On another note I wanted to send out a big bloggy thank you to Michael Dorausch (aka @chiropractic) for this very thoughtful gift I just received. 

In case you can’t read the note, this is our hangover kit we need to take to Vegas. Along with gum so we have minty fresh breath.

Very cool Mike and thank you. See you there.

Here’s my tags:

Todd Friesen - Because…oh wait…haha nevermind, I forgot he can’t.

Guy Kawasaki - Because he’s way more viral than that other guy.
Brent Csutoras - Because I finally learned how to spell his name.
Chris Winfield - Because … well just because.
Katja Presnal - Because she is the queen of WOMM.
Neil Patel - Because I’m his biggest fan.

Today is the start of breast cancer awareness month. During the month of October you are likely to see more information about breast cancer than you may have seen all year. The difference is that you can help spread the word by focusing on the topic for at least one month. It’s easy. All you have to do is stumble, delicious, digg, reddit, kirtsy whatever article you see related to increasing awareness.

Help increase the flow of the topic on the web and help save the tatas.

Oh and one more thing you can do.  Turn Twiiter Pink.  Do you remember Green Friday, the ode to @gregboser?

Just imagine it looking like this…

So step up and go pink!

As far as the actual conference part of SEOktoberfest…ehm…All I can tell you about what happened is that I can’t really tell you anything.  I will say that Marcus and Quadzilla were unbelievably amazing hosts.  I mean they were able to keep track of all of us all the time and nobody got lost.  They took us to two elite clubs in Munich (after spending hours in the elite tents of Oktoberfest) and showered us with champagne (literally).    They had five lovely German playmates there to entertain everyone after hours.  We were provided with everything we needed from food, to drinks to the lederhosen and drindl.  I think it’s safe to say this was a non-profit event.

As far as the picture of Greg in the lederhosen, all I can say is I
FAILED.  It’s hard to think about stuff like that when you are drinking
multiple steins of beer and wearing a drindl. All I can show you is this picture that Marcus has on his blog.  Greg is on the left and you can kind of see me behind one of the playmates.

Thanks again to Marcus, Quadzilla and Philip for dreaming this up and going through with it.

So with that, I’ll leave you to your imagination.  The rest you’ll have to see if we’re friends on Facebook. Or you can go to Marcus’s post about the best SEO party in the world!!
(Bonus: If you go to my Facebook pics, you’ll get to see Dax in his lederhosen.  I managed to get that picture. :P)

Auf Wiedersehen!

Here’s some of the new changes I stumbled upon this morning.

After opening my inbox I discovered this message:

This is new and I like it because it gives you an indication that someone has friended you where as in the past, the only way you’d know is if you knew what the fan number was on a daily basis.

So after accepting the friend request nothing different happened, other than I was curious and started adding people to see if it would let me…and it did.

This is what you see now to add friends. 

SU is also telling you if you have similar interests

So apparently there is a limit with how many friends you can add at any given time.  I got this message after about 15  or so.

They have also changed the name of fans to subscribers and like I said before, the page with your fans subscribers is not updating right away so I have no idea who I added this morning.  At least I know they’ll get a message from me though. 

Lastly…avatars now come with  the online indicator next to them.  Not too sure if I care about that, but I guess it’s nice to know if someone is online at a glance instead of having to look at their page.

I have not found an official announcement and did not find anything on the SU website stating this, but I do know that I’ve been maxed out on friends for a long while and was able to add more this morning.  I hope they leave it like this.  Who needs Ebay anyway?

I just downloaded the browser and will be learning about its features today, but here is a breakdown of what those new features are:

New Tab Page

A small plus sign gets you a new tab that will show you your most recent visits, recently bookmarked sites, etc.

Application Shortcuts

Open web apps such as GMail write from your desktop without opening your browser.  This is really a cool feature and it saves your passwords so accessing your Gmail is now a double click on your desktop.  Nice.

Dynamic Tabs
This is similar to Firefox where you can drag the url right down to your browser tool bar.

Crash Control
This will probably be one of my favorite features.  If your browser crashed Google Chrome will only have to close the tab you are browsing instead of the entire browser.

Incognito Mode

If you want to be stealthy while browsing the web and leave no trace of where you’ve been or what you’ve been up to try this new incognito feature.

Safe Browsing
Google Chrome will alert you if you’ve arrived at a site that may have a malicious intention. (phishing, malware, etc)

Instant Bookmarking

All you have to do is click on the star to the right of the toolbar and voila you are bookmarked!

Import Settings

All of your bookmarks, passwords, browsing history and settings will be imported to Google Chrome at the time you download it.

Simple Downloading
No more download manager window.  The download status will be displayed at the bottom of the window.

The other cool feature is that when you are using Google chrome the Google search box is chrome.

So far so good Google. Thanks for adding some bling to my search box.

What’s missing…Home button and lots of awesome FF plug-ins.

Download it here!

