This is a private test, and this test page will self destruct in 10 seconds…

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1….

This is a private test, and this test page will self destruct in 10 seconds…

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1….

This is a private test, and this test page will self destruct in 10 seconds…

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1….

This is a private test, and this test page will self destruct in 10 seconds…

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1….

This is a private test, and this test page will self destruct in 10 seconds…

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1….

This is a private test, and this test page will self destruct in 10 seconds…

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1….

This is a private test, and this test page will self destruct in 10 seconds…

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1….

This is a private test, and this test page will self destruct in 10 seconds…

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1….

This is a private test, and this test page will self destruct in 10 seconds…

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1….

This is a private test, and this test page will self destruct in 10 seconds…

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1….

This is a private test, and this test page will self destruct in 10 seconds…

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1….

This is a private test, and this test page will self destruct in 10 seconds…

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1….

So comment back if you are in the area and feel like meeting up, I’m around People’s Square…

In 2008 I had the opportunity to partake in the 25th anniversary Cannonball Run, which now has “One Lap of America” added to its name due to the movie studio’s purchasing the rights to the use of the “Cannonball Run” name.

This post is just to give a basic intro into the event and the video I edited together of various photos and videos from the race. I will be adding more photos from the event and more stories in future posts but this is just a nice intro.

The car that I drove was mine, it was my 2008 “smart car” as seen below in the full Cannonball sticker fashion.

This smart was not only the first 2008 smart sold in North America it had thousands of dollars in modifications that included: stealth radar detection system, custom built GPS system, racing & driving computers, 7 power outlets, CB radio system, upgraded speakers including hidden subs and that was just inside the car. Outside of the car it had a custom carbon fiber hood that matched the carbon fiber interior dash, racing springs and the first batch of racing tires built for the smart that were put on a lighter and wider set of rims. Thanks to smart it also was given a racing break kit that included slotted rotors, S.S. break lines, racing brake pads and a nice red set of calipers. Other modifications where done and will be documented in future posts.

Here is my video compilation from the 2008 Cannonball Run:

Mark and I met while traveling around Europe & Africa and then later we traveled around Canada and the United States. So many stories about what we got up to will make the blog in the coming months while others will only live in our memories.

This most recent adventure was not as wild, no seatbelts were stolen, no firearms were used but we did have at least one mad scientist moment and some other classical things that only happen to us.

While Mark doesn’t exactly live in Manchester it was a 30 minute train ride to his city of Stockport. The first adventure in the weekend came at the train station at the airport as when I put in a 20 pound note into the ticketing machine I thought I just hit the jackpot in Vegas. As unknown to me the train ticket was less then a pound, but the machine only gives out coin change and those 1 pound coins are heavy. So I was standing in front of this ticketing machine as it spit out 19 large coins which landed 6 inches below into a metal tray. So in my usual fashion I raised my hands and proclaimed I won! Yes I still have a bit of Vegas in me and even more immaturity.

I won’t go into all the fun we had over the weekend, but I did manage to get some really great t-shirts as I had no idea the British were big A-Team and Atari fans. I also picked up a really unique STIG shirt, something for the racing boys to enjoy.

Mark and I also did some culture things. First we hit the Stockport museum, which after we went through are rethinking the “hands on” aspect of the museum. How was I to know that the boxes on the wall where not secured to the wall, or that the fake vegetables where not meant to be actually used. This museum also made me realize how old I have become as they had a exhibition about the toys from the past.

Sadly for my kid at heart many of the toys on display were ones that I used, it breaks my heart to think kids these days are looking at my toys in a museum and saying “dad you used to play with that”. One toy that I had completely forgotten about was the Action Player, which was a movie in your pocket. You had little cartages that held a movie that were inserted into a battery operated player, come to think about it, this was the first portable movie player.

The second thing we did was visit the bomb shelters and for this trip Mark’s girlfriend joined us. I have to say I don’t think I have been into a bomb shelters before and while these were interesting they didn’t have the Doctor Evil touches I was expecting. No big red destruct buttons and no concrete or steal at all, as this bomb shelters where dug out of the sandstone. At the bomb shelters I behaved myself other then not knowing the men’s washroom wasn’t actually a washroom.

I do recommend checking out the museum and the bomb shelters, but if you can time it the first week in the month the bomb shelters have an in-depth tour, that you need hard hats and headlamps for as they lead you deep into the bomb shelters, which I think would really be something fun for the kids or kids at heart like me.

Mark and I also managed some time to go and see Bruno, a true English classic. Ok its not a classic nor does it have much to do with England other then “Bruno” being from England. It was an interesting movie, enough that I’ll pickup the DVD when it comes out as it came make you laugh, but it’s not for everyone. One of my favorite parts of the movie was the line “I am so straight that in my house I bricked up the back door”.

I’m on the flight back home, not so looking forward to the rest of the week but it does lead into the weekend and this weekend as most I really looking forward to. Plus its now only 3 weeks away till my trip back “home” to Asia.

While this presentation is a little embarrassing for Dell as it shows just how bad they where it’s a good thing to share as many advertisers even now suffer the same problem that Dell had back in 2005. Dell’s biggest problem is they were relying on typical a advertising agency that was simply focused on making large media buys.

When I started actually handling advertising for Dell I focused on what converted into sales and how to generate actual revenue and the results where great. My conversion rate was 19.53% and I was generating over $200,000 in sales monthly. This was 100% from well focused keyword targeting on Google and none of the keywords I managed had “dell” in them, but buy me a drink sometime and I’ll share more about all the things that were done for Dell.

It also has some great background information including: What is SEO, what SEO is NOT, SEO Facts and Figures and it also has my Google quiz that I give.

You will also see some of my favorite Google logos within the document, which if you have seen any of my other presentations often get reused. You are welcome to make use of any of the data or slide information for your own presentations as this has and continues to help the teams in the companies I work with.

