Cshel Chicago SEO, PR and Web Development

Cshel’s SES Chicago and PubCon plans

Posted on 01. Dec, 2007 by Carolyn Shelby.

I had originally planned on being in Vegas from December 2 (Sunday) through December 8 (the following Saturday); however, my plans were “modified” due to a “situation” and as a result, I will be in Chicago until December 5 (Wednesday) and miss the first two days of PubCon. While this sort of sucks, because I like Vegas and I was looking forward to having a full week of vacation, the upshot of “the situation” is that I can now hang out with the SES Chicago attendees after sessions (since I’ll be at the office during the day and can’t actually attend the conference proper). So, that’s sort of yay. I would much prefer being able to go to the conference since I can’t be in Vegas, but I’ll take what I can get.

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… [...]

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SEO 101: Why search conferences are worth the time and money

Posted on 10. Nov, 2007 by Carolyn Shelby.

If you’re someone who is responsible for marketing a business website, but doesn’t actually work for an agency, or works for a business that is primarily brick-and-mortar and might be a late comer to the “internets”, you’re probably going to have to justify the time away and cost of your conference attendance to your boss(es). This episode of SEO 101 discusses the value of search conferences and recommends some ways to prepare yourself to give the pitch.

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.

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SMX Wrap-Up on Beginning SEO Podcast

Posted on 27. Jun, 2007 by Carolyn Shelby.

While it’s a little late, the Beginning SEO Podcast did not want to be left out of the spate of “SMX Wrap-Ups” so… here it is. Since Brian and NeO didn’t go, it’s pretty much them asking me questions about the conference and of course I blather on and on about it because… well… I like the sound of my own voice. (Just kidding. I actually can’t listen to myself on recordings for some reason. What I hear when I listen to recordings of myself doesn’t sound like what I think I sound like, if that makes any sense. It’s weird. That being said, though, I am a chatterbox… but anyway, I digress…)

Beginning SEO Podcast SMX Wrap-Up — Download the MP3

Brent Csutoras, Lisa Barone, Carolyn Shelby at MSN Party at SMX Advanced 2007

In the interest of keeping the topic focused on issues relevant to beginners, we discuss the tone and subject matter of SMX Advanced, and at what point in your learning curve you should consider attending. If you’re not to the point where you think you could hang with the big dogs of search, we also recommend some alternative conferences where you can catch more basic sessions and get up to speed.

For other stuff on SMX Advanced 2007, see:

• Long Overdue SMX Wrap-Up – moi
• Live Blogged Sessions from SMX Advanced – Search Engine Roundtable
• You’re all bright people… go do a search :P

[Photo: Brent Csutoras, Weird Asia News; Lisa "The Lisa" Barone, Bruce Clay; Carolyn "cshel" Shelby; Hanging out at the MSN sponsored SMX party on Sunday night]

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