Now that I’m back home and have had a couple of good night’s sleep I thought that it would be worthwhile re-capping Search Summit which was held in Sydney last Thursday and Friday (March 1 and 2, 2007).  I stumbled across the early planning of Search Summit late last year and they had already announced that they were chasing a couple of well-known industry names to speak at the event.  It was still a fair way off so I whacked the site into my feed reader and went about my business.

As time went by and an agenda was released I figured that the quality of presenters and quality of topic ensured that we booked our ticket and made the trip from Ballina.  Now that the event has been done and dusted I would have to say that Barry Smyth did a fantastic job of organising a world-class search marketing conference and an even better job at attracting some of most well-known names in the industry (both international and Australian).

Day One Highlights

Day one commenced pretty early and got off to a great start with Chris Sherman’s keynote speech on the Outlook of Search in 2007.  Chris gave us plenty of food for thought and each of his presentations over the two days left me with the impression that we as marketers really need to start embracing all types of technology as a way of driving traffic, whether it be through traditional search, social media, widgets etc.

The next session that I sat in on was focused heavily on pay per click marketing with a strong focus on writing copy to meet the editorial reviews of both Google AdWords and Yahoo Search Marketing.  All in all, this was a pretty informative session but I was hoping to get a few more stone cold facts and inside tips on what does and doesn’t work rather than concentrating just on meeting the editorial guidelines.  The session was conducted by Peter Brown from Google, and Gareth Evans from Yahoo.

After lunch we took on the Benchmarking and Analysis session.  This turned out to be a pretty interesting session due mostly to the fact that we were one presenter down and a few of the Google team were sitting in on the session.  There were some pretty interesting questions that were answered by Adam Lasnik, not to mention the predicament that Fred Schebesta placed himself with some of the advice that he was dishing out particularly after reviewing a site that he was working on (really wasn’t too smart Fred).

The following session that we attended was a discussion on the pros and cons of joining SEMPO and there seems to be some considerable movement behind establishing a branch here in Australia.  Barry Smyth moderated the session and there was a fair bit of talk about the merits of integrating an accredited training program, whether it be through traineeships or universities.  I think that for the Australian search engine marketing industry to further evolve and join the ranks of the USA and Europe, we need to embrace a professional organisation such as SEMPO.

Day one was finished off with a fairly interesting debate about whether to conduct your search engine marketing in-house or to outsource (or to in-house or outhouse as many were talking up in the audience).  I think it was a pretty close verdict where the outsourcing team got the final vote from the audience.  (You can listen to a podcast of the debate here)

Last but not least were a couple of nice cold beers to top off what was a very interesting day.

Day Two Highlights

Unfortunately we are unable to attend the first couple sessions which was really disappointing as I was very keen to look in on the Bot Obedience session, as it’s not every day you get to hear directly from the Google team as to what they recommend when it comes to best practices on robots.txt and .htaccess.

By the time we arrived and had some morning tea were able to head in and grab seats for the Web 2.0 and Search session.  I would have to say this was probably the most enjoyable session that I attended.  Mike Motherwell and Chris Sherman provided some fantastic food for thought with the underlying theme that it is now more important than ever to build on your “defensible traffic” and weaning off any reliance totally on search engines.

Dan Crow gave some great insight on how Google currently handle media rich applications such as Flash and Ajax.  To cut a long story short, at the moment they do not handle these technologies too well at all.  The Web crawlers are able to interpret text within flash however have no concept of the page or timeline of a flash presentation.  He did however hint that this is something that they are working very hard on but could not give an accurate timeline as to when they would be able to handle these technologies.

The pre-lunchtime session was focused on how to Grow an SEM Agency.  Andy Beal basically took us through some of the steps that he has implemented over the years to help grow a number of the most successful search engine marketing agencies in the US.  I was able to speak with Andy after the session and he was very enthusiastic about having a business grow and build their brand around one or a series of experts within the organisation. He also spoke at length about a company’s ability to land a big brand client and then leverage that to expand into better client bases.

The final two sessions of the day saw a bit of rearrangement with Adam Lasniks session on living the non-9 to 5 lifestyle being brought forward allowing the conference to finish with a discussion on the future of digital marketing.

Once all the officialdom was done and dusted we headed off to the Kirribilli Hotel (John Howard’s local as my brother put it).  I must admit that this was probably the most informative session of the entire two days.  Over a couple of beers we were able to have some great conversations with Detlev Johnson, Chris Sherman, Dan Crow from Google as well as a range of fellow Australian search engine marketers that we didn’t get the opportunity to speak with throughout the conference.

In summary, Barry Smyth has put on a great show and if he can back things up next year with a similar quality presenters I’m sure that we will be back.

This is a quick post (actually all of my posts have been pretty quick) to let everybody know that Louise and I will be heading to Sydney this morning and returning Saturday lunchtime to attend the inaugural search summit search engine marketing conference.

If time permits we may submit something to let you guys know how it is all going, otherwise we will give you a full wrap when we get back.

The recent Ballina HBBN (Home Based Business Network) meeting for December was another success with those attending keen to learn more about Marketing their home based businesses.

We were fortunate to have a number of qualified speakers from within the marketing field, including Jane Laverty the Economic Development Officer of Ballina Shire Council the HBBN leader, to present some interesting and insightful strategies and everyone joined in an open discussion about the various options available. We also discussed a number of test cases such as Rebecca Hannaford of Pretty Puppies and Sue Hogden of All About Home Loans.

