Check it, wreck it, and let's begin. About a month ago I received an email from Emma Williams, the Managing Editor at Schmap Guides - a leading publisher of digital travel guides for destinations throughout the United States, Europe, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. She had informed me that one of my photos - published on Flickr - was short listed for inclusion in their Seattle Guide, and that I needed to officially submit my photo along with my approval for its use.

I remember taking a second to review the photo that they were inquiring about, and because I had no problems with donating it, I filled out the required information online. Here is the picture that was nominated:

Nice, isn't it? This was taken at a Seattle Mariners game in which my fiancée and I attended back in June. Schmap was looking to use the photo as a way to promote Safeco Field within their online Seattle guide.

Well, it turns out that this photo, in addition to a few others that were also submitted, actually made the final cut and is now published in the fifth edition of the Schmap Seattle Guide. Go figure.

You can check out my photo within the guide here. My photo and credit is on the top right of the page, as shown here:

Over the past few months I've been feeling as if time has not been on my side. At least it certainly seems that way. No matter what I do, I never have enough time to work on the things I really want to be, or even those that I should be. I've been doing my absolute best to balance my work, my side-projects and ideas, and my personal life, and yet I still struggle. In the end, something will have to give... and it has.

Earlier this week I made the difficult decision to resign as Supplemental Writer for Search Marketing Gurus - an industry related blog known for offering advice, tips, tricks, and news from an assembled group of well-rounded search marketing professionals. I have been a proud member of SMG since February of last year and while I was not able to contribute as much as I would to have liked, I still very much enjoyed the experience.

If you're interested, the following are the few posts that I was fortunate enough to have published:

• Using Analogies to Explain the Benefits of SEO
• 5 Great Resources for SEO Beginners
• Are SEM Conferences Still Worth Attending?
• SMX Advanced: Was it Advanced Enough?
• Food For Thought: What 12 Inches of Flour, Sausage, and Cheese Could Have Gotten You!

Personally, I am hoping that this will only be a temporary deal, and that once life begins to settle down for me (does it ever?) I can resume my role and continue contributing. However, until I reach that point, I feel that this is the best course of action. I certainly don't want to be responsible for holding the team up.

Best of luck Search Marketing Gurus. I appreciated the opportunity.

Ready for a shocker? No, not that kind of shocker you pervert (Greg). The shocker that I'm referring to is the one that leads a person to disbelief and is usually attributed to hearing or discovering something that is completely unexpected. Ready? Alright, brace yourself. Chances are... the website analytics that you've come to know and love - you know, the one tool that you count on most to help with making those very tough marketing decisions - is probably faulty, or at least in some way miscuing it's numbers. Scary thought, isn't it.

Did you know that most analytics programs currently offer what is referred to as the "last-touch" method to tracking - meaning that whichever marketing channel "tags" the visitor last before he or she makes a purchase is ultimately going to get full credit for that sale? That's a problem, and a huge one at that.

For instance, let's say that a person, wishing to research the differences between several brand-name MP3 players, had placed a search on Google for the term "mp3 players". This person stumbles across your highly ranked organic listing, clicks through, reviews your products and pricing, and then moves on to yet another store for additional research. After a week of researching website after website, the person decides to purchase an 8GB Apple iPod Touch from your store - and why not... your products are competitively priced, right? There is only one problem... the buyer had forgotten the exact spelling of your web address, and so in order to re-find your store he or she placed a search on Yahoo! for your company's name. The buyer sees your paid ad, clicks through, and buys an iPod.

Under this scenario, any analytics program using the "last-touch" method for tracking conversions has just awarded 100% of the sale to your Yahoo! PPC campaign, while it's quite obvious that your Google SEO campaign is well deserving of some, if not all, credit. If this happened once or twice a month, this would be no big deal. However, imagine a scenario where this is happening with 20%-30% of your monthly orders and across multiple marketing channels - Yahoo! PPC stealing ROI from Google SEO, Google SEO stealing from MSN PPC, Yahoo! SEO steals from email marketing mailings, and on and on. What a mess that would be. The problem is... its most likely happening to you right now.

In fact, this happens everywhere... even in sports. Consider this, when a basketball player steals the ball and then passes it up-court to an open player, and that player dunks it, who does ESPN credit? The scorer. In baseball, when a pitcher throws a "no-hitter" he gets the credit. The credit is not awarded to the third baseman for his incredible defensive play or even the center fielder for lying out to make a grab. It's awarded to the pitcher.

Now I won't go on record and reveal which analytics programs do this, nor the ones I've tested - that isn't what this post is about. However, if you're currently using or researching analytics programs then I would certainly encourage you inquire about that company's cookie settings, specifically if they employ the "last-touch" method of tracking.

As a person who is responsible for the well-being of several online marketing campaigns, I can't afford to be making decisions (i.e. increasing or decreasing PPC bids, adjusting email marketing offers, or tweaking highly ranked pages on a website) based on faulty data. And, neither can you.

No, Not that one. This one!

Thanks Google! While it is currently empty, I'm sure we'll all be stocking it with Gatorades, various sodas, candy bars and pudding very soon. What do you have stocked in your office fridge?