Cameron Olthuis

I have my sights on moving to Nicaragua right now. I’m trying to figure out the logistics so I can spend 2 out of the 3 months there this coming summer. Go down, check the place out, scope some real estate, surf my brains out, etc.

Consistent year-round swells, offshore winds 300+ days a year, low crowds, white sands, crystal-clear water, low cost of living…. sounds like the dream to me. I certainly can’t think of any good reasons not to move there. Seeing as all I need is an internet connection to make my living, work certainly wont be stopping me. At the very least I’ll probably be buying a second home there where I can spend 6 months a year.

I’m going to be speaking at SMX Social on April 22nd in Long Beach. I’m pretty excited to finally be going to a conference that doesn’t require much travel. It’s just a short drive up the 5 for me. It’d be a lot cooler if Danny held this conference in San Diego though. That way I could throw all the parties at my house… plus San Diego is just really cool.

I’m speaking on the topic of Linkbait which is what I usually speak about. I’m pretty excited for this session though since Linkbait strategies have changed so much recently and will continue to do so. Because of this there will be tons of new info to share so I’d encourage you all to come check it out. Plus Danny and everyone at Third Door put on the best conferences in the industry, hands down.

I’m stoked and so should you be. See you there.

Last week I brought my wife with me to SES in San Jose. It’s the first time she’s accompanied me to a conference and it definitely won’t be the last. She’s already trying to plan it out where she can pretty much come to all of them from now on. Not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad one. I’m kidding, I enjoyed having her with me and look forward to bringing her again.

She really liked all the people in the industry and had a great time seeing what really takes place at these things. I guess she realized it’s not all the frat partying that she’s thought in the past. I do actually accomplish some ‘work’ stuff here and there.

It was also our 5 year anniversary the week before and since we didn’t do anything exciting we decided to drive up the coast to San Jose. Neither of us had done that drive before and I think we were both blown away at how beautiful it was. If it wasn’t for the cold water I seriously think that would be one of the best places to live on the planet.

We stayed a little north of Santa Barbara on Sun night then woke up early Monday and drove the coast. It took us a full 12 hours and by time we arrived in San Jose we were both wiped so I did a little work and we pretty much crashed. Next time I won’t stop so many times along the way as I missed some valuable SES networking time.

The next day we hung out around the conference and then went to the Google party at night. She was blown away by ‘the plex’, she kept commenting how it’s like a big college campus. After the Goog party we spent a couple hours visiting with David & Irma Wallace, who happen to be some of my favorite people in the industry and I look up to them a lot. Irma kept telling me I need to bring my wife to a conference and I finally listened to her advice, which I’m glad I did.

Wednesday was my presentation day. I spoke on the Linkbait & Viral Search panel and I think this was by far one of my better presentations. I decided to scrap most of the stuff I’d talked about in the past and just walk people through a real world case study that I was involved in. I can tell this format was appreciated by the audience with all the positive feedback I received and I’ll be sticking to it from now on. One of my goals this year was to improve my public speaking and I think I’m doing pretty good with, still a long ways to go though.

It’s funny because I used Jason Calacanis as an example for controversial linkbait and I didn’t realize it at the time but I guess Robert Scoble must have been in the audience. Not a few days later and it seems like he’s a little deprived of attention and now he’s following Jason’s example of calling SEOs scumbags. Unfortunately for him, I’m not going to fall for the bait and instead I’ll link to Rand and Danny’s rebuttals, they’re much better reads anyways and you won’t waste your time. Danny had a one-liner that’s seriously classic.

Want to be like Robert — and Jason Calacanis — and keep equating SEO with spam? Then fuck off.

Danny’s one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet so this was obviously well deserved. Good for you Danny.

Wednesday night was the infamous Search Bash put on by Webmaster radio and let me say that it didn’t disappoint, as usual. Darron, Eddie and the crew really know how to do it proper. My wife and I really enjoyed hanging out with Chris and Danielle Winfield from 10e20 for most of the party. They’re great friends and it’s a shame they don’t live closer because I know we’d have a blast hanging out with them.

That’s about it. Thursday we pretty much woke up and drove home. SES was great as usual and I had a blast hanging out with all the regulars, as well as meeting and hanging out with all the people I didn’t know. Can’t wait ’til PubCon.

This is probably no longer news to many of you but for those of you who don’t know yet I’ve decided to resign from ACS, the consulting agency I’ve helped build into a successful company for the last year and a half.

So why did I make this decision and what I am doing next?

There are a number of reasons for this decision but if I tried to explain them all this post would quickly turn into a novel. With that said, the main reasons I’m leaving are: I don’t want to do consulting forever. And even though ACS is blowing up right now I think there are much bigger opportunities I’d rather chase.

This leads me to what I’m doing next and to be honest I’m not exactly sure what that is yet. I’ve been in discussions for a number of different offers but haven’t made any firm decisions yet. There is one project that’s in the works but I can’t give any details yet. You’ll just have to wait.

I’m excited for this new path in my life and it’s sure to be an exciting one filled with lots of ups and downs, as it always is. I’m throwing my hat in the ring for the title to be the first SEO billionaire. Does it have my name on it? I don’t know, but I’m going to find out.

I continue to remain on great terms with the guys from ACS and hope for nothing but the best for them and the company. If you have any further questions or have an opportunity you’d like to talk about feel free to contact me or drop a comment below.

I’ll be attending the San Diego BarCamp tomorrow for most of the afternoon. Looking forward to meeting more people in the San Diego area that are into the web scene. We have a nice little tech community going on here now.

Sunday afternoon I am flying to Seattle for Danny Sullivan’s new conference, SMX. On Tuesday afternoon I’m on the Better Ways panel. Also on the panel is Alex Bennert, Greg Boser, Jim Boykin, Christine Churchill, Todd Friesen, and Aaron Wall. Wow, talk about a talented panel. I’m expecting to a learn a lot of new tips from these guys.

Hope to see you there.