Best Internet Marketing Posts of 2010

Posted by Tamar Weinberg in Blogging, Business, Industry News, Internet, Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media, Viral Marketing, Web Design, Websites | 63 comments

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As many of you know, I have an annual tradition of giving back to the community on my birthday, which is why this year is no different. Of course, then, today is my birthday, & it’s a big one. Today, I’m 30.

I started this “best posts” idea 5 years ago & it’s grown huge. 2010 by far was the biggest year yet in the Internet Marketing realm. That’s why this is the biggest post I’ve ever written (with over 10,000 words). In honor of my 30th birthday, I have 300 posts.

Here’s how I do it: I read & review hundreds — thousands — of articles yearly, on all Internet Marketing topics from SEO to social media to general entrepreneurship (new for 2010!), also gathering intelligence via their rankings on top social sites & by stumbling upon new items in my feed reader. Since I can’t read everything written by the Internet Marketing community, I ask my Twitter & Facebook followers for their own recommendations. Based on specific criteria, normally actionable takeaways & evergreen content, I review the content & post it here to share with Techipedia readers & new visitors. The content is typically introductory but occasionally more intermediate/advanced, so there’s a mix that should work for everyone.

This list is very long, but I hope it’s not any less valuable. I’m sure you’ll have a year (or more) of reading to do, but it’s worth it to empower you with all this great content that has been written by brilliant peers. Enjoy!

Special note: This is the LAST wrap up post you’ll ever receive via Techipedia. If you found this content valuable & would like to receive new articles on a monthly basis, please subscribe to the monthly newsletter, available at a super low rate for a limited time.

Social Media: Getting Started, Implementation, and Execution

• How to Develop a Social Media Strategy: A Roadmap for Integration (Very Official Blog): Shannon Paul did an amazing job on this post, presenting questions & answers that help companies consider their goals for a social media strategy.
• Preparing a Social Readiness Gameplan in 7 Steps (Logic+Emotion): How can companies adequately prepare for social media monitoring & marketing? David Armano tackles the issue.
• An Open Letter to Marketers Who Abuse Social Media for Selfish Gain (KISSmetrics): Jon Morrow shows how do to social media right.
• Definitive Guide to Social Media Strategy Before Tactics (Online Marketing Blog): Lee Odden asked dozens of digital marketing experts for their take on social media strategy vs. tactics.
• Social Media Toolkit (Michael Fruchter): Here are tools to use to get the most out of social media.
• Social Media: What it is, How to Use It, and Where to Begin (One Man’s Blog): John Pozadzides introduces everything that rocks about social media.
• How to Write Your Social Media Plan in 8 Steps (Skyline Trade Show Tips): Need inspiration to get your social media plan in play? These 8 steps will guide you.
• 5 Ways Companies are Using Social Media to Lower Costs (Mack Collier): What are the benefits of social media? See how companies gain.
• 100 Thoughts on Social Media (Conversation Agent): This may be one of the shortest blog posts I’ve added to the list.
• How to: Optimize Your Social Media Marketing Strategy (Mashable): Using AIDA (awareness, interest, desire, action), you can set expectations, decide what you need to monitor, & visualize relationships.

Social Media (and Beyond): Small Business

• 6 Key Benefits for Using Social Media for Small Business (OPENForum): Improved search results, better brand management, innovation, and other benfits are explored in this article.
• The Ultimate Resource for Successful Small Business Websites (Samir Balwani): Here’s how small businesses can benefit from online marketing.
• Growing Your Business: 5 Tips from the Founder of Foursquare (Mashable): Dennis Crowley knows his stuff and shares good and creative tips to build visibility to business. Hey, Foursquare was pretty small once!
• 9 Expert SEO Tips for Small Businesses (Small Business Trends): Anita Campbell asks 9 people (including me) for their thoughts on online marketing.
• How 4 Small Businesses are Using Location-Based Services (Mashable): Mashable’s Erica Swallow asked 4 businesses how they’re using Foursquare and other geolocation services. It’s interesting to hear it from smart businesses.
• 11 Practical Business Uses for LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter (GigaOM): Some lesser-practiced tips are suggested here.
• How to: Get the Most from a Small Business Social Media Presence (Mashable): Generation Y entrepreneurs tell all in this piece on what a small business can do to get the most out of social media.
• Why Twitter is a Big Win for Small Business (Mashable): Three small businesses explain how they’re using Twitter and how it’s helping them grow.
• 5 Ways to Introduce Social Media to Small Businesses (AEXT.NET): The social media niche is a big echo chamber. Frankly, not all businesses know about social media marketing. Here’s why social media is an important extension of a website development strategy.
• 5 Big Social Media Questions from Small Business Owners (Mashable): This post tackles common business questions as it relates to social media marketing.

Social Media: Hiring and in the Workplace

• How to Get Any Job You Want Using Social Media (Blog Godown): Social media can be a forever changing resume of sorts.
• 10 Ideas to Keep Your Social Team Motivated (The Future Buzz): I love this post by Adam Singer. I’ve nodded my head on every single point since I have stories for each and every one!
• How to Nail a Job Interview (and Actually Get the Job) (Brass Tack Thinking): This particular article actually doesn’t talk about hiring via social media, but has some good advice for general job seekers.
• 5 Ways to Get a Job Through YouTube (Mashable): Did you know how Justin Bieber got to be so famous? Yeah, you guessed it. Here are other examples about how to leverage the popular video sharing site to get a job.
• 11 Ways to Lose Your Job on Facebook (Jeffbullas.com): This section is about social media and hiring, but how about the opposite? Here’s to firing via social media.
• How to Hire Social Media Strategists (Creativity Unbound): Edward Boches of Mullen takes a tactical approach toward hiring for social media. For him, it’s not just about Klout or following numbers.
• 20 Real Tips for Hiring a Social Media Consultant (Pam Moore): Looking for a consultant? Pam’s post has some great examples of how to find those “social media experts” who just don’t deserve to be hired. Ever.
• 6 Ways to Score a Job Through Twitter (Mashable): My online friend Shankar Ganesh got an internship with Zoho. They’re lucky to have him!

