Flickr Connects to Twitter – Better Late Than Never

VentureBeat reports that Flickr is finally enabling its users to tweet their photos on the service. What took them so long? Flickr now has a built-in feature that lets members tweet their photos. “You can upload directly to Flickr and Twitter simultaneously, or tweet a photo already on Flickr, using a special short Flic.kr URL,” says [...]

Facebook Nabs New CFO

Facebook now has someone to watch the cash register as they roll toward setting revenue records for the company. After a several months long search, Facebook has found their man according to cnet Facebook has named former Genentech executive David Ebersman to the office of chief financial officer. He replaces Gideon Yu, whose departure was [...]

Hulu Commands as Much as TV, and 10% of Online Video Ads

paidContent has two pieces of good news for Hulu in the past week—they’re commanding not only similar ad prices to broadcast television, but also 10% of the online video ad market. From a Bloomberg report, paidContent shows that, for some shows, CPMs on Hulu are actually greater than they are for broadcast TV. And when I [...]

YouTube Videos Getting Off-Site Overlay Links

Although the latest planned feature for YouTube looks like an ad, for once YouTube’s rolling out something somewhat noteworthy that’s not part of its continue search for revenues. The feature? Overlays, like InVideo ads, that feature off-site links. As TechCrunch reports, “you probably thought it was already out there.” But to-date, YouTube hasn’t allowed any links [...]

Proof that Google is Shrinking in Size?

It appears Google is getting smaller in size–the logo, that is. Philipp Lenssen spotted YAGT (Yet Another Google Test), this time it appears to involve a slightly smaller logo: Have you seen this? I’m a little skeptic about its authenticity. Notice how the "Results 1- 10 of…." text is closer to the left in the second screengrab? [...]

Do Trademark Holders Have the Right to a Google Listing?

Google’s not unused to being sued. Whether it’s because of trademark infringements, AdWords, or simply being kicked out its natural search engine, Google has seen it all. Now it’s seeing it all in one law suit–and there’s an added twist! Ascentive is claiming–among other things–that "Google’s refusal to list Ascentive’s website in its natural search result listings [...]

Bad Review Made Worse by Twitter Tirade

I am not an author. I’m a blogger. If I say something that someone disagrees with they can let me have it in the comments section of the blog. At that point, the decision needs to be made how, or even better if, I should fire back. In most cases, I make the decision to [...]

More Twitter Facts for Those Who Crave These Things

If nothing else, Twitter sure generates a lot of user data. As to the accuracy of the data there is no way to tell what’s what. When the data comes from Twitter directly, however, do you trust it more or less? As reported in the Guardian, Evan Weaver, the lead engineer on the Twitter services team [...]

Google: Pay No Attention to the Behemoth behind the Curtain

“Competition is just a click away,” Google Senior Competition Counsel Dana Wagner reminds us. “We are in an industry that is subject to disruption and we can’t take anything for granted.” I hear him loud and clear. I spend hours a day fretting about the future of Google. (Um, NOT.) But Wagner is doing something [...]

Stronger than Twitter, Faster than Facebook: Product Reviews as a Marketing Tool

As a marketer, which of these would you find more useful? Tweet: @sumbuddy dont buy the BrandCo table it sux–hasnt stood up at all or On site review: (2 stars) For what we paid for this table, my husband and I expected something more durable. The wood dents way too easily for a kids’ table. We expected a [...]

Is Microsoft Ready to Shave Off Razorfish’s Conflict of Interest?

When Microsoft acquired aQuantive in 2007, it wanted to bolster its ad network. Unfortunately, it also ended-up with a conflict of interest, as aQuantive came with Avenue A | Razorfish–an ad agency. Since then, you could argue that about the only good thing to come out of that particular acquisition was the re-branding from the awkward [...]

7 Ways To Develop A Unique Brand For Your Blog

With the blogosphere churning out nearly 1 million posts every 24 hours, an unstoppable river of content flows over the web daily. It’s daunting, especially if you’re new to online publishing.  The good news is it’s still very possible to succeed, even if you’re just starting out today. Developing affinity with a group of readers [...]

Microsoft Loses Key Bing Developer to eBay

It seems that Microsoft’s taking three steps forward and one step back, with its hiring of other companies’ employees. It just lost Hugh Williams to eBay. He left Microsoft to become vice president of development for search for the auction site and, judging by Williams’ LinkedIn profile, eBay gains the guy that helped created Bing: I was [...]

