Twitter is the opportunity for bloggers and nerds to chat WHEN they want to - I can chat on aim, or yim, or msn or whatever, but everytime I log on for work, or decide to leave it on and get busy, I feel like a dick when I don’t actually get to screw around and talk with friends or fun random people I met. Twitter gives you the opportunity to do that when you want to (and tell the whole world about it), so you can screw around on your own time, as well as tell people when you’re eating dinner or texting and driving. Twitter is nearly real time communication - but only if you really want it to be. That, and all the other seo folks use it…peer pressure is the main reason I did. I like to be cool. And if you’re not on twitter…you’re just really not geek cool.

by: Joseph O’Connor & John Seymour

Subtitle: Psychological Skills for Understanding and Influencing People

Interpreted Thesis:

"NLP is the art and science of excellence, derived from studying how top
people in different fields obtain their outstanding results."

"The purpose of NLP is to increase human choice and freedom."

"The development of a rich awareness in each of our physical senses is
sensory acuity, and an explicit goal of NLP training."

*Note
I originally typed this entire post out about 6 - 8 months ago. When it was
nearly complete (probably 4-5k words), it got deleted entirely. I was obviously
completely distraught, and it’s one of the reasons I haven’t blogged in quite
a while. The book, however was really SO good that I felt I had to redo it.
In fact, I’ve re-read the book several times since then. I’ve also read a few
other books on the subject, but none of the others had the down to earth approach
that really seemed to teach me so much that this one did. The book is actually
out of print - with some copies selling upwards of $100 - $200 (for a while
when I last checked the cheapest one was $50). It seemed to say something about
the quality of the book, to me, if the demand for it was this high.

Editorial:

This is a fantastic introduction to Neuro Linguistic Programming. It has a
ton of bookmark worthy content, and my copy is filled with dog ears from reading
repeated times. Since we are constantly bombarded by media from every direction
at nearly all times - it’s important to have selective filters about what you
consume. NLP arms you with the filters for perception, and encourages you to
maximize your mental cpu cycles.

Topics:

-Neuro Linguistic Processing
-Communication
-Psychology
-Self Improvement

Key Terminology

Anchoring - The process by which any stimulus or representation (external or
internal) gets connected to and triggers a response. Anchors can occur naturally
or be set up intentionally.

Congruence - State of being unified, and completely sincere, with all aspects
ofa person working together toward an outcome.

Content Reframing - Taking a statement and giving it another meaning, by asking,
‘Where would this be an appropriate response?’

Eye Accessing Cues - Movements of the eyes in certain directions which indicate
visual, auditory, or kinesthetic thinking.

Frame - Set a context or way of perceiving something

Future pace - Metnally rehearsing an outcome to ensure that the desired behaviour
will occur.

Reframing - Formal process to stop unwanted behaviour by providing better alternatives.
-or- Changing the frame of reference round a statement to give it another meaning.

Quotes - I read something once that had the definition of the quotes pattern
as talking as if someone else was telling the story.

Quotes from dog-eared pages:

Reasonable men adapt themselve to the world.
Unreasonable men adapt the world to themselves.
That’s why all progress depends on unreasonable men.
-George Bernard Shaw

NLP is the art and science of excellence, derived from studying how top people
in different fields obtain their outstanding results.

A photograph never was the person.
A stepping stone is not the journey.
A musical score is not the sound.
There is no magic, only magicians and people’s perceptions.

An artist, a lumberjack and a botanist taking a stroll through a wood will
have very different experiences and notice very different things. If you go
through the worldlooking for excellence, you find excellence. If you go through
the world looking for problems you will find problems. Or as the Arabic saying
puts it, " What a piece of bread looks like depends on whether you are
hungry or not."

Some of the NLP basic filters are often referred to as Behavioural Frames.
These are ways fo thinking about how you act. The first is an orientation towards
outcomes rather than problems.

