Back From Pubcon
I landed in Boston early this morning, back from my first Pubcon. I’m not sure I can say it was a life-changing event, but I did meet a few people and I learned a few cool tricks.
My overall impression is that if you’re reading this blog you’re probably way ahead of everyone else. A large number of attendees weren’t technical at all and wouldn’t know a 301 from a 404.
Here are a few of my notes:
If you need niche ideas, attend the site review sessions
The people who are naive enough to put their sites on review in front of a whole bunch of other webmasters (exposing their keywords, niches, strategies, etc.) are the same people who don’t know what they’re doing. I only went to a couple of these sessions, but one of the sites was ranking top 10 for a fairly competitive keyword even though the root of the domain was a javascript redirect! I’m building a handful of sites in that niche as I write this.
The first day was the best day
I asked around and there were mixed feelings on which day was the most useful. I guess it depends on your goals and experience level, but I found the first day to be the most informational. I liked the social networking sessions and came away with a few good ideas. Here’s my tip for anyone going to any conference: To get the most out of any of the sessions you have to listen to how the panelists are talking about the subject more than what they’re saying. If you can read between the lines you can get a better understanding of what they’re doing than they want to spell out in their presentations.
Matt Cutts has a tough job
He can’t go anywhere without being surrounded by 5-20 people. He gets asked the same questions 30 times per day. He has to remain diplomatic even though people are pushing his buttons to see if they can get more info out of him. I’m glad for him that Google’s stock is doing so well because I can’t imagine his salary is justifying the work he has to do.
The poker tournament was a good time
As I mentioned before, the poker tournament was a no lose proposition. I didn’t win, but I did come in 13th. Finishing four places out of the money hurts, but I was able to play poker with some really smart people including Neil Patel (who plays extremely loose, by the way) and Shoemoney (who came in second and owned a few of my chips). The complete rundown with pictures is here.
For those who are interested, I went all in with a short stack with 10-J suited, four away from the button. Two people called and the flop gave me an open ended straight draw with 8-9. I couldn’t get the Q or the 7, and the big blind who called with K-9 took it down. If I go again next year, the poker tournament will be a must play event.
All in all, Pubcon was a good time.
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Suited J-10 is a killer for me. I read once that if j-10 makes a straight it is always the high straight, so I always chase it.