Today I’m very honoured to have a guest posting from Catherine Parker, a South African SEO expert with a tech company in San Francisco

Catching My Breath in San Francisco
It’s been a frenetic and exhausting last month or so in the Bay Area. I work for a website that reviews tech products, and the biggest days of the year in my company are over the Thanksgiving weekend in late November. During “Black Friday” and “Cyber Monday” of that weekend, Americans go mad with spending, both on and offline. Since the U.S. economy has taken a dive, reviews sites like ours are crucial in the sales cycle, as customers are being more careful than ever about where they spend their dollars on luxury goods.
The Thanksgiving rush is closely followed by the Christmas season, which these days is as big a deal for online retailers as it is for bricks and mortar sellers. More and more, people are abandoning the queues and stress of mall shopping and doing most, if not all, of their shopping online (me included!). It makes so much sense here – shipping costs are negligible, and you get your delivery within a couple of days, which means it’s a no mess, no fuss operation.
Most recently, the first part of January was taken up with two major tech conferences: Macworld in San Francisco, and the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. This year’s Macworld was fairly subdued due to the news of Apple pulling out next year and concerns over Steve Jobs’ health, and CES was also quiet due to fewer than usual exhibitors as a result of the reeling economy. Nevertheless, there were plenty of new tech launches during the show, specifically in the mobile space where companies like Research in Motion (producers of the Blackberry) and Palm are racing to steal market share from the iPhone.
After all that activity, it’s no wonder we’re all feeling a bit frazzled. Monday is a public holiday here, which is a very rare thing in these parts, so I’ll finally be taking a break. See you on the other side!