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

Post from: Cshel Chicago SEO, Web Development

‘Look At Me’ Seminar – Market Saint Louis

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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.

Post from: Cshel Chicago SEO, Web Development

IM Spring Break: Sun, Fun and Internet Marketing

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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 :)

Post from: Cshel Chicago SEO, Web Development

T-17 days from SES San Jose. Order your business cards NOW.

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Come hear me speak on Wednesday, July 30th at the Gleacher Center, Downtown Chicago

You might be wondering what management has to do with social media, SEM, online advertising, etc. If you’ve ever worked for a not-online-only company, chances are you know *exactly* what manglement has to do with it — or more to the point what role they play in preventing you, and the people like you who know what needs to be done to get it done right, from doing your job.

This talk is aimed at upper management and executives who either think they know about social media, SEM/SEO and internet advertising, or who realize they only know the buzzwords and need a better understanding of the concepts and ideas.

The goal of the session is to give these decision makers with a better grasp of the concepts involved, and help them start thinking about ways they can modify current business procedures to accommodate these new and emerging technologies.

It’s all great to walk into the marketing department and declare, “Let’s get on Digg! Let’s get a million visitors!”, but seriously, is that really what the company NEEDS? How do you even define what is needed?

Once you have your needs and goals defined (because really, you can’t define your needs until you define your goals… it’s hard to create driving directions without a start point AND an endpoint), then how do you go about implementing your plan of action? Here’s a hint: meetings to schedule more meetings, to throw things back to committee to review and then another meeting to discuss the findings just isn’t going to cut it. The cycle time for decisions and actions is dramatically shorter now than ever before, and if you’re used to doing business the way you did business 30 years ago, or even 10 years ago, you’re going to miss A LOT of opportunities, or you’re going to waste a lot of money doing things ineffectively.

Wow Carolyn, this sounds FASCINATING…. when is the talk?

Ever so glad you asked… here are the details:

How To Reorganize Management For Social Media, Search Marketing & Internet Advertising

Speakers:
Carolyn Shelby, Social Media and SEO Consultant
David Dalka, Internet Marketing, Change Management and Mobile Search Marketing consultant

Date: Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Time:
6:00p — Registration
6:30p-8:00p — Program
8:00p — Networking and Cash Bar

Location:
University of Chicago Graduate School of Business
Gleacher Center – Room 100
450 North Cityfront Plaza Drive
Chicago, Illinois 60611 USA

Post from: Cshel Chicago SEO, Web Development

How To Reorganize Management For Social Media, Search Marketing and Internet Advertising

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Initially, when I read that part of the announcement, I thought, “that is a great idea!” mostly because I end up getting talked to by recruiters all night long instead of talking to other people who have job-jobs. Apparently, Ron May said something in one of his copious newsletters about how awful the disenfranchisement of those groups is, but I didn’t really read it so I’m not going to attempt to craft a truly well written response. I’m sure if Ron shows up to this event I’ll end up hearing about it anyway.

My guess is the goal of the ban is to encourage more actual tech discussion, and also to limit the number of people who RSVP because the venue is not huge to begin with, and now that it’s winter and we can’t avail ourselves of the outdoor seating, the space will be even more limited than before. Also, the food ran out rather quickly last time and I’m going to attribute that to hungry job seekers as well.

At any rate, I’m looking forward to attending on the 24th to see how the new rules affect the atmosphere, crowd levels and overall utility of the event.

Post from: Cshel Chicago SEO, Web Development

Silicon Prairie Social 2 – No Recruiters or Job Seekers Allowed

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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!

Post from: Cshel Chicago SEO, Web Development

Cshel’s SES Chicago and PubCon plans

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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.

Post from: Cshel Chicago SEO, Web Development

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

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Here’s Your Checklist:

1. Buy/Order/Make the cards — NOW
   Do not wait until Thanksgiving gets here and the xmas season when no-one-has-time-for-anything craziness starts. Take a few minutes to pop over to your favorite printing website, bust out the craft paper and glitter, or just add it to your list for your next Target run.

   Buy a box of cards — you choose the level of holiday specificity or lack thereof. Select something pretty neutral (unless you’re positive you won’t offend anyone with a religious card), and maybe splurge for some customization (if you’re having them printed) and some foil accents (because shiny says “I care enough to spend an extra $0.25 per card, because dammit, you’re worth it!”).

   Also, if you’re having your cards custom printed, make sure to include your website address on the card someplace. This is especially important if your website address is different from your actual business name. People may only know you by your URL if they don’t see you or do business with you very often.

2. Buy stamps.
   Do not use a mail meter or automatic postage stamping device. Automation screams lazy and impersonal.

3. Once you have your cards, pull out your client list and start addressing envelopes.
   Again, do not use a printer, do NOT do NOT do NOT do NOT use printed labels. Not only are you telling your clients they aren’t worth you hurting your wittle wrist wif all dat writing, you’re telling them they aren’t even worth you feeding envelopes into your printer. Don’t be lazy.

   If you have crappy handwriting, enlist the assistance of someone who does. Don’t know anyone with nice handwriting or printing? Try your mom, your grandma, your teenage sister/daughter, or an engineer (yeah, I said engineer). They all tend to have very nice handwriting or printing styles and can probably be talked into helping (or bribed relatively cheaply).

4. Sign your cards.
   Again, DO NOT just put them into the envelope unsigned because you have your name/company already printed on them. DO NOT feed them through a printer. DO NOT use a sticker label.