This was done in 2005 and most of this is still very relevant. While the Yahoo qualification program has been closed to new members, Microsoft has created a certification program and Google’s program is growing and further being supported.

In the presentation you will see the slogan I used “Don’t Depend on Luck. Depend on Professionals” as it really holds true to all the actions a client should take.

Microsoft’s contest to find a jingle for bing is open to “everyone” around the world except people living in Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Syria and anyone that lives in Quebec, Canada. Very strategic move on Microsoft’s part as Celine Dion has been known to enter into contests that she doesn’t belong in (Eurovision 1988).

While it’s good to see Microsoft/bing being active in understanding that there is Canada and then there is Quebec and helping prevent Celine Dion from taking anymore un-need attention, I don’t think this will be a problem for the rest of the French Canadians as this contest and rules are both in English.

http://www.bing.com/community/blogs/search/archive/2009/07/20/ever-get-a-catchy-jingle-stuck-in-your-head.aspx

As for the rest of the world, go ahead and make your bing jingles/videos. While not an official entry this is my personal favourite bing related video on YouTube:

I spoke on a few tracks at SMX but this time I was on the track along with Allen Qu from NetConcepts. He went first and spent 20 minutes explain that the only way to rank for anything in Google is to buy links, he then went on to offering links for sale and explaining that this is what their “SEO” company does for its clients.

Now yes link buying is a no no in Google’s eyes and while many agencies practice this method, what drove me crazy is in the talk he only focused on that you had to buy links, not that links come naturally from creating a great site. What was very funny for me is he even said while some clients get banned in Google he still recommends focusing on buying links as the his agencies SEO service.

Ok so you can guess by now my presentation was not talking about buying links. My presentation PPT version is also included here and I focused on what really makes a difference. Sorry that is in Chinese but the focus on the presentation was on that internal links are what 99% of the websites on the internet need to focus on and where most people get it completely wrong.

I have seen companies who happy to buy links and “fairy dust” for $1,000’s but then on their own website they fail to update the navigation/linking. Websites all too often focus on the external links, but if you analysis the algorithm at Google you will see that the internal linking is what receives the most weight in terms of keyword target/ranking. The most basic way to think about this is while other sites might link to you saying A if you say your B then who is Google to believe? If Google believed what others said about you more then what you said about yourself you could easily simply change any websites ranking by pointing unrelated links at its content.

If I can find the originally English presentation I will post it, but if that doesn’t work for a rare occasion the English speaking SEO world is the one that is at a disadvantage in terms of understanding what true SEO is all about.

While having said that I understand the absence it is too bad, as without having some good guidance and support the market is developing in a sub optimal manner.

On the other track I spoke (presentation also included in on this site) the speaker before me was Allen Qu from NetConcept. NetConcept is typical agency in Asia as the speaker spent 20 minutes telling the audience to buy links from him and his network of sites. I have posted more about that presentation on the Secrets to Links & Google Rankings.

The keyword research presentation, is a very useful processes in planning and understanding the how SEO works. This example given is from an old process which I created, there are many variations of this process since then but it will give you a great insight even the more advanced SEO’s. As an added bonus I have attached both the English and Chinese version, so it is all ready for you to use and to develop further.

English

Chinese

SEO, when done properly by professionals, is very complex and involves much more than keywords with fairy dust. I would say that most website owners are not ready for true SEO. When I ran my agency I turned away over 90% of the clients that approached me for SEO services, there is no point in taking a client’s money and giving him or her something that will never work. Yes, they might be very happy to be #1 for their company name and they might even see an increase of traffic, as the Internet does grow by over 1 million people a month. But, in the end did your SEO work really drive their business forward?

Within my industry I have held true to the idea of do it right, do it for long term, and do it for the right reasons. I add “do it for the right reasons” because I have had offers from companies that have the right process the right long term goals but the methods of monetization go against my better judgment. I am very proud to say that in over 10 years I have never promoted a gambling, pornography, or pill website.

Keeping this focus has given me less market share, but I have had some of the bigger companies come knocking on my door asking for my expertise: Alibaba, Dell, eBay, Expedia, Global Sources, Microsoft, Tesco–even the almighty Google has come looking for my services. But keeping a selective nature also means I don’t make the insane amounts that the “fairy dust” SEO sellers do. It’s much more profitable and easy to have several clients that you are charging $10k a month to simply change some META data and once in a while advise them what you read on someone else’s blog the night before.

Being in the industry for over 10 years and working with so many companies I have seen “fairy dust” go for as high as $150,000/month. If you look around the industry you will see a lot of the SEO world more focused on creating a blog post then doing actual SEO work. This is because skill level in this industry, for some reason, has become based on the number of blog posts you make rather then your technical expertise and experience. If I was hiring an SEO professional I’d rather hire the head of class coming out of applied mathematics of Harvard then any of the SEO bloggers.

In a lot of my talks at industry events I relate search engine optimizers to stock brokers, and search engines to stock markets. This comparison comes from search engine optimizers having millions of people that claim they can bring in returns, like stock brokers. But many fail and lose clients money while others simply just live off the natural flux within the stock markets/search engines. There are also the day traders and the DIY SEO’ers who believe they have the system beat. Then there are the elite who can not only to guarantee returns but are already making enough money themselves that the only reason they take on a client is to be able to make even more money using their formula for success.

The only real difference between a stock broker and an search engine optimizer is that, unlike a stock market, a search engine follows a mathematical formula. Ultimately there are no unknowns in the search engines, so a true SEO professional has no reason for failure. While I don’t claim to know everything about the ranking formulas at Google I do know that there is a set formula, and with the right set of people (note to self: hire some ex-WWII code breakers) the formula can be understood.

