The Bend WebCAM conference, two weeks ago, was a success for everyone who attended. Networking at the Brew-Ha-Ha, lessons in SEO, workshops in creativity and bagels from Rockin’ Daves all came together for an enjoyable two days.

Bend WebCam 2011

The conference was created to expose designers to Internet marketing best practices and Internet marketers to the power of creating a brand image and voice.  Individual session tracks catered to both disciplines: Geek (left brain) and Chic (right brain). Plus, there was a third session track, Super Freak, which offered a combination of sessions. The inseparability of technology and creativity has never been timelier. And no other conference pulled these two disciplines together better than Bend’s WebCAM.

If you didn’t have the chance to attend WebCAM, you can still get a taste of the lectures and workshops that were presented via our online bloggers. Todd Mintz of PPC Associates, and Wendy Roe of Byron Roe Photography tweeted and blogged about two of the WebCAM tracks—giving you a chance to learn what you missed:

Todd Mintz, Shares the Geek Track

Bend WebCam 2011

• Choosing Your Keyword Battles -  Todd Malicoat of Stuntdubl, showed us how to do a proper cost to benefit analysis on keywords that will be most effective to our website.

• Double Your Paid Search ROI  -  Adam Audette of Audette Media, offered 9 steps to stop the insanity and increase profits on Google.

• Tools of the Trade  – Scott Hendison of Search Commander & Taylor Pratt of Awesome SEO, gave advice on how SEO, PPC, social media and content marketing team can work together.

• One Site, Many Sizes – Hans Sprecher of G5, shares his secrets about creating one website to cater to different device types using a techniue called responsive design.

Wendy Roe, Shares the Super Freak Track

Bend WebCam 2011 at Tower Theatre

• Creative Research + Killer Briefs - Lynette Xanders of Wild Alchemy, provided ideas and skills to help you get into the right “zone” to write a killer creative brief.

• Local University Search  and Social Workshop - David Mihm, Andre Jensen  and Will Scott, offered their insights and perspectives on improving a company’s local and social media efforts.

• Opening Keynote: The Four Pillars of Building Instant Trust Online – Tim Ash, CEO of Site Tuners, talks about the 4 pillars of building trust online.  Before people will act or transact, their concerns and anxieties must be alleviated.

• Facebook Don’ts – Will Scott of Search Influence, shares with us “what not to do” with Social Media.  Will shares the good, the bad, and the ugly way businesses are engaging online.

• Online Reputation – Todd Friesen & Conrad Saam, teach us how to protect our brand online.  Online reputation management is getting harder everyday.  Follow these tips on cleaning up the mess and protecting your reputation.

• The Advent of Social Film: The Inside Experience with Jamie Robinson – Jaime Robinson, presents “The Inside Experience,” a social film project which drives successful audience participation in this unique Hollywood Thriller.  Learn how to engage the audience, product placement, and how far viewers will go to become participants in the big picture.

We would like to give a special shout out to Visit Bend and AdFed of Central Oregon for helping make Bend WebCAM 2011 a huge success!

To stay up-to-date on the conference all year, follow Bend WebCAM on Facebook or on Twitter.  Start making your plans to attend the Bend WebCAM in 2012.

Web and business professionals will be flocking to Bend, Oregon for the third annual Bend WebCAM Conference, September 29-30, 2011. The conference was created three years ago to expose designers to Internet marketing best practices and Internet marketers to the power of creating a brand image and voice.  Considering the inseparability of technology and creativity in today’s business world, their vision was spot on.

This year’s agenda includes sixteen informative, idea-generating sessions and two killer keynotes that will discuss the latest and greatest strategies for search, social media and brand communications. Here’s more on the planned keynotes, sessions and why you don’t want to miss out.

