Our CEO, Mike Mann, is hosting a webinar tomorrow morning on how to become a successful entrepreneur. Join us, and find out if now is the right time to start your own company.

Space is limited, click here to register now.

Mike is going to share his secrets on how he started SEO.com, Phone.com, DomainMarket, BuyDomains, and many other highly-successful, profitable companies.

Are you tired of the mundane 9-5? Have you always wanted to start a business? Now is the time to take control of your own future.

Join Mike Mann, serial entrepreneur and author of “Make Millions and Make Change, Secrets to Business and Personal Success,” in a candid webinar about how quitting your job might be the best move you could ever make. Mike will discuss:

• Why quitting your job is necessary to build a profitable business
• How to know when to quit your job
• What to know before you quit
• The real risks of quitting
• How jobs prevent personal success
• The power of faith and belief in your ideas

Click here to register today, and begin your path to growing your business.

Date: Thursday, March 10th
Time: 9:00 AM PST (10:00 AM MST)
Length: 30 minutes

When to Quit Your Day Job is a post by SEO expert Lori Gilson. For information about our SEO services or more great SEO tips and tricks, visit the SEO.com blog.

I was discussing webinars with the SEO team today, when Boyd Norwood, the Director of SEO, interrupted the discussion and asked me if I had seen the latest copy of Website Magazine. He opened up to page 16, which showed the results of the Top 50 Search Engine Optimization Agencies.

Website magazine writes, “In the process of selecting an SEO agency, you will find a crowded marketplace- and nearly as many social media experts. The industry is maturing and bringing new channels and opportunities for consumer engagement and revenue. This is driving traditional SEOs to adopt new approaches to acquiring traffic.” It also adds, “It is imperative that your SEO agency is ready, willing and able to serve in the age of more integrated Internet Marketing.”

Reviewing the Top 50 list, I found that four of the top seven SEO firms either had headquarters or offices in Utah. A heart-felt congratulations goes to:

BlueGlass: Ranked #4

OrangeSoda: Ranked #5

iCrossing.com: Ranked #7

Utah’s slogan is, “This is the place.” Based on these results, it is obviously the place for SEO.

Is Utah a Hub for the Best SEO Companies? is a post by SEO expert Lori Gilson. For information about our SEO services or more great SEO tips and tricks, visit the SEO.com blog.

SEO.com is excited to announce the launch of our Affiliate Program. If you have a website that gets a lot of traffic, or you have clients that would benefit from search marketing, you should join.

Affiliates have access to links, ads, email templates and real-time reporting. You can log into your account 24 hours/day to check traffic, sales and your account balance.

Commissions are paid monthly, based on the total monthly payment received from your closed referral.

To find out more about our Affiliate Program, or sign up, visit our Affiliate Marketing page.

SEO.com Welcomes Affiliates is a post by SEO expert Lori Gilson. For information about our SEO services or more great SEO tips and tricks, visit the SEO.com blog.

It feels good to be mayor. We would know. We’ve officially declared ourselves the mayors of summer, and are holding a Foursquare Challenge to determine whether or not you can get an ROI from the application.

Not on Foursquare, yet? Chances are you will be soon. Foursquare gained 1 million users much faster than Twitter did, and is currently adding about 15,000 members a day. It is the latest (and some say greatest) location-based marketing application around. It allows users to explore their city, compete for badges and mayorships, and add tips and comments about venues.

Better yet, it allows businesses to market local customers, set up specials, and even steal customers from their competitors.

We have to be honest. Our house is divided. Some of the smartest people at SEO.com are saying that Foursquare needs businesses, while others say businesses need Foursquare.

This summer, we will find out. We have selected three different companies to participate in the foursquare challenge: a restaurant, a car wash and a large apartment company. Each has different levels of experience with online marketing and social media, and each represents a different industry. We are consulting with each to determine a Foursquare strategy, set up specials and then measure the ROI. In August, we will present the data to world.

Congratulations to the following companies for being selected:

Pounders Hawaiian Grill Who knew that the best Hawaiian food available is actually in Utah? Seriously. Our search geeks have become loyal connoisseurs and are happy to meet you there for lunch, dinner or a snack.

Cobblestone Auto Spa You need to wash your car. Cobblestone can make it shine again. They have 7 locations in Arizona. Stop by for great service and a sparkling car.

Carmel Apartments Want to love your apartment? Carmel Apartments are so beautiful your mother-in-law will be impressed. They have more than 60 communities across the country and can help you find a new home that makes you happy.

