Update: Pictures uploaded HERE and THERE.

So there goes a first for me, and well.. what can I say? Who wouldn’t be honored to experience something like this for the first time (and in the first ever Search Engine Marketing Conference too), with some of the best Internet Marketers in and out of the country? There I was, youngest in the lot, looking like a teenager, and being one of the only three female speakers — starstruck as I see those people I just used to know and admire online in the crowd, wondering what in the world I’m doing in a place like that.

Geesh, I must be really blessed.

To have the opportunity to share what I know; To have a chat with The Aaron Wall and his wife, Gio; To sit next to the SEO World Champion Benj Arriola the whole day (Day 2) and get loads of pictures with him (which got corrupted, by the way haha); To spend time with some great guys from SEO Philippines; And to learn from top marketing professionals from various fields.

Yes, that’s how small I am compared to the gigantic event that SEMCON 2007 is.

Photos courtesy of Jen and Sharm.
Good job, Sharm, for capturing my powerpoint presentation too, haha.

I learned a lot — starting from when I stepped down from the stage after my talk, that is. It was quite hard focusing on the speakers BEFORE my talk (welcome to the real world, newbie). Good thing there were lots of great topics after mine, plus there’s a whole Day 2 for me to enjoy without thinking about link building anymore. Hehe.

I picked a lot of insights and was especially inspired by Marc’s talk on Landing Page Optimization; Hans Koch’s PayPerClick Strategies; Faith Ponte’s Email Campaigns; and Dustin Andaya’s Affiliate Marketing success. I would have mentioned Google’s Derek Callow too, but I’d be lying if I said his talk was insightful coz truth is, I was too focused on his face and his voice and his cute Australian accent (ugghh, I melt now, mate) to understand what he was talking about. I would have mentioned Yugatech too but, gah, I’d mention him just to get in his good side, you see, I don’t want to see my name in his tabloid. LOL. Peace, Abe, joke lang. :)

On the other hand, it’s rather sad to hear some people comment that they didn’t learn anything new from SEMCON. I’ve seen a lot of people express disappointments, disagreements, un-met expectations, and getting “just skin-deep SEO.” I guess it’s expected to get feedbacks like this, after all, everyone is entitled to his/her own opinion (maybe next time, they should be the ones teaching the rest of us hehe). I say, if you claim to not learn anything from SEMCON, then good for you. You probably know more than the rest of us! You’re an expert already! :)

Now if you’re an SEO Specialist or a webcopywriter, you’re probably using Wordtracker or KeywordDiscovery for hours every single day of the week to test and compare keywords. Perhaps you already know what KEI and long-tailed keywords are also. But isn’t it interesting to find out how Gio does it?

Or say, if you’re a copywriter and you have your own style of copywriting that already works for you, it doesn’t mean you have to do Jayvee’s style of copywriting. Jayvee, however, shares what he knows and what he has observed (mostly leaning towards his non-SEO background) since he’s got experience writing and handling writers himself.

Joni’s right when she said that being there affirmed what she already know, hence, she became more sure that she’s on the right track. We have to face it, a lot of us SEOs are experimenting with the techniques ourselves. The SEMCON speakers were there to present strategies that worked for them, NOT necessarily absolute truths of what to do or not. At the end of the day, it’s still up to you how to apply what you heard.

I could go on and on. But I’m gonna have to agree with Todd Malicoat when he said, “Hey, there is no secret in SEO.” You deal with the basics, learn from what worked for others and what didn’t, and you strategize from there. I guess that’s what SEMCON was all about.

So hey, SEMCON 2008? What ya say? :)

Some people may not have gotten the message I was trying to get across when I “introduced” the idea of Pink Hat SEO. (Hey Danielle, I actually did it! Haha! And your pink teddy bear had a special appearance on my powerpoint *winks*).

Truth be told, I had second thoughts adding that part in my presentation. I was afraid some people will find it juvenile and inappropriate for a serious and prestigious event such as SEMCON 2007. But I had to squeeze it in to drive a point, and to somehow put my personality into my talk. I mean, seriously now, if I’d be remembered at all, I don’t mind being remembered as that girl who had a pink presentation. Haha. Okay, fine, not really. But, well, you get what I’m saying.

Now once again, I didn’t mean “girly stuff” by Pink Hat SEO, which, if I remember right, I pointed out several times during my presentation. What I wanted to focus on was using social media as a means to build link networks for the purpose of SEO. And well, perhaps adding eye-catchy stuff (not necessarily pink) on your site so that people will link to you. The only reason why I related it with being a girl is because girls do love to socialize and attract people.

It’s true what they say — SEO techniques can simply be classified as either black or white, period. But just like choosing between what’s right and wrong, sometimes, there really is no black and white. SEO Hats that are Green, Blue or Pink, perhaps, are just used for the purpose of discussion, to set apart certain techniques from the ones we usually do. Basically, that was what I was trying to point out.

Anyway, I promised some people that I’ll upload my powerpoint presentation on Advanced Link Building Techniques, so here goes. Warning to those who weren’t there at the SEMCON, you’ll see a lot of pink in here: Download away. :)

One of the things I realized as I prepare for my talk on Advanced Link Building Techniques at the much-awaited SEMCON 2007 is that, the “advanced” part of it is pretty basic. True enough, the more you dig into what you thought was a complicated topic, the more you realize how simple it is. Apparently, this idea applies to link building too.

Link building is not like a complicated chemical solution that would explode if you didn’t follow a certain step-by-step procedure. Yes, some techniques may be detrimental to your search engine rankings, and could either pull your sites up or down drastically. But that doesn’t mean you can’t try and test ways to build your link network and see which ones will work for you.

Also, the one thing I like about it is, you can put your personality into your link building strategy, couple it with some standard techniques, and the right combinations could easily make your project flourish before your eyes. And while there are gazillion ways of doing link building, in the long run, it all boils down to the basics.

Let me tell you more about that on October 9. SEMCON Philippines 2007.

And let me just add that there is such a thing as Pink SEO. Yup. ;)

More at SEMCON 2007. Be there.

P.S. Trust me, don’t believe everything she says. You see, she’s a very good friend of mine. LOL.