This presentation was informative, fun and easy for most to understand as it was relatively a high level review of Search Engine Optimization.

The 4 areas which I focused on where:
What is SEO?
What SEO is NOT
SEO Facts and Figures
Future of SEO

Slide #6 also contains my favorite Google logo, that uses Albert Einstein’s math formula e=mc2 to really portray that Google really is equal to one large math puzzle.

Enjoy, SEO Facts vs Fiction

While ad:tech isn’t a search specific event, it is probably the largest advertising conference circuit. My speech at ad:tech would be focused on letting people know what SEO is.

This event was held in Shanghai and it was my first trip into China, which made this even more special. I few up with my good friend and business partner Michael and we both enjoyed Shanghai far too much. I’ll post some stories about that trip in the travel section later.

The event was full of agencies, mainly people trying to sell services, CPM advertising and other things far far from what SEO is about. I did managed to meet some great people at the event, I met 2 people that have gone to become very good friends. I met Ahnee Min as we both were trying to support the growth of SEMPO and I met Inway Ni, who later went on to setup SES and SMX in China.

My presentation is rather basic, but it has some fun graphics and talks about how Google, Yahoo! and then MSN geo target their results. I had a great time presenting at ad:tech and an even better time meeting my new friends and learning about China, as now China is almost a 2nd home to me.

Sure some of these items are no longer considered “advanced” but still websites fail to follow this simple requirements in both the basic and advanced presentations. It was also yet another great trip to China, in the photo here is Michael, Chris, Inway, Tim and myself.

The 2 presentations reviews these items:

IP/Domain
Title Tag
META Description
Absolute vs Relative Links
Dash vs Underscore
Product Focused Pages

Basic SEO Presentation / Top 3 Metrics of a Search Engine

Advanced SEO Presentation

The report has 3 sections:
AUDI.com.sg Home Page Review (7 points)
AUDI.com.sg Inertial Pages Review (6 points)
and AUDI.com.sg other Factors (3 points)

I will also publish the Google and then MSN now bing algorithms information on separate posts, which are linked to here: Google’s Algorithm & bing’s Algorithm

9 Main Points to Yahoo’s Algorithm:

Title of Page

META Description

Domain Name

WebRank of Website

WebRank of Links to the Page

Text in the Links to the Page

Number of Links to the Page

Page’s CTR on Search Results

Page Theme/Keyword Density

Since bing uses the MSN algorithm as its base, this should be only be used for referencing what MSN was like in 2006. Checking the Google algorithm from 2006 you can get a better idea of some of the points that might be added to bing’s algorithm.

I will also publish the Google and Yahoo! algorithms information on separate posts, which are linked to here: Google’s Algorithm & Yahoo’s Algorithm

6 Main Points to bing’s Algorithm:

Title of Page

META Description

Text in the Links to the Page

Number of Links to the Page

Page Theme/Keyword Density

Freshness of Page Content

You are welcome to make use of this list and update it and in a few years I’ll release the 2009 algorithm check list.

I will also publish the Yahoo! and then MSN now bing algorithms information on separate posts, which are linked to here: Yahoo’s Algorithm & bing’s Algorithm

16 Main Points to Google’s Algorithm:

Website’s IP / Server Location

Title of Page

META Description

Domain Name

PageRank of Links to the Website

Number of Links to the Website

PageRank of Links to the Page

Text in the Links to the Page

Number of Links to the Page

Page’s CTR on Search Results

Stickiness of Page from Search Results

Freshness of Page Content

Page Theme/Keyword Density

Total Number of Pages on Website

Website’s Theme in Google

Links on Page to External Websites

9 Additional Items Used by the Google SPAM Check:

Location on Page of External Links

Text Surrounding External Links

Uniqueness of Page with Linking to the Page

Number of Links on the Page Linking to the Page

Maintenance of External Links

Quality of Hosting Company / Name Servers

Name / Email Used on Registration

Domain Registrar Used

Length of Domain Registration

This blog wasn’t started to talk about Google/SEO/SEM but I added this category and will post relevant information periodically (my original blog was actual about the city I lived in and the URL was the name of city, which is why I had to change to misc.info).

With my job the most common question I get is “How can I get my website to rank better in Google” and while I always try and help those who really have a good message, product or service I don’t have enough time to teach/help everyone (I also don’t like to teach everyone as some people use it just to spam/make money via affiliate programs).

That is why in the last few years I have been helping the masses by speaking publicly at events like Search Engine Strategies, ad:tech and one of my favorite venues eComXpo University (sadly since 2007 I have not had the time to keep on the eComXpo panels, but next year we’ll see).

This year’s eComXpo University will open March 20 and again this year I will be giving a presentation on the subject of SEO (I will try and see if I can get my other eComXpo presentations and post them in this new blog).

I really like the idea of eComXpo University as it gives the chance for a lot of webmasters and SEO’s from places outside of the main stream markets like the US and the UK to have access to experienced professionals within the industry. I hope that in the future more and more conferences offer an online/live webcast version, as the developing search markets really need this level of support (this differently has happened, I think Google now has weekly webinars with the industry).

I will be giving the presentation entitled “How to Rank Better in Google” and it explains the top things that a webmaster or Search Engine Optimizer can do to rank better in Google. Topics include IP addresses, domain names, GEO targeting, text link building, homepage links, site maps and advanced SEO content structure/navigation (I would say 90% of the things mentioned in the presentation are still the most important things).

Now while general admission into eComXpo is free, to access the university section will cost you $49 and considering what you will learn from not only myself but from all the other presentations this will be the best $49 you can ever spend. But since it does cost money and since I know some of the SEO world doesn’t have access to credit cards and maybe some are just starting out and $49 is not something they can afford, for these people and these people only I offer my corporate pass to access the university presentations.