Seriously though it is a big trip and a busy time for us, but the more we found out about who was going to be there and what an elite group of marketers were making their way to Munich, we couldn’t pass it up.  After all it is Oktoberfest and Marcus is buying Greg and Dax Lederhosen.  I’m not kidding.  I suppose I’ll have to get a dirndl (traditional German dress) myself to not look out of place.  Do you think I’ll stand out?  How many Latin women do you think will be there wearing traditional German garb? 

Confirmed attendees for SEOktoberfest are Brent Csutoras, Joost de Valk (Yoast), Bob Rains (Let’s Make It Awesome), and Brian Clark (Copyblogger). So we are super excited and really can’t wait to get there.  SEOktoberfest will be held in one of the most popular tents and we have a private table that will be filled with some of the most knowledgeable internet marketers in the industry. 

So stay tuned because there will be pictures and I was told we need to start practicing drinking beer.  Lots and lots of beer.  So good thing today is Friday.

Between the two of us we have about 1700 followers (Greg has more damn it). Now I know a few hundred of those are bots, but the point is we’ve been on Twitter less than a year and that’s a lot of frickn people to be connected to throughout the day.  In fact it was last year at Pubcon that Vanessa Fox forced talked us into signing up.  We were very resistant to it.  We thought it was totally lame and only for total nerds.  Nine months later we are admittedly hooked on Twitter. 

Twitter has so many benefits and the opportunities you can find on Twitter are endless.  It isn’t going anywhere and with over one million users, everyday that passes before you join is a missed opportunity for you.  Stop asking how and why.  Stop saying you just don’t know what to do or what to say.  Stop saying nobody cares what you would tweet about.  It’s a simple question…What are you doing?  Answer it a few times a day. 

Still a hater?  Let me give you some examples of some amazing, funny, interesting things that happen on Twitter.

Proposals
In March of 2008 the micro-blogging world was privy to its first virtual wedding proposal. 

and she said

If you want to know more about this one you can check out the Wired post or follow them on Twitter.

Survival
In April of 08 James Karl Buck, a UC Berkeley graduate student, was in Egypt covering a protest when he and his translator were arrested.  James reached for his cell phone and tweeted one word.

Now can you imagine the stress and anxiety you’d feel if you were across the world and got arrested and were unsure of what was going to happen to you.  James was eventually released, but he had the comfort knowing that all of his followers knew what had happened.  Not planning on traveling to foreign countries? Replace the word arrested with ‘accident’ or ‘robbed’ or ‘help’.  It could come in handy.

Finding a Job
Look out Monster here comes Twitter.

Customer Service
Many companies are using Twitter to reach out to their customers and to keep an ear open for people talking about them.

Now I know from first hand experience that when you complain about @southwestair on Twitter, they respond.  Just one more reason why I FLY SWA. A couple other companies tweeting are @starbucks  and @jetblue.

Diggs

You might totally suck at getting stories to the Digg front page (not saying this guy does), but if you have enough people following you on Twitter, you may just get enough of a boost to get noticed on the Digg upcoming.  Of course your story still has to be good.

Host a Party

So just like that, we’re having a party.  Tony tweets it and all of his followers in LA get the message and we are getting together (the 6th is fine for me Tony, see you at the Bow).

Having a Baby

I found this one on BlogHer.  Now granted she didn’t actually do it because well, she wasn’t in labor long enough :/.  It’s only a matter of time though.

Expose Dumbness
Michael Gray is really good at this.  In fact if there were a crown for the best Twitterer…he’d be wearing it.

In case you’re wondering what Michael is talking about here’s the link to the LA Times home page.  I’d actually be interested in an explanation too.

Ask a Question

Chris wrote up a great presentation about Twitter using all of his responses from this question.  Just brilliant!

Breaking News
This past week I have been marveling about how so many of my bloggy mom friends are at the DNC.  My tweets from them have gone crazy and I almost feel like I was there.  Getting all this breaking news every few seconds is better than watching it on TV.

I hope you’re more intrigued and give it a try.  Just do it.  Join Twitter today and of course follow @barbaraboser and @gregboser.

Speaking of following people…This year the hot topic at the conference was Twitter. You’d have thought they sponsored each session, but nope. Each session I went to mentioned Twitter at least 3-4 times. The burning question was what is it and why use it? Waste of time or marketing nugget? My answer is simple. Tweet! If you haven’t joined the Twitterbrigade you are late to the party. Don’t wish a year from now that you shoulda coulda woulda. Just do it. How you use it is up to you, but seriously, just TWEET and be sure and follow @gregboser and @barbaraboser.

Once again the place where all the cool kids hung out was the Fairmont Bar. While the conference is at the Marriott, if you can stay at the Fairmont I highly recommend it. The rooms are nicer and the bar lounge is way better. You can usually find some of the top SEOs hanging around late in the evening there. Buy them a round of drinks and you never know what juicy tid bits they will give you. The Fairmont Bar has 523 martinis on the menu. Every year I say I want to try them all, but alas I always get the same one, but it’s damn good and easy for Greg to remember. We hit the Fairmont up the first might we arrived and enjoyed conversation with the crew from Shoemoney (Jeremy and Dave), Jeff Manson, Todd Friesen (unemployed Todd is much more fun than working Todd), Brent Csutorus, Chris Winfield, Neil Patel, Michael Gray , Marcus Tandler, David Klein and who else (whistles) oh yeah Cesar Serna (freelancer, creator of Tweetpro).

