Ask Kalena

Oooh you're back! Lookin good. Have you lost weight? Yes, that was a compliment designed to butter you up for my next question. Subscribed to my feed yet? :-)

Hello Kalena

I enjoyed reading your web site and blog today. I was recently laid off and am interested in pursuing the SEM field. Where would you recommend I start?

I have 30 years of marketing, public relations, broadcast production, journalism (newspaper columnist), publishing (owner/editor of niche market magazine)… plenty of transferable skills I think. I also developed two web sites, produced several radio and TV shows and through it all I have excellent copywriting and proofreader skills.

Thanks much! Wish I could meet you in Sydney!

Susan

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Hi Susan

First up, I think your idea to start a career in Search Engine Marketing is timely and sensible given the current economy and global demand for search marketing staff. Reading my article 11 Reasons Why You Should Consider a Job in Search Engine Marketing should get you fired up even more about the idea.

It sounds like you have a lot of skills that would translate nicely to a job in the Search Engine Marketing field. Journalism and copywriting especially will come in handy for writing blog posts and optimized page copy or PPC ads. But there is quite a technical side to SEO and PPC that you will need to study and gain experience in before you’re ready to take on client projects or apply for a job in the field.

There are plenty of SEM training options to get you prepared for the industry, including *cough* Search Engine College *cough*, but you should also start practising on your own sites and others as soon as possible. Hands-on experience is essential to competency in the field.

Best of luck and do pop back and let us know how you get on. If you do happen to get to SMX Sydney, make sure you say hello.

Dear Kalena

I have just turned 40 & am looking for a new career having previously been in sales management. I am interested in finding out how I would go about getting a position within a company as a S.E.O. and what qualifications are currently internationally recognized within the industry. Any advice would be appreciated.

Second question: is a blog type website such as a WordPress site better for optimization than the typical site a web designer would build?

Mark

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Dear Mark

1) There’s no reason why you can’t start a new career as a Search Engine Optimizer, heck I’ve written an article called 11 Reasons Why You Should Consider a Job in Search Engine Marketing. BUT, (and this is a big BUT), it takes more than theoretical knowledge and qualifications to be a good SEO.

There are plenty of online and offline training options for learning Search Engine Optimization, including the SEO courses we offer at Search Engine College. But they need to be paired with practical, in the trenches experience before you really understand how to optimize a web site successfully.

I attended a powerful presentation by Nat Torkington at Webstock last week about how to have successful failures and I would say that failures are a MUST for anyone in SEO. It’s only when you fail to get a page ranked highly in search engines and then tweak it to out-rank your competitors that you really grok SEO.

Regarding SEO qualifications, you should be aware that the search industry does not have an official accreditation body and therefore no standardized certification levels. At Search Engine College, we consistently check our lesson methodologies against the guidelines set down by the search engines themselves and I believe many of the other training institutions do the same.  We also set quite strict performance benchmarks for tutor-graded assignments and assessment items before allowing our students to gain certification.

As a result, we believe SEO / SEM certification has become increasingly recognized by employers in the search industry and we’ve had students tell us that having our specific certification has given them an edge over other applicants when applying for jobs.

2) In answer to your second question, any web site can be designed and optimized well enough to be search engine friendly, but yes WordPress blogs do seem to be indexed by Google very quickly and ranked well so you can feel comfortable building and optimizing a site using WordPress. It’s so much more than a blogging platform! Just make sure you download WordPress to your own domain and don’t build your site as a hosted blog on WordPress.com

Job Title: SEM Manager
Job Reference #: wspos515636
Position Type: full time
Name of employer: Direct Partners
Location: Marina del Rey, CA
Date Posted: 13 October 2008
Position description:

Direct Partners helps clients to acquire customers, measure behavior and develop meaningful relationships through targeted, results-oriented direct marketing. They are located in beautiful Marina del Rey and offer a friendly work atmosphere, room to grow and learn as well as innovative thinking.

They are looking for an experienced marketing professional to provide strategic leadership, tactical execution and analytic support surrounding the development of SEM programs for various clients. The perfect candidate will create, implement, track, analyze and optimize keyword campaigns across multiple search engines while helping to drive the company’s overall paid search strategy.

As a key member of the media team, the perfect candidate will play a central role in driving customer acquisition, revenue growth and profitability. The ideal candidate will have hands-on experience managing SEM campaigns.

Job Responsibilities:

• Lead efforts to drive profitable customer acquisition and increase the long-term effectiveness of search engine marketing.
• Manage day-to-day relationships with multiple paid search engine partners.
• Manage budgets, analyze keyword costs, and develop all business processes for maximizing return-on-investment (ROI).
• Test and optimize keyword bids, ad copy and landing pages.
• Conduct competitive research and make recommendations on keyword selection.
• Maintain a database of keywords, categories and campaigns.
• Employ advanced search marketing techniques such as contextual ads, geo-targeting and day parting, etc.
• Contribute to senior management communications concerning online marketing issues and initiatives.
• Stay abreast of industry trends and best practices.

Minimum Job Qualifications:

• Strategic mind and creative problem-solving skills.
• 2-4 years experience in online marketing, direct marketing, consulting, strategic planning and strong expertise in search engine marketing.
• Aptitude for analyzing large datasets in order to gain insights and drive business decisions.
• Solid understanding of web analytics tools and advanced Excel skills required.
• Ability to thrive in a dynamic, fast-paced work environment.
• Adept at project management and multi-tasking.
• Strong communication and presentation skills.

Direct Partners
4755 Alla Road
Marina del Rey, CA 90292
Phone: (310) 482-4459

Salary range: Up to $75K, DOE
Closing date: Unknown
More info about company from: http://www.directpartners.com
Contact: Send resumes to address above. Further enquiries email jmcruer[at[directpartners.com

For more search industry job vacancies visit Search Engine College Jobs Board.