Please if you can afford the $49, please register at http://www.ecomxpo.com/ as they offer a great service and are a great part of the future of the industry.

To help ensure that this offer isn’t taken advantage of I haven’t posted the pass details publicly, but they are available if you send me an email to (removed as no longer used) with the reason why you can’t afford the $49. I read mail daily and will reply quickly and you will be sent the pass details. Also sorry, no pass details will be sent to email addresses from free/public email providers (did this as you would be surprised at people trying to resell these passes).

No email addresses and no email will be kept, used to reply to you other then to send you the pass details, no email will be sold to anyone, or given to anyone and after my reply to you your email address will be purged from my server.

UPDATE ON POST:

Here is the actual presentation that was given at eComXpo. Please if you liked it or have a suggestion please leave me a comment below as it would help in future presentations. One fun note is this presentation was the most watched presentation of eComXpo (other then the keynote).

After a few eventful days and nights in the Philippines I am on the plane heading back to Singapore for my last couple days there. The Philippines was great and it was made even better by an incredible bunch of people.

My first evening in town Mr. SEO of the Philippines took me out with his group of buddies, which included Abe who is one of the top bloggers in the Philippines and the rest of his close blogging pals, who by the way are the organizers of Philippine Blog Awards. Also out for the evening was Google Philippines new county manager and a couple of her stylish friends. So all in all it was a restaurant full of SEOs, Bloggers and general Internet geeks.

It sure was nice to see that the Internet community in the Philippines is very close both in business and in friendships. If they keep it up, I can see the Philippines being the leader in SEO/Internet market for the Asian region. The Philippines already well known for Internet content developers and outsourced customer server centers.

After the night on the town I did what comes naturally, I left my hotel at like 6am to get on another plane. See there was some management of a very large (but unnameable) Internet company out from the United States and Marc scheduled at the last minute a weekend away from Manila for all of us. So my buddy and I with these two managers headed off to Boracay an amazing Island way the heck in the middle of nowhere.

It was funny as one of the American managers noted that he had to take a taxicab, bus, plane, van, boat, and finally a motorbike all within 2 hours just to get to our resort. My trip had one addition to that adventure, as my route to the airport included a visit with the local police as it turns out a one way street in Manila really means a one way street.

But it was all worth it as we all had a great time, racing around in dune buggies, parasailing and generally enjoying sitting on a beach doing nothing. My personal favorite was the racing around with the dune buggies, as they let us loose on this small town/village and I more then enjoyed myself while I helped out the civil engineers by clearing some tree’s and other debris from the sides of the roads (you can sure get a dune buggy sideways at 40km/h).

Sadly it all had to come to an end, but a couple of us including myself will be feeling the effects of a little too much sun for the next several days. Its strange to think that this time next week I will be walking into the office of my new job, probably wearing 4 layers of clothes and having no idea when the next time I will be laying on a beach just watching the world go by.

Well to the Philippines and the all the great people supporting the Internet industry there I hope we all meet up again but till then keep up the good work. Ok inside joke time, to our wonderful tour guide, I hope that with our next trip we can complete the James Bond tour, minus the fitness section.

Well I just finishing up a 2 day stay in Seoul, South Korea. Seoul is interesting, very costly, along the lines of Japan costs (I have later found out that South Korea and Japan are very similar in culture and style), but minus the Japanese system and cleanness.

I for the most part enjoyed the city/county. I managed to get a tour of the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone), which was interesting. I’ve seen the boarder between Mexico and the US and while not exactly the same the DMZ shares many characteristics, like long fences, barb wire and a general sense of displaced people.

The most notable thing from this trip was in my hotel room (ok maybe not the most as I still really loved the DMZ and cherish my barbwire souvenir). Now we have all seen mini bars and I had though the most advanced mini bar system was those that as soon as you take the bottle out of the fridge a computer send notice to charge you for the item. Well here in Seoul they’ve gone further, as in Seoul they have installed actual vending machines within the rooms (see the photo). These 4 and half feet by 2 and a half feet machines sit in the rooms just waiting for you to get hungry or need a bottle of wine and the get this when you turn off all the lights the machine wishes you a goodnight sleep. While not something I expect in a 5 star hotel these hotel room vending machines are effective. My only problem was I didn’t have any money small enough to buy a drink and it doesn’t give back change.

If anyone is coming to Seoul and going on the tour of the DMZ, bring along a large marble. You’ll understand when you are walking back out of the tunnel and if possible record the event and let me know how far it goes down (nobody took this suggestion so far, but the slope is just crying out for someone to roll something down it).

Got to go, as I am just at the airport waiting to get on the plane and head to Vancouver and within 48 it is the 48th country that I have traveled to. I am hoping that #49 is Cuba as really interested to see that country and understand better about its culture and government. Will keep you posted as to which country becomes #49.

Well it was really nice to be back in a humid and hot climate, even if it was just for 3 days. This trip was for corporate reasons and I spent most my days and nights working. It wasn’t all bad as it did allow me a chance to meet some really talented people.

It also gave me even more hope for the future (lets say the people I met are rare in Ft. Lauderdale as it is more a rich retirement city then technology boom town). Lets face it is sure will be nice to have the potential to do some remote office work down here in Florida during the winter months.

Fort Lauderdale is surprisingly full of canals and it has the nickname the Venice of the West, but unlike Venice there are huge 150 foot yachts. The city is really flat as there are very few large buildings and it makes it nice as even from the 10th floor of the office you can see for mile and miles around. Also the amount of money and high-end social life around downtown makes for interesting people. To give you an idea we had breakfast at a place that had Dom Perignon on the menu, while I have had some expensive meals in my time a $299 breakfast would have been a first.

