Good Friday

Tomorrow is the kind of day that inspired me to start yet another blog.

There are plenty of great blogs out there about social media, internet marketing, search engine marketing...but not so many about being a parent in the middle of it all.

At noon on Good Friday, I'm meeting with my two associates about kicking off a mess of bigass SEM campaigns. We're also going to be discussing how their plans for tracking and testing need to dovetail with my marketing plan.

Oh...but did I mention that my 6 year old has no school tomorrow? And that the TWO sets of plans I made for him tomorrow both fell through?

Did I further mention that my 2 year old has an ear infection, so my husband and I actually haven't gotten anything remotely resembling good night's sleep since....Saturday?

This is what I'm talkin' about, people. Balance is a challenge for most working parents, but for those of us who actually put the kids first (and trust me - not all of us do!) it's a neverending feat, trying to strike that balance between doing a great job and being a great mom. For those of us who "get it", every day is another chance to get it right.

I'm not one of those moms who doses their kids with Motrin when they're running 103 so I can drop them at daycare and squeeze a few hours of work in (at their expense).

I feel actual guilt when I'm the last mom at aftercare pickup.

And I actually shut my laptop from the moment I get home from work until the kids are in bed (unless things are really dire at work - which is pretty rare).

I wouldn't work anywhere where I couldn't work from home if my kids were sick. I've got three boys with asthma, one with Aspergers Syndrome as well. If I can't flex, I'm looking for another job. Period.

So tomorrow inspired me. This is what what "Mom 2.0" is all about.

Post SES Malaise

I've been at SES New York all week, and I am BEAT. I was going to drive in and hit the Oldtimer's session this morning, but tunnel traffic had a 40 minute backup at 9, when it should be clear, so I gave up and worked from home instead.

I took the bus in for the show every day this week, and I have to tell you, I'm *still* a little car-sick. I knew I had some motion sickness issues, but I didn't realize what a wuss I truly was until Tuesday night. I really can't handle travel by road, unless I'm driving!

The show wasn't bad. It did a good job of fortifying the basics for me. But I do think I'm ready for SMX advanced next year. Here's a solid example of things I already knew that I learned three or four more times during SES:

• Match your landing pages to your search ads and keywords.
• Microsites are good in B2B search.
• Microsites are bad in B2B search.
• Test a lot.
• Short forms generally convert better than long ones.
• Use analytics and keep tabs on your highest performing keywords, your CPA, etc.
• Google STILL owns the lion's share of the search marketplace.
• SEO is important.
• Black Hat SEO is bad.
• Jason Calacanis doesn't hate SEO, he is an SEO. (Really. He said so himself.)
• Mahalo is good. (Says Jason)
• Viral marketing is good for building buzz.

And yes, it really did feel that basic, that disparate, and occasionally, that biased. I did learn some new stuff, but not much. I was particularly annoyed by the "Igniting Viral" session, which lumped WOM is as viral. I don't think WOM and viral are the same. "Elf Yourself" is viral. Blogs and Twitter are WOM. Agreed?

The best part of the show for me was hooking up with former co-workers from DigitalGrit. More on this in a later post, but it was AWESOME seeing everyone again.

WEGO Health Gets It Right

Media and PR Pros take note: If you want to know how to play nice with bloggers, follow the example of WEGO Health.

Apart from flattering me by acknowledging my asthma blog as a "leading" site in the space a few months back, they just invited me to participate in a survey on how they might improve their site to serve me, the blogger, better.

So, of course, what they really wanted to know was how I could serve THEM better...but they did it right!

Not only did they ask about my blog and how much traffic I have, how "influential" I am within the health community (not at all), etc...they also asked what kind of content and opportunities they could provide to keep me interested. Would I like discussions with healthcare leaders on the topics that interest me? (Yes) Would I like them to syndicate my blog? (Yes) Would I like to learn more about building traffic for my blog (Hmmm, I may know how to do that. I may not actually DO it, but I'm pretty sure I make a living doing that stuff.) Would I like to contribute to one of their blogs, or actively moderate a community of thousands? (Not particularly, but flattered you asked.)T

The survey was maybe 5-10 minutes long, but what a great effort. It was sent with a personalized email - and I mean personalized - referenced my last blog posts, asked how the kids were and everything!

I'm telling you, folks - the people at WEGO Health are GOOD.