What’s your favorite Twitter error message?

Here’s mine:

“Twitter is over capacity. We’ll try to lighten the load and have things back to normal soon.”

A refreshing break from something is technically wrong!

Runner up:

Now if everyone would stop blaming Ruby on Rails for Twitter’s problems…

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This past Monday I spoke at the ACCM 2008 show at the Gaylord Palms Resort in Orlando, FL. It was my first national speaking gig and I’d like to say for the record that, no I did not throw up from nerves like I thought I would.

The session was “Secrets for Getting More & Better Links for Higher Search Rankings,” catchy huh? It was actually a really fun topic and I need to thank one of my SEO idols, Stephan Spencer, for the opportunity. He moderated the session and gave everyone a brain overload with the introduction. That set the bar really low for me, because everyone was drooling from too much mental stimulation. Other panelists were social media expert, Neil Patel, and Seth Besmertnik, CEO of LinkExperts. Seth wins for best presentation since my computer-challenged husband exclaimed, “I learned some things!”

The session was covered by WebProNews.

I only got to attend one other session, but it was Online Reputation Management for Direct Marketers featuring Lee Odden and Rob Key. They did a phenomenal job and interestingly covered a lot of the companies I featured in my Less Everything blog post on “The 5 Most Hated Companies Online.” I’ve been on the fixing and causing ends of reputation management issues, either way it’s frustrating. Lee and Rob did a great job with the subject as two of the industry’s leading experts.

So, what’s next for Rhea?

This weekend is Brad’s family reunion in Panama City Beach. It’s the usual… food, beach, family, food and more food!

The week after next I head to Seattle for the now SOLD OUT SMX Advanced where I’ll be covering sessions again and interviewing experts for Search Engine Journal with the amazing Eric Lander. I can’t wait to spend time with some of my favorite SEO buddies (you know who you are and that statement leaves things open so I don’t offend anyone like Matt who I can’t really stand).

After SMX Advanced I’m heading to Glacier National Park for a week and a half to spend time with my mom and step dad who are working at the park over summer. Brad flies out to join us for the last half. Should be amazing and I’m trying to convince some SEO friends to join for the first part… interested? The campground has free WiFi!

If our paths are going to cross, hit me up rhea [at] lesseverything.com.

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Today, after listening to the gorgeous and incredibly intelligent, Sarah Bird, General Counsel for SEOmoz, on Webcology at WebmasterRadio, I decided to file an official notice of opposition (NOO) against the poor schmuck that’s trying to trademark SEO. That’s right, someone is trying to trademark our beloved acronym, SEO!

Sarah discovered the evil plan a few weeks back after updating some SEOmoz trademarks. To her and the greater SEO communities’ dismay, Jason Gambert, unsuccessfully filed for trademark registration of SEO in May of 2007, but in January of 2008 he convinced a no-doubt weary judge to approve his application. Today was the last day to file a Notice of Opposition before publication. Eek!
continue reading "SEO Trademark - Notice of Opposition"

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For anyone out of the loop, Yahoo just got even cooler!

1. Yahoo acquires IndexTools, web analytics software
2. Flickr now lets you upload 90 second videos - The YouTube killer buzz is going nuts.
3. The Yahoo! Live team went out of their way to befriend me and say thanks for the feedback. Cool!

I heart Yahoo! Unfortunately, I rarely use their search engine except to see how my clients and personal projects are doing. Actually, that’s a lie, I really like the Search Assist feature for keyword research, but even then I don’t always click beyond the suggestions. I know, I know, I should be ashamed of myself for inflating Google’s market share. Oh well.

What I do use daily from Yahoo! are these tools for personal and professional reasons:

• Flickr
• Yahoo! Site Explorer
• Yahoo! Mail
• Yahoo! Pipes

I can’t wait to see what the future holds especially since the few insiders I’ve met are some of the most genuine, creative and intelligent people in the industry. Keep up the good work amid drama.

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After my post on Yahoo! Live for SEO and my own channel creation at RheaLIVE, I’ve been keeping tabs on a few things and it looks like Jason Calacanis just created his own Yahoo! Live channel, JasonNation. I’m sure this has everything to do with my story! 

Perhaps not, but the his attention will surely bring more users.

Also worth noting, a local contact, Ben McDonald (aka Beebe4), just created his own channel as well.

And, I found my favorite channel so far, CartmanTheDog. He’s a beautiful golden retriever that’s been licking peanut butter out of a jar for a solid half hour. It doesn’t get better than that!

In all seriousness, the potential is huge. Now if Yahoo could just make some changes before they lose us…

Requests for Yahoo! Live:

• Ability to befriend or subscribe to channels.
• A portal where I can see which of my friend’s channels are live at any one time.
• Improved channel tracking. Besides the number of viewers, I want to see referrers to my channel and where viewers are located. Also, how long did they stay on the channel?
• An option to save a copy of the message board after a live show.
• I would also like the option to save the show itself.
• The option to customize the way the page is laid out. Maybe I only want to see the channel screen and no one else in the room. Or, maybe I want to see up to eight channel users at a time.
• Increased channel protection. The only two options seem to be “find me in search” or “send a link out” but I would like to see a security feature that requires a password or other verification before viewing.
• Definitely the option to delete or clear a message board after a show has ended.
• I’d also like the option to get notified via Twitter or IM when a friend goes live. Conversely, give users the option to turn notification on/off.
• Increased profile customization. Besides the channel name and description can I have a little more meat? Likes, dislikes, location, age, website, social network links, etc.
• A channel bulletin board would be fun to post important notes about the show as well as a schedule/calendar feature.
• A lot of this could be shuffled into a paid versus free account and I’d like to see more corporate solutions (not just personal channels).

