Internet Events, Facebook Advertising, Internet Marketing and SEO

As any of you who know me at all know, I have not done SEO work for fortune 500 companies, or made $1,000,000 per year from SEO.

What I have done is make some incredible friends in this Internety industry.

My own sites have done fairly well also.

My bread and butter as most of you know is from being a chiropractor, and we are crazy busy.

I love pizza. I also try to eat healthy, and in La Jolla there is only one place that delivers salad to your office, and they are Extreme Pizza.

Well one day the owner who has delivered the pizza and salad to our office many, many times had stopped in. We got to talking about the Internet, and since he knows that our site is usually around #1 for La Jolla Chiropractic, I asked him how his site does in Google?

He said they paid a good amount each month in paid adds, but would love to do well in the free stuff. He also told me he had just spent around $1,000 for a print add that had resulted in virtually nothing.

I took a quick look in Google, and realized he did not even show up in Google Local, which as you know shows up higher than the organic listings most of the time.

I suggested that I help him for an hour in exchange for $500 worth of pizza and salads. I figured on my end it was a good pay, and on his end I could probably give him some ideas that would increase his sales by a lot more than $500 permantly, or as long as Google does what they are doing now.

He knew me allready, and trusted me, and agreed to the deal.

I cheated and actually put a few hours of work in ahead of time to make sure I could hit a home run. This was the first time I have ever been paid to do SEO, so wanted to make sure I delivered the goods.

First off, his site had all of the right characteristics to be number one, or close to number one in Google local.

The truth is I have pretty much cracked the code of what you need to do to be number one in Google local. I have promised a few people not to state publicly exactly how to do that 😉

What I found was a simple and easily overlooked error on his part, and it required nothing fishy, but pure shiny white hat SEO that would make Matt Cutts proud of me.

He had started to fill out the Google local application, but had failed to follow the final verification process at the end.

So when he arrived I sat down with him and I went over the basics of what we were looking at on the screen on Google. I showed him where his paid adds were, what the local area was, and what the organic was.

His store is the only place in La Jolla that delivers real quality pizza. I seriously love his pizza, and the salads are to die for! All of it is really healthy too, especially if you have them use extra meat to give it a higher protein to carb ratio.

The most valuable search term I could identify was simply “La Jolla Pizza Delivery” as this could generate a ton of revenue if he comes up on top.

We logged in to Google Local. Then we spent the hour coming up with really good terms, and interesting copy that sounded good to us to fill it out. I am by the way one of his better customers, so if it sounds good to me, it will probably sound good to his other customers too.

Then when we were done, we verified the listing.

It took a few weeks to show up, but now here it is!

Here is the full page today of Google for – la jolla pizza delivery

Here is a zoom in of the top of the local section

There it is, front row, center! Extreme Pizza.

I was quite proud of my little accomplishment. The client is thrilled. And I have lunch paid for, that will cover the next few months.

Here is the Extreme Pizza owner’s letter,

Dear DK

I really want to thank you for helping me start the process of marketing my restaurant Extreme Pizza. I have found the whole computer process to be overwhelming and daunting but you have done the quality work that I was looking for in the shortest of time. My time is limited and the expertise that you have has really made me appreciate the energy it takes to make a first class site. The work you did with Google has already resulted in increased sales and more satisfied customers.

Thank you,

Kevin Smith

P.S., I will be reporting my trade to the IRS as it is a taxable event, just in case anyone was wondering!

I just got a generous extra donation from one of the players of the poker tournament to make up the shortfall we had. I followed the payment over to his blog to see who it was. I recognized him immediately.

When the poker tournament was starting, there were suddenly a hundred little details that had to get handled in a about 5 minutes. This big, unassuming guy steps up and asks “What can I do to help?” I don’t know who he is, but I start giving him orders, “Take this over there!”, “See if you can get this machine connected to the net!”, and boom, boom he took care of them.

It’s moments like that when you are in the biggest need, that help is most appreciated.

