In addition to the talks, there will also be a “Ask the Experts” panel and a two hour networking event (with a bar — naturally) and the sponsors are also giving each attendee a complimentary SEO audit of their business Web site.

I believe there are just under 50 tickets left for this event, so if you’re in the St. Louis area, hurry and register (now!)

Title: Look At Me Seminar – Market Saint Louis
Location: Glendale, Missouri
Link out: Click here
Description: The “Look at Me” seminar will help you understand the power of online marketing, and how it will boost your bottom line significantly. This event is tailored entirely for business owners in the Saint Louis area that want to get in front of online customers, but don’t know how.
Start Time: 9:00
Date: 2009-06-11
End Time: 18:00

This post is courtesy of CSHEL Chicago SEO
‘Look At Me’ Seminar – Market Saint Louis

Thankfully, the guys at IM Broadcast have created a mini-conference designed to maximize the education and networking while minimizing the cash out of your wallet. The concept is simple: shorter conference, single room, limited attendance, intensive education…. for a *reasonable* price.

Their first conference using this format (Scary SEO) was a great success. I was tremendously impressed with the quality of both the sessions and the networking. (The cookie breaks in the afternoon were a personal favorite, too!)

Spring Break hopes to expand on the success of Scary SEO by expanding the formay from two to three days to accommodate more topics and more great speakers, but keeping the attendee numbers and admission price low.

So here’s the skinny:

IM Spring Break is 3 days of intensive search education featuring world class speakers (who can also be found speaking at the “big-big” conferences), very limited attendance (read: this WILL sell out quickly), and lots of time in between presentations for work group discussions and opportunities to get real expert help with your specific issues.

On top of all this, the price of admission is only $500 and it’s in Deerfield Beach Florida (near Ft. Lauderdale and hence the “Spring Break” part) AND the hotel is only $159 a night.

To put it in perspective, you’re getting up close and personal access to the biggest names in the search world, plus entertainment, plus Florida DURING spring break, plus a nice hotel room, plus a great educational opportunity… for less than the cost of JUST the admission to one of the big conferences.

In a nutshell:

If money is tight and you can only choose one conference to attend this year…. attend IM Spring Break. It’s a great value.

This post is courtesy of CSHEL Chicago SEO
IM Spring Break: Sun, Fun and Internet Marketing

I know I go through business cards like water goes through a sieve at conferences, so make sure you’re well stocked and they’re current. If you wait too long, you’ll either end up with craptastic cards that look like you had them printed at the Kwik-E-Mart, or you’ll pay out the nose for shipping. Or possibly both if you’re exceptionally unlucky.

So consider this my little PSA reminder :)

Designed it myself ;)

The reason I thought to issue the reminder is because the mailman *just* brought me a big heavy box full of print collateral! (I know… the strangest things make me happy. What can I say?)

My box of goodies contained my new Lafayette Online business cards, my new BeFoundLocal.com cards, and my new (pictured to the right) cshel cards. Oh, and a couple thousand rack cards for Lafayette Online (rack cards go in the visitor information stands at hotels, the Chamber of Commerce, restaurants by the interstate, etc.)

I was worried that the new cshel cards were going to come out a little weird because I decided to put an enormous blue seashell on the left side of the card and it literally occupies a third of the printable space. The worry, however, was for naught because the color looks great and I’m really, really pleased with the way they turned out. These definitely sparkle with me.

Also, I don’t know if you noticed, but the seashell is the exact same image I’m using as the favicon for cshel.com. Yay for consistent branding :)

This post is courtesy of CSHEL Chicago SEO
T-17 days from SES San Jose. Order your business cards NOW.

My flight lands at LAS on Wednesday at 8:30p-ish….which should put me on the Strip just in time to be fashionably late for the SEOMoz party at the conference center. I’m seriously considering doing the whole change clothes/put make-up on/get ready thing in the limo after leaving the airport to minimize the amount of time it takes me to dump my luggage in the room and jet over to the conference center. If I could easily fly in my boots, I could just get dressed in Chicago and freshen up in Vegas, but it’s a pain in the butt to get my boots on and off when I go through airport security… much easier in slip-on flats. Less cute, but oh well. Anyway, I digress…

So here’s my schedule as it stands right this second…

• Saturday, December 1: Attending Toys for Tots 2007 party in Chicago
• Sunday, December 2: Pre-SES Chicago “networking” at Kitty O’Shea’s at the Hilton (on Congress)
• Monday, December 3: Remembering to call my dad to wish him a happy birthday; Working at the office; Playing it by ear in the evening… if there are any parties, let me know!
• Tuesday, December 4: Working at the office; No plans for the evening yet. May cry myself to sleep because I’m missing the fun in Vegas.
• Wednesday, December 5: At the office until 4:30p; Land in Vegas about 8:30p; Heading to SEOMoz party; Then ??
• Thursday, December 6: I’m covering the following sessions for Search Engine Roundtable:
  • 10:15-11:30AM Brand Management
  • 11:35AM-12:50PM Responsible Web Design
  • 1:30-2:45PM Ecommerce and Shopping Cart Optimization
  • 2:45-4:00PM Competitive Intelligence
  • 4:00-5:30PM Organic Keyword Research and Selection