Why Iran, Perez Hilton, and The US Open relate to SEO

By Frankie Fredericks “There is only now.”  Eckhart Tolle A common problem for those who have already optimized their website, and have created a wide array of content across social media outlets and networks is how to fight the traffic stagnation that comes after the initial launch of your comprehensive search engine [...]

How to Write Hundreds of Unique Articles from One Article with MS Excel – Article Theme Versioning

By Asif Anwar Article Theme Versioning, was chosen as the name for this strategy. Because, you make many unique articles by making version of a specific theme of an article. So, each version contain the same theme. With Article Theme Versioning, you can create hundreds of articles from just one seed article. It involves manual versioning, [...]

EU Demands Tighter Privacy Policies for Social Networks

Man, hardly a week goes by without the European Union getting after some Internet behemoth for bad business practices or invading individuals’ privacy, or both. Usually it’s Google on the receiving end, but this time it’s social networks that are getting scrutiny from the supranational regulator. As Facebook begins testing greater and greater publicity, with user [...]

15 Things I Wish I Had Known When I Started as an Internet Marketer

By Chris Tynski For anyone who’s joined and had success in the Internet Marketing world, there are likely a great number of things you have learned over the years that allow you to be successful today. This list is compiled from my own experience with Internet marketing,  it consists of the top 5 lessons I’ve learned in [...]

You Know You Work In Search When You…

By Chelsea Blacker You know you work in search when you: 1. have more logins than you do pairs of socks. 2. friended Danny Sullivan before you met him. 3. don’t think you’re a Cuttlet. 4. typically have at least 3 different browsers open simultaneously. 5. have considered dating a college student/education professional to get links. 6. grocery shop and think “my [...]

Second Round of SEM Scholarship Contest Entries Posted

We’ve just posted the second round of entries to our 4th Annual Search Engine Marketing Scholarship Contest. They are: You Know You Work In Search When You… 15 Things I Wish I Had Known When I Started as an Internet Marketer Why Iran, Perez Hilton, and The US Open relate to SEO Game Changing Principles â€" Enabler SEO 9 SEO [...]

Intersection of Search and Social Media

Earlier this week I gave a presentation on the intersection of SEO, online PR and social media to a great mix of people (mostly agencies) at a SEMPO Arizona event. The SEO/PR/Social topic is an interesting mix due to the convergence that’s been happening over the past 2-3 years and of course, because it’s the essence [...]

9 SEO Tips for Attractive Search Engine Friendly Web Design

By Justin Briggs SEO: time-intensive, ever changing, and highly misunderstood. Creating a website design that is appealing, while also search engine friendly, is one of the hardest parts about SEO web design. If you’re a designer, are your designs really search friendly? A lot of misconceptions about SEO still exist in the web design community and many designers, [...]

Facebook Taking Status Updates Public (A La Twitter)

This week, Facebook announced some coming changes to your status updates. Soon, just like with Twitter, you’ll have the option to make them public—but not just to everyone on the world’s most popular social network, but everyone around the world. (You know, with Internet access.) Because this feature is being implemented on the Facebook Publisher, you [...]

Game Changing Principles – Enabler SEO

By Paige Filler Let me preface this post by saying: If you don’t take the time to read you will miss out on the massive prizes below. Really. And it’s easy to win, no skills required. Read on… An Experiment in Social Web It is starting to feel like the 60s again with everyone ‘experimenting’ (on the web). So, [...]

The Reality of Real Time Hits Real Hard

It appears that some folks are starting to slow down on the Twype (Twitter hype, of course) and looking at the bigger picture impact that the service is making. Whether Twitter survives and / or thrives is not the point really. It’s a very real possibility that the folks at Twitter may have set the [...]

One in Three Searchers May Prefer Bing Over Google

A study of twelve people is not statistically relevant, but it does make for interesting headlines! According to the Catalyst Group, 1 in 3 Google users preferred the search experience of Bing over the search leader. OK, so that was actually 4 of the 12 total people that Catalyst studied in a report obtained by TechCrunch, [...]

Amazon Calls NC Lawmakers Bluff, Cancels Affiliate Program Early

It appears as though Amazon’s email to affiliates regarding North Carolina’s pending taxes was not a bluff. I just received a follow-up email from the company saying it has decided to shut down its affiliate program in the state, as of today. We are writing from the Amazon Associates Program to notify you that your Associates [...]