The Fort Lauderdale beach was something odd as it had a very steep drop into the water, almost like they pile the sand 2 or 3 feet higher on the beach then the tide can support. But the beach was nice and Dave (my fellow co-worker) and I where able to get a little wet the first evening.

The other evening was all work for me as I needed to complete a website review and training seminar for the SEO team here in Florida and now I am at the airport waiting for my flight. Hopefully next trip I will have at least a day to relax but actually at this point I am so happy to be heading home as in just a few days I will have an official place to call home.

In the next couple weeks I will be planning out my trip into China for SES, but it is looking like I will arrive in Asia on the 19th and depart around the 26th depending on the request from management in terms of looking at developing out things in Asia. So I will let you all know when that is confirmed and looking forward to seeing you all again soon.

I am back in China for the next 10 days, will be speaking at SES China on the Advanced SEO track. I am really looking forward to meeting up with some old friends at this year’s event. This will mark the 2nd year for SES in China and thanks to Inway and TimeV sure it will have many more years of great success.

Later today will be fun as I will meet up with several executives from the largest Internet company in China (for those that don’t know it was the team from Alibaba) for some dinner and talk about the future of that company within the International marketplace. This dinner also happens to include an old friend from Singapore, she happen to leave Singapore to join this company and now landed herself a sweet directors role and an even sweet chance to meet up with me again tonight.

Its 6:30am here, which means its 6:30pm back in Guelph and surprisingly my body has been able to shift over to the new time zone relatively easy. Part of the easy of switching time zones came from the flight as it was non-stop from Toronto to Shanghai which meant it didn’t really feel like you where traveling. But sadly the flight was on Air Canada and boy even though I was flying Executive First Class it was far far from first class service (I was spoiled flying in Asia as they all use new planes, but found out that Air Canada uses mainly planes from the 70’s).

On a funny note related to domain/company names, the gentlemen sitting beside me on the flight was the CEO of a company which I thought was a really cool name, eSteve (ie electronic steve) or at least that is how I read his company name. Turns out it’s really Esteve and is a pharma company based in Spain. He did laugh when I told him I thought is company was eSteve and he said that it’s very often people don’t know how to pronounce the name. Got me thinking about eStephen.com, but sadly some damn domain parker has registered it so not much chance of getting that one anytime soon.

Ok its off to have some breakfast and then a quick nap so that I can make it though the day as want to make sure I am fresh and alert for tonight’s dinner.

UPDATE ON POST:

SES China was eventful and fun, met up with the Jianfei Zhu, who is the Matt Cutts of Asia and is actually the one in charge of the websites ranking in the Asian markets at Google. There where a lot of great presentations and this year Rand Fishkin attended and several other agencies had foreign speakers. This trend hasn’t really continued as the last few events have had less and less major foreign agencies and more and more local Asian startups that are enjoying the easy to spam system of Baidu.

Here are the presentations that I gave at this year’s event. I ended up speaking a few times and also ended up doing the site clinic, which I will try and attach the notes from that. I will have the Chinese finial version and an English version, but the English version might not be 100% complete as all my presentations in China are created in Chinese, the English one is just one of my earlier drafts.

Hope you find the presentations useful and if you have feedback or suggestions please comment back in the comment section below, thanks!

Final Version in Chinese

Last weekend my buddy Troy and his Wife, who where on their honeymoon from Thailand stopped by Guelph and we decided to explore the region. This was my first time having guests in Guelph, so we headed up to Niagara Falls. This was the first time for Troy’s wife and me seeing Niagara Falls. Tory had been before but he was only a kid so it was a great new experience for us all.

We went on the Maid of the Mist, which is the boat that takes you into the water within a few feet of the falls, it was really wet and amazing. Really need a waterproof camera (yes everything gets very very wet, take a look at my shirt in the photos and I was wearing a full rain suit) to properly recorded it but we did get some good photos and even better memories.

We also went to a haunted house (everything around Niagara Falls is a tourist trap, tons of amusement park style crap), wasn’t much fun but the Tunnel at Ripley’s Believe it or Not was a lot of fun. If you’ve never been in one of these tunnels basically, you are in a dark room in which the walls rotate around you. Because your brain sees the walls moving it things the whole room is moving and you begin to feel like you are rotating. Then your body tries to compensate and actually forces you are off balance when you walk. It is so weird as really no matter how to try to fight it your brain overpowers your logic and reality and you end up walking funny and often hit the side of the rails (I often think back to this and wonder how many things if like are just our brains tricking us to do something that is no real).

Business took me up to Halifax on the Friday before Canada Day and I decided to stay till the Monday and celebrate Canada Day in Halifax along with some friends from Genie Knows.

I came into Halifax (really my first trip to Halifax as the last trip was not so pleasant and ended with me leaving just as quick as I arrived) to talk some business with Genie Knows (who later would hire me to handle their SEO and UI for several projects) as well as celebrate the launch their vertical search engine for the gaming industry (which is no longer online). The business talks went great and the evening of celebrations even better (this was my first time actually getting to play a lot of xbox 360 and my first ever time playing with a wii).

Spending a couple days walking around and doing touristy things in Halifax (the city is very small, probably one of the smallest cities in Canada) was enough to get a good sense of the city. Taking time of a tour of Alexander Keith’s originally brewery was interesting and worth a few hours of time if you make it to Halifax. Overall there is a lot of history and a lot of culture in the city, but is small. Being small for me was nice but some people won’t like that there is not much to do other then bars after 10pm (lucky when I moved to Halifax they started a basketball league, which took up a lot of my evenings).

On Canada Day I went to the home of the founders of Genie Knows and spent it with their family, it was a really amazing time (the founders have a big family with lots of kids, so its really nice feeling to see such a lot of family bonding). They are such nice people that you feel like your part of the family and for me it was the best Canada Day I can remember for a long time, well it also was my first Canada Day in 7 years (the only other Canada Day I can remember is when I was 15 or so in Vancouver and watching the fireworks from the airport).

