So this is what it's like when worlds collide... totally freakin' sweet!

I happen to be a huge video game fan, and have been for most of my life. That shouldn't be a secret to most of you though as I've mentioned this several times here on the Klog alone. I even had an opportunity to outshine a few of you SEMs with my gaming talents this past June at Microsoft's adCenter party (during the SMX Advanced conference in Seattle).

Just in case you forgot... here's a picture to remind you:

Now with that being said, it shouldn't come as surprise to any of you to know how excited I am that just yesterday Microsoft, in all their greatness, inked a deal with Electronic Arts (specifically the EA Sports brand), one of the biggest developers in the gaming industry, to provide in-game advertising for a number of popular sports games. For you gamers out there, this translates to Madden football, EA's Nascar, Tiger Woods golf, NHL hockey, and several upcoming skateboarding games.

For those of you who don't understand how in-game advertising works, Microsoft will act as a broker (through "Massive" - a company they purchased sometime ago) between companies that want to get their ads in front of gamers and game publishers whom are eager to tap new sources of revenue to offset higher development costs for flashy new games... which can cost upwards of $20 million to make. It's actually pretty cool. As a gamer, I love seeing actual advertising in the background as I skate through the streets of a major city or play inside an official MLB park. It adds that realistic feeling.

Now I know what you're all thinking... buying ad space in a video game isn't exactly search marketing. Well, as true as that is, neither is utilizing YouTube, Digg, or any other social media platform for traffic... but you'll still find such services offered by many elite search marketers. Maybe, just maybe, All Web will one day be buying video game advertising for their clients. One never knows in this industry.

And for those of you out there who think I'm absolutely off-the-wall crazy for even suggesting that search marketers may one day manage in-game ad buys... you must have forgotten about Google's recent $23 million acquisition of Adscape last February. In that one single purchase, Google gained the technology needed to serve in-game video game advertising.

We all now that when Google, the king of search and online advertising, makes such a move the search marketing industry in most cases will always follow. And why wouldn't we, in-game advertising was worth just $50 million in 2005, now nearing $200 million in 2007, and is expected by many analysts and industry executives to increase to $1 billion over the next few years.

So there I was walking into my local Target store when out of the blue it hit me... I was a changed man. At first I didn't know what to think. I was a little frightened, but eventually came to terms with the notion and continued onward deeper into the store. The cause for my revelation was quite simple. I had veered to the isle on the right after passing the "fork in the isle" just past the carts, and not my normal path which was to the left.

Now, before you readers out there start scratching your head like "what the hell is he blabbing on about", let me explain. I am a person who has a routine or game plan for almost every situation. That's just who I am. With that said, I even have a "normal" routine for when it comes to "just browsing" at my local retail stores. Normally, in this exact situation, I would have turned left at the junction and proceeded down the isle to the electronics department. There I would have scoped out the latest and greatest in TVs, movies, video games, and other guy-like toys before moving on to the automotive, sporting goods, and seasonal departments. However, on this day I unconsciously took the opposite path.

"Where in the hell was I going?" Well, I'll tell you. I was well on my way to the housewares department to see what Target offered in matching kitchenware, and then onto their grocery department to see if I could score some deals on frozen pizzas, condiments, and Gatorade. Somehow, and without me knowing it, my priorities had shifted. Instead of catching a great deal on a digital camera or a new Nintendo DS game, it was made apparent that I was more interested in a new toaster or Faberware spoons. It's quite sad really.

How could that be? How could my scope on shopping change so drastically and without notice? Well, it's quite simple really. Like with most things, change is reflected upon the decisions we make. A month or so ago, my girlfriend Jackie and I bought a house... I know I know... it's a big step, right? (Absolutely no comments from you monkeygirl) In any event, this decision to change my lifestyle caused an unforeseen change in how I now shop/browse stores (both online and offline), newspaper flyers, or anything else really. It's not a bad change by any means... it was just a shock is all.

This same kind of thing happens all the time in business.

To quote one of my all-time favorite movies: "If I can change... and you can change... then we all can change" - Rocky Balboa (played by Sylvester Stallone) in Rocky 4 as he addresses the Russian people after his fight with Ivan Drago. As odd as it may sound, I find this statement to still hold true in today's ever changing world of search marketing, as well as business in general. It may not portray exactly how Rocky had intended it to, but both people and their companies do change, and with them their business responsibilities, perspectives on the industry, loyalties, and even priorities change too.

