No more.

www.localsearchjobs.com is now online, with dedicated job listings in the following areas:

…and more…

All easily searched and filtered to make finding the latest offerings easy to spot, with at least 200 jobs shown daily.

I’ve had the domain for a while now, and finally decided to do something with it.

With companies like General Motors shifting marketing funds away from traditional media and into online efforts, now is the best time to start your career in search marketing. If you’ve already got some search marketing experience, even better - there are more and more jobs opening up, and still relatively few, experienced people to fill them. The result is very good starting salaries, and an increasing number of six-figure jobs. Search agency jobs, or in-house - they’re out there today.

If you have a search marketing job to fill, post up as not only does the job appear on www.localsearchjobs.com, but across a related network of other sites, ensuring exposure across sites such as LinkedIn, MySpace and SimplyHired - jobs posted here can be seen by tens of thousands of prospective candidates each month.

Massive thanks to everyone who’s participated! We’re wrapping it up after tomorrow, so that’s it - the end of the 31st sees the end of data collecting. Following that you can expect us (SEMPO) to work on getting the results out during November/early December (that’s the current plan, anyway).

Now, for those on the Agency side, fret not, my friends! We’re going to try to get a survey focused on you folks up and running very shortly. Nothing is set in stone on this one, but it only seems right we roll out that side of things to balance the data for everyone in the industry.

Anyway, that’s about it folks - stay tuned for more interesting bits in the coming weeks.

Duane

SEMPO’s In-House SEM Salary Survey

For those who may not know it, I’m a co-chair for the SEMPO In-House SEM Committee. Our reason for being is to act as a gathering point for in-house SEMs and offer useful information to the larger group of in-house SEMs scattered around the globe.

So, back in April, the idea occurred to me that we had no real data on salaries and compensation packages for in-house SEMs. Sure, there were discussions in forums, such as this older one at SEW, but everything seemed to be anecdotal - nothing solid that you could, oh, I don’t know - take to HR and say, “Hey, people with my skills are being paid $10,000 (on average) more than I am. What, if anything, can we do about this?”

Now, if your HR Manager is anything like mine, she’d start the discussion by laughing in your face. Then say thanks for the info, she’ll see what she can do. In all seriousness, when I spoke to my HR Manager back it the Spring, she was interested in this data, as it would help her directly understand the value of this skilled, niche position within our company. Finding data on comp packages for Sales Managers, product Managers and Marketing Managers is relatively straight-forward. Finding real data on jobs like Search Managers, PPC Analysts and Directors of Search Marketing, well, that’s still very cloudy.

Regardless, I wanted to know the data - so the survey was born.

Now, lest you get the idea that “Duane this on his own”, I’ll tell you immediately that if it were not for the help and feedback offered by the entire In-House SEM Committee, and the BoD members at SEMPO, this would never have seen the light.

Now, who can use this data?

Well, any in-house SEM can use it. They can use it as a gauge to measure their own value in the industry. Trust me - you are all, everyone, a winner. But those with 6+ years of experience and those with 2 years of experience should occupy very different positions within a given organization.

The businesses themselves will also be able to use this information as a way to judge if they are compensating vital personnel adequately, or if they are in jeopardy of losing them. It’ll also help businesses looking to grow their in-house teams understand the landscape a bit better.

Despite accidentally deleting the survey, and having the awesome and quick-witted staff at www.SurveyMonkey.com save my a$$ by restoring things hours before going live, it’s been mostly boring slogging through details and hundreds of e-mails to pull together what we hope are a relevant list of questions. I’ll tell you, hitting the wrong button and suddenly wondering where everything went is a sure-fire way to raise your heart rate.

So, if you’re in-house, and you see this, please do the following:

1 - fill in the survey (and be honest )
2 - forward the link to anyone you know who are in-house as well

In the end, the info will benefit everyone, so it’s worth participating.

Yep - to get folks to do what you need, sometimes you need to embarrass them a bit.

Nothing drastic, but Mike outlines and excellent tactic that every in-house SEM should have in their arsenal. Think of it as Relationship Building - An Advance Course.

After reading it completely through, I stated at the top again and thought carefully of my own situation and how I get things done around the office here. Mike’s suggestions are spot on, no matter how good your internal relationships are.

I’m putting this thinking into practice today. You should consider it, too.

1 - a famous or well-known person
2 – fame; renown

Now, very few people are born as celebrities. Those who are usually come from families with well established names in the entertainment world, though some transcend this rule of thumb.

Witness Paris Hilton. Her family name started with a string of low-cost motels. Today, thanks largely to her family’s money, she is a celebrity. Obviously she puts a lot of work into being a celebrity, what, with the parties, the drinking, the jail-time, the driving nice cars, the reaching out to actual celebs to try to form friendships – it’s a lot of work, no doubt.

So, we can see that she’s a celebrity by virtue of money and effort, not because of any real talent or skill.

This brings me to the world of search.

Our world, across its many facets, has spawned a LOT of wealth. Google alone has spawned over 1,000 new millionaires. (Old info in this article from 2004, but you get the idea.) So, with all those flush folks pootling around in their new Ferraris, Porsches and Prii (Priuses?), why are there not more celebrities among them?

Paris proved that having money and partying can make anyone a celebrity, so why haven’t more individuals started building a “lifestyle” for themselves that’ll guarantee notoriety? Search geeks often have money, and I KNOW they like to party.

I mean, let’s take Vanessa Fox as an example. She, late of Google, is an intelligent, attractive and talented person No doubt she’s done OK at Google. Surely well enough to skip the line at some of the best clubs in town, at least, if she were the sort to flash-the-cash (which doesn’t strike me as her style).