   I know your hand is still cramped from addressing the envelopes. Suck it up and just get it overwith, okay?

   Also, make everyone else in your office (assuming you have a small business) sign the cards, too. A bunch of different signatures (in different people’s handwriting) makes a big impression.

5. Mail the cards as close to Turkey Day as humanly possible.
   You want them to get where they’re going before people start leaving for holiday vacations and just generally are too busy or distracted to fully appreciate your gesture of goodwill. If you can put them in the mailbox on your way to Grandma’s house for dinner on November 22, all the better.

One last note of caution: it’s best to err on the safe side and not go with the edgy humorous holiday cards. Some people take their holidays very seriously and it would be a shame to go through all this effort and then end up alienating a client or potential business partner because you accidentally insulted their beliefs.

Post from: Cshel Chicago SEO, Web Development

Have You Ordered Your Holiday Cards?

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As you entered there was the standard “Hello, my name is…” sticky badge for your name (I had to restrain myself from nicking the cool comfy grip hot pink Sharpie… I’ve never seen one before and I want one now), but then they also had sticky badges that said “I Know…” and “I Need…”. Of course, you had some smartasses walking around with “I Need… a girlfriend” and “I Know… lots of stuff”, and then there were people who felt this was a good place to write a tome about their wealth of experience in what could be considered a -5 pt font. (Little tip from cshel — boil it down to 5 or less words and WRITE BIG — otherwise you get people leaning in *awfully*close and squinting at your chestal region to read your sticker).

Speaking of stickers and chests, my feeble attempt at cleverness for the evening was putting my “I Know… SEO” sticker on my back. The logic there was that if I’m already talking to someone and someone else is walking past, they’re more likely to be able to read something on my back rather than something stuck to the front of my shirt. Also, and this is probably more of a girl issue to consider, there is only so much front-of-shirt real estate available for stickers unless you want to look like you’re trying to make a sticker faux-bikini.

People I saw or met at the event…

• Jeffrey Mitchell, a recruiter with Harvey Nash in Naperville, and also founder of “Close to the Heart”, a charity “dedicated to bringing together people to achieve meaningful and enduring positive changes throughout the world… based upon the philosophy that anyone can change the world if they only make a decision to do so. The organization sponsors fund raising events and supports fair trade as a force of positive change”. (He’s looking for some pro-bono web help if anyone would like to volunteer some of their talents.)
• Jason Catena, a Senior Staff Software Engineer Build System Architect (whew! say that ten times fast) at Motorola. IIRC, we talked long enough to exchange cards, but I think the crowd and noise levels at the time were chatting prohibitive.
• Jeff O’Hara, who claims to “hate SEOs” and works for the Wheaton School System, is also President and Founder of EdModo (website coming soon). Sounds like it’s a social site for grade schoolers and (I’m assuming) their teachers. Jeff was also there with his web designer friend, who’s name escapes me at the moment, and his other friend, who’s name also escapes me but I do remember was wearing an “I Need… a girlfriend” sticker.
• Antoine, from PunchEngine was a sponsor with the table next to The Krull Group. Since I was standing by Steve’s table for most of the evening, I got nosy and checked out the PunchEngine demo. PunchEngine is sort of like a combination of LinkedIn, MySpace, Facebook and Monster… it’s a lot to explain, so check out their site as it does a good job of explaining the concept.
• There were a number of other people I saw… Dave Rohrer, an in-house search manager with a car problem; Tom Gibson, Sr. Network Administrator (and SAN-Lord) from Provena Health; blogger David Dalka, whom I know from Search Industry conferences; Chicago technology reporter Ron May of The May Report; Tim Courtney of XNet; and finally, Steve Krull of The Krull Group, who seems to think I’m useless as far as suggesting restaurants (and to that I say, freaking ask me to suggest restaurants in Oak Brook BEFORE 10 at night, hmm?)

So, to wrap it up… I thought it was a great event and I look forward to the next one!

Post from: Cshel Chicago SEO, Web Development

Silicon Prairie Social Re-Cap

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So what is the Silicon Prairie Social? Well, to steal from their website…

Silicon Prairie Social is an opportunity for technology professionals in the Chicago area to connect in a social setting with likeminded people. The event is open to everyone, and specifically targets upwardly mobile tech professionals, entrepreneurs, service providers, Internet professionals, Web 2.0 and startup companies, the mobile industry, and mobile marketing professionals.

I’ve been to two of the TechCocktail events in the city, and they were great fun (witness the obvious fun being had in the photo — on the far left is Steve Krull, one of the sponsors of Silicon Prairie Social, I’m in the middle, and then Dave Choate is on the far right). The only problem with the downtown events is they’re just a little hard to get to from the burbs and then it’s a hike and a half to get home afterward. I’m really hoping this event turns out to be a huge success because I love the idea of being able to attend these kinds of things without having to schlep all the way downtown.

Just for giggles and some possible content for the SEO 101 podcast website, we’re kicking around the idea of me bringing a camcorder and doing little interviews with random people at the event. So if you see me walking around with a video camera, feel free to either flee in terror or come on up and ask to be interviewed. Make sure you bring me a card though… no business card, no linklove later. I’m pretty good at remembering names, but there is just no way I can remember everyone’s website addresses without something written down.

Post from: Cshel Chicago SEO, Web Development

Going to the Silicon Prairie Social? I am.

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