The Four Stages of Learning:
1.Unconcious Incompetence
2.Conscious Incompetence
3.Conscious Competence
4.Unconscious Competence

Outcomes Summary
You can remember this from the mnemonic ‘POSERS’ spelt out by the letters:
Positive
Own part
Specific
Evidence
Resources
Size

Representational Systems:
Visual - sight
Auditory - hearing
Kinesthetic - touch/feeling
Olfactory - smell
Gustatory - taste

Eye accessing cues
Straight - visualization
Up/right - visual constructed images
Right - constructed sounds
Down/right - kinesthetic/ feelings
Up/left - visual remembered images
Left - Remembered sounds
Down/left - Internal dialogue

Visual memory questions:
1. What colour is your front door?
2. What do you see on your journey to the nearest shop?
3. How do stripes go round a tiger’s body?

Visual construction questions:
1. What would your bedroom look like with pink spotted wallpaper?
2. If a map is upside down, which direction is southeast?
3. Imagine a purple triangle inside a read square.

Auditory memory questions:
1. Can you hear your favorite piece of music in your mind?
2. Which door slams loudest in your house?
3. What is the sound of the engaged (busy) tone on your phone?

Internal dialogue questions:
1.What tone of voice do you use when you talk to yourself?
2. Recite a nursery rhyme silenty.
3.When you talk to yourself, where does the sound come from?

Kinesthetic questions:
1. What does it feel like when you put on wet socks?
2. What is it like to put your foot into a cold swimming pool?
3. How do you feel after a good meal?

Changing submodalities is a matter of personal experience, difficult to convey
in words. Theory is arguable, experience is convincing. You can be the director
of your own mental film show and decide how you want to think, rather than be
at the mercy of the representations that seem to arise of their own accord.
Like television in summer, the brain shows a lot of repeats, many of which are
old, and not very good films. You do not have to watch them.

Lists of Sensory-based words and phrases

Visual
Look, picture, focus, imagination, insight, scene, blank, visualize, perspective,
shine, reflect, clarify, examine, eye, focus, foresee, illusion, illustrate,
notice, outlook, reveal, preview, see, show, survey, vision, watch, reveal,
hazy, dark.

Auditory
Say, accent, rhythm, loud, tone, resonate, sound, monotonous, deaf, ring, ask,
accent, audible, clear, discuss, proclaim, remark, listen, ring, shout, speechless,
vocal, tell, silence, dissonant, harmonious, shrill, quiet, dumb.

Kinesthetic
Touch, handle, contact, push, rub, solid, warm, cold, rough, tackle, push, pressure,
sensitive, stress, tangible, tension, touch, concrete, gentle, grasp, hold,
scrape, solid, suffer, heavy, smooth.

Neutral
Decide, think remember, know, meditate, recognize, attend, understand, evaluate,
process, decide, learn, motivate, change, conscious, consider

Olfactory
Scented, stale, fishy, nosy, fragrant, smoky, fresh

Gustatory
Sour, flavour, bitter, taste, salty, juicy, sweet

Anchoring Resourceful States Summary
1. Identify the situation where you want to be more resourceful
2. Identify the particular resource you want, e.g. confidence
3. Check the resource really is appropriate
4. Find an occassion in your life when you had that resource.
5. Select the anchors you are going to use in each of the three main representational
systems; something you see, hear, and feel.
6. Step into another location and in your imagination put yourself fully back
into the expreience of that resourceful state. Re-experience it again. When
it has peaked, change state and step out of it.
7. Re-experience your resource state and as it comes to peak, connect the three
anchors. Hold the state for as long as you want, then change state.
8. Test the association by firing the anchors and confirming that you do indeed
go into the state.
9. Identify the signal that le’s you know you are in a problem situation where
you want to use your resource. This signal will remind you to use your anchor

Unified Field of NLP (Robert Dilts) for
a salesman:

1. Spiritual -
2. Identity - i am a good salesman
3. Belief - if i do well at sales, i could be promoted
4. Capability - i can sell this product to people
5. Behaviour - i made that sale today
6. Environment - this neighborhood is a good area for
   my work in selling

However, because only moving black objects are recognized
as food, a frog will starve to death in a box of dead flies. So perceptual filters
that are too narrow and too efficient can starve us of good experiences, weven
when we are surrounded by exciting possibilities, because they are not recognized
as such.

