Industry Tradeshows - Q4 2007

 The following is a list of Internet industry tradeshows that Website owners, online business managers and Netprenuers will find Website Magazine.  

• DMA (Direct Marketing Association)  October 13-16th, 2007 : Chicago, IL
• SMX Social Media  October 16-17th, 2007 : New York, NY
• ISPCon  October 16-18th, 2007 : San Jose, CA
• Ad:Tech   November 5-6th, 2007 : New York, NY
• BlogWorld  November 8-9th, 2007, Las Vegas, NV
• PPC Summit  November 15-16th, 2007 : San Francisco, CA
• Search Engine Strategies  December 3-6th, 2007 : Chicago, IL
• WebmasterWorld PubCon  December 4-7th, 2007, Las Vegas, NV

Upcoming Trade Shows

Website Magazine is a great resource to help grow your business. But you shouldn’t stop there. The myriad of industry trade shows across the country and the world provide other great resources. Conferences both educate and provide a prime opportunity for networking while helping ensure the long-term success of your online enterprise. Below our 10 top shows in a variety of fields where every website owner should be able to find something to their benefit. Be sure to visit each show’s website for detailed agendas and more dates and locations.

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SMX Advanced
Search Engine Land Editor-in-Chief Danny Sullivan kicks off the inaugural Search Marketing Expo – SMX Advanced in Seattle this year. Sure to draw a crowd, this conference will feature leading search marketing experts including Sullivan, discussing organic and paid search strategies and three networking functions. Join this conference to learn from the top professionals of the search marketing industry.

Website: searchmarketingexpo.com
Next Date: June 4 – 5, 2007
Location: Seattle, WA


eMetrics Summit:
The Big PictureStarted in 2002, this conference takes the approach of examining Web metrics to better marketing efforts and increase your ROI. The 2004 conference saw the birth of the Web Analytics Association. The Emetrics Summit has spread overseas, with 2007 shows in London, and Dusseldorf along with San Francisco and Washington D.C.

Website: emetrics.org
Next Date: May 6 - 9, 2007
Location: San Francisco, CA


Elite Retreat
This event is very exclusive and has limited availability – just 30 attendees will be chosen by an application-only process. The retreat touts one-on-one time with industry experts Jeremy Schoemaker, Lee Dodd and Aaron Wall among others. Bring your business plan or current site objectives with you and they promise to help bring your business to the next level.

Website: eliteretreat.info
Next Date: June 8 - 9, 2007
Location: Orlando, FL


Search Engine Strategies
Search Engine Strategies is the leading global conference & expo series about search engine advertising, including optimization and marketing issues. One of the longest-running and top industry trade shows around, SES features leading industry experts and a wealth of knowledge for all website owners and operators.

Website: searchenginestrategies.com
Next Date: June 12–13, 2007
Location: Toronto, Canada
SES Latino Search: June 18–19, ‘07


eBay Live!
eBay Live! 2007 is the best place to learn the secrets of success on eBay and network with your peers. Learn the secrets of building buzz and the inner workings of eBay to maximize your selling potential.

Website: pages.ebay.com/eBayLive/
Next Date: June 14 - 16, 2007
Location: Boston, MA


AD:tech
ad:tech is an interactive advertising and technology conference dedicated to connecting all sides of today’s brand marketing landscape. Interactive workshops, conferences and industry experts highlight this Internet advertising mainstay with dates scheduled worldwide.

Website: Ad-tech.com
Location: Miami, FL
Next Date: June 26-27, 2007

Location: Chicago, IL
Next Date: July 31 - August 1, 2007


Web Video Summit 2007
Industry expert Dave Burstein leads this conference, focused on marketing and branding with the power of Web video and multimedia. A companion website, WebVideoUniverse.com, provides information, news and resources to this community.

Website: webvideosummit.com
Next Date: June 27 - 28, 2007
Location: San Jose, CA


Affiliate Summit 2007 East
Founders Shawn Collins and Missy Ward started Affiliate Summit to be the leading global source of learning and networking opportunities surrounding the affiliate marketing industry. This conference is a premier venue for affiliate networking and learning about industry trends.

