Random Blog Posts

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You’ve heard me rant about strategy vs. tactics, and why tactics-only business relationships are getting marketing agencies fired. I’ve realized it’s a much bigger problem than that. If you look at the last 15 years, the drive to ‘productize’ services has ripped the guts out of any business that is paid for an individual’s craft… Read More

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We got challenged! Some colleagues challenged Portent in the Ice Bucket challenge. Here’s the video: We changed it up. Here’s why: ALSA has now raised $111 million. That is freaking fantastic. It’s a great cause. 5,000-6,000 people are diagnosed with ALS each year, impacting tens of thousands of people. 30,000 or more Americans live with… Read More

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This is a broader, hand-waving bit about Net Neutrality. If you want to see how it might affect small businesses, and what you can do to mitigate the problem, read Josh Patrice’s post. The debate about Net Neutrality isn’t as clear-cut as some would have you think. Here’s how Tim Wu defined it back in… Read More

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Shortest. Career change. Ever. It’s me, Ian! I’m back as CEO of Portent after six months as Chairman and Principal Consultant. I’m damned happy about it, too. Here’s why: We hit our goals. Steve came on board to get our business house in order. Frankly, I suck at that. Steve is great at it. He… Read More

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I’ve done some pretty awful presentations in my career. Here, I’ve pulled them all into a single, truly horrifying ‘ultimate’ slide deck. First, I pull them all together. Then I do the same presentation again, with annotations explaining where I goofed and how to avoid it.

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Today, Portent is 19 years old. It can now legally drink in Canada. I’ve screwed up a lot of stuff. But we’re still here, so I’ll give myself a small pat on the back. Clearly, we’ve done something right. If I could tell 26-year-old self 10 things to improve Portent’s first 19 years, here’s what… Read More

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Earlier this week, a ex-Portent employee-who-remains-a-fan sent me a note: Sure enough, it had happened again: Someone ripped off our site, images, text and all. They didn’t even bother to change the names. Apparently, we now have an office in Sydney: To me, there are three classes of plagiarists: The smart: They steal your copy,… Read More

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I wouldn’t be surprised if some people in the internet marketing industry secretly called me an “old hat” behind my back. I’ve been at Portent for ten years now so maybe I deserve that. The average tenure at a company these days is 4.6 years . Fewer than 10% of people my age stay at… Read More

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When we announced my job change, I figured it’d just slip by. Who’d care if I shuffled leadership at Portent? I’m just some guy. Man, was I in for a shock. I got literally thousands of ‘congrats,’ and hundreds of ‘WTFs?!!’ Which was flattering, and a little intimidating. Hopefully this explains the why, what and… Read More

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Update! Learn the ins and outs of a faster site in our Ultimate Guide to Site Speed We did a survey of every Affordable Care Act health benefits exchange, including Healthcare.gov. I expected to find deep, complicated server latency issues or similar. Instead, we found some of the most ridiculous, simple-to-fix, small issues that are… Read More

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Well, not really. First, PORTENT DID NOT POST THIS. We never would. The guys who did may have been joking, I guess? Hopefully? Understand: This is exactly the kind of shock-jockey crap that makes marketing a joke. It doesn’t just insult an entire religion. It also insults our intelligence. I somehow doubt that the Christian… Read More

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At first Google was just a search engine; then it started to get funny. Now, Google tricks, or “Easter Eggs,” lurk behind every Google search. The right keywords or an “I’m Feeling Lucky” search will often lead you to odd and awesome Google jokes. And Google Easter Eggs aren’t just in Search, you can also… Read More

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For three years, I got to work in an awesome professional setting at Portent. Sure, the office space wasn’t as nice when I first started in the outskirts of Seattle as it is now downtown. But that didn’t change the fact that I became part of a close-knit community which thrives in the office environment… Read More

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While we do love SEO, PPC, social, content, and Internet marketing in general, we’re more than that – we’re also people, people who love our pets. (I mean, we love them so much we built an entire Facebook app called the Kitten Moodinator.) So for this fun, furry, Friday post I present The Pets of… Read More

Internet Marketing

Most people hate public speaking, don’t they? Anecdotally, we hear that people would rather die than have to get up in front of a group of other human beings and make a presentation. I sure can relate to that! People who know me now might not believe this, but I grew up very shy and… Read More