Recently in Best of Blogs Category

Few question the allure of free shipping, especially these days. But Holly Buchanan asks, Do Women Respond to "Free Shipping" More than Men? Must read post and conversation for consumer products marketers.

From Traffikd, A Small Blogger's Guide to Social Media Marketing. I don't think you have to be a blogger to enjoy this simple explanation of these new and still somewhat mysterious online marketing tools.

An incredibly thorough review of email marketing from Adam Audette, An Email Marketing Tip Sheet.

16 Things to Look for in a Website Health Check from Glen Allsopp focuses on SEO elements that people frequently overlook or underestimate the importance of.

A  technical SEO post, 5 Common Crawlability Mistakes that Kill Your SEO Success, might be a good basis of discussion between business owners and their Web developers if SEO results are not up to snuff.

Flash animation used to be useless from an SEO standpoint, but that's all changing now that Google is crawling indexing Flash content, as reported by SearchEngineLand. This breakthrough has major implications for Web page design.

It's the economy, stupid! Brad Williamson explains why High Gas Prices Are Driving Relationships to the Web. Will walk-in traffic disappear at $4.50/gallon? $5.00/gallon? Smart marketers must be ready with robust online marketing programs.

Before leaving the economy, take a look at the boldly titled How Search Engine Marketing Can Save the Economy. The fact is, search engine marketing has always been a highly efficient way to attract customers. But until this recent nosedive, not everyone cared. Now everyone has no choice but to care.

Social media is a definite boon to online marketers, yet still more of a potential boon than something that produces hard and fast results. Learn more about The Limitations of Social Media.

Still, we shouldn't turn a blind eye to the potential of social media. Here's a new tool called twizon, where Twitter meets Amazon. Grass roots, conversational marketing for the biggest e-commerce site on the planet.

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With a long weekend coming up, let's not spend it in front of the computer! This installment of readable SEM links is short and sweet.

E-commerce spending increases double-digits every year. Expect the trend to accelerate thanks to sky high gasoline prices. More reason than ever to invest in online marketing.

Here's a readable, non-technical overview of Social Media Marketing for Small Business.

Social media is all the rage, but Traffikd warns us not to overdo it trying for social media traffic.

However, if you're embracing social media, here are excellent Tips for Building Communities, Online and Offline.

Overwhelmed by the complexity of search engine optimization? Good news from SearchEngineLand - the most powerful SEO tactic is simplify, simplify, simplify.

A very fine overview from Lidija Davis on How to Be an SEO Rock Star. Again, nothing overwhelmingly complex, but you have to cover all the bases.

From Omniture, five landing page fundamentals.

Jeff Paro makes a strong case for investing in "old fashioned" pay per click marketing. Just because PPC isn't making headlines right now doesn't mean you should overlook it.

From Galen De Young, Six Mistakes B2B Marketers Continue To Make With Organic Search.  Absolute must reading if you're developing a new Web site or upgrading one.

From Matt McGee, a superb search engine marketing case study that demonstrates how a business of any shape or size can succeed online with the right approach.

Jeffrey Smith asks, Should You Target Competitive Keywords, The Long Tail, Or Both? Fortunately he provides clear answers in this technical post.


In another highly detailed post, Steven Brier explains How to Optimize Local Business Profiles for Free Local Directories. Solid, cost-saving advice for local businesses looking to expand their customer base.

List lovers will love this list from Richard Burckhardt, 55 Quick SEO Tips  Even Your Mother Would Love.  What's your favorite? Lately, mine is #45.

Here's an article from USA Today - Circulation continues to fall at most top newspapers. Yet another indication of the importance of integrating new media into advertising and marketing campaigns. Compare these lackluster results to how Google is doing.

Whoast wears a white hat, but we recommend reading Why Whitehats Need to Know Blackhat SEO. Alas, the world is gray, but for those who know that, SEO results can be gold. 

If you're trying to figure out how your company can tap into the power of social media, read this detailed and insightful social media guide from Carsten Cumbrowski.

Along similar lines, Dosh Dosh explores ROI and social media. Is it possible to cost justify social media marketing efforts? You'll have to read the post to find out.

Tune up your search marketing by reading Ian Lurie's post, The Internet Marketing Unlist: 49 Things You Are Probably Doing But Shouldn't. Practical tips you can put to work right away.

From the Dallas Business and Marketing blog, Why Google is Scared of Social Media. Important insights for search marketing strategists, because the dynamics of search habits are being profoundly affected by new website models.

Matt Lester offers 10 Tips for A More Effective Paid Search Campaign. Always smart to review the basics.

Have a business blog? Darren Rowse, ProBlogger, offers high quality advice for Using Social Media to Grow Your Blog's Readership.

Speaking of social media, Lee Smith-Bryan writes an excellent post evaluating 7 Social Media Websites and Their Impact on SEO. If you're confused about how sites such as Twitter, Delicious, and Digg fit into the search marketing equation, this post will clear your head.