I did enjoy Halifax, recommend staying at the Westin (which is in an old historical building), great location and rates, but you need to get a harbor view room (later when I moved to Halifax I got a corner apartment right on the edge of the ocean, was really amazing watching all the big ships come and go). The Marriott was also nice, closer to things and the casino but the rates jumped and they actually didn’t have room for me and my colleagues. Although I did enjoy Halifax I took an earlier flight back to Toronto/Guelph as after you’ve walked the downtown/harbor area for 3 days straight there isn’t much new to see (it is not a city you book a week of tours in).

So I am back in Guelph, just getting ready for another blitz of a week, just looking forward to the middle of the month as will be going camping with some colleagues from work and for me camping is always an amazing time.

UPDATE ON POST:

One thing I failed to mention is that Halifax also houses an amazing museum Pier 21 about all the people who immigrated to Canada from Europe in the early 90’s. If you had grandparents or parents that came from Europe they more then likely came into Halifax and you can often find their original signatures in the log books and if you are really lucky you can find them in the many photographs around the museum. I couldn’t spell the last name of my grandparents so I wasn’t able to look them up, but one of my coworkers did find information about his.

Last weekend went camping and white water rafting on the Ottawa River. It was great to get back camping and the white water rafting added even more elements of fun. The only thing that slowed down the fun on the weekend was the 8 hour bus ride from Guelph to the camp. Its makes spending 12 hours on a plane seem like heaven as on the bus there is no one feeding you snacks, even less room to walk around and limited entertainment.

We arrived at the camp Friday night and started up a fire and just took in the night. It is really nice to look up in the sky and see all those stars. The following day we hit the water and had some amazing hits and rapids, we did flip once and went swimming a few times. It was my second time white water rafting and was as enjoyable as the first. The most enjoyable part was dropping down a 15 foot waterfall, we all survived and nobody flips on that one.

That following night was great as we where all tired and ready for a nice relaxing time around the fire. We ate some marshmallows and hotdogs as we chatted about life while watching the flames dance in the fire.

The next day I took a lazy day and ended sleeping half it away as was a little sore and “someone” gave me a red bull the night before and I wasn’t able to sleep till nearly 3am. Most of the group headed back out on the water and had a great day. Then it was back on the bus and another 8 hours back to Guelph.

If you are interested in heading out to the Ottawa River for some white water rafting the company we used was HorizonX and they have a website: http://www.horizonx.ca/

UPDATE TO THE STORY:

There were video and photos from the rafting, I will be posting the photos and videos here so that those that came can watch and relive the adventure and give the rest of you readers more reasons to get out and enjoy some white water rafting.

So while I almost had a weekend at home, last minute at 4pm on the 17th I received calls from the management of Search Engine Strategies asking if I would fly out to San Jose and speak on the coming Monday about marketing and SEO in China (these types of calls happened a lot back in the day). I accepted and was on a flight the following evening. It was an interesting trip to San Jose as took me via Las Vegas (my once place I called home) where I was bumped from my flight, given a free night stay in Vegas and for all the “inconvenience” I was given a free flight voucher (as far as I remember this is the first time being bumped had ever happened to me).

San Jose was great, while SES was amazingly busy (I recall there was over 5,000 people that attended) and fun the highlights of the trip where going to The Tech museum and the 2007 Google Dance (was great to meet up with more of the Google team). If you get to San Jose you must take some time to go to The Tech museum as it just as so much geeky history and a lot of cool hands on exhibits (also if you can get out to Mountain View and visit the Google campus, not much hands on but still very geeky and cool).

After the week in San Jose and all the other flying around it sure was nice to get back home to Guelph (the city I was living in at the time) and promise to get a bunch more posts out these coming months talking about all the great restaurants, outings and things keeping me busy in Guelph (my first blog was actually more focused on the city then on anything else).

EVERYTHING BELOW WAS ADDED AS AN UPDATE:

I am making my past presentations available for viewing and download. I will be shortly embedding the presentation and any related files. I hope you enjoy the presentation, if you liked it or have a comment please share it with me via a comment post.

What an interesting week I spent in Europe as my really good friend Steven (not me) was getting married. Since I travel around the world a lot this friend and I have something unique in that over the last 5 years we have seen each other and kept in touch regularly which is very rare for him and me (2 years later we still are keeping in touch, a record for me). But we both lived in Thailand and ended up working in the same ecommerce company, so even when I moved over to Singapore it was easy enough to get back to Thailand and say hi.

So my friends wedding was on Saturday and I arrived Monday so I got the joy of helping plan and setup for the wedding, makes me rethink doing it for myself. But before I could even arrive in Belgium I had issues and almost didn’t make it to Europe at all.

What happened was I went to check in at the airport as I had booked the flight Toronto to Brussels via London but when I gave my passport to the lady at the counter she looked at it, asked if I had any other passports with me (I’m not some international spy so like normal people I only have 1 passport) and then she walked off. I was like WTF is going on she just took my passport and left. A few minute later she comes back and says due to the condition of my passport I can’t fly to London. My passport had been washed along with my jeans 4 years ago, but over those 4 years I have flown around the world without issue so I was surprised that this lady at Air Canada was telling me I can’t fly because of it.

Now she sent me over to her supervisor who then talked to there supervisor who said no to going to London but yes to going to any place else in Europe. So now all they had to do is find a route to Brussels that didn’t land me in London and still got me there on Monday. They did end up finding me a flight via Germany and while it was still in business class the plane didn’t have the cocoon seats that my other flight had and was something I was really looking forward to trying out. But oh well at this point was just happy to get on a freaking plane.

