My friend Jason at Jibberjobber – a job networking company – started a blog carnival. He even got a response from Seth Godin! What you do: write about the topic (below) on your blog. Then tell Jason by leaving a comment with the URL to your post. He’ll compliment you and link to it.
Here’s the topic:

Yikes! You just lost your job! You’ve been so busy at *work* that you don’t feel your network is as strong as you would like it to be! What are you going to do with (and to) your network in the next 6 weeks as you begin an aggresive job search campaign? And, outside of your network, what job search tactics will you employ? Or your best networking tips related to job searches.

I love to help other people get jobs and I’ve been known to send flowers to people who’ve helped me. There’s a tradition of getting and sending flowers the first day at a new job.

I must be in the minority because most the jobs I’ve landed more positions from job postings, not my network. I’ve never utilized a recruiter (but probably should). I think long and hard about my position and what I want to do next (target my search). For example, this last time I wanted to work for a smaller technology-oriented company. I also wanted to have mentors (work for an excellent marketer, ideally internet marketer).
I search my college alumni job site. I put the RSS feed to Craigslist and SimplyHired on my Bloglines. I search the online version of my local newspaper.

Here are some other things I do when I’m looking for a job:

1- I make my resume relevant to the job, a different version depending on where I’m applying. I focus on the company’s strengths and how I will contribute and build on them. I try to speak their language.

2- I find out everything I can about companies I want to work for. I make sure I read their most recent news and see if they have a blog. Put Google alerts on the CEO and/or company name. I know if they’re profitable, publicly owned or private, etc. If they have whitepapers, I read them. Online demos? I download them. Podcasts? listen to them. I also try to find someone who already works there to email and ask what they like about working there (try linkedin) or social networking sites.

Read more…

Omniture planning marketing 2.0 launch this December

There’s web 2.0 and now there’s marketing 2.0. Omniture is launching an integrated package to help internet marketers. Omniture keeps turning out quality white papers and features. They’ll launch this new offering at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art on December 11, 2006. It’s already affected their stock price. I love to see art meet business (like the Dove campaign launch).

Anyone want to go?

WHO:    Featuring Forrester Research, marketers from leading online
companies and Omniture executives
WHAT:   Hear Forrester Research describe the challenges and benefits of
integrating online marketing information, and see new Omniture
“Plug and Play” online marketing technology that will help
marketers:
–  Understand how ad serving campaigns affect keyword conversion
–  Create targeted e-mail campaigns using site behavior
–  Optimize landing pages based on specific user segments
–  Drive internal search conversion through site behavior results
–  And much more
WHEN:   Monday, December 11, 2006, 4:00 p.m. PST
WHERE:  San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
151 Third Street, San Francisco, CA
To register: http://www.omniture.com/sfmoma

First, I see the ad, a compelling headline written to address my desires for conversions. Conversions are my holy grail.

Precisely, I just clicked on to DM News (direct, database, and internet marketing news) and I click on the headline: “Post-Click Marketing dramatically improves conversion rates” white paper link.

It takes me to a beautiful, elegant landing page. I fill out the information (2 short pages) and land on an equally beautiful thank you page. They give me another hook (another white paper, their blog, and a “call me now” option).

I wonder how these landing pages convert. I’m also interested in post-click marketing. I’ll let you know what I learn. In the meantime, dream about churning out beautiful landing pages that convert and make me the web hero…

I’m maybe the last person to know about this site. iLounge is everything iPod. Nice job on the branding. They have done what I want to do – the top of the site is static info. Under it it’s a blogging setup with comments. I wonder if they developed it or if it’s all done on a blog platform. Anyone know?

They exist off ad revenue alone. Their page rank is 9!

Now if an affiliate could build a site like this around a product verticle, imagine…

Famous Utah designer Brad blogged about a list of Utah design talent (he should make a page devoted to this on his blog – sort of like my list of Utah bloggers). I recognize a lot of the names.

I think Copperrain should be added. They do a great job at capturing attention for being one of the top entrepreneurs according to Businessweek!

However, they can use some internet marketing help. If you type their company name in google, here’s what you get (that’s a hint: get a better main page):

01 Better main page Enter -
www.copperrain.com/ – 3k – Cached – Similar pages

Wouldn’t it be great if it says what they do and why they’re so great? I noticed my friend Kelly’s post ranks higher about them than they do.

Add some meta tags for title, keywords, and description to your site (here’s an article about meta tags and SEO). If nothing else. Also a button to skip the intro for repeat visitors or a cookie so they only get it once. Optimize the main page and put a link to the flash piece. Since google can’t read images or flash, you have to plan accordingly, and make sure you capitalize on the national attention you’re getting (congrats!).

Last month I wrote about I raised Google clicks throughs over 7X using dynamic keyword insertion. Apparently I’m not the only one. An Advertising.com study conducted in June 2006 (they are owned by Yahoo), showed this technique raising click through rates by 38%.

That’s click throughs. Conversions are another (more coveted) matter. Targeted URLs raised conversions by 36%. This means creating targeted web pages directly related to your ad copy, or landing pages.

It doesn’t say how many participated in the study and it’s lean on details, but search marketers should take note. Incidently my focus this week is on landing pages. Paul Allen must’ve read my mind as he just blogged about landing page optimization with some great resources.

I love Halloween. It’s the time of year I can be theatrical. In the past my coworkers really got into it. I’ll never forget the year a former boss came with dyed red underwear, white tights, and a cape (as Captain Canada).

This year I got to meet Utah tech talent’s Rob Merrill who I’ve known through blogging for over a year. Rob is a technical recruiter (talk to him if you’re looking for a programming job or want to change jobs). No it wasn’t scary — but we’ll see if he recognizes me next time we meet.

This year I went to the symphony to celebrate so I’m sort of Frankenstein glam. It’s 2am and my wig is no longer sticking straight back, but you get the idea. Enjoy!