Twitter for job search

I was recently interviewed on WTNH-TV news for this story about using social media to find a job.

We talked about how people are using the Internet to communicate in new ways. Web forums have been around a long time and now we have Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and other social sites helping people communicate about anything, including jobs.

Indeed.com offers various ways for people to take their job search to another level. When doing a job search, people can continue to interact via job forums as well as follow links to find friends who may work at a target company by using Facebook or Linkedin.

Posted by Tim Dineen -- 12/1/2008

There have been well done posts and surveys talking about SEO salaries lately. Meanwhile, this looks at where the SEO talent is. Does it match with where the opportunties are? Where are the SEO jobs?

After creating this @SEOjobs Twitter account, and watching the stream of SEO-releated jobs there, I've come to learn where SEO jobs are concentrated:

Open the post for a larger, interactive map

The top ten states with recent SEO opportunties:

22.3% - California 16.5% - New York 5.9% - Massachusetts 5.0% - Florida 4.1% - Illinois

3.7% - Texas 3.6% - Connecticut 3.1% - Virginia 2.8% - New Jersey 2.8% - Arizona

I took a sample of 1,000 recent SEO job listings from that feed. Indeed gathers job listings from across the web, so this group of 1,000 job postings is a good sample - not representative of one region or niche more than another. (Freelance positions are filtered out - many of them don't include a specific location anyway.)

The Twitter feed is populated via a feed from job search engine Indeed.com. More than 4,000 job listings have been re-posted to Twitter since the creation of the account in May. You can also follow this link for SEO jobs and use Indeed to filter for your location or other keywords.

Follow the @seojobs Twitter feed or go create your own RSS feed at Indeed.com

Posted by Tim Dineen -- 12/1/2008

InHousers - an InHouse SEO and SEM network !

This is a call for all In-House SEOs and SEMs to join us at the network/community site Inhousers.com - come and participate in In-House relevant conversations without the distraction from bloggers, SMMs, agency folks, self-promoters, etc.

Join conversations related to InHouse SEO without the clutter!

Personally, I look forward to the opportunity to connect with more InHouse SEOs and to be able to chat with others while avoiding the banter and noise on the other community sites SEO consultants flock to.

I've created this site (via Ning) at: www.InHousers.com - Please check it out and sign up!?

 
]]>

Posted by Tim Dineen

Posted 10/25/2008

FYI: Personal - New Baby! Devin Dineen

OK, this has nothing to do with SEO or Twitter or etc... I'm a proud dad, again, with a new baby girl!

I wanted to share the news: Devin Dineen was born October 10th at 4:27pm. She weighed 7 lbs 13 oz at 20 1/2 inches long. And cute!

No cigars, but she's got a website to share already! Just one picture up so far, see it here: www.devindineen.com

 
]]>

Posted by Tim Dineen

Posted 10/16/2008

SEMNE: Thank you!

I've attended several SEMNE events/seminars in the past two years and want to formally thank Jill Whalen, Pauline Jakober, and new director Jonathan Hochman for the opportunities for networking and learning that SEMNE provides.

Thanks to all involved for creating a great organization and continuing to provide excellent content!

 
]]>

Posted by Tim Dineen

Posted 9/16/2008

Check out the Twitter account @ppcjobs

Get your own feed at www.Indeed.com
- See PPC jobs

 
]]>

Posted by Tim Dineen

Posted 7/11/2008

Check out the Twitter account @seojobs

@seojobs just passed the milestone of 1000 jobs within about a month or so of activity.

For every follower, there are 6 jobs for each of us. Join now!

Get your own feed at www.Indeed.com

Update 6/3/2009: @seojobs SEOjobs is now part of Onward Search! Follow @onwardsearch for more SEO jobs, placement, career info, news & events.

Posted by Tim Dineen

Posted 6/21/2008

Though I never really got this site going as a blog, I've found that I prefer micro-blogging more anyway. I just don't have the time for a proper, insightful, long blog posts in the style of those I prefer to read myself. So, instead I'm going to microblog about a few things that have been on my mind recently: namely, here are some issues for the complaint departments at various search/services.