  And then, after marathon liveblogging all day (and probably whilst hungover), I’m going to play in the Purpose, Inc. SEO Poker Tournament at the Venetian with a bunch of SEO high rollers (including, but not limited to: the spousal unit of one Rhea Drysdale, Brent Csutoras, Pat Sexton, Frank Watson, David Mihm, Marcus Tandler [Hallo meinem deutschen Freund!] and the adorable BOTW boys) any one of whom could no doubt clean my clock in no time flat because I completely suck at poker… I’m practicing, but I doubt it will help much.

• Friday, December 7: PubCon! Then I have no clue… playing it by ear.
• Saturday, December 8: Flying home; Office xmas party in the evening.

And of course, because I’m a twitter-addict, I’ll be updating via twitter a bunch so please feel free to follow me. Also, I’m thinking there isn’t going to be a live SEO 101 on Thursday because Neo and I will be at PubCon, I’ll be live blogging sessions (I’m not sure what Neo’s plans are) and poor Brian is stuck in Omaha because… well… I’m sure you’ve heard us complain about that on the past few episodes.

Anyway, feel free to text message me or call — especially if you’ve got a line on a good party — if you’ve got one of my business cards, you’ve got my cell and I always have it with me. I finally remembered to upgrade to unlimited text messaging and free incoming, so it’s all good. See everybody next week!

This post is courtesy of CSHEL Chicago SEO
Cshel’s SES Chicago and PubCon plans

We spent a little big of time on the differences between SES, SMX and PubCon, and which conference we felt would be best to attend based on your knowledge level, overall responsibilities and business goals. Oh, and there’s a coupon code mentioned at the end of the show to get 10% off your registration for SES Chicago.

I should warn you that we encountered some technical glitches during the show (Brian’s office lost power and he got knocked off, and I was doing the show from a “borrowed” wireless connection that was a little flaky (I eventually just called in on a landline). All in all though, it was a good show :)

The important things to take away from this are:

1. Search conferences are definitely worth the price of admission (and airfare/hotel/food/bar) because the value of the knowledge you gain in that one week far surpasses what you can learn on your own through self-study in the same amount of time;
2. When pitching conference attendance to your boss, anticipating objections and questions and then having prepared answers, backed up by case studies and facts, goes most of the way toward getting his/her blessing and funding.

This post is courtesy of CSHEL Chicago SEO
SEO 101: Why search conferences are worth the time and money

Our guests included Dave Davies from Beanstalk Search Positioning, Curtis Dueck from Epiar, Michael Gray, Mike McDonald, and just some random guy that was walking past the booth.

I have to say, despite only having 3 microphones for 4-5 people (which was our own fault for dragging so many people over to talk), I completely LOVE being able to do the show when Brian, Dave and I are all in the same room. Normally, we do the show via Skype and I’m in Chicago, NeO is near Seattle someplace and Brian is in Nebraska. The live show was just a ton and a half of fun and I can’t wait til the next conference so we can do another one.

This post is courtesy of CSHEL Chicago SEO
SEO 101 from SES San Jose

The sessions so far have been good. I’ve covered “Domaining and Address Bar-Driven Traffic“, “What is a Brand Vehicle? Integrated Marketing Together Forever“, and “Searcher Behavior Research Update” for Search Engine Roundtable. (I’m covering 6 more before the week is out, so keep an eye out for more coverage…)

The SEO Ladies Lunch was Day 1, at “The Grill” in the Fairmont. The lunch was 3 courses (which were fantastic), but it ended up being a long meal and a good number of the ladies had to dash before dessert to make the next session.

The parties last night included the SEMPO reception, a couple private parties (including the Ask.com party, which I heard was a really good time, but unfortunately I had a conflicting committment and couldn’t make it… Rhea was there though and she’ll fill me in later). After the private parties ended, everyone (well it seemed like everyone anyway) ended up at the lobby bar of the Fairmont.

The after party in the Fairmont was rocking… there was a smaller sub-party up in a suite that got broken up by hotel security (that’s how you know it’s gonna be a good week right there, kids) and the lobby bar was hopping until 2 or 3am.