My friends wedding was small mostly just family and the ceremony was kept just to the city hall event as they didn’t want to have a big event in a church. It was really nice to sit there and see too people make such a big commitment to each other, since I had known them both for a few years I was really happy that they are together and further connected in this way (ok now they are separated and having problems, but at that point on that day it was great to see them together).

During my time in Belgium I didn’t really do much other then some brief shopping trips and sleeping in till 2 everyday. I hope to get back to Europe again and see some other friends in Germany and UK, but will get a new passport before I attempt any travel back to Europe actually will get a new passport this next month as I only have 1 page left for visa’s and I don’t really want to be told by that I can’t get on a plane because they don’t think its pretty enough.

Holidays for me often are not so much fun as usually I am far away from family, but this year for Thanksgiving I headed off to Cuba. Even going alone to Cuba it ended up being great as I’ve never been and had always wanted to go and see a true communist country in operation.

I booked myself at the Hotel National de Cuba in Havana (rated one of the world’s most famous hotels) and if you ever heading to Havana I really recommend staying at this hotel. It has so much history and is such a unique hotel it alone is worth the trip to Havana. If you are staying there ask for one of the ocean view tower rooms, as you will get 2 nice large windows with a view of the ocean and a view of the city. Out of the hundreds of hotels I’ve stayed at this is defiantly one of the top, not only for its history but the value as it was really affordable.

I only spent 4 days in Cuba but I managed to get all over Havana and even got a day trip to the beach in Varadero. It was such an interesting country as they really are unique as without capitalism and without the American influence it has really created a culture unlike anything I’ve seen before. While Cuba is poor it actually maintains a higher level of wealth then countries like China, Thailand or the Philippines as while those other countries all have much more wealth they also have much more visible poverty. Now I not saying that Cubans are rich or not poor, just saying that while they are poor they are not sleeping on the streets, using sheet metal as walls and visually malnourished.

The trip was short but it was just enough time to get a little bit burnt and long enough to forget about some of the issues back here in Guelph (where I was living when I wrote the post) and while I didn’t take my laptop with me I did stop off at an internet cafe for a quick efix.

Next week I’m heading off for to meet with some new corporate prospects and maybe even make a trip back to my hometown to visit with some old friends before I start back into the next big thing.

Since this post I did in fact buy a smart, actually it turned out to be the first 451 smart fortwo sold in North America, but the fun part is when I decided to smart a blog just about my smart.  I created a blog and started to post about the modifications and fun I have with my smart.  At the same time I was part of various smart forums on the Internet, none of them really worked the way I wanted so I ended up starting my own.

The 451 smart fortwo community http://www.451s.com that I started has since grown into one of the largest smart community websites on the Internet with millions of page views and thousands of active members.  Also part of my smart experience which will be shared in future posts was racing my smart in the 2008 Cannonball Run/One Lap of America. 

So this one decision to buy a smart really has changed my life and hopefully made me a little smarter in the process, but I will let you read the post and will have many follow up stories about me and my smart. Updated comments by me are in italics within (brackets).

Believe it or not I’m trading in the BMW X5 and getting a 2008 Smart Car (later I started to use the phrase 451 smart fortwo). For me I had fallen in love with the Smart Car while I lived in Switzerland (actually the first time I saw a smart dealership was in Vienna, Austria) over 7 years ago and now finally in Canada I will get my Smart Car.

I do love the X5 but it is really not needed for my lifestyle and after a long research phase I believe that the 2008 Smart Car will be able to handle the Canadian winters, my limited highway driving (ah little did I know that the smart would become a highway monster) and still have all the things that the X5 provides.

There isn’t a Smart Car dealership in Guelph, but I found one in Kitchener at Victoria Star Smart Car Dealer http://www.kitchener.thesmart.ca/. So called down and met up with the business manager Sue and after a few phone calls I happily put my down payment on a beautiful 2008 silver on silver passion model Smart Car.

Sadly they don’t have any 2008’s in stock but I’ve ordered mine and it will be coming from Europe shortly to arrive sometime in November (it arrived and I got it right off the boat in Halifax, Nova Scotia). I ordered a silver on silver passion model, with leather and fog lights. All the fancy options available in Europe aren’t making over here to Canada, but that won’t stop me from ordering them in Europe myself and installing them myself (I ended up spending almost more then the price of the car in aftermarket upgrades).

I had seen the current smart car model, the 2008 version is very different and I hadn’t seen one in person yet. I took the chance and put my down payment before seeing it and am very happy to say that today I saw the 2008 demo unit at Victoria Star Smart Car Dealer in Kitchener. It is really an amazing car, far superior to the previous model, the interior is very polished and professional while the exterior still has that unique fun Smart Car look and feel.

For those who know me from the good old days (I used to race and be heavily involved with the neon community), yes the smart car does have a lot in common with the neon and while I don’t think I can get racing with this smart car (oh how little I understood about myself) there are many people in Europe who’ve gone as far as putting motorbike engines into smart cars.

I will be documenting the life of my own smart car on the website Smartster.ca (while I started at smartster.ca it turned into what is now 451s.com) and hope that I can upgrade the exterior and interior a little and maybe tinker with the engine (lucky me in that smart actually helped me a lot with the upgrades).

The factory times for the European 2008 Smart Car puts the 0 – 60 times at 9.9 seconds it can beat a Hummer and is inline with a 95 to 98 Honda Civic. Nothing to boast about but remember the Smart Car has only 3 cylinders and the engine is about the size of most cars glove boxes.

It was nice to be included in this story and thought I would be just a random character with a couple lines in book. So I was very surprised to read the book and see my character go on to be so important.

Not to spoil too much of this really great book, but my character not only helps prevent part of the war he also becomes one of the 11 counsel members of Krypton. The final act of my character is to build the ship that carries Kal-El (Superman) away from Krypton and on his way to become Superman on earth.