SEM & Job Recruitment

By Peter Zale The New Environment The growth of blogs, Wikis, sites like YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Huddle and others point to the increasing use of the Web as an environment for users to communicate and collaborate with one another in the facilitation of work, play and self-expression. This has caused a profound shift [...]

How to Kick Ass with a Mobile Website

By Richard Kirk People browsing your website via mobile devices are an ever-increasing segment of total website visitors. The proliferation of smartphones and increases in mobile browsing are key trends for 2009, with smartphone shipments worldwide set to grow by 23% this year, (despite a 9.1% decline in the mobile handset market). This not just a [...]

Direct Marketing In A Social Media World

It has been written that there is nothing new under the sun. Sometimes it feels that way when the talk turns to social media and its impact on marketing as a whole and, more specifically, any Internet marketing efforts. Of course, every bit of marketing is going to be affected by a medium that encourages [...]

SEO by You

By Chinmoy Kanjilal Readers, SEO has always been a field of tough competition and deep interest amongst the netizen, especially webmasters. Today, I will let you in to my biggest SEO secrets related to Technology blogs. One top secret of SEO is the content. And I always prefer it in a compiled manner, point-wise. So here [...]

Ballmer on Advertising: “We Have Reset and Won’t Rebound”

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was honored as Media Person of the Year at this year’s Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival. As he addressed the festival, however, he pulled a bit of a Calacanis (you guys do remember when Calacanis called SEO “bull@#&%” in an SES keynote, right?). Ballmer told the assembled media and advertising gurus [...]

Holistic Online Marketing

By Al Scillitani You can excel in all marketing channels individually, yet never achieve overall optimal marketing health. Right now you are only feeding each marketing channel breads and grains, but they all need their fruits and vegetables too. Take your next online promotion to the next level. I see a lot of articles on improving paid [...]

The Small Business PPC Art of War

By Anthony Verre If You’re Not An 800 lb Gorilla, You’re Guerrilla It’s no big secret: PPC is competitive. And any advantage you can get is always an edge. The hardest part is finding the edge you can leverage effectively, efficiently, and strike a resonating blow. It sounds like war because it is. Pay-Per-Click generals need [...]

Oh, That’s Right, We Don’t Need SEO Standards

By Marta Turek What is SEO? “Suppose it’s got something to do with when doing a search, getting the most and best hits back, i.e. no crap.” “A practise that improves performance and relevance of result sets for search engines. Never heard of it as a service.” “No understanding at all…is it something that makes Google work better?” “My guess [...]

First Round of SEM Scholarship Contest Entries Posted

We’ve just posted the first round of entries to our 4th Annual Search Engine Marketing Scholarship Contest. They are: The Small Business PPC Art of War Holistic Online Marketing Oh, That’s Right, We Don’t Need SEO Standards SEM & Job Recruitment SEO by You How to Kick Ass with a Mobile Website The next round will be published the same time tomorrow. [...]

Bartz Rebranding Yahoo (Hopefully without F-bombs)

Since taking the helm at Yahoo in January, CEO Carol Bartz has consistently emphasized one of Yahoo’s greatest strengths: its brand. But now they may be changing all that—literally. According to BoomTown, Yahoo is looking to revamp its worldwide fortunes with a major rebranding. But for once the company’s strength might be working against it. [...]

LinkedIn Names New CEO

Well, looks like some folks over at LinkedIn are going to be busy updating their profiles. Reid Hoffman’s will now include Founder and CEO of LinkedIn followed by Chairman of the Board of LinkedIn followed by interim CEO of LinkedIn and now landing at Executive Chairman of LinkedIn. Good thing Reid has stuck around to [...]

Twitter Reputation Management Case Study

Do you know what tactics your PR team is using in social media? UK furniture giant Habitat clearly doesn’t and it just cost them a huge reputation blackeye in the Twitter community. Digital Tip spotted Habitat’s official Twitter account apparently spamming Twitter by placing popular “trending topic” hashtags alongside its own (poorly crafted) tweets. They even tweeted hashtags [...]

Google “Sucking the Blood” Out of the Anemic Newspaper Industry

Dow Jones Chief Executive Les Hinton has been bitten by a vampire. He claims that Google is the “digital vampire” that has been “sucking the blood” out of the newspaper industry. I totally agree! Hinton must have been bitten by a vampire. How else do you explain such nonsense coming from the man responsible for one of [...]