Website: affiliatesummit.com
Next Date: July 8 - 10, 2007
Location: Miami, FL

ISPCON
Learn about the latest Internet services and trends, advanced Web applications and hear from real-world users of these services at ISPCON. This is a good networking opportunity and a place to further your education as well.

Website: ispcon.com
Next Date: May 23 – 25, 2007
Location: Orlando, FL

HostingCon
As the name implies, this conference is focused on the hosted services industry. Learn from professionals with great experience through conference sessions and walk the exhibit halls filled with services to better your hosted services business. Special vendor demos are another highlight.

Website: hostingcon.com
Next Date: July 23 – 25, 2007
Location: Chicago, IL

WSM Trade Show Calendar

Advanced Link Building

As all search engines use some form of link analysis in the ranking algorithms, the SES session  on "Advanced Link Building" was a must attend event from which a good deal of practical information was provided to attendees.

The undisputed leader of links Eric Ward started the session with a discussion of link reclamation (or the process of keeping (or reclaiming) the links you have) and holistic link building.

If you are moving your site (say for instance changing your domain name) link reclamation can be very difficult. Especially if you are moving your site (to a content management system for example). One of the things that you can do is to maintain the same file structure and file names and use 301 redirects. ward suggests to "always mind your server logs" and analyze what pages are still receiving traffic after a move. You will know that there are outstanding links which continue to send traffic to nonexistent pages when you see 404 error pages. At that point you can either reinstate the previously deleted page or set up a redirect.

Ward also discussed holistic link building. Since your website is much more than just your home page you can have external sites link directly to different section of your site which provides an immense amount of value when it comes to link popularity. Say for instance you host multimedia files or a forum at your site. Submit inclusion requests at quality sites and submit a link directly to the content (multimedia or straight HTML) hosted on your site. This also works for podcasts and white papers or any content for that matter that you develop that others would be interested in is a great opportunity to build links.

Todd Friesen discussed internal linking structures and encourages those interested in advanced link building tactics to  always have a sitemap and use anchor text in any internal link structures. "People need to start looking at their own sites first before starting an external link campaign," said Friesen.

Greg Boser of WebGuerilla discussed how to develop an effective external linking strategy. Starting by identifying the most visible sites within your space, it's important to first extract and analyze the backlinks from the major search engines (including information such as what are the unique domains and IPs of the sites your are interested in as well as what anchor text being used. Building a profile of each competitor that outlines the types of tactics being used will provide you insights into the cost/benefits of the various tactics being used and which ones you should emulate, which make sense for your organization and which you may want to avoid.

A Specific Example of Link Building In Action:
Say for instance that you provide some form of download. How do you get links and in turn people to visit your site? Give something away for free, ask for embedded link with descriptive anchor text or alt attributes and develop relationships with those directories specifically within your niche. This will enable you to develop long term, deep links to your site.

What should you avoid in link building?
Develop or use a system that enables you to get credit for your affiliate links. That means no third party systems such as commissionjunction (cj.com) which obscure URLs. 

What should be your next step?
Expand your knowldege about linking in the Search Engine Watch Linking forum, hosted by Chris Boggs of G3Group. Chris will also contribute to the upcoming issue of Website Services Magazine. Also consider visiting a Website Services sponsor in LinksToYou.com, one of only pure, ethical link exchange networks on the Web.

Reputation Monitoring and Management

Millions of dollars are spent annually monitoring and managing reputations online and for good reason. If you value the equity you have built in that brand then it is essential that you monitor and manage your reputation online for the benefit of your enterprise. Failure to do so could mean disaster; not only to your brand but the bottom line of your organization.
 
Danny Sullivan hosted a panel that featured Andy Beal of Fortune Interactive, Rob Key of Converseon, Rob Garner of Agency.com and Nan Dawkins of RedBoots Consulting at the Search Engine Strategies Monday session.

If "brand equity equals your search results," as Rob Key of Converseon suggests, then it's time to take a closer look at the Web’s consumer generated media (CGM) as more and more consumers are being presented with such content. As this content can increasingly define your company (since most users don’t scroll past the first page of results), it’s crucial that you optimize your online “shelf-space” as much as possible for positioning your company in the minds of consumers.