Now won’t be on any of the book tours or anything other then keeping the signed copy from Kevin nicely tucked away and hoping that enough people buy and like the book that they make a movie based on the book. Then maybe I’ll be able to play my character in the movie hahaha ok well maybe Tom Cruise or Brad Pitt can handle that.

Anyways it is along ways away from becoming a movie but to try and get there go to Amazon.com and buy yourself a copy of The Last Days of Krypton.

Here you will find photos specifically of people from my life. Here you will find friends, family, coworkers and random people I’ve come across. If you have photos of us from past trips or other photos that included me please comment and I will add them to the album.

Photos Public Hosted Here: http://picasaweb.google.com/www.misc.info/People

Also you can add comments directly to each of the photos. This is done by clicking on a photo and then entering the information via Google’s Picasa. You are also welcome to download and use any of these photos, share and enjoy!

Photos Public Hosted Here: http://picasaweb.google.com/www.misc.info/DailyLife

]]> http://misc.info/daily-life-photos.html/feed 0 http://misc.info/travel-photos.html http://misc.info/travel-photos.html#comments Wed, 01 Jul 2009 01:11:21 +0000 Misc.info http://misc.info/?p=131 I have created a centralized location for all the photos from the stories within the Travel section. This public photo album also contains photos from yet to be released stories and has extra photos from the current stories.

When I started traveling around the world in 1998 I was one of the few people that had a digital camera and lucky for me as now I can share those photos with you. Here you will find photos from all over the world, in the future I will hopefully be able to organize them within the album by country and by date/trip.

Also you can add comments directly to each of the photos. This is done by clicking on a photo and then entering the information via Google’s Picasa. You are also welcome to download and use any of these photos, share and enjoy!

Photos Public Hosted Here: http://picasaweb.google.com/www.misc.info/Travel

]]> http://misc.info/travel-photos.html/feed 0 http://misc.info/seo-sem-ppc-photos.html http://misc.info/seo-sem-ppc-photos.html#comments Wed, 01 Jul 2009 01:11:07 +0000 Misc.info http://misc.info/?p=135 I have created a centralized location for all the photos from the stories within the SEO & SEM/PPC section. This public photo album also contains photos from yet to be released stories and has extra photos from the current stories.

These are mainly photos from events, but also contain photos that include some search related theme. I hope with your help to be able to expand this album, if you have photos from any of the events that we’ve met at, let me know and I will add them in here.

Also you can add comments directly to each of the photos. This is done by clicking on a photo and then entering the information via Google’s Picasa. You are also welcome to download and use any of these photos, share and enjoy!

Photos Public Hosted Here: http://picasaweb.google.com/www.misc.info/SEOSEMPPC

]]> http://misc.info/seo-sem-ppc-photos.html/feed 0 http://misc.info/car-photos.html http://misc.info/car-photos.html#comments Wed, 01 Jul 2009 01:11:04 +0000 Misc.info http://misc.info/?p=133 I have created a centralized location for all the photos from the stories within the Cars section. This public photo album also contains photos from yet to be released stories and has extra photos from the current stories.

There will be a lot of photos from my smart, but also from my first tuner shop in Canada and the neon’s that I used to race. I will also add in photos from the Cannonball Run in 2008 and other photos which belong in this automotive section. If you have photos of my cars or events which I was at, please let me know and I will add them in here.

Also you can add comments directly to each of the photos. This is done by clicking on a photo and then entering the information via Google’s Picasa. You are also welcome to download and use any of these photos, share and enjoy!

Photos Public Hosted Here: http://picasaweb.google.com/www.misc.info/Cars

]]> http://misc.info/car-photos.html/feed 0 http://misc.info/miscellaneous-information.html http://misc.info/miscellaneous-information.html#comments Fri, 19 Jun 2009 12:37:19 +0000 Misc.info http://misc.info/?p=1 Today all over Canada people are cerebrating, while not because of the launch of Misc.info but because 42 years ago Canada had its launch into being a country. As a proud Canadian I decided to launch Misc.info July 1st, 2009 (Canada Day) and while this site is not focused on Canada you’ll see some of my Canadian roots with the odd “eh” within its content.

So welcome to Misc.info, my name is Stephen Noton, that’s me on the right, and I am the creator of this website. My daily job is in the Internet advertising industry where I specialize in SEO (Search Engine Optimization). For the pure business side of my life I keep a corporate website at Adverted Internet Advertising Agency. While Misc.info is focused on my daily life it will include details and insights into the advertising industry as often my life revolves around my work.

Why did I create Misc.info?
This site has been created so that I can keep a centralized location of all the miscellaneous information that happens within my life. Misc.info will also give me a better way to stay in touch with friends, family and past coworkers, as Facebook or Linkedin are great but Misc.info will be my home on the internet. This site will also serve as being a shared storage point of my various photos, videos and files.

Why the domain name Misc.info?
Honestly I have wanted a generic domain to launch a site for many years and have always been into creative use of domains. So when I saw that I could buy Misc.info I fell in love with it and bought it instantly. The concept of miscellaneous information tied so well into my goal of being generic and the creative use of the dot info extension tied well into the geekiness of my life, it was a perfect match.

What is going to happen on Misc.info?
Over the next few months I will be adding in a lot of past information, consolidating old blog and forum posts from other sites and updating the look and feel of the site. Please bear with me as I build out the content and sections.

Do you have some ideas for Misc.info?
Comments or general suggestions about Misc.info or its content are greatly appreciated, please post a reply below. I look forward to improving the content of the posts and the style of the website. Also if something isn’t working properly please let me know and I apologize as this is my first attempt at managing the backend program called WordPress and I have a lot to learn.

Ok now go and explore, comment on, and enjoy Misc.info!

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