WebProNews did a bunch of great interviews at SMX West. I wanted to highlight three in particular (granted I'm a bit biased!)...

First is this interview of me is on how to optimize the flow of PageRank through your site and the tactic of "PageRank sculpting":

Second is this one of my brilliant Netconcepts' colleague Chris Smith, on the topic of optimizing your presence in Google's local search in order to boost your presence in Google's main web results via "Universal Search" (Google's blended results):

Third, this one is of my 16-year-old daughter Chloe Spencer (yeah, here I go again, proud papa bragging about my wunderkind! ), who spoke on the Generation Google panel, goes into how a kid can start a blog on a hot topic (in her case, a blog on Neopets), do a bit of SEO on it, and turn it into a cash machine with the help of Google AdSense:

I had the pleasure of interviewing Bryan Eisenberg, who is the co-founder and CPO of Future Now, Inc. Bryan is also a high profile speaker, author, consultant, blogger, and the publisher of GrokDotCom. In additional to his role at Future Now, Bryan is also one of the founders and Chairman of the Web Analytics Association.

My interview with Bryan was about personas and "Persuasion Architecture," a process that helps persuade customers to make a decision on your website when traditional marketing methods fail. As an inventor of Persuasion Architecture, Bryan shares a wealth of expertise into the world of crafting personas to get into your customers' minds in order to give them the content they need in order for them to make their next click decision.

There are several nuggets that we can take from Bryan's interview, that revolve around the idea of personalized search. I asked Bryan what the typical rate was for a typical online retailer. His answer? "The average online conversion rate for a typical retailer today is 2.4%." That's pretty depressing when you think about it. So how to you help your conversion rate through managing your content?

Persuasion Architecture is based on Bryan's idea that, "everybody does things for their own reasons." These reasons translate into four, distinct preferences, the how and why people do the things that they do. Once you understand the four basic personality types -- emotional, logical, fast-paced, and disciplined -- you can build perspectives or snapshots that give you insight into how your customers might want to purchase your products. Once you understand the "how," then you can build the "who." Who is buying your products from your site? That's where profiles come into play, small pictures to what Bryan says will "give us a little better understanding of who that grouping or that mode of behavior is going to be -- and then ultimately two personas."

Listen to my interview with Bryan Eisenberg for more about how to boost your site's conversion rate. This podcast is 40 minutes long, and is a 10 MB download. Enjoy!

First off, I must apologize for the radio silence for a number of weeks. Over half the month is gone already and I hadn't blogged once! Very naughty! I had a good excuse though -- I was super-busy with my move from New Zealand back home to the States. (Yes, that's right, back in beautiful Madison Wisconsin, in time to enjoy a second summer this year!) Now that the move's done, and all my conference hopping -- SMX, Internet Retailer, SES Toronto, and various AMA speaking engagements (last one is this Friday, btw) -- is nearly at an end (at least for a few weeks), I can take a breath and get back into blogging. Back to the point of this post...

Last month I had the pleasure of interviewing Marylynne Tosyali, who is the Director of Online Marketing at Direct Marketing Services Inc., the company behind Wards.com, HomeVisions.com, and several other online stores. We talked about their foray into blogging, about GravityStream (Disclosure: yes, they happen to be a client of ours), about paid search successes, and a bunch of other search related issues. It was a great interview, and I'm pleased to share with you the 45 minute audio recording...

Download / Listen to the interview (MP3, 44 minutes, 10 megs)

This is the latest in a series of podcasts for the American Marketing Association's "Hot Topic: Search Engine Marketing" conference in Chicago.

Marylynne will be speaking at the conference this Friday (June 22nd). I'll be speaking there too, btw! :-)

There's still time to register. It's going to be a great turnout. Hope to see you there!

In this hour-long podcast, my conversation with Alan Rimm-Kaufman of paid search agency Rimm-Kaufman Group covers topics of paid search, natural search, books, economics and incentives. We dig deep into paid search, and Alan shares some real gems -- from quality score gotchas to daily caps to metrics. It was a fascinating discussion.

This is the latest in a series of podcasts for the American Marketing Association's "Hot Topic: Search Engine Marketing" conference. Both Alan and I will be speaking for the AMA this Friday in NYC and next month (June 22nd) in Chicago. (There's still time to register for either one, btw.)

Download / Listen to the interview (MP3, 55 minutes, 13 megs)

Last week I conducted a fascinating interview with SEM expert Alan Rimm-Kaufman. You can find the output of it here. Alan made many great points; this one, regarding common mistakes in Paid Search, really stood out:

Typical mistakes made by newcomers to paid search include using an insufficiently large term list, not understanding the strengths and limitations of their tracking systems, not customizing copy to match the search phrase, not having a firm grasp of their online acquisition economics, and not bidding wisely.

Typical mistakes made by more experienced search marketers include not separating their brand from their non-brand results in reporting and bidding; not understanding the (non)incremental value of their affiliate programs; mishandling dayparting; and overbidding on broad generic terms.

I encourage you to read the full interview.

BTW, Alan isn't the only large brain over at the Rimm-Kaufman Group. George Michie justed posted some excellent tips on giving your PPC campaigns a check-up, which should prove helpful in exposing your own PPC mistakes.