Like the banner-ad-blindness we all eventual taught ourselves, I'm purposely developing universal-search-result-blindness.

I don't hear a groundswell of people complaining about News/Videos/Images/Maps etc in their web search results, so surely I must be in the minority here?

For people like me who like their SERPs to be a simple list of websites (text) that provide matches for what I'm seeking, wouldn't it be pretty easy for Google or others to allow me to opt-out of Blending?

Google and Matt Cutts and the Search Quality Team - please stop rewarding domain squatters/owners by assuming that the first person who bought a domain name back a long time ago, or re-purchased a domain for SEO purposes, is still likely to provide the most relevant result for a searcher.

According to this and this, apparently I've just been holding my breath too long.

If CTR tracking tells you users do in fact use click on these sites often, consider the case that most web searchers are, in fact, easily fooled and you're losing their trust by sending them to poor/old/scammy websites. Then again, since most of these sites contain AdSense hopefully the ads that fill the above-the-fold space on these sites are useful :) and somehow not so evil.

Google and Matt Cutts and the Search Quality Team - Shouldn't it be considered web spam when top/old sites use differnet domains to grab 2-3 extra spots in a SERP? Since you're busy removing additional sub-domains from being returned in a single SERPs top ten, why not do a registrar lookup and include only the most authorative domain in a single SERP?

Search Engine Watch - please show me the author or expert's name in your RSS/XML feeds! I'd trust the content and click-thru more often if I could see the author's name in my feed reader.

Search Engine Watch - Stop joking around. You know who I'm talking about - Kevin (you know which Kevin). Search Engine Watch is not a place for comedy. If you want to inject humor into the community please do so on a private blog, or Twitter, or just don't do it. SEW should be one of the pure news resources that readers can count on with EVERY post.

Google Mobile - I need a Google Calendar sync for my Windows Mobile. You're now providing a MS Outlook Sync but, for me, MS Outlook would just be a middleman and one which I don't use anymore. Let me sync directly from Win mobile to Google Calendar, please!

EnemyFeed - Concept: anonymous anti-FriendFeed. Is this needed?

With all of the Friend-feeding social networking tools popping up lately, isn't there a need for a service that tracks non-friends with having to directly follow them? Email me if you agree or have similar ideas.

Twitter - let me edit a post if (before it goes to public timeline) - especially if I edit it within 60? seconds. This would correct a lot of typos and bad grammar from myself and hopefully many others. I'd also like the chance to second-guess my own pointless commentary sometimes.

Sphinn - PRE-moderate the RSS feed(s)!! I've basically given up on using Sphinn as a news sources since I can't read all the junk that gets posted, esp. when the spam if fed directly to me. And most hot topics aren't really that interesting to me, I generally look for diamonds in the rough so (months ago) I went back to relying on my own feedreader to do so.

Yahoo Music "Engine" (aka Yahoo Music Jukebox?) is shut down. Yahoo Music Engine is dead... helped me find 10gigs of new free space on my PC and Zen. At least there is that. Yet its another bad move for Y!

I understand cleaning up the mess from the mess of spreading all that Peanut Butter around for years, but don't cancel services... you're just annoying your most loyal supporters. Wouldn't it have been just as easy to sell or spin the company off with a few bucks invested so some of the employees and customers continue with the product (which was really pretty dang good)?

April Fools Day: I like a little tongue-in-cheek, but enjoy the other 364-365 days of the year better since I can read news without having to question it.

Search Engine Land - I don't subscribe to the most important RSS feed in search. This isn't a gripe, just a comment. I prefer the Daily email.

Note: I'd subscribe to the SEL feed if there was also a "Search News From Around The Web:" feed such as a link blog.

LinkedIn - why no RSS feed for a search on Linkedin Answers? I don't want to subscribe to an entire category, but would be interested in searching for news related to my interests, companies I follow, or specific advice I may be seeking answers to.

