary 19th at 3pm Eastern Time.

Now, on to the interviews…

Search engine marketing and social media expert Tony Wright discusses Integrated Marketing Communications and how he helps clients create a competitive advantage, boost sales and profits, save money, drive traffic, and promote a brand.

Real World Winning Tactics for Content Creation and Marketing and Linkbuilding discussion with Vertical Measures President Arnie Kuenn.

WeBuildPages is Now Internet Marketing Ninjas as we find out with Jennifer Van Iderstyne, Sales and Marketing Manager with Internet Marketing Ninjas.

Discussing the change of the marketplace in online marketing as Cresta speaks CJ Millar, the Senior Director of Client Management from Teknicks, a Full service interactive enhancement.

PubCon 2011 Giveaways and Takeaways as Cresta Pillsbury and JP Diaz from Superior Affiliate Management take to the tradeshow floor to get a few words with some of the exhibitors and attendees.

WebmasterRadio.FM Adds “Contests” To It’s Regime

WMR has recently decided to utilize on-going contests in our efforts to raise awareness for us.

The reasons for this may be plenty, but this a few thoughts on the benefits of using contests for your own company to drive awareness to a product or service.

Contests allow you to spread the word, creating a viral marketing buzz about the products and services that your company offers. It is a good way to build up your mailing list so you have more qualified leads to cultivate. Social media such as FaceBook, Twitter and Youtube allow you to spread the word about your companies contest rapidly, with the potential of it going viral on the internet. A viral contest awards users/contestants points based upon how much they spread the word about YOUR website.

Please check out our new Contest Leader Board here!

Key elements required for the success of any contest:

Is the prize worth signing up for?
Come up with a prize (or many prizes) that would be appealing to your readers. The prizes will make or break your contest. If you have nothing that people want, they won’t play to win. So, come up with attractive prizes that people can’t resist. The prize could be a package of your products and services, a cash prize, prepaid gift cards (which are very popular these days) or a paid vacation to a cool destination. Get this part right and your off to great start.

Make it easy for customers to enter.
Your contest needs rules. Rules keep things fair and legal. Keep the rules for your contest simple and easy to follow. The easier it is for people to enter your contest, the more people will enter.

Make it easy for people to spread the word or create a buzz
Social media marketing can help your contest go viral and reach thousands of participants who may have never been exposed to your business before. Include social media buttons on your contest page so that participants can easily Tweet or Facebook their friends about the contest.

Consider teaming up with a complimentary business.
One thing you may want to look into is finding someone or a business to sponsor the contest with you. For example, let’s say you run an online home based business and you want to give a laptop computer to the winner of your contest. You could pair up with an computer company who could offer computer electronics to the winner. This allows you to create a better prize, and it helps to better spread the word about your contest.

Promote It Everywhere
Once the contest is ready, it is time to promote the contest to everyone you know. Naturally, the first place to do so would be on your website. Next, promote it on other websites, on newsgroups, wherever you can stick the contest announcement.
Don’t think only in terms of online promotion. You’d be surprised that offline promotion works too. At the same time, don’t leave out your existing customers either. Send them an email announcing the contest. Tell them to send or refer the contest to friends and families, especially since you know they’ve bought from you and they know your products well (that is, if you are offering your own product). The key to any successful online contest is to keep promoting it, even until the deadline itself.

Now that you know how to run a contest, go on, get one organized! It takes some work and needs some creative thinking but it’s fun and helps you promote your business in the most innovative way!

I hope you’ve found this article about viral contest very educational. There are many sites and articles that can tell you more about viral contests.
Read more at here.

AffCon2010 – Denver, Conference Update

WebmasterRadio.FM is organizing a third affiliate marketing convention similar to our two previous shows in Denver and Los Angeles last year.

Re-branded and reorganized as AffCon2010 – Denver, the affiliate focused conference and tradeshow will take place at the Colorado Convention Center June 21st – 23rd. As with the previous conventions in the AffCon affiliate marketing series, working affiliate marketers are eligible for free full-access admission.