And if you’ve ever met Vanessa you’ll know she’s the total package, so hangin’ with the beautiful people isn’t a problem.

But looks alone doesn’t explain it. Let’s take Serge or Larry for example. Both billionaires; who wouldn’t want them hanging at their club? …and forget about them waiting in line. They look like guys I work with, yet no doubt the ladies would flock to those boys, where my coworkers would be left sweeping up feathers…

Let’s head back to Vanessa and Paris for a moment. Maybe it comes down to perceived intelligence? I’m not trying to say that one person is a brainiac and the other a dolt. I really don’t know. Maybe Paris is fighting off the paparazzi with her left hand and MENSA with her right – could be…you never know.

Perhaps there is a level of maturity that is the cut off point. Specifically, maybe a lack of maturity leads rich people to become celebrities. Those well off don’t necessarily seek fame if they’ve had to work for their money, or developed normally and matured as adults normally do. Let’s face it – if you have to work for a buck, you know the value of the buck. If it’s been handed to you all your life, it’s not about the bucks – it’s about the things bucks bring to you – vast difference here.

I really don’t know the answers, but I do know that the search industry doesn’t have any readily recognizable celebrities. Sure, WE all know who Danny Sullivan is, but outside the world of search, is he a well known commodity?

Perhaps it’s time to start a “Replace Vanna with Vanessa” campaign – surely Vanna White is due to retire (she’s 50, can you believe it?), and I think Vanessa Fox would look great on stage. Fittingly, Vanessa, would thus be appearing on “Wheel of Fortune” – seems appropriate somehow.

Now, if this developed into a trend, maybe we’d see Matt Cutts leading a revival of Front Page Challenge? Or maybe head lining a docudrama on Star Trek villains and whatever became of them…

…and I could easily envision Chris Boggs snagging the lead role in a revamped version of Bizarre…

Yep, the time is nigh – Search Needs Celebrities – call Paris, TomKat and the Olsen twins – we’ve got some BFFs waiting in the wings here!

It’s a super cool hidden feature in the new Google Earth that was recently found.

Apparently there’s a flight simulator buried in there. Here are some YouTube videos:

Love the music with this next one!

I think this one might be an integration between Google Earth and FS2004…

Going to be hitting England, Holland, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and France - can’t wait!

I won’t be connected at any point, I don’t think, so expect nothing new here for a couple weeks, sadly. Just poke around the read the info I have posted on my pages already if you’re that bored…

I’ll be pretty much taking pictures 24/7 while over there - indulging in another hobby of mine. Should be fun.

Thanks for coming by - I’ll be back soon and will get to posting asap!

I checked Amazon.com this morning and suddenly I’m listed as an author and the book is posted in their system. It’s available for pre-order now, and Amazon is offering it at a discounted price. Not sure I like THAT, but hey - they know how to sell books, so who am I to question it…LOL

How to Make Money With Your Blog: The Ultimate Reference Guide for Building, Optimizing, and Monetizing Your Blog

I recently gave it a try, and have since installed it across all my blogs.

Tony Conrad, CEO & Founder of Sphere shared this with me via e-mail:

[quote]Sphere is displayed on over 1.5 billion monthly article pages on a number of the best blogs (TechCrunch, All Things D, GigaOM, Captains Quarters, Real Clear Politics, etc) and mainstream media sites (WSJ, CNN, TIME, NYT, etc), so you’re blog is connecting to a nice group of content creators The most important thing is that we’re connecting the voice of the people to that of mainstream media and we’re doing that across the web. As a result, we’re enabling a more mainstream Internet reader to discover blogs - a simple idea but one that is important in broadening the reach of the blogosphere.[/quote]

While Tony’s picture of things is taken from a higher altitude than my own, I still think there’s merit here, down in the weeds.

Essentially it boils down to this:

Provide a good user experience through solid design and useful content, and you’ll build a loyal following.

The Sphere product fits nicely into providing value for users. It’s an excellent way to offer up directly related stories on a hot topic - or any topic for that matter.

Sadly there’s no current way to monetize it for yourself, but it still makes your site that useful place folks want to come back to. In addition, because you’re connected to this network, there’s a chance YOUR posted story could end up under a readers nose on those higher profile sites. In reality, there’s no link love being passed, so there’s little value from an SEO perspective, but I’ll take traffic from the Wall Street Journal any day I can get it!

I’ll caution folks to not see this as way to suddenly rocket your traffic, though. As with most good things, they come your way with work. So you’ll still need to hold up your end on producing quality content.

Grab a copy for WordPress here:

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/sphere-related-content/

Now, go get this thing - it’s one of the hottest downloads for WordPress today.

http://www.billhartzer.com/pages/aol-to-change-name-to-tmz/

Seems that AOL is going to be changing their name to TMZ. If that sound familiar, it’s because TMZ.com is one of the hottest entertainment-related sites extant.

Ah, AOL - even YOU aren’t sure who you really are.

For the brand that is the Internet to millions, and has been described as ‘The Internet for Dummies’, I’m left to wonder how their user base will cope with the change. I mean, AOL makes it so simple for users, they hardly need to know anything about the online world.

Now, will they really wrap their heads around a brand change?

…and what does this mean for TMZ.com? Will they end up marginalized as simply a subsection of the Entertainment area of a new entity? Or will they be watered down and become ‘Entertainment for Dummies’ in the end?

This could really spell a unique opportunity. AOL has been sliding for a while now, and they’re so far gone in the real search race that maybe the time is now for them to look in a new direction.

Could they corner the market as a vertically integrated entertainment-only focused portal?