Social Media: Measurement and ROI

• Sexy Numbers: Measuring ROI in Social Media Campaigns (ReveNews): The elusive ROI question is dissected.
• 5 Objectives for Social Media Measurement (Brass Tack Thinking): Explore objectives measuring social media efforts and ROI.
• Are We Ever Going to “Get it”? (Peter Shankman): Peter rants about what companies are doing wrong when they think about what they can get out of social media.
• Can You Measure the ROI of Your Social Media Marketing? (MIT Sloan Management Review): Want an amazing article on ROI of social media? This is it.
• How to: Calculate the ROI of Your Social Media Campaign (Mashable): Jamie Turner offers suggestions on understanding qualitative, quantitative, and ROI metrics.
• The Perfect Social Media Measurement Plan (Search Engine Land): Brian Massey illustrates a system that automatically and reliably stores conversion data in a spreadsheet.
• Evidence that Social Media Really Does Drive Sales (The Next Web): Big companies prove that social media works.
• This is How You Measure Social Media ROI (Samir Balwani): Samir Balwani offers a nice analysis of how you can calculate social media ROI and suggests some great ideas for the future of social media.
• Practical Social Media Measurement: Awareness, Attention, Reach (Brass Tack Thinking): Amber Naslund shares how to measure social media with actionable things you can do today.
• Get Your Social Media Strategy in Shape with Spreadsheet Aerobics (Beth Kanter): Beth Kanter uses Facebook as the example in this post that explores how she evaluates the effectiveness of social media engagements.
• How to Measure Social Media Marketing Performance (Social Media Examiner): KPIs. Predictable Results. Incentivized sharing. That’s how you are accountable for your social media involvement.

Social Media: General

• How Social Media Drives New Business: Six Case Studies (TechCrunch): Businesses will benefit from reading about these creative ideas employed by other businesses to build traction and online visibility boosts.
• The 10 Stages of Social Media Integration in Business (Brian Solis): In his unabridged version of an earlier Mashable article, Brian Solis explains the various transitions a company might encounter when involving itself in social media marketing.
• 30 Tips for Using Social Media in Your Business (Inc.): Inc’s article has a lot of small ideas you can use to make social media more effective in business.
• Share Well with Others: How to Get Social Content to Go Viral (Search Engine Land): This post explores the motives behind content sharing, the ways content spreads, and tips for creating viral content.
• Social Media Supremacy: 10 Experts Reveal Their Strategies (ViperChill): Here are tips from 9 excellent social media practitioners (and me) who give advice on social media strategy.
• Social Media Etiquette: 20 Do’s and Don’ts to Avoid Looking Like an Ass (Directory Journal): I write another social media etiquette handbook, but I like this version with general but helpful things to consider in social media.
• Integrationg Social Media into Your Email Marketing (RhinoSEO): Some people are all about email. Some others are all social. Here’s a good way to mesh the two together.
• The 5 NEW Rules of Social Media Optimization (Influential Marketing Blog): In 2006, Rohit Bhargava formulated the concept of SMO, or Social Media Optimization. This is the 2010 version.
• How to: Pick the Right Social Media Engagement Style (Mashable): You might want to be a game show host, a friendly neighborhood service rep, a community builder, beehive, or friend. What’s YOUR style?
• 5 Steps to Dealing with the Relentless Pace of Marketing (PR Squared): Exhausted yet by social media? Have no fear; alleviate the load.
• The Expert’s Guide to Keyword Research for Social Media (WordStream): This guide discusses how you can benefit from diverse keyword research strategies, which you’d think is for PPC & SEO only. Nope!

Twitter

• 5 Steps to Build a Twitter Marketing Strategy (Online Marketing Blog): Lee Odden provides tips for Twitter marketing.
• 10 Indicators Your Business Should Rethink Its Twitter Strategy (Klout): Megan Berry of influence analytics provider Klout gives best practices on building loyal followers.
• 10 Ways to Increase Your Twitter Followers & 10 Essential Tools to Do It (State of Search): I’m not going to be the first one to tell you (and it’s not even the first time) that numbers aren’t everything, but wait…
• What Type of Twitter Account Should You Create? (Small Business Trends): I face this question all the time: should I create a personal account or a mixed business account? I say it’s up to you. See what Lisa suggests.
• How Twitter Can Make You a Better (and Happier) Person (Delivering Happiness): Here’s to the success of Zappos on Twitter. Tony Hsieh says certain values grew him as a person and made him happier in life.
• 9 Ways to Build a Twitter Community with Substance (Brass Tack Thinking): Building community on Twitter isn’t that complicated with this easy-to-read list.
• 21 Twitter Tips from Socially Savvy Companies (Fast Company): For those of you who have not seen this or read Brian Solis’s Engage!, here’s how Twitter is being used by businesses.
• 7 Sneaky Ways to Use Twitter to Spy on Your Competition (KISSmetrics): Hopefully you already do this. If not, get started.
• 7 Insanely Useful Ways to Search Twitter for Marketing (OPENForum): Targeting users by location, occupation, and more is the premise of John Jatsch’s article on Twitter search.
• Tweet, Tweet: 9 Steps to a Successful Twitter Strategy (Business News Daily): Assess your challenges, plan your goals, listen, set objectives, & do more to get a solid Twitter strategy in place.
• 9 Ways to Use Twitter Lists (StayOnSearch): Ah, Twitter lists, the once-hyped products that now seem stagnant. You might elect to reevaluate, though, if you knew what you could do with them.
• Twitter Chats and Twitter Parties for Brands (Stephanie Schwab): Here’s how brands can get involved.
• 10 Practical Twitter Tips for Publishers (Adam Sherk): Adam works with some of the biggest publishing media companies on search and social strategy, so his advice is sound.

Facebook

• Facebook SEO Ranking Factors, 2010 Study Results (aimClear): Wow, the depth of this report is incredible. There are great insights on assessing the value of SEO for your Facebook profiles and pages.
• How to Better Engage Facebook Fan Page “Fans” (Social Media Examiner): Mari Smith on how to keep your Facebook Page lively and engaging.
• The Business Guide to Facebook Part 1: Your Brand Page for the Social Web (Brian Solis): This is part 1 of a 2 part piece that explores the importance of Facebook for businesses and why e-commerce (or f-commerce) is a business’s future.
• Facebook SEO (Blind Five Year Old): This post looks at Facebook SEO from the angle of Facebook’s Open Graph, so it’s more than your typical post about Facebook SEO.
• How to Build Your Facebook Landing Page (If You’re Not a Programmer) (SocialMouths): If you want tips on how to set up a Facebook landing page and have a graphic to work with, this is a good guide. For more, check out my post on How to Build the Perfect Facebook Page.
• 5 Facebook Fan Acquisition Strategies (Search Engine Journal): Brian Carter’s “complete Facebook marketing system” covers the gamut of getting fans that translate to revenue.
• 13 Simple Ways of Increasing Your Facebook Likes (The Next Web): Want people to Like you? Give them reasons to.
• Cracking the Facebook Code (The Daily Beast): News Feed Optimization explained.
• 6 Tips for Running Promotions Within Facebook’s Guidelines (Inside Facebook): Given the risks of running contests on Facebook due to some unexplained terms of service, Inside Facebook clarifies what is within reason and what’s disallowed.
• 10 Ways to Rock Your Facebook Campaign (Kommein): Here are practical tips on how to use Facebook to promote your business.