AffCon2010 – Denver is designed as a convention specifically targeting affiliate marketers. While there is a great deal of involvement from affiliate networks, managers, programs and merchants, the information panels and interactive sessions are primarily targeted to working affiliates. (Our definition of “working affiliate” is one who is promoting products or services on their own web pages through one or more unique affiliate programs or networks.)

Registration
We’ve made registration for AffCon2010 – Denver easier with a distinct registry process for Affiliates and another for Networks, Managers, Merchants and others. Those applying for free admission as affiliates will be asked a series of questions to determine their business and personal interests so we can match them up with relevant network sponsorship.

Accommodation
AffCon2010 has secured a large room block for the Denver convention and tradeshow at the Hyatt Regency Denver. The Hyatt Regency is offering a healthy discount on rooms for AffCon2010 attendees with rates starting at $164/night for a standard King sized or 2 double bed room. Book your room early to take advantage of this rate and to be placed near other AffCon2010 participants.

We’re getting another great agenda together and plan a larger show and a far more interactive experience. The two previous shows were considered tremendous successes and we look forward to hosting the affiliate marketing industry in Denver from June 21 – 23 at AffCon2010 – Denver. See ya there.

Twittaholics Unanonymous

Yesterday I posted a Twitter message about how my recurring addiction to campaign analytics was causing me a measure of personal distress. Addiction is not the sort of thing one wants to talk about in public. In most circumstances, addictions are highly debilitating. It’s pretty easy to spot the addiction when you find yourself referring to referral stats three to six times per minute. For what it’s worth, I haven’t checked stats at all since I began this paragraph. ‘scuse me for a sec…

OK. Thanks for your patience. In case you were wondering, I just had to check a few numbers and found I am pretty happy with them. A new wave of Tweets was issued a few minutes ago and several outstanding members of our small legion of followers have taken the time to reTweet them. That happy circumstance confirmed, I can feel my heart rate receding back to its normal rate of 60 someodd beats per minute. I am resisting the urge to look at the landing page stats until our team-meeting later today. Having people around me when I look should serve to dampen my pie-eyed child-at-Christmas reaction to numbers. I am a mature professional web marketer and I can exercise self-control when I need… I need. hmmmm. OK, ‘scuse me. BRB.

What most surprised me yesterday about what could only be interpreter by my followers as a Tweet for Help was how many respondents actually sympathized with me. I figured they would despise me for morphing into the low-down stats addict I seem to have become. It seems they too are statistically addicted to campaign stats and they gleefully reached out to my message about campaign stat addiction (at least, according to my stats). Informed minds love company it seems.

In rare cases, such as with the late journalist Hunter S. Thompson, embracing our addictions can be a path to success. For web marketers, knowing who is doing what, when and where, and then being able to ascribe correct values to the next questions, why and how is critical. For instance, I am pleased to know that nearly 70% of those who have responded to our Tweets live in the United States. Another 8% live in Canada. Those are the folks most likely to buy the service we’re selling.

Furthermore, I have happily created spreadsheet after spreadsheet detailing data about what times draw the greatest response and which messages prompt the most action. My brain is practically salivating at the thought of gathering enough data to start creating line graphs. mmmmmm….. line graphs make the world a better place.

Unfortunately, I can’t expect to have enough data to make a remotely useful or even interesting line graph a few more days. There’s something to look forward to thought the prospect of a weekend suffering delayed satisfaction syndrome is daunting. It’s ok. In the words of the great Hunter S. Thompson, “When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.” I’m already a pro. I can deal with any weirdness thrown at me by my lack of useful line graphs. I’ll have enough data soon enough. Until then, I can satisfy my urges with little peaks at the raw numbers. Just a short glance, mind you. I do have real work to do.

Increasingly, our society is rightly starting to view addiction as a disease rather than a personal weakness. To tell the truth, I don’t really feel much dis-ease when I comb through campaign stats. I feel rather good actually. It’s the obsession I have an issue with. Perhaps that sort of obsessiveness is useful to my employers. They seem to think it is at any rate. But it is a relatively beautiful day here and I am spending way too much of what could otherwise be free time examining stats. At least they’re good ones.

