Somehow, the company we started has become somewhat successful and reached some really interesting milestones. Honestly, what SEOmoz has achieved in the past 5 years is beyond what I could have hoped for. It’s exciting and it’s humbling, but it’s also a little bit scary. There are 94 incredible people at the company devoting their
The Paradox of Easy vs. Hard to Measure Marketing Channels
By When companies consider which marketing channels to invest in, data is almost always cited as the primary driver. In reality, just like everything else human beings do, biases and irrationality prevails. via eMarketer (1 & 2) In 2010, businesses could see that US consumption of print was less than 1/3rd the consumption of Internet content.
Just Because I’m Terrible at It Doesn’t Mean I’m Going to Stop
By I think I might have some masochistic tendencies. Usually, when people are terrible at something, they find alternatives, or they stop entirely. I do that sometimes, but I’m also weirdly persistent when faced with an obvious lack of acumen for a skill or pursuit. In college, I was captain of the only flag football team
Taking a week off of blogging
By I’m heading to Ireland – Belfast & Dublin – for the next 9 days, so I’m going to take some time off blogging. It’s been a huge challenge writing every night again (haven’t done it in a few years), but it definitely takes a toll. Hopefully the week off will help.
Interview Questions and Interview Strategy
By It’s struck me of late that many smart companies with reputations for giving tough interviews are weirdly anti-strategic in their approach to interview questions. Chatting with folks from across our organization (and a few others) who’ve done their fair share of interviewing with Google, Amazon, Boeing, the US State Department, Twitter, Facebook, etc. I’m struck
The Downside of Hedonic Adaptation at a Scaling Startup
By The resiliency of the human mind is an absolutely astounding phenomenon. Evolution has given us the power to suffer massive, lifelong injuries, lose the things most precious to us in the world, have our hopes & dreams dashed, move from environments or geographies we say we love to others we find detestable and, over time,
Two Psychological Triggers that Make Viral Content More Viral
By I was particularly impressed last week with the political quiz website ISideWith. If you haven’t yet taken it for a spin, I recommend doing so, not because it’s likely to change your political affiliation (we might even have a genetic predisposition there that no evidence will be strong enough to overrule), but because it’s an
It’s Not Just Technical Debt; Everything Gets Painful & Slow as You Scale
By A tremendous amount gets written about technical debt (definition) in the startup ecosystem. As you scale your product and engineering, you inevitably make sacrifices for the sake of speed that lead to pain down the road. What startups (and people who interact with them) don’t often realize is that this same problem happens across nearly
I Love You Geraldine. Happy Birthday.
By Dear Geraldine, For the last 10 years and 9 months, you’ve been the best thing in my life. We’ve been through a bunch of tough times together and some amazingly good ones, too. And for the past 3 and a half years, you’ve been writing a love letter to me (that’s turned into much more
I Hated My Blog Post From Last Night
By This morning I woke up with a lot of regret. I really don’t like my blog post from last night. To use a common SEOmoz saying, it was “TA” but not “GFEE.” I shared my thoughts transparently and I authentically don’t like the “growth hacker” terminology, but why am I writing about that? It doesn’t