LinkedIn

• 5 Ways to Make the Most of LinkedIn (LinkedIn Blog): Ambassador Lindsey Pollak has some good tips for you to make the most out of the service.
• How to Improve Your LinkedIn ROI by Tweaking Your Profile (Sharisax): Make yourself findable by optimizing your profile. Should we call this LIO (LinkedIn Optimization)?
• 20 LinkedIn Case Studies and Examples for Professionals (Kyle Lacy): How are YOU using LinkedIn? Kyle features some LinkedIn gains from 20 pros.
• 10 Ways for Small Businesses to Use LinkedIn (OPENForum): With so many small businesses on LinkedIn, it’s imperative that you leverage that for maximum gain. Guy Kawasaki shares tips from LinkedIn’s employees.
• How to Make LinkedIn Answers Part of Your Routine (Social Media Explorer): Get qualified leads via LinkedIn by following Jason’s steps.
• Using LinkedIn for Online PR (Social Small Biz): I like that this post has some not so standard tips, such as connecting with journalists and influencers right after you’ve met them.
• Use LinkedIn Effectively (Chris Brogan): Know how to take advantage of LinkedIn? Probably not. Here’s a simple list of how to take advantage of the site.
• Top 5 Ways to Marketing Your Business with LinkedIn (Social Media Examiner): I have a client who said that this worked. Enough said.
• 5 Ways to Weave LinkedIn Into Your Marketing Mix (Online Marketing Blog): The personal account & company group create an effective LinkedIn marketing plan.
• 10 Ways for Small Businesses to Use LinkedIn (LinkedIn Blog): LinkedIn is a viable social network, so businesses of all sizes need to leverage it. The post has small business owners in mind but is relevant to all companies.
• 10 Terrific LinkedIn Tricks to Grow Your Business! (OPENForum): Steve Strauss discusses more ways to maximize LinkedIn.

Leveraging Other Social Media Sites

• How to Promote Your Business on Flickr (Influential Marketing Blog): Rohit Bhargava introduces you to Flickr and shows how to build a strong account on the site.
• Case Study: How to Use Foursquare to Draw a Crowd Into Your Restaurant (Steffan Antonas): An orchestrated Foursquare meetup meets its match.
• How to Succeed on Yelp (Without Really Trying) (WebRanking): Local businesses should pay attention to what’s being said about them on Yelp. Be proactive & win.
• Advanced Delicious Search Operators (Modern Journalist): Even though Delicious is in turmoil, it is still a helpful social bookmarking site with useful search operators that improve your experience.
• How to Use Foursquare Effectively for Your Small Business (Business Insider): This is a slideshow/article combo with tips on how even a non-seasoned Foursqaure user (& business owner) can get the most out of it.
• 5 Ways to Leverage Foursqaure for Business (Penn Olson): One of the tips I don’t see very often is in this article: encourage shout-outs!
• Foursquare Business Strategies You Don’t Want to Miss (Samir Balwani): With only (!) 5 million members, Foursquare is still new enough to take advantage of. Local businesses, take note!

Blogging

• How I Really Built a Blog with 6,500 Subscribers (ViperChill): Mentioning Glen’s post should double his subscriber numbers. You’ll see why when you read it.
• 17 Important Things to Do After Starting Your WordPress Blog (Gloson): I love Gloson — he’s so smart (and so young!)
• How to Write a Blog That Matters (Justin Kownacki): Justin’s post is an excellent blog-building driver. Read it & you’ll see what I mean.
• 100+ SMB Blogging Ideas to Kick Start … 2011? (Small Business Trends): This post has chock full of great inspiration for your next blogging project. You can’t run out of topics.
• How I Create and Manage a WordPress Website (Wolf-Howl): WordPress can run more than just blogs; it’s great for standalone sites. Here are some great plugins that you can use to optimize WP. The only thing it’s missing is W3 Total Cache, which I HIGHLY recommend.
• 34 Reasons to Start a Blog (Conversation Agent): Why should you blog? Let us count 34 ways.
• The Power of Uniqueness: 19 Starting Points (Problogger): Darren Rowse helps set you apart from other bloggers.
• How I Wrote 270 Guest Posts in 8 Months (YoungPrePro): Onibalusi took a lot out of his time to write some great guest posts (including two featured here). Learn his process.
• The 7 Traits of Highly Successful Bloggers (Dragos Roua): Authority, creativity, persistence, connectivity.
• 6 Things I Wish I Knew About Blogging 4 Years Ago (ViperChill): As you’ve seen earlier, Glen writes amazing posts, and his tips for budding bloggers are no exception. You can learn a lot from him.

Reputation Management

• 5 Extreme Tactics for Removing a Reputation Attack from Google’s Index (Trackur): I like Andy Beal’s tactics: find a real violation & get them kicked out of Google. Works for me.
• 5 Reasons NOT to Delete Negative Reviews (Outspoken Media): Lisa argues why to leave negative reviews up.
• What to Do if You Are Attacked Online: Setting a Social Media Policy for Your Business (Small Business Trends): What types of things can you do when you’re faced with an online attack?
• Reputation Management SEO: 6 Advanced Tactics (SEOmoz): Rand Fishkin helps with reputation management: manage a handful of strong social profiles, speak at events, start an alternative blog, & more.
• What Trolls Can Teach You About Reputation Management (Flowtown): Trolls can be jerks, but sometimes wanting the attention they command is justified. JD Rucker highlights scenarios when you might just have to take the bait.
• 5 Ways NOT to Handle Reputation Management (Conversation Marketing): Here are mistakes you’ll make when your company gushes oil into the ocean.
• 10 Ways to Deal with a Social Media Explosion (Simon Lilly): Predict, plan, filter, rotate, evaluate.
• Turning Lemons into Lemonade: 11 Components of a Social Media Crisis Plan (Huffington Post): Since you’ll probably find out about a crisis nowadays on Twitter before you get official word, put out those fires quickly by following the checklist.
• 36 Reputation Monitoring Feeds You Can’t Afford to Ignore (aimClear): If you’re in the business of reputation management, keep tabs on what’s being said. Here are 36 places you need to look.
• 5 Online Reputation Management Mistakes (VeristLabs): These are mistakes most businesses commit when dealing with reputation managemnet crises.
• That’s Not Nice! Top 10 Tips for Responding to Negative Comments (NTEN): One big rule: don’t take it personally.
• A Practical Guide to Online Reputation Management (Target Internet): What’s ORM? What can you do to track it? How can you manage it?
• Online Reputation Management 101 (ClickZ): Like the post above, learn the ORM basics.

