Our friends, Loren Baker, David Snyder & Jordan Kasteler have launched a new video site named IM Broadcast. IM Broadcast, as Loren describes it, is “YouTube for Internet Marketers.”

In short, it is a video sharing site focused around the Internet Marketing industry. The focus is not just to upload videos on Internet marketing topics, but to also create a social networking site around those videos.

Why not for our industry? We already have dozens and dozens of discussion forums, we have our own Sphinn site and we have WebmasterRadio.FM as our radio site.

IM Broadcast will be live streaming portions of the first Scary SEO conference, as a way to kick things off for the site.

When we launched our Sphinn social news site for search and internet marketers last year, we quickly were hit by a huge number of Japanese-language submissions. Unfortunately, we had to go to an English-only rule, as we had no easy way to moderate those submissions, such as checking for spam. Now, problem solved — Sphinn Japan has launched.

Congrats and big credit to Kenichi Suzuki and his developer Sera Hiroyuki, who’ve worked hard over the past few months to bring the site to life!

Lee Odden wrote Word Visualization on Search Marketing Blogs, where he used a tool named Wordle to show what the search blogs are actually talking about. Wordle forms a tag cloud of the most used words and phrases on a particular blog. The neat part is that Wordle allows you to select different fonts, layouts, and color schemes.

So what are we talking about?

Here is Wordle on the Google Blog:

Lee has gone through 10 well-known search blogs and has done this for each one. It makes for a quick and fun read.

This Thursday, June 19th at 5pm (EST), Google will be hosting their second live chat session for webmasters. The first event, which took place in March, turned out to be a pretty big success. To register for the event, go here and click on the “register” link on the left hand side of the page – you won’t want to miss it.

SEMPO is hosting the “Great SEMPO NY Debate” at Stitch in New York on 247 West 37th Street. The event is tomorrow at 6:30pm on Wednesday, June 18th. The topic of discussion is, “Which is the best way to manage search engine marketing, In-House or Agency?” To register for this in-person event, click here.

The Google Webmaster Live Chat session agenda:

• INTRO: A quick hello from some of your favorite Help Group Guides
• PRESO: A presentation on Personalization in Google Search by our own John Mueller.
• FAQs: We’re calling this “Three for Three,” and we’ll have three different Googlers tackling three different issues we’ve seen come up in the Group recently. What will they be? You’ll just have to attend the chat to find out!
• And lots of Q&A! You’ll have a chance to type questions during the entire session, and we’ll pick as many as we can to answer in writing and in speaking during the chat.

The Great SEMPO NY Debate agenda:

• Average life of the agency-client relationship
• Satisfaction levels of SEO and PPC agency work (SEMPO data points to be provided)
• Effects of agency consolidation
• Moves by the major search engines to work directly with brands
• Moves by the major search engines to better work with agencies
• Dearth of PPC and SEO talent in the market
• Skills required for in-house vs. agency staff (and how to acquire such skills)
• Cost analysis (staff, education, tools, etc): building an in-house team vs. outsourcing
• Hybrid models

Postscript: Here is a video from the SEMPO event:

The fix is in, the votes have been counted, and the winners determined in the 2007 Rubber Chicken Award for Humor (aka the Columbo) in the search industry. And the winners are:

The Judges’ Choice Award: Top 21 Signs You Need a Break From SEO (2007 version) Matt MccGee – Small Business SEM

The People’s Choice Award: Google Interiors: The day my house became searchable – Sandra Niehaus – Closed Loop Marketing

Runner Ups (in no particular order and for the purposes of this contest tied for 2nd):

• 13 Things to Do When Your Loved One is Away at Conferences – Mystery Guest, SEOMoz

• The Sphinn Awards – Part I and Part II – Jeff Quipp, Search Engine People & David Harry, Huomah.com
• SEOs home alone – Google’s Nightmare – Sebastian, Sebastian’s Pamphlets
• 10 Signs That You May Be a Blog Addict – David Wallace, SearchRank

The Other Finalists (and all winners just the same):

• Want traffic? Rank for High Traffic Keywords

• We Add Words to AdWords… Google Subtracts them
• Why eBay and Wikipedia rule Google SERPs,
• SEO High School Confidential – Premiere Edition!
• The SEO’s Guide to Beginners
• The Internet Marketer’s Nightmare
• Mission Accomplished: Top Ranking in Google

Your rubber chicken or surrogate will be mailed to you shortly.

Mike Blumenthal is a student of life, political economy and local search. He writes the blog Understanding Google Maps and Yahoo Local Search and is a partner in a small web design company in upstate NY.

