The promotional videos for Search Camp Philly are out, with more to come. Look for cameos of my son (kid with binoculars) in some of them and me in my “new” glasses.

View all Search Camp Philly videos.

See also Search Camp Philly Set For September 6 & 7

I was floored the other day when I visited the Sphinn Community in the wee hours of an American east coast night to find several new posts on penis enlargement. Fascinating as that topic may be, it didn’t really fit in with the subjects covered by Sphinn, which are web design, marketing, usability, search engines and social media.

Not only were the topics of the male anatomy dropped into a community for men and women like a screaming, hysterical guest, some playful spammer partners in crime left long comments discussing the ins and outs of penis enlargement. (’cuse the pun.)

It would appear that not only are Some SEO’s bored to wheeping over the dullness of SEO news lately, perhaps they are, indeed, horny as well, as evidenced in this frank admission by one frustrated SEO:

Anyways, all this crankiness and aggressive behavior leads me to one conclusion: the industry needs to get laid.

The topic of late, at least for the search marketing industry, has been that there is no new news. It’s so desolate that some industry bloggers have banded together to be mean and nasty to make themselves feel better or fill in the empty hours of unemployment and no clients with self justified personal attacks on people they don’t even know. I’ve seen some weird stuff lately and wonder how in cow’s heaven some folks claim to be hired when they can provide no proof they ever did any work in the industry!

If you can’t prove you have experience, I guess making stuff up and promoting yourself as an “expert” or teacher is the next best thing?

The lack of real news is so tragic that when a new search engine came out this week, the boards lit up with 34,568 posts in three hours. I won’t mention its name because I never went there to check it out myself. I was too damned busy.

I read a few comments this week in my travels that stuck with me. One was from someone who missed “thinking” type posts. I admit to missing them too. I have a few in my head because I like to write them. Again, I’ve been a tad busy. Thinking is good. I’d love to have more time for it.

I can point thinking people to the new forums we launched at Cre8asiteforums on Ethics and a good discussion on Responsibilities And Etiquette Of Knol Authors that now extends beyond Knol.

I used to love the Sphinn site but these days, I’m afraid they’re in trouble. It’s turned into a link drop free for all on topics ranging from MLM, Sex, Get Rich Quick crap and stunning headlines like “The Drunk Idiot’s Guide to Twitter”, something about an SEO “Ecosystem”, and hopeful news for SEO men on how to find cheap dates. (This article, which is actually on PPC and really good btw, went hot today. I got a kick out of his examples.)

I suffer from insomnia and will sometimes go to Sphinn to help me feel sleepy; hence, spotting the penis enlargement thrill the other night (nope. Not trying to rank for “penis enlargement”.) This is when I found a link to an article on the continuing saga of “no women speakers at SEO conferences.” (Didn’t deserve a link.)

I think its hard to blame sullivan because in SEO i don’t see any woman that comes close to the leading male experts. It’s sad but maybe their time will come…

Honestly, I am networking with so many SEOs, and out of all the female ones, most of them are not that interested in tech aspects, but more into the psychology of marketing and such. Of course there are exceptions such as Jill, but overall men are more passionate about the cut and dry tech aspects.

Girls don’t pose much competition. You push back and they’ll start to cry.

Meanwhile, my women company owners, presidents, ceo’s, busy speakers at events outside SMX and SES, forums owners and conference planning friends from the search engine marketing industries are busy working and IM’ing one another, sending work referrals, creating new business partnerships and continuing a long held tradition of staying in touch for knowledge share.

We’ve been doing it since around 1995, when we started teaching SEO to men and women. And as for the guy who thinks Jill is the only “exception” when it comes to tech know-how?

He must be new.

…………………………
Related: Don’t Cry for Us, Silicon Valley - hat tip Danny Sullivan

Despite the media’s anxiety about fallen female executives, women are actually advancing in high technology

As some of you are aware, myself and many search engine marketing industry related persons in the PA, NJ, MD, NY, DE, VA gather roughly once a month in King of Prussia for drinks, dinner and networking. We call ourselves the Internet Marketers of the Delaware Valley. We’ve driven in thunderstorms, snow storms and some traveled 2 hours or more to make a gathering!