China Cuts Access to Google’s Porn Gateway

It appears that Google and China are playing a game of brinkmanship–and Google’s losing. After continued threats from China, Google apparent still hasn’t done enough to prevent porn from being easily found at Google.com. In response, China pulled the plug on access to the search engine. Attempts to access Google.com and Gmail from different computers in Beijing [...]

Google Hopes You’ll Flip for Its Updated News Interface

According to TechCrunch, you may soon be able to "flip" through your favorite news stories on Google. Flipper is not yet public, but by the look of the screenshots below it appears that Google News is going for that same experience you get when you pick up your favorite daily newspaper.

Twitter Talks the Revenue Talk but Will It Walk the Revenue Walk?

With Facebook talking about reaching their lofty revenue goals for 2009 you would have to suspect that Twitter has to address the issue as well. Bloomberg reports today that Twitter is planning to show revenue in 2009 from clients like Dell, Whole Foods and Starbucks. This is coming from Biz Stone himself but when it [...]

Facebook and Click Fraud

Facebook is charging hard toward hitting that $550 million in revenue number that was put in front of potential investors recently. Of course, their pay per click model of advertising is going to be a critical component of getting there. It seems that there have been some troubles with click fraud for the past month [...]

TopRank BIGLIST: Interactive Marketing Associations

The digital and interactive marketing space moves fast and as both companies and individuals scramble to achieve and maintain a competitive advantage, it can be a challenge to find resources and likeminded individuals to help make that happen. Associations offer education, networking and in some cases, advocacy for members and sponsoring companies. The question is, [...]

TopRank Digital Marketing Talent Pool Grows with Adam Singer

[Note from Lee:] What do you get when you mix two parts “practice what you preach” with a focus on clients and a passion for the digital marketing industry? New clients, renewals and expansion of many client online marketing programs. Working with a great mix of clients is complimented by a fantastic team at TopRank [...]

How Direct is Social Media Marketing?

I had nice back and forth with Brian Clark of copyblogger on Twitter last week about direct marketing and social media.  Ultimately it was more an issue of perspective and semantics but there were some great points about the intersection of direct marketing on the social web. I’ve been an advocate for several years [...]

MySpace Looks to Close Some Space

In the Google, Facebook and Twitter swirl of news and rumors that we all tend to concentrate there is that other guy, MySpace, that is still lurking about. Unfortunately, as news is coming out that there are layoffs and office closings on the international front, it may be appropriate to say that MySpace is limping [...]

Social Media Search Gains; Google Loses Some Ground

Seeing the hard numbers of how social media search queries on sites like Facebook has gained in popularity is not a surprise to most. After all, many think that real time search could be the wave of the future and could eventually provide the revenue model that a social medium like Twitter needs to be [...]

Content Marketing Strategy with a Side of Social

Development of a content marketing strategy that speaks to the target audience plays a key role in successful execution of an overall online marketing program. Companies that embrace the social web as part of their marketing mix need to consider the content created within social media channels just as much as corporate web site content. Whether [...]

Top CEO’s Appear to be Anti Social (Media, that is)

With all the talk of social media this and social media that, it’s hard not to feel some pressure to be involved in some way or another. That is unless, of course, you are one of the CEO of some of the biggest companies in the world, as TechCrunch reports on a survey conducted [...]

Small Business Online Reputation Management Advice

BusinessWeek’s Rachael King specializes in helping small businesses understand technology. Her latest article looks at the online reputation management industry and includes lots of great advice–including some from yours truly. A number of free tools also can help you scout the Web, social networks, and online forums for mentions of your company, brand, or [...]

Finally! Developers Can Make Money from Free iPhone Apps

How does an iPhone application developer make money when giving away a free app? Well, before today, they mostly relied on users upgrading to a version of the app with more features–and a price tag. Now they have a new beta program from Google to test. Google AdSense for Mobile Applications just launched and application developers–for [...]

Deadline Extended: Search Scholarship Contest

To help all procrastinators, we’ve decided to extend the deadline for our $10,000 SEM Scholarship contest until 6pm ET Wednesday. You now have an additional two days to submit your 400+ word article on the topic of SEO, PPC, or social media. Please help spread the word by clicking the blue Twitter icon (or any of the [...]

It’s 2009, Do You Know Where Your Twitter Account Is?