Snap - Bloggers please! Stop using that annoying Snap plugin on your sites. Do you think that it provides value to your users? It doesn't - it's damn annoying. I leave your blog as soon as I spot the annoying double-underline and I don't return.

Off-topic, but I hate that NBC's Saturday Night Live is using a laugh track. I know, they've been doing it a while now... but if something isn't funny then hearing canned laughter isn't going to convince me it is. Please let the humor fly or die based on its merits.

Posted by Tim Dineen

Posted 5/9/2008

Standards for SEO and SEM: The Time is Now - Search Engine Watch
This is clearly ridiculous
Sales and Your Search Marketing Agency - Part 1 - Search Engine Watch
You'd Be Wise To NoFollow This Dubious SEO Advice
more layoffs at monster?
Link Building Secrets Revealed by Top Linking Experts
Students Not Using LinkedIn : CollegeRecruiter.com Blog
LinkedIn Entry Hit a Raw Nerve : CollegeRecruiter.com Blog
Indeed surpasses Monster | The Chad | Enjoy The Game
Zogby International
Link Attraction Factors: Report, Tools, API and Plugin | Dan Zarrella
Link Attraction Factors: Getting Dugg and Going Viral - ReadWriteWeb ]]> Sat, 08 Mar 2008 22:54:00 EST Bookmarks http://www.exposureonline.com/2007/12/Beating-Matt-Cutts-at-a-Black-Hat-Game.cfm

Beating Matt Cutts at a Black Hat game

This was my first PubCon... special thanks Rand and SEOmoz for organizing an ice-breaker! Big Kudos and thanks to SEOmoz for getting us all together! They got maybe a hundred of us to play a unique game and have some clean (inexpensive) fun on Wednesday night! The idea of this game initially struck me as odd. It was called Werewolf, or Mafia, but even though many of us had read the instructions (via Wikipedia) beforehand, many didn't follow the rules of the game. (I guess Wikipedia should be rel=nofollow after all?) But we all learned quickly as Rand "White Hat, Yellow Shoes" Fishkin worked the room table-by-table instructing all of the beginners and encouraging the crowd to understand and become active.

Basically, each card in the deck represented a Black Hat, White Hat, a Matt "The Revealer" Cutts and a Danny "Gracious Granter of Re-Inclusion" Sullivan... we learned that the minority Black Hats were expected to eject the White Hat card holders from the table. (The Black Hats had knowledge of who the White Hats were, but not vice versa.) Eventually, as a Black-Hat card holder, I was able to work with my team including fellow BH card holder Dave Davis and some good strategy (recognizing the "Revealer" early on to get rid of him) thus we prevailed! Rand said it's pretty rare that Black Hats win this game - I'll take that to the closest Vegas bank (oh wait, there aren't any)!

After being the last Hat standing in that first round, myself and my BH team moved on to the "championship" round. This was truly an SEO celeb experience as (the real) Matt Cutts, Rand Fishkin and a dozen other well-known SE celebs were seated and ready to play. A crowd gathered, the video camera was focussed, and it felt like the final table at the World Poker Tour. So... yet again I drew a BlackHat card. Yikes! it's kinda surreal to "be" a BlackHat whilst in Matt Cutts' presence.

Playing the game, we BHs knocked off most WhiteHats pretty handily... though we lost Dave Davis far too early from our own team. Then, when Matt Cutts and another player started arguing over which of them was the 'Danny Sullivan' player it was easy to recognize that the "strongest-link" on the table had to go! My fellow Black-Hats were all pointing at (the real) Matt Cutts for ejection! To me, voting for MC to be ejected was the last thing I wanted to do - being purely White Hat (in real life) the last thing I wanted to do was become known as a BH to Matt Cutts as my first introduction to "The Revealer" himself. But Matt was promptly ejected... (I wanted to excuse myself or at least argue that it's just a game... of course Matt wouldn't have needed that - he was enjoying the play as much as any of us.)

