Monthly Archives: November 2013

The 12 Days of Christmas Online Scavenger Hunt

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santa-sackIt’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. And what better way to kick off the holiday season than by receiving a Christmas present from Search Engine College?

All last week, we were tossing about ideas for how to gift our blog readers and members at Search Engine College in a fun and unique way this holiday season. We could have sent out an animated snowman card; we could have given out a boring discount coupon; or we could have had a one-day Black Friday sale that many people would have missed out on.

But this year, we’ve come up with something completely different. Presenting: the 12 Days of Christmas Online Scavenger Hunt!

How to Win

Every day for the first 12 days of December, we are giving away a 6 month subscription to Search Engine College. Each subscription includes access to ALL our online courses and training videos, as well as our exclusive discussion forums and industry discounts area. Each 6 month subscription is worth USD 594. That’s over $7,100 in prizes to be won!

All you have to do to win is be the first person to find the Christmas icon hidden somewhere on our web site at www.searchenginecollege.com. The icon will change daily and will look like one of the following:

xmas-icons-hunt
As soon as you spot the Christmas icon, simply tweet the page URL to us @secollege so we can verify and send you your prize. Make sure you follow us and use the hashtag #xmasscavengerhunt in your tweet. If you don’t have a Twitter account, simply post the URL and hashtag to our Facebook Wall, or our Google+ Page, or you can email the URL to us study [at] searchenginecollege [dot] com.

We will have a countdown banner at the top of every page on Search Engine College reminding you which icon you are looking for and how many hours/minutes/seconds you have left to find it. When someone has found the icon, the banner image will change to WINNER FOUND and the clock stopped until the next icon is posted. And NO, the banner icon does not count as a find – it must be within the page body ;-). Also, category or tag archive pages don’t count. We need the individual post/page URL please.

There will be 12 winners in total (1 each day) and if the icon isn’t found one day, it will carry over to the next day until all prizes are won. If you win and are an existing paid member of Search Engine College, your free 6 month subscription will be tacked on to the end of your existing subscription.

We will send out clues to the icon’s location and announce our winners each day via Twitter, Facebook and Google+. If you are already on our mailing list, we will also email you a picture of the day’s icon in advance to give you a headstart.

Starts 1st December

As this competition is a global one, we have tried to plan the daily start time to suit as many timezones as possible. The fun kicks off at the following times:

  • New York (U.S.A.)  Sunday, 1 December 2013 at 5:00 p.m   EST  UTC-5 hours
  • Los Angeles (U.S.A.)  Sunday, 1 December 2013 at 2:00 p.m   PST  UTC-8 hours
  • London (United Kingdom)  Sunday, 1 December 2013 at 10:00 p.m   GMT  UTC
  • Sydney (Australia)  Monday, 2 December 2013 at 9:00 a.m   AEDT  UTC+11 hours
  • Wellington (New Zealand)  Monday, 2 December 2013 at 11:00 a.m   NZDT UTC+13 hours

So don’t miss out, – make sure you brush up on your searching skills in advance and join us for the scavenger hunt fun from December 1st.

Happy Holidays from Search Engine College!

Search Industry Job of the Week – Social Media Manager

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Job Title: Social Media Manager
Job Reference: Unknown
Position Type: Part time
Name of employer: Search Engine Journal
Location: San Francisco, CA
Date Posted: 25 November 25 2013
Position description:

Well-known, internet marketing web publication, Search Engine Journal is looking for a Social Media Manager to advance its digital community.

This is a high profile position that gets you in front of the internet marketing community on a daily basis.

The Social Media Manager will be entrusted with the publication’s large social media network and will be responsible for cultivating and expanding the target audience through creative campaigns and social listening techniques.

Goals are to foster a positive culture, to identify leads for the editorial team, to expand influence, and create a thought leadership position. Note: this opportunity is part-time.

Key Responsibilities:

  • Assist with creation, conception, and presentation of social media strategy and integrated marketing campaigns
  • Utilize social listening tools to generate insights
  • Create and maintain Content Calendars
  • Review user generated comments and posts in a quick and timely manner
  • Identify influencers and manage outreach to them
  • Respond to users, when appropriate, in order to cultivate a positive community
  • Constantly on top of industry trends and developments- experiment with new and current features
  • Work with teams across the site to ensure that it is represented at its best online

Must Haves:

  • At least 1 year of experience managing professional social media accounts
  • Charisma, a fun personality, and digital-savvy
  • Goal setter; able to calculate the ROI of their efforts
  • Strong attention to detail and accuracy
  • Passionate about social media, SEO, and content marketing
  • Active participation in a wide variety of social media activities
  • Demonstrated ability to build and engage a large community
  • Proven ability to write concise, creative, and informative copy
  • Familiar/comfortable understanding of Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ platforms
  • Strong time management skills; necessary to balance multiple projects, campaigns, and administrative duties
  • Flexible/Adaptable; available to respond outside of traditional working hours
  • PR experience a plus

Benefits:

  • Monthly base plus performance bonus plan
  • Inclusion on the masthead and editorial team; (Past and present members of the team have parlayed their increased exposure into speaking invitations, consulting gigs and career opportunities, as well as writing for Entrepreneur.com, Huffington Post, Medium.com and many other major industry publications)
  • Possible travel to represent the brand and provide press coverage at events and conferences

Salary range: Unknown
Closing date: Unknown
More info about company from: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/
Contact: Send resumes via online form to: Marketing Pilgrim Jobs

For more search industry jobs, or to post a vacancy, visit Search Engine College Jobs Board.