Like the work we do here on Search Engine Land? Then we’d love your vote in the 2007 Search Blog Awards that Search Engine Journal is having. We’re nominated in several categories, as are some of our people here at SEL. Here’s a rundown on the awards overall:

• Best SEO Blog of 2007
  (our news editor, Barry Schwartz, also runs Search Engine Roundtable, which is nominated in this category)
   
• Best Search Industry News Blog of 2007
  (Search Engine Land is nominated here, and your vote is appreciated!)
   
• Best Overall Search Marketing Blog of 2007
  (Search Engine Land is also nominated here)
   
• Best SEO Plugin for Wordpress
   
• Best Link Building Blog of 2007
   
• Best Social Media Marketing or Optimization Blog
   
• Best Local Search Blog
   
• Best Google Blog Not Owned by Google
   
• Best Search Engine Corporate Blog (owned by the search engines)
   
• Best Contextual Advertising Blog
   
• Best Affiliate Marketing Blog
   
• Best Search Engine Community/Forum
  (our Sphinn forums launched this year are nominated!)
   
• Best Search Engine Research Blog
   
• Breakout Blog of 2007
  (our features editor, Vanessa Fox, had her blog nominated here)
   
• Best Search Conference Coverage of 2007
  (Barry will cry if Search Engine Roundtable doesn’t win)
   
• Best Search Conference Coverage in Photos
   
• Best Search Marketing Facebook Group
   
• Most Giving Search Blogger
  (Aw, Barry and I both got nominated)

At Search Engine Roundtable, Barry’s done a short list of his picks for awards. Can’t decide? One nice thing is that you don’t have to. Voting is on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being best — so you can give several blogs in a particular category high marks, if you want to.

Patrick Sexton at SEOish created a Sphinn Google Gadget that you can add to your Google Personalized Home page. The Sphinn Google Gadget displays the most recent hot items at Sphinn, the what’s new items, and also the most recent comments. To add the Sphinn Google Gadget to your Google home page, click here.

After you click on that link, Google will take you to a confirmation page that looks like this:

After you confirm by clicking “Add to Google,” Google will take you to the Google home page with the gadget on your front page:

Don’t use Google’s personalize home page? Well, Patrick also made a Sphinn Facebook Application that you can add to your Facebook profile.

I’ve meant for ages to put a plug in for Search Marketing Standard, the print magazine that Boris Mordkovich started in 2006. Since then, it has continued on each quarter, and it’s pretty cool to see search marketing articles playing out in print. Boris is on a readership campaign with some special offers and has one for Search Engine Land readers that gives you an annual subscription for only $4.95 ($6.60 outside the US). Plus, each subscription purchased through the offer will generate a $1 donation to the Toys For Tots charity. So, need some print reading material? Go here and use 67SEL as your coupon code. This will work through Dec. 31, 2007.

Loren Baker and Search Engine Journal are once again holding nominations for the annual Search Blog Awards. The categories are below, and we’ll happily accept your nomination for any you find relevant. In particular, if you’d especially liked a particular blog post on Search Engine Land, we’d encourage you to put that in the running for Best Search Blog Post of 2007. Plus, be sure to pitch your favorite blogs in some of the other categories:

• Best SEO Blog
• Best SEM Blog
• Best SEO Plugin for Wordpress
• Best Search Agency Resource Blog
• Best Link Building Blog
• Best Social Media Marketing or Optimization Blog
• Best Local Search Blog
• Best Video Search Blog
• Best Mobile Search Blog
• Best Google Blog Not Owned by Google
• Best Search Engine Corporate Blog (owned by the search engines)
• Best Contextual Advertising Blog
• Best Affiliate Marketing Blog
• Best Search Engine Community/Forum
• Best New Search Engine of 2007
• Best Search Engine Research Blog
• Best Search Linkbait of 2007
• Breakout Blog of 2007
• Best Search Conference Coverage of 2007
• Best Search Conference Coverage in Photos
• Best Search Marketing Facebook Group
• Most Giving Search Blogger
• Best Independent Search Blog (not owned by media company or marketing agency)
• Best Search Blog Post of 2007

We’ve had a huge blogroll on Search Engine Land since we started last year. Inspired by some recent posts, I’ve now organized that massive list into categories, to make it easier for those looking to find some good blog reading. Below, a guide to our blogroll, designed to help those who want to seek out information directly. I’ll also cover some new tips and resources in tuning into search news via blogs along the way.

Search Engine Land Blogroll Categories

I’d resisted organizing the blogroll beyond basic alphabetization for ages, mainly because it’s so hard to stay on top of lists like this once you start categorizing things. In addition, categories are never perfect. However, I do think the attempt is worth the time, so I’ve finally bitten the bullet. Here’s a guide to the blogroll categories and why sites are listed in the order they are:

• Search News: These are places that keep you up to speed with the latest developments in search. I’ve really tried to focus on sites that stay regularly updated and focus entirely on search or where search is a good chunk of their coverage. The focus is also on NEWS, rather than commentary or tips, as I’ll get into below. That’s not to say you won’t find commentary or tips on these blogs (Search Engine Land, for example, has all three: news, tips, and commentary). However, I decided blogs could only exist in one category on the blogroll, and these sites are the heaviest on news.

  We’re listed first, as I think we provide the greatest concentration of fresh headlines about search. Search Engine Roundtable comes second as giving you the same but with a "heard on the street/forums" perspective. After that, I’ve listed the remaining sites in terms of how focused and fresh they are on search news. Please keep in mind that this isn’t precise, and the quality between the sites is very close. All are outstanding. I know those in charge of all these blogs, and I think of them far more as colleagues (esteemed ones at that) than competition.

  Below the links for this category are a set of links that will place all the Search News Blogs in an at-a-glance format on the iGoogle personalized home page, My Yahoo, Windows Live, Netvibes, and Pageflakes. This makes it easy to scan and see what the group collectively is reporting as major stories. An OPML file for the group is also listed, for those that want to roll their own application.
   

• Search Commentary: These sites might not keep up with search news right when it breaks, but they often have interesting commentary soon after it does. Check them out for that often valuable "post game" analysis. I’ve placed John Battelle first for those who might feel they have only time for once such site — John has outstanding observations. But all these sites have wonderful content and deserve attention.
   
• Search Marketing Advice: Looking for those tips on succeeding well with SEO, paid search, and search marketing in general? These sites make it their business to especially focus on tips and advice. SEOmoz is up tops. Yes, we have a cross-promotional arrangement with SEOmoz, as Rand Fishkin, who heads SEOmoz, recently explained. As he also explained, that doesn’t impact editorial decisions – and editorially, I’ve put SEOmoz first on the list because of the outstanding efforts the team has done there to try and break down search marketing for the beginner. But as with the other categories, the quality of all these sites is great.
   
• AOL, Ask.com, Google, Microsoft, & Yahoo Official Blogs: All the major search engines have official blogs where they often communicate important information. I’ve listed major ones that we watch in particular here at Search Engine Land. There may be more (especially in the case beyond Google – see here for more about that) than what’s listed in the blogroll.
   
• Conferences & Events: Gatherings are an important part of the search marketing world. These sites give you news about various prominent events or connect you with calendar listings so you can keep up on what’s coming. Search Engine Land’s own events, the SMX: Search Marketing Expo conference series and SMN: Search Marketing Now webinar series, are listed first. ‘Cause it’s our site :)
   
• Domaining: These sites focus on generating income through owning valuable domain names, which sometimes intersects with search marketing.
   
• Facebook: The darling of the social networking space has impacts on search, and these blogs track happenings with the Big F.
   
• Forums & Discussion Sites: If live gatherings are important to the search marketing world, then virtual gatherings at online forums are even more so. They’ve been going on since before live events happened, and much sharing and debate, along with plenty of community connection, happens at these places. Our own Sphinn site comes first since, yes, it’s our site. After that, everyone’s listed alphabetically, since the last thing I need is to update the various forum communities by suggesting one is more important than another. Indeed, it doesn’t matter if a forum is big or small — what matters is that it provides someone with a home, and these places do that.
   
• Google, Microsoft, & Yahoo Employee Blogs: More and more, those who work for the major search engines are also blogging outside official channels. Sometimes, this just lets you discover more about the humans behind the machines. Other times, there are tips and information to be had. I’ve definitely not listed all the employee blogs out there and likely am missing some important ones in terms of search — I’ll try and improve over the coming months. In the Google list, Matt Cutts comes first, as he is quite simply must reading for anyone who cares about SEO. Over at Yahoo, Jeremy Zawodny comes first, as I also consider him a must-read among the Yahoo bloggers. But the usual caveat — there’s great content beyond the top picks.
   
• Google & Microsoft News Blogs: Google is so huge in the search world that there are several blogs devoted only or mostly to Google itself. The first three I’ve listed do an especially outstanding job watching over the Big G. Microsoft also has a set of site just tracking its efforts.
   
• Humor: Everyone needs a laugh now and then, and these blogs poke fun at search and search marketing.
   
• Link Building Blogs: The focus here is on building links, and Eric Ward tops the list as being the earliest professional link builder on the internet, to my knowledge.
   
• Local & Map Blogs: The focus in this group is on local search and mapping.
   
• Old Fart SEO: It’s a compliment, really. Really (but if you disagree, let me know). Indeed, I suspect getting on this list will probably be a badge of honor to some. These are blogs where you can regularly find commentary relating to "old school" SEO and search marketing, often with a cynical and bemused tone. As opposed to the Search Marketing Advice categories, these tend to be blogs run by individuals, sharing their personal experiences and usually not worrying about maintaining a corporate tone. Greg Boser and Dave Naylor top the list as the old fartiest of SEOs I know. If you have a chance to talk with any of these people, do so and listen lots. Otherwise, read what they post.
   
• Paid Search & Contextual: This group focuses on buying and selling ad space through the search engines.
   
• Search Data & Analyst Blogs: These are good places to find numbers, if for some reason you feel lacking after browsing our own Search Stats category.
   
• Searching & Researching Blogs: Want to learn how to search better? Check these places out.
   
• SEM Companies & Individuals: These are blogs from companies and individuals who have had interesting things to say about search or are notable in other ways, though they might not blog on a regular basis.
   
• Search Podcasts: You can learn about search by listening, rather than reading. Check out these podcasts. My own Daily SearchCast comes first on the list, followed by news editor Barry Schwartz’s Search Pulse because of the whole it’s our site thing! Plus, they’re great shows – but definitely give the great shows a listen, too. Webmaster Radio comes last on the list, but that’s not because it should be last for consideration. It’s the opposite — we didn’t want it lost in the middle, when it’s one of the first places to go when seeking podcasts on marketing. Webmaster Radio, indeed, produces most of the podcasts on the list.
   
• Social Media Marketing: Learn more from these sites about that kissing cousin to SEO, social media marketing, which is growing as an essential skill needed for search success.
   
• Vertical Blogs: These are blogs focused in some particular area not listed above, so I’ve placed them in this catch-all category.
   
• Related News Sources: These sites don’t focus on search, but they often touch on search or have interesting stories related to search, from time-to-time. Check them out! Techmeme leads the list as an essential resource we consult throughout the day.
   
• Related Tech People: Similar to Related News Sources, these are individuals who might not be focused exclusively on search but whom still touch on it in interesting, informative, and sometimes controversial ways.
   
• Our Staff’s Personal Blogs: What Search Engine Land blog about when they aren’t blogging about search!
   
• Blog Compilations: These are places to get an overview of search news from across many or all of the blogs on the blogroll. SearchCap: Daily Search Recap is our daily newsletter that culls out the best, in our opinion, from everything on the blogroll above and more. We list it first because as our Feed & Information Overload? Read SearchCap! post explains, it’s especially designed to help the person who does NOT want to read over 100 blogs individually. SearchMonth is our corresponding monthly summary of search news. Down at the bottom is TopRank’s "Big List" that goes beyond our blogroll, covering hundreds of search marketing blogs. If what we list isn’t enough, check out that list!

Getting On The Blogroll

How do you get on the list? First and foremost, the blogs on the list tend to have written stuff that’s interesting on a regular basis. Most of them are either in the feeds I regularly read or the feeds of Search Engine Land news editor Barry Schwartz.

Can you ask to be included? Sure. Will that guarantee you get on? No, unless you’re doing as I said above, writing quality material on a regular basis.

In particular, if you’ve just started a blog, don’t email asking to get on the blog roll. Give yourself a month or two to build some content that makes it self-evident that you should be included. Also, you don’t have to list us in your blogroll to be included. But c’mon — if you’re asking to be on someone’s blogroll, you ought to think about linking back. I’m somewhat amazed, actually, at the number of requests I’ve gotten to be included from sites that have no blogroll at all.

More advice. The world does not need another general search marketing blog. Or maybe it does, but the odds of you getting noticed are harder if you don’t stand out in some way. Consider focusing on a particular topic. Build a space for yourself (there are plenty of vertical search areas not being covered in depth), and you can always branch out.

Finally, I KNOW there are important blogs that I want on the list that have been left off. Categorizing our existing list was a massive job. I added a number of new blogs, but there are more I plan to get to in the coming weeks, especially some of the good ones I’ve noticed through our Sphinn site.

Thanks & Inspiration

Evan Carmichael recently named Search Engine Land the top search marketing blog to watch in 2008, which was great to hear and another award to add to our growing bragroll. There were some others on his top 50 list that I thought should get added to our blogroll when another surprise came in.

That was being placed on the Original Signal: SEO page, which is a wonderful resource that lists several top search blogs all on one page, making it easy to scan headlines in an at-a-glance fashion. Check it out!

I meant to post about the new page but Lee Odden beat me to it at his TopRank Online Marketing Blog. His Search Engine Optimization News, Blogs and RSS Feed Aggregators post covers some additional tools, such as SEOmash, which also has long given an at-a-glance view of headlines. That’s gave me a few more gems to add to our list.

Then yesterday, Rand Fishkin published his Re-Ranking the SEO Blogosphere (and My Updated Firefox Sidebar) post, covering the top items that Rand visits on a regular basis — all nicely ranked and annotated. Aside from being a great source anyone should read, it was the final kick I needed to get our categorization going. And so here we are!