Ken Jurina, Vancouver SEM Meetup and Negative Keywords

By Jose Uzcategui September 28th, 2010 Meetups No Comments

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…)

Vancouver SEM Meetup – SEO Clinic Review

By Jose Uzcategui May 24th, 2010 Meetups 3 Comments

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…)

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

By Jose Uzcategui January 13th, 2010 Meetups No Comments

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

By Jose Uzcategui December 16th, 2009 Meetups, Personal No Comments

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

By Jose Uzcategui December 13th, 2009 Meetups No Comments

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 – Oct 6th – Raquel Hirsch from Wider Funnel

By Jose Uzcategui October 13th, 2009 Meetups No Comments

Last week the Vancouver Search Engine Marketing Meetup had Raquel Hirsch from Wider Funnel as a presenter. The presentation, I thought was great; the sound and A/V quality at Ceili’s, not so much. Here are my thoughts:

The presentation was titled The Six Landing Page Success Factors. Wider Funnel is a company that specializes in Landing Page Optimization so it was very interesting to see the different case studies Raquel brought to the group.

(more…)

The Vancouver SEO Meetup Group Changes Name!

By Jose Uzcategui September 19th, 2009 Meetups No Comments

The Vancouver Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Meetup Group is changing its name to The Vancouver Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Group.

The reason is that we have many members who would like to hear and discuss a variety of issues beyond SEO – in fact we do that already.

(more…)

Vancouver SEO Meetup, Aug 09 #vancouverseomeetup

By Jose Uzcategui August 27th, 2009 Events, Social Media No Comments

Two nights ago the Vancouver SEO Meetup brought together some of the most influential SEOs in Vancouver. This was the first SEO Meetup featuring a presenter, Alex Brabant from www.emarketing101.com, and he did a great job presenting about SEMPO Canada.

To be honest, I didn’t know what to expect for this meetup. Yet, I was impressed by…everything.

Attendance was good, around 18 people – considering we’re still in summer. I know once we hit fall and winter this number is going to grow, a lot. Even more, it was a good mix of SEOs – some knew a lot, some were just interested.

(more…)