Author: Amy Armitage

Brian Prince is a digital marketing visionary, and he has been intimately involved with shaping the landscape of the Internet revolution since 1994. For some of us, that’s almost the olden days ;)

As CEO of Best of the Web, Brian Prince re-launched the original web awards portal as a best-of-class, human-edited web directory and search engine. Keeping up with the Internet’s dynamic growth, Prince orchestrated the creation of the Best of the Web Blog Directory, a robust, tag-driven and searchable directory of the best blogs available online. He also recently spearheaded the launch of Best of the Web Media, a proprietary collection of more than 20 niche subject matter blogs on topics including politics, food, health and activism.

He is also co-founder and president of Hotel Hotline.com LLC, and a heck of a nice guy ;)

[Amy gets out cyber microphone]

Amy: Brian.. Thanks for being so brave and agreeing to an interview. Past interviewees like Eric Meyer CSS Guru and Craig from Craig’s List are still recovering so I’ll try and be gentle, but let’s face it… We love controversy and public humiliation here at Lunartics ;)

We should start with those dreamy blue eyes. Meeting you in Vegas last year I can remember 2 things. Your eyes and Brandy commenting that my makeup was still looking good after 8 hours of conferencing. But what do YOU remember about me?

Brian: Good question. Although I was a bit banged up from the Vegas nightlife and not in top conference form when we met (sadly I rarely am), I vividly recall a jolt of energy from meeting and speaking with you – something akin to human caffeine. You came across to me as this sincere, engaging, fun-loving, to-the-point, speak-your-mind, intelligent-yet-sassy Aussie from down under – with just a twinkle of mischief in your eyes. My kind of gal…

[Amy: Yes it’s all about me]

Amy: Tell me some interesting stuff about yourself Brian

Brian: I am a left-handed Capricorn, which, from what little I know about horoscopes and cerebral analytics suggests that as a result of this rare combination I am at a significantly higher risk of suffering Spontaneous Human Combustion (SHC for the medical crowd). So with that possibility ever-present, I try live every day to it’s fullest…..

[Amy: I actually Googled that.. totally gullible huh?]

Brian: I ride a Harley and have a private pilot’s license. It is alleged that I once flew under a bridge at night (a very unintelligent thing to try) but I don’t talk about those days anymore…

When I was 29 and just married, I was diagnosed with colon cancer and given a 70% chance of survival. I had great support from friends and family, beat the disease down, and today am a successful cancer survivor with a great wife, two awe-inspiring young sons, and two successful business ventures. Life is good. The greatest things I learned from this experience were the importance of friends, family, and health; and that a fighting spirit and perseverance to endure (both good and bad times) are a must to achieve your goals in life and business.

I have two full-time executive roles: I serve as the President of a hotel reservations network called Hotel Hotline as well as the CEO of Best of the Web. It’s a pretty exhausting task, but I dig the online industry, the great people that I get to interact with daily, and the energy of internet marketing so it keeps me driving passionately forward.

This is a picture my oldest son and I after his first ride on my Harley – notice the stunned look of disbelief after just experiencing sheer, raw, hair-raising horsepower for the first time…..

[Amy: I was too busy looking at the bike.. really]

Amy: So Vegas… Give us the down and dirty – what was the craziest thing you did there? Stupidest thing I did was gamble at Ballys. I don’t think I’ve ever been to a suckier paying Casino EVER!

Brian: Hmmm – Vegas. Fortunately for my ego, I have a pretty poor memory and I typically don’t remember most of the truly “stupid” things I do (in Vegas or elsewhere). Nevertheless, during the Affiliate Summit show in January I woke up one morning with no money left and thought I was pick pocketed or lost my money outright walking around the night before. I was quickly informed by my friends that I had indeed “lost” all my money – but not due to a pickpocket. Rather, it seems that I was playing Texas Hold ’em Poker at the Palms at 5am in the morning with my eyes closed and my head on the table. Not a good recipe for gambling success, and justice was swift and efficient.