There are pictures starting to surface on Flickr… check for “SES San Jose 2007“

This post is courtesy of CSHEL Chicago SEO
SES San Jose Day 1 Recap

(Let the linklove begin…)

People whom I already knew were:

• martinibuster (Roger Montti, who I know from PubCon‘s past)
• Todd Malicoat (StuntDubl — our first guest on the live SEO 101 on WebmasterRadio.fm, replete with fresh tats)
• Brent Csutoras, of Weird Asia News fame
• and Lawrence Coburn of RateItAll.com

People whom I just met last night (and gave me business cards so I’d remember their names and sites):

• David Mihm, a design marketing consultant in SF who is also from Illinois (like me) and recognized my Chicago accent (which, btw, I don’t think I actually have one, but if you say so).
• Laura Lippay, a Yahoo-er (is that what they’re called?) and fellow Gemini, who also identified my (non-existant) accent as that of a Chicagoan.
• Lorna Li, search marketer, blogger and green activist (as per her kewt wee little business card)
• Natasha Robinson, aka That Girl From Marketing. While last night was the first night I’ve actually met Natasha, I’ve seen/chatted with her in the WMR chatroom several times (and she also has a kewt wee little business card — I think it’s a Bay Area thing, but dammit, now I want one!).

There were other people I remember talking to; however, being as it was at a bar, and I had been up since 5:00am Central and was incredibly sleepy, my memory just isn’t what it usually is… so if I’ve left anyone off the list that should be here, drop me an email :)

This post is courtesy of CSHEL Chicago SEO
San Francisco SEO Meet-Up Recap

My cats, btw, are beside themselves with joy to have a human in the house again on a regular basis… I think they started to think they’d been abandoned — My children on the other hand, are probably slightly upset that I’m home again because when I’m gone they’re with grandma and, I mean really, what’s not to like about being with grandma for an extended period of time?

SEO 101 Broadcasts and Podcasts
In the middle of all the work craziness, I’ve also been recording podcasts with David (NeO) Brown and Brian Mark for SEO 101: The Beginning SEO Podcast, and doing a live SEO 101 show on Thursdays from 12:00p-12:30p CST on WebmasterRadio.fm. I’m in the chatroom during the live show, and we’re posting recaps of the shows on the show website.

I’m probably going to stop posting my recaps on cshel.com, but I plan to figure out a way to keep a running list of which archives are posted and links to the recaps.

SES San Jose
I am definitely going to SES San Jose. Have flight and hotel arranged, have time off from work (at the worst possible time imaginable) arranged, and I’ve almost got grandma convinced to take the kids for yet another week. I suppose if that falls through I can try to have the kids boarded with the cats at the kennel. (I’m KIDDING… it’s a JOKE. Really. I’d never do that. That would be wrong.) Anyway… definitely going.

I’ll be blogging at least 8 sessions for Search Engine Roundtable, so you’ll be able to keep up vicariously with all the assorted SES happenings.

I still don’t have a replacement cable for my camera, so I’m not making any promises about posting pictures, though I will be taking them. I just don’t know when I’ll be able to get them online.

Also, please someone remind me on like the 16th or 17th to freaking pack my stupid power cord for my laptop.

Other Projects and Things I’m Supposed to Be Working On
I’m looking for an unpaid minion helper to give me a hand keeping Lafayette Online updated with local news and community events, etc. It’s pretty easy work, it just takes 30 minutes a day or so.

If you or anyone you know is interested in helping me out, and you (or the person you know):

• Has a more than firm grasp of the English language (proper spelling and grammar, etc.)
• Has a some basic understanding of journalism
• Is reliable (and that is super important!)
• and sincerely wants to be my minion helper for a link and a credit on the staff page (with a photo even!), but for no money.

…then by all means, email me at carolyn[at]cshel.com and give me a run down of your qualifications, why you want to be my helper-monkey, and how much time you can devote to me the project. Preference will be given to residents of Lafayette or West Lafayette, Indiana, residents of the Chicago area (specifically the far-far South Suburbs), and Purdue University students.

I have several other projects I will be needing help with, but I’m just not in a position to worry about them right at this second. Also, please don’t email me to pitch me on rebuilding Lafayette Online, because that is outside the scope of the current project plan — and I won’t save your email for when I am ready to think about redesigning/rebuilding the site; I’ll delete it.

This post is courtesy of CSHEL Chicago SEO
Work, Conference and Podcast Schedule

Dave Brown (Neo) also mentions that we’ll have our first live broadcast of “Beginning SEO” on WebmasterRadio.fm on Thursday, July 19th (1pm Eastern, Noon Central, 10am Pacific)… so hop into the chatroom and/or tune in for the live show!

Read the full SES Latino Wrap-Up Post, or just download the mp3.

This post is courtesy of CSHEL Chicago SEO
SES Latino Wrap-Up on Beginning SEO Podcast