CEO & Founder of Planet Ocean
The Aloha State

Stephen Mahaney founded Planet Ocean in 1990, published ‘The UnFair Advantage Book on Winning The Search Engine Wars’ in 1996 (the Web’s *original* $97 eBook) and established SearchEngineNews.com—the longest running subscription-based newsletter site on the Internet—in 1997. Today he splits his time between helping our Planet Ocean members succeed with their Internet marketing endeavors and watching the whales and dolphins from his beach shack on the Kona coast of Hawaii. If you’re looking for great conversation about world events or an innovative marketing plan shot straight from the hip, Stephen is your man.

SEO with Tenure
Midwest Man

John Heard has been with Planet Ocean and SearchEngineNews.com since 1997 and he’s got the resume to prove it.  He and Stephen Mahaney started sharing notes about what they were seeing online and from then on the collaboration never ended.  When John’s not fielding SEO FastTrack questions, researching the latest search engine update or helping our customers succeed with his hands on approach to his consultations -  he’s standing on the sidelines of his local race track watching his latest car make history at breakneck speed.

Jack of all Trades
Hawaii

Kristi has been behind the scenes at Planet Ocean since 2003.  When she’s not writing, editing, marketing, putting out fires and working reconnaissance missions in the Customer Service department she can be found at the ocean.  She has a long history of Office Management and wearing any hat that’s thrown her way.  She’s loyal to her favorite Kona coffee and her family.

The SEO with a Plan
Californian

Our Lead SEO Consultant, Casey has been with Planet Ocean since 2004 and a San Diego SEO expert practitioner since 1998. When Casey isn’t unwinding Google penalties for Planet Ocean clients or contributing content to Search Engine News he spends time with his wife and two kids in sunny SoCal. An avid softball player, comic book geek and crossfit enthusiast, Casey’s your man to call when your rankings fall off the proverbial Google cliff.

Technical Editor
Hawaii and California

A programmer at heart, he loves writing scripts to make things easier. Knowledgeable of most thing tech related, he’s been with Planet Ocean since 2004 learning from the masters.

Extreme SEO Guru!
Coloradoan

Now this is one passionate cat when it comes to SEO! If your part of our advanced SEO group - seoINsites.com - you’ve had the pleasure of seeing and hearing Barry give over 25 hours of advanced instructional SEO training videos. When he’s not in his boxer shorts, jacket and tie in front of his green screen, you might find him on a motorcross track, kitesurfing with the sharks, or snowboarding down ridiculous double-black diamond slopes. Barry has been a SEO professional since 1999 working with clients such as Time Warner Cable, Road Runner ISP, Hostess Cakes, Ruby Tuesday, CDW, Enfamil Baby Formula, Harry & David, and many more small-to-medium sized corporations.

Researcher Extraordinaire
East Coast

In addition to consulting, Esoos researches and writes on a vast array
of SEO topics—covering everything from building high-quality links
to running a successful social media campaign. When he’s not deep in
the search results analyzing competitors to figure out just how they
got that top ranking, he can be found at a Red Sox game with his wife
and son, or rocking out at a local kids’ concert.

Contributing Writer
Kansas City, MO

Travis has been a forward-thinking interactive smartass since 1996. He was a stand-up comedian and he thought he needed to create a Web site to promote his career.

SEO Engineer & Webmaster Extraordinaire
Arlington Texas

When Mike isn’t building link campaigns and plotting new SEO campaigns, he’s playing with the latest gadget or spending time with his wife Ginger for 10 years, and two sons. Mike’s background prior to founding his own companies, Coolbubba Multimedia and Total Search Domination, includes being a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer, Microsoft Certified Professional + Internet, and BEA Weblogic. He has also worked as a corporate Webmaster for Nextlink, XO Communications. Then just to round things off nicely, he’s also spent time in Information Security at Bank of America.

AdWords Addict

Bryan Todd, co-author of The Ultimate Guide to Google AdWords, lurks in the shadows as Perry Marshall’s quiet, off-the-wall, utterly contrarian secret weapon. He’s been using Google to move traffic worldwide since 2002 in markets as diverse as diet supplements, golf training, foreign language learning, hypnosis, custom electronics, summer camps, cosmetic dentistry and more. He’s coached successful business people in every niche from sport vehicles to self improvement to software tutorials to tennis to postcard printing to pizza. Bryan holds degrees in history, Spanish and theology, speaks fluent Mandarin Chinese and spends his off hours biking down highways, perfecting his Garrison Keillor impersonation, splitting the atom and mindhacking with a vengeance.

UK Web Design and SEO Guru & All-Round Internet Strategist
UK

Malcolm joined the web way back in 1993 writing one of the world’s first HTML Editors. In the mid 1990’s he pioneered the way in the use of outsourced design and development teams whilst at the same time starting to look at how sites got found on the Internet. Since then he’s gone on to build a successful award-winning web design agency in London, England; Ampheon Limited. Malcolm has followed the changes in SEO since before Google was born, and has advised many clients over the years to improve their positions across a diverse range of industries. He now advised SEO companies in the UK on how to do SEO.

Local Search Guru
Colorado

Mary first learned SEO from Planet Ocean’s Unfair Advantage e-book in 2003 and has immersed herself in all phases of Search Marketing for all types and sizes of businesses. Using her background in entrepreneurship, Mary developed specialized expertise in marketing brick and mortar businesses online. She is recognized throughout the industry as an expert in Local Search and speaks frequently on the topic at industry conferences, such as Search Marketing Expo and Online Marketing Summit.

Mary has been teaching others the ins and outs of Local Search since 2006 and is a founding faculty member of the Get Listed University small business seminar series. After earning her props at several online marketing agencies, Mary is now an SEO consultant. She blogs at Optimized! (http://www.marybowling.com) When Mary’s not working, you can find her on the river, on her mountain bike, on skis or soaking in the hot springs in her home town of Glenwood Springs, Colorado.

Partner at Red Flower Media LLC,

Graham Silbermann is a partner at Red Flower Media LLC, a premier social media marketing company that specializes in Facebook, Youtube and twitter promotion. He loves to find innovative ways to help companies sell their products and will stay up late with anyone who wants to share business ideas! When not staring at a computer screen you can find him riding motorcycles or sailing his trimaran.

You can find Red Flower Media on the web at www.redflowermedia.com and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/RedFlowerMedia.

Chief Technical officer with Red Flower Media

Ted Coombs is chief Technical officer with Red Flower Media and enjoys creating new ways to connect people and solving the challenges that come with the rapidly changing new social medium. On the next sunny day you may catch him going fast on his jet boat! He is the author of 14 technical computing books including: “Google Power Tools Bible” and “Setting up an Internet Site for Dummies”

You can find Red Flower Media on the web at www.redflowermedia.com and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/RedFlowerMedia.