Meta Model Patterns and their questions -

Deletions:

• Unspecified Noun - ‘Who or what specifically…?’
• Unspecified Verb - ‘How specifically is this happening?’
• Comparison - ‘Compared with what?’
• Judgement - ‘Who says…?’
• Nominalization - ‘How is this being done?’

Generalizations:

• Modal Operator of Possibility - ‘What prevents you…?’
• Modal Operator of Necessity - ‘What would happen if you did/didn’t?’
• Universal Quantifier - ‘Always? Never? Everyone?’

Distortions

• Complex Equivalence - ‘How does this mean that?’
• Presupposition - ‘What leads you to believe that…?’
• Cause and Effect - ‘How exactly do you make yourself do this…?’
• Mind Reading - ‘How do you know?’

Ambiguity is one such method. What you say can be soundly ambiguous. Like the
last sentence. Does ’soundly’ here mean definitely or phonetically? Hear, it
means the latter, and it’s a good example of one word carrying two meanings.
Another example would be, ‘When you experience insecurity… (In security?)’
There are many words that have different meanings but sound the same… there/they’re…
nose/knows. It is difficult to right/ write phonological ambiguity

Note: Two other types of ambiguity include - syntactic and punctuation ambiguity.

There is an interesting pattern known as ‘quotes’. You can say anything if
you first set up a context where it is not really you saying it. The easiest
way to do this is by telling a story where someone says the message you want
to convey, and mark it out in some way from the rest of the story.

I am reminded of a time when we did a seminar on these patterns. One of the
participants came up to us afterwards, and we asked him during hte course of
the conversation if he had heard of the quotes pattern. He said, ‘Yes. It was
funny how that happened. I was walking down a street a couple weeks ago and
a complete stranger came up to me and said, "Isn’t this quotes pattern
interesting?"

Conversational postulates - Questions that literally only require a yes/no
answer, yet actually draw a response. Examples: ‘Is the door still open?’ (Shut
the door)

The story of the prince and the magician.

There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. - William Shakespeare

We are not reatreating, said a general, we are advancing backwards.

The Prince and the Magician - an awesome narrative that summarizes a lot of the concepts of NLP in a short story. Originally published in The Magus.

Six Step Reframing

1. Identify the behavior or response to be changed
2. Establish communication with the part responsible for the behavior
3. Seperate the positive intention from the behaviour
4. Ask your creative part to generate new ways thta will accomplish the same
   purpose
5. Ask the X part if it will agree to use the new choices rather than the old
   behaviour over the next few weeks
6. Ecological check (make sure there are no other parts that may object ot
   the new choices)

Application to SEO:

NLP seemed to go well beyond SEO for me. It has become more a philosophy that
has helped to structure my way of life in being more solution oriented than
problem oriented. If you tell someone NOT to think about purple and green striped
flying monkeys, it is the ONLY thing the will think about until given an alternative.
NLP focuses on giving you alternatives for your line of thinking, which in turn
gives you more choice in behavior.

There are certainly plenty of applications for NLP to SEO, though I see it
more as ability to become a better teacher, consultant, or communicator. NLP
is truly a fascinating topic, and the understanding is something that will most
likely enrich your life far beyond just search. Any understanding of human thought
patterns really help with search and user behavior, but this book will help
beyond search into your everyday interactions in life (assuming you get off
the computer every now and then).

Closing Notes

I’d encourage anyone to read this book - in case you didn’t get that. Maybe
one day I’ll do a list of resourceful NLP links.

7 things you could learn:

1. People will find your social media profiles.

2. Sometimes there’s no such thing as bad publicity.

3. Once you HAVE to delete stuff it’s probably too late.

4. You should probably be aware of who your publicly elected officials are.

5. You can delete some stuff from your social profiles like Myspace, Facebook, Blogger etc. (how to become “webdead” in pictures)

6. Sex definitely helps a singing career.

7. Whores get the most traffic:)

I’m sure Ashley will make out okay after the initial embarrassment - and good for her.

