SEO Blog

Earlier today, co-host Dave Davies and I covered the Net Neutrality debate on our weekly WebmasterRadio.fm show, Webcology.

Dave and I have taken a special interest in the issue of Net Neutrality and have done a number of shows about issues surrounding the debate. Last week at Search Engine Strategies San Jose, Dave and I squared off against each other taking opposing sides of the issue in a shortned, hour-long panel debate.

This morning, Dave published an excellent piece in the Expert Articles section of WebProNews, “What in the World is Net Neutrality?”

We both have fairly strong feelings about Net Neutrality or, in Dave’s case the argument against Net Neutrality. Though we each understand and can articulate the others’ side. It is a complicated issue which at times poses challenges to one’s sense of philosophy, business, fairness and accountability. The one absolute certainty I have in the entire debate is the fact that the ‘Net is changing rapidly and  our traditions and legal systems must to race faster and learn far more to understand and make informed decisions.

Even the most solid reputations can be somewhat fluid online. Great and well known brands have been damaged online in ways previous generations never had to consider. From the easy sale of knock-off products and stolen inventory to the kiss-off tone of many consumer complaints, large business operations are uniquely vulnerable to the undermining influence of unscrupulous individuals or small groups.

An isolated issue with a prolific individual can lead to hundreds or even thousands of duplicate complaints in blog posts (often replicated and reprinted), comments, on unofficial consumer advocate sites, and even in paid search results. Online, one person can look like many far easier than they could have just over a decade ago.

Similarly, the small cartels of counterfieters that can move fake merchandise from factory to street-corner in a matter of days have found a more comfortable way to hawk their faux-wares. The Internet provides the fakers a virtually unlimited number of options to present items for sale to consumers including some that are considered highly legitimate marketplaces like eBay. Many major corporations share a multi-billion dollar problem and to make the matter worse, few of them realize the actual extent of it.

During the recent Search Engine Strategies Conference in San Jose, I was privileged to interview the grandfather of the search marketing industry Danny Sullivan at the WebmasterRadio.FM booth. It was an amazing interview which ranged from Danny’s earliest days starting the Search Engine Watch journal and the SES conference series to his new ventures, the Search Marketing Expo conferences and the Search Engine Land journal.

Unfortunately, something happened between the microphones and the mixing board. While the engineer says the interview sounded fine in his headphones, the recording is garbled in places with a terrible digital echo over-shadowing our voices from time to time. That is too bad as I felt it was one of the best interviews I have ever done and certainly one I am most proud of.

At any rate, here is a link to the interview. The sound gets flakey about five minutes in but astute listeners can make out most of the words. I am working on getting a transcription to post at a later date.

Danny Sullivan interviewed by Jim Hedger at SES San Jose 2008

The Pay Per Click Summit is holding a contest with a free pass to the upcoming two-day LA conference as a prize. Scheduled for September 25 and 26, the PPC Summit will be held at the Omni Los Angeles Hotel in downtown LA.

People who want to win a free ticket to the conference need to follow this link and answer three relatively simple questions:

1/ What top 3 strategies impacted your most profitable search engine marketing campaign?
2/ What made the difference for your campaign ROI?
3/ What were your campaign results?

The PPC Summit is considered the premier PPC-focused show. This year PPC Summit will feature presentations from well known names such as, Jay Sears, David Stoller, David Szetela, Mary O’Brien, Jason Miller, Heather Lutze and Mark Evans.

For those of you who don’t win a ticket, there is still time for early registration. For those who do enter the contest, there are a few rules and conditions you need to be aware of.