Want to listen to SEO.com’s Head Janitor talk about Foursquare? Click below to view the GoToMeeting webinars:

Can you get an ROI out of Foursquare?
Foursquare Webinar Reloaded

Foursquare Challenge Now in Full Swing; 3 Companies Selected is a post by SEO expert Lori Gilson. For information about our SEO services or more great SEO tips and tricks, visit the SEO.com blog.

Last Friday, the trash talk commenced, team anthems were chosen, and iPhone stopwatches were synced as we gathered for the Annual SEO.com Office Olympics.

In 2009, we pulled muscles, scraped knees, and put a hole in our wall. This year we repeated all the above and added a little swelling.

Was it worth it? Vince Blackham and Scott Smoot, our biathlon winners, said it was. Shortly after the medals ceremony Vince tweeted, “I just took GOLD at the @seocom Office Olympics in the sharpshooting event. I’d like to thank Halo & Call of Duty for my success!”

Congratulations to the following medalists:

Biathlon
1st Place: Scott Smoot and Vince Blackham
2nd Place: Darren Bradley & TJ Welsh
3rd Place: Travis Winger & Jared Winger

Dodgeball/Steal the Flag/SEO Gladiators
1st Place: Scott Cowley & Dan Patterson
2nd Place: Darren Bradley & TJ Welsch
3rd Place: Greg Bay & Ty Cammack

Office Chair Bob Sled Race
1st Place: Travis Winger & Jared Winger
2nd Place: Greg Bay & Ty Cammack
3rd Place: Dan Bischoff & Mike Hasson

Sticky Note Fencing
1st Place: Jared Winger
2nd Place: Darren Bradley
3rd Place: Lewie Bascom

2nd Annual Office Olympics is a post by SEO expert Lori Gilson. For information about our SEO services or more great SEO tips and tricks, visit the SEO.com blog.

How do you grow your business in the worst economic downturn since the depression?

I attended a Women Tech Council event last week, where Ryan Potter with SuperTopSecret seemed to have it figured out. Ryan gave a powerful presentation on marketing and Web design. He was full of great advice on relationship building and providing excellent service. My favorite excerpts from his presentation are below, with my thoughts in italics.

Use creepy photos. We don’t know why, but people really seem to like them. If you look at SuperTopSecret’s website, the pictures are really weird. In fact, they were strange enough that I clicked on every page just to see the graphics. Successful marketers keep people interested and engaged. Be fresh, unique and fun.

Write really good proposals. Ryan’s company has beat out competitors more than 5 times their size without having a portfolio on their site. They write strong proposals, specific to the potential client’s needs and it has landed them big-name clients. Do you know what your prospective clients goals and objectives are? Are your proposals about YOU or about them?

Feed people, get them drunk and send them skateboards. Nobody likes to be sold to. Ryan recommends hanging out with potential clients and getting to know them to see if it is a good fit. It is a much more genuine approach than “Let’s go golfing and do lunch.”

Know what you are talking about. People can see through your crap. If you don’t have the answer, let your clients know that you will find it and get back with them.

Do good work and don’t be a jerk. Treat people well, and it will come back to you. If your clients know that you work hard and appreciate their business, it will lead to long-term partnerships, referrals and mutual success.

Try to make things that help people. Maybe it’s a way to save time. Maybe it’s a way to waste time and have some fun. Either way, the work should have a purpose. My favorite example of this: iPhone Apps. If you check out my iPhone, I have an entire screen full of games for my 4 year old. I have spent a lot of money on apps that help me work smarter and even more money on apps that keep my children entertained.

Take on projects you care about. Some of the most rewarding search marketing projects we have worked on at SEO.com have been pro bono. It is important to make money, but it is also important to give back.

Embrace social media. It’s not going away anytime soon. Social Media is about building a community, and having a conversation. Develop relationships with your customers and you will create loyalty.

From WTC: Use Creepy Pictures (and other stuff) to Build a Loyal Client Base is a post by SEO expert Lori Gilson. For information about our SEO services or more great SEO tips and tricks, visit the SEO.com blog.

We are excited about the new look for our corporate website and hope you like it!

As can be expected when you launch a new site, there are a few kinks we are working through. If you find any broken pages or other issues, we would love to hear about it.

We appreciate your patience as we finish our redesign, and look forward to announcing the completion of our website in the near future.

Please Pardon Our Dust! is a post by SEO expert Lori Gilson. For information about our SEO services or more great SEO tips and tricks, visit the SEO.com blog.

Getting traffic is good. Getting leads is better. How do you turn your website traffic into paying customers?

You need to create a powerful experience that entices your visitors into taking action on your site.

Join us for a free webinar and hear from experts Scott Miller, President of Vertster, and Dave Bascom, President of SEO.com. These Internet marketing gurus will share industry secrets to help you improve your website and increase your ROI.