People that are most happy about this:
-Barack Obama
-Republicans
-Ashley’s new agent
-Emperor’s club (advertising is a cost of doing business)
-Late night talk show hosts
-Comedians
-The media

Have a bunch of links just in case you love drama:

• Web Pro news - client 9 aka ninavenetta profile deleted
• Kristen and the emperor - Australia
• Reuters on the Spitzer sex scandal
• Eliot and his hot singer - from the UK
• Was Spitzer destined to fail? - Time.com
• NPR on Eliot Spitzer

More Spitzer/Kristen drama at google news

1. Spam people with lots of business cards.
We definitely all need more business cards. I’m not a filthy prius driving hippy, but fer’ cryin’ out loud, save a tree, and don’t hand everyone in the group a card the moment you join the conversation. Double jerk points for acting like you’re an escort affiliate in vegas and handing out stickers or cards at the exit at the end of sessions.

2. Be the pushy salesguy
ABC - Always be cobbling (vid). Yes, the new company you’re with is awesome. Give me a good pitch in the morning after three days of hangovers, and interest me in thirty seconds or less and we’ll talk. Put that cocoa down Shelly Levine. Cocoa is for cobblers only. I’m sure you’ll do well selling Rio Rancho and your rank checker software on your next batch of cold calls.

3. The guy with LOTS of “awesome ideas”
It’s very likely that cookie stuffing users with games that are pogo-clones is a profitable business model. It doesn’t mean anyone will want to do your SEO for half of your big bucks. We get it, your ideas are incredible, and you’re going to be rich, and we should absolutely be your slave for 6 years doing the grunt work on your pyramid bingo scheme. Praise Jeebus for your miraculous ingenuity and lack of startup capital.

4. The guy soliciting people to write for free
You have a blog. We get it…you need content and links, and long for acceptance on sphinn. It will be the best - most unique content ever, because there’s definitely not enough SEO blogs on the web.

5. The guy that drinks to much
Before you know anyone, act like Neil when he learns hitting the top of beer bottles makes carbonated beverages explode. It IS funny to see someone’s beer spray all over them, and you should be the one to prove it to everybody. Try to go shot for shot with Rae, Boser, or Dave, because they’re lightweights and can’t drink much. Disregard the rules of SEO club, and proceed to make an ass of yourself (see number 6). Blab about all your sites and great ideas - be sure to tell everyone the best most secret (and spammiest) ones. Wake up with no revenue streams, respect, and a headache when you realize you missed the first 4 hours of a conference that you paid over two grand to attend. Those last 6 shots of petrone were totally worth it, and and offering to pay the thousand dollar bar tab on your bosses expense account was an excellent idea. Nothing says professionalism like binge drinking to the point of blacking out and vomiting.

6. Don’t have a mint and be a close talker
Nothing quite as wonderful and pleasant as the fragrant smell of ass breath with someone standing uncomfortably close blabbing about how cool they are.

7. Ask 17 questions that have been answered already during Q and A
Hi, I’m Peter K… from www.IamADouchebagRealtor.com - I have a site where I try to bleed people out of all the money I can in the San Francisco Bay Area. I have one question I’d like to ask in 17 parts (credit Matt for the joke). I will be certain to tell everyone my domain in every session that I attend where I grab the mic from the moderator and ask questions that pertain to no one but myself.

8. Barge in on conversations
There is no business done at these events, and people rarely know each other. They are all there to meet YOU. After all - it’s all about you.

9. Stalk a Femozzer (or any other female in the industry)
Girls love it when you email them lots of times after getting their card. Text and facebook messages work well too. Then be sure to write a blog post about them, and add them on every single social network site as your friend. It’s probably a good idea to try to get laid at an industry event (or the opposite), and no one will ever find out that you’re a creep and talk about you behind your back. As a backup plan, you can follow googlers everywhere asking to speak to Matt Cutts, and wondering why your payday loan site with blog spam links got banned from the index.

10. Ask SEO questions first
Why SHOULDN’T Todd Freisen write all your sites .htaccess 301 redirects for your site migration the first time he meets you? Michael Gray OWES you at least a dozen good linkbait ideas for your dental practice because after all, he posts his picture on the internet and talks about marketing on his blog. Just like David Hasselhoff owes you a ride in kit because you watched Knight Rider re-runs for 17 years (as well as that painfully commercial knock off mini movie). Don’t forget to ask Brent to create three or four linkbaits from you. He loves giving away free social media consulting.