Several rounds ensued in which I, as a Black Hat, somehow remained. I'm sure it was my quiet demeanor and the fact that I really am not well known amongst the rest of these SEO celebs that allowed me to stay on-board until the final voting. Eventually, with just Rand Fishkin and Mike McDonald remaining, the two picked me as the BH to be voted off the table. So close! Well, at least "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas? right? OK - but regardless I still didn't want Matt Cutts walking away thinking that I was some Black-Hat werewolf kinda guy. Not a good first-impression!

Once the game was over, MC promptly beat me up and banned me from the premises. OK, not really - Matt introduced himself and was quite cordial despite that he hadn't been able to play to the end of the game...

Since this was the first time I'd ever spoken to Matt Cutts, I was a little concerned that he'd consider me an enemy after the game we'd just played.

I think my saving grace was that I (honestly) didn't even know the BH whose card I was holding. Who is Thomas Bindl?

So, besides having had the privilege (or dishonor) of being one of the BHs who voted Matt Cutts away from our game... I also was able to say hello to Matt while, at the same time, sharing my lack of Black Hat knowledge by explaining that I didn't even know the guy I was apparently portraying!

Yep. As Dave said, I'm probably as White Hat as they come!

 
PS: Here are the printed rules:

Posted by Tim Dineen

Posted 12/15/2007

Indeed.com selected to Time magazine's Top 10 websites of 2007

Time Mag: Indeed.com #10 website of 2007

Bored at work? Look for a new job by using the search engine Indeed.com, which spans listings from job boards, newspapers and company employment sites. Use the advanced search function to drill down by keyword and location so you can match your requirements precisely. Save your searches and have them delivered to you by email or RSS feed. With Indeed.com you only have to search one site to find the new vocation that's right for you.

Time's top website for 2007:

10. [review] Indeed.com 
9. [review] FatSecret 
8. [review] VolunteerMatch 
7. [review] DontForgetYourToothbrush 
6. [review] menupages 
5. [review] goodreads 
4. [review] techPresident 
3. [review] wink 
2. [review] AskSunday 
1. [review] Lemonade 

Posted by Tim Dineen

Posted 12/14/2007

Pubcon Las Vegas 2007 events list:

Updated 11/28/2007 4:00 pm

I'm headed to PubCon (and Las Vegas) for the first time next week... I want to make the most of my first PubCon experience so, since I haven't seen any special-event tracking threads elsewhere, I have started one:

Please add additional info on Sphinn or email me at tim -at- exposureonline -dot- com .

Sometime:

* Some Sphinners are planning to check out a buffet or two - no specific time/location determined yet.

* Lunch meetup for Sphinners on Wednesday??

* Dinner at the Grand Lux Cafe at Venetian 6:30 pm. See Facebook Group

* Natasha Robinson may gather a few for the Pinball Hall of Fame

* I'll check out the Star Trek: The Experience if no one else is around yet on Sunday. :)

Monday:

* UPDATED and OFFICIAL: "Bloggers night out" via Joe Morin announces Monday/Tuesday special reserved pricing for Vegas shows. See the Pubcon blog for the announcement

* Daytime - Golf tourney (per Facebook) ??

* Monday night - Wynn bars ?? As everyone arrives, the Wynn bars will be full of SEOs.

Tuesday:

8:45 - 9:00 am - Conference Introduction by Brett Tabke

9:00 - 10:00 am - Kickoff Keynote Address by Craig Newmark

5:30 - 6:30 pm - Cocktail Reception - Sponsored by DidIt - with book signing by Kevin Lee

7:00 - 8:30 pm - Special Event : Open Search Forum with The Engines and Special - Guest Moderator Guy Kawasaki

* PS: See Joe Morin and "Bloggers night out" above.

