Professional? Moi?! Yeah I laughed too. (I’m a great discover panda memes though – you should hire me).  I apologise for not updating post Brighton SEO – I am a professional honest, I just spend all my time on projects (and panda research) instead of this here blog.

Anyway, here is my deck from BrightonSEO – it was a great afternoon and I would definitely recommend attendance to anyone interested in matters of the natural search persuasion. Big props to @rishil, @thetafferboy, @nicholastott, @samuelcrocker, @analyticsgirl,  @cedricwooding, @kevgibbo and all the other speakers.

Here’s the running order:

BrightonSEO 23rd July Agenda

Social Media Shenanigans

Kevin Gibbons – Director of Search, SEOptimise

20 Wordpress Plugins to Supercharge Your Blog

Cedric Wooding – Digital Producer at Jollywise Media

A Practical Guide to Managing a Facebook Advertising Campaign

Annabel Hodges – Head of Search & Analytics at Zone Content

When is an SEO Campaign not an SEO Campaign

The New Age Of Statistical and Data Driven SEO

Mark Cook – Director of Search Marketing, Further

Making Accurate Traffic Predictions

Rob Green – Senior Natural Search Analyst at iCrossing

Data Analysis for SEO

Nikki Rae – Head of Analytics & Insight at Fresh Egg

Custom Variables in Google Analytics

Giving Link Building the Creativity it Deserves

Sam Crocker - Lead SEO at Distilled

Using Competitions in SEO

Gary Preston – Strategy Director at Propellernet

Interesting & Inventive Link Development Ideas

Simon Dance - SEO Manager (UK) at Cheapflights

Linkbuilding & CRM

Eye Openers

Rishi Lakhani – Search Marketing Consultant

Actually Making SEO Happen

Zachary Colbert - Social Media Manager at Whitehat Media

Lev Manovich’s theory of Linking & Association

Nichola Stott – Owner at theMediaFlow

Challenging the Conventional Wisdom of Anchor Text

Moderated by Kelvin Newman, Creative Director SiteVisibility & Internet Marketing Podcast

For more information, head over to SiteVisibility

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A simple piece of linkbait by the guys at Mémoires, complete with neat anchor text link back to their site.  I’ve been seeing it all over social networks over the last few days – there’s a wannabe famous writer inside all of us.

Let’s be fair – if it’s going to massage my ego with comparisions to James Joyce, well I don’t mind them baiting me a little. Had they called me Marianne Keyes, I may have had some issues with their idea.

Owen Pallett – Lewis Takes Off His Shirt
Broken Social Scene – Anthems For a Seventeen Year-Old Girl
The National – Fake Empire
The Antlers – Bear
Jens Lekman – Pocketful of Money
Lady Gaga – Bad Romance – Hercules & Love Affair Remix
Fever Ray – If I Had A Heart – Fuck Buttons Remix
Pantha Du Prince – Stick To My Side
Wilco – Pot kettle black
TV on the Radio – Wolf Like Me
Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark – If You Leave
The Cure – Lullaby
Midlake – Anabel
Death Cab for Cutie – I Will Follow You into the Dark
Neutral Milk Hotel – In The Aeroplane Over The Sea
Beach House – Take Care

And there’s the url: WorkListenDistract

Photo credit

Yeah I’m an SEO and I’m really cheaply entertained by the name – so sue me. Anyway I really couldn’t remember why they were so special and what weird or wonderful thing each of these baked goodies did. I mean yes now we all know that Google comes from googol, 10 to the power of 100, thanks to the search engine but hell what’s that compared to the crazy deliciousness it really has its roots in thanks to Blyton in 1943?

A call out to twitter and some err yes googling later and my curiosity is sated. Though my desire to actually eat one of these amazing things is by no mean satisfied.

So – thanks to Karyn Fleeting for finding Google Buns for me here, they still sound as desirable as ever.

“Come on,” said Moon-Face. “Come and eat a Google Bun and see what you think of it.”