I also read that a few days after the poker tournament his grandpa passed away. It is funny how an entire mans life, his loves, his hopes, his dreams, fears and triumphs can get summarized in a few paragraphs. There were some clues to a rich life though. A few basketball championships, working in a creamery, as a meat cutter, and having a heart transplant.

I am glad Brian got to have some fun the at the poker tournament the week before his grandfather passed. I am sure Jim would have enjoyed thinking about Brian sitting at the poker table his last week.

Those I have loved who have passed have mostly enjoyed the adventures I have had that I came and told them about, much more than me sitting at their side.

So to each of you who read this, go have a good adventure while you can. Life is precious and wonderful. Thanks to each of you who make my life so incredibly rich satisfying.

This is not link bait. Please consider this a link command. Pam is an unbelievably cute, smart, capable and downright nice person, and one of the hottest chicks in SEO.

(She is sitting right next to me and gave me permission to write that or I would not have dared as she is over 6 feet in heels)

She also happens to be a patient at my chiropractic office. I asked her about her page rank, and it appears that she doesn’t have any yet. Can you even imagine how cool it would be to give her a link, then see her in person, look at you through her beautiful brown eyes and give you a big thank you.

In reality she is teaching me tonight how to embed a video in my wordpress blog, so I thought I would give her some good PR 😉

This is the video that caused me to adore her. Don’t tell my wife, but don’t worry, my wife never reads this blog.

I hope you enjoy this! and feel free to give her a link at http://www.thatpamchick.com

She also likes comments, so hey follow me over there and let’s load her down with comments until her wordpress install breaks, why not?

Much Love,

dk

UPDATE
Lisa Ditlefsen has left a comment at Sphinn with a bit of a challange to my blog.

Here is Lisa’s picture

that I stole from Lisa’s SEO blog
Lisa sounds like an SEO expert, but then again, that is not what we are talking about here, are we?.

After all of the sponsors have gotten their shirts, we still have Poker shirts left over.

Of the ones that are left, they are going first to the winners of the Name the SEO contest.

They are also being sold to fund more money for the charities.

As soon as I see a size has sold out I will update the options on checkout.

If for any reason you purchase one and I find we have run out of your size, you will be immediately refunded through Pay Pal.

Buy a T-Shirt

To buy a T-Shirt or Shirts click here:

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Winners of the Name the SEO Contest

If you are one of the winners of the Name the SEO contest. You know you are a winner because you already commented at the contest! Just click below, pay the shipping cost, and in the notes section enter your e-mail address.

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dk

(Guest SEO Post by Taylor Pratt, who made it to the final table!)

So there I was at my poker table. $150 cash waiting in my hand for the buy-in. Beautiful women are walking around serving drinks. You can hear the sound of thousands of slot machines in the background. The dealer is to my left, and Shoemoney is to my right. Vegas in its prime.

It’s no wonder I’m nervous. This is my first major poker tournament. Hell, the only high stakes poker game I ever played in consisted of a $20 buy-in for beer money back in college. Somehow I knew this was going to be different: instead of losing $20, I was going to lose $150. I meant to bring along my sunglasses. I’m not actually sure why people wear them, but it seemed like the right idea. Fortunately for me, I forgot them back at the hotel. I would have looked like such a dweeb.

I hand over my cash to the dealer, and he pushes over a stack of chips – 2,000 to be exact. No limit holdem. My hands are shaking because I’m nervous, but I hide them under the table so no one will see. I get the bright idea to start playing with my chips. I saw the pros do it on TV. I knock over my entire stack by accident. Luckily no one saw.

I look at the two cards dealt to me: two of hearts and eight of clubs. Perfect. I look around and realize – I don’t get to see what everyone else has. And what are my odds for this hand? Should I raise? Crap. This isn’t like what they show on TV at all. I quickly fold. It is a technique I learned early on, and mastered throughout the tournament.

After one hour of play I had won one hand, and folded all the rest. I was above 2,000 at least but quickly falling behind. The first player has been knocked out and I give myself a pat on the back because I’m already doing better than usual.

