So, here we are: Downtown. Smith Tower. At first, I started this post with “When I started my company…” Then I slapped myself. This isn’t about me. Here’s what this move is about: A great team creating growth Portent’s been truly firing on all cylinders for a while now. I’m very hard on myself, and [...]

Today, Portent is moving to the Smith Tower. But before we can say hello to downtown Seattle, we have to say goodbye to Tukwila Life. If you’re unfamiliar with the phrase “That’s Tukwila Life” – it’s the motto of the city of Tukwila, where Portent has made it’s home for the last ten years or [...]

Business owners got a treat this morning as Google rolled out yet another update to its local platform, this time, ditching Google Places and replacing it with Google+ Local. This move completely integrates Google’s local listings with the current Google+ social network. Coincidentally, and equally newsworthy, Portent just happens to be moving to our new [...]

OK everyone. Take a deep, freaking breath. I can’t sneeze right now without spraying germs on someone’s attempt at a data-driven work of art. Here’s why the poster you paid someone $400 to make isn’t an infographic: Lack of clarity. Infographics should ease and speed the consumption of information. If you take something you can [...]

Finally, without sarcasm or other unhelpfulness, here’s a sample of how we do our SEO proposals: SEO Proposal Sample View more presentations from Ian Lurie Some things we do with all of our SEO proposals: Have some personality. I get a lot of pushback on this from ‘traditional’ marketers, but I feel pretty strongly that [...]

Yep. Uh-huh. Google’s busted. I just took a look at Google’s link profile and the big G is clearly running a link network. Check this out: They own all these sites—YouTube, Feedburner, Google.com, Google.co.uk, Google.co.up, Blogger.com and what do they do with them all? They link them to each other: It gets worse. They’re also [...]

Please note: I am not a server expert. This is stuff I figured out by bumbling around, crashing our server and generally wreaking havoc. Be careful, unless you want to see steam coming out of your IT team’s ears. I don’t want to shock anyone, but I’m a little obsessive. And competitive. No, really, it’s [...]

It’s free to sign up! AdWords charges you $5 for account activation. Don’t dump your entire AdWords account in. That’s just silly. Use the 80/20 rule. 20% of what you’re doing in Google can go over to adCenter. Just like a house fire, take only what you treasure most. Then accumulate later. There are settings [...]

They say you only get one chance to make a first impression. It’s true. On dates, with mother-in-laws and in business. Thankfully, I aced my first date with my husband and we currently live happily ever after. With two cats. One Keurig. No picket fence. Meeting a client for the first time is also like [...]

Last week, I did my first half-day seminar: Social Media Means Business. It was a great group, and we’re converting and editing the video (soon to be on sale on an internet near you) now. In the mean time, here are the slides I used. Gratuitous Meerkat picture included: Social media means business presentation View [...]