Soon they were all sitting on the broad branches outside Moon-Face’s house, eating Pop Biscuits and Google Buns. The buns were most peculiar. They each had a very large currant in the middle, and this was filled with sherbet. So when you got to the currant and bit it the sherbet frothed out and filled your mouth with fine bubbles that tasted delicious. The children got a real surprise when they bit their currants, and Moon-Face almost fell off the branch with laughing

Seriously, like seriously – I want to eat these so bad. Pop biscuits are also pretty cool though I think they pale in comparison (thanks to funtrivia):

Cake on the outside and honey in the middle. As soon as the children bit into a ‘pop biscuit’ it would explode and fill their mouths with a delicious honey. In the latest editions of the stories the word ‘biscuits’ has been changed to ‘cakes’.

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Other awesome things from The Faraway Tree that have absolutely no relation to search engines (but I will shoehorn some in) but are clearly inestimably cool are:

The Slippery Slip – A massive slide that ran all the way down the inside of the Faraway Tree and was the quickest route down. Maybe Google did take some inspiration from the book judging by some of the transportation methods in their offices:

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Clouds that carried new lands at the top of the tree – There were new lands that came and went on clouds at the top of the tree, that the children visited – these includes Topsy-Turvy Land, the Land of Take-What-You-Want and the Land of Dame Slap. I like to think of this as Google who hold so much power with their offer of endless exciting goodies just round the corner. Some are awesome and great – Google Maps, Google Images and who knows Google TV one day- and some are terrible – hello Google Wave – but you never know what is coming next. Will Google shoot you to the top making all your dreams come true? Will it come crashing down on you and make you vanish in a nanogoogol second?

Ok that’s some major shoehorning. I’ll stop there.

Oh and just for kicks – ridiculous changes that have been made as stated by Wikipedia – just cos it’s funny like.

In modern reprints, the names of the children have been changed:
Jo is changed to Joe, because the character is a boy and this is the more commonly used spelling of the name for males;
Bessie is changed to Beth, because the former name is now less commonly used as a nickname for Elizabeth;
Fanny is changed to Frannie, because the former name is slang for vulva in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand (see Wiktionary entry) and “bottom” in the USA.
Cousin Dick, who appears in “The Magic Faraway Tree”, has been changed to “Rick” as “Dick” is American, Australian and British slang for penis.
In modern reprints, the character of Dame Slap has been re-named to Dame Snap and she no longer practises corporal punishment but instead reprimands her students by yelling at them very loudly.

I’m far too lazy to even consider live blogging but thought I’d write a couple of lines on this as it piqued some interest on twitter.

Whilst watching Stefan Hull from Properllernet deliver a talk on SEO-PR and combining search & social to engage and empower consumers – I retweeted a comment he made, as below:

Nichola responded to this with some pretty valid points concerning platforms vs temporal quality – but it also reinforced my view of why Stefan’s throwaway joke has some validity.

My reasoning behind retweeting Stefan’s comment is based on being heartily sick of so many people lauding social media as a new and different way of communicating or marketing with people.

1) Social media has been around forever – it just wasn’t given a title to latch on to. A point also made by Mark from Futher Search.

2) The idea behind dropping the ‘new’ labour or the ’social’ media everytime it’s mentioned – ok I admit, it’s maybe not a perfect analogy. What I do stand by is that making a point of labelling the example you are talking about as ’social’ media attaches a stigma to it. It is viewed differently, it is treated differently and it is put up on a slightly alienated pedestal.

3) So yes New Labour was Labour with a few alternatives/tweaks but it was Labour (insert Tony Blair/Gordon Brown joke here). Social media is in effect ‘media’ – it’s everywhere. What media doesn’t have a social element to it anymore? How long have we been able to comment on blogs? Ok it may not be as advanced as having a Like button on every page you visit, but what is it if it’s not social?
Contrary to popular opinion, social media is NOT Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. They are part of social media but so are blog comments, forums and intranets.

Social media is in some way integrated into all forms of traditional media. Those who view it and treat it as a separate entity, to be treated with a separate strategy are unlikely to make the most of the ‘buzz’, ‘engagement’ or ‘viral’ impact.

I think ridiculous figures like ’social media gurus’ have in part grown out of this legacy that ’social media’ is a new and alien arena that companies struggle to tap into.

Ok so I am typing this at double speed, and it’s an off the cuff response but sitting at a SMM conference reminds me that a lot of this has been around in some shape or form for much longer than the term social media has. If people stopped focussing on the terminology and took notice of all the social elements that are available within their marketing strategies anyway, that might have a greater impact than quickly putting together a Facebook page and a twitter feed because we need to get into social media.