After months of planning, one of the outcomes of our relaxed, friendly gatherings is Search Camp - Philly. Taking a lead from last year’s successful Pod Camp - Philly, this Fall, Temple University gave us space over the weekend of September 6 & 7th, 2008 to hold Search Camp.

There are 4 tracks, with 30 sessions available from basic to intermediate and also 2 advanced tracks. Topics range from SEO, PPC, Social Media, Public Relations on the Web, Brand and Reputation Management, Analytics, Usability, and Site Clinics.

Some of the speakers lined up so far:

* Debbie Weil - Author of the Corporate Blogging Book
* Kevin M. Ryan - Vice President, Global Content Director for Search Engine Strategies and Search Engine Watch
* Geoff Livingston - Author of Now is Gone
* Wil Reynolds - President of Seer Interactive
* Liana “Li” Evans - Director of Social Media Strategies at Social Conversations, Owner of Search Marketing Gurus
* Greg Myers - Partner - VP of Operations, Campaign Grid
* Kim Krause Berg - Usability Expert & Owner of Cre8asite Forums
plus many more.

For two days of exposure and one on one contact with well known industry professionals and consultants, the cost is $21 for the entire weekend! I suggest you hurry and register because there only 388 seats left, the last I checked.

Expenses are being offset by sponsors such as Cre8asiteforums.

Sponsorships are available and vary if price.

For more information on the conference and speaker openings, please see
SearchCamp Launches with PodCamp Philly in Philadelphia!

Every time I see an awards announcement, I always make up categories in my head they haven’t bothered with, like “Best SEO Costume” and “Old, Loud Mouthed and Still Kicking Ass”. Today’s awards news comes out of the folks who run Search Engine Strategies conferences and their awards launch.

The San Jose conference coming up in August will host the debut of the Search Engine Strategies Awards

SES Awards Categories:

Best Search Engine Ad Platform
Search Engine with Most Relevant Search
Results
Most Innovative New Search Engine
Best SEM Technology Platform for SMBS
Most Innovative Use of Search Engine
Optimization
Most Innovative Paid Search Campaign
Best Multi-National Search Marketing Campaign
Best Social Media Marketing Campaign Technology Platform Search Marketers Can’t
Live Without
Best Business-to-Business Search Marketing
Campaign
Best Use of Local Search
Best Integration of Search with Other Media
Most Effective Use of Web Analytics
Best Web Analytics Platform
Most Advertiser-Friendly Search Engine
Editor’s Choice

May the sexiest costume win.

Kalena Jordan and her husband celebrate their fourth year as founders of the Search Engine College. What began with a few courses and high hopes has evolved into an online school offering certification for SEO’s.

Kalena had the forethought to include web site usability in her course lineup. Like my friend, Jill Whalen, whom I also credit as understanding years ago the importance of usability design and SEO, Kal wanted to make sure her students had access to usability basics.

I remember that summer well. I’d never written a course before, let alone a six section one with quizzes, assignments and resources. Not only that, as an instructor, I had to learn Moodle, which is the software used for the school. My web based course is basic in nature, intended to offer a solid foundation in understanding the user experience and how it ties into search engine marketing.

In the future, I hope to add a course in accessibility and an advanced usability design course for the school. Kal has opened the door for that. I just need to need to buckle down and get the courses written.

The beauty of the Search Engine College is that many courses can be taken at your own pace. Instructors are long-time, well known professionals. The Jordans have added to the school enhancements such as live help, certification seals, campus shop, article library, jobs support, course demos and more.

Congratulations to the Search Engine College graduates and present students. To Kalena and Jerry, you’ve worked so hard! I appreciate your persistence and dedication to the search engine marketing industry.

Kalena tells the story here, in her announcement about SEC. She writes,

“Last month saw the highest level of student enrollments to date and it looks like this month is set to beat that record.”