Rebecca explained that she didn’t really understand what the term ‘marketing strategies’ meant, as did others, and so began a group discussion providing various insightful and useful options from the group. Rebecca agreed that she was in the process of aligning herself with other pet care and animal services within the community to strengthen her network and was looking to providing regular newsletters with pet care information, tips and advice from these services to her clients.

All About Home Loans was used as an example of a local home based business that provided a home loan brokerage service. Sue explained that All About Home Loans marketed their business within the nothern rivers community yet found it hard for the general public to understand exactly what they did and the services they offered without going into lengthy explanations in their marketing material. Sue also added that Don and herself found it difficult to break people’s perception of what brokers do and that they in fact offered a better, more comparitive service once people got over the mindset of only seeking loans from ‘their own’ bank. Sue was given a great testimonial by Sarah Rutten of Paw Power (a HBBN member) who told the group how much she thought of Don for phoning her to advise her of a $2000 saving available to her. Sue agreed that by using testimonials from people such as Sarah and letting their clients explain how they had been helped by All About Home Loans was a positive marketing strategy for their business. Another interesting strategy was to present information nights where Don and Sue could explain how the lending and financial system operated and to invite questions in a forum to better inform the community.

The group also offered a range of topics that they would like to work on in 2007 such as;

• The general perception/image of a home based business
• The advantages of a home based business
• Time management, time quality, saving clients time
• Cross marketing a business
• Tax savings and Super
• Networking
• Technology and Communication

The next HBBN meeting will be on 7th February from 10am to 12noon at a venue to be decided.

I would highly recommend these meetings to any home based business in the Ballina Shire as a way of meeting some very interesting local business people with similar challenges who spend one morning a month working on their business as a nice break from constantly working in their business.
if you would like to attend or require more information please Email Jane Laverty or phone her on 6686 1419.

Tony Krimmer the Small Business Field Officer of the Northern Rivers Area Consultative Committee has provided the group with some interesting facts from a survey taken at the November Ballina Shire HBBN (Home Based Business Network) Meeting.

The Satisfaction Rating showed an Overall Value of 84.8% with 42.8% preferring a Lunch time meeting followed by Breakfast then Evening with only 5.7%. preferring a mid morning meeting.

The preferred venue was Ballina Beach Resort, followed by the Blue Room with Ballina RSL Club, within Ballina area, Lennox and Byron Bay also mentioned.

66.6% of participants expressed intereest in taking part in the proposed HBBN Showcase of Products and Services.

There were a number of Event Improvement Suggestions such as keeping on time and the desire for ‘real coffee’ with positive comments also, on the event and guest speaker.

Topic Preferences for the Next Event were as follows and as you can see showed that Marketing is a concern for home busineses.

• Accessing staff through traineeships
• Marketing; Leverage; Individual stories
• Marketing; Customers
• Sales Training
• More guest speakers on growing their own business
• Business planning; market planning
• How to get best value for your advertising dollars
• Marketing
• Small business taxation
• Marketing products and services

If you would like to comment on the event please contact Tony Krimmer.

The Next Ballina Shire HBBN Meeting is on Wed 6th December at Ballina Manor if you would like to attend or require more information please Email Jane Laverty or phone her on 6686 1419 by 29th November.
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO COMMENT ON THE FEEDBACK REPORT YOU ARE WELCOME TO POST A COMMENT BELOW.

I have just come from the November meeting of the Ballina Shire Home Based Business Network. It was another informative and inspirational morning filled with great ideas and advice to take home and try.

I would highly recommend these meetings to any home based business looking for information, inspiration or the opportunity to meet local small home based business people in a similar situation.
Jane Laverty, Economic Development Officer of Ballina Shire Council and Nadia Elliott-Burgess, Business and Promotions Manager of Ballina Chamber of Commerce welcomed the group and introduced Tony Krimmer the Small Business Field Officer of the Northern Rivers Area Consultative Committee who spoke on the Australian Government Initiative, Small Business Answers and their development goal to promote the growth and profitability of the Region’s small business enterprises.

I had the opportunity to have a chat with Tony after the meeting and he was very interested in the Search Marketing services of eMedia Worx. Tony was saying that he sees online marketing as a very important part of a website’s success and that he had seen many small businesses pay thousands, and tens of thousands, to have a website only to see it sit there and do nothing except look outdated. He believed that many small businesses would benefit from online marketing services.
I agreed, saying that building a website without search marketing is like building a specialty shop on a country back road. No-one knows its there and no-one can find it. You need to place your website where the traffic is looking for you.

Guest speaker of the morning was John Hale from Next Step Consulting who gave his ‘Secrets to Small Business Success’. Always inspirational, John didn’t disappoint and has a way of taking you outside your business to look at it with fresh eyes and he has a way of making all the big issues appear simple and achievable to all. John took us through the five main stages of small business growth. Existence, Survival, Success, Take Off and Maturity. John held our attention by taking a few personal experience stories to, and in one case literally, ‘cliff hangers’ to illustrate his point of how determination and commitment can help you overcome your obstacles.

Don Hogden of All About Home Loans gave an informative and helpful advisory segment on ‘Loans for Self-employed Small Business Owners’. After John Hale had shown us that ‘cash flow’ was a key to small business survival Don’s fact sheet was welcome and up-to-date advice from the ever changing financial industry. Don and his wife Sue are members of the HBBN and offer a very friendly and approachable financial advisory service.

The meeting was rounded off with a Member Business Profile given by Margaret Orr of Pines on the Plateau who presented her Luxury Boutique Lodges and gave us a background on how she established her successful business.

Held the first Wednesday of each month the Ballina Shire HBBN is a project initiative of Ballina Shire Council Economic Development and Ballina Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc.