Cameron Olthuis

Brian Provost and I are trying to organize a little golf outing during PubCon Las Vegas, unofficially dubbed The PubCon Open. If any of you are interested in playing some golf while in Las Vegas for PubCon let me know. I’d be happy to take some money from you on the course

Danny Sullivan and the rest of the team at SMX continue to exceed my expectations. They definitely know how to put on a world class conference. Honestly, going into this conference my expectations weren’t very high. I was thinking that because it was such a small show that it wouldn’t be all that great. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Literally, there are no details that go unnoticed at SMX. And that’s probably why these shows are so great. It’s the small things that make a difference. Everything from the quality of speakers and presentations to the audience was better than I ever thought. I really enjoyed the show, met some great people, saw old friends, and even learned a thing or two. I am honored to be a part of this conference.

I also want to give a few shout-outs: I had three good friends that were all virgins to speaking at industry conferences. And all three did a fantastic job with their presentations. Seriously, you all spoke like seasoned pros. Chris, Brent, Tamar - Great job!!

Me presenting:

I’m headed to NYC early next week to attend SMX Social Media where I’ll be speaking on the Linkbait panel with RKelley and Brent Csutoras. It’s a smaller show but that’s a good thing. It gives attendees a better opportunity to network with the bigger names in the industry which is, in my opinion, the best reason for going. I think there are probably still a few tickets left so if you’re interested in catching up with the all the latest in social media marketing then grab a ticket.

There will also be a charity event on Monday night that is put on by both the Internet Marketers of New York group and BOTW, the web’s best directory. I really like the way these events are setup. Everyone is charged $40 at the door and then it’s open bar all night. The $40 all goes to the charity and BOTW sponsors the food and drinks. Pretty cool!

The great thing about the charity we’re supporting is that it hits close to home within our industry. Both Marty (aimClear) and Danielle Winfield have recently blogged about their experiences with Leukemia and Lymphoma. Marty actually won the fight with Lymphoma, awesome.

In the spirit of charity I’m tagging three of my friends to help keep this meme going. Neil Patel, Rebecca Kelley, and Brent Csutoras.

My hat’s off to Danny Sullivan and the entire Third Door Media team for putting on a fantastic conference. In my opinion, SMX was easily one of the better, if not the best, conferences in our industry. It was the little things that made the difference too. For example; warm buffet style lunches instead of box lunches, snacks and drinks at all times, and the open parties to name a few.

My only complaint for the entire conference was from the last session called “Give it Up”. This session was the one where presenters were supposed to give up their favorite SEO secrets or tips. Unfortunately only half of the presenters had anything useful to say. A couple of them had no real tips or advice or gave the most basic SEO advice I could imagine. The ones that did give good tips though were awesome, so I guess that makes up for it.

Here are some pictures from the “Better Ways” panel which was a blast.

Do you like hot sauce? If so, read on…

One of my friends here in San Diego has started a new hot sauce company called Scorpion Bay. He gave me a few bottles a couple weeks ago and man is this stuff good, and I’m not just saying that either. My favorite flavor is the Hotacado, which is an avocado hot sauce. It works really good as a marinade for grilled chicken.

Unfortunately for you hot sauce lovers he doesn’t have a shopping cart on his site so you can’t order anything yet. Also, I was not paid for this post or anything, unless you count the hot sauce I’m eating right now.