As time rolls on I start to realize that I only need to win a hand or two an hour in order to stay in this thing. A fellow SEO joins my table. People are just coming back to their seats after the ten minute break. He leans in and says, “Do you have any idea what you’re doing?” But I know what he really meant, “Damn, you’re one hell of a poker player.” I respond with a head nod, and begin to demonstrate my dominance of the game. Folding left and right as my opponents fade into the abyss of the casino.

The time has finally come. It’s the final table. The two tables that were left merge into one. All of the players needed a tray to carry their chips over. Not me. All I needed was one hand. Instantly I knew this was going to be a problem. I was the “short stack” at the table. Two yellows, a handful of pinks, and a couple of black chips. I wasn’t sure how much that was, but I knew it wasn’t good.

 

 

Taylor in the Baseball cap at the final table.

The top nine players in the tournament finish with money. I was the big blind and already half of my stack was gone. Luckily I’m dealt pocket queens. “Time to double up,” I thought. A gentleman a few seats over goes all in. I chuckle to myself knowing I’m about to take him out. Some poor chap calls. Now everyone is looking at me. “I’m all in.” I flip over my pocket queens and see my opponents’ cards: one guy has 2 Jacks, and the other has an Ace and a Queen off suit. Things are looking good.

Here’s the flop. Two junk cards and an Ace. Blast! Somehow the tides have turned. I’m no longer winning this hand. I wait for the turn card and there is no Queen. My tournament life all rests on the river…nothing. I’m out. 10^th place- only one finish away from money. I politely collect my things, wish good luck upon my fellow players. They got lucky, real lucky.

MAJOR UPDATE!!!!

WIN DAN PERRY’S GOOGLE FRIDGE! OWN A PIECE OF HISTORY!

(Guest Post by Dan Perry who writes about Google, Golf, SEO and other things!)

Hey Dave,

I entered the poker tournament because I thought it would be a great networking event (which it was). Sometimes it’s tough to find a common ground to meet new people at conferences. Everyone migrates to their respective cliques, making it tough. Of course, the Friday Pubcon event is great for that, but I wasn’t able to stay for that, thus the Poker tourney for sure.

Got there early enough to watch the “real” poker players. The Travel Channel (I think) was recording a heads-up tournament between two pros. It was for the season finale of the WPT. I knew one of the guys (Allen Cunningham, who eventually won) so I watched them a while. The table was full of stacks of $100 bills. Gotta love that!

Finally got situated to play, and just sat down wherever seemed right. I ended up sitting next to TheMadHat, and meeting him for the first time. Great guy. Once we started, it really seemed to fly by. 5 ½ hours… really?

I remember switching tables about 3 or 4 times, which, in retrospect, is a good thing. One play I remember vividly was when I was ready to put Jon (from Manchester UK) all-in. We had been playing together for most of the night, and had actually become as good of friends as you can become in a few hours at a poker table. I had played pretty tight all night, and he had a handful, and took WAYYY too long to decide. Finally, he asked me “If I fold, will you show me your cards?”, and I agreed. Normally, I don’t show my cards, but since he was leaning the direction of folding, I felt it the right thing to do. I actually had a really good hand prior to the flop, but once the cards started appearing, my hand got weaker, but I was committed. He eventually folded, and I showed my 10 and Ace of Hearts. The table just about flipped. It wasn’t originally intended to be a bluff; it just sort of evolved into one. John ended up making the final table, and took 4^th Place.

Moving to the final table, and being seated next to Shoemoney was great. As soon as I sat down, I introduced myself, and he the same (I liked that he introduced himself as Jeremy; although he is a celebrity, the ego isn’t there, which is always welcome). He then said, after looking over the final table, that he picked me to win. Of course, I immediately told him to stop trying to jinx me! Anyway, great camaraderie, and a really great guy.

After the picture of the final table was taken, it kind of turned into a blur for awhile. I was seated at the right hand of the dealer, so I basically couldn’t see the entire left hand side of the table. I could see about 5 of the final 9 without having to move. I played pretty tight, and watched Jeremy’s stack just grow and grow. I’m sure there’s a picture somewhere, but his stacks of chips were HUGE! Of course, at the same time, mine were dwindling.