Tim Ash and Rand Fishkin to Keynote

Tim Ash, President & CEO of SiteTuners, will offer the opening keynote on Friday, September 30 discussing, “The Four Pillars of Building Instant Trust Online.” Tim is best known for his e-commerce bestseller, Landing Page Optimization: The Definitive Guide to Testing and Tuning for Conversions. Closing keynote, also on September 30, will be given by Rand Fishkin, Co-founder and CEO of SEOmoz, who will offer his perspective on “The Death and Rebirth of SEO.” Besides being CEO of the web’s most popular SEO software provider, Rand co-authored The Art of SEO and The Beginner’s Guide to Search Engine Optimization.

Other industry innovators and specialists will lead in-depth sessions catering to both Geek (left brain) and Chic (right brain) disciplines. Plus, there’s a third session track, Super Freak, which offers a combination of sessions.

All conference attendees are invited to the Brew-Ha-Ha, Thursday, September 29, from 5:30-8:00 p.m. at the Blacksmith restaurant for socializing and sampling of Bend’s finest beer.

Register here.

If you’re like most business professionals, you’re looking for ways to utilize the power of the Internet to your advantage. You’re reading search marketing blogs for tips; you’re getting social media ideas from colleagues. The upcoming SES Conference 2011 in San Francisco can provide you with timely search and Internet marketing strategies to help feed your desire to learn more.

SES San Francisco runs August 15-19 and is considered the leading search and social marketing event. It offers tactical advice and best practices from top experts—in their fields—on how to grow traffic and improve business online. The multi-day event draws thousands of marketers and agency professionals and includes basic and in-depth tracks on SEO, PPC, social media, analytics and more.

If you register for SES conference 2011 before July 22, you can save 20%. Just enter priority code 20PIX. You’ll also be able to join Mark Knowles, president of Pixelsilk and two SES speakers for a private cocktail party on August 17 at 7:15 p.m. RSVP before July 30, 2011, at events@pixelsilk.com. Private party is for confirmed conference participants only.

Not sure about you, but sometimes I look for an “edge” personally. It can come from purchasing a new pair of glasses that are more up-to-date, utilizing some newly acquired knowledge, or just feeling more positive about my contributions in life. Any one of these things can help me function in higher gear.

The same can be said for a website. A consistently high performing and highly available website is one that is functioning in high gear. And one way to get this degree of functioning is with Pixelsilk Edge.

Pixelsilk Edge gives customers an “edge” in performance, speed, and security. It’s an alternate hosting product offered by Pixelsilk and powered by Akamai, the industry network provider who delivers 10-20 percent of all Internet traffic, which is tens of billions of online interactions daily.

If your business is geographically dispersed across the nation or experiences a high volume of traffic, you’ll want to check out this 3-month trial offer: http://www.pixelsilk.com/edge/

Thanks for listening. I’m Susan Sano Berado.

Pixelsilk is again sponsoring this year’s annual SearchFest, put on by the great folks at SEMpdx.  Another fantastic lineup of speakers to fill their roster this year, keynoted by Stefan Weitz, Director of Bing.

Interested in seeing some of the best speakers in the SEM industry and learning more about Pixelsilk?  Swing by Portland, Oregon next week and check out this fantastic one-day event. Whether you’re a beginner or at the advanced level, SearchFest promises to deliver techniques to enhance your customer’s websites.

Interested in coming to SearchFest?  Use the discount promo code: SPO-SEMPDXSF1020 for 25% off the regular registration rate.

Pixelsilk is sponsoring the SEO track, so please stop by and introduce yourself to our team!

Details: Full Agenda and Speakers

When: Tuesday, March 9th 2010

Where: The Governor Hotel, Portland Oregon

Time: 8 am (registration check-in at 7:30 am) to 5 pm; reception from 5 pm to 6 pm.

In the world of the web, it’s a necessity that traditional branding principles and new marketing technologies such as search engine optimization and social media go hand in hand.  The Bend WebCAM conference, sponsored by Pixelsilk, offered up an incredible dose of information on these topics – bringing marketing and brand to the forefront of online success.  The ad/marketing and design community of Bend (and beyond) was the host and participants of this first-of-its-kind event.