Final Panel of Affiliate Convention Los Angeles 2009

Shai Pritz of UniqueLeads.com; Rosalyn Gardner of the Super Affiliate Handbook; Gillian Muessig of SEOMoz; Linda Woods, CEO of Partner Centric;, Charles Mui , CEO of Marget Marketing Firm; Super Affiliate James Martell and Mike Mackin of Web Traffic Management appear on the Final panel to conclude Affiliate Convention Los Angeles 2009.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Bing-vertising – Microsoft Follow’s Ask’s Lead

There is an unwritten rule somewhere deep in the universal order of things that says when a search engine tries to use television to advertise its services, that search engine will make a damn fool of itself. That bizarre coordination of chromosomes which makes advertising executives the kind of beasts they are seems to switch from weird to weirder when it comes to planning a campaign for a search engine. Ask Ask.com about that rule, they’ll tell ya how absurd, strange and truly squibby ad-execs get when thinking about how to market a search engine to the general public.

Earlier this year, marketers were excited to learn that Microsoft was going to devote over $100million to push, prompt and otherwise pull people to their new search engine Bing. Already an early darling of the search marketing industry, Bing has been in the forefront of the news lately due in part to the deal with Yahoo and in part to their determination to challenge Google in the search sphere.

This week and next, Bing is likely to end up in the news again, this time for a less compelling reason, unfortunately, a FAR less compelling reason…

Bing has jumped off the cliff of calm, reasonable persuasion and opted for an ad based on a jingle, “Bing Goes the Internet” by Jonathan Mann. Jonathan Mann was winner of a contest held by Bing to select a jingle that best reflects the mission and excellence of Microsoft’s new search engine. Unfortunately, this one turns out to be slightly less sharp than Chicks with Swords… Enjoy…

Three New WebmasterRadio Shows Debut in August

August is a busy month here at WebmasterRadio.FM. Along with our full scale coverage of the upcoming Search Engine Strategies Conference (complete with a full-scale SearchBash party), WebmasterRadio.FM has three new shows debuting this month.

WordPress developers and bloggers will be pleased to note, world renown WordPress expert, Joost De Valk hosts “Press This!”, a show featuring exclusive interview with fellow WordPress developers, topics such as WordPress hosting and SEO, and news on the latest plug-ins and updates. “Press This“ premieres August 4th and will air every Tuesday at 5pm Eastern/ 2pm Pacific.

For email marketers we have, “Inboxed”, an e-mail marketing program recently added to the network offering best practices for email marketing strategies. “Inboxed“ is hosted XY7 and Rapid Response Marketing CEO Kevin De Vincenzi, Marketing Director Jon Fondy and and email marketing expert Adam Young. The program airs Wednesdays at 5pm Eastern, 2pm Pacific.

“Search Cowboys” is a program that covers news on search engine marketing, social media and other related subjects. Based in Europe, “Search Cowboys“ will have a special interest in Search in Europe, and they will also feature bloggers from around Europe. The program is hosted by European search engine marketers Bas van Den Beld and Roy Huskies, premieres August 20th and will air every Thursday at 1pm Eastern/ 10am Pacific.

Affiliate Convention Contest – 10 days left to enter

As most readers and listeners already know, WebmasterRadio.FM has partnered with AffSpot Forums and Ticonderoga Ventures to produce a new conference series known as Affiliate Convention. We’ve been busy the last few weeks getting the details together and honing the line-up for the Convention which takes place June 17 – 20 in Denver.

Because each of us at WebmasterRadio.FM and our partners have all been working webmasters at one time or another (many of us still are), we deeply value the efforts webmasters put in each and every day. In the affiliate marketing world, webmasters are the workers and we appreciate how hard that work is. To that end, any affiliate marketer who can prove their affiliation with a major network will receive free admission to the event.

Affiliate Convention Contest
One lucky registrant will receive a bit more than that. Anyone who registers for Affiliate Convention before May 15th (that’s a week from Friday), will automatically be entered into a draw for free round-trip airfare and accommodation at the conference hotel, courtesy of WebmasterRadio.FM and our Affiliate Convention partners.

