Featured Articles
There's a meteor headed our way. Plug your ears, sing LALALALALALA all you want. It won't change a thing. Google's about to make search engine optimization (SEO) into marketing, for good. How? They've been slowly adding user behavior to their ranking algorithm.... Read More »
You've got your site all set up at a nice, shiny new domain name. Chances are, though, you're losing visitors. And link authority. Why? Because typos abound, and you're not catching them. Here's how you can grab a lot of traffic that you... Read More »
After having a bit of success with my 11 Internet Marketing Trends to Ignore in 2008, I thought I'd give it another shot. My only totally incorrect predictions from 2008: E-books are catching on, and podcasts now capture a .002% audience, not .00001%.... Read More »
Fresh from the blog:
January 5, 2009 by ian
I have strived (striven? striveded?) for years to write the perfect blog post. I think I finally have it. Here goes (ahem): Introduction involving cute puppy, family member, description of recent travels or new toy. Synergy. Web 2.0 internet conversations branding. Branding conversations web 2.0 XML hyperlinking dynamic community. Twitter. Facebook social media 3.0 mashup, ROI analytics and metrics to leverage marketing. Blogging RSS web 4.0. Dry humor here hahahaha. Google is on a mission to possess our very souls. Yahoo! sucks. Microsoft joke hahahahahahhaha. Steve Jobs is cool. Guy Kawasaki quote here. Steve Ballmer chair-throwing reference. Reference to 2008…
Continue Reading The Perfect Blog Post »
comments (17) | trackbacks (0) | permalink
January 2, 2009 by ian
[I get paid if you buy a copy - full disclosure. It's a dang good book though.] When someone tells me that, to improve my e-mail marketing, I need to "write more compelling content", my first impulse is to hit them with something heavy and unforgiving. These kinds of vague pronouncements are like telling me I can lose weight by eating less and exercising more. Marketing Sherpa has mastered the art of not doing that, which is why I am an unabashed Sherpa fanboy. I love their books. Their 2009 Email Marketing Benchmark Guide is no exception. It's chart geek…
Continue Reading Marketing Sherpa's 2009 Email Marketing Benchmark Guide »
comments (0) | trackbacks (0) | permalink
December 30, 2008 by ian
OK, a few of you are gluttons for punishment. You asked me to give you some details as to how I researched and wrote my SEO 2009: Adapt or Die piece. Here are the basics. Read the Patents I subscribe to a Google blog search for "Google Patent", and scour the news that I read. I also go search the US Patent Office for Google-related patents. In this case, I saw a patent from 2005 some time ago regarding information retrieval based on historical data. It generated a lot of interest a while back because it showed that Google was…
Continue Reading Google 2009: The Painful Details »
comments (7) | trackbacks (0) | permalink
December 29, 2008 by ian
There's a meteor headed our way. Plug your ears, sing LALALALALALA all you want. It won't change a thing. Google's about to make search engine optimization (SEO) into marketing, for good. How? They've been slowly adding user behavior to their ranking algorithm. Bet on far bigger changes after January 1st. I won't go into the many painful technical details of how I've arrived at this conclusion. If you want to know, Twitter me and I'll cheerfully bore you to extinction. Here's what's you need to know: Organic Click-Thru Rate Will Matter. A Lot. The organic click-thru rate (CTR) is…
Continue Reading SEO 2009: Adapt or Die »
comments (19) | trackbacks (0) | permalink
December 24, 2008 by ian
You've got your site all set up at a nice, shiny new domain name. Chances are, though, you're losing visitors. And link authority. Why? Because typos abound, and you're not catching them. Here's how you can grab a lot of traffic that you may be missing right now, and build better link authority, too: Step 1: Reserve Typo Domains First off, reserve domains that may be typos or different interpretations of your domain. If your web address is 'www.yourdomain.com', reserve: www.yourdomains.com www.your-domain.com www.ourdomains.com www.ourdomai.com Obviously, you could end up spending $10,000 on typo domains, so you need to apply a…
Continue Reading Get More Customers (and Links) With Smart Domain Setup »
comments (2) | trackbacks (0) | permalink
December 22, 2008 by ian
"How much do I need to write if I want to be #1?" I hear that question a lot. The short answer is: "As much as gets you there. Not one word more." But I do have some basic rules of thumb. They're basic. Very basic. So I decided to write 'em down, and have some fun with Google Knol, at the same time: SEO Copywriting Frequency. The simple criteria I set out in the article has worked well for me over the years. But people still look at me like I'm a moron when I bring it up. So…
Continue Reading SEO Copywriting: How Much? And How Often? »
comments (0) | trackbacks (0) | permalink
December 22, 2008 by ian
Just an FYI: MarketingSherpa is having a 30% off sale on all their books, including the Landing Page Handbook and the E-mail Benchmarks Guide. Have a Look Here Their books are pretty pricey but worth every penny. At 30% off it's definitely worth a look.…
Continue Reading Marketing Sherpa's Having a Sale »
comments (0) | trackbacks (0) | permalink
December 21, 2008 by ian
Yes, I finally wrote '2.0' on my blog without referring to violence. We had a real, honest-to-goodness blizzard last night, with snow drifts and stuff:…
Continue Reading Seattle Blizzard 2.0 »
comments (1) | trackbacks (0) | permalink
December 19, 2008 by ian
After having a bit of success with my 11 Internet Marketing Trends to Ignore in 2008, I thought I'd give it another shot. My only totally incorrect predictions from 2008: E-books are catching on, and podcasts now capture a .002% audience, not .00001%. My bad. Analytics. Yeah, you heard me. I love analytics. But they're gonna flop big-time in 2009 when everyone looks at everyone else and says "Holy crap. There's no standards!" If a pageview on Google Analytics isn't a pageview in Omniture, how the hell can anyone compare anything? Look for 2010 to be the Year of the…
Continue Reading 11 Internet Marketing Trends To Ignore in 2009 »
comments (17) | trackbacks (0) | permalink
December 17, 2008 by ian
So, you're working hard on SEO. You want that higher ranking. Rankings rankings! Nothing else matters! Then, suddenly, your organic traffic is going up, but your sales aren't. You could fire your SEO firm. Clearly your search engine optimization efforts are a flop. I mean, all they did was generate more traffic, right? Or, you could consider other possibilities and address them: 1: Conversions Are Lousy You're getting more traffic but not more sales. That means your site sucks. Sorry, but it's true. Unless your SEO pro is a total moron, they picked the right keywords. Your site's failing to…
Continue Reading 5 Things You're Forgetting on Your E-commerce Site »
comments (9) | trackbacks (0) | permalink
Want More? Click here to read all blog posts »
