It really got kicked off last November 2008 when the guy who coined the term SEO, Bruce Clay, said that search engine rankings were dead. Shortly after, Google engineer Matt Cutts, said that while they were not dead they are not as important as they were. Matt went on to talk about how people needed to quit focusing so much on SEO and start looking at things like conversion.
Hmm where have we heard that before. Oh, I had written on that very thing only a couple weeks before Matt’s made his comments.
This of course was the last thing that the SEO conferences wanted to hear.
I had written for a while about why we no longer attend SEO conferences and why we do attend performance marketing conferences. But to hear someone like Matt Cutts make the point was the nail in the coffin. I do not have access to Search Engine Strategies numbers but by looking at who was attending, feedback from both operators, and tweets from attendees talking about how dead the conferences were I am guessing 2009 was their worst year ever.
Also its no coincidence that companies like Microsoft, Yahoo, and Google have shifted their ad spend much more to the performance marketing space. They put money where there is value… and the SEO fad has come and gone.
In 2009 you saw a lot of SEO’s switch to being Social Media Experts or Reputation Management experts.
In late 2009 Robert Scoble (who is a complete retard) wrote about why social media is better then SEO. Thousands of SEO’s came out of the woodwork to take the bait. Proving a complete retard like Scoble is smarter then most of the SEO industry. The funniest part is when the SEO’s would refuse to link to Scoble… they just don’t get it…
Obviously though one of the main reasons we saw so many SEO’s out of work in 2009 was due to the recession. In a recession companies can’t justify unquantifiable expenses… so SEO’s were the first to get the axe.
There is probably about 5 SEO’s that I would take advice from. Aaron Wall at the top of the list. You really need to read this post to understand.
I noticed a familiar listing on the ShoeMoney Marketplace this morning. Chris “emphasis” Hedgecock has decided to sell his new startup Zintext. Zintext is kind of like AuctionAds but instead of display advertising it finds keywords in your posts and links them to eBay auctions. Then if someone completes the action you get paid. Shazam!
Its a really slick service and Chris has already got the company profitable without any marketing. Zintext is also one of a couple companies eBay is allowing to act as a 3rd tier network.
Chris is asking $20,000.00 for the site and all intellectual property. Sounds like a steal for the right motivated person.
It would be something I would run with in a minute if it wasn’t for my non compete from the AuctionAds Sale.
Chris can be reached via email – chris at knofun.com
A year ago I agreed to wear your companies logo EXCLUSIVELY at Affiliate Summit west and the auction ended up going for $10,000 !!!!.
The winning bidders Trainsignal, makers of computer training software, were in attendance. We gave the money on behalf of the Affiliate Marketers Give Back foundation to the National Breast cancer society.
Then last Summer at Affiliate Summit East I did the same auction again for the Lincoln City People’s Mission Homeless Shelter and it ended at $11,000.00. The winning bidder was the giant coupon site retailmenot.com
It was great raising $21,000.00 in 2009 at Affiliate Summit events by wearing a companies t-shirt.
But now its 2010 and we are ready to do it again!
This is a great chance to get your brand out there and also support a GREAT CAUSE!
All of the winning bidders money will go to the Lincoln City Mission homeless shelter on behalf of Affiliate Marketers Give Back.
The short version is this:
There is an auction on here for me to wear your company logo during Affiliate Summit.
The winner will send me 3 shirts to wear at Affiliate Summit West Jan 17-19th 2009 in Las Vegas . I will wear no other shirt than your shirt during the conference and parties.
You will receive a TON of exposure. And A LOT MORE than just a handsome model wearing your logo!
Video Exposure:
- At Affiliate Summit this year we have gone through all the background checks, union agreements, and other hoops to be one of very few people allowed to take video inside of Affiliate Summit West. I already have about 15 companies booked to interview them about their services and also will be doing some general video.
- I also am asked about 10-20 times to be video interviewed (nobody is supposed to shoot video without authorization people will do it outside of conference areas) and your shirt will be shown.
- I have over 10,000 YouTube subscribers and am by far the most subscribed to person in this niche. All of the subscribers get alerted each time I upload a video. Each of my videos also has a chance of being syndicated by techcrunch/mashable or another large HUGE website and giving your company more exposure.
- I will also put the video on our CDN which will be ShoeMoney branded and get more exposure on the blog here.
Photo Exposure:
My photo gallery is the most visited section of ShoeMoney.com other than the root domain. Check these stats out from the last year:
(Click to enlarge)
You are not reading that wrong… over 2 million page views and almost 1.7 MILLION UNIQUE page views. That’s quite an amazing reach!
But besides the TONS of photos I will have in my own gallery, there will be loads of them on flickr and Facebook that people will tag and they’ll be seen by many.
So put your logo in front of TONS of people NOW!
With 50% of the total votes Lyndon Reid is headed to Affiliate Summit West!
Congratulations Lyndon!
Lyndon will receive a Platinum Affiliate Summit pass, 3 nights hotel, and up to $500 airfare reimbursement.
Lyndon also opted to “gamble” so he will receive $2,000.00 cash to gamble on his choice of 1 hand of black jack or 1 spin of roulette betting red/black.
What do you think he will choose? Do you have any advice for him?
Special thanks to our sponsors Affiliate Summit (covered hotel+pass) and AzoogleAds (covered the 2,000.00 cash prize).
Here are this weeks new ShoeMoney Marketplace listings:
Want to get your job, product, or announcement out to hundreds of thousands of very targeted ShoeMoney readers? Create a marketplace listing today!
