Here is a list of student blogs in the Summer 2011 Web Marketing Practicum taught at Eastern Michigan University:
It's sort of serendipity that I wound up at this conference. I happened to start reading SEOMoz at the start of the year and liked it. Then suddenly, about a month ago, they announced they were going to start doing this conference with Distilled, a UK consultancy I had never heard of. Given the content of SEOMoz, it seemed like the conference would be meaty and a good place to get a nuts and bolts perspective on SEO.
The conference did not disappoint, and I came away with a fantastic appreciation for Distilled and SEOMoz as well as the other contributors they brought together. You can find a summary of the conference proceedings with links to resources here.
Rather than attempt to give a detailed blow-by-blow of the sessions, it seems more worthwhile to list some major takeaways now that the conference has been done for two days:
Another discovery I made at this conference is that there a number of university courses, frequently offered under the heading of continuing education, on SEO or search engine marketing. I'll have more to say on those in next week's post.
Here are the key questions during the site review:
Then, we get to the follow-ups:
Then we get to technical details:
Now, onto Leading Authorities. They're an agency for speakers. Can get individuals to rank well.
Immediate suggestions:
Now on to Soccer Tickets:
Finally CostumeSuperCenter.com:
Random tips:
This is a great opportunity for a student looking to build his or her skills. The pay starts out reasonably for someone who has not yet garnered significant professional experience. If you succeed at opportunities like this one, expect your pay to go up over by a good multiple over a short period of time.
If you're interested, contact me, and I will forward you the contact person.
Here's the job description:
Per our conversation in March, I am very interested in recruiting one or two of your students to work with several of the organizations participating in our federally funded nonprofit capacity building project. See the list of these organizations below.
We are looking for students who have done well in your class on Google marketing and want additional hands-on experience. We have budget to pay them $12 per hour. Based on my conversation with you we are projecting that each organization would need an average of two to three hours per week of onsite support and assistance. This could vary by organization, given the range of experience and sophistication in marketing, and use of the Internet by the staff at these organizations.
This “internship” or consulting assignment would begin in late April or by May 1 with the first two organizations on the list below. We hope that the next three would have their official acceptance and account established sometime between mid-May and the beginning of June.
The work schedule, days of the week and hours per week, time onsite vs offsite, would be worked-out with each organization.
This opportunity would continue through the Fall term, although the work in the Fall would likely be less intensive. In the Fall the hourly compensation rate would be increased.
Our objective is to help the organizations build their own capacity to continue to use this marketing channel, and to make maximum use of the Google AdWords dollars.
Organizations:
Accepted, final information submitted, and awaiting account set-up:
1. Grandmont-Rosedale Community Development Corporation
2. Mercy Education Project
Awaiting acceptance into the AdWords program (expected very soon - applied September 2010):
1. Jefferson East Business Association
2. Abayomi Community Development Corporation
3. POWER Inc.
I appreciate you sharing this with your students, and welcome any recommendations you may care to make as to students who would be particularly appropriate for this opportunity.
Your students should contact me if they are interested.
The secret sauce of web marketing is understanding how to relate your marketing efforts to business outcomes. This year's web marketing practicum will use two books devoted to this matter:
I met with a former student from Fluency Media, a growing digital marketing firm in Ann Arbor. They're currently going from a firm of 20 to 24. If you're wondering about the type of clients they have, Fluency Media handles the the digital side of the Pure Michigan campaign among others.
Here's the link to Fluency Media's employment page. In this time when most are firms are talking about layoffs or "shared sacrifice", it's great to see an industry where many firms are willing to compete for the right talent.
Who is the right talent? From my talk with the student, the following are definite pluses:
If you're a current or former student, a great way to proceed is to email Search, Social, and Mobile, and I'll connect you.
I think people face two issues in learning search marketing:
In this post, I'm going to list some web resources that seem good to me. I have not made final decisions about them but will likely use some of them in a new course for masters students that I will be launching next fall. In that course, part of what students will be doing is managing and developing ongoing pay per click advertising campaigns.
Here's the list:
