Looking Ahead to 2011

Happy new year, SBSM readers! I was on vacation, getting absolutely drenched in Southern California, when Danny Sullivan posted this on Search Engine Land: Welcome, Pamela Parker! Congrats, Elisabeth & Matt! If you haven’t read it, the article announces a few changes at Search Engine Land — one of which involves me.

As of today, January 3rd, I’m no longer self-employed. I’ve formally joined Third Door Media as an employee, serving as Executive News Editor for Search Engine Land and continuing as Editor at Sphinn. I’m excited by the new role, but wanted to use this post to head off any questions from clients, blog readers, advertisers, and anyone else wondering what’s changing.

In a nutshell: very little.

Longer version is as follows:

• My weekly time commitment to SEL and Sphinn will increase a bit, and I’ll be involved more deeply in various planning and decisions. There may also be more travel to places like Google, but hopefully less singing on camera.
• I will continue serving my existing SEO, local, and social media clients. Nothing changes on that front. (And I’m not currently taking on additional clients, by the way, aside from my 1- and 2-hour phone consulting blocks.)
• I will continue blogging here as I’ve been doing since 2006. I expect no changes here.
• I’ll continue speaking at various conferences and events, and already have a pretty busy slate of commitments lined up in that regard.

So there you go. A couple changes, but nothing too drastic. I’m excited about the new year. 2010 was terrific, and I’m always optimistic that the new year will be even better than the last. I hope you are, too!