Image credit: http://2.bp.blogspot.com

It was all a tad stressful as it was more of a ‘have-to’ than a ‘want-to’ move of house. However fate was kind and my new place is right down the road from the old (same bus stop so I don’t get too confused stumbling home at night – sweeeet) and my new flatmate Lisa is significantly better house trained than my beloved boys of old. (RIP the era of 443 K-Rd. Them were some good times.)

The main hardcore issue I’ve had to face was that the new flat had no phone line or internet – so it’s taken nigh on 2 months to get it sorted. Ok so I spend all day every day 5 days a week  ‘playing’ on the internet as a job but still. It was some serious cold turkey shiznit for an internet addict like myself.

Good news is, I’m back in business! Le broadband est de retour chez Hodges. W00t! The bad news is that I basically haven’t done any of the useful internet-related ’stuff’ I was planning on doing, such as updating my blog regularly. I tried buying a dongle – and the only effect that had was turning me semi psycho-panda violent as it lost connection every 10 mins and was unbearably slow.

However it has meant that my laptop has barely been opened for a couple of months and I’ve gone back to doing stuff the old fashioned-way. So, in celebration of my return to the world of broadband and in time-honoured blog tradition,  here’s a top five list of things I’ve been doing without the internet at home.

1. Reading waaaaay more. Particular recommendations:
   Burying the Bones by Hilary Spurling. The biography of Pearl Buck – A now runaway successful writer who was born to American missionary parents but grew up more Chinese than Western in early 20th century China.
   The Walking Dead Compendium Vol.1. A collection of the first 8 volumes of this comic book series, I bought it on recommendation ahead of it being turned into a movie imminently. It is genius, gory and thought-provoking. Unfortunately I read a lot of it late at night, and being the sensitive soul I am, managed to give myself some major zombie-relatednightmares.
2. Doing the stuff I normally read about on the net.
   I have a whole bookmarked folder and twitter favourited list of ‘Things that cool and free to do in London’. All too often I never quite get around to doing them – but I’ve managed to squeeze quite a few in over the last 6 or 7 weeks. Main recommendation for this one is:
   Magnificent Maps – Power, Propoganda and Art. A free exhibition on at the British Library, I absolutely loved it. As the title suggests, it shows maps being created and used for a whole variety of purposes throughout history – from intimidating potential rivals to being made with gold leaf and silk as art. Also includes Grayson Perry’s Map of Nowhere, which I was a big fan of.
3. Bikram Yoga
   I wouldn’t really have ever thought of myself as someone who would get into yoga particularly, but when a friend suggested I try it – I figured I might as well. Got to be better than sitting in front of my comp after work. Bikram yoga consists of the same 26 positions done in each class, in a (seriously) hot room. I’ll hand over to Wikipedia at this point:

   Bikram yoga aims toward general wellness and claims the heated studio facilitates deeper stretching, injury prevention, and stress and tension relief. Bikram yoga is claimed to systematically stimulate and restore health to every muscle, joint, and organ of the body. According to [Bikram] Choudhury, many people only use up to 50 percent of their lung capacity, and just like any muscle, the lungs must be stretched in order to (through practice) withstand holding more oxygen. When one is practicing pranayama s/he will eventually be able to enhance oxygen conversion and absorption, as well as improve blood circulation. (Choudhury, 2007) This is true of any cardiovascular activity.

   So far, I’ve managed to not puke or faint despite coming close – and although I find it seriously hardcore (especially if you foolishly position yourself in front of the heater), I love it. It’s about 6 weeks later and I’ve managed to make it twice a week on average, and I’m definitely an advocate. (Image: www.bikramyogarichmond.ca)

   

   One day...

4. Running to/from work
   This one may be a tad more wishful than true as my running training has not been quite as in-depth as it was meant to be. I’ve been running to or from work once or twice a week (about 7k-ish) and this is pretty much only because I said I would take part in the Beast in the East Grim Challenge with some ridiculously fit workmates on May 22nd, so I’m utterly petrified. GULP. The course is described thus:

   This motocross circuit is awesome. The circuit itself is 1.8k around so after a lap we’ll take you off on to the wooded trails and grassy tracks surrounding it. This really is a pretty run but a tough one and hilly throughout. Did we mention that you will be running a second lap of the circuit at the end?

