A tale of blogging from a wandering web GypsyAfter many hours, 360+ posts, nearly 1000 comments (not including spam he he) and countless thousands of visitors from more than 100 countries - we have hit another landmark on the trail. Two years of wandering, rambling and ranting! I write one page of masterpiece to ninety one pages of shit,
I try to put the shit in the wastebasket. - - Hemingway To mark it, why not take the opportunity to highlight some of what makes this my second home
care to ride along? What gives with the domain name?To start with lets get the easy stuff out of the way; WTF is with the domain name HuoMah.com???  I realized quickly how peeps might be struggling with the name when I heard Danny once attempt it on WebMaster Radio as
"HooooMaaa"
. with an inquisical WTF? tempered tone - Forgive me folks, the name is a troubling tale, allow me to elaborate;
Huo Mah (or Ma) = Ho-ma : (or if you feel adventurous = Who-oh-ma) It means of course; Fire Horse - and the Blog, inventively enough; the FireHorse Trail It stems from my years as an avid practitioner and student of the Martial Arts and Chi-kung. It is merely my Chinese astrological symbol more on that here. This should also help clear up my penchant for eastern flavours and honorable offerings as well
. Once merely an intranet with a domain easily remembered, for me at least, this blog became somewhere to vent and post answers to common questions Id run into. Certainly in hindsight something more memorable, easy to pronounce that related to marketing might have been a good idea for a domain
. But its not how things have worked out, ok? Glad to finally put that one to bed... sigh..
Favourite Parts of riding the trailThe people! Hands down the best part of my blogging experience has been the people along the way. Along the way I ranted with MadHats, talked to socialites, watched young guns blaze and had guest riders when in need
. And those are just the guest posts here. I have also met others from every corner of the world with both professional and personal interests akin; nothing short of astounding for to this aging equine. In the end there has been 2 that standout, that helped more than they know; Uncle Dude and Mr. B. While the Dude is shy, allow me to say that Mr. Bill Slawski has been one of the best parts of making an arse of myself and subsequent travels through social networking 1.0 to 2.0. You see, while I enjoy marketing, I love search. We all have a passion for some aspect of our job; it is what keeps us going. When youre an SEO nutter, Bill is the guy to talk to (and maybe Michael Martinez, if youre wearing a helmet, or that Rand guy before the Dark Side got him - I jest FishMan). Bill is the quintessential search geek and was even the one to gently nudge me into using more imagery around here last year
Being able to bounce ideas around is when the adrenaline starts to pump through my laptop and is the best this adventure has borne for me. Thanks for the support and exchanges Bill, looking forward to many more. Some Fun with Bill and Dave; The Magic bullet The quest for Social Search sensibilities
Memorable Moments Since I am in the throws of handing out good vibes to fine peeps - why not more? We simply can't pass up the chance to mention the support recieved from a variety of peeps and places including; Jordan Kasteler for being a great guy, supporter and his kind words Collective thoughts for having a Social Media Ninja Contest was right up my alley and fun to be a part of (more on these masochists soon) All of the great folks that dropped by over the last while to guest post great to have some variety and help when in need! And of course - The Colombo awards (Mike Blumenthal) and Paul from NorthRock, for unmasking me and ensuring a legacy of being a Joker; truly would have it no other way (sad aint it?)  Sites that deserve big thanks for encouraging my madness
- SEO by the Sea (again and again)
- Search Engine Land (Sphinn and Danny for so many things)
- Search Engine Journal for a mention that lead to TechCrunch love
- AllTop (and Guy for dropping by and being a good egg)
- SEO Gurus (Li has been great)
- Search Engine Watch
- Lisa Barone (at BruceClay Blog)
- Steven Bradely (aka VanGogh) for everything man!!
- SEO People great Canucks, love the crew there
Also; Jeff, Shana, Todd, Kristen and Elizabeth for the personal support
yall help me keep it real! One could go on and on - to get an idea of some of my other favourite folks, merely have a trek through my blogroll for more of my favs and peeps along the way
there are too mention which is a great thing! And since youre here reading, thanks to you as well! Until we meet againI have no real tips nor take-away beyond saying one should always try to enjoy what they do and write about what moves you. For me this is cathartic, a form of expression and nothing more. I sell no ad space nor pimp products for cash; merely happy to have a voice. "The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe.
If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened.
But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. " -- Friedrich Nietzsche Hope you got to know a little more and we'll see you on the trail again soon - Dave Popular and Favourite Posts For those that dont have the time in this busy world to travel the many trails along the journey, here are some popular posts and others I thought worth sharing; Search Engine Optimization The Art of Personalized Search Optimization
The Value of SEO
How to leverage relevance in SEO
Phrase based optimization resources
Google and Query analysis
Yahoo follows up Personalized PageRank with HarmonyRank
How to learn SEO
Beware Google is watching you 
Social Media The Value of Social Media Marketing
Targeting Social Media Influencers
How to dominate Sphinn in 4 easy steps
Now that was a Plurking hoot
Getting a grip on Social Media Marketing
Qualitative research and Social media marketing Personal SEO and the little voice in my head
The Ramblings of a MadMan
All about the passion  Rants
Hey Google!! Nofollow this!
Alls Fair in Love and SEO
Things that piss me off
Sour Grapes and my wrath
Beware; the Search Engines want your SEO job .... Here's hoping to make it one more year!
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Comments
As long as blogging doesn't completely stress me out, should be more to come... shall try to keep having fun :side:
Thanks back at you, too. It's been a pleasure having a chance to share notes and ideas with you.
I'm glad that you did start using more images in your posts - taking advantage of a talent like thta makes a lot of sense, and you've come up with some really great ones.
Looking forward to more interesting and entertaining posts to come. And watch out for all of the Yahoo patent applications published this week. They seem to be trying to make up for lost time.
The images have become a great way to express and amuse and seem to brighten up the place... good call.
Looking forward to more adventures... and Yahoo seems to be on a tear all year as far as search/social patents go... noticed some behavioral stuff this morning... getting there slowly...
Thanks for dropping by and all the suppoer matey... here's to another fun year!
I agree with Bill. Entertaining and unique and your posts always make for an interesting read. I've learned and enjoyed much here.
Now it's on to year 3 eh?
anniversaire heureux
glücklicher Jahrestag
Well, never mind.
Thanks for being the funniest internet marketer on Plurk. You rule dude.
Once upon a time Matt Cutts talked about linkbait and used SEO as an example of being known for a variety of reasons – segmenting. I thought not to chase anything but work with my strengths… trying to keep peeps feet planted on terra firma and sharing some laughs is me in the real world… so it tends to come out here…
Also, imagery is fun which, as mentioned, Bill thought would liven the place up…
I thank you for the uber wishes, tho’ eaten by the void and look forward to more fun times… enough drama in the industry to entertain, should be easy.
If laughter is good for you, then I hope to be part of your health program
It's been good to get to know a marketing kind of guy who gets that Social Media is about the meeting and greeting, not necessarily about the linking and eating of someone else's low hanging fruit.
p.s. Mr. HuoMamma is sooo phat he inspired me to Stumble a Plurk and put aside the to-do list long enough to Plurk a party.
Thank you for befriending me.
Really have appreciated knowing you from forums, to sphinn to our work together on blogs... mad props man....
..and appreciate the Canadian content EH
Stumbling a Plurk thread... must check, U may be the first. http://www.plurk.com/p/k2v9
Just a social search geek.... so friends is what it's about... I just tend to gravitate to those with similar interests and tribulations... been wonderful having you to chat with...
Same time next year? right here?
Appreciate your honesty and 'occasional' cynicism. :whistle:
To quote the late and great Hunter S. Thompson:
"If you're going to be crazy, you have to get paid for it or else you're going to be locked up."
Here's to another two years and beyond :silly:
I know been Stumbling and Sphinning my madness for a long time now… one of the many, many peeps that could have made this post run on into infinity… always nice seeing you when out and about…
I too have a Hunter S up my sleeve….
I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me. - Hunter S. Thompson
Unless I crash and burn, we’ll be seeing you next year.
Congrats on your anniversary! Keep up the great work and keep writing the good stuff!
Just one correction though (egads I'm correcting Dave) :whistle: . The Huo is sounded more like h and woe said together, hwoe. After all we don't want people referring to you as a Ho.
Personally I always pronounced it like that so I feel quite proud of myself
@ David – I keep my definitions of success relatively low which helps one find contentment with ease. I like the phonetics though, I can say it, just wasn’t sure the best way to write it.
HWOE works perfectly! Figured you’d have the pronunciation down…
Garrett – hullo my new bro! Another bonus of meeting my PaIR brother Jordan… are we getting much sleep with the new addition to the family? Thanks for the props and much rambling and ranting is likely in my future so far…. Woot!
@ Glen – the name has been a question I get and figured some folks were lost.. easier for me, but could be from the French in school here. Not sure how many years my sanity will hold out, but so far so fun – thanks for playing with me on the ‘Value of SMM’ post… appreciated!
…. And away we go… (having a ranting kind of morning.. must breath)
To 780 days of telling it how it is. Your a rock with a solid opinion, fearless and wise with character to boot.
Thanks for bringing it to SEO and all things related Gypsy...preach brother.
Funny thing that SEO... hard to tell it like it is since they don't share the recipe - but I am more than happy to tell it from my perspective.
You have some of the more informative posts in the industry yourself - I simply must get some more useful stuff published soon... sigh...
I shall see you out on the trails bro!
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