Chris and I just want to take this opportunity to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. We look forward to an amazing year in 2009, and hope we can keep bringing you up to date and informative articles, case studies and ideas in the SEO industry. Again - here’s hoping everyone has an amazing 2009 and thanks for a great 2008!

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I first must apologize for not posting as often as I would like to. I know Chris feels the same too, but this has been our busiest season ever at 97th Floor, and so much is going on that I almost can’t think straight. Don’t get offended if we are not posting as much as you might like because we are in the middle of creating some pretty amazing things that will benefit the SEO/Social Media communities in the near future.

That said, I did want to take a second (out of this very busy day) and say “Thanks” to Ezine Articles for sending me a “limited edition” mouse pad, and being ONE of 500 out of 82,000 members that got one. Now, its not much no, but for me its all about the thought that counts. I can’t tell you how many places I contribute to, and they do nothing for me, so its nice every once in a while to get a note from a website you frequent that says; “Thanks for being a member”!

Here is a picture of the mouse pad I took from my iPhone:

Not even speaking from an SEO view, I really do like Ezine Articles, they have been a good source of targeted traffic for some of my clients, and my own projects (and websites) and bring traffic that really converts well. With me, what matters the most is the quality traffic that converts the highest, and they have done a great job of helping me with that!

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Have you ever told yourself - “Man, those are two hours (or insert your number here) of my life that I will never get back.” Well, I feel like that today after spending several hours reading nothing but junk. So, with all this back and forth (debate) crap I have been reading about link buying, Google bashing, Pubcon 2007 and annoying reads (I mean we really have heard it all) I thought I would share something upbeat and funny that my son told me today. (It is also scary how much our kids absorb, and really do pick up from watching us.)

I don’t think I have ever really sat down with my 4 year old and talked to him about Google, search engines, SEO (or anything I do). Actually am 100% confident that I have never had any kind of talk with him about Google. However; He is always coming into my office and playing games on the other computer, playing with his toys or watching TV, but I never guessed he paid much attention to the things I talk about when I work.

So today, he walked up to me and asked if I knew where his picture was from one of the roller coaster rides at a recent trip to Legoland, Ca. I told him I was not sure where the picture was, and that I would find it for him later (when I was done working). He turned to me and said: “Why don’t you just Google it Dad, because you use it to find everything else”. I guess he does hear me (more then I realize) say stuff like “find it on Google”, or “look it up on Google” with everyday interactions with my wife, friends or clients! It was so funny, cute and genuine that I was speechless. I ended up finding his picture for him right then….

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My daughter came home (from school) today with a list of 5 things she was thankful for, and was asked to share with someone at home, and have them share, and then ask someone as well. I thought it would be appropriate to post the 5 things I am most thankful for here, during this Thanksgiving season. I have never really done one of these kind of lists, but with my daughter asking me to share, I thought it the perfect opportunity to do so.

1. Family
2. Friends
3. To be a part of an industry, and working on stuff I actually love every single day!
4. That I live in this great country - USA.
5. Bill O’Reilly

I would love to hear about what other people are thankful for, (so feel free to comment), but I will ask my good bud Cameron to share with us his 5 things he is thankful for on his blog, and maybe we can get some holiday spirit going!

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Just wanted to share some pictures with everyone from our recent speaking trip at the E-Tourism Summit in San Fran. The picture I took of the city at night is probably one of the coolest pictures I have ever taken in my life.

All Chris needs is laser beams coming out of his eyes to make this picture better! I am no photoshop hacker though … (sadly)

This picture is the walk of death we had to climb everyday just to get to the hotel we were speaking at. I am out of shape bad!
Shot out the window from our hotel room in the morning.

This is the same view at night. This is probably one of the coolest pictures I have ever taken!

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I do my best to teach (those who ask) about finding targeted niches and keywords when starting their business online (and sticking with them), and I want to spotlight a company that I think has been brilliant at this. The guys at DB Clay are friends of mine, (especially Mr. Diggles) and this is not a paid post, and I just wanted to thank them online for sending me one of the sickest unique wallets I have ever owned in my life!

DB Clay has been making unique and designer wallets for several years now and has had a humble beginning, but has managed to turn their niche into an empire, and stay true to their product line. The reason for their success is they figured out what people were looking for online when it came to wallets, and they hit that group of people hard, and did not venture out into other areas. They knew the keywords they wanted to be found for, and built a website around it.

They also understand about the power of social communities and getting people to talk about your product, so they started Evil Backwards (LIVE). DB Clay considers this their online business paper trail, but I think of it as an amazing idea to get people involved and actively talking about product. Every business owner can learn a lesson from the accomplishments of DB Clay, and their small little niche!

Again guys, thanks for the wallet!

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I just wanted to wish Cameron the best of luck in response to his moving on post! No doubt he is just getting started, and it’s going to be exciting to see all of the stuff he has in store! Good luck bro!

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I have redesigned my entire blogging process, and will be co-authoring the blog at 97th Floor along side Chris Bennett. I will be doing 301’s this friday or saturday to complete the launch. The new feed is here,

http://feeds.feedburner.com/97thfloor

Please update your readers.

Make sure you update it, as we have been holding back on blogging due to the anticipation of the new site. We will be 301?ing a page that made digg that will be interesting to see how google handles that (I don’t have my hopes up). We will also be sharing some secrets for Rep Management that have put a lot of money in our pockets as well as our clients. We will also talk about our adventures of doing the SEO for some of the fastest growing companies on the NASDAQ. We were brought on with some of them in the spring and have found some interesting things when doing seo for companies with so much Rep and over 15 million natural backlinks.

Thanks,

Mat Siltala

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Ok, well I really don’t have the solution for that.  If I did, I suppose I could bottle it and make a ton of money!  As I have been working today on a bunch of clients sites and tasks, I was thinking of something that I do (in regards to time management) that really makes working on multiple projects/tasks much easier on a day to day basis.

Proper time management plan - you can break down (on a whiteboard above your computer monitor) your series of duties on a daily basis.  On Monday I need to accomplish A, B and C for client A, B and C, and so on for each day of the week you plan on working.  You can break this down into days, and even how many hours you are willing to spend on each task.

If you are needing help with time mangement for marketing a site, you can use the same method, just break it down with marketing tasks/day;  How much time will be spend on blogging, finding links, writing content etc. … and whatever the tasks are.  If you get into this habbit you will no longer be overwhelmed, and will accomplish more then you ever thought possible!

But I am serious about the white board.  Go to Office Depot today and buy one.  Stick it up in your office right in front of you.  Lay out your day to day tasks as I have suggested and you will be suprised how much more productive you will be.

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I thought this was funny enough that I wanted to share it with all, so I saved it before Fry’s Electronics figured out they made a big spelling mistake. What I want to know though - Was it a mistake? Or were they trying to get their personal feelings out? Either way its pretty freaking funny. Check out the games section (Wii ad) below:

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