The problem is that people seem to neglect building their profile. Brent Csutoras in the above video discusses the importance of developing your profile since it is the first thing others look at to find out about you. A person trying to research you will look at your interests, groups, beliefs, and your activities before pursuing you for business purposes.

Todd Malicoat of Stuntdubl.com, says there are two factors you should focus on when building your profile:

1.    Getting great friends
2.    Getting great content

Todd also adds that you should have a fast RSS reader to submit stories to and strive to be the first to release a story.

The two areas that Brent emphasizes are:

1.    Your actual profile
2.    Your activity

To further explain your actual profile, people want to have a current understanding of you, so have a recent picture and description posted. As for your activity, people will be looking to see how active you are and what you’re active in.

I think Chris Winfield best sums up what Todd and Brent are trying to say: “Don’t forget the social part in social media.”

PubCon has something for everyone. It doesn’t just feature SEO, marketing, IT, or social media – it’s a combination of all those and more. In the above video, Brett says how they tried to focus on quality sessions at this year’s show.

People pitch topic ideas and the PubCon staff matches speakers up with the topics they are most passionate about. This not only makes it easy for the speaker, but also gives the user a better end product.

Brett had an interesting session this year based off of a Webmasterworld thread that has been going strong for nearly seven years. The thread entitled 26 Steps is a step-by-step guide to building a successful and sustainable website. Brett says the key is to making it sustainable. Anyone can build a “one hit wonder” as he puts it, but it takes skill to make it sustainable.

Brett echoes the words of many others in the industry that we should expect changes in search in 2009. He said search is now in a “mature” state and that Google led the way to this point through universal search.

Here’s the question that causes so much debate: Is link buying good or bad? Which is it? If you are selling links and making money, then it seems to be working out “good” for you. Another scenario in which it seems to be “good” is when you are purchasing links and your ranking is improving.

In the above video, Rand says:

“The only people that think it’s [the practice of buying links] bad are search engineers who think it lowers relevancy.”

Rand goes on to say that sometimes it lowers relevancy and sometimes it doesn’t. In other words, the relevancy aspect shouldn’t be the deciding factor on whether buying links are good or bad.

In his presentation at PubCon, Rand gave a few examples of how to buy links without actually “buying links.” A website purchase is one way to buy links without outright buying a specific link. CondeNet bought several websites and now links to them. The technique behind this is to find relevant websites, make a purchase, and then create relevant links that fulfill your needs.

Another way Rand suggests is through blogger product reviews. SEOmoz blogged about a free book they received and linked to their site. Build strong relationships with bloggers. Ask for a review, not a link, and most likely, you’ll get it.

A third method Rand suggests is through content partnerships. VentureBeat and Read Write Web are partners with the New York Times. The NYT needs their feeds and VentureBeat and Read Write Web are now associated with a big brand.

Changing subjects slightly, Rand also had a few remarks to make about Bruce Clay’s claim of “ranking is dead.” While Google’s personalization and localization practices will continue to influence ranking, Rand says it doesn’t mean that you should give up on SEO efforts to rank high in the search engines. SEO will always bring value to the results and user behaviors cannot change that.

As for Rand’s predictions for 2009, he indicates how he would like to see the rumored Apple search engine and foresees a renewed focus on organic search in the midst of a troubled economy.

George Wright, the Vice President of Marketing and Sales at Blendtec, gave a keynote at PubCon, in which he explained the strategy behind their campaign. In the above WPN video, Barry Schwartz of RustyBrick, Inc. tells how Blendtec had to go out on a limb to get their brand name out there.

Blendtec offers high performance blending and dispensing equipment for restaurants, but also has home editions. George realized their need to raise brand awareness. He knew they had great products, but no one knew about them. The concept was there for the “will it blend” idea, but they didn’t have a big budget to do a commercial.

George took his budget of $50 and bought the domain name willitblend.com, a lab coat, a six-pack of Coke, and supplies to blend. The first experiment included marbles, a rotisserie chicken, a rake, and a McDonald’s value meal. Their small budget only allowed them to use social media outlets, so they launched their campaign over YouTube.

Now, some 70-75 videos later, they’ve made history. Blendtec blends iPhones, iPods, and even rake handles just as George did in his keynote address! The only item that has been too powerful for them to blend is Chuck Norris…

Since their campaign launched, Blendtec’s sales have been up 700 percent. George realized Blendtec’s need to prove that their product was better than the others by actually showing it instead of simply talking about the mechanics. Viral marketing is creating fun content that people want to talk about and putting it into social media sites.