Content Development/Marketing

• 14 Lessons Learned from One of the World’s Highest Paid Copywriters (Copyblogger): This is a 3-part series that talk about how to get the most out of your marketing from Dan Kennedy. Here’s part 2 and here’s part 3.
• The 7-Step Process for Writing Enticing Product Descriptions (Marketing Words): E-commerce copywriting gets simpler with tips by Karon Thackston.
• Simple Strategies for Engaging Your Visitors (Six Revisions): What kind of content do you need? Fresh, targeted, valuable, concise.
• The Oatmeal Guide to Getting 5 Million Unique Visitors a Month (Content Converts): Matt Inman was just a regular guy a few years ago (I knew him!), but when he launched The Oatmeal, his life changed. Now, with over 5 million monthly uniques, he’s amazing.
• 18 Ways to Walk the Talk on Content (Conversation Agent): Good content can help your site soar to great heights, but if you are having trouble getting there, read this.
• Why You Shouldn’t Write for Other Writers (Copyblogger): Stop writing for bloggers. Write for your customers. Hugh MacLeod shares a personal story.
• The Creation and Promotion of Social Content (Search Engine Journal): Jordan Kasteler explains that content must stand for something to succeed.

Web Development and Website Strategy

• 18 Simple SEO Items Commonly Missed in Web Development (SEO.com): SEO is important when building a website, or it’ll be impossible find you.
• The Psychology of Web Design (Web Designer Depot): Psychology & web design go hand in hand. Understanding basic principles can help you build amazing sites.
• How I Grew My RSS Subscription Count by 243% (Quick Sprout): Neil Patel suggests tweaks that increased his RSS subscribers. There are takeaways here even for non-bloggers.
• 4 Design Elements Behind a Good Call to Action (letscountthedays): This post teaches you good calls to action on websites with visual examples to see exactly what you’re supposed to implement.
• 4 Tips for Search (and User) Friendly Design (Search Engine Land): Ian Lurie suggests that SEOs need to be more immersed in the design process.
• 6 Ways to Eliminate Pesky Duplicate Content (Search Engine Guide): Duplicate content can mean search engines sending visitors to the wrong pages. Removing them is important and should be considered in a web development strategy.
• The Ingredients of a Successful Website (Six Revisions): Passion. Talent. Partnerships. These are the true ingredients for websites that have tremendous growth potential.
• How to Put Your Small Business on the Web (Chris Brogan): Two words: home base. I disagree about GoDaddy and recommend Namecheap (client). But I don’t say that only because they’re a client; I’ve been a customer for 6 years!
• Removing Pages from Google: A Comprehensive Guide for Content Owners (Search Engine Land): Vanessa Fox writes a detailed step by step on how your content could be removed from Google — because sometimes you don’t want to be found.
• 5 Web Files that Will Improve Your Website (Six Revisions): Have you ever heard of Dublin.rdf and OpenSearch.xml? If not, read this article and you’ll see why they’re recommended.

Video

• How to Become Famous on YouTube (BlueGlass): What’s been successful on YouTube so far? Stephanie has answers.
• Video SEO: A Technical Guide (Yoast): Joost de Valk gives you a technical walkthrough on how your videos can see high rankings.
• YouTube SEO Experiment & Useful Tips (Distilled): Ever wanted to rank #1 on YouTube? Read about David’s analysis.
• 10 Killer Tips for Creating a Branded YouTube Channel (Mashable): A video agency expert gives advice on creating the best branded YouTube page.
• How to Add Captions to Your YouTube Videos (Small Business Trends): Captions help give videos an SEO boosts & captures attention of those who would otherwise not care about watching videos..
• How 12 CEOs and Founders are Leveraging Web Video (Mashable): Still think online video is for a bunch of amateurs? Think Blendtec or Garyvee. Think of the people who gained popularity using nothing but the Internet & their camcorders to spread valuable marketing messages.

SEO: Strategy

• 5 Strategies to Maintain and Improve Your #1 Rankings in Google — After You’ve Reached the Top (Winning the Web): SEO isn’t “set it and forget it,” because someone else can steal the throne. Stop them by reading & heeding this.
• The Definitive Guide to SEO for Images: 6 Steps to Image-Ranking Success (ZDNet): Learn how to get the most out of your images while adding specific SEO value to your pages.
• The Ultimate Guide to Keyword Competition (Wordstream): WordStream asked 35 experts how they evaluate the competition.
• Conversion Rate Optimization for SEO (Distilled): This is a nice actionable guide with helpful Excel formulas.
• 9 Steps to Diagnosing Lost Search Engine Traffic (High Rankings): Jill Whalen evaluated sites that saw a traffic decrease & shared her discoveries.
• WordPress SEO: The Only Guide You Need (ViperChill): Want to optimize your WordPress blog for search engines?
• SEO for Google News: Ranking Factors and Recommendations (Search Engine People): If you have a multi author news website, you are eligible to be a Google News source. Once you’re there, it’s harder to get ranked within Google Universal search.
• 6 Ways to Optimize Your SEO for Misspellings – and Why it Pays to be a Bad Speller (Winning the Web): Using examples, Gyutae Park shows the benefits of SEO for typos and how to get traffic.
• News Search Engine Optimization Tips You Should Know (Online Marketing Blog): I think that Lee Odden is onto something with these questions & answers.
• SEO Benchmarks and KPI (Huomah): Key performance indicators, you say? This is all about measuring the success of your efforts. The article is essentially a primer on making that happen.
• Cloaking is Good for You. Just Ignore Bing’s/Google’s Guidelines. (Sebastian’s Pamphlets): Sebastian X makes a good argument about the benefits of cloaking for user experience.

SEO: Information

• 8 SEO Myths Debunked (High Rankings): People don’t have a good sense of what SEO is. This High Rankings article addresses common misconceptions.
• SEO 101 Common Mistakes (David Naylor): Paul Carpenter shows 101 mistakes made on SEO campaigns.
• The Inside Line on SEO (SEO Book): Aaron Wall helps you find the signal from the noise when learning SEO.
• A Comprehensive, Intro to SEO Powerpoint Slide Deck (SEOmoz): New to SEO? After these 150 slides, you’ll feel like you’re ready to tackle the rest of the articles in this “best of” post. Enjoy!
• The 6 Flavors of SEO Your Company Needs (Outspoken Media): Your company needs SEO. All companies do. Here’s how you can visualize that need using people who are likely already working at your company.
• 9 Common SEO Campaign Mistakes (Econsultancy): Beginner SEOs, take note.
• Common B2B SEO Mistakes and How to Solve Them (Online Marketing Blog): B2B’s slow adoption of new technologies often costs them in viable leads. Perceptions need to change.
• The Simple Guide to Freelance SEO the Successful Way (SEO 2.0): Feelancer SEOs, this one’s for you.
• 25 Super Common SEO Mistakes (Search Engine Land): If you’re getting on SEO, you might want to read this.
• Google Experts Answer Your SEO Questions (Digital Inspiration): The “Google experts” are actually Google employees!
• 10 Things to Put in Your SEO Proposal (Conversation Marketing): Ian Lurie sets expectations early in the SEO process by putting things like labor sources in his proposal. I’d love to see one.