Fast Five in Search – Week 44, 2013

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fast-fiveThis week’s Fast Five includes the secret to utilizing the full powers of Excel, the latest changes to Google’s AdWords and the rumour that banks may start using your social media profile to determine your credit rating!

Automate Your SEO Reporting by Exporting Your Leads into Excel by Brian Harnish
If reporting conversion results to clients is on your monthly to-do list – this article’s for you. Brian includes links to programs he finds helpful and his step by step guide to running a macro program within Excel is well worth bookmarking.

Web Psychology – Whiteboard Friday by Nathalie Nahai
Nathalie Nahai is a web psychologist and in this Whiteboard Friday post, she explains how online behaviors are shaped and can be influenced using three simple strategies.

Google Introduces Change To AdWords: Pay By Viewable Impression CPM Bidding by Matt Southern
Google rolled out a major change to AdWords this week by introducing CPM bidding by viewable impressions. This is seen as a step up because unlike the traditional model of served impressions, advertisers won’t be charged unless the Ad was actually viewed by the end-user.

How to Train Fresh Graduates for Your Internet Marketing Agency by Matt Goulart
This is a short handy guide to initiating new graduates (even if they’ve specifically studied PPC and SEO) into the real world of online marketing.

And finally for something a bit different…

How Social Media Monitoring Impacts Reputation Management by Jean Dion
This article will totally change the way your view your social media and financial transactions! Banks are starting to check social media profiles when determining credit ratings! Talk about Brave New World!

Happy reading!

*Image courtesy of Threadless

5 Must-Have Spreadsheets For Online Marketing Professionals

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I_love_spreadsheets_hatAs an online marketing consultant and trainer for the past 15 years, I have used a LOT of online tools to help me do my job.

I’ve seen time-saving tools come and go in crazy peaks and troughs. I’ve also seen a few that have ridden the waves of consumer fascination to become permanent fixtures in the online marketer’s toolbox.

Below are 5 spreadsheet-based tools that I use myself or recommend on a regular basis:

1) Distilled’s MS Excel for SEOs – This Excel-based workbook is like a detailed instruction manual for SEOs on how to manipulate bulky data into logical form using Microsoft Excel. If you are an Excel wizard, you’ll love this tool. If not, you’ll probably need a week to wrap your head around the analysis, but it will be worth it – I promise.

2) HubSpot’s Blog Editorial Calendar Template – If you are a content curator or social media marketer, this template will save your life. It simplifies calendar-based content allocation and helps you prioritize content deadlines and build an annual strategy to meet multiple marketing campaign objectives.

3) Shimon Sandler’s PPC Campaign Kick-Off Template – this Excel template is quite a few years old now, but I still use it as a starting point when kicking off a new AdWords or Bing Ads campaign for a client. It helps you and your client to focus on the big picture objectives and build a unique campaign to suit specific requirements rather than implementing a cookie-cutter PPC campaign that needs tweaking to fit.

4) Google SEO Rank Checker Spreadsheet – a recent discovery, this customizable Google Docs template is all kinds of awesome. It includes a clever integration of ImportXML that allows you to collect at-a-glance keyword rankings on Google in real time.

5) Outspoken Media’s Link Building Spreadsheet – another Google Drive shared doc, this is a customizable template consisting of a gigantic list of link building strategies collated by Rhea Drysdale and her team at Outspoken Media.
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Google Doodles 50 Years of Dr Who

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To celebrate the 50th anniversary of BBC’s iconic sci-fi TV show Dr Who, Google has created a very cool interactive Dr Who game as today’s Google Doodle.

DrWho1The doodle game allows you to kick off by choosing from 11 different character iterations of the good Doctor, each with distinctive features, e.g. Tom Baker’s multi-colored scarf and Matt Smith’s red bow tie.

DrWho2Dr Who’s newest time lord, actor Peter Capaldi, did not make the doodle cut, probably because he is yet to film the much-loved role.

DrWho3Growing up with Tom Baker’s Doctor, naturally I chose him first.

DrWho4The game features a series of challenges to reach the letters in GOOGLE, each level of the game more complex than the last and all involving the dodging of nasty daleks.

DrWho5Once you *rescue* the target letter, you need to make it safely back to the welcoming tardis, which will transport you to the next level.

DrWho6If your chosen character successfully makes it through a level, you will keep him for the next. If however, he gets zapped by a dalek, a new iteration of Dr Who will replace him.

DrWho7Each level features musical refrains from the show and of course the distinctive tardis transporting sound between levels. There’s no sign of any of the Doctor’s companions, or even K9, but with 11 doctor characters, you don’t miss them.

DrWho8If you make it through to the final level (6), you are rewarded with a parade of Doctors celebrating your efforts.

DrWho9Good clean fun and just frustrating enough to keep you entertained for about half an hour. Go sharpen your sonic screwdrivers!