Blogs and Feeds

PR Web™ Invites Bloggers to be Guests at eComXpo Oct. 6-8, 2005

Ever wanted to attend a virtual trade show or not sure what a virtual trade show is? Well this is a chance to attend for free. Yes they do charge registration fees for you to sit at your computer and participate in a 3-day virtual trade show event. PR Web™ invites the first 250 bloggers who register for a complimentary Exhibit Hall and Keynote pass to the completely online eComXpo show, October 6-8, 2005, conference organizers are sweetening PR Web's offer by offering to convert bloggers' standard passes into full conference passes.

While you are at the virtual trade show, do stop in for my sessions. I'm one of the many speakers who will be participating in this event. Getting ready for it has been quite a trip. Each speaker pre-records their presentation, submits it with the requisite slides on a USB device furnished by the trade show. During the show the presenters are online during scheduled time slots. I've never presented virtually before, so it will be new experience for me.

And, just in case you take up the offer for a complimentary pass and are unfamiliar with PRWeb, here's a little something about them. PR Web™ is a fully integrated press release newswire service. They are the largest newswire catering to small and medium sized companies and organizations and one of the largest online press release newswires. I use their service on a regular basis.

By the way, if you visit my other blog Best Blogs on SEO-PR, you will discover a secret many search marketers have found. PR is good food for search marketing campaigns.

Search Engine Marketing, Inc. -- A Must Read

You could fill a shelf with books on search engine marketing, read them all and still not have a grasp of what really goes into search engine marketing. To the unsuspecting it seems easy -- just content and code twiddling. There is a new book that rips the covers off of any misconceptions about search marketing that you might have. It is Mike Moran and Bill Hunt's Search Engine Marketing, Inc.

Bill Hunt is the Preisdent of Global Strategies International, a search engine marketing firm and Mike Moran is ibm.com's Manager of Site Architecture. Bill Hunt is a regular speaker at Search Engine Strategies and other industry conferences.

This is the book that I have been waiting for -- a truly strategic focused book that includes plenty of how-to. From information that will help the only marginally technical understand a dynamically-generated URL and step-by-step instructions for paid search optimization to how to configure a search marketing team and navigate the shark-filled budgetary waters.

This is not just a book on how to improve the search positioning of a small business site. This is for those who must deal with the problems of the truly industrial-sized sites. And believe me I know from my own experience, they come with industrial-sized problems -- different goals for different areas of the same site, different teams responsible for different areas of a single site, globalization and other challenges. Bill and Mike present lots of helpful advise that even the most seasoned of search marketers will find useful.

RSS and The US Government

Want to get a daily image fresh from space or hourly weather observations sent directly to your RSS reader? If so, you might want to browse the summary page on First Gov that details the agencies with feeds. The feeds available from the Census Bureau alone are more than many individuals track on their readers.

It is not until you dig a little that you can find all of the information that Uncle Sam makes available via RSS. Give it a whirl and you'll be surprised at what you find. I was.