WebmasterWorld is the leading source for Search Engine and Internet marketing news, best practices and educational events. Founded by Brett Tabke, an early ’80s innovator in running BBS (Bulletin Board Systems), the WebmasterWorld Forum began in 1996 and is now the largest community of online marketing professionals with more than 2 million posts and more than 100 discussion topics.

Network Solutions is represented by me  and Ben Cook our Search Engine Marketing expert. Conferences such as this help us keep in touch with the latest trends in online marketing, websites and ecommerce.

Day 1 started off with a Keynote by Tony Hsieh CEO of Zappos. Zappos grew from a small business selling shoes online to a Billion dollar company which Amazon acquired. ( http://blogs.zappos.com/amazonclosing ). Tony Hsieh clearly said that concentrating on company culture and defining the core values was the hallmark of success for Zappos. His advice is to concentrate on customer service, encourage all employees to use Twitterand be transparent.

The theme of Tony Hsieh’s talk was on “Delivering Happiness” also the title of  is forthcoming book. “What would you be happy doing for 10 years, even if you never made a dime?” Tony Hsieh asked the audience.Tony told me in a conversation ater his keynote that he had delivered the draft of his  book, “Delivering Happiness“, a few weeks ago to his publisher and is going to be published in 2010. he reads a lot of books and also told the audience that they can download a free copy of Tribal Leadership audio book he recmmends  from Zappos website: http://about.zappos.com/tribal

See more coverage of his keynote in this article by Amanda Finnegan Las Vegas Sun

The advantage of having a large number of bloggers at a conference is that there are several informative posts on the first day’s sessions and Search Engine Land did a great job making a list of Pubcon 2009 coverage of Day 1

I would like to recommend the coverage of the session Top Shelf SEO: Hot Topics and Trends by Lisa Barone

Pubcon Las Vegas Day 1: Twitter Sessions by Vertical Measures

Smart Keyword Research & Selection by Guillaume Bouchard

If you are here at PubCon Please say hi to me @shashib or Ben @skitzzo . Hope you will leave comments and questions on what you want us to cover when we go to conferences?

In this episode our stars were able to provide some great insight on managing the demands on your time when you add social media into your bag of marketing tools.

Some highlights include:

- You don’t have to write everyday. It is all about quality over quantity
- Figure out what you want to say
- If you are using social media to interface with customers you need to “be in the trenches”
- Evaluate paid advertising to drive traffic and awareness to your blog
- Carefully manage your resources
- Solicit content from your users and customers. Including guest posting, case studies and testimonials
- Ask yourself “what would you do for the next 10 years if you couldn’t make money”. That is the passion you have and that will show to your customers, even on a blog.

The stars in this episode include Chris Baggot, Rohit Bhargava, Toby Bloomberg, Chris Brogan, Paul Chaney, Tim Ferriss, Tony Hsieh, Jennifer Openshaw and Wendy Piersall.

Here is the full episode:

- Everyone should have a web presence
- If you are doing business beyond five miles from your office you need a least a web site
- Word of mouth is critical and the web helps in that
- At the very basic on your site should be directions and information on your business

The complete video is below. It is definitely worth watching a few times to get all these important goodies that these experts in the field can provide.

If you’ve been enjoying the events that we’ve been bringing you, then you will NOT want to miss this one! This one requires no travel you can attend it from the convenience of your office or home! We’ve created a free video conference that’s jam packed with insights & online marketing tips for small businesses!

Mark your calendar because on October 29 at 1 pm we’re providing the Solutions Stars Video Conference! Geoff Livingston, author of Now is Gone, & Network Solutions Social Media Swami Shashi Bellamkonda met with 32 top bloggers at BlogWorld Expo. We asked them to share their insights & tips on online marketing for small businesses for you. It was all captured on video & now we have a conference features nine different documentary style video sessions:

• Building Web Presence
• The Social Opportunity
• Start with Listening
• Strategy Drives Outreach
• You Need Social Networks
• To Blog or Not to Blog
• Visibility Through Search
• Rising Above the Noise
• Time Demands

In addition to the Solutions Stars Video Conference site, please visit the event pages on Facebook and Upcoming.

Here are the steps:

a) Bookmark this page – http://www.solutionsstarsvideo.com/

b) Create a calendar event for themselves

c) Choose the event time

d) Come up with good questions for the chat room

We’d love it if you’d grab a badge for your blog or site.