A fool and his money are quickly parted as they say….

Amy: How old were you when you first ventured online? At this point, were you immediately enamored with the internet or a bit weirded out by it? And can you tell us a little about your first website creation? Is it still online?

Brian: In 1994 I was working for AT&T as a Director of Training for the Manhattan business sales force, and I was tasked with rolling out AT&T’s first business ISP and web hosting product called Easy-World-Wide-Web (EW3). It was anything but easy, and proved to be a monumental task to introduce as the internet was so new for commercial purposes that businesses saw very little benefit in going through all the trouble to create and set-up a website that was nothing more than a costly digital brochure or business card. So the first few sites I was involved with were helping these early adopters create and set-up these very exciting static brochure pages that did pretty much nothing. Good stuff. Fortunately, we’ve come a long way from those days and I would like to think that none of my early creations are still online today – in a perfect world they would have been taken out back and beaten down long, long ago……

Amy: Lunarpages was inspired by a Star Trek episode. What other names did you pick through before choosing Best of the Web? What about The Very Best Things You Could Ever Want to Search For and then Find On the World Wide Web? That one’s pretty snazzy.

Brian: Wow – talk about marketing prowess: “The Very Best Things You Could Ever Want to Search For and then Find On the World Wide Web” Where were you 15 years ago when we needed you Amy?!?

[Amy - I was only 6 years old ;)]

Brian: Actually, we did not have the honor of originally choosing the name Best of the Web as the project was first founded by a group of University of Buffalo professors in 1994 who were trying to create a social media site where the web community at large voted on the best sites on the web within a variety of categories. After 5 years as a ‘web awards’ portal in this model, the project was abandoned and we swooped in and purchased the business.

I do have to commend the founders marketing foresight though – “Best of the Web” has turned out to be a very marketable and memorable brand for us – and for that I thank them. I think we’ll pass on your suggestion Amy (albeit a great one!) and stick with what’s working for us :)

[Amy: Since you're going to pass I'll admit that was Tiara's suggestion]

Amy: For many web hosting newcomers, it’s a daunting task to design a website, put it up on the internet, and then get it to show up in the search engines so people can find it. What do you recommend for these fledgling web entrepreneurs? How did BOTW begin this process?

Brian: I agree that it is a daunting task just to create and design a quality website, let alone trying to get the site ranked and visible in the major search engines. If I’ve learned anything through the years, it’s that there truly aren’t any “shortcuts” in life that tend to work out. I’m a believer in the long-haul – meaning that new site owners and fledgling entrepreneurs can’t expect instant gratification. It’s a long process that takes time, attention to detail, and patience.

In terms of driving traffic in today’s online environment, a webmaster has 3 basic channels to consider: social media, pay-per-click, or organic search engine marketing. Each marketing initiative has advantages, disadvantages, and timelines, so my advice would be to consider a blend of all three and vary your expectations according to each particular channel. PPC marketing can bring instant site exposure, traffic and sales, but can be costly and onerous to maintain. Social media generation takes imagination and a bit of luck, but can be very effective for driving traffic and links, but typically not for sales conversions. And my favorite of the three, organic search engine marketing, can take years to pay dividends, but once your site starts showing in the organic search engine results, there is no sweeter tonic for low-cost customer acquisition.

So new entrepreneurs need to take the plunge, try different approaches, and create quality content that appeals to their target users. Without a good product, all the marketing in the world won’t help you in the long term, so make sure that both your product and business model is sound.

Amy: Who is your stylist?

Brian: Ha. If you only saw my “traditional” garb you would realize that the word ‘stylist’ is not really in my vocabulary. Outside of the occasional TV interview or two, you will rarely see me dressed in anything that doesn’t strongly conform to my rule of the “Three C’s” – Comfort, Convenience, and Cleanliness. And the third “C” is optional based upon circumstances ;-)

[Amy: My rule is the three J's - Jeans, Jammies (PJs) and Jay my hubby]

Amy: I’m sure you’ve answered your fair share of support or trouble tickets. We receive approximately 30k tickets per month and we have our regulars who send in their conspiracy theories. My favorite is Tin Foil Man and his perception that the FBI continually wipes his site content. What’s the worst or most creative or delusional one you’ve ever received?

Brian: We receive some beauties – particularly in the travel business. One of my all time favorites was a lady who booked a reservation but apparently did not realize that it was a pre-paid reservation and that she would be charged for the room at the time of booking, so she wrote to us and accused us of coming into her computer and taking her money. She claimed that she unplugged the computer to stop us, but somehow we still got in and took her money. I believe she also wanted to bring in the FBI to investigate…

[Amy: I feel sorry for the FBI sometimes]

Amy: In your experienced webmaster opinion what is the most important factor in choosing a web host? [The answer better mention Lunarpages and something bout us rockin’ or your reply will be buried in my trash folder ;)]

Brian: Ha – as IF there was a more rockin’ hosting company than Lunarpages…. As a hosting customer, and bit of a Don Juan when it comes to the hosting business (we get around and have tried them all), I can sincerely say that Lunarpages offers one of the best hosting experiences available online. There – I said it. How’s that for a testimonial, eh Amy?

[Amy: OMG good answer! If you had a better stylist we would use that testimonial and your photo on our website ;)]

Brian: As a business owner with hundreds of websites to monitor and maintain, the most important factor to me in choosing a web host is uptime reliability. If my sites aren’t up 100% of the time, everything else we do is for naught. To me – uptime reliability is the most important aspect for online business success. That would be closely followed by hosting support – both in means of having a robust hosting control panel that gives you freedom to customize your hosting needs online, as well as having well-trained support technicians available when you need it.

Amy: Does BOTW have local, regional, and/or international sections for various kinds of categories and businesses?

Brian: Yes – we have all of the above. Best of the Web‘s mission from the beginning has been to create a comprehensive general web directory that is constantly growing and evolving; currently there are more than 100, 000 categories in the directory. The largest branch in the directory is the regional branch, which gives us the opportunity to list sites not only in a relevant topical category like ‘health food’, but also in a regional category that matches the business’s physical location. This is a great plus for site owners interested in Local Search, as the search engines who spider our directory are able to glean physical location details from our regional site placement and this can help the engines rank a site for geo-related searches like ‘Uniondale Italian Restaurant.’

Within the regional branch are specific sub-categories that cater to various international markets as well, like the UK branch, Europe, and Canada. Each of these areas of the directory is regional in nature and helps us assist with categorizing sites worldwide.

We are also working hard on a new BOTW Local offering that will provide small business owners an opportunity to create a free business profile page on Best of the Web that includes lots of interesting local-specific information like hours of operation, credit cards accepted, driving directions, zip codes and regional areas served, return policies, phone numbers, etc. We’re pretty excited about the local product and opportunity and expect to launch it by mid-year – I’ll keep you posted.

Amy: Is there a greater advantage to listing your service/company deeper into the site, under more and more specific categories? Or are there times when companies should list under more general headings?

Brian: The best place for a site is in the most relevant topical and regional category that matches the sites content and physical location (if applicable). With that said, we do list some ‘deep content’ pages if the content is relevant, deep, and unique. For example CNN.com offers a wide variety of deep content, and as such, they have several hundred listings in the directory where the content relates to the topical category.

In my opinion, site owners should consider both approaches – marketing their site as a business entity, but also building good content and links internally to create deep content pages that rank for specific content-related queries. The more pathways into your site for visitors to find you, the better your odds will be to show in the search engines, which leads to traffic growth and ultimately the potential for a successful enterprise.

We have a motto around the office that goes something like this: “More More More More!”

Amy: Imagine overnight the internet is gone. OMG what would you do?!