Global caliber speakers including:
Adam Audette (@audette)
Dave Snyder (@davesnyder)
David Mihm (@davidmihm)
Chris Winfield (@chriswinfield)
Rhea Drysdale (@rhea)
Laura Lippay (@lauralippay)
Derrick Wheeler (@derrickwheeler)
Marshall Simmonds (@mdsimmonds)
Scott Polk (@scottpolk)
Todd Friesen (@oilman)

Jim Riswold (Weiden + Kennedy 12)
Tim Girvin (@tgirvin)
Matt Peterson (@creaturesez)

What did you miss?  You missed:

1. Jim Riswolds inspiring and controversial keynote on creating Hitler figurines. (Presentation Available)
2. Rhea’s 101 guide to managing your brand in a world of social media. (Presentation Available)
3. Each member of W+K 12′s journey and creative background to join W+K12 – and how they claimed they just never fit in.
4. Dave Snyder and Scott Polk’s stellar presentation on the ever popular topic of L-I-N-K-S.
5. Chris Winfield asking the Social Expert Panel about which social media profile is a necessity.
6. Tim Girvin’s keynote about how everything we brand, every connection we make is basically about love.
7. David Mihm’s expertise on getting found in local search, what every small business should be doing. (Presentation available)
8. Adam Audette’s breakdown on social media leader and the best business social media case study – Zappos.com
9. The ripping, shreading, fun and informative Hot Seat, where sites were critiqued in front of everyone (and they paid for that!)
10. The Brew Ha Ha’s killer local beer sampler, hosted by The Blacksmith.  Smoozing with the speakers

Pixelsilk’s Mark Knowles (@markknowles and @Pixelsilkcms) helped secure the lineup of search and social speakers for this hopefully annual event.  Thank you to AdFed of Central Oregon, for producing the event as well as all of those that worked on and sponsored the Bend WebCAM.

Through one of the hotbeds of SEO – Bend, Oregon (see History of SEO), Pixelsilk was excited to announce the new SEO-Friendly CMS platform to our local community throughout this incredible event.

SEO Friendly CMS Questions Interviewed

Yesterday, SEO Friendly CMS Questions were answered by the CEO of Pixelsilk, Mark Knowles, plus Search Engine Marketing veteran Bruce Clay – offering his expertise on the operation of a CMS like the one from Pixelsilk.

Below is a question/answer summary of the of questions received during the interview.  To hear first hand, download or listen to the full interview on WebmasterRadio.fm.

(Daron) Q: Where did Pixelsilk begin and how does it scale to meet the needs of SEO?
(Mark) A: Pixelsilk was built from 13 years of CMS experience in the world of SEO.  It started about 3 ½ years ago with the idea of bringing SEO advice right to the page – Bruce Clay’s advice from his SEOToolSet.  In order to succeed online, Pixelsilk was developed from scratch – offering full HTML control for SEO.  From a clean database structure – beginning with the http calls, Pixelsilk was architected and designed for optimal control for SEO.

Q: Talk to me about source code control?
(Mark) A: There’s no legacy, no prior system.  Anywhere from up to 12 people daily have been involved in development and code was checked in daily. You break the build, you fix it.

Q: What are some of the most common hurdles moving to Pixelsilk?
(Mark) A: Moving a site can be quick. Best practice would have you fix some of your crawling issues as you migrate.

Q: How do you teach people the need to recognize the use of a system like Pixelsilk?
(Bruce) A: It’s easier to build SEO in as the content is created rather than bolting on SEO after the fact.  So for larger companies, this is typically a difficult challenge.  With Pixelsilk, you can SEO content as you build.

Q: Is there support for porting over a large site to Pixelsilk?
(Mark) A:  With a one-day orientation, and a knowledge of HTML and CSS you are on your way. Our partner channel can also aid in the service delivery of moving sites if you need some help.

Q: How much does Pixelsilk cost?
(Mark) A: Shared hosting per site license starts at $149/per month; enterprise level license is available.  The database can be scaled to a virtual environment and databases are transportable upon the need for growth.

Q: Is there a developer license?
(Mark) A: A full API is available; however, we’re working on a place for developers to play.  For more details, signup for the Pixelsilk community online.