Link Building

• Guest Blogging Tips: Link Baiting vs. Guest Posting (Wiep): Wiep talks about content and how to promote it to build links.
• The Link Party is Never Over (Link Spiel): I like how Debra Mastaler “links outside the box.” She says, “I think it’s uber important to be different and push your marketing efforts in areas your competitors are not.” Totally agree.
• 10 Ways All Employees Can Contribute to Link Building (Search Engine Journal): You don’t have to outsource your link building efforts entirely. Your staffers might be able to do things out of the goodness of their hearts… really. Mark Thompson explores the possibilities.
• 30 Link Builders Discuss Backlink Analysis for Campaign Design (Search Engine Land): Ask experts a question, get some great insights. This post shows why link builders should analyze the competition.
• How to Really Build Backlinks and Dominate Google (ViperChill): A great article on how you can build backlinks — with some unique ideas.
• 62 Streps to the Definitive Link Building Campaign (WordTracker): WordTracker wants you to buy an eBook. I just want you to read the tips.
• 74 B2B Link Building Queries for B2B SQO Link Prospecting (Ontolo): B2B websites need link profiles too. Want to find sites to link to? Here are queries you can perform to get some new sites to send requests to.
• 10000 Search Engine Queries for Your Link Building Campaign (SEO Himanshu): As long as these search operators work, you’ll be busy for a LONG time.
• 5 Reasons Why I Won’t Link to Your Website (Wiep): Want a link? You may not get it if your site meets these criteria.
• “Inkbait”: A Case Study in Linkability (Search Engine Land): Infographics and linkbait: what makes them resonate among their target audience? Two pieces of linkbait are compared and key takeaways are shared.
• Link Building with the Experts Interview (Outspoken Media): A really great interview with top notch folks on link building.
• Link Building Tips for Personal Blogs (SEOmoz): What I like about this post: lots of deep information, some non-standard tips, and more.

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Marketing

• Developing a PPC Strategic Plan (The Adventure of PPC Hero): Don’t just take on PPC & immediately jump into keyword research. Critical analysis toward the creation of a strategic plan is paramount.
• Understanding & Improving Google AdWords Quality Score (RedFly Marketing): This really is an ultimate guide.
• 3 Steps to Mid-Tail PPC Profitability (Calculate Marketing): If your keywords are highly relevant, you’ll probably see the biggest PPC gains. But what about if the keywords aren’t so relevant?
• Google AdWords Suicide (1upDigital): Some advertisers get so immersed with Google AdWords that they threaten to commit suicide. Don’t let it get that far.
• How to Simplify PPC Management Using Google AdWords Editor (Web Marketing Today): This is a basic but helpful post from Christine Churchill on why the downloadable Google AdWords Editor is valuable for bid management.
• 36 PPC Myths (The Adventure of PPC Hero): A lot of PPC misconceptions explained.
• The Ultimate Guide to Quality Score: 15 PPC Experts Discuss the Nuts and Bolts of Google AdWords Quality Score and How to Improve Yours (WordStream): We’ve got SEO factors from SEOmoz, local search factors from David Mihm (below), and we might as well thank WordStream for their new introduction of PPC factors. Excellent stuff from the biggest experts in the industry.
• PPC Testing Part 2: Optimization Cheat Sheet (Search Engine Land): Want higher CTR? Lower CPCs? More traffic? Better ROI? These considerations from Josh Dreller will help you achieve those objectives.
• Match Types & Quality Score – The Truth at Last (ClickEquations): Craig Danuloff talks about the elusive Quality Score and shows how to improve yours.
• Top 10 PPC Campaign Mistakes (ClickZ): Kevin Lee’s reprint from SES Magazine covers frequent mistakes done in PPC by those just starting out in PPC account management.

Affiliate Marketing

• How I Make Thousands of Dollars Per Month Online (Jonathan Volk): Super affiliate Jonathan Volk wrote an incredible resource. This exhaustive guide covers a lot of great ground!
• Getting the Most Bang for Your Buck (Finch Sells): This post gives beginner affiliates some nice tips on where they should focus their energy.
• Newb Guide Pt 1: What is Affiliate Marketing? (NickyCakes): NickyCakes wrote an 8-post guide to affiliate marketing. At the bottom of each article, there’s a link to progress to the next section. If you’re looking to get started, check this out.
• The Ultimate Guide to PPC Affiliate Marketing (PPC Blog): An introductory article on affiliate marketing — and how your pay per click campaign can benefit the bottom line.
• The “Ugly” Truth (Mr. Green): Ugly ads (and websites) may perform better.
• 5 Mind-Blowing List Building Techniques (Zac Johnson): Building an email marketing list is pretty important for many affiliates. You can do many different things to grow that list, including employing triggers throughout your site, running a list swap, and more.
• 15 Affiliate Marketing Questions Answered by 3 Experts (Daily Blog Tips): Learn affiliate marketing from 3 guys who know their stuff.
• How I Make Thousands of Dollars Per Month Online (ViperChill): Glen Allsopp introduces you to affiliate marketing.
• Kirsty’s Affiliate Analysis Pack – Measure Your Success (Affiliate Stuff): Beginner affiliates will appreciate that Kirsty created these spreadsheets for you to see how you’re doing as an affiliate marketer.
• Top 7 Tips to Make More Money with Amazon Associates (Make Money on the Internet): Chris Guthrie shows you what worked (and what didn’t).
• How to Be an Affiliate with $5 a Day (Justin Dupre): This is a beginner post for affiliates explaining how most of the big players in affiliate marketers got started.
• The Top 6 Pitfalls of Affiliate Marketing for Advertisers (Marketing Pilgrim): Affiliate marketing campaigns may be very challenging. Here is a list of headaches you might be up against.
• How to Find Valid Affiliate Program Reviews (by Real People) (Ace Affiliates): If you do want to go into affiliate marketing, see how other people are rating various programs.

Analytics

• Beginner’s Guide to Web Data Analysis: 10 Steps to Love & Success (Occam’s Razor): Avinash Kaushik gives a tactical and humorous approach toward your first step into evaluating your website’s analytics.
• Examining Site Search Results in Google Analytics (Vertical Measures): Give me a show of hands if you don’t have the site search function enabled in your Google Analytics. Figures. Take a look at the benefits of this functionality.
• 7 Ways Google Analytics Can Help When Redesigning Your Website (iCrossing): Find out who your visitors are & how to develop a great website.
• Small Business Tips for Reporting Web Metrics (Online Marketing Blog): The tips provided in this article are not only applicable to small businesses. They serve a much broader purpose.
• Make Love to Your Direct Traffic (Occam’s Razor): Your direct traffic consists of people who proactively seek you out, so acknowledge them.
• 4 Questions with Avinash Kaushik: Kick-Ass Web Analytics (Bruce Clay): Avinash Kaushik is the father of web analytics as far as I’m concerned, so he can dominate this section all I want.
• Google Analytics: Event Tracking vs. Virtual Pageviews (Web SEO Analytics): If tracking users is important, implement these suggestions to improve site performance.
• Segmenting Social Traffic in Google Analytics (SEOmoz): Ever want to know how to tweak Google Analytics to get some deeper data on social traffic?
• Using Real Time Analtyics to Enhance Viral Campaigns (The Google Cache): If you’re active in the social networking scene, especially on some of the social news and bookmarking sites, real time data helps you understand and continue the momentum. Once it’s gone, it’s gone.
• Using Google Analytics to Prove the SEO Long Tail Theory (Neil Walker): Neil tackles the question, “Does a longer keyword actually give a better conversion rate?” and shows you how to process that data for the answer.
• 10 Fundamental Web Analytics Truths: Embrace ‘Em and Win Big (Occam’s Razor): Lots of people spread misinformation about analytics. This post sets them straight.

