I love the search industry with a passion that is second to none (ok - maybe Chris Bennett and I are tied). I am so lucky to be in an industry that has allowed me to meet some of the most amazing people on this earth! My roots in search engine optimization goes all the way back to 1999 when i first starting “dinking” around with title tags for a radio stations website I use to be a co-host on! (ok, so it was only small market radio, but I was still on the radio danget!) Besides my passion for SEO, I love Social Media Marketing/Optimization, Viral Marketing, Blog Promotion, Link Building Strategies/Baiting as well as Reputation/Brand Management.

Besides blogging for 97th Floor on SEO and viral marketing, I also co-author an Internet Marketing Blog where I share more insights into the search, and Internet marketing industry. I own several successful eCommerce sites selling products, as well as an internet directory. I have also had the pleasure presenting my SEO know-how during seminars at places like BYU-Hawaii during business plan competitions, and more recently the eTourism Summit in San Fransisco.

I have attended most of the big search engine conferences including Search Engine Strategies, PubCon and more recently SMX. My degree is in the Tech Industry, and have had a computer attached to me by the hip pretty much since 1997.

Please feel free to post questions, and ask me anything that may be on your mind.

Contact me directly - matsiltala [at] gmail [dot] com

-or-

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I am the President and Founder of 97th Floor and I have been involved with the Internet since the days of Alta Vistas reign (the good ol days when you could change your meta tags, submit your site through Inktomi and see your rankings improve by dinner). I got into SEO from a Graphic Design background, that is what I was majoring in in school when I started my first online business with some buddies. I came on to help with offline marketing and design and started to notice that when we did certain things to the pages of our site we would see more traffic. I quickly became addicted to SEO and after that business, I started to work as an SEO and overall Web Strategy Consulting for clients. Since then I have seen the rewards of high search engine rankings and really don’t know how to do anything business oriented without thinking about how to leverage it online.I have been privileged enough to work closely with large companies such as Omniture, Henry Schein and The Polynesian Cultural Center. I have spoken at many SEO conferences and seminars including a yearly seminar we put on in Hawaii that has been a lot of fun for us to do. I have personally worked on or advised nearly a thousand sites, which has helped me think outside the box and find a way to leverage anything from drop shipping, to catering, to one of the fastest growing software companies on the planet.

My best advice for someone starting out is to just get the site up and live, and then start small by picking a less competitive keyword to start and test, test, test. That way once you rank for the smaller word you will enjoy small victories and it will carry you until you are dominating your industry. I believe that if a company is not online in 5 years they will not exist, everyone should be thinking about adapting to the Internet. I believe the future of SEO is in branding and doing things differently, which may include adopting a social media campaign or ranking for every spot in Google for your branded terms and employee names or buying smaller sites and ranking them for the same keywords to give you multiple positions for the same term. Also if you are not doing something to build a community online you will be past up by a competitor that is. Whether it is through blogging, user generated content or a profiles and member based site you need to be building a community. Community is the new commodity.

I am originally from Vista California, that is where I grew up and lived until I got married. I have also lived in Newport Beach and Bellevue WA. I currently live in Utah with my beautiful wife and twin boys. If I am not glued to my laptop I am probably riding my atv’s, watching reruns of Arrested Development, wake surfing or trying to get back to California to paddle out with some buddies.

Interviews:
Omniture Webinar - 30 SEO Strategies for Corporate Websites
Webmaster Radio - SMX West Interview
Mashable Conversations - Launch of BLVD Status
Elance - 13 Ways to Make Your Blog Go Viral

Please feel free to contact me at:
chris [at] 97thfloor [dot] com

-or through Social Avenues-
http://www.linkedin.com/in/97thfloor/
Twitter.com/chrisbennett
StumbleUpon
Digg
SeoMoz Marketplace

-Other Projects-
BLVD Status - Live Stats Analytics Tool

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Sometimes I wonder if all the hardwork to become an “authority” in a certain fields is worth the effort. Especially when you become a target of a negative campaign. I really don’t get it, and why people would do this to someone that has only brought great information to the table.

Anyone that reads this blog knows that I hold Jim Boykin in the highest of regards and think is flat out the “jedi master ninja” when it comes to link building and link authority information. Earlier this week Jim posted about a smear campaign against him, and it really got me thinking about the downsides to really becoming an “authority”. So why would someone want to trash his name? (more…)

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I don’t care who you are and what your level of expertise is there are some industries and words on the net (non adult and gambling) that are so competitive you will not stand a chance if you are not a darker shade. The competition can be so fierce in these niches you better have the dirty alter ego ready to play if you want to make any headway. I think by competing in these industries there is a lot to learn that will help you sharpen your skills for your legit sites. (more…)

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As always I recommend the natural way of getting traffic from the search engines (SEO), but there are those times when a good PPC campaign (SEM) can really help your business, and drum up some sales. Don’t make the mistake of working with a pay per click company that will just “pay per click” your money and run.

