Ken Jurina, Vancouver SEM Meetup and Negative Keywords

Ken Jurina presenting on negative keywords

Last Vancouver SEM Meetup was in conjunction with IMC Vancouver, and we were lucky to have Ken Jurina.

Ken presented on Negative Keywords, a topic that I believe is very underdeveloped in the PPC industry.  In fact, Ken proved that even I could pay a little more attention to negative keywords.

But Ken’s approach to negative keywords I have never used. He uses a battery of tools to produce huge negative keyword lists – he mentioned it’s not uncommon to produce lists of 10,000 negative keywords per campaign. That, my friends, is a lot of keywords.

(more…)

Next Vancouver SEM Meetup / IMC Vancouver Is Coming!

Next SEM Meetup is along IMC and Ken Jurina

Internet Marketing Conference (IMC) Vancouver is upon us, so it’s the next Meetup.

Next Vancouver SEM Meetup will be part of the IMC, and best of all, it will be free for everyone – Meetup members and IMC alike.

Ken Jurina from Epiar.com will be presenting on using negative keywords and Adwords.

I recommend you check it out. Check the Vancouver SEM Meetup page for more details!

Stronger Link Building I – Jose Uzcategui From Snaptech – Vancovuer SEM Meteup

Jose Uzcategui (me) Presenting at the Vancouver SEM Meetup

Last Meetup was my turn to present at the Vancouver SEM Meetup. I chose link building as the topic because a couple of interesting projects we’re undertaking at Snaptech.

First  let me thank Snaptech Marketing, the Vancouver web design and Internet marketing company where I work, for sponsoring the Meetup. It’s great to have industry support in these things.

The Link Building Series

Trying to keep my Meetup presentation to 35 minutes was a bit of a challenge, there are so many things we can talk about link building…

I don’t want to rush the information on the blog so I’ll break my presentation into a series of 3 or four more digestible posts.

This post is the first of three posts about link building.

The Most Important Parts of Link Building Is…

(more…)

Vancouver SEM Meetup – SEO Clinic Review

and I even brought a tripod...

The slogan was 5 minutes, 5 SEOs, 10 sites. Basically, we had five minutes to take a look at a site we had never seen before and make recommendations from a Search Engine Optimization perspective.

It was fun. The Internet connection was pretty crappy, but it gave us enough to go over most sites.

It was pretty interesting to hear the different approaches and recommendations from such a knowledgeable bunch of SEOs.  Here are a few thoughts on each presenter:

• Marc Bitanga – SEO Manager for Electronic Arts. I liked Marc’s style, quick on his feet and to the point. (more…)

Ani Lopez on Multicultural Multilingual SEO at Vancouver SEM Meetup

Ani Lopez, preseting at the Vancouver SEM Meetup

(This post is a bit overdue – my apologies.)

This month’s Vancouver Search Engine Marketing Meetup’s presenter was Ani Lopez, a Vancouver SEO consultant who specializes in multi-lingual and multi-country SEO. Very suitable topic for Vancouver, one of the most multicultural cities I know.

SEO projects, accordingly, have to deal with particular challenges a this multicultural brings within. Typical questions revolve around how the site is structured, the URLs used, localization settings, and language use. I can think of very few people who could’ve addressed these challenges in such a simple yet applicable way as Ani Lopez.

(more…)

Mailchimp for Vancouver SEM Meetup Communication

Last week I used Mailchimp, a popular email service provider, to send a newsletter-type  email to the Vancouver SEM Meetup group.

This idea came about while thinking a better way to communicate with the group’s members. Mailchimp offers pre-designed formatting, tracks clicks, opens, and a ton of other information I thought I could take advantage of… Here’s what happened. (more…)

John Hossack from VKI Studios at Vancouver SEM Meetup – Jan 2009

John Hossack from VKI Studios: "Ugly Jerry"

My first post of the year is going to be to thank John Hossack and VKI Studios for coming out last Monday to present at the Vancouver Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Meetup, which I organize.

It was the first time we run out of seats in the room at what has become our regular Meetup place, Ceili’s Irish Pub. I was surprised, but not that much; John and VKI Studios are two big names in Vancouver, so it was natural for this meetup to pull lots of people – around 50.

The “Ugly Jerry” presentation

The “ugly Jerry” principle took the simple theory of comparison contrast (I’m sure that’s not a technical name) and added a smart twist that makes it a powerful weapon for online sellers.

(more…)

Meetup of Meetups 09 – Too Immediate Post

The orginzers... but I'm blocked.

It’s almost midnight. I’m a little tipsy and not sure if it’s kosher to write while in this condition, but as Nike says, I’ll just do it.

I’m coming back from the Meetup of Meetups here were more people that I could count. The word is that there were more than 500; and I would believe it.

I’m not going to go into much detail because, as you can understand, I’m very sleepy. But I want to thank the all the Meetup organizers, @shanegibson, @netchick, @monicahamburg, @hummingbird604 and everyone else.

(more…)

IIMA Sponsors Vancouver SEM Meetup

The Vanouver SEM Meetup was lucky enough to get a sponsorship offer from the International Internet Marketing Association (IIMA) last week. They are offering 25% off new individual and corporate memberships for the month of December.

That’s a generous chunk of cash (thank you IIMA ) and I wouldn’t be surprised if IIMA membership goes up next year.

A lot has changed this year since I took over the Meetup. But it has grown quite a bit and I’m happy about that. I’m thinking it’s time to get some Assistant Organizers involved, I’ve gotten super busy at work and it’s becoming difficult to keep the networking up.

It’s just an idea, but if you’re interested, let me know.

Vancouver SEM Meetup (Nov 17) Thoughts and Photos

James Laitinen presenting at Vancouver SEM

(Okay, this post is late – really late – but bear with me. I’ve been transitioning to a new job (and a new lifestyle) and still getting the groove to blog more consistently.)

The last Vancouver SEM Meetup (Nov 17^th) was about Bing.com. James Laitinen from the International Internet Marketing Association (IIMA) presented a very insightful point of view on what could happen with this relatively new search engine.

(more…)