Q: How does SEO Advice work?
(Bruce) A: Through our new SEOToolSet (which is still in progress) and calls to our API, Pixelsilk brings information through to Pixelsilk based off of a footprint of the top ranking sites in the engines.  There’s a big difference between data and wisdom of course, but this is the first step to get closer to target.

Q: What about off-page SEO?
(Mark) A: We will have some exciting announcements for off-page SEO factors available at SMX West 2010.  Stay tuned…

Q: What about analytics?
(Mark) A: Pixelsilk utilizes a token system, so that integration with your analytics package of choice is very easy.

Q: What about design control?
(Mark) A: There’s full HTML and URL control.  So, anything a browser can render is available for you to layout. You simply use HTML, CSS or JavaScript to get what you need done.  There’s FULL design control without the need to know any server-side languages such as PHP, .NET or ColdFusion.

Q: What about HTML5?
(Mark) A: After verification – Pixelsilk fully supports HTML5.

Q: Can you deploy a social strategy in Pixelsilk – can you “Tweet” in Pixelsilk
(Mark) A: That’s correct, Pixelsilk allows such control so that ‘tweeting’ or even ‘reverse tweeting’ is easy.  Pixelsilk was designed to integrate seamlessly with popular 3rd party social applications like Facebook and Twitter.

Validation and SEO crawlability go hand in hand.  If you’re a web developer or SEO, you know full well the importance of validated code.  Traditionally in the world of CMS, W3C validation has been difficult to achieve due to the inflexible nature of the CMS when rendering a page.  We know W3C validation isn’t everything – but it can help.

Pixelsilk is making waves in the SEO and development communities because of its flexibility.  With Full HTML control, you now have the ability to create fully validated web sites and create a DOCTYPE of XHTML 1.0 Strict.

Recently, a CMS validation showdown was run (credit due to SEO Consultants) and Pixelsilk passed with flying colors compared to WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Ektron, Plone and others.

Pixelsilk CMS Validation Showdown

BEND, Oregon – August 6, 2009 – Pixelsilk, an SEO-friendly content management system (CMS), announces the launch of Search Advice, which integrates SEO expertise from the Bruce Clay, Inc. SEOToolSet® into Pixelsilk. The new feature will be unveiled during this year’s Search Engine Strategies (SES) Conference in San Jose.

The SEOToolSet integration provides search engine optimization (SEO) advice and monitoring real-time, while users edit content within a Pixelsilk Web site. With an SEOToolSet subscription, keywords can be assigned to specific pages and recommendations will be delivered straight on the page while editing (View Video Demo of Pixelsilk Search Advice).

Pixelsilk Search Advice, patent pending, is designed to put SEO advice into the hands of the editor at the time of content creation or modification on a real-time basis.  Drawing from the on-going expertise of Bruce Clay, Inc., Search Advice allows Pixelsilk clients a new way of incorporating SEO into everything on their Web site and prepares the on-page content for spidering by Google, Yahoo! and Bing.

Bruce Clay, president of Bruce Clay, Inc., stated, “The real problem that SEO has had is that it is always bolted on after somebody has written the content in a CMS.  The Pixelsilk-SEOToolSet integration provides a way to correct SEO issues at the point of content creation, and to have it be done by the original author.  That will revolutionize SEO.”

Initially, advice drawn from the SEOToolSet will offer on-going recommendations on attributes such as the Title tag, Meta Description, Meta Keywords, body, Heading tags and on-page links.  Search Advice is designed to update the recommendations as the editor makes changes to content.  Moreover, if the content edits fall outside of the recommendations, on-screen alerts and follow-up e-mails may be utilized to notify authors, marketers, SEOs, compliance managers and concerned production staff of the changes.

“This approach will provide content authors with preemptive advice during the creation process from the Bruce Clay SEOToolSet. This approach reduces and/or eliminates certain steps that our clients currently make to publish content to the Web,” said Mark Knowles, president and CEO of Pixelsilk.