Do you know what tactics your PR team is using in social media? UK furniture giant Habitat clearly doesn’t and it just cost them a huge reputation blackeye in the Twitter community. Digital Tip spotted Habitat’s official Twitter account apparently spamming Twitter by placing popular “trending topic” hashtags alongside its own (poorly crafted) tweets. They even tweeted hashtags [...]

Yahoo Brings Custom Display Ads to the Creatively Challenged

It only took Yahoo 8 months to react to Google’s AdWords display ad builder thingymajig. AdAge reports that Yahoo decided not to build its own ad builder technology, instead partnering with Seattle-based start-up AdReady. With Yahoo’s My Display Ads… …Advertisers can pick creative off the shelf from more than 800 display ad templates — including dancing cellphones, [...]

Bing’s Paid Clicks Still Up

Bing’s flash in the pan—supposed to burn out a while ago—is extending every day, at least in one important area: paid clicks. So far this month, we’ve seen that Bing might be making more per query than Google Bing saw an 8% increase in paid clicks and a 20% query volume lift Bing is taking a hardline on [...]

Jumping off the Social Media Cliff

Of those that reach out to our agency at TopRank, most of the companies I talk to are intrigued and even excited about social media. The challenge for organizations is that they’re often not exactly sure where to start or what will happen if they do. For many companies, kicking off a social media effort is [...]

Tweet No Evil: Twitter Censoring Trending Topics

Were you on Twitter last night? I was—it’s about the only thing I can do while watching my favorite summer show. And Burn Notice was one of the trending topics—among other . . . “less savory” terms. Some of my friends complained about the offensive trending topics; I minimized the list. But it appears Twitter didn’t [...]

Twitter Yields Clicks for Entertainment, Big Bucks for Music

Two recent reports illustrate the power of Twitter in two important metrics—driving visits and purchasing power. Hitwise analyzes overall downstream traffic for Twitter, while NPD Group takes a look at downstream purchases generated by Twitter. Hitwise took a look at the most popular categories of downstream traffic for Twitter, comparing them with Facebook, Google UK and [...]

Google Announces Update to Flash Indexing

Google announced today that they have improved their flash indexing capabilities. Last year they announced an update to their flash indexing, and let’s just say it wasn’t well received. This time around, Google claims to be able to index external flash resources. For those non-Flash experts out there, SWF files use an external file to [...]

Google Feels the Need, the Need for Speed!

Google would like you to know that you are slowing down its plans to organize the world’s information. In fact, your lame web site is slowing down the internet in general. OK, so maybe not your web site, but enough web sites are still relying on old technology and practices, that Google wants to put an [...]

9 Services Every Marketing Pilgrim Should Know About

We don’t often ask you to thank our awesome advertisers, but the next time you need help with your marketing, please consider these Marketing Pilgrim supporters. Full Sail University – check out their new Internet Marketing Bachelor’s Degree. You can study it online! Text Link Brokers – increase your traffic and search engine rankings. WPromote – offers a [...]

Cuil Goes from “Google Killer” to “Google Beggar”

Proving that hype will only get you so far–without substance–Cuil is going from “Google killer” to “Google beggar.” According to IBD, the search engine start-up is turning to the search engine that it vowed to topple–asking Google to provide ads on Cuil’s pages. “That is what we are going to do,” said Tom Costello, Cuil’s chief executive. [...]

C-Level Executives Under 40 Blog, Tweet, & Click More!

Forbes and Google have released a new report called The Rise of the Digital C-Suite: How Executives Locate and Filter Business Information. It’s a fascinating read–mostly because it highlights the difference in internet habits of C-level executives,  based on their age. Why is this important? Because those executives that are under 40 will likely, in the [...]

Three Blind Mice Run from Yahoo to Microsoft

I’m not about to turn Marketing Pilgrim into a collection of children’s nursery rhymes, but news that three Yahoo employees have defected to Microsoft did bring this to mind: Three blind mice. Three blind mice. See how they run. See how they run. They all ran after the farmer’s wife, Who cut off their tails with a carving knife, Did [...]

Google Maps Tells Us What’s Here

Just the other day, I was browsing through Google Maps and I saw what is properly classed as a “big ol’ building.” Aerial shots and even Street View couldn’t tell me what said building was, and I wished that Google could just check the repository of the Internet tell me what that building was. Well, it [...]

Strategic Link Building for SEO

Not many in the Search Engine Optimization game would argue that link building isn’t tactical. The problem is, approaching link building as an end goal and tactically, is very much like a hamster running in it’s cage.  That’s what many mechanical SEO consultants do: Chase links one by one or get creative with link bait [...]