Brian: This one got me to thinking a bit – it’s something I really take for granted today, but I surely would miss it should it disappear. When I think back to life before the internet, I vaguely recall that it was fun, but I can’t seem to recall specifically what was fun about it… it just seems kind of empty without the internet. Nonetheless, should the internet disappear overnight, I think I would fire up the Harley, throw my trusty snowboard on my back, and ride off to the Mountains in a nostalgic haze. From there, I envision a glorious career in the Senior Semi-Pro Snowboarding tour….

Amy: On your “BOTW Blog Directory” site, you have editors and the description reads: “the Blog Directory is an open project, where public editors can help in building the most comprehensive collection of blogs online.” Tell us a little bit about this offspring, what inspired it, and why editors are important to its success?

Brian: We launched the BOTW blog directory in mid-2005 when it became apparent that people were searching for ‘fresh’ blog content, and we were serving back a mix of static web sites and blog index pages. We realized that people wanted to retrieve specific blog posts and content, not just blog topics or index pages.

By creating a separate and distinct directory just for blogs, we were able to create a variety of blog search options, allowing users to search best-of-breed blog content multiple ways – by post content, by blog content, or by using specific ‘tags’ or keywords. This is a powerful combination of search technology that allows users to fine tune their search in a variety of different ways to find current and timely posts from the best blogs online on almost any subject available. Additionally, all blogs listed in the BOTW blog directory must have at least six months of posting history and show passion and expertise towards the subject matter. This helps eliminate many of the blog spam issues and MFA (Made for Adsense) blogs that clutter up many of the major blog search engines today.

Editors power everything we do at Best of the Web, and in regards to the blog directory, there is an even more synergistic connection between editors and blog content. Most bloggers are typically very niche-oriented and plugged into their particular topical community. They participate, they now each other, they share comments. Most blogs today also contain a ‘blogroll’ that is really just a list of similar web-related resources and blogs. This blogroll is in essence the same as a blog directory category, so there is clear synergy between bloggers and subject-matter expertise. These people know their topical categories, their peers in the space, and the best resources available on that particular subject – so who would be better to task with helping us to build a quality resource of the best blogs on the web then bloggers and volunteer subject matter experts?

Amy: What did you do before BOTW?

Brian: I attended University of Maryland, graduated with a degree in Business, moved to New York City, and started working for AT&T. From there I worked for WorldCom (before they imploded), and then Valueweb Hosting. After believing that I had enough management training to start my own business (I didn’t – but experience is the best teacher), I founded Hotel Hotline with my business partner Greg Hartnett. Once we got Hotel Hotline off the ground and into profitability, we looked to diversify our business and came across BOTW and purchased the business from the founders. From there we rebuilt Best of the Web from its roots as a pioneering, social media award site into a human-reviewed general web directory, and the rest, as they say, is history…..

Comment, clarify.. or simply choose one of the following [you have to... It is part of the “Interview with Amy game”]

Amy: Working for BOTW for the rest of your life or getting paid $1000/day to do nothing.

Brian: Working for BOTW for the rest of my life. $1000 a day for doing nothing sounds nice, but I have a bit of an affinity for the finer things in life and I’m afraid the $1000 a day wouldn’t cut it for too long….

[Amy: *GASP]

Amy: Lamborghini or Volkswagen (hippie style with rainbows and flowers)

Brian: Easy – Lamborghini. Although I dig hippies, I like fast cars even more :)

Amy: Dinner with Brandy from WMR or Shopping with Joan Rivers as your personal stylist

Brian: Another softball – dinner with Brandy of course. The beautiful Brandy will introduce me to at least 10 potential business partners during a typical meal, while Joan Rivers would just annoy me.

Amy: Lead Guitar or Bass

Brian: Lead Guitar

Amy: Inhale or exhale?

Brian: Both :)

Amy: Social Media or Google

Brian: Google (I know where my bread is buttered)

Amy: Spiderman or Cat Woman

Brian: If by Cat Woman , you mean Halle Berry dressed in a skin-tight leather cat suit – then definitely Cat Woman.