11. Ask people what they do in the first 10 seconds you meet them
Don’t forget to ask how much money they make, their religious and political beliefs, and if their significant other enjoys a little butt play by the end of the first minute.

12. Give away secrets told in confidence
Parlaying secret information, and giving it away in your next conversation is a great way to get more information (or get beat up and ostracized for eternity).

13. Blog everything you hear in the bar
This is a given. If people say something outloud, it should end up on the internet…right?

14. Videotape people without permission
Chicks dig this. Forget privacy. Make gratuitous use of backside and cleavage shots as well. Try to get candid vids where people don’t know you’re video taping their business transactions and post them on youtube that evening.

15. Spam everyone that gave you a business card
No sense in giving out lots of business cards if you don’t GET lots of them as well. Have your intern input all the names, and then send at least a dozen emails to everyone on the list (make sure to CC everyone too!) about a new blog you’re starting in a month that currently just has a default wordpress theme. Follow up with requests to help you tweak your template and ask for guest posters.

And the NUMBER 1 way to be a conference douchebag - Act like you’re really cool - and do a video for the world to see, and act like an asshole:)

Maybe I’m fickle, but so are a lot of others who have been to lots of shows. A while ago, I did offer some some more positive tips on things you SHOULD do at an SEO conference.

I am a proud - card carrying

I would like to tag Rand and his Merry Mozzers, Aaron, Rae, Brad Geddes, Todd Friesen, and Greg Boser in hopes they will do a post to spread the word about the party.

Semantic differences based on brand size:

1. Small Brand – Cloaking

Big Brand – IP Delivery, Geo-targeting, User Experience Optimization, etc.

2. Small Brand – Cross Linking

Big Brand – Cross Promoting

3. Small Brand – Link BUYING

Big Brand – Strategic Media Placement

4. Small Brand – Doorway Pages

Big Brand – Landing Pages

5. Small Brand – Reciprocal Linking

Big Brand – Co-Branding

6. Small Brand – Social Media Marketing

Big Brand – Social Media Optimization

7. Small Brand – Scraping/ Made for Adsense

VC Money - Mahalo

When is Black Really White?
When your brand is big enough to handle the outing fallout unscathed.

What are your favorite examples of double standards for big guys vs. little guys in the online world or off?

Thanks to Rhea Drysdale for the cool image above.

The number one reason why this program is worth it - the TOOLS. These tools make me drool. These Tools are SICK. I could tell you about them here, but just go play with them. Many were in house tools that I LOVED while at WBP. Jim’s proficiency for writing incredible seo tools is part of what brought me to We Build Pages in the first place when I worked there. In addition to the tools, you get videos from some of the best in the business. I could probably carry on here for quite a while, but you can read all the promotional sales copy on the site. Having been a part of the program from the onset - and receiving no compensation UNLESS you signup through my link - I can unequivocally say that this is worth it. I know they will only continue to add incredible information to the program.

*while I don’t often use affiliate links on my site - it is pretty foolish not too. I would definitely suggest this program whether I get a cut on it or not - because the program and tools are definitely worth it. I also have an additional $500 off coupon - if you’re interested, drop me an email, and I’ll send over the code (not allowed to be published online).

I’m honored to be a nominee in several categories as well (including my favorite - the rant category).

Once 3-6 finalists in each category are selected, then they will be posted to the SEMMY site Friday January 18th for open public voting to decide the winners.

The 25 Judges

• Aaron Wall
• Andrew Shotland
• Andy Beal
• Andy Beard
• Barry Schwartz
• Bill Slawski
• Brad Geddes
• Chris Winfield
• Christine Churchill
• David Mihm
• Deb Mastaler
• Eric Enge
• Jeff Quipp
• Jennifer Laycock
• John Andrews
• Lee Odden
• Lisa Barone
• Logoworks
• Loren Baker
• Matt McGee
• Michael Gray
• Rand Fishkin
• Simon Heseltine
• Stoney deGeyter
• Sugarrae
• Tamar Weinberg
• Todd Malicoat
• Vanessa Fox

Thanks to Andy Beard for the list