I wanted my first post to be about SMX East, because it was there that I decided it was time to make my online presence felt, at least a little bit more than not-at-all. I want to not have to introduce myself to at least one other person the next time I go. That is my goal, but not my only one. I also hope to provide some useful, quality content, that is not just link-worthy but constructive in some way.

Me at SMX East 2008

Here were my impressions after SMX East:

- The internal linking diagram presented by Leslie Rhode was extremely useful. It made thing really clear in my mind.

- However, the final QA with the search engines and the way in which they described using nofollow for internal linking left me a bit perplex, but Rand seemed quite confident about SEOMoz’s use of it, and so far I have had only good results with it.

- Seeing that well-known SEO’s are down-to-earth, I felt like there was a real community that could be relied upon for support. (I may sound naive here, but I am referring specifically to this SMX East, where people were not on Sphinn, but speaking to each other in-person.)

- Eric Ward just became my new SEO idol. He should be named the straight talk express of SEO. Definitely going to give send some link juice over his way (not that he needs any or that I have any to provide).

- I also met Brent Payne, from the Chicago Tribune, who’s got great online presence and a very cool guy. He helped plug in my MacBook at one of the presentations.

- It was nice to see that the search engines employ real people who have opinions and can give advice.

If you are still reading this, then take time to network if you wish. Visit my About Alhan page for links to my social media profiles and whatever else is on there.