With so much talk (and frustration) about PPC fraud going on it’s hard to want to get into pay per click programs in fear of just throwing money away. I want to share my list of trusted PPC websites that I trust and use or have used at some point in my search engine marketing campaigns. As with every good thing out there … there is still a little bad, and you will never be 100% free of PPC fraud, but these guys do a pretty dang good job trying to combat it!

1. Google Adwords - By far Google is the biggest in terms of volume and traffic you will get out of any PPC Search Engine. Google usually does a pretty good job at anything they touch so its no surprise that they are #1 on my list of trusted PPC sites. They have more tools to help you in place then any other service I have used. Also I think they are more on top of clickfraud then any other PPC search engine out there. Another feature I love about them is that you do not have to spend an arm and a leg just to get the account set up. You can start with as little as 5 bucks if you please. There have been times when I first started using AdWords and was not as aware how to keep an eye on PPC fraud, and Google has credited my account money (in some cases big money) that was because of click fraud that was going on.
2. Yahoo Search Marketing - For you old timers, this PPC powerhouse used to be known as Overture - (and even further back GoTo.com). In some cases I think its gone downhill since Yahoo! took it over, but it still is #2 on my list for several reasons. If you are not working with a search engine marketer, PPC expert or with a search engine optimization firm that helps you with your PPC campaign as well then Yahoo Fast Track is for you! They also have very good local PPC tools and programs as well. Almost every time I have had someone at Yahoo set up PPC campaign for a client they have hit the nail on the head. There has been a few times though that I have wondered what the heck they were doing, but luckily I have not seen that lately. Use this link when signing up, and save $50 on Yahoo! Search Marketing
3. MIVA - formerly known as FindWhat, MIVA packs a powerful punch of traffic at an affordable price. MIVA is one of the more powerful tier two PPC search engines where you can still find a ton of very affordable big (and very targeted) keywords. MIVA has tools that allows you to track conversion rates and real time analysis as to what is working and ways to improve.
4. Microsoft AdCenter - When talking search engine anything its usually Google, Yahoo and MSN, but in this case AdCenter had to come in a not so distant 4th. I think by far they have the best opportunity to become the best PPC Search Engine out there. They have features and tools that surpass Google, Yahoo and anyone else you can think of. BUT … As with most Microsoft products there is bugs, and lots of them. The referrals work on 1/4 of the time, the system inside is unfriendly and hard to use (and I have heard this from a lot of other users as well). One of the biggest set backs of Microsoft AdCenter is the bottom line - Traffic. Not much of it. That says it all. You will not get alot of traffic out of it. Its sad to say, but even some top keywords I have #1 and #2 spots naturally on MSN - that according to wordtracker and Overure get alot of searches still bring me very little clicks. It really is sad because just a few years back MSN alone was making me over $1000/day in ad revenue (people clicking on my sponsored ads). What happened?
5. GoClick - I have found this PPC engine one of the best anytime I want volumes of traffic to sites and from places that are not really targeted. In some cases this PPC Engine can almost seem like it supports spam and spammy sites, but hey I guess they are in it to make money right? They have some bidding tools that are pretty cool to use and can help you get mass ammounts of words with very little effort. One major caution though is to pay attention to all of the words they include. I did this wrong one time and was wondering why I was getting traffic and so many clicks from … well questionable sites. Still at 1 cents per click you can go from for the volume of traffic this PPC Search Engine will give you!
6. SearchFeed - Another great PPC search engine that will give you strictly just volume. They say its pretty targeted traffic, but I am not totally sure of the 100% of the time. They do have some pretty cool Local search features that I see can be very useful (especially in the near future-and future of local search). SearchFeed is very affordable still and can be a good alternative for the (tight) budgeting marketer.
7. BidVertiser - This one is very simple - you place the ads on only the sites that you want, and you only pay for the clicks you receive. The main reason I like it is because I feel it can help with natural rankings as well. You have a link to your site that is on a very targeted (if you chose) site so the traffic and conversion should be much higher then a “tradional” PPC engine.
8. Search123 - These guys are on my list simply because they are one of the oldest PPC search engines and have standed the test of the times in my opinion. If you can make it as long as they have with out 5 name changes you must be doing something right. Another great feature is how easy Search123 is to use. Very user friendly interfact that even the most beginner of search engine marketing will be able to grasp.
9. AOL - Ok this is the only one on the list I have not tried yet, but their plea to me at PubCon 2006 was worth giving them a try (and I will be very soon). AOL for a long time has been doing things wrong, but they have a huge customer base, and are stil one of the top “Tier 1″ search engines like it or not! They just have been re-inventing themselves, and finding ways to make money and bring better traffic and results to the people that use them. They could be doing something right with the recent “rebirth”.
10. ASK - These guys are on my list because of the volume they get. They are probably #4 on the list of most traffic from a search engine. Also, they have been doing a ton of press lately - tv, radio - everything and everywhere so they are on peoples mind and it could give you a fresh new look on PPC advertising and a decent ammount of traffic.

