Chris Hooley’s -ThinkBait-

Alcohol and popularity. What’s the deal? How are these things related? The only way to find out is to join the ultimate facebook group, Drinking Your Way to Popularity!

All the cool kids are doing it.

The best thing about it? You’re safe inside the walled garden that is Facebook. Nobody has to know your little secret… which is that you are a total drunk and so are your friends.

“This group is for all kinds of people who use beer, wine, or liquor to make themselves larger than life. Recreational drinkers, frat boys, business people who liquor up their clients and vendors, party animals, this is your home away from your home away from home, which should be your local bar.

Post pics and videos of puking, embarrassing photos of your friends (or enemies!), or any other alcohol related awesomeness. “

Sounds like the place to be! And the best part? If I know you, and you are my friend, you are automatically appointed an officer with a really cool name which undoubtedly will follow you around for the rest of your life.

Here’s the current role call of officers!

Chris Hooley

Doctor Drinkbait

Anna Rule (Toronto, ON)

Doctor Drinkbait’s Nurse of Love (AKA my girlfriend)

Jon Heinl (Phoenix)

Beer Bong Enthousiast

Skorp

Brewski Conquistador

Sara Hause (no network)

Drunk Chick with a Great Rack

Nicola Young (Glasgow)

Mexican

Gretchen Erle (Atlanta, GA)

Classy, professional Atlanta SEO.

Michael Buonomo (San Diego, CA)

Pony Keg Operations Specialist

Carolyn Shelby (Chicago, IL)

Perverted Beer Matron

Ken Savage (Lowell, MA)

Big Poppa Masshole

Dan Rezmovits (SUNY New Paltz)

New York Nugget Tugger

Rhea Drysdale (Jacksonville, FL)

Beer Monkey

Barbara Boser (Los Angeles, CA)

Boser’s Beer Babe

Rebecca Kelley (Washington)

ReBEERcca Kelley

Jill Sampey (New York, NY)

Chill Jill

David Wallace

Search Drank

Scott Willoughby (Seattle, WA)

Dave Naylor’s Eveil Drunken Twin

Michael A. Gray (Nassau County, NY)

BeerWolf

Lucas Ng (Australia)

Crocodile Mud Wrestler

Viper Edge (Chicago, IL)

Snake Bite Maker

Eddie Machado (Fort Lauderdale, FL)

Edible Underwear Model

David Brown (Bellingham, WA)

Bone Crusher

Brian Alpert (Washington, DC)

Drum Circle Jerker

Brett Tabke (Austin, TX)

Pubmaster

Robert Garcia (Miami, FL)

Rum Runner

Kelvin Newman (Brighton and Hove)

Beer Jockey

Michael McDonald (Lexington, KY)

Rage Reporter

Pete Wailes (London)

Pianist (not to be confused with “Penist”)

Aussie Webmaster (New York, NY)

Foster’s Importer

Danielle Winfield (New York, NY)

Exotic Beer Maiden

Barry Schwartz (no network)

Cartoon Beery

Ekrum Ashgar (London)

Ex Raver, Current Rager

Greg Boser (Los Angeles, CA)

Dark Beer Elitist

So get off your butt and get down with the crew. Facebook is in the house, drinks are in the house, Doctor DrinkBait is IN THE HOUSE! Get moving people!

Jarrod over at TextLinkBrokers and David Wallace from SearchRank put together a cool “meeting of the minds” last night at Rock Bottom. After having a few drinks one thing became apparent to me: Phoenix is a hotbed for SEO, and whoever owns this SERP must be the best of the bunch (neener neeener neeeeener!!)

The boys from Submit a Website stopped by to spread the love, and my favorite Elite Rereat buddy Cygnus (Joe Sinkwitz) blessed us with his awesomeness as well. Jenny (Text Link Brokers’ Sales Manager) was the token female Phoenix SEO PubCrawl representative (crappy camera phone picture below)

As a group we decided that “Whatever happens at Phoenix SEO PubCrawl Stays at Phoenix SEO PubCrawl” so I will not be able to give you an in depth recap of all the juicy stuff that was shared. But I can say this, I’ll be going to the next one.

More is in the pipeline from this group. BTW: Phoenix SEO. (score!)

More than just an informative conference, more than just a schmooze and booze, the SES conference has become one of the paramount marketing and big business conferences. My experience at this conference was just short of amazing. I learned a few great marketing ideas, met a few great people, and drank a few (dozen) great gray goose and cranberry drinks (most of which where comped, thanks everybody!). The best part about it however, is that I met some great new people, some peers, and some I consider mentors in a sense.

The first and possibly coolest character I met all week, the DANIMAL (lol), had about a half dozen SEO and marketing gems. For his kindness, I decided to bring him along with me all week and let him get get in on some of the schmooze action that comes with being a large advertiser…. which basically means I let my vendors buy him drinks and good eats too :-)

Too bad this guy later ended up being the guy who violated me in a sumo suit (pics to come soon and more on that later… soooo funny).

In a quick elevator mugging, I spoke with the godfather of link building strategies, Eric Ward. I think I scared the crap out of him because I was like the raging drunken frat boy calling him the Larry Bird of link marketing. He responded kindly by giving me a few golden SEO tips that I had not yet thought of. If they pan out, I am sending the guy a check for the free consulting. I love how cool people are so open with the good ideas and advice and I think people deserve rewards for that kind of kindness.

In the past I worked with Morgan Carey, the infamous SEO Guy, as his web designer. It was neat to see how much success he has achieved in real estate web design. It was especially rewarding to finally sit down with the guy and have a few drinks and laughs. We had worked together years ago, and our meeting was really long overdue.

Another cool encounter was when I got a chance to speak to Aaron Wall, the SEO Rockstar author of the SEO Book. I found out he was building some sites in my vertical (student loans) so I was especially interested in his new ventures. It would be great if we had the chance to work together in the future, since I have seen his work and I know he one of the most capable SEO gurus.

I sat on a few sessions- I always love hearing Rand from SEOmoz and a few other key players speak. Some of them really know their stuff for sure. I also sat on a session with Chris Pirillo, the first Chris on Google (I am so jealous). That guy is a funny character. I am still thinking of a non intrusive, non offensive, non whorish way to beg the guy for a link to my blog with the anchor text of “Chris Hooley” from his site. We have the same first name, it just oozes relevance :-)

Now to the point… PARTIES!! So much awesome.

Ask.com was good, but millionaires need to learn to use deodorant! I couldn’t stand too long in that pungent environment, even if the open bar was rocking. YPN! was ok, but it crashed by the time I got there and I ended up getting the scrap food. I was not invited to the Hitwise party, but those guys bought me mucho drinks pretty much all week so I let their slyness slide. Google Dance is always a ball- the dancing robots where pretty funny… but the one party that MOST rocked was easily the WebMasterRadio.fm Search Bash! Those guys always throw the rockingest parties! They had open bar, girls dancing on poles, sumo suit fights (one of which I was involved in) and some of my favorite people in the industry hanging out… David Wallace from SearchRank, Liana Evans, Wendy and Jillian from Kanoodle, SEO Guy and his crew, Dan, my co-worker Rob, my new friend Justin from Karcher Media, and all kinds of other awesome peoples. All in all it was a BLAST!

I can’t wait for the next conference. I love this stuff!