Wikipedia to Take on YouTube?

Okay, no, not really—but the encyclopedia anyone can edit is looking to add video to its offerings, according to Technology Review (via RWW). To launch in the next 2-3 months (by the end of the summer), Wikipedia’s new system will allow users to contribute and even edit clips for articles, posting the entire clip or only [...]

3 Years Later, Italian Authorities Are Still After Google

Almost 3 years after Italian authorities investigated two Google Italy employees–as part of an inquiry into how a violent video appeared on Google Video–criminal charges have now been brought against four Google executives. According to the Financial Times, Italian prosecutor Francesco Cajani has brought criminal charges against four Google executives directly. …David Drummond, Google’s chief legal [...]

Time’s Almost Up to Enter Our $10k Search Marketing Contest!

We know how busy you are, but you have until the end of the day Monday to enter our 4th Annual Search Engine Marketing Scholarship contest. Miss the deadline, and you’ll miss your chance to win this awesome prize package: All Access Pass to SMX East All Access Pass to Pubcon Twelve months of Enterprise reputation monitoring from [...]

Should You Fear the FTC’s Sponsored Blogging Crackdown?

It appears the Federal Trade Commission is continuing its sloth-like race to enact new standards for bloggers that don’t currently disclose compensated endorsements. The AP does its best to make bloggers out to be "quite different" from the "journalists" that work for mainstream media–and therefore must all be on the up-and-up, right? So, I’ll spare you [...]

Google Testing New Product Ads

UPDATE: Google Blogoscoped has screen shots of product ads in the wild. Google Blogoscoped received an anonymous tip Friday about Google’s next move in search advertising through its Affiliate Network: product ads. According to the email the tipster passed along, Product ads are paid product listings that appear [on Google.com SERPs] when users search for products on [...]

Crouching Google, Hidden Porn

How’s a modern search engine supposed to grow market share if it can’t rely on serving up internet pornography? </sarcasm> Well, Google’s going to have to take on China’s leading search engine Baidu, without the help of those that use the search engine to locate naked flesh. According to AP, China’s main watchdog, the China Internet [...]

Link Building Q&A with Ben Wills, CEO and Co-Founder of Ontolo

I’ve been lucky enough to make some good industry friends over the years. Ben Wills is certainly high on that list and I’ve worked with him at two previous companies–including making him my VP of Operations at my last search marketing company. Ben’s search engine optimization experience is second-to-none and he’s always had an (you could [...]

Ask.com’s Ex-CEO Talks About His Departure & Company’s Chances Against Google

I’m going to say what most people will think when they read the news that former Ask.com CEO Jim Safka is back in the saddle again. Did he really leave Ask.com for the stated reason that his brother had died? Don’t get me wrong–losing a family member is crushing–but at the time, I couldn’t help but wonder [...]

Influencing The Social Web: Agility Is A Factor

How agile is your marketing? Do you have layer upon layer of approval processes, committees, lawyers, and executives who need to sign off on every piece of external communication before it goes out? If yes, your business is structured for a pre-Internet world, and unfortunately this means you will always be at a disadvantage compared to agile competitors designed to take advantage of a connected society. An inescapable truth is the web rewards companies (and people) that are nimble. People interact deepest with thoughts and ideas that have character and personality. And if there is one thing that removes this, it is the superfluous layers that design by committee creates. It rips the personality from content piece by piece as it passes though each filter, and is the antithesis of agility and what makes for compelling communications.

Another Marketing Innovation From Bing [Cartoon]

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5 Types of Blog Content That Encourage People to Link Back to You

Content is king, and the best way to get people to link back to your website is to produce *remarkable* content. But what type of content is remarkable? In other words, what type of content naturally encourages others to link back?

Here is a list of five types of content that anyone can produce to help you build links into your blog.

1) Publish informational graphs or images. This is especially effective when they are your own creations. Do analysis on data or trends. People will credit you as the source, and link back to your site where the graphs are located! 

2) Include lists in your blog articles. Like this one! Lists are very digestable and helpful. Often people will want to refer back, or react to your list, linking back to you as the author.

3) Make videos or screencasts. One of the most successful recent articles on this blog was Mike Volpe's post, 4 Minutes to Optimize a LinkedIn Profile for SEO. It included a webcast that showed you a view of his screen so you knew exactly what he was doing. People love videos they can embed on their own site, and then credit you with a link.