The week started out with the IMNY Charity party on Monday night. These parties are becoming a standard at each conference and for such a good cause, how could you not attend? The group at IMNY does so much work to put these together and the financial results are well worth it. This year they raised about 10k that will be donated to the Children’s Hospital of Aurora, CO and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. There are about 15 New Yorkers that make this happen and we really appreciate it and look forward to the gathering every time. This year’s biggest raffle prize was a night out with Neil Patel. Guess who the lucky winner was?

Don’t worry Neil, Marcus quickly sold his prize to a willing Australian. Anything for a good cause right Frank? I also won a prize this year! I was the lucky winner of an SEOMOZ premium package. Can’t wait to get in there and see what that’s all about. It’s not like I could ask the Mozzers cause none of them were at SES. Apparently, they had their own conference they were holding in Seattle with about 150 of their closest friends. Anyway, thanks Rand for the prize and special thanks to everyone that worked so hard to put the night together.

Tuesday I attended the Social Media session with Brent Csutorus making a powerful presentation and dominating the panel. Brent gave some tips and ideas about social media that got the audience listening and taking lots of notes. Inevitabley he had a crowd of about 15 people standing around him after the session and for about 30 minutes into lunch. Brent talked about the power of a good network, the importance of good content and the link building benefits of social media. He stated a couple examples that received about 8k inbound links as a result of a Digg front page. He reminded us that many of these links are coming from PR8 or PR9 sites, so the benefit from a successful social media campaign is well worth the effort that goes into launching one.

After attending the keynote (I really just wanted to see Danny Sullivan) I headed over to the BOTW booth. Now really this is the place to be. Hanging around the BOTW booth is awesome. You get awesome shwag, free beer (not so free to BOTW) and you get to hang out with people like this…

BOTW has recently launched a kick ass local directory with Adam Sussman at the helm of this massive project. If you haven’t already registered do it NOW! I also overheard Greg talking about a big buy out. The details could be juicy, but I’d probably screw them up in translation so you’ll have to check his blog for the scoop.

The Google party this year is said to be the last Google party of the SESSJ. We’ll have to wait and see if Google can spare any change to put this event together next year, but as of now…this was it. The last Google shirt, the last bus ride, the party is over. RIP Google Dance. The dance itself was the same as last year. There were video games, beach volleyball, animated avatar making and lots of neon. Infact, too much glowing if you ask me. Some people should not wear neon glowing sunglasses. Seriously, the rings were cool, but the sunglasses…not so much. Sorry, I should’ve taken pictures, but was too busy talking it up with Matt Cutts about somebody’s eyebrow interests and recent celebrity sightings. Matt next time remind me to finish the story of when Greg met Madonna. I did however get a picture of this which I found in the Google bathroom. Good to know Google girls have clean bottoms.

The sessions I attended on Wednesday were completely different. The first one was SEO Rehab=FAIL. Sorry guys, but seriously not a great idea. There was no focus, no direction, lots of tangents. Enough about that.

The Black Hat White Hat session was another story. The room was packed and the discussion was deep. What is black hat, white hat? Everyone had their own opinions, but really I’d hope if you are an SEO you know how to do both. Wether or not you use certain tactics is up to you, but really it’d be good for you to know what the competition is doing (back or white). Big take away for Greg…do not repeat into the microphone anything that Michael Gray shouts out to you.

The last party of the week was Search Bash. Daron and Brandy never disappoint and this year they ditched the sumo wrestling and went with a Circ de Soleil style performance over the dance floor. And yes, Brandi did get up there and swing through the air.  I know it’s a sucky picture, but if you look past the fan, that’s Brandy swinging over the dance floor.

We stayed at Search Bash until the end, then headed over to the other Greg’s room with about 75 other BOTW fans. He seriously had the largest patio in that room I’ve ever seen.

What’s next for us? SEOktoberfest, then SMX East and finally Pubcon.

This is either new or I have honestly never seen the link at the top right corner before.

At any rate, the reason I am a fan of the grid is for 2 reasons:

1. Occasionally some sneaky SU users will change the page after it has been stumbled.  The fact that SU now takes a screenshot and displays the original stumble is great for the reviewer.

2. Finding good SU friends is not as easy as it may sound.  Some users only stumble their own sites. If that’s the case, when I click on their avatar to see what they are stumbling, it’s so easy to see all the screenshots and know at a glance that this user is only in it for themselves.

If you are on StumbleUpon, give it a try.  If you aren’t a Stumble user, what the heck are you waiting for?  Get with the program. :)