Usability

• Emotional Interface Design: The Gateway to Passionate Users (Think Vitamin): Psychology & design are closely associated. Rewarding your users with positive emotion builds trust & engagement. It allows people to be your brand advocates.
• The Ultimate Guide to A/B Testing (Smashing Magazine): Two versions of a website: which performs better?
• Does Your Website Add Features or Solve Problems? (Brian Cray): Twitter is one of the simplest sites and is worth billions. Simplify & succeed, says Brian.
• What is User Experience Design? Overview, Tools, and Resources (Smashing Magazine): The detail in a Smashing Magazine article is extensive. Just take a look at the information here!
• 10 Usability Tips Based on Research Studies (Six Revisions): Common sense + data = news you can use. That’s what this article gives you with graphs to back up every claim.
• Overcoming the Obstacles of Usability Testing (UX Booth): Usability testing is here to stay, and the problems of the past no longer plague us. There are easy ways to implement usability tests on your site, so take advantage of them.
• The Definitive How to Guide for Conversion Rate Optimization (SEOmoz): Stephen Pavlovich gives wonderful tips on how he’s successfully improved conversion rates of his clients, even in highly competitive fields.
• Usability Testing is Broken: Rethinking User Research for Social Interaction Design (Usability Testing): Dana Chisnell points out flaws in designing the social web, referncing Google Buzz privacy violations. There’s a lot more to consider in today’s Internet.
• Designing for a Hierarchy of Needs (Smashing Magazine): This post takes Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and shows how it can be translated to design.

Landing Pages

• 101 Landing Page Optimization Tips (Unbounce): In this post, Oli Gardner provides “our authoritative, definitive, essential, and ultimate collection of 101 Landing Page Optimization tips.” Take a look and tell me if you agree.
• How to Design a Landing Page to be Conversion Focused (The Web Squeeze): This article takes you into landing pages vs. land & jump pages vs. microsites and debunks some of the myths surrounding great landing page design.
• How We Made $1 Million for SEOmoz with One Landing Page and a Few Emails (Conversion Rate Experts): Some case studies are just too good.
• How to Maximize Your Click-Through Rate and Add More Control to Your Landing Pages Using Ad Sitelinks (Redfly Marketing): This is a combination of paid search and landing page optimization, where you can create ad sitelinks and then choose the landing pages that appear to the user. It’s an interesting tactic because your ads get more real estate & higher CTR.
• Landing Page Optimization Tips: Analysis of 50+ Sites to Find Out What Increases Sales and Conversions (Visual Website Optimizer): Ask a social network and you shall receive. One company got requests to evaluate 50+ sites and found out some flaws in their landing page design. Here are common errors and how you can learn from them to better landing pages.
• 10 Ways to “Guarantee” More Sales and Conversions (KISSmetrics): Which landing page designs ensure you get sales? There are at least 10 out there!
• 25 Google Website Optimizer Tips for Better Product Pages (The Official Google Website Optimizer Blog): Khalid Saleh writes an excellent piece on conversion rate optimization, addressing various things you can change to ensure your site gets the best conversions.
• 10 Techniques for an Effective Call to Action (Boagworld): I read Boagworld when keeping up with one of my clients’ industries, and the content is top notch.
• 10 Easy Ways to Improve Your Landing Page Conversions (Performable): Get some immediate results with these takeaways.
• 3 Tips for Building an Effective Landing Page (HubSpot): Encourage users to click on your calls to action.
• Why Landing Page Optimization is Crucial and How to Start (Bruce Clay): Ever have good rankings but an awful bounce rate? Time to consider landing page optimization!

Local/Mobile Search

 
• 13 Questions to Ask Before You Hire a Local SEO Consultant (Search Engine Land): I like the variety of questions by Andrew Shotland, though I think it’s not a locals only discussion.
• Mobile Search: What You Need to Know (1upDigital): With more smartphone users in the wild, mobile optimization becomes increasingly important.
• Local Search Ranking Factors (David Mihm): As always, David Mihm comes out with a fabulous guide on what SEO experts believe are the elements that impact local search engine rankings.
• Principles for a Review Plan: Considerations in Encouraging Customer Reviews (Blumenthals): Mike Blumenthal created a matrix of considerations should you be interested in implementing reviews on your (local) website.
• Local Search Marketing Using Foursquare (Rynoweb): All brick and mortar companies should start seriously considering a social media strategy that includes Foursquare. If you’ve glossed over the social media sites and came here, hopefully you’ve considered the importance of using some social media elements to connect face-to-face with your customers!
• How to Launch that Web Site in 2011 (Outspoken Media): If you know anything about Google Local, you’ll know that every tip Lisa gives you in this post will be applicable for months or years to come.
• 23 Ways to Slam Dunk Your Mobile Conversions (for the Holidays) (Search Engine Land): Even though this headline is about the holidays, the takeaways from this article are good for all time. Shift your perception if you have a website; mobile is here to stay.
• Online Reputation Management Strategies – The “Rate Us” Page and Local Reviews (BuzzMaven): Scott Clark covers the gamut of customer reviews and explains why they are necessary.