Jeffrey Smith advises that to improve your SEO, learn from your competition. Good advice for not only SEO, but any sales or marketing endeavor.

Here's a technical post from Patrick Altoft, Guide to Geo Targeting for SEO and Usability. Today companies can sell their wares anywhere around the globe regardless of their size. But to do so effectively, their Web sites must be nuanced country by country. Read this post to see how to build a geo targeted site.

With a recession here or looming, companies are scaling back. But Thomas M. Schmitz asks, B2B Marketing: Is It Time to Expand Your B2B Internet Marketing Strategy? For most companies the answer should be "yes".  As Schmitz points out, more and more B2B buyers are using the Web to do research and make decisions. It's no longer good enough merely to have a Web "presence".

And speaking of recession, Matt Bailey reveals Three Recession Proof Tactics You Can't  Afford to Miss. What are they? Search engine optimization, usability, and analytics. He's right - it's hard to imagine a bigger bang for your buck than taking full advantage of these three disciplines. 

Ronald Patiro makes two good points in his post on SEO strategy. First - test your hypothesis. Second - have a hypothesis!

Suffering from the same old same old? Small Fuel Marketing ofers 15 Simple Ways to Refresh a Marketing Campaign.

Diane Aull makes a really, really important point about why quality SEO costs money.

Here's a press release on Stumpedia.com. It's a new search engine model worth keeping an eye on, based on human rhythms rather than algorithms.

An interview with Andrew Shotland on the SEO Igloo Blog sheds light on local search.  

Wiep.net makes the case for why small business can outperform big business when it comes to Internet marketing.

From Utah Web Services, A CEO's Perspective on SEO, SEM, SMM, PPC, and ROI.

Scott Fish offers excellent advice on reputation management and reputation monitoring. These tasks are becoming more important by the day because of the widening business use of social networks and blogs.

Ian Lurie explains why you should bid on your brand name in PPC .

From Daniel McGuigan, an entertaining and instructive pictorial review of The Good, The Bad & The Pay-Per-Click Ugly.

Now that social media has broken through to become part of mainstream marketing, reputation management is critical for companies large and small. Solid advice on reputation management from Jeffrey Smith.

From New Marketing to Basic Marketing ... Jake Matthews applies the 4 P's - Product, Price, Place Promotion - to online marketing.

Stoney deGeyter explains how to successful SEO campaign.

Jon Miller offers lots of detail on two ways to save money on  your landing page.

Lists are a dime a dozen on the Web, but this list of more than 100 Useful Web Resources for Small Business and Non Profits puts most of them to shame!

Want to go global? It's not impossible these days. Shannon Bowden put together this enlightening overview of multi-national search marketing strategies.

Another great list - this one from Junta42 on the topic of content marketing. It describes and shows examples of 42 ways to convey your message on the Web.

With all the attention on social media,  we shouldn't forget  the important role still played by paid search. Dave Naylor explains why PPC should be part of your long term strategy.

The lists keep getting shorter, but no less valuable. This one, from Esteban Panzera, offers 9 Tips for Planning a Social Media Marketing Campaign.

When is the last time you updated your Web site? If it's been a while, you may be leading with your chin with your online presence. Jennifer Slegg put together this nice self diagnostic tool - How stale and dated is your website? This is one test you'll want to take.

Large or small, companies can benefit from having a business blog. Mack Collier describes how several companies increased sales dramatically as a result of blogging.

Press releases, as I've mentioned many times, are an effective way to communicate with the market and build credibility. Here, however, Jennifer Mattern explains How Too Many Press Releases Can Damage Your Credibility.

Jeffrey Smith offers sound SEO advice on Using RSS Feeds & Content for Building Links.

Looking at content management systems for your new Web site? Confused by all the options with their various SEO bells and whistles? This really nifty flow chart from Randfish will help you figure out which CMS platform to use.

A detailed post from Doshdosh explores a couple ways to improve conversions for your Web site. As you will see, how you present information on your site makes all the difference.

Jordon Kasteler packs a lot of information about Universal Search into his brief overview post.

Your About Us page is a  key component of your Web site. Bill Slawski provides thoughtful reflections and advice on how to make the About Us page rock and roll.

If you're looking for more conversions - and who isn't? - Ann Smarty explains How to Call to Action, including a fascinating discussion of colors, an important and often overlooked nuance of Web site design.

Google is a more powerful and versatile search tool than most users realize. Lifehacker proves the point with these Top 10 Obscure Google Search Tricks.

More tips, this time from Hobo on how to spot unethical SEO specialists.

Moving to more technical topics, Jennifer Laycock explains How to Tell if a Link is NoFollowed. This is important if you're interested in finding out whether links to your site are doing you any good in terms SEO.

Even more technical, but equally important, is this analysis from Jeffrey Smith on how to make the most of your internal links.

If you are confused about which of the many online marketing media to employ, read this - Business Blog vs. Email Newsletters: Which Works Better?