Job Title: Social Marketing Specialist
Job Reference #: Unknown
Position Type: full time
Name of employer: Buongiorno
Location: Los Gatos, California
Date Posted: 9 October 2008
Position description:

BUONGIORNO is a trendsetting, independent mobile media and technology company driving the burgeoning cellphone entertainment and personalization industry. It partners with telecom, media and Internet companies in over 35 countries to distribute, package and create music, games, videos, wallpaper, ringtones, chat, user-generated services, TV voting, quizzes, and to sell advertising. BUONGIORNO helps companies market through proprietary labels, and sells directly through its popular Blinko brand. It distributes across the U.S, Europe, South America and Mexico, the Middle East, Africa and through BUONGIORNO Hong Kong – joint venture with Mitsui, in Russia, India, the Far East and China. Its reach is already exceeding 60 million customers. The dimension of its business, its large portfolio of content and services, its geographical presence and a team of more than 1000 professionals make BUONGIORNO one of the world’s largest enabler of digital mobile entertainment.

Key Responsibilities:

The Social Marketing Specialist will be responsible for implementing and driving our Social Networking strategy in the local market based on the Global Product and Marketing Strategy and in close co-operation with the Global Marketing team. The ideal candidate will have the following responsibilities:

Planning, organising and carrying out Marketing campaigns to achieve user acquisition objectives in the respective country in close co-operation with Global Marketing Management department:

• Developing sound Marketing plan/activities to meet user target.
• Set up and drive online and mobile Marketing strategy to enhance viral distribution (blogs, other SN sites, SMS campaigns, banner placements, etc.).
• Establish relationships with online bloggers and potential co-operation partners.

Day to day community management and CRM activities for active users in close co-operation with Global Customer Relationship Manager:

• Email and SMS newsletter campaigns.
• Online community management.
• Establish user lifecycle management and incentive campaigns.
• Get in depth SN market know-how in the respective country, constant review of competitors’ activities (product comparison/benchmarking).

Skills and Knowledge:

• University degree in business administration with a focus on Marketing/New Media.
• 2 years of working experience in Marketing for a consumer brand in a multi-national environment, preferably in Internet business or Telecom.
• Excellent knowledge of Online Marketing activities and tools. Mobile Marketing is an asset.
• Self-driven, results-oriented with a positive outlook, and a clear focus on high quality.
• Well developed interpersonal and communication skills and the ability to work independently in an international team.
• High market and user orientation and ability to anticipate user needs and market trends.
• Open minded. Strong analytical skills.
• Passionate for Social Networking and ambitious with a capacity to overcome barriers and make impactful change.
• Fluency in English, any other language is an asset.

To Apply:

To Apply, please provide a cover letter describing your specific experience with (1) social networking in business setting, and (2) writing and executing marketing plans involving social media. They will not consider candidates who do not meet this requirement. Send your letter and resume to careers.us[at]Buongiorno.com

Salary range: $45K-$60K
Closing date: Unknown
More info about company from: [www.buongiorno.com]
Contact: Send resumes to careers.us[at]Buongiorno.com

For more search industry job vacancies visit Search Engine College Jobs Board 

Job Title: Director Online Marketing
Job Reference #: Unknown
Position Type: full time
Name of employer: DECA
Location: Santa Monica, California
Date Posted: 1 October 2008
Position description:

DECA was founded in 2007 by experienced entertainment and Internet executives who previously held senior roles at: Sony Pictures, ABC, and Yahoo! Music. The company identifies, funds, markets and distributes next-generation digital entertainment properties, bridging the gap between Hollywood, Madison Avenue and Silicon Valley. Based in Santa Monica, DECA is backed by Mayfield, General Catalyst, and Atomico. They are seeking a talented and motivated Director of Online Marketing to to develop and execute strategies to drive traffic and increase revenue across multiple properties.

The ideal candidate is a guerilla marketing expert who has been personally responsible for successfully growing one or more online media properties from their initial launch. This position requires a bias for action and an ability to effectively develop an audience without an extensive support team or budget.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Manage the strategy and execution for all audience development initiatives.
• Create and execute marketing plans to quickly generate targeted traffic to multiple online entertainment properties.
• Develop and manage strategic relationships with appropriate online communities, blogs, forums and other third-party sites for featured placement, content syndication and other traffic generating initiatives.
• Develop and track usage metrics and identify trends across several properties; and use this data to track the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and recommend enhancements to optimize revenue potential.
• Guide search engine optimization effort and work with necessary internal resources to ensure optimal natural search rankings for each property.
• Work closely with the General Managers of each property as well as other executives to continually refine each property to best serve the target audience.
• Identify and manage vendors as necessary.

REQUIREMENTS:

• Minimum of 5 years experience managing and executing online marketing strategies with at least 2+ years SEO and SEM experience.
• Demonstrated ability to generate traffic and meet marketing goals for online media properties through the effective use of both traditional and viral marketing strategies.
• Previous startup experience, especially in the digital media industry, is highly recommended.
• Deep experience with a variety of social networking applications, such as Facebook and MySpace.
• Ability to self-prioritize tasks, work under time pressure without cracking, and stay focused while working independently.
• Must be a team player and eager to pitch in wherever needed.
• Experience in the entertainment industry (especially television) is a definite plus.
• BA/BS degree at a minimum.

DECA is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

They offer a great work environment just a few blocks from the beach, a competitive compensation package (DOE) including paid vacation, comprehensive benefits (medical/dental/vision), and employee stock options.

Salary range: Unknown
Closing date: Unknown
More info from: [decajobs.jobscore.com]
Contact: Send resumes via online form to [decajobs.jobscore.com]

For more search industry job vacancies visit Search Engine College Jobs Board.