   Watch this space to see if I make it out alive.

5. Cooking & Baking – like YUM stuff
   All this extra sport and lack of time spent in front of a computer has meant that I have extra appetite and more time to actually make something nice – both for me and for mates popping round for food. I’ve not really 100% followed any recipes, mostly basing them on ideas I’ve read. But so far my main successes have been based on these:
   - Creamy Salmon & pea tagliatelle – I LOVE this. I have salmon in the freezer a lot and the rest of the ingredients can be bought in your local Dalston corner shop. Cook up a batch after running around like a loon & devour.
   - Smoked Mackerel & Horseradish Fishcake – You mash the potato up for these with horseradish cream. YUM.
   - The fishcakes were served with Minted Pea Puree. Super quick, easy and really tasty.
   - Hot and Sour Soup – nuff said. One of my fav things ever and really really easy to make – I loosely base mine on this Delia recipe. You can also use it as the base to then make noodle soup.
   - Pad Thai. I make a lot of Asian food in general as I prefer it to most other cuisines. Pad Thai is pretty simple to make, and great when cooking for others as you can have it all ready in advance then just whack it in the wok when you’re ready to go. There’s a million different recipes and mine’s a mixture of all of them, but here’s a rough guide from Delia again. Goes great with the hot & sour soup!
   - Banana & Chocolate Cake (Based on a Nigella classic but I added choc frosting which was definitely a winner)
6. Ok so it was officially a 5 point list but then I thought of all this other stuff that I’ve done whilst not sitting in front my beloved laptop, so in no particular order:
   - Actually made the most of my Cineworld membership and been to see a whole host of movies in recent times. A Prophet and Kick-Ass on my recommendations list.
   - Spent way too much money on gigs though this is not unusual sadly.
   - Been a really excellent daughter and invited Ma Hodges down to London to see Jersey Boys (it was awesome btw) and gone up for the weekend to hang out totally technology-free discussing allotments and the like.

The end. Moral of the story – not having the internet at home can be good for the soul. Although I wil now probably undo all of this by trying to catch up on all the internet related things I told myself I would do “when I get it back”.

I see too many distracting pictures, hear too many distracting songs and feel a need to watch too many distracting videos about 20 times a  day so rather than file them away for that ‘other’ time that never comes or add them to my ever growing “Things to look at later” bookmarks folder – I’ve finally got around to setting up a Posterous account.

It’s all about minimal writing – pics, vids, muzik. Anything distracting and interesting to look at/listen to. I’m planning on keeping it non-search related, for all the rest of the multitude of things that catch my magpie-like eye. But it might interest some of you – so far, it includes an old Mortal Kombat poster and a lovely poster about slightly awkward true love. That’s a pretty cool start right?

Check it out at: searchpanda.posterous.com. And yes, I will still be updating this blog with more editorial, search-fun, word-related shiznit.

More info here: http://www.residentadvisor.net/event.aspx?152440 and here: http://www.facebook.com/?sk=events#!/event.php?eid=470528245690

Google also haven’t made it very obvious how you can get rid of buzz if you don’t want it, or at the very least disable email notifications. I’m sure they will respond to demand for these fairly basic features in due course but for the moment these are the only easy options I’ve managed to find.

1) Switching Buzz off completely.
Scroll to the bottom of your gmail inbox and you will see a list of footer links at the bottom – one of which is the option to switch Buzz off.

2) Filtering out the email notifications sent by Buzz

So far at least, I haven’t seen an option to swith email notifications off… the only method I know of to at least not have to visible see the emails is to set up a filter so that these are auto-archived – ie. they still exist in your inbox, you just don’t see them unless you do a search on them.

• Create a new filter
• Choose search criteria as: Has the words: is:buzz (It may give you a warning to not to use this – ignore it!)
• Choose action as: Skip the inbox (Archive it)
• Choose action: Apply the label: Buzz From (or whatever you want to call it)
• Create filter.

Email Notification filter – Step 1

Email Notification filter – Step 2

I like to use the label becuase it allows you to quickly access everything you’ve auto-archived, just in case you did want to see it all.

Apologies for the  ‘idiot’s guide to’ approach but seems there are quite a few people getting a tad irate with the amount of noise Buzz has been adding to their inbox who’ve never set up a gmail filter before.