Industrial Strength SEM

Only recently it occurred to me that anyone would be interested in my thoughts on search marketing. I mean really. Don’t get me wrong, I could go on and on about landing pages, keyword portfolio management and SEO best practices for Flash, but I always figured most folks would rather listen to a congressional filibuster or watch paint dry. Apparently I was wrong. As search marketing goes mainstream, the audience (and its hunger for information) seems to grow exponentially. At the Search Engine Strategies (SES) Conference in San Jose in August, 2008, I delivered a presentation about basically what I do for a living, managing paid and organic search programs across Yahoo!, and how we tackle the issues. When I was done I had a crowd of people waiting to ask me questions, give me their business cards, even offer to take me to lunch! Now, I’ve spoken at more than a few SES shows over the years, but this time was different. The audience was in tune with what I was talking about and was genuinely interested in hearing more. That’s when I decided to start publishing. I just hope I can make good use of my tiny little space on the Internet.

As for me, I’m just a search geek who apparently can’t get enough. I got into the industry in 1999 and forged some of the first paid inclusion reseller deals in 2000 with Inktomi, FAST, Alta Vista, and AskJeeves. I was working in a little startup called MediaDNA, running a paid inclusion service called eLuminator. From there I ended up in a string of SEM agencies that generally got aquired by larger SEM or interactive agencies. This landed me at GoToast/eonMedia, Avenue A, and finally Carat, where I ran SEO, SEM, and Affiliates for the Western US out of San Francisco.

Then one day at Carat the phone rang. It was Selena, a delightful recruiter at Yahoo! who said they were creating a central position to oversee search marketing for all the Yahoo properties. At the time, there were only a handful of people doing ‘in-house’ or ‘client-side’ search marketing on that kind of scale. So, being a glutton for punishment, I jumped at the opportunity. That was Spring, 2006.

I’m very privileged in my current position. I get to see it all. The good, the bad, and the ugly. I manage marketing teams, technical teams, and agency teams. I wrestle with internal bureaucracy and struggle with build vs. buy decisions. I’m responsible for the performance of the biggest cash marketing budgets at the company. And like most search marketers, I spend a good deal of my time in uncharted territory, and sometimes make important business decisions based on gut feel. I make mistakes. I learn from them.

I stick with it because I truly believe that the precise measurement, discipline and accountablility required to make search marketing work will eventually apply to all media, and because of that I think I’m in the right spot. Attention search marketers: Sit tight, the world is coming to us.

So other than that, I’m a family man, a Bay Area native and resident, a Cal Golden Bear, and a San Diego Charger fan. More or less in that order. Hope you enjoy the posts!