4) Compile a collection of resources and links on a subject. You can do this by searching Google, finding resources that you like and publishing a comprehensive list. People will love that you did the hard work for them!

5) Publish something creative. A music video, perhaps? By being original, entertaining and enjoyable, people everywhere will love to blog about your content. By giving them something fantastic to link to, you're actually helping them provide value to their own readers!

Do you agree? Not agree? What other types of content can you not help but link back to? 

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Is Twitter a Social Network?

What is Twitter? Is it a social network or a content distribution platform? CEO of Twitter Evan Williams doesn't seem to think it's a social network.

A social network is a piece of technology that facilitates communication through existing social connections. You can share messages, photos and events with your friends, people you already know. Facebook is designed for "strong" connections, people you actually know well in real life.

A content distribution platform is a system that provides users with relevant information and links, and that gives content publishers a way to get their content to interested consumers. TV is probably the most obvious example, but RSS is a web-based version.

Twitter as a Distribution Platform

The argument for Twitter as a content distribution platform is obvious. With media companies like CNN posting their links to over a million users, tweeting is certainly an effective way for publishers to disseminate their content.

Twitter as a Social Network

The argument for Twitter as a social network is also quite obvious. Twitter emphasizes "weak" connections or people you know only a little from real life or even purely online friends and allows you to keep track of what they're doing and engage in conversations.

And the Data? 

The data we uncovered in the second version of the State of the Twittersphere shows both sides of this debate. On one hand, many accounts on Twitter either have no followers or have never posted a tweet, meaning that many users are simply following their favorite celebrities or media outlets to get content.

On the other hand, over 30% of all tweets are replies. This means that when people do start actually using the service, they are using it to converse with their "weak" connections. Active users are leveraging the social network aspect of Twitter.

What do you think? Is Twitter best used as a social network or a content distribution platform?

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Marketing Detox: Breaking Addiction to Google AdWords PPC Crack

You spend a little money and buy some drugs, and they make you feel good.  Then the effect wears off.  You spend more money for more drugs, and feel good again.  Then the effect wears off again.  You find more money and buy yet more drugs.  Pretty soon, you are out of money, and feel horrible, and have no drugs to make you feel better.  Big problem.

The same thing can happen to even the best marketers.  You start buying some Google AdWords PPC.  It generates some leads.  Then the sales team uses up all the leads.  Then you buy some more.  Then sales asks for more leads again.  So, you ask your boss for more budget.  You buy more leads.  Sales uses all the leads and wants more...  What's wrong with this picture?

The problem with this situation is that you are not building any sustainable marketing assets for your business.  All you are doing is buying leads from Google that go bad very quickly.  There is no leverage in your marketing model.  To double in size, you need to double your marketing spend (if not even more).  Nothing you are doing helps you generate more leads next month, or the month after, with less effort.  You will always be working just as hard and spending just as much money, just to stay afloat.

But, what about another strategy?  What about search engine optimization, blogging and social media?  Well, if you spend time/money to publish a few blog articles, they will start to rank in organic (free!) search results in Google.  And you don't need to pay for that.  So, next month you have the 10 articles you wrote last month, plus 10 more you will write this month.  The month after that you will have 20 articles from the prior two months, plus 10 more you write that month.  Get the picture?  Blogging and SEO are asset-centric marketing programs.  You are building an asset that has a payout each and every month over time.

Social media is an asset-centric marketing strategy as well.  As you build a following in Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter, you build on top of what you have already done.  As you attract more friends and followers to you and your company, the size of the audience you can reach increases each month.  The benefit you get increases over time.

Certainly not all drugs are completely bad.  Caffeine.  Alcohol?  Prescription drugs?  When taken in moderation and managed properly, they can be part of your overall life.  But only when balanced with other things.  The same is true of Google AdWords PPC.  I've used them.  But I also leverage asset-centric marketing programs as much as possible.

Learn how to go into detox and break your addiction to the Google AdWords PPC crack.  Watch this free webinar to get started --->.

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Semantic Search Getting Social

And we don’t mean Hakia’s “social network.” Yet another semantic search startup is trying to leverage the power of social networking—but this time not as a social network where you can discuss your queries, but through friends recommending related sites. Semanti is a new semantic search engine from someone who gets why previous efforts toward semantic [...]

The 7 Deadly Sins of Inbound Marketing

Renowned Lebanese-American poet Kahlil Gibran popularized the aphorism, “Should we all confess our sins to one another we would all laugh at one another for our lack of originality.”