Registration is fairly easy and the cost of admission is even easier. We’re still adding to the list of speakers and finalizing details of one of our legendary WebmasterRadio.FM parties to be held on June 18th. Watch the Affiliate Convention website for more details as they develop.

79% of SEOs Polled Say SEO Status Hinges on Coding Ability

A poll taken on the Search Engine Roundtable blog last week shows that of 154 respondents, 121 (79%) believe SEOs need to know code to perform their duties.

The poll was prompted by a controversial article that appeared on the Sphinn social network last week written by Edward Lewis of SEOConsultants. In the article Lewis, who himself is no stranger to controversy, outlined over 70 elements found in HTML4 and associated languages that he says every SEO will encounter at one time or another during their career.

Responses to the post varied and a lively discussion took place at Sphinn with the majority of respondents openly disagreeing with Lewis’ remarks. The opinion of that majority at Sphinn runs counter to the findings in the poll posted later the same day at Search Engine Roundtable.

Taking a step back from Ed’s article and Barry’s poll, the results of this exercise appear to show that search engine optimization, as a practice, has morphed into a business requiring persons of several skill sets.

As an older SEO (one who has performed SEO services for over a decade), I can remember a time when one’s day was spent moving between thinking like a sales person, a marketing consultant and a coding expert. With the exception of the smallest SEO shops, those days are over.

Today’s well organized SEO business employs persons with complimentary talents. My first SEO employer (1999 – 2005) started as an ultra-small business with only three of us in the office wearing multiple hats each day. The most recent SEO business I worked with (2006 – 2008) has over 20 employees performing several unique tasks necessary to conduct a full scale search engine optimization and marketing campaign. The first grew towards specialization. The second was already assigning tasks based on specialization when they took me on their payroll.

Thinking about the second SEO business I worked with, there was a couple “technical SEOs” who could discuss everything from server configurations to information architecture. There was a few content SEOs who could churn out spider-ready content with ease and grace. There were a couple of coders capable of dissecting and reassembling virtually any sort of site. There was a small but highly trained sales team who brought home the bacon and acted as account liaisons with clients. Then there was the management, all but one of which is capable of putting their hands under the hood and getting greasy with the workers. Everyone in the company knew a lot about the practice and technique of SEO though obviously each knows more about their own specialty. Study was mandatory and constant personal improvement was rightly expected.

Aside from the head of sales, (who has an extraordinary tech pedigree to talk about), which among that company couldn’t be considered as a SEO? That’s a tough question to ponder and a difficult one to answer.

The practice of search engine optimization has matured to the point where specialization is paramount. While I personally feel comfortable acting in just about any role in the SEO cycle, I fully understand that there are others who understand certain areas better than I do. Nevertheless, I believe I am a very good SEO.

Over the next few weeks, primarily on Webcology, SEO101 and SEM Synergy, WebmasterRadio.FM will explore issues surrounding the practice of SEO and what it takes to be called a SEO. No guarantees on results but the process should be interesting.

40% Discount on ad|Tech SF Full Conference Pass

Register now for next week’s ad|Tech conference in San Francisco and receive a 40% discount on a full conference pass! WebmasterRadio.FM has been offered permission to publish a special registration code to offer our listeners and readers a very special discount.

ad|Tech San Francisco is one of the largest and most anticipated Internet technology shows of the year. As will all ad|Tech conferences, the show will be an eclectic mix of marketing, technology and technique. It runs at the Moscone Center from April 21 – 23rd.

The annual show in San Francisco is one of the most interesting of the nine international mega-conferences ad|Tech organizes each year. This year, organizers have lined up an amazing array of speakers, trade-show booths and evening events, including keynotes from Jimmy Wales of Wikipedia, a Wired.com interview with Kevin Rose of Digg, and a state of the industry round-table keynote from the IAB.

If you are interested in attending ad|Tech San Francisco, please visit the ad|Tech SF registration page and enter the special code: SFCONF2 to receive a 40% discount on a full conference pass.

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