Alex Melen

04/09/2026

The healthiest meals in the sky? 🛫 We ordered the two United Polaris meals that never appear on the menu. Quick 777 seat guide first — best seats, worst seats — then the food: the healthy balanced meal vs. the gluten-free meal. Both free, both request-only, and almost nobody knows to ask.

04/09/2026

Some great news to share: SmartSites — and me personally (!!) — are finalists for the 2026 Microsoft Advertising Partner Awards in North America.

Three nominations:

🏆 Rising Partner of the Year — SmartSites
🏆 Search Performance Partner of the Year — SmartSites
🏆 Trailblazer of the Year — Alex Melen, SmartSites

Being recognized alongside partners like this is humbling. Huge credit to our team — this is their work, not mine. And thank you to Microsoft Advertising for the nod.

Winners are announced October 29 in New York. Fingers crossed 🤞

31/08/2026

POV: You made it to the top of the Eiffel Tower with your service dog 🗼🐶

Thinking of traveling to Paris with a service dog, or curious how we navigated security? Ask your questions in the comments! 💬✨

Save this post for your future Paris trip 📌

25/08/2026

From a few weeks ago but still nice to see it in real life :) SmartSites in the top 100 private companies in NJ 🎉

18/08/2026

United Polaris 777-200ER family seat + meal guide — what the seat map doesn't tell you 🛫🐶

Flying as a family of 4.5 (yes, the .5 is the dog). Best seats for keeping everyone together, the ones to skip, and a full breakdown of the specialty meals you can pre-order — including the one you should actually pick.

Save this before you book. 👇

14/08/2026

I started a web hosting company before Google existed. I was 13.

Almost 30 years later, people are asking ChatGPT for recommendations instead of scrolling ten blue links. The playbook is being written from scratch again.

Which is the part I keep relearning: the moment you feel like an expert is exactly when you need to become a student again.

Honestly having more fun than I've had in a decade.

Bold Journey asked me about the whole journey:

We were lucky to catch up with Alex Melen recently and have shared our conversation below. Alex, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work et

13/08/2026

United has really been uping their game lately. The pre order meals have improved significantly and the Polaris product continues to be very strong. Plus things like this - going the extra mile - is something I haven't seen from United before 🎉

26/07/2026

Atlantic City got the ULTIMATE Shakira tour finale! 🔥 Last song, last US show, 100% legendary energy. 🐺💥

​Tag someone who needs to see this! 👇

​ ConcertVibes HipsDontLie LiveMusic

22/07/2026

Daytime crossing from Europe to the US in United Polaris on the 787-8 Dreamliner ✈️ Full review — the seat, the food, the service… and a surprise at the end you won't want to miss 👀

21/07/2026

Excited to be speaking at the ANA Commerce Marketing Committee Meeting this morning! 🎤

I'll be sharing a marketer's playbook for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) — how to get your brand recommended when people ask ChatGPT and other AI platforms what to buy.

Always an honor to present at the ANA. They've been the driving force of the marketing industry since 1910, and their membership includes basically every major brand you can name. If you want to know where marketing is headed, this is the room.

Kicking off at 11:30am ET — link in the comments 👇