So much of this game is luck. At the point where your chips are getting low enough that you’re contemplating going all-in, my cards always seemed to be great. I went all-in, and won a big pot, which put me back in position to play tight and let everyone else just start fading away.

When it got down to heads up with Jeremy, again he picked me to win, and this was with significantly more chips than I had. Again, I told him to stop trying to jinx me, but I think he was being sincere.

At one point, I actually felt kind of bad for him. He had Lasik a couple days before, so he could barely see the cards in the middle of the table, and in addition, his cheering section had grown to a point where it was distracting for him. He actually asked a few people to back off a little as they were crowding him. It was much easier for me as the underdog; no pressure and no distractions.

In the end, I started building my chip pile up again, and betting much more aggressively. My raises were at least $20k or $25k each for quite awhile. When your heads-up, you have to remember that sometimes, a 10-2 off-suited may be a good hand. All you have to do is beat the other guy, and he may have a 9-4 off suited. This type of hand happened quite a bit near the end.

I don’t remember what cards I had for the final hand. All I remember is that Jeremy couldn’t have been more gracious. I don’t think I’ve shaken one person’s hand so many times in a period of 20 minutes in my life. I tipped the crew at the table $95, and gave an extra $500 to the wife of the fireman who passed, and walked out with $2600, a hell of a lot of free burrito cards (from Chipotle, which my wife and I LOVE), and the biggest smile in Vegas.

—

Dan Perry

Note from dk – Were you the happiest SEO in Vegas? Got a poker story from the event? I would love to post it here!

Poker tournament Pics and win a shirt here.

Werewolf at Pubcon here.

Read about the charities here.

Below is the accounting of the finances from the SEO Poker Tournament. From the feedback it was one favorite events from any of the SEO conferences.

I am posting what is almost all the financial transactions that will take place before, during, and after the conference. I will update this post periodically as the final transactions are completed. The expenses will be marked paid as they are paid.

Income (all collected)

Players fees received after Paypal costs $4244.38

Sponsor Fee after Paypal fee $1465.86

Sponsor Fee after Paypal fee $1465.86

Sponsor Fee after Paypal fee $ 904.95

Dan’s $500 extra donation $ 500.00

for the firefighters wife!

Cash Donations $ 50.00

(Gave them free t-shirts)

Total Income as of 1/6/06 $8,631.05

Expenses

EventBrite (registration site) -82.35 (paid)

EventBrite -55 (paid)

Get Noticed Advertising for t-shirts first payment -1725 (paid)

Get Noticed Advertising for t-shirts second payment -2102.45 (paid)

tip to Valet at Venetian on poker night -1 (paid)Advertising playing cards handed out at Pubcon -175.99 (paid)

Software for players to practice texas holdem -14.95 (paid)

Shipping costs to send Sponsor 1 t-shirts -15.76 (paid)

Shipping costs to send Sponsor 2 t-shirts -56.79 (paid)

Shipping costs to send Sponsor 3 t-shirts ????? (paid)

Amount to be paid to Firefighters wife -848.88 (paid)

Extra amount from Dan to be paid to Firefighters wife -500 (paid)

Amount to be paid to burned Firefighters -848.88 (paid)

Amount paid to Criminon -848.88 (paid)

Amount paid to John Dau (rebuilding Sudan) -848.88 (paid)

School in India for better water and sanitation -848.88 (paid)

Note – The school allready got their project funded! Yehhhh!!

So instead the money is being donated to the Childrens Project School.

If you can take a minute to read this it will blow your mind.

Let’s see if you can read it and not cry, I couldn’t and still can’t.

Total Expenses $8836.34

So the whole thing shook out with me having done a bunch of work, and cost me out of my pocket some hundreds of dollars. Funnest money I ever spent.

Take a look at these Indian girls new computer and tell me if it was worth it. 🙂

I can’t even begin to tell you all what this event meant to me on every possible level. It was truly one of the great nights of my life.

Much Love,

dk

Hey All!