(Personal) Branding

• When YOU Are the Brand (Chris Brogan): Chris Brogan’s food for thought for building your personal or business brand.
• How to Build Your Brand Working for Someone Else (Bruce Clay): There’s always fear that you can’t build your own brand when you’re not your own boss. Some employers might not let you. Others might once you get the permission. Here’s how to make it work while respecting your company.
• Madonna’s 6 Secrets to Personal Branding Mastery (Copyblogger): Yes, Madonna. Despite her reputation for whatever she’s doing, one can learn a few lessons from her for their personal OR corporate brand.
• Managing the Conflict Between a Personal Brand and a Corporate Brand (Britopian): If you want to build one brand while promoting the other, such as your personal brand while focusing on a corporate brand, it’s important to mend the 2 together by putting ego aside & being aware of your surroundings. It can be done. Michael Brito did it, didn’t he?
• Are Personal Brands for Moguls, Morons, or Megalomaniacs? (Jonathan Fields): Deep thoughts by Jonathan Fields on personal branding.
• How to Build a Potent Brand (6 Clues) (Personal Branding Blog): Here are questions and answers to evaluate when building the brand.
• 50 Seriously Great Tips to Elevate Your Personal Brand (Thought Changer): Cindy Yantis has a long list of things you can do to strike a home run in the personal branding department.
• You Don’t Know Jack About Branding (Hyder Media): Kenny Hyder gives us things to consider when building and consistently promoting any type of brand.
• Top 10 Branding Mandates (Branding Strategy Insider): Personal or corporate, a brand must live up to these expectations to thrive and survive.
• Personal Branding – Make Yourself the “Go To” Person in Your Local Niche Market (Small Business Advertising): …or how to be the Kleenex of your niche. (Or Band-Aid. I like Band-Aids.)
• The 7 Keys to Social Branding (Conversation Agent): Tamsen McMahon explains the elements to building a strong brand, and that it’s important to look at it through a social lens.

Building a Brand/Brand Evangelism

• Why Social Media is Perfect for Brand Ambassador Campaigns (Mashable): Fifteen years, five case studies, and their takeaways.
• Humanizing Business & Brands: Your Ambassador Ecosystem (Logic+Emotion): Instead of focusing externally on creating ambassadors for your company, focus your sights internally. David Armano lists the various company segments that can be tapped into the role of ambassador for the marketplace.
• How to Convert Your Facebook Superfans into Brand Ambassadors (GigaOM): Because Facebook always comes up when discussing just about everything brand evangelism nowadays, we must take advantage of those fans.
• How to Create a Customer Advocacy Program (Forbes): Tapping into the voices of your customers is an important way to scale, increase credibility, and demonstrate commitment to customers, according to Jeremiah Owyang.
• How Do You Recognize and Attract Heroes and Champions for Your Brand? (Successful Blog): Liz Strauss tells you how you can identify those folks who are “waiting to lead,” because then they already love what you do, and they can help bring your business to much greater heights.
• How to: Activate Your Brand’s Super Influencers (Mashable): Ben Straley teaches you how to evangalize your community.
• 4 Great Examples of Brand Ambassador Programs (Ignite Social Media): Don’t understand what this section is about? Here are some companies that are leveraging their community as brand ambassadors and succeeding.
• Toolkit for Launching a Social Media Ambassador Program (The Social Workplace): Elizabeth Lupfer on how a company can build enthusiasm about their products/services via an advocacy program.
• Understanding and Activating Your True Fans (Conversation Agent): Looking at buisnesses as the tribe, is it possible to build fandom around such an entity?

Public Relations

• Why PRs Can Be Better Link Builders than SEOs (Econsultancy): Lots of link builders do nothing to work on relationships with the people they’re asking for links from, so they don’t have that edge that public relations folks do.
• 25 Tips from 25 PR Experts (eReleases): Here are short tips from the experts in public relations.
• Developing a PR Plan (Entrepreneur): How to get publications to talk about you: create a solid PR plan.
• Getting Press for Your Website Application or Service (Shoemoney): This is a humorous post on how to get press mentions. Take (most of) it to heart.
• The Most Overused Buzzwords and Marketing Speak in Press Releases (Adam Sherk): Techipedia, the top leader, has been awarded the best unique solution with its award winning posts. That’s the idea of this list. I don’t think it will change through 2011, I have to say, so it qualifies as evergreen content.
• Katie Paine’s Dirty Dozen Public Relations Measurement Mistakes (The Measurement Standard): In PR, you might mess up, and chances are, you’ll pick up and be all the more better for it. If you can share the lessons learned with everyone else, that’d a really generous and wonderful thing.
• How to Write a Social Media Press Release (Inc.): In this day and age, press releases need a little more oomph to stand out among the crowd. A social media press release is the answer to this problem.
• 10 Easy Things You Can Do Right Now to Get Publicity (Get In Front Communications): Whether it’s leveraging your internal staff or doing a bit of research into the industry, there are many things you can do to get publicity for yourself or your clients.
• 5 Reasons Why You Should Leave PR to the Pros (BNET): Here’s why public relations should be handled by pros.

Community Management/Engagement

• How to Build an Online Community for Your Business (Flat Rate Biz): How to build online communities: help others and they’ll help you.
• 12 Keys to Building Your Online Community (The Rise to the Top): David Garland explains how to make your community rise to the top!
• Gamification: What is it and Why Do You Need to Know? (Stephanie Schwab): Brands should create community-focused game experiences out of their marketing efforts.
• How Are You Measuring Your Community (Outspoken Media): Are you taking advantage of your community? Here are metrics to track.
• 8 Things to Avoid When Building a Community (Mashable): Leah Betancourt talks about the things to avoid when engaging community participants.
• Building An Online Community: How to Start from 0 Members (FeverBee): If you have an audience, you’re pretty lucky. If you’re not, this guide should explain how to get to a community that actually has a few people.
• The Mind of a Community Manager (CommunityGuy): Jake McKee looks at two well known quotes & applies them to the job of a community manager with thought-provoking takeaways.
• How to Prevent a Community from Growing On Your Site (Small Business Trends): Building community is great, but you could also stifle the growth of your community too. Pay attention to Lisa’s tips.
• 10 Fresh Tips for Community Managers (Mashable): If you’re managing a community (in Jolie O’Dell’s words, you’re “social media junkie with oodles of personality who’s trying to balance marketing-driven execs with ego-tripping power users while still trying to maintain some semblance of a personal life”), then you might want to read this to preserve your sanity.

Entrepreneurship

• 8 Pivotal Lessons for the Budding Entrpereneur (EpicLaunch): Starting off as an entrepreneur might be a huge challenge, but pulling through it could reap huge rewards. Here’s the advice from someone who has been at it for 18 months.
• The 12 Dysfunctions of an Entrepreneur (Jonathan Fields): This post needs needs an introductory paragraph, but in its absence, I’ll say that these are the missteps you might make when you’re going into entrepreneurship.
• 7 Lessons Learned from Monetizing Quick Sprout (Quick Sprout): Neil tells us about the lessons made when monetizing his site, which is a lot more than just a blog. Since many entrepreneurs here are likely focused on online properties, I thought it’d be a good category fit.
• How to Quit Your Job When You’re Flat Broke (Even When Your Wife is Scared Shitless) (Escaping Mediocrity): I really like Genuine Chris Johnson’s post on how he’s been able to make debt into profit.
• How To Become Legendary- 23 Things Michael Jordan Taught Me About Entrepreneurship (OnStartups): Sports fanatic Jason Baptiste applies his knowledge of the basketball great to how to grow farther as an entrepreneur.
• Are You Making These Business Mistakes? (Quick Sprout): Successful business owners are asked about some of their biggest mistakes — so that you can avoid doing the same thing.
• Young Entrepreneur Advice: 100 Things You Must Know (Under30CEO): The question “what do you wish you knew before you started a business?” is asked to 100 different business owners. Here’s what they said. (Unfortunately, I’m not under 30 anymore…)
• Interview: 12 Top Entrepreneurs Share How Hard They Work (Daily Blog Tips): Think it’s easy being on your own? Think again. Very few entrepreneurs see a <40 hour work week.
• 5 Ways Entrepreneurs Can Take on Big Companies (EpicLaunch): A niche focus or avoiding attachment to one model — these are ways you can take entrepreneurship to the next level.
• Commit To Your Core: 9 Reasons Why Every Entrepreneur Should Outsource (OnStartups): Scott Dinsmore explains why entrepreneurs will move ahead when they outsource. I’ve always been afraid to do it mostly for a fear of losing control, but I have also seen the benefits!