Free Conversion Optimization Webinar from Vertster and SEO.com

Date: April 13
Time: 11:00 AM MDT
Length: 30 minutes

Strong SEO and PPC Campaigns attract visitors, but won’t convert them into buyers. Most visitors view your home page and leave your site. Scott and Dave will help you identify the pathways that lead to conversions and will also discuss:

• Landing Page Customization
• Conversion Optimization Tips and Best Practices
• A/B Testing Multivariate Testing
• Calls-to Action

To register for the webinar, click here. Space is limited; Register today.

Want a Higher ROI From Your Website? Join Our Free Webinar is a post by SEO expert Lori Gilson. For information about our SEO services or more great SEO tips and tricks, visit the SEO.com blog.

Last night SEO.com hosted a live Tweet-up and #gno party. It was a lot of fun. We had a full house, kept the Twitter-feed busy with SEO tips, and website owners all over the country joined us via Twitter and Ustream.

We would like to thank Jyl Pattee with www.momitforward.com, Clark Winegar with Mustache Power, the panelists, and all of the #gno attendees for making it so successful.

The topic of the night was “How to Grow Your Website/Blog Traffic.” A panel of Internet marketing gurus weighed-in on various SEO topics and answered questions that came from the live audience both in-house and over Twitter. If you missed the event, or are looking for tips to increase your visitors and monetize your site, you can watch the recorded Ustream below.

Panelists include:

Dave Bascom @davebascom, Ash Buckles @ashbuckles, Scott Cowley @scottcowley

Robyn Storms: @robynstorms, Dan Patterson @dan_patterson

What a Party! SEO.com & #gno Tweet-Up Video is a post by SEO expert Lori Gilson. For information about our SEO services or more great SEO tips and tricks, visit the SEO.com blog.

I was first introduced to #gno on Twitter (Girls/Guys Night Out) by stumbling upon a gno hash tag. (For you non-twitter users, a hash tag is this sign: #.) I was curious, so I decided to follow the conversation. This chance encounter turned me into a faithful #gno attendee. As a mommy blogger, I have found #gno parties to be fun and full of great information. You can only imagine how excited I was when I received an invitation from Mom It Forward, for SEO.com to sponsor #gno and a live tweet-up discussing Internet marketing.

In order to help bloggers and site owners (and have a fun night with local Internet media buffs), SEO.com is excited to host #gno and a live tweet-up pizza party, next Tuesday evening. We look forward to providing tips and tricks on getting websites increased traffic and higher conversion rates. You can attend in person, or live on ustream.

Event Details

Come join us for a pizza party at the SEO.com headquarters, follow the party on twitter, or join us live through ustream. To RSVP, visit http://twtvite.com/esj6zp.

Date/Time:  Tuesday, Jan. 12; 7:00-9:00 p.m. EST

On-site Location:   SEO.com Corporate Office: 14870 S. Pony Express Rd. Suite 100, Bluffdale, UT 84065

Ustream: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/gno-seo-com-tweet-up1, Twitter Feed:  #gno #seocom

Prizes

• Giveaway 1: a free 1-year subscription to SEO Companion—SEO.com’s exclusive site that will help you learn and apply SEO techniques that will drive more traffic to your site (approximate value: $1200).

• Giveaway 2—a free custom SEO site analysis from SEO.com ($500 value).

Entry Requirements for Giveaway 1:

To enter to win a free one-year subscription to SEO Companion, (SEO.com’s exclusive site that will help you learn and apply SEO techniques that will drive more traffic to your site) click here.

Entry Requirements for Giveaway 2:

To enter to win a free custom site analysis ($500 value), do the following:

1. Mention SEO.com on your blog or facebook site and link to SEO.com; then leave a comment on this post, linking to your entry.

2. Post this message on Twitter:

GIVEAWAY! I entered to win a free custom site analysis from @seocom http://bit.ly/63fkN1 #gno #seocom

Good luck! We look forward to seeing you next Tuesday!

No purchase necessary to enter. Winners will be selected randomly. SEO.com and Mom It Forward employees are ineligible to participate. All entries received after Wednesday, January 13 at midnight PT will not be considered. Entries that do not follow all of the entry requirements will not be considered. Winners will be notified and will have 24 hours to confirm receipt of the e-mail. If they do not reply within 24 hours, another winner will be selected. Open to participants in the US and Canada 18 years and older. One entry per person.

Twitter Party: SEO Tips, Pizza, $1700 in Giveaways is a post by SEO expert Lori Gilson. For information about our SEO services or more great SEO tips and tricks, visit the SEO.com blog.