Wednesday:

9:00 - 10:00 am - Keynote Address by Richard Rosenblatt

3:00 - 5:30 pm - Special Event: **** Domain Name Auction by Moniker ****

3:00 - 5:00 pm - LinkConnector is hosting drinks on Wednesday afternoon at the Envy Bar in the Renaissance Hotel (across from the Convention Center) - (per Facebook)

7:00 - 9:00 - Special Event - Google Reception with the Google Engineers

8:00 - 10:00 - Unofficial - Special Event : WereWolf Tournament Sponsored by SEOMOZ
- UPDATE: More detail just revealed at seomoz 11/27

10:00 - eNom/Demand Media party (for eNom/Demand resellers). Per comment on Sphinn

Thursday:

9:00 - 10:00 am - Keynote Coffee Chat With Matt Cutts of Google On the Hot Seat

5:30 pm - Exposition Hall Closes

7:00 - 9:00 pm - Microsoft event (CONFIRMED)

9:00+ pm Unofficial SEO Poker tourney - The Players - Now a Facebook group too

Friday:

1:30p-whenever - PubCon - The Classic
This is a pure networking event held in the afternoon somewhere in Vegas :-)
Location to be announced at the conference.

Important Links:
PubCon
WebmasterWorld
WebmasterWorld group on Facebook
Facebook PubCon (Facebook Event)
Facebook PubCon 2007 (unofficial group)

by Tim Dineen

Posted 11/25/2007

Poll: What percentage of SEOs pay for links?

While the debate over paid links has been raging for months now,
I haven't seen any estimations on what percentage of SEOs actually buy links.

Do you buy links? Why?

Discussion on Sphinn

by Tim Dineen

Posted 10/25/2007

SEO has a bad reputation - So What?

SEO has a bad rep - sure... but SO WHAT?

Many amongst us even badmouth our peers.
And incompetence IS everywhere.

But are any of these things really the root cause of why major publications and bloggers and other news sources consider us, as a group, to be hacks or spammers or Bad for the Internet?

The reality is that they don't get it - But they won't ever get it and we can't convince them otherwise!

First, let's be realistic: there are plenty of hacks, spammers and incompetents amongst us, surely, but that is truly the case in any and ALL fields.

How many industries have a positive approval rating?
Congress? Nope that's 24-29%. President of the US? Nope: 31%.

How often are the majority of SEO practitioners considered respectable or even good at their trade?

Even most burger-flippers probably aren't good at their jobs. I'm guessing, but many probably cheat (by burning a burger or under-cooking it) too.

On the other side of the spectrum: how about investment bankers or lawyers or accountants? Are 90% of them not hacks (or just basically fancified guessers)? Or janitors? Or insurance agents? Or sales people? Or ... ?

There is probably no industry at all where 90% don't suck.

Why should SEO be any different? Are we held to a higher standard for some reason? No. OK, maybe people don't talk about burger-flippers or insurance agents as much as they talk about us, 'cuz it's not new and it's not tech or it's not newsworthy, but of course we only notice it when people talk about our industry ...

So what?

Every potential client or employer or inquisitor of any kind is going to forever ask about those things they hear a naysayer suggest regardless of whether it's Wired Mag, Google, their own CEO, or Jack/Jill from the Accounting Department...

So we have to answer those questions when they come up. That'll be the case forever - let's get over it!

Some people will believe us and some others will be afraid to trust us -- they'd rather find comfort in rejecting SEO as they'd feel they are doing the right thing for their company by bad-mouthing us or rejecting our proposals...

So What?

Why should the 10% of us who are actually good at SEO be vilified for the (clean) service we provide just because some others aren't good at this or aren't playing by the same rules?

People like Jason Calacanis and Dave Pasternack from Did-It and others just help those of us who are legit to hone our response to such criticisms.

So What can we do?

Just hold our heads up and do a good job for our clients or employer while we continue to contribute to the community in such a way that we'll attract more good workers than bad.

So What? Just do good and those who doubt that our efforts are effective will soon call - the phones are ringing for a reason!

Discussion on Sphinn

by Tim Dineen

Posted 10/07/2007

Todd Mintz interviews Tim Dineen re: Sphinn