Why you should monitor and manage reputation
Consumer generated media (blogs, forums, message boards) is evolving more rapidly and impacting consumers buying decisions through blogs, newsgroups and forums. Some of which may be currently employed at your site or at the sites of your competition. Yahoo even went as far as to include blog postings within Yahoo! News listings. Google Base presents anyone with content to share and an Internet connection an opportunity to do so.

Did you know that 75% of users never scroll beyond the first page of results? As a result the listings that appear are defined in great part by the hands of third parties. Key suggests that "Brand is an experience that creates an impression," so if half of the listings appearing under your corporate name are negative then it is time to do something about it. Why? Because consumers cannot tell the difference in many instances from the content provided by corporate marketing departments and the content provided by an unofficial source. As a result, consumers are often subject to mixed messages and this results in a negative impression of your products, your services and your brand. And nobody wants that.

More reasons to start monitoring your reputation…
One of the reasons that you should really be concerned about monitoring your reputation online came from search marketing specialist Rob Garner of Agency.com who discussed the increasing “bounty” on brand related terms with the rise of contextual search. When such a bounty exists there are reasons (and very profitable reasons) for people (affiliates) to capitalize on your brand and its associated terms. What typically results from those overzealous affiliates comes in the form of outright content theft and site scraping. For the worst case scenarios, Garner suggests that one such was to cure the ills of scraper sites is to consult your legal team. Another, very proactive and potentially costly solution is to research variations of your brand terms, comparing them to .com's in the whois database and acquiring those domains if available to circumvent misuse.

Key also suggests that it is important to understand and map the conversation (what is being said and the volume and visibility of the communication). Doing so can provide you with insights as to how to mobilize your influential allies and make the most of messages circulating the blogosphere or forumsphere. Affiliate marketing, influential reviews and community networks all provide companies an opportunity to engage users of the blogosphere. Persuading those to pick up your cause and express the benefits to those in the middle that are subject to messages is a legitimate and safe way to quell issues that arise. The Web these days enables any company to become the content company but it is important to remain vigilant, proactive and most importantly stay transparent in your communication.

The Tools To Help You Monitor Reputation
Nan Dawkins of RedBoots Consulting, an online marketing agency cited several tools that can help those interested in monitoring and managing their reputation online. But first, it is important to know and understand what can be monitored. And, you guessed it; pretty much everything you ever expected can be monitored including total buzz, influentials, detractors, supporters, new vs. existing voices, demographics, sentiment, as well as conventional press citations. What you are really looking for however is patterns according to Dawkins. Some free resources are BlogPulse, Feedster, Technorati, CyberAlert and CustomScoop.

More Tools To Help Monitor Reputatin
Andy Beal provided several very useful blog tracking tips including creating custom RSS feeds with your company name, the name of your competition as well as any important key terms associated with your business. Another tip was to use Google or Yahoo News Alerts which track news, web groups and even press releases. This also helps in identifying scraper sites and plagiarized content. Beal also provided several useful links if you are concerned about site scraping and plagiarism, including:

- www.copernic.com/en/products/tracker
- www.aignes.com  
- www.watchthatpage.com

There are also several sites such as www.forumfind.com and www.boardtracker.com that will help site owners and marketers identify what is happening in the forumsphere.

So when it comes to monitoring, measuring and managing communication with those involved with consumer generated media, it's important to build alliances and relationships with the most active and always, monitor, identify, analyze and understand before responding.

Using Data to Competitive Advantage

Your goals are to quickly find new consumers who are interested in your brand and products, convert them into buyers and create a competitive advantage. Today’s online channels and technologies allow you to generate a significant volume of customers and valuable consumer data like never before, but the important questions remain unanswered. What are the best strategies for acquiring customers online? What data is important? How should you store it and use it to guide your strategy. In this session you will learn: · New approaches to online customer acquisition where consumers request to be marketed to and marketers pay only for the qualified leads they acquire · How to precisely target millions of consumers over multiple online channels including email, co-registration, vertically-targeted online properties and dynamic polls · Techniques to convert customer data into a long-lasting competitive advantage based on a survey by the Direct Marketing Association and David Shepard Associates · How to convert the raw data into meaningful insights about customers.

Read the Weblog POst about "Using Data To Your Competitive Advantage"