Ironically, Blendtec pitched the Food Network prior to the campaign with no luck, but after the campaign began, the Food Network contacted them.

These great minds have come together on two projects geared toward developers. JaneandRobot.com is a site they created that discusses the fundamentals of search engine optimization from a web developer’s perspective.

The second is the O’Reilly Found Conference. With this event, Vanessa and Nathan hope to change the historical idea that search is a marketing activity since it is now just as critical to technical architecture. The target audience for the conference is designers, IT professionals, and entrepreneurs.

Most of the search conferences such as SMX and SES focus primarily on the marketing angle of search. Marketers go home and pitch all their new ideas to their IT departments who have trouble believing the changes are necessary. Vanessa and Nathan want to help bridge that communication gap and allow the marketing and the IT departments work together.

In the above WPN video, Nathan gives a couple of examples of the type of issues that will be addressed at the conference.

1.    What is the right design pattern for my website?
2.    Information regarding what you need to know to be successful using any platform.

The conference will be held in Burlingame, California, June 9-11. Nathan and Vanessa are currently accepting speaker and topic proposals and ask if you need more information to contact them.

First, know whether or not the search engines are indexing all your pages. If they aren’t, then you need to check a few things out. Make sure you have a sitemap that is working correctly, and check your own spider to make sure you’re being seen. Also, look at your combined PPC and organic data to find out what is converting and what is not.

Although having a big site or numerous sites might seem like a pain, there are some perks involved. You can create a set of templates and use them multiple times and optimize them accordingly.

Another hint for managing a large site is to make sure your links are specific. Inbound links that only link to your homepage aren’t really benefiting you. For instance, if someone is using your products or services, have them link to that page instead of the homepage. This method will help both the searcher and the company.

Large sites are a bit overwhelming, but just need to be broken down. Everyone simply needs to work together and focus on the end user’s wants and needs.

For starters, he says you should focus on a specific industry or topic. Produce good and interesting content that people want to know about. Hartzer mentions that news items are always a good choice when you are trying to create link bait.

Look at other websites and take notice of their link bait. Learn from their mistakes and benefit from what they are doing right. Think of things that would enhance your story such as pictures, videos, contests, or polls and use them.

Try to be the one that breaks the story especially for news items. After a story has been published by several different sources, the chances of your story being noticed will diminish. Remember to always update your stories and bring out new information since viewers enjoy continuing stories.

Even though, you’ve hit the publish button, doesn’t mean you’re done. Use social media sites like del.icio.us, Technorati, and Social Poster to promote your story. Not only will this help to get your story out there quickly, but it will also get it indexed with the search engines.

There’s a lot more to SEO than just ranking number one in Google for a key phrase. Since searches based on personalization and localization are becoming more and more prevalent, Matt echoes Bruce’s words that the central focus for SEO’s should be traffic and conversions.

With all these innovations, the game is changing for SEO’s. Matt says they are now marketers and need to embrace universal search by integrating video, images, books, etc. As far as Google trends go for 2009, they will affect SEO’s as well. Matt reports how black hat SEO is “getting more malicious” and shamelessly illegal.

In summary, SEO’s need to be aware of these actions and act accordingly. They need to decide where they stand on legal and ethical issues and how they will adjust their strategies to compatibly adapt to these new trends.

In the above WPN video, Bruce Clay predicts even greater changes in the coming year. Personalized search, behavior-based search, intent-based search, and universal search allow for direct and specific searches. With so many ways to search now, it’s quite obvious that search results are getting better, which is exactly what Google wants.

While this is all good news for searchers and Googlers, SEO’s have a bit of a challenge on their hands. Bruce states that “ranking is dead” since people can have different results even when using the same search query. He uses the example that the search query “Java” can bring results for code, coffee, or the Caribbean.

Instead of focusing on ranking, Bruce recommends SEO’s to look at analytics and measure traffic, bounce rate, and action closely. Also, among his advice is the idea to embrace these implementations such as video, images, audio, maps, etc. Not only will this help to engage your customer, but also Google.

When you begin your social media campaign, make sure your viral content is relevant so customers can immediately associate it with your brand. Also, work closely with the search team in order for potential customers to be able to find you in their searches.

Just as Eric Enge emphasized in his WPN interview, have a specific goal for your campaign and stick with it. Understand that you can’t just abandon your campaign if it isn’t working. It will almost definitely need adjusting and you need to be prepared in advance.

