Sorry about the couple week hiatus. Bloggers are not supposed to do that because your readership drops. "Blog til you drop!" But I've just been too busy getting caught up after travelling so much for the past month. I've been doing the speaking circuit... Frost & Sullivan Sales and Marketing East in Boston, Etail in Philadelphia, Search Engine Strategies in San Jose, and Successful Online Advertising in Auckland. And somehow I managed to work in a little vacation time with my family too. In any event, I'm back at it and expect to read (and hear!) a lot more from me. In fact, here comes another post right now!

It was an exhausting couple of days this week, as I manned my company's Natural Search Optimization Site Solution Clinic. I was critiquing sites for attendees starting at 8am and going through to 5pm both days. This was a new initiative for the folks at WBR (who own the Etail conference). It wasn't at all what I expected, but it worked out okay in the end. It felt like a spillover of the trade show floor, complete with mini-booths. Too salesy in my opinion. The way Search Engine Strategies does it, the Site Clinic is treated as a separate track with a room dedicated to the clinic. There are chairs for an audience to watch sites being critiqued and to ask questions. And a panel of invited experts who aren't paying for the privilege to speak. And there are time slots dedicated to different topics and the panel changes as the topics change. For example, a couple hours for site design issues then a couple hours for link building. As an attendee, I like the latter model better.

Because I was so tied up with site critiques, I was unable to attend any of the sessions this time. Which was a shame, because our client Home Shopping Network spoke and I heard he had great things to say (some of which were about us! yay!). I heard grumblings from attendees of the pre-conference "Search Optimization Day" about it being full of sales pitches from the table moderators. Which is a shame. As DM News reports, moderators were paying $25k to speak there, so f0r that kind of money I guess they must have felt it necessary to sell sell sell. Someone needs to tell them to cool their heels and make the selling so soft that it's hardly noticeable. Frost & Sullivan coaches their sponsor-speakers about how best to interact with prospects at their conferences through phone briefings, an on-site sponsor-only pre-conference session, and a handout full of useful tips. WBR would be wise to do the same.

Shop.org's Annual Summit is next month. It will be my first one. I'm speaking there (on blogs, RSS, and podcasting) as well as having a booth. I've heard very complementary things about the Summit, so I can't wait to compare and contrast the show with Etail, which I've attended a few times now. I'll report back with my thoughts here on the blog, so look for it!

It's been a busy week, so I'm only now getting a chance to update my blog. The Etail conference ended a few days ago. People I bump into ask me how the show went. Here's my take on it:

• There were some FANTASTIC sessions by retailers, such as QVC and REI.
• There were some HORRIBLE sessions that were really only thinly veiled sales pitches by vendors, such as Bill Me Later. Bill Me Later actually kicked off the conference, preceeding the Day 1 keynote from Land's End with a 10 minute infomercial complete with a 3-minute video containing customer testimonials. I heard a LOT of retailer attendees grumbling about this particular session. Doesn't the guy know that the softer the sell, and the more information-packed the session, the more he WILL sell? Granted he probably spent $50 or $100 grand for that sponsorship spot, but it doesn't mean he should subject paying attendees to an offensive sales pitch just to get his "money's-worth."
• Retailers I spoke to felt bombarded by vendors throughout most of the conference. Vendors outnumbered retailers by about 3 to 1. There were some retailer-only get-togethers at Etail that offered retailers a needed escape, but those were few and far between.
• Overall, this Etail was bigger and better than the last Etail in Florida, in my opinion.
• But how does Etail rate in comparison to other, similar conferences? Personally, I'm glad I went. My company (Netconcepts) was a sponsor and I'll probably end up ponying up even more sponsorship dollars for the next show, because it does deliver a favorable ROI in the end. But that's just MY opinion. I heard, and overheard, differing opinions from other attendees. For instance, comments from retailers included: "Shop.org is a better conference - more senior people and less blatent selling." Comments from vendors included: "I don't like the way things are run here and the extortionist prices, but frankly it pays off, so I keep coming back." WBR faces new competition, with Internet Retailer magazine now in the conference game. The Internet Retailer conference takes place June 7-8 in Chicago. And of course there's also the Annual Catalog Conference (jointly produced by Catalog Age and the DMA) and the Shop.org Annual Summit — both are EXCELLENT events that could very well chip away at future Etail conference attendance. (I read Shop.org's proclamation on their site as a jab at their competitor, Etail: "Objectivity is first and foremost in Shop.org conference content. We NEVER sell speaking slots or allow them to be influenced by sponsors.")

I wish the conference organizers luck with future Etail events, and if they listen to and act on conference feedback, they shouldn't have any trouble maintaining their position as a leading conference for online retailers.

I am currently at Etail and will soon be off to Search Engine Strategies as well (Booth 2512) with our team. If you're attending either event it would be great to see you, so drop by!

Attending the Etail Awards dinner tonight at the Etail Conference in Fort Lauderdale, I was surprised to hear that Land's End won in the search engine optimization category. Not because they didn't deserve an award. They certainly do; they're a great company and a true innovator in the online space, but because the award was based around their great internal search engine. Yes, you heard me right: an SEO award was granted for work done on internal search rather than external search. Kinda bizarre. Hopefully they'll rectify this next year and break out internal search into its own separate Awards category.