Amy: Disco or Break dancing

Brian: Break dancing. The Best of the Web crew is decidedly biased to break dancing, so much so that last year we had to have a dance off in order to crown the BOTW break dancing champion once and for all.

[Amy: WOW the guy in the red shirt is awesome!]

Amy: Spam or Pop ups

Brian: I suffer from such an intense overload of spam on an hourly basis and despise it so much that I would welcome a pop-up bonanza circa 1999 as a welcome trade-off if I could eliminate spam from my inbox for good.

Amy: Family Guy or The Simpsons

Brian: I love Family Guy, but am an even more fervent Simpsons fan – 18 years and going strong. I consider The Simpson’s to be the most culturally influencing show to air during my lifetime. Who can’t relate to Homer, Bart, Maggie, or Mr. Burns from time to time??

Amy: Lionel Richie or Barry Manilow

Brian: Lionel Richie reluctantly. I would have preferred ‘Peter Tosh or Jim Morrison’ – but that would be too difficult of a choice I think. My mind might explode…

Amy: What’s your fave made up word? Use it in a sentence.

Brian: Kajillion. Wow – we had over a kajillion hits to Best of the Web yesterday – great success!!

[Amy: We had Eleventy Billion™ so pfffft ;)]

Amy: Best undeveloped domain name you own?

Brian: Bestoftheweb.com We have been operating since 1994 as BOTW.org – the acronym for Best of the Web. Last fall, we were fortunate to finally purchase BestoftheWeb.com for a small fortune. The thinking was to grab the .com and add a memorable brand url to the company, but at current, we are operating a bi-polar existence and simply have the Bestoftheweb.com domain forwarding to BOTW.org. It’s on the list of dev projects for 2007, so hopefully that will be changing shortly and BestoftheWeb.com will become a showcase portal for all things Best of the Web.

Amy: If you could offer all Lunarpages Webmasters 40% off directory listings on BOTW.org would you?

[Amy: Ok.. You got me. This is a shameless way to promote that BOTW are offering all LP peeps big-time discounts and we love love love it]

Brian: 40% huh? That’s a pretty tall order that will most likely get me into some hot water with our CFO, but for the good folks at LP, why the heck not?

We hereby welcome any and all Lunarpages customers to submit their web sites to the Best of the Web web directory or blog directory and save 40% instantly

Simply login to your Lunarpages Customer Account Page to access the coupon code.

All Lunarpages customers using this code will receive an immediate 40% discount on all BOTW directory submissions, blog submissions, or category advertising sponsorships.

[Amy: Sheesh I would have settled for 15% .... suuuuuucker]

Amy: Why should our community list their sites on BOTW? Tell us the advantages.

Brian: A listing in Best of the Web has a variety of advantages. For one, we operate a proprietary database of human-reviewed sites, so by being included in the directory your site is exposed to millions of targeted users allowing a site owner to expand their audience and reach more visitors. Additionally, site owners have the option to choose from over 100,000 unique categories in the directory to precisely target their most relevant category and audience.

Lastly, a listing in Best of the Web can help your organic search engine marketing efforts. As a trusted source of human-reviewed web sites (our editors work off a set of quality-indicator guidelines), the major search engines value the links from the BOTW directory and use them to help evaluate and rank your site in their respective indexes.

Amy: OMG – Where is my BOTW t-shirt?

Brian: Check the mail – BOTW swag care package in route to Lunarpages as we speak. For any other site owners interested in scoring some free BOTW swag, please come visit us at an upcoming search conference and we will be happy to spread the wealth. Our 2007 conference tour includes the upcoming Search Engine Strategies NYC conference, AdTech San Francisco, Hostingcon, SES San Jose, and Webmasterworld’s Las Vegas Pubcon in November. We hope to see you at one or more of these great events!

[Amy: We'll take pics and post them on the blog]

Amy: Thanks Brian!

Brian: My pleasure – thanks for the opportunity, spotlight and creative questions. I look forward to seeing you soon!

Amy: Hmmmm HostingCon maybe?