No matter what PPC search engine you chose, start with, (or even if you do them all) the most important thing I can share with you is still implementing a very intense keyword research and analysis plan (as you would in a SEO Campaign). I would never recommend anyone that wants very quality traffic to just bid on anything and everything they can. You will lose 100% of the time doing that.
I sell mattresses on one of my sites, and a word I will never pay for is “mattress” I will waste to much money if I do that. I will research out the targeted words that people are looking for with the exact product I have. Most people searching for “mattress” really don’t know what they want. Or if they do most likely are looking for the cheapest mattress possible. I sell higher end air mattresses and memory foam so those are the kinds of words I will target even though they do not get the search volume just “mattress” does. Make Sense?

Researching out ad writing is a must as well. If you have a chance go to some of the links I provided and do a search for your main keyword and look at the sponsored results. Which ones compel you to click on them? Which ones drive you away and are annoying? Take good notes and remember these things when you are implementing your SEM PPC campaign.

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For the very first time since I have really been tracking my site statistics/analytics/whatever you want to call it I noticed something for the month of December (even only 3 days into it) that I have never seen before. The number of people viewing me from the Firefox browser is finally more then those viewing me using Internet Explorer.

Heres the stats:

• Firefox 51.3%
• Internet Explorer 34.1%
• Mozila is at 1.2%

Then quite a few others trickle down from there in the 1% or less range. What does this tell me? Internet browsers, or at least the kind of people viewing my sites are getting smarter and switching to something that just flat out works better. Even in as little time as only about a year ago, my stats were in the range of 92% using Internet Explorer and 5-6% using Firefox.

I think with the recent launch of Firefox 2, and pretty much Google recommending Firefox anywhere you go, is helping the word get out about how good internet browsing shoud be. You all know how I blogged about the new Firefox 2 a few weeks ago, and played/link baited on the words of “how Internet browsing can be better then sex” … well those are my reasons why I use Firefox, and will never switch back!

Congrats to the folks at Firefox and all the true developers that make the product truly great and untouchable by any other browser.

Ready to switch? Get it here - http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/

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Anyone doing as much business online as I am is always looking for a great (and secure) place to store files, but most free places don’t offer enough space to do anything serious with. Well that all changes with this site … I came across this place the other day and wanted to share with those that read this blog. Here is a site where you can get 25GB of FREE online storage.http://www.mediamax.com Enjoy.

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Campaign Monitor - a great new autoresponder I found.

Just wanted to share a great autoresponder with everyone that I have been testing out for a while now and really like. It is called Campaign Monitor. You can easily export your lists, and create custom forms and everything! It is not a free autoresponder, but unlike heavy upfront costs, with Campaign Monitor, you only pay for what you send out.

This is taken right from the Campaign Monitor site in regards to thier pricing:

For each campaign you send with more than 5 recipients, you pay a flat delivery fee of $5 plus 1 cent/recipient. Any campaigns you send to 5 or less people are free of charge.

You can find more information about this autoresponder here at Campaign Monitor

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A while back I posted on a new company called Instant Media in which I was very impressed, and found a new company that has some cool up and coming (similar) technology. http://www.permissiontv.com/ Lets see what happens to these guys and this trend going around online!

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Well, Tag Cloud’s “weekend project” has become quite a popular website since it launch in 2005. I have used it in times past keeping updated with popular feeds etc. Just wanted to share with everyone that they have thier top 100 feeds listed on thier site currently: http://www.tagcloud.com/

It will be exciting to see what the future holds for them now that they are getting out of the garage…so to speak! Good Luck guys!

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