A little trip to London SEO...

I checked out London SEO last week on recommendation of Lisa Ditlefsen of SEO Chicks fame and boy am I glad I visited.

I met up with some really decent people in the SEO world, down to earth yet knew their optimisation (or PPC or social media or, well just take your pick!) like the back of their hands. Like me. Of course.

Amazingly the beer was free, kindly sponsored by Ayima Internet Marketing and I must say thanks to Mike Jacobson for that - we briefly met but I never said cheers for the beers so I owe you one (or two at least).

I also got the chance to hangout with some of the team from SEO MOz outside in the pub beer garden - it seemed to be the place to be even though it was bloody cold! I swapped stories with Mr Fishkin's father and had a highly interesting and entertaining conversation with him on the subtle (and not so subtle!) differences between American English and the Queen's English! (Thats Her Majesty's English not Queens, New York! And not those kind of Queens either!)

Simon Hesletine - top bloke - go check out his blog searchenginetigers.com - had a really interesting conversation about Brand Management, SEO and life in general. Good bloke and welcome on my doorstep anytime especially if he's round these parts in Wiltshire! :)

I also met up with Lyndon Antcliff - top SEO Linkbaiter - and had a really enjoyable time over beers in the evening discussing linkbait - and, er, in the morning too over breakfast - where we were admonished by 2 respectable seniors for being too loud in our enthusiasm for SEO and linkbait... left me chuckling over the weekend thinking they missed out on all of Lyndon's red hot linkbaiting tips and tricks.

I'm definitely going again and I will say this if you've been around SEO for some time and not sure, don't sweat it, just turn up and you'll find everyone's top notch friendly!

About time! Office Managers using Facebook to bust staff!

I get a lot of resistance from clients who say they won't blog and have banned Facebook in their office.

My response is that the young people they employ now will tomorrow mostly become managers and directors in their thirties who WILL blog, read blogs and actively use Facebook as a business/social network tool - something my clients should not forget as time moves on for their business.

And its certainly happened now - check out the intern caught out telling his boss he was not able to come in due to a family emergency and instead was partying hard at a Halloween celebration.

Staff member busted by Facebook

"Nice wand."

Love it!

.htaccess... easy when you know how....

To some there's an air of mystery about .htaccess files, which tends to put people off utilising them on their websites.

So heres the link to 5 htaccess tricks every webmaster SHOULD know about.

With time management training this blog's back on track

For the past few weeks I have been away, been off sick and returned to the aftermath and promptly sunk under the weight of SEO and web work I faced.

Advanced Time Management Techniques

So I bit the bullet last week and spent the day being trained in advanced time management to help myself become far more effective - and allow me to digg, stumble and blog daily again to help increase my online profile.

Even though I spent years as a gliding instructor training others how to soar at heights in excess of 20,000 feet I've always been resistant myself to any kind of self development training so I faced the time management course with some trepidation, wondering if I had anything to learn. Believe me, I did!

I needn't have worried though.

With Andrew Bramwell - a highly effective Management Trainer of Train Me Now at the helm - myself and the other course members left at the end of the day with some fantastic time management tips to manage and prioritise our time. I applied a few of those tips over the weekend and suddenly found DIY jobs around the house that I'd put off for months were getting done in virtually no time at all.... if it was that good for me personally, I am really looking forward to what its going to do for my business.

So I owe a big, big thank you to AJ, my trainer in effective time management techniques. He certainly comes VERY highly recommended. :)