Pixelsilk is a scalable, Web-based CMS that provides SEO, marketing and Web development partners with the features they need to maximize their online initiatives and gain a competitive edge in their organic search engine rankings. Cutting-edge tools that allow full control of the HTML code and URL, the ability to interact with business and social media applications, open framework structure, real-time SEO feedback — all while being easy and intuitive to content editors — are among the features that set Pixelsilk apart from any other production-level CMS available today.

Through the advice drawn from the Bruce Clay SEOToolSet inside Pixelsilk CMS and the Partner Portal (allowing single management across multiple sites) launched and demonstrated at this year’s SES San Jose, Pixelsilk is poised to set the standard for the content management industry.

The Search Engine Strategies (SES) San Jose 2009 conference will be held at the McEnery Convention Center from August 11-13. To register for the SES San Jose conference, visitors may use coupon code 20Pixel for a 20% discount.  Or, visitors may register for the expo pass and see the Bruce Clay SEOToolSet in action by visiting the Pixelsilk booth (#106 next to Bruce Clay) for a demo.

About Pixelsilk
Pixelsilk is the first proven world-class SEO/CMS solution provider designed to meet SEO Best Practices requirements. Headquartered in Bend, Oregon (sometimes referred to as the “hub” of the Search Engine Optimization industry), the company has been integral in the fields of content management and software development for nearly 15 years. Its memberships and professional affiliations include: SEMpdx, SMX, SES and the American Advertising Federation (AAF). The creators of Pixelsilk are SEOToolSet Certified, and the company is also a Microsoft Gold Partner.

# # #

Media Contacts:
Wendy Roe
Pixelsilk
2525 NE Twin Knolls Drive
Bend, Oregon  97701, Suite 1
Ph: (877) 749-7455
E-mail: wendy.roe@pixelsilk.com

BEND, Oregon – August 6, 2009 – Pixelsilk, an SEO-friendly content management system (CMS) today announces the release of their Partner Portal during this year’s SES San Jose conference.

The Partner Portal is designed to meet the needs of web development companies and marketing agencies – or any group that needs to manage multiple sites from one control panel.  Pixelsilk was designed to facilitate SEO best practices and these assets can now be leveraged across multiple sites with one place of management.

Pixelsilk is a scalable, Web-based CMS that provides SEO, marketing and Web development teams with the features they need to maximize their online initiatives and gain a competitive edge in their organic search engine rankings. Cutting-edge tools that allow full control of the HTML code, the ability to interact with business and social media applications, open framework structure, real-time SEO feedback and true theme and navigation flexibility are among some of the features that set Pixelsilk apart from any other production-level CMS available today.

The addition of the Pixelsilk Portal allows partners to leverage website resources such as: design themes, CSS, JavaScript, images, content types and more across all or selected sites under their management.  Moreover, partners can manage multiple administrative users across all websites.

Mark Knowles, President and CEO of Pixelsilk, speaks to the potential of the Partner Portal by saying, “Our partners provide unique and powerful tools to their clients. The portal is a huge timesaver for them during the development process.”

The Search Engine Strategies (SES) San Jose 2009 conference will be held at the McEnery Convention Center from August 11-13. To register for the SES San Jose conference, visitors may use coupon code 20Pixel for a 20% discount.  Or, visitors may register for the expo pass and visit the Pixelsilk booth (#106) for a demo.

About Pixelsilk
Pixelsilk is the first proven world-class SEO/CMS solution provider designed to meet SEO Best Practices requirements. Headquartered in Bend, Oregon (sometimes referred to as the “hub” of the Search Engine Optimization industry), the company has been integral in the fields of content management and software development for nearly 15 years. Its memberships and professional affiliations include: SEMpdx, SMX, SES and the American Advertising Federation (AAF). The creators of Pixelsilk are SEO ToolSet-certified, and the company is also a Microsoft Gold Partner.

# # #

Media Contacts:
Wendy Roe
Pixelsilk
2525 NE Twin Knolls Drive
Bend, Oregon  97701, Suite 1
Ph: (877) 749-7455
E-mail: wendy.roe@pixelsilk.com