General Online Marketing

• An In Depth Guide to Creating Small Websites that Rank Well (SEOish): An excellent writeup from Pat Sexton on getting websites to rank well… maybe for some monetary gain.
• How to Use the “7 Deadly Sins” to Turn Visitors into Customers (Smashing Magazine): Showing examples with existing sites, this article goes great lengths to show how pride, gluttony, sloth, and other sins have helped companies convert visitors into customers.
• 10 Ways to Reduce Friction in Your Purchase Process (Problogger): By reducing friction or obstacles that may be hindering direct purchases, you might be able to get more people to buy your products.
• Lessons Learned from Helping Over 150 Startups with Marketing Part 1: Fundamentals (insight.io): Ilya Lichtenstein has a good three part guide (you can get part 2/3 right above the headline of the article) on how startups can be successful with their marketing initiatives, with topics covering targeting, media buys, and building traction.
• Launching a New Website: 18 Steps to Successful Metrics & Marketing (SEOmoz): I like this post for its sound advice; I also am about to launch a new website (stay tuned!) so I’ve found this checklist really handy.
• How to Become an Email Marketing Genius: The Simmer (Andy Sernovitz): Andy Sernovitz has a very strong point when he talks about effective selling via newsletters. Get them to read forever. Simple.
• Common Online Business Mistakes (from the experts) (SEO Aware): Melissa Fach asked some of the industry’s most well known folks what mistakes they see online businesses committing. Here’s the roundup.
• What is the Best Way to Learn Internet Marketing? (Dream Systems Media): Mat Siltala has an introductory post on what you need to do to get started in the word of online marketing.
• The Three Phases of a Successful Online Marketing Strategy (Samir Balwani): Samir discusses three phases of digital maturity broken down into owned/paid/earned/shared media elements, from creating a website to establishing an advertising campaign to building a strong online presence and more.
• I Spread Your Idea Because… (Seth Godin): Or: why things are usually viral.

Everything Else Under the Sun

• Leveraging Mechanical Turk, oDesk, Elance, and Craigslist for SEO (SEOmoz): This could go under SEO, but this post discusses interesting outsourcing tactics that have additional implications beyond just SEO. The comments provide additional resources as well. I’ll throw in a project I’m involved in called Entreave (US-based outsourcing) which is poised to be awesome.
• The Great Influence Debate (The Mountaintop): What I like about this post is the detail put into assessing what influence really is, especially the 7 forms outlined in the article.
• How to Organize a Retreat (Seth Godin): Just reading about the suggestions in this post by Seth Godin makes me want to attend a retreat. I’d love for conferences to be crafted this way.
• 15 Small Business Lessons from Richard Branson (OPENForum): Entrepreneur Richard Branson knows a lot, and now you’ve been imparted with his wisdom. Use it well.
• 10 Internet Legends Everyone Should Know (SEO 2.0): No, this isn’t about the people of the Internets that you must know about. These are the myths of the WWW.
• Step-By-Step Guide for Launching a Virtual Product (StayOnSearch): Need help launching a virtual product? This guide shows you the entire process, from creation to launch.
• Want to Invest in Domains? Here are 7 Golden Rules (Daily Blog Tips): How do you make the most money off domain names? An expert domainer tells all.
• Top 10 Myths About Domain Names (DotSauce): Social profiles will replace domain names? Really? That and other myths are debunked in this article.
• How (and Why) to Calculate Lifetime Value Per Visitor (Online Marketing Today): Justin Handley explains why customer lifetime value is important to your business & why it’s important for determine how much to invest into your paid advertising campaigns.

And in case 300 wasn’t enough, here’s the best 2010 posts on Techipedia:

• 3 Golden Business Rules for Social Media Engagement: The biggest flaws of social media are often repeated by well-intentioned businesses. These are easy fixes.
• Internet Marketing Advice for Beginners: This is a great introductory post on all the various elements of Internet Marketing.
• How to Get an Influencer’s Attention: The most popular post of 2010: I asked 40+ social media influencers how to get their attention, and they gave me their $0.10.
• 11 Characteristics of Highly Influential Blog(ger)s: Building a blog is not so difficult when applying these crucial skills.
• 7 Truths About Social Media Marketing: Everyone is being sold on the hype that is social media. I’d like to tell you the truth about it.
• Social Media Strategy from A to Z: This is by no means a comprehensive guide of social media interaction, but it definitely should give you a thought process about your involvement.
• No, You Can’t Automate Social Media: Automation is okay in limited quantities, but if you’re caught doing this, people will know.
• How to Use Facebook for Business and Marketing: One influencer told her followers that I should have sold this post as an eBook. I’m giving it to you for free.
• Is Social Media Becoming Boring?: Some people are sick of social media. You?
• 7 Traits of Highly Effective Viral Videos: How can you get your video to stand out?
• Why Most People Fail in Social Media: In this post, I share a few stories about people who don’t get social media, and what they can do to change that.

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Closing Thoughts

It’s been a great year. My son is thriving and just started walking. He brings a lot of great joy to our family. My book has been published in three languages: Italian, Portuguese, and German, and the German editorial team is already working on a second edition. I’ve been involved in some incredible projects, including plans for my own social startup (to be announced), and I think there will even be another one in the works very soon.

I’m starting to act as an advisor on several new social projects created by some highly motivated colleagues and peers; the social space looks extremely promising and there’s no shortage of some excellent things coming our way these next few months. I’m open to working with you on your social startups, so please be in touch.

I’m always interested in hearing about how I can help you on your business at any level, so please do connect with me and let’s see what we can do together.

Best wishes to you, your colleagues, and your families this year!

Photos by Shutterstock.

This post takes me an entire year to write due to reading and reviewing the posts and ultimately compiling them, and therefore consumes hundreds of hours of time. Since it happens every single year, please do not reproduce this on your site in any format. If you’d like to share this with your audience, please link to the post.

Oh, and if you like this post and/or want to say happy 30, I’m finally throwing in my Amazon Wishlist.