We all have an understanding of this... right? Changing with the times, with your client's needs, and with the latest product offerings is just smart business. However, what's not so well understood is that much like my Target example above, the decisions one makes today could very well have an unforeseen change in the way that person's company operates in the near future. Think about that the next time you, your boss, or the people in power make decisions that affect your company's policies, product or service offerings, staffing, or even employee benefits.

Take a look at your business. What recent decisions have you made? What recent changes have you implemented? The slightest change could start an uncontrollable, unforeseen chain reaction that could just end up to bite your company in the ass... well that, or make you all extremely rich.

This is yet another "open letter" to all you n00bs out there in Klog Land (I published my first open letter a week ago) in which I will define what search engine optimization is as well as the basics for how we marketers get a website to rank. However, before I jump right in, I do want mention once again that I do use the term "n00bs" with the up-most respect to those of you whom are new or unfamiliar with the search marketing industry... this post is for you.

Search Engine Optimization (often abbreviated as SEO) is the process of getting one's website to rank highly among the search engine's free organic listings. To do so, search marketers such as myself, will implement specific elements into a website's code, template structure, and content (in addition to a few off-site techniques and strategies) in hopes of creating a site that is not only "search engine friendly", but also one that appears relevant for the keywords chosen.

The ultimate goal behind search engine optimization is to rank the optimized website highly in the search results so that it may attain traffic from specifically those people interested in learning about or purchasing the products and services the site sells.

Now, without getting too in-depth and discussing the many strategies and techniques we search marketers utilize in our SEO efforts, I'll stick to the basic key ideas. When it comes to basic on-page SEO, there are 2 simplistic goals:

And there you have it... "How Search Engine Optimization Works" in a nutshell. Obviously, I didn't dive as deep into this as I could have, but again, I wanted to keep this as simplistic and easy-to-understand as possible. This is in fact an open letter to the n00bs... not to the advanced.

This is an open letter to the n00bs (one of many to come)... and for the record; I use the term "n00bs" with the up-most respect to those of you whom are new or unfamiliar with the search marketing industry. This post is for you.

It's quite common for our clients to question how search engines work... and that's completely "ok" with me. This is our industry, not theirs, and they certainly don't have the time to put in the extra hours needed each week to learn a new trade. If they did... they certainly wouldn't need us now would they. Instead... clients call on us for search marketing services and guidance.

Today, I wanted to take a few moments to address the question of "how search engines work". However, instead of diving deep into every segment of the search engine process, I've decided to highlight only the few key areas... doing so will better assist those of you readers whom are in fact clients, potential clients, or the DIY kind of folks.

So how does a search engine work? Well, in the most basic form, there are 3 major parts to a search engine: the crawl, the index, and the serving of content.

The Crawl: Search engines have technology commonly referred to as "spiders". This technology "crawls" the Internet (through the use of links) and searches for new or updated versions of web pages. As apart of the process, "spiders" will record a single copy of each page that it crawls, known as a cache copy, and will store it within the search engine's database... also known as the index.

The Index: Search engines maintain a tremendously large index... billions upon billions of web pages. With the use of filtering and cataloging technology, search engines decipher through their index (rather quickly mind you) and determine what each page is about. Each page is then labeled and cataloged accordingly.

The Serving of Content: Each search engine will employ its very own unique algorithmic formula for when determining which web pages show up in their results. When a user types a keyword or phrase into a search engine's search box, that engine instantly begins reviewing its index for web pages that best represent what the user has searched for and serves up its findings.

And that's that... "how a search engine works" in a nutshell. Again, I didn't dive in to this as deep as I could have; rather I just wanted to provide a short, easy-to-follow explanation to help those of you whom were absolutely clueless to it.

Bella is my (and my girlfriend Jackie's) 11 week old puppy that we decided to adopt a couple weeks back. Her original owners are farmers and therefore decided that they had way too many animals on board when Bella's litter was born.

Bella is half Chow Chow, a quarter German Sheppard, and a quarter Black Lab. She is mostly a golden brown color, but does have a few distinctive black and white spots.

For the most part, she has been a great puppy with very few "accidents". She's just now getting to the point where she knows her name, knows when she's in trouble, and knows to hide when I raise my voice. It's been quite the experience so far.

Here are a few pictures of my Bella... pay special attention to the last one where she kind of resembles the fox on the FireFox icon:

Just thought I'd share.