I don’t particularly like the phrase “thought leader” or “thought leadership” for two reasons: 1) just *thinking* about something doesn’t make you a leader, nor does being a leader enable you to simply think about things AND 2) the term has pretentious and sometimes negative associations. When I hear people describe me that way, I have a viscerally
A Long, Ugly Year of Depression That’s Finally Fading
By Yesterday morning I woke up early to speak at the Business of Software conference in Boston. It was my first time there, and it’s an exceptional group. Then, after some meetings, I spoke in the afternoon at Hubspot’s Inbound conference (thankfully just across a long skybridge that connects Boston’s World Trade Center from its Convention
A Video About Independent Games Provides Surprising Insights into Marketing & the Web
By Yesterday, a Mozzer shared this video with the company over an allstaff thread. I started watching, as I usually do, thinking that 1-2 minutes into the video I’d give up and get back to my email. Wrong. For 19 minutes and 5 seconds, I was captivated. The video isn’t lovely or beautifully done, but it
If Negative SEO is Possible, We Need an Irrefutable, Public Example
By There are a tremendous number of claims from across the search marketing world that negative SEO (the practice of knocking someone else’s website/page(s) out of search results by pointing spam links at them) is not only possible, but has been done. One of the most recent and, IMO, most credible came via this SERoundtable post
Making Agency Numbers More Transparent
By Benchmarks are an incredible tool for business owners and operators. They tell us where we sit on the spectrum and make our strengths and weaknesses transparent. Without them, we’re often left to wonder – am I any good at this? (Kitchen pie chart via Jotun Türkiye) Here’s a conversation I recently had with the founder of a marketing agency:
Queries & Clicks May Influence Google’s Results More Directly Than Previously Suspected
By For a long time, folks in the search, technology, and marketing worlds have surmised that Google is using query and clickthrough data to bias search result rankings. I recently observed several examples of this via some industry colleagues (that, unfortunately, I cannot share publicly), and thought, “what the heck, let’s give it a spin.” On
IMEC Lab: Help Test & Validate Web Marketing Hypotheses
By UPDATE: IMEC Labs is now being run by Eric Enge and the folks at Stone Temple Consulting (as I was unable to commit enough bandwidth consistently to continue the experiments). The new signup form is here, and I’ve updated the links below. Over the last few months, I’ve been running some experiments in Google’s search
Elite Privilege, Ivy League Schools, and Uncommon Advice for Building a Network
By Geraldine and I don’t have kids, but for some reason, the last few months, I’ve spent innumerable conversations talking to our many friends with children about the tradeoffs of public vs. private schooling. As is my nature, I couldn’t help but research the topic on the web. And in nearly every piece I read, the
What Can SEOs Do That No Other Marketer Can?
By I recently read an article by George Nielsen on SEJournal entitled What are SEOs Even Good At Anymore? It struck me that this is a topic about which many folks in and around web marketing professions are curious about. With some of the recent changes Google’s made around link building practices, brand biasing, and intent
Content Marketers Could Become Their Own Worst Enemy
By Content is powerful. It helps websites and companies earn traffic, earn amplification through social media, build trust with an audience, all at a cost far lower than traditional or online paid marketing channels. But, sometime in the next few years, I’m worried that it may become a more challenging, more risky, and less dividend-paying investment.