Your ultimate goal with these efforts is profitability. If you remain invisible to your customers, you will not bring in revenue. In the above WPN video, Vanessa Fox of Nine By Blue, stresses the importance of having an “obvious” call to action.

Once you’ve positioned yourself, don’t throw your efforts away by hiding your call to action. Make it simple but prominent, so customers can complete their transaction and you can gain your profit.

This is a lot to take in, but don’t get discouraged before you start your social media campaign. Simply research and know your audience and have a solid plan before you launch your campaign.

Your social media strategy should include a specific angle. Have a goal from the beginning and don’t wander from it. If you keep a steady focus, you will be able to build upon it.

In the Real-World Low-Risk, High-Reward Link Building Strategies session at PubCon, Tamar Weinberg recalls Eric saying:

1.    Study what has worked before
2.    Write a compelling article
3.    Write an interesting description
4.    Vote for posts in front of you on the upcoming pages
5.    Make sure you stand out!

To elaborate on that last point, you want your content to be unique and authoritative. However, it still needs to be relevant. If your content is great but no one associates it with your brand, you probably won’t get a link.

Know in advance to be ready for criticism. Critics will be watching closely and waiting for a mistake. Remember to keep your focus in mind at all times.

Google doesn’t approve of a cash exchange type of purchase, but an indirect approach is accepted. Buying indirectly helps you to get a good link but with a low risk. Your link campaign should strive for a variety of links.

Look for directory links, industry-specific links, and links from people you have done business with in the past. In the above WPN video, Aaron Wall of SEO Book says to stay away from obvious (direct) links since they are high risk.

A few examples of how to obtain indirect links are: testimonials, conferences, and charity events. Testimonials help to build credibility. If a very respected company writes a testimonial for you, it will draw positive attention to you and even business.

Conferences are another good resource for gaining links. There are unbelievable networking opportunities at these events. Having a booth at these events with your business cards readily available can also lead to indirect links.

Being involved in charity events reflect very well on your brand image. It’s also nearly impossible to bring into disrepute a link that was obtained by supporting charity.

To learn more about purchasing indirect links, check out this post from Aaron Wall.

Constantly monitor your company, content, brand, product, and employees because if there happens to be a problem, you can address it immediately. When a negative comment or search result (or whatever your case may be) occurs, your first priority should be to determine whether it is legitimate or not.

In other words, if you or your business is at fault in any way, admit it. It will do no good to defend your wrong since the truth always comes out. Unfortunately, there are cases when someone is blatantly trying to attack you.

In cases like this, you need to prove the negativity wrong. Make sure the positive outshines the negative. Build your community and get involved in it to ensure that you always have positive feedback coming in.

If the negativity persists, go directly to it. In the above WPN video from PubCon 2008, Lee Odden of TopRank Online Marketing Blog says you should try to turn your haters into “evangelists.” You want to consult with them in a reasonable and respectable manner, so they will do the same with you.

There are many tools available to assist you as you track and monitor your reputation. Google Alerts and Yahoo! Alerts are a good place to start. For social media tracking, check out this list of 26 free tools from Andy Beal of Marketing Pilgrim.

If you would like more information on online reputation monitoring and management, you can visit Social Media Smarts to learn about a 2 day workshop on social media being offered by the Direct Marketing Association in partnership with TopRank Online Marketing.

Negative keywords are used in keyword advertising to hinder ads from being shown when a search term contains the negative keywords.

As Google clarifies, negative keywords aren’t for everyone. People are accustomed to using keywords to drive traffic to their site, but as everyone knows, not all traffic is good traffic. This is where negative keywords come into the game.

If you are a retail company and want specific, targeted traffic, a negative keyword ad campaign is something you might want to consider. For instance, if you’re a company that only sells women’s clothing, you could put “men’s clothing” as a negative keyword.

Each of the search engines are different when it comes to their allotment of negative keywords. Google allows a maximum of 10,000 terms or phrases. Yahoo! allows 250 maximum terms or phrases. The total character count for all negative keywords for Microsoft cannot surpass 1,022 and no single keyword can go beyond 100 characters.

Being very specific and targeted is key to a successful negative keyword ad campaign. There are several tools available to help you in this effort. Google offers several tools such as Google Keyword Tool, Google Suggest, and Google Product Search. WordTracker is another tool that helps you to filter that unwanted traffic. Ken Jurina (as seen in the above WPN video from PubCon 2008) and the Epiar crew recently announced a new negative keyword service that uses their proprietary keyword research application to generate a prioritized negative keyword list.