There’s a ton more I’d like to see, but I’ll leave things as is for now.

Thanks Yahoo!

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Not less money, but the company. After a short stay with the MPS Group, I’m moving onto Less Everything, an incredible design and ruby on rails development company.

Why? Didn’t I just get a new job?

It isn’t news that I got married in November and my husband, Brad, has been working full-time with the local school system. He loves teaching, but with his background in TV production his dream job is researching and writing for documentaries. Since my career was more lucrative it made sense for us to follow that path, but after several heart-to-hearts it became obvious that he needed more. And, I need him to be happy and my equal if I want our marriage to be a priority. So, I’ve metaphorically picked up the Jacksonville anchor and if the right wind comes we’ll be able to follow.

continue reading "Rhea is Working for Less"

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What is Yahoo! Live?

Essentially a LIVE streaming video chat room. The last part probably has negative connotations for many of you, but it’s the best way to describe the product. It’s still in experimental release, but with recent layoffs I wouldn’t anticipate a ton of expansions. For details on the Yahoo! Live product launch, check out the official release or read Danny Sullivan’s coverage at Search Engine Land or Arnold Zafra’s at Search Engine Journal. TechCrunch did the best job of assessing its strengths, weaknesses and functionality and you can read about it here.

Now that we’ve covered the basics…
continue reading "Yahoo! Live for SEO"

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I had no clue what to write about, so I turned to my husband, Brad, for inspiration. I grilled him on the fundamentals of SEO in hopes that my insight would have rubbed off on him proving that I’m an amazing teacher. Sadly, he barely passed, but it’s an amusing look at out how the outside world views SEO (if they know about it), websites and search engines.

Check it out here.

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The moon taunted me for forty minutes this evening! From the time I got into my car and drove out of the parking garage, all I saw was the biggest, most beautiful moon of my life. Unfortunately, I was camera-less, which put me into a grumpy mood. As my husband has pointed out, “you don’t enjoy places. You take photos of them and then enjoy the pictures.” How sad is that? Fortunately, I’m not alone! This seems to be a common complaint for all photographers.

Anyways, here’s the moon from our porch (it looks like a sunrise!):

It’s still early, so I don’t have the eclipse shots, yet, but will hopefully snap them before I get heavily absorbed in my Guestwhore post for Sugarrae.

Edit: snapped some of the lunar eclipse and it was awesome. Also, just finished the guest post, so check it out tomorrow.

Good night!

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I’m home sick today (again) and it’s really starting to tick me off. I know, I know… you don’t get better unless you rest, but I can’t seem to pull myself away from it [work]. I get bored and boredom drives me nuts. So, I’m going to write a quick blog post about recent Rhea news and then I’ll go back to the couch and watch Oprah. If only I’d stayed home yesterday, I could have seen Rand and Geraldine at Harpo.

For anyone that missed it, I finally gave Loren another blog post for Search Engine Journal, this time it was on the Death of SEO Transparency. It got some terrific feedback and more than 100 votes on the poll. Thank you to each of the SEOs that contributed to the article including: Andy Beal, Aaron Chronister, CK Chung, Liana Evans, Jonathan Hochman, Debra Mastaler, Jill Whalen and Chris Winfield. I always go through fits of anxiety when it comes to blogging because the last thing I want to do is contribute to the overabundance of noise. This means my posts are few and far between for personal projects, but I appreciate everyone’s support when I jump to it!

Amazingly, miracles do happen and I will be blogging twice (counting this post, three times) in one week! SEO consultant and business owner, Rae Hoffman is about to work on her tan in the Dominican Republic, which means it’s time for Guestwhore Week! Fortunately or unfortunately, I’m one of this years guestwhores and will be at the mercy of Graywolf, our babysitter, while Rae soaks up the sun… and some fruity beverages. Look for the post on February 21st!

In other news, I just received my copy of Jerri Ledford’s new book, the SEO: Search Engine Optimization Bible. Along with several dozen search industry experts, Jerri interviewed me on the current state and future of SEO. I haven’t had an opportunity to really dive into it, but hope to have a full book review soon. Meanwhile, check it out for yourself.

Finally, one of my favorite Jacksonville geeps (geek peeps), Steven Bristol, and his co-founder, Allan Branch, just released a really cool site, Less Memories, and at my ridiculous recommendation turned that baby into a social network. The site is like one big library of sticky notes. You can use it to record, edit and search for your memories or connect with others… kind of like spying on your coworker’s desk.  Check it out and if you have any recommendations post ‘em here or on their Ruby on Rails blog at Less Everything.

Alrighty… back to feeling nauseous and reruns of MTV and VH1 reality shows.

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