To see the Poker Tournament Pics or to win a T-shirt.

To read about or see pictures of the Werewolf at Pubcon.

To read about the charities.

I am still in awe of the event and the tournament. Thanks again to the first pubcon sponsors of a Poker Tournament.

Everyone I spoke to was thrilled about the event. The only two complaints I have heard about the entire event were a few people said that the waitress service was too infrequent, and one person complained that some of the pictures came out blurry.

The photos as mentioned were a last minnute action as I got permission from the Nevada Gaming Commision a short time before the event and did not have professional equipment for the photos.

As far as the cocktail waitress issue goes I have allready met with the poker director at the Venetian (more about this later) and she  and I have plans for mucho cocktail waitresses next year, plus something else that should add the capital f and the exclamation point to fun for the enent next year.

And yes, unless I am trampled by a herd of 600 pound bunnies, there will be an SEO poker event with a Pubcon sponsor or two next year.

Lots of people got involved with the Name the SEO contest to win a free t-shirt. There are still many unnamed SEO’s where a free t-shirt may be won. As soon as I have all of the photos up I will set it up so the winners can pay for shipping, and the shirts will roll out, assuming there are enough to go around.

Next week when I am back in the office, I will ship out the t-shirts to the sponsors who have waited patiently.

(FULL DISCLOSURE ON THE HANDLING OF THE MONEY BELOW)

I am still letting the money trickle in and the final expenses trickle out of the pay pal account set up for the event. Probably next week I will issue the initial checks to the charities for the majority of their payments, with a small check to each to follow in a few months when all the pennies have settled.

Overall the event still has a few expenses waiting to be covered that I have just covered myself that total maybe around $200. So unless someone can give me a compelling reason why not, I am going to give a few t-shirts to my freinds and keep a few myself, and then sell whatever t-shirts if any that are left after the above, and use the money to cover the few hundred bucks the tournament is still short. If there is any extra income after selling the t-shirts then it will be split amongst the charities with absolutely nothing going to myself excepts some uber cool t-shirts (do you think this site will rank for that?), some sweet photos, one of the best memories of my life, and a truckload of new friends.

By the way, if you got to the end of this post after all that financial disclosure stuff you were probably pretty into the tournament one way or another. I am listening to suggestions now for future SEO events of different types. So if you have any input send me an e-mail at dk = @ = purposeinc.com of course without the = signs.

Much Love,

Happy New Year,

dk

This is my full o’ photos post on the SEOMoz, Werewolf, Search Spam.

Here is the permalink for the werewolf search spam page.

This post will alternate with the Name The SEO page every few days for a while.

The accuracy of the below data is roughly as believable as my stories during the playing of the game. If you uncover any inaccuracies (which will be many), or would like to give me correct names, then please comment them at the bottom or e-mail me at:

(dk -at- purposeinc.com)

and I will edit and correct it.

After the Google get to know the engineers, those of us lucky enough to have registered on time (all were invited), went into a room where we found tables, M n M’s, and bar mix on the table, with a bar in the back. We were seated in groups of I think about 16 people.

It was one hell of an event, and I had the time of my life. Matt Cutts photos at the bottom of this page.

Each person was given a deck of cards, Thank You Rand, they were fricken awsome, and must have taken a lota, lota work to make!

Each group only needed one deck though to play.

This is Anna and her delightful husband. They both live in Russia, and he is a Britt, Cheers mate!

The rules are in Red Italics Below.

How to Play Search Spam
Objective of game:

Blackhats, your goal is to eliminate those do-gooder Whitehats.

Whitehats, your goal is to rid the world of those pesky Blackhats.

Game instructions:

1. Someone: pass out Search Spam cards (8+)

2. All: assign a Moderator

This was our moderator. He did a great job, until after the first game of one of our players refusing to stay dead, he gave up on us, and referred to us as being like a rowdy fraternity.

The below are actual photos of our moderator patiently explaining how to play, while we behaved like a group of 4th graders.

3. Mod: tell everyone to sleep, tell Blackhats to open eyes

Everyone in the group goes face down and pretends they are asleep. They pound on the table and make noise so that no one will hear any of the other activities about to take place.