Gibran's words are certainly true in marketing. The costliest marketing mistakes are surprisingly common.

In fact, most can be summarized in these seven deadly sins of Inbound Marketing:

Sin 1: Sloth â€" Don't be slothful about content creation! One of the foremost tenets of inbound marketing is to constantly create fresh, remarkable content that is helpful to your customers, prospects and community and attract them to your business.

Sin 2: Lust - Don't lust after short-term results. It takes a while to build a successful blog.  Be patient and focus on creating good content rather than becoming a mechanical publishing machine. The desire for short term results hurts long term gains.

Sin 3: Gluttony - Don't be gluttonous and stuff your content with information about your company products.  Focus on solving problems and helping your customers and community first and not jamming your product pitch down their throats. 

Sin 4: Greed â€" Don't be greedy for people's attention!  Interrupting their daily lives with cold calls and other non-permission based outbound marketing can turn them off.  Inbound marketing is about attracting people to your site like a magnet using remarkable, keyword-rich, optimized content.

Sin 5: Wrath â€" Don't respond to your nay sayers with wrath! It's easy to delete a non-flattering comment on your blog or site, but remember transparency is key as is open dialog!  Foster constructive criticism so everyone can learn from the differing view points.

Sin 6: Envy â€" Don't copy your competition out of envy! Watch your competitors, but don't mimic them.  Inbound Marketing is about playing a different game on the same field as your competitors who are using the age-old interruption outbound marketing tactics.

Sin 7: Pride â€" Don't be too proud to put yourself out there.  Take a risk!  Blogging and social media are not about works of art. They are about sharing raw information, videos and opening ourselves up. Sometimes we are too proud to put ourselves out there or linger too long trying to perfect our creative.

Are you guilty of any of the above sins? I know I am and try to correct course on a regular basis.  Please share your thoughts in the comments!

Photo credit: Wikipedia

Inbound Marketing Kit

Learn more about inbound marketing and how to combine blogging, SEO and social media for results. Download our inbound marketing kit.

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Facebook Triples Advertiser Base

I know you’re tired of hearing the same old “the economy is going down the tubes” sob story, so I brought you something different today—a company that’s actually increasing its advertiser base. And not just any company—a social media company (and you know how tough it is to really make money there—you know, other thank [...]

Twitter Isn't Killing Blogs, It's Making Them Better

Yesterday Joseph Jaffe, a marketer I look up to, proclaimed that blogging is dying. Twitter is killing it, he said.

Joseph is a leader in the social media movement. He's helped many well-know brands navigate the new landscape. But I think he's wrong here.

Twitter is not killing blogs, it's making them better.

Joseph's point is that Twitter's 140-character limit is reducing our ability to do thoughtful long-form thinking. "There has been a marked shift from blogging to "micro"-blogging and I wonder what we're sacrificing in the process," he wrote.

First, let's look at the numbers. Technorati's most recent State of the Blogosphere reported that the company has indexed 133 million blog records since 2002. Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reports 32 million Twitter accounts (half of which are inactive). Twitter's acceleration is obvious in the Google Trends graph below (blue is Google searches on "blogs"; red is Google searches on "Twitter."

So Twitter is seeing explosive growth, maybe even catching up with and cutting into blogging's dominance. Like Joseph, I see this anecdotally in the pace of posting on many of the blogs I read. People are balancing their blogging with Twitter.

But there's something else happening. While many of the blogs without business models, published in the middle of the night by bloggers in pajamas, are slowing their pace of publishing, many smart businesses are starting blogs with very clear business goals. These are businesses like Modative, Reynolds Golf Academy and Cilk Arts that have figured out that blogging is a critical piece of inbound marketing. It helps them rank higher in search engines, drive more traffic to their site and, ultimately, generate more leads and sales.

Sure, it would be easier for these business to spew 140-character missives on Twitter, but they understand that Tweets don't rank well in search engines, and thus don't generate the leads and sales that blogs posts do.

For readers and businesses, this change is a good thing. It means we're getting fewer of the windy tirades that originally gave blogs a bad name, and more high-quality content that's produced for a very specific reason -- to provide useful information to customers. It also makes it easier for quality businesses to rise above their competition.

Bottom line? Yes, Twitter is growing, but it's not going to kill blogs. Blogs are too important to businesses.

Webinar: Advanced Business Blogging

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