Two or three of the people get cards stating they are black hat. No one at this point knows who anyone else is. The black hats are told by the moderator, to open their eyes. This is Rand telling the black hats to open their eyes so they can see who each other are.

4. Blackhats: open eyes, kill a Whitehat

The black hats then decide without speaking who they want to kill of the other folks, who since they are not black hat, must be white hats. It was at this moment that I made my fatal mistake. When as a black hat I opened my eyes, I stopped hitting the table, so the guy next to me knew that I was a black hat.

I later killed Mario before anyone else believed what he said. His brother was sitting on the other side of him, and was also a black hat. Mario never stood a chance. He was a good looking kid while he was still alive.

5. Mod: tell Blackhats to sleep, tell Reinclusion Requester to open eyes

At this point, one of the white hats will have looked at his card and seen that he is the Reinclusion Requester. This is in reference to the fact that some people, whose names will not be mentioned, who previously got busted for buying like 10,000 paid links, and then got kicked out of Google, were then able to clean up their act, and then ask Google to re-include them in their listings.

6. Requester: open eyes & save someone (saving self=acceptable)

The Requester (Reinclusion Requester) then is able to pick someone while no one else is looking that he wants to save. If for some reason the black hats killed this person, then the Requester can bring them back to life before the village awakens. The person he saves can be himself. On the card this is Danny Sullivan. The only person who knows for sure at the beginning who the Requester is, is the requester himself and the moderator.

7. Mod: tell Requester to sleep, tell Revealer of Hats to open eyes

The revealer of hats has the ability to point to one person each night at this point, and the moderator will tell him if the person he is pointing to is a black hat, or not. The revealer of hats card is Matt Cutts. The only person who knows for sure at the beginning who the Revealer is, is the revealer and the moderator.

8. Revealer: open eyes, pick someone to see if he’s a Blackhat

The Revealer will then pick someone and the moderator will tell him if the person is a black hat or not.

9. Mod: tell Revealer if he picked a Blackhat

This is where the moderator tells the Revealer if the person was a black hat or not.

10. Mod: tell Revealer to sleep, tell all to open eyes

The Revealer then goes to sleep, and then the entire villiage, black and white hats, all wake up.

11. All: awaken, find out who died

The moderator then points out who the black hats killed. If the person who was killed was also picked by Danny Sullivan, the reinclusion requestor, then no one dies. This was often done dramatically by Rand who would pull the person in their chair away from the table.

12. All: decide on who to kill

The white hats, with the black hats hidden amongst them, then decide who they think was the real black hat, and then lynch that person. This is where it got really fun. In our first round I was one of the black hats. I was guilty as hell.

My co-black hatter looked as innocent as a cream puff shown below. The look of innocence is on his face, but if you look deep into his eyes you will see they are as dark as coal.

These two below decided I was the black hat, but most people did not believe them.

When asked to defend myself I simply kept clicking pictures and saying that I was a shade of grey. I don’t pretend I was good lier which is why I think Brent was able to take my money so fast playing poker.

The person accused of being a black hat must give his defense, and then everyone votes. If you are accused and the majority votes to kill you, you are hung and out of the game. The variation in rules happens here as to whether you reveal your card at this time or keep it a secret. Our table never seemed to remember which version we were playing, which is partially why our moderator headed for the hills after our first game.

13. Lather, rinse, repeat

The person dies, you go to sleep, and the black hats wake up again, and all of the above steps are repeated.

14. Blackhats: last standing = you win!

I came real close to this, but with only three white hats left, they killed me!

15. Whitehats: kill Blackhats = you win!

Yeh, whatever……

16. All: sign up for SEOmoz Premium Membership = you win!

I am extremely grateful to Rand for his work and organization on this event. Bottom line, he has gotten a boat load of links from me, and tons of praise about his tournament. He is clearly a link baiter extraordinaire, and I’m not just saying it because he is thinner and better looking than I am.

So below are tons, and tons of pics. I will comment where I know a bit about what is happening in the photos.

I would love you to send me your stories of the Werewolf tournament so I can put them on this page. This was a historic event that will be talked about in the SEO world for decades to come. No shizzle.

Rand, schooling an early group in the night.

I think the werewolfs are choosing this guy to be killed. This is even funnier if you realize that the girl in the orange shirt is an attorney that is now working for Rand. 😉 She actually will not be suing anyone, but I believe will be writing a blog about webmaster legal issues.

The fact that the guy in the blue shirt now is sitting up, and the attorney is heads down, leads me to believe that they did something wrong. There was lots of this during the early part of learning the rules. By the end of the night, I still did not really understand what I was doing. ROFL

Somebody is getting woken up here.

Rand was moving around the room so fast, and was super animated. I love being around people like that.

This shirt alone is link bait. If I knew his site, I would have linked to it just because of the colors on the shirt. It is as if it is from an entirely different shirt universe than the other ones.

That is Rhea in the purple cut off on the edge of the photo.

This is just the funniest picture of them all. I can not tell you the names of any of the guys or even exactly what was being said, but I just love it.

I don’t know if this guy was a black hat, unlikely because there is only one out of the 16, or a reinclusion requester, or a revealer. This is what it looked like during the night, everyone head down, usually banging the table, and moaning.

I believe that is Taylor Pratt in the baseball cap on the left.

As the pubcon game wore on, the mood improved and everyone started to become a bit more jovial. These appear to be three black hats realizing they have the chance now to kill someone, or perhaps their fangs are still covered in blood after a recent kill.

I am not positive, but I think this picture catches Rand as he is pulling a recent kill by the black hats away from the table, just as everyone wakes up.

This is my table as it was just filling up.

There were black MnM’s on the tables. A nice party touch!

This was my nemesis. I think her name was Natasha? She was the first one to accuse me of being a black hat. She was visiting from Russia, and we had the time of our lives in a bitter battle.

This poor guy just got voted off early for no reason.

She also was very obviously photogenic.

This is Myron. He was very influential in the Alliance! To be discussed below.

Here is one of my San Diego bretheren Merrick Lozano, the one close to the camera.

This is what it feels like when someone accuses you of being a black hat, when you are really innocent. Oh the shame of it all. Wait a second, I actually was a black hat.

Here I am being accused again. Notice Natasha standing up in the left of the photo. We killed her off, but she would not die. This lead me to name her the Vampire.

Here I am being accused again. I was as slippery as teflon.

I was waiting all night for this, but I could not have gotten away with saying it. When accused of being a black hat, my brother here said, and I am paraphrasing,

“Don’t be like that! It is who I am, I was born this way!”

The second game begun, shown above.

The two dark haired guys at the head of the table, and including all the guys on the right side of the table, and me standing, formed THE ALLIANCE!. We bonded together like a bunch of meat heads and decided it didn’t matter whether one of us was a black hat or not, but that one by one we would kill off the other side.

This is a desperate plea by an innocent white hat that he is innocent. The ALLIANCE did not care. We killed him, innocent or not.

Here is a photo just before our moderator got sick of us, and took off.

This is a photo of the ALLIANCE as they stood on December 5th, 2007. Never before has a group formed with a more insignificant purpose, and stuck together better against such mildly strong obstacles, and accomplished a more insignificant reward. Men, I was proud to serve with you! Mario by the way almost F*&#@% the whole thing up, and we almost had to kill him.

This picture perfectly shows the power of the alliance just before the guillotine came down on the other players.

This is Mario having just barely survived with his life after mutinying against the ALLIANCE.

The ALLIANCE (minus Myron) right after we killed off the last of the other team. It turned out by sheer luck that we were all white hats after all, and that we had killed off the black hats. The celebration ensued.

Game three began with Natasha as our moderator.

I can’t even remember what moment it was, but this gentleman was claiming, how is it possible that I am the black hat two games in a row? he was.

This game was played by the veterans, and the previous winners.

Matt Cutts, the guy doing the pointing was one of the black hats. The woman with the red hair doing the pointing was the other black hat. The guy between them, Tony Adam, was a white hat, and either the reinclusion requester or the revealer. I believe he was the reinclusion requester.

Matt was saying over and over, I am not a black hat (lie) I know because I am Matt Cutts! (the revealer). Hering Matt Cutts swear that he was Matt Cutts and people not believing him…priceless.

Matt, desperately pleading that he is not the black hat.

Matt, and his evil cohort trying to convince others that this poor guy is a black hat. Do any webmasters out there who have been delisted have any sympathy at all for poor Matt?

Matt, trying to get a vote started against the guy next to him. It was just a little too little, too late.

I am a huge fan of Matt and his work, and it was so much fun to see him have so much fun.

So please comment below so I can name the people correctly, correct my bad quotes, and improve the whole post.

I would also love to hear your werewolf search spam stories from the event that I can add. Feel free to e-mail me (dk -at- purposeinc.com) your pubcon werewolf party stories and I will add them to this post.

Another great day at Pubcon. I woke up real late, had Dim Sum at Red 8 at the Wynn. If you are still in Vegas, go there tomorrow for breakfast, which I believe is from 11:00 to 3:00. Ask for the Dim Sum menu and order away. You will feel as if you are in Hong Kong. It is some of my favorite food. They only serve Dim Sum on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I will be there all three days.

I spent a great evening with Aaron Chronister of Mad Hat Media, who taught me a few things that I had not yet heard. A very, very intelligent individual who obviously has a very kind heart and was exceedingly helpful to me. He gave me a fantastic idea about how to capture leads on my site instead of just waiting for them to call using a simple form.

Rhea was also there, and has a great story that I hope to post here within a few days.

The place is full of Britts who are hear to see a huge fight that I have heard is between an undefeated American and an undefeated Britt. If you want to feel a bit safer around the Wynn with this pumped up crowd around, simply refer to them often and genuinely as mate, and as you walk off say either Cheers, or Cheers Mate! It helps to visualize Brad Pitt in the movie Snatch.

Here are a few more photos from the tournament. I would like very much to receive any stories you might have about your playing in the tournament. I am going to try to put together pages about as many players as I have time for, each player with a page.

If you write me a short story or stories about your experience playing it will be greatly appreciated. Anyone who sends me a story by Friday the 14th that gets used on this blog will win a T-shirt, although you will have to paypal over $10 for shipping and handling.

You do not have to have been a player. You can be a friend of a player, or even someone who just heard a rumor.

O.K. Here are some more photos.

Jeremy’s table preparing to play.

Getting ready to play.

How much more James Bond can you get?

Pam, clearly causing some distraction to the other players, even before the first hand is dealt. Make sure listen to her suggestions as to how to pack for Pubcon. I followed the tips exactly and it has worked well.

David from Red Fly’s table.

That is just a quick few more pics from the tournament. Please comment the names of any players you know, so I can begin to put together players pages.

By the way the answer to the question is, “Yes I will be doing this tournament again next year, and yes we will be taking sponsors. It was such a massive success that I have come up with all kinds of great ideas to make it more fun, more Vegas, more food and drinks, and better service along with a place for the guests and hangers on to be even more comfortable. Those sponsors who had faith in me for the first year will be given preference over any others, as loyalty is a rare and valuable commodity these days. I will yack more about this in the months to come.

So please send me some quick articles, a paragraph, story, or just plain gossip about any of the players and the tournament. I would also like to create a page on Dax and Stefan Juhl who both were the inspirations of the tournament, and who both of which did not even play! Although Dax did grace us with his presence. He arrived elegantly dressed, and was a gentleman as always.

Matt Cutts, who as you all know, I follow his advice to the letter, did not attend which disappointed me, but he did accept a t-shirt which thrilled me! I also gave one to Danny Sulivan, and Brett Tabke who also accepted the T-shirt.

And in all seriousness, thank you again to all of you, especially Brett, Matt, and Danny who without your help oddly enough this tournament